Can you remember your warrior skills?
"PREPARE TO FIGHT!"
— In-game announcer
In 2011, a user by the name of Revilution (now going by Zanieon) decided that a singleplayer and co-op mode for Quake III: Arena would have actually been pretty cool. So he made a Doom mod for it.
Hunter's Moon is a total conversion mod for the original Doom, bringing in the playable Arena Warriors and weapons roster from Quake 3 (plus a few characters and weapons that are either original or transplanted from other games) into a Singleplayer/Co-Op PvE environment. The mod stands out among other contemporary Doom mods for its usage of 3D models for both aesthetics and gameplay, and comes with its own unique monster roster featuring enemies modified and twisted from Doom³ and Doom (2016).
Currently, the mod features four "Dungeon" maps - standalone bonus levels of which three contain their own exclusive boss - an unfinished tutorial map, and a special coop-only Tower Defense map. A full, multi-level campaign is currently in the works, complete with a proper narrative and interactable NPCs.
The mod can be downloaded here
and offers full compatibility with the GZDoom source port, with gameplay-only compatibility for the Zandronum source port. There is also a community Discord server.
Hunter's Moon provides examples of the following tropes:
- 1-Up: The Life Binder acts as this, of which only one can be carried at any time.
- Action Bomb: Astral Rages - blind, phantasmic zombies that suicide-rush the player at the sound of gunfire and explode upon death or on contact.
- Action Girl: All of the playable female Arena Warriors count as this.
- All There in the Manual: All of the lore is currently in the wiki.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The checkpoint system, which allows to prevent Save Scumming without forcing the player to play the map from the beginning. It also works in coop, sparing your friends from having to trek the whole map just to get to you.
- Art Evolution: Compared to the plain arenas of the original game, the various locations of the Temple of the Portals shown in the mod are often highly detailed and convey a feeling of grandeur.
- This trope is extremely noticeable if you compare this mod to its base game. Gone are the sprites, now used merely for effects, and replaced by 3D models.
- Version 3.6.1 changed Sorlag's model to its Quake Champions version.
- Artificial Stupidity: Imps, Pinkies and Hell Knights can get stuck on candelabra and other props.
- Ascended Glitch: The implementation of Bunny Hopping in a Zandronum-compatible way has led to the creation of a new technique, Stair Boosting, where bunny hopping on stairs boosts your speed and can allow for extremely high and long jumps.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Major won her role as the Arena Warriors' leader through a deathmatch tournament. And of course, Hell generally follows this rule: stronger demons are higher-ranked demons.
- Author Appeal: Gigantic creatures with disproportionate legs to make them appear more menacing and skyscraper-like from first person perspective. Comes up with the Tamers of the Dark, the Barons of Hell, Invulnerability Hunters, Cyberdemons, Tyzen... some do have more harmonious bodies however, like Veltanir and the Baalgar. Also a fondness for Hack and Slash, which led to the un-FPS-like movesets of various enemies, of the Tamers of the Dark and of Uriel's Trauma form.
- Badass Boast: The Map Pack bosses have a slew of their own.
Veltanir: [casting the weakining spell on the player(s)] Witness the blood magic!
Mehanir: [unleashing his One-Hit Kill move] Everything is just ashes!
The Black Totem: [Using its coop-only last stand] This planet will be driven into chaos!
- Barrier Warrior: Most of the Scout-class characters have an ability that give them this role.
- Battle in the Rain: Thunder Dread has rain for the whole level.
- Berserk Button: Unfair matches and ganging up seem to be this for Mehanir, as he only gets enraged when two or more players are fighting him.
- BFG: More than one.
- The Chaingun qualifies, due to its extremely high power and speed.
- The Dark Matter Gun, just like its original appearance in Quake 4. It is able to rip through hordes of weaker monsters with ease.
- The BFG 10k, of course. It's big, shoots green bolts of plasma death, and is the Trope Namer's successor.
- The Cynetik Striker Cannon is quite like this; it unleashes a purple sphere that detonates the entire area it covered into a powerful purple explosion.
- Black Speech: The Black Totem recites and chants in this.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The new gore effects are... splatterrific, to say the least. You can sometimes cover your entire FOV with the blood and gibs from a point-blank kill.
- Blood Knight: The alternate version of Doomslayer portrayed here is more like this than the original Terror Hero, as depicted in the wiki, where he is said to even enjoy empathically fighting aganist Baalgars.
- Blown Across the Room: Mehanir's Arcane Stones can do this to you through their spherical attacks.
- The Baron of Hell's death animation features this.
- Boring, but Practical: Unlike usual Doom and Quake, the Rocket Launcher is your main weapon, and while it doesn't have the Shotgun's flash and awesome factor, it's much more efficient at taking down simple encounters and its ammo is plentiful. Also the Heavy Machinegun, which may not be as cool as the rest of the arsenal, but provides steady firepower.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: There are four very convenient pillars to stand on while Mehanir unleashes his most powerful attack.
- Bottomless Magazines: No weapon ever needs to reload, as in the original Quake 3.
- Megan's ability gives her Infinite Ammo.
- Bragging Rights Reward: The medals from Quake 3 now avert this, giving you a powerful Orbital Deconstruction Beacon (Impressive) or a Life Binder (Excellent).
- Chainsaw Good: As in Quake 3, the Gauntlet with its spinning saw.
- Cool Versus Awesome: The characters of Quake 3 aganist Doom's Hell.
- Death Is Not Permanent: Lore-wise, the Arena Warriors can infinitely respawn in set locations of the Temple unless killed by the greater demon lords.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: The Astral Rages and the Helltime Hunters die this way (although only the former actually causes damage to anything).
- Developer's Foresight: A few characters get this after the 3.6 gameplay update. Characters with helmets like Doom or Crash cannot drown and heavy characters like Tank Jr. can Goomba Stomp.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Every time you defeat a major boss with a lose condition (which represents them killing the Arena Warriors in such a way they cannot respawn anymore).
- Difficult, but Awesome: Several examples.
- Using the Trakion Cannon and the Cynetik Striker Cannon effectively requires high skill and awareness of your surroundings, but the result is always worth it.
- The usage of certain abilities, like Sarge's Reactive Warhead, requires knowledge and skill to gain the most destruction/gain from their traits.
- The Map Pack bosses are as gratifying to defeat as they are difficult.
- Surviving for long in Monoliths of Agora nets you waves of even more epic proportions.
- Doing In the Wizard: While the Vadrigar were implied to be straight up omnipotent gods in Quake 3, they're simply a Sufficiently Advanced Alien race here.
- Easter Egg: In Path to Oblivion you can find a greek caryatid to place on a certain altar. It will play a musical track once it is. This references the "aesthethic" memes of the late 2010s. Also, if you kill enough enemies with the Life Binder's explosion, the game will reference the Phil Swift "That's a lotta damage!" meme from roughly the same timeframe. And if you kill enough enemies in a short timeframe, the game will prompt you, "OMFG! KEEP SHOOTING!" in a similar fashion to the Phil Swift popup.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Tamers of the Dark are this, possessing power beyond anything in the known multiverse, and the Vadrigar themselves had become this thanks to how advanced they were technologically and magically. The Elder Gods as in the first Quake and Quake Champions also exist in lore, but seem not to be making an appearance (yet).
- Eldritch Location: The Temple of the Portals, with its infinite installations and phenomena like the Fog of Death and also Hell for the same reason as in the Doom series..
- Empty Shell: Fritzkrieg, who is unable to truly think like a normal human.
- Enemy Summoner: Summoners, Curse Hearts, some Bloodstones, the Black Totem and Veltanir are all able to summon minions to help them in battle.
- Everything Fades: Necessary but configurable due to GZDoom's general unoptimization.
- Evil Tainted the Place: Most notable in Glimpse of Dimensions, where the area is visibly warped by the forces of Hell, even after they are defeated.
- Exploding Barrels: Enhanced in function compared to Doom's; they deal naturally more damage to enemies than to players. The Astral Rages can also be used as this by using the Railgun while they're dormant and near other enemies.
- Flechette Storm: Pi's ability, 1000 Knives, which is... pretty self-explanatory, launching a thousand knives in front of the player.
- Flunky Boss: The Black Totem and Veltanir, where you must find your way through the boss' summoned minions.
- Game Mod: A LOT, to the point the gameplay component is almost unplayable with standard maps and necessitates of patched versions for each megawad or the Map Pack.
- Gatling Good: The Chaingun here has the highest normally possible rate of fire in GZDoom.
- Gender-Blender Name: "Asmodeus" is typically a male demon name, but the Asmodae are considered female.
- Goomba Stomp: Heavy characters can do this to lesser enemies, as well as the bipedal vehicles Cyclops and Walker.
- Gorn: Gibbing many enemies in one shot is actually rather easy and very, very satisfying.
- Harder Than Hard: The Vadrigar Reincarnation skill level and the Extreme-difficulty dungeons are NOT kidding; they are far harsher than anything else in the mod right now.
- Hearing Voices: The insane warriors like Klesk and Ranger, as well as possibly Grunt and Doom.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Doomslayer, who has become something of a demon himself.
- Hitscan: Averted for everything except the Railgun and the Lighting Gun; even what looks like hitscan really is a very fast projectile.
- Humanoid Aliens: Apart from the original Quake 3 examples, played with for Tyzen. He is bipedal and a mammal, but is gigantic, possesses oversized legs, and has traits that make him look reptilian at first sight. In fact, originally, he WAS reptilian, being an edit of the Krall from Unreal Tournament 3. See his design evolution here◊.
- Humongous Mecha: The Cyclops Heavywalker is this, a large mecha suit with two large cannons as shoulders.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: In order, "Battle Recruit" (Hurt Me Plenty), "Arena Warrior" (Ultra Violence), "Oblivion Gladiator" (Original) and "Vadrigar Reincarnation" (NIGHTMARE! without respawning monsters).
- Invulnerable Attack: Mehanir's One-Hit Kill move also makes him invincible until the sequence is finished.
- Ludicrous Gibs: And how. Almost all weapons are able to inflict gibbing on fodder enemies.
- Marathon Boss: The Black Totem can become this (especially in cooperative) if he manages to heal himself enough during the blood magic event.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: A cooperative-mode one in contrast to the original Quake 3.
- More Dakka: Morgan's ability, aptly named Dakka, which increases his weapons' speed.
- Multiplayer Difficulty Spike: The Map Pack becomes far harder in coop, Monoliths of Agora is extremely difficult and relegated to coop, and certain enemy behaviors change in coop (For example, the Baalgar runs instead of walking).
- No OSHA Compliance: As seen in Rarlocan Main Base, the Temple doesn't really care about safety: toxic pools and lasers are exposed out in the open as if nothing.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: The Vadrigar's arsenal can only be used by the Arena Warriors and themselves.
- Original Generation: The Alliance, Tyzen and Zanieon are this, being an original faction nowhere else in the official Quake series.
- Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: One has to wonder just how much blood those demons have in their bodies; one's splatter can fill up literal rooms.
- Power-Up: There are many;
- Mega Health grants you 100 overstacking health (up to 300).
- Dense Armor rises your armor to 300, but also makes it work like in Doom 2016/Eternal's rather than as in Quake 3.
- Hazard Protection makes you immune to all map hazards and gives you high damage resistance for a limited time.
- Regeneration quickly regenerates both health and armor for a limited time (up to 200 for health, unlike the Mega Health).
- Quad Damage quadruples your damage for a limited time.
- The Power Chests refill your Ability or Ultimate charge.
- Quick Melee: The Special Action key is this when playing as Tyzen and Zanieon, or using the Cyclops Heavywalker.
- Rare Random Drop: A few.
- The Chaingun Commando can drop a Chaingun or an Heavy Machinegun, as well as ammo for them.
- The Mancubus can drop a Nailgun and ammo for it.
- The Bruiser can drop a Trakion Cannon and ammo for it.
- Common bosses can drop a Dark Matter Gun or the Cynetik Striker Cannon.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Cyberdemon and the Asmodeus, which have both red eyes and are very, very dangerous.
- Secondary Fire: The Ultimate Fire Mode is a special attack avaiable for some guns, namely the original Quake 3 ones except the Gauntlet and the Machinegun. It takes 50 kills to use, and consumes some of the weapon's ammo if present.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Played with; while it IS short-range, many of the enemies you'll use it on will die even by a longer range shot from it or are giant major bosses where no aim is required. However, it also possesses a mechanic that renders the shot more powerful at point-blank range.
- Shout-Out: Monoliths of Agora is directly based on the game Paragon (2016), and all Map Pack maps are decorated with statues of its characters, as well as some from Darksiders. Uriel's Trauma form is straight out of the latter series. Also, the mod is named after a track by Two Steps from Hell.
- Taken for Granite: Inverted for the Harvester; he appears a stone-like skeleton before materializing.
- Tank Goodness: The GEV Tank, a large, powerful and deceptively fast hovertank.
- The Minion Master: Bones via his Unbury the Dead ability, which summons a bunch of armed skeletons. Klesk will also be this in the future.
- The Turret Master: Lucy has a Perimeter Turret ability, making her vital in Monoliths of Agora's first waves.
- Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: Will very well look like one, especially in large-scale battles.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Justified; Arena Eternal's weapons are the best in the multiverse, and therefore using the zombies' or demons' own would be counterproductive.
- Use Item: The vehicle wireframes and the OEDB, ala Heretic.
- Villain Teleportation: The Summoner and the Harvester, as well as the Wraith are capable of this, as well as Mehanir.
- Walking Tank: The GEV Walker, a bipedal vehicle armed with rockets, napalm grenades, a machinegun, and explosive barrels.
- Weather Manipulation: Mehanir forces a thunderstorm in Thunder Dread until he is killed. The rain stays, however.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Being unable to return to their normal life and family is described as a major source of angst for many Arena Warriors.
