Shrike's Mines & Missiles ++

[Song]

@TheLoneWolf: It's a naming theme. There's a fair few in SM&M++ and some of them are based around vanilla ones. Both Archimedes Industrial and NAMI sometimes use greek mythology references in their product names, although it's not entirely universal within those lines. I'm trying to move away from mythology for future themes, which will be a relief because Classics is not a common school subject in New Zealand schools, and thus I'm pretty terrible at it.

Also I'm a 'they', not a 'he'. It's right there in my signature.

The M1 missile uses a modified version of one of the radioactive station explosions, with new damage code and some extra fragments added. Copying that code again should give you the right start, although I caution you: procedural effects are generally unsuitable for large missiles like this (which is why none of the other M missiles use them in SM&M++). Given the choice (which I don't have given my time limits right now) I'd spend the time rendering something from scratch in Luminous to avoid the performance loss you get from things like the M1.

Small projectiles are generally annoying to work with, but not that bad. Just make a bolt or moltenbolt and set a very low width value. If you download source code for pre-1.5 versions of the game, the weapon effect code is a lot easier to follow and you'll see how it's specified in hard-coded solutions.

Final changes before streaming:

-Swapped to "Scout's Wolfen", nerfed the gun setup. Added some weapon repair kits to the cargo hold because while that ship doesn't have externals......most of the cool early-game weapons I've added are externals, and they break very easily.
-Added a new low-level kinetic weapon to the Voss und Szell lineup. It's a low-damage, high ROF, medium-range weapon with passthrough and is equipped as the primary weapon on the Scout's Wolfen. Will eventually add more but not now.
-Renamed CRM900 --> CRM200 to fit the lineup better
-Changed CRM100 to be an armor-shredder to leave space for the CRM200.
-Added CRM400 back into the game. New name is "Jewelweed". (And if you get that botanical reference before actually reading the weapon description to see what it actually is, well done)
-Re-added S2 missile, new name is "Basilisk". Illegal radioactive S3-clone. It's not balanced but let's face it, this weapon exists for lore reasons only and is hardly ever going to be used if you can actually find a NAMI heavy.
-Fixed bugs with Tinker Lamarr's custom items dockscreen with some help from AP.
-Added some code to start working on a TX3 Explorer tweak....but it currently doesn't work. Since it doesn't break the vanilla behaviour, I'm leaving it in. It should be a fairly easy job to set it up again, but while I know more or less how it'd work, I can't actually write it. One of these days.....

That's pretty much it until after the stream. Almost everything is working (the exception is something I know about and will let George know to steer clear of it), I just need to bundle this all up and upload it.


....and fix the last few bits of SNAPSS. But I did almost all of that already today.

[TheLoneWolf]

Alright! They must have invested lots of time. So they aren't a lover of greeks?

[AssumedPseudonym]

Shrike just loves Greeks, doesn't he? Please spare a name or two for me :D

 Greek seems to be common for modders to go for, heh. Besides just some of the SM&M++ stuff, Wolfy uses some Greek (specifically, part of their alphabet) in TSB, and I also use part of their alphabet in TBR (for ships, shields, and a faction name), along with a few gods for weapons and heroes for armor. A bit of overlap is probably inevitable.

[TheLoneWolf]

M8 Aphrodite missile that changes any foe into a friendly if it hits shields. Any takers?

[JohnBWatson]

On the subject of NAMI heavies, wouldn't the late-game Marauder variants provide a fairly steady supply of them(in addition to the radioactive missile)? I could see them being used based on that, given the lack of many other ammo - using enemy factions in endgame.

[Song]

On the subject of NAMI heavies, wouldn't the late-game Marauder variants provide a fairly steady supply of them(in addition to the radioactive missile)? I could see them being used based on that, given the lack of many other ammo - using enemy factions in endgame.

Possibly. I still need to get those guys added and set up (AP has just told me of a convoluted way of getting their unique weapon working that he thinks he can bash out at some point in future). But certainly their Drakes will be an extra source of launchers and missiles, depending on how rare I make them (too rare and it's boring, too common and it's overkill). I don't really have much experience adding new factions, so that'll be a longer-term project. If there's a way to make their gear level-dependent then I could increase the range they show up at and give them the entire arsenal. Might also give them some other launchers that need some love (and I've got plans for a rather evil Makayev heavy launcher). Of course to get a NAMI heavy from the drakes you first have to kill one, and that means getting nuked a few times.


It's already a bit better than in vanilla because I cut the ROF, increased the damage per missile, and added a whole bunch more missiles (and thus, more ammo to find and use).

[Song]

Stream is over, and went very well. I'll put a link to the episode when it's uploaded somewhere. George died a few times, fired a lot of shells from a reasonable number of guns, and a lot of fun was had by all. There's a few bugs that cropped up that I need to squash before moving on, but I'm happy with how the mod performed.

I've been asked by people where to find the mod. Currently it's not finished and not really "released", but the build I gave to george is available on Dropbox Here. It's designed to be run with SNAPSS alpha 1a, and is available on an as-is basis. There are bugs in this build, and it's not yet fully balanced. But it gives a good preview of the 2016 build of SM&M++. If you want to see exactly what's in the mod, skim through the readme file included in the download.

Known issues:

-300D Crafting recipe gives you money back rather than costing it
-Hornet Sentinel may be uncraftable (I'm looking into it)
-Icarus missile launcher has placeholder description from the NAMI launcher.


This is probably a one-off release for now, it'll be a while before the mod's ready for a proper open alpha.

[Song]

I'm starting to work on the mod again after a bit of a break. Next up I'm going to be doing some fairly boring stuff for the most part....but also adding in some disposable gunpods. It's been a long time (6 years) since I did those, they were fairly fun albiet unbalanced, and I want to see what I can do with them now.

[Song]

Today, I added something nice and simple: more solar panels.

The existing solar panel array is now more common, and generates a bit more power. I've also renamed it slightly and tweaked the item stats.

I've also added a level 1 panel, requring no device slots (for now), which is absolutely terrible. One panel can just about refuel a wolfen sitting on top of a star, if you don't do anything. Install a few extras and it should be fine. I'm planning to add invoke-code to allow installation outside of stations. You'll often find these in Starton Eridani, although I'm going to reduce the availability soon (since they can and will stack).

At level 5 I've also brought in an improved model of the existing solar panel array, costing about the same amount as a Nova 100 reactor. I haven't tested it yet so I don't know how well it works. This and the regular solar panel array still require installation at a dockyard.


Another change I've made is that all solar panel items are now external. So you can damage them. Later on I'll be adding some more repair items into the game to allow you to repair them (and other devices) more effectively.

In general, Solon's been tweaked a lot more than I'd thought I would. As well as the new panels I altered the balance of Polymesh and XMH armor quite a bit some time ago. I think I might try adding a few more shields to their lineup as well.

(Currently the solon deflector you can craft at the tinkers is a heck of a lot better than in vanilla. Rather than having blast resistance, which is useless, it has kinetic reflection. Which is....very useful, as long as you're careful)

[TheLoneWolf]

Idea. Make that lvl1 solar @#$! available on Heliotropes. That way, player can farm em for those. As its an extn device, its bound to get hurt from armour hits.

[Song]

I've no plans right now to alter the heliotropes further, but it's a possibility. I'm already overriding their ships after all.



Another day, another gun. Nothing interesting though: Just a new level 3 blast weapon from Voss und Szell. It replaces the disposable gunpod, because I couldn't make that thing fun to use. The new SZ-70 is a Szell weapon from before the two companies merged. Like the VS30 hypervelocity cannon (which is a more modern [kinetic] design at the same tech level) it's a low-damage, high ROF weapon. Unlike the VS30, the SZ-70 has quite low shell velocity, and slight inaccuracy.

I'm also working on a touch-up to the Voss und Szell Auto40, which has a few issues with its shells, and needs a third ammunition type (tritium rounds).

[TheLoneWolf]

I'd like to see a Shotgun

[AssumedPseudonym]

 The PK25 and Dvalin Ion9 basically are shotguns. The 1.7 revisions of most plasma weapons also count, as far as that goes, albeit with a narrower spread.

[gunship256]

The mod has a thermo shotgun missile for the NAMI Heavy launcher. It's basically a thermo Morningstar that consumes ammo. It's quite effective against Iocrym sentinels if you have a fast ship.

[TheLoneWolf]

The closest I found is the PK25 and Ion9. But with straight or particled shots, thats not what I want. Thing lazer array. But without that already destined angle. Have you guys ever played Star Wars Battlefronts 2? Remember the shotguns the engineers have? With their particles flying into random acute angles everytime?