[WIP] Malice - Version 1.0pre5 [BURNING MELEE!]

[TheRailgunner]

So, quick update:

*Duration of all special effect selector states (quick grenades, Supers, Reinforcements, weapon status modifiers, zooming) increased from 5 tics to 12 tics - should feel much less twitchy now.
*Berserk cuts the recharge time for Power Melees in half.
*N7 damage increased to 40 per bullet (I actually did this earlier, but didn't mention it).
*M-Zero damage increased to 100 per bullet.

I probably won't leave this in the final version of the mod, but just for kicks, here's what happens if you choose the last player class:
*Power Melee recharge time cut down to 25%.
*Reinforcement Beacon recharge time cut down to 20%.
*Burst-Fire option for the M-Zero (note that you can fire the weapon mid-burst and spit out an unrealistic number of bullets, as the semi-auto mode can be fired immediately after the gunflash - I'm leaving this functionality in for shits and giggles, to simulate an inhumanly fast series of trigger pulls).

[TheRailgunner]

Mild update:

*Improved recoil effects for the Proximity Control Rifle and the Nishimura Ten Shotgun.
*Last player class now has increased melee damage.
*Zero Legionnaires' shield strength decreased to 500 HP; shield regeneration has been decreased as well. Infinity Legionnaires' shield strength has been reduced to 200 to match the player.
*FX load has been lightened - performance issues with the CFG, PCR, N12, Supers, and the Tractor Beam should be at least somewhat resolved.
*UPDATE: M-Zero no longer causes movement speed bugs upon map start.

Known bugs:
*On some maps (or mapsets), summoned Legionnaires teleport away immediately after spawning. I'm not sure what causes this at the moment.
*Zero Legionnaire Captains get VERY carried away at times, shooting at nothing for what seems like eons.
*Using the Tractor Beam on Legion of Bones' Spider Mastermind crashes the game.

To do:
*Reduce FX usage for performance reasons I probably still need to continue working on it, but I trimmed some FX off of this version.
*Fix Reinforcement behavior issues
*Add a proper Super Shotgun Done!
*Change Infernal Shockwave to some sort of Super Grenade super Infernal Shockwave now grants Super Grenades as well.
*IWAD compatibility
*Give the Scorpion Tractor Beam a regenerating ammo supply Done, but may need some balancing.
*Remove decals from Tractor Beam projectiles Done!
*Fix that sprite flicker that occurs whenever Juggernaut Fists is activated Done.
*Balance tweaks all around

At any rate, Malice nears completion. Who knows, maybe if I get a sudden burst of motivation, I might finish it today (probably not, though).

[TheRailgunner]

Yay, multiposting!

Minor updates include:
*The Scorpion Tractor Beam now has a regenerating ammo supply, and is subject to the effects of Golden Arsenal.
*Infernal Shockwave now grants Super Grenades, which have greater range, velocity, and sheer destructive force, in addition to the Shockwave ability itself. Supers are, for the most part, complete, pending further FX reduction.

Gear up, Legionnaire.

[Dr_Cosmobyte]

I hope i am wrong, but backpacks don't play a pickup sound? At least for me they didn't.

[TheRailgunner]

I hope i am wrong, but backpacks don't play a pickup sound? At least for me they didn't.

Huh - yeah, I suppose I should scour the mod for missing sounds. I'll try to find a good pickup sound for the backpack soon.

Another minor update:

*Visual bugs regarding weapons during Super activation have been fixed.
*Speed-regulating scripts have (hopefully) been made consistent by affixing them to the Player actor instead of to the weapons alone - mostly to resolve issues regarding scripts not activating upon level start when holding specific weapons.
*M0 player class now has more ridiculous movement ability and melee capability - particularly with the Legion Fists as the weapon selected.
*Nishimura Ten Shotgun's Fully Automatic setting now has a lower rate of fire.
EDIT: Minor FX reduction, mainly to nuke explosions.

I may add a diluted form of the last player's melee thrust to the other players, depending on how it works out.

[zero11x]

I have an issue with the fire selector and weapon mod buttons, if you push the button for a millisecond too long it can trigger several times.

[TheRailgunner]

I have an issue with the fire selector and weapon mod buttons, if you push the button for a millisecond too long it can trigger several times.

Fixed. I apparently forgot to check the User 2 and User 3 states when I increased the delay on selectors in general, but this should take care of it.

Other things of note:

*The Infernal Shockwave Super now grants Super Grenades in addition to the Shockwave ability while active.
*Bugs where the N10 Shotgun can't fire while Golden Arsenal is active have been fixed.
*Effects have been trimmed down even further, primarily beams, Super missile trails, and CFG/Super explosion effects.

Known bugs (will append as more are discovered):
*Super Grenades will often fly in strange directions for no apparent reason, the root cause of which I am not sure.

[SaveTheDoomer]

A lot of weapons just ignore infiniteammo, which is a big downside for an happy trigger freak like me... there's something that can be done?

[TheRailgunner]

A lot of weapons just ignore infiniteammo, which is a big downside for an happy trigger freak like me... there's something that can be done?

I'll see what I can do - I think the reason why it does this is because the ammo is generally taken via A_TakeInventory, but it should be fixable.

A couple of changes coming soon:

*Reinforcements is probably being scrapped, at least until I can find out why it leads to such a huge FPS drop. I could probably do with dropping a couple of function keys anyway for simplicity reasons.
*After some effort and ZScript butchering, I managed to make an ammo pickup that can be reliably pulled using the Scorpion Tractor Beam - this can be extended to every other item in the mod - I kinda wanna see what kinds of level-breaking nonsense players can pull of with this functionality.

[m_falcone]

*Add a proper Super Shotgun

I'd love to see your take on this

[TheRailgunner]

*Add a proper Super Shotgun

I'd love to see your take on this

In all seriousness, though, I actually got around to almost finishing the Trinity Coachcannon, a beefy, three-barreled monstrosity that puts your average boomstick to shame. Deals much more damage than the N10, but at the cost of a wide spread and other traditional drawbacks inherent in the Super Shotgun lineage - namely, that it must be reloaded after every shot. Altfire launches three highly accurate slugs instead, though it deals slightly less damage than the primary firing mode and suffers from the same reload speed; both firing modes are designed to be able to take down at least a Hell Knight with one shot. I'm really not sure how to arrange the weapons at this point.

[TheRailgunner]

So, a minor adjustment - the next update to Malice will bring Weapon Proficiencies: a given player class will deal more damage and enjoy faster reload speeds with its starting weapons. Currently, all of the weapons deal what can be best described as "a fuckton of damage", which is nice, but should be balanced a bit.

For example, using the standard Legionnaire class (N7 Battle Rifle), the N7 will deal, say, 40 damage instead of 25 for all other player classes. Special weapons - the Surfeit Torment, Trinity Super Shotgun, and the M-Zero, along with weapons players don't start out with like the Proximity Control Rifle and the CFG - won't be affected by this.

In addition, I'm increasing the speed/distance of normal player dashes - they actually feel, well, USEFUL now. I'll post a gameplay video showcasing the new functions and the boomstick.

Apart from that, the Trinity shotgun is almost complete - as soon as I can fix this item pickup bug for Tractor-Beamable items, I can update Malice

[m_falcone]

I like the idea of weapon proficiencies. It gives the initiative to try out new classes, but you said the ST and N-Zero will not be affected by this. Am I reading it wrong or will the Gunslinger and Legend classes not have said weapon proficiencies.

[TheRailgunner]

I like the idea of weapon proficiencies. It gives the initiative to try out new classes, but you said the ST and N-Zero will not be affected by this. Am I reading it wrong or will the Gunslinger and Legend classes not have said weapon proficiencies.

Good point - I'll see what I can do about the ST and Gunslinger. The Legend class more or less already has weapon proficiency with the M-Zero - while it doesn't do more damage per-shot, the Legend class can spam Burst-Fire, which greatly increases the weapon's damage output (also, the Legend class has melee proficiency).

Anyway, have fun tractoring in your brand new triple-barreled shotgun. Weapon proficiencies aren't done yet - right now it's just the N7, N10, and Trinity. I've got projectiles ready for the K-JACK, so I just have to do the ST and N12 (N4 won't have a proficiency, more than likely).

*Added the Trinity Coachcannon, a beastly triple-barreled shotgun that functions as Malice's "true" Super Shotgun. Credit for sprites goes to DoomNukem and Gorman Frebmane
*Reinforcements have been disabled for the time being - between the reinforcements themselves and their HUD indicators, they were a serious resource drain.
*Items can be pulled towards you using the Scorpion Tractor Beam (note that the Repulsor beam function doesn't push items away from you). Credit for this goes to HorrorMovieRei and Jarewill
*Dash speed multiplied by 1.5.
*N7 damage lowered to 25 except when playing as the standard Infinity Legionnaire class.
*N10 damage increased to 162 while playing as the Advance Guard class; Trinity damage increased to 750/600 for the same class (normal is 600/525).

Current issues:

*Animated items are currently not animated; this is temporary until I fix the items in question so that pulling them with the Tractor Beam won't break their animations.
*Trinity sometimes fires after melee attacks if you melee immediately after firing.

[m_falcone]

Quick review time.
All in all a very good update, bringing in a lot of good stuff. Reinforcements being removed doesn't really affect me as I used them sparsely. I like the feature of the tractor beam pulling items towards you. Quite fun to play around with. Dash speed being increased is nice. Weapon proficiencies are very good and I like trying out new classes. Now about the Trinity Tri-Barrel. Spritework and animations are top notch and the weapon is fun as hell to use. Primary fire does cause a little noticeable frame drops when firing at medium range and intensifies at far range. This frame drop is absent in the alt fire. All things considered, this update is extraordinary. Good work. Update: I have also discovered a 'bug' that drastically reduces performance in maps for no discernable reason. The previous version runs very well but somehow the newest update is very heavy on fps, even when just looking around.