Fighting demons

[haarp]

Hey,

In case someone actually wants to fight against demon hordes, a few improvements could be made to make life easier.

• Splash damage! Especially weapons like PPCs or missiles seem to suffer from a lack of splash damage, considerably reducing their usefulness. They do seem to make monster bleed as if they received splash tho.
• Gauss should pass through monsters, as is expected in such games :)
• Dynamic converge to range under crosshair would be super useful nice and useful
• Monster alerting works weirdly. Movement and weapon fire alerts monsters, but only within a limited distance to the player. This can break maps.
• AC projectiles are hard to see and predict

Cheers!

[Lewisk3]

• Splash damage! Especially weapons like PPCs or missiles seem to suffer from a lack of splash damage, considerably reducing their usefulness. They do seem to make monster bleed as if they received splash tho.
• Gauss should pass through monsters, as is expected in such games :)

I've added splash damage to the PPCs, only when they hit a non-Mech enemy. Missiles did deal splash damage, only problem was that the damage was set incorrectly, so it should work now. Having the Gauss be a ripper wouldn't work as, that'd really affect the balance of Mech/Mech combat. It doesn't appear that I can flip the flag on conditionally either, without messing up mech hitbox checks. https://github.com/Lewisk3/MechDoomer/commit/9dc4628bc7aca8dcd8905320af7402dfb7917d59

Dynamic converge to range under crosshair would be super useful nice and useful

Implemented (https://github.com/Lewisk3/MechDoomer/commit/7b9f46005e6062954e8ddaa9f050d22082aaad69)

Monster alerting works weirdly. Movement and weapon fire alerts monsters, but only within a limited distance to the player. This can break maps.

Fixed (https://github.com/Lewisk3/MechDoomer/commit/078ebc50a28e222bc2730d2f24108c5116fae57e)

AC projectiles are hard to see and predict

Autocannon projectiles were pretty hard to see in MW2 as well, so I went with that style, not quite sure how to adjust that without making them look pretty different.

[haarp]

Thanks, that was quick!

I've added splash damage to the PPCs, only when they hit a non-Mech enemy.

Now it deals lots of splash! Maybe even too much of a radius if you ask me. But it only seems to work when it hits a monster, not floor or walls.

Implemented (7b9f460)

Hmm, does not appear to work for me. Weapons now fire parallel, with no converge at all, regardless of Weapon convergence speed setting.

Fixed (078ebc5)

Indeed, firing weapons now alerts all monsters that can hear. But so does movement. I'm not sure that's better ;) IMO movement should have a limited alert range, as before, while weapons fire should not.

Autocannon projectiles were pretty hard to see in MW2 as well, so I went with that style, not quite sure how to adjust that without making them look pretty different.

It would probably help if they travelled in a straight line. Then you don't need to watch them to figure out how to aim. I don't remember them dropping off in MW2 tbh.

A few more things I've noticed:

• Monsters will shoot at Doomguy's height level, mostly hitting legs on 'Mechs. Especially evident with projectile-throwers, e.g. Arachnotrons. They should rather target the torso, maybe also throw in some jitter so they won't always hit the CT when standing still.
• You can damage monsters by touching them. This check doesn't account for altitude, e.g. jumpjetting over monsters also damages them.
• LRMs are often useless in Doom's often cramped maps. I'm not sure I like the minimum range. Maybe they could deal at least a little damage or provide knockback below their arming range? In fluff, Morgan Kell managed to crack open Yorinaga Kurita's cockpit by firing a salvo of point-blank unarmed LRMs at it.

[Lewisk3]

Monsters will shoot at Doomguy's height level, mostly hitting legs on 'Mechs. Especially evident with projectile-throwers, e.g. Arachnotrons. They should rather target the torso, maybe also throw in some jitter so they won't always hit the CT when standing still.

I'm not quite sure that's actually possible to fix without breaking some maps, I could certainly force enemies to switch their target to the mech's middle hitbox, I just don't know if maps would break which expect their target to be the player.

Indeed, firing weapons now alerts all monsters that can hear. But so does movement. I'm not sure that's better ;) IMO movement should have a limited alert range, as before, while weapons fire should not.

Fixed, will be applied next commit.

Hmm, does not appear to work for me. Weapons now fire parallel, with no converge at all, regardless of Weapon convergence speed setting.

It may be due to your aim height, if you're close to an enemy they should converge pretty tightly though. Try setting your Weapon Convergence to 0.3 (Max) in the options menu.

Now it deals lots of splash! Maybe even too much of a radius if you ask me. But it only seems to work when it hits a monster, not floor or walls.

I'll lower the splash radius to 128 units and move over to my custom explosion implementation which should ignore mechs.

You can damage monsters by touching them. This check doesn't account for altitude, e.g. jumpjetting over monsters also damages them.

Damage should only occur when the mech is moving a bit, as enemies will be stepped on. I can look into implementing a more complex damage system for melee stuff a bit later.

LRMs are often useless in Doom's often cramped maps. I'm not sure I like the minimum range. Maybe they could deal at least a little damage or provide knockback below their arming range? In fluff, Morgan Kell managed to crack open Yorinaga Kurita's cockpit by firing a salvo of point-blank unarmed LRMs at it.

That's pretty interesting, that should be able to be done.