Talk about some custom monsters you like

[Shepardus]

I like the plasma troopers from Ancient Aliens, their movement and attack pattern strikes a good balance, making them mobile and threatening but not too much so for their role. Their way of flickering in and out of visibility is way more fun than the partial invisibility effect IMO.

 

I like the revenants from Struggle - Antaresian Legacy, with their attack replaced by two fast missiles that do not home. While replacing revenants entirely should not be done lightly as they're an important part of the enemy roster themselves, I did enjoy fighting and dodging them in Struggle.

 

I also like the pyro knights from Valiant; their fast barrages are engaging in a manner similar to Struggle's revenants, but they replace an enemy that was less interesting than the revenant to begin with.

[i suck at nicknames]

I am currently playing Negative One, and I have to say that incorporating stealth pinkies (as in they appear only when they attack) and particularly invisible imps actually make combat a lot more interesting. Its very easy to overlook invisible imps and they can very easily flank you when you're busy with other monsters. Their inclusion makes the normal imp actually a relevant threat in the game, and if paired with the Valiant super imps, I think it would bolster the imp as a priority enemy in any mapset. 

 

Just something I wanted to mention.

[djnr]

Imp in a trashcan (seasons.wad) - he's cute

[kawadec]

The roster of Hell/Cabal hybrid enemies in Bloom (a Doom/Blood crossover mod as the name may suggest) are a group of baddies I enjoy getting chewed up by repeatedly. They have less of the BS things that kept me from getting into Blood (namely the hitscanners' lightning quick reflexes), while still remaining far deadlier than Doom's vanilla offerings. Imps that can throw both fireballs and evil spirits, fire-breathing pinky-hounds, cacogoyles that can block attacks, slime archnotrons that do splash damage, the list goes on. All I can say is let's be glad Davoth and Tchernobog never swapped ideas at the water cooler.

 

Also, I dunno if back-ports of modern Doom enemies count, but I love bringing 2016/Eternal's Knights and Barons into the classic setting. It's one thing when those two are basically just imps with more health and damage, and a whole other world of "oh shit oh shit oh shit" when they're sprinting and jumping at you.

[slugger]

I love, love, love melee revenants. The normal revenant has such a great design, but their projectiles make them an aerial threat and a distance controller, and sometimes you just want the tall boxing skeletons without the homing missiles. I made a version with slightly less HP that punches in a quick combo (like one, one-two), which looks funny and kills you really fast if you don't take immediate action (as opposed to pinky bites, where you sometimes just let them hit you out of pity).

 

I have a map where a huge crowd of melee revenants get released into an open setpiece once you've already finished it, so when you get back, it's suddenly peppered with angry skeletons making a beeline directly for you. Slow pinkies wouldn't be scary enough, fast pinkies would cluster up too quickly and become easy to dispatch, and regular revenants would make the encounter about managing missiles.

 

Another idea that I like is subviles. These are wimpy archviles with no attack. They raise monsters much more quickly. They can also raise each other, so if there are just two of them, you're basically playing on sped-up nightmare mode until you manage to kill them both at the same time. If there are more than two the encounters rapidly become impossible unless you can distribute damage over all of them with crushers or BFG tracers.

[Senor Cacodemon]

Now I don't usually play wads with custom monsters but this a treasure trove of custom monsters for a person like me.

[SMG_Man]

For the wad I've been working on I took a huge inventory of things from Realm667, and for the most part they've all been stellar. Conceptually I think my favorites would be the expansions to the zombie roster, namely the Female zombie set, the Xim Rocketguy, and the ZSpec set.

 

The female zombies and the rocketguy fill in most of the gaps left in the original zombie set; the F!Sergeant is basically a doom-skinned SS Nazi, the F!plasma zombie and Rocketguy can put pressure on the player from a distance without it feeling like BS (sorry chaingunners), and the F!railgun zombie is great for having a sniper enemy or two. They basically feel like they should've been there to begin with imo (well, the railgunner would've been ahead of her time a little bit since that gun's from Quake).

 

The ZSpec on the other hand are beefier, smarter zombies. 250 HP may not seem like a lot compared to the Cacodemon's 400 or Hell Knight's 500, but in a Shareware Doom-esque environment, it's all they need to be a clear cut above the other foes. Combined with their hitscan attacks and alternative attacking behaviors, even just two or three of them is enough to put heavy pressure on the player. A single rocket has a decent chance of leaving them alive, and the lack of a SSG makes closing on them without a plan a terrible idea. Really love sprinkling a few of them here and there to keep the player on their toes.

[CherubCorps]

The Joy Elemental. Easily the cutest enemy Doomguy has ever fought. An angel dedicated to resurrecting dead enemies and can spawn Putto, an angelic lost soul that sacrifices itself to resurrect enemies.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

19 minutes ago, RomDump said:

The Joy Elemental. Easily the cutest enemy Doomguy has ever fought. An angel dedicated to resurrecting dead enemies and can spawn Putto, an angelic lost soul that sacrifices itself to resurrect enemies.

Where can I play this? Looks interesting to say the least.

[OniriA]

 

 

 

Serious answer:

 

Although I'd love to create my own monsters someday, from what is available today, 

the following list of sweeties would find a cozy home in my environments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[slugger]

Before I knew about cybruisers, I shrunk a cyberdemon to fill the role of a rocket-firing hell noble.

 

[Shepardus]

1 hour ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Where can I play this? Looks interesting to say the least.

Not sure, but I'm guessing that's from Angelic Aviary.

[CherubCorps]

54 minutes ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Where can I play this? Looks interesting to say the least.

It's from Angelic Aviary, an enemy replacement mod where you take on the angels of heaven rather than the demons of hell. It drastically changes gameplay, is balanced for vanilla and compatible with most maps and mods. 

 

Full disclosure, I'm the author of this mod.

 

 https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=69883

 

 

[Dusty_Rhodes]

1 minute ago, RomDump said:

It's from Angelic Aviary, an enemy replacement mod where you take on the angels of heaven rather than the demons of hell. It drastically changes gameplay, is balanced for vanilla and compatible with most maps and mods. 

 

Full disclosure, I'm the author of this mod.

 

 https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=69883

 

 

I figured, I saw you on the post your sprites thread. Didn't realize it was complete. I'll check it out.

[ginc]

9 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Diabolists (Paradise and other mapsets that use Supercharge/Minicharge)

As Daerik stated, there are archvile variants that can resurrect enemies (and thus create combat urgency), but can be used in an open space more liberally (and not making things unfair) due to their Line of Sight hitscan blast replaced by a delayed area of effect (AoE) attack. This AoE attack can also be used to create arena scenarios where the player has to constantly move in an open field, so as to not get caught by the attacks.

 

Diabolists also add a new angle to infighting since you can kite monsters into their AoE attacks (and like the Arch-Vile, monsters won't retaliate). And then they resurrect the monsters they killed. They're volatile as hell and I love them.

[SleepyVelvet]

When I first learned about Doom mapping, I used ZDoom and messed around with the revolutionary-and-totally-not-scuffed scripting language known as Decorate.  Fooling around with it was fun and I called my favorite creation the Lonely Soul, a blue Lost Soul variant that runs away like a scared fish and sprays health bonus confetti on death - "what if health-packs were fun!":

 

 

^{(this is low-key a good map.  It's a miracle I still have it somewhere, and should probably upload it...)}

 

The creator and Doom mapper, Soundblock, also let me fool around his Clusterfiend sprites, which is like a blue plasma-caco but with more interesting projectile behavior.  I'm proud of how that turned out.

 

Other people's stuff I like a lot, mostly Boom & MBF compatible stuff:

-I really liked Valiant's arachno-orb floating brain.  It doesn't just fill the much needed "mini-caco" role, but meshes with the existing arachnotron stuff in a cool way.  It's not just another flying imp/hellknight clone slapped in there.

-Those green Lost Souls that explode on death from I think Obsidian's Maskim Xul or something.  A flying nukage barrel?  Sure!

-Those teal eye-turrets from Ribbiks' Magnolia.  They're simple but kinda neat.  Magnolia showcased how a simple turret can be used effectively.

-and whatever other cool stuff people've made that I don't feel like mentioning off the top of my head

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by NoisyVelvet : broken img.

[LadyMistDragon]

cyan cyber demons Honestly I think need to play more of the wad genre they appear in (but I won't). Regardless, these guys make a strong complement to any wad they're in by providing a manageable challenge not requiring 'mad 2-shotty skillz' or whatever.

 

night watch cacodemon: Im not sure if they've ever been in anything else but I first saw them in 180 Minutes Pour Vivre. Not really much harder to kill than regular Cacodemons, but their fireball spread lasts a long time and is highly dangerous. On the plus side, they are absolute infighting machines and can be used to balance otherwise obscene difficulty.

 

Ancient Aliens plasma troopers: They have the distinct advantage of having low HP, yet are speedy enough to provide plenty of harrying potential regardless

 

Rocket zombies (any variety). Deadly zombies that aren't chaingunners, which can only be a plus. Their use in Rowdy Rudy's is one of the better ones.

 

Annihilator: Looking for an Enemy you probably won't be able to BFG easily? These guys! After firing rockets at you, they unleash a chaingun attack deadlier than that of the commandos. Definite time setters

 

some others

 

fireball pinkies: what the name says. I guess they're more novelty than anything but that doesn't mean they can't be used

 

Forgotten Ones:or whatever the weaker Lost Soul variant that appears in DBK01 is called. Though Eviternity also had nerfed Lost Souls. Anyways, who doesn't want Lost Souls to due near guaranteed from one shotgun blast?

 

White Imps: Fires a fairly weak hitscan attack but can resurrect other monsters. 

 

There are other Imp variants I liked to some degree but I can't remember their names.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CBM]

13 hours ago, Uni said:

I wished Doom had a Rocket former human who would shoot a player-grade rocket and acted as a glass cannon. I think it would've been a great monster for the roster plus ammo source.

If you want  a 3D version of that particular type of glass cannon, then check out Genetech by Enjay.

[Deadwing]

10 hours ago, Grain of Salt said:

 

Ya ya, exactly!! That's why the green cyb* is probably my favorite custom monster. It doesn't feel like an addition to the gameplay dynamics of the base game, it just sharpens one aspect a little bit. You could probably even do 1/4 hp cybs in actual vanilla without deh if you really wanted, with some janky crusher trickery (although they would look the same as normal cybers and would not infight them).

 

My problem with a lot of custom monsters (which greencybs avoid) is they lack the sense of "contributing to a transferable skillset that applies to basically any wad" that fighting normal monsters have. When you fight a cyberdemon you're practising skills (and discovering ways to have fun) that you can use on thousands of other levels, but when you fight a scythe 2 afrit... there's only like 20 of them in existence, so kinda what's the point.

 

* - imo the canonical name is green cyb or even greencyb, rather than other things i've heard like "teal cyberdemon" and "cyberdemon knight". Iirc I did the sprite edits for magnolia green cyb but not the deh or the original idea, so I have 33-50% custody.

 

 

Nop, ww3 is boom but I'm 99% sure it would work in vanilla :D The deh just gives arachs two of the mancubus's attack codepointers. Which is why I call them firespiders.... even though the projectile doesn't look very fiery tbh. If they end up in other wads people will probably end up calling them Arthropod Deacons or something.

 

They haven't been used much (yet?) but I love firespiders. They just make you move (and think about movement) in a really fun way. They take what I love about arachs and make it subtly more threatening and sort of shmup-esque imo. I'm sure we haven't scratched the surface of cool things you can do with them.

 

Other custom mons that are cool: the eyes from magnolia, and their precursors in some other wad (by Purist maybe?) that use archvile attack on you. I have a soft spot for sc2 afrits even though they have obvious flaws. The ridiculous green cacodemons from some TimeOfDeath wads (which I think are taken from or inspired by an earlier wad?) are kinda great too.

 

Oh, that's cool! I think with that change we lose the mancubus then? (or at least some of its attacks patterns)

[Andromeda]

9 hours ago, NoisyVelvet said:

When I first learned about Doom mapping, I used ZDoom and messed around with the revolutionary-and-totally-not-scuffed scripting language known as Decorate.  Fooling around with it was fun and I called my favorite creation the Lonely Soul, a blue Lost Soul variant that runs away like a scared fish and sprays health bonus confetti on death - "what if health-packs were fun!"

Cool stuff, reminds me of the Jackalopes from REKKR.

[Pirx]

19 hours ago, rd. said:

 

ye, that one could easily be a big post in itself (if I replay it at some point). I'll just leave this: 

 

 

 

lol @ that thing

[ducon]

22 hours ago, Teo Slayer said:

I really love that one zombie who goes AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and explodes in your face. Very funny guy :)

 

This one is clearly inspired by the suicide bomber from Serious Sam (TFE below).

 

15 hours ago, OniriA said:

 

Fhtagn!

Edited November 17, 2021 by ducon

[Pirx]

29 minutes ago, ducon said:

 

Fhtagn!

 

 

those are pretty nightmarish.

[CBM]

I'm about to add this beauty to my monster roster in After Dawn, the first non 40k addition ...

and it could very well become one of my favorite monsters!

 

Its a fully animated Quake 3 player model armed with a plasmagun also originally made for Quake 3...

 

I plan on having it stand-in for Arachnotrons:

 

I may compile alternate versions of this monster that have different weapons... like super shotgun for example

[MemeMind]

There's this interesting enemy that I have seen on the zdoom forums that is a lost soul that can resurrect monsters, but when it resurrects something it kills itself. 

 

It seems like an interesting monster with the utility of a archvile without the combat of an archvile. 

 

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=73551

[KubaloBlackMT]

I think I answered before on another thread about this same topic but I'll go again because I've got a few others

 

 I'm usually not a fan of monsters that are just variations of a pre-existing monster but the Real Abstract Pain are exceptions like this one. My favorite attack is obviously the one where you get close to it and it charges up and fires ball-lightning in all directions. (Eternal DOOM IV)

 

 Nami's Dark Imp is another exception. Black Imps always look cool in Hell environments and specifically in Nami's variation, they shoot homing projectiles so I find it a little more unique in its abilities than just a fast fireball. (Not exactly Skulltag, more specifically a DarkImp pack from Realm667)

 

I mentioned in the other thread that I liked these Supershotgunner guys because they look like Kerry King. The sprite work of his bloated stomach looks a bit weird from certain angles but nonetheless, he's got a fuckin' Super Shotgun. Kind of ass whenever you suddenly end up with 1% health because of one lucky shot from this guy. He looks like he gets a kick out of murdering nature also, which is well deserved because he can take on a decent chunk out of monsters on his own. (Skulltag, got mine from Realm667)

 

Another badass is this Angel of Death guy who fires ricocheting bullets out his chainguns and from his chest-mounted grenade launcher, which allows for a pretty useful gameplay element in my opinion. The bullets are weak dealing only 1 damage but they'll literally stunkill pretty much any monster with a painstate and wipe a whole room with their grenades, it's a sight to behold really. They look so cool from behind in groups firing at a monster like Hell's own firing squadron. They look like they say one-liners every time before shooting. (DOOM X, the wad is dormant however and the website download doesn't work anymore so you'll have to get it from the ZDOOM Community Mapping Project 2)

 

 

Flesh Wizards are also cool because of they're overall creepy designs, like ghostly naked mole rats. I think they appear in Project Brutality or something (I haven't played a lot of it) and their attack is different there but I generally like the basic teleport around and stop to shoot a fireball before teleporting again. There's an issue I've noticed where sometimes the fireball dies as soon as it appears, might have something to do with its placement because it usually happens in small rooms or low ceiling rooms. (DOOM X via website download or Realm667, Project Brutality also has them as an Archvile variant with a different attack)

 

The Succubus has boobs some pretty interesting attacks like firing a row of three pink skull things and strafing to make it harder for you to shoot at them. Really, it's their overall designs that gets them here because their basically super imps. (DOOM X via website as Succubus and Trite BETA, yeah I forgot to mention that. It's the BETA so they lack wings and the cool gibbing and the other stuff probably, the Succubus and Trite in the wad replace the Imps and Demons respectively) 

 

Finally, Trites are small enough to move through little crouch holes and actually do a whole lot of damage with their maw. I recommend doing few at a time but swarms could work if you've got a powerful enough weapon. They're death animation makes them very satisfying to kill as well. (DOOM X via website as Succubus and Trite BETA)

 

Most of these I've already brought up before, but this goes into better detail as to why I like these in particular. I've got some other monsters I like but that'll literally make this post too damn big so I'll leave it as that or maybe make a second continuation if I feel like it's that important for some reason.

Edited November 17, 2021 by KubaloBlackMT

[Naarok0fkor]

Love Brutal doom's Volcabus...

[KubaloBlackMT]

Alright here's the big sequel to my previous post with more munsters. I think I'll include here and edit my previous post to show where I got the monsters from or where they appear in. I won't post individual monster wads (If they're known specifically from a wad in particular) because I think it's nice to check out the wads they come from if you haven't tried them.

 

Ok so first is the Alpha Soul from DOOM Zero. Of course, a good use of the early lost soul sprites as a sort of turret enemy. They'll float around like a Lost Soul until you're in sight of them, they'll then continuously fire cacodemon projectiles at your which  fits well with the puzzle priority that DOOM Zero has. Personally however, I don't really like the name Alpha Soul too much, and I'll prefer call them "Maledicts".

 

Rocket zombies are pretty cool being a really weak enemy with such a dangerous weapon. They appear in Eternal Doom IV as far as I know but I think I got mine from Realm667 if I remember correctly. Not really much else to say about them other than they look funny when they walk up to a demon like a gangsta and kill both of each other like two cosmic elements with opposite poles colliding into an explosion. Though, I assume you want something with a bit bigger...

 

Ok this one's a monster I'm more used to seeing. The Cybruiser is basically your best bet for a rocket launching demon that isn't too much biceps to handle. I know I said I'm used to seeing them but I literally can't remember any of the wads they were in, I'm sure however that they pop up a lot in those big wads with lots of monsters all over the place and stuff.  Basically they shoot these rockets that deal a pretty heavy amount of damage. I got mine from Realm667 and so I don't know if there was an older version that fired Cyberdemon rockets because I swear I remember seeing a version like that. These Terminator demons are probably your greatest choice for having a weak Cyberdemon.

 

Lopers are very much like the Lopers from RTCW but they can teleport and look more like gorillas. They're pretty much chunkier demons with a continuous deal of damage, so you'll want to be careful not to get cornered. I'm pretty sure the Succubi like to hang out with this guy a lot but unfortunately he's missing the most important half for the ladies, and you thought Hell would be the place you'd achieve your greatest desires from. They are monsters from DOOM X but I think It's been dormant for a long while so you'll have to get em via Realm667.

 

I got these Vores from the Zdoom Community Mapping Project 2, which is also where I got the Angel of Death from. Who doesn't love a good Vore, with their super accurate homing attacks. It's actually pretty scary to have a floating deathball chase you around from every corner. Also the sprite job seems pretty good, it looks like the model from Quake but touched up a bit to look more Doom-ish and less polygonal.

 

So yeah there's part 2. Just wanted to point out some other custom guys that I felt like talking about because come on, I assume we all talk in excessive detail about random things.

Edited November 18, 2021 by KubaloBlackMT

[Jacek Bourne]

1000 health cybers

Afrits (The Deus Vult 2 variant)

Evil Marines (The Scythe 2 ones)

All Valiant Monsters

All Eviternity Monsters

Evil Eyes (Magnolia)

Edited November 17, 2021 by Jacek Bourne

[Plats]

7 minutes ago, Jacek Bourne said:

1000 health cybers

Afrits (The Deus Vult 2 variant)

Evil Marines (The Scythe 2 ones)

All Valiant Monsters

Evil Eyes (Magnolia)

 

Evil eyes are not monsters i think