[WIP] MLAS Weapons pack v.??? Railguns, photocasters, & Back from the dead!

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WhiteWeasel
Posts: 248
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:36 am

[WIP] MLAS Weapons pack v.??? Railguns, photocasters, & Back from the dead!

Postby WhiteWeasel » Fri Feb 27, 2015 4:58 am

Musteline Aerospace presents:

My first (big) FTL mod!

So far everything is wip. Namely the weapons have their functionality down, but I have to fine tune balance and add custom sprites. I'd like to get critique/feedback/suggestions for improvement on my creations. I hear Captain's edition adds a lot of weapons so I'd like to see how mine compare. I know I don't intend for this mod to be used with CE, but I'd like to not make weapons in already filled niches. It would probably help if I got into modding a year or two earlier. :?

Key:
Green Items are weapons that are largely complete. IE sprited, custom audio, balanced, etc... They can still be subject to minor tweaks though.
Yellow Items are partially implemented weapons. Usually they are "functional", has it's own projectile or audio but missing something like a custom weapon sprite. Subject to large balance changes.
Red Items are dummied out stuff. Usually because it is too close to another weapon in niche. Or that I have stopped working on it.

BEAMS
ImageScalpel beam
The scalpel beam is a low power beam weapon that is an improvement over the mini beam and available in stores. Very common. It has a low breach chance and a ever so slightly longer beam. It has an altered mini beam sprite.
ImageStun Beam
Demonstration (with another dummied out weapon BTW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgxyjASX1us
The stun beam is a harmless beam that is very cheap and fast to use. It has a high chance of stun and is intended to interfere with enemy crew repairs. Also the first weapon I have sprited, now with a revised sprite!
ImageMedi Beam
Unfortunately, beams are the only weapon that cannot heal people when given negative persdamage. However I'm not going to let a good sprite go to waste. Perhaps give it to a medical ship NPC, and/or give it blue events. Currently Rarity 0 due to being useless.

LASERS:
ImageFast Recharge Laser
Demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vZ_ypTCR8M
Does what it says on the tin. Two power for a 4-second single action laser. Can't breach shields on it's own, but is excellent at suppressing fire. Still debating it's balance. It's quite good, might be a rarity 0 item. (Either starting weapon or relegated to be a quest reward.) My very first modded item, now with it own sprite. It even twinkles when it's charged. :mrgreen:

RAILGUNS
Demonstration (Though a bit dated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G3J8ELdHgI

Technically lasers, but I feel though they are functionally different enough to be in their own class. A railgun fires a high speed projectile with varying degrees of shield piercing, one for the lighter models, and two for the big boys. Railguns sport longer cooldowns and prefer a singular, high-damage projectile than their burst laser counterparts. While good early on, they are particularly vulnerable to ships with high evasion as their damage is all or nothing. They all have a moderate to high chance to breach and a custom projectile sprite. All the railgun sprites have been revised to be slimmer in appearance.
ImageSmall Railgun
The smallest and weakest of the group, but nonetheless useful as it is a single shield piercing one damage for one power. EDIT v.48: All railguns bar the drone have been slimmed in appearance like this one.
ImageRailgun Charger
A charge railgun. It has identical damage and penetration to the small railgun, plus better cool down for two power. Making it more efficient than twin small rails. Although the projectile travels a little slower, and has a lower breach chance.
ImageMedium Railgun
A powerful rail gun that has SP 2, two damage projectile for three power. Not as damage efficient as other three power items, but is useful for sniping out shields.
ImageLarge Railgun
The big boy railgun that takes 4 power. With a six damage projectile and SP 2 this weapon can snipe out key systems and keep them down with it's 10 (guaranteed) breach chance. Though not as bad as the glaive beam, it sports a hefty cooldown.
ImageRailgun Drone
A Four power drone that is identical to the small railgun, except with a better cooldown.

MISSILES
Hephaestus Missiles
I just went with the roman deity theme and didn't realize it before it was too late. These are 0 damage incendiary missiles. You get two per shot and the only good thing about it over a fire bomb is that it's one power. If there is a roman god of fire let me know.
Terminus Missiles
That's scary a name fitting for a scary missile. Essentially an anti-bio missile. To make up for the fact it can only damage one room at a time and uses a missile, it can one shot any crew member and deal one damage for three power.
Decoy Missiles
Demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqSF8eEVFyE
Probably my favorite in terms of function. It's a missile that fires a three damage missile with two harmless decoys that give it a decent chance to bypass defense drones for two power. Excepting the RR missiles, the only missile with a realistic chance of hitting an Engi ship.
Janus Missiles
I not 100% sure about adding them for real, as they are a prototype missile. Basically it's an improved Leto (or crap Artemis) that has one system damage and hullbust with 1 normal damage. That means you can do 1 hull damage and knock out two bars of a system, or deal two hull damage in an empty room.

RING RUNNER THEMED WEAPONS!
EDIT: Also just so it's out there, I do have permission to use RR assets.
Demonstration (Very cool! & old though!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RviUOSuduTM

Soo I'm having this internal debate with myself to either make this a separate modpack as it is themed or keep it with my other stuff as they do fill some niches. Weapons are themed/function (as much as FTL will allow) like their real counterparts and use authentic sound effects.

Gemini Weapons
As cool as they are, there is no way I could implement a weapons system that worked exactly like these do in game. A Gemini array weapon in Ring runner was this weapon where you hit the target with a low damage beam that plants a Gemini beacon on them. And you use your Gemini a consumer weapon to use those beacons- detonate them like bombs, fire a volley of powerful seeker missiles, hack their shields, turn off their weapons etc... In turn, I have have abstracted them to weapons that deal no hull, but high system damage.
Gemini Seeker Missile
A cloaked missile (has cloaked sprite!) that deals four system damage (2 normal, 2 sys) and cannot be shot down by mark I defense drones for two power. This a rarity 0 weapon will be only be on the starfighter B.
Gemini Drone
ImageA Drone that fires a 2 system damage "laser" (An incredibly short and fast beam to achieve the look I wanted). Since gemini weapons deal no damage, these don't hurt shields, but make up for it by having a little over twice the DPS (if it hits a system) of a combat drone. And on the off chance you get two, they can be scary. For those who have played ring runner, the drone is actually a miniature R2 Vex, the stealth ship you get in the tutorial galaxy. ;)

ImageLong Bow Missiles
A light, but hard-hitting one damage missile that has a decent chance of inflicting side effects. Has 3 fire, breach, and stun chance.
ImageLong Bow Salvo Missiles
Now this is where they get good. It fires four one damage missiles in an area for three power. Quite good considering the extra side effects of longbow missiles.
Anathemos Missiles
Slow to charge, powerful missile that does 8 damage (which also kills most crew in the room it hits as 1 damage translates to 15 crew damage) for four bars of power. Bar the cheated weapons system on rebel elites, is capable of knocking out the entirety of any system it hits

Photocasters
Photocasters are weapons that sport higher shot per power used than burst lasers, but are notoriously inaccurate. Their superior paper DPS is offset by the fact they they are so inaccurate you often have to forgo targeting systems and try to get as many rooms in the target area as possible to actually have a chance at connecting those extra projectiles. Now fully sprited!
ImageLight Repeating Photocaster Mark I
1 power, three shots, one damage per shot,12 second cooldown, 65 radius. Fires two little projectiles for every one damage, so six in total.
ImageLight Repeating Photocaster Mark II
2 power, four shots, one damage per shot, 14 second cooldown, 65 radius.
ImageHeavy Repeating Photocaster
3 power, five shots, one damage per shot, 16 second cooldown, 75 radius.
ImageHeavy dual Photocaster
4 power, four two-damage shots, 20 second cooldown, 65 radius.
ImagePhotovulcan
4 power, one shot, faster once fully spooled up than the regular Vulcan, 100 radius. Sheer awesome. Much Dakka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3JiY8XMlJk

Change log

Code: Select all

v.50
-Added longbow missile family sprites
-Rebalanced longbow weapons
-Swapped artimis on Rock A to Long bow salvo Missiles
-Added proper glows to photovulcan and other sprites

v.48
-Added medi beam
-Added more photocaster weapons
-Fully sprited photocaster weapons
-Revised Railgun & stun beam sprites
-Tweaked values
-Gave the kestrel A, a Photo II and an longbow as starting Weapons.

v.35
-Added janus missiles (see op)
-Improved the shading for railgun sprites (not shown in OP)
-Added railgun drone sprite
-Added gemini beam drone sprite
v.3
-Added a new class of weapon: photocasters. Comes with authentic sound effects and projectile sprites (still need to make weapon sprites)
-Added a new missile: Anathemos Missiles
-Dummied out the messer six swarm.
-Changed kestrel loadout to the new weapons for testing purposes.
-Nerfed the large rail gun to three shield piercing to make the anathemos missile more relevant. 

v.2
-Added full sprites for the four main railgun types.
-Equipped kestral with all four rails for testing purposes.

v.05
-tweaked values for balancing
-removed changes to ship default weapons. (you have to find them in a store or use MTE)


Download version .50 (mediafire)
Last edited by WhiteWeasel on Thu Feb 23, 2017 1:46 am, edited 34 times in total.
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NarnKar
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby NarnKar » Fri Feb 27, 2015 6:21 pm

Nice! Could do with a bit more custom art, but you've got great ideas.

A few notes here and there.

You could rename Vulcan Missiles to Hephaestus Missiles, to avoid any confusion with the "Vulcan" name.

Terminus Missiles (and any projectile weapon actually) damage all crewmen standing in the room. So if you could lure a whole bunch of crew into a big room, stun them, and follow up with a Terminus, that's a very nice and clean kill.

The Gemini weapons are pretty good ideas, since they build on the (fairly neglected) missile family and are pretty unique.

I'm not sure which one is which, but I think either fireChance or breachChance work based on tile rather than room. I think it was fireChance, but don't quote me on that. What I'm trying to say is that if you set breachChance to 10, there's the chance you might get all tiles in a room breached, rather than just one of the tiles. (I'm not quite sure though, and it's been a while since I tested it--but presumably you've very recently tested your weapons.)
WhiteWeasel
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby WhiteWeasel » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:16 pm

NarnKar wrote:Nice! Could do with a bit more custom art, but you've got great ideas.

A few notes here and there.

You could rename Vulcan Missiles to Hephaestus Missiles, to avoid any confusion with the "Vulcan" name.

Ok, that would work.

NarnKar wrote:Terminus Missiles (and any projectile weapon actually) damage all crewmen standing in the room. So if you could lure a whole bunch of crew into a big room, stun them, and follow up with a Terminus, that's a very nice and clean kill.
I'm aware of that. I believe one normal damage deals 10 damage to crew so the missile technically does 160hp of crew damage. But yeah that's the general strategy.

NarnKar wrote:The Gemini weapons are pretty good ideas, since they build on the (fairly neglected) missile family and are pretty unique.
Yup. Ring Runner has a fantastic combat system. Though only the cloaked missile is the only gemini weapon, the others are the standard ones you can equip your ship with in RR. I wanted to make a long bow that fires 12 one damage missiles as an alternate artillery weapon, but apparently you can only have one shot per artillery charge. :cry:

NarnKar wrote:I'm not sure which one is which, but I think either fireChance or breachChance work based on tile rather than room. I think it was fireChance, but don't quote me on that. What I'm trying to say is that if you set breachChance to 10, there's the chance you might get all tiles in a room breached, rather than just one of the tiles. (I'm not quite sure though, and it's been a while since I tested it--but presumably you've very recently tested your weapons.)
Yeah, I have been using the crap out of MTE. And I believe is works the way I explained it, as my large railgun always causes a single hull breach if it hits.
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NarnKar
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby NarnKar » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:18 pm

WhiteWeasel wrote:I wanted to make a long bow that fires 12 one damage missiles as an alternate artillery weapon, but apparently you can only have one shot per artillery charge. :cry:


Solution: BURST type weapons. Set 1 shot, but with 12 projectiles that do damage, and each projectile will target a separate room.

And I think you can have multiple shots on Artillery weapons, as long as they don't consume any ammunition. You can only have as many shots as enemies have rooms, though--more shots than rooms and the game crashes. For vanilla FTL, this limits the number of shots to 5; for Captain's Edition, the limit is 3 (thanks to the mind-control turret).

WhiteWeasel wrote:Yeah, I have been using the crap out of MTE. And I believe is works the way I explained it, as my large railgun always causes a single hull breach if it hits.


Good to know. So it's fireChance that's per room tile. Thank you!
WhiteWeasel
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby WhiteWeasel » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:42 pm

NarnKar wrote:
WhiteWeasel wrote:I wanted to make a long bow that fires 12 one damage missiles as an alternate artillery weapon, but apparently you can only have one shot per artillery charge. :cry:


Solution: BURST type weapons. Set 1 shot, but with 12 projectiles that do damage, and each projectile will target a separate room.

And I think you can have multiple shots on Artillery weapons, as long as they don't consume any ammunition. You can only have as many shots as enemies have rooms, though--more shots than rooms and the game crashes. For vanilla FTL, this limits the number of shots to 5; for Captain's Edition, the limit is 3 (thanks to the mind-control turret).
Huh, i'll try it, but does making it aoE like a flak cannon bypass the room limit?

EDIT: I actually already did and it didn't work.

Code: Select all

<weaponBlueprint name="ARTILLERY_FED_LONGBOW">
   <type>BURST</type>
   <title>Longbow Salvo Missiles</title>
   <tip>tip_salvo</tip>
   <short>LongB. II</short>
   <desc>Does not work as an artillery weapon.</desc>
   <tooltip>Missile weapon that fires in a volley.</tooltip>
   <drone_targetable>1</drone_targetable>
   <radius>100</radius>
   <damage>1</damage>
   <shots>12</shots>
   <sp>5</sp>
   <fireChance>3</fireChance>
   <breachChance>2</breachChance>
   <cooldown>40</cooldown>
   <power>3</power>
   <cost>75</cost>
   <bp>10</bp>
   <rarity>4</rarity>
   <projectiles>
      <projectile count="1" fake="false">missile_burst</projectile>
   </projectiles>
   <explosion>explosion_random</explosion>
   <launchSounds>
      <sound>longbow1</sound>
      <sound>longbow2</sound>
   </launchSounds>
   <hitShipSounds>
      <sound>smallExplosion</sound>
   </hitShipSounds>
   <hitShieldSounds>
      <sound>hitShield1</sound>
      <sound>hitShield2</sound>
      <sound>hitShield3</sound>
   </hitShieldSounds>
   <missSounds>
      <sound>miss</sound>
   </missSounds>
   <weaponArt>chargemissile</weaponArt> 
   <iconImage>artillery_fed</iconImage>
</weaponBlueprint>



WhiteWeasel wrote:Yeah, I have been using the crap out of MTE. And I believe is works the way I explained it, as my large railgun always causes a single hull breach if it hits.


NarnKar wrote:Good to know. So it's fireChance that's per room tile. Thank you!

Yeah, I believe weapons that explode like missiles or bombs, and obviously beams have a chance to hurt multiple tiles at once.

Also is it possible to make a custom repair drone?
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NarnKar
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby NarnKar » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:50 pm

WhiteWeasel wrote:

Code: Select all

<weaponBlueprint name="ARTILLERY_FED_LONGBOW">
   <type>BURST</type>
   <title>Longbow Salvo Missiles</title>
   <tip>tip_salvo</tip>
   <short>LongB. II</short>
   <desc>Does not work as an artillery weapon.</desc>
   <tooltip>Missile weapon that fires in a volley.</tooltip>
   <drone_targetable>1</drone_targetable>
   <radius>100</radius>
   <damage>1</damage>
   <shots>12</shots>
   <sp>5</sp>
   <fireChance>3</fireChance>
   <breachChance>2</breachChance>
   <cooldown>40</cooldown>
   <projectiles>
      <projectile count="1" fake="false">missile_burst</projectile>
   </projectiles>
</weaponBlueprint>


There's your problem! You set <shots> to 12. You should actually be setting this instead:

<shots>1</shots>
<projectile count="12" fake="false">missile_burst</projectile>


WhiteWeasel wrote:Also is it possible to make a custom repair drone?


Only art and power requirements are changeable.
WhiteWeasel
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby WhiteWeasel » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:58 pm

NarnKar wrote:
There's your problem! You set <shots> to 12. You should actually be setting this instead:


<shots>1</shots>
<projectile count="12" fake="false">missile_burst</projectile>

That is the problem. It will just fire one missile and it will split up into 12 when it reaches the enemy ship like a flak gun. I wanted them all to be fired in a salvo like the longbow II so you get that roaring woosh of a dozen missiles being discharged at once.
Image
In fact, when made as a regular weapon, it works exactly as intended, but I want it to be artillery.
NarnKar wrote:Only art and power requirements are changeable.

Well crap. Can you make a combat drone target your own ship instead and give it negative damage?
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NarnKar
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby NarnKar » Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:05 pm

WhiteWeasel wrote:That is the problem. It will just fire one missile and it will split up into 12 when it reaches the enemy ship like a flak gun. I wanted them all to be fired in a salvo like the longbow II so you get that roaring woosh of a dozen missiles being discharged at once.
Image


You could cheat it, and make the firing sound the missile sound but twelve times, and make the projectile look like twelve missiles in a row.

But then when it hits the ship, it splits into 12 different sprites, each of which is 12 missiles, for a total of 144 missiles hitting 12 times. Which...is probably not as intended.

WhiteWeasel wrote:Well crap. Can you make a combat drone target your own ship instead and give it negative damage?


I don't think you can make it target your own ship. Maybe you can give it negative damage, though. I haven't tested.

If you want a drone that circles your ship and heals it, there is a hull repair drone, y'know. Unless that's what you meant by "change the repair drone".
WhiteWeasel
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby WhiteWeasel » Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:25 pm

NarnKar wrote:I don't think you can make it target your own ship. Maybe you can give it negative damage, though. I haven't tested.

If you want a drone that circles your ship and heals it, there is a hull repair drone, y'know. Unless that's what you meant by "change the repair drone".

I wanted to make a system repair drone that heals random systems in your ship in battle that is faster than the little wheelie droid, but temporary like the hull repair. Never mind.
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WhiteWeasel
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Re: [WIP] MLAS Weapons pack! Railguns, Gemini lasers & More!

Postby WhiteWeasel » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:39 am

Also how do you overwrite full ship blueprints? Mine doesn't seem to work:

Code: Select all

<shipBlueprint name="PLAYER_SHIP_STEALTH_3" layout="stealth_3" img="stealth_3">
   <class>Stealth Cruiser</class>
   <name>Simo-H</name>
   <unlock>Get to Sector 8 with the Stealth Cruiser Type B and Advanced Mode enabled to unlock this ship.</unlock>
   <desc>This ship was part of an Engi experiment to make a power efficient version of the Zoltan shield. Unfortunately this required the removal of the Cloaking system.</desc>
   <systemList>
      <pilot power="1" room="8" start="true"/>
      <doors power="1" room="9" start="true" img="room_doors_2">
         <slot>
            <direction>down</direction>
            <number>0</number>
         </slot>
      </doors>
      <sensors power="1" room="4" start="false" img="room_sensors_2"><!--F-->
         <slot>
            <direction>up</direction>
            <number>0</number>
         </slot>
      </sensors>
      <oxygen power="1" room="1" start="true" img="room_oxygen_2"/>
      <engines power="3" room="5" start="true" img="room_engines"/>
      <shields power="2" room="6" start="false"img="room_shields_7"> <!--F-->
         <slot>
            <direction>up</direction>
            <number>1</number>
         </slot>
      </shields> 
      <weapons power="2" room="3" start="true" img="room_weapons_5">
         <slot>
            <direction>right</direction>
            <number>1</number>
         </slot>
      </weapons> 
      <drones power="2" room="11" start="true" img="room_drones_4"/><!--F-->
      <medbay power="1" room="0" start="false" img="room_medbay_4"> <!--F-->
         <slot>
            <number>0</number>
         </slot>
      </medbay>   
      <clonebay power="1" room="0" start="true">
         <slot>
            <number>0</number>
         </slot>
      </clonebay>   
      <teleporter power="1" room="10" start="false"/> <!--F-->
      <cloaking power="1" room="12" start="false" img="room_cloaking_11"/><!-- F-->
      <hacking power="1" room="13" start="false" img="room_hacking"><!-- F-->
         <slot>
            <direction>down</direction>
            <number>0</number>
         </slot>
      </hacking> 
      <battery power="1" room="2" start="false" img="room_battery_15"/><!-- F-->
      <mind power="1" room="7" start="false" img="room_mind_5"/><!-- F-->
   </systemList>
   <weaponList count="2" missiles="14">
      <weapon name="LASER_CHARGEGUN_PLAYER"/>
      <weapon name="MISSILES_GEMINI"/>
   </weaponList>
   <weaponSlots>3</weaponSlots>
   <droneSlots>3</droneSlots>
   <aug name="ADV_SCANNERS"/>
   <aug name="WEAPON_PREIGNITE"/>
   <droneList count="2" drones="16">
      <drone name="DRONE_GEMINI"/>
      <drone name="ANTI_DRONE"/>
   </droneList>
   <health amount="30"/>
   <maxPower amount ="8"/>
   <crewCount amount = "1" class="human"/>
   <crewCount amount = "1" class="rock"/>
   <crewCount amount = "1" class="slug"/>
   <shieldImage>stealth</shieldImage>
   <cloakImage>stealth</cloakImage>
   <floorImage>stealth</floorImage>
</shipBlueprint>


EDIT: Is it possible to add custom tips to your weapons?
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