After one year of intermittent development, I’m happy to announce the first release of the PsychoPhobia - Unofficial Patch project.
There are over 40 changes in this first release!
Ranging from compatibility issues with modern GZDoom to various fixes and improvements all over Episode 1 (Episode 2 will be in the next main release).
See full changelog belows.
How to play
Download PsychoPhobia_UnofficialPatch_v2-26.zip from github and follow the instructions at QUICKSTART.md. Requires the original PsychoPhobia v2.25.
For more info about the project, future release roadmap, credits etc… see README.md.
What is Doom 2: PsychoPhobia?
PsychoPhobia is a total conversion mod for Doom II, powered by GZDoom, created almost 20 years ago. Last official update (v2.25) was in 2014.
It was developed by Cobalt and Butcher (the same authors behind ZBloodPack) with music composed by John S. Weekley (a.k.a. PRIMEVAL).
The mod features 17 new levels, offering roughly 16 hours of gameplay on a blind run. It also introduces several new enemies and weapons.
Originally planned as a three-episode series, official updates ceased over 10 years ago. Recently the mod was officially declared dead by Cobalt himself.
How It All Started
It all started well over 2 years ago, when I wanted to replay this mod (as I do from time to time) and noticed that it was half-broken under modern GZDoom versions.
Decoration physics were all over the place (literally…), and some deep-water areas were bugged out. It wasn’t unplayable by any means, but it was far less enjoyable.
I didn’t want to play using the ancient gzdoom version it originally shipped with because:
a) I’m on Linux, the bundled exe was only for windows, meaning I would have to dig up a linux version.
b) I’m using an ultrawide 2560x1080 screen, gzdoom did not supported this aspect ratio properly at the time.
So, I did some digging in the mod files and noticed that to achieve the “immovable status” on decorations, they had simply bumped the mass to an absurdly high value. I suspect that older versions of GZDoom just clamped the value to the max integer, but in newer versions, it overflowed, resulting in negative mass and thus super lightweight objects.
To fix this, I found the common ancestor of all immovable decorations (which was RAWRAWDecorateNoPushable), made a copy of it, added the DONTTHRUST flag, packed it into a .pk3, and loaded it before everything else.
Boom! Decoration physics were fixed. It wasn’t a clean solution, but it worked nonetheless (later when i picked up the project again I found a more elegant solution via zscript).
From there, I thought to myself: Why not fix the other issues too?
And then… nothing. That thought remained just a thought for quite a while…
After a whole year, I picked it up again, working on it intermittently.
Most of the progress happened in the last two months, between June and July.
You can find below the list of changes.
v2.26 changelog | 01/08/2025
Note: optional means that the feature is controlled by a cvar and can be reverted back to the 2.25 version behavior via the PsychoPatch Options menu.
General
- Decorations no longer move when hit when using modern GZDoom versions
- Allies no longer keep attacking monster “Wiked” after death
- Train and Voodoo jump sounds can be muted (optional)
- Improved flamethrower (optional)
- Limited TNT/Molotov throw rate to one every 2 seconds (optional)
- Removed Molotovs from player arsenal (optional)
Episode 1 - Way of a Psycho!
[MAP01] Prison Part One - The Escape
- External area locked by red keycard is no longer accessible without it
- Reworked yellow mist in the final area for improved visuals
- No more visible frozen enemies
- Moved blue keycard onto the table for better visibility
- Fixed issue where 4 enemies were insta-killed by level geometry at map start
- Restored message when picking up the chainsaw
- Fixed inconsistent floor texture under bed pillows in some cells
[MAP02] Prison Part Two
- Shortcut gate can no longer be opened by pressing the switch from below the platform before acquiring the red keycard
- Gate at the beginning of the map can no longer be jumped over
- No more visible frozen enemies
- Enemies inside the cultist office and outside guards are no longer frozen
- Fixed missing impassable flag on a segment of catwalk fencing that allowed player to fall through
- Adjusted enemy spawns in interrogation room to prevent spawning behind the player
[MAP03] Cargobase - Reinforcement
- Enemies in the first big fight are no longer visible in a frozen state
- Toxic waste pit no longer glitched
- Allowed backtracking after the final fight
- Reworked generator room encounter so enemies are no longer awkwardly frozen until approached
- Enemies in the yellow keycard room are no longer frozen until entered
[MAP04] Refueling Base - Need Some Gas!
- Enemies in the first fight are no longer visible in a frozen state
- Fixed secret count due to mis-tagged sectors
- Slimeworms no longer get stuck in the toxic waste pool
- Pinky demons are less likely to pile up and get stuck
- Reachable platform no longer insta-kills the player
- Improved guard box windows to make it clear you can’t jump in
- Backtracking allowed after the final fight
- Added “EXIT” sign at level end
[MAP05] The Core - Overload!
[MAP06] City Hunt
- Added backtracking to the starting building after the final fight
- Small house gate now opens, removing the need to take a long detour
[MAP07] Library?
- Teleport to the marine base could be triggered from outside the structure, not anymore
- Added backtracking to the first half of the level
- Added “EXIT” sign at level end
[MAP08] Starship - Blind Passenger
- Cultist no longer shoots you immediately after teleporting
- Fixed platforms in Spider Demolisher arena not sinking into lava correctly (still a bit buggy…)
- Improved Spider Demolisher boss fight
What’s next?
It was never been the plan to complete PsychoPhobia, so do not expect a third episode.
I do not have neither the skill or the time to even think to tackle such a huge project.
The next release will probably be 2.26b, where I will address a few minor issues I’ve found out while playng Episode 1 back-to-back in co-op.
The next main release, 2.27, will be focused on the Episode 2 levels.
2.28 will be focused on the Episode 3 demo level and I’ll try to fix all the leftover stuff.