So who has a patch that removes monster spawning in Deathkings?

[Memfis]

I'm considering replaying it but I really don't want to deal with that stuff.

[Gez]

These scripts are part of the level data, so you need to change all the maps. Which means that a PWAD would basically contain the entire content of hexdd.wad.

Fortunately it's not too complicated, thanks to Descript which works just fine, and the helpful information of the Doom Wiki.

Basically, descript the BEHAVIOR lumps from MAP41 to MAP59, delete script 255 from each of them, recompile the script source afterward, then replace BEHAVIOR lump with your recompiled behavior. I believe you can also do that in Doom Builder 1.68 if you don't want to mess around with command-line tools, as it incorporated a script decompiler.

[Memfis]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. It's nice that all spawning scripts conveniently use the same number.

If I edit that stuff in Doom Builder, is there a chance that it will rebuild the nodes and potentially break something?

Btw I wonder why the levels in HEXEN.WAD don't follow the hub order... Like, Map22 is from Hub 4, but Map27 is from Hub 3.

[Gez]

It's hard to say. There's probably a lot of planned content that was cut early in development. There are traces that they originally planned to have perhaps over 50 maps, but ended up having just 31, missing MAP07, MAP14-to-MAP20, and MAP29. The maps 54, 55, 56 (Sanctorium, Athenaeum, Cleric's Citadel) sound like they were going to be the boss maps for Zedek, Menelkir, and Traductus.

[Graf Zahl]

The respawn script is always at #255, and in maps where this is not needed #255 is not present. So it should be enough to inject an external script lump that first performs a short delay so that the script can start and then calls 'ACS_Terminate(255);' if you use a port that allows ACS libraries.

[Memfis]

Sounds good, can someone please explain how it's done in a bit more detail? I only did some ZDoom editing in 2007 so I don't remember much, and as I understand the syntax changed a lot since then.

[Graf Zahl]

#library "cheater"
#include "zcommon.acs"

script "IAmCheating" open
{
   delay(10);
   ACS_Terminate(255);
}

Save as 'cheater.acs' and compile.

Then create a Zip, and put the compiled output into the ACS subdirectory.
Then add a LOADACS lump to the root with the only content being

CHEATER

[Memfis]

Slowly understanding... Do I need to compile it with ACC or...? It gives me an "Invalid directive" error in line 1. I also tried compiling in GZDoomBuilder with "ZDoom ACS" script type, which gave a error about ACS_Terminate. Apparently it needs two arguments, the second being the map. Do I need to make a loop going through all the maps? Or does "0" mean current map, like in the example on ZDoom wiki?

[Graf Zahl]

Sorry, I forgot the second argument, you should set this to 0.

About ACC, you'd need the ZDoom version that also comes with GZDoom Builder. Hexen ACC won't compile it.

And you will not have to loop this. LOADACS will cause the script to be injected and executed in every map upon start and then kill off the spawner script.

[scifista42]

Memfis said:

If I edit that stuff in Doom Builder, is there a chance that it will rebuild the nodes and potentially break something?

I've seen (GZ)Doom Builder rebuilding nodes when it didn't need to on multiple occasions, so I'd say yes. But in these situations when you need to change some map lumps but not others, you can simply keep 2 copies of the wad, the original one and the one with the change you did in Doom Builder, open them in SLADE3 / whatever wad content editor, copy just the relevant lump from the changed wad (in your case, the compiled script lump) and paste it into the original wad while removing the original lump in its place, creating a wad with the change you wanted and otherwise identical to the original.

[Memfis]

Thanks, I played Ruined Village for 10 minutes and nothing spawned, so it seems to work. Here is the patch if anyone wants it: http://www.doomshack.org/uploads/HEXDD_NoSpawn.zip

So far this seemed quite easy as a mage actually, very different from what I remembered from my childhood. Maybe the game is a bit more fun with occasional spawning? I could try playing without the patch and return to it when I get too annoyed by slaughtaurs or whatever. :D The only question is how to make the game believe that it's okay to load a savegame that was made with a different combination of WADs.

[baja blast rd.]

You don't like slaughtaurmaps. :D

[Gez]

With Graf Zahl's approach, if you want to turn monster spawning back on in a given map, just use the console. Type:

puke 255

and monster spawning will resume.

And if you want to stop them again, then type:

pukename iamcheating

and monster spawning will cease once more.

If you change anything to the ACS code you're loading, however, you won't be able to use your old savegames.

[Graf Zahl]

rdwpa said:

You don't like slaughtaurmaps. :D

I can understand why someone would want to disable the respawning in Deathkings. It's so intense that it can drain the entire fun out of that game. In original Hexen it was a lot more restrained and never became an issue.

[Zed]

I actually like respawning in Deathkings, it feels like a light version of Nightmare.

[Graf Zahl]

It even feels like that on the lower skills. Essentially you only havd "Hard", "Very hard", "Exremely hard" and "Totally insane". A shitty selection.

[eqagunn]

On 12/30/2016 at 10:52 PM, Gez said:

If you change anything to the ACS code you're loading, however, you won't be able to use your old savegames.

My savegame won't load if I start the game with the mod Memfis provided. With 6 years passed and improvements done to GZDoom, is there perhaps a way now to disable further monster respawning for existing savegames?