I have been shocked the day I discovered that there was a boarding mechanic in the game, and very sad when I discovered that it was nearly impossible to use under the current build. So I have been thinking, and I decided to make a weapon mod, balancing existing weapons and adding new ones.
The main idea, behind allowing boarding, was to have specialized weapons for Hull damage, for Life damage, and polyvalent but weaker ones. The torpedo weapons had been reworked with Zubmariner, so I mostly left them untouched. They are powerful polyvalent weapons, but need ammunition in order to work.
I also reworked boarding events to make them a bit more profitable, but always trying to keep things balanced.
What I need now are feedbacks and suggestion about the mod to improve it and correct any bugs left behind the first tests :)
Just a small message to say that the mod has been updated (maybe tweaked is more on point), featuring a more reliable way to burn-the-enemy-crew-but-not-their-ship.
Small suggestion about the heartmetal guns:
I’ve found their lore very fun (awesome how you included it such seamlessly, that I had to double-check if it is mod thing, or re-tweaked vanilla stuff), yet the guns themselves underwhelming, even if compared with available-from-start stuff in london. OTOH, just raising their stats would seem silly.
What about alternative - adding “suppression” stat to the higher tier heartmetal gun (that came to my mind instantly after reading its description about steel-bending coldness of it and necessity to place it next to ship’s furnace)?
Apart from fitting in-lore, it would have nice effect from game-balance perspective - one could consider using weaker deck gun (heartmetal one) as a price paid for having aft slot for non-obvious use (rear gun OR any compartment instead of standard avid suppressor). In any case, AFAIK adding it would be as easy as copy-pasting the +supression related fields from suppressor.
[quote=CatLady]
I’ve found their lore very fun (awesome how you included it such seamlessly, that I had to double-check if it is mod thing, or re-tweaked vanilla stuff),
/CatLady[/quote]
Ooh. Like what? I don’t really do mods, but invented lore always interests me.
Not wanting to spoil anything, so lets just say that certain individual is actually doing something useful with heartmetal, instead of it just being ripped off from dead bodies and stored ad-infinitum. Exactly at the only one logical place for such prototyping. edited by CatLady on 10/18/2017
I’m very glad you liked that, CatLady, and I will take a serious look at your suggestion.
After the Khanate mod, on my list of things to do, I’m considering making several “Legendary” items. Not just powerful ones, but some narratively interesting ones. Unique rewards for unique storylines. For instance, the Irrigo Cannon. Instead of being merely some fancy blackpowder, it will be… an interesting weapon ;)
That sounds very interesting, definitely looking forward to it. Which reminds me, that we should really check the possibility of limiting spawning of "Irrepressible" to 1 per game… It is real suspend-of-disbelief breaker, when I encounter it every 2/3 of dive-ins around chelonate/saviour rocks, especially after nuking it 15 seconds ago. With pirate-poet (and post-pirate-poet-dead corsairs, in case of such conclusion) it have, at least, some narrative explanation (and wider possible area of encounters), while this dam____e submarine just resurrects out of thin air, in same/almost same space, acting as easy mode boost to iron or blue scintil’ chunks farm. And keeps dying without doing single damage to starting ship.
/CatLady
// Edit
Or, alternatively, make it so terrifying that we run instead of farming it - but I guess not much can be done with its AI making it zig-zak without sense as long as we position ourselves behind it. Some terrifying AI-only aft cannon, perhaps? edited by CatLady on 10/19/2017
One of the other enemies, I think the Eater of Names, has a really strong aft cannon that makes fighting it much harder. You could give the Irrepressible something similar.
Thats sounds like a thing - albeit, Eater still loses track of you very easily, as long as you are behind it and have Veils of around 100 (just tested - sunk it with exactly 0 return fire).
OTOH, some enemies - like Constant Companion - are much more aware, and even given aside the “magnetism” pulling him toward your ship even in “?” state as long as spawned, he isn’t as easily fooled. Mimicking this and pairing with good aft cannon could do the trick nicely.
BTW, all bosses could benefit from awareness around Constant Companion levels - they’re bosses, after all. He is still possible to sneak on, but much less reliably, unlike those surface goons that stop seeing you in middle of fight, until you literally keep bumping on them).
To be honest, some other aft-equipped, non boss enemies, like Glorious and Republic Dreadnaughts, could use awareness boost, too. Same problem - sitting just behind them with semi-decent veils prevent any return fire.
IIRC, there was a mod that - amongst other things - tried to make enemies more menacing - but it is abandoned, doesn’t work with latest version, and I even can’t find it again. Resurrecting the idea and doing it right this time (aka, piece by piece as working modules, not a single mega-mod that becomes impossible to manage) could be very interesting project.
Sorry for delay - here is modified version of URR, with stats altered to just-borderline allow capturing ships with weapons other than flamethrower:
(only affected file is “combat.json”)
It allows to capture ships at 50-60 iron if you ensure shooting only with crew-killing stuff as enemy hull approaches 50%, sadly, at 90-100 iron it becomes night impossible without flamethrower, again. The main problem is that iron bonuses increase “hull” damage at flat rate, without changing crew damage at all - so either you have it boosted from the start (resulting in too easy captures early on), or impossible at higher iron levels.
Still, I think it is better as presented - it allows to get some bonus money early on, when you need it most (as said, it still requires planned and skillful fight), and the flamethrower option still remains for high-iron later game, for interested parties.
and it is certainly possible to tweak bosses, and I reckon it is even fairly easy. Altough bear in mind that most ennemies still need to be manageable in early-mid game, with very low stats and crappy gear. Wether it’d be by fighting them or running away ;)
Sure. Albeit, I loved when - in starter ship - every encounter with a Constant Companion was “run with full power, no matter of exploding risk, and hope to be in a position for safe surfacing”. It is exactly the thing I would love people to do (minus the surfacing part) if encountering Mt. Nomad if not prepared to fight it to the death ;)
It’s already bad enough that Mt. Nomad sometimes literally blocks off the entrance to Chapel of Lights, this change would just make that whole section of the map unusable.