Supercharge [gameplay mod | v3.0b 07/16/23 multiplayer fix]

I noticed a tiny bug where, when playing with the software renderer, shooting the shotgun appears to set its firing brightness to the maps default till another weapon is fired. It's barely noticeable, probably wouldn't have seen it had I not been actively testing brightness settings for a map I've been working on with it. 

version 1.5 is here! OP has been updated with a link. here are the changes:

• re-implemented the "auto-reload when empty" option; @chowbars rejoice! unlike the initial implementation in Paradise v2, this time you can get a weapon switch in before the auto-reload starts, whereas before you were forced to enter the reload animation even if you were holding a key to swap weapons.
• added a plan ol Baron of Hell, with fancy black pants like his other brethren. same stats as vanilla. the Cyber Baron no longer replaces the Baron of Hell by default.
• replaced the Nightmare difficulty with Ultra-Randomized. this difficulty is equivalent to UV, but with a few randomizers present: Hell Knights can be Pyro Demons, Barons can be Cyber Barons, and Pain Elementals can be Tortured Souls. I did not yet work the Scrap Gun into this skill level, but intend to sort that out in a future version.
  • I experimented with a more robust randomization system that had menu toggles (instead of being relegated to a skill level), but was unsuccessful in making it work flawlessly in Zandronum. I was unable to figure out how to properly transfer some UDMF flags like dormancy to the randomized monsters, and also wasn't sure how best to handle opting out of randomization for mappers (though that's a pretty surmountable problem). I'll try revisiting this in the future though, because menu toggles for randomization would really be ideal
• made all flavors of hell nobles unable to damage each other. Hell Knights, Pyro Demons, Barons, and Cyber Barons are all the same species now and cannot infight or damage one another
• fixed the Shotgun firing brightness issues in software mode (thanks @TravyB!)
• buffed the Chainsaw damage and range. damage is now 25 instead of 10, and range is 72 map units instead of 65
• buffed the non-berserked fist damage from 16 to 30, and berserked damage from 140 to 150
• added menu section for compatibility options. these options have toggles for the Cyberdemon/Behemoth (manc)/Draugr (rev)/Fusionite (arach) to fire their projectiles with vanilla origins, ie from the center of their hitbox instead of positioned in front of their cannons. these options are off by default, but are provided in case you run into situations where a map relies on the vanilla projectile origins in order for a monster to fire their projectile without getting blocked
• nerfed the Plasma Zombie. HP is a tiny bit less (they die in 2 pistol shots instead of 3 now), firing windup is a few frames longer, projectile speed is a bit slower, and projectile damage was lowered from 8 to 6
• added custom sprites for monster-fired rockets (and added a rocket trail to the rockets as well). the new sprites and the rocket trails have much better visibility than the vanilla brown rockets imo, so hopefully you'll less frequently get splattered by cross-map stealth rockets now
• very slightly buffed the SSG damage from 200 to 210

I still intend to add some options in an upcoming version to help with ammo issues that a few folks have mentioned. what I currently have in mind is a menu toggle that would give both rocket ammo spawns have a chance to spawn a bit of extra ammo. thanks everyone who has played and provided feedback so far :D

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On 12/15/2019 at 12:37 AM, Spectre01 said:

The Plasma idea sounds interesting. Visually, it could look something like an electrocution effect, as seen when using the Plasma Rifle's stun grenade in D4T.

ahh thanks so much for referring me to this, something like that would be great :D

you make a good point about the RL role though... I didn't make any changes to the weapon in this version but I'm going to toy with it next update. if anyone else has thoughts re: the RL's role and effectiveness, I'd definitely love to hear it

21 hours ago, TravyB said:

I noticed a tiny bug where, when playing with the software renderer, shooting the shotgun appears to set its firing brightness to the maps default till another weapon is fired.

thanks for pointing this out! I was notified of this months ago but totally forgot about it, so I'm glad you reminded me. this has been fixed in version 1.5!

Excellent update @Tango! The new Chainsaw feels great and useful. Would it be possible to make slot 1 default to the Chainsaw if you don't have Berserk and the Fist if you do? It's no biggie due to the instant weapon switching but would feel more convenient.

thanks @Spectre01! that's a good idea - I'll consider adding that. I do have some non-Supercharge decorate code sitting around that does exactly that, so I'll see about adding that to the next update

v1.6 is here, and the OP has been updated. rough changelog:

• added a few more tree sprites from Remnant (sprites themselves are by @Enjay), in advance of the upcoming Mapwich so that mappers have a few more tree variants to work with. in doing so, I also standardized most of the existing tree objects so they have the same size, are all solid (except for some of the bushes), etc.
• buffed player rocket explosions. hopefully I didn't overdo it here. the explosion damage and direct hit damage are nearly unchanged, but the biggest difference comes in that explosions do the full blast damage in a larger area now. rocketing through lower hp mobs should be noticeably better now, though you'll still face some difficulties (compared to vanilla) trying to chew through larger-bodied mobs of enemies
• increased the speed of Scrap projectiles, and fixed all the Scrap Gun sprites that had scraggly stray pixels. the spread on the gun might feel slightly tighter now, but overall it should feel about the same as the gun before
• removed the little effects from the player rocket explosion because I didn't like them
• added a unique explosion sound to player rockets
• fixed brightmaps for the berserk pack and machinegun guy

I've got a handful of other changes I'd like to make at some point, many mentioned in previous posts, but the biggest one for now is that I'd like to really update the big and small HUDs before Mapwich 2 is finalized, so that'll probably be the next big change in the next few weeks if I can sort something out.

Another great update @Tango! The Rocket Launcher feels really good now against weaker enemies. I also see that the Plasma Rifle no longer needs to be reloaded on pickup, which I noticed but forgot to report. However, now the Plasma Rifle no longer auto-reloads like the other weapons when at 0 ammo and that feature is on.

4 minutes ago, Spectre01 said:

However, now the Plasma Rifle no longer auto-reloads like the other weapons when at 0 ammo and that feature is on. 

cheers mate, thanks for the report! I'll hotfix this tonight

just updated the OP with 1.6b. changelog:

• fixed the auto-reloading mechanic on the Plasma Rifle when the auto-reload weapons option is enabled (thanks @Spectre01)

updated the OP with v1.7; here's a changelog:

• commented out the editor numbers for agathodemon and machinegun guy for now. agathodemon is placeholder/unfinished, and machinegunguy is redundant, so I'm removing their editor numbers for now to ensure they're not used in the upcoming Mapwich 2. if you've got a set you're working on separately that uses either monster and would like to still use Supercharge v1.7, let me know and I'd be happy to help guide you to re-add them
• added new plasma pickup sprite
• added brightmaps for cell ammo pickups
• added slightly modified scrap shell/box ammo pickup sprites to visually distinguish them from shotgun shells better
• did some recategorizing/cleaning up the names of actors so that things are easier to find and more uniform in editors. everything in Supercharge,  whether completely brand new or replacing an existing actor, should now have a "Tango" prefix in the editor

Excellent! All I can hope for now is dynamic lights. :D

Not to be the bear of bad news once again but... It appears the Arachnotron has suffered a catastrophic malfunction in the latest update. He has no hit or collision box with projectiles or the player. There is no known way to currently defeat the Ghosttron.

lol god damn it. I will release 1.7b tomorrow to fix this, thank you (and RJD) for reporting this

updated the OP with 1.7b, here's a changelog:

• fixed the ghost fusionite (arachnotron) issue. thanks @Spectre01 and @RonnieJamesDiner for both reporting this to me
• made some optimizations to the Tortured Soul so that it should not lead to as significant FPS drops when lots are roaming and gassing simultaneously. the damage from the poison clouds should be roughly the same, but damage now occurs every 2 tics instead of ever 1 tic, which does seem to help FPS a lot. swarms of the monster can still cause some drops though, when coupled with other monsters, so be wary

Is the Mastermind not supposed to have splash damage immunity? Rockets do a full 196 damage to him while the Cyberdemon only takes 112. And another quirk: Lost Souls spawned on death of the Pain Elemental appear to suffer the minor explosion damage from the PE. Each can then be one-shot by the pistol, and even 3 spawning becomes no big deal. I'm usually all for making the Lost Souls less tanky, but this makes them extra-fragile and borderline harmless.

Edit: In general, I feel that the Mastermind in its current form is underpowered compared to its vanilla counterpart. It's like a beefier vanilla 'Tron which shoots a faster stream of plasma. Perhaps a fitting change for this mod would have it fire very fast Scrapgun projectiles, similar to the one used by the player. I've seen other mods give it a super fast projectile barrage spreading out in a cone, which makes it dodge-able at range while acting as a hitscan-like attack when up close. 

22 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

In general, I feel that the Mastermind in its current form is underpowered compared to its vanilla counterpart. It's like a beefier vanilla 'Tron which shoots a faster stream of plasma. Perhaps a fitting change for this mod would have it fire very fast Scrapgun projectiles, similar to the one used by the player.

well shit, this is a really great idea and I'm disappointed I didn't think of doing this way sooner. I'd really love to implement this right now but I told myself I wouldn't make any more major content changes to Supercharge while Mapwich 2 is underway. it's still the "planning" phase till this coming Friday, but I've already had to make a few updates since the project started and want to agitate the participants with updates as little as possible. slim chance I say fukit and do this tonight anyway but most likely not :(

22 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

Is the Mastermind not supposed to have splash damage immunity? Rockets do a full 196 damage to him while the Cyberdemon only takes 112.

this was intentional, though admittedly I've neglected the mastermind in all my Supercharge mapping, so I've not tested out this change extensively. part of the reason I've neglected the monster so much is that I don't really like its sprites but haven't found replacement sprites I'm fond of or that still feel sufficiently doomy.

22 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

And another quirk: Lost Souls spawned on death of the Pain Elemental appear to suffer the minor explosion damage from the PE.

ah this is completely unintentional, thanks for reporting this! I'll try to fix this soon.

many thanks for your invaluable feedback once again Spectre01 :D

I said I wouldn't do another content update for the sake of Mapwich, but since we're still technically in the planning phase, and @Spectre01's idea was too good to pass up for a monster I have neglected till now, I have updated Supercharge to v1.8. download link in the OP is updated. here's a changelog:

• fixed the Pain Elemental death explosions so that they no longer hurt Lost Souls
• changed the Spider Mastermind's attack entirely. it now shoots very fast and damaging projectiles in places of its vanilla hitscan attack (and in place of the previous Fusionite plasma stream). to compensate for the fact that circle strafing/avoiding damage from the monster is much easier than vanilla, the monster's pain chance has been lowered from 40 to 15 (for context, the Cyberdemon's pain chance is 20)
• added proper brightmaps and generic death gibs to the Spider Mastermind

^{this is the last content update for mapwich i promise plz dont kill me bridgeburner}

3 hours ago, Tango said:

this is the last content update for mapwich i promise

funny joke tango, very good one

I just made another update lol. the mod is now at v1.8b - didn't do a full version bump because this is a very focused change:

• made the Spider Mastermind's attack more lethal and less cheesable/eternally circle strafable, thanks to a really excellent suggestion by @RonnieJamesDiner (who even made an "old vs suggested new" comparison video like a true friend)

OP has been updated, and my apologies to the 7 people who have already downloaded the original v1.8. if I make any more changes before Mapwich is finalized, someone please break my computer

Oh, before I forget: I was playing Barrels of Fun and noticed 2 Imps fighting after one destroyed a barrel and damaged the other. I kept hearing fireballs thrown repeatedly and discovered those Imps standing in melee range and fireballing each other. The Imp is missing his trademark scratch attack! And if I'm not mistaken, the Caco doesn't seem to have a bite when trying to punch him either. Nothing huge, but I feel it's worth a mention.

@Spectre01 hot damn thanks so much for finding those. I'll fix this along with whenever I finish the update with the new HUD (which I am working on as I write this) if all goes well!

Mapwich 2 will be using Supercharge v1.22c, you watch. 

*Looks around nervously for Bridgeburner*

Question about Mapwich and this, if we are making a map, does it matter which version we are using as our resource?  Will placed items have the same IDs?  I assume it will be fine in that case if you do update it more right?

@guitardz yeah that's a good question! all of the existing items/monsters/weapons will not have their IDs changed throughout Mapwich. at this point, nothing breaking will change between now and the finalization of Mapwich. the editor numbers, available monsters and their names, etc., will all be consistent. at most, you'll probably just have to update your version during Mapwich to get bugfixes (like for the problems @Spectre01 mentioned a few posts up) or for the new HUD (assuming I get it done).

2 minutes ago, Tango said:

@guitardz yeah that's a good question! all of the existing items/monsters/weapons will not have their IDs changed throughout Mapwich. at this point, nothing breaking will change between now and the finalization of Mapwich. the editor numbers, available monsters and their names, etc., will all be consistent. at most, you'll probably just have to update your version during Mapwich to get bugfixes (like for the problems @Spectre01 mentioned a few posts up) or for the new HUD (assuming I get it done).

Ah yea, okay, well be sure to ping us all on the Discord to let us know when there are updates to grab if we need them.

For what it's worth, I have been bitten to death by the Cacodemon a couple of times while testing Mapwich stuff, so on my end they seem to be working? 

@TravyB You are correct! The Caco does indeed bite for 28 while his projectile does 24. I did discover another bug though: It seems the Cacodemon is immune to explosive barrels. I tried to get them infighting by having one shoot a barrel near another and it wasn't working. Then I loaded up Barrels of Fun, and spawning a Caco near some barrels and then blowing them up seems to not damage them.

Edit: I just want to add that Masterminds should probably be able to infight each other. That can be a big deal in the rare maps and fights where it's possible to happen.

17 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

It seems the Cacodemon is immune to explosive barrels.

very weird, I'll fix this for the next version, as well as make masterminds able to infight. thanks again for all the reports, I appreciate it immensely :D (you too @TravyB!)

in other news, I have been tinkering with a new HUD and have a potential v1? @Lippeth made a really fantastic CRT HUD on the ZDoom forums and has given permission for it to be used as a base for other things, so I did some edits of it to arrive at this v1:

I've not put this into the main Supercharge pk3 yet, as I'd like to do some more testing with it, and hopefully also do a visual overhaul of it so that it's themed as metal or some other material rather than the iwad concrete. in the meantime, if anyone else wants to take it for a spin, here's a download link:

>> download new Supercharge HUD v1 <<

note that the above wad file contains ONLY the new HUD, so you must load the wad file after supercharge_v#.pk3. the main thing I'm looking for feedback on is whether the current ammo display setup is sufficiently readable for weapons that reload (pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, scrap gun, plasma rifle). as you can see from the screenshot above, the primary ammo count is displayed in big green numbers, while the total ammo count for the selected weapon is highlighted in green on the right. I've been really struggling to find a visually appealing way to display both the primary and secondary ammo counts, both with this HUD and past iterations that I've tried, so if this solution works well enough that'd be stellar. for any curious folk, here is a link to my scratchpad image for this latest iteration of the HUD, where you can see me messing with a smaller font for the ammo display and display both the primary and secondary ammo counts alongside each other.

Am I doing something wrong here? I tried loading it with both plain Doom II and Hell Revealed 2 and it's not showing up

29 minutes ago, TravyB said:

Am I doing something wrong here? I tried loading it with both plain Doom II and Hell Revealed 2 and it's not showing up

are you loading the newhud wad file from a zip file? I dunno if that might affect it. I'm running the wad like this and it shows up (keep in mind it replaces the big hud, not the mini hud):

For some reason it says that its a zip file in Doom Launcher, but both are the pk3 and wad files you uploaded. I don't know what the issue is with DL but it is working fine with ZDL. 

One thing I like about the current HUD is that it changes if the wad you're playing has custom HUD graphics. Also, I think it would be nice if there was an option for displaying map stats, like time, kills, items, secrets. I'm using another addon for that: