lifeforce2.txt

===========================================================================
Title                   : Life Force
Version                 : 2.1
Filename                : lifeforce2.pk3, lfhtic.pk3, lfhex.pk3
Release date            : 4/30/2018
Author                  : Nathan Roberts
Email Address           : nathanr@tardislabs.com
Other Files By Author   : Parkour Lite
Misc. Author Info       : Knows the true meaning of hell -- retail work.
Description             : This was originally meant to be my entry for
                          the second Mutator contest on the ZDoom forums, but
                          ended up never being released. This was a contest
                          where modders create a mod that changes the behavior
                          of Doom in some way, using only the stock 
                          resources -- no graphic or sound replacements, but
                          existing resources can be modified with scripting.
                          
                          This is a magic-themed weapons mod that combines
                          health and ammo into a single substance: Life Force.
                          Weapons are replaced with attacks that drain health,
                          but monsters also release health to compensate.  

                          There are three separate PK3 files: lifeforce2.pk3
                          for Doom, lfhtic.pk3 for Heretic, and lfhex.pk3 for
                          Hexen. They all play roughly the same, but are
                          slightly different, generally corresponding to
                          differences in the base games.

                          Full details at bottom.

Additional Credits to   : Jimmy's Omega mod (another mutator), from which 
                          I .. er .. borrowed a single line of code. (It was a
                          palette translation.) The general magical-being theme
                          was inspired by Omega as well (although I took the
                          mechanics in a very different direction), and you
                          might see a little bit of influence from
                          wildweasel's StyleMod as well.
===========================================================================
* What is included *

New levels              : None
Sounds                  : No } 
Music                   : No } (The whole point of a mutator)
Graphics                : No }
Dehacked/BEX Patch      : No. (ZDoom's decorate used instead)
Demos                   : No
Other                   : Scripting and configuration data, etc.
Other files required    : A fairly recent ZDoom-based port


* Play Information *

Game                    : Versions included for Doom 2, Heretic and Hexen. 
                          You can try using it with Doom 1 as well,
                          by using doom.wad as the IWAD, then loading
                          doom2.wad and doom.wad (again!) as PWADs in that
                          order. I'm not sure if this is entirely 'kosher',
                          but it seems to work. Naturally you won't get any of
                          the Doom 2 items, like the SSG replacement. (Though
                          it does work if you cheat it in.)
Map #                   : None included
Single Player           : Yeah.
Cooperative 2-4 Player  : Should work, but untested.
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : Should work, but untested.
Other game styles       : Untested. Try at your own risk.
Difficulty Settings     : Added a couple new ones that affect the Life
                          Force machanic.


* Construction *

Base                    : New from scratch
Build Time              : A couple weeks initially. Refined on and off 
                          over the last 10 years or so oh god has it really
                          been that long holy shit I feel old
Editor(s) used          : XWE (eww), later Slade3
Known Bugs              : A few. See below.
May Not Run With        : Any kind of weapon mod, including Brutal Doom.
Tested With             : GZDoom 4.7.1 64bit

* Copyright / Permissions *

Authors MAY use the contents of this file as a base for
modification or reuse.  Permissions have been obtained from original 
authors for any of their resources modified or included in this file.

You MAY distribute this file, provided you include this text file, with
no modifications.  You may distribute this file in any electronic
format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file 
intact.  I have received permission from the original authors of any
modified or included content in this file to allow further distribution.

* Where to get the file that this text file describes *

Not available on the idgames archive. Seeing as it's not very, you know...
*good*. Maybe if the forums respond favorably I'll submit it.

Web sites: http://tardislabs.com/mutator


* Detailed Description *

This mod replaces all your weapons with magic-like abilities that drains your
health rather than using ammo. To compensate, monsters drop soul globes that
replenish your health when they die. Ammo (and ammo related) pickups in the
original levels are replaced with soul globes, or other Life Force items.

The original difficulty settings play more or less like the original. You
get extra life force from drops in the easest and hardest. There's two new
difficulty settings as well: "Iron Caster" gives you less life force from mob
drops, while "Wizard of Steel" gives you less still, plus drops disappear
after a period of time.

When you get close to soul globes dropped from mobs, they'll slowly float
towards you, so you can grab LF drops through grates or over ledges.

For the Hexen version, this mod has just one character class, mostly based
on the mage. The class-specific pickups in the original have been replaced with
Life Force items, and all are accessable to all players.

The weapons are:

1A: Fist (Doom) / Staff (Heretic) / Cleric's Mace (Hexen)
Basically unchanged. You have this at the start of the game. If you're reduced
to using this, you're probably in pretty bad shape.

1B: Plasma Hose. A short-range plasma attack. Drains HP slowly. Affected by
gravity, so it can be useful for shooting over ledges. 
Replaces the Chainsaw / Gauntlets / Frost Shards

2: Beam. Your basic 'laser' attack. Slow and weak, but deals slightly more
damage than it drains, resulting in a net gain in life force. At close range,
delivers a melee attack that does double damage. 
Replaces the Pistol / Elvenwand; in Hexen you start with it, along with the
mace

3A: Fireball. More damaging than the starter beam, but uses more HP; 5 per
ball. 
Replaces the shotgun / crossbow / Serpent Staff / axe

3B: Spread Fireballs. Throws 3 fireballs at once, using 10HP per volley.
Replaces super shotgun in Doom. In Heretic and Hexen, finding a second
fireball pickup unlocks this. (You can set the 'LF_SGUPGRADE' console variable
to true to enable this behavior in Doom as well) Note that this is the
*second* weapon in slot 3, the opposite of Doom's SSG assignment. (It's also
bound to slot 8)

4: SparkLight. Sprays a swarm of spark-like projectiles that have a large
spread, but home in aggressively on enemies when they get close. Drains HP
rather fast. 
Replaces the chaingun / Dragon's Claw / hammer

5: FireBurner. Throws a medium-range stream of flame that burns anything in
its path.  3HP per flame, but rapid-fire. 
Replaces the rocket launcher / Skull Rod / Firestorm

6: Lightning Bolt. Fires a bolt of lightning that can zap groups of smaller
enemies, and rip through larger enemies in a line. Cost varies depending the
duration of use, but minimum 15HP. Longer bursts are slightly more
energy-efficient.
Replaces the plasma rifle / Phoenix Rod / Arc of Death

7: Decimator. Heavily damaging, tracking, ripping projectile. Can fire in a
volley of 1-3 projecetiles, depending on how long you hold the fire
button. Fizzles fter 4 seconds. The projectiles are progressively both more
costly and more damaging; 100HP for the full volley. 
Replaces the BFG / Fire Mace / final piece of Bloodscourge

Weapon altfire:

Each weapon (except the fist) has an alternate fire function that fires the
previous weapon you had selected. You can select your own weapon combo
this way.

Pickups:

Soul Globes: Give you health, in differing amounts. Monsters drop these
when they die, and they replace ammo pickups. They can give you health
beyond the 100% maximum. On the Wizard of Steel difficulty these fade and
disappear after a few seconds.

Stamina Bonus: Increases the absolute maximum amount of health you can
have by 10%, up to a maximum of 500%, and also gives you up to 25% health as
well. This always takes effect immediately as soon as you pick it up.
Replaces the backpack / bag of holding / Mystic Urn

Rampage: Allows you to make unlimited attacks while the powerup is active. You
can still get hurt, and you still need enough life force to perform a given
attack, but you don't lose any from performing your attacks. In Heretic, this
also powers up your staff.
Replaces the berserk / Tome of Power / Krater of Might

Flechette (Hexen): These are the figher-style bouncy grenades.

* Known issues *

Stealth monsters don't have any death effects or drops, cause I CBA. Does
anyone actually use these? Personally I think they're a pain in the ass.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the pickup/inventory sprite for the big
fireball weapon in Doom. The blue edges (which was an accident that I decided
to keep) cause a nice aura-like effect on the projectile, but make the pickup
icon look like crap.

The status bar needs a bit of prettifying.

The staff is far from perfect, due to the lack of persepctive. Eh. When you're
making a mutator, everything's a dirty hack.

Soul globes that are magnetted towards the player won't get picked up unless
the player is moving. This seems to be built-in Doom behavior. (Any why not;
in the original pickups could be counted on not to move around!)

The decimator fizzles when hitting a decorative object, instead of bouncing.
This seems to be a limitation of the engine after some recent changes.

The Krater of Might powerup seems massively OP against bosses.


* Version History *

1.0: Initial version
1.1: Gave each weapon an altfire attack, which is generally the weapon
     in the previous slot.
1.2: Changed the altfire attack, so that the altfire is the previously
     selected weapon. Also somewhere around here changed the old numeric
     ACS scripts to named scripts. I also made the sergeants and chaingunners
     drop the shotgun and chaingun replacements (albeit with a smaller health
     boost than the versions spawned on the map) since some mapsets don't give
     them to you at all otherwise!
1.3: Changed the boring old starter fireball with the (hopefully)
     slightly less boring, slightly more useful beam. 
1.4: Replaced the old hand animations with a new staff sprite.
2.0: Two new difficulty settings added. Dropped soul globes now attract to the
     player when they come near. Sergeants and chaingunners now only drop
     weapons about 10% of the time, instead of every time. You can now see
     what version you're running by typing 'lf_version' into the console. Much
     of the code was refactored internally so it could be shared across games.
     This is also when the Heretic and Hexen versions were made, although
     at the time they're internally still labelled as Version 1.0
2.1: Some weapon tweaks to bring it inline with the Heretic and Hexen
     versions -- Fireburner, Lightning Bolt and Decimator behaviour changed.
     Resprited the Decimator to a flaming skull, more akin to the Heretic and
     Hexen versions.
2.2: 
     * Fixed a bug with the Decimator stopping after hitting a single enemy, 
       caused by some internal ZDoom changes
     * Fixed a bug where the Ettin didn't drop the intended amount of health
     * Squashed a couple console warnings in the Hexen version

* Strategy *

(Possible spoilers)

I have /attempted/ to design the weapons in this mod such that, when used
/skillfully/, they can restore life force. That is, they can extract more
health from monsters than they drain from you, when used properly.

The monsters are designed to give out health pickups that are proportional
to the amount of health they take to kill. The weapons are similarly
designed such that the amount of health you spend dishing out attacks
is generally the same as the amount you get back from killing monsters,
so, overall, you break even.

However, the amount of damage caused by a weapon can be a complex equation.

The fist (or staff, or mace) takes no life force, but is weak, slow, and
melee-only.

The plasma hose is the next step up. It does require life force, but in
much smaller amounts, and therefore can wring health out of enemies cheaply.
However, its range is limited, and is a bit slow in killing enemies.

The starter beam is also slow, weak, and cheap. However, it does more
damage than it drains from you, therefore using it will cause you to gain
life force over time. However, doing so is a slow and tedious effort. Also,
if you can get close enough, the smack is fairly effective.

The fireball does more damage, and travels much faster, but is overpowered
against the smaller enemies. Therefore, you tend to lose life force as you use
it, as some of it is wasted against weak single targets. Using it on larger
targets results in less waste.

The spread fireballs shoot three of the same projectile that the large
fireball, for only twice the life force. Therefore, if two of your fireballs
hit the mark, you break even compared to the single fireball. If all
three fireballs hit the target(s), the attack becomes even more effective.

The sparklight spews large amounts of projectiles, and also can very
quickly drain your health. They tend to disperse at range, so they're 
less effective at distant targets. When they do get near a target, they
home in hard.

The fireburner does a lot of damage, ripping through anything in its path,
though its range is limited. It's also expensive, so it's best used against
either larger monsters, or large clusters of monsters.

The lightning bolt is extremely effective against clusters of humanoid
enemes, as the lightning can jump from one enemy to the next. It's a
waste against single small enemies however. It can also rip through
enemies in a (relatively) straight line.

The decimator is the most powerful attack in the game, and requires so
much health to throw that you'll hardly ever have enough to fire more than
a few full vollies at a time. It lasts for a full four seconds, ripping
through any enemy it can find, and even bouncing off walls. Again, it's best
used against larger monsters, or large clusters of small ones.