Multiple player classes for Heretic (90% complete).

Hello there. I'm an old school fan of DOOM engine games and, more importantly of course, modding them. While most of my works I made in the 90s I never publicly released I've recently got a hold of ZDoom and its wonderful DECORATE feature and couldn't resist making a mod or two I could only have dreamed of with the limitations of the editing tools of the golden days. But let me get on to the topic of this post :P

I've created a mod that currently allows 4 player classes for vanilla Heretic. Each uses a unique weapon set they acquire from picking up standard Heretic weapon/item drops as well as a unique function for the Tome of Power and hour glass timebomb (the timebombs are being retooled to the Hexen style Flechettes). But lets face it, talk is cheap, so two little teaser videos (Yes I'm playing like crap on the videos :roll: ):

The current classes are as follows:

BATTLE MAGE:

- Just the default Heretic player, except their timebombs are replaces with the Hexen Cleric poison gas Flechette.

TEMPLAR:

- A hybrid of the Hexen Mage and Cleric, albeit with rebalanced stats. Their weapon setup is as such:

Staff = Cleric Mace
Wand = Mage Blue Wand (Uses ammo now)
Crossbow = Mage Ice Spell
Dragon Claw = Serpent Staff
Hellfire Staff = Cleric Fire Spell
Phoenix Rod = Bloodscrouge (Hexen mage super weapon, aka that staff with the big homing fire shots)
Heretic Mace = Mage Lightning Spell
Gauntlets = 50 Blue Wand ammo
Tome of Power = Grants a bit of ammo to all weapons
Time Bomb = Mage style exploding Flechette(WIP)

WARRIOR:

- The Hexen Fighter, a tad reblanced and with one new weapons (May get more weapons later)

Staff = Hexen Fighter Gauntlets
Wand = Hexen Axe
Crossbow = "Warrior Crossbow" (Name pending): Shoots one moderately powerful, piercing, crossbow bolt. Slow fire rate.
Dragon Claw = Warrior Crossbow again for now
Hellfire Staff = Hexen Sledgehammer
Phoenix Rod = Quietus (Hexen fighter super weapon, aka his sword)
Heretic Mace = Hexen Sledgehammer again for now
Gauntlets = 50 Axe ammo
Tome of Power = Grants 300 armor on use
Time Bomb = Fight style grenade Flechette(WIP)

DOOM Marine:

- Its the DOOM Marine, minus the BFG (See FAQ)

Staff = Fist
Wand = Pistol
Crossbow = Shotgun
Dragon Claw = Chaingun
Hellfire Staff = Plasma Gun
Phoenix Rod = Rocket Launcer
Heretic Mace = Super Shotgun
Gauntlets = Chainsaw
Tome of Power = Berserker Strength (Just like the original item, its becomes an instant pick-up, no longer an inventory item)
Time Bomb = I have some ideas, but must test... suggestion welcome I guess.

WHAT'S DONE:

- All the classes are fully functional aside from the Flechette powerup.
- 7 new player colors options added: DOOM Green, DOOM gray, DOOM red, DOOM Brown, Purple, Aqua, and Gold.
- Tested in Co-op Multiplayer. It works.

WHAT'S NEEDED FOR A FIRST RELEASE:

- Complete the Flechette powerup
- Tweak and polish things up

Future Release ideas:

- Make a optional rebalance addon for death match play based on feedback and playtesting
- Try to fix known issues if possible
- Make a set of generic pickup icons for all the weapons and ammo

Known Issues:

- Due to limitations of my system all the weapon/ammo pickups are stuck using generic pickup icons and messages (See video). Not sure if this can be fixed, but I'll be looking for work arounds)
- Hexen melee weapons damage rates are hard coded, so I'll have to manually recode them before any rebalancing is done (Still seeing if that is even possible)
- For now some players have less weapons that normal. I might give them more weapons later, but for now they still get ammo or one of their existing weapons in place of the missing slots.
- This mod may not work right with mods that replace/randomize Heretic weapons/ammo/items due to compatibility issues.

FAQ:

- WHY HERETIC?: Honestly the game just seemed like a happy medium between the limited features of DOOM and the semi-adventure game aspects of Hexen. Plus it doesn't get enough love. I might make a similar class mod for DOOM, but don't hold me to that.

- WHERE'S THE BFG AND/OR WRAITHVERGE?: There are no equivalent weapons in Heretic, so I didn't add them (Keep in mind I heavily nerfed the Hexen Mage and Fighter super weapons I added). I do plan to add a custom weapon object that gives the BFG to modern/sci-fi player classes and Wraithverge to fantasy players that can be placed in user maps for those that want an overkill weapon available (it will use weapon slot 8).

- THESE CLASSES ARE HORRIBLY UNBALANCED! YOU NEED TO CHANGE....: For now I just want to get them all working and ready for a first release. Later I'll rebalance them, though extreme nerfs/buffs may be excluded to an optional "Deathmatch" wad included.

- WHY DOES THE HERETIC PLAYER GET THE POSION CLOUD FLECHETTE?: Honestly the Heretic player seems a bit weak by default, mainly gain his extra edge from artifacts like his version of the Tomb of Power. So it only seemed fair he got the most powerful Flechette version of the Hexen defaults.

- I WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST ANOTHER PLAYER CLASS: Well... alright, your suggestions couldn't hurt. However I reserve the right not to make your class or take some of your ideas and splice them with other people's class ideas to make a class of good composite ideas. I'll be sure to credit anyone who's ideas I use in my credits of course :wink:

That's all I can think of for now, its quite late here at the time of typing. Expect a first release soon.

Looks good. It would be fun to play through Heretic as the Doom marine.

I suppose that your wad requires only Heretic IWAD and that the graphics from other IWADs are reincluded, right?

MrEsturk said:

I WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST ANOTHER PLAYER CLASS

Duke Nukem. ;)

And Quake player. Weapon sprites can be found in QDOOM.wad.

I dunno, at some point I'd draw the line and go "if you really want that, use Samsara instead".