Hexen: Cult of Despair - A "semi-openworld" WoC campaign (New 1.4A Version!)

[Zburda]

Hello, I have been playing a bit of this and is pretty cool! It starts off nice and easy then gets hard. It doesn't have the hub like aspect of Hexen which I never really liked but instead it has a more of a traditional RPG map feel to it centered around the town which is much better. Also the map design is very good. A lot of neat and tiny details and lots of love put in every area. I like how you made the water transparent and you can swim though it such a nice RPG touch. Very well done. Also the beauty of playing with WoC is the additional skills, stats, classes makes it nice :)

[Onox]

On 5/22/2021 at 6:12 AM, Zburda said:

Hello, I have been playing a bit of this and is pretty cool! It starts off nice and easy then gets hard. It doesn't have the hub like aspect of Hexen which I never really liked but instead it has a more of a traditional RPG map feel to it centered around the town which is much better. Also the map design is very good. A lot of neat and tiny details and lots of love put in every area. I like how you made the water transparent and you can swim though it such a nice RPG touch. Very well done. Also the beauty of playing with WoC is the additional skills, stats, classes makes it nice :)

 

Thanks a lot for your commentary, and specially for noticing those small details that I added in the levels :D

 

Progress has slowed down a bit this month, but I have finished the third Heretic Gate, improving the level design of some overworld areas (and specially caves and dungeons) and fixing some minor things here and there.

A few more screenshots about what is coming in the next update:

 

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[Zburda]

I wasn't able to completely solve Horror Grotto. The last chackram possibly in the teleporting area and the room with bridge leading to a central wall pillar with water and two teleporters. For a while I thought the game was corrupted because I kept seeing some sliding skeletons and no enemies but then I quickly realized that's all pat of the plan haha. Nicely done!

Edited May 25, 2021 by Zburda

[Zburda]

So I just reached the end I think. Got the wasteland and killed everyone on the map and then found a cave with a text "Thanks for playing" haha. There is a village that I was supposed to find but couldn't find it. And there are some portals and a pedestal that requires some kind of a gem. Hmm wait... maybe the gem from the guy in the Shoppe would do it? I just got my Blunderbuss too I was gunna kick some ass and chew bubblegum and I was all out of bubblegum! That was a great series. Well done! All in all I think there's almost 30 levels in there. Pretty fun!!

 

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Edited May 26, 2021 by Zburda

[Onox]

On 5/25/2021 at 8:26 PM, Zburda said:

I wasn't able to completely solve Horror Grotto. The last chackram possibly in the teleporting area and the room with bridge leading to a central wall pillar with water and two teleporters. For a while I thought the game was corrupted because I kept seeing some sliding skeletons and no enemies but then I quickly realized that's all pat of the plan haha. Nicely done!

 

I have to improve the level design of the Horror Grotto a bit more for the next update and add a bit of lore for this area, the first part before the big fight is a kind of tension "what's going on here?", and after the fight and getting the key to explore the entire cave, all undeads raise from the ground and their tombs in revenge because you interrupted their eternal rest :P

 

On 5/26/2021 at 12:17 PM, Zburda said:

So I just reached the end I think. Got the wasteland and killed everyone on the map and then found a cave with a text "Thanks for playing" haha. There is a village that I was supposed to find but couldn't find it. And there are some portals and a pedestal that requires some kind of a gem. Hmm wait... maybe the gem from the guy in the Shoppe would do it? I just got my Blunderbuss too I was gunna kick some ass and chew bubblegum and I was all out of bubblegum! That was a great series. Well done! All in all I think there's almost 30 levels in there. Pretty fun!! 

 

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Yeah, the new village is coming for the next update too with two new levels: Wasteland Tunnels and the Desert Crypt. You will definitely have plenty of moments to kick more zombies and monster asses! I am also revisiting old levels to add more details and checking that the enemy spawn is always fine for every class to offer a polished and balanced experience ;)

Thanks so much for playing!

Edited May 29, 2021 by Onox

[sbw37]

On 9/6/2019 at 11:13 AM, Onox said:

 

Hi all!

 

I have been working in an Hexen campaign since I discovered the mod Wrath of Cronos, I really love Heretic & Hexen and this mod gave me enough strength and motivation to start my own campaign using this mod. I'm still new in level design terms but I think that I have been improving and learning over time.

 

What is Wrath of Cronos?: It is an Hexen mod made by Tethis (full compatible with Doom, Heretic and even Strife) which brings rpg elements, new weapons, 6 playable classes and new monsters.

 

What brings this campaign?: Cult of Despair is a campaign exclusive for WoC although I have plans to make a full vanilla version in the distant future. The game configuration is made in Hexen UDMF to take advantage of the Doom 64 light system and the alignment of floor textures. It uses a lot of scripts for the spawn system of enemies and items, so for example, you will never see the most dangerous Ettin variant called Bormereth in the first hours of the game or a Merchant in a weird place (because it sometimes replaces the Boots of Speed and the Chaos Device). I have added new props for ambience purposes such as more tree variants, corpses or custom textures.

 

But what would be a "semi-openworld" without npcs? Yes, you will see and meet characters (and friendly animals!) during your adventure, it adds some immersion to feel that you aren't the only sane human in this dark world, they will sometimes say useful information, tips or even where you must go in your quest (don't worry, I don't want there to be "Where do I go?" moments, all puzzles are very intuitive and your next objetives are clear.

 

The lore of Cult of Despair is about a large group of cultists (corrupted people by arcane forces) who are using the temples to summon a legion of Void monsters to Spaurus; the land where my mod takes place, but over time you will discover something much worse in their plans... Something related with a trio of old enemies that once they ruled three worlds and were defeated by different heroes... You are aware of the bad news about this so you start your adventure to stop those rituals, along the way, some cultists attack you and you are rescued by some villagers waking up in a house.

 

Some basic info:

-Game: Hexen
-Format: Latest Gzdoom version supported, but I have checked that it works with some previous versions too.
-What mods you need to run it: woc_v3a.pk3 ----> https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=35846
-Designed with jump and crouch moments, also freelook
-Approximate play length: 5-6 hours

-I highly recommend playing it with experience multiplier set to 50 and skill 3 or 4 for the best experience

 

Everyone loves images: (updated)

 

https://imgur.com/a/SMFl8tJ

 

Download:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kl8uRQtHDnmrqzgB9_taOG6L3d-teMrV/view?usp=sharing

 

Version 1.3A

 

-Golden Chakras can't be resurrected or morphed anymore
-Fixed a strange bug where some villagers and soldiers could disappear after a few minutes
-Lowered the Lime Slimes damage
-Added a new battle music for minor enemy fights (you can hear it during some subquests)
-Some enemies like Crimson Disciples can be resurrected correctly
-Fixed some minor grammar mistakes
-Removed duplicated Zombie Fodder sprites
-Added a new subquest in the Wasteland
-New textures added in the Swamp Temple for more variation
-Removed the teleport ability of the Pyrodemon boss but increased the health from 8000 to 8500 HP
-Liquid surfaces can't spawn Reagents now

Thanks for reading and I really hope you enjoy it! Any feedback is appreciated!
I also recommend playing it with Nash's Gore mod  :D

 

great project so far bro! hows the progress coming? 

 

[Nimlouth]

Yeah I started re-playing this the other day with my little sister. Hope this project is not dead I'm in love with it!!!

[Onox]

There is a new update on the way that is taking me longer than I expected, but things are going smoothly, I finished an optional dungeon where you will explore another prison of the cultists to do a subquest and get good items, and also polished many minor things to improve the quality of the whole campaign. I know I haven't updated the mod for a year, but the wait will be worth it!

 

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[Onox]

Finally the day has come, a new version of Cult of Despair! Because version 1.4 was private for a week and needed feedback, I have been working already in the 1.4A, and this is the result with the huge changelog!

I hope you enjoy all the changes and improvements that I have brought, it has been a long journey (more than a year without updating, wow) but I feel that it has been worth it, any questions or suggestions let me know and I will take them into account.
Good luck hunting down those cultists and monsters!

Version 1.4

-New levels: Wasteland Tunnels, Taedmorden Village, Greyrock Prison and Desert Crypt
-Revamped completely the Direwood Castle with a bigger quality design!
-Added a new subquest in the Goldeanleaf Graveyard
-The third Heretic Gate is finished (found in the Wasteland)
-Gloomy Prison, Hidden Basement, Abandoned Fort, Sewers, Black Passage and Cultist Fortress have more details and new textures
-Undead Warriors show the green axe and the ghost versions show the red one in their sprites (only a visual change)
-Removed Gargoyles and normal Golems from Rocky Pathway, now Ettin Commanders and Afrit Leaders appear around that area
-Replaced all Gargoyles by Poison Gargoyles in the Swamp Temple
-Replaced a few Undead Warrior Ghosts by the normal variant in the Crossbone Graveyard (it was a bit brutal with so many red axes)
-Increased the health of some minor enemies slightly (Poison Gargoyles, Roaches and Afrit Leaders)
-Replaced the music of the Hidden Basement and Black Passage by Heretic remixes
-Lime Slimes explode into jelly chunks upon death (instead of a simple white pixel)
-You can kill crows now, wow!
-Added a few more ambient sounds and diverse textures
-New allied creatures can appear from the Friendly Familiar Egg: Lava Golem, Wendigo and Tarantula
-Fixed a minor issue where the Friendly Familiar Egg cost four Golden Tokens but actually it should be three
-Fixed a bug where the Hell Smith boss could get stuck in one of those fire pillars during the battle
-Added Spirit Tokens, those mysterious items can make to use your weapon twice as fast for 5 seconds after picking up. They cannot be stored in your inventory.
-Added an Unmaoi Statue to warn you about buying a few Purple Moss Clumps before entering the Swamp Temple
-Increased the light of some areas of the Hidden Basement and Black Passage slightly
-Swamp Stalker Leaders uses the correct sprites now (they used the ice variant in WoC for some reason). They also appear in the Abandoned Fort and the Sewers.
-Zombie Fodders have new sprites to differentiate them from the necromancer's allied zombies
-Monsters during the Hell Smith battle and in the Heretic Gates never fight each other now
-A few more villagers walk around the towns now, you can also hit them without consequences to add some realism
-The Banishment Device is no longer replaced, now it is a separated item called Fireball Device with its own sprites
-New sprites for the guards in towns

Version 1.4A

-Buffed all pet stats from the Friendly Familiar Egg item
-Fixed some minor bugs (thanks to Suporma for the reports!)
-Holes in the ground emit blue sparks so that the player can see the caves
-lowered the damage of the Azazel Brothers' projectiles
-lowered the damage of the Dark Patriarchs' projectiles
-Improved the english grammar of various texts in the game (thanks to WhamNinjaMolehill for the feedback!)

DOWNLOAD 1.4A VERSION:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MADLWU3TGnpa9sSIU8UGSvEv0b0Dkb0g/view?usp=sharing

Remember: You need load woc_v3a.pk3 first before my mod, gore mods like "Bloody Simple Blood" or "Nashgore" are compatible

[Muleke_Trairao]

Fantastic work! This mod looks amazing!

 

Now, it says on the Cult of Despair's Mod DB page that the mod is not finished. Are you still planning on adding more content to it? 10-12 hours of average playtime is already a milestone! :O

 

Anyway, congratulations, and thanks for contributing to the community's enjoyment! :)

[sbw37]

hows this project coming? will it be compatible on gzdoom?

 

[Muleke_Trairao]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:42 PM, sbw37 said:

hows this project coming? will it be compatible on gzdoom?

 

It says this in the first post:

On 9/6/2019 at 12:13 PM, Onox said:

-Format: Latest Gzdoom version supported, but I have checked that it works with some previous versions too.

So yeah, it is compatible with GZDoom.