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

That's a nice mod! I played a couple of random maps so far and they worked out fine. I wanted to get busy with the entire Doom collection anyway, so there's a good reason to use your mod for the 170++ level experience again. I also like your chosen bestiary and weapons. The quad barrel shotgun looks great, especially the evil skull detail makes it badass. I can't help it, but I always have to think about Reggie's custom shotgun in those Phantasm movies.

I let you know if I have any trouble with your mod on my loooong hellish journey. 

On 1/1/2020 at 5:54 PM, Spectre01 said:

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: 

indeed I really like that about it too... so I suppose maybe I'll keep the big HUD as-is? perhaps a new HUD could replace the small one, though I have grown fond of the compactness of the little one, and the health bars. my main motivation for wanting a new HUD is that, especially for the upcoming Mapwich, the big HUD doesn't show ammo counts for the scrap gun, and total ammo counts for weapons like the shotgun and assault rifle aren't very clearly displayed. maybe I'll try to just do a custom big HUD specifically for Mapwich, or see if someone else on the Mapwich crew wants to? not sure.

in any case, as a better-than-nothing solution in the meantime, I've added total ammo counts for all ammo types (including scrap ammo) to the automap HUD, so that at least players using the compact HUD can quickly check the automap for their total ammo counts if they like.

additionally, I like the suggestion of adding a toggle for map states. I think the mod I poached the big HUD from originally had this but I removed it, so I'll see about adding it back in if I can do it as a toggle. thanks once again @Spectre01 :D

On 1/2/2020 at 11:39 AM, 4everDoomed said:

I let you know if I have any trouble with your mod on my loooong hellish journey. 

thanks so much :D very glad you're enjoying. that sounds like a lot of ground to cover haha, definitely let me know how that goes!

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I just updated the OP with v1.9, here's a changelog:

• added death sounds for the spider mastermind projectile, both when it hits a target and when it hits a wall
• fixed a bug that prevented imps from doing a melee attack
• added a unique cacodemon pain sound
• added a unique, orange-ish decal for scrap attacks (the player's scrap gun, and the spider mastermind's attack)
• upped the Cacodemon's mass a bit, so wont ping pong around so much after getting hit in the air

I was not able to replicate the issue that you mentioned @Spectre01 with cacos being immune to barrels. I made a test map and surrounded em with barrels and they all blew up with the barrels just fine. however, I did notice some weird seeming inconsistencies with cacos and diabolist attacks, where sometimes the cacos were apparently immune to the diabolist explosions when a caco was in a space small enough for it to be unable to move itself. I wasn't able to replicate this when testing with hordes of cacos flying around and taking diabolist fire, but it was weird and unexpected, so I'll try to keep my eyes peeled for more weirdness like this and see if I can eventually diagnose anything

updated OP with v2.0. this update is focused on QoL stuff for mappers. here's a changelog:

• added proper brightmaps to the Haedexebus. begone, foul decorate "Bright" keyword!
• added a proper pickup sprite for the pistol. this won't be used/visible in 99% of cases, but any mappers wanting to do something like start the player with an empty inventory and provide the pistol as a pickup can now do so (thanks @Jimmy for the suggestion)
• added dynamic lights to all of the new light actors (hanging lights, candles, torches)
• gave the new light actors their own category colors for editors, so that they don't appear with that ugly default brown category color
• fixed the imp so that it's no longer invisible on its first frame (ie when set as a dormant monster). thanks @Alper002 for pointing that out!

Alfredo and I discovered that the Rad Suit doesn't actually protect against any of the gas attacks of the Tortured Soul

3 hours ago, TravyB said:

Alfredo and I discovered that the Rad Suit doesn't actually protect against any of the gas attacks of the Tortured Soul

this is intentional, though one could definitely argue whether it's logical. I considered at one point making the radsuit grant immunity to tortured soul poison, but the reason I didn't go through with it is that I used damaging floors all over the place in Paradise (and therefore radsuits as well in places) and didn't want to neuter the monster in half of my encounters that I built there :(

It's a sad fact of life, Hell poison eats right through those cheap rubber condoms the UAC calls "hazard protection suits". Damn things leak at the best of times, anyways. UAC cuttin' corners as usual.   

I have a couple more suggestions for balance purposes: The regular Shotgun takes years to reload those 8 shells compared to other weapons with the reload mechanic. I don't feel that its damage output justifies such downtime, especially considering how efficient the Rifle is in comparison. It can fire 15 times for similar damage per burst and reloads like 4x faster. It may be worth considering increasing the number of shells the Shotgun holds, the reload speed, or both.

My second thought is regarding the Cyberdemon. I posted back in the "Thing you hate about Doom" thread about his attack having no transition animation or indication that he's about to do his rocket volley. Pretty much every other monster has a split second transition from shuffling around to actually attacking, allowing the player to react accordingly. I'd recommend adding a slight pause before attacking, similar in duration to other enemies like the Mastermind. I also liked the rocket beep toggle that Paradise has.

It's a bit irritating that on the automap 1s lines are a dark green and 2s lines a bright green, making them more pronounced.

On 1/6/2020 at 7:49 AM, boris said:

It's a bit irritating that on the automap 1s lines are a dark green and 2s lines a bright green, making them more pronounced.

aha I appreciate you pointing this out,  I had never given the colors a second thought but it does feel backwards. I'll try reversing them and put that change into the next release, cheers boris!

On 1/5/2020 at 11:50 PM, Spectre01 said:

I have a couple more suggestions for balance purposes: The regular Shotgun takes years to reload those 8 shells compared to other weapons with the reload mechanic. I don't feel that its damage output justifies such downtime, especially considering how efficient the Rifle is in comparison. It can fire 15 times for similar damage per burst and reloads like 4x faster. It may be worth considering increasing the number of shells the Shotgun holds, the reload speed, or both.

cheers mate, really appreciate your feedback as always. I will do some more playing around with supercharge as a mod in other mapsets before I make any changes, as I feel pretty good about the balance of things right now. though maybe the AR is just a bit too strong still :| if i do anything to the shotty I would consider a slight reload speed buff, most likely.

you make a good point about the cyb, that is a frustrating aspect of the monster sometimes. I would be very cautious about making such a change because it seems like a very delicate thing to balance, but I'll be thinking about this one. I'll add the rocket beep toggle back in a future version though :D

Great mod. I'm playing Hell Revealed 2 with Supercharge and I'm having a blast. There is however one small thing that I'm finding a little annoying, namely the sound of the shotgun guy's helmet makes when it drops on the ground. I've loaded Supercharge in Slade but I couldn't find a way to disable that sound effect. I'm sure one of you can point me in the right direction.

thanks so much @Slipgate Tourist :D I at one point considered adding a toggle for the shotgun guy helmet bounce sound but never got around to implementing it. might do that in an upcoming version though since you've mentioned it. for now, to disable it, open up the pk3 in slade and navigate to actors/monsters/ShotgunGuy.dec, and comment out or delete lines 145 and 159

I find that sound quite satisfying, but I guess it depends on the number of Sergeants you're killing in a row. :P

Thanks Tango, deleting those two lines did the trick.

edit:

I played some levels with your mod and recorded my playthrough of Blast Off, I used Zandronum:

The mod is really fun but it made the maps I played a bit too easy. Perhaps some more tweaking is in order. 

Also, a mode that mixes up monster spawns a little could be really cool. By that I mean that the mod could spawn either a classic Revenant or the Supercharge version, for example.

edit 2: On first glance Supercharge seems to play nice with the Random Imp Generator, this should already spice up things a fair bit :)

I will have to study this seriously...

just released v2.1, which is purely a cosmetic update, though a very minor one. just wanted to get this one out while Mapwich 2 development was still happening. changelog:

• tweaked the automap colors so that one-sided lines are brighter, and two-sided are darker (I just switched the two). thanks @boris for the suggestion!
• updated the sprites for the imp fireball to be nicer

also pinging @Bridgeburner56 for awareness since you're compiling the Supercharge + OTEX Mapwich 2 resource I think. if this gives you some trouble with any work you've already done, I'd be happy to either help patch in the new changes to whatever WIP resourcce you have, or point you to the relevant changed files (there's not that many of them) to graft into the existing resource

edit: whoops, just saw that you already uploaded a resource today Bridge. if you gimmie a day or two, I can manually update the Mapwich resource and send it back to you. otherwise if you feel so inclined to do it yourself, the relevant file changes are:

Cool! I assume gameplay stuff like the Shotgun reload and dynamic lights for projectiles are post-Mapwich plans?

16 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

Cool! I assume gameplay stuff like the Shotgun reload and dynamic lights for projectiles are post-Mapwich plans?

yes! I plan to buff the shotgun reload speed and add projectile lights sometime after Mapwich, and at some later date also give a second look at some of the reload animations. I think some of the reloading animations feel kind of weak and lack weight (particularly the AR and plasma reload animations), so it'd be nice to fix those up at some point too

well shit, I just had a whole post typed up for the 2.2 update but hit the back button in my browser. welp, time to rewrite everything.

v2.2 is here! OP has been updated. I didn't want to make any balance changes during Mapwich, but Bridge encouraged me to buff the scrap gun a bit, so I made some other minor weapon tweaks to go along with it. for you Mapwich folks, these changes are minor enough that the balance of your map should not be affected. the purpose of these changes was largely just to make the weapons feel better. so here's a changelog:

• buffed the shotgun reload speed by 1 frame
• buffed the scrap gun
  • projectile speed increased from 50 to 60. spread should be basically the same spread though, but it's hard to tell because of the way that projectiles are fired (i'm using a wacky method to not break autoaim for the weapon)
  • added a "half" reload animation for when you have at least 2 shells in the gun loaded. this half reload animation is much faster than the full reload animation
  • sped up the full reload animation speed a bit
• nerfed the assault rifle a bit
  • reload animation duration is longer, BUT the reload animation has been refined a bit to feel more impactful
  • replaced the reload sounds
  • increased the duration in between bursts by 1 tic
• tweaked the plasma rifle
  • reload animation duration is longer, BUT the reload animation has been refined a bit to feel more impactful
  • to compensate, buffed the damage of projectiles from 28 to 30

my post-Mapwich plans for Supercharge are still to add proper dynamic lights to projectiles. I'd also like to explore adding some menu options or extra difficulty settings, at least, to let players make the game harder if they so choose, because as @Slipgate Tourist notes, sometimes Supercharge makes things too easy. I'd also love to explore the addition of an explosive nailgun in slot 4, that could act as an alternative to the AR for future mapsets using Supercharge.

as always, many thanks to everyone who has played and provided feedback on Supercharge :D

1 hour ago, Tango said:

I'd also like to explore adding some menu options or extra difficulty settings, at least, to let players make the game harder if they so choose, because as @Slipgate Tourist notes, sometimes Supercharge makes things too easy.

More options are always nice! I think the part about the mod making vanilla maps "too easy" is largely due to having tighter weapon balance. The fist, chainsaw, pistol, shotgun, and chaingun variants are all significantly more useful in general compared to their classic counterparts. Therefore maps created around heavy use of those (underpowered) vanilla weapons will definitely feel easier in most cases. Once you get into maps with a focus on heavier weapons (RL, PR, BFG), which remain similar to their classic counterparts (or perhaps even nerfed in the case of the rocket launcher and its explosive radius), vanilla maps played with Supercharge feel similar, or slightly more difficult depending on the encounter.

Regarding the bestiary replacements, the Cyberdemon and Lost Souls feel like they got a hard nerf. The Cyber's reduced rocket splash makes him a lot less deadly in tight quarters or areas with obstacles. Meanwhile, the Lost Soul, and by extension Pain Elemental, is simply too fragile compared to vanilla. Several PE's flooding the map with Lost Souls is no longer as scary since they kill each other faster through infighting and groups are easily mowed down by any weapon of choice. I think a middle ground with Souls having Chaingunner HP and requiring a good Shotgun blast or full rifle burst to kill would go a long way in making them more balanced when the mod is used with vanilla maps.

Just some ideas, the mod overall is still awesome.

Really coming together, very nice. It does seem that the plasma rifle is now doing what the shotgun was doing with regards to brightness when playing with the software renderer, setting the default brightness to its fire brightness till another weapon is fired. 

@TravyB Can confirm that is happening as well. It's easy to get a "close enough" look to imitate software in the GL renderer though: The main options under Display > Hardware are Sector Light Mode - Software, Banded SW Lightmode - On, and under Postprocessing, Tonemap Mode - Palette.

This results in...

just updated the OP with v2.2b. changelog:

• fixed the plasma rifle lighting the map upon firing in software mode. the light when firing now only lasts a frame, like it's supposed to. thanks @TravyB for reporting this!

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@Spectre01 you make some good points about the difficulty depending on the arsenal of the mapset being used! I didn't really put those dots together but that makes a lot of sense. I think buffing the lost soul HP is a great idea, so I'll add that to the list of post-Mapwich changes as well.

12 hours ago, Tango said:

added a "half" reload animation for when you have at least 2 shells in the gun loaded. this half reload animation is much faster than the full reload animation

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Byadaful. Loving these updates.

Something I didn't pick up on before was the way the pistol casings appear to eject from the side of your face, hahaha.

I really love this Wad a lot, and have been pistol-starting the Master Levels with it as a test of adaptability and lasting enjoyment. And boy, does it hold itself up nicely. It is one of the smoothest and most satisfying gameplay mods I've played; it just has an excellent "feel" to it with every bullet fired and the instant weapons switching is immensely satisfying to chain together combos, especially against those Barons!

I do have one question, since I'm about ten maps in, and have not yet encountered it- what does the Scrap Gun replace? Or does it? I don't know if its just the mapset, or the pistol starting, but this is one feature of this Wad I have yet to witness.

59 minutes ago, DarkQuill said:

Something I didn't pick up on before was the way the pistol casings appear to eject from the side of your face, hahaha.

hahah whoops, this is something I've been meaning to fix but haven't yet. thanks for bringing this to my attention - I'll fix this in the next update!

@666shooter thanks so much mate :D unfortunately, the scrap gun won't be present in any wads that aren't designed for Supercharge :( it's technically a standalone weapon that doesn't currently replace anything. I would really like to add some randomizer options to give it the chance to replace something, but that's a feature that I just haven't gotten around to figuring out yet :(

45 minutes ago, Tango said:

 

hahah whoops, this is something I've been meaning to fix but haven't yet. thanks for bringing this to my attention - I'll fix this in the next update!

 

@666shooter thanks so much mate :D unfortunately, the scrap gun won't be present in any wads that aren't designed for Supercharge :( it's technically a standalone weapon that doesn't currently replace anything. I would really like to add some randomizer options to give it the chance to replace something, but that's a feature that I just haven't gotten around to figuring out yet :(

I've been messing around with Heretic and The Wayfarers Tome has just such a feature, the ability to allow a new weapon to replace a vanilla one. Might come in handy when or if you ever decide to implement it. 

16 hours ago, Tango said:

 

hahah whoops, this is something I've been meaning to fix but haven't yet. thanks for bringing this to my attention - I'll fix this in the next update!

 

@666shooter thanks so much mate :D unfortunately, the scrap gun won't be present in any wads that aren't designed for Supercharge :( it's technically a standalone weapon that doesn't currently replace anything. I would really like to add some randomizer options to give it the chance to replace something, but that's a feature that I just haven't gotten around to figuring out yet :(

Okay, thanks. Now I know I wasn't missing something there. More reason to look forward to playing Paradise and other Wads in that case.

Been sinking my teeth into this more lately. I love the scope of it, how it's more of a refinement than an overhaul of Doom's gameplay. I'm just going to list my gripes with it from a taste standpoint, not bugs etc. Granted I can just go in and alter things to my tastes and probably will. 

Just cuz I'm listing negatives don't take this as disapproval, probably my favorite overall gameplay mod ever.

• Screen shake, even a little bit, is horrible. (the only forgivable instance is for earthquakes in e.g. Hexen)
• Multicolored pickup text is very distracting and difficult to read and overrides my preferred user color settings
• Reloading/clip mechanics in doom are bad, interruption and slowing down of the action, for only the sake of "realistic weapon feel". It also adds enough variables so that ammo management goes from being a mildly enjoyable metagame (vanilla) to so annoying that I just dont manage my ammo at all (supercharge), if I'm having to think about which weapons have full/mid/empty clips and what stocks are full or in need of replenishing.
• Custom sounds are pulled from all over, and have varying bitrates/qualities. While they sound good/appropriate on their own, when a lot is happening it sounds awful with how mismatched the quality level is.
• I like vanilla's HUD and hate the split HUD, also can't seem to get Lippeth's to work to judge that. HUD difficulties I gather are tied with the cliip/stock system which is further argument for fuck the whole reloading mechanic into oblivion
• I like the idea of a rifle over doom's retarded chaingun, but mechanically I prefer vanilla's chaingun to this burstfire thing. Would rather have a nerfed but fully automatic rifle. Again regarding reloading, the rifle suffers a role loss over the vanilla chaingun of "close quarters pain-state-spam when a mapper forces you to take an elevator into a point-blank horde", as the chaingun just lets you hold things off until your ammo is depleted. In Supercharge there's no way to do this, granted the player is more powerful in general so it's forgivable.

I can and will probably just alter things to my own personal version so again I'm not like demanding nerf this or change that. Just wanted to give honest feedback on something I love.