Let's improve barons.

[plums]

Barons should get twice as much health, and move slower. Maybe immunity to splash damage as well. :p

[HavoX]

MaxED said:

http://i.imgur.com/lwJ6J4s.png

Winner!

[MaxED]

I proudly present you... Baron of Fun! He will RIP YOUR TEAR, if you catch my drift.

EDIT: Now links to v02: thrown barrels no longer hurt barons, thrown barrels pass through barons.

[HavoX]

HAHAHAHA best thing ever.

Only problem is, they can kill themselves with the splash damage from the explsions of the barrels they throw.

EDIT:

MaxED said:

EDIT: Now links to v02: thrown barrels no longer hurt barons, thrown barrels pass through barons.

You're welcome. :P

[baja blast rd.]

Two barons of fun infighting is glorious.

[wallabra]

I'm doing a BossBaron actor; it's goal is not to make it lower on health, but rather make it stronger AND just slightly weaker (but still resistant with low DamageFactor when Wound) because I'm thinking of it as a 2-stage single Baron boss.

If only any of you guys had some Baron sprites with a tail, I could implement as well, a Tail whip melee :)

I'll edit here as soon as it's done. See my post below!

[lazygecko]

Just put them in a biplane.

[40oz]

I like hell barons when there are one or two at a time. More is okay if BFG is available.

[Cynical]

How to improve Barons -- get mappers to use them properly in their maps.

A touch of claustrophobia combined with low-tier weapons is all it takes to re-instill the fear.

[wallabra]

Cynical said:

How to improve Barons -- get mappers to use them properly in their maps.

A touch of claustrophobia combined with low-tier weapons is all it takes to re-instill the fear.

You didn't understand.

We want to make Barons cool even when single and in open environments. Basically more threatening at any universal situation.

And about this, I did something decent! The barrels concept I'd credit the Barons o' Fun's author for it, but the rest is probably a sweet addition.

[Mechadon]

MaxED said:

http://i.imgur.com/lwJ6J4s.png

I'll be disappointed if Jimmy doesn't use this for his avatar ASAP.

Also I still need to check this out :P

[Not Jabba]

Cynical said:

A touch of claustrophobia combined with low-tier weapons is all it takes to re-instill the fear.

The amount of time it takes to kill Barons with low-tier weapons is exactly what people hate about them. From what I've heard, that's the main reason they added the Hell Knight and SSG to Doom 2.

I do like the original Barons when they're used as flavor -- a couple mixed in with a Hell Knight horde, or a single Baron guarding a control room in a level that otherwise uses Hell Knights to lend a little more weight to the situation. They're also preferable to HKs when you want to promote infighting with a Cyberdemon. They really suck in a lot of situations though, so something like a Cybruiser or Afrit can be a huge improvement.

[Pinchy]

[Phml]

Arctangent said:

Here's something. It reduces Baron health to 66.7% of their normal value.

The catch? While Barons have a target, they give all other demons in their line of sight and within 640 range 66.7% damage reduction ( meaning effectively 50% more health ) and immunity to pain, including other Barons ( but not themselves ) but excluding the target of any Baron.

While a lonesome Baron is still pretty much a beefed up ( albeit, less so ) Hell Knight, the Bruiser Bros themselves now boast an immunity to pain while they can see each other ... meaning they're still not threatening, but now you can play with line of sight to make them go down quicker. On the other hand, Barons are now a far higher kill priority when with other demons, and now an interesting problem comes forth when you're against a single Baron and any number of Archviles: do you focus the Baron so you can stun the Archviles and kill them faster, or do you still take down the Archviles first so they don't revive the Baron?

tl;dr Barons are squishier but are now actually tanks by making them draw your fire towards them by making other enemies tankier

It doesn't seem thematically appropriate for Barons to be support, but I dig the concept.

[scifista42]

Pinchy said:

http://i.imgur.com/tQDvI1F.png

[Gez]

MaxED said:

http://i.imgur.com/lwJ6J4s.png

Pinchy said:

http://i.imgur.com/tQDvI1F.png

scifista42 said:

http://i.imgur.com/QkWX4A2.png

This is now officially the best thread on these forums.

[Cynical]

Not Jabba said:

The amount of time it takes to kill Barons with low-tier weapons is exactly what people hate about them. From what I've heard, that's the main reason they added the Hell Knight and SSG to Doom 2.

I do like the original Barons when they're used as flavor -- a couple mixed in with a Hell Knight horde, or a single Baron guarding a control room in a level that otherwise uses Hell Knights to lend a little more weight to the situation. They're also preferable to HKs when you want to promote infighting with a Cyberdemon. They really suck in a lot of situations though, so something like a Cybruiser or Afrit can be a huge improvement.

The fact that you don't see one or two as the "standard" usage is already enough to demonstrate that you, like most people, are thinking about the monster wrong.

One Baron is an encounter on its own. Or at least it should be, if used correctly. One Baron, advancing towards the player down a very narrow dead-end hall, when he doesn't have anything bigger than the chaingun, is some awesome stuff. Check out that one in "Missing Gamma Sector" from Unholy Realms for a great example.

[DooM_RO]

scifista42 said:

http://i.imgur.com/oxjrd17.png

The head has potential. Someone make a WOODGARG version too now. I've always felt that texture would make a great Baron head.

[scifista42]

Gargoyle's eyes are too far apart to fit onto the Baron's head without resizing. My sprite is literally just a cut part (2 parts, to be precise) of texture BIGDOOR6 pasted over Baron's body.

[plums]

DooM_RO said:

The head has potential. Someone make a WOODGARG version too now. I've always felt that texture would make a great Baron head.

y helo thar

[Azazel Bloodfucker]

plums said:

y helo thar

http://i.imgur.com/kZx7nq2.png

That is absolute perfection. This is truly how it should of been.

[Benjogami]

scifista42 said:

http://i.imgur.com/oxjrd17.png

So good.

[DooM_RO]

plums said:

y helo thar

http://i.imgur.com/kZx7nq2.png

Needs more work. It looks a bit...cute at that resolution? The grin is gone. The colors could also be tweaked to better suit it.

Maybe the WOODGARG head would suit another monster or a bigger baron.

[scifista42]

DooM_RO said:

The colors could also be tweaked to better suit it.

Like this?

[DooM_RO]

scifista42 said:

Like this?

http://i.imgur.com/gkBQrWt.png

I think the horns could retain their original color, to make the colors on the head look more interesting. He still looks a bit cute. Finally, his eyes could have a deeper shade of red. Wish something could be done to retain his smug grin. It doesn't look quite right at that scale.

EDIT:

His right eye seems to be a bit on the right.

[baja blast rd.]

If I encountered that thing in a game I'd be terrified. I can imagine it moving really fast, too, and having a ridiculously strong attack. Nightmare fuel.

[lazygecko]

scifista42 said:

Like this?

http://i.imgur.com/gkBQrWt.png

:3

[Noiser]

Nah, joking aside there is nothing wrong with barons. It's more a matter of how mappers place him, I think.

[Pinchy]

Pinchy said:

http://i.imgur.com/tQDvI1F.png

[Not Jabba]

Cynical said:

The fact that you don't see one or two as the "standard" usage is already enough to demonstrate that you, like most people, are thinking about the monster wrong.

One Baron is an encounter on its own. Or at least it should be, if used correctly. One Baron, advancing towards the player down a very narrow dead-end hall, when he doesn't have anything bigger than the chaingun, is some awesome stuff. Check out that one in "Missing Gamma Sector" from Unholy Realms for a great example.

I'm a little baffled, because I feel like this is the conversation we just had:

Me: "Barons are only good in really specific situations."
You: "You're wrong! Barons are a great monster, it's just that they're only good in really specific situations!"

Can't we just agree to...agree? I sort of want to reiterate that fighting one with a chaingun feels more annoying than intimidating, though.