Gameplay Mod Walpurgis- 0.99 (For Doom, Heretic, Hexen) [NEW RELEASE!!!]

[eharper256]

Some kind of annoying news; I've managed to gourge a nasty slice into my left ring finger in a kitchen accident, and slightly cracked the fingernail too.

 

Not the extent of seeing bone, thank-god, but its currently super painful to use the 'A' in WASD to play FPS; and having to type right now with my two index fingers like an old man is pretty mortifying for trying to code!

 

So there might be a slight delay on the 0.95 release, unfortunately, and a lack of videos for a little while.

[eharper256]

Just in time for National Explosions Day (aka. Bonfire Night in the UK), here's a new video of the new fiery deaths that are due to be added for the upcoming 0.95 version of Walpurgis!

They probably need a few more tweaks, but are looking pretty decent right now. Let me know what you think!

The now rather old Playing With Firestorm video was the ideal candidate for a a second take to show off the changes between versions (which is quite alot!).

[eharper256]

New video!

Also gives a chance to see more of the flaming deaths courtesy of the Druid's Ichival, and some of the recent updates to the Cyberdemon that are coming as part of this patch. As you might notice, his rockets have been given a big makeover. But not just visually; they now blast you away as well as a big exploding rocket should!

 

You can get this wad here:

[Krenium]

I always enjoy watching your vids, not just to see upcoming features but also to pick up tips for playing the various classes and get introduced to semi-obscure wads. Can't believe I've never heard of that mapset before but it's so good.

[eharper256]

6 hours ago, Krenium said:

I always enjoy watching your vids, not just to see upcoming features but also to pick up tips for playing the various classes and get introduced to semi-obscure wads. Can't believe I've never heard of that mapset before but it's so good.

Thanks! I like seeking out more obscure sets as well. This forum moves way too fast and buries content super quickly (it really needs some subforums!) so its good to highlight them.

 

And yeah, though I'm not the best Doom player, I do know my own classes pretty well (haha). I've considered doing a general gameplay and class overview at some point, but its hard to know whether anyone would appreciate that kind of content.

[eharper256]

Yep, here's another new video, check it out!

I've finally switched on the spawners for some of the new elites that I'm happy with and which are complete; notably the Hell Chevalier, the Hellion Pinky, and the Special Forces Zombie. If you're paying attention, you might notice some other sneaky little improvements to look forwards to in 0.95 as well.

 

This Map is "Amalgamation 2: Cairo AD" by mrthejoshmon. Not the full map is shown, I cover about 1/2 of it because its pretty long!

 

It's actually meant to use the TNT wad for textures, so my WadSmoosh does miss a couple that end up looking weird here; not the mappers fault.

 

My old smooth liquids mod also apparently needs an update, as the waterfalls are messed up (which was the case in the last video as well, le sigh).

Get it here:

[eharper256]

New video, two levels testing some of the new Heretic monsters and effects that are coming in 0.95 Walpurgis.

Lots of projectiles got makeovers, you'll see some burning deaths, and a few new cast members show up too! Lots of changes; see if you can spot them all!
 

Two levels get featured here. The first part with the Myrmidon is Map 7 of the Twenty Heretics Community Project. The second part with the Magister is Map 1 of the Curse of D'Sparil by Kristus. They can be found at the below links:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/heretic/Ports/curse

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/heretic/Ports/20hcc

[eharper256]

Here's something I whipped up over the weekend!

Yup, it's time for class-unique status bar decorations! :D

 

I believe one of the sticking points for people using the old-style Hexen bar before was the cool Gargoyles it had, whereas the new Walpurgis unique split-bar was strictly utilitarian. This little update is going towards rectifying that a little bit. There are also some other general touch-ups, like the mana bars being little vials now. I think it looks pretty neat! What about yourself?

[eharper256]

Time for another really old video to be updated! This time, the last version of this one was so long ago that it didn't even include Agnus Abyssus and the Druid, so it was in dire need of re-take!

That's right, its time to troll Cybie once more!

 

We get to see his new rockets again, and another thing I've added in 0.95, revised intermission and epilogue text from the perspective of your Walpurgis character, whom, when playing in Doom, is assumed to have finished the Hexen campaign and jaunting between worlds with their Chaos Sphere to smite more evil. Fun times!

[eharper256]

I WOULD LIKE YOUR HELP EVERYONE! How would rank the cast of all three games on a tier-basis??

This tier list will affect the upcoming new Dimensional Instability mode. How DI mode works is that for any given monster, a replacement will be randomly selected from its list (from ANY of three games Walp supports, so Doom, Heretic, and Hexen Monsters will be interchangeable between games!). This will also include all of the available Elite Variants (of which there are alot of new ones this version!), but first I want to make sure the list of the main cast is settled in place.

 

So, how does this look to you at the moment? Do I need to move anything up or down? Introduce a whole new tier? Let me know your thoughts!

Bosses are also excluded as they won't be replaced, and Monsters that start as flyers will only change to other flyers of course. There will also be other settings in place to mess with the lists further too!

[eharper256]

Dimensional Instability Mode is now ready for me to show to everyone! Check it out!

 

I don't know what's going on, but it seems entertaining. XD

 

As you can tell, this mode results in quite alot of crazy combinations, and if you really want to go mad with the challenge, you can switch off the tier-list as well, and see any monster spawn at any time without regards to difficulty.

 

You'll also be able to see a fair few of the new elites and monsters that are making their way into this version (25 of them!), as well as some other changes like several revised sprites for projectiles with new Lightning and Fire sprites I've put together as well as many new monster projectiles that have been re-drawn by me for consitent quality across the board.

If you still have any opinions regarding the above tier-list, please let me know.

[eharper256]

Here's another new video showcasing Hexen's extra cast variety (with no DI mode on):

Since I already had to expand the elite spawner system to account for DI mode, I've also taken this opportunity to add in simultaneous random spawns for the Heretic and Hexen cast to increase their variety.

 

You might have seen some of these guys already in yesterday's video, and they were showing up there in Doom due to the DI Randomiser. The Satyrs/Goats now spawn 50/50 with Ettins, usually being slightly faster but slightly less HP (with the Chainmail Satyr appearing as the elite, like the Chainmail Ettin, and having vorpal slashes). Centaurs and Slaughtaurs sometimes become Death Knights and Archers, and these two will also appear instead of Ghost Mummies/Ghost Knights in Heretic, since the Ghost effect has no meaning in Walpurgis.

 

You can also see further proof of "The Great Monster Projectile Touch-Up Project" that this patch has been host to. :)

 

This is a map from the second hub of "4 Weeks of Pain" by Ryath, which is among the best Hexen Megawads (though there aren't many!). You can get it here:

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/hexen/0-9/4weeks

 

[eharper256]

0.95 is out!!

!!~GET IT HERE~!! (Version 0.95) on MEGA

~or~ Googledrive Mirror

 

Changelog

 [0.95]
'Creature Feature'
--------------------
04/12/2021
+New:       Dimensional Instability Mode: A randomiser spanning three games!
	==> DOOM ELITES ADDED <==
+New:	Osseomancer is the Elite for Doom's Cacodemon and Pain Elemental. It 
	is able to spit out grusome decapitated heads, which bounce around for
	a short while before settling in place. If you come close to a head,
	it will explode in a shower of corrupted blood. The 'mine-heads' last a 
	while and often attempt to fling themselves around as well, seriously
	restricting where you can safely step in a fight, making this floating
	menace a priority target before it controls the battlefield.
+New!:	Hell Chevalier is the Elite for Doom's Hell Knight; he is faster with
	more HP and more RED. He flings three Green Fireballs in quick succession
	each of which are mildly more damaging than standard Baronballs. 
+New!:	Ufetubus is the Elite for Doom's Mancubus. Sporting a black and purple
	theme, he fires two purple missiles that explode into deadly purple
	gas clouds that linger for a few seconds. Several of them together can 
	provide some quite terrible area denial.
+New!:	Hellion is the Elite for Doom's Demon/Pinky. Also sporting a fetching red
	colour scheme, his main feature is his relentless short-range lunging.
	Unlike regular pinkies which you can often dance around even up close,
	if you let this variant get the jump on you he can be quite dangerous.
+New!:	Pyre-Master is the Elite for Doom's Archvile. Also in blazing red, his
	Fire Attack requires you to keep moving (or find cover as usual) as all 
	areas affected by the initial flame in their vicinity will soon erupt 
	into a MIRV-like cloud of death. He can also still resurrect like a normal
	Archvile. He has slightly less HP to compensate for his attack, and if
	used smartly, he's easy to goad into setting fire to his allies with
	it due to its AOE nature, like a Cyberdemon.
+New!:	Magicaco is the Elite for Doom's Lost Soul. This Cacodemon has much
	less HP and no ability to fire projectiles, but instead gains a mastery
	of illusion. He can create static Cacodemon Illusions, reduce his
	own appearance to just a mouth, and teleport around to charge at you
	from lots of annoying angles. And his bites are painful!
+New!:	Special Forces Zombie is the Elite for Doom's Sergeant Zombie. He can
	strafe, and often crouches when firing (reducing his hit-box). Also, if 
	you remain close to him, he will repeatedly fire at you. Also has a
	spiffing Level 3 helmet. Which makes absolutely no difference to you, 
	since you're not using guns anyway (lol).  
+New!:	Cybercommando is the Elite for Doom's Chaingunner Zombie. He's upgraded
	his chaingun for a Heavy Laser Cannon, of course. Though slightly slower
	moving than the normal version, his suppression fire has little equal.
+New!:	Pistol Zombie is the new standard version of the Basic Zombie in Doom. 	
	The old Rifle zombie that was previously the default is now the Elite 
	version, and has slightly more HP. Pistol Zombie only fires a single 
	shot rather than a triple burst.
		
	==> HERETIC ELITES ADDED <==
+New!:	Black Drakahn is the Elite for Heretic's Weredragon. He's tougher and 
	fires three fireballs in quick succession. Walks slightly slower, but
	the already dangerous Weredragon shots are made far worse by this guy.
+New!:	Gorgon is the Elite for Heretic's Ophidian. I edited the standard sprites
	that are typically used by this to be darker and scaled. Its most notable
	feature is it supporting other monsters by using a monster version of
	the Hebiko-Sceptre's Charm Beam. If it gets you, are briefly paralysed
	and frozen in place, halting your movement (but not attacks) entirely.
+New!:	Stygian Imp is the Elite for Heretic's Flying Imps. He is extremely
	evasive, and hard to get a bead on. He fires blue magic missiles and
	uses his agility to harass you, though he's still not super dangerous.
NOTE:	Also see New Monsters below; as some Heretic Spawns now include them.
		
		==> HEXEN ELITES ADDED <==
+New!:	Magma Serpent is the Elite for Hexen's Green Serpent; he can shoot 
	small meteors from afar, and up close will breath flames, making him a 
	dangerous ranged support monster.
+New!:	Ash Serpent is the Elite for Hexen's Brown Serpent; he's a support
	creature that will vomit up extremely annoying ash clouds that will
	inhibit player vision for quite some time, covering his group from
	attacks. In the rare case you do get hit by him directly, the shot can
	also cause some nasty damage, though.
+New!:	Fetid Geist is the Elite for Hexen's Wraith; he moves quicker and spits
	out balls of venomous power. A direct hit will do some severe damage.
+New!:	Wyvern Whelp is the Elite for Hexen's Afrit. As you might imagine, its
	a small version of the Wyvern boss, with a recoloured sprite, and acts 
	like a more powerful Afrit, firing a salvo of four firedarts and having
	more HP and mobility.
NOTE:	For Centaurs and Ettins, see new monsters below.
		
		==> BRAND NEW MONSTERS <==
+New!:	New Monster: The Jaegar, added. This is a resprited and recoloured version
	of the Hexen II Undead Archer. He will spawn in place of Heretic Ghostly
	Nitrogolems, and sometimes in the place of Hexen Slaughtaurs, to give more
	variety to the cast of these games. His normal green shots are fast and
	powerful, and his blood-red shots have erratic but sometimes unnerring
	homing properties. Be careful of them suddenly hitting you from behind!
+New!:	New Monster: The Blackguard, added. This skeleton knight will spawn in
	the place of Heretic Ghostly Skeleton Knights and sometimes in the place
	of Hexen Centaurs. He has a good melee attack, and can also fire vorpal
	slashes similar to the Myrmidon, but in sinister red.
+New!:	New Monster: The Lizard Warrior, added. He can spawn in the place of the
	Hexen Stalker Serpents. He can submerge and stay low profile in water,
	before leaping out to attack you (sometimes onto land as well). 
+New!:	New Monster: The Necromancer Cultist, added. He can spawn in the place
	of Wraiths rarely in Hexen, and in the place of Beasts rarely in Heretic.
	He can endlessly summon skeleton minions like a Doom Pain Elemental, and
	can also raise dead enemies like a Doom Archvile, making him a scary
	supporter. Fortunately, he's not too fast nor tough, and will avoid 
	summons in favour of shooting you with weak shots if you're too close.
+New!:	New Monster: The Skeleton Minion, added. He is normally only summoned
	by the Cultist, but Dimensional Instability mode can occasionally throw
	him out as a fodder unit. He only has a slow melee attack and doesn't
	move too fast, but has above-average HP and if you're not careful, alot
	of allies marching with him!
+New!:	New Monsters: The Satyr Warrior & Satyr Gladiator. These guys are made
	to give some more variety to Hexen's usual rank and file: the Ettin, and
	will appear in the place of them half of the time, with the Satyr Gladiator
	appearing in place of the Ettin Sergeant when an elite spawn occurs.
	In general, they have slightly less HP than their counterparts, but
	move and attack somewhat faster in compensation.
		
	==> OTHER MONSTER RELATED CHANGES <==
+New!: 	Burning to Death Animations added for all standard monsters from Doom,
		Heretic, and Hexen. Some elites don't have them yet, will come soon.
+New!:	{The Great Monster Projectile Revision}
		In all cases, I've tried to keep a similar feel with the new projectiles!
	>>	Cyberdemon gets new rockets and effects. They're mildly more 
		dangerous than before since they also blast you away like a big 
		rocket should! It also has a new remixed sound-effect that mixes
		the classic Doom one with a more modern one.
	>>	Skeleton Knight's Axes get a makeover with better directional
		frames of animation and sparklies.
	>>	Iron Lich gets new sprites for all of his attacks to make sure
		they look up to standard with other projectiles we have now.
		The column of flame is especially impressive, IMHO. :D
	>>	D'Sparil Disciple's (Floating Wizards) purple ring shots get 
		updated, along with a new shooting noise.
	>>	Weredragon (Beast) gets a new Fireball, with very impressive trail
		that still evokes its old smokyness but now makes it awesome. 
	>>	Revenant Rocket gets a new sprite. It already had new effects, but
		these are now attached to a rocket rather than a mystic 8-ball. 
	>>	Arachnotron Plasma and Hexen Bishop Plasma now use a new, shared
		and updated sprite.
	>> 	Hexen Slaughtaur gets to re-use a blue bolt sprite also made for
		the New Stygian Imp in Heretic.
	>>	Hexen Afrit and Brown Chaos Serpent shots get slight revisions.
+Tweak:	Heretic Mummy gets new sprites that look more like a Mummy, less yellow.
+Tweak:	Doom Shotgun Zombie now has a animation for cocking his shotgun.
+Tweak: Doom Chaingun Zombie now has a rev-up animation for his chaingun.
		
	==> NON-MONSTER NEW STUFF <==
+Tweak:	All Doom, Doom II, Plutonia, and TNT intermission and ending text 
	has been re-written from the perspective of your Walpurgis character, 
	who at this point is assumed to have cleared at least Hexen and hence
	achieved demi-godhood with the Chaos Sphere.
	This joins the earlier text already added for Heretic and Hexen.
+Tweak:	Footstep sounds for {ALL} OTEX Flats added. Since its being used in a
	fair few levels now. I might get around to CC4 and others later.
+Tweak:	Keeping up with the Joneses, I created a brand new sexier base set of 
	sprites for Fulgurs lightning, so it looks better than ever. Also
	slightly improved the primary's tracking once again; you should now 
	always be able to move forwards at full speed whilst zapping enemies
	without bolts dissappearing. Though going all Leroy Jenkins with the 
	Magister is generally still ill-advised anyway. :D
+Tweak:	Firestorm Font's Secondary got some new flaming burst graphics so it'll
	look less spiky and more like I always wanted it to look. This also
	affects some other flames like Aestus' Meteor and Hammer's Shockwave.
+Tweak:	Terrain splash definitions added for all Doom, Heretic, Hexen, OTEX flats.
+Tweak:	A bunch of new GLDefs/Dynamic Lights for projectiles were added.
+Tweak:	Updated Split Status bars with new sprites to improve their looks. 
+Tweak:	New Animated Menu Logo.

+Fixed:	Blood colours for Walp monsters set so that gore mods paint the correct
	gib colours (i.e. Green Baron blood, Blue Caco blood). 
+Fixed:	Sounds that were previously .wav have been remuxed to .ogg to reduce
	their filesize. This has resulted in a 20~ish Megabyte saving, though
	this has then been eaten back up with lots of new content (lol). 
+Fixed:	Tradactus' double burst fire had the wrong explosion animation. It wasn't
	too noticeable in that frenetic fight so I didn't see it in test. Fixed.
	Also tweaked his ability to summon Wraiths, which should now be more
	reliable rather than failing about 80% of the time.
+Fixed:	Kraters of Might would sometimes show their old sprite. Fixed.
+Fixed:	Removed the 'Zap' sound produced on Electric Pain. Its not very noticable
	and if a monster was in an Electric Pain state and then died to another
	type of damage (usually from infighting), that noise would persist in
	a rather annoying fashion after death.
+Fixed:	The Elite spawning system broke the A_BOSSDEATH action used by iwad
	levels to lower and raise floors. A workaround has been put into place
	to prevent this issue, so these levels will work properly again! (along
	with any pwads that also use this feature)
		
+Balance: Primary Fire of Druid's Dagon Cane cost increased by +1 Aether Mana.
	It does a similar amount of damage to the Lightbringer, but was
	33% cheaper before, so this puts it on a similar balance.
+Balance: Gas clouds from Druid's Hebiko Staff Tertiary and Flechette made
	around 15% less powerful as they were super-strong for the cost.
+Balance: Tertiary Fire of Aestus for Magister (Whip) cost reduced to 10, and
	made the animation another 2 frames faster.
+Balance: Thrown Baselard Hitbox tweaked slightly to be closer to its sprite.
+Balance: If you don't like the change to Revenant Missile Homing in Walp, you
	can now always spawn classic revenant shots with the Menu Option.

 

[eharper256]

New video:

 

This is one of my favourite levels from one of my favourite Megawads, Birthday Bash by Milkman. It's got a fine ability for taking standard Doom Tropes and turning them on their head and having fascinating gimmicks. You can see the topic for this here:

Not sure if he ever got around to fixing the issue with the IDgames upload, but I can't find it there on a search myself.

--------------------

Also, in case you're wondering, 0.96 will return to sorting out the rest of the upgrades and the Crusader's Slot-2 extra weapon.

 

0.95 was a needed and interesting diversion to help speed up cranking out the elites, fix some issues with that system and introduce the new randomiser mode, Dimensional Instability, because the monster alterations were a little lacking up until this point and pushing out two or so per patch felt both distracting and rather 'filler-ish' content.

 

DI mode and Doomed Souls Modes together should seriously help up the ante for players looking for more challenging content with Walpurgis, and as someone who loves randomisers in general for freshening up older games you love (especially Fire Emblem and Zelda randomisers, which I really enjoy), I wanted to get DI mode sorted.

 

I'm not sure if there's honestly demand for it (probably not, lol), but if there is, I might consider splitting off DI mode into its own mod in the future.

 

Finally, in other news, I released an update for my aging 'HD Smooth Fluids' mod. You can check that out here. It was becoming rather broken with newer GZDooms, but I've fixed all its issues and also made it WadSmoosh friendly.

[eharper256]

Just another quick video of me testing OBSIDIAN, the automatic procedural Doom map-generator, which has come along quite far since its early days (when it was called OBLIGE and OBADDON, which this one is forked from)!
 

It now makes some quite interesting maps, especially when you make short bundles or single episodes and set its linearity setting to 100%, so its worth a look if you're on the prowl for more maps to play.

 

Check it out here: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=71457

If some bizarre reason you want this generated wad specifically, I also uploaded that to here: https://mega.nz/file/wctERZyY#VcIcwYJQBZiDqLQ4NyKDXw-MkIVsoBBsvsnE5y8D8NM

Hope you're all enjoying the 0.95 release!!

[eharper256]

Another quick video since we were lacking in Crusader videos lately, and I saw this set of short vanilla texture Boom maps by Enterim come out yesterday and I was immediately onto that, because I love short and punchy mapsets.

 

You'll see the first three of them in this video.

 

You can get this wad here:

 

[eharper256]

Well, I wasn't actually expecting to put out a video this morning (lol) but then I saw that Heresy suddenly put up an RC1 for testing!

This lovely looking new 8-Map Heretic megawad by Endless et al. kinda deserves a look, so here we are. You can get it here:

Functions fine with Walpurgis's enemy changes as well, which is always encouraging, as well as, interestingly adding in the Harpy enemy you see, which is currently in my list of things to be added later (I've changed its sprite a bit from the one seen here).

[eharper256]

For this weeks video; I tried a mapset called Azazel's Second Descent, by Bloodbath Giraffe, which is a pretty darn challenging wad using OTEX. For a difficulty perspective it really doesn't hold back, as you can tell from this video (which is of Map 1!) so this one's a good one for you thrillseekers out there.

 

You can get it here:

Had a bit of nightmare on the recording for whatever reason this time; and this is actually the third playthrough of this map... first time, OBS managed to somehow record my desktop for 10 mins, and second time it created some horrific earrape level echo on my audio for some bizarre reason. Bit of a shame, because there was some very cool action going on in the second playthrough with the RNG smashing me with lots of Unique monsters.

[eharper256]

One snowy night, just before a capitalist holiday, a Druid decided to bring gifts to all and sundry. And murder lots of demons in the interim.

Getting into the Xmas Spirit, I thought I'd cover this lovely little Christmas map by DreadOpp and Lord_Z.
You can find it here:

I hope everyone has a Merry Xmas, and a Happy New Year!

[eharper256]

Big thanks to @Suitepee for covering Walpurgis on stream!!!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1244962629

 

[Suitepee]

 

[eharper256]

Thanks for the links @Suitepee (I was just coming in to post them myself lol).

 

I show up to watch in the second part and make a few comments and answer a few questions! (unfortunately I couldn't make the first part due to visiting grandparents for Xmas).

[eharper256]

Happy New Year of the Tiger, everyone! Hope you had a relaxing festive season and didn't throttle too many of your family members. ;D

Anyway, here we are with the first map of a new megawad called BlueAge just released by Skronkidonk and DCGRetrowave. It has a blue/gray/brown palette theming, as you might expect by the name.

You can get it here:

 

[eharper256]

Here's a new wad by BRI, Elysium's Curse. I enjoyed their previous work, Vow of Vengeance (you can see a Crusader video of that one on my channel), so this one was a quick pick up and play for me! This one is using the lovely heaven-ish tileset from OTEX, one of my favourites, but one I never got to see in Evilternity as those levels are way too tough for me!

Anyways, as for Walpurgis, we're settling in for the long haul spriting stage of 0.96 now, as this next update is one where I get all the upgrades sorted (hopefully), so you might see slightly less vids for a short while as I concentrate on that.

 

You can get this wad here:

 

[eharper256]

Big thanks to Azerty for checking out Walpurgis!

I reply to their in-video comments here, if you're interested.

[eharper256]

Finally managed to make some spear sprites that don't make me furious at how terrible they look (lol).

Still needs work (the ever-fun sausage fingers) and probably some shading changes but its a step in the right direction at least.

[eharper256]

Here's another frame from the new spear; its firing a lightning projectile here!

The projectile it will fire is not 100% certain yet, though a bouncing, penetrating shockwave of sorts was the original idea for this fire mode.

So far, the frames seem to look alright in SLADE, though I guess I'll know for sure when I get to the coding!

[eharper256]

The rumoured spear is finally here!

Keep in mind this is an early preview showing off just the primary and secondary fire (it has no tertiary fire sprites ready yet) and the secondary projectiles effect will likely change for the final release as its pretty generic right now.

 

So far, it feels pretty good to use, especially the melee attacks which get automatically interleaved with handy shield bashes (the logic on this still needs work, mind). It also has a handy function where the Crusader automatically lowers it when your crosshair overlaps an enemy, if its not lowered already, in order to save you attack time!

[eharper256]

Here's the 'upgrade' for the Druid's Baselard Tertiary fire, summoning her mystical Falcon, Turul!

This is something I've wanted to add in for some time, and finally, its made plausible with the new Boids script that makes convincing acting birds

Turul stays active even if you change weapons, as soon as he's summoned, and will bombard enemies with pinion flurries, making him a nice use of an Azurinthine for some permanent fire support!

[eharper256]

Still needs a bit more polishing; but here we have a preview of all of the Storm Sect Spear's final functions (and its upgrades!).

Primary Fire had more perspective added to its sprites as that was a noted complaint with the first look video. Upgrading will make the swipes and stabs faster and stronger.

 

Secondary Fire creates spectral partisans that wait a moment before acquiring a target and rocketing off to smash into its face. Upgrading allows summoning two at once, and when you hold the alt-fire button, you'll delay firing any active ones until its released, so you can have a simultaneous barrage of lots of them!

 

Tertiary creates a magic circle that builds up power and then detonates in a dome of thunderous power. Upgrading adds a proximity sensor to the circle rather than always detonating after a fixed period (although it still needs work, and seems to trigger off nearby corpses right now for some reason, will have to pop any extra checkifdead in there).