First up, here's how it works. The Neuroplague weapon is a scripted overlay attached to a missile. This is important, because it means that its behaviour is both hardcoded, and readable in the XML source. Like any missile, you can dodge to projectile, or shoot it down with an ICX unit (keeping in mind that those things are buggy, and you should NOT rely on them) or your primary weapon. However, often this won't be enough, and a pod will hit. On impacting your shield, the game checks its level, then rolls against the probability of penetrating the shield. For almost all human shields, this is extremely high.
- 100% Penetration at level 1 through 5
95% Penetration at level 6
85% Penetration at level 7
65% Penetration at level 8
30% Penetration at level 9
5% Penetration at level 10
0% Penetration at level 11 and above
If the roll fails and the pod does not penetrate your shield, it will do 4d6 kinetic damage to your shield, and that's it until another pod hits you. If it succeeds on the roll, it will do 4d6 kinetic damage to your shield, and continue to the next stage. If you don't have a shield, then it will continue to the next stage (and do 4d6 kinetic damage to your armor. At low levels this may be a serious problem). The game attaches an overlay to your ship, and you are now in quite serious trouble.
Once a pod has attached to your ship, you have a limited amount of time to deal with it. The overlay will 'drill' through your armor at a rate of 18ingame 'ticks' per armor hitpoint. This translates to one real-world minute for every 100hp of armor on the targeted segment. You will get a small progress bar to warn you how far through it is. Fortunately the effect doesn't stack: you can only get one neuroplague pod on your ship at a time.
There are three ways to remove the pod from your ship at this point:
1. Die and be restored by insurance. (Not the best tactic out there)
2. Have the overlay shot off. This is harder than it sounds...the shot has to hit the overlay (NOT your ship), and reduce its HP to 0. But given pods penetrate your shields and usually hit you in the middle of battle.....
3. Return to a friendly station that offers dock services, and enter the armor repair/replace screen. You will be offered the option of removing an armor obstruction for a fee. This is currently the best, and virtually the only way to deal with plague pods on your ship
In the future it may be possible to use consumable items to remove obstructions. This is not currently part of the game, however.
If you are unable to remove the pod it will eventually pierce your armor (this doesn't actually damage your armor, at least) and deliver its payload. In universe this is a weaponised pathogen, and in the engine it's a very short script. Either way you will feel the effects the instant it gets through. The first infection by a neuroplague pod will not affect you, regardless of type.
There are three types of pod in the XML sourcecode. Currently (as of Transcendence V1.6 Beta 2) only one of these appears: The Black Death Pod. This, as is immediately apparent from the name, will kill you.
That being said, certain items will help you survive if you have them in your cargo hold (like teraton experiments). The chance to save for each item is as follows:
- No items: 0% (100% Mortality)
Medical Supplies: 20% (80% Mortality)
Unregistered Cancer Dust: 50% (50% mortality)
Cyanvir: 80% (20% Mortality)
Autodoc: 100% (0% Mortality)
Now, the rest of this isn't so important right now, but the other neuroplague pods may end up in the game eventually, so here's what the (unused) code says about them. If you aren't interested, skip to the next underlined bit:
The first alternative ammunition is a stunning round called the "Sophor Pod". It paralyses you a certain period of time (seems to be 300 ticks, which I think works out to either 5 or 10 seconds). SInce that's not in the game yet, I can't be certain. It has the following antidotes:
- No items: 0% (100% Stun Probability)
Unregistered Cancer Dust: 20% (80% Stun Probability)
Cyanvir: 50% (50% Stun Probability)
Autodoc: 80% (20% Stun Probability)
The final pod is the most dangerous and frankly implausibly overpowered pod in the game. Named the "Tetro-D" pod, the item description states that the agent in the pod leaves its victims susceptible to suggestion and control and allows the users of the weapon to command entire stations. This is not true. Tetro-D is an instakill like Black Death, only it's virtually impossible to treat. The Only healing item that works on this pod is the autodoc and it only has a 50% chance to save you. Hopefully this pod is reworked before it makes it into the game proper.
"So that's how it works!.....but how do I fight these guys?"
Excellent question! Here's what I do personally
1. Dodge or shoot down incoming plague pods. This is difficult, but reduces the chance of infection.
2. Use your CDM shard. If you level it up carefully (I advise bolting quantum CPUs onto it every time you find one until it stops taking them) you will have two powers that are useful: Disarm is the best (it disables guns without making things spin), and Paralyse is the next-best (it disarms, but makes larger targets harder to kill). This gives an excellent opportunity to kill any targets with pod launchers without taking a hit in return (If you've got got two of the destroyers to kill, use reactor hack on one while shooting the second).
3. Carry an autodoc. In 1.6b2, this lets you ignore pod hits entirely.
4. If you don't have an autodoc and don't want to risk using less effective antidotes then know where your nearest repair point is before engaging any target that may have a pod launcher. Do not stay in combat any long than you have to if it means you might not be able to reach your safe area before a pod drills through your armor.
5. Engage at long range. Missiles and howitzers can knock out targets from outside the range of pods, or give you time to dodge incoming fire. (Ok, I personally don't do this. But I'm really good, so I can usually get away with it)
Hopefully that helps out against this weapon. It's a tricky thing to fight, but once you know the rules it follows, it's a lot easier.
Oh, and one last thing...
After all this you may be thinking "Wow! I've got to get me one of those!". Don't bother. The scripting system for NPCs is far more simple....each pod has something like a 20% chance to kill after it wears through the armor. In addition, it won't work on AI targets with no squishies inside (eg. Autons, Luminous stuff.....although you used to be able to kill Morningstar with it). Combined with the very long time it takes to wear through armor, the rare ammunition, and the difficulty in getting an intact launcher in the first place.....this weapon really isn't worth it for the player. It's a weapon exclusively designed to kill you and for all other purposes there are far better devices.
