Alright, time to give an idea of the scale of this update!
There's quite a bit going into this update so far, with the possibility of more coming as ideas come up in me head. Right now I'm keeping it relatively simple to balancing and QOL improvements. For the latter, big one is that I'm undoing the HUD's scale lock so that it'll take up less screen space while being able to scale at different resolutions. THAT SAID, with the layout and design, it likely won't scale well at certain lower or higher resolutions. For now it's intended to be used at a 16:9 aspect ratio, built for 1080p resolution.
To make a HUD that works better with more resolutions and aspect ratios would require I make a COMPLETE redesign of the HUD, rather than just shifting it around. I'm no graphics designer, so I can't say I'm exactly looking to have another crack at that just yet. Sorry about that D: Even just readjusting all the HUD elements after removing the scale lock is taking me bloody ages (90 minutes in and I've only gotten the HP/Ammo/Key/Weight/Item bars moved over, with the Armor icons, Sphere Indicator Bars, health and armor counters, grenade icon and counter, and some of the affliction icons. Every individual weapon, every single element of the ammo manager and armor repair tool, every indicator for used restorative items, etc. have to be moved one by one and that takes a stink ton of time D:). To do all of that work on top of also making a brand new HUD that would work better in more resolutions and aspect ratios would just take up too much of my time.
BULLETS. Hitscan is no more! All guns fired by players and NPCs alike fire projectiles, each with muzzle velocity and flatness accounted for depending on what the bullet is being fired out of. Ain't going for FULL super accurate realism here like in Hideous Destruction, just making something that works well enough for Doom and for the mod's gameplay style. Realistically, all guns should have higher range and better accuracy, but for a game that largely features relatively close quarters combat (most encounters taking place within ~50 meters of distance), it works out fine enough. THIS DOES MEAN THAT EVERY GUN HAS NEW ACCURACY VALUES THOUGH. I tried to make it as close to the OG values as I could, but there will be a noticeable difference. ALSO, because of how GZDoom handles projectiles, map objects such as lamps, pedestals, dudes on spikes, etc. will block bullets as well. I could remedy this by adding destructible map decorations, but there's likely mods that do that far better than I ever could. Do note that because of how ZScript works, bullets no longer have damage randomization. Damage is flat with no variation.
MAP. I made a firing range! Never mapped before but figured it'd be a good investment to make a firing range. MOSTLY for myself for the sake of testing guns during the swap from hitscan to projectile, but it'll also be nice for you folks for when you just wanna test out all the bazillions of weapons that are present in the mod. At the moment, that's all it is, but I'll also probably add the option to exit from the firing range into the main campaign so that the firing range can also double as a place to build custom loadouts!
ARMOR. Armor values have been rebalanced once again across the board, with a big focus on bullet damages. In particular, in regards with the difference between SmallCaliber and LargeCaliber resistances. Generally speaking, soft body armor will keep ya fairly safe from SmallCaliber and Pellet weapons, but LargeCaliber attacks can punch through them pretty well with minimal resistance. Once you hit combat grade plate carriers like the military Combat Armor, Medic Armor, and Combat Fire Suits, you'll find that LargeCaliber ammo has a harder time punching through those. I'm still working hard on balancing this to my liking, but you're gonna notice a definite difference in how armor protects you before.
UPGRADES. Working on adding new upgrades to the mod that you can swap between on the go. So far I've gotten Nanoweave body suits split up into 4 types (General Nanosuit for 15% damage reduction on everything, Ballistic for 30% physical reduction, Thermal for 30% Thermal reduction, and Explosive for 30% explosive resistance. The latter 3 suits also have 30% melee protection.) There's also recoil dampening bracers for helping scavvers control their weapons better, even granting a tiny bit of extra weapon accuracy, a new medical harness which jolts you with a small bit of health every time you take damage, a pair of boots which enhance your jumps and grants you a double jump ability, and more to come as I rack my brain for ideas. For balancing purposes, upgrades are now split up into six categories: Body (covers entire body), Torso (Worn around chest), Harness (Currently only occupied by the ammo harness), Back (Backpacks), Arms (Knuckles, Recoil Dampeners), and Legs (Reinforced kicking boots, powered greaves, jump boots.) More will come as ideas pop up!
MONSTERS. Improvements across the board will come to the monster roster. Better difficulty balancing, improvements to the roster to remove boring, redundant monsters and add newer, more interesting critters in their place. I also plan on expanding on the number of monsters that deal non-physical, non-thermal damage (Radiation flinging imps, critters that try to infect ya with parasites, and more void creatures), and more enemies that fire lasers since there's only one at the moment, the Beam Revenant. Haven't touched on the monster side of things that much just yet, I'm still working on the fine touches for much of the above before I REALLY crack at improving the monster roster!
No ETA just yet, far too early in development to be able to give one of those out. For now, what's listed above is what you should expect with this next update, alongside bug fixes and such. I may add more content, also tempted to try condensing the ammo types down some more since 18 is just a shit ton. I dropped compact cells from the mod, making the UAC's Type-B universal cell universal once more. Slightly tempted to drop crossbows from the mod, and maaaaybe dropping one of the rifle calibers (5.56mm, 6.2mm, 6.5mm, 7.62mm.) Possibly could drop 7.76mm caseless ammo, give the magazine sprite to 9x23mm SMGs, and balance 'em out like such. The fewer unique ammo types present, the easier ammo is to balance.
As always, I'm happy to hear your thoughts and criticism! The more I hear from you folks, the more I have to work with in regards to improving the mod.
