So the new version of Corporate command has fixed a whole bunch of things we needed fixed, but also left a whole bunch of things that could be experimented upon. And since a lot of my plans for modding either need an SDK or some other way of making an adventure that doesn't require sacrifices to the dark god of Learning TransLisp, were rendered in need of complete rewrites by the API changes, or ended up in CC and/or 1.3 anyway (which I love, since it means that 1. I don't have to make them & 2. They're in the game anyway).....I'd like to try a basic tweaking-stuff mod that over-rides Corporate Command in a few places to fill in gaps.
Things I've currently got in the (non-functional) draft copy:
-Autons have power capacity, armor and device-slot limits which vary from model to model
-Autons have a low to very-low chance of leaving a wreck, so you can try recovering all that expensive custom gear you put on them.
-Autosentinels now have Class-A deflectors.
-I nerfed the drake chimeras a bit by lowering the viking spawn rate. Not an ideal problem to the issue of viking-spam, but I'll see if it does anything.
-I've started some work onto making a non-malfunctioning version of the 200A, but that will require TransLisp coding which I'm not familiar with....so I'll probably bug peeps in IRC over it. Effectively I want an auton item which is bought, sold or found. Using it runs the RNG that determines if it's defective or operational (this means there aren't two different items, so you can't just get the good ones and avoid the bad ones). If it's defective, it spawns the current 200A which attacks the player. If not, it converts to a second, identical auton which will never attack the player unless they give an "attack self" order. This might cause issues with custom setups from the auton bay, so it may or may not actually work. But if it does, it'll be a useful framework I can apply to all autons, making for some more interesting times when using them.
-Not that much else, actually.
I'm currently planning for an initial release of When It's Done, but hopefully I can make this before the vanilla game has the fixes I want to make.
I'm also thinking I might try my hand at a few minor tweaks to the Manticore and Conny. Upping the agility on the former to match the NPC varient, and reworking the auton bay a little for the latter.
My current problems are script related: I can't code in Translisp, and this mod will need quite a bit. Ideally, I'd make some rare ROMs that upgrade the auton bay......let it upgrade to higher levels, enhance weapons, maybe even collect ore like a miner's hold. But that will take extensive scripting which I can't do myself, unless I put a month or two into learning it. I'll see what I can get done in XML first though.