NOTE: ZX is a GZDOOM mod *only*-- v3.3+ will (usually) run fine. Won't work on Skulltag, Zandronum or original ZDOOM, and probably not QZDoom. key: + buff - nerf = neutral change * shiny new thing / fix / modification more of the same symbols = more severe Most likely, this will be the last "big feature" release of ZX. Further releases will be mostly relegated to maintainence, support, balancing and bugfixing. This update has new ACS, so old savegames WILL break no matter what. Yes, even v6.66 ones. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ THE DOCUMENTATION!! They contain a shitload of beneficial information. ZX log, version 7.0 "The Huge Fix": --WEAPONS-- -NEW- *Repeater. The Burst Pistol's big bro, firing a burst of three rifle bullets that are guaranteed to punch through a few targets each. Slot 4. *Hellshot. One of the UAC's latest experiments, this techy but slow Argent-fueled rifle fires lances of Hell energy that rip straight through targets. Slot 5. *Minigun. Feel the BRRT, baby. Basically, a nastier, faster-firing chaingun that'll chew through your bullets in no time. Slot 8. *Schockhammer. Automatic. Super. Shotgun. This'll wipe the floor with most anything. Two shells a pop. Slot 9. *Mjolnir. Pretend you're Thor himself with this hammer of thunder. Tap to perform a silent, slow strike dealing moderate damage, or hold to charge the hammer with 15 cells for a powerful lightning-charged whack. Slot 1. Rare. *Suppressor. A small SMG with a silencer. Inaccurate and slow, but at least you've got something besides that pistol for ranged stealth now. Slot 4. Based on the silenced SMGs from various newer Wolfenstein games. -CHANGED- /TriBolt, Vortex Rifle and Laser Cannon have improved sounds. /Laser Cannon is now found at chaingun spawners, instead of plasma rifle spawners. /Plasma, blaster, IonRipper, Unmaker and Phalanx balls (and BFG effects) now have much prettier trails and effects, adapted partially from Jay's ZAGEmod and partially from QS Unbound. -All lobbed weapons now have very slightly less consistent trajectories since I've added some very mild randomization to their flight. +Laser Cannon spins up and down a bit quicker. ++Gauss cannon gets a straight damage buff, and a "full damage radius" on its explosion. +Blaster pickups now give ten cells. +DMC does a little bit more ripping damage, and its explosions are overall more potent. //A pistol spawner has been added for maps that actually spawn in pistols. It's basically the chainsaw spawner with all the melee weapons removed. +The Destructor now does a mild BFG effect and only uses ten cells per shot again. --BFG2704 has had a damage cut, and it now consumes fifty cells per complete burst. +BFG9000 has gotten a straight damage buff. +++MGL: +has more powerful impact and explosive damage, and disperses its sub-grenades a litle more. ++child grenades now home in on enemies. ++BFG10K has gotten a beefy buff. Increases to explosive splash, direct-hit and BFG effect damage. /+The 10K now also trades out the radiant damage around the ball for Q2 BFG-style arcs. ++/Vortex Rifle has gotten a buff for balancing. It also now deducts ammo at every level charge instead of upon firing, to reinforce that the weapon has distinct levels of charge (0-1-2-3-4-5, and overcharge if held too long). +Skulltag has a very slight bit more explosive power to its shots-- not much, though. ++-Unmaker shots now force pain and are MUCH faster-moving (close to hitscan), but are less consistent (now following the Doom 64 accuracy formula) and a bit less damaging. /Fists weren't getting 'zerked correctly. Fixed. +Plasma beam has some randomization in its damage now, and it's generally a bit stronger. -Plasma rifle damage RNG reduced. Much as I love the good ol' Blue Burner I gotta tone her down. +IonRipper gets a mild buff. ///+"Complete putz" moment here: DMC balls weren't forcing their radius damage like they were supposed to. Fuckin' WOW, I dunno how I missed that one for so long. Sorry! //--BFG blast pain states completely stripped out. There's enough BFG effects going around already. Plus, you can't steamroll bosses with BFG weapons anymore. +-Sniper rifle now only uses two ammo and fires slightly faster, but takes a damage cut. +Homing rocket launcher now fires fully-active homing missiles. They will even seek out dudes offscreen. *All particle-tracer weapons that didn't have wall-hit effects (lasers, Static Cannon, Plasma Beam, railgun) now have some. =Silencer pistol now has a bluish color. It fires slower, with less accuracy, but does more damage now. =Nail pistol fires slightly slower, with a slight damage increase (9d5 -> [9d5]+1) and a slight accuracy buff. /Any weapons that had an undue delay (I.E. not a charge or spin-up) between a trigger pull and actually firing don't anymore. Actual rate of fire is unaffected. =EMG pistol fires slightly faster, but now has trigger-off lag time to prevent the player tap-firing too quickly. /Chaingun now looks a lot better, thanks to Per Kristian's smooth-as-hecc sprites. +HAMR is slightly more accurate and slightly more powerful. +Homing rocket launcher gains a target-designator scope. Consequently, you can't toss frags with the HRL out anymore. +HRL rockets gain speed and precision when scoped in, closer to the HRL's original behavior. --AMMO-- +-Argent: +capacities increased to 100 and 200. -small pickups now only give ten rounds /Static charge gathering modified to be less janky and a bit more forgiving. --HUD-- *As requested by PaladinKell on YouTube, there is now an option to use a "remastered" version of the original ZX HUD. It's a fair bit more spartan than the information-loaded modern HUD, but some folks prefer it that way. So, it's in. The color-coding and powerup timers of the new HUD are also integrated into the classic HUD; however, the level timer and K/I/S counters are not in the classic HUD. They'd clutter it up too much. +There's now custom crosshairs for each weapon, shared with ZAGE, DoomZone and Unbound. /Static charge's HUD color changed to pink from gold. Was too similar to the yellow that bullets use. **There are now toggleable kill, item and secret counters, as well as a toggleable level timer, on the modern HUD. --ARMOR-- *The armor system now displays detailed messages on the HUD informing the player of the anti-waste cutoffs should they try to pick up inferior armor, such as "Green armor won't replace red armor unless it's below 20 armor points." --ITEMS-- *New powerup: the Horn of Conjuring. A magical horn that causes a random, 100% friendly monster to be summoned in front of you and fight by your side. It could be a lowly zombie, but it could also be a Baron or an Arch-vile. Beware, the summoning will fail if you don't have enough space in front of you for the monster to fit. You can carry five Horns, and they sub-spawn at the same spots you find blur, ammo and haste spheres. //BioSpheres now prevent the player from drowning while active. They honestly always should've...sorry! +++Berserk pack: +now gives 5x (from 4x) melee damage on all but the axe, Mjolnir and chainsaw. Axe and Mjolnir gain 2.5x (from 2x) damage instead, and the chainsaw doesn't benefit-- it really don't need it. Note that these buffs stack multiplicatively with Quad and Double Damages...meaning the flashlight has the potential to do **40x** its normal damage. (x5 from the 'zerk. x4 from the Quad, x2 from the Double. [1x5]=5[x4]=20[x2]=40) +now carries 20% speed and DR bonuses, up from 15%. +now carries sixty seconds of mild health regen on top of the other effects, for a net gain of 110 health. This, just like the initial boost, WILL NOT OVERHEAL past your current "normal max" (100 + adrenaline). +++RegenSphere now overheals to 200 while retaining its 45-second duration. However, you can only carry two now. ++Power armor now carries an armor-regeneration benefit alongside what it already had. ///Adrenaline spawns again. A-DERP ++Adrenaline now carries a high chance of yielding a berserk pack, and also carries a chance of spawning a field medikit too. //For the completionist types out there, I've futzed around with the item counters. Now, the only things that count as items are health bonuses, armor bonuses, and most powerup items. Anything dropped from monsters or barrels does not count, nor do weapons, ammo, or armor. --MONSTERS-- -NEW- *Nightmare Imp. Rare spawn alongside other imps. He's pale blue, slightly translucent and he's the meanest, toughest imp around. He tosses his own special blue fireballs which don't home in, but they're fast and they hurt. *Infiltrator. Uncommon spawn alongside pistol guys. A zombie in dark blue civvies that carries a silencer pistol. Slightly tougher than normal. *Nightmare Spectre. Rare spawn alongside other spectres. He's ugly, he's tough, and his bites hurt a LOT. *Cyber-Mancubus. Rare spawn alongside other fatsos. He's green, he's fat, he's got rocket jets for legs, and he shoots poisonous fart clouds at you. *Forsaken Soul. The oldest of the Lost Souls, these guys don't try to ram you; they instead try to kill you with psychic projections. Rare spawn alongside lost souls. Pain elementals will *not* spawn them. *Motherdemon. The big mama from Doom 64. She's fast, she's deadly, and she's bad news. Rare spawn alongside spiderdemons. *Nightmare Arachnotron. These bony, brown bastards are faster, tougher arachnos with twice the firepower. Rare spawn alongside arachnotrons. *Harbinger of Doom. A not-so-cyber Cyberdemon. He's a bit faster with less health, but instead of shooting rockets he fires spreads of Baron balls. Spawns alongside cyberdemons. *Scrag. A big, floaty thing that shoots homing fireballs at you from its chest. Spawns alongside cacos. *Agony Elemental. Doom 64 pain elemental, baby. Rare spawn alongside other PEs. *Hellrazer. Spawns alongside chaingun guys. A cyber-imp with a laser cannon for an arm. *Zombie Sniper. Very rare spawn alongside shotgun guys. Hurts like a motherfucker, but fires a dodgeable shot with a laser sight as a warning. *Nightmare Revenant. Spawning alongside Barons, this super-skeleton fires four rockets at a time, two of which always home and two of which don't. *Summoner. Spawning alongside arch-viles, this guy's a tougher but easier-to-dodge version of a 'vile that can teleport to close some distance if needed. -CHANGED- +HyperBlaster guy now is a bit more accurate (and looks a bit better). =The stocky black "original" Nightmare Imp is now named the Void Imp; otherwise, he's unmodified. =Blaster guys have a chance of dropping their weapon now. It rewards a measly ten cells on pickup. +Nailborgs now fire full-auto while you're in their LoS again. -Chaingun guys now are a little bit slower to open fire. =Shotgun guys' shot spreads modified. They usually won't plug you from across the map anymore. +Pain elementals now spawn more often on their own spawners. /The various "black imp" fireballs are more clearly distinguished against one another. Purple and orange balls do not home, whereas red and blue ones do. Warmer color ball = more damaging. //The Void, Phase and Duo Imps have somewhat more distinct attack patterns now. --BUGFIXES-- /The player's static charge now no longer drains while the weapon wheel is up. /-However, the player's "critical health regen" is paused while the wheel's up too. (note: powerup timers still tick down while the wheel's open. I can't fix that, sadly. The new-and-improved RegenSphere's effects also apply while in the wheel.) /Item count-ups futzed around with. Only powerups and bonuses count towards the total; anything dropped or subspawned in does not. //Static charge degredation stuff fixed to be more sensible. No more Carmack waves. :-P --MISC.-- *New addon: "Classy Bastards". This provides the option of various starting loadouts for the player. It is 100% optional, and the same savegame-breaker rules as the weapon wheel apply. Seriously not recommended for DM. +The player jumps slightly higher with more hangtime and a bit floatier of a fall. /Subspawns (things like field medkits, frag grenades, 'zerk packs) are now dropped in by their spawners, so they don't always spawn in the same place as another item. /Yet more new quit messages. This mod has gotta have the most unique quit messages of any single Doom mod ever at this point... /"Found secret" message changed. //New and improved help screen. //Red, blue and green full-size torches now relight themselves ten seconds after being shot out. This is so somebody playing a map using the torches as puzzle items doesn't screw themselves over. The code used to do so is taken from Unbound. *"ZX Options" menu expanded to include quicker access to some gameplay variables, such as jumping, crouching and health degen. Quake had all three at some point, so if you want more Quake-like gameplay, there ya go. It also contains scouter and HUD options. /Color pallette modified to fix the "blue skies look bad" issue. Plasma still looks great, though. *There are compatibility patches made for Thunder Peak and D64D2. Load the levelset, then ZX, then the patch, in THAT order. //Several minor A/V tweaks to make things look and sound better.