Cacolauncher Usage Notes

So, apparently I'm only able to produce new Doom weapons if they're quirky. The cacolauncher is no exception. What I've concocted here for use in my Dystopian Playground deathmatch level is a rocket launcher which shares the #5 slot with the "normal" rocket launcher. I've colored it red to help the player easily know the difference of which launcher he/she/they may be using. And everybody knows the "normal" rocket launcher is purple right?! Anyhow, this rocket launcher takes and uses the same rocket ammo of the purple launcher but instead of firing green eyeballs, it fires baby cacodemons I call sour grapes. I set the damage done by this projectile to zero. "Why on Earth would you DO that?!", my dear reader asks. Well, I thought it more important that my projectile did animated damage to its target.

The intention here was to create a weapon that launched a real live monster into the game. I'd never done this before, nor have I ever played a Doom mod which employs such a strange method. Therefore, I wasn't totally prepared for all of the ramifications such a device would entail. Once loaded up with the proper sprites and what I hoped was the correct DECORATE code, it was time for what one college math instructor of mine referred to as "trial by terror". Here are some of the things I've learned so far:

1. Firing the sour grape doesn't always yield a live monster.
   
   In fact, if I specifically hit a monster with the sour grape projectile, the sprite will cease to exist without ever dropping the sour grape monster. This also happens if it hits a wall at close range. However, if one fires the weapon at the floor/ground, one is presented with the sour grape monster upon the projectile's "death". And, due to auto-aim, a sour grape projectile fired at the ground and/or sky/ceiling isn't guaranteed to go that way. So, to effectively spawn the sour grape monster, one needs to aim away from one's foe, either left or right, just enough for autoaim to not get triggered. I found the many sloping floors in this level to be very useful for proper sour grape deployments.
   
   
2. Your new monster slave chooses its own targets.
   
   So, I'll be up on the top portion of the map fighting againt the fyredemons and fire a sour grape off in the general direction of a fyredemon and then watch as the generated sour grape monster crawls along the ground and off the edge to go attack one of the shadow revenants below in the Sea of Fire. Not a useful thing for ya in yer battle upstairs but makes for lovely fireworks in rapid order.
   
   
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3. No, this caco doesn't shoot fireballs.
   
   The sour grape is mostly based on lost soul DECORATE code. It's charging attack is its missile attack. Then, I gave it a demon attack for melee which is true right down to reusing the demon's attack sound. I added an extra animation frame which actually yields two for its piranha-like attack animation sequence.
   
   
4. So is the sour grape an ally or foe?
   
   Believe it or not, I didn't care when I wrote it. My intention was to allow the player to introduce the enemy monster into the game without regard to alliance and I actually assumed the conjured monster would attack any and all players in the game. However, I realized nearly instantaneously that the deployed sour grape is automatically an ally to the cacolauncher cannon firer. This makes a certain amount of sense as my recent testing sessions included my first uses of the console cheats "summon x" and "summonfriend x", where x is whatever actor object one wishes to conjure, e.g., summon plasmarifle, summonfriend hellknight.
   
   Therefore, the summoned sour grape that results from the death of one's rocket fire is an ally to the firer of the cannon. This survives player death. Die in deathmatch after having summoned the sour grape and then spacebar to resurrect oneself, sour grape still allied with you. But if you actually exit the game and then rejoin while that particular session's level you left is still active, you are now fair game in the eye of the sour grape.
   
   

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