Venturous 1.6 Release

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PixelFox
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Venturous 1.6 Release

Post by PixelFox »



A The Mummy/Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider -inspired total conversion for Doom2.
As of v1.6 there are 18 maps across 5 episodes.

Dynamic Lights need to be ON.
Crosshairs ON is recommended.
If you have AutoAim on, headshots are going to be rare, as AutoAim unfortunately targets the body first.
GZDoom's Alternate HUD is suggested, set to show only Available Weapons.

I don't expect compatibility with many other mods. Damage Numbers by Xaser Acheron is already built in, but can be switched off.
Gearbox weaponwheel by m8f is integrated.

Get it from HERE.






27-34 weapons, depending on how you count them
45-61 enemy types, depending on how you count them (some are reskins of each other for different environments)

I would appreciate feedback on difficulty and flow.
There is now a Discord for feedback, bug reports etc here.

This is my first attempt at Doom modding/mapping of any kind, apart from 2 maps for the RAMP 2021 project, which happened to happen a couple of months after I rediscovered Doom after 27 or so years. So there's likely to be some jank, and I'm aware that the decorate code is still pretty messy.
I wanted to play an Indiana Jones-style adventure on something like the Build engine. But since nobody seemed to be about to make that happen (I'm aware of PowerSlave), I eventually began playing around with Slade and UDB to see how hard it would be. About a year later, I had successfully bungled and wiki-ed my way through to having the game I had wanted.

Changelog:
Spoiler:
Last edited by PixelFox on Mon Nov 25, 2024 5:52 am, edited 38 times in total.
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Unregret
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by Unregret »

Wow, this mod looks great. I will try this later.
AlphaBetaGamer
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by AlphaBetaGamer »

This is awesome! One thing I'd recommend is being able to carry a torch with a few more weapons or making pistol ammo more readily available as it's very dark at times.
Last edited by AlphaBetaGamer on Tue Sep 26, 2023 10:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
PixelFox
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by PixelFox »

AlphaBetaGamer wrote: Tue Sep 26, 2023 10:05 am being able to carry a torch with a few more weapons or making pistol ammo more readily available as it's very dark at times.
Thank you for the feedback. I wanted to have an element of light management, but if it's become a Doom3 flashlight situation, then it's not worth it.
I'll see what can be done. One solution may be to have the torch raise by holding the alt-fire of those weapons that don't currently have an alt-fire.
Otherwise I can just add it to the smg, since the player is unlikely to run out of ammo for that.

EDIT: Just caught your video on Youtube, thanks for featuring it!
But yeah, I see it runs much darker on your system than intended. I'm using Sector Light Mode set to 'Standard', and I suspect yours is set to 'Software'. I think I'll have to go through and tweak all the sector lighting to compensate.
Last edited by PixelFox on Wed Sep 27, 2023 9:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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DrHingis
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by DrHingis »

Seriously cool! I can safely say I am very much looking forward to future updates and future projects from you!
AlphaBetaGamer
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by AlphaBetaGamer »

PixelFox wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 7:50 am
AlphaBetaGamer wrote: Tue Sep 26, 2023 10:05 am being able to carry a torch with a few more weapons or making pistol ammo more readily available as it's very dark at times.
Thank you for the feedback. I wanted to have an element of light management, but if it's become a Doom3 flashlight situation, then it's not worth it.
I'll see what can be done. One solution may be to have the torch raise by holding the alt-fire of those weapons that don't currently have an alt-fire.
Otherwise I can just add it to the smg, since the player is unlikely to run out of ammo for that.

EDIT: Just caught your video on Youtube, thanks for featuring it!
But yeah, I see it runs much darker on your system than intended. I'm using Sector Light Mode set to 'Standard', and I suspect yours is set to 'Software'. I think I'll have to go through and tweak all the sector lighting to compensate.
Glad you liked the video! Had a blast with the game. Was a pleasure to cover it.

Yeah, the Sector Light Mode was set to Software, that could explain it. I think either the Alt-Fire or SMG options would probably work well. It wasn't a massive problem, just in some of the darker areas. Seriously impressed that it's your first proper attempt at a mod by the way! Great work! :)
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Dynamo
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by Dynamo »

Looks really nice! Looking forward to see more
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yuriyivanovskiy
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by yuriyivanovskiy »

PixelFox,
I registered only to thank you for the great adventure!
The game is realy impressed me.
It’s a pity that modern games are not capable of delivering as much pleasure as a mod for old Doom made by one enthusiast)
I'm surprised by the amount of new content and the brilliant level design.
I suspect that you are not an ordinary person, but most likely a talented game designer)
Waiting for a sequel!
PixelFox
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by PixelFox »

Thank you for the comments all! The plan is to eventually add a few more levels, hopefully some in a new setting.

@yuriyivanovskiy Thanks :) I'm not a game designer, no. I can't even code. I have a background in 3d animation, however, which did help. But yeah, for me as well, mainstream games haven't been scratching the same itch as smaller projects like Ashes or Cultic.
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yuriyivanovskiy
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by yuriyivanovskiy »

PixelFox,
I'm impressed by the atmosphere of the game, I would like to know the backstory.
can you tell us a little about the character and the story of the game?
PixelFox
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by PixelFox »

Heh, there's practically no story. It's still Doom underneath, after all. Story isn't why I play old-school shooting games. What little there is, is just an excuse to get to the next level. Likewise the character is a blank slate, I don't even have a name for him. He's called 'explorer' in the files. I did make him so he could be Indiana Jones if the player really wants that, but I view him as someone else.
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DoomKrakken
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by DoomKrakken »

Discovered AlphaBetaGamer's video on Discord, hot damn I can tell a lot of passion went into this project! It's nice!

I haven't played it myself so I'm going off of ABG's video for the most part (but I think I just might, 'cuz it looks so damn good). Not to mention, I can absolutely relate to the project's origins... the same way you wanted an Indy-styled Doom project and made it yourself when you could find no other, I myself wanted a mod that could faithfully bring about the DOOM (2016) experience to the classic Doom levels (and thus Embers Of Armageddon was born when I could find no other who shared my vision).

ANYWAY, onto the pre-game review...

I love the attention to detail present in each level, with reskinned enemies and weapons appearing for better level immersion to better play into the situation and setting at hand. I also loved how well you utilized PSprites (first person sprites) to assist with the storytelling (especially that time when the adventurer gets butted with a rifle... most ingenious, by the way!). While I'm not a fan of pistol-starting new levels, here it at least felt more organic (yes I can tell even from merely watching a video), and thus it was nice.

I do find it odd that the Megasphere is still there and gives Mega Armor. I say you ought to consider coming up with your own Mega Armor and have your Megasphere give that.

I feel like the pistols could fire a little faster. As it stands right now, they fire just as fast as the Doom 2 pistol (which I personally felt was a tad slow). Then again... they did seem to one-shot a lot of the grunts, soooooo...

Tossing torches is an interesting idea, I like it. Still trying to wrap my head around how the player can store up to 10 lit torches in his inventory tho. :P

Love how there are dudes who wield Panzerschrecks. :D I say they ought to move a bit faster, have less health, and maybe have a few more of 'em ('cuz they looked fun to deal with, but maybe this sentiment will change once I actually play the mod).

I find it a bit odd that large cobwebs existed in Atlantis. Maybe they were spun by sea-spiders? :P

We gotta talk about that Incandescent Ranseur. Thing's jank AF. I can tell it's using a looping sound because it's firing faster than it's playing the firing sound. You really want the sounds to match the rate of fire. Now, I'm pretty sure you came across an issue with the sound being too short when firing it too fast, but fortunately, since you're using GZDoom, there's this nifty flag for A_StartSound called "CHANF_OVERLAP", which allows multiple sounds to play within the same sound channel (even itself). Also, in SNDINFO make sure to set the sound limit for that sound to a high enough number (or 0 for no limit) so it doesn't suddenly get cut off.

Concerning the Incandescent Ranseur's spread-fire mode... it's a neat idea, but poorly executed. Why spend 5 mana firing five projectiles in a wide (albeit fixed) spread when I can fire plenty more projectiles in the same amount of time with the projectile stream at 1 mana per shot? When it comes to weapon design, there ought to be advantages and disadvantages for each firing mode so that one doesn't render the other obsolete. In this case, one easy fix would be to have the spread-fire mode fire faster and/or fire more projectiles (at the cost of 1 more mana per fired projectile) so that the damage output for this fire mode outclasses the projectile stream... with the caveat that you have to actually be close enough to someone to guarantee none of it goes to waste, and of course it's not as fast as the other firing mode. There are other more creative ways to handle it too if you so desired, but that I'll leave up to your discretion.

The music was solid... combined with the gunplay I saw thus far (especially in the Museum level), it honestly felt a bit like John Wick meets Indiana Jones and I FREAKIN' LOVED IT.

.....................

... screw it, I gotta play the damn thing myself now. Super stoked! :D

I will likely have more to say when I'm done. Until then!
PixelFox
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by PixelFox »

@Doomkrakken Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, the Megasphere needs addressing, but I don't currently have any ideas for it. I'll give it some thought.
The Panzerschreck guys, that's a good point. There's a few more of them in UV I think, but they could stand to be a bit faster.
The cobwebs...come from a time when Atlantis was still above water. Yeah...let's go with that :P

Re the Ranseur: thanks for pointing that audio thing out. I'm completely tone deaf to stuff like that, so I haven't even noticed the audio is off. Good to know about the CHANF_OVERLAP, I'll tweak that soon.
You're completely right about the alt fire too. I only just realized that I never use it myself, although ABG seemed to resort to it a lot. It used to have a different alt fire that I eventually axed because it didn't really work, and the spread shot was thrown in because I felt it needed something. But yeah, the balance needs addressing. It's meant to be a quick response thing, since the regular fire mode takes a second to charge up and you need to commit to the stream to avoid another charge up (kinda like Doom's plasma gun), so yeah, faster would be better.

Let me know if you come across anything else, feedback is appreciated.
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DoomKrakken
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by DoomKrakken »

Quick update...

Just played through the first two levels on "Adventurer! (UV)" difficulty. Here are my observations thus far...
- The pistol is super useful but there ain't nearly enough ammo for it to be used effectively.
- Decent amount of ammo for the Shotgun, but its damage output for some reason is PIDDLY. I point-blanked a brown-suit and he was still shooting me. The most damage I've seen it deal is 80 (so, about two pistol rounds). Why?
- It's cool how the alt-fire for the Shotgun plays a different animation. However, it appears this mode actually winds up firing slightly faster than its primary fire mode.
- Lots of ammo for the sub-machine gun, but the thing's so weak it feels like I'm pissing on most enemies with it. It's also so inaccurate it's hard to make sure all its shots land from mid to far range. Seems like it's good for quickly breaking breakable objects, really. I'm so sorry but that's really how it feels. Can't kill anything quickly with it, which is especially troublesome when dealing with Ocelotl ('cuz they're fast AND tanky AND hit hard). If it were buffed to deal at least twice the damage and fire a little faster, I dare say it could be a good workhorse weapon, especially considering ammo for everything else isn't too common either... but as it stands right now it's absolutely the WORST and I hate that I have to fall back on it so often. :(
- The Machine Gun wrecks face. Excellent. :D
- What's the point of the Machine Gun's alternate firing mode? It seems to center the machine gun and fire all the same...
- The Panzerschreck schrecks face. :P
- Panzerschreck soldiers seem to have too much health (or maybe the Panzershreck's rockets need to deal more damage). I can count plenty of moments when I couldn't kill one with a single direct hit rocket. I stand by my original suggestion for these soldiers: less health, more speed.
- Dynamite is dynamite. :D
- The Macuahuitl is excellent. Too bad ammo for it becomes quite sparse in the rooms leading up to the boss. It is quite efficient at dispatching enemies quickly though (especially Ocelotl).

I'm at the Museum now and all the shiny floors are wrecking my aim. More later. ;)

WHAAAAAAA--?! You can do headshots in this game to deal more damage and they'll drop stimpacks? COOL!

Looks like it's improperly configured though, these dropped Stimpacks only seem to replenish 1 health each (must've been partially used, lol).
PixelFox
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Re: Venturous Release

Post by PixelFox »

-Several players have commented about the lack of ammo for the Webley. I'll definitely address that first. Originally it shared ammo with the smg (even though their calibers don't match, I decided not to care about that), but later I made it into more of a magnum: accurate and deadly, but deliberately with limited ammo. But I agree that's not ideal for a starting weapon, especially one of the few with a light source. I'll add more ammo and reduce its damage output a bit to compensate (currently you'll mostly find ammo for it in secret areas).
-I just counted the tics on the shotgun's alt fire. It's faster than regular fire by 1 tic (35 compared to 36). I can't believe you noticed that. Its damage output, spread and rate of fire is identical to the stock Doom shotgun.
-The smg is indeed the worst, I hardly use it myself. It was nerfed at some point because I felt it was too close to the MG42, and because I didn't consider it a workhorse, but a last resort. (The smg with nightvision has a faster rate of fire, let me know if that feels better.) But I'm happy to beef it up again.
-The MG42's alt fire was added at a time when I was trying to give every weapon an alt fire, even if it just looks different (like the shotgun).
-P-schreck guys are on the list of tweaks.
-Glad you like the Macuahuitl. I didn't know how players would react to it, as it's intentionally a bit awkward to use, but hopefully worth it.

-Oof, yeah, the headshot stimpack is just 1. I'll address that too.

EDIT: I've updated the pk3 with the things that were quick to implement. 1.3.1 is now the current version.
Changes:
-Pistol is 33% weaker, but starts with more ammo, and pickups are 12 instead of 6.
-SMG rate of fire increased from 4 tics to 3, damage increased by about 40%
-MG42 damage very slightly increased
-Fixed the audio issue on the Ranseur, and sped up the alt-fire as a stop-gap
-Panzerschreck guys' health dropped from 200 to 120, movement speed and fire rate increased.
-Headshot stimpacks now give 10 health, 20 from officers

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