Shrike's Mines & Missiles ++

[JohnBWatson]

There will be two devices...either seperate, or built into a single device with a switching function via invoke.

The precedent here is to make it a usable item, like the Jumpdrive. Invoke is both more difficult to implement and less convenient to the player.

The code can largely be Ctrl+V'd from the shield generator of similar function.

---

Managed to make the GDC overpowered during testing. At least....in theory. if you land all the shots in one place you can two-shot a Deimos and 6-shot a Phobos. Keeping in mind that it has an 8-round 'clip' before it's useless....that's not bad. That does, however, require it to do 60d40 damage with WMD7. Somewhat excessive. And if you use a bunch of injectors is becomes capable (with good rolls and exceptional aim) of killing the ICS in 5 shots. That's not what I'm after, alas. It's impossible to aim that well in real combat, and if you do the result is absurd. So yeah.....that damage is not good.

I'm going to lower the rather extreme damage rolls and make it more consistent. But I have at least found a way to overpower the gun. Now I need a happy middle-point so I can start adding reload mechanics and the like. In the end, I think it'll be the ultimate thermo weapon. Basically, I'd like it to be a viable weapon against the ICS......a cross between the QAC (which is not viable, but has reload mechanics similar to this thing) and the APA. Only it's a thermo weapon. So a bit higher damage, but reduced effect because of the damage type.

A possible solution to the problem of the Gaians using up their charges and becoming pitifully weak is to give them a virtual weapon that acts as a GDC with limitless ammo, and placing the player variant in the cargo hold. In addition, the code from Sapiens Compounds can be recycled to let them reload their thermo cannons when they deplete their ammo.

As for being able to kill the ICS in 5 shots, that's not too unbalanced in practice. Should you make it require two weapon slots, it would work out perfectly, providing a chance at crippling it early at the expense of having to retreat in the likely scenario that you fail to do so.

[Song]

There will be two devices...either seperate, or built into a single device with a switching function via invoke.

The precedent here is to make it a usable item, like the Jumpdrive. Invoke is both more difficult to implement and less convenient to the player.

The code can largely be Ctrl+V'd from the shield generator of similar function.

Bad phrasing there sorry. "Invoke" is the way the game describes using an item. So yes, it's used from the usable item/device menu like the jumpdrive. I already have a framework (from WE4, IIRC) that handles this for weapons, so modifying it for devices should work nicely. If it doesn't, I'll borrow from the Jotun.

Edit: Been messing with the armor setup of the Gaian Dustbin. Do we have a simple way to specify an enhancement on a ships armor segments, or does it require writing an OnCreate event?

[PM]

Ships can spawn with enhanced items.

Here is fragment from one of my mods.

Code: Select all

<Armor>
	; Add EMP immunity to our blast plate.
	<ArmorSection start="0" span="360" armorID="&itBlastPlate;" enhancement="0x0b20" />
</Armor>

[Atarlost]

The weapon switch code is more likely to work on miscellaneousdevices than the shield switch code because shields are a special case in having hitpoints. IIRC the ammo handling is conditional to launchers and enhancements are the same data structure for everything so nothing that doesn't exist should be referenced.

[Song]

The weapon switch code is more likely to work on miscellaneousdevices than the shield switch code because shields are a special case in having hitpoints. IIRC the ammo handling is conditional to launchers and enhancements are the same data structure for everything so nothing that doesn't exist should be referenced.

Yeah, looking at the Jotun it uses charges, rather than a device swap...so I'll use the WE4 code I used to use for the MAG launcher. Interesting system though...I might try using it for something else later.




Today I made a new hiteffect for the Ion9. It looks alright. Nothing fancy though.....just a revamped version of the default ion hit effect with some recolouring. The weapon is now basically finished.


I'm considering redoing some sound effects next....early SASS positron effects sound a bit off compared to later ones and the positron lancer sound is outright horrible.

[Song]

Made a new positron sound effect. It's not perfect, but it's better than the old one.


I do need to work out how to alter sound volume in Audacity. These weapon sounds are being coded at different volumes, and it's annoying that I can't alter that. I'm probably missing something obvious.


Anyway, as people who've seen my Latest bug-report thread, I've been working on the CRM series.

Or rather, I was. The problems with CanHitSource are so severe that I'm dropping the 'mines' from SM&M++. Not changing the name though.

Having said that, I decided to play around with the CRM500 anyway, to see what I might be able to do when/if the massive problems with the mines can be fixed.

Turns out that my attempts to buff it earlier made it into the best weapon in the entire game once the removal of those glitches made it start doing damage again. I'm going to need to start from scratch on that thing (and also the CRM100) when things get fixed.

[JohnBWatson]

Made a new positron sound effect. It's not perfect, but it's better than the old one.


I do need to work out how to alter sound volume in Audacity. These weapon sounds are being coded at different volumes, and it's annoying that I can't alter that. I'm probably missing something obvious.

Been a while since I've used it, but isn't there a - + slider on the left portion of the audio track? I recall that working for me.

[Song]

One problem I've come acrossagain: I'm aware there's a trick for making an ampersand (&) show up in a label.....although I can't remember it and the item I used it fore got deleted several cycles ago. I now need to have part of an item name in brackets. By default, the engine parses this as code and removes the brackets automatically.....so if someone can say how to get around that, that would be useful. EDIT: Solved by Assumed Pseudonym. An ampersand is &#38, ( is &#40 and ) is &#41. Spaces are required on both sides. Leads to odd formatting, but it does work at least.



The dragonfly itself has been reworked a bit since I last touched it. It's still a launcher rather than a gun, and has three missile types. The DVK is the basic blast, the DVR is a fragmentation cartridge, and the DVX is a light thermonuclear version. They are all fairly low damage. I have altered the default configuration: Spread3 is appallingly bad and I'm universally removing it in SM&M++. It now has an 8-degree spread rather than 10. This might not sound like much, but it really is nicer. I'm still working on the effects, but it should be finished soon. This isn't going to be a very fancy gun....it's a cheap launcher from EI that mostly gets used by the Molotok (which now has no actual gun weapon).

Here's the current weapon effect. It's nothing fancy, and not very different from stock blast effects...but it works reasonably well. Again, this is not an exciting weapon. Earth Industries doesn't really go in for crazy innovative stuff.

Dragonfly.png (20.34 KiB) Viewed 10948 times

Edit: I'm now looking a little at the IM90. I don't think I can make it very viable....non-WMD omnis got hammered hard by the internal HP update. Still, I'll see if I can find some former users and see if there's anything that can make it a bit nicer.

[Atarlost]

Try & for ampersand.

[AssumedPseudonym]

 That, or & works. Also, you can use ( and ) for open and close parentheses, respectively.

EDIT: Oh. You already edited that in. …Eh, either way, can be referenced later if anyone needs to find it.

[Song]

Today in "What is wrong with this weapon??!!": The QAC.

Originally developed to be one of the very first weapons capable of killing the old 'doorstop' ICS, this gun has been progressively left behind by subsequent versions. It uses a very rare ammunition type. It has an awkward reload system. It cannot be enhanced with items, except with the optimiser ROM which exacerbates the problems with ammunition. It has damage considerably below the level curve (once you account for the stupidly rare ammo). And lastly, it has very low shot HP.


Currently, I'm only working on fixing the rather lackluster effects for this gun. But there's two options for how to deal with the gun itself. Currently it behaves like a Level 8 gun (or even a high level 7), but it's classed as a level 9. I can either drop the level down to 8 and make minor tweaks to match the damage curve.....or I can buff it up to the level curve. The former will not alter the Hauri questline, but the latter will make it....somewhat more challenging. By all rights, following the damage curve should make this thing better than Lamplighter, so I'm flying a bit blind here.


What I have managed so far is a prototype effect. It has massive problems with being shot down (it seems to have a big hitbox), but I'm trying to fix that now. There may be some hit-detection bugs affecting it.

QACWIP.png (50.84 KiB) Viewed 10912 times

There's some more effects to add, but I'm reasonably happy with the base shot effect. Might add some particle trails and the like to liven it up.

[PM]

It behaves like a level 7 or 8 weapon because QAC is "balanced" for its damage type. The problem is balanced weapons with damage types overtiered by two or more are weak. We should not see antimatter or nano weapons regularly until level 13.

It seems SpikeLength affects hitsize, in addition to spike length. It also has flawed hit detection similar to stars.

[JohnBWatson]

Currently, I'm only working on fixing the rather lackluster effects for this gun. But there's two options for how to deal with the gun itself. Currently it behaves like a Level 8 gun (or even a high level 7), but it's classed as a level 9. I can either drop the level down to 8 and make minor tweaks to match the damage curve.....or I can buff it up to the level curve. The former will not alter the Hauri questline, but the latter will make it....somewhat more challenging. By all rights, following the damage curve should make this thing better than Lamplighter, so I'm flying a bit blind here.

The Lamplighter is the reward for an endgame questline. The QAC for a midgame one. While it was originally the sole means of winning the game, this has changed, and so it is no longer necessarily an endgame weapon. While it should be powerful, it should not be able to be relied upon as a main weapon all the way to Heretic.

The Lamplighter, now that you mentioned it, is one of the weapons I'm really looking forward to your take on. It's the result of the game's longest questline, and is a tradeoff to an item that can kill anything in the game(once), can be acquired while skipping the entire line, and will become even more useful in post - Heretic. Right now it's a decent close range weapon, but against everything but the ICS it's far outclassed by other easily found weapons.

[PM]

Lamplighter would be the equivalent of a level 11 or level 12 antimatter weapon. It would be overpowered at level 10, except it is an ultimate quest reward... that happens to outperformed by the EI plasma cannon against any opponent except the ICS.

[Song]

The QAC would be balanced if you could actually use it. Currently, you really can't. I'm well aware of the balance curves for damage types. Doesn't mean that this gun hasn't been known to be awful for years now.