Skeletal Revenge

Name: Skeletal Revenge
Class: Level 4
Type: Projectile, Seeker
Palette: Custom
Summon: SkeletalRevenge
Ammotype: SoulRocketAmmo, RevSkullAmmo
AltFire: Yes
Powered Mode: None
Brightmaps: Yes
Actor Modifications: None
ACS: None

Submitted: Doomedarchviledemon
Code: Doomedarchviledemon, PillowBlaster
Sounds: Valve Software, FreeDoom, Lobotomy Software
Sprites: Doom, Blood, Touhou Hisouten, Simpletonnn, Eriance
GLFEDS: Doomedarchviledemon
Sprite Edits: Doomedarchviledemon
Idea Base: The utilizing of demon parts to make new weapons

A UAC weapons expert has had it with these mother eff'n Skeletons and Skulls in this mother eff'n universe! Time to take revenge and takes their heads and bones to make an all new weapon. Using Lost Souls as rockets and Revenant heads as grenades they are now tools to kill their brethren. The still living Lost Souls and Revenants watch as they struggle to steer themselves away from attacking their own, but thanks to utilizing the Revenant's homing tech their struggles are in vain. A bit weaker than a regular rocket launcher, but the satisfaction of revenge is too great to not use it.



Skeletal Revenge

[strike]Note: There is only one remaining issue that I am running into, that I know of at least. The Revenant Bombs will fly as they home in on their targets. However, they are suppose to be grenades and not actually fly, but still home in on a grounded target. I added the -NOGRAVITY which I thought would keep it from flying but that's not the case. Is it possible to have a non-flying homing grenade projectile?[/strike]

It seems like the Revenant Bombs will only fly if their target is at a higher elevation than what they were launched from. This implies it's gotta be an idiosyncrasy with A_SeekerMissile adjusting for elevation. I can't say for 100% sure, though, since the behavior of bouncers is a little arcane to me. (So is the behavior of seekers, which makes it harder to say. )

This has got to be one of the funniest things I've used in a while, though. It's surprisingly functional, too. I get the feeling the name might get vetoed, though.

I did notice though that you can outrun the Lost Soul missiles if you run as they are fired. That might be hard to "fix" without throwing off the balance of the weapon, though. Maybe you can give the projectiles a higher initial velocity after launch, then lower the velocity when they start homing?

Also, the projectile explosions don't produce any light.

This implies it's gotta be an idiosyncrasy with A_SeekerMissile adjusting for elevation.

I had to look up what that word meant because I have never head it before lol. So if there's a way to negate that behavior of A_SeekerMissile it should fix the issue, in theory?

This has got to be one of the funniest things I've used in a while, though. It's surprisingly functional, too. I get the feeling the name might get vetoed, though.

I am glad that you enjoy it! Even if I do make something a little bit on the silly side I try my best to still make it functional and useful to the player. Also, yeah, I kind of figured the name will get vetoed but I couldn't think of a better name. I want the name to reflect the weapon, incorporating not only the rocket launcher but the Revenant and Lost Soul aspect of it as well so that when you hear the name you have a pretty good idea of what its all about. Since it deals with bones... pffft, that's the best I got. A name guru I am not. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

I did notice though that you can outrun the Lost Soul missiles if you run as they are fired.

I adjusted the speed of the rockets from 12 to 16. This is still slower than a regular rocket but it just fast enough to keep close to the same pace as when a player is running in a straight line. Let me know if this is any better.

Also, the projectile explosions don't produce any light.

Included now! Also, would ya look at that. I learned how to use lights a little bit more! Yay!

Edit: Also off topic but, have you noticed that your icon changes when you Reply to a post? Like your icon is a frozen pig on the forums but when I go to reply to a topic your icon changes to that MW with the stripes and stars image.

doomedarchviledemon wrote: I had to look up what that word meant because I have never head it before lol. So if there's a way to negate that behavior of A_SeekerMissile it should fix the issue, in theory?

Well, I'm not sure if that behavior can be negated. I don't think it was really intended to be used with a bouncy projectile. It does work with floor-hugging projectiles, though, so maybe there's a trick that can get it to work with grenades. I wouldn't give up on the idea just yet.

doomedarchviledemon wrote: I am glad that you enjoy it! Even if I do make something a little bit on the silly side I try my best to still make it functional and useful to the player. Also, yeah, I kind of figured the name will get vetoed but I couldn't think of a better name. I want the name to reflect the weapon, incorporating not only the rocket launcher but the Revenant and Lost Soul aspect of it as well so that when you hear the name you have a pretty good idea of what its all about. Since it deals with bones... pffft, that's the best I got. A name guru I am not. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

I recollect Shadows of the Damned had a gun called the "Big Boner", but that's probably even worse. Since it's skull-related, how about Headknocker or Headbanger?

doomedarchviledemon wrote: I adjusted the speed of the rockets from 12 to 16. This is still slower than a regular rocket but it just fast enough to keep close to the same pace as when a player is running in a straight line. Let me know if this is any better.

We can try that for now. I'm worried about making the projectile too fast, but I don't think this necessarily crosses the line yet. Slower projectiles could in fact be more lethal in this case as they would have more time to adjust their homing trajectory.

Well, I'm not sure if that behavior can be negated. I don't think it was really intended to be used with a bouncy projectile. It does work with floor-hugging projectiles, though, so maybe there's a trick that can get it to work with grenades. I wouldn't give up on the idea just yet.

Hm, I'll need to find an example of floor-hugging projectiles and experiment then to see if I can figure something out.

I recollect Shadows of the Damned had a gun called the "Big Boner", but that's probably even worse. Since it's skull-related, how about Headknocker or Headbanger?

Oh man, missed the change to name it the BFB. Still funny lol. Also those names are ok, though something a little more skeletal along with the head. I jotted down a few names today. Skull Launcher, Skeletal Revenge, Boney Launcher, Revesoul Launcher, The Bone Zone, Lost Revenant Launcher, Explody Bones... ok a few of them are just for the funnies, but I'm actually leaning towards Skeletal Revenge. It fits the ascetic I feel. Like you see the weapon with the name and you understand what the revenge is, seeing the remains of a Revenant and a Lost Soul integrated into the weapon itself. Or like... idk. Any of these sound good?

We can try that for now. I'm worried about making the projectile too fast, but I don't think this necessarily crosses the line yet. Slower projectiles could in fact be more lethal in this case as they would have more time to adjust their homing trajectory.

True, I didn't want them to be as fast as a regular rocket either because they're suppose to be a weaker version. It takes about 15-18 Lost Soul rockets to kill a Baron where as with a regular rocket it takes about 5-7. Though it was a tad too slow when you mentioned it and while in play it did kinda bring an issue in more hectic situations where you need to keep moving around and then all of a sudden you outrun a rocket and end up in front of the impact area. With this speed at least you don't outrun it so you have a better idea of where it is no matter where you're moving to or from.

As for the adjusting their homing trajectory... I guess that is being sacrificed a little bit. I suppose maybe the question should be would this weapon do better with slightly more speed or be slightly slower to allow more time to home in on the enemy?

Update!

So I've removed the seeking function to the Revenant Skull Bombs. Unfortunately I was not able to figure out a way to get this to work properly and didn't have any luck on the ZDoom Forums.

I have also changed the name to Skeletal Revenge as I think that is a bit more fitting with the theme of taking revenge on the boney enemies using their own bones. I also updated the credits and into as well as optimized the sprites.

This is... an interesting weapon. It has some silliness about it, but it's not too silly. A few things to note:

• The weapon doesn't auto-switch if it's out of ammo. Plus, if you have rockets but no bombs, using the altfire attack lowers and raises the weapon (the spoiler below contains instructions on how to resolve this in case you're interested).
• The word "Rocket" in the pickup message of SoulRocketAmmoC should be plural.
• The WAD lacks a CREDITS lump.

Updated the mentioned issues. Download link has been updated. Any further feedback is appreciated.

The way you set the WEAPON.AMMO_CHECKBOTH flag does not work. You're meant to add it along with the rest of the weapon's properties and flags:

Woops. Fixed!