Creating new player classes

Choosing a player class through the game's GUI can occur in two instances:

-When starting a new game (a class menu will popup inbetween choosing 'new game' and 'skill level')

-When changing the (Multi-)Player Setup in the Options menu

First thing you have to do is to create new actor in DECORATE inheriting from PlayerPawn or any of its subclasses. It is recommended to inherit from the subclass the closest to what you want to do, for example a replacement of the Doom marine should inherit from the Doom player.

actor MyPlayer : DoomPlayer
{
  ...
}

Contrarily to simple actor replacement, you cannot use the "replaces" keyword here, because player pawns are not spawned like other actors. Instead, you must define access to this class in MAPINFO, with a GameInfo section:

GameInfo
{
   PlayerClasses = "MyPlayer"
}

If you have several classes, you can list them all, separated by commas. You can also keep the original classes as well. If there are at least two classes, the player will have a class selection screen when starting a new game.

GameInfo
{
   PlayerClasses = "MyPlayer", "DoomPlayer"
}

Using ZScript instead of DECORATE

Defining new player classes via ZScript is only slightly different. The GameInfo reference in MAPINFO remains the same, but instead of using DECORATE, use the ZSCRIPT text lump to define each class:

Class MyPlayer : DoomPlayer
{
     default {
         Player.DisplayName "MyPlayer" ;
     }
}

With older versions of ZDoom, the GameInfo method is not available. Instead, KEYCONF can be used: (deprecated)

// This command clears the player classes' list.
clearplayerclasses

// Add your player class to the list
addplayerclass MyPlayer

// Add standard Doom player to the list, but make it accessible only via player setup menu (i.e. hide from 'New Game' choice)
addplayerclass DoomPlayer nomenu