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PM
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Uploaded Level Up Demo to Xelerus.

It highlights one of the features planned for the next update to Drake Technologies. It adds a new option to Dock Services called "Level Up", which appears for items with a special attribute. This demo mod allows you to start as a Centurion with custom items that can be leveled up at dock services, along with enough money to purchase some level ups.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
PM
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It took much longer than expected, and some things were deferred for later, but the next update to Drake Technologies Alpha is finally ready and uploaded to Xelerus. The main new feature, at least for part 1, is most of the added items can level up via Dock Services (or a rare ROM). On the other side, what few quests there were have been removed due to relying on old code. Perhaps some day, I will add them back in a mission line.

Now that Drake Technologies has been uploaded, the demo mods Chain Lightning Gun and Level Up Demo have been removed, since they were preview features.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
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pip
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Drake is probably my favourite 'complete' mod pack so far. There is just so much variety to investigate, and despite playing with it for a several versions I still don't feel like I've done more than scratch the surface of what is present.
Maximum compliments deserved.

My only real disappointment with it, is more a limitation of Trans rather than a failing of Drake.
There is (as yet) no way to differentiate between a shield that protects a ship by giving it an extra pool of HP, and a 'shield' that protects a ship by shooting things before they hit the ship.
And as such, shield interference prevents Drake zapsats and autobeamers from working in the same way as it would conventional shields - just disables the slot entirely.

Randomiser started me with meteorsteel armour and it seemed like a good opportunity to use that thing I never use.
PM
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Thanks for the compliment, but DrakeTech is mostly an item pack mod at the moment. I hope to add more content one day, but I cannot foresee when or if that will happen. I am working on a few tweaks and may have another (minor) update soon.

Zapsats will function even if ship has shield interfering armor equipped. Devices that are not shields but take the shield slot are not shut down by shield-interfering armor. Zapsats are weapons that take the shield slot. I could make the ZapSats take any non-weapon slot, but I choose shields because they are powerful for defense and offense, and make for an interesting shield alternative.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
PM
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Updated Drake Technologies Alpha for 1.8 beta 4, and uploaded to Xelerus. Features some minor changes and bug fixes.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Derakon
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PM wrote:
Mon Dec 31, 2018 6:57 pm
Updated Drake Technologies Alpha for 1.8 beta 4, and uploaded to Xelerus. Features some minor changes and bug fixes.
I tried loading the version of the Drake mod linked in your sig (and per the readme it is for 1.8 beta 4, and my copy of Transcendence is 1.8 beta 4.2). I get this error on launch: "Error parsing Extensions\1583_DrakeTechnologiesAlpha\d912_DrakeTech\Ext2_DrakianLegacy.xml: Ext2_DrakianLegacy.xml: Line(326): Unable to find library: 00310000"

Do I need to have VotG installed to use the mod? Because I'm on Steam, and AFAICT Steam doesn't have Multiverse support.
PM
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I did a clean install without any additional libraries (i.e., no Corporate Command, Eternity Port, and Vault of the Galaxy) or additional mods, and did not get any errors.

Drakian Legacy requires Vault of the Galaxy, but (for me), it should not appear without Vault of the Galaxy available. Without more libraries, all I get is Drake Technologies for Stars of the Pilgrim.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Derakon
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PM wrote:
Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:58 pm
I did a clean install without any additional libraries (i.e., no Corporate Command, Eternity Port, and Vault of the Galaxy) or additional mods, and did not get any errors.

Drakian Legacy requires Vault of the Galaxy, but (for me), it should not appear without Vault of the Galaxy available. Without more libraries, all I get is Drake Technologies for Stars of the Pilgrim.
Hm, okay, will take a look at my install and try to figure out what's giong awry. Sorry for the erroneous report.
Derakon
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Well, I still can't get it working. Deleted and reinstalled the game in Steam, made the C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Transcendence/Extensions directory, dropped the 1583_DrakeTechnologiesAlpha directory into it, and ran the game, and I got the same error message.

That said, just renaming/removing the Ext2_DrakianLegacy.xml appears to fix the issue, in that Transcendence can launch properly. I'm guessing from a quick look that it's supposed to be for Part II, so hopefully omitting it won't impact SotP any.
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Alandra
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Hi PM, I gave Drake Tech Alpha a try, and It's a lot of fun! I played through to Heretic using Drake equipment more or less exclusively.

Things I appreciated:

-The customization mechanics for weapons are cool. I particularly appreciated the ability to level up, adjust range, and use virtual weapons that are both defensive and offensive.

-The synergies between devices make a lot of different Drake setups viable. I was using shielded armor with Zapsats. Next time I may want to try stealth armor with fast-regen shields.

-I find Drake stuff OP, but not ridiculously so. The game gets a bit faster and easier, but not boring.

Suggestions:

-I'd suggest making Drake reactors more common. Every other type of Drake item seemed to be abundant, but I was forced to use vanilla reactors for most of the game due to unavailability. I was particularly surprised to find no reactors at most of the Drake factories and dealerships.

-Along the same lines, I think the new shielded armors and stealth armors might be made just a smidge more common, and the weapon-based Zapsats (redi, penny, spark, etc) could be made a little less common.

-It didn't seem that installed device enhancers affected virtual weapons. I saw this brought up on Twitch last week, and George seems to think it should work that way (i.e., a laser collimator increases ICX damage). That's more of a core game improvement, but it'd be nice to see it implemented here. I think this would further justify the high cost and high power use of Zapsats.

-Because Drake is scaled so much larger than EI, Bushido, etc., this feels more like a game conversion than simply an added manufacturer. You might want to include something like that in the mod description.

Some tiny bugs:

-The Raser lasers don't have any sound. I'm guessing this has to do with running SNAPSS along with Drake Tech. All the other weapons and devices I used seem to have appropriate sounds.

-The colored text in dockscreens that indicates when armor is "too heavy" for the playership appears to be right-justified instead of appearing where it usually would.

Be well.
Curious about real-life aliens? www.antareanjourneys.com
PM
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@ Alandra: Thanks for playing my mod.

I have more ambitious plans than merely the item mod that it is now. I have no idea if I will get that far. Eventually, I want to make Drake Technologies as big as Corporate Command or Backroads or other similar expansion. The items are mostly finished, and all I am doing is tweaking them. For now, my main priority is to update other mods, namely Playership Drones.

Some items are probably a bit too powerful. Some of the more unusual items were a pain to balance, or at least make them not too overpowered.

The reactors are in a placeholder spot, with no Drake ships to use them. They are not really in a good place, and feels like add-on just for the sake of it. If I did not plan to build ships, I probably would have removed all of them except for that special endgame solar reactor, and I only added that one as 1) trial item and 2) starter reactor for any Drake ships that appear in Drakian Legacy.

I am not totally happy with the Shielded armors, but they seem to be work out alright. The main reason I kept them for the moment are the new autons, since they cannot use heavy armor, and I did not want too many variations of standard armor. They were intentionally made rare (I think they have "specialty" to reduce availability further). I think Drake only has one stealth armor, and that is meant to be an elite or more special item. With armor getting rebalanced, Drake armor needs another look too. I have a few exotic armors that are disabled or very rare, and may get removed altogether in a future update.

I think Zapsats already have 'rare' rarity. Maybe they are a bit too common. If they are too common in non-Drake stations, I should do something about that.

Drake is probably a bit too big. The mod is intended to be a bigger expansion, but I have yet to build the models (for new ships and stations) and write an adventure plot. Just recently, I tore out what few quests were in. I need to redo them, with the new missions code.

I think some of the Raser weapons use custom scripts to fire and SNAPSS sound overwrites do not mix well with that.

Armor stat glitches are engine side and there is nothing I can do other than remove the added custom stats that expose the bug. I will leave them in for now.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
PM
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I have uploaded my work-in-progress for the Playership Drones update to 1.8, to Xelerus. It only allows the player to acquire more wingmen from the Ship Broker (or cheat menu). Field Repairs or more starter ships have not been implemented. However, this version of Playership Drones is compatible with Vault of the Galaxy, as well as adventures in Human Space.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Derakon
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I don't know how much (if at all) you care about balance, but you can get some pretty silly results out of the DrakeTech mod.

Image
(click for full size)

Those listed stats should be doubled, because the Split module's extra projectiles don't show up in the stats page. And yeah, granted, that's using four slots -- one for the weapon, one each for the tracking, split, and +damage modules. And I dumped 15 tritium injectors into it before using the Lightning quantum computer program to convert it all to firing rate. And it's benefiting from a +25% from the Cormorant's passive bonus (otherwise it'd just be +75%).

But it also enables things like taking down two adjacent Ares Shipyards and two simultaneous Phobos dreadnoughts without needing anything additional beyond two repair kits. That's really pretty silly, considering that in a stock game I generally judge Shipyards to be far more trouble than they're worth to take down.

The game has enough trouble with linear damage boosts; stacking 15 tritium injectors and a lithium booster for +200% damage and nothing else lets you kill things pretty dang quickly. Drake has a bunch of modifiers that stack multiplicatively, plus the ability to put homing on primary weapons. The stock weapon is something like 20x2 @ 3 shots/sec, non-homing, which is 120 thermo DPS. Maybe a bit weak for an L9 weapon, but not out of the ordinary. Add on the Split module and it becomes 20x4 @ 2 shots/sec, i.e. 33% more powerful...but the shots tend to diverge so arguably your effective DPS has gone down unless you're in your target's face. But add on the tracking module and they all hit, plus the tracking is independent so you can shoot at two targets at the same time. Add on the damage booster and it becomes 35*4 @ 2/sec. Add on a 2.5x speed multiplier from the Lightning program and it becomes 35*4 @ 5/sec. We've gone from 120 thermo DPS to 700 thermo DPS multi-target homing.

I don't know what the balance algorithm has to say, but my guess is that if you take a weapon and recreate it as either omni or homing, its effective level increases by about 1.5. Doubling its damage must increase its level by at least 1. We've quintupled our damage and added homing, so this is, what, effectively a level-13 weapon now at minimum?

Anyway, this isn't really a complaint, more an observation. If you did care about balance, rather than keep the things from stacking like this I'd suggest trying to make them more power-hungry as you combine more modules, or something along those lines. If I were sucking down 800MW to run this gun instead of the ~250MW it actually requires (more like 300MW if I didn't have a Drake reactor), then it'd be a lot harder to get this level of cheese.

Oh yeah, and speaking of reactors, the Drake 1GW reactor is ridiculously good. Half the fuel capacity of the Hyperion in exchange for double the efficiency means that it lasts for the same amount of time between refuels, but uses half as much fuel. That's on top of the efficiency bonus for Drake gear.
PM
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Since Splits does much of its trickery through OnFireWeapon event, the stats do not show the changes. Nothing I can do about that.

Splits increases shots fired by one, but slows fireRate to (roughly) 80% normal (1 / 1.25 = 0.8), and the penalty stacks multiplicatively. One module effectively increases DPS by 60%, two modules is about 92% over none (or 20% more than only one), and three is about double damage over none. Four is the same DPS as three modules! More than that and the extra slowness lowers DPS than three or four modules. There is a reason why the description does not recommend more than three installed.

The tracking features the same slow penalty as splits. Tracking is effectively +90% DPS, if extrapolating from balance algorithm. Divided by 1.25, that is a little more than 50%.

If you use both Split and Track, the optimal combo is one or two Split and a Track, due to stacking speed penalties.

The modules should be fine on their own, but stacking with different sources of boosters can make the whole combo overpowered, since they multiply instead of add as you point out.

I am not too concerned with the combo, given the slots needed to get stupidly powerful, but I suppose I can try to add special penalties to weaken the combo.

Endgame weapon with +150% more damage is very powerful. I used to melt everything in a second with +150% Iocrym Fracture cannon back in the day, when Longzhus worked on Iocrym weapons. With Corporate Command, +150% omni thermo cannon plus nanofac gets a bit silly. Maybe not to the extent with Drake stuff, but silly nonetheless.

I could slap -drain modifier on weapons affected by enhancers, but I want to stick to George's guidelines for enhancers, which is static powerUse.

I put the reactors as a placeholder until I add ships later. I think I set efficiency as they are because player pays more for the reactor and I get annoyed how fast fuel drains (which I think is too fast). But, you know what? I am not completely satisfied with them. I will probably throw them into an outtakes file and remove them for now. I am finishing up the next Drake update.

In any case, thanks for the feedback.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Derakon
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To be clear, I don't think this kind of thing is necessarily a problem. The Weapon Labs mod is even more unbalanced but also a lot of fun to play with for similar reasons -- there's a lot of neat combos you can set up and weapons that the main game doesn't enable. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the extent to which your mod enables the player to get stupidly powerful. :)

In any case, thanks for the mod!
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