[SUBMISSION] Doom RPG Ghoul

[INFO]
Name: Ghoul
Difficulty: Medium
Connection: Doom RPG's Ghoul
Summon: RevGhoul
Melee: Yes
Distance: Projectile, Poison
Type: Demon, Undead
Brightmaps: Yes
GLDefs: Yes

[CREDITS]
WAD Created by: DBJ87
Decorate: DBJ87, MagicWazard
Palette: PNG Palette
Sprites: ID Software, Raven Software, IMX
Sprite Edit: IMX, MagicWazard, DBJ87
Brightmaps: DBJ87
GLDefs: DBJ87, Raven Software, MagicWazard
SFX: ID Software, IMX, Raven Software, DBT (Doom 4 Monster sounds Ripped by DBT)
Idea Base: Own Idea

[DESCRIPTION]
A Revenant that attacks using poison as it's offence. Using stinging poisoned fists or shooting explosive poisoned gas spewing tracers. On death, he leaves a final toxic concoction for you, so you better stay out of his way! Tracers will spawn poison gas on Impact & may leave clouds while chasing you.

[UPDATES]

13/09/17
-Carrying forward "Final File" to complete Submission.

05/11/17
-Dynamic Light Effects on all spawned poison clouds & trails removed to decrease projectile visibility.
-Duplicate Sprites found & removed.

[PREVIEW]

[Melee Preview]


[DOWNLOAD]
[URL=http://www.m*diafire.com/file/ugualtf3zc89enc/Ghoul.zip]http://www.m*diafire.com/file/ugualtf3zc89enc/Ghoul.zip[/URL]

All 3 are available as Separate Files (if requested or preferred). I was originally going to submit all 3 as 2 files & as 2 separated Submissions, having both RPG based Revenants as 1 file and the Ghost Revenant (or Spectral Revenant if that name sounds better) on its own. But seeing they all are based off one main Monster, appearance & attack-wise (if you exclude the changes to health, damage, speed etc). It made a bit more sense to pack them together.

Oh cool, variations on mid-level enemies. That's something I'd use...

I'm questioning how well differentiated they are from the original revenant and each other, but I've yet to actually look in the file... I know there are a few existing Revenant-sprite edits you might be able to use which change the guns and the armor...

Raccoon wrote: Oh cool, variations on mid-level enemies. That's something I'd use...

I'm questioning how well differentiated they are from the original revenant and each other, but I've yet to actually look in the file... I know there are a few existing Revenant-sprite edits you might be able to use which change the guns and the armor...

Thank you, any changes you can add or offer are more than welcome.

2 of the Sprite sets (Ghoul (Red/Green) & Fiend (Grey/Purple) conversions) aren't mine, they have been taken & reused from 2 enemies (with the same name & full permission on both files) created by IMX. I left them as they are for feedback like this (and in a way out of respect ).

Behaviour wise, they all generally follow the pattern the Revenant does, with roughly the same health (couple of rockets or 2-3 close range SSG will kill them quickly), but the Ghoul & Fiend will shoot more often (+MISSILEMORE) & all 3 have had their punch damage changed, as well as the added Poison damage to the Ghoul, that lasts about 2-3 seconds after a punch or missile with increased duration every hit & poison damage stacks with every punch.

Punch Damage is at the set default from their original Scripts. Health will be increased on any of them, if suggested. Kept it around the default or expected Revenant set up (300-400) because any higher & it wouldn't suit them. Revenants tend to be able to hold their own pretty well unless you bring out big guns & a small group of any of these 3 is just as hard or slightly harder than you would get with standard Revenants.

I am seriously considering removing the cannons (but remaking the head design with the cannons gone will take a lot of time & the wait might hold everything else back) or changing the attack from these to 2 darts, fired as fast projectiles (like the nailgun), continuously like Chaingunners, stacking poison damage instead of duration (also leaving it more exposed to counter attacks from the player). It's got a different Punch Sprite set-up (like Baron's attacking) & having them throw their tracer missiles (but I'm going to be removing Seeker attributes) instead of shooting that from a missile launcher (attacking like the Feral Ghouls from Fallout 3), will look better. Giving the Ghoul most offence, it has the higher health but is still pretty easy to kill & a tricky Medium based enemy to fight.

The other 2 (Fiend & Ghost) do look too similar (again, I've been waiting for some feedback on the idea itself & appearance), I'd rather change the Fiend's skin colour, than the Ghost's (it's very hard to see (even when Alpha is higher it's set at) so it's eyes & brighter armour are easiest things to look out for in low light levels).

The Ghost's missile is a hitscan attack (fires 8 very weak bullets) that is basically a distraction while it closes in, the puffs are harmless Splashes added to make it harder to see, it's more of a stealth based Revenant. But It could also have it's cannons removed, it'd be harder to tell it's attacking (unless it's attacking something else), but again, it might more sense instead of having one or 2 shoulder mounted cannons but I'd rather just leave it as it is.

The Fiend's missile is fired at the Revenant's tracer Fast Speed with custom attributes to almost, always lock onto the target & curve around corners easier, making it harder for the player to avoid damage. Appearance wise changing it's skin or armour (not entirely sure to what colour & Doom's palette is pretty restricted) would be the only thing I'd change. Unless the missiles seem too overpowering.

If any of them are good enough as they are to be submitted separately, I'll happily do that too... it's a 3 in 1 submission because they are 3 new Revenants & didn't want to "spam" the submission forum. (Seen requests/suggestions about similar or spin-off submissions be packed if they're coming onto the Realm).

Haven't tried these out yet, since I'd need time to thoroughly mess around with all 3 versions, but I find the concept interesting. Just from the description, though, I'll probably complain about the Fiend's homing missiles--be forewarned.

MagicWazard wrote: Haven't tried these out yet, since I'd need time to thoroughly mess around with all 3 versions, but I find the concept interesting. Just from the description, though, I'll probably complain about the Fiend's homing missiles--be forewarned.

The Fiend's missiles might be a bit too hard to avoid, but any feedback is more than welcome. I don't see it as complaining, it's advice from someone who knows what they're doing to someone who needs the extra assistance.

Quick preview on how the Fiend's Tracer is set up.


At the moment I'm waiting a few Users & Admin feedback. Before diving in & probably messing things up before they've been started. Although I am going to change the Ghoul's tracer to be thrown & behave more like a standard fireball instead of a homing missile, a group of 3 or 5 firing stacking poison duration missiles might be a bit frustrating for some. And have it stand & fire poison darts (nails, without increasing duration or Additive Damage) repeatedly from it's shoulder cannons, following the Chaingunner/Spider's attack.

[Edit]
Testing the Ghoul attack idea now. Nails/darts will be fired from it's shoulder cannons in bursts of 3. It's a lot more effective than having it stand & blast like the Chaingunner, still easy enough to avoid at mid-range & will punish the player if you fail to escape, that mixed in with the thrown (now non-homing) Revenant ball style projectile completes Ghoul's missiles. Sound extra sounds have been added for the attacks.

Ghoul's Attack changes & Credits for additional SFX will be updated, with next update.

[Edit]
Updated with Ghoul's attack changes.

MagicWazard wrote: I'll probably complain about the Fiend's homing missiles--be forewarned.

New update on, Fiend has had some work done. The homing missile attack has changed, 2 are now fired at once. One Tracer is always faster & may fire from either Left or Right (depending on Missile 1, Missile 2) with the slower one firing opposite.

One Tracer always Travels at Revenant's default speed of 12 & the other at the Fast Speed of 15 (in Nightmare Mode it travels at slower is 15, faster is 18, so everything always be faster), but it both are still easily avoidable. Like standard Revenant's the Tracers, they work better if they've got time & distance on their side.

The Fiend's skin is changed from the original, slightly less grayer & bit easier to tell the difference between it & Ghosts, (and I had to get rid of that Pink/Purple bloody area, it just didn't suit it in my eyes). All 3 revenants drop blood matching the colour of their own. Ghost drops Black, Ghoul Drops Green, Fiend drops a custom Brown (Default "Brown" was too similar to Red).
Original Appearance [Original Preview]

New Appearance from A1D1 Sprites

Unless there's any issues, the attacks are completed, few changes from what I originally had modified, but it's been for the better. The Appearance for all is completed.

I still haven't gotten around to taking these for a test drive (I'll do it this week, I promise!), but I did at least take a look at the sprites.

I'm afraid the sprite set for the Fiend doesn't do it for me. His blue really needs to be accentuated, since it was the primary color of the DRPG version (especially the DIIRPG version). I honestly don't mind if you change the color of his "pants" (though I kind of like the originals), or if you choose to use a more heavily modified sprite set, but he's gotta have that blue to really tie him to the RPG original. I think he'll need a custom palette to do him justice, rather than the Doom palette. Both this version and the previous version have pretty low color depth because of the palette.

Conversely, I actually like the reddish tint to the Ghoul. Makes him look freshly skinned. Since he was otherwise just a Revenant with green "pants", this gives him some nice distinction. It does look like he's lost some color depth as well due to the conversion to Doom palette, though he looks like his colors should have converted a bit better than they did.

MagicWazard wrote: I still haven't gotten around to taking these for a test drive (I'll do it this week, I promise!), but I did at least take a look at the sprites.

I'm afraid the sprite set for the Fiend doesn't do it for me. His blue really needs to be accentuated, since it was the primary color of the DRPG version (especially the DIIRPG version). I honestly don't mind if you change the color of his "pants" (though I kind of like the originals), or if you choose to use a more heavily modified sprite set, but he's gotta have that blue to really tie him to the RPG original. I think he'll need a custom palette to do him justice, rather than the Doom palette. Both this version and the previous version have pretty low color depth because of the palette.

Conversely, I actually like the reddish tint to the Ghoul. Makes him look freshly skinned. Since he was otherwise just a Revenant with green "pants", this gives him some nice distinction. It does look like he's lost some color depth as well due to the conversion to Doom palette, though he looks like his colors should have converted a bit better than they did.

Warning: Spoiler!

I was doing a sprite edit of my own for the Ghoul, but I got kind of lazy and just wound up using a SLADE3 translation on the Revenant. Looks like the last time I worked on that sprite edit was around 5 years ago...holy crap! Anyways, if you want to try that SLADE3 translation, it was "16:47=112:127", "168:191=152:159", "160:167=112:127", "232:235=152:159". Note that this just recolors the blood to slime...it doesn't do anything for the skin.

Thank you, I suspected these two would have needed more appearance tweaks (they were just the originals IMX converted, so little was done with them apart from recolouring the Revenant & adding the Green punch to the Ghoul. I then recoloured the Fiend's pants to see what everyone would think looked better, but will reuse the original (Purple/Pink) & try to make the skeleton itself more of a light shaded blue.

I'll see what I can do with the Ghoul from a fresh Revenant Sprite set as well as from it's own, I like the torn skin look but like you've said, some detail has clearly been lost on the green bloody area.

If there is no problems with the Ghost variant. Can I upload that separately as a stand alone submission? It was only added with these 2 to not spam the forum with too much of the same Monster type as 2-3 submissions.

Thanks again.

[Edit]
Made some Changes to the Fiend (based off recolouring the original Revenant) under Strife & Quake 2's palettes, shading the Skeleton to look more Blue, instead of Grey. It's a been bit easier to work around the Pink Pants idea from a new revenant sprite set, but I think it might look a bit more suited to have the Pink shades removed & replaced with one of these. Below are the tested changes (so far) to the Fiend), carried on with the Quake 2 colour based palette as it allowed more detail.

Fiend from Revenant (Strife Palette)

Fiend from Revenant (Strife Palette) New Blood

Fiend from Revenant (Quake II Palette)

Ghoul's got a better detail on the Green bloody areas on it's body (the original was blended to the darkest shades, the new one is more mid-range on Doom's palette, you can see things more clearly like the Revenant's spine if you get behind it. Going add some light to it's eyes (make it look a bit more diverse).

New appearances for Ghoul & Fiend will be uploaded with next update.

You can remove and submit the Ghost separately if you like. Just going off the sprites, I think it looks pretty good. I notice in DECORATE you're having him fade during certain states; instead of doing it manually, do you want to try +STEALTH and the new StealthAlpha property?

I think the Fiend looks better using the QII palette, but I still think he suffers a bit from color depth loss. If you're just using SLADE3 for your recolors, I guess that's understandable, but if you're using an art program for the recolor, then I'd save the sprites out as a custom palette instead of converting it to a game palette.