[B18] ARMORY ENHANCED (Formerly LewisDTC's Weapon Expansion)

Started by LewisDTC, December 25, 2017, 09:04:32 PM

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LewisDTC


(Formerly LewisDTC's Weapon Expansion)

Long time no see Rimworlders. So I got back into Rimworld, got my ass into gear and rebuilt my weapon expansion from the ground up for B18. It took some figuring things out, some luck and a whole lot of trial and error: but here it is with a swanky new name: ARMORY ENHANCED.

What does this mod do?
Armory Enhanced was created with a single goal in mind: to preserve the feeling and aesthetic of Rimworld while adding new and interesting weapons into the game. This mod adds a whole lot of new weapons built into a tiered progression system, so as your colony becomes more advanced, so does it's armory.

This mod doesn't aim for ultra realism. It doesn't add 'real world' guns or hundreds of weapon variations with no real distinction. It creates a 6-tier system for both firearms and melee weapons along with relevant research projects to unlock them. All images are either drawn from scratch by myself or consist of heavily edited Rimworld stock images. Most are 128x128 to give them a little extra clarity.


Firearms

Early Firearms
Early Firearms involve flintlock and similar weapons. With the 'Early Blackpowder Weapons' technology you will be able to craft these with relative ease at any crafting spot. Some tribal societies have also progressed this far, and you might find these types of weapon in the hands of their chieftains or other elite warriors.


Simple Ballistics
Unlocked with the 'Gunsmithing' technology as usual, these guns are the most basic you can craft at the machining table. Pirates and other Rimworld colonies will often be found wielding these.

Automatic Ballistics
With the 'Blowback Operation' technology, automatic firearms are developed. These are typically lighter and faster than their less advanced variants, though sometimes pay for this with minor penalties to their damage and accuracy. Wealthier Pirates and colonies will often be found wielding these as well.

Electromagnetic 'Gauss' Weapons
Crafted at the new 'Advanced Machining Table' after 'Electromagnetic Weapons' have been researched, Gauss weapons are heavy and slow, but deliver massive stopping power. These are considered advanced guns, and will be carried by more capable enemies and allies.


Directed Energy Weapons
More commonly known as Lasers, Directed Energy Weapons are able to deliver sustained bursts of firepower without sacrificing accuracy. They deal heat damage, which bypasses some conventional armors. These are also considered advanced guns, and will be carried by more capable friends and foes.


Railgun Weaponry
Improving on Gauss technology with the 'Rail Weapons' research, Railguns trade the raw damage of Gauss weapons for reduced weight and exceptional accuracy. Railguns are considered elite firearms, and will sometimes be carried by those with access to such weapons.


Microfield-Contained Superheated Plasma Weaponry
Plasma weapons are a refinement on Laser weapons: dedicated to dealing raw damage. They are cumbersome, inaccurate and fire slow projectiles, but each shot has a small blast radius and can potentially deal significant damage. Plasma guns are also considered to be elite firearms, and will sometimes be carried by those meriting such equipment.


Mag-Charge Weapons
Only after researching both Rail and Plasma technology will you be able to research Mag-Charge Firearms. These weapons combine technologies to deliver focused, deadly firepower with superior speed and precision. Mag-Charge weapons are the final tier of elite firearms, and be carried only by elite enemies with the wealth to afford such rare weapons.



Melee Weapons

The Humble Club
A cudgel, a stick, a lump of stone barely shaped into a weapon. The club is the most primitive weapon - crafted quickly and cheaply at a crafting spot. This is the only weapon in it's tier.


Primitive Weapons
Consisting of the Knife, the Hatchet, the Warclub, the Ikwa and the Spear, these weapons are crafted at the crafting spot with significantly more time and effort than the simple club. They are more damaging, and some have some utility in activities other than war.


Simple Forged Weapons
Unlocked alongside the forge as usual, these weapons are refined to perform their specific purpose with greater efficiency. They include the Dagger, the Shortsword, the Axe, the Pickaxe, the Mace and the Claw.


Advanced Forged Weapons
Requiring the new 'Advanced Smithing Techniques' research, these weapons are further improved designes of existing patterns: the Longsword, the Battleaxe, the Greatmace, the Glaive and the Talon.


Vibroweapons
Requiring further research and access to a machining table, Vibroweapons are crafted from Components and Steel and included blades which vibrate at exeptional frequencies to further enhance their cutting power. They include the Vibroknife, the Vibrosword, the Vibroaxe and the Vibrolance.
(Animated artwork: not yet updated - still 64x64)

Power Weapons
The pinnacle of melee weaponry - Power weapons are crafted at the Advanced Machining Table after being researched. They are expensive and slow the wielder down, but pack enough punch to take down an unarmored target in a single strike.
(Animated artwork: not yet updated - still 64x64)


Other Weapons

There are a handful of other weapons hidden away inside this mod as well - though rather than list them all here, you will need to discover them for yourself!


What is the state of the mod?
V0.9b Is my 'Early Release Candidate' build: I've done some testing and it seems to hold together well enough: raiders appear with the right equipment when they should, weapons don't fire flaming elephants and so on... though I have yet to extensively test it yet and some minor work needs doing (some artwork is still only 64x64 for example).

You can download this HERE

As a request: I would ask that if anyone finds a bug, to let me know so I can squish it promptly. That, and to leave me some feedback. Did you like it? Did you not? Most importantly - why? Getting feedback lets me know that there are people using this, and keeps me motivated to continue development.


Changelog
V0.9b: Second release candidate. Light playtesting performed. Flintlock weapons artwork significantly improved. Some art still not updated to 128x128 (mainly Power Weapons and Vibroweapons).
V0.9a: First release candidate. Minimal testing performed to quash critical errors - some art not updated to 128x128.



Next Update...
...will definitely include the following:
- Slight rebalancing of statistics
- Turrets!


...will probably include the following:
- Updated Vibroweapon artwork
- Updated Power weapon artwork

...will possibly include the following:
- A new weapon class (Shock Weapons)
- a puppy! (probably not...)


Licence
Don't steal stuff. It's pretty simple. If you want to craft a mod based off this, go for it - that's pretty cool! Just... don't go bundling my mod (or it's assets) up with your own. And don't just go ripping my assets either: I work hard on those things! If in doubt - ask! I'm pretty protective of my work but I see myself as a reasonable kind of guy.

This extends to users of scummy Russian sites (*cough* http://lttlword.ru/rimworld-mod-dtc-weapons-expansions *cough*) trying to fill my stuff with malware and pass it off as your own. Seriously guys? C'mon, you don't even know what DTC stands for...

The above being said however, I went AWOL once and chances are I might again in the future. If that happens, here's my official authorization for somebody to pick the thing up, dust it off and continue updating and developing it for future versions of Rimworld, as long as I'm not around.

ludeon.com is currently the only place for this mod to be located, and I would like to keep it that way - at least for the time being.

RyanRim

Holy heck, I remember your weapon mod from A16. Very nice textures now.

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LewisDTC

Many thanks!

Yeah, I feel that the art is a significant step forward from what I had before - I've been working on getting the quality up across the board, all while trying to keep withing the classic Rimworld asthetic. Some stuff still needs updating (most of the flintlock stuff is still only 64x64 for example) but generally those haven't been redone yet because they still look pretty nice at those resolutions.

Harry_Dicks

This mod looks fantastic. I wanted to have a few more choice weapons, that are actually distinct, and this looks like it's right up my alley! I just think it is a bit silly to have say, 15 different kinds of semi-auto pistols that all are essentially the same thing with maybe a few percentage points difference in stats.

Quick question - do you have an estimate or anything to the amount of different weapons added in each category? Say, 10 melee, 10 ranged, or something?

Thanks for all of your hard work, hope you had a merry Christmas, and I hope you have a happy New Year as well!

LewisDTC

In total, I think there are a total of about... 30 guns and 20 melee weapons? Then there's 5 non-firearm ranged weapons and a flamethrower too. That's a very rough guess: I'm not at my pc at the minute.

RyanRim

Could the pickaxe give a mining speed modifier if equipped? I'm really looking forward to it, seems legit  ;D

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Chicken Plucker

Hey there Lewis, loving the fallout vibe of some of these, great job on those textures

LewisDTC

Heh, yeah the Gauss weapons were initially inspired pretty heavily by the fallout 4 Gauss rifle, then mixed and modified. I had a lot of fun with them.

As for stat benefits - they are already there! Axes give a benefit to plant cutting with knives giving a smaller bonus, and the pickaxe gives a bonus to mining with other blunt weapons providing a smaller bonus.

---------------

Minor update: significantly improved the appearance of Flintlock weapons. Also added detailed info to the OP if anyone fancies a bit more info on the mod now.

Harry_Dicks

Great job with the pics in the OP, it looks very nice. I just realized one thing I've been missing this whole time that your mod will help with - tools for jobs. It would be great if someone could make a mod to interact with something like Simple Sidearms, so that pawns could automatically swap to any carried tool for a specific job they might be going to do. Example have some of your plant cutters carry axes for when they chop wood, or a pickaxe for when they mine, a baton while wardening, etc. At least with the tools you provided I think I can have them set as sidearms, and just manually equip them. Thanks for all of your hard work!

RyanRim

Quote from: Harry_Dicks on December 27, 2017, 08:17:58 PM
It would be great if someone could make a mod to interact with something like Simple Sidearms, so that pawns could automatically swap to any carried tool for a specific job they might be going to do. Example have some of your plant cutters carry axes for when they chop wood, or a pickaxe for when they mine, a baton while wardening, etc. At least with the tools you provided I think I can have them set as sidearms, and just manually equip them. Thanks for all of your hard work!

I think the Right Tool for the Right Job mod did something like that, although the tools still acted like weapons with perks (equipped but still). Most were cluttery.

Im personally so looking forward to the pickaxe mining boost.

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Harry_Dicks

Definitely looking forward to the mining boost! Mid-late game, deep in my mountain base I have a quarry (set to infinite to never run out) that my miners and builder bots can work at when there is nothing else to mine. And it doesn't matter what type of chunks they get, because I now also have the block convert mod. Slate flagstone floors for all of my hallways now! 8)

And I still haven't even gotten around to trying out the deep ore/omni drilling yet!

LewisDTC

So, I've been playtesting this and so far... nothing of concern. Some weapons showed up a little earlier than I expected (a visitor offered to sell my a laser rifle in my first couple of weeks) but these seem to be isolated instances: just the random nature of Rimworld I guess.I'm pretty astounded that I managed to not screw up anything major as far as I have been able to tell: but it's a good thing!

In the full V1.0 release I'm going to fine tune the balance, add a couple of extra weapons (hopefully) and start working on adding turrets based on each of the more advanced tiers: Gauss, Laser, Rail, Plasma and Charge.

The intention when I'm fully finished with this is to have weapons gradually increase in power from tier to tier, but without overshadowing earlier tiers to such a point where it's pointless fighting back against enemies armed with better guns than you. To this end, while higher tiers should have better stats on average, each is given a specific purpose: for example, Gauss Weapons deal heavy damage, Laser weapons sustain higher rates of fire and so on.

As such, turrets will follow a similar structure: the Rail turret will fire powerful, long range shots similar to those fired by the Rail Lance, while Plasma turrets will have limited range and poor accuracy but be capable of suppressing an area in front of them with ease.

I also hope to redo the graphics for the Vibro and Power weapons in 128x128 but honestly, their art already looks pretty nice in 64x64 so it's a low priority.

--- UPDATE / WIP ---

Hacked together some nice looking turrets based off existing heavy weapons: the Machine Gun turret (Replaces the standard Improvised Turret), The Minigun Turret, The Gauss Cannon Turret and the Lance Turret.


SpaceDorf

Maxim 1   : Pillage, then burn
Maxim 37 : There is no overkill. There is only open fire and reload.
Rule 34 of Rimworld :There is a mod for that.
Avatar Made by Chickenplucker

Ashnal

Love your work Lewis. I used to play A16 with your weapons all the time. I eagerly await the full release.

I definitely approve of balance that makes the new weapons only a little better than vanilla. Power increases can be fun, but due to the random nature of Rimworld, lopsided tech fights occur and need to be winnable for either side depending on tactics and not just tech.

props