Insanity Sphere

Blue Shadow wrote: I think I like this better than the initial version. Here are a few notes:

• This is from the INFO lump:
  
  

  Health Regenerates only when damaging/killing enemies up to 300%. +5% per hit.

  You don't restore 5 percent/points of health per hit. What you restore is the damage you dealt multiplied by 5.
• If you die while the powerup is active, the screen shaking and screaming continue.
• I noticed that you're setting the volume of the powerup's use sound to 200. The sound volume in A_PlaySound is a multiplier which goes from 0 to 1.0. Setting it to higher values makes no sense, and all it does is confuse people who might look at your code.
• I'd suggest making the use sound have normal attenuation as opposed to none. It doesn't make much sense and is rather annoying to hear another player's screams in my ears while I'm on the other side of the map.
• Why does the morph flash play the screaming sound, too?

Thank you for you feedback, it's given me some clarity of the amount of health recovered, I'll set that to 1, so it's not multiplied & you get back, what you deal, that should hopefully stop you recovering fully after each hit, this will also help with balancing the damage from punching & how much you shouldn't be taking.

I'd set the sound to play on both because it cut off & stopped, but will look into that, lower the volume to about 0.5-0.7 & change the flags to what's been suggested, or remove it entirely if it's too off putting or just not working after any changes (set as ATTN_NONE to stay with the player, rather than play from where the Sphere was collected along with the Quaking, to emulate the Player is screaming, basically recreating how the Berserk power worked in the Doom 3).

[strike]Assuming it's still there on the next update, I'd like to wait for some additional feedback from you & other administrators (users willing to chip in some feedback, are more than welcome to so) after the changes are made, before deciding to take it out or leave it.[/strike]

I've also noticed the sound & shaking continues when killed, but am not sure how to stop that continuing after death, any help with that would be greatly appreciated. Although, this might it another reason why, it's best to just remove the screaming & shaking & leave it going as a normal power-up, if it's got to go, I've no problem with that, because it does get annoying (and makes no sense) knowing you've been killed but can still be screaming, 5-10 seconds after death .

I'm glad that overall, this is going in the right direction now. Thank you.

[Edit]
-Updated version, now available.

Updated Damage is "Double" the potential damage of the berserk, instead of 20 * 1,10 it's now 20 * 1,20. Doesn't flatten groups Barons instantly or easily & taking on anything tougher (with higher health or a massive powerful attack) like the Cyberdemon is suicidal, a group of 6-12 Barons (tested against alongside the same number of imps, demons) won't be wiped clean in 2-3 hits either so, the time limit increase, damage reduction now set lower (50% instead of 60 or 75%) does help balance things out. Biggest pay off & benefit is healing yourself quickly with every punch, due to the power of the attack, health on morphed player is 200 instead of 300 (to make things a bit harder).

If anyone feels it's too much, I will happily lower it back down to match Doom's Berserk Damage. Either way, you'll become a self healing "tank", taking better advantage of the Berserk's strength boost. Have also taken away the screaming/shaking screen.


Going to have to rethink & restart the sphere's sprites. I was hoping to use the Player's face as part of the sphere's appearance but scaling his mug down to fit inside a Doom 64 or Doom sized power up looks a total mess as the pixels bunch together & positioning becomes harder, pretty stuck for other original ideas. Sadly this is where things start to get difficult & will take a lot more time to get around, looking at the quality of some the recent uploaded spheres & what's online, reaching that quality anytime soon is like running into a brick wall for me.

I personally feel you made a hasty decision about throwing out the screaming; now the powerup lost the whole "insanity" theme to it. I know, the screen shaking had to go since as far as I know, there isn't a way to cancel a quake. On the other hand, the screaming can be canceled.

That's what I think. However, if you feel happier with this new version and more confident, then I'm not going to argue. After all, the powerup still works as advertised.

Blue Shadow wrote: I personally feel you made a hasty decision about throwing out the screaming; now the powerup lost the whole "insanity" theme to it. I know, the screen shaking had to go since as far as I know, there isn't a way to cancel a quake. On the other hand, the screaming can be canceled.

That's what I think. However, if you feel happier with this new version and more confident, then I'm not going to argue. After all, the powerup still works as advertised.

It was another snap decision, I've taken it out mostly to break things down a bit, taking a step back & rebuilding things. But I do agree that the quaking screen had to go, I really do think not many, couldn't argue with that . It had it's little "wow factor" for a very short while, then just became a nuisance & continuing when the player was dead. was just ridiculous.

If I was to reintroduce* the screaming it would have to be with ATTN_NONE flag alongside (I know this was an issue raised, but the volume will be lowered), or the screaming just plays from the original location (the other reason why it was removed, you could die near where it was picked up & still hear it in the distance, so "nothing" is screaming). There also tended to be a lot of sound spam from the scream, along with the punch swing/impact sounds & if you're in a large group of enemies because there's so much playing at the same time. Probably should have experimented a bit more with lowering the volume of all the sounds as well. Most importantly I'd need to know how to cut the screaming off when killed. I'm guessing it would be through the Morphed Player's death states with A_StopSound, as long as the scream is allocated to a defined slot (Chan_Body, instead of Chan_Auto).

*I'll reupload the file with the scream added optionally into the decorate, so users & other administrators can see & test the issue. And drop a note back on here, when that's online after this is reply posted. Before starting to look into everything else.

[EDIT]
(22/09 Updated code from previous update (21/09). Found there was a few errors, mostly due to comment start/finish)
"InsanitySphere/Use" Sound still carried on after Death. Attempted to allocate to a Channel 1-5, I know are already used, but didn't hurt to try it, the Scream understandably never played. I'd only leave it in now, if it can be stopped when the player dies. But so far it doesn't seem possible to me, I've no problem taking
it out, it's the Sprites that are concerning me more now.


Sound lasts about 30 seconds (half the full duration) so it'll be down to user preference if they really want to keep it or not. It is a power up best used sparingly.
Assuming the sound can be stopped on death as well. Re-uploaded with the Scream sound marked out, as it is in the pasted code above, so users will have to remove /* */ to reuse it. Punch Swinging volume lowered to help reduce overload of too much full volume sounds. Not putting the quaking back in, as I said earlier-- it had it's appeal but it was short lived & agreeing with Blue_Shadow, it just became irritating instead of engaging.

22/09
Split the screams. A shorter one to start the Morph with, so it takes out the huge 30 Second, original scream (left in for testing/comparison). And the 2 screams I thought would be interesting to have one playing about 30 seconds in (completely optional, just for immersion, Player is still going mad) & then another to play at the end of the 60 second duration where the power wears off & the player calms down.

It solves one big problem (the unnecessary prolonged screaming) & if it is ok as a pick-up sound/Morph start signal I'll leave it in. but I can't get the other two (more focused on third, where the morph ends) to wait the set duration & play then, duration set based off the original Quaking time limit (about 25-30 seconds)... it's most likely down to where the sounds are placed in the decorate. But any attempt to get a sound to play elsewhere (Morph End sequence for example) fails. But I hope you'll agree the Start & End sounds are better than 30 seconds of screaming , the "mid-way" sound isn't much of a priority- just an idea to keep it interesting.

Only went back to correct a Decorate error & came up with shortening the sounds as I was tweaking . But the "new" starting scream will definitely stay, if everyone's OK with it.

So I decided to take a stab at this, and made some modifications to the code:

• With the power of ZScript, I created a powerup which handles the scream sounds.
• When the player dies, their screams now stop.
• Ditched the morphing system (for the best).

Here's the file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ed8qq67estsyn9m/InsanitySphere_bs.zip?dl=1

Blue Shadow wrote: So I decided to take a stab at this, and made some modifications to the code:

• With the power of ZScript, I created a powerup which handles the scream sounds.
• When the player dies, their screams now stop.
• Ditched the morphing system (for the best).

Thank you, ZScripting is something I've never tried & along with ACS scripting* in submissions/anything outside, probably best left for those who know what they are doing, so I really appreciate you taking the time in helping me with this.

*I don't intend on adding any additional ACS to submitted content, I know that isn't allowed or isn't advised, but just pointing it out as another example (wouldn't know where to start, so I leave scripting to the maps-- stick to what I know.)

Think it does work better without Morphing (I know, my opinion's jumped from one to the other but) seeing as it doesn't actually physically change the player, like the Mutant Sphere or some the other morphing spheres made for Doom I've seen do, losing your armour with the potential to still die pretty easily (after running through some my own maps, with very large groups of different, sometimes more powerful enemies) I found that it didn't really make this pay off, unless the morphed player had a ridiculously high amount of health.

It was the (now resolved) weapon switching issue & then, the continuing the screaming* on death that made me look elsewhere. I really did think, morphing was the only other option I could try & it was an interesting avenue to maybe revisit with something else, if I can make something worth using.

*Thought the screaming would add a bit more immersion if it continues as the power-up carries on, keep it a bit similar to the Berserk from Doom 3 (always found the horror aspect of the tormented Player going Berserk, better than when it's used from the Artifact in Ressurection of Evil) I hope others will agree.

I'd also thank you for pointing out the Ammo/Inventory inheritance fault that could occur. [strike]I'll leave an edit to this post when the file is updated, can clear a lot of space on the Decorate.[/strike]

Edit [29/10]:
Updated with ZScript input & Decorate restructure, taken away all Morph Sphere Attributes.

Checking the latest version, I noticed that you didn't make any changes to the item. Does that mean you're happy with it as it is?

Blue Shadow wrote: Checking the latest version, I noticed that you didn't make any changes to the item. Does that mean you're happy with it as it is?

I'm very happy with the decorate, thank you for piecing that together. It plays out fairer, even with the damage reduction keeping armour on the player is key to survival so restoring your health with each punch still isn't a one-stop solution to staying alive, there will be times when you have to run away & find health & armour already placed if you're up against a very large group of enemies, now you have a better chance of surviving, because you can collect Green/Blue Armour or other Spheres to help. You also won't be ignoring other items like backpacks, computer maps if you walk over them.

But appearance wise, you had pointed out several issues that I fully agree with,

The item appears too big in game. The sphere part of the sprite lacks shading to make it look like a sphere and not a circle.

the images are bit oversized & under shaded with the Sphere itself. I'm still struggling with working with the sprites I'm using or with thinking of a new design to restart from.

How about using the sprites of the partial invisibility sphere from Doom64 as a base?

Blue Shadow wrote: How about using the sprites of the partial invisibility sphere from Doom64 as a base?

That is the original Sphere "base", Doom64 invisibility as the background, followed it's design from the sprites with the lightning bolt in the core (overlaying the face, needs to stand out a bit though) so it looked likes it's "torturing" the spirit inside, I still like that idea & might be the best way to go, the Marine's Pain Hud, deteriorating with each frame use 4 frames (instead of all 8 frames, keep it simple). I think I need to just take less of the Player's Hud sprites to blend them in, because of it's size & obviously try & get the colouration right.

It was based on it, eh? Okay. Well, here's a new version of the WAD with "new" sprites. They follow the same premise as the ones you did.

I wouldn't say these are a final product, since they use the original palette of the Doom64 Invisibility Sphere, and the mugshot's eyes and mouth aren't in different color. The intention is for you to use them as a base to work from, do your own modifications and such.

For the size, I just used the Scale actor property to shrink the item in game.