Swivel Weapons Platforms

A place to discuss mods in development and concepts for new mods.
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

I tried using Longbows with the Apollo with the new fire rate reduction in the arena yesterday. I didn't have the Hermes installed, so the main weapon, Shrike's quad turbolaser, had no swivel.

Flying in circles and firing did fine against most of the gladiators, although it was a lot slower than my usual strategy of running straight at the other ship and spamming Stilettos and my main weapon at the same time.

I almost died against the Manticore with blast plate and a MAG launcher. I had four layers of heavy plasteel. Dodging was the problem; the Apollo just can't kill the Manticore fast enough that way, and the only way to survive was to stop dodging, face the Manticore directly, and spam the Longbows and my main weapon at the same time to block the MAGs. At the end of the battle, the two side and back segments were worn down to less than 20/100 HP, but the front segment was almost completely undamaged.

If anything, the Apollo feels rather weak and not worth the device slot. Stilettos wouldn't gain as much as Longbows from being omni, so it seems that the Apollo should make Longbows feel VERY powerful, but it doesn't even make them feel as powerful as Stilettos. I'd be interested in hearing what other people think, though.
relanat
Militia Captain
Militia Captain
Posts: 941
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:56 am

relanat wrote: Apollo: Omni launcher (using the NAMI only so far) is too much. Can use any NAMI missile to hit anything anywhere. Maybe try a 30 degree launch arc? Could work for freighters though. Only used the Wolfen so far.
gunship256 wrote:For the Apollo, is there a way to make the device less overpowered for the Wolfen but still usable for freighters and other ships that turn slowly? For example, would it work to keep the omnidirectionality but lower the launcher's fire rate?
Possibly you don't even need the swivel for the Wolfen. Or very limited if you do. JBW's idea based on ship mass is very good or ship length maybe? And muck around with fire rate as well. Thinking more about it, ship rotation might be a good way of determining how much swivel is needed. Ships with slow rotation rates will definitely benefit from more swivel.
relanat wrote:Possibly use a ROM to set the mounts to one manufacturer only on installation? Or have them manufacturer specific, but then you run into device stocking issues like at Rasier stations.
gunship256 wrote:For one manufacturer only, do you mean having a mount that has high swivel but only works on a limited set of weapons? Would that cause balance problems for certain kinds of playing styles? For example, players that favor the already overpowered howitzers could give all of their Makayev weapons swivel and simply choose not to install other kinds of weapons. I'm not saying that is a problem, but rather asking if you think it could be.

I thought about doing something similar based on device level. For example, there could be separate versions of mounts for weapons with bands of level 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 9-11. The increased expense, power use, and inconvenience could justify having a high degree of swivel. Does that sound about right?
Yes. I was thinking of having a Makayev mount, Rasier mount, EI mount, etc. I use a lot of Makayev gear when playing but others may use Rasier or Bushido gear so balancing playing style isn't as important IMO as balancing game play. People will use what they use because they want to. By balancing weapons, armor, devices, etc you automatically balance playing style But your idea of having different level devices is much better. That way you have an increasing penalty in cost and power use for higher powered weapons thus giving balance. Great idea.
=============================
NOTE: Transcendence automatically truncates numbers, turning them into integers, when it does mathematical operations with functions like (divide). I'm not yet sure how to adjust for this without convoluting the calculations in the code.

Sorta guessing here but you could try multiplying the values or constants by 1000 or 10000, doing the calc, then dividing again by the same amount at the end of the calculation.
I think something like this might have something to do with it (it's from PM's 912_LibResources in Waypoints mod) but I don't understand this code so maybe not.

Code: Select all

	(if (eq theId "Elysium")
		; YES:  Elysium is dead last in Human Space!
		110000

		; NO:  Sort by level.
		(add (multiply (sysGetProperty theID 'level) 10000) theCount)
============================
And yes, a thanks to PM because I also "use PM's mods a lot and am pretty familiar with his devices, so I've been doing multi-file searches for functions to use his code as a substitute for manuals." Plus everyone else that's ever uploaded a mod (and especially George for his comments in his code) because learning from others is much easier that working it out yourself. Well done, modders.
gunship256 wrote:the only way I've been able to learn so far is by trial and error, looking at other mods, and getting help on the forums.
This is how I learn too. Also know that I (and probably others) appreciate your posts too. I've learnt heaps from following your mods so "Thanks".
============================
And some thoughts on PSD and really large ships. Most of the mega ships already have weapons which swivel (although they act like omniweapons with limited arcs, I think). They are spaced around the ships so that although they aren't totally omni, all together they provide complete 360 firing. And all (?) the freighters have omni mounts anyway. So maybe the swivel isn't needed for these massive multiweapon ships? I tend to use a lot of Centurion/X drones with highpowered weapons and these (and similar smaller more manoeuvrable ships) could benefit from swivel mounts but I'm not sure if they need it because they can already zip about easily to fire. Maybe look at giving the most benefit to medium ships which don't have omni but don't manoeuvre very well? An example would be the EI100/M which (from memory) has a 360 NAMI launcher.
============================
And Hermes swivel feels about right for Moskva 21 and Particle Beam weapon on the EI500 in 0.12alpha. There also seems to be a bias for the swivel to fire to the right. If you target a stationary object and turn away from it you can turn about 240 degrees before the swivel flicks to the other side. I would have expected it to change at 180 degrees. Will screenshot this in my next post.
=============================
Not sure about the Apollo. I usually use the NAMI launcher until I get a howitzer so my experience with launchers is limited. But the above mentioned EI100/M doesn't feel overpowered with its launcher but it is EI only I think or non military only (can't remember; it's been too long since I've played PSD :cry: )
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

Possibly you don't even need the swivel for the Wolfen. Or very limited if you do. JBW's idea based on ship mass is very good or ship length maybe? And muck around with fire rate as well. Thinking more about it, ship rotation might be a good way of determining how much swivel is needed. Ships with slow rotation rates will definitely benefit from more swivel.
Maybe look at giving the most benefit to medium ships which don't have omni but don't manoeuvre very well? An example would be the EI100/M which (from memory) has a 360 NAMI launcher.
Not sure about the Apollo. I usually use the NAMI launcher until I get a howitzer so my experience with launchers is limited. But the above mentioned EI100/M doesn't feel overpowered with its launcher but it is EI only I think or non military only (can't remember; it's been too long since I've played PSD :cry: )
PSD 6's EI100/M had an omni launcher for all non-military launchers and an omni mount that worked with any EI weapons. The launcher and weapon did not have a fire rate penalty, but the ship was really slow, had really poor thrust, and turned as slowly as the EI500. PM's version came with a tritium propulsion upgrade, and it still had poor thrust until it could upgrade to the Titan.

From my own experience with the Apollo, ships like the Wolfen and Sapphire will only waste a device slot installing it. The increased accuracy and lower fire rate seem to cancel out. If the device took no slots, I would install it just so that I could save ammo. I can see how the device would help on the freighter, though.

How about a fire rate adjustment that depends on ship mass? The lighter the ship, the slower the Apollo will fire, and the heavier the ship, the faster it will fire. This would benefit heavy freighters a LOT because they have enough space to store ammo for a fast-firing launcher. Even large ships which already have an omni launcher would benefit from this if the +speed could go below 100 for really massive ships.
But your idea of having different level devices is much better. That way you have an increasing penalty in cost and power use for higher powered weapons thus giving balance.
Does the Hermes need to be limited to a narrow band of weapon levels to keep from being overpowered, or is the 0.12 alpha version fine the way it is?

If the Hermes is fine, what's the best way to implement levelled devices? Do I create stronger versions of the Hermes that only work on narrow level bands? Or is it better to focus on making the Zeus a levelled device and removing its fire rate penalty?

(EDIT: If the Hermes feels fine the way it is, I can create special overpowered versions of the Hermes that provide swivel or speed bonuses to weapons below a certain level. For example, the level 3 Hermes could provide a speed bonus to all weapons level 5 and below and work normally for all other types of weapons. The level 6 Hermes would provide a speed bonus to all weapons level 8 and below, and so forth. If that's overpowered, I can instead assign a speed PENALTY for the level 3 Hermes applied to any weapons higher than level 5 that would encourage the player to upgrade to the level 6 Hermes.)
Sorta guessing here but you could try multiplying the values or constants by 1000 or 10000, doing the calc, then dividing again by the same amount at the end of the calculation.
That would work with the calculation using ship mass, since it's a simple division problem where the mass sits in the denominator. It wouldn't work for the original math I had for the Zeus, since that involves calculating a power where the exponent is less than 1, and Transcendence doesn't seem to like that.

If there's another set of functions to do the math or if there's a way around the problem, someone please let me know!
And Hermes swivel feels about right for Moskva 21 and Particle Beam weapon on the EI500 in 0.12alpha. There also seems to be a bias for the swivel to fire to the right. If you target a stationary object and turn away from it you can turn about 240 degrees before the swivel flicks to the other side. I would have expected it to change at 180 degrees. Will screenshot this in my next post.
Yes - that would be really helpful to see. I'm not sure at the moment what would cause the bias, but if I see specifically what's going on, I might be able to figure it out.

It's good that the mod seems to to be balanced for those two weapons, which are 4 tons and 1.5 tons, right? Does it feel okay for the 6-ton weapons like the Fusionfire? How about really heavy weapons like the dual Fusionfire?
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

Here's 0.13 alpha:
d064_SwivelWeaponsPlatforms 0.13 alpha.zip
(8.61 KiB) Downloaded 290 times
CHANGES

Created three different versions of the Hermes, each of which applies fire rate reductions to weapons above its level band. The fire rate reductions are designed so that they can be cancelled out by installing Atalanta speed enhancers.

Changed the Zeus so that its fire rate reduction would be based on the level of the weapon that is being fired.

Changed the Apollo so that its fire rate reduction would only be applied to launchers of level 7 and higher.

Added three levels of Atalanta speed enhancers. They speed up lower-level weapons more than they do higher-level weapons. Higher-level Atalanta devices provide more speed enhancement.


As always, let me know what you think so I can address problems and make balance tweaks.
relanat
Militia Captain
Militia Captain
Posts: 941
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:56 am

Some comments are dated because I'm only onlne once or twice a week.

Unless I'm doing something wrong, I'm getting the same amount of swivel for a 4 ton Morningstar as I am for a 1 ton Laser Cannon with the Hermes (0.12a).

For general info, I always look at the ability to increase fire rate as a very desirable characteristic of any weapon. I'll do this every time I can except when I can enhance a weapon to something like 100-150%. Similarly reducing fire rate I consider to be a large handicap. Howitzer loader IMO is a must have and +Fast. I'll order Weapon Optimizer ROMs from a Trading Post to get the extra fire rate.
===========================
gunship256 wrote:The Zeus platform should give all weapons a lot more swivel than the Hermes device does, but it shouldn't make any of them omnidirectional. It should NOT use weapon slots, since that penalizes the freighter in favor of the Wolfen. Instead, it should take up two non-weapon device slots, making it very difficult for the Wolfen to use effectively and tough even for the Sapphire, which would have to give up a cargo hold, shield, launcher, engine, or Longreach. It should allow the ship the option to use a launcher.
Yes. I like this idea. Makes a lot of sense to me. Ships that aren't that good in combat can get a real benefit, whereas ships that fight well can't, but don't need the advantages anyway. The freighters can spare the device slots and get increased capability and the smaller, manoeurvable ships which are already much better at combat have to make a much greater relative sacrifice to get increased accuracy.
==============================
gunship256 wrote:How about a fire rate adjustment that depends on ship mass? The lighter the ship, the slower the Apollo will fire, and the heavier the ship, the faster it will fire. This would benefit heavy freighters a LOT because they have enough space to store ammo for a fast-firing launcher. Even large ships which already have an omni launcher would benefit from this if the +speed could go below 100 for really massive ships.
Great idea. Any freighter with relatively few weapons slots gains a real advantage here, spewing missiles at everything in sight. And, as you said, it can carry a heap of them. It would go a long way towards making the freighters a bit harder to kill than they are now. Another random idea is to have the ability to put 2 launchers into heavier ships and have them each target either a front or back 180 arc (or a left or right side 180 arc). But that would possibly require a fair bit of overwriting.
=============================
gunship256 wrote:Does the Hermes need to be limited to a narrow band of weapon levels to keep from being overpowered, or is the 0.12 alpha version fine the way it is?
If the Hermes is fine, what's the best way to implement levelled devices? Do I create stronger versions of the Hermes that only work on narrow level bands? Or is it better to focus on making the Zeus a levelled device and removing its fire rate penalty?
Here's some ideas I've had over the last week or so. And the speed bonus or penalty idea is good.
Maybe have weapon type Hermes mounts (eg a laser Hermes, particle Hermes, plasma Hermes) It doesn't make a lot of sense to me but who knows!.
Or separate particle and matter (and beam or whichever; I'm not sure of the weapon or effect or damage types) mounts. That would be a way of limiting the overpowering effect of a single device that can do everything.
Or have a different mount for ammo and non-ammo weapons. There is some sort of basis for that in terms of feeding ammo to the weapon vs power supply only.
Or have a howitzer specific swivel mount. Or a 'weapons with recoil' specific mount. This would mean you have to select between howitzer fire rate, howitzer swivel and any other devices you usually install.
ATM a Hermes device costing very little and using very little power can take any weapon and turn it into a part omni. Not enough tradeoff with that to make it balanced IMO.
=============================
I haven't got to the Zeus or Atalanta yet so can't comment on them. And I'm just getting to the heavier weapons.

Edit: Aaaargh! I can't remember how to put images into a post. Swivel bias pics to come next time.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

Thanks for the catch! Here's a new alpha (0.14) along with an explanation of the changes.
d064_SwivelWeaponsPlatforms 0.14 alpha.zip
(8.78 KiB) Downloaded 291 times
CHANGES

Transcendence keeps rounding numbers off in math calculations; when I tried to use a complicated function using power and division for the Hermes mount, the roundoff actually made the fire arcs for the 1-ton laser cannon and the 4-ton Morning Star cannon identical. Switched to a linear function for simplicity so that Transcendence won't break my calculations any more.


UPDATED FIRE ARCS

Unfortunately, a linear function will either give too much swivel to light weapons or too much to heavy weapons. I chose to penalize lighter weapons in favor of heavier ones. Swivel was reduced from 98 degrees to 78 degrees for 3-ton weapons. Swivel increased from 34 to 42 degrees for 9-ton weapons. The swivel is about the same for 6-ton weapons (increased from 59 to 60 degrees).

1 ton -> 90 degrees (laser cannon)
2 tons -> 84 degrees (dual laser, mining laser, light recoilless, DK Arbalest, Shuriken, EMP cannon)
3 tons -> 78 degrees (dual turbolaser, heavy recoilless, Partisan, Flenser, lancer cannon)
4 tons -> 72 degrees (Urak mass driver, Morning Star, dual Moskva, Moskva repeater, TeV 9)
5 tons -> 66 degrees (mark III, Katana, tritium cannon, Iocrym fracture cannon)
6 tons -> 60 degrees (CLAW, heavy CLAW, dual Flenser, Sunflare, mark V, Fusionfire, Hecates cannon)
7 tons -> 54 degrees
8 tons -> 48 degrees
9 tons -> 42 degrees (dual TeV 9)
10 tons -> 36 degrees (dual Mark III, APA)
11 tons -> 30 degrees
12 tons -> 24 degrees (dual Fusionfire)

Unless I'm doing something wrong, I'm getting the same amount of swivel for a 4 ton Morningstar as I am for a 1 ton Laser Cannon with the Hermes (0.12a).
Grrr... roundoff. I changed the function calculating swivel to a linear function so that roundoff wouldn't affect it any more. Thanks for the catch!
For general info, I always look at the ability to increase fire rate as a very desirable characteristic of any weapon. I'll do this every time I can except when I can enhance a weapon to something like 100-150%. Similarly reducing fire rate I consider to be a large handicap. Howitzer loader IMO is a must have and +Fast. I'll order Weapon Optimizer ROMs from a Trading Post to get the extra fire rate....

Yes. I like this idea. Makes a lot of sense to me. Ships that aren't that good in combat can get a real benefit, whereas ships that fight well can't, but don't need the advantages anyway. The freighters can spare the device slots and get increased capability and the smaller, manoeurvable ships which are already much better at combat have to make a much greater relative sacrifice to get increased accuracy.
This is the reasoning behind the new Atalanta speed enhancers, which stack when more than one is installed. Ships with 9 device slots install these and become powerful in a way the Wolfen can't.
gunship256 wrote:How about a fire rate adjustment that depends on ship mass? The lighter the ship, the slower the Apollo will fire, and the heavier the ship, the faster it will fire. This would benefit heavy freighters a LOT because they have enough space to store ammo for a fast-firing launcher. Even large ships which already have an omni launcher would benefit from this if the +speed could go below 100 for really massive ships.
Great idea. Any freighter with relatively few weapons slots gains a real advantage here, spewing missiles at everything in sight. And, as you said, it can carry a heap of them. It would go a long way towards making the freighters a bit harder to kill than they are now.
I'm going to have to table that for now until I can figure out a good way around the roundoff problems. As you already saw with the Hermes, the bug has a big effect.
Here's some ideas I've had over the last week or so. And the speed bonus or penalty idea is good.
Maybe have weapon type Hermes mounts (eg a laser Hermes, particle Hermes, plasma Hermes) It doesn't make a lot of sense to me but who knows!.
Or separate particle and matter (and beam or whichever; I'm not sure of the weapon or effect or damage types) mounts. That would be a way of limiting the overpowering effect of a single device that can do everything.
Or have a different mount for ammo and non-ammo weapons. There is some sort of basis for that in terms of feeding ammo to the weapon vs power supply only.
Or have a howitzer specific swivel mount. Or a 'weapons with recoil' specific mount. This would mean you have to select between howitzer fire rate, howitzer swivel and any other devices you usually install.
ATM a Hermes device costing very little and using very little power can take any weapon and turn it into a part omni. Not enough tradeoff with that to make it balanced IMO.
In 0.13 and 0.14 alpha, there are now three levels of Hermes devices. The higher levels are more effective with higher-level weapons, but they drain a LOT of power. In my last playthrough, I had a level 9 Hermes and two level 8 Atalanta devices installed along with a nanotech repair spider and a level 10 weapon. I had to enhance my Hyperion reactor in order to prevent reactor overload.

I'm trying to achieve balance without creating too many devices. Making devices that are matter only won't keep them from being overpowered for a play style that uses only fusion and blast weapons anyway, so I went the route of making the devices have level bands to force the player to upgrade to ones with higher power requirements. Let me know if that's enough to keep things balanced or if I need to make more changes.

As always, thanks for the great feedback!
relanat
Militia Captain
Militia Captain
Posts: 941
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:56 am

OK. The swivel bias: the changeover of targeting as the ship pivots away happens at 180 degrees to the target only if the target is to the left of the ship (based on shooting at dead stations). This continues to happen 'correctly' until you put the ship nearly above or nearly below the target. So for an arc from 10 degrees through to 170 degrees everything is good.
Note: In all of these pics the ship is right at the point of changeover. Turn the ship slightly towards the target and the weapons change direction and fire towards the target.

If the ship is positioned above the target the changeover happens when the ship is pointing to about 25 degrees to the right. You would expect here that the ship would be trying to fire to its right, not to the left as it is.
Image


If the ship is below the target then the changeover happens at 25 degrees to the right again. Note this is a mirror image of the above pic.
Image


When you put the target to the right of the ship you get a changeover point of about 70 degrees clockwise from the target. Two points here. 1. This is exactly the same firing configuration as when the ship is directly below the target even though in relative terms the target has moved 90 degrees. 2. If you move the ship up slightly to put it at just above west of the target the changeover flips to 70 degrees anticlockwise. Once again a mirror image is happening.

Slightly below:
Image


Slightly above:
Image


Something weird is happening. It looks like it is aligned on an East-West line through the target. All is good to the right of a target until you get within about 10 degrees of north-south then it changes. Anything to the left of that gives a constant offset aiming point for some reason until it reverses directly to the west. Good luck. (I hope you can understand this, always difficult with words only)
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
User avatar
AssumedPseudonym
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1190
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:18 am
Location: On the other side of the screen.

 The Freyr actually does more or less the same thing with its swivel for Rasiermesser weapons in Corporate Command. It’s one of the things that’s always bugged me about it. This might be worth a Ministry ticket.
Image

Mod prefixes: 0xA010 (registered) and 0xDCC8 (miscellaneous)

My mods on Xelerus: Click here!

Of all the things I’ve lost in life, I miss my mind the least. (I’m having a lot more fun without it!)
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

Thanks for posting the pictures. I checked myself and verified the problem, although I don't know how to fix it. I assume that the problem is in the engine itself, as AP suggested.

I rebalanced the devices in this mod based on the balance assumptions for Transcedence 1.7 alpha 1. Here's Swivel Weapons 0.15 alpha:
d064_SwivelWeaponsPlatforms 0.15 alpha.zip
(8.45 KiB) Downloaded 278 times
CHANGES

Rebalanced the Zeus and Apollo based on the balance calculations for swivel in Transcendence 1.7 alpha 1. The Zeus is probably going to feel overpowered now.

Removed the ultra speed enhancement the Atalanta was giving weapons below its level band, as it was making the NAMI launcher fire at the maximum rate of 10 shots/second. The speed enhancement for weapons within and below its level band is now set at the normal 40% (+speed:71).

QUESTIONS

* Hermes swivel mount: should the degree of swivel be changed? Which weapons are getting too much swivel: light weapons or heavy ones? Which weapons receive too little swivel? I can adjust the equation based on suggestions regarding weapon balance.

* Are the rebalanced Apollo and Zeus overpowered? If so, how can they be nerfed while staying true to Transcendence 1.7 alpha 1's assumption that making a weapon omni is the same as a 100% enhancement?

* Is the Atalanta overpowered? Underpowered? Why?
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

I made a few more changes based on what I saw playing the Transcendence alpha. Here's a new file:
d064_SwivelWeaponsPlatforms 0.16 alpha.zip
(8.68 KiB) Downloaded 285 times
CHANGES

Late-game ammo availability in Transcendence 1.7 alpha 1 makes me want to equip high-level launchers. Added a second, more advanced Apollo at level 7 that does not apply a fire rate reduction to any level of launcher.

Changed the level band based speed reductions so that the Zeus never cuts speed by more than a factor of two, and the Hermes never cuts speed by more than 40%. Installing the devices should never be a net liability; at most, the speed reduction should cancel out whatever benefit each device is providing.

Changed the Zeus so that there are three different versions at levels 3, 6, and 9. Fire rate reductions are applied to weapons above the level band of each device. Changed frequency from "rare" to "uncommon" because the devices were not spawning enough in-game.
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

Here's 0.17 alpha:
d064_SwivelWeaponsPlatforms 0.17 alpha.zip
(9.01 KiB) Downloaded 265 times
CHANGES

Changed the Zeus and Hermes so they can affect linked-fire weapons and be used effectively on the Wolfen/A. If other enhancers can affect linked-fire weapons, these enhancers should be allowed to, too. Left the linked-fire exclusion in for the Apollo for now; I'm not sure what ships have linked-fire launchers, so I don't know whether linked-fire launchers should be made omni.
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

Here's 0.18 alpha:
d064_SwivelWeaponsPlatforms 0.18 alpha.zip
(9.75 KiB) Downloaded 271 times
CHANGES

Made the Apollo work for linked-fire launchers. There is a ship in The Backroads that has a linked-fire launcher, and the Apollo ought to work with it.

Changed frequency of all devices from "uncommon" to "rare". This mod has so many devices now that it's squeezing the vanilla devices out of shop inventories.

Added three levels of Spartan damage enhancers. These devices raise damage of all weapons by 40%, and they stack when more than one is installed.

Added three levels of launcher payload enhancers. These devices increase launcher damage by 75% but do not stack with themselves, though they will stack with other enhancers.
relanat
Militia Captain
Militia Captain
Posts: 941
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:56 am

Feedback for 0.17 alpha

Atalanta Mark 1's are good. There was a heap of them available so I installed 3. Loved it. Possibly up the power use to 2 MW.

Not sure if they should speed up launchers as well though. Doesn't feel quite right (but it is good fun).
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

relanat wrote:Feedback for 0.17 alpha

Atalanta Mark 1's are good. There was a heap of them available so I installed 3. Loved it. Possibly up the power use to 2 MW.

Not sure if they should speed up launchers as well though. Doesn't feel quite right (but it is good fun).
Thanks for the feedback! For this mod, I'm thinking in terms of a capital ship or freighter pilot who has a really heavy, slow ship and lots of open device slots.

In that context, I'm thinking that linked-fire, swiveled weapons combined with lots of enhancers will overshadow the launcher. That's the main reason I wanted the launcher enhanced with the weapons. Does it mainly feel weird because missiles fire so fast, or does it also feel unbalanced?
gunship256
Militia Commander
Militia Commander
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:41 pm
Location: repairing armor

Question:

Would you prefer that these devices be incorporated into the March Monthly Mod Jam?
Or would it be better to keep them separated and inside of their own mod?

The first option makes updating and downloading easier, since most of my devices will be accessible through one mod.

The second option is better for getting focused feedback so I can make changes.

Let me know what you think!
Post Reply