Talk about some custom monsters you like

[baja blast rd.]

Here are just some I had thoughts on now.

 

nerfed cyberdemons

 

 

Cyberdemons with substantially lower HP, usually around 1000, have been a popular addition to recent difficult wads -- among others, Magnolia, Darkest Room, Finely Crafted Fetish Film, and Fractured Worlds. Or basically, the sort of wad that spams cybers already. The reason you see these instead of cybruisers is that cyberdemons have a specific feel and tactic set associated with fighting them that is largely preserved by the simple HP reduction. So the nerf mostly unlocks their frequent use in situations that would ordinarily be too grindy: you can have fun fights against them with weapons as weak as the shotgun, and take down groups and hordes without the BFG. Fun ones. 

 

the Ancient Aliens stealth plasma alien

 

 

and alien guardian

 

 

Beyond the way these are beautifully integrated into the story, they are fantastic models of enemy design. Both have clear strengths but also intentional weaknesses: the plasma trooper is fragile and flashes into clearer sight when it attacks; the AD_79 head hovers around slowly, and the death explosion can produce explosive chains that offset its strength in groups. With low HP and attacks that are dangerous up close, both encourage weapons other than the super shotgun. You can still find maps in episode 3 of Ancient Aliens where the single shotgun makes sense to use and even the pistol doesn't feel pointless.  

 

any rocket zombies that lack splash immunity

 

 

and Valiant's suicide bombers

 

 

These should be used carefully. Rocket zombies that lurk unseen in corners and announce their presence by bonking you with a rocket quickly outstay their welcome. Valiant's lessons on bomber use are subtle but cool: since Valiant isn't a horror wad (like the also-excellent Nihility) where you are meant to creep around slowly, they show up only in a limited number of maps, and never "sneakily" behind crates and corners.

 

I could talk more about Valiant -- the bomber isn't even my favorite -- but I'll leave it at that for now. I will throw in one from Lunatic. I've always found this one hilarious because of the extreme delay, and then the rocket that comes out of its head. 

 

Spoiler

 

Running Late's take on the Scythe 2 plasma marine

 

Ngl I actually like the Scythe 2 marine, but it's true that it also should probably stay in Scythe 2; it's so much more lethal than anything else that the gameplay bifurcates into "the time you're playing Doom 2" and "the time you're playing plasma marines."

 

The Running Late version is now slower -- but still fast all things considered -- and goes down consistently in one rocket or well placed SSG shot. 

 

It's nothing too groundbreaking, but I played that set in 2017 and thought, "Yeah if you have to use powerful Scythe 2-like plasma marines, that is the sweet spot." 

 

Pirate Doom's attire

 

If you are making a slightly campy mapset in ZDoom and can afford to put work into sprite design, clothes that do independent things can be very good.

 

 

And some quick hits from this year:

 

- Heartland's cast revisits bombers and cybruisers, and uses them very often. Kind of goes against what I was feeling about Valiant, right? No, because along with it being a shorter mapset, it also nerfs their damage to the point that they're still dangerous but not so lethal anymore. Works well. 

 

- Wormwood 3, I mean Wormwood ]|[, has all sorts of creative things going on. It also has drunk arachnotrons.

 

 

- Tarnsman's Projectile Hell and Infested are full of great ones (meme enemies are good), and one thing they have in common is especially good use of cacodemons.

[Nine Inch Heels]

I think for me it would be Valiant's Arachnorb... One of the things that stood out to me about valiant is how it tried to fill gaps in the roster (at least I perceived it that way when I first played it), and the arachnorbs definitely hit that pocket just right: A kind of airborne glass cannon that wouldn't piss me off by drifting who the hell knows where, because they were easily dealt with by way of a well-placed shot, and at the same time they were aggressive enough to warrant some modicum of respect.

 

Other than that I would agree with the 1000 HP cybers due to how enabling they are from a conceptual angle...

[Daerik]

I fell in love with Paradise's Diabolist, and Tortured Soul.

 

The Diabolist serves a similar role to Arch-Viles, being able to apply pressure on the player regardless of what's between them while accomplishing it in a manner that doesn't oppressively control an open space. They're also absolute monsters when it comes to infighting (and can even delete a cyberdemon in seconds) which was fun to route fights around.

 

Tortured Souls and their death cloud created a fun gameplay gimmick of trying to maximize the amount of damage you could make them deal with their cloud, while dealing with everything else going on in fights. It can even be used to stunlock a choke point single-handedly.

[Uni]

I wished Doom had a Rocket former human who would shoot a player-grade rocket and acted as a glass cannon. I think it would've been a great monster for the roster plus ammo source.

Edited November 16, 2021 by Uni

[Kan3]

I'm actually using a lot of custom monsters cause there are a lot of them that are really well made (even if I always end up modifying them in some way x) ), but maybe the best to me are the Stone Imp (and demon), the  Haedexebus and probably the Zombie Fodder.

 

The first for the "fake statue mechanic", it's just great (I actually changed it a lot from the one of the original stone imp in Realm667, but it's amazing anyway) and I love having demons statue in certain kind of map.

The second one especially cause of the texture: it's wonderful, in my opinion the best sprites I've seen so far, not to mention the custom attacks completely new to Doom.

The latter just for it's "Quake version", for he can resurrect itself if you don't mangle him with heavy weapons x)

[ReaperAA]

I am generally a fan on custom enemies that, as NIH said, try to fill gaps in the existing roster. Some of the enemies that I liked over the years include:

 

Astral Cacodemons (Eviternity)

If there is anything Doom lacks, it is flyers that are fast and dish out damage. The vanilla Doom 2 flyers are only threatening due to their tankiness (mass cacodemons, pain elementals spitting lost souls). The astral caco fills this role nicely. The fast speed and abrupt nature of their attack means that the player has to be proactive when trying to dodge their attacks.

 

Arachnorb (Valiant)

Another enemy that fills the fast and high-dps flyer role. As NIH stated, these guys are good glass cannon flyers that can do decent amount of damage if not paid attention, but can also be killed fairly quickly by a well placed rocket.

 

Black Gargoyles (1000 Lines 3)

In terms of their health, they are similar to Valiant's arachnorbs, but their role is somewhat different. They are not high-dps enemies. Instead, they are supreme harass enemies like no other monster. Their fast speed and small radius means that using projectile weapons (and even the SSG) will usually result in a miss and the best weapon to deal with them is the assault rifle (chaingun replacement of the wad). Thankfully, their firepower is only as good as an imp.

 

Stealth Plasma Aliens (Ancient Aliens)

A take on Scythe 2's evil marines that are much slower and less tanky. There are plenty of variants of "plasma marines" that can be found in different wads, but these are my favorite due to their sneaky nature and how these enemies make chaingun(a normally underused weapon) the best weapon to deal with them.

 

Diabolists (Paradise and other mapsets that use Supercharge/Minicharge)

As Daerik stated, there are archvile variants that can resurrect enemies (and thus create combat urgency), but can be used in an open space more liberally (and not making things unfair) due to their Line of Sight hitscan blast replaced by a delayed area of effect (AoE) attack. This AoE attack can also be used to create arena scenarios where the player has to constantly move in an open field, so as to not get caught by the attacks.

 

 

[GarrettChan]

Nerfed Cyberdemon is a surprising thing where it's so useful and yet simple, but nobody tried it out before Magnolia.

[baja blast rd.]

10 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

Black Gargoyles (1000 Lines 3)

In terms of their health, they are similar to Valiant's arachnorbs, but their role is somewhat different. They are not high-dps enemies. Instead, they are supreme harass enemies like no other monster. Their fast speed and small radius means that using projectile weapons (and even the SSG) will usually result in a miss and the best weapon to deal with them is the assault rifle (chaingun replacement of the wad). Thankfully, their firepower is only as good as an imp.

 

Yeah I loved these, and the way 1kL3 implemented custom monsters is good and smart, how every monster is mostly unique to its own episode that has a matching theme (there are only a few exceptions afaik), and how every monster has a fleshed-out identity that is fresh in some way. e1 plasma troopers (probably the most conventional) are unusual for the way they drop tiny bits of cell ammo; e2's gargoyles are hilariously effective at pestering; and e3 has a fresh but still coherent take on the annihilator, with its flamethrower and delayed explosion (the delayed explosion is fun because of how other monsters sometimes wander into it). And of course the boss map stuff is very cool. 

[BCHQ]

Jason zombies in MAYhem 2019 are a ton of fun. Very fast (same as you) melee enemies with chainsaws that make you run around like crazy, make any battle chaotic as hell, wish more wads used them.

 

Astral cacodemons from Eviternity are veery creepy and veery cool.

 

Hive mother from Sunder, as ridiculous and lethal as Sunder itself.

 

And +1 to Suicide bombers, less urgent than the Jasons, but way more hilarious.

Edited November 16, 2021 by BCHQ

[ReaperAA]

35 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

Nerfed Cyberdemon is a surprising thing where it's so useful and yet simple, but nobody tried it out before Magnolia.

 

STRAIN tried it back in 1997 (but their size was also somewhat reduced there)

[Teo Slayer]

I really love that one zombie who goes AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and explodes in your face. Very funny guy :)

Edited November 16, 2021 by Teo Slayer

[Cheesewheel]

Plugging the cacobot from uprising!!! Inspired by the asrtral cacodemon.

[Ragu]

The fast imps from Strain are cool, just as strong as normal imps but incredibly fast, though they have to stop to shoot. But when they do shoot, it's a dizzying flurry of fire. The speed makes them seem smarter than they actually are -- the randomization element and the amount they move per tic makes it more difficult for them to home right in for melee, so they look like they back off to shoot. In tight hallways they'll just seemingly appear out of nowhere, and they work as like squishier but much more versatile arachnotrons when used as upper-level surveillance.

[Deadwing]

Is that drunk Arachnotron a boom monster?

 

As for custom monsters, Astral Cacodemon with the sprint move before attacking is one of my favorites.

I also liked the suicide bomber, which is a very original enemy from Valiant.

[Lippeth]

Always liked the phasing black suit guys from Ancient Aliens, and the toxic imps from Rowdy Rudy 2.

[SuperCupcakeTactics]

The 'Munchkin' from @Phobus's ph_monsters.wad which is a small freaky little creature that I had fun spamming everywhere on my own lonesome. It may be lost to time.

Edited November 16, 2021 by SuperCupcakeTactics

[Dusty_Rhodes]

2 hours ago, Uni said:

I wished Doom had a Rocket former human who would shoot a player-grade rocket and acted as a glass cannon. I think it would've been a great monster for the roster plus ammo source.

Obituary from 1995 has this. Make sure to grab the fixed version here

[GarrettChan]

1 hour ago, ReaperAA said:

 

STRAIN tried it back in 1997 (but their size was also somewhat reduced there)

huh, didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

[CBM]

I like the tentacle monster, tentacle barrier, tesla coil, shark, shark with laser and hellrose from realm667 as well as all the pirate monsters from pirate doom

[galileo31dos01]

Valiant's arachnorbs, suicide bombers, AAliens drones and stealth dudes, and plasma/bazooka trooper variants here and there (Running Late 2, Obituary, the recent Lunar Laceration), for numerous reasons that have been said already, I like that sweet spot between mid-high demand while consistently destructible in a specific number of shots -- one shotgun shot puts down this fast-shooting trooper, one well-placed SSG or (nearly) always a minimum of two SG shots to kill a tiny speedy flier (low health isn't a requirement, I'm putting examples where hitscan weapons feel at their best for me). The astral cacodemon in Eviternity is an exception owning to how abrasive it can be in a blink of an eye, and most any situation is more like "OMG okay, inhale, few shots, exhale, phew!" that I forget they share the same weird HP from its cousins. It's hard to go wrong with glass canons...  

 

Tanks can be very good (fr)enemies too in a given context, I remember back then being astonished at the power Scythe 2's afrits held when infighting a bunch of cyberdemons in map 30, although when it came to killing one on my own it was a whole other story - on a replay not too long ago, I wasn't all that into their tankiness anymore, but if I were to choose a top-3 hell noble variant, this guy earned a spot solely from its redness fiery aspect. On another note, the cybruiser who owns its pretty silver rocket is slowly growing on me, because it's always cool to see more variety within projectile types outside of zdoom-derived wads, plus thanks to the current mbf21 nothing needs to be sacrificed in order to adopt splash immunity - the most recent example I know is Lunar Laceration.

 

One particular 90's replacement I quite liked is the imp in Obituary. As a former apprentice, it learned most everything the hell knight can do, while preserving the original imp's health and size, so you don't just turn your back on a gang of these thinking it'll feel like tickles, and they're sturdy enough to put up a fight against bulkier monsters and give you an amusing show (I once got a couple belittle a mancubus in seconds). One of my favorite things was to see their paws flash in action, just like their masters used to do. 

 

Most of the STRAIN bestiary would make a really great roster for a CP imo. The old graphics and sfx might clash with the more contemporary view of gameplay mechanics for some people, so an overhaul wouldn't go bad. There's a floating eye that wakes up to the sound of a whisk and shoots an ultra slow homing projectile, a baby-looking cyberdemon whose face is a pixel, or a clownish lost soul that giggles everytime he's about to zap, among other interesting choices that obviously can't be taken too seriously, though I wouldn't want those changed at all (aside from maybe adjustment to HP in general, yeah back to the "number of shots" topic) as that's the kind of quirks that stand out for me among other wads with more serious custom demons. If you think of it, STRAIN polydrones walked so AAliens drone could run... or float, and spin, actually both move the same way, umm, whatever...

[4shockblast]

Let me present to you the tiny demons of Quest for Necronomicon:

 

:^)

 

Also, All Hell's monsterset is bizarre and wonderful and deserves mentioning. I suppose that's where my usual taste of custom monsters is. :D

 

WRT Scythe 2's marines, I wish they were in a separate mapset or something; within Scythe 2, they just add randomness to runs which is quite frustrating. They are quite fun in isolated runs, though (like map 31 is fun to go at for a while IMO). Wish they had just a bit less speed and 150 health instead of 250, though.

[baja blast rd.]

3 minutes ago, 4shockblast said:

Also, All Hell's monsterset is bizarre and wonderful and deserves mentioning. I suppose that's where my usual taste of custom monsters is. :D

 

ye, that one could easily be a big post in itself (if I replay it at some point). I'll just leave this: 

 

[GarrettChan]

3 minutes ago, 4shockblast said:

Let me present to you the tiny demons of Quest for Necronomicon:

Oh dang, why you put up something I have to play now!

[CherubCorps]

Really enjoy the strongman from Square. It's a cross between a Maulotaur and Scorpion from MK.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by RomDump

[Naarok0fkor]

I just made my baby cacodemon's sprites sharper-looking...

[Grain of Salt]

4 hours ago, rd. said:

The reason you see these instead of cybruisers is that cyberdemons have a specific feel and tactic set associated with fighting them that is largely preserved by the simple HP reduction. So the nerf mostly unlocks their frequent use in situations that would ordinarily

be too grindy: you can have fun fights against them with weapons as weak as the shotgun, and take down groups and hordes without the BFG. Fun ones.

 

Ya ya, exactly!! That's why the green cyb* is probably my favorite custom monster. It doesn't feel like an addition to the gameplay dynamics of the base game, it just sharpens one aspect a little bit. You could probably even do 1/4 hp cybs in actual vanilla without deh if you really wanted, with some janky crusher trickery (although they would look the same as normal cybers and would not infight them).

 

My problem with a lot of custom monsters (which greencybs avoid) is they lack the sense of "contributing to a transferable skillset that applies to basically any wad" that fighting normal monsters have. When you fight a cyberdemon you're practising skills (and discovering ways to have fun) that you can use on thousands of other levels, but when you fight a scythe 2 afrit... there's only like 20 of them in existence, so kinda what's the point.

 

* - imo the canonical name is green cyb or even greencyb, rather than other things i've heard like "teal cyberdemon" and "cyberdemon knight". Iirc I did the sprite edits for magnolia green cyb but not the deh or the original idea, so I have 33-50% custody.

 

1 hour ago, Deadwing said:

Is that drunk Arachnotron a boom monster?

 

Nop, ww3 is boom but I'm 99% sure it would work in vanilla :D The deh just gives arachs two of the mancubus's attack codepointers. Which is why I call them firespiders.... even though the projectile doesn't look very fiery tbh. If they end up in other wads people will probably end up calling them Arthropod Deacons or something.

 

They haven't been used much (yet?) but I love firespiders. They just make you move (and think about movement) in a really fun way. They take what I love about arachs and make it subtly more threatening and sort of shmup-esque imo. I'm sure we haven't scratched the surface of cool things you can do with them.

 

Other custom mons that are cool: the eyes from magnolia, and their precursors in some other wad (by Purist maybe?) that use archvile attack on you. I have a soft spot for sc2 afrits even though they have obvious flaws. The ridiculous green cacodemons from some TimeOfDeath wads (which I think are taken from or inspired by an earlier wad?) are kinda great too.

[Plats]

Cyber-Mastermind and Annihilator

[Xyzzу]

The Tarakannik trilogy's monster roster is the work of a brilliant madman.

Spoiler

 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

5 hours ago, rd. said:

any rocket zombies that lack splash immunity

The fact that there's some mods out there that make rocket zombies immune to splash damage is a crime. Rocket troopers ftw in any case.

 

Otherwise known as Bazooka Man, or Rocket Zombie, Obituary's rocket trooper is the original glass cannon. It's a simple case of outfitting a zombie with a rocket launcher, and the results end up outright hilarious at the right hands. Sure, they can kill an unsuspecting player easily, especially given Obituary's cramped level layouts which give the rocket trooper a lot of benefit. But that can easily be turned against his poor self if you get him to fire close to a wall, or other enemies. Old, feeble, but still loads of fun, this little guy packed the most dangerous heat any regular zombie could pack, for all around him.

 

Also wasn't there two different kinds of cyberdemons in Supercharge too?

[Omniarch]

Ah yes, custom monsters, one of my favourite aspects of Waddom. There's so, so much to talk about here, far too much even for one of my notorious gigaposts. Thus, I have decided to type out a few miscellaneous thoughts on a semi-random collection of my favourite beasties (with a few bads jokes for change), you know, for fun! These have been sorted first by monster, then by rough category thereof, for organizational reasons. Hope you enjoy!

 

Oh, I almost forgot...

 

!!!WARNING: OMNIDUMP INCOMING I REPEAT OMNIDUMP INCOMING WARNING!!!

 

(seriously, this post is nearly 2,000 words long...)

 

Impses

Imps. Everybody loves 'em (and not always platonically...), everybody knows 'em and everybody's killed an imperial britonnic fuck-tonne of 'em. It is unsurprising, then, that some (sussy) individuals among us would decide to make their very own variants. Here's a couple of interesting examples that fill some oft-overlooked niches in Doom's bestiary:

 

Dark Imp (Uprising) & Psycho Imp (Rowdy Rudy 2)

You know what I like? A pair o' taught-ass buns, that's what. Oh, and I guess enemies with high DPS-to-HP ratios, them too. You know what I like more? A combination of the above. You can see, then, why these two implementations of the Dark Imp concept appeal to me.

 

Silliness aside, these scrumptious little fellas fill a somewhat overlooked niche, namely that of a fast, hard-hitting but squishy fodder enemy, adept at both spicing up incidental action and (in groups) outputting a fearsome amount of damage relative to space occupied.

 

The Psycho Imp is specialized for the former role, acting as a sort of 'shock' unit that functions best in relatively intimate spaces, while the Dark Imp focuses more on raw firepower. Both of these help bridge the gap between regular imps and the more powerful Hell nobles, whilst bringing the additional element of speed to the table.

 

Imp Superior (Nihility: Infinite Teeth)

In theory, Projectile Hell and Doom make for natural bedfellows. Sadly, the highly-variable nature of Doom's damage system makes true projectile saturation a bit of a crapshoot, given how unfair effectively undodgeable projectiles can be in this context.

 

One way around this problem is to emphasize slow-moving, low-damage projectiles which can be reliably avoided with a degree of effort. The Imp Superior is eager to lend a hand in this endeavour. This persistent fellow will lob fireballs at you until LOS is broken, similar to the Arachnotron. In groups, they can easily saturate a large area with their projectiles, and offer a low-cost (in terms of grind) option for area-denial or background pressure.

 

I rather like this sort of simple-yet-effective design in my custom enemies. In this particular implementation, years didn’t even need to add new sprites, instead using the same function that causes players in DM to appear different colours to simply alter the palette of the regular Imp sprites (incidentally, this is why some wads turn said sprites green, since the function only remaps a limited selection of colours).

 

 

Big Impses

The Baron of Hell is often rightfully seen as a somewhat redundant and generally less practical alternative to the Hell Knight, useful relative to its lesser kin in only a handful of circumstances. It is unsurprising, then, that many Doomers choose to replace the BoH with something a little more... interesting.

 

Antaresian (Struggle: The Antaresian Legacy)

Derived from Heretic's Ophidian, the Antaresian is one of the more original Baron replacements I've seen. While ultimately filling a fairly similar niche to the HK (beefy space-occupier with a massively damaging attack), its decidedly alien appearance and multi-projectile attack make it distinctive enough both mechanically and visually to justify the loss of the BoH.

 

Cybruiser (Valiant) & Annihilator (Eviternity)

Rockets are the single most devastating projectile available to Demonkind, reliably one-shotting all but the most well-stacked marines. Unfortunate, then, that this great power is given only to the mighty Cyberdemon, which, while being a fantastic, versatile enemy in its own right, is ultimately too demanding of an opponent to be used casually (most of the time, anyway).

 

Enter the Cybruiser, which packs a single-shot rocket launcher in a far more diminutive (and less tanky) chassis, giving it a greater degree of versatility compared with its hulking superior.

 

The Cybruiser essentially allows the mapper to implement Cyberdemon-style setups on a more casual basis, with a greater degree of fine-control over threat-level and grind. They should not be considered true substitutes, however, due to their much reduced speed, aggression and space-occupation.

 

One major issue that both kinds of Cybers face is that of circle-strafing: in the absence of specially-designed layouts, it is all too easy to simply run rings around these mighty demons, which is particularly problematic in this case due to their substantial health-pools.

 

The Annihilator provides an elegant solution to this by following up every rocket with a barrage of hitscan attacks, whittling down any would-be circle-strafers as punishment for their cheesy crimes.

 

While arguably less versatile than the Cybruiser due to its demanding attack pattern and propensity for excessive infighting, the Annihilator fills an interesting and unique niche as a fully-functional mini-boss, more than capable of posing a serious threat on its own.

 

Pyro Knight (Valiant)

An example of the somewhat rare HK-replacement, Valiant's Pyro Knight is a very unique expansion of the hell nobles' original niche. While ultimately following the same rough attack pattern as the original slot-holder, the Pyro Knight poses a far more active threat with its massive area-denial attack, which pushes them higher up the threat-priority ladder without the addition of a single point of HP.

 

Pyro Knights are also hands-down my favourite custom monsters in terms of appearance. They just look so damned cool (figuratively, of course)! 

 

 

Flyboys (and girls and... people? Flypeople?)

There’s a paucity of airborne opposition in OG Doom, in my view anyway, though doubtless much use is gotten out of the vanilla trifecta of cacos, PEs and annoying Ghost Rider cosplayers. Thankfully, there is no such shortage of fanmade flyers. Here’s a handful of my faves:

 

Fire Gargoyle (1000 Lines CP 3)

By all logic and reason, these little buggers ought to be the most enraging pestilential monsters this side of the Lost Soul, what with their erratic movement and surprisingly-painful fireballs. 

 

Bizarrely, I actually found the Fire Gargoyle to be the most entertaining of all 1kL3's new beasties. These fellas are chaos incarnate, adding spice to every encounter in which they appear.

 

Mechanically, it fills a largely unexplored niche by providing a low-threat yet ultra-mobile hazard that forces the player to pay constant attention to their surroundings, lest they find themselves caught off-guard and mobbed or face-rocketed or whathaveyou. Additionally, the act of exterminating the damn things is made all the more satisfying by their delightfully gibbulent death animation.

 

Flame-caco (Rowdy Rudy 2) & Cacobot (Uprising)

RR2's Flame-caco is one of the scariest custom enemies out there. They are fast, aggressive as all hell and do a massive amount of damage. This beastie fills a unique niche, that of an ultra-mobile, highly-threatening shock enemy capable of harrying the player across any sort of terrain. Flame-thrower style attacks are very well suited to this sort of monster, due to their high damage tempered by limited range, giving them a unique range-sensitive combat-pattern.

 

Uprising's Cacobot is the logical extreme of this role: a brutally fast, mobile, tanky and heavily armed beast of an enemy with an unrelenting drive to kill. Using a combination of manc and rev fireballs, this guy is uniquely suited to smoking the player out of any hidey-hole and keeping them on the run.

 

 

Former Humans

Zombies and video games need to get a divorce already. Seriously, the two are practically synonymous these days. It would be a shame to disrupt Doom’s quarter-century-long union with the undead, though, given that it was one of the originators of the trend.

 

Dumb nonesense aside, Doom’s iconic trio of undead footsloggers essentially cover all the bases when it comes to hitscan attacks. There is, however, potential in arming these charmingly-squishy bastards with a range of projectile-based weaponry, as the following instances demonstrate:

 

Chaingun Elite (Struggle: The Antaresian Legacy)

I've always preferred projectiles over hitscan attacks. The chance to dodge an incoming attack, however slim, will always feel more fair to me than instant damage, regardless of the latter's immense mechanical utility.

 

antares031 apparently feels the same way, judging from his many implementations of ultra-fast bullet projectiles. Of these, Struggle's Chaingun Elite strikes me as the most iconic, due to its various recurrences in later projects involving the author.

 

The possibility of evasion is, in this instance, tempered by the truly colossal damage output of the Chaingun Elite, which can easily kill an understacked player outright. This has the odd effect of making them both more and less threatening than the Chaingunner, which specializes in attrition and area-denial, making it more of a 'strategic' than immediate threat in contrast to the Elite's close-quarters lethality.

 

Plasma Zombie (1000 Lines CP 3)

The Plasma Zombie is one of the most widely-known and addressed gaps in the D2 bestiary. Simply put, the notion of a projectile-oriented human enemy with a high DPS-to-HP ratio is a natural and sound one, offering a variety of applications especially in the context of low-grade incidental combat, often serving as ambushers, snipers or even as simple fodder.

 

1kL3's implementation of this concept is my favourite so far, mainly due to its above-average damage (2 bolts vs usual 1), good sprites/sounds and ability to drop micro cell packs (this being accomplished via devilish means in vanilla dehacked, mind you). These guys spice up every encounter in which they appear, similar to their hilarious airborne compatriots.

 

  

Stealth Alien (Ancient Aliens)

This interesting little fella is somewhat of a hybrid between the more conventional plasma zombie and Scythe 2's notorious Evil Marine. While quite lethal up close, the Stealth Alien's relatively lengthy pre-fire animation and fragile constitution make it decidedly less threatening than its speed and DPS may imply. Stealth is, unsurprisingly, this little beastie's greatest asset, allowing it to deal immense damage to the unobservant or simply otherwise-occupied player. 

 

In terms of usage, the Stealth Alien mainly plays the part of sniper, ambusher or less commonly shock infantry, often adding an extra dose of lethality to otherwise trivial incidental combat. Visually, this is my favourite of the zombie-type enemies, mainly due to its unique gimmick and (unsurprisingly) alien appearance.

 

 

Miscellaneous Meanies

Couldn’t figure out how to categorize these guys, so here they are.

 

Suicide Bomber (Valiant)

There are fews things more satisfying in the interactive medium than explosions and gibs, and Valiant's iconic Suicide Bomber provides both in spades.

 

These little weirdos are easily the most amusing of all the custom monsters I've murderized, as well as the most mechanically distinct from the original lineup. There's endless potential here, though only the most skilled craftspeople can hope to harness it.

 

One thing is for sure, though: no sound in Waddom inspires quite the same cocktail of fear, excitement and amusement in me as this fella's ever-iconic AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

 

Wraith (Nihility)

Definitely one of my more obscure favourites, Nihility's implementation of the Wraith is what demonstrated to me the potential of a fast, fragile melee enemy that can function both as rocket negation and as a legitimate threat in its own right. Of all the custom monsters on this list, the Wraith is the one I just passively enjoy the presence of the most. It does not radically alter the core gameplay in any way, but it applies a unique sort of pressure that would, in my estimation, enhance an immense range of combat scenarios.

 

Thus, if I were given the ability to retroactively insert a single custom monster into the base game, this obscure beastie would be my first choice.

Edited November 16, 2021 by Omniarch