[SUBMISSION] Melter

Info
Name: Melter
Class: 6
Type: Beam
Palette: Doom
Summon: Melter
Ammo Type: Cell
Altfire: No
Powered Mode: No
Brightmaps: Yes
Actor modification: No
ACS: No

Description:
Originally developed by the UAC as a mining tool, they quickly realised the Melter's deadly potential.
Powered by standard UAC cell packs, it fires a highly concentrated plasma beam within a limited range.
The weapon is prone to overheating, the built-in display will warn the user of high temperatures.
If the temperature reaches dangerous levels, the weapon will shut down until it has cooled off.
Allows installation of up to 3 heatsinks, each heatsink will prolong the firing duration by 33%.
Heatsinks will be automatically installed when picked up.

Credits
Submitted: DeVloek
Code: DeVloek
GLDefs: DeVloek
Sounds: Aegersum, Reinsamba, Wildweasel, Verum384, DeVloek
Sprites: Zrrion, id Software, DeVloek
Sprite Edit: DeVloek
Idea Base: Thunderbolt from Quake

Sprite preview


Download
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ij0aFR7ishc2xs9jlLNTVm5cDTWssKuP/view?usp=sharing

The weapon's display doesn't show actual temperatures, it's just a simple gauge that goes from green to red when you keep holding the fire button. I added the °C only for the flavor, american modders can easily replace it with an °F, instructions are at the top of the ZSCRIPT file.
Heatsinks are separate items that have to be picked up. The small red lights on the weapon indicate how many heatsinks are installed.

Me personally, it's a great weapon, what I do think is the damage should be boosted, not by a lot, but enough to make enemies like normal zombie men or imps gib, but not turning into a literal beam of pure sun energy

Unfortunately gibbing won't be possible since the beam deals relatively low damage at a very high fire rate (7-14 damage per tic). Only single hits with big damage numbers of at least 40 (2x his hitpoints) can gib a Zombieman, for Imps it's even 120.
I tried to balance the damage around the plasma rifle, if I increase the damage it still won't gib but the weapon will become OP.

Maybe I can figure something out and make the victim enter it's Xdeath state regardless of damage. Thanks for the feedback!

No problem, man, best of luck.

Turned out quite easy to do. Now any monster that can be gibbed will be gibbed by the beam.

Updated the download file in the first post.

This thing is definitely different from your run of the mill arsenal, however when overheated and during it's cool down cycle, the sprite tends to "bounce" erratically before finally going back to its ready state.

Visuals are very cool, sound is a little bland for my taste but it's definitely a cool weapon.
Or should I say hot?

"however when overheated and during it's cool down cycle, the sprite tends to "bounce" erratically before finally going back to its ready state."

This doesn't happen on my end. The weapon sprite "bounces" only while holding the fire button, which is intended. Firing is disabled during the cooldown cycle and the sprite offset is reset to default so it should stay still. I also tested the weapon with different view bob and weapon bob settings and found nothing unusual.

Try adding the WRF_NOBOB flag to the A_WeaponReady function in the Overheat state so it doesn't "bounce" while moving

OK that gave me an idea what Gunslahyer_Pi was talking about. So I did some more tests and was able to repro it, this behavior seems to happen only when "View bob amount while moving" is larger than 0.0 and "View bob amount while firing" is neither 0.0 nor 1.0 but something in between. I should have tested that in the first place, my bad.
I wonder why "View bob amount while firing" affects it though, the weapon isn't even firing. But I read that this option is misnamed anyway so who knows whats really going on there.

For now I added the WRF_NOBOB flag to all A_WeaponReady calls in both the ready state and the overheat state, that at least fixes the erratic bounce glitch. Now the only thing that I don't like is how the weapon snaps into place when starting to fire, I didn't really notice that before either. I'll take a look at it later tonight, maybe I can I find a solution for that too.

edit:
Alright I had an idea how to fix it and it everything seems to work fine now. WRF_NOBOB only in the Overheat state and both Weapon.BobRangeX and Weapon.BobRangeY set to 0.2 (same as my forced player viewbob value) did the trick.

Updated the file in the OP.

You forgot to add the flag in the Overheat state, so it still jitters.
Alternatively, if you want it to bob without jittering, add the WeaponReady function in the other frames:

Overheat:
TNT1 A 0
{
A_Gauge();
A_Stopsound(13320);
A_Stopsound(13323);
A_Startsound("Melter/cooldown",13322,CHANF_NOSTOP);
A_WeaponOffset(0,32,WOF_INTERPOLATE);
A_WeaponReady(WRF_NOFIRE);
player.mo.viewbob = player.mo.default.viewbob;
if (invoker.cd >= 21)
{
invoker.cd = 0;
invoker.tmp = 0;
player.SetPSprite(PSP_WEAPON,invoker.FindState("Ready"));
}
}
VMLT A 5
{
A_WeaponReady(WRF_NOFIRE);
if (invoker.cd < 21) invoker.cd += 1;
A_Overlay(2,"Gauge4");
}
VMLT A 5
{
A_WeaponReady(WRF_NOFIRE);
if (invoker.cd < 21) invoker.cd += 1;
A_Overlay(2,"Gauge5");
}
Loop;