Hideous Destructor | Aliens TC: Special Edition | No Failure Runs | Part 1
47"In space, no one can hear you hideously destruct."
Well, not quite space, since we're on the planet LV-426, but it's close enough. Welcome to Aliens TC, all! One of the oldest and the most famous TCs for Doom, particularly since it brought in elements from Doom's origins (which was supposed to be an Aliens game initially), and is also pretty much THE first ever TC for Doom.
You'll notice some things being off, that's because I'm currently playing a modification of the TC itself called Aliens TC: Special Edition. The original mod uses Dehacked, something that's quite old and sadly not compatible with the likes of HDest. If you try running the original mod with HDest, the replacers'll conflict, and would often cause shenanigans of the ridiculous variants, flying eggs, ninja pirate/imp xenos, unreplaced babuins, etc. Thankfully, a chap called Virtue has made a Decorate-d version of ATC, making a lot of the props, weapons, and monsters stand alone, among other additions.
Now, while this version is closer to a vanilla-ish compatible mod to run with, I still ended up having to strip off a lot of the elements so they can be properly launched with HDest in mind while keeping the xenos and ATC: SE specific entities intact. Even had to reskin some of the props so they won't conflict with HDest's custom ones that pop up every now and then, hence the out of nowhere cocoons early on. It's not perfect, this version of the TC seems to have omitted the majority of the marine quotes from the movie, plus a number of design decisions that I disagreed with, but it's the only one out there I could find. I tried to bring some of the quotes back through a custom secret sounds replacer, tampered some of the textures to look less terrible, but that's about it.
While the aliens in this mod are easy to kill with HDest's weapons, their deadliness is thankfully kept well. Believe me, if I had hesitated for just a second, one xeno could slap my face from FINE to DEAD in a blink of an eye. I had planned to add in Universal Destructor as well to assist in keepin' the danger levels high, but it seems that these guys are fine on their own.
I sadly couldn't find a universal yet Aliens themed motion tracker mod to complete the mood, so no blips/blops and 180 degree radars here. The only one that I could find that works universally is the ZRadar mod. Wonderful mod if you want to spot hostile elements with any mods, has a lot of settings too including the ability to have it be powered by recharging batteries. Thought about giving it a shot, but I was afraid I'd jump back to old instincts and end up forgetting to turn it on again when I need to.
Lastly, 'cause I was in the mood, ended up making a whole new sprite/sound set for HDest just for this mapset (and perhaps future Aliens Doom excursions?), same thread as always.
Mods Used:
PSX/N64 HQ Sounds: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=52877
Doom Sound Bulb: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/110822-doom-sound-bulb-hd-sounds-that-stay-true-to-the-original/
Alt Sounds: https://www.moddb.com/addons/doom-alt-sound-project
SBrightmaps: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=29792&start=30
Hideous Destructor: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=12973
Aliens TC Special Edition: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=29122
WildWeasel's DRLA Sounds: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=49684
Personal DRLA Sounds: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=52851
Personal HDest Addons: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=53251
ZFootsteps: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=60401
Nash's Gore: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=62641
DarkDoomZ: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=57247
ZRadar: https://gitlab.com/accensi/zradar
Accensus's HDest Sprites: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OdOpVqDAr1i7Uz49Dr3FxUNY4MDrYcgv
KylieAdams's HDest Sprites: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/462331550768431104/525548661048999938/K_sprites.pk3