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

[mamaluigisbagel]

Finally started learning and playing this mod, and its been a lot of fun so far so thanks a ton for making this mod!

I've been playing through all the Doom games with it, but once I got to SIGIL I couldn't shoot to activate any (or at least the first) "eye trigger" to open the door to continue the map, so I was basically soft-locked in the first room of the map set. Any idea if this can be helped?

[TheRailgunner]

I found a few more minor things.

• You missed a bit of black boarder on the right side of the Heavy Sidearm reload animation (both normal and damaged), as well as the weapon equip animation for the Proximity Control Rifle.
• Is it just me, or is the K-JACK really loud? I swear I hear the audio clipping when I fire. I'm running the most recent version of GZDoom, FYI.

EDIT: Minor idea I just had: an option to start with the Surfit Torment instead of the damaged N4.

EDIT2: Found another bug, the shotgun's 'ADS' function has a very short delay before it can activate again.

Good catches - I apparently did not fix the volume level for some of the K-JACK's firing sounds. Anyway, I've uploaded a quick fix:

*Removed the black borders (hopefully for good this time)
*Increased the delay on the Nishimura Ten Shotgun's ADS

As far as the Surfeit Torment start option is concerned, I'll see what I can do - maybe a CVAR tied to an ACS script?

[Steve1664]

This is a pretty fun mod! All the weapons are very punchy and fun to use, which is the important thing. The N7 is a personal favorite; good power, high fire rate and surprising accuracy, and as a fan of assault rifles I appreciate that greatly. It's kind of weird to have a starting weapon that actively discourages you to use it though. I'm pretty sure the Torment is just a Destiny handcannon with the serial number filed off.

Still, there are some issues that still need to be ironed out:
- I have Auto-Sprint on and Slowdown While Firing/Reloading off, but (especially when using the N7) after firing I'm unable to go back into a sprint until after reloading.
- Sometimes when using the N10 pressing the fire button causes you to load in a shell or two even when the magazine still has ammo in it.

Other than that it plays well. Looking good so far.

[TheRailgunner]

This is a pretty fun mod! All the weapons are very punchy and fun to use, which is the important thing. The N7 is a personal favorite; good power, high fire rate and surprising accuracy, and as a fan of assault rifles I appreciate that greatly. It's kind of weird to have a starting weapon that actively discourages you to use it though. I'm pretty sure the Torment is just a Destiny handcannon with the serial number filed off.

Still, there are some issues that still need to be ironed out:
- I have Auto-Sprint on and Slowdown While Firing/Reloading off, but (especially when using the N7) after firing I'm unable to go back into a sprint until after reloading.
- Sometimes when using the N10 pressing the fire button causes you to load in a shell or two even when the magazine still has ammo in it.

Other than that it plays well. Looking good so far.

I'm glad you're enjoying it - and yeah, I'm particularly fond of the N7 myself (it's the first of these weapons I made - most of the other weapons share its aesthetic because of this). As far as the damaged N4 is concerned: it was supposed to be the ONLY starting weapon, with the original lore stating as much, but I found that having a starting weapon that uses Cell-equivalent ammo just wouldn't cut it and I wasn't about to make it share ammo with the N7, so I threw the N7 into the starting loadout too, and from there, I decided to just give most of the weapons their own dedicated player classes. The general idea being that, once you found the non-damaged N4, the old one would begin a self-destruct sequence, forcing you to either throw it like a grenade for massive damage or let it blow up in your hands, but I was too lazy to make it work (plus I'd have to make rotations for a spinning version of the pickup sprite). The Surfeit Torment is, as you correctly surmised, intentionally very Destiny-esque - its color scheme is more or less based off of Lord High Fixer, and the weapon itself was originally modeled around Fatebringer (the main difference being that Fatebringer is only explosive upon a headshot kill, per the Firefly perk; the version of the ST in my earlier, more convoluted mod The Trooper actually explicitly HAS the Firefly perk, as does the N7 - I gave the White Nail perk to the N8 Sniper Rifle, though it doesn't function as reliably, and the recoil system in the same mod was intended to be a stab at trying to recreate a sliver of Destiny's gunplay, to little avail). Funny enough, the Surfeit Torment's name comes not from Destiny, but from Borderlands 2:


I do enjoy that, by now, the third image result and fourth web search result for the "Surfeit Torment" brings up ZDoom forums, though, in all fairness, "Torment" is a class of gun in Borderlands 2, with "Surfeit" being one of many possible modifiers.

I had originally wanted to update the ST's Iron Sights from The Trooper as well, but I had a hard time getting around the need to replace the hands, so I took the lazy way out and just scrapped ADS functionality, as well as a more Destiny-esque reload animation (I know the cylinder-mag is a big part of it, but I originally wanted to include the upward tilt to slide the mag out, the downward tilt to reload the cylinder, and the heavy rightward swing to throw the cylinder back into place).

As far as being unable to sprint after reloading, I've had a hard time reproducing the bug - although I DID find out that I misplaced some CVAR calls in the N7's firing states, causing the weapon to ignore the Firing Slowdown CVAR entirely if the scope was equipped. Haven't tested the N10's reloading bugs, but I'll see what I can do. I don't suppose you've got any further information that could help me, like GZDoom version, maybe a video if possible (this is a pretty big ask, I'll admit)?

In the meantime, I'll keep working on a couple of minor changes (trying to overhaul the melee and Super Moves on the Legend/M-Zero class - going for DBZ-level melee speed and all-new supers).

[Sinael]

I would REALLY appreciate a version WITHOUT the innate motion blur applied to the sprites during most actions (I bet you still have the original files somewhere without the effect applied). I appreciate the good artwork and seeing it blurred for no reason (players eyes are not cameras, to create such effect, and even if they were - speeds are too low for blur) irritates me somewhat fierce, to the point where I have to put the mod down after somewhat short time or else I become too angry to play it.
I feel that motion blur is an effect way too often overused or used in a wrong way/situations.

Please consider making a "crispy", blur-less version Thank you.

[BigStronk]

Great mod but there's a bug, everyone I turn on double ammo and reload the battle rifle the magazine counter goes to 72 and then has infinite ammo

[ClessxAlghazanth]

Have been playing this for a few days has quickly become one of my new favorites

Few suggestions / ideas

1)Some weapons such as railgun are too effect-heavy and cause frame rate drops , an option to tune down effects for older pcs/mobile would be nice

2)Health bonuses are a bit hard to pick up (too small in size?)

3)While motion blur is cool , making it optional could be a kind idea

Thanks and looking forward to future updates

[TheRailgunner]

I would REALLY appreciate a version WITHOUT the innate motion blur applied to the sprites during most actions (I bet you still have the original files somewhere without the effect applied). I appreciate the good artwork and seeing it blurred for no reason (players eyes are not cameras, to create such effect, and even if they were - speeds are too low for blur) irritates me somewhat fierce, to the point where I have to put the mod down after somewhat short time or else I become too angry to play it.
I feel that motion blur is an effect way too often overused or used in a wrong way/situations.

Please consider making a "crispy", blur-less version Thank you.

So, definitely gonna see how I can accomplish this - right now, it more or less looks like a duplicate set of states for all weapons (in essence, a "crispy" set and a "blurry" set). This is currently one of the most-requested fixes/changes to Malice, so it behooves me to try.

Anyway, it's been too damn long since I've worked on this mod. Since I'm getting back on the horse, here's some minor stuff I've gotten done as of yesterday:

*Final player class stuff! Namely, bringing back Reinforcements, but with a twist: summoned reinforcements will be limited to standard Infinity Legionnaires, with the idea of emulating the first five player classes as a standalone team, and will leave the map after a minute or so. Their health and shields will be player-equivalent (100 health, 100 shield points). I may make this standard across all classes if the rebalancing attempt goes well.
*More final player class stuff! The venerable AT Field is returning as well, with its OWN twist: while it isn't a Super Move itself, it'll effectively use your Super Meter as a health bar, which will stop filling while the AT Field is deployed. Dropping the AT Field willingly allows the Super Meter to start filling again. I'm considering removing this player classes shield regeneration to compensate. It's worth mentioning that, unlike the Zero Legionnaire or The Trooper's Angelsphere powerup, you are still technically vulnerable to damage while the AT Field is deployed - it will block attacks, but not splash damage within the Field itself.

Some other stuff that'll push this version of the mod into "upload an update, already!" territory - i.e., hopes for the next update:
*Clamber. Yeah, I know, newfangled nonsense and all, but I'm hoping to round out quality-of-life stuff a bit more with the next update.
*FX cleanup/simplification toggle. I need to go all the way with this - just trimming one effect a little bit here-and-there isn't doing the trick for a lot of players' framerate.
*Sound normalization. Basically, the volume of sound effects is inconsistent as hell. Thankfully, this one is a bit easier to fix (part of the problem is that I've been playing games at low volume in general for the past few years, so my frame of reference is borked).
*Fist fixes! There are way too many extra sound effects and missing frames in the standalone Fist replacement. Also, alternate melee attacks (possibly just for the last player class, might expand to just generally increased melee variety for all classes - haven't decided).
*New sprites? I want to replace the Doom Slayer 2016 armor pieces - this includes replacing them with proper Infinity Legion armor in the case of the first six classes, and possibly doing away with armor sprites entirely for the last player class. This, however, either requires two complete sets of weapons with different hands or separating the weapons and hands so they can be combined via the TEXTURES lump or similar.

[TheRailgunner]

Alright, so I've been testing a ZMovement patch for Malice!



I'm probably going to take a few whacks at trimming down the features I don't consider important at some point, but I'll try to throw a link either here or in the ZMovement thread some time soon. Speaking of Ivory Duke...

THANK YOU MY MAN IVORY

[mamaluigisbagel]

*Sound normalization. Basically, the volume of sound effects is inconsistent as hell. Thankfully, this one is a bit easier to fix (part of the problem is that I've been playing games at low volume in general for the past few years, so my frame of reference is borked).

THANK YOU! I got tired of some of the supers (I can't remember if they're called that but its just what I call them) blowing out my ear drums everytime I use them. Also excited to see how ZMovement will work with this mod once its updated. Will be eagerly awaiting the update!

[TheRailgunner]

*Sound normalization. Basically, the volume of sound effects is inconsistent as hell. Thankfully, this one is a bit easier to fix (part of the problem is that I've been playing games at low volume in general for the past few years, so my frame of reference is borked).

THANK YOU! I got tired of some of the supers (I can't remember if they're called that but its just what I call them) blowing out my ear drums everytime I use them. Also excited to see how ZMovement will work with this mod once its updated. Will be eagerly awaiting the update!

I may need to adjust the volume further based off of user feedback. I'm ditching the last player class going forward, and might get rid of the Gunslinger class as well; FX cleanup is still a priority.

Also, this ZMovement patch. Load AFTER RG_Malice.pk3. ZMovement 3.2.1.pk3 is not required, per the ZMovement thread:

Mod patches are standalone and do not require ZMovement to be loaded together.

Finally, have this bug:


EDIT: ZMovement patch updated - mainly with increased limits on movement speed and grappling hook stuff.

[TheRailgunner]

Behold, Quick Draw:



So, this allows you to fire off a blast from the Trinity SSG at pretty much any time! Hold the Fire key down for repeated shots, or hold Reload to, well, reload the gun before switching back to your main weapon (holding down Fire long enough to trigger the reload sequence, but not long enough to fire the gun again, also works). To use the Quick Draw ability, bind a key to the "User 8/Quick Draw" function.

EDIT: Quick update, mainly bugfixes for quick-draw and animation stuff.

EDIT II: Further quick-draw improvements - activating quick-draw should be much easier.

[m_falcone]

Hello amigo. Been a while. I just got the latest version of Malice and I cannot find the legend class anymore. I don't know if this is a bug or intentional.

[TheRailgunner]

Hello amigo. Been a while. I just got the latest version of Malice and I cannot find the legend class anymore. I don't know if this is a bug or intentional.

Intentional, actually. I can't actually remember why I removed it (life has been, to put it mildly, insane on my end lately), but I think it relates to abilities for that class that I haven't finalized. I might re-enable the class for testing to see if I can remember what the issue was, but it might have been melee-related. At any rate, I'll see what I can do here.

I've also started on two things, which will hopefully make it into the next update:

*Voice acting! Mainly just pain and death sounds for the moment, but I want to offer an alternative to the ancient Doomguy voice set. Ideally, I want to give each class their OWN voices, so I'll have to reach out to those in my orbit to see who wants to spend an inordinate amount of time grunting at a microphone.
*A title-screen music track! I've been messing around with Roland Sound Canvas and a number of other audio tools in Ableton (which I highly recommend for DAW work), and I'd like to actually do something productive with it. Thus far, most of the stuff I've made has been off of the D-50 linear synth, so I don't think I can use it unless I use the audio file itself instead of a MIDI, but I'd much prefer to make a GS-compatible track for Malice's title screen.

[GoalDude-00]

Alright, hey, hello. I don't keep as tight a look on the forums as I ought to given I made a whole new account for this purpose, so it's been a while since I last played Malice - think early 2021 or whenever the PCR came into play - and as such, I don't think I have much in particular to add to the discussion on that front. On the other hand, I'm game for stretching the ol' vocal chords for one class or another.

Here's something of a "voice reel" with various lines I recorded a few months ago. Between real life and some projects of mine, I haven't really been able to sit down and just go nuts with my voice recently. Just let me know if you're interested!

Also, as someone who makes ambient on Audacity, the tip on Ableton is welcomed. Thanks!