Disjointed Storms (Minor Gameplay Mod)

[-- Alexei --]

 

After working since around December 2022 I've finally decided to actually release this thing, it's been considered finished so many times yet I was avoiding uploading it every single time. Now that I actually think it looks acceptable for releasing, I'm putting it here. Not gonna lie, it's very similar to C.L.R. in terms of concept and has a few ideas that manage to be almost or actually identical, I was actually quite disappointed when I found out someone already had almost the same ideas as me and was executing them better, but here I am.

An important thing to point out is that none of the graphics used in this mod are really actually mine except for around 5 or 6 minor things, even then I did still modify some stuff to accomodate their purpose, and I also credited all authors possible in the credits menu (even if I might have forgotten a thing or two, if I did I'd be happy to change stuff up).

 

Anyway, let's talk about what's actually important and what you actually want to know.

 

Disjointed Storms is a small gameplay mod made for Zandronum 3.1 & 3.2 (tested in GZDoom 4.7.1 & 4.11.3a) that aims to improve some aspects from DOOM that might not live to modern standards or not be appealing enough, all while trying not to deviate from a purist experience without completely boring anybody that isn't a purist. I know you may not enjoy some features, so things are toggleable like monsters, some visual eye candy and a few other things, also effective for compatibility for maps with DeHackED or just gimmicky maps.

 

The weapons in this mod have fairly beefier sounds and are fairly faster to shoot yet not OP because of their accuracy, base damage, etc. Like for example the shotgun, which I semi-buffed so that it wouldn't be completely forgotten the moment you get the SSG and doesn't hold you back as much against cacodemons in DOOM I. I also buffed the chaingun, making it actually have a good firerate. Don't worry about sniping, you can use the pistol for that (which has a bit more base damage than the latter).

 

It also includes:

 

Spoiler

 

• Revenant rockets have a better RNG damage formula, which makes things a little more fair since you won't sometimes take 10 damage from a revenant and then get flanked by an 80 damage revvie rocket (this formula tweak also applies for hitscanners and other things).
• Faster player rockets (yes, player only, so you can still humilliate the cybie and have more fun in deathmatch).
• Faster lost souls (though less endurant and do slightly less damage).
• Rebalancing for the spider mastermind (that's a surprise, I'm no snitch).
• A custom fullscreen HUD designed for 16:9 widescreen (if anybody wants I can make a separate one for 4:3 or whatever non-widescreen is).
• A certain degree of randomness/replayability with deadplayer things having different colors, random monster variants, etc...
• Different colors for the leg shown in the fists' altfire (for various player colors).
• Some appeal for D64 fans, which is another surprise.
• A deathmatch map in UDMF by me with a techbase theme (type "map DMMAPA" in the console without the quotations).
• A zombie with a carbine rifle that sometimes replaces the chaingunner, he also switches from burst-fire into semi-auto to snipe you from afar, but also drops damaged blue armor.
• Custom skies for DOOM I & II that don't interfere with separate maps (if you load properly, in my case I just multi-select and drag FROM the mod, idk how I can describe load orders if that's even the correct word).
• A scientist zombie that sometimes drops stimpacks but is pretty fast and hard to hit yet is the weakest enemy, though he has a pretty powerful crowbar.

 

 

 

There's tons and tons of other minor quality of life and fairness changes like cybies dropping rockets, double-chainsaw gibbing zombies and imps, cacos and cybies having separate idle noises, doomguy laughing while having a berserk pack (don't worry it's just the heretic wpnup sound, also replaces Zandronum's taunt), the blursphere being often replaced with a pack of semi-weak marines that obliterate fodder enemies and aren't as annoying as BD ones, etc.

 

Lastly, if you have any kind of advise on something I should change, bugs you find or any way to optimize/fix something, feel free to reply to this post.

 

Original download: here

1.0 Release: here

1.1 Release: here

1.11 Release: here

1.2 Release: here

1.3 Release: here

Changelogs are in the replies to this post & inside the .pk3

 

Screenshots:

https://ibb.co/kxp7Sn3
https://ibb.co/4T8W2SS
https://ibb.co/cFZBXXb
https://ibb.co/pyqVyqW
https://ibb.co/hVHLgb9
https://ibb.co/Fzfx4bW

 

And finally here's a showcase with some q2 music:

 

Edited February 29 by -- Alexei -- : general wording and shortening stuff (also new versions)

[-- Alexei --]

Time for an update! Not a bump! I know nobody actually cares that much about this mod but I may have gotten a little bit attached to this niche project. This update will be the very special v1.0 and includes some moderate changes and a couple of bugfixes.

------------ Changelog (v1.0) -------------------------------------------
-Better DEagle sprite shading
-Improved chaingun pickup sprite
-Changed 1 frame's timing in SSG and its pickup sprite
-Improved SG pickup message and sprite
-Fixed player drift detection
-Improved sound sync on SG primary animation
-Changed deadplayer variant randomness
-Fixed rocket launcher rocket fire position and increased recoil in sprites
-Fixed Plasma ball sprite offset
-Improved player walking speed

-Made the buff to the Spider Mastermind toggleable
-Changed caliber written in shell and ammo boxes
-Improved rocket boxes
-Adjusted Mastermind's height
-Fixed wrong footstep sound definition with dirt and gravel
-Increased volume in some footstep sounds

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

The changelog is also in the MAPINFO lump inside the pk3 if anybody wants to snoop inside, though I doubt it.

 

I will once again reiterate that any suggestions, advice or opinions are as welcome as the download link is on this post

Edited October 26, 2023 by -- Alexei -- : no idea how I forgot to format the link lol

[TheFartKing]

This looks super neat. As a purist, I was looking for something to spice things up in Zandronum.

[-- Alexei --]

Another update has come! I playtested once again, this time through the whole classic doom IWADs and I've done some changes, this update is similar to the last one in size, but I've made the custom enemies a bit harder, be it more aggressive or just buffed some stuffs. This obviously also comes with bugfixes and fixes to a couple of weird exploits.

------------ Changelog (v1.1) -----------------
-Fixed chaingun sniping on 1 fire key press
-Adjusted spin-up and spin-down shots accuracy on chaingun
-Fixed rocket launcher making TNT unbeatable
-Changed chaingun pickup sprite lightly
-Nerfed carbineguy base damage
-Compressed bullet casing sounds to 11000hz like the other sounds
-Increased aggression on (almost) every custom monster
-Made SSGing imps a lil bit cooler
-Increased steps taken per tic on HUD interpolation
-Changed armor pickup strings
-Improved some ammo pickup strings
-Changed plasma ball spawnheight
-Fixed damaged armor shielding too much
-Changed chaingun accuracy and it's casing "position"

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

Again, the download link (I just discovered a harmless bug with a pickup message, download the one below instead) to this version is on the original post and right here as you just saw, remember that opinions are welcome and enjoy!

Edited November 28, 2023 by -- Alexei -- : it's right there on the reply, there was a bug

[-- Alexei --]

You might be wondering why this next update came so quick unless you just read the bolded text above this reply, turns out I missed ONE semicolon in the LANGUAGE lump and the pickup message for clips was done for, harmless and dumb and all.

There isn't really a changelog to post apart from that, this is the download link.

[DoctorNuriel]

Looks really cool!

[-- Alexei --]

I should have done this on christmas, but it's not really that important and I also did a change yesterday soo

Anyway, here is v1.2 if anybody is still interested in this mod, here's the changelog

------------ Changelog (v1.2) -----------------
-Fixed a potential bug with the ghosts that come out of zombies after death
-Marines also play the weapon drop sound on death like players
-Fixed marine attack sequence
-Changed casing sprites & some of their DECORATE code
-Increased FOV change in SSG firing sequence
-Improved unmaker pickup sprite

Have a merry christmas and a merry download link!

[-- Alexei --]

I'm back with more! Its not the biggest update ever because I don't seem to find much to improve at this point, maybe I shouldn't have waited so long to upload the first version, but whatever. Also because I got sick on half of January and then got a new computer beginning February so it took pretty long to move over my 130GB personal folder with all of my games using just an 8GB pendrive (also because I maaaay have gotten a little too excited replaying HL and L4D with bearable fps).

 

I did make some pretty necessary changes though, they're pretty neat and some of them use little tech trickery. Here's the changelog:

------------ Changelog (v1.3) -----------------
-Improved shotgun primary and alternate fire muzzleflash
-Changed plasma rifle fire sound
-Changed some footstep sounds into ones from HL1 & HLOP
-Added sounds for switching weapons
-Changed the footstep testing area in the testing map
-Dead marine & bloody mess decorations leave blood splatters in walls
-Starting a new game shows a cool animation
-Added dynamic lights to the BFG ball
-Improved an imp variant's behavior
-Every weapon now bobs at double speed (how did I not notice that?)
-Removed the hellish area from the DM map and added a 3D skybox to the techbase area, as unnoticeable as it is
-Made a custom bot for Zandronum Enjoyers™

 

Here's the download and remember to have fun and feel free to leave any criticism here!