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Uploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus, updated for Transcendence 1.8. Lots of tweaks and other relatively minor changes. Added few more weapons and removed some of the placeholder items until I actually build ships and missions as planned.
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

A bit of a progress report...

After about three months of doing nothing for Transcendence, I am working on a relatively minor update for Drake Technologies for 1.9 alpha 1. The summary is "discard-and-draw".

Feedback has indicated that the "Split" and "Track" combo might be excessive, so I fixed that by removing the "Split" module. Other enhancers, those that required custom code in <OnFireWeapon> events to support, were removed to enable code simplification. As for the Split module, it was not only a balance headache, but it also did stuff game stats could not be tricked to work with, and required a ton of extra code in events to fake the results. Also, most of the weapons it worked with slowed them down too much. Who wants to fire a 5-way spread weapon that fires no faster than once per second?

Drake energy weapons have been tweaked and rebalanced. In particular the guided beamer lost some damage, but gained a little range. This time, I wanted to follow a theme to make Drake specialize a bit more. Drake almost certainly still produces too many items, but it is a step toward keeping a focus. Ideally, I wanted Drake to stick with only guided beamers (for energy weapons), but they are too powerful for any level. As a compromise, the guided beamers are generally higher level stuff on par with turbolasers and TeV 9s, while the lower level basic stuff is low damage, low range, high rate for lower level, something like a fast-fire laser with worse stats all-around. The multiturrets are still around, except they fire much more (keep in mind, less range and damage). Autons and the Eliminator have been updated with the new weapons.

Some other items were removed, but some new ones are planned. Right now, I am experimenting with a new tracking energy launcher with passthrough, designed to be a swarm-buster, but terrible for base-busting.
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
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Uploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus, updated for Transcendence 1.9 alpha 1. Many tweaks and some item shuffling. Some removed, few new goodies... at least for part 1. Part 2 is just maintenance to work in 1.9 alpha.

Hopefully, Drake Technologies in part 1 is a bit better balanced.

As for Drake Technologies, I get the feeling that Drake, as a manufacturer, produces too much stuff when compared to the likes of EI and NAMI. The next time I update Drake Technologies, I am seriously considering a break-up of big manufacturing and have Drake keep some of the items (namely the guided beamers and some other fancy items) and have one or two other new manufacturers take over the items Drake will lose. After that, hopefully, Drake will not be so big compared to George's manufacturers. Will need to think about how to outfit objects if I ever get around to creating them.
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
Fleet Admiral
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Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Found few minor bugs I overlooked in the last upload of Drake Technologies, and will try to get an update uploaded during the weekend (but no guarantees). I have started on the corporate breakup, which means Drake will no longer own everything in the mod. At the moment, the new manufacturer is called "Brik", and it will inherit nearly all of the matter weapons - and few other items - Drake used to have. As for Drakian Legacy, since the Drakians are Drake Technologies outside of Human Space, they will lose the plasma guns they have there too (but not all plasma weapons).

Drake was originally designed as a self-sufficient beyond mega-corporation, but it grew too big. Hence, the break-up. Even after the break-up, Drake still has a lot of items, though not so much more than the likes of EI and the other big standard companies. The new manufacturer Brik has almost as many weapons as Drake. Drake was really bloated and need to be cut down in size.

Themes for the manufacturers in Drake Technologies that I want to aim for so far:
* Drake Technologies should be high-performance and sleek. Gets guided beam weapons and some other choice items I want. Wants to avoid too heavy armor, generally.
* Brik Labs (or whatever its name will be) should be about power and toughness. Should favor sturdy or heavy armor. Gets DRx armor and Immortal shields.
* Imagik should be flashy and showy. Tends toward exotic tech or weird ideas. Stuff like rainbow lasers.
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
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Re-uploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus. Aside from minor bug fixes and tweaks, the main feature is the corporate breakup of Drake Technologies. As per last post, Drake has been split into Drake and Brik. Brik gets almost all of Drake's matter weapons and some armor and shields. Imagik, which was quietly added in recent versions, gains the new Bender launcher Drake received last release.

Hopefully, Drake should not be so bloated with items and things should feel a bit better. Brik has an arms dealer, but no factory. Brik was mainly a ploy to take items away from Drake so they do not produce so much. I do not know if I will give Brik much story or development, although given the sheer number of items they inherited, they probably should. Also having Imagik in the background was handy to receive few items from Drake that would have been opposed to Brik's style (yet perfect with Imagik's). Maybe they will get a bone thrown at them.

Also, removed Wanted, which has become obsolete now that Transcendence features "criminal record" in game statistics.
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
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Re-uploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus, again. This time, some minor bug fixes that were missed earlier and minor rebalancing of some weapons. Those who updated since the corporate break-up do not need to restart. May be a good idea since few Tinker recipes were changed and need a new game to update.

Next update to Drake Technologies I upload will probably break games again (since I have some ideas to try out), but it should (hopefully) be a while before I do that.
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
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Re-uploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus one more time. This is just a hotfix to fix some item prices.
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
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

After playing an unmodded 1.9a1 game, I noticed some things I need to change in Drake Technologies before I add it to the next full game I play to see how it wrecks the game. I plan to update Drake Technologies yet again, and it will break saves when it happens. Some changes I am considering:

* Remove the Racer LRM launcher for several reasons. It is level 4, a bit high for starter ships (and too close to level 5 Minny launcher). (Racer was originally made as a NAMI substitute, but evolved to something stronger.) It specializes in long-range combat, and thus not optimal to use for general combat. (It was made when Drake had a huge arsenal before the corporate breakup. Now, it needs something more useful and low-level to compliment short-range beams.) Finally, it is a bit bland with missiles that are only differentiated by progressively higher blast damage. I plan to replace the Racer launcher with a different level 2 or 3 launcher, similar to NAMI or Burak launchers.

* Tweak the continous beam weapons to be 60 fps ready, so that if future Transcendence runs at 60 fps, then the work to update the weapons will be minimal. Some beams have #.5 damage per hit (such as ion's 4.5 per hit). That does not divide by 2 evenly. Also, some weapons that depend on damage done like lasers (color), EMP (duration), and mining (thresholds), might need more change than simply divide by 2 to be 60 fps compliant.

* Fully separate Drake Technologies and Drakian Legacy mods so they no longer share any resources. Yes, there probably will be some duplicate resources, but at least they should be totally separate. They will probably be in separate folders, but will probably be bundled together, provided I can still upload them as one file to Xelerus.

* (Maybe) Update some of the images from jpg/bmp combo to png.

* (Maybe) Update some code to api45 standards. ZapSat code needs an overhaul. It is still functional, but very messy and old nonetheless.
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

Few notes since last post:

* Racer LRM launcher has been saved. Some like its style, so it stays. Instead, I added a new level 2 MRM launcher for the purpose of arming any starter ships I may add much later.

* It is taking much more work than I thought at untangling Drake Technologies and Drakian Legacy from each other. I doubt I will address the "Maybe" points before next release.

* Also experimenting with various tweaks I want to try out. For one such tweak, rewriting the custom armor regeneration code various shields rely on (mostly to make more sense in lore, rather than game balance). If all goes as planned, Immortal shields will probably regenerate slower most of the time, and might need more damage reduction to compensate.
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
Fleet Admiral
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Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Reuploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus. This is a major update. Some notes:

* The zip contains a .tdb file instead of a folder of files. If you have an earlier release of Drake Technologies installed, delete the d912_DrakeTech folder from Extensions before placing the new d912_DrakeTechnologies.tdb file in Extensions.

* Drakian Legacy has been removed for the moment. The reason is I rushed this current release. I will add Drakian Legacy back later.

* Most of the bmp/jpg files were replaced by pngs. Some items were redone.

* Some tweaks as posted above are in. Hopefully, you may enjoy them before I get the next release with Drakian Legacy ready.
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
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Reuploaded Drake Technologies to Xelerus… again. Updated for 1.9a2, this fixes some minor bugs, rebalances some weapons, adds new weapons including a mine layer and a plasma missile launcher that recharges in the sun (and the old fusion blasters were changed enough to be practically new weapons), and removed some old items. Restart is required.

Unfortunately, I have not finished the update to Drakian Legacy yet. Some progress was made, such as Drakians getting replacement antimatter weapons and a redesigned nano beamer... and more their weapons stripped and given to the public domain of biotech or archaeotech. More work needs to be done before it is ready for the next release.

In other news, removed the obsolete Permadeath mod since permadeath in Transcendence can be set in Settings.xml.
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
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Uploaded new 1.9a2 Transcendence mod Drop Contraband to Xelerus. It lets you drop all illegal and military items that can be confiscated from your ship's cargo hold or automatically before you dock at a Commonwealth station. In case of the latter, slaves will be freed instead of jettisoned (to avoid a loop with global dockscreen events).
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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Amteloletom
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Found this bug. Apparently, the projectiles are reflected by Dwarg behemoth armor and then getting multiplied again and again because of the tracking abilities and the reflective armor.
This happens when you have an energy weapon with tracking abilities and gets reflected by armor that reflects the same type of weapon, causing massive lag.
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PM
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Ah, that bug. Reflection does not actually reflect the projectile, but creates a new copy and directs it elsewhere. Works fine if the original projectile dies, but if it does not due to passthrough, player sees multiple projectiles. This can be seen by firing Katana star cannon at a Dwarg Behemoth.

However, perfect passthrough and tracking take that to a whole new level. It self-replicates in a loop, probably slowing the game to a crawl. It is a game-breaker I need to deal with.

I will probably need to remove the Bender launcher, and take another look at other passthrough and tracking shots. Thanks for bringing this up.
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
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Another upload of Drake Technologies to Xelerus. Updated for 1.9a4 and API48. Features some rebalancing and tweaks, especially with projectile stats for some weapons. Also adds some ammo weapons for Drake (since beam weapons without WMD only go so far) and resurrected a previously removed enhancer for it. Removed few older items. Also imported and updated the few consumables from the Items Graveyard Pack 912 mod. Restart is required.

Since George fixed the cascading infinite passthrough tracking missile bug in 1.9a4, Bender launcher should be safe to use. However, because reflected projectiles have their lifetimes reset, I set passthrough of the Benders to 99 so that a reflected Bender does not last indefinitely.

Drakian Legacy is still not ready yet. I will get back to working on it, eventually.
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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