Protoslayer 3.1: Judecca (GZDoom exclusive)

[Volasaurus]

After nearly 2 years of Development, Protoslayer 3.1 is here! Episode 2 is available and ready for your consumption, BUT WAIT!
Before heading straight into Judecca, which is a much more difficult experience than Apotheosis, and there are now goodies and rewards for you waiting in episode 2 for completing Episode 1 and its secret level!

 Features

• +New enemies
• +New Bosses
• +New Weapons
• +Plot!
• +New Difficulties and alternate modes!
• + New Game+!
• +Voice Acting!
• +(Episode 2) Hub based gameplay with non-linear progression!
• +A Push Forward ™️ Health system to encourage more daring play!
• +A Rage system for really showing those demons what their guts look like!
• +Cinematics!
• +New Music (as well as optional midi versions and an alternate soundtrack for Episode 2 if you just REALLY want to hear more Serosis!)

 

There is an included recommended graphics document and a Readme file (please do read them, they'll help make this way more enjoyable) Protoslayer and Judecca are a GZDoom exclusive project (tested on 4.9), and you will likely need a pretty decent modern machine to fully experience the game. It also runs best in Vulkan. Most new features (like the Rage system and Push Forward HP) are optional and can be disabled in Protoslayer's options section.

Port: GZDoom 4.9 or newer
Iwad: Doom2.wad

Jumping: Yes

Crouching: Yes

Mouselook: Yes

Brightmaps: optional, but useful

Altfire:  Most weapons have an altfire, it's a good idea to bind it if you haven't

Equipment: While mostly optional, some fights are MUCH easier with clever use of the new equipment.

Flashlights: The Pistol, Shotgun, and Chaingun all have flashlight altfires. This is important because some enemies take MASSIVE damage from your flashlight (instagib in most cases)

Lights: Mandatory

Maps: 8 + 1 secret in Episode 1, 8 + 2 secret in Episode 2
Classes: 2, but Marine just exists for vanilla play in non-Protoslayer content
Estimated Playtime: 10-14 hours for casual play.
Compatibility: I know for a fact that this does not play well with other gameplay mods (ie Hideous Destructor, Brutal Doom, Project Brutality, Supercharge, Guncaster) so I cannot guarantee that Protoslayer will work with any mod that alters the same content.

Screenshots

Episode 1:

 

Episode 2:

 

FULL RELEASE:
https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/downloads/protoslayer
LITE RELEASE:
(Gameplay only, no maps or music)
https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/downloads/protoslayer-lite

 

It's also recommended to play as the Protoslayer class. Marine exists mostly for masochists who want to play a slower character with a weaker arsenal.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding setup, and of course DM me or ping me here for feedback!

10/19/2023
FOOTAGE:
Trailer
 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Volasaurus : MODDB link added, Lite version Link Added

[Shulbocka]

I'm surprised this doesn't have comments yet as it looks awesome. I was just getting ready to play it now but the download is corrupt. I tried redownloading a few times but when extracting with 7z, it says "Headers Error : PSMain.pk3"

[Volasaurus]

On 1/19/2023 at 12:18 AM, Shulbocka said:

I'm surprised this doesn't have comments yet as it looks awesome. I was just getting ready to play it now but the download is corrupt. I tried redownloading a few times but when extracting with 7z, it says "Headers Error : PSMain.pk3"

Weird, seems to work with winzip and winrar, though?

If these aren't available, I can upload the pk3 by itself >snipped<

Note: this pk3 is out of date now and the main release is now working. Snipping this before someone gets a broken old version.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Volasaurus : Out of date.

[Gez]

Looks impressive!

[RED77]

Super cool and very impressive stuff

[RonnieJamesDiner]

Episode 1 was a lot of fun, there was so much love and care put into it. Glad to see you've kept at it Vol, the screenshots are looking wonderful as ever! I'll be diving into episode 2 at some point.

[ＤΞＬＴΛ]

DEFINITELY checking this one out!

[hakros]

This is an awesome work.

Only the introduction already anticipates something spectacular... and so it has been.
Thanks for share this project with us !

[Dasha W. Frost]

This indeed looks breathtaking just judging by screenies alone! I'd definitely like to play it once I have time. Already downloaded it, it's on my To-Play list for sure :)

[Jester08]

Played Judecca through on Proto-Ultra Violence (Continuous) and I honestly had very little negative things to say about it and those "negative" things were mostly due to me not knowing how some things worked or forgetting as it had been a while since I last played Episode 1 and Doom II in general.
Balance seems to be very good, even from a Pistol Start view point which I can appreciate, very little times I was low on ammo and never completely starved.
Visuals are absolutely amazing, lighting gives off Doom 64 vibes which I quite enjoy, not too dark that you can't see + there is always the flashlights anyway :P
Fights within the maps were very fun, Goratorium (May need correction on spelling this map?) being the one that claimed my favorite spot, even the boss fights were a load of fun for me.
All this said, I need to play it through again as I did not find the secret maps so this post may get updated in the future, but for now I can honestly say that for me this was a 10/10. And I look forward to anymore future updates this mod may get.
Cheers.

[Pure Hellspawn]

Cacoward winner right here!

[Volasaurus]

Update 03/17/2023:

Fixed an issue where Chapter 3 would play Chapter 12's theme and Chapter 04 would play Chapter 13's theme.

Original Zip link has been updated and should be fixed.

[Volasaurus]

Update 04/27/2023:

- Cleaned SetMusicParams function of the episode parameter since it's unused
- Fixed every map's SCRIPTS lump so it uses new format of SetMusicParams function
- Cleaned ACS of some unused variables
- Cleaned ANIMDEFS of long animation definitions

In addition, every track featured in the APOTHEOSIS episode has been remastered by Serosis and should now loop better <3

Original Zip Link has been updated.

[Volasaurus]

Update 10/19/2023:

-Torch collision removed.
+Spectres properly take flashlight damage again.
+Bleed effect added to the Veteran Carbine's bayonet alt fire.
+Blood orbs now grant 5 Demonic Energy for your Unmaker. This makes the Unmaker self-sustaining in particularly dense slaughter fights with fodder enemies, as the unmaker forces enemies to drop blood orbs upon death.
+Slight touchups on some maps (texture alignments/ edge case bugs)

Known issues:
+The Cyberdemon triggers in SinCraft's Warcraft arena will sometimes fail to execute in GZDoom versions older than 4.9.
+Low end hardware might have issues with high decal amounts, it's suggested that you lower your decal cap to ~300 for best results if this occurs for you.
+(Fix incoming) When running Protoslayer on Vanilla Maps, music will not play. This is due to our soundtrack-swapping code for Apotheosis and Judecca and will be addressed in a future version.

 

[Volasaurus]

Full Release added to ModDB

https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/downloads/protoslayer

As well as the Lite Release:

https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/downloads/protoslayer-lite

Edited November 8, 2023 by Volasaurus : Lite link added

[Firedust]

How many episodes are planned in total, if you don't mind me asking?

[Volasaurus]

2 minutes ago, Firedust said:

How many episodes are planned in total, if you don't mind me asking?

I can only confirm 2 for now, but I'm toying with the idea of making a third episode from a community project. I've had less time to map since I started my streaming career, and the Zandro compatible Protoslayer Deathmatch project (tentatively titled "ProtoMurder) is taking up a lot of my free time right now. I'd really like to do a 3rd episode that focuses more on urban environments, revisiting city locations from Doom 2 for example would be really neat.

[Firedust]

4 hours ago, Volasaurus said:

I can only confirm 2 for now, but I'm toying with the idea of making a third episode from a community project. I've had less time to map since I started my streaming career, and the Zandro compatible Protoslayer Deathmatch project (tentatively titled "ProtoMurder) is taking up a lot of my free time right now. I'd really like to do a 3rd episode that focuses more on urban environments, revisiting city locations from Doom 2 for example would be really neat.

A community episode 3 sounds cool! Considering how high profile this project is, I am sure you'll find capable hands in no time.

[DeetOpianSky]

Congrats on your mention in the CacoAwards article!

[Volasaurus]

Update 12/26/2023:

ModDB release updated to include a fix to both the closing credits and an intermittent bug in Goratorium that would cause the game to call a script that doesn't exist.

I appreciate everyone's patience, Judecca should be completable again! <3

[Theespressoman]

Thanks for the answer (and sorry for using the wrong thread, i didn't notice), i was trying it with pistol starts to make it harder (i'm used to much harder .wads), but level5 was super unbalanced for it (beatable, but very tedious), so i will switch.

and by nerf, i mean attack patterns, like with the infrit using a much easier attack pattern, rather than the one from scythe2.

[Volasaurus]

Yeah, the first episode is meant to ease the players into the new ruleset and tools before Judecca, where I introduce a few new enemies and much more difficult maps.

Speaking of which

Update 12/30/2023: (ModDB Update)
 

Fixed Cacoliches in Chapter 3 referencing a null asset.

 

Added alt-fire function for the BFG9500. Have fun! <3

[Volasaurus]

Going on record due to recent conversations saying that I have no plans to make a "sanitized" version of the mod, and I have no plans to ever consent to a sanitized version of the mod.

[Wo0p]

Whoa! This one almost passed me by. Will play it and give my thoughts later, looks awesomely atmospheric :)

[Wo0p]

I bet you thought I had forgotten.

I bet you thought I had forgiv-... wait wrong game.

 

Anyway, after failing to realise the OP was about the 2nd episode of Protoslayer, I began playing the 1st episode (APOTHEOSIS) being none the wiser! Hence it took a while longer to get back here with my thoughts *InsertEmbarressedDropletSmileyFaceHere*

 

There's a clear progression of your skill on display when you play both episodes front to back and it's great to see honestly. The very first map of the first episode is a nice chill solid tech base experience as one would expect of Doom. But then it kinda goes downhill from there until you get to the 2nd episode JUDECCA where the quality skyrockets back up again. It will take a lot of words to explain the true extent of my thoughts so please bear with me until the end :)

 

Ok, let's start with some general and straight forward things:

 

Player Arsenal:

 

Pistol - It's the pistol only slightly faster and more cyan (I may or may not have fucked up the graphics settings as I'm bad at following instructions :^) ), BUT it does have the lovely upside of having unlimited ammo. A nice take on the iconic doom basic weapon that helps it settle into a role of resource management instead of just being immediately replaced by the chaingun whenever that is given.

 

Shotgun - Faster but ultimately how you're used to how it functions and looks. What else can I say? It's a shotgun. It blams demons right proper. I approve of the speed improvement.

 

Chaingun - Has a windup before it goes absolutely bazongas with spraying lead all over whatever unfortunate (lost) soul happens to get in your way. It's an absolute joy to fire and I got very sad every time I ran out of ammo for it ;( The superpowered double chaingun powerup you get makes it extra orgasmic to wield. Amazing 9/10. I would give it a 10/10 but it does have the detractor of not firing a shot immediately when you press the fire button. This is a deviation from the traditional chaingun and can result in being blasted in the face by shotgunners while you wait for the weapon to spin up, so you can't roam around with it willy nilly. Thus, it's more of a strategic gun than the classic chaingun which is neither better or worse. It's just different. But I kinda like it this way. 

 

Carbine - Erm... I like the sprite at least. Why use the bayonet jab when you have your fists / chainsaw? And why use the primary burst fire when you have the chaingun? This weapon would make sense if you have a lot of single target enemies at longer ranges that you need to pick off quickly but the level design doesn't offer many of those scenarios so I would resort to using the rocket launcher or the plasma rifle to achieve what this weapon is supposed to do. But I guess its a choice? I can imagine some would like to use Bullets for this weapon instead of the chaingun and then use plasma rifle for large hordes? But I'm just not like that I guess :D

 

Supa Shotgun - A big disappointment honestly. The sprite looks horrendous (sorry if YOU made it D:) it's a different artstyle from the rest of the doom aesthetics and stands out like a sore thumb. Even worse is its inefficiency compared to all of the other weapons beyond the normal shotgun. It's just outperformed by everything and I had very little reason or WANT to use it, when combined with the awful sprite. The only moment where its super effective is when its powered up by your berserka state (I don't recall what you named it). Then it fires without delay and without need to reload and its an absolute beast up close. But still, if you have the powered up state going then I'd rather use the flamethrower, chaingun, or anything else really, unless I'm forced to be VERY close to a huge amount of enemies and I'm out of plasma cells.

The alt fire is powerful for clearing a line but its just too slow to be viable compared to just swapping to the chaingun and achieving the same effect without the risk of being in the reload animation while a demon charges me unimpeded by painstate activation.

 

RAUCKET LAWNCHER - It shoots rockets, it's great. It looks the same, functions the same but also comes with a handy little alt fire that fires triple rockets that does a lower amount of damage, which makes it perfect for close encounters against weaker enemies. I like it but I prefer the-

 

GRENADE LAWNCHER - Extreme damage and despite the low rate of fire the splash radius and damage makes it worth it. It will absolutely rek whatever is in front of you and functions just as well against large hordes as it does against tough single entities. It's only held back by the firing arc which makes space for the rocket launcher to have its own role for shooting down flying or distant targets. That's lovely design, and its a great weapon !

 

Plasma Rifle - It's the plasma rifle. Very effective and even more effective with the alt fire that trades a low rate of fire for a powerful burst. I liked it and the berserker state makes it absolutely hilarious and overpowered. Power fantasy achieved!

 

BFG - I have to be honest and say I didn't use the altfire if there was any. When I discovered its berserker fire I laughed out loud at the overpoweredness and every time I would hear that little sound byte play that tells me berserker state has been achieved I would switch to the BFG and go ham with the primary fire. If the plasma rifle is power fantasy, then the BFG is nirvana in the berserker state. You're practically immortal using this in its berserker state and I assume that's the intended design philosophy. Definitely lives up to its name in this WAD. Amazing.

 

UNMAKER - Actually unmakes demons :D I love it, in both its iterations. I think its better in the 2nd episode with some super powerful shots with a slight delay. I used it as a sort of superpowered plasma rifle. When I had to kill tough enemies faster than the plasma rifle could etc.

 

Flamethrower - The workhorse of Protoslayer honestly. It is devastatingly powerful, has nice range for the majority of the encounter scenarios and leaves flame trails that can stunlock whole hordes of enemies for a few seconds, giving you time to breathe, distance yourself or switch weapons if needed. It is surprisingly versatile and if you wanted other weapons to have more of a spotlight it might need a nerf honestly. But I love it either way :D my main gun throughout the episodes by far, even outshining the chaingun in affection levels (Not an easy feat because I loves the DAKKA).

 

Gameplay Gimmicks/Mechanics:

 

Flashlight altfire. This one confused the heck out of me. I understood it to be effective versus all enemies, sort of like a Alan Wake weakening effect that could be used while you shoot monsters normally as well. But imagine my surprise when the flashlight goes away when you start shooting. Turns out the flashlight is only effective against some VERY specific and rare enemies that could easily be handled by conventional weaponry. So yeah. I didn't use this at all except for lighting my way in a few areas. While the WAD is generally dark its thankfully only dark to the point of adding to the mood. There's only a few places where its absolutely necessary in order to find your way around. Good design! Erm... good design on the darkness level.

To get back to the flashlight. I'd suggest making those special enemies designed to be countered by the flashlight to be completely immune to all other damage. Since the arsenal of the player is so powerful there's no need to use the flashlight on these enemies in its current iteration.

 

Berserker state (or whatever its called sorry again can't remember D:) could do with more than a soundbyte to signal that its ready to use. I didn't catch on to what sound I was supposed to listen to until I was nearly done with the whole mapset :S so I would suggest using a visual aide other than the altered mugshot. In the chaos of episode 2 I don't have time to look at the mugshot to see if I'm in berserker state or not. It was also difficult to keep track of and you were liable to waste it if you were close to achieving it by the end of an encounter and then accidentally picked up some more spirit orbs (naming?) when going to pick up ammo or health (thus initiating the state without enemies to spend it on).

 

So I didn't talk about the Fists up in the previous section and that's because I felt it would fit better here. With the berserker state it has a life /armor drain effect if I'm not mistaken? Which could be useful but there's plenty of health and armor in episode 2 which makes this kinda obsolete. Now, I played on the UV difficulty equivalent so maybe its more effective in harder difficulties? At least there's a nice block mechanic that enables you to get closer to enemies otherwise I would feel the health drain would be immediately countered by high enemy damage on higher difficulties and thus making it a moot mechanic. So... I dunno how to feel about the fists. Honestly worthless without berserk but might have some situational value on higher difficulties WITH berserk where health and armor supposedly is less available? Again, I haven't played on anything harder than UV so I don't know what the health/armor ratio changes are between the difficulties. I'm a bad reviewer I know. Sue me D:

 

Atmosphere:

 

The atmosphere is great throughout the episodes and consistently hm... bombastic? There's some splendid, landscaped vistas to experience in the mapset and it feels like there's a grand sense of scale in every location you move through, which is befitting of a story involving Hell that is uniquely beyond our ability to comprehend in its entirety. 

Every locale has something interesting or pleasing to look at which helps solidify the atmosphere further and it's obvious a great care has been given to detail work in both prop placement and architectural direction. It's chaotic mostly, as is (again) befitting of a destructive hell dimension with different colour and terrain combinations that sometimes complement each other visually or clash distinctly and reminds you that you're not on Earth and conventional ideas of nature or physics don't apply always or in ways we're used to, as humans.

 

Story:

 

The story is kept lightly tied to the doomiverse and I feel this is the best way to go about it. It's always a finicky balance to find when trying to tie into official events of a franchise but I think you've achieved it here in an elegant way. You don't go overboard and try to rewrite Doom's history but rather you expand with a sidestory about a false slayer seduced or corrupted by Hell's influence. 

Now full disclosure I haven't actually finished the 2nd episode at the time of writing but the 2nd episode appears to surround Cain and its depicting of him being the previous ferryman of the dead. We killed Charon in the 1st episode and so exploring an "original ancient evil" is an interesting approach to another sidestory in the doomiverse, and I really like it. 

We even get to revisit the remains of the Icon of Sin which is was an amazingly nostalgic and empowering experience. We get to see the results of our previous struggle and it doesn't interfere with the canon of Doom (If there is one coherent established timeline which I don't think there is, but better to be safe than sorry for integrity purposes). So again, elegant approach to the canon while creating something of your own that still feel distinctly DOOM.

 

I like it :D especially since you're not forced to wait while someone spouts exposition at you, but rather you can listen to the logs while you continue through the level. That's also good design in an FPS. It doesn't break the flow of the gameplay and gameplay always comes first in an FPS.

 

Misc:

 

I wasn't sure what to call this section so its just misc! Always a safe choice 8D... anyway. I'm normally not very much into arena shooters and the 2nd episode leans more into that type of gameplay whereas the first episode is more of a... hmm I don't want to call it a corridor shooter because its not exclusively like that but I hope you get the point.

But the encounter balance is much better in the 2nd episode which puts me in a sort of strange place when it comes to deciding which episode I prefer. I like the level-design and flow of combat in the 1st episode better, but its very obvious that every encounter is much better in terms of enemy composition/horde size and resource availability in the 2nd episode than the 1st episode.

And that's why I said at the start that the progression of your skill is clear when you go from episode 1 to 2. The balance of the gameplay is something you learn and improve and is intrinsic to the FPS experience. Whether the FPS is a corridor shooter or and arena shooter or something else entirely is a CHOICE and you chose to veer into the arena shooter after making a corridor shooter and that's neither good nor bad. It's just different and if anything I applaud that you offer BOTH in Protoslayer, because its gives a bit of both worlds to people like me that don't enjoy one as much as the other.

 

The amount of custom stuff in this WAD is also very impressive. As someone who dabbles in making maps of my own with custom stuff I understand the pain of seeing how much time it must have taken to implement everything. So when I see unconventional stuff in a map I don't see "Oh, new stuff, neat." I see the lines of code, the sprite assets and the categorisation issues that it took to overcome/implement and I can wholly appreciate the effort. I commend your tenacity :)

 

Also, there's some really cool moments throughout the WADs with flashback sequences, "Gotcha" moments where a perceived powerup turns into an unwelcome ambush and so forth. I really loved those little events scattered throughout the levels as they keep engagement with Protoslayer fresh and high and offers a little reprieve from the rest of the conventional gameplay. Which is not a bad thing! If the conventional gameplay is dark chocolate, and the little events is white chocolate, then... ITS STILL CHOCOLATE AND ITS DELICIOUS, but white chocolate is also chocolate, but different enough to cleanse the palate and make it ready for more dark chocolate.

 

The 1st episode does have some inconsistencies in regards to its performance. Some areas are perhaps a bit overdesigned and overflowing with dynamic lights which the GZDoom sourceport is not equipped to handle efficiently (Along with lots of monsters and huge areas with lots of linedefs) so you definitely need a reasonably powerful machine to run this smoothly. This gets better in the 2nd episode where everything is much more balanced, even in terms of performance, without sacrificing the mood. So if the inconsistencies irks you in episode 1, just know that it gets much better.

 

Conclusion:

Phew, I think I've said all I wanted to say now. Thanks for sticking with me. So tl;dr... Protoslayer is a great WAD that offers a classic doom consumer experience with a heavy coat of custom paint that sets it apart from classic doom GAMEPLAY experience which, after 30 years can be tiresome to some folks. The addition of story elements is just a backdrop that you can choose to ignore as it is unintrusive while playing but it is interesting enough that if you like that sort of stuff you look forward to the breaks from the action to learn more of the story. 

The 2nd episode is perhaps more accessible to the general Doom crowd with its more arena-focused gameplay but the 1st episode (while a little rough in places) still has something unique to offer. The weapons make you feel powerful, the demons are varied and have tricks of their own and the level design throughout offers environmental hazards or obstacles that require more than pulling the trigger to overcome as well. 

 

I give the whole thing an 8/10, fun, engaging and atmospheric :)

[Volasaurus]

I really appreciate the thorough review!

I have several thoughts for the morning, but I wanted to point out that the Carbine's primary fire penetrates (as in passes through enemies like the SSG slugs) and deals damage every tic that they're inside the collider, so while it's relatively weak against small fodder, it's more efficient against larger enemies. And the bayonette functions a little differently than a standard melee attack. It deals the initial hit, but it also applies an infinitely stacking bleed each time you connect. 1 hit is roughly equivalent to a berserk punch, but if you stack 5-6 hits,  they'll refresh and stack the debuff. I hope this helps you find places to use it!

As for the SSG art, that was not done by me, but I added it in so that the wad would have Doom 1 compatibility without removing the SSG. So you'll also notice the sounds are different, as to not backport Doom 2 assets to Doom 1.

Again, thank you so much for playing!

[Wo0p]

You're welcome! An advanced WAD deserves an advanced review! :)

 

Ahhh I see. Ok that makes the carbine stand out some more. Ripper projectiles <3 I guess I didn't notice because I didn't use it enough. That's my fault.

And that's a really commendable approach to the SSG and backwards portability. I hadn't thought about that :)

 

No problem, it was a lot of fun :D Hope you find some of my ramblings useful ^_^

[NPC_CO8ALT]

Only played about an hour of this so far, but I can safely say this is one of the coolest Wads i've played in a while. The music is great, and the Flamethrower is a weapon I didn't know I need in Classic Doom until now. Nice work!

[Volasaurus]

There is a patch coming Soon :tm: that will address some issues that only crop up on lower difficulties. Might see some new stuff too, but don't hold your breath. I have the itch to maybe start Episode 3 soon.

I'd like to rework the tutorial to be a little more accessible as well <3 Watch this space.