Text File
===========================================================================
Archive Maintainer : please replace the currently-archived copy of this modification with this new one
Update to : rslrebel.zip in /combos subdirectory, this is RELEASE #6+!
Advanced engine needed : GZDOOM 1.8.02 (no GLDEFS)
Primary purpose : Single play
===========================================================================
Title : The Rebel
Filename : rslrebel.wad
Release date : July 01, 2016
Author : Richard Smith Long
Email Address : [redacted]
Other Files By Author : rslproto.wad, rslvenge.wad
Misc. Author Info : AKA "Dick S. Long"
Description : After Hell's invasion of Earth, mankind had no adequate way to react
and started to succumb, slowly yet inexorably. More and more people
were enslaved by the Netherworld forces each day, deprived of their will
to become faithful and mindless servants of the Dark God Baphomet,
in the form of 'Cultists'. But one day, one not-so-plagued man
dares to oppose...
My rationale:
------------
I have always been attracted by the opportunity to have a good array of magical weapons at my disposal
for slaughtering demons, controlling some sort of "adventurer-like" character.
This modification is my attempt at making one as complete and diversified as possible,
by keeping some sort of "retro-horror" feeling throughout. Don't be fooled by the heavy reuse
of well-known commercial game graphics: I have tried to animate them, and customize their appearance
and behaviour in a quite original fashion.
Changelog:
---------
Nov. 07, 2009: initial release.
Dec. 11, 2009: release #2.
- fixed transparency bug for burning corpses.
- fixed random spawners for inventory items.
- improved effectiveness of Vile Orb secondary attack.
- added dynamite bundle inventory item.
July 13, 2010: release #3.
- added custom HUD.
- powered up the Vile Orb secondary attack:
now rages normally spawn in greater number and
seek for a target by themselves.
- toned down Hell Patriarch and altered its attack behaviour.
- Cyber Masterminds now may drop a megasphere.
- commented out +CHEATNOTWEAPON by popular demand.
August 31, 2010: release #4.
- added long-time-due special death states to applicable actors:
poison and electric.
- made dynamite bundle inventory item durable across levels.
October 28, 2010: release #5.
- improved weapon switch timing.
- added custom fullscreen HUD.
February 17, 2011: release #6.
- added altfire to sawed-off (both-barrels simultaneous discharge).
- integrated Mikk's blood system for added effects
(can be commented out for rollback purposes).
July 01, 2016: release #6+.
- fixed display scaling with normal HUD.
- added HUD smooth interpolation.
- improved knife-generated sparks.
- added weapon tag names.
- added blend effect for player burning death.
- fixed HUD fragcount.
- added custom teleportation effect.
- tidied up DECORATE lump.
- fixed HUD gauges inconsistency.
- fixed inconsistent state jump in Cold Hand.
- made magazines ammunition independent from skill level.
- fixed PoisonBlob / PoisonFog actors coding (removed reference to missing sprite).
- fixed behaviour of particle actors on moving flats (MOVEWITHSECTOR).
- fixed behaviour of dual-fire magical weapons when almost out-of-mana.
- improved appearance of still actors whenever applicable (FORCEXYBILLBOARD).
- added new class 'Executioner': beefier and quite slower.
But immune to health saps caused by the secondary attack modes of magical weapons...
- fixed a few formal inconsistencies and spelling mistakes in this very text file.
- integrated the modification with multiplayer-specific improvements.
- fixed bugs affecting multiplayer.
- incremented 'Executioner' class with one peculiar, very technical, exclusive weapon:
the FlailMace!
- aligned version requirements to this new complex weapon that exploits
recent DECORATE functions.
- similarly, incremented the default 'Rebel' class with a new power tied to the knife:
invoke a mysterious reptile-like force, and augment its powers after acquiring a Flaming Heart...
Also, 'Rebel' now masters the incredible art of gliding down the void, by means of his mystical cape!
- augmented the modification with a rich, occult-type set of extra inventory items,
thanks to the great work of many authors at Realm667 (credited both in this file
and in the DECORATE lump).
- the machinegun was the only weapon lacking alternate fire... Now it has it:
a quick, three-bullets burst that is perfect against cultists!
- improved the shotgun pickup in the same way as the machinegun one
(their ammo type now is only the mag, but their pickup gives extra spares anyway).
- fixed a long-standing burned corpses bug: they were blocking!
- fixed a small logo glitch.
- fixed electric damagetype death sprites overlapping with one
vanilla DOOM decoration sprite.
- fixed a couple DECORATE lump glitches.
- improved movement pattern of orb rages.
- rebalanced foes resistance to different DamageFactors.
(SPOILER) Fire is mostly effective against former humans.
Ice is best against fire-based monsters (Lost Souls and Pain Elementals)
and bio-mechanical creatures.
Poison is effective on organic monsters in general, great on
former humans.
Disintegrate (holy) is devastating on pure hellspawns.
Electric is killer on former humans and bio-mechanical monsters.
Quake is best against non-fleshy creatures (Lost Souls and Revenants).
Tornado is best used against flying targets.
Darkness is strong against... The darkest ones.
- marked unsupported video modes in the appropriate (G)ZDOOM menu.
- added MMORPG-style 'none' HUD from an original creation by A.Gamma:
now with animated parts! (bases from TerminusEst13 and PillowBlaster)
- added halo effect on fullscreen statusbar for better appearance.
- added configurable quickkeys for Elemental Stones.
- fixed mugshot appearance when using 'Crow Effigy'.
- fixed blood barrels animation speed.
- added speed improvement effect for Executioner when assuming a Flaming Heart.
- rebalanced spawning rate of Elemental Stones (and inventory items in general).
- improved Executioner with custom sounds transformed from Marty Kirra originals.
- improved effectiveness of 'Cold Hand' with continuous invocation mode.
- touched up appearance of inventory items HUD (especially Stones).
- extended XDeath support to all foes, whenever applicable.
Modification details:
--------------------
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Non-magical weapons:
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
slot 1: Knife
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only starting melee weapon available to our rebel.
Can be swung by performing a single slash (tap primary attack)
or a slash-plus-backslash combo (sustain primary attack).
When a flaming heart artifact is found, the rebel's physical strength
and the power of each slash are heavily augmented.
NOTE: see end of details section for a comparison of the two available classes
in this connection - the above description only applies to standard
weapon behaviour for the rebel class.
slot 2: Thompson machinegun
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The standard automatic firearm used by Baphomet Cultists.
While each round is relatively weak, its firing ratio and accuracy
quite make up for it. Alternate fire delivers a quick and (more) effective burst.
50 rounds. Requires reload, although auto-triggered.
slot 3: Sawed-off shotgun
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a better gun for dealing with average-to-stronger foes.
Each shot guarantees a generous pellet spread (not too accurate)
and a precious kickback effect. Alternate fire is pure pleasure...
2 rounds. Requires reload, although auto-triggered.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Magical weapons
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
~~~~~~~ The DARK side (requires dark mana) ~~~~~~~
slot 4: Golden Serpent (staff)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This magical golden staff is said to have been forged in ancient Egypt,
to grant its fierce power to pharaohs. All of its existing instances
have since been claimed by Hell forces themselves.
Primary fire: the serpent head blows out two streams of poisonous vapor
from its nostrils. This attack is extremely effective
at short-to-mid range, yet also very mana-consuming.
Secondary fire: the staff unleashes a slithering blob of poisonous acid
that explodes into a poison cloud upon first collision,
and tears all nearby targets.
THIS ATTACK DRAINS HEALTH.
slot 5: Vile Orb (verge)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On top of a gnarled wooden verge, the Vile Orb sits apparently quiet,
ready to revive the wicked souls of slain demons to fight at its master's side.
Primary fire: the Orb fades and becomes translucent for a while, only to show
the well of souls in Hades swirling faster, in an attempt to
resurrect one or more dead corpses in front of the verge's wielder.
Secondary fire: the verge evokes a rageing soul from the bowels of hell,
which hastily directs towards the pointed target
and continues to persecute it upon exhaustion.
THIS ATTACK DRAINS HEALTH.
slot 6: Lava Sceptre
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This horrid-looking artifact has the skull on top of it as a mere placeholder,
for its powers relate neither to the dead, nor to bloodlust.
The weapon is able to summon the power of hell fire in the form of fiercely-
exploding lava balls.
Primary fire: the sceptre hurls exploding lava balls that retain a limited
bouncing ability. A stream of exploding balls can easily
be unleashed on a target.
Secondary fire: the skull first emits two rays of light from its orbits to the zenith,
and then vomits an enormous lava mass that explodes upon first contact,
and damages a large area around it.
THIS ATTACK DRAINS HEALTH.
~~~~~~~ The LIGHT side (requires light mana) ~~~~~~~
slot 1: Cold Hand (spell)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giving you control of the water element, this spell is a great asset
of the light side in fighting the forces of Evil. Foes frozen with this spell
shatter into pieces that melt shortly after, thus making it impossible
for Baphomet and its minions to revive them.
Primary fire: the rebel is able to generate a wave of cold, frozen air with his/her palm;
his/her target gets frozen and explodes into ice pieces after a while.
The wave has a very limited reach, thus making this spell very effective
at melee-to-short range, but of limited use otherwise.
Secondary fire: with a more pronounced gesture, the rebel can summon a trail of ice spikes,
that appear announced by a chiming sound. This ice wall is effective in
trapping to a limited extent several swarms of hellspawn, yet
it is not indestructible.
THIS ATTACK DRAINS HEALTH.
slot 7: Judgement (rod)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Described as the greatest holy weapon ever existed, instances of this weapon are said
to have been derived by fragments of the staff that Moses wielded when crossing the divided waters
of the Red Sea. Its sacred power is feared by Baphomet itself, with good reason.
Primary fire: when holding the rod, our rebel is granted the power of illumination:
he/she can invest with weaving light the enemy and have it violently disintegrate,
assured that it shall not be resurrected.
Such power can destroy any hellspawn in a few seconds - no matter how dire
the situation is. At the cost of much light mana.
Secondary fire: for a short period of time, the wielder rapidly decays into necrosis
only to sacrifice his/her soul to the power of the rod. He/She then
slams the wood on the ground to summon a devastating lightning storm
that randomly propagates in front of him/her, sweeping away everything
on its path.
THIS ATTACK DRAINS HEALTH.
>>>>>>>>>>>
Artifacts
<<<<<<<<<<<
Flaming heart
A magical artifact that greatly increases the physical strength of the rebel and his/her
melee attacks by consequence, albeit its effect does not last forever. An executioner
gains extra movement speed but does not improve melee effectiveness (see below).
Magic scroll
The magic scroll not only reveals the map of the place the rebel is adventuring in,
but also the presence of items and monsters nearby.
Ethereal cloak
When the rebel wears an ethereal cloak, he/she goes completely unnoticed by enemies,
although such protection is granted only for a limited amount of time.
Protective suit
This suit can be used to safely venture on damaging terrains such as acid or lava,
but it wears off after a while.
Magical torch
When a magical torch is found, for a while it will lighten the area the rebel is in
just as in full daylight.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Carriable items
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Dynamite bundle
A time-triggered explosive load that can be bounced around, and starts countdown once stopping on ground.
A devastating explosion chain ensues afterwards, but the trick is all in effectively placing the charge.
Elemental stones
These stones are greedily collected by the highest cult ranks, and each one encloses the power of a specific element.
More in detail, they can be any of the following:
> 'Volcanic Stone' : summon high fire leaps from the ground. (Citrine / reddish orange)
> 'Quake Stone' : unleash a source of heavy boulders to crush anything nearby. (Beryl / worn-out yellow)
> 'Tornado Stone' : conjure wind powers to fatally drag away foes in the whole area. (Peridot / bright green)
> 'Holywater Stone' : cure yourself and your allies with these blessed raindrops, or kill evil beings. (Aquamarine / vivid blue)
> 'Effluvium Stone' : plague the surroundings with miasms and puddles of powerful venom. (Amethyst / gleaming purple)
> 'Thunder Stone' : strike enemies all-of-a-sudden with the force of lightning. (Quartz / bright yellow)
> 'Brittling Stone' : instantly freeze and quickly shatter hordes of assaulters. (Turquoise / desaturated light blue)
> 'Crepuscular Stone': evoke the dark forces of the void to hunt for creatures around. (Onyx / deep grey)
> 'Sunlight Stone' : permeate the air with inescapable rays of light that disintegrate. (Pearl / pure white)
'Call Of The Dead'
This sinister book-shaped artifact summons the wrath of the dead from the ground all of a sudden,
to slay all the opponents in your sight.
'Crow Effigy'
Morph into an ethereal crow-like creature - weak, but almost impossible to notice, and able to fly.
BladeSwarm device
When deployed, these cruel devices unleash a swarm of mechanical, blade-equipped mites that attack
enemies around for a good amount of time. Great also for distracting larger foes.
'Icon Of Sacrifice'
A cursed artifact whose effects are twofold: cut yourself with it, and gain both increased attack power
and worsened resistance to damage - at the same time. Once found, the artifact is never lost and
can be used at will.
'In Extremis'
This carriable magical orb can be used to both restore good stamina values, and safely teleport away
when in the middle of an ambush. What's special, it activates on the carrier without intervention when
he/she receives a severely-injuring (but not fatal) blow.
'Glyph Of Travel'
By reading this scroll, you can open up a magical transfer portal that sends all stumbling foes
to far and harmless places.
Curative pouch
A magical, gradually-expendable pouch that can cure your wounds. If its healing power is not fully required
to restore your health level to its original values, the remainder is kept in store to be used at a later time.
'Forsaken Refuge'
Reduces the damage received by the wielder to various amounts according to the nature of the attack, and
makes him/her immortal with one single, last, indestructible health point.
>>>>>>>>>
Classes
<<<<<<<<<
Rebel - our beloved hero. Cannot sustain the most powerful, alternate attacks of magical weapons without suffering an injury.
His starting weapon is a seemingly weak knife, which actually hides a sinister, intense power. With alternate fire,
the wielder can evoke a mysterious, immaterial instance of the mythological Hydra, which hunts targets around for a while.
After a 'Flaming Heart' artifact is acquired, the summoned entity becomes the TetraHydra - a cursed fabric of a minimum of
four Hydra heads, each one tearing and dragging around everything towards their common source, only to hold and strangle the victims
in a matter of instants. Beware though, each call pretends a toll on life points!
And finally, the Rebel can master the peculiar nature of his cape: being able to glide down empty spaces, thus overcoming obstacles
and reaching distant ledges more easily. Just hold the forward key when falling down...
Executioner - a beefier and slower sidekick of the Rebel. To his advantage, alternate magical attacks come at no cost other than mana.
And in addition, instead of starting only with a knife, he holds the Sawed-off right from the start, but most of all,
the FlailMace! A magical morning-star-like weapon that can be leaped forward with its flail to rip and pull foes...
Alternatively, the spiked mace sphere can be thrown in a boomerang-like fashion, just to disturb foes while operating another weapon;
it shall obediently return home after a while...
Footnotes:
(1) The suggested commandline for launching the modification is the following one
(assumes that the modification has been decompressed in subdirectory 'RSL' of your (G)ZDOOM directory):
(g)zdoom.exe -iwad <IWAD_PATH>\<IWAD_FILE> -file <CUSTOM_LEVEL_PATHNAME> RSL\rslrebel.wad
(if under GZDOOM, add option '+gl_nogl 1' to disable hardware rendering)
(2) Do not forget to bind a key for weapon reload under 'Options > Customize Controls'
in (G)ZDOOM.
(3) Similarly, do not forget to bind keys for every kind of Elemental Stone, always within the
'Options > Customize Controls' section in (G)ZDOOM.
(4) To obtain the complete set of weapons for quicktesting
without breaking the weapon set at your disposal,
type 'rsl' in the console.
(5) The modification is compatible with the following IWADs: The Ultimate DOOM, DOOM 2, Final DOOM.
WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING
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By reading the following credits you may spoil certain "surprise monsters" in the modification...
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WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING
Additional Credits to : Various sources (see below):
DoomRater for the reload-oriented DECORATE actors
Vaecrius for the recoil ACS script
Lobotomy Software for:
-game sounds
-Knife, Golden Serpent staff and Judgement rod sprites
3D Realms for:
-game sounds
-Cold Hand spell and Vile Orb verge sprites
Monolith Software for:
-game sounds
-Thompson machinegun, Sawed-off shotgun and Lava Sceptre sprites
-artifacts sprites
-burning corpse sprites
-dynamite bundle sprites
WildWeasel (wwhcdiaz.wad) for burning corpse death sounds
Nash Muhandes for the blood and gore effects
Neoworm for Rebel, Baphomet Cultist, Baphomet Fanatic
and Baphomet Hitman sprites
Espi for the Hell Guard
Nanami for the Cyber Mastermind
Raven Software for:
-Ice Spike sprites
-Rageing Soul sprites
-Hell Patriarch sprites
-magic scroll sprite
CutManMike (wrw.wad) for the Vile Orb concept
Cobalt and Butcher (zbloodpak.rar @ http://cobalt-pit.de/)
for the mugshot graphics
Mikk for the custom blood system
Monolith, Psyren and DoorHenge for the custom teleportation effect
Chilvence, PillowBlaster, Zhs2, Lobotomy Software and Raven Software for the FlailMace
Chilvence and Lobotomy Software for the Hydra / TetraHydra knife powers
PillowBlaster, Zhs2 and Stan423321 for the Rebel Gliding Art
The following authors for their excellent contributions to the Realm 667 repository,
whose work I adopted as the starting base for the artifacts system
(detailed credits can be found directly in the DECORATE lump):
- Mor'ladim for Elemental stones, BladeSwarm device;
- zrrion the insect for 'Call Of The Dead';
- Ghastly_dragon for 'Crow Effigy';
- Infirnex for 'Icon Of Sacrifice';
- PillowBlaster for 'In Extremis';
- Captain Toenail for 'Glyph Of Travel';
- TheMightyHeracross for Curative pouch;
- Chronoseth for 'Forsaken Refuge'.
-A.Gamma for the 'MMORPG HUD' base
-TerminusEst13 for the static 'Angel Of Death' effigy
-PillowBlaster for the static 'Flaynithere' effigy
Marty Kirra for the 'Executioner' base voiceacting specimens
TerminusEst13 for sincere appreciation - however, I am not so allergic to (good) critique
as you wrote somewhere, dude! Only, I can't stand trolls... ;-)
All other authors I forgot to mention: please forgive me! I tried to be accurate as much as I could.
If you here notice some of your resources un-mentioned, please notify me and I will try to remedy.
===========================================================================
* What is included *
New levels : None
Sounds : Yes
Music : No
Graphics : Yes
Dehacked/BEX Patch : No
Demos : No
Other : (G)ZDOOM-specific lumps
Other files required : None
* Play Information *
Game : DOOM
Map # : None
Single Player : Designed for
Cooperative 2-4 Player : Maybe (untested)
Deathmatch 2-4 Player : Maybe (untested)
Other game styles : None
Difficulty Settings : N/A
* Construction *
Base : New from scratch
Build Time : 3 months
Editor(s) used : Adobe Photoshop, GoldWave Audio Editor, Notepad, XWE
Known Bugs : Widescreen modes are not supported. Sorry.
May Not Run With... : Ports not supporting DECORATE; level WADs with heavy amounts of DEHACKED / DECORATE modifications
* Copyright / Permissions *
Authors MAY use the contents of this file as a base for modification or
reuse. Permissions have been obtained from original authors for any of
their resources modified or included in this file.
You MAY distribute this file, provided you include this text file, with no
modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic format (BBS,
Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file intact. I have
received permission from the original authors of any modified or included
content in this file to allow further distribution.
* Where to get the file that this text file describes *
The Usual: ftp://archives.3dgamers.com/pub/idgames/ and mirrors
Web sites: None others than the IDGames archive
FTP sites: None others than the IDGames archive