[A15] Rage and Zonk (non-lethal weapon mod)

[Thundercraft]

Adds two safely non-lethal weapons:

• Rage gun: Smithing requires 4 Medikits, among other resources. Darted targets will go berserk. Enraged, they will charge in as fast as their legs will carry them. They will take the shortest path to pummel the shooter, even if it means bashing down the nearest door. It inflicts a lot of pain. A few shots should be enough put the enemy into shock.


• Zonk gun: Smithing requires 3 Yayo and 2 Neutroamine, among other resources. Darted targets will be doped into a drugged daze. They will become sluggish, barely able to shoot, and soon wander around aimlessly. Before long, they may start casting off their clothes or gear.

For the sake of balance, these guns have a rather poor accuracy and slow fire rate.
Maximum range is a bit less than the survival rifle (32 vs 37).

From my testing, these seem to have an extremely low mortality rate - less that 5%, I believe. In other words, they seem to bypass the game's random death mechanic.

Download for A16:

• Subscribe to the A16 version via Steam
• Dropbox download for offline / nonDRM use

Download for A15:

• Subscribe to the A15 version via Steam
• Download A15 version via Mediafire

To Clarify What These Weapons Can and Can't Do:

These weapons are intended to either (a) strategically make raids a bit more manageable or (b) make a target easier to capture. And I think they're fun to use.

Instead of sensibly standing behind cover and shooting, targets hit with Rage will often blindly run after whoever shot them. Berserked, they will charge via the shortest path, running through your gauntlet of defenses. However, they will try to bash through the nearest door to get to the shooter instead of taking the long path (where you've probably placed traps). More importantly, they will usually (most of the time, but not always) try to melee instead of shoot.

The Zonk gun will make a target mostly harmless. But, it does not make them capturable as such. Also, keep this in mind: Even after the target starts wandering aimlessly, if a colonist stands next to them, the Zonked are still likely to melee an enemy.

If your goal is capture, then I'd recommend the Rage Gun. It's designed not to kill, but it inflicts a lot of pain. About 3 to 4 hits should push their pain to "Extreme" and have them drop. Though, I find that if I shoot a target with Rage a couple times first, before they wander into my traps, the added pain from the traps will make them drop - assuming the traps don't hit a vital organ (which is quite possible).

Or, after being Zonked, you could down them with the Stun Gun mod (or the Blowgun mod). Though, the Stun Gun is melee range. And the Blowgun requires 2 solid hits to down someone and has such awful accuracy (and range) that it will probably take at least 7 or 8 shots. But, if they're Zonked first, they'd be sitting ducks!

Do note: After either the Berserked or Zonked wears off, the victim will experience "Catharsis", which gives a significant buff to mood that lasts for over a day. If the victim is captured before it wears off, the resulting positive mood may make recruitment a bit easier.

If that's still not easy enough or non-lethal enough for you, perhaps you'd be interested in the No random death mod?

Saved Games & Precautions:

This mod should work with saved games. I've done extensive testing with my saves. Though, it's always wise to keep a backup save before trying new mods. Also, I suggest quitting and restarting after activating or deactivating any mods.

Known Issues and Compatibility:

NOTE: Sadly, it is not effective to hit a target with Zonk, first, and then down them with the Rage gun. In my tests, once they've been subjected to Zonk, shots from the Rage gun will no longer bypass the random death mechanic. Another words: After being Zonked, each Rage shot will have a strong chance of killing.

This should be compatible with nearly everything. I have many dozens of mods installed and I've not encountered a mod conflict. And I was careful in how I coded it. But please report any you may find.

A Request of Users:

Please, do report any issues or balance concerns. I've spent many hours testing it. But I could not test for every mod compatibility or contingency. Don't hesitate to make a suggestion. I am willing to adjust the performance of each if I get reports that they seem over or under-powered.

Credits:

Special thanks to:

• Sahothron for the inspiration that the Tranq Gun mod provided me. (All my files are my own or modified from the core game.)
• johnhain, DasWortgewand, and pixabay for the cool background images used for the logo.

[Thundercraft]

A note to all you modders out there:

This mod proves that we can make non-lethal weapons with an extremely low mortality rate by having the projectile induce a Mental State (and only a Mental State). Another words, I believe that I've discovered a loophole that allows us to bypass the roughly 67% random death mechanic - even without a .dll.

There are limitations and caveats, though:

• To ensure a low mortality rate, I have it inflict 1 damage (1 for guns, because they must do at least 1 point, melee can be 0) and certain tags to reduce lethality, such as setting <harmsHealth>, <makesBlood>, and <battleWound> to false.
• AFAIK: The Mental State will not always initiate with the first shot. It seems to, most of the time, but not always.
• I wanted the Mental State to start instantly, so I set the <mtbDays> tag to 0. But this would cause an error since the game does not like that. The best I could do is set it to 0.001. And there is often a small delay before it starts.
• For a Hediff which induces a Mental State, you can not also add an effect to reduce their Consciousness level. If you do, then it will no longer induce the Mental State. More importantly, that Hediff will no longer bypass the random death mechanic. (By my testing, anyway.)
• Once a target has been inflicted with a Mental State, they are immune to other Mental States until it wears off. Moreover, other types of Mental State projectiles will no longer bypass the random death mechanic. For example: After being inflicted with WanderPsychotic, shooting projectiles with Berserk will likely (or at least eventually) kill.
• Side effect: After the Mental State wears off, the victim will experience "Cathersis", which gives a significant buff to mood that lasts for over a day. I suspect that if the victim is captured before it wears off, the resulting positive mood may make recruitment a bit easier.

[Thundercraft]

It's been about 3 days and I haven't received much feedback. So, I've added a poll (top of the OP) to ask about user satisfaction with the Rage gun, since that's the one I'm uncertain about in terms of balance.

Please, before unsubscribing or deleting, I ask that you consider voting to let me know how to improve the Rage gun (or maybe post a short note).

[michal3588]

Maybe it's because tinyupload link doesn't seem to work . Could you update download?

[leestriter]

Maybe it's because tinyupload link doesn't seem to work . Could you update download?

this

[leestriter]

Needs link update

[Thundercraft]

Sorry about that. Apparently, TinyUpload is not reliable.

The A16 download is now hosted by Dropbox. Please let me know if there are any further issues.

[asquirrel]

Cool mods.  Do you have anything that is good for subduing prisoners or pawns that have gone berserk?  Something like a tazer mod (looks like the one you linked is only A15).  You could have two types.  A stun baton type and then a shooting stun gun.  Or a knockout gas grenade.  I hate having to melee my pawns or escapees and risk stomping them to death.  Better than shooting them with bullets or energy weapons though.