Diaz Returns

For those who prefer a touch of realism or just a change of pace, WildWeasel has released the final build of Diaz: The Last Hours of Purity on the Doom Armory. Those who happened to play the original release in late 2006 may want to have a look and see what's new or changed. Download the mod from the Armory, and make sure you get the latest ZDoom or GZDoom SVN build.

Interesting, but... 7z? Anyone care to compress it with something more common like zip? I'm not installing some 7z decompressor just because they want me to use that.

Just download 7zip and use that. That takes care of a variety of formats, so you don't need a zip decompressor anymore.

WinRar works just fine for opening 7z files.

Pretty cool mod. It's alot better than the original. I kinda wish the Colt 1911 was still in it. Oh well.

I think that Diaz is my favourite "weapon" mod. (I use "" because it changes far more than just weapons.) It's almost like playing a new game because the "skills and drills" required to play are quite a bit different from the normal Doom ones. Generally it makes things quite a bit harder.

I also love the variety and randomness, also the genuine character that the different protagonists have.

And nothing beats zapping enemies with the psychic electrical attack and seeing their skeletons flash. :)

CodeImp said:

Interesting, but... 7z? Anyone care to compress it with something more common like zip? I'm not installing some 7z decompressor just because they want me to use that.

7z is the most powerful data compression format out there. Some modding communities (Elder Scrolls for example) use it nearly exclusively. WinRAR and many others can open them fine (but cannot create them), and there's always the Universal Extractor which is just a wonderful program.

Oh, I use an old version of WinRar, time to update it I guess :)

Diaz's info
MISSION CODE NAME:
Rabbit Hole

Giggity.

I almost played a drinking game counting how many weapons were just redundant bullet sprayers

leileilol said:

I almost played a drinking game counting how many weapons were just redundant bullet sprayers

Why do that that when you can play the "Marty Kirra" drinking game?

Simply take a swig for every weapon graphic I did/contributed! :D

This modification is probably my all-time favorite as of now, and I'm glad I was involved in such a project.

leileilol said:

I almost played a drinking game counting how many weapons were just redundant bullet sprayers

Look closer - each one has its purpose, believe it or not.

The two pistols (Judgment and P50) are not bound to get much use, but they're still useful for taking on small groups of zombies and imps without wasting more powerful weapons on them.

The Marteba revolver is great against Imps and Demons in situations where you can't get close enough to use a shotgun. It also has one of the better melee attacks, if it comes to that.

The mini-shotgun is generally good for all-around usage but load times and spread can sometimes make it difficult to use in large crowds.

The Mauser can be used close-range in a pinch, but its strength lies in the iron-sight sniper mode, where it's capable of one-shot-killing pinkies and flamers about 70% of the time.

The rapid-fire weapons may seem similar but they're very different beasts indeed. The SMG is a good crowd-control weapon on account of its fire rate, but you'd be wasting it to try it on anything bigger than the slugthrowers. The Skorpion rifle is a good powerful all-around weapon but it's not very well suited for sustained full-auto, and its low fire rate doesn't make it good for crowds either - use it on small groups of bigger foes like Mancs and Knights. Then there's the RPK: save this for the huge crowds and Barons. Since it's not always accurate (save for the first shot of a burst) you'll probably have a hard time hitting smaller monsters unless you're in their face.

Few opinions on the final Diaz. Besides these things I'm really loving this mod so don't take the few negatives the wrong way.

First, I hate the archvile replacement. I don't know what reasons there were to replace the archie, but if it had something to do with monster resurrection screwing up balance I'd probably agree. Taking out the resurrection is good for this mod. But a robot? Ugh, I hate robots and mechas and whatever. But then again...there seems to be a ton of people who love them so that's more of a personal issue. Still, I hate that robot. Hate hate hate hate hate.

Second, I'm not too hot about that cultist imp variant. First because it doesn't fit thematically and second because it's a hitscanner replacement for a missile monster. Well it's not a huge issue since the cultist is very inaccurate and the damage per single bullet is very low, but as a general principle you shouldn't use replacements which differ too much from the original's use (I still remember back in time when the slug thrower had gravity... :) ).

Third, the new pistol. No, I don't have anything against the pistol really and some people might prefer it over the original which is cool. But now there are three weapons assigned on one key and I personally prefer the old one and often use it against bigger monsters when there are only a few left to save better ammo, etc etc etc. Yeah...too many guns on one button, that's all.

What dose the GZDoom SVN build do that regular GZDoom doesn't? all I've seen from GZDoom SVN is messed up sound effects and no lava glow effects.

Captain Red said:

What dose the GZDoom SVN build do that regular GZDoom doesn't? all I've seen from GZDoom SVN is messed up sound effects and no lava glow effects.

GZDoom SVN has SBARINFO, various additions to Decorate that I've used, among other things - small things, but as I have used them, it may break in an older non-SVN version.

Jodwin said:
First, I hate the archvile replacement. I don't know what reasons there were to replace the archie, but if it had something to do with monster resurrection screwing up balance I'd probably agree. Taking out the resurrection is good for this mod. But a robot? Ugh, I hate robots and mechas and whatever. But then again...there seems to be a ton of people who love them so that's more of a personal issue. Still, I hate that robot. Hate hate hate hate hate.

I got tired of dealing with Archies in a mod that required reloading. None of the weapons were really well suited to the Arch-Vile, because typically by the time one finished reloading, there would be a freshly-resurrected batch of monsters to absorb your next magazine. The robot was designed to make the player hate him, though not necessarily for that reason. I guess that being said, I'm glad I didn't bring over the per-scan drones from The Stranger to replace the Lost Souls.

Second, I'm not too hot about that cultist imp variant. First because it doesn't fit thematically and second because it's a hitscanner replacement for a missile monster. Well it's not a huge issue since the cultist is very inaccurate and the damage per single bullet is very low, but as a general principle you shouldn't use replacements which differ too much from the original's use (I still remember back in time when the slug thrower had gravity... :) ).

I'm surprised you're complaining about the Cultist when the Test Subject has a hitscan attack as well (his lightning shot). Previously I only wanted the Imps and Test Subjects to share the same spawn, but a lot of maps tend to use more Imps than Zombies, so I threw the Cultist to mix things up a bit...

Third, the new pistol. No, I don't have anything against the pistol really and some people might prefer it over the original which is cool. But now there are three weapons assigned on one key and I personally prefer the old one and often use it against bigger monsters when there are only a few left to save better ammo, etc etc etc. Yeah...too many guns on one button, that's all.

I probably should have put the new pistol as last on that key, so all one would need to do is hit 2 twice to get to the P50. That's a mistake I'll learn from, I guess.

WildWeasel said:

I'm surprised you're complaining about the Cultist when the Test Subject has a hitscan attack as well (his lightning shot). Previously I only wanted the Imps and Test Subjects to share the same spawn, but a lot of maps tend to use more Imps than Zombies, so I threw the Cultist to mix things up a bit...

Well sure the test subject has the lightning, but I don't think it's that big a deal because, first of all, the other two attacks are missiles which means that most of the attacks are ok. And second, when ever they do the lightning (or the ice) attack they stop to stand still a while, which is usually a good hint for the player to start run like crazy or take cover.