Walpurgis 0.99 (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [NEW RELEASE!!!]

[neto592]

Thanks for answer me.


How could I select the walls and flats only (but not the actors, like monsters) on a Neural Upscale .pk3 file?
Did you delete them by using Slade?


Also, forgive my ignorance, but what is a wadsmoosh anyway?

[eharper256]

Yes, I deleted them using SLADE, keeping only the Flats and Textures directories under Hexen\HiRes.

Wadsmoosh is HERE: It allows you to smash all the Doom iwads together, so you can play Doom1, Doom2, Ultimate, Plutonia, TNT, Master Levels, and Sigil in the same place, so you only need one iwad for everything. I also added the fanmade Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 intermission screens manually. The first is around here if you search, the latter is by Oliacym and can be found at Doomworld (and is also included in Walp by default).

Oh, and I found the topic for my old Fluids mod, if you want that.

[eharper256]

WIZARD DUEL!!!

Yep, the Heresiarch is finally getting a big upgrade for Walpurgis 0.99.
No more long ass invulnerability phases, just an incredibly aggressive wizard lizard, as all things should be.

[neto592]

Thanks for answer me again.

The Heresiarch looks really neat now.

Also, I could not agree more with your statement: "No more long ass invulnerability phases, just an incredibly aggressive wizard lizard, as all things should be".

Now I look even more hyped for a new D'Spair remake fight.

[eharper256]

Thanks.

Now I look even more hyped for a new D'Spair remake fight.

Now you mention it... general question for everyone: do you think D' Sparil needs to be a wizard on a chaos serpent?

I kind of got the impression that Raven had this idea of "Serpent Riders" as an early thing, but that was later kind of pushed aside, since only D'Sparil actually rode a serpent. Both Korax and Eidolon (from Hexen II) were both instead towering devil-ish monsters.

The Iron Lich has already had some changes for Walp, but in general, Heretic bosses needs to be handled more carefully, since every user map ever (and heck, the base iwads) use them subsequently as minibosses quite frequently.

[neto592]

My opinion about it is meh.
So he really didn't need a chaos serpent, and I also believe that "Serpent Riders" was an early thing.
Korax himself looks like a chaos serpent with steroids to me.

However, I guess there is the atmospheric thing about it.
I mean, there is the fact the real fight starts after you take down D'Sparil's serpent ride, making that initial part of the fight having its appeal.
So if it is chosen to remove the serpent, I would suggest replacing it with something else that makes the fight happening at least in two different stages in order to keep its original crescendo felling.

[eharper256]

YIKES!! Here it is, as promised, Walpurgis 0.99!!

Get it from MEGA Here
Or this GoogleDrive Mirror
Yep, it's been six months this time, I suppose (assuming you don't count 0.98A). The latter half of 2023 was, well, let's call it challenging. Work was super busy, as I had several important projects there to keep on top of, as well as training new staff. And then, my grandfather had a very rough patch where he couldn't move out of bed due to vasculitus and was almost killed because he got COVID from a routine hospital visit AND they refused to give him anti-virals to help him cope. Maintaining a solid work effort on Walp was basically impossible some weeks; and I also couldn't decide on various effects and fire modes and ending doing loads of superfluous spriting that wasn't even used in the end. So yeah... challenging...

That said, we made it! And we've nearly reached my final vision of where I wanted Walp to be. There's just 1.0 to come, which I will release on Walpurgisnacht this year (i.e. 1st of May), come hell or high water. Here's the Changelog (it's big):

Code: Select all

 [0.99]
'The Dryad Dimension'
--------------------
31/01/2024
+New!: 	The Crusader gets his alternate in-slot (3) weapon, Heavensever! 
	Heavensever is an Arming Sword with dimensional powers, which excels
	in long range sniping whilst also being a strong melee option.
	------------------------------------------------------------------------
	##[Primary Fire]## swings the sword in a smooth slashing combo. This is 
	the Crusaders most damaging melee weapon, but it does have somewhat less
	range than the spear, of course. It's mana-free by default.
	>>> Upgrading the Primary makes the swings more damaging and faster.
	>>> Mutating the Primary blesses the blade, making it cause an eruption
		of holy power whenever you swing for point-blank AoE. It costs mana.
	------------------------------------------------------------------------
	##[Secondary Fire]## causes a dimensional severing split, generally hitting
	a target in your vision. It is incredibly strong vs. distant single foes.
	>>>	Upgrading the Secondary makes it a double-X-slash for more power.
	>>> Mutating the Secondary causes it to instead create a roaring column
		of Dimensional energy, with less direct power, but good AoE.
	------------------------------------------------------------------------
	##[Tertiary Fire]## causes a portal to appear. Whenever you use one of the
	other fire modes, the portal launches a phantom sword at an enemy it can
	reach, that detonates. It can fire 4 times before dissipating. 
	>>> Upgrading the Tertiary makes you purely summon a large fusilade of
		phantom blades instead, which immediately fire off, causing havoc.
	>>> Mutating the Tertiary allows you to hold a portal in front of you
		whilst you hold the fire button, absorbing projectiles. If you let go,
		the portal drops, blocking projectiles that hit it in the same way.
		If you make a second portal whilst the first is active, the two will
		spin to face each other, and fire lasers rapidly between them.
	------------------------------------------------------------------------
	By default, this will spawn randomly along with the Firestorm Font, 
	but you can disable either of them in the Walpurgis Options if preferred.
		
+New!: 	The Druid gets her alternate in-slot (3), The Dryad Transformation! 
	The Dryad gets a staff and has several plant attacks that favour closer
	ranges and give powerful crowd control.
	------------------------------------------------------------------------
	##[Primary Fire]## grows a wad of dangerous spiked brambles on the staff,
	which are then flung in front of you in a shotgun-like blast. It is 
	quite short-ranged, but tears through enemies quite strongly.
	>>>	Upgrading the Primary makes the brambles deal more damage, and their
		range is also increased.
	>>> Mutating the Primary instead makes you transform your hands into the
		Fists of a Treant. The fists create shockwaves of force and natural
		power in a short-range in front. They are very good at stunning foes.
	------------------------------------------------------------------------
	##[Secondary Fire]## makes you fire off several seed pods. They bounce
	around, up to a close-medium range, preferring to bounce towards foes.
	After a few seconds, or after touching a target, they very rapidly 
	burrow into the ground and grow at hyperspeed, turning into a deadly 
	spiked beanstalks that impale enemies.
	>>>	Upgrading the Secondary turns the Beanstalks into Bloodstalks, 
		which also detonate the corpses of foes they kill. 
	>>> Mutating instead makes the seeds burrow far deeper, to unleash 
		volcanoes that vomit magma everywhere!
	------------------------------------------------------------------------
	##[Tertiary Fire]## grows a spitting plant in front of you. It spits 
	globs of acid at nearby targets, and after several shots, erupts into 
	venomous gas (this is the old Flechette effect, the Flechette is changed).
	>>>	Upgrading the Tertiary makes the spitter plant gain extra tendrils
		that whip at nearby foes. It also spits twice the acid for its life.
	>>> Mutating the Tertiary means you no longer grow the Spitter Plant.
		Instead, you grow a giant mushroom. This mushroom constantly grows
		other dangerous mushrooms nearby, quite rapidly. If monsters step on
		them, they explode into spores that rot flesh, or which shrink foes
		temporarily. You can run over and kick shrunk foes for high damage.
	------------------------------------------------------------------------
	By default, this will spawn randomly along with the Hebiko Sceptre, 
	but you can disable either of them in the Walpurgis Options if preferred.
		
+New!:	The Heresiarch (Hexen Boss) has been given the full makeover treatment to
	match the other already updated Hexen Bosses. He no longer has that ever
	frustrating (very long) invulnerability phase, but has instead been made
	considerably more dangerous and aggressive, including lightning blasts,
	rapidfire fireballs, and bouncing explosives, as well as gaining some
	appropriate voice lines.
+New!:	The Death Wyvern (Hexen Boss) also had some improvements. Notably, he 
	now fires magma blasts and is more agile than before. He may get a couple
	more tweaks in the future.
+New!:	The Druid's Flechette is changed. The old effect is now part of the Dryad
	Transformation (see above). Instead, Druid Flechettes contain terrible
	swarms of flesh-eating locusts, that quickly eat enemies alive. As a
	result, they're now more similar to other classes flechette's in providing
	(albeit unconventional) AoE damage like usable grenades.
+New!:	New Elite: Swamp Thing. Spawns instead of Stalker Spitters in Hexen. 
	It is a bruiser with lots of HP that fires off barrages of acid globs
	if it can see you, making it hard to ignore.
+New!:	New Elite: Warlock of D'Sparil. Spawns instead of Disciple of D'Sparil.
	A master of necromancy, he acts similar to a Doom Pain Elemental, except
	that he unleashes ghosts which have low HP and have a limited duration.
	However, the ghosts are much more aggressive than Lost Souls, so he
	becomes a huge priority target among other Heretic Disciples!
+New!:	Myrmidon finally gets a correct and new player sprite (with the Axe) 
	rather than using the standard Hexen Fighter and his generic sword. 
+New!:	Satyr and Satyr Gladiator finally get a Burning Death Animation.
+New!:	Added another +1-3 Taunts for each character.

+Tweak: Spider Mastermind has vastly refactored hitboxes. Now, in Walp, hitting
	the legs of the Spidey will do neglible damage: be sure to aim up a bit
	to hit the brain. As a result of this change, attacks which are floor
	based are unlikely to do very much. This is adds quite a bit of challenge
	to fighting one of them (especially given their already super upgraded
	Minigun in Walpurgis and its intimidating suppression fire). 
+Tweak:	Druid no longer holds her Baselards in a reverse grip when you're idle,
	uses an extra new sprite with a normal forwards grip.
+Tweak:	Crusader Charge Attack (Mace Upgrade) code rewritten using the Werewolf 
	Lunge punch code, which is much newer and more reliable, so it shouldn't
	randomly turn you around or miss anymore. 
+Tweak:	Although they never show up in game, starter weapons were given pickup
	sprites anyways for those people that use weapon-wheel mods. They were
	actually made for the helpcards a while ago; I just forgot to add them 
	seperately for this purpose.
+Tweak:	Craneo's slightly reshaded Werewolf arms added.
+Tweak: Corruption Cards Support updated to 5.5 version.
+Tweak:	Slight re-shuffle of the title-map to use new assets.
+Tweak:	Some Doom Monsters that used generic demon SFX now have their own.
+Tweak:	Pnakotic Manuscripts tweaked to work with the newly added weapons.
+Tweak:	DoomEd Numbers for weapons refactored to include all the new stuff.

+Balance: Myrmidon Bardiche animation tweaked so it feels slightly smoother.
+Balance: Myrmidon Bardiche Necromancy Circle now also always summons a pair of
	ghosts in the basic fire. The upgraded Fire now summons five ghosts
	instead of three.
+Balance: Crusader Firestorm Tertiary Mutation Firewall now lasts 5x longer so
	it's actually useful. It also deals around 15% more damage to any
	monsters who walk through it. 
+Balance: Magister Vis Blasts damage reduced by 20%, also applies to upgrade.
	Close range blasts damage is 5% less. Upgrade Force Cage unaffected.
+Balance: Magister Fulgur Cloud Orbiters now cost +2 mana and cannot be stacked.
	However, they now also hover higher for a better shot solution, and 
	don't get in the way of your sight as much.
+Balance: Druid's Turul (Bird) nerfed slightly again; the birds projectiles had 
	a 20% chance to do double damage before, which has now been removed.
+Balance: Druid's Hebiko Sceptre Primary Mutation Acid Spray now travels quite
	a bit further (around 70%) making it a more viable option, and giving
	it a niche of controlling crowds of lower-HP enemies.
+Balance: Mana drops have been tightened and shuffled around a bit for Doom 
	and Heretic as usually you had just a little bit too much to spare.
+Balance: In Hexen, Upgrade Items now have a high chance to spawn instead of
	Porkulators. In recompense, Dark Servants are now available again.
	Overall, this should give more upgrades in general than before
	(previously, you only got MAX 6 in total in the base Hexen iWad,  
	assuming you found all the secrets, which was a little low). 
			
+Fixed: Heretic Mummies were not affected by the Bardiche's Corpse Explosion due
	to some missing code. Fixed.
+Fixed: The 'Pick 1' spawner for the Myrmidon Slot 3 malfunctioned due to a 
	wrong pointer in the code. Fixed.
+Fixed: Archviles couldn't raise monsters from the dead sometimes. Fixed.
+Fixed:	Magisters sprite showed up with a Blue Robe in mirrors/chase cam. Fixed.
+Fixed:	Hexen Bishops spell firing noise was played globally. Fixed.
+Fixed:	Hexen Bishops now always check if they can see a player instead of firing
	at walls randomly because it thinks a player is there. Fixed.
+Fixed:	Hexen Cardinals (Bishop Elite) no longer randomly teleport around to
	dodge if the player can't be seen. Fixed.
+Fixed: Druid Wolf Transform had a slight jitter on the last frame. Fixed.
+Fixed:	If transformed into Wolf Mode as Druid, your player model would be stuck 
	as Werewolf forever if seen in a mirror, even if de-transformed. Fixed.
+Fixed:	Decorative Hexen rock was replaced by a Geomancy sprite accidently. Fixed.
+Fixed:	Druid was accidently made immune to some monster gas in Hexen. Fixed.
+Fixed:	Whenever Druid did a leap attack in Warg Mode, she would let out a Pain
	noise and red flash despite taking no damage. This has been fixed now.
+Fixed:	There was no mana-check if you looped the Mutated Secondary Fire of the
	Magisters Lapis Flos, so it fired forever if you held the button down
	even without mana. Fixed.

[eharper256]

It's time for that series of videos of maps I do post-release, and where better to start with one of my favourites from late last year, Nostalgia 2, by Myolden!

This is one with those short and punchy "Scythe-like" maps that last 2-6 minutes each, which is one of my favourite types of megawad. I'm trying to use the Bardiche a fair bit here, since it's had some animation tweaks and smoothness improvements for 0.99 which really make it more fun to use.

In case you also missed the other news: 1.0 is due out for the actual Walpurgisnacht this year (1st May). It's been a hell of a road, but we're almost at the vision I imagined for this mod oh so long ago, and that's pretty exciting. 0.99 is super close though; it has all the weapons now, so check it out!

You can get this here: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/140274

[headlesszombie]

Congratz on the new release! Love what I am seeing so far did a quick little run through of doom 2s first episode with the Crusader and I love the new sword. The melee is very statifying and meaty and the sprite work is superbe. Also a big fan of the secondary it is very good single target damage. Only thing is the Auto targeting for it seems off sometimes. I will be pointing my crosshair at a baddie a few feet infont of me and when I fire the attack it seems too want to target other monsters behind them or off to the sides. The last fire mod with the shield I should probaly be using more honestly still need too master it. Its nice to block incoming projectiles when you get overwheled by crowds or a big threat though. Overall the little I have played I am loving so far. Hyped to try out the druid when I get some more free time this weekend. Can't thank you enough for the work you put into this its really one of the best doom mods out there.

[eharper256]

I've pushed a quick hotfix for an obscure bug that happens if you spam Heavensever's portals and then fire the alt-fire through them which mysteriously causes the portal to slam into the players feet and inhibit their movement. I have no idea how people find these things.

But anyways, grab the download again if you encounter that odd bug, links have been altered.

Congratz on the new release! Love what I am seeing so far did a quick little run through of doom 2s first episode with the Crusader and I love the new sword. The melee is very statifying and meaty and the sprite work is superbe. Also a big fan of the secondary it is very good single target damage. Only thing is the Auto targeting for it seems off sometimes. I will be pointing my crosshair at a baddie a few feet infont of me and when I fire the attack it seems too want to target other monsters behind them or off to the sides. The last fire mod with the shield I should probaly be using more honestly still need too master it. Its nice to block incoming projectiles when you get overwheled by crowds or a big threat though. Overall the little I have played I am loving so far. Hyped to try out the druid when I get some more free time this weekend. Can't thank you enough for the work you put into this its really one of the best doom mods out there.

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it!

The Heavensever targets whatever it wants sometimes lol.

[eharper256]

Here's the second post-release video.

This mapset is 1K1K, a recently releasing community project where the goal was to make sure the map fit inside a single large map square (1000 x 1000). This means everything is stuck in economy class (lol), as you can tell in the video. Like a madman, I use Lapis Flos to throw rocks around anyways.

Unfortunately, I do encounter no way forwards in map 6 shown in the video, as exit lift appears to be broke.
Still you get this here: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/143032

[eharper256]

Yep, here's the third one of the post-release videos.

This map is WITCHELL, a giant assault on a castle map, which seemed like a fun one to play Crusader on! Unfortunately, I died just before the exit due to an overdose of rockets (lol), but the map was great overall, looks really good all around, especially the exterior areas, which are greatly detailed. Keep in mind it requires the TNT iwad (or a Wadsmoosh, as I use). You can get this map here: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/143130

[eharper256]

Just so everyone is aware; I will be off on vacation for a week on a Cruise, so probably unable to reply to queries until next weekend. Hope you're all enjoying 0.99 Walp! Have a good one!

[eharper256]

I'm back in action and back to work. Looking at the discord it seems that Tag667 (i.e. Vanilla level monster death triggers) appear to be broke again which is super annoying as I fixed this back in 0.97. Going to investigate that and probably push a hotfix soon.

Also, as we now have all the weapons, I plan to do a video soon (TM) that covers all the classes and weapons and all their quirks. Still need to write a script though.

[eharper256]

It is with some sadness I'm announcing that I will not be able to release 1.0 Walpurgis for the 1st May as originally thought I should be able to hit. Those who may have noticed a derth of updates since the above might have guessed something was up, since I like to check in with new vids and stuff every so often.

In any case, this is due to my grandfather becoming very sick at the start of March, then breaking his hip, and then subsequently passing away a few weeks later. The funeral was this week. To me, he was my father figure, and as I'm one of his executors along with my stepgran, things have been a whirlwind, and Walp has only got the skeleton of the features I wanted for 1.0 done.

At this point, I'm not promising any specific release date, though hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.