[v1.0.0] Vesper - MBF21 Showcase Mod

[Xaser]

 

 

Welcome to the future, Agent.

 

Vesper is a shiny new weapon mod for MBF21, showcasing a full arsenal of high-tech & demonic weaponry that'll make you say "I can't believe it's not GZDoom!" Built using pure DEHACKED, with a little help from DoomTools, it doubles as both a feature demonstration and a standalone weapon pack to use with your favorite maps. Blast 'em away with plasma shotguns, acid grenades, and heat-seeking blood sprayers!

 

Downloads & Links

• Current release: v1.0.0 -- released 2022-01-02
• Dropbox Mirror
• Release Archive
• Git Repo
• Project Homepage, hosted by Hellforge Studios as part of Doomforge

 

 

Supported Ports

• dsda-doom
• Woof!
• Odamex
• Eternity (devbuilds only at time of writing)
• GZDoom (v4.8.2 or higher)
• DelphiDoom
• ...More to come!

 

Gameplay Reel:

Big thanks to @rd. for putting this together! Watch the mod played by someone who actually knows how to play the game! ;P

 

Obligatory Weapon Previews:

 

Blunderbuss:
A highly-portable plasma shotgun. For when buckshot just won't do (which, coincidentally, is always).

 

Nox Launcher:
Break-action delivery device for specially-formulated anti-demon Nox Grenades. Bring a spare pair of lungs.

 

And more! Download the dang mod already and check 'em out!

 

Screamshots

Click for fullscreen versions.

 

Also yep, that's Proper Valiant, Sunlust, and Eviternity, showin' off the DEHACKED compatibility. Word.

 

How the hell does any of this work?

 

Some geeky details: This is all done with with DEHACKED, and these gifs were taken with dsda-doom. The secret sauce is in the MBF21 spec: there's a whole host of new weapon codepointers that let you do all sorts of fancy business, and combined with DEHEXTRA's ability to have virtually-unlimited* states, it's now possible to do incredibly advanced weapon & monster logic without making the leap to an advanced port (i.e. GZD or EE). The "Boom" family of ports is no longer stuck in the stone age. :D

 

If you're wondering how all this works behind the hood, or want to learn how to build an MBF21 project of your own, check out the GitHub project for the mod. It contains the full source used to build the WAD with DoomTools, including source for the incredibly-powerful DECOHack, which is the key to making all this fancy 21st-century DEHACKED stuff possible. If you've ever written a line of DECORATE or ZScript, you'll feel right at home.

 

[*yeah, there's DSDHacked which has literally-unlimited states, but it may be a while before all relevant ports support it, so Vesper targets the 'lesser' of the two specs for now.]

OBLIGATORY FAQ:
Q: What port do I need to run this?
A: Any port that supports MBF21, though dsda-doom is the primary target. See the list at the top -- everything else is swim-at-your-own-risk.

 

Q: Does this project feature new maps?
A: Not yet, just plug in your favorite mapset and have fun. Maybe if this takes off, I'll start up a Vesper mapset project or somethin', but let's not get ahead of ourselves. :P

 

Q: Does this project feature new monsters?
A: Nope, just guns. For now. ;)

 

Q: Hey, the mod's busted in GZDoom!
A: GZDoom's MBF21 support isn't complete just yet, and the mod doesn't work in GZD at the time of writing. It'll support it before too long, I imagine, once the kinks are all worked out.

 

Q: The mod isn't working in [some other port x]!

A: In this case, you're probably best off seeking help from the port developer. Vesper is written using spec-compliant MBF21 features, but since the standard is so new, it's more likely that there are going to be bugs with port-specific implementations of MBF21 features rather than anything wrong with the mod itself. Either way, it's best to start there, then we'll figure out afterward it turns out there's anything in the mod that needs fixing.

OK that's it, now let's shoot some goddamn guns!!

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Xaser
tags oh snap

[Dragonfly]

Hype! I'll check this out when it's ready for sure. :)

Edited August 9, 2021 by Dragonfly

[galileo31dos01]

Not me rushing to click the links thinking it'd download the mod because I saw shiny blue things in the gifs and got too impatient and didn't read the rest of the post because I saw shiny blue things...

 

So, count me in with the hype!

[Shepardus]

Looking forward to this! I think DeHackEd gameplay mods are an underexplored space, especially with what MBF21 and DEHEXTRA bring to the table.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Nice! With D4V and this, I hope more people finally start to see gameplay modding potentials in Dehacked!

[Redead-ITA]

Oh baby that should help a lot to read the MBF21 dehacked (While i wait for Whacked to get updated.), also glad to see TSF is getting his sprites used here.

[msx2plus]

this rules! thank you for sharing this, it's a great showcase! after my current project i'm keen to work on something a little more rooted in vanilla, so having these expanded functions will be a treat. i do enjoy the problem-solving that comes with dehacked but it always feels a bit cramped.

[Xaser]

Thanks y'all! -- ye, the intent is to make both a fun mod and a reference for folks wanting to do their own MBF21 things. The weapons are fairly fancy but I'm trying not to make things too uber-mega-hypercomplex, so it's understandable-ish... as much as Xaser-written things can even get, I guess. :P

 

Will post up some more preview things soonish, to keep the gears turnin'.

[Jimmy]

Take my soulsphere, Xaser, you magnificent bastard.

 

So hyped for what MBF21 will bring to the table, and this certainly looks to be the thing that gets everybody interested.

[Wavy]

Very neat stuff so far! I've always had the idea to make a "plasma shotgun" style weapon.

Edited August 11, 2021 by Wavy

[Biodegradable]

Doomas came early this year, kids. Santa Xaser's left us a new weapon mod under the Demon tree. :^)

[Xaser]

'Nother weapon teaser for y'all.

 

Ichor Rifle:

An unethically-sourced fusion of demon & human tech, featuring UAC's patented Sapient Seeker™ technology. Souls not included.

 

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Wow, this would be a great weapon for Stormtroopers!

Spoiler

In all seriousness though, great to see that you now can fire homing projectiles without worrying of crashing the game.

 

[Bobby :D]

Kinda want to make a small set with this, nothing crazy, like 4 pretty good speed maps that explore the catalog of weapons.

[Astronomical]

What utility did you use to edit the weapons? I am not aware of any dehacked editors that support mbf21 and I would be interested to know what you used were using?

[HavoX]

4 minutes ago, Plank_Guy_89 said:

I am not aware of any dehacked editors that support mbf21

AFAIK, WhackED doesn't support MBF21 (yet.)

[TheNoob_Gamer]

34 minutes ago, Plank_Guy_89 said:

I am not aware of any dehacked editors that support mbf21 and I would be interested to know what you used were using?

Pretty sure it's DECOHack - a command line-based program (which supports all Dehacked format up to MBF21) that allows modders to input Decorate-like coding to make Dehacked patches.

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by TheNoob_Gamer

[JXC]

How's the mod progress going?

[Xaser]

I'll post updates when there's updates.

[Xaser]

Speaking of updates, HELLA BUMPO!

 

Got a couple of announcements:

 

First off, Vesper has been blessed by Sir @Bridgeburner56 and is now part of Doomforge, a.k.a. the official Hellforge Studios doom project pantheon! We'll have some stuff set up in the Hellforge discord shortly, so stop by if you wanna chat about the mod or otherwise hang out with cool Doom folks.

 

Second on, holy heck it's a release! And a logo, for some reason!

 

 

Get v1.0.0 here!

 

NOTE: GZDoom doesn't work with it just yet, so now's as good a chance as any to set up dsda-doom if you haven't yet!

 

Have fun, y'all!

[Redead-ITA]

tested it so far, pretty good, the only problem i still see in this is mostly animation wise, the axe and melee animation feel wrong:

if i were to give some feedback.

The axe 2 frames of swing can be translated into 1 blury frame and use the remainder as a tnt1a0 of sorts, so it would feel better, an alternative would be to remove SAWGF0 and those tics to sawgg0 and make it go after sawgh0, that would also give it some OOMPH

as for the fists, i would either make them not be shown (great for screenshots) and show Pungb0 after pungc0 happens, same thing with pungd0 to e0.

outside of the nitpicks the weapon mod feels great!

Edited January 3, 2022 by Redead-ITA

[Walter confetti]

Doesn't work with woof either?

[boris]

22 minutes ago, Walter confetti said:

Doesn't work with woof either?

 

Seems to work fine for me in Woof 8.1.0.

[MFG38]

Congrats on the release! I'll put this into the list for my next gameplay mod variety stream. c:

[JXC]

The chaingun replacement is really fun! The BFG replacement also looks amazing!

[Rudolph]

The projet homepage link appears to be dead.

[Xaser]

The homepage hasn't been set up just yet -- there's still a few to-do's on that side of life. Will probably make another post when it's up.

[Bridgeburner56]

3 minutes ago, Xaser said:

The homepage hasn't been set up just yet -- there's still a few to-do's on that side of life. Will probably make another post when it's up.

I have failed you

[Eric Claus]

gonna give this a spin! MBF21 has me excited!

[Fabricator]

Super-slick and fun weapon mod (Vesper as an agent is super cool! Shoutouts to those black and blue gloves, stylish af!), blasted through the first 7 maps of og Doom 2 with Doom Retro so far and am really digging what's on show in this 1.0.0 release! I'm absolutely here for all of the community excitement around MBF21 and am looking forward to seeing it's full potential realized. Excuse the incoming wall o' text, lol!

Most of the weapons I'm vibing with, I like some of the new archetypes (relatively new-ish for Doom anyway, I guess?)
- Axe is cool and gives me Heartland flashbacks. Is it affected by Hyper-Steroids?
- Deagle is an awesome sniping tool and makes pistol only runs actually viable and fun, haha! 
- Blunderbuss being a projectile shotty loses the sniping ability, but the added damage makes close encounters faster! Reload is cool af too!
- Mowing down fodder demons with the Heavy Spiker reminds me of the Nailgun / Perforator from Quake. Love the NIN homage on the ammo. 
- Nox Launcher is great for creating choke points and stun-locking heavies. I like the potential for self-damage too, keeps me accountable!
- The homing function on the Ichor Rifle is crazy cool but the fire rate is slow enough so it's not too op... imo anyway!
I like the sped-up weapon switching and altered ammo caps as well, had me constantly changing weapons and doing gun combos.

Some minor niggles I had are in regards to ammo balance and the SSG replacement, I found myself being inundated with ion and ichor, but kinda strapped for spikes and nox grenades. Could just be a vanilla Doom 2 thing though?
I'm kinda on the fence with the Foehammer SSG... doesn't really feel any different mechanically to the Blunderbuss outside of extra damage and increased ammo consumption (maybe that's the point? lol), but on the other hand goddamn does one-shotting mid-tiers and two-shotting heavies feel good! I also don't really have any suggestions on how to change or "improve" it! :) Hahaha!
Also didn't get a chance to use the Vile Driver as I finished up my initial session before I could get my mits on it.

I'd really love to see some insane new demons to blow away with these cool guns, maybe even some unique items or power-ups, but iirc you've already mentioned that monsters are in the pipeline and will eventually be here. An episode or a community project when Vesper gets fleshed out a bit more would be awesome to see as well! 

Obviously just my 2 cents, take with a grain of salt! Having a ton of fun so far though, gonna blast thru some Boom mapsets when I have the chance. Keen as a bean for any and all further updates! :)

Edited January 26, 2022 by Fabricator
Fixed minor typos and gave some specific feedback.