Boondorl Posted April 7, 2019 (edited) Current version: 1.0 The No SS version does not include changes for the Wolfenstein SS enemies. This keeps compatibility with certain older mods that used DeHackEd to replace monsters, one of the popular ones being the SS. Tested on: GZDoom 4.0.0 Originally named Enhanced Nightmare, I present to you the latest in gameplay AI enhancement mods: this thing. Have you ever found yourself thinking Man, Nightmare! is becoming a snore fest. I sure wish someone could make a mod to fix that, preferably one with an incredibly lengthy name. No. You haven't. But now that you have, you're stuck with this. Revisiting the way the game handles enemies and updating them to the modern standards of Quake 1, Doom But It's Harder Except It's Still Realistically Beatable™ does more than just decide that giving the Cyberdemon homing missiles is peak balance. Such amazing AI improvements include but are not limited to: Enemies no longer being blind and firing into their teammates Enemies not firing at you when you're clearly behind an indestructible torch Enemies no longer seeing through walls and deciding shooting at them is productive Patented Pinky Jumping™ technology has been added (can it even be a gameplay mod without it?) Cacodemon Strafing 2.0 has been deployed (it's the least annoying version you've seen yet!) And so much more! I'm definitely not running out of features to talk about. For those of you who want something spicier but are too babby to play on Nightmare! difficulty, Ultra-violence has been beefed up as well. Sunlust? More like SaveScumlust. Change log for v1.0: Spoiler /// GENERAL CHANGES \\\ •Enemies chasing a target will now wake up other nearby enemies that see them •Enemies will now always wake up when taking damage •Enemies with weapons now actually fire from them •Projectile/hitscan attacks now have a brief 1-2 second cool down on them •Does not apply to melee attacks, Arch-viles, or Pain Elementals •Pain now has a brief 1-2 second cool down on it •Does not apply to hitscan enemies (excluding Spidermasterminds), Arch-viles, and Pain Elementals •Enemies will now check for any actors (e.g. other monsters) or objects (e.g. torches) in their way when deciding to fire missiles •All hitscan enemies, Arch-viles, and Pain Elementals will not check for objects •All hitscan enemies (excluding the Wolfenstein SS), Cyberdemons, Arch-viles, and Pain Elementals will not check for actors •Enemies will no longer track targets behind walls and objects but will instead fire at their last seen location •Hitscan enemies will still track their target behind objects •Refire for enemies that fire continuously now has a check for actors and objects •Hitscan enemies will not check for objects •Hitscan enemies (excluding the Wolfenstein SS) will not check for actors •Enemies no longer have a cool down on how often they can switch targets •Enemies that dash (e.g. Lost Souls) will no longer be blocked by non-solid actors /// DIFFICULTIES \\\ •Ultra-violence •Fast monsters has been enabled •Nightmare! •Cool down from projectile/hitscan attacks is turned off •5 seconds is added to the pain cool down •Enemies will now lead their shots when in close range •Refire for enemies that fire continuously no longer has a chance to keep firing after target leaves view •Blocking Lost Soul spawns from Pain Elementals will cause them to explode for 64 damage in a 32 unit radius (no damage fall-off) •Lost Souls and Pain Elementals are immune to this damage /// ENEMY SPECIFIC CHANGES \\\ •Wolfenstein SS •Will no longer infight with other Wolfenstein SS •Pinky/Spectre •Added a ranged leap attack with a 2-3 second cool down (1 second on Nightmare!) •Lost Soul •Fixed a momentum issue when being shot while flying towards their target •Added a 1 second cool down (0.5 seconds on Nightmare!) •Made significantly more aggressive •Health reduced: 100 -> 60 •Now enters charging animation when being shot from a Pain Elemental •Cacodemon •Now has a 50% chance to strafe when attacking outside of melee range with a 2.5 second cool down (1.5 seconds on Nightmare!) •Strafe is circular in motion and will not affect Cacodemon's momentum (no slingshotting) •Can be interrupted by pain •Pain Elemental •Will no longer infight with Lost Souls •Revenant •Extended hitbox to cover top of body (will not affect collision detection) •Increased melee speed •No longer stops firing missiles when entering close range •Missile will now always lock on •To compensate, missiles will no longer track targets that have partial invisibility •Arachnotron •Increased fire rate •Arch-vile •Fire is now transparent •Fire now explodes at origin of target (no more blocking explosions with small pillars) •Fire now accurately updates to the current target of the Arch-vile •Fire now disappears when Arch-vile is put in pain or killed •Can no longer harm itself or other Arch-viles with its fire •Cyberdemon •Missiles are now 25% faster •Increased fire rate •No longer thrusted by damage •Spidermastermind •Will no longer infight with other Spidermasterminds •No longer thrusted by damage Enhanced Nightmare.zip Enhanced Nightmare - No SS.zip Edited April 23, 2019 by Boondorl 6 Share this post Link to post
Bryan T Posted April 7, 2019 The download link is borked. "download2260.mediafire.com took too long to respond" 0 Share this post Link to post
Boondorl Posted April 7, 2019 (edited) It's been giving me weird issues for some reason. I tried reuploading it and it worked but if it's still broken I'll try reuploading it again Edit: Yeah, if anyone has a suggestion for another hosting site, I'm all ears 0 Share this post Link to post
Mad Butcher Posted April 7, 2019 Put the PK3 in a zip and attach it to your post. 0 Share this post Link to post
Boondorl Posted April 7, 2019 Ok, it's up now. There's an actual mod here, I promise. 16 minutes ago, mistersector said: Few tread this area, even fewer succeed. If this does what it claims, it is a welcome improvement. I wouldn't expect much. I found a lot of the checking to not be super fruitful compared to Quake simply because of the way projectiles are handled. In Quake precise checking works well since projectiles in that game don't actually have a hitbox (it just checks to see if the origin of the projectile hits something). This means that exact ray traces work really well for finding things blocking. Doom uses fat as all hell hitboxes for its projectiles so precise checking really doesn't matter too much. It stops a lot of needless infighting and does stop enemies from stupidly firing at you while you're hiding, but ultimately they'll still hit each other quite a bit due to the projectiles being so wide. I did take a few other notes from Quake that work well, though, like Fiend jumping and Scrag strafing. 0 Share this post Link to post
Loud Silence Posted April 7, 2019 2 hours ago, Boondorl said: Yeah, if anyone has a suggestion for another hosting site, I'm all ears Google Drive, man. 15GB for free, no freemium nonsense. 3 Share this post Link to post
Tango Posted April 11, 2019 this is really neat; lots of awesome QOL changes here too. @Boondorl are you open to others using some of what you've created here in their own mods? 1 Share this post Link to post
Boondorl Posted April 12, 2019 On 4/10/2019 at 9:36 PM, Tango said: this is really neat; lots of awesome QOL changes here too. @Boondorl are you open to others using some of what you've created here in their own mods? Of course. That being said, I'd steer clear of using my beta stuff (and even some of my other stuff is questionable and needs a rewrite). There's usually a few bugs and lots of improvements to be had for the gameplay. I'm currently working on beta 2 which has some important fixes, optimizations, and a reworked monster alert system to make it much more similar to Quake (the current audio based solution is pretty janky). 1 Share this post Link to post
Tango Posted April 12, 2019 awesome to hear mate, you are an angel. cant understate how much I appreciate it. looking forward to the next beta! 0 Share this post Link to post
Boondorl Posted April 13, 2019 Speaking of beta 2, it's out right now! Lots of changes internally so if it crashes or there's any odd behavior be sure to let me know. 1 Share this post Link to post
Bryan T Posted April 13, 2019 The code in this is impressive. The fact that you can't use monster replacing mods with it is a bummer though. If there was a way to have these changes be scripted and not replace the monsters that would be awesome. If not maybe you could work with another modder and include the improvements to another mod. 0 Share this post Link to post
Boondorl Posted April 13, 2019 15 hours ago, Bryan T said: If there was a way to have these changes be scripted and not replace the monsters that would be awesome. Unfortunately it can't be done on ZDoom for a very specific reason: DeHackEd support. The explanation is lengthy and technical, but essentially any default behavior in Doom can't be replaced or else errors would be incredibly likely when using a DeHackEd patch for a WAD. Graf has already given a full-stop "No" to the question of virtualizing default behavior so this is how enemies will have to have their AI updated in the mean time. I'm open to others implementing my code if they see fit, however. 1 Share this post Link to post
Gifty Posted April 13, 2019 This mod is sick, I've wanted to do something like this for years but never knew enough about Zscript to really make it work. Good job! 1 Share this post Link to post
Boondorl Posted April 14, 2019 Beta 3 is out now. Not much new here so it's just a small update. I'm pretty happy with the set of features I have now so I've mostly just been doing optimizations where it's easy or makes sense. The Revenant got some more tweaks to its gameplay which concludes the saga of me trying to make enemies fully respect 3D when firing projectiles/dashing at you. Other than that it's just minor tweaks. Arch-vile fire and Cacodemon strafing are now a tad bit less expensive to calculate which should help out on slaughter maps, especially for the Arch-viles. The Revenant's extended hitbox, on the other hand, received a massive optimization fix that significantly lowered its cost. If all goes well, this will likely be the build that transitions into 1.0. 1 Share this post Link to post
Boondorl Posted April 23, 2019 Updated current version to 1.0 with no changes (outside of tweaking the change log, of course). Also included a version without the Wolfenstein SS for the few rare maps that replace them via DeHackEd. 0 Share this post Link to post