NZDOOM: Forums

Hi, I just came across this mod while searching for a more modern experience for Hexen and I am interested in trying out the megawad if possible, thanks

Hello and thanks for the replies.

So the Main Menu, its the new versions of gzdoom, they force Menu Scaling in the options, I told the devs to remove the parameter but no joy so edit the options 'Menu Scaling'. I provided the option.ini did you use the included ini in Brutal Hexen? If not then its required as the shaders wont load correctly and fixes the menu.

If you not going to use the included options.ini then make sure to enable all OpenGL Hardware light options, select Dark Sector Mode.

Indeed the forward momentum is standard but also don't forget to use the shield to block. All 3 characters have a shield on weapon slot 1 including the Mage. I don't want to write any spoilers in the guide so regarding the weapon functions, they might be in some sort of riddle to solve, not too reveling but enough to understand once you have the weapon.

Serpent Staff regenerates your life, that's why its expensive on mana. It converts mana to life regeneration. I dont want to write any spoilers so DM me for the alternate fire mode if you have any questions.

I was in the middle of writing up a guide but I set a deadline of 21.7.21 so hopefully I can get the guide written up.

Indeed apart from M = Stat Menu, ENTER uses the inventory item, to select an item use [ ]. You start with two books in your inventory, Tome of Mana and the Book of Crafting. Use [ or ] to select and ENTER to use the selected book.

Hope this helps and I will DM everyone who requests the MegaWAD.

Thanks for visiting NZDOOM.

PS Also have working combos for the Fighter on command inputs.
Fire + Fire + Punch + Block goes straight to double shield bash!
Make sure to time it correctly.

(07-21-2021, 07:18 PM)ZDL_800 Wrote: [ -> ]Hello and thanks for the replies.

So the Main Menu, its the new versions of gzdoom, they force Menu Scaling in the options, I told the devs to remove the parameter but no joy so edit the options 'Menu Scaling'. I provided the option.ini did you use the included ini in Brutal Hexen? If not then its required as the shaders wont load correctly and fixes the menu.

If you not going to use the included options.ini then make sure to enable all OpenGL Hardware light options, select Dark Sector Mode.

Indeed the forward momentum is standard but also don't forget to use the shield to block. All 3 characters have a shield on weapon slot 1 including the Mage. I don't want to write any spoilers in the guide so regarding the weapon functions, they might be in some sort of riddle to solve, not too reveling but enough to understand once you have the weapon.

Serpent Staff regenerates your life, that's why its expensive on mana. It converts mana to life regeneration. I dont want to write any spoilers so DM me for the alternate fire mode if you have any questions.

I was in the middle of writing up a guide but I set a deadline of 21.7.21 so hopefully I can get the guide written up.

Indeed apart from M = Stat Menu, ENTER uses the inventory item, to select an item use [ ]. You start with two books in your inventory, Tome of Mana and the Book of Crafting. Use [ or ] to select and ENTER to use the selected book.

Hope this helps and I will DM everyone who requests the MegaWAD.

Thanks for visiting NZDOOM.

PS Also have working combos for the Fighter on command inputs.
Fire + Fire + Punch + Block goes straight to double shield bash!
Make sure to time it correctly.

Thanks a lot for the explanations!

I'm not 100% sure we're on the same page regarding the serpent staff. What I meant was that it costs 0 Mana to shoot with it. Doenst matter if its the normal attack or the alt attack. It only costs mana when enemies are super close. Is that working as intended?

Another thing I noticed was that one of the Mages starter weapons, the "Sardonyx staff" is a pretty tough pick. Its fine vs Ettins and such but the flying monster are (almost?) fire immune so its nearly impossible to kill them with that fire staff - well, at least until you find the ice spell. Imho that makes that weapon a very bad choice (unless you play multiplayer maybe).

Hello and thanks for the reply

Indeed the Serpent Staff works as intended, its the mana to life regeneration conversion.

Regarding the Mage staffs, they have not only a damage shield but if you charge/hold shield and attack, the energy of the shield will shatter causing close range damage. You would need to implement different tactics for the Sardonyx Staff.

Hope this helps.

Custom bindings still isn't saving in 7.0. How to manually write them to config file?

Hello and thanks for the reply.

Allow me to look into this issue, they do save to the config ini be seems it may reset them on start up. You can see that it saves when you exit.

Thanks again.

Hello!

I've spent the past few days playing your mod extensively.
I thought I'd give some feedback on a few things that i noticed to hopefully help you out a bit with further development.

First of all:
Hexen RPG is actually a pretty great mod. Have had tons of fun with it and I could really see where you're going to go with it. 
Aside from that there were a few things that I noticed while playing. Some seemed like bugs, others like oversight. All in all nothing gamebreaking, which is good!







The characters

Baratus:
Overall Baratus feels like he is in a good place. From what I gathered he is the hero that has received the most balancing and it shows. His attacks are meaty and his movement speed gives him enought speed to compensate for his overall short range.


Ethereal Sword:

• Imho best weapon for Baratus
  
• Cuts down Ettins in one combo when you unlock the double slash combo
  
• The ranged attack (Attack 1+ Attack 2) is pretty underwhelming. Its a range attack but it only does like ~20damage. Pretty useless, because by the time you get it you already have the crossbow - which does the same but better
  
• I noticed that the ranged attack from the ethereal sword stopped working as soon as I unlocked the double slash. Possible bug?
  
  

Gem Mace:

• The gem mace is also a pretty weapon decent for Baratus
  
• Has a chance for life leech (which is always good to have) and ok'ish attack speed and oomph!
  
• Unlocks a single target range attack at higher levels - has its uses but suffers from the same problem as the Etheral Sword. Once you get it, you already have the crossbow. So why use the weaker attack from the mace? 
  

Timon's Axe:

• A heavy axe that comes with an in-build knockback
  
• That's also the weapons greatest flaw. No life leech and slow attack speed give this weapon a cumbersome feel.
  
• The shockwave attack from the axe is also subpar. Can knock your foes away but the damage is atrocious. Does like ~30 but takes a long time to swing.
  
• The knockback makes things even worse most of the time. What's the point of knocking an Ettin back if you still have to get super close to him to finish him off? The scenarios in which a knockback can be useful are there but most of the time its just annoying. 
  
• Knocking an Ettin back can cause a lot of problems. You knock him back into his friends, they block the path and then you cant finish him off - Meh. Dont pick the axe.
  

Lightning Crossbow:

• Decent ranged weapon for a character that usually has issues with distance.
  
• Needs at least ~100+ ranged accuracy in order to hit something. Dont even try to shoot something thats further than 5m away. The shots fly off in nonsensical angles and you will hit anything but your target. I think that needs to be adjusted in one way or another.
  
• The second attack that you unlock with your crossbow is actually decent. Shoots three bolts at the same time. While its pretty meh for distant targets (remember, the crossbow isnt very accurate) it's great for "shotgunning" close targets. You can really put some hurt into Chaos serpents with a shotgun blast from the crossbow.
  

Hammer of Retribution:

• Now this weapon smacks - hard. Like, really hard.
  
• Uses around 10 red mana per swing and obliterates whatever it hits. I hit ettins for 1k+ with that thing and turned them into red mist.
  
• Less effective against ranged targets (for obvious reasons). Especially the flying wizards are annoying to hit with the hammer.
  
• The second attack on the hammer is also "ok". I'm a bit on the fence with this one. While it looks mighty and powerful its a bit meh on the damage side. Maybe its because it scales with arcane mastery and not melee skills (havent tested that yet). It basically sends out a huge forward shockwave (like the one that your summoned minotaur has) and knocks enemies off their feet. The damage is a bit underwhelming though. Around 80~ with no extra points in arcane mastery. But at least the knockback is decent since the wave hits all targets in a line.
  
• Bug I found with the hammer though: It costs around 10~ mana to per melee swing with it but even when you have zero mana, you can still swing the hammer for its full damage. That can't be right.
  

Quietus:

• The final weapon of Baratus.
  
• Has a decent melee damage on its normal swing but imho the hammer still hits harder. Had some mixed results here.
  
• Starts to shine when you unlock its second attack. Quietus then gets the ability to send out waves of energy that cut through anything in their path. While this is attack is mediocre at range its pretty great for anything thats very close. The waves can develop a shotgun effect much like the crossbow projectiles. When that happens you one shot most if not all targets.
  

Parias:

The cleric Parias is a bit of a mixed bag. Its the character that is a mix between the barbarian and the mage. Parias uses a mixed arsenal and therefore has melee and arcane tools at his disposal. This makes him a more well-rounded character, even though some of his weapons don't feel properly balanced yet. All his melee weapons suffer from some weird "going forward on swing move" that Baratus doesnt have. As a hybrid Parias suffers from the stat system the most i feel. If you want your lategame weapons to do enough damage, you have to put most points into arcane mastery, resulting in harder early game in which your melee swings are underhwelming and your serpent staff M1-attack wont hit shit (cause you have no ranged accuracy).

Cleric Scythe: 

• A fast swinging melee weapon that has a high chance for life leech but an overall lower damage output
  
• The life leech feels like its in a good spot and strikes a neat balance between damage and leech. 
  
• Becomes less useful in later stages of the game where you're spread thin on skill points between arcane and melee mastery.
  
• The second attack is eh...idk what its purpose is. Looks like a green fart that doesnt do any damage. It basically sends out a wave of poison clouds that dont have any knockback effect and do around ~30-40 poison damage. Not really great.
  
• Makes you move forward on swings - annoying, cause it forces you more than often into bad spots. Think this needs to be adressed. 
  
• Imho still the best weapon for Parias
  

Battle Mace:

• Parias' standard weapon. OK damage and OK swing time. Has a medium chance for life drain.
  
• Unlocks a shockwave attack on higher levels that has a slight knockback effect plus minor damage. Similar to Timon's axe.
  
• Supposedly unlocks a stronger version of the shockwave attack at lv 16 but that isnt working for me. I just get the swing animation and then nothing happens. Possibly not implemented yet or a bug?
  

Eon Mace:

• The hardest hitting starter weapon for Parias, but has lowest chance for life leech.
  
• Unlocks a proper shockwave attack at higher levels that also stops working at lv 16 when you would unlock a stronger version of it.
  
• Its a good alternative to the scythe.
  

Serpent Staff:

• Parias' second weapon. Ranged weapon that can uses green mana.
  
• The normal attack has a chance to life leech but its so damn inaccurate. Even with 250 ranged accuracy my projectiles went miles off on targets that were only 5-10m away. Therefore its not really useable. The life leech is nice but its also neglectable. 
  
• The alt attack though is super nice on this staff. Packs some punch and is more accurate then the standard shots - weird though because from the looks of it, it should be the other way around.
  
• Big problem with the serpent staff though: Its mana costs are 100% bugged and not working as intended. It costs absolutely NO mana at all to shoot this thing. Doesnt matter if you use your first attack or the alternate attack. Its free and therefore its also the best weapon for Parias. There is only one scenario where it consumes all your green mana. 
  
• Only costs mana to shoot when enemies are right next to you. Then it burns 200green mana in 2seconds but does barely any damage at all. That has to be a bug.
  

Firestorm:

• Parias' third weapon is expensive to use but its also one of his greatest tools.
  
• Does fairly decent damage on the standard attack (assuming you put some points into arcane mastery)
  
• Its second attack is pretty underwhelming. It also suffers A LOT from missing ranged accuracy and while its costly on top its not really something that i used that often. Its basically like the normal firestorm but applies some mild AOE-fire dot. Doesnt do much damage though.
  
• In that regard Firestorm could do with a damage buff, especially when you compare it with the hammer of retribution.
  

Wraithverge:

• The good news: It's still the best weapon in Hexen - by far.
  
• The M1 attack absolutely rips anything on the screen in one click. The ghosts that come out of this thing are relentless and search and destroy any foes within seconds.
  
• The alternate attack on the Wraithverge is weird. Doenst do any damage, is single target and costs a shitton of blue and green mana. There is no real point in using it.
  

Daedolon: 
Ugh, Daedolon. This poor guy suffers the most in Hexen RPG. He is the slowest, has the lowest Hp and to make things worse he also has the worst arsenal (with one exception). The poor mage is pretty much unsuable, especially in higher difficulties. Most of the issues come with his arsenal, where almost all of his tools are super underwhelming.

Sardonyx wand:

• This starter weapon has the highest raw damage output. Its slow, but when you hit, you hit hard. Around 130~ at lv 1 - which is a lot.
  
• Its inaccurate as hell. You have to spend points into ranged accuracy or you're gonna be a sad mage. 
  
• The greatest issue with this weapon is that its doing fire damage. This fucks you over big time when you have to shoot Afrits. These little fucks have like 90%-95% fire resistance and take virtually NO damage at all from this weapon. You cant fight these guys with this weapon. I tried it and it was just not worth it. Takes ages, drains your health and its just miserable. From all the weapons in the game, this one needs the most fixing.
  
• His unlockable attack is also lackluster. Super inaccurate and doesnt do any damage. Also his lv 16 version of that attack doesn't work.
  
• Dont pick this wand!
  

Ekanite wand:

• Medium attack speed, medium damage
  
• Supposedly has a soul steal attack. I can't confirm its only a multiplayer thing or not but so far I didnt notice if working. Neither at lv 8 nor at lv 16.
  
• Unless it has some multiplayer use, skip this wand.
  

Sapphire wand:

• Still the best starting weapon in Hexen.
  
• This thing is one of two redeeming features for Daedolon.
  
• In Hexen rpg this bad boy has become a submachine gun that fires magical full metal jacket projectiles - meaning: it pierces all targets in line.
  
• Hands down the best weapon for Daedolon until you unlock the second attack on his lightning beam. 
  
• Gets a "void warp" ability later that becomes a flawless void warp at 16 - both dont seem to be working yet.
  
• Dps is great and with a bit of accuracy, this wand will carry you well into the lategame.
  
• Pick this wand or suffer - a lot.
  

Ice Blast:

• Ice Blast was always "meh". Even back then. 
  
• It has some shotgun properties at very close range but the fact that frozen targets block your next attacks makes this spell still a pretty shit weapon in your arsenal. Once you unlock its second attack it gets better (its a close range nuke effect) but overall i just skipped the ice blast and kept using the sapphire wand for better results.
  

Arc of death:

• Daedolons third spell is a mixed bag. 
  
• The first attack is lackluster for the most part. Takes at least two, sometimes even four and more uses to kill a single ettin. The damage just feels super inconsistent and seems to have a huge variance to it. This has to be adjusted to some extend.
  
• The second attack though: big oof! It basically turns your arc of death into an actual ball of fuck you. This is the single best single target damage ability in the game. Just right-click once and whatever stands before you will die. This spell slaps hard - even harder than the hammer of retribution at times. The only downside is that it generates a HUGE puff of smoke. Hitting something at close range is not a good idea because then you dont see shit cause your whole screen is covered in black smoke. 
  
• Use the alternate attack of this spell and forget about Daedolons last weapon.
  

Blood Viper:

• Daedolons last weapon and unforunately the worst of the three endgame weapons.
  
• Suffers from missing accuracy. Projectiles often go wide and even when they hit, they dont do much damage.
  
• The first attack does absolutely poor damage when compared to the weapons of Baratus or Parias.
  
• The alternate attack is better but still far from good. Does around 400damage per projectile (without maxed arcane mastery) and does pack at least some punch.
  
• The Blood Vipers biggest issue is that its fire damage. So this weapon is useless against Afrits - shame.
  
• Just forget that this weapon exists and use the arc of death's second attack. Or even better - play Parias or Baratus.
  

General stuff I noticed:

• Baratus is imho the most fleshed-out character, followed by Parias and Deadolon being the worst.
  
• Parias und Daedolon still need some work. Especially Daedolon.
  
• Baratus has the huge advantage that he basically has only 1 weapon that uses ranged accuracy. This allows him to spent most if not all of his points into melee mastery - making him the strongest character.
  
• There seems to be little reason to spend your points into ANYTHING but your damage stat. With the exception of some ranged accuracy maybe.
  
• Its also unclear what each stat does. This needs some sort of guide.
  
• The golem is in a good spot. More familars would be cool though.
  
• The boss in the Hypostyle always gets stuck and doesn't move at all. In all of my three playthroughts the death wyvern got either clipped in the middle pillar or below his spawn.
  
• The regeneration potion is actually useful. Was some great help at the beginning of act 3. 
  
• Same goes for the potion of brilliance. 
  
• The menu system is a cool idea but its also super clunky. Maybe an option to preset certain action could help with that. Like: Binding the conversion of Blue Mana to Red mana on  specific button? Or Binding use X mana to heal for Y on another button?
  
• The button config doesnt save properly. It only seems to be the case for the Hexen RPG section of the keyboard controls. Stuff like "summon golem" and "use flechette" get unbound on restart. The rest saves.
  
  
  Thats it so far. I'm sure i missed a few things though. I will edit this post later!
  Thanks for making this mod though ZDL - great work!
  
  

Hello and thanks for the reply.

Allow me to DM you a few questions if I may regarding the weapons.

Thankyou very much for the feedback much appreciated.

I dl the brutal hexen v7 zip, which took about an hour. I got brutal hexen to work using gzdoom but I need 2 separate batch files to play the original hexen and the Deathkings expansion. It is my understanding the megawad streamlines the original and the expansion into one continuous brutal adventure. Does the megawad add new content or weapons to BHv7? Thank you for the answer in advance

Greetings Double_Clutch and hope you are good.

Sent you over a DM regarding the MegaWAD. Indeed we have edited the DLC for extra brutality.

Thanks for visiting NZDOOM.