


============== THE SELLING POINTS OF FRANKEN BRUTAL DOOM v21.5 ==================
  ( a custom build by ChebMaster improving the great works of Sergeant Mark IV )


==============================  A FAIR WARNING  =================================

1. BRUTAL DOOM WAS MADE FOR SKULLTAG -- and FBD remains Skulltag-oriented as well, optimized for Zandronum first and foremost to work with its client-server multiplayer! Being compatible with GZDoom is just that, a nice bonus.

2. The Vanilla Monsters option got cut out due to workload constraints.

3. The Purist class *may* gain some Skulltag weapons or rare weapons in rare circumstances (like Unmaker, BFG 10k or Dragonslayer)

4. DEATHMATCH IS NOT SUPPORTED. Go use BD22 instead to play DM.



===============================  SELLING POINTS   ================================


* A BAZILLION ANNOYING BUGS FIXED: The original BD21 was very bug-ridden. Mind that Mark-sensei has also fixed many of these in BD22.

* BFG 9000 LIKE THE BFG IN QUAKE 2: well, not exactly, but as close as this game engine allows. The BFG ball spams lightning at anything hostile it flies by, so firing it over a large crowd's heads is the most devastating strategy. Shooting at the ceiling is a valid strategy as well. Still kills a cyberdemon in two hits (but you don't have to do it point-blank now!) and masterminds still have their 60% damage resistance against it, the bastards. Mind that the enemies firing it (super masterminds, evil BFG marines) have identical mechanic so if their BFG ball flies past your cover it creams you.

* MORE DIFFICULTY CHOICES: the list of game skills is so long it doesn't fit a single screen triggering scrolling. Mostly focuses on variations harder than Ultra Violence but not as extreme as Mark-sensei's "Realism" set. Note that on Ultra Violence, all enemy weapons only inflict half damage compared to yours - BD was always designed this way and the original DooM was sandbagging even more. I offer you the "Equality" skills family where monsters inflict 200% - exactly as much damage as you do. The Potpourri skills mix monsters up randomly replacing with something stronger.

* CROSS-MOD SUPPORT: FBD includes a monsters-only version (BD had one long, long ago, in version 16 AFAIR) compatible with weapons-only mods. Specifically adapted to support La Tailor Girl.

* FIXED EVIL MARINES: the eleven evil marine classes, with weapons ranging from fists to bfg 9000, are back boasting sophisticated AI. Maps relying on them as monsters (like those generated using Oblige 6) work properly now - unlike the original BD21 and BD22 where they are erroneously replaced with friendly marine NPCs. Also fixed the bug where killing one was counting as a friendly NPC dying thus reducing your party for the next map.

* FRIENDLY MARINE NPCs ARE NOW TACTICAL: by building a completely new AI I managed to beat Leroy Jenkins out of them (also, they dodge-roll just like their evil counterparts and dodge-roll means invulnerability). They follow you like NPCs rather than lemmings, they keep their distance from enemies and respect doorframes, dodge-roll when it's appropriate, try keeping out of your line of fire and stop behind you making it easier to make them ride elevators with you. Also, the missing rocket launcher marine NPC is back. As is the railgun marine, the BFG marine, the super shotgun marine, the chainsaw marine... Lotsa more variety.

* CRUELTY BONUSES ARE BACK: by default FBD rewards you with health every time you inflict some cruelty or perform a fatality -- as BD17 did back in the day. You can turn this off in the settings and go collect dropped bonuses.

* HIGHLY PRECISE HEADSHOT TRACKING: The best precision of all DooM mods out there. BD21 was good but failed for monsters who walk fast or bob their heads too much -- like archviles or revenants -- while BD22 sacrifices too much for the sake of performance and moves in the direction I am not comfortable with (nerfing the headshots) while FBD builds upon BD21's idea and improves. The head hitboxes now follow animations as much as possible (some old DooM monsters have different height when viewed from the front than from the back -- there is no way around that). FBD may not be able to run Okuplok (8..10 fps don't count as  playable) but even there all monsters are precisely headshottable.

* ADVANCED ANTI-CHEESE MONSTER AI: Headshots are devastatingly powerful. *Too* powerful, one may say, making BD21 knights into jokes taken out in a single super shotgun headshot. Not so in FBD where they are aware of tht fact and try performing the duck and dodge maneuver if you merely point your super shotgun at their head. I made headshots even more OP by making them stunlock -- even cyberdemons -- but on the flip side monsters now take offense at headshotting them too much and may exhibit new advanced behaviors. That cyberdemon you kept comfortably stunlocked by spraying his head with your minigun...? Goes on a roaraing rampage of revenge, utterly unfliching.

* ADVANCED MONSTER AIMING: enemies stop leading you when you get into cover and they lose their line of sight. Resulting in immense pain for the Knights of the Door Order because monsters are now *tactical*, fire not into the wall you hid behind but into the doorframe you disappeared into, or past your cover. Popping back out is much more dangerous now, you have to wait longer for all the bullets and fireballs to fly past you. This gets exceptionally ugly when you play Tactical/Realism and rely on cover a lot.

* INVISIBILITY IS NOT A HAZARD ANYMORE: in all versions of DooM being invisible puts you at greater risk because monsters firing in bursts begin spraying in all directions effectively laying suppressive fire. Not so in FBD where they guess *one* randomly shifted direction and fire their entire burst in that direction. Chaingunners, arachnotrons, rifle zombies and the extra BD monsters like juggernauts or enemy mechs you likely never seen - they all do.

* REBALANCED REVENANT LAUNCHER: the dumb alt-fire fireballs now cost four times less ammo than the homing primary. The ammo limit was raised to 400 and ammo from pickups was increased 4x, but also the homing fireball costs 4x ammo and fires much slower. The alt-fire missile spam now has its niche and is not as useles as it was in the original BD21, what with 400 shots.

* DECLUMPING REVENANT FIREBALLS: In all versions of DooM, when you fight a lot of revenants running around with a lot of homing fireballs chasing you, these eventually clump together into one Super Sayan fireball. Not so in FBD where they push away from each other and chase you in a loose swarm. Oh, and they only home when they see you -- see the advanced aiming above -- making them much more likey to follow you around corners or through doorframes.

* LAZY ON-DEMAND SLAUGHTERMAP OPTIMIZATION: Having learned from BD22test3's mistakes I arranged my slaughtermap optimization initialization in such a way to avoid a big freeze at the map start. Granted, Okuplok takes 15 seconds to get ready (during which you are free to move around) but for the less extreme maps it is much smoother. In the borderline slaughterfest maps (with more than 1200 but less than 2400 monsters) the optimization (toning down their bleeding and dumbing down their algorithms) is applied on a per-monster basis and is only performed when monsters see you. Does not trigger on monsters sleeping in teleporting closets as BD22test3 quirked on my EDAY241 - simply because they were packed densely like sardines in there.

* A FEW MORE FATALITIES: stomping on a crawling dying arachnotron brain torn off his chassis, or an ancient arachnitron torn off his, now triggers stomping fatalities -- just like the crawling zombiemen. Belphegors, aracnorbs and mummies get cheap ersatz fatalitirs with you just flexing on the backdrop of flying gore.

* UNFINISHED MONSTERS COMPLETED: the aracnorb, the crawling dying ancient arachnotron brain torn of his chassis, the mummy, the enemy tanks, the enemy mech, the enemy helicopter boss - all work like perfectly oiled death machines. Even as you'd probably only see them on the Potpourri skill or only in chebskies-EDAY 2, the potential is there.

* NEW SUPER BOSSES: Only available on the Potpourri skill or in chebskies-EDAY 2, the vastly deadlier super cyberdemons, super archviles and super masterminds take the threat to the next level. 

* MARADEUR: this big daddy of evil marines has all weapons in his arsenal and loves playing rock-paper-scissors. Not to mention tons of health, the dodge-roll cheat of invulnerability and the hell-hounds he keeps summoning. Can only be found in Chebskies-EDAY or on Potpourri skills. Comes in three tiers of smugness.

* DOOM 1 EPISODE BOSSES REPLACED: The cyberdemon on E2M8, and mastermind on E3M8 got replaced with my super cyberdemon Mk II and super mastermind Mk II. Sorry they aren't as huge and imposing as those in the original BD21 -- visually they are regular-sized palette swaps -- but they make up for that with sheer badassery. Gameplay-wise, both are nightmares, especially considering their souped up health. Still not as deadly as the EDAY23 boss after I overfed him with buffout, but damn close.

* FULL RUSSIAN LOCALIZATION: all monster names, obituaries and other small stuff were given text strings and moved to LANGUAGE files. This, naturally, allows for *full* localization to *any* language. The Russian localization works in Zandronum as well, albeit requiring you to load an extra PK3 with fonts and LANGUAGE files in ANSI encoding instead of UTF-8 required by GZDoom.


