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Messages - palandus

#16
Mods / Re: What would make the game easier to mod?
June 14, 2016, 06:05:48 PM
Ahhh. Okay, then I'll provide a list later on simple changes (currently on iPad so typing too slow for me).

Never heard of grep tools. Can you suggest a good one?

1. Make turrets target animals trying to eat colonists or pets. Really irritating having a hungry warg come in, attack a colonist, when there are turrets within range but don't target it. Unless that is a bug.

2. Make all experience gains from performing activities (ie mining rock) and in performing joy activities editable.

3. Make all factors that determine a hit or not (ie range, light level, double cover, and fog) including existing factors (ie skill or weapon accuracy) editable.

4. Allow attack speed to change based on skill level. Could default to 1.0 for base game for each skill level.

5. Make flash freeze and heat wave max/min temperatures editable.

6. Make biome temperatures editable as well as being able to edit temperature modifiers caused by height, rainfall and distance to North pole.

7. Make the variables that control plant spreading/seeding new plants to new squares editable, as well as have unique values for different plants (ie grass should spread faster than trees), and make ideal growing temperatures editable.

8. Make the variables controlling the fire spreading formula be editable, able to edit how quickly fire grows or dies, the amount of heat produced per tick or 100 ticks by each stage of fire growth, maximum temperature reached and how quickly rooms cool off when fire goes out.

9. Make the distance from walls/doors to support ceilings be editable.

10. Make the amount of fire put out by beating it be editable.

11. Make the variables that control how a pawn acts when on fire, including movement speed and actions performed when on fire to be editable.

12. Make it so that when prisoners break out we can modify what they can or can't do in a breakout. Such as controlling how many doors they can open up so that breakouts are a bit harder or easier, and thus may have to physically destroy doors to escape.

13. Make the variables that controls raid size, raid unit composition and waiting time before attacking editable.

14. Make it so that crafted item quality ranges are directly affected by skill level only, such that a modder can choose that at 20 skill it is always legendary rather than a range of values, as an example.

15. Allow moddders to finely tune relationship code so that we can choose to have say a nymphomanic colony where anyone will bed anyone regardless of relationship or perhaps a colony of religious fundamentalists that only bed each other after being married. Having full control over variables controlling relationships would be useful.

16. Make it possible to remove mountain roofs particularly for mountains that can be fully dug out.

17. Allow editing roof collapses to either make them more severe or less severe.

18. Allow editing of ancient ruin contents so that modders can decide how many caskets inside, how many artifacts inside how often mechanics spawn inside and how large they can be.

19. Allow modders to decide if they want old wounds/scars to spawn on new pawns or be created at all, or perhaps to make them more severe.

20. Allow modders to control incapping defaults for races and incapping chances when suffering different kinds of wounds. Ie a shot to the eye would cause greater incap chances that being shot in the leg)

Will add more when I think of them.
#17
I know my post got buried, but I noticed on the main page you are looking to do a full remake of the mod, and thought I'd mention it in case you did forget about it. I had made a huge list of suggested improvements back on page 47 (Link = https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5509.690).

Other possible suggestions are:
- How about having buyable Cybernetic Animals? These would be "regular" animals without Cybernetic Limbs (as you'd have to figure out how to make Cybernetic Recipes for animals) but would have greatly improved health, extra organs (to make killing them that much harder), and would come with resistance to blunt and sharp (much like insectoids). ie like those Cybernetic Dogs in Wolfenstein the New Order. These animals could have highest level of intelligence and could possibly only be purchaseable via the Black Market trader. Unless of course it would be easier to make a compatibility patch with "A Dog Said..." and allow cybernetic limbs on animals. Not sure which I'd prefer, but if you can do both, that would be awesome.

- How about having an infantry grade Cannister Rifle, and then require the Cannister Turret to require one, much like the EMRG Turret.

- How about having an advanced EMRG Turret that say utilizes two EMRG rifles, has greater health, and overall more advanced looking than the regular EMRG Turret. This turret would not be "jury-rigged" like the EMRG Turret, but require advanced materials to build.

- Make use of more recipes that require Alpha Poly and Beta Poly, rather than just using them for "stuffed" construction. Things like an Advanced Comms Console that has "twice the range" of a regular Comms Console and thus always has access to a Black Market Trader. Or maybe a Holographic Suite for entertainment. Or maybe a Site to Site Teleporter that teleports a person or object from one Teleporter Pad to another. Or maybe an Advanced Assembly Machine that creates large batches of commonly produced items or meals (ie it could make a set of 10 meals instead of 1). Or maybe new traps that require these materials, such as a Crushing Floor Trap that smashes anything caught into the ceiling and needs dense materials to work properly. Skys the limit, but there needs to be more things Alpha/Beta Poly is used for other than Power Plants.

- Be able to capture "dead" tanks, repair them, and then use them for your own base defense.

- Have Commandos spawn with more than one Cybernetic Limb.

- Include new Implants for improving skills, or making life just more pleasant.

If I think of more I'll post it. Cheers!
#18
Mods / Re: What would make the game easier to mod?
June 13, 2016, 02:30:32 PM
Thank you Cupro, didn't know that. Appreciate knowing that now though :)

Other things I can think of:

1] Create new systems that allow for different kinds of mods that currently are impossible to do (AFAIK).

For example, have a system that allows us to create "Room Prefabs" as illustrated by this process = 1) Create a room, with furnishings, 2) Save the layout of that room, 3) Be able to then place that room anywhere we want as if we had manually placed down each tile, 4) Allow us to then export that layout and upload it as a "Room Prefab", and 5) Allow users to download these "Room Prefabs", import them into their games, and then build these "Room Prefabs". So, then this would open up a new form of creative modding where people could make interesting rooms or kill boxes or interesting base layouts, and then share those things as "Room Prefabs". Also, it would allow players who frequently build their bases the same way everytime to save time by just placing a "Room Prefab". An example for me is that I like to have simple 5x5 bedrooms for colonists, and if I didn't have to manually place all the various furnishings, walls, etc... it would allow me to figure out room placement faster. This would also allow users who aren't very creative themselves and would love to have interesting looking bases but don't know how to do it themselves.

2] Include all the game textures with Core for easy access for modders. It would be simpler than making requests for them. If you don't desire to release all the textures for legal reasons, then how about just release the commonly used textures such as weapons, furnishings, and other things you might be willing to include.

3] Allow multiple objects to be keyed to a keybinding. When you hit this keybinding, it could bring up a smaller menu, which would allow you to choose which object you intended to build. As an example, in some mods it adds a lot of turrets. So, if all turrets were bound to the same keybinding, hitting that keybinding would bring up all the turrets assigned to that keybinding, allowing you to quickly place the desired turret without going through the Architect Menus. Basically, by doing this it adds an additional layer of compatibility as currently only a single object can be keyed to a single keybinding.

4] Explain in very clear terms what each AltitudeLayer can or cannot have in it, and which layers are available. If modders understood the AltitudeLayer(s) better we might be able to create interesting mods utilizing this to make a quasi 3D gameplay with limited "z" direction modding. An example, would be having a helicopter like gunship being on a different layer, than the ground layer, to allow it to bypass obstacles like walls, but not mountains. Another example could be where you could build special "high walls" that prevent mortars from passing through and instead the mortar collides with the wall instead; this would mean likely having a hole punched in your wall, but it would prevent shelling of your structures/colonists on the other side of that wall. Assuming of course that this is what Altitude layers does of course :)

5] Create a framework class that allows randomized destruction of terrain, within a set radius. This could be then adapted to create Earthquakes, Large Meteor Impact, Meteor Showers, Long-Range Mortar Bombardment, among other things.

6] Create a framework class that allows randomized creation of terrain, within a set radius. This could be then adapted to create Landslides, Avalanches, Spontaneous Growths of Plants, Underground Spring Explodes Creating a Lake, among other things.

Hmm, all for now.

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EDIT: More stuff; rather than double posting! These may or may not be things that are "general" at making modder's lives easier, but in the grand scheme of things (I think) it would make it easier on modders.
=====
7] Implement code for new damage types that do things that current damage types do not. This will allow modders more "tools" for creating interesting new weapons and effects. As it isn't currently possible (AFAIK) to add in completely new DamageTypes (can make modifications of existing DamageTypes or combine existing DamageTypes to make a new DamageType, but not make uniquely new DamageTypes), that's why I'm mentioning it here. A lot of these would also make defending a mountain fortress very hard as their intent is to "flush out" defenders from an entrenched position. Example new damage types:
- Blind = Temporarily causes complete blindness and applies a thought-based debuff "I'm Blind!". Would make a Flashbang quite possible.
- Concussed = Temporarily causes deafness and temporarily reduces action speed. Could be caused as an after-effect of being too close to an explosion, or say a Concussion Grenade.
- Fear = A damage type that is used to not deal damage, but to cause "Thought"-based debuffs instead. Could make for an interesting alternative to damage-dealing attacks to deal with Raiders.
- Mind Control = A temporary effect that causes the target to become friendly to your faction (ie if the raiders used it the target would be friendly to raiders), and suffers a large debuff to thoughts after the mind control wears off.
- Sickened = A damage type that is based on smell that causes targets to have an uncontrollable urge to vomit. And as well, you can't fire or do other actions while vomiting, it can be a potentially devastating damage type if used properly.
- Suppressed = A damage type that causes targets hit by automatic weapons to move slower, but also gain passive "cover". This damage type would be useful for users using Miniguns or LMGs to prevent melee attackers from closing the distance, and adding a new level of strategy to gameplay.
- Smoked = Produces a cloud of smoke that makes breathing difficult and obscures vision. Great for providing some concealment from snipers, or to "smoke out" defenders in tightly confined spaces.
- Gassed = Produces a cloud of harmless gas that causes targets not wearing protective headgear to fall into unconsciousness. Makes for a great way for clearing out defenders.
- Hallucinogenic = Makes a target hallucinate, causing temporary mental breakdown until the effects wear off, when the target acts as if nothing happened.

8] Implementing damage to Bionic Limbs and colonists use Repair Skill to "heal" the damage. This would help modders as balancing new prosthetics is difficult as a Bionic Limb is either fully healed or destroyed and thus the modder must figure out what is the right balance of crafting limbs or distributing limbs via traders. If Bionic Limbs could be repaired, then it could help by making investing in Bionic Limbs very useful especially if you have a character with high Repair skill. It would also help as natural limbs already have HP, and it would make sense that Bionic Limbs would have greater HP as they are built sturdier as well.

9] Making each slot on the body separate from eachother. This would allow for Shoulder bionics that don't fully replace the Arm (ie a Shoulder Mounted Railgun like in Quake 4), or Torso Bionics that don't fully replace the entire body. Thus by doing it like this, it allows modders much more flexibility in creating Bionics, as in this situation, a Colonist could have a Bionic Hand, Bionic Arm, and Bionic Shoulder, that each could provide different benefits or penalties. As it currently stands, it limits the modder's creativity and the amount of different kinds of Bionics.

10] Make modifications to the "Combat System" (this is more a request rather than helps modders; well it does, by unlocking a variety of new possibilities, but also adds more complexity to the game as well). I'd love modifications to the "Combat System" to add more strategic gameplay to Rimworld; a lot of the previous patches has focused on the simulation gameplay, and I hope either you, Tynan make changes to the "Combat System" or make it possible for us modders to do it. So the suggestions are:
- Add a Stance Option; Sniping or Standard or Spraying = When sniping, your rate of fire is decreased but your accuracy is greatly increased. When spraying, your rate of fire is increased but your accuracy is greatly decreased. Standard is a balance of rate of fire and accuracy, and is the default stance to choose from. This would allow a new strategic level to gameplay where in close quarters you could set colonists to Spray, and in long-sniping battles, set to Snipe, and somewhere in between, stay in Standard. It would allow modders a new system to tinker with and when creating new weapons it would help us in determining weapon stats.
- Implement a "Clear the Room" mechanic for anyone wielding a "Grenade" type weapon = Anyone with a grenade equipped can approach a door, squeeze it slightly ajar, and toss a grenade into the room. This would make battles in tight confined spaces very dangerous and make defending your mountain fortresses a lot more difficult, while at the same time, colonists can use the same tactic to toss grenades out onto targets on the other side of the door as well. It would help modders by making grenade type weapons very useful, from deadly Frags/Molotovs, to possibly nonlethal Flashbangs/Concussions. This tactic would only work on doors or non-powered auto doors for enemy grenadiers, and work would no matter what for colonists. It would encourage modders to take Grenadiers in mind when designing defenses, doors, walls, turrets, etc... as Grenadiers could pose a dangerous threat to colonists hiding behind a door, but in a confined space.
- Implement a "Breaching Charge" carried by "Raider Sappers". These can be placed on Walls or Doors, and have a 10 second fuse, can be disabled by colonists and if not disabled will often destroy the Wall or Door in a single blast (maybe not Blast Doors from GlitterTech mod, but I digress). Thus, it can provide an alternative way for sappers to get into your base by blowing up your main door, making defending a mountain fortress that much more difficult.
- Implement a system that causes explosions from grenades or rockets to cause the roof to collapse in the square that is the center of the explosion. This then would make explosive type weapons extremely dangerous to use in Mountain Fortresses or even within buildings. If the roof collapses in a Mountain, it creates Collapsed Rocks in that square, and can be cleared away as long as there is sufficient supports nearby as normal. If its a building, it just opens up the building to the outside, forcing a colonist to repair it when they have a chance. If opening the roof up for a building is too difficult then skip that. This would help modders in designing mods for helping defenders survive in Mountain Fortresses, such as creating new mods like Ceiling Supports that prevent cave-ins within the area, while in general making Mountain Fortresses that much harder to defend.

11] Implement a plastic/cosmetic surgery set of recipes that allows the removal of scars, old wounds, and other such "damage" to limbs/organs/body parts. I know there is a C# mod that does this, but it would be so much more elegant if implemented directly into the game; especially as then it could be adapted to work on removing the same kinds of "problems" from animals too!

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EDIT: More stuff!
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12] Break "death thoughts" into how the target died rather than just "saw friend die" or "saw enemy die". So, by doing this, a modder could set up a special death thought for if the target bled to death, was disemboweled by a chainsaw, eaten alive by an animal, or blew up with a grenade. This would be useful as different "deaths" could affect others in more or less demoralizing ways. Seeing your friend disemboweled by a chainsaw is sure to be more traumatic than seeing your friend shot in the head with a rifle and dying instantly.

13] Provide code to allow "ranged" weapon bionics, in addition to "melee" weapon bionics. So right now, we have a Scyther Claw as a "melee" bionic. If "ranged" weapon bionics were possible, then something like a "wrist laser" like those androids had in Star Wars 1/2 would be possible. A target thus "equipped" with a "ranged" weapon bionic would have this attack in addition to whatever weapon carried by them, thus allowing for multiple "ranged" weapon bionics being equipped. Currently the code doesn't allow "ranged" weapon bionics.

14] Create code that allows a colonist or raider to have two equipped weapons that can be swapped between eachother, depending on the situation. So, what this would allow is to have say a long-range weapon equipped with a short-range weapon or melee weapon for close quarters. In order to swap to the other weapon, it takes them a short period of time to perform the switch (not instantaneous to allow melee attackers a few hits before the target could switch to their melee weapon). This would open up many opportunities for interesting weapons and as many weapon packs introduce tons of new weapons but yet, colonists/raiders can only equip one item, it might lead to interesting weapon combinations resulting from this change.

All for now!
#19
Mods / Re: What would make the game easier to mod?
June 13, 2016, 03:44:15 AM
Other ways of making modding easier for modders:

1] Create "framework" classes that could be adapted by modders without writing any C# code. To illustrate what I mean by "framework" classes, I'll give an example. Have a framework class that could be adapted to allow modders to add in things like Animal Mounted Combat, Mobile Vehicles, or Stationary/Fixed but Movable Structures (ie a Construction Crane). Any of these would likely take a lot of time to create in C# code, but if there was a framework class that could be used to make these possible, then modders could add in these kinds of things. By having framework classes, it would allow a greater variety of different kinds of mods that could all share from a basic framework class without requiring C# knowledge. Currently, if you want to add in something that doesn't have some kind of code already existing, you need to do it in C#. By having different kinds of framework classes though, would allow more modders to be able to create interesting mods without ever needing a single line of C# code to do it.

So the above example could be a "mounted or piloting" framework class. Other kinds of framework classes could be: "incident" framework class, "animal armor or barding" framework class, or "starship component" framework class, that I can think off of the top of my head.

2] Provide an effective way of disabling or removing a gameplay feature. An example is for traits. Setting a trait to 0.0 probability, doesn't actually mean 0.0 probability; it can still show up its just super rare. So, if we wanted to disable a trait currently, we'd have to make other traits have much higher probability (generally above 1.0, though higher is better) to prevent traits from appearing. Its an inelegant approach but it works. Merely deleting things from a file also doesn't necessarily prevent the feature from occurring. But, if we had an easier way of disabling or removing a gameplay feature, that would be very useful for modding. Unless of course those things I mentioned are bugs, and setting to 0.0 is supposed to disable it.

3] Explain how to properly create comments in a file and how we should comment out code temporarily that we don't want. In C++, you can comment something by either using // or /* and */. However, I'm not entirely sure how to comment things in C# or XML, and thus knowing how to do this would be very useful, at least for me.

4] Provide code hooks for assisting in debugging purposes. In C++, you can in console-based programs use "cout" to display a message when that line of code is implemented. It could help us in finding specific logic errors in our xml, which may not be detected by the ingame debugger that generally only detects runtime errors.

Again, all for now.
#20
Well, based on the Bethesada conference it does look like major AAAs are keeping release dates to them selves till their announcement at E3. They announced a few new DLCs for Fallout 4 that come out in July as an example, that may eat up consumers monies in July.
#21
Mods / Re: What would make the game easier to mod?
June 12, 2016, 11:15:03 AM
Additional things that could make modding easier:

1] Create more "parent" classes of existing assets to make adding new assets easier. A good example of this is walls. Currently, a wall is just a "child" of BuildingBase. So, if a modder wants to add in a new wall, they have to figure out what should be included in the "parent" for their wall and what should be included in their "child". If a wall, in Core, had an additional level of inheritance, then adding in new walls would be significantly less difficult to perform (so ... BuildingBase->WallBase->Wall ... rather than ... BuildingBase->Wall).

Other assets that could benefit from this is = Personal Shields (Having a ShieldBase would make adding in new variants of shields a lot easier such as ones that could allow ranged firing from), Flowers (Having a FlowerBase would make adding in new flowers to be grown in flower pots a lot easier), Grenades (Having a GrenadeBase would make adding in new grenade-like projectiles or even grenade launchers to be a lot easier to be done), Beds, Animal Sleeping Spots, Chairs, Tables, Equipment Racks, Joy Objects (Having a JoyObjectBase would make adding in new Joy Objects to be much easier), Sun Lamps (These could inherit the LampBase, or could have their own Base, but either way adding in new kinds of Sun Lamps can be a chore without a better Parent Class), Attachment Things (ie ToolCabinet, VitalsMonitor, MultiAnalyzer, having a base parent for these would make adding in additional Attachment Things a lot easier), Power Generators (Having a base parent for power generation, would allow new types of power to be more easily added), Production (ie Butchers Table, Having a base parent for production tables, would allow new types of production tables to be more easily added), Sandbag (Having a base parent for sandbag-like defensive structures would make adding in new ones with a similar theme in mind to be much easier, ie like adding in obstacles that would slow an advance but provide almost no cover), Turrets, Traps, Ship Components (Having a parent class for things that can only be added to a ship, would allow adding new things for just the ship a lot easier), Temperature (having a base class for Temperature objects would allow adding in new forms of temperature creation/removal, without forcing modders to replace existing assets), Horns (ie ThrumboHorn, ElephantTusk, etc), Implants (Being able to specify slots that implants take up would be very useful and thus having an ImplantBase would be very useful; other interesting implants could be things like dermal plating, cochlar implants, etc), Luxury Foods (ie Chocolate, would make adding in new types of luxury meals a lot easier such as Coffee or Smoked Salmon), and Weather (being able to have a parent for weather could make adding in new kinds of weather to be a lot easier, such as Razorhail (ie Gears of War), or Raining Flaming Dogs (ie Oblivion Daedric Quest for Wabbajack).       

2] Allowing editing of specific "thing" objects that are currently not available to be modded. As an example, allow editing of natural stone walls or natural stone floors. Being able to modify their beauty would be very useful, or their hitpoints to make mining easier/harder would also be very useful.

3] Allowing editing of special effects produced by items. An example are "Neurotrainers". The base object is editable in Items_Exotic but, the effect produced by using a "Neurotrainer" cannot be edited. Being able to edit the effects produced by items, and by proxy, be able to create our own custom effects would be very useful. This is also useful for things like Implants, Drugs, and One-Use items (ie Psychic Lances).

4] Keep all parent classes important for a file in that file. An example is PersonalShields, inheriting from ApparelBase that isn't in Apparel_Shields.xml ... It makes modding a lot easier when all the information needed is found in the same file, rather than having to hunt for the base parent class in some other file. Alternatively, it might be better to include PersonalShields in Apparel_Various.xml, rather than have its own file to itself.

All I can think of at the moment.
#22
The other thing to consider for dates is the impact of E3. Since its happening this coming week, many games may be holding release dates close to their hearts until their announcement at E3. It might so happen some AAA publishers might announce a game will come into beta or come out in July and announce it during E3. Or maybe some indie-titles that show up at E3 might use E3 to drum up interest in them and they intend to release in July, but as they may be too small to be currently noticed, the interest raised at E3 might make them hot titles in July.

As an example, two games that may be at E3 and have release dates around July-ish are "Below" and "EITR", as they are both near completion and have release dates set for 2016, and both have been covered by major youtube channels; but a while ago got that coverage (Below got covered by TotalBiscuit and EITR by VaatiVidya). If they showed up at E3, and both released in July, you might have a problem, as those youtube channels will likely drum up more support for them.

Or maybe, the release date of the new PS4 / XBoxOne might come out in July, announced at E3. That would also eat a hole in consumer's pockets.

My advice, is watch E3, and see if any really hyped up Indie titles may be releasing in July, and choose a release date based on these indie titles.
#23
Mods / Re: What would make the game easier to mod?
June 12, 2016, 03:49:00 AM
@Tynan;
An interesting question. Having modded several different kinds of games from simple text-editor edits, to more complicated modding with toolsets, I'd like to weigh in on this discussion. I hope the stuff hasn't been already discussed by someone else, but I don't generally have tons of time on my hands these days to read tons of forum posts. Anywho...

1] Keep all "parent" classes at the top of each XML file. This way, a modder can easily figure out which groups of code are the "parent" and which are the "children". In some files, I can find "parent" code groups in the middle of the file.

2] Provide a list of all possible code that can be used in a parent or child. As an example, if you want to create a new trait, and want to restrict it so that only those who can do all kinds of skills, then you would need to know what are the names of the code lines that would be needed to allow cleaning, hauling, firefighting, etc...

This could be done in a "template" file that is a common occurrence in modding for older titles, with comments next to each code line explaining what they do, expected value ranges for numbers (ie Flammability is 0 to 1.0, and shouldn't be - values) and any specific order in placement within a code group (ie the StatBases might have to precede Costs; not sure on that but that is an example). Having a "template" would help to ease users into modding.

3] Provide documentation on how to add in sample items. So, as an example, have documentation on how to add a surgery option to add in a bionic brain. List of all the files that would need to be modified to do this. List off all the code needed to be added and to which files. Having documentation on how to add in sample items, would make modding a lot easier. That way a modder could have a "checklist" of what files they need to address to add in their item.

Sample items that really could use documentation (that I found hard to learn) are: Add a new Surgery, Add a new Storyteller, Add a new recipe, Add a new Joy Activity, Add a new Resource, Add a new Plant, and Add a new Animal. There is obviously more, but those are a few things that documentation could be really helpful for.

4] Make sure XML files are all "orderly" and neat. I don't know if the problem is just on my end, but editing some files, it seems like all the code is bunched up and nearly impossible to read without formatting it correctly with line breaks, spacing, and tabbing. When it is bunched up its hard to tell where one code group starts and another ends.

5] Give a list of all the "hidden" "parent" classes. What I mean by this is that in some files I see code using a parent class that isn't defined in any of the XML files. Knowing what is or isn't in these "hidden" "parent" classes, for inheritance purposes, would be very useful to modders. Then again, I may be completely wrong and there aren't any "hidden" "parent" classes, and if that is the case, my apologies.

6] If you wanted to do the documentation approach (not many check documentation so may be waste of time) the best things that could be in documentation would be:
- Samples on how to create specific items
- Templates on what code can be in a class and what cannot
- A list of things not exposed to modding and why
- A list of suggested books/online tutorials teaching C#

7] A conflicts checker in the mod loading interface, that could highlight which files have conflicts with eachother to help troubleshooting of mods.

8] Add in sample resources that are present in the game, but could be used by modders to avoid resource conflicts. As an example, add in Copper for modders to use, but isn't present in the base game as a resource that can be found. But, by having these sample resources available, it might cut down on conflicts as they'd use this resource rather than create their own. Common materials that might interest modders as resources are: Copper, Silicon, and Sand Piles.

9] Expose more of the code base to modders, providing more "hooks" for mods, requiring less C# to perform tasks. It may seem that making more code available would make things more confusing, and in some ways it might, but at the same time it reduces the amount of game modding knowledge that is required to accomplish something. The other benefit to exposing more code is that it will allow, you Tynan, to have more time in larger system creation and allow modders to add in the content. Code that I personally would love access to (that others may like as well) is:
- Shooting Mechanics = having access to the calculation that controls the hit/miss for colonists with weapons and enemies with weapons. If this isn't something you'd want to do, then you could indirectly provide access to the calculation by exposing the variables that control hit/miss chances for light levels, hit/miss chances for range, and allowing players to add in an increase firing speed based on skill level; a skilled shooter in theory should be more accurate and know how to reload their weapon faster.
- Experience Mechanics = being able to control how much experience each activity provides would be useful to modders. Yes, we can modify how much of an effect a high skill level provides, but we don't control how much experience a colonist or enemy gains for mining, growing, or shooting. Finally, being able to control how fast experience is lost per second based on skill level.
- Skill System = being able to add in new skills and add them to the skill interface (I'm not sure if this is possible right now, as I've never tried to add in new skills myself). Additionally, being able to break existing skills into sub-skills. So instead of having just "Shooting" skill, a modder could have a Neolithic Skill, a Small Arms Skill, and a Heavy Weapons skill, with different benefits/penalties based on skill level, and covers a specific set of items. Thus, you could have highly skilled gunslingers, that aren't good at rifles, but deadly with pistols.
- Extensive Surgery System = there is already an extensive health system, but there isn't an extensive system for addressing those various maladies. I've seen some modders add in animal surgeries, I've seen some do C# based scar removal surgeries, and I've seen some offer full bionic organs. However, it would be more ideal if the game itself allowed these kinds of things out of box rather than have modders "fix" the lack of these things for the game. The big problem is that it requires a lot of effort to add in a single surgery, and if you miss one of the files for it, the surgery doesn't work, and often the game won't tell you why it isn't working, unlike other forms of modding. If doing a full surgery system isn't ideal, then provide example samples that shows how to add bone repair, how to add in organ surgery/replacement, how to add in implants, how to repair scars or old wounds, and how to do all these things on animals as well. My biggest complaint with modding is that trying to do any of these things is extremely hard, extremely confusing, and many things require C# knowledge to achieve.
- Raid Mechanics = controlling how soon raiders arrive, how many raiders come, if they come with/without war beasts (ie Wargs), how many come with heavy weapons, small arms, or melee weapons, controlling how often you get raids, controlling which factions can arrive, what conditions they will start raiding at and controlling how different raid factions interact with eachother when two raids occur at the same time. Often times raids feel unfair, and being able to control how raids work at a fundamental level will allow for many interesting mods. A big problem with adding in new factions is the inability to control when they start raiding your settlement; ie in GlitterTech you are just as likely to be hit by a regular faction as you are to be hit by the Commando faction and getting the Commando faction early game is generally an instant kill.
- Map Generation Options = being able to control land generation such as mountains, hills, ruins, insect hives, and more would be very useful. Being able to litter the planet with tons of ruins or no ruins. Being able to control how many insect hives there are, or if you will find any. Being able to control if you have a single huge mountain range, or several smaller ones or a giant caveworld type level. The options available to users to do map generation is very sparse, and having greater access to map generation would be incredibly useful.
- Incident Controls = being able to add in your own custom incidents and edit the existing incidents. Being able to control what items can or can't be found in a resource pod drop would be useful. Being able to control what animals a psychic event affects would be useful.
- Item Slot System = being able to carry weapons, tools, and accessories on pawns would be very useful. Have a "hand" system where you can equip an item (if small enough) in each hand and use both items. This could allow for dual-wielding of weapons, using physical shields (ie shield blocks), or two-handing a one-handed object for a better bonus.   
- Expose Stuff System = as an example, all animals will produce meat and fur/skin of some kind. However, one cannot control the various stats of each type of meat, fur or skin. Some fur/skin isn't flammable, while others are. Being able to control the stats of each stuff item produced by things that are currently not available to editing would be useful. The most obvious ones are the animal byproducts of butchering. Other examples are = smelting weapons (say you wanted less metal to be produced from swords and more from maces) or salvaging clothing (something that currently isn't available).

I'd still love to see the game be the best it can be, and looking forward to Steam Release. However, making modding easier, more accessible to new users, and exposing more of the codebase will allow more and better mods to be released giving you Tynan, more time to spend interacting with fans, bug fixing, and creating entire new systems while modders work on adding more content to the game. I hope that some of the above suggestions might get implemented, and will check back later for any replies.
#24
Unfinished / Re: [TEXTURE] Advanced Power Armor
May 29, 2016, 03:35:38 AM
I always loved the Advanced Power Armor from Navarro in Fallout 2. Thanks for making a texture inspired by it!
#25
Time Related Stuff:

If you have changed how days/seasons work, will it affect duration based calamities such as:

Eclipse, Solar Flare, or Toxic Fallout?

If you have changed how days/seasons work, will it affect how often raids occur, as I believe the number of raids is based on days passed?

If you have changed how days/seasons work, then Mechanoids may arrive sooner or later; believe by default you start seeing raids of them after day 90.
#26
DE Surgeries has a way to "cure" various broken bones, old wounds, and damaged organs. I "attempted" doing the same in my own game, and it didn't work at all. So, I was wondering if the mod developer could build these "cures" into this mod, for animals. Its hard to euthanize that poor war pet with a serious brain injury, and this is the only mod I could find that allows for some surgeries on animals. Thoughts?
#27
Awesome mod. Wondering, if this could also be done for animal surgeries? (ie with A Dog Said... mod)
#28
General Discussion / Re: Extremely low temperatures
January 27, 2016, 07:41:21 PM
There is a mod that can push it that low for you. Global Temperatures by Latta or something, and I've seen on a map that says it is -80, go as low as -110 regularly with the mod active.

Found a link = https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=11171.msg111227#msg111227
Although it seems to say its for an older version of the game, it seems to work fine for me on Alpha 12d.
#29
Mods / Re: Necromorphs
January 26, 2016, 09:41:29 PM
I remember in the earlier alphas someone made a Zombie mod that turned dead colonists into more Zombies. Something similar could be done here, but the question is is there any Zombie mods for Alpha 12d?
#30
Releases / Re: [A12d] Glitter Tech v1.0
January 24, 2016, 11:38:17 PM
I might suggest for future versions (as I made the modifications myself in my own version), to add recipes for:
- Cybernetic Parts:
1) Cybernetic Brain (Brain injuries encourage the player to Euthanize the one affected and thus are heavily needed)
2) Cybernetic Nose (Getting the Nose blown off is currently unrepairable and I do believe it affects Social interactions)
3) Cybernetic Scar Removal (Getting a Scar on the Torso really sucks, and unfortunately if you create a Torso replacement part it replaces EVERYTHING and prevents further cybernetics)
4) Cybernetic Bone Replacements (If something gets blown off for arms or legs, just replace them, but if you lose a rib, or get a skull damaged, these cannot be replaced)

- Crafting Advanced Weapons: (Maybe give them as recipes at the Robotic Assembler)
1) EMRG; Its needed for the turrets, so why can't you craft them?
2) OC Rifle and OC Pistol

- Crafting Advanced Armors: (Maybe give them as recipes at the Matter Fabricator)
1) Speed Suits / Fiber Skin Suit (which btw have the same description but yet have wildly different benefits)
2) Nano Suits
3) Nano Helms
4) Reactive Suits

- Recipes for Creating Metals
1) Recipe to Create Gold = Needed for Computer Circuits
2) Recipe to Create Uranium = Needed for Alpha/Beta Poly and other things
3) Recipe to Create Silver = Needed to be able to purchase all that Titanium and other items off Black Market Traders

- New Items
1) Speed / Fiber Pants = Suits cover the shirt area, so why not create something to cover the leg area... or were suits supposed to cover legs as well?
2) Craftable Cybernetic Body Parts
3) Cannister Cannon = The weapon used by the Cannister Turret
4) Other Turrets = Improvised Mechanoid Turrets (Minigun, Flame Cannon, Lancer, and Charge Cannon); If you can reprogram the mechanoids, why can't you use their weapons to make improvised turrets?
5) Glitter World Joy Items = Omni-Consoles (ie a Console to rule them all and plays all games), 8K 3D HDTVs, Virtual Reality Booths, and other futuristic joy-related things that you could buy from a Black Market Trader and install them (similar to how you buy a CRT TV from an Exotic Trader)
6) Blast Walls = Blast Doors are great, but as many know, even if the Door is super strong, if the walls aren't equally strong, they'll just blow a hole through your weaker walls and ignore the door. So having some Blast Walls to go with a Blast Door would be a good idea.
7) Embrasures; Your Shield idea is good, but if you could make it so that it acted more like a Wall (ie held up ceilings and prevented movement) while still being able to fire through them, that would make them much better defenses.
8) Blast Furnace Walls = When I have a large supply of corpses, I generally fill them in a room with non-flammable walls, and a forbiddable door (which btw, your Blast Doors are not Forbiddable so fix that :)). Then I get a Molotov Cocktail and throw it inside. Since the bodies are all flammable, and the walls aren't, and its closed in, it gets REALLY hot inside VERY fast. Once the interior temperature reaches 300+, it has reached critical mass and everything starts burning. It keeps burning until all the corpses are gone and the temperature reaches maximum of 2000. However, I can't build this into my base as anything on the other side of the walls also gets quite hot. Now, what I'd like is to have some Glitterworld-type walls that are Non-Flammable and Prevent Heat from leaving the Room.
9) Salvage OC Tanks = I'd love to be able to salvage an OC Tank and either man a person inside it to attack enemies or in the very least rip the main gun off it and use it to build a Turret.
10) Grenade Launcher = Fires either Incendiaries or Explosive Grenades at decent distances. Effectively a Molotov or Frag Grenade that is shot, rather than thrown. Also make it so that you can shoot the ground with it, so that I could use it to light my large furnace rather than use a Molotov.
11) Create some more stuff that require Alpha Poly or Beta Poly Exclusively

Black Market Trader Suggestions:
- Stock Alpha Poly and Beta Poly; If average colony settlers can make it, why don't these Traders stock supplies of it?
- Always stock at least 1 Nano Helm, 1 Nano Suit, 1 Reactive Suit and 1 Either Speed Skin or Fibre Skin Suit
- Always stock at least 1 EMRG; It is a pain to get a Black Market Trader and for it to not have any EMRGs.
- Always stock some packaged Lavish Meals from Glitter Worlds
- Always stock some Glitterworld Medicine from Glitter Worlds
- Always stock some AI Persona Cores

General Suggestions:
- Make your added lights non-flammable.
- Make your advanced crafting stations Stuff-able, so that they could benefit from Alpha Poly or Beta Poly construction.

Fixes:
- Blast Doors need to be Forbiddable like normal doors or colonists might use them in the heat of battle when you don't want them to.
- Even if this is the only faction mod active, I only ever see Orion Corps/Tanks or those guys wearing Nano Suits. I never see the other faction, and have played games that have lasted for an entire ingame year, in case they only spawn after 90+ days or something. Well, they don't spawn.