IMO it should go like this if we take Pulse Rifle as the baseline (perhaps the modded Pulse Rifle with lowered crit/dismember chances):
Heavy Pulse Rifle: same damage 1-2 with a very small increase in crit/dismember chances, because it shares ammo with the standard Pulse Rifle, and a little extra barrel length wouldn't take its punch to whole another level. But basic mag capacity could be 140-150, it's an appropriate increase for a rifle-based mag-fed LMG. Vanilla burst duration and rounds spent are... OKay-ish. Level requirement should be lowered to 3-4 - common sense-wise a mag fed automatic rifle isn't rocket science and gameplay-wise it isn't a direct upgrade, losing the grenade launcher in the tradeoff.
Smartgun: damage 1-3. Its 10x28 caseless to rifle's 10x24 caseless is like 7.62 NATO to 7.62 AK. Capacity 250 round drum. Not sure about crit/dismember chances - does low Vanilla chance reflect the nature of the weapon that automatically tracks the center of mass and doesn't hit heads or limbs that much? But it that case accuracy should be increased too. If not, crits and dismember yet higher than HPR. Burst ammo AND length could be increased to reflect the high rate of fire but difficulty to slew the heavy gun around to a different target. Or stay vanilla. Reload duration could be increased to 6.
Sentry gun: same damage and crits as Smartgun, they share caliber and barrel length. 500 round drum. Yet greater burst ammo AND length than smartgun with approximately the same proportion between them (for example: Smart - 4 round 1 second burst, Sentry - 6 round 1.5 second burst) to reflect the tendency of the gun to defeat the engaged target by continuous fire before switching to another one.
Plasma gun - looks fine! It gets a long awaited increase in minimum damage (2-3), and same mag size and reload duration reflects the design goals of being "not worse than the legacy weapon". Dismemberment should be greater than for PR/HPR to reflect the volatile reaction of the fire-averse xenos on the hot plasma charge. Level requirement down to level 6-8.
Secondary weapons should be laughing stock against the xenos: Service Pistol: damage 0-1, 20 round mag, negligible crit/almost zero dismemberment chances (pistol rounds have trouble penetrating the head carapace and don't produce supersonic shockwave in liquids). Revolver: damage 1-1, much greater crit chance than pistol (can penetrate the head more reliably). Maybe 8-round cylinder. SMG: damage 0-1, a bit greater crit chance than pistol. Same ROF as Heavy Pulse rifle perhaps (3 rounds 1 second burst). Mag capacity is fine.
I'd love a less OP version of this. I don't think need to change vanilla crit and dismember chances and I think above 4 max dmg is too much. I'm thinking something like:
Vanilla is: pulserifle dmg 1-2 heavy pulserifle dmg 1-2 plasma rifle dmg 2-3 smartgun dmg 1-2
I also think a great idea for a mod is slower alien movement if it is possible It would make game a lot more methodical and fun, the Aliens right now just sort of lightspeed out of nowhere and makes gameplay feel abit memey. Aliens could even move half the speed.
As a modder who has never worked with .pak files and dont currently have the time to learn love what youre doin! If possible Id like to give you the changes id love to see if you wanted to/would be charitable to do a version of those (assuming its not a bother)
* Increase smartgun ammo to its lore accurate 500 rounds but also increase the fire rate or ammo per burst significantly. * Smartgun tracking visor headset gives bonus accuracy rather then on "kill that bastard" lammmme micro * Double damage for all types of Xenomorphs (killing marines in 1-2 melee hits ideally) * Double the amount of Xenomorphs for most situations (spawns etc) and maybe even x3-x4 for onslaughts * Increase range lethality for marines (either make accuracy 70% as base or other edits like x2 ranged damage, whatever works) * Cut stress accruement amount in half * Changed some of the abilities around so that they are actually used (like flare which is very immersive but mostly not worth it sadface) perhaps by making flare cost no command points? Cooldown if able? And maybe have the motion trackers cost a tool? Id make most of the weapon related abilities like the RPG cost ammo instead if that is possible. * Make welding doors not cost tools but a command point instead * double the amount of time that certain actions take like welding, console interactions, medkit usage * Medkits used for drugs destress entire squad rather then one marine.
These edits would encourage a more direct "loud" gameplay style rather then the complete push towards stealth right now. But not overly so that its not difficult or stressful/scary.
I didn't properly read the tracking visor tooltip and thought it was a flat accuracy bonus I wouldn't mind that change. I wouldnt mind if we were able to use pills for the entire squad rather than a single marine as well.
gamefrek184, I agree with that. The thought that an entire med kit medicates just one marine.....? If it is two pills each marine should be able to carry 4 sets of pills each.
Love your mod so far. I've been playing the Alien RPG and has the Technical Manual and, according to lore, caliber for both Pulse Rifle and Smartgun are the same. Main difference is the the infrarred tracker and the rate of fire. So you mod NAILS the idea of the game.
Not true, Pulse rifle and Smartgun use different calibers. 10x24mm M309 Explosive Tip Caseless for Pulse Rifle (and Heavy Pulse Rifle) and 10x28mm M250 Explosive Tip Caseless for Smartgun (the sentry guns also use that same caliber).
They are similar in that they are both explosive tipped and armor piercing, but the Smartgun uses slightly larger bullets.
At least this is how it was in the Colonial Marines Technical Manual, dunno if they retconned it now.
Nice point Themesmith. I had the old Aliens RPG from the early 90's I want to say and the slightly later tech manual from I want to say the early 2000's which I think is the tech manual Great info. Still have them both somewhere. I remember one of them mentioning that the material the bugs excrete to make the hive can transmit vibration through it to warriors and drones. Basicly the moment you enter the hive and start walking on that stuff.
Do you have to modify the config.ini file like your other mods to get this to work? It just seems odd to me that this is the only mod that doesn't need that. I see other people asking this and no one has answered.
29 comments
Heavy Pulse Rifle: same damage 1-2 with a very small increase in crit/dismember chances, because it shares ammo with the standard Pulse Rifle, and a little extra barrel length wouldn't take its punch to whole another level. But basic mag capacity could be 140-150, it's an appropriate increase for a rifle-based mag-fed LMG. Vanilla burst duration and rounds spent are... OKay-ish. Level requirement should be lowered to 3-4 - common sense-wise a mag fed automatic rifle isn't rocket science and gameplay-wise it isn't a direct upgrade, losing the grenade launcher in the tradeoff.
Smartgun: damage 1-3. Its 10x28 caseless to rifle's 10x24 caseless is like 7.62 NATO to 7.62 AK. Capacity 250 round drum. Not sure about crit/dismember chances - does low Vanilla chance reflect the nature of the weapon that automatically tracks the center of mass and doesn't hit heads or limbs that much? But it that case accuracy should be increased too. If not, crits and dismember yet higher than HPR. Burst ammo AND length could be increased to reflect the high rate of fire but difficulty to slew the heavy gun around to a different target. Or stay vanilla. Reload duration could be increased to 6.
Sentry gun: same damage and crits as Smartgun, they share caliber and barrel length. 500 round drum. Yet greater burst ammo AND length than smartgun with approximately the same proportion between them (for example: Smart - 4 round 1 second burst, Sentry - 6 round 1.5 second burst) to reflect the tendency of the gun to defeat the engaged target by continuous fire before switching to another one.
Plasma gun - looks fine! It gets a long awaited increase in minimum damage (2-3), and same mag size and reload duration reflects the design goals of being "not worse than the legacy weapon". Dismemberment should be greater than for PR/HPR to reflect the volatile reaction of the fire-averse xenos on the hot plasma charge. Level requirement down to level 6-8.
Secondary weapons should be laughing stock against the xenos:
Service Pistol: damage 0-1, 20 round mag, negligible crit/almost zero dismemberment chances (pistol rounds have trouble penetrating the head carapace and don't produce supersonic shockwave in liquids).
Revolver: damage 1-1, much greater crit chance than pistol (can penetrate the head more reliably). Maybe 8-round cylinder.
SMG: damage 0-1, a bit greater crit chance than pistol. Same ROF as Heavy Pulse rifle perhaps (3 rounds 1 second burst). Mag capacity is fine.
Vanilla is:
pulserifle dmg 1-2
heavy pulserifle dmg 1-2
plasma rifle dmg 2-3
smartgun dmg 1-2
State-of-the-badass-art (Overpowered Weapons)
pulse dmg 3-3
heavy dmg 4-4
plasma dmg 5-5
smart dmg 6-6
SO something inbetween would be good like:
pulse dmg 2-3
heavy dmg 2-4
plasma dmg 3-4
smart dmg 3-4
I also think a great idea for a mod is slower alien movement if it is possible It would make game a lot more methodical and fun, the Aliens right now just sort of lightspeed out of nowhere and makes gameplay feel abit memey. Aliens could even move half the speed.
Is there any chance to expose the values into some sort of config file for the user to tweak the values?
THIS WILL BE THE BEST MOD ON NEXUS !!!!!
* Increase smartgun ammo to its lore accurate 500 rounds but also increase the fire rate or ammo per burst significantly.
* Smartgun tracking visor headset gives bonus accuracy rather then on "kill that bastard" lammmme micro
* Double damage for all types of Xenomorphs (killing marines in 1-2 melee hits ideally)
* Double the amount of Xenomorphs for most situations (spawns etc) and maybe even x3-x4 for onslaughts
* Increase range lethality for marines (either make accuracy 70% as base or other edits like x2 ranged damage, whatever works)
* Cut stress accruement amount in half
* Changed some of the abilities around so that they are actually used (like flare which is very immersive but mostly not worth it sadface) perhaps by making flare cost no command points? Cooldown if able? And maybe have the motion trackers cost a tool? Id make most of the weapon related abilities like the RPG cost ammo instead if that is possible.
* Make welding doors not cost tools but a command point instead
* double the amount of time that certain actions take like welding, console interactions, medkit usage
* Medkits used for drugs destress entire squad rather then one marine.
These edits would encourage a more direct "loud" gameplay style rather then the complete push towards stealth right now. But not overly so that its not difficult or stressful/scary.
No worries if you cant, thank you for the mod :)
i dont want trhese option ...
also the tracking visior bonus to accuracy WOULD BE GREAT !!!
I wouldnt mind if we were able to use pills for the entire squad rather than a single marine as well.
Love your mod so far. I've been playing the Alien RPG and has the Technical Manual and, according to lore, caliber for both Pulse Rifle and Smartgun are the same. Main difference is the the infrarred tracker and the rate of fire. So you mod NAILS the idea of the game.
They are similar in that they are both explosive tipped and armor piercing, but the Smartgun uses slightly larger bullets.
At least this is how it was in the Colonial Marines Technical Manual, dunno if they retconned it now.
This mod doesn't require any loaders, it's replacing existing data, not adding new ones.