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

[eharper256]

So I was playing scourge of vicerus with the crusader, and there was one tiny issue I had with his weapons. The lightbringer is an absolute mana vacuum. For instance, the primary fire takes about 4 mana per shot, I believe, and takes me about 2 shots to kill an ettin, or 3 to 4 to kill a centaur, not counting misses or the centaur's shield. This means it takes me at least 8-16 mana to kill one enemy. However with the firestorm, the primary takes much less mana, and can kill these enemies much much faster. Basically, I was finding myself above 180 green mana and below 30 blue mana the majority of the time, so I believe mana costs for both weapons may need to be tweaked a bit.

By the way, as an aside, you blew me away with that lightbringer. I was kinda iffy on it at first because I was never too big on the design, but holy shit is that a fun to use weapon! Great job, man

The mana cost of the Lightbringer, like the damage on the Myrmidon's Hammer, is something I tweaked constantly in the last week.

However, looking back at Hexen, it might be overtuned for that; since I originally increased it for Doom (where all the Zombies drop 5 blue mana in place of their clips and shotguns quite often). The same issue applies to Timon's Axe, and to a lesser extent, Algor (which are both more efficient). I may try editing Doom Zombies to not have drops, because they're the offenders throwing off the cross-game-balance, I think. Will probably slightly increase the mana cost of Firestorm Fonts Primary as well, since as you say, its very efficient at short range (like Algor). But not certain yet, will play around with it. Thanks for the feedback.

Glad I sold you on the Lightbringer! Its what started this mess in the first place!

I love you.

I love you too for playing it and giving feedback.

This mod is way better than I expected.
Normally, I hate the mage, but you just made him SO good. I really like how his weapon 3 (Shock Magic) spawns a Thunderstorm as third attack, it reminds me of "Orcs Must Die!", one of my favourite games.

Thanks.
I really wanted him to nail that proper feel of 'awesomely powerful, but frail if you're not careful', and I think I managed that. Good that someone appreciates the Storm too; it was difficult to program but helped me learn alot as well!

There are some functionalities I prefer from HexArcana, especially the Warrior though.

It's the flying fist, right? Or the Hammer's overpowered AOE reload attack? I love both of those myself in HexArcana, and was honestly reluctant to part with them too.

I really hope you have plans for new monsters or at least changes to monsters, maybe new weapons too and perhaps new sounds.

If it's not too much to ask, could you take the "Torch" functionality from https://www.moddb.com/mods/cronos-unleashed? I think the author allows use of his own sources. The "Torch" in Cronos Unleashed uses proper light, emitting dynamic shadows if enabled, unlike the default that just fullbrights the screen.

Monsters are certainly due in. Chainmail Ettin at the very least will be in by the weekend as a test subject. Adding monsters is a bit more complex; I'll have to add some backend work in and add CVAR's in case people only want to use the weapons.

New Weapons are on the back-burner for now; because they are very hard to insert into Hexen itself (though they can be thrown into Doom and Heretic easier). I don't want to use the Wrath of Chronos solution of each weapon piece being a different weapon, because that really trivialises the worth of the ultimates (and they would have be de-powered to compensate). Maybe when we get to 0.9 or so.

There are actually plenty of new sounds already. Only a handful of the originals are still in use for the weapons. If you mean general Hexen sounds, I want to avoid serious change in that; lest I destroy the original feel of the iwad. There are already a few of the re-sampled versions of the original where they were clearly superior to the original (notably, Korax's voice is great in the resampled version, all of those are in).

Dynamic light torch is fun... I'll consider it. Though I'm well and truly ditching Potato-PC support if I do go for that.

Wooo it's out! what a treat when il come home

Good luck and have fun!

[Lagi]

good mod. Its excellent that it works with heretic levels!

I adore the primary fire of crusader firestorm, it looks great. It quite hard to achieve that burning feel on a weapon.

Small ammo - blue and green mana, are hardly visible. I would increase their size, add dynamic light (blue&green), remove the translucence, and set them higher in air (maybe even remove float).

---

there is blue mana on this screen

I think the blue flame from flachette should have some more translucency. It looks too solid now.

[Blackgrowl]

It's the flying fist, right? Or the Hammer's overpowered AOE reload attack? I love both of those myself in HexArcana, and was honestly reluctant to part with them too.

Yeah, I do love that flying fist, not just that though; punching was a two-light-then-heavy, nothing fancy like an uppercut or kick after, also the fact I actually need to hit an enemy to make that combo. It actually felt more powerful than the one you made, which is honestly a paradox, being kicked is always more hurtful than a 'heavy punch'.
Have to admit though, I do prefer the chain more than the flying punch, it's way more balanced because you can't fly into a spot you're not supposed to...But it doesn't feel "amazing" strangely enough.

Also, the axe has this swing-then-punch as secondary, I really like it, it's a little bit gimmicky but it's still good. I won't deny that I do actually prefer yours more, a swing with blue power.

And actually, the only thing I miss from the Hammer is the fact I don't have forced camera changes never like those things, can you perhaps make an option to disable it for those who don't want it?

There are actually plenty of new sounds already. Only a handful of the originals are still in use for the weapons. If you mean general Hexen sounds, I want to avoid serious change in that; lest I destroy the original feel of the iwad. There are already a few of the re-sampled versions of the original where they were clearly superior to the original (notably, Korax's voice is great in the resampled version, all of those are in).

Ah, I see. That is good, I do prefer keeping the sounds as original as possible, resamples are always welcome though. Keep it like you're going then.

Dynamic light torch is fun... I'll consider it. Though I'm well and truly ditching Potato-PC support if I do go for that.

'tis true, but you can also make a simple CVar to switch between "Dynamic" and "Original". Cronos Unleashed did it that way if I remember right, "Heretical Doom" did it exactly that way, I'm sure you can easily do it yourself without needing to copy from 'em.

I hope to see more major changes from this mod, you're going very well. I hope you'll get ideas for more tertiary attacks for weapons (especially the warrior).
One small question out of curiosity, how come the warrior is called Myrmidon? Honestly, it's a title I'd prefer not to have myself, I would rather be called a brute even. I suppose it is because of his army (Legion) experience?

[eharper256]

good mod. Its excellent that it works with heretic levels!

I adore the primary fire of crusader firestorm, it looks great. It quite hard to achieve that burning feel on a weapon.

Small ammo - blue and green mana, are hardly visible. I would increase their size, add dynamic light (blue&green), remove the translucence, and set them higher in air (maybe even remove float).

---

there is blue mana on this screen

I think the blue flame from flachette should have some more translucency. It looks too solid now.

Thanks for the feedback!

Yes; I'm really happy with how the flames I made turned out! The whole shift from blazing globules, to directed flames, to embers, is something I spent awhile on and it was worth it!

Small mana is due to get its own sprite rather than being a 50% sized version of the original (along with Large mana, which is due to be added), but yes, I could add dynalights as a temporary fix at least.

Cleric's blueberry Flechette probably does need slightly more transparency, yes, I'll add it to the next patch.

Yeah, I do love that flying fist, not just that though; punching was a two-light-then-heavy, nothing fancy like an uppercut or kick after, also the fact I actually need to hit an enemy to make that combo. It actually felt more powerful than the one you made, which is honestly a paradox, being kicked is always more hurtful than a 'heavy punch'.
Have to admit though, I do prefer the chain more than the flying punch, it's way more balanced because you can't fly into a spot you're not supposed to...But it doesn't feel "amazing" strangely enough.

Hmm, interesting. The haymaker is still in the code, actually, as is the the ability to make it only work on hits. I think I wanted to show off the different moves. XD
May add the 'combo only when hitting' as an option down the line.

Also, the axe has this swing-then-punch as secondary, I really like it, it's a little bit gimmicky but it's still good. I won't deny that I do actually prefer yours more, a swing with blue power.

I also do have overlay punches as an option. I might implement them in the future.

And actually, the only thing I miss from the Hammer is the fact I don't have forced camera changes never like those things, can you perhaps make an option to disable it for those who don't want it?

That's just wanting to emphasise the fact that he has to really swing hard to smash it for that attack. The camera resets to where it was before, but again, I'll consider a CVAR for it.

One small question out of curiosity, how come the warrior is called Myrmidon? Honestly, it's a title I'd prefer not to have myself, I would rather be called a brute even. I suppose it is because of his army (Legion) experience?

Yep, thats in the readme that no-one ever reads. XD

To me Myrmidon envisages the barechested spartans, which Baratus very much is. XD

[eharper256]

Version 0.74: "I'm Rich! (In Mana)"

[0.74]
--------
05/02/2020
+New!: Large/Rich Mana Nuggets were added. They appear where Doom and Heretic's
Ammo boxes usually spawn. In Hexen, they have around a 10% chance to
replace normal sized mana.
+New!: All of the Mana (including the new bigger chunks) now give out BOTH
Dynamic Light and Sparklies to help you to find them easier.

+Fixed: Sometimes the Lightbringer ignored needing ammo for its Secondary,
and then didn't need it forever if it wasn't refilled (lol). Fixed.
+Fixed: Hammer of Retribution's Tertiary Sound-Effect for its flames stuck
around too long after its fire died down. Will now stop as the flame does.
+Fixed: The Quietus Secondary Fire lagged somewhat when following the player.
This is now considerably improved from before and lags only slightly.
+Fixed: Myrmidon's Flechette and some Bloodscourge projectiles didn't leave embers.
+Fixed: Doom Megasphere spawner was broken, and it didn't show up except in
some rare circumstances. Now fixed; it will drop a Mystic Urn, a Pair
of Bracers, and another random piece of armour.

+Balance: Lightbringer's Mana costs altered. Primary reduced by 25% (to 3
per shot). Secondary reduced by 50% (Now around ~4 per second).
Teritiary cost reduced by 25% (now 15 per Prism). Still under review.
+Balance: Fulgur's Primary Damage increased by another 15% on the 0.71 changes.
+Balance: Firestorm Font's Primary Damage reduced by about ~5%.
+Balance: Doom Zombies (all 3 types) are no longer guaranteed to drop Mana.
It's reduced to about a 1 in 5 chance. This also means that they
don't drop your Aetherial Mana weapon either; so levels that force
you to get a shotgun off a sergeant as your only weapon might screw
you up a bit, hence it will remain under review for now.

+Tweak: Vorpal Axe Secondary and Tertiary given a slight earthquake effect to
emphasise their power. Primary remains effect-less as it becomes very
annoying to have it spam effects given its fast swing speed!
+Tweak: Slight change to appearance of Holy Flames from Crusader Flechette.
+Tweak: A few miscellaneous sound effects tweaks.

[SallazarSpellcaster]

Hello!

I've played through the mod as each character, and have tested the weapons available using v0.74, I hope my thoughts are useful! - As an aside, I used Bolognese Gore Mod, made it really fun, seeing everything explode into bloody chunks.

Myrmidon.
-Fists
-Primary: Feels alright, properly meaty the combo has a nice impact behind it and is overall satisfying to use.
-Secondary: Grappling hook giving Baratus ranged capabilities from the get-go is well appreciated. Pulling monsters your way for a good ol' one-two is always fun, too.
-Tertiary: Same as secondary, it seems? Only difference I could tell is that secondary retaliates with a quick punch, while tertiary uses a slower punch from the left hand.

-Timon's Vorpal Axe
-Primary: Chunky axe swing, can't ask for more.
-Secondary: At first it took me a moment to come to terms with its range. It feels good to use as it can tear through enemies.
-Tertiary: Brütal. Though it's pretty costly, it justifies its cost in sheer damage output, having a blue mana ranged option is also well appreciated.

-Hammer of Retribution
-Primary: Same as with the axe, it feels meaty, and gets the job done.
-Secondary: Having the hammer do an arc takes a little getting used to, but once its arc is nailed, it provides a lot of strategic possibilities. The embers and flames it generates are awesome to look at.
-Tertiary: Really fun to use, having it keep trailing after it hits a ledge makes it pretty useful, too.

-Quietus
-Primary: The attack works wonders, mana-less ripping vorpal effect is highly appreciated. It deals a lot of pain, making it a great melee weapon. Also appreciated the little bit of realism added to its acceleration.
-Secondary: This one is pretty awesome, works wonders against crowds and makes Quietus feel that much more powerful. Didn't expect the energy ball to explode in my face, though.
-Tertiary: The concept is cool - it feels as a DnD casting of Magic Missiles, which is nice, but the energy balls could do a little more damage, making it more viable to clear crowds of low tier enemies.

Crusader

-Mace of Contrition
-Primary: The increased speed and added impact works pretty well, the side-swing animation makes it a more interesting weapon too.
-Secondary: The effect is cool, but the damage is quite lackluster, enough to not justify using it aside from having slight ranged capabilities.

-Lightbringer
-Primary: Really cool attack, feels strong, powerful, and deals a sufficient amount of damage to make it viable throughout the game.
-Secondary: Rips ass. An easy, mana efficient way to destroy crowds, and also fun to use.
-Tertiary: The prism is an interesting concept, and the execution is done flawlessly. It really works as an early-game crowd clearer. Both fire modes are interesting and useful.

-Font of Firestorm
-Primary: Though it looks and sounds amazing, its damage output seems to be too low - it took about 10 mana to kill one ettin, compared to 8 from the secondary.
-Secondary: Hexen II tomed Firestorm. Looks awesome, clears a whole corridor, and has a reasonable mana cost. Kicks arse.
-Tertiary: The ring of flame also looks and works awesomely. It really helps a lot in clearing crowds of close range attackers.

-Crux Calicus
-Primary: Looks nice, and is pretty efficient mana-wise, works really well as a long-term option.
-Secondary: Though it's really cool, it takes time getting used to, as the distance of the blackhole can take one unawares and make them have a crunchy death. Still, it works really well as a crowd clearer.
-Tertiary: Energy shield works well, it gives a lot of strategic options such as creating choke points to unleash hell. At 10 mana, its cost is pretty reasonable, too.

Magister

-Vis Expelio
-Primary: Works well, gets the job done, plus its fun when monsters are gibbed - looks like you ripped them apart with your bare hands. It would benefit from having/causing falling damage, as it's really easy to send monsters flying.
-Secondary: Same as before, except it works against crowds. Feels good, gets the job done.

-Algor
-Primary: Works really well, causes a lot of damage, and the effect is really cool to look at, no pun intended. It has the added bonus of not causing pain to centaurs, but more on that later.
-Secondary: Feels badass, being able to summon a number of ice spikes is really awesome, and the damage output is quite consistent. It would benefit from being able to hold the attack however; as it is right now, after the fourth spike, the
attack is fired immediately, making it so the trigger needs to be released before firing would give it more strategic applications.
-Tertiary: Ice pillars are a great defensive solution, similarly to the shield generated by Crux Calicus. Its offensive uses are also quite neat, as they cause a lot of damage to a crowd; didn't expect it to cause damage to the character either.

-Fulgur
-Primary: Works much better in this iteration, it actually makes you feel like a true Sith Lord. Perhaps a slight chain-lightning effect at a lower damage could add more potency to it, then again it could also be
overpowering.
-Secondary: Takes some time to get used to, and lacks functionality outside of open areas. Other than that, the effect is nice, but it seems like it could also need just a little bit more damage.
-Tertiary: THUNDERSTRUCK!!! The thundercloud is awesome and its damage output is great.

-Bloodscourge
-Primary: Works unspeakably better than the original, as it actually makes sense, plus its secondary effect, the fire rain, is awesome.
-Secondary: Also really awesome, and really makes the staff feel as an ultimate weapon, laying waste to everything around it.
-Tertiary: This is an interesting, utilitarian effect. It's also neat to use and provides excellent support to the Magister.

Miscellaneous

-The wisps of mana are greatly appreciated, they can really take you out of a pinch.
-Flechettes are cool in general, but Magister's seems like it needs a little tweaking in its damage.

Overall, the mod accomplishes its purpose: Weapons feel strong, are strong and, most importantly, fun to use. Their sprites and effects are spot on, the only necessary things are mostly damage tweaks so their damage output matches their badass looks.

Suggestions:

-Tertiary fires for the Mace of Contrition, and Vis Expelio.
-As it's been mentioned before, more weapons within reason would be cool - As I saw before, some of them are already planned, if I may make a suggestion/request for the Magister, seeing Magic Missiles implemented would be really cool, if only because it's never been done before in Hexen.
-Item tweaks - Some items, in my experience, don't really see a lot of use; stuff such as the Banishment Device, for example, could be replaced by something different.
-Screw Centaurs/Slaughtaurs - They're not fun, they're not nice, and really grind things to a halt. For these, it'd be nice to either see their health drastically reduced, or their blocking removed altogether; a blocking ability is cool for bosses such as the Heresiarch, but centaurs are like the second most common type of enemy, that really kills the pacing of action.

Walpurgis is shaping up really nicely; as it is, it's fun to use, and makes weapons feel more meaningful to use than their vanilla counterparts, as you can safely rely on your whole arsenal. Keep it up!

[eharper256]

Hello!

I've played through the mod as each character, and have tested the weapons available using v0.74, I hope my thoughts are useful! - As an aside, I used Bolognese Gore Mod, made it really fun, seeing everything explode into bloody chunks.

Thanks for the detailed feedback! I also used New Nashgore in all the demo videos, which is a little less extreme but still rather satisfying; I would usually recommend a gore mod (either NashGore, Universal Gibs or Bolognase is fine, going from least to most extreme gore-wise).

-Fists
-Primary: Feels alright, properly meaty the combo has a nice impact behind it and is overall satisfying to use.
-Secondary: Grappling hook giving Baratus ranged capabilities from the get-go is well appreciated. Pulling monsters your way for a good ol' one-two is always fun, too.
-Tertiary: Same as secondary, it seems? Only difference I could tell is that secondary retaliates with a quick punch, while tertiary uses a slower punch from the left hand.

For starters; there is no Tertiary for the starter weapons. The differences you're seeing are an illusion.
I did consider it, but I thought it was correct for them to be somewhat less versatile as there are no costs. That said, technically, Baratus sort of has a Tertiary; if you're too close to grapple with the chain, he instead whips them with it to cause knockback.

-Timon's Vorpal Axe
-Primary: Chunky axe swing, can't ask for more.
-Secondary: At first it took me a moment to come to terms with its range. It feels good to use as it can tear through enemies.
-Tertiary: Brütal. Though it's pretty costly, it justifies its cost in sheer damage output, having a blue mana ranged option is also well appreciated.

Fun facts; the Tertiary also gives you a little bit of HP back when it kills things and returns to your grasp, which is why it continues to cost 15. Due to the boomeranging, you can still sometimes hit when you miss as well.
The Secondary is indeed very short ranged, but its ripping does obscene damage (around 20 per tic (a tic is 1/35 of a second in Doom), and the slash can spend around 6-14 tics passing through an Ettin or similar sized target depending on where you place it). And Rippers don't set Pain flags, so tightly packed crowds of Centaurs can be dispatched with ease.

-Hammer of Retribution
-Primary: Same as with the axe, it feels meaty, and gets the job done.
-Secondary: Having the hammer do an arc takes a little getting used to, but once its arc is nailed, it provides a lot of strategic possibilities. The embers and flames it generates are awesome to look at.
-Tertiary: Really fun to use, having it keep trailing after it hits a ledge makes it pretty useful, too.

Yup, the Hammer's in a good place right now. Tertiary's shockwave is effectively an invisible ground-hugging rocket , hence it jumping up ledges. It also has mild homing if it sees a target slightly off course that'll it'll miss by an inch, making it really handy!

-Quietus
-Primary: The attack works wonders, mana-less ripping vorpal effect is highly appreciated. It deals a lot of pain, making it a great melee weapon. Also appreciated the little bit of realism added to its acceleration.
-Secondary: This one is pretty awesome, works wonders against crowds and makes Quietus feel that much more powerful. Didn't expect the energy ball to explode in my face, though.
-Tertiary: The concept is cool - it feels as a DnD casting of Magic Missiles, which is nice, but the energy balls could do a little more damage, making it more viable to clear crowds of low tier enemies.

Quietus' Vorpal slashes are around 1/5 the power of the axes Vorpal Slash; but obviously they have no cost. Quietus has a wind-up time in melee. Much like a real greatsword, you rely on constant momentum to see its maximum effect.
Yes, the Secondary blows up in your face if you overcharge it. You can judge by the transparency: If it becomes completely opaque, it's hit maximum charge, let it go now! Its 3 seconds of charging to hit this stage; and at around 3.4 seconds, it blows up anyway (oops). That said, slight overcharge does in fact increase the damage and radius by another step for the risk seekers after a 0.17 second window.
Tertiary can already do 150-200 damage if all the balls decide to hit the same foe, making it arguably better for boss damage than mob clearance; and I kinda like that. That said, when mobs have lower HP in general (like in Doom and Heretic), it still works well in that regard (zombie hordes in doom!), so I'm cautious of increasing it too much just to be used for clearing the Hexen High HP mobs. I did also actually experiment with a non-homing, higher power version but decided I didn't like it much; so this probably won't get much more tweaking.

-Primary: The increased speed and added impact works pretty well, the side-swing animation makes it a more interesting weapon too.
-Secondary: The effect is cool, but the damage is quite lackluster, enough to not justify using it aside from having slight ranged capabilities.

The secondary is to help you out of tight spots, as it causes a small-scale disc of repulsion effect, blasting enemies back to give you breathing room to focus individuals with the primary.
Balancing the Mace is a tough one; original Hexen is very clear in making Parias have the weakest start. I didn't want to shift from that meta too far, and a powerful secondary would break that.

-Lightbringer
-Primary: Really cool attack, feels strong, powerful, and deals a sufficient amount of damage to make it viable throughout the game.
-Secondary: Rips ass. An easy, mana efficient way to destroy crowds, and also fun to use.
-Tertiary: The prism is an interesting concept, and the execution is done flawlessly. It really works as an early-game crowd clearer. Both fire modes are interesting and useful.

Glad I'm selling the Lightbringer to everyone. XD

-Font of Firestorm
-Primary: Though it looks and sounds amazing, its damage output seems to be too low - it took about 10 mana to kill one ettin, compared to 8 from the secondary.
-Secondary: Hexen II tomed Firestorm. Looks awesome, clears a whole corridor, and has a reasonable mana cost. Kicks arse.
-Tertiary: The ring of flame also looks and works awesomely. It really helps a lot in clearing crowds of close range attackers.

I'm a bit confused about that first bit; so I did a quick test again with spawning Ettins. Among my 12 test subjects, it always took 4-6 mana to kill one with the Primary Fire when I had it in my crosshairs and was close? This all adds up correctly: each puff can cause around ~30 damage and each 2 mana gets you 6 puffs of flame. We need a 180HP Ettin to be hit 6 times to die, so in theory, you can kill one with just 2 mana if every puff connects. But, this is unlikely with how erratic the puffs are; so again, it still seems correct. Just keep in mind its best used in short bursts despite the temptation to hose everything down (like a real Flamethrower!). The flames in this aren't rippers as well (they're sticky), so for close mob clearance, stick to the Tertiary fire.
Glad you like the effects and the other fire modes though! I spent awhile getting it to look cool, but it was worth it. Next update should add burning deaths to enemies as well!

-Crux Calicus
-Primary: Looks nice, and is pretty efficient mana-wise, works really well as a long-term option.
-Secondary: Though it's really cool, it takes time getting used to, as the distance of the blackhole can take one unawares and make them have a crunchy death. Still, it works really well as a crowd clearer.
-Tertiary: Energy shield works well, it gives a lot of strategic options such as creating choke points to unleash hell. At 10 mana, its cost is pretty reasonable, too.

Crux Calicus is doing everything it should, then. Yes, be careful of the range on that singularity. XD

-Vis Expelio
-Primary: Works well, gets the job done, plus its fun when monsters are gibbed - looks like you ripped them apart with your bare hands. It would benefit from having/causing falling damage, as it's really easy to send monsters flying.
-Secondary: Same as before, except it works against crowds. Feels good, gets the job done.

Rip and Tear! (insert other Doom Comic quotes). It deliberately doesn't cause falling damage. Whilst hilarious when it did, it became way too powerful for a starter weapon.

-Algor
-Primary: Works really well, causes a lot of damage, and the effect is really cool to look at, no pun intended. It has the added bonus of not causing pain to centaurs, but more on that later.
-Secondary: Feels badass, being able to summon a number of ice spikes is really awesome, and the damage output is quite consistent. It would benefit from being able to hold the attack however; as it is right now, after the fourth spike, the
attack is fired immediately, making it so the trigger needs to be released before firing would give it more strategic applications.
-Tertiary: Ice pillars are a great defensive solution, similarly to the shield generated by Crux Calicus. Its offensive uses are also quite neat, as they cause a lot of damage to a crowd; didn't expect it to cause damage to the character either.

As I mentioned briefly above, Rippers don't cause pain flags, so yes, the Ice Shards are the Magister's go-to for Centaurs. The insta-fire is intentional on the secondary; they're not meant as a run and gun, they're a sniping effect. Fun, slightly cheaty fact: the Tertiary ice pillars are always generated a set distance in front of the Magister, so even if he's sat at the foot of the ledge, they'll be generated on top.

-Fulgur
-Primary: Works much better in this iteration, it actually makes you feel like a true Sith Lord. Perhaps a slight chain-lightning effect at a lower damage could add more potency to it, then again it could also be
overpowering.
-Secondary: Takes some time to get used to, and lacks functionality outside of open areas. Other than that, the effect is nice, but it seems like it could also need just a little bit more damage.
-Tertiary: THUNDERSTRUCK!!! The thundercloud is awesome and its damage output is great.

THUNDERSTRUCK! Yeah, Chain-Lightning was tested and it was overpowered, so that's out. Due to the way the lightning currently works it adds alot of processing steps as well. As the ball can demolish crowds in the right circumstances, I'm not going to adjust it right now, but yeah, its a little niche I guess.

-Bloodscourge
-Primary: Works unspeakably better than the original, as it actually makes sense, plus its secondary effect, the fire rain, is awesome.
-Secondary: Also really awesome, and really makes the staff feel as an ultimate weapon, laying waste to everything around it.
-Tertiary: This is an interesting, utilitarian effect. It's also neat to use and provides excellent support to the Magister.

Everyone likes Bloodscourge it seems, so I guess its in a good place.

-Flechettes are cool in general, but Magister's seems like it needs a little tweaking in its damage.

It's slightly less damaging because its a versatile proximity mine, but I'll review it if needed in future.

-As it's been mentioned before, more weapons within reason would be cool - As I saw before, some of them are already planned, if I may make a suggestion/request for the Magister, seeing Magic Missiles implemented would be really cool, if only because it's never been done before in Hexen.

Funny you mention that; Primary Fire was actually originally going to be magic missiles (also hence the easiest difficulty setting for the Magister being the common D&D joke). The Lightbringer Prism's rainbow shots when you hit it with the Primary were originally meant for that purpose. However, I found that Vis Expello worked and felt better to use. That said; didn't Hexen II Necromancer use Magic Missiles (albeit they were not homing)?

-Item tweaks - Some items, in my experience, don't really see a lot of use; stuff such as the Banishment Device, for example, could be replaced by something different.

Also funny you mention that; I did have a plan for the Banishment Device to be replaced. The Chaos Device will stick around since its handy on occasion in annoying levels. I'm also planning on making all the classes have a unique Icon of the Defender effect.

-Screw Centaurs/Slaughtaurs - They're not fun, they're not nice, and really grind things to a halt. For these, it'd be nice to either see their health drastically reduced, or their blocking removed altogether; a blocking ability is cool for bosses such as the Heresiarch, but centaurs are like the second most common type of enemy, that really kills the pacing of action.

A few tweaks are planned for them already in the next patch actually; their blocking duration is being reduced by 1/3; but they're being made faster and more damaging to increase their aggressiveness. Slaughtaurs will cease blocking on pain, and will instead block as part of firing their shield missile (which they will now fire twice). Stalkers are being adjusted to give you a slightly bigger window to hit them as well. I'm not going to remove it entirely because, again, don't want to intrude too much on the iwad.

Overall, the mod accomplishes its purpose: Weapons feel strong, are strong and, most importantly, fun to use. Their sprites and effects are spot on, the only necessary things are mostly damage tweaks so their damage output matches their badass looks. Walpurgis is shaping up really nicely; as it is, it's fun to use, and makes weapons feel more meaningful to use than their vanilla counterparts, as you can safely rely on your whole arsenal. Keep it up!

Thanks!

[SallazarSpellcaster]

Thanks for the detailed feedback! I also used New Nashgore in all the demo videos, which is a little less extreme but still rather satisfying; I would usually recommend a gore mod (either NashGore, Universal Gibs or Bolognase is fine, going from least to most extreme gore-wise).

I noticed NashGore; in my case I enjoy seeing chunky salsa flying about.

For starters; there is no Tertiary for the starter weapons. The differences you're seeing are an illusion.
I did consider it, but I thought it was correct for them to be somewhat less versatile as there are no costs. That said, technically, Baratus sort of has a Tertiary; if you're too close to grapple with the chain, he instead whips them with it to cause knockback.

I assumed it was a tertiary because it happens when I press the reload button. Other than that, fair enough; even so, the starting weapons remain more or less versatile, especially Vis Expelio.

Fun facts; the Tertiary also gives you a little bit of HP back when it kills things and returns to your grasp, which is why it continues to cost 15. Due to the boomeranging, you can still sometimes hit when you miss as well.
The Secondary is indeed very short ranged, but its ripping does obscene damage (around 20 per tic (a tic is 1/35 of a second in Doom), and the slash can spend around 6-14 tics passing through an Ettin or similar sized target depending on where you place it). And Rippers don't set Pain flags, so tightly packed crowds of Centaurs can be dispatched with ease.

Well damn, I didn't notice that, it makes it even better!
Secondary works great too, didn't know that rippers don't cause pain, that's useful against Centaurs, indeed.

Yup, the Hammer's in a good place right now. Tertiary's shockwave is effectively an invisible ground-hugging rocket , hence it jumping up ledges. It also has mild homing if it sees a target slightly off course that'll it'll miss by an inch, making it really handy!

Didn't notice the homing before, but it's well appreciated. The hammer is really good as it is

Quietus' Vorpal slashes are around 1/5 the power of the axes Vorpal Slash; but obviously they have no cost. Quietus has a wind-up time in melee. Much like a real greatsword, you rely on constant momentum to see its maximum effect.
Yes, the Secondary blows up in your face if you overcharge it. You can judge by the transparency: If it becomes completely opaque, it's hit maximum charge, let it go now! Its 3 seconds of charging to hit this stage; and at around 3.4 seconds, it blows up anyway (oops). That said, slight overcharge does in fact increase the damage and radius by another step for the risk seekers after a 0.17 second window.
Tertiary can already do 150-200 damage if all the balls decide to hit the same foe, making it arguably better for boss damage than mob clearance; and I kinda like that. That said, when mobs have lower HP in general (like in Doom and Heretic), it still works well in that regard (zombie hordes in doom!), so I'm cautious of increasing it too much just to be used for clearing the Hexen High HP mobs. I did also actually experiment with a non-homing, higher power version but decided I didn't like it much; so this probably won't get much more tweaking.

Even with lower damage, the melee output, coupled with slashes is really good.
In fairness, I played Hexen; if I recall correctly, monsters tend to have more HP than those in Heretic or Doom. I didn't try it on bosses, but that logic seems solid, especially against Korax, the Heresiarch, and I'm still missing a Doom/Heretic playthrough.

The secondary is to help you out of tight spots, as it causes a small-scale disc of repulsion effect, blasting enemies back to give you breathing room to focus individuals with the primary.
Balancing the Mace is a tough one; original Hexen is very clear in making Parias have the weakest start. I didn't want to shift from that meta too far, and a powerful secondary would break that.

Fair enough. Also, I forgot to mention that sometimes, when using the secondary attack, a shining axe sprite appears. Don't know if it's intentional but that sprite is really cool looking.

Glad I'm selling the Lightbringer to everyone. XD

You did a great job with the new weapons, both the Lightbringer, and Crux Calicus. From all the iterations of the Lightbringer I've seen -in Hexen II, Serpent Resurrection, and Wrath of Cronos- I can confidently say this one is my favorite.

I'm a bit confused about that first bit; so I did a quick test again with spawning Ettins. Among my 12 test subjects, it always took 4-6 mana to kill one with the Primary Fire when I had it in my crosshairs and was close? This all adds up correctly: each puff can cause around ~30 damage and each 2 mana gets you 6 puffs of flame. We need a 180HP Ettin to be hit 6 times to die, so in theory, you can kill one with just 2 mana if every puff connects. But, this is unlikely with how erratic the puffs are; so again, it still seems correct. Just keep in mind its best used in short bursts despite the temptation to hose everything down (like a real Flamethrower!). The flames in this aren't rippers as well (they're sticky), so for close mob clearance, stick to the Tertiary fire.
Glad you like the effects and the other fire modes though! I spent awhile getting it to look cool, but it was worth it. Next update should add burning deaths to enemies as well!

I realized that was on me, as I used it in quick bursts and moving all about, surrounded by enemies. Trying it again in tighter-packed corridors, and letting the flames do an extra damage, it works much better. The other two modes are flawless as they are; I forgot to commend the use of embers in the sprites themselves, it's a really nice little detail.

Crux Calicus is doing everything it should, then. Yes, be careful of the range on that singularity. XD

Indeed it does!

Rip and Tear! (insert other Doom Comic quotes). It deliberately doesn't cause falling damage. Whilst hilarious when it did, it became way too powerful for a starter weapon.

Fair enough, it just seemed reasonable seeing as it sends monsters flying about everywhere. It's so powerful it can even send the bell sprite in Hexen flying around -to hilarious effect.-

As I mentioned briefly above, Rippers don't cause pain flags, so yes, the Ice Shards are the Magister's go-to for Centaurs. The insta-fire is intentional on the secondary; they're not meant as a run and gun, they're a sniping effect. Fun, slightly cheaty fact: the Tertiary ice pillars are always generated a set distance in front of the Magister, so even if he's sat at the foot of the ledge, they'll be generated on top.

Fair enough; I figure the purpose is to line your shots and choose the right time to ready the ice spikes. I hadn't noticed that effect before.

THUNDERSTRUCK! Yeah, Chain-Lightning was tested and it was overpowered, so that's out. Due to the way the lightning currently works it adds alot of processing steps as well. As the ball can demolish crowds in the right circumstances, I'm not going to adjust it right now, but yeah, its a little niche I guess.

Chain lightning would indeed destroy everything. The lightning ball is good, as you say, however, its moments for usage are relatively sparse, it works great in open areas, but corridors reduce its usefulness. No matter though, as the thunder cloud and primary attack compensate it.

Everyone likes Bloodscourge it seems, so I guess its in a good place.

Bloodscourge is in a good place, it improves upon the original in every way.

Funny you mention that; Primary Fire was actually originally going to be magic missiles (also hence the easiest difficulty setting for the Magister being the common D&D joke). The Lightbringer Prism's rainbow shots when you hit it with the Primary were originally meant for that purpose. However, I found that Vis Expello worked and felt better to use. That said; didn't Hexen II Necromancer use Magic Missiles (albeit they were not homing)?

Neat! I did catch the joke, can't have enough D&D in dark fantasy games. I meant in classic Hexen, Hexen II does have magic missiles, they're slightly homing, more so when tomed, but the execution is somewhat lackluster.

A few tweaks are planned for them already in the next patch actually; their blocking duration is being reduced by 1/3; but they're being made faster and more damaging to increase their aggressiveness. Slaughtaurs will cease blocking on pain, and will instead block as part of firing their shield missile (which they will now fire twice). Stalkers are being adjusted to give you a slightly bigger window to hit them as well. I'm not going to remove it entirely because, again, don't want to intrude too much on the iwad.

Blocking as part of their missile may not be the best solution, as difficulty 5, which adds fastmonsters turns them into absolute turrets. I had this problem with Wrath of Cronos, where Slaughtaurs wouldn't stop firing and blocking at the same time, with an attack window of less than half a second, making them both terribly destructive and nearly impossible to kill.

Thanks!

You're welcome! It's been really fun using the weapons as they currently are, can't wait to see what else you come up with!

[eharper256]

Didn't notice the homing before, but it's well appreciated. The hammer is really good as it is

Yarp, this one's pretty subtle; it'll snake jerk 10 degrees at most by its settings and usually explode right after without the tracer flames being left behind to show the jerk, so yeah, its harder to notice. But I found it a really helpful sub-feature after numerous times shooting a tremour directly through the middle of a crowd (and feeling 'thats not how it should work!') until I added it.

Fair enough. Also, I forgot to mention that sometimes, when using the secondary attack, a shining axe sprite appears. Don't know if it's intentional but that sprite is really cool looking.

The yellow 'shock' sprite, right? Yep, that happens when the repulsion effect activates but it didn't get damaged, as a visual indicator. Its a fairly simple re-colour but it looks nice for a holy smite effect. Glad you like it. XD

It's so powerful it can even send the bell sprite in Hexen flying around -to hilarious effect.-

Whilst its funny, it really shouldn't do that. The move effect should (in theory) only be able to throw around damage-able and shootable targets, but for some reason the bell meets both of those criteria. I'm guessing the base Hexen script detects damage to it as a means to solve the puzzle (rather than it just being hit, which would be better). By the same result, the destroyable trees can have their trunks uprooted and re-rooted when they land by the effect.

Blocking as part of their missile may not be the best solution, as difficulty 5, which adds fastmonsters turns them into absolute turrets. I had this problem with Wrath of Cronos, where Slaughtaurs wouldn't stop firing and blocking at the same time, with an attack window of less than half a second, making them both terribly destructive and nearly impossible to kill.

Hoh? As I'm a scrub that normally always plays the Hurt Me Plenty equivalent (skill 3) in everything I wouldn't have known that. Interesting; I'll reconsider that then. Thanks for the pointer.

[4page]

I finally got around to giving this a look! It's exactly what I was afraid it would be (SO GOOD). XD You've done a remarkable job with this. That lightning cloud is a stroke of genius. Everything looks beautiful too, which is wonderful. Also, some of the things you've done have given me a couple ideas to add to mine. Maybe. At least there are things I want to do, I'm just not sure where to put them in my mod without taking something else out. It's awesome to see the things you've done with some of the effects from my mod. I haven't gotten to playing through any maps yet, just a quick poking around, but it's looking spectacular.

[eharper256]

Release 0.75
'Kill it with Fire'
-----------------------

Code: Select all

07/02/2020
+New!:	Burning Deaths for relevant enemies added. These apply to all kills caused
		with the Hammer of Retribution, the Napalm Flechette, the Laser fired by 
		the Lightbringer, the Quietus Secondary and Tertiary, the Bloodscourge,
		and of course, the Firestorm Font! (see the new video!)
		Will maybe add other death types in the future.
		
+Balance: 	Crux Calicus' Primary Fire no longer forces pain states. Its OP
			for most monsters (and useless for Centaurs!). 
+Balance: 	Magister's Flechette deals about 10% more damage than before.

+Tweak: Crux Calicus Secondary Fire more likely to cause gibbing deaths.
+Tweak: Hexen Centaurs are no longer as shield obssessed. They now guard for
		just under a second, rather than 2.5 seconds. In recompense for this,
		though, they now charge at you about 30% faster than before, and their
		sword strikes deal around 10% more damage, making them much more
		aggressive rather than mobile HP walls.
+Tweak: Hexen Stalkers take a few tics longer to strike and fire acid, so 
		they're not quite so annoying to deal with.
+Tweak:	Hexen Brown Serpents now actually spit an acid missile that deals ongoing
		damage rather than the green-totally-not-a-fireball.
+Tweak: Heretic Golems are faster with about 25% more HP.
+Tweak: Heretic Nitrogolems get similar changes, and also get a palette 
		alteration so they look like Stone Golems (you can finally tell them
		apart from their lesser cousins!).
+Tweak: Heretic Saberclaws have 33% more HP.
+Tweak: Doom Archies have a slightly higher pain chance as you don't have
		rapid fire weapons to pin them down in this mod.

I finally got around to giving this a look! It's exactly what I was afraid it would be (SO GOOD). XD You've done a remarkable job with this. That lightning cloud is a stroke of genius. Everything looks beautiful too, which is wonderful. Also, some of the things you've done have given me a couple ideas to add to mine. Maybe. At least there are things I want to do, I'm just not sure where to put them in my mod without taking something else out. It's awesome to see the things you've done with some of the effects from my mod. I haven't gotten to playing through any maps yet, just a quick poking around, but it's looking spectacular.

Thanks for compliment! It's not using too much from HexArcana any more (barring the thrown weapons which I couldn't program better if I tried), but big thanks for the content I've kept!

[Blackgrowl]

I'll be honest, the latest update is a bit "lackluster", the fire death animation is just basic and generalist.
But the implications are amazing, I'm sure you'll further work on these to make them more amazing, like actual custom sprites of enemies that are burned up, run-around when burning and most importantly (should have mentioned that first) making it so the flames aren't all just orange, Quintus' flames are green after all.

Don't let my honesty down you now

Got one small issue, how come the Myrmidon screams so loudly and echo-y when he gets hurt, by a puny Ettin of all enemies? This has to be a bug

[eharper256]

I'll be honest, the latest update is a bit "lackluster", the fire death animation is just basic and generalist.
But the implications are amazing, I'm sure you'll further work on these to make them more amazing, like actual custom sprites of enemies that are burned up, run-around when burning and most importantly (should have mentioned that first) making it so the flames aren't all just orange, Quintus' flames are green after all.

Don't let my honesty down you now

Got one small issue, how come the Myrmidon screams so loudly and echo-y when he gets hurt, by a puny Ettin of all enemies? This has to be a bug

Yep, the animation is a general one. There is alot... and I MEAN ALOT of spriting work if I wanted to do unique animations for everything in all three games, way beyond the scope of an update I could push out in two days. At the moment, as you've noticed, enemies thrash around a bit with their pain and death frames whilst the fire consumes them, and change to a charcoal-look before turning to ash. I basically wanted something that could apply to all of them as a placeholder for now since it felt wrong for them to explode into gibs or have a regular death from fire. So I achieved what I could for now.

Quietus flames might come a little sooner; but they present an issue in themselves: I would have to make them deal a unique damage type (say "Greenfire") so that the GZDoom would specifically recognise a death from Quietus and give it the correct flame colour when the enemies die, which considering it is still 'fire' always felt a bit strange to me. Some mods have copious amounts of damage types for this purpose (Guncaster is pretty funny for the names of them in the files ).

As for the scream; was the Myrm pushed under 50 HP by that Ettin's attack? If so, he would have shouted his heavy pain noise, which is a clipped version of the game's falling death noise, which may well be a bit echo-y as a result. Sound editing is not exactly my forte; and the extreme pain noises were a rather quickie job in Audacity; but they serve their purpose well enough for giving you audible cues as to the fact you might be in a pinch (this is VERY important playing as the Magister with how fragile he is).
--------------------

Also, a quick announcement:

Just so everyone is aware; I know for sure that next week will be insanely busy for me at work. I'll also be working on a few of the more sweeping changes like a few new items and adding CVARs etc.

Hence, I certainly won't be able to maintain the release schedule of this week (sadly), and more likely than not, next update will be next weekend.

That said, the beta version is in a stable place at the moment; and there are now no serious bugs I'm aware of, so it's a good point to start if you've been scared of my constant updating

I always appreciate more feedback (in all three games!) and I'll still be responding here when I can get a moment.

[Blackgrowl]

As for the scream; was the Myrm pushed under 50 HP by that Ettin's attack? If so, he would have shouted his heavy pain noise, which is a clipped version of the game's falling death noise, which may well be a bit echo-y as a result. Sound editing is not exactly my forte; and the extreme pain noises were a rather quickie job in Audacity; but they serve their purpose well enough for giving you audible cues as to the fact you might be in a pinch (this is VERY important playing as the Magister with how fragile he is).

No, although I didn't pay much attention as I should have, but I'm very sure I was at 70 HP, then an Ettin hit me and I heard that sound, then more Ettins (Up to 3/4) hit me and I kept hearing that sound.

I think it is a bug, you might wanna check. Wasn't using any other mod beside it.

[eharper256]

Well there is another noise (A "rrrraaaahhh!") he makes between 75HP and 50HP as well that is not originally from Hexen, but a Hexen sound replacer mod. It's probably that one.