Gameplay Mod [v1.2] Adventures in Moth Sorcery - A Magic-Castin' (MBF and GZDoom) Gameplay Mod!

[MundyC]

Adventures in Moth Sorcery (or AIMS, for short) is a slightly overpowered Ultimate Doom/Doom II gameplay mod that I made over the course of five days (4/24/22 to 4/28/22), primarily to familiarize myself with DeHacked. 

 

This mod replaces Doomguy with a moth mage named Sanahaid, who casts magic spells with his hands instead of using gunz and bulletz. Weapons are replaced with spell books that teach you stronger spells, which are all powered by mana instead of ammunition. The items and powerups are replaced with appropriate magical artifacts, too. A perfect blend for anyone who likes both Heretic and Doom!

Download (v1.2)

 

There are two versions of this mod available. The original one (the AIMS1-2 .wad and .bex files) is meant for the Marine's Best Friend (MBF) format, as one of the weapons uses its alpha BFG fire pointer. As long as your source port supports MBF, AIMS will work with it. In addition, there is a GZDoom-exclusive version (AIMSGZ.wad) that adds widescreen graphics, extra sounds and visual flourish, and more unique spell effects.

 

In addition, I advise you to only play this mod with mapsets that leave the player and weapons untouched. Think TNT + Plutonia, Alien Vendetta, Valiant (Vaccinated Edition), and so on. Just make sure that AIMS is loaded last. Do not play this mod with other gameplay mods or mapsets that have extensive DeHacked work; things will break horribly, believe me!

 

Please let me know if anything in the mod breaks or looks off (and isn't from mapset incompatibility). I tested it with DSDA-Doom, GZDoom, and Woof, so it should work fine on other source ports. But then again, I'm a bit new at this DeHacked thing, so anything's possible.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Doom II - Suburbs

 

Valiant (Vaccinated Edition) - Blast Wave

 

Grove

 

Alien Vendetta - Demonic Hordes

 

Weapon/Ammo Replacements (Spoilers?):

Spoiler

As I stated previously, the items and powerups are also changed, but they're just graphical + pickup string replacements. Plus, I don't want to make this section overly long. If you really want to know more about them, read the readme.

 

For the weapons...

• Brass Knuckles: Fists. Beat the shit out of demons with your upper arms. Your fists move faster than Doomguy's, but are otherwise identical in damage and use. In the GZDoom version, obtaining a Wretched Fragment (berserk) will make Sanahaid swing his fists even faster.
• Chainsaw: Volta. Launch lightning-fast, um... lightning at an enemy. The spell needs blue mana to work, and consists of a fast hitscan attack with a rate of fire identical to the base chaingun. In the GZDoom version, this spell fires a lightning-like rail that can pierce up to three enemies.
• Pistol: Syrus. The only spell you start out with; it fires psionic "mind bullets" from your pointing hand. It has a faster fire-rate than the pistol, and is also perfectly accurate. A good choice for sniping far-away foes! 
• Shotgun: Frosine. Unload a blast of incredibly cold frost into a demon's face. The spell behaves much like the regular shotgun, but has a faster fire-rate.
• Super Shotgun: Phyran. Scorch any enemy that tries to get up close and personal. It's faster than the base super shotgun but slower than Frosine, and also likes to eat up your red mana supply. In the GZDoom version, this spell fires 20 projectile "flame bolts" that deal slightly more damage per pellet.
• Chaingun: Kurai. Release a torrent of blue fireballs that'll stun anything in its path. The spell acts much like the Plasma Rifle, but deals more damage per projectile and doesn't have the long cooldown.
• Rocket Launcher: Yakutis. Fling a damned (and explosive) soul into a group of baddies. Its fire-rate is faster than the regular rocket launcher, and also deals more damage per "soul rocket". This will wreck damn near every enemy you'll encounter... and you, if you're not careful.
• Plasma: Maltraiter. Unleash a flurry of black and white fireballs at an army of villains. One of the most powerful spells in your arsenal, each fireball does a staggering amount of damage to anything it hits. However, the spell's projectiles can't be aimed at enemies above or below you. (Well, unless you use mouselook...)
• BFG: Skaldelethian Implosion. The strongest spell you can muster, "gifted" to you by the demigod parasite that inhabits your body. When you clench your fist, any hostile creature near you will explode due to a sudden, unstable influx of dark energy. It spawns twice as many tracers as a regular BFG projectile, and the ammo cost is cut in half. Truly devastating stuff.

 

And as for ammo...

• Bullets: Blue mana. Used to power smaller, fast-firing spells. Contained in glass bottles full of blue liquid. The amount you can carry is the same (200/400), though you start with 40 mana instead of 50. Pickups are slightly larger (12, up from 10).
• Shells: Red mana. Used to power stronger magical blasts. Contained in red cell-like containers. The amount you can carry is slightly reduced to 48/96. 
• Rockets: Orgone. Recycled life energy used for powerful (and unstable) spells. Contained in medical vials filled with the green-tinted mana. The amount you can carry is reduced to 40/80.
• Cells: Dark energy. An ever-present universal force, mined and processed for esoteric spells. Contained in blessed golden cups and bowls, overflowing with the energy. The amount you can carry is greatly reduced to 200/400. Pickups are also smaller (15, down from 20).

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by MundyC
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[MundyC]

I have released a small update for this mod, featuring various graphical improvements and fixes, bonus features for certain source ports, and other small changes. Oh, and I've verified that AIMS works with (and doesn't horrifically break) The Ultimate Doom, so you can load Sewers and wow.wad alongside this bad boy.

 

The updated download link is in the OP. You can read the full changelog below, though it ain't much to marvel at.

 

Spoiler

 

General:

• Reduced the size of the sounds, and actually made them 11025 hz in the process. Crispy!
• Drew a new BOSSBACK picture.
• Added a replacement for the help screen and Thy Flesh Consumed's end picture.
• Gave the status bar's text better shading.
• Added shading for Sanahaid's status faces and spellcasting hands (as well as the title screen art).
• Yakutis' soul rocket now flickers to make it more distinct from Baron/Knight projectiles.
• Shrunk the magic blast effects of Volta and Syrus.
• Sanahaid's blood splatters are now green, if your source port supports it.
• The spells now have correct nametags when playing AIMS in a ZDoom-based source port.

 

Item Quick Round:

• Improved visuals for the red/blue mana pickups and the Mekirai Herbs.
• Added a second frame to the Helmet's pickup sprite.
• Gave the Multistating Device a new sprite - it's not a slightly edited berserk pack this time.
• Replaced the Hover Boots with a different (yet basically identical) item, the Exalted Feather.

 

 

As usual, let me know if I need to fix something.

[Ar_e_en]

I played a bit of this on Woof. It's pretty good, I like the art style and the weapons feel fast and great!

I do however have 2 complaints: 

• Some of the weapon sprites are a bit too big, making it a lot harder to see the overall battlefield.
• The Maltraiter (The plasma gun replacement that uses the beta BFG attack) sometimes bugs out and refuses to shoot any projectiles at the enemies, it usually works when I attack at a greater distance, but if I get too close or attack at a weird vertical angle - the projectiles disappear. This may or may not just be a fault in Woof's implementation of the beta BFG (haven't tested this on DSDA), which is a shame because I think that the beta BFG as a plasma gun replacement is actually a pretty interesting idea.

[Ar_e_en]

Did a few more tests with the beta BFG. It seems that I actually got it backwards - the beta BFG attack works better if you are targeting enemies at a vertical angel and it bugs out if you are targeting enemies that are at the same level as you. Also, the bugginess of the attack seems to be inherent in the nature of the attack itself. What I mean by that is that I made a quick .deh file that changes the attack of the BFG to the beta version and it also had it's projectiles disappear half of the time.

[Ar_e_en]

The beta BFG bug seems to be exclusive to the 9.0.0 version of Woof only, so you don't have to worry about that!

 

If you update the size of the weapon sprites - then you've got yourself quite a neat little weapon mod!

[MundyC]

8 hours ago, Ar_e_en said:

The beta BFG bug seems to be exclusive to the 9.0.0 version of Woof only, so you don't have to worry about that!

 

If you update the size of the weapon sprites - then you've got yourself quite a neat little weapon mod!

Ah, great to hear. I am planning a potential Heretic version of this mod; when I get around to doing it, I'll shrink down the weapon sprites for both versions.

[Origamyde]

Loving the cutesy vibe of this gameplay mod, and since I have a soft spot for moths, it's the perfect content for me :D

 

Looking forward to more updates and features for this mod! 

[MundyC]

AIMS has been updated to v1.2. Included are smaller first-person sprites for the spells, a proper GZDoom version of the mod... and that's about it. It's a large, yet small update. Go figure!

 

The updated download link is in the OP. Here's the changelog; it's so small that it ain't worth putting in a spoiler.

• Shrunk all spell + flash sprites so that they take up less screen space. Consequently, you can now fit MBF!AIMS onto a single floppy disk, if you are so inclined.
• Created a GZDoom variant of AIMS (AIMSGZ.wad) featuring widescreen graphics, added sounds and visual flourish, and more unique spell effects. Don't worry, the MBF version of AIMS is still included.
• Tweaked the volume levels of a couple SFX.