AGDoom

**AGDoom** is a Gameplay Mod/Total Conversion for the GZDoom sourceport and most commercially-released IWADs (DOOM, DOOM II, Final DOOM, Hexen, Heretic and even Chex Quest). As of Versions 1, 2, 2.1 & 2.2 (primary releases) AGDoom is a gameplay mod, meaning that it alters the core gameplay to existing DOOM IWADs. It is planned to enter Total Conversion territory by Version 3, which will practically make AGDoom its own entire game, complete with a new cast of enemies, maps, storyline and music.

## Gameplay

AGDoom builds off of some of the various rules set by Doom's style of gameplay; it is a first-person shooter, where the player must use an arsenal of up to 9 weapons to fight against patches or hordes of varied enemies, while managing health variables to stay alive, armor (in AGDoom, "Shields") to avoid taking too much health damage, and powerups that can alter a fight dramatically, to ultimately complete levels by exiting them, or sometimes defeating a boss. Much of the gameplay loop comes from the extensive amount of variables that can change depending on the player's weapon, their enemies, the environment, and ammo supply.

AGDoom's primary alteration comes in the supply of adding Class-Based Shooter elements to the game, allowing the player to start as any of ten classes (as of AGDoom Version 2). Each class has a completely different weapon hierarchy loadout, as well as generally having different health and shield variables, and some other minor alterations to player properties, such as speed, immunity to certain damage types, or more specific alterations. In addition, AGDoom adds pickup variability (there is a 1-in-10 chance of large ammo pickups spawning as even larger pickups, and some powerups having a 50/50 chance of being different powerups).
AGDoom Version 1 introduced the first five classes into the game, including:

* The Nova Trooper, built around being the "default" class, the Nova Trooper mirrors Doomguy's original gameplay as faithfully as possible.

* The Bedran Soldier, a class that focuses on extreme speed, though is weak in health and shield stacks and whose weapons are largely inefficient in ammo supply.

* The Metallus Legionary, who has low health stacks, but high and durable shield stacks, and an arsenal of weapons that are strange and particular in purpose, but can be very effective when mastered.

* The Beraltian Unit, that has extremely low health values, but whose shield values are incredibly high, and protect him from 100% of incoming damage until expiry.

* And Sandman, an Invitee called to the galaxy for his skill in dealing with Hellspawn during a time of great crisis, usually dual-wielding most of his weapons.

The first version of AGDoom added the original five classes, in addition to altering all in-game pickups to be more thematically relevant. It also rebalanced Doom's original "Nightmare!" difficulty, which was, originally, the hardest difficulty in the game. It removed enemy respawning, though kept the maximum number of enemy spawns, as well as maintaining all enemies to act twice as fast as well as their projectiles.

Version 2 of AGDoom added many new features, including the addition of five new classes, an overhauled gibbing system, Hexen support, improved impact effects, casing/magazine ejection effects, new powerups and friendly AI buddies. These new classes include:

* The Cicconian Agent specializes in a cast of effective and simple firearms, though must be traditionally reloaded. He also has lackluster shield stacks.

* The Norland Captain is slow, but has high health and shield stacks, in addition to several of his weapons utilizing bouncing projectiles for a defensive style.

* The Rogrinian Shocktrooper uses a special biosuit to be immune to most damaging sectors/liquids as well as poison damage. His suit gives him an infinite oxygen supply for when underwater or in space.

* The Bodark Kavalerist is generally a very vulnerable class, though has the advantage of having an inventory system to store pickups for when he needs them, as well as a quick melee rather than having to equip a melee weapon.

* The Battleroid is another Invitee, specializing in using the weapons and tactics of the military and security forces of the U.E.S.C. *Marathon* and its colonization point, Tau Ceti.

The upcoming version of AGDoom, Version 3, will introduce a whole new campaign, a whole new roster of enemies and an original soundtrack, in addition to three classes:

* The Sentinel Aerialist is an airborne-oriented class that specializes in vertical mobility and dangerous long-range attacks; vulnerable health-wise, with good shields, and the ability to jump higher than any of the other classes.

* The Surturian Ice Giant uses ice spells to freeze enemies, and powerful melee attacks to turn their ice shards into deadly projectiles that can freeze other enemies, in addition to being a tanky class with immunity to ice damage, but extreme vulnerability to fire.

* The Hunter-Killer is the third secret class. A reprogramed death machine, the Hunter-Killer has a vast supply of projectile-based attacks, and can activate a short-lived infrared vision power to boost his ability to seek and destroy anything that's a threat.

## How To Install & Play

AGDoom is designed around features almost exclusive to GZDoom and is essentially only playable through the GZDoom Engine. AGDoom Version 1 requires GZDoom 3.4 or higher, while Version 2 requires GZDoom 4.7+. GZDoom can be installed and set up here.

To get the latest from AGDoom, it is recommended you visit the ModDB page.

Extract GZDoom into a directory you can access frequently, such as in a folder in Documents or your preferred drive, then the AGDoom pk3 file from the zip folder into the same directory as GZDoom.exe. It is recommended that you run GZDoom on its own and set up any in-game preferences (Recommended changes is turning off Texture Filtering and Enhanced Night Vision in "Display Options" and set up your player profile). It is also recommended to play GZDoom in OpenGL/Hardware mode, which will allow you to play Doom in true 3D.

GZDoom requires an IWAD to play. IWADs are generally commercially-released Doom games and are the base games to play in GZDoom. You can get IWADs from essentially any release of Doom/Heretic/Hexen on game stores, or find them in less-than-legal methods online. Alternatively, there exist free IWADs such as Freedoom.
To play AGDoom, simply drag the AGDoom PK3 onto the GZDoom executable, and launch it with an IWAD of your choice (AGDoom supports all commercially released Doom games, Heretic, Hexen and Chex Quest).