Crusader (2023 WAD)

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Crusader
Title screen
Author Cheesewheel
Port MBF21-compatible
IWAD Doom II
Year 2023
Link Doomworld forums thread
Cacoward-2018.png This mod received an honorable mention at the 2023 Cacowards on Doomworld!

Crusader is a ten-level episode WAD for Doom II, made for MBF21- and DSDHacked-compatible source ports. It was created by Cheesewheel and first released on the Doomworld forums on August 6, 2023. The WAD adds a host of new enemies to the default bestiary, including a new custom boss, and replaces the standard weapons with an enhanced arsenal. It utilizes the OTEX texture pack, displaying a different visual theme for every map.

Crusader received an honorable mention at the 2023 Cacowards.

Content[edit]

Custom content[edit]

Crusader makes use of a DeHackEd patch for its custom content that was created using the DECOHack utility. It uses additional code pointers and flags implemented through the MBF21 standard, as well as the increased limits granted through the DSDHacked extension, which lifts the restrictions on the number of states, things, sprites, and sounds that can be added to the game.

Weather spawner
Invisible, untouchable mobjs that are placed at the ceiling of an area and continuously spawn either snow or rain projectiles, simulating environmental weather effects. Since the A_SpawnObject code pointer used for spawning the projectiles is called on the looping spawn state sequence of the spawners, they begin shooting out projectiles immediately upon level startup instead of requiring to be woken up by the player first. They cannot be targeted or damaged in any way.

Weapons[edit]

The time it takes to switch between weapons has been sped up significantly, with a switch happening three times faster than usual. All weapons use new sprites and sounds.

Chainsaw
An upgraded rendition of the chainsaw that has an extended reach of 128 map units compared to the 65 map units of the regular version, as well as a slightly increased damage (5–25 instead of 2–20) and faster rate of fire (6 tics rather than 8 tics).
Doomblade
An extended blade strapped onto Doomguy's forearm that replaces the fist. It does 80 damage with every hit, rather than randomized damage from a defined range, and has an extended reach of 96 map units compared to the fist's reach of 64.
Machine gun
A type of futuristic machine gun that replaces the pistol and instead of hitscan bullets shoots out small, fast-moving fire projectiles at an increased rate of fire (6 tics instead of 14) that each do 3–24 damage plus an additional 40 blast damage within a radius of 32 map units.
Combat shotgun
A shotgun that fires 10 bullets at a time, instead of seven, in a tight circular spread rather than the purely horizontal spread of the regular shotgun.
Super shotgun
A reskin for the super shotgun with a tighter spread than the regular version.
Chaingun
An upgraded rendition of the chaingun that has a rate of fire that is four times faster than that of the regular chaingun; with each press of the fire button releasing eight shots, though it will only consume four bullets in the process.
Plasma gun
An upgraded rendition of the plasma gun that starts out shooting blue plasma, each projectile doing 4–32 damage, but if the fire button is held down for about two seconds, it switches to firing red plasma instead which deals twice the damage; releasing the fire button at this point will launch a volley of five red plasma projectiles in a wide spread that each deal 20–160 damage.
Homing launcher
A rocket launcher that fires a burst of three missiles that each home in on the nearest target in sight. Each missile does 10–80 damage plus 80 blast damage within a radius of 80 map units. The cool down between each burst of three missiles is significantly longer than the interval between shots of the regular rocket launcher, resulting in a lower rate of fire, though the overall DPS is much higher.
BFG 27K
An upgraded BFG9000 with a slightly increased start-up time that fires a volley of three BFG shots for triple the overall damage compared to the BFG9000, consuming 100 cells with each shot.

Monsters[edit]

Shotgunner/chaingunner
Both the shotgunner and chaingunner are replaced with variants that do not drop any weapons upon death but are otherwise identical to the regular versions.
Poisoner
A variant of the pain elemental with 500 health that spits out green projectiles that fly in a ballistic arc at its target and detonate into a cloud of poison when impacting with an enemy or the ground; this spawns a poison clouds that lingers for about 2 seconds before vanishing and during that time applies 20 blast damage within a radius of 64 map units. The monster itself is immune to this "poison" effect.
Blood spirit
A red corpse-like torso with 80 health that chases the player but cannot damage them in any way; instead it will resurrect the first dead monster it comes into contact with, using the A_HealChase code pointer, and vanish afterwards, killing itself in the process. This gives the illusion of the blood spirit possessing the corpse it resurrects.
Spreadshot zombie
A burly former human with 70 hit points that shoots a volley of three slow-moving plasma projectiles that spread out in a wide fan-like spread and do 2–16 damage each.
Belcher
A variant of the cacodemon with 300 HP that moves more than twice as fast as the cacodemon and, once it gets within less than 259 map units to its target, will start to belch out a stream of blue fire, consisting of a rapid burst of five fire projectiles each doing 3–24 damage, before taking a single step and then starting to belch again.
Auron
A charred Hell noble with yellow, glowing cracks all over its body. It possesses 750 HP and randomly uses one of two attacks, with each having a 50 percent chance of being triggered. The first consists of a burst of six small fire projectiles that move at the speed of a rocket and each do 2–16 damage. The second attack sees it fire a volley of five energy balls in a wide spread that each do 8–64 damage. The Auron will infight with other monsters, including the Hell knight and baron of Hell but, just like an arch-vile, will never be targeted itself by any monster.
Resurrector
An orange-brown battle mecha with 250 HP that resurrects dead monsters and attacks with a volley of three fire projectiles of the same type as used by the Auron, each doing 2–16 damage. It will never be targeted itself by any monster, just like an arch-vile.
Golden cyberdemon
A variant of the cyberdemon with 1000 HP, golden skin, and blue wiring. It behaves identically to the regular cyberdemon apart from the interval between rockets during its attack sequence being half as long (6 tics), making dodging rockets slightly more difficult.
Angel
A golden angel in plate armor with sword and shield that possesses 10000 HP and targets monsters rather than the player, having MBF's FRIEND flag set. It does, however, only do one point of damage with each attack, though this is of little importance, since it is always confined to spaces that, while visible from afar, can never be reached and, therefore, only serves as a sort of decoration.
Nightmare knight
An ash-colored Hell knight with 300 HP that moves twice as fast as its regular counterpart and also does twice the damage with its ranged attack (16–128), but lacks a melee attack. Other monsters will not retaliate against its attacks, and it will itself not infight with the other two nightmare monsters. It is also immune to the blast damage from the Tyrant's fire circle attack.
Nightmare revenant
A revenant with an ash-colored lower body and 200 HP that fires a volley of two of the nightmare knight's projectiles in a single shot for a combined 32–256 of damage. Other monsters will not retaliate against its attacks, and it will itself not infight with the other two nightmare monsters. It is also immune to the blast damage from the Tyrant's fire circle attack.
Nightmare mancubus
An ash-colored mancubus with 400 HP that fires a volley of five green-colored mancubus projectiles in a wide spread. Other monsters will not retaliate against its attacks, and it will itself not infight with the other two nightmare monsters.
Tyrant
A towering cybernetic demon with a metal leg and a rocket launcher as its left arm that serves as the final boss of the WAD. It possesses 25000 HP, moves almost as fast as the arch-vile, has a pain chance of 0 percent, is immune to blast damage, and will never be targeted by other monsters. It uses a variety of attacks based on the distance to the player. It will not attack at all as long as the player is more 258 map units away from it. If the player is within 258 map units, it triggers its missile attack, consisting of a burst of three extremely fast moving rockets that home in on the player, followed by a burst of four micro missiles—for which the Tyrant raises its rocket launcher arm up into the air—which are also homing and each do 4–32 damage plus 20 blast damage within a radius of 20 map units, while flying at half the speed of the full-size missile. Each time its missile attack is triggered, there is 25 percent chance that it will instead shoot out a circle of flame projectiles along the floor that each do 10–80 damage plus 64 blast damage within a radius of 64 map units, followed immediately by spawning a nightmare revenant and a nightmare knight in front of itself. Should the player be closer than 128 map units it will perform a stomp with its metal leg, resulting in a circle of fast-moving flame projectiles of the same type as described above being shot out along the floor, and then transition to its missile attack immediately afterwards.

External links[edit]