adding annihilator as final boss?

hello everyone!

Recently I'm working on my wad and I am thinking to add Annihilator as the final boss in map 30. Problem is my maps aren't zdoom format, they are vanilla. So is it even possible to replace the annihilator with bossbrain? If so then How do I make the annihilator work properly? it's really seemed very complicated to me when I looked for bossbrain and cyberdemon at whacked (that's what I have and I am very new with it). Can someone please help me add the annihilator?

Realm667 monsters are DECORATE based, so that they will only work if you play the wad in (G)ZDoom or Zandronum. Placing a custom monster to a map is as easy as placing a thing with an editor number corresponding to the monster's editor number, though.

Decorate is okay but if I want to play the wad in prboom, then what?? Do I have to replace that beast with an existing thing, like a candle or wolf.ss?

Repeat: The behavior of Realm667 monsters is coded in DECORATE. No ports other than (G)ZDoom and Zandronum support DECORATE at all. If you want custom monsters compatible with for example vanilla or PrBoom, they must not be coded in DECORATE, but in DEHACKED.

Firstly, there is no automatic DECORATE to DEHACKED converter, they would have to be re-coded manually. Secondly, unlike DECORATE, DEHACKED can't add new thing types or new animation frames, but has to reuse existing thing types and existing animation frames (which are all in one big pool shared by all thing types). Thirdly, DEHACKED has much more limited features, so for example, it's impossible to fire projectiles with custom vertical/horizontal offset from the monster's center (they are all fired from the monster's exact center and from height 32 units above his feet), so that you couldn't replicate the Annihilator's exact behavior anyway.

scifista42 said:

Thirdly, DEHACKED has much more limited features, so for example, it's impossible to fire projectiles with custom vertical/horizontal offset from the monster's center (they are all fired from the monster's exact center and from height 32 units above his feet), so that you couldn't replicate the Annihilator's exact behavior anyway.

Okay, this one is terrifying. After seeing the code for hell smith in survive in hell wad, I eventually added the annihilator following the same code. And now he is shooting mancubus fireball like hell smith, how nice :D So this easily means that getting exact behavior isn't possible. Another little question, can 2 monsters share a specific sound at the same time? I mean..if I replace cybruiser with spiderdemon and cyber Baron with other existing thing, then can I give the cyberbaron the same spiderdemon metal walking sound?

Yousuf Anik said:

Another little question, can 2 monsters share a specific sound at the same time?

Yes.

scifista42 said:

Yes.

nice. it's sad that annihilator can't be added :( so what about other monsters? like hell storm archon? well instead it's missile, it will shoot baron's attack or mancubus flame?

DEHACKED has about 20 different monster attack functions (the exact ones used by vanilla monsters), each with a strictly hardcoded behavior and no parametrization. You can make any monster use any of those attack functions or a combination of them, though.

okay, if you don't mind can you write one for me? I'm actually not good in writing dehacked though, I can change little things like..giving a demon more health or speeding it up.

You can edit states in the States table to change each one's sprite, duration, function called upon it, and next state. This way, you can define any arbitrary animation or behavior. In the Things table, each monster has a specific Spawn state number, See state number, Missile attack state number, Death state number, etc. - these numbers define the initial State of the respective animation, and they can be edited/changed as well.

Making custom monsters in DEHACKED is all about playing with the States table and Things table. First you decide which of the existing thing types AND which of the existing states you are willing to sacrifice (usually you sacrifice the same states that belong to the things you sacrifice), and then you edit them to define the animation/behavior you want to give to your custom monster. For some reference of the properties / flags / functions that you have available to change, see here, here and here.

I would prefer if you learned this by yourself, and even if you insisted on someone else doing it for you, you should at least do the first step, to decide which things and states to sacrifice (considering that their number must be sufficient to define the new monster's animation), because once the new animation is defined and you change your mind about which thing/states to sacrifice, everything would be basically needed to be remade from scratch.

Thank you so much for the informations and links :) and yes I have to learn things by myself, I'm just very new with dehacked and it will take some time to get used with it :D