PM's mods

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IronParrot
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Excellent work PM!
Have you considered joining the discord and twitch streams?

Edit: just had a crash with PSD, poking george to see if it's something on his end first.
IronParrot
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Here is the crash.

It has something to do with the ship not being rad immune, and it sticks around until you restart the game.
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IronParrot
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Sorry for spamming your thread, but perhaps rename the Basik launcher to Ballisk launcher?

Also, a Bug: Treasure boxes don't disappear when used, allowing infinite treasure.
PM
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Reuploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus again. It is yet more minor tweaks.

* Armor energizers now enable distributing for shielded armor, in addition to +30% hp. This is to make them feel more like shields. Those two might be a bit overpowered together. If so, I might reduce or remove the +hp bonus. (I am considering extending the distributing to any armor.)

* Delta shielded armor features intrinsic distributing (instead of the hack job from the energizers), to make them worth using over the lower level versions.

* Leveling up with dock services is more expensive. Previously, it felt a bit too cheap and/or convenient, more so than buying a new weapon (or armor in case of shielded armor).

* Fury seekers were renamed to Mandy seekers, short for Salamander. No other changes.

@ IronParrot:
Are you playing 1.9 beta 2? If so, the crash in PSD is (I think) caused by an engine bug that affects any mod that relies heavily on recurring events. I had that same bug crash the game when I had zapsats or my drone bays active when I loaded Drake Technologies, or while playing the Star Castle adventure. I cannot fix that. I will wait until George's next release before investigating.

Similarly, the treasure box bug is the same one as the contraband box bug; and yes, I abused that bug when I found an early contraband box and sold illegal items left and right for several hundred thousand credits. Fun times! I think George fixed that bug, but we have to wait for the next release for that fix.

I do not plan to rename Basik launcher. Basik is a purposeful misspelling of Basic, and the point of that launcher is a low-level launcher that spews powerful long-range shots at the enemy.

I am not completely satisfied with the item selection in Drake Technologies, and I may ramble on about that in a later post.

Merry Christmas.
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.
IronParrot
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Is it cheaper to reconstruct ships in PSD, or buy them?
Asking because i got a copy of a playerships mod (among other stuff) from Song for preview, and the starting playerships have less slots than vanilla.
Thus if i wanted to mine, i would have to get a drone dedicated to mining, along with 1-2 more to haul loot for selling.
What is better, salvaging ships and gearing them aftermarket or buying them from ship brokers?
PM
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If you refer to field repairs, they are expensive. You pay full price for a new hull and its equipment... and then that equipment is stripped away, aside from armor and built-in devices, after rebuilding the ship. If you can buy the ship from the Ship Broker, it should be cheaper there.

I need to update Playership Drones for beta 3, but I am updating Drake Technologies first. For the latter, I am considering culling out some items. Now that order 'orbitExact has been added, I am considering removing the zapsats and folding them into the drone bays, and have drone bays toggle from default hunter mode to orbit mode and back. Also, I am thinking about removing the FRAG launcher because it seems underpowered (compared to MAG launcher) and the only reason it is still in is because it has that gimmicky range select. I may do another balancing pass, but if I cannot find something satisfactory, I might take it out of the item pool.
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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A quick progress report about Drake Technologies:

I will probably have an update ready later week. Maybe by tomorrow if all goes well. Just need to do some last minute balancing of various weapons.

I removed all ZapSat items. I have decided to fold their functionality into the drone bays, which can be used to toggle drone behavior between hunter mode and orbit mode. Hunter mode is the original mode where they chase and shoot at enemies. Orbit mode causes drones to orbit the mothership like the old zapsats used to do. Unfortunately, they can shoot only at enemy ships at the moment.

Last post brought up the fate of the FRAG launcher. I kept it! One of the ammo was removed and the rest rebalanced so that it is a bit more useful.

That is all 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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Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

It took a bit longer than I hoped, but the next update to Drake Technologies is ready and uploaded to Xelerus. As per last post, the zapsats were removed and the drone bays can emulate the old zapsats, albeit imperfectly. The beam drone bays have been made a bit more common to offset the removal of the zapsats. There are also a variety of other minor changes here and there. See the readme in the zip file for a (not quite) full list of changes.
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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Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

I played 1.9 b3 with Drake Technologies loaded... up until my ship's demise halfway through the game. Some rambling thoughts about the balance of Drake Technologies.

I have doubts on how leveling up items, at least how as I implemented them through dock services. If the player takes his time and earns lots of credits to spend, it is possible to obtain those levelup items and raise levels even higher. For example, I bought one of the Brik mining weapons in the first system, then raised it to level 5, and it was the primary weapon for both mining and combat until after St. K's when tier 2 weapons are not good enough to mine asteroids. Perhaps the worst offender is the shielded armor. If player gets the Beta armor early and levels them up, he can have level 6 armor easily and be untouchable up to early Ungoverned Territories. While I dislike the easy power leveling up provides, it is awfully convenient for reducing items clogging up the item pools. I do not want to spam too many shielded armors or beam weapons or drone bays just because I need a bunch of items that vary by level. I am not sure how to resolve this problem. Are my concerns with leveling up various items in Drake Technologies justified, or am I just being paranoid?

Found Berserker Device in my last game again, and even with the nerf (from double speed to two-thirds more speed), it still seems too strong if player combines it with powerful regeneration armor (like, again, the aforementioned shielded armor). I am considering lowered the speed bonus further, though I am a bit worried about weakening it too much. On the other hand, I have considered limiting the level of items it can affect, then add a high-level military version to affect all items. Then again, the berserker device was originally designed as a Novaya repairer alternative. It just combines too well with some armor configurations.

After playing around with the updated drone bays, I am considering changing the default mode from the classic hunter mode to orbit mode, since I do not always want drones to hunt enemies immediately after launch. Orbit mode seems more useful for defense. Aside from player use, I need to figure out how NPC ships use drone bays. I am looking at the Iocrym Command Ship (with sentinel launches) as an example. Have drones orbit the NPC ship while shields are up and/or armor damage is light at worst, or send the drones to hunt mode while the NPC is damaged.

It is getting long for now, so I shall finish by writing that another minor update to Drake Technologies will be likely (minor balance and drone bay tweaks), and I will try to update Drakian Legacy next, probably by ripping out zapsats and other obsolete items.
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.
IronParrot
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Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:49 pm

Got nothing but a bug to report when checking for whether the player can upgrade her armor, though this might be PSD related:
2021-01-13 17:20:59 OnGlobalPaneInit [d912157a]: Identifier expected [True] ### (objGetItems gPlayerShip militaryCheck) ###

Also, i find the level up mechanic good.

Edit: it only happens at corporate shipyards.
PM
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Reuploaded a lukewarm-fix of Drake Technologies to Xelerus. Hopefully, the error message and few other oversights should be squashed. Also, few other minor balance tweaks, and NPC ships can toggle modes of the drone bays. (Hint: They use hunter mode when badly damaged or on shields down, orbit mode otherwise.)
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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Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Reuploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus, to fix a couple bugs that slipped through.

Also updated Drakian Legacy to 1.9b3. Most of the changes match what was done in Drake Technologies. Zapsats were removed, drone bays were added, and the Drakians now favor shielded armor.

Soon, I should start work on updating the other mods.
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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Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Updated Playership Drones for 1.9b3 and uploaded to Xelerus. It should support George's new ships like the Anubis.

I will probably wait until 1.9b4 before updating more of my mods.
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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Hi PM!

Long time lurker and big fan of the PSD mod - I was very excited when you released it for VOTG.

May I ask for the newest version of Playership Drones (1.9b3) - is there a way to configure your linked-fire mounts as in previous versions? The UI to shift weapons around and assign them to different slots doesn't seem to come up even when docked at a Ringer Shipyard. I was thinking that the option might be locked away from players to access without the help of a dedicated shipyard, but I seem to be wrong.


EDIT: I've figured it out (for the Tripoli Destroyer at least) - in the dockscreen UI the weapon's position roughly corresponds to its actual location on the ship. Use [Replace] to swop out weapons while retaining the prior weapon's linked-fire properties (arc of fire). If you remove all the weapons from the ship for a fresh install, you'll need to install as many weapons as there are empty weapon mounts on the ship to regain full flexibility in editing your ship's linked-fire capabilities (i.e. howitzers at the front).

I believe the order in which weapons are installed correspond to its internal labelling of the weapon mounts - 1 & 2 might be on the port side, and 3 & 4 on the starboard side. If you start from an empty ship with 4 slots, and install only 2 weapons (such that mounts 1 & 2 are filled), you'll only be able to swop around weapons on those mounts (and be unable to touch mounts 3 & 4 until 2 more weapons are installed).
PM
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Sorry, there is no way to configure the mounts like in previous PSD. It is a trial-and-error mess.
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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