Heretweak v0.5 RELEASED! Now with Altfires!

[Baratus]

Do you think that Heretic is just a bit pants?
Do you really want to get into Heretic, but are put off by the wimpy arsenal that just isn't satisfying to use?
Would you like your regular Heretic experience to be amped up just enough to make you feel powerful while retaining at least some vague semblance of balance?

Then have I got the mod for you!

Heretweak is a weapons tweak mod that makes your Elven arsenal feel more powerful, while making each weapons refreshingly unique and satisfying to use (even that crappy wooden staff)!

What's in this mod?
-Almost all weapons have been modified to be stronger, flashier, and most importantly just feel better to use. Dispose of D’Sparil’s minions with new-found vigor!
-Not feeling so dependent on that old Tome of Power to gets things done? Fear not! The Tomed weapon variants have been augmented even further, taking the mayhem to new levels!
-Time Bomb of the Ancients now has a slight forward trajectory – good for tossing headlong into a crowd of nasties!
-Health items are now used instantly, like in Doom. For thou hastn’t time to bleed!
-Other minor gameplay tweaks have been made to spice things up!

So, without further delay, download the mod now! Return to Pathoris for a new and improved Elven excursion of extermination!
Works with ZDoom and any vanilla Heretic level pack.

What's new?
Several weapons now have alternate fire modes, meaning that you now possess DOUBLE the means of asskicking D'Sparil's hordes. Yes, this includes new firing modes for the Tomed weapons as well!

Besides that, there have been numerous balance tweaks made to each of the weapons to ensure they all have a sufficient amount of strength for both fire modes, along with some minor alterations to certain items.

I had intended to keep this mod as "vanilla" as possible and not go overboard on the new content but I felt that the mod could be something more substantial.

Big thanks to Jimmy, Neoworm and osjclatchford for the extra sprites and resources featured in the mod!
More thanks to Jimmy for last minute testing and feedback.

SCREENSHOTS:

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DOWNLOAD:
DOWNLOAD HERETWEAK v0.5 HERE!
Patch for Elf Gets Pissed by RottKing

THE STORY SO FAR (NEW CHAPTER!):

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Once upon a generic fantasy setting there was a little Elf called Danny. The monsters would tease and laugh at Danny Elf all the time, saying that he was a wimpy loser and that he looked a bit like a girl. Danny hated this teasing, and wanted to show them all that Elves could be badass too. Alas, the mighty Serpent Riders who commanded these legions of monsters decreed that Elves were, in fact, totally lame and not really all that tough.

"We'll just see about that," Danny Elf scowled. It was time for this 'little Elf' to commit some serious heresy.

--

When we last left our hero Danny Elf on his daring mission - to prove to the Serpent Riders that elves aren't just wimpy losers with crappy wooden staves and pathetic abs - Danny had kidnapped a couple of Dwarven weaponsmiths, and, getting them sufficiently drunk on healing salve, had them reforge his weapons with several all-new flavours of badassery. Now Danny's arsenal has been extended even further, and he is ready to return to monster-infested Pathoris and wreak sweet vengeanceful fury!

CHANGELOG:

Spoiler

v0.5:
-Tome of Power pickup sprite is now animated. Sprites used from osjclatchford's Heretic/Hexen addons. (12/06/16)
-Quartz Flasks have been recoloured and renamed to Crystal Flasks. Mystic Urn fancy pickup sprite and sound removed. (12/06/16)
-Gauntlets of the Necromancer altfire has been added. (12/06/16)
-Tomed Gauntlets of the Necromancer altfire has been added. (12/06/16)
-Tomed Gauntlets attack rate reduced by 3 tics. (12/06/16)
-Staff Altfire has been added. (12/06/16)
-Tomed Staff Altfire has been added. (12/06/16)
-Tomed Dragon Claw primary fire damage has been increased. (12/06/16)
-Altfire for Tomed Dragon Claw has been added. (12/06/16)
-Altfire projectiles for Dragon Claw and Hellstaff have pretty little trails! (10/06/16)
-Altfire for Dragon Claw added. (10/06/16)
-Animations for various weapons have been prettied up a little. (10/06/16)
-Altfire for Hellstaff added. Now deals splash damage. (10/06/16)
-Altfire for Tomed Hellstaff stolen. (10/06/16)
-Altfire for GoldWand added. (10/06/16)
-Altfire for Tomed GoldWand added. (10/06/16)
-Altfire for Crossbow has been added! (09/06/16)
-Tomed Crossbow altfire has been added. (09/06/16)
v0.4d:
-All Mummy variants now drop 5 Gold Wand ammo. (Added 18/01/16.)
-Energy Orb now gives 25 ammo, down from 50. (Added 15/01/16.)
-Phoenix Rod puff animation tweaked. (Added 29/12/15.)
-Dragon Claw damage per shot increased from 3 to 4. (Added 29/12/15.)
-Gold Wand spread reduced from between 1-2 to 0-1. (Added 29/12/15.)
-Mystic Urn now instantly gives 100 bonus health, up to 200 health total. (Added 26/12/15.)

v0.4c: (18/12/15)
-Gold Wand ammo dropped by Mummies give 5 ammo, up from 3.
-Tomed Dragon Claw main projectile damage increased from 2 to 4.
-Quartz Flask is now an instant use item.
-Phoenix Rod ammo pool increased from 20 to 25.
-With Bag of Holding, ammo pool increased from 40 to 50.
-Iron Lich whirlwind has opacity of 0.8, up from 0.4.
-Iron Lich whirlwind SHOULD be destructible.
-Ghost variants of enemies such as Knights and Mummies now have the Doom Fuzz effect.
-Time Bomb of the Ancients tweaked.
-Time Bomb translucency set to 0.8, up from 0.4.
-Time Bomb damage increased from 128 to 150.
-Time Bomb travels ~96 units before exploding, coding thanks to Jimmy.

v0.4b: (09/12/15)
-Fire Mace uses 10 ammo instead of 5.
-Tomed Gold Wand's first shot is doubled.
-Phoenix Rod fire rate adjusted by 2 tics.
-Tome of Power duration increased from 40 seconds to 50.
-Tomed Fire Mace implemented.
-Death balls split into smaller death balls, which split into regular balls.
-Now working as intended, thanks to coding by Jimmy!
-Tomed Fire Mace split projectiles scaled up from 0.5 to 0.75.

v0.4a: (09/12/15)
-Tomed Gold Wand bullet damage is now the same as its normal variant.
-Gauntlets and Tomed Gauntlets tweaked.
-Gauntlets fire rate increased by 25%.
-Gauntlets windup time reduced by 50%.
-Large Claw Orb now gives 50 ammo instead of 25.
-Hellstaff projectile kickback reduced from 150 to 100.
-Hellstaff normal projectiles scaled up from 0.67 to 0.8.
-Tomed Gold Wand behaviour tweaked.
-Consumes 1 ammo every 3 shots.
-Fire rate slightly decreased.
-Vertical spread reduced.
-Now uses standard GoldWandPuff.

v0.2: (08/12/15)
-Fire Mace has its Tomed attack for its regular attack.
-Phoenix Rod implemented.
-Phoenix Rod fire rate slightly increased.
-Phoenix Rod recoil slightly increased.
-Dragon Claw now fires three projectiles, each with 3 damage.
-Tomed Dragon Claw tweaked.
-Increased fire rate.
-Tomed Gold Wand implemented.
-Tomed Gold Wand fires extremely fast.
-Hellstaff behaviour changed.
-Hellstaff shots alternate from left to right.
-Hellstaff shots scaled up to 0.67.
-Hellstaff has new firing sprites, thanks to Jimmy!
-Tomed Staff implemented.
-Tomed Staff base damage increased to 40.
-Tomed Staff deals 1000 weapon kickback on foes.
-Tomed Staff puff now 25% smaller.
-Staff behaviour tweaked.
-Staff melee range increased from 44 to 96.
-Staff damage changed from between 10 and 30 to between 4 and 32.
-Tomed Crossbow implemented.
-Tomed Crossbow now shoots 5 large projectiles and 2 small ones.
-Tomed Crossbow projectile speed increased from 32 to 48.

v0.1: (08/12/15)
-Staff reworked.
-Staff animation frames tweaked to give more impact.
-Staff damage increased from between 5 and 20 damage to between 10 and 30.
-Dragon Claw reworked.
-Dragon Claw fire rate increased and windup animation decreased.
-Hellstaff projectiles smaller, travel faster and have slightly higher damage.
-Hellstaff projectiles scaled down to 0.6.
-Hellstaff projectile speed increased from 22 to 32.
-Hellstaff damage increased from 3 to 4.
-Gold Wand reworked.
-Gold Wand fire rate increased from 13 tics to 8 tics
-Gold Wand bullet spread greatly reduced.
-Crossbow reworked.
-Crossbow shoots three large bolts instead of 1 large and 2 small.
-Crossbow total damage increased from 14 to 30.

UPCOMING FEATURES:

Spoiler

There are some elements I have left as is, either because I didn’t have any ideas for them, or the ideas I did have were too complicated or too dramatic a change to make.
Only the weapons have been tweaked, with very little changes made to the monsters. I have had the idea of releasing a separate mod with new and interesting enemy variants, in case the new weapons take out all the challenge. I’ve yet to give it a whole lot of thought, so any suggestions will be very much appreciated.

As it stands, there are still plenty of changes and modifications I could make to this mod before I called it complete, but I believe there is a substantial amount of new stuff in it to consider a release after several days of painstakingly coding DECORATE after 6 months of inactivity. I am still considering a (separate) R667 monster variety pack for the mod if such a thing doesn't already exist.

THANKS TO:

Spoiler

id Software - for the DooM engine
Raven Software - for making Heretic
ZDoom Wiki - for being my goto guide for relearning DECORATE
Jimmy - for some extra sprites, and helping me fix things when my abysmal coding broke everything beyond all reasonable measure
Xaser - for positive feedback

[Jimmy]

This is very cool and makes Heretic a lot of fun. Have you done the impossible here, sir? :O

[Graf Zahl]

Although I wouldn't use this for the original game, I know a few mods where this will come in very handy.

Thanks.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Any screenshots?

[Baratus]

JohnnyTheWolf said:

Any screenshots?

Right! Thought I was forgetting something. I've added some to the first post.

[Impie]

This makes Heretic as fast and fun to play as Doom, which is all I can ask for in a Heretic weapon mod. The original weapons are so nerfed it made every combat tedious as hell.

However, I would definitely make the alt fires cost a lot more ammo per shot, to keep the player from being OP. Maybe 5 per shot instead of 1 or 2.

[kuchitsu]

Well, you need to power up the monsters as well then, otherwise using this will feel very cheater-ish.

[HavoX]

Mmmmm-hmmm! I love me some Heretic mods!

The offset of the staff's alt-fire in the second screenshot looks... a bit off.