Brutal Doom - General Thread and v22 Development news

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

"Hello folks, have you heard of this little gameplay mod called Broodal Doom?"

Main mod page:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/brutal-doom

This is a thread where I will post news related to the mod, and may be used as a general thread for discussing Brutal Doom, any of it's forks, and talk about how to modify the mod to make your own fork. Hopefully this will stop people from making "What's your opinion on Brutal Doom" threads. 

Latest news - April 20 2022:

I decided to take a month out of Brutal Fate's development to work on a public beta of Brutal Doom v22 and finish Extermination Day. I believe getting rid of side projects will help to ease my anxiety and help me to focus on Brutal Fate better.
The development of version 22 of Brutal Doom has started this month. The aim is to provide at least a good public beta by the end of April/mid of May with a final version of Extermination Day. It might take years for the final version of v22 to come out, but even the first public beta builds will provide a far better experience over v21 Gold.

On this first dev mini-diary, I'm documenting the performance improvements brought by bringing the hitbox system of VietDoom into it and replacing the old multi-box system, and also great improvements in the way the engine spawns particle effects and explosions.
The partial result: Slaughterfest wads that were previously unplayable with BDv21 or prior versions can now be decently played on my rig (i3 8100, GTX 1660).
On this video I'm playing Map 30 of Speed of Doom, a ridiculous final battle that pits the player against 3000 monsters in a huge arena. On v21, the game would freeze a few seconds after stepping into the arena, but now it's completely playable on an average of 20 to 30fps.
 

 

[Codename_Delta]

Looks very good I must say!

 

Even with BDPlatinum 2.0 just chilling in my gzdoom folder with PB3.0 Being my longest played brutal mod on my laptop, I still think that this can very likely get more screen time than bdplatinum sadly might ever. 

[Wilster_Wonkels]

I've been wondering about extermination day for years. One of my favourite mapsets, so just to see some news on that is great.

[Chezza]

Cheers, I was curious about the any future updates.

 

A part of me wants to create another BD dedicated wad that utilises (but can only function with) the mod's mechanics and features.

 

Besides from a lot of work and re-learning editing, an unexpected update could break my scripting which is a deterrent. But now I have more information.

[kalensar]

YAY! I will gladly welcome a new Official version of Extermination Day! <3

 

My love of that campaign itself brought about the EDay 2019 Vanilla mod and I would not care in the least if an Official version obsoleted one of my most complex projects. <3

[CoolerDoomeR]

Hell yeah! Also we need a newer ssg for the v22 :)

[CenturionX]

On 4/20/2022 at 7:26 PM, Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

"...completely playable on an average of 20 to 30 fps"

 

Looking forward to this, Mark.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

The Slaughtermap Detection System at work making Brutal Doom playable on fucking Okuplok. (on Zandronum)

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

Here is a new dev diary showcasing the performance achievements, side by side comparisons with v21, and a bit of teasing of new features.
 

Vanillafication
I have decided to revert the design of many things in Brutal Doom to be more like what they used to be in Vanilla. One of these things you can already notice in the dev diary is the Chaingun, which now looks and plays a lot more like the Vanilla version. This also gives the opportunity for the Machinegun to be rebalanced to have a faster rate of fire and higher spread.
Chaingun Zombies also have their old design restored.
Removing the Archville's horns and returning the Cacodemon's crimson tone to its original bright tomato form are also planned.
 

The Weapons System
You may have found problems playing some custom maps which you are expected to have a rocket launcher or a plasma gun near the beginning, and it gets replaced by a Railgun or Grenade Launcher, and it makes playing the level basically impossible.
The old weapon randomization really was terrible and broke the gameplay flow with several custom maps. Now the new system spawns new weapons and items differently. Instead of replacing and randomizing existing weapons, they are randomly spawned near special items such as the Backpack.

All new weapons such as the Grenade Launcher, Railgun, BFG10k, Autoshotgun, Machinegun, Submachinegun, Flamethrower, Nuke Launcher, and Unmaker will now use this system.
Some planned new content includes: Doom 3 Sentry Bot, Soul Cube, Freezethrower, Devastators, the Karasawa (a weapon from the ages old Brutal Arsenal addon).
All the custom weapons can be disabled with a menu option.

 

 

[Chezza]

7 hours ago, Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

Here is a new dev diary showcasing the performance achievements, side by side comparisons with v21, and a bit of teasing of new features.
 

Vanillafication
...

The Weapons System
...

 

Cool I like this direction. Optimisation, vanillafication and less randomisation well help create a more coherent experience. This will also be good for custom wad campaigns built specifically for Brutal Doom.

[SHEYDE X43]

I am really excited for this mod

[SHEYDE X43]

The mod has been a major contributor to my to my inspiration for making mods your a badass sarge you really are

[Zbord77]

I tried this version it's verry nice feels amazing to play and looks great, I think it just needs some polish.

[Blacklight]

I also played V22 and... I don't even know how to rate it.

 

On the one hand, the Sprites have become better and the Minigun has become more close to the "Vanilla" Look. Not to mention the Best Optimization of the Mod!

 

But on the Other hand, "Brutal Doom" itself has become... Is it easier? No, seriously, he has become more "Vanilla" that even the Cyberdemon has ceased to be a Strong Threat.

 

But so far we've only played the Test Version, so it's worth waiting for the "Golden Edition" for the final verdict.

[siealex]

BD22 beta 3, GZDOOM 4.11.3, ultra-violence.

DOOM II MAP06 (The Crusher): the spider demon dies 4..5 second after pressing the crusher switch. Is it OK?

MAP08: demons in the secret rhombus shaped room do not react to sound unless I am in the same exact sector. This happens on other maps as well.
* TNT MAP03 (Wormhole): several monsters (e. g. hellknights) don't react even to SSG shots unless they see me directly.

MAP10: the cyberdemon dies from one point-blank BFG blast. Even in vanilla it requires at least two, typically three.

PSMAP29 (Twilight Descends): both exits lead to MAP14.

MAP15: one of the large yellow doors is displayed with two different textures separated by a vertical line.

A small additional map after MAP20 (Hell Gate): the exit leads to a non-existing map and the game crashes.

A bug with weapons: I often cannot select anything in slots 6 or 7 unless I pick up the same weapon again.

TNT MAP10 (Redemption): monsters do not teleport into the yellow key room.

* The same situation on MAP11 (Storage Facility).

Friendly plasma gun marines often stand still and continuously fire to the same point until I finish the level.

Edited February 19 by siealex

[siealex]

TNT MAP24 and MAP29 (possibly other maps as well). The enhancement system replaces nukage with insta-kill lava, making several secrets impossible to obtain without cheats.

[chebmaster]

BUG REPORT:

Splitting the keys into separate visual part and invisible pickupable part *breaks* maps that teleport keys by their TID using Thing_Move() - like EDAY30. Because the teleported key is then invisible and the visual actor vanishes on pick up doing nothing.

 

My ugly hack I used in my build of EDAY:

 

ACTOR FixBlueCard: GLBlueCard replaces GLBlueCard {
	States
	{
	Spawn:
		BKEY A 0
		TNT1 A 0 ACS_NamedExecuteAlways("IllusoryKeyFollowRealKey")
		TNT1 A 35
		BKEY A 0 A_SpawnItemEx("EvidenceCheckerBlueKey", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, SXF_NOCHECKPOSITION)
		BKEY A 0 A_SpawnItemEx("BlueCard", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, SXF_NOCHECKPOSITION|SXF_CLEARCALLERTID|SXF_TRANSFERSCALE, 0, TID)
		BKEY A 0 A_SetScale(1.0, 1.0)
		BKEY A 0 ACS_NamedExecuteAlways("NoRandomSprites")
		BKEY A 2
		BKEY A 0 A_Jump(128,2)
		BKEY A 0 A_SetScale(-scalex,scaley)
	NoRandom:
		BKEY A 10
		BKEY B 10 Bright
		Loop
	}
}

 

Script "IllusoryKeyFollowRealKey" (void) {
	int x, y, z, newx, newy, newz, mytid;
	mytid = ActivatorTID();
	if (!mytid) {
		mytid = UniqueTID();
		Thing_ChangeTID(0, mytid); 
	}
	x = GetActorX(mytid);
	y = GetActorY(mytid);
	z = GetActorZ(mytid);	
	delay(70); // DECORATE does its black magic, spawns a pickable with mytid and clears tid on the caller
	while(TRUE) {
		newx = GetActorX(mytid);
		newy = GetActorY(mytid);
		newz = GetActorZ(mytid);
		if (x != newx || y != newy || z != newz) {
			x = newx;
			y = newy;
			z = newz;
			SetActorPosition(0, x, y, z, 0);
		}
		delay(10);
	}
}

 

[chebmaster]

BUG REPORT:

*ALL* slaughterswaps WRECK map scripting because these swaps ERASE both monster's TID and special!

You killed the cyberdemon and something should happen in the map? LOL gg, toobad, the map is broken now. Go cry in the corner.

Because the replacement cyberdemon does not remember he should have done that important thing on death. Scripts break too: they detect he is dead as soon as the swap happens so the door opens prematurely.

And so on and so forth.

 

TNT1 A 0 A_SpawnItemEx ("ABloodyCyberdemon2",0,0,0,0,0,0,0,SXF_NOCHECKPOSITION | SXF_TRANSFERAMBUSHFLAG ,0)

should be

TNT1 A 0 A_SpawnItemEx ("ABloodyCyberdemon2",0,0,0,0,0,0,0,SXF_NOCHECKPOSITION | SXF_TRANSFERAMBUSHFLAG | SXF_TRANSFERSPECIAL | SXF_TRANSFERPOINTERS | SXF_CLEARCALLERTID ,0, TID)

for *all* monsters that perform such swap!

 

Preferrably, also SXF_TRANSFERTRANSLATION and SXF_TRANSFERSCALE in case someone builds a megawad relying on BD and creates descendant classes (like I use palette-shifted Cyberdemon Runts as bosses' minions in my EDAY23)

[chebmaster]

BUG REPORT:

Actor BarrelKaboom spawns 4 instances of ExplosionSpawner

Actor ExplosionSpawner spawns 4 instances of SpawnedExplosion

Actor SpawnedExplosion uses A_PlaySound("FAREXPL").

It is super effective: the sound card curls up in pain going into protective shutdown from 16 instances of FAREXPL playing simultaneously at maximum volume -- resulting in several seconds of total silence.

Confirmed with the Realtek sound card on my old laptop and the HDMI-to-VGA+analog stereo attached to my new laptop.

[chebmaster]

BUG REPORT:

Sounds TANKF and TANKMG do not have a roloff defined, which results in zombie machinegun turrets and enemy tanks firing in complete silence because the distances you encounter them at (at least in EDAY) is greater than the max default roloff distance.

[chebmaster]

BUG REPORT (forgot to report this long ago!):

SuperBlurSphere dropped by spectres still has +COUNTITEM, which potentially ruins someone's maxing run if that spectre manages to die out of player's reach, in a deadly pit or something like that. Because then you won't get 100% items and Zandronum saying "PERFECT!"

 

Proposed solution:

ACTOR SuperBlurSphereNoCount: SuperBlurSphere {
	-COUNTITEM
}

actor SpectreBlurSphere: BasicWeaponPickup2
{
    States
    {
	Spawn:
		TNT1 A 0
		TNT1 A 0 ACS_NamedExecuteAlways("NODemonBlur")
		TNT1 A 4
	Spawn2:
		//TNT1 A 1 A_SpawnItemEx ("SuperBlurSphere",3,0,5,0,0,0,0,SXF_NOCHECKPOSITION | SXF_TRANSFERAMBUSHFLAG ,0)
		TNT1 A 1 A_SpawnItemEx ("SuperBlurSphereNoCount",3,0,5,0,0,0,0,SXF_NOCHECKPOSITION | SXF_TRANSFERAMBUSHFLAG ,0)
		Stop
	Cancels:
		TNT1 A 0
		Stop
	}
}

:

 

[chebmaster]

Slaughterswaps are hacky, prone to bugs and COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY!

The optimization could easily be done on the blood's side!

 

Prototyped it, tested it, works like a charm!

 

actor Brutal_Blood Replaces Blood
{
	...

	// Blood's Target is set to the monster bleeding - 
	//    allows using A_JumpIfInTargetInventory("SlaughterCounter", ...
	+PUFFGETSOWNER
	
	...
	States
	{
	  Spawn:
			BSPR A 0
			// THIS!!! instead of complicated slaughterswaps
			TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfInTargetInventory("SlaughterCounter", 30, "LowBlood")

For R&D I analyzed the source code of Zandronum:

 

void P_SpawnBlood (fixed_t x, fixed_t y, fixed_t z, angle_t dir, int damage, AActor *originator)
{
	// [BB] Initialize with NULL.
	AActor *th = NULL;
	PalEntry bloodcolor = originator->GetBloodColor();
	const PClass *bloodcls = originator->GetBloodType();
	
	int bloodtype = cl_bloodtype;
	
	if (bloodcls != NULL && !(GetDefaultByType(bloodcls)->flags4 & MF4_ALLOWPARTICLES))
		bloodtype = 0;

	if (bloodcls != NULL)
	{
		z += pr_spawnblood.Random2 () << 10;
		th = Spawn (bloodcls, x, y, z, NO_REPLACE); // GetBloodType already performed the replacement
		th->velz = FRACUNIT*2;
		th->angle = dir;
		// [NG] Applying PUFFGETSOWNER to the blood will make it target the owner
		if (th->flags5 & MF5_PUFFGETSOWNER) th->target = originator; 

 

 

P.S. Anyone able to contact Sergeant Mark IV, poke him with a stick. This one is important, would allow saving a lot of his effort and increase BD22's robustness.

Edited June 10 by chebmaster

[chebmaster]

BUG REPORT:
RevenantPiece and LSPart1 call
TNT1 A 0 Thing_ChangeTID(0,394)
for unknown reason (this number is never encountered in any ACS scripts or elsewhere in DECORATE scripts)
, which WILL interfere with scripts relying on UniqueTID() (say, allocated 394 for something really important before any revenant or lost soul bled)
and MAY interfere with scripted maps reserving this TID for themselves