That's not a bad idea, notalive, but I'm not going to create an item just to work around this bug. Just use the regular light helmet. It's weak enough that it shouldn't be significant, and the graphics look fine when combined with the D heavy armor.

An idea to make a deployable defense turret like item is to make a movement kit for a drone that can't move.

Not sure if possible, just a thought.

Drones are treated as squad members, not deployable gear. A drone that cannot move cannot leave the golfball and cannot be carried by a soldier.

ShadoWarrior, for the Advanced cloak collar you used the cultist model which is brown instead of white. This is your intention or a mistake?

A mistake, which I just fixed. Thanks for spotting it.

FYI, folks, we just got word back from Altar that abilities are hardcoded in the game's C++ code, so new abilities cannot be added, nor existing ones changed. Those of you who wanted to be able to use cloaks and dampeners with classes other than Scouts are out of luck, because I won't allow any other class access to ALL of the Scout's gear. (It's an all or nothing proposition.) Sorry.

I think that psi weapons are pushed aside, and don't compete with the real guns, which makes the game less than what it could be. It would be very nice to have sniper versions of the projector weapons, for example

Thank you for the suggestion. It has been added to my to-do list.

Slightly less plausible, an area effect psionic attack. It would necessarily need to be weaker in terms of the effects dealt or at least the chances of their occurring, and might be too overpowering for this game.

Of course, if the bad guys also have it, people will hate me.

Heh, almost a nickname collision

I don't know how an area effect psi attack could be modded in, but a sniper projector would rock definitely! Currently, psionics are too weak to use their short range projectors in the heat of battle! Thanks, SW

Hello to everyone.

I just wonder if the buildings mod is compatible with the Rebalance Mod? I just downloaded the latest Rebalance mod and noticed that I couldn't build the college straight off...

Akhraz Radaan

PS. Thanks to everyone making these mods.

More bad news: Altar just confirmed that new damage types cannot be added. The count of types is hard-coded into the game, so new ones are ignored (which explains why I wasn't able to get them to work when I tried it two months ago). However, you can change the effects of the existing damage types. (BTW, I've been considering changing sonic to do less temp and more stun damage, but haven't made up my mind about it.)

why did they hardcode so much stuff ? I can see no reason to lock down so many aspects of the modability of AS ... Allright, who made that decission so I can spam him/her ;p

Well they intended it to be a GAME not a modding heaven and to make things more open ended for modding takes time(alot of time)actualy the only thing that realy makes this moddable is the file structure and the rest is just for patches and balanceing

Actually, it looks like they intended for it to be very moddable. Otherwise, why have a group of "official" modders who can get dirt directly from the developers? I admit that the issues Shado brings to light indicate that the modding support may not have been very well thought out...

Until we receive notice that such features are re-enabled, would it be possible to remove inactive objects from this mod? I have no idea what the effects would be if there is an item in game and it gets removed...probably quite bad.

The only inactive items in the mod are the handful of nonfunctional chipsets and one vambrace. I won't remove them for two reasons. First, there is the slim hope that the devs might enable code to make them work in a future patch. (Yes, I know this is overly optimistic.) Second, removing the items would invalidate savegames for far too many people -- including myself. I have no desire to restart the game until I finish the one I'm currently playing.

As for modding support, based on what I've seen in the 2.5 months I've been modding this game, modding must have been an afterthought (at best) when Aftershock was being designed. Consider that if modding was part of the plan, then we should have the proper tools to get it done easily. Also, if it was part of the plan, then the coders are extremely sloppy at their jobs. Actually, I think they are anyway.

Why do I think so? Besides the evidence of the plethora of bugs (many of which are glaring oversights which simple testing reveals), if you have a database-driven application (such as this is), then you don't hard-code array values. You derive them by doing record counts from the DB. In AS, each of the text files (which are derived from the DB) has an array-size value at the top of the file. Reading in that value would have been the proper thing to do. Even if there's no code in the program to activate some modder's new feature (say an ability), it is easy to create stub code to just do nothing for values not present in the original game. That way you handle "out of bound" values without ill effect. But that's not what the devs of this game did. It's a classic example of poor program design, or the use of inexperenced coders, or bad program management (or all three). I know this sounds harsh, but I have 30 years experience in software engineering, ten of which is in QA management. The things I've seen in AS are simply inexcusable, even if you factor in all the internal problems Altar had while making the game and getting it to market. The fact that Martin and the folks at Altar are willing to support the game after release is the ONLY reason I have put as much work as I have into this mod, and continue to do so.

a game using a database engine for its data (skills, items, etc. ) should be modding heaven
and making it more "open ended" as you put itshould have been quite easy (just don't hardcode array sizes or anything else (otherwise, why should they put it in a file if it's hardcoded anyway?), there it's as open as possible) ...

actually this brings me to another point, why make the datastructure modable if you plan to hardcode it's values anyway? Why take the "time" needed to do double work? (put it in hardcode and write it to the games files) To be honest, not hardcoding anything would have saved time instead of costing a lot more time like you suggest. (and it really can't be that hard to make a parser that can recognise attribute names as to apply the correct bonus?)

ok, I can understand they had to place some limits as to what you can change but c'mon, no harm can be done to the engine by just changing the skills a bit or adding new damage types for finetuning?

now go read SW's post again, he puts it rather well

Updated the mod to version 3.10!
(please see first post in thread for download link and changes)

New mines!
New commando weapon!
Changes to high-powered sniper rifles, sonic mines, Reticulan blasters, and damage types!!!

Hi SW,

I have a little played with your mod (+ heroic assault mod), great work, much fun, no challenge :-)

but:

- Barrett is useless because "prone", SR 25 is better, you don't need the higher range of the Barrett

- FN Minimi is useless, because range 17

anyone uses Barrett or FN Minimi?

Used FN Minimi quite a bit. Used Barret until I got a pair of L3 Snipers.

Are you playing Heroic Assault, Rebalance on max difficulty? And you say it's no challenge? You must be the most awesomest player ever, if you get zero challenge.

MDE obviously hasn't been reading this thread, else he'd know he's completely wrong about the FN Minimi.

Oooook.... just started to venture myself into the world of Modding AS. Amen for your guide, ShadoWarrior!

Anyway, I still have been looking at the laser weapon problem and I came up with this: I made laser weapons do overall less damage and then modified the laser damage so most of it is permanent (I dont think you can heal a laser burn) and rest of it being stun. In other words, less damage but cant be healed.

I tried this myself and I think it makes laser weapons more unique but I dont know about useful. Just a sugestion. *shrugs*


And yes, I suck at modding...

My game is showing that the G11k or whatever it's called is using it's ammo, but also the ammo of the new commando weapon, the nailgun. The nailgun also uses the GK11 or whatever ammo.

I'm horrible at remembering the GK's and HK's and stuff.

Great mod and thanks for considering some of my feedback

I need someone else to confirm this (no offense to Gorre) because I cannot replicate the problem. Perhaps LimXC, who's very good at spotting any mistakes I make ...

No offense taken, I thought you might say that. I was wondering if it was just me that had the problem when I posted, too.

Thanks. I always consider (and welcome) feedback, regardless of whether I agree with it.

Speaking of feedback, other than yours there's been no feedback regarding my last two releases. Do you folks not care about any of these changes and additions? Most of the recent changes should have a significant impact on the game's balance and on your tactics. I'm rather suprised no one's either noticed or commented on them.

Too busy with the lunar new year preparations recently to play aftershock. Will test Gorre's discovery later.

You're Taiwanese (or Chinese)? Just curious. Your English is excellent.

Third generation Singaporean Chinese. Being good in English for a Singaporean is normal, it is our first language regardless of race.

Cool.

Gorre is correct. The mistake is that both HK G11K2 and Nailgun uses caliber INT 26 for their ammos.

I agree - some challenge you may have at the ealy stages of the game, but in the middle and at the end - no challenge
If think need some trigger for Heroic Assault Mod to increase difficulty for the later stages of the game...

PS. Playing with Heroic Assault, Rebalance on max difficulty...

The error is in the G11. It should be caliber (array offset) 18, not 26. When I implemented the G11 I inadvertently used the ID (26) rather than the array offset (18). I'm surprised it's worked until now. Of course now that there's something at offset 26 the original bug finally makes itself felt. Thanks Lim (and Gorre)!

Updated the mod to version 3.11!
(please see first post in thread for download link and changes)

Hello SW, you are right, I had not read the whole thread. Anyway, the Minimi is no match for the M60.

I'm playing with Heroic Assault, Rebalance on max difficulty. As Black_Ninja says: " some challenge you may have at the early stages of the game, but in the middle and at the end - no challenge".

It would be a funny job to make better enemies for the rebalance mod, but this needs alterations in the equipment file and would be incompatible or had to be updated with rebalance updates

I've mentioned this before, and I'll repeat it now: If anyone wishes to assist me by equipping some NPCs and Cultists with some of the new items I've added (ie: editing dozens/hundreds of text files) they are more than welcome to contact me in PM, or post in this thread. So far, no one has been willing to do so.

Changing the stats of the enemies themselves is outside the scope of my mod, as I have made very clear at the top of my mod's history file.

Is that process relatively easy just a huge amount or does it require a good level of modding experience.

I'm computer proficient but have no experience of modding. If its just cutting and pasting the same value or similar then I could give it a go if you want.

Elevrai, in his militia mod, had to modify 37 files. To add new items to NPCs and Cultists, the number of files jumps dramatically (perhaps as many as a couple of hundred files). And it is not just a simple cutting and pasting (though there is a LOT of that to be done). You would have to be quite familiar with modding AS (familiar enough so that you could create your own mods or be able to change my mod or edit savegames). Each file to be changed requires adding hundreds of lines of text, which must be carefully inserted into the correct locations (note I said locations, plural) and then edited as appropriate for that particular file.

Perhaps the hardest part of the task is determining what to add to each type of NPC so as to make the game more interesting & challenging while preserving game balance. As a start, if someone would care to offer a list of suggestions in the form of "add item X to NPC Y", it would get the process rolling.

It is not hard but it is TIME CONSUMING AND BORRRING
The files you need are in share\configs\ai units\fanatic and are 6 phases and 9 tipes of units with difrent equipment and the contain in them difrent units(probably based on levels) and in this units you have an inventory that has the squres of the units inventory(leave them as they are) and the object with coordonets of the squares from above(this you need to edit)and be sure that you don't put stuff on inexisting squares (note:less equipment is beter because at the end you will have all ther equipment except the exceptions like wargoth weapons)
The phases are in this oder(i think)
reticulan<cultist<wargoth<spaceship<starghost<moon
So be sure to ballance things
If you are intrested(or someone other than you) tell ShadowWarrior and he will tell you what to change
I'm not doing this miself because "it is TIME CONSUMING AND BORRRING" and i have my own mod to make
PS
Ther is 57 files in total that needs to be edited and the most comon equipment is ak47 hk33 m4 carbine so try to search for those(depends strongly at the tipe ex a sniper has th barreta)

I've a sugestion based on other points point up in the forum. Is it possible to make a sniper rifle with a variable amount of damage? The reason being that cultist snipers can't use headshots, if not how about a version of the MSG90 that is set to permenant headshot, same accuracy and time penalty on top of the triple damage that you'd normally suffer if you did a head shot with an msg90.

That isn't the only directory, even for Cultists. There are at least two more for Cultists, and yet several more for NPC allies. Overall, at least 5 and likely 7-12 directories, each with 4-5 dozen files.

actually, fanatics isn't the only folder needing editing, other enemies need updating aswell (there's a total of 947 files (948 if you count the noe file)(spread over 30 folders), each file containing a size 7 squad for editing (mind you not all of those need editing as they can't all use weapons and armor

I wouldn't mind helping, but I'm not good in balancing stuff.
I could work from a given list of balanced changes (as SW said, give unit X weapon Y, armor Z, ... ), get me such a list and I will hapily take what time I have to add those changes and bugtest them too

If you've been reading this thread, and the others where I discuss how damage works, you'd know the answer is NO. Ditto (ie: 'no') for special abilities.

Pretty much, if you haven't already seen someone do something in a mod that already exists, it's because it cannot be done. With the possible exception of modeling/texturizing, we've more or less reached the limits of this game's moddability (in terms of changing how things look or work). Altar has simply hard-coded too much, and not exposed the internals (unlike games such as HOI2 and Civ4).

Hmm sory forgot about the cyborg and psionics this ones ypu need to edit borg(cultist cyborg) and pristess(cultist psionic)(wher was my head )but the rest you don't need because it has less to do with the equipment and more to do with the rebalancing mod that is if yo don't want changeing your allies equipment if you want thouse too...

Let me worry about the balancing. I'd like to get opinions from others (correction: reasonable suggestions, not "give everyone gauss autocannon") as to what enemies and allies should have at each phase of the game. For example: "give Cyborgs FN Minimis at stage X" or "give humans MP7s at stage Y". Items that require special research (such as Duralloy or gauss) cannot be given to NPCs or enemies.

I already stated (more than once) that I want to change allies as well as enemies.

as I said, get me a to-do list with balanced changes and I'll gladly make the changes in a set of files and test those changes aswell

Great! Now all I need is a few volunteers to suggest what I should add to that to-do list that I'd already started ...

Better weapons for enemies is of no use. I have tried it and power weapons for wargots modded. With a little tactical game the enemies are death before they get a shoot.

Alter the HP, that is easy to do - than maybe better weapons.

I disagree. Especially with the "of no use" opinion. First, having better weapons (or at the very least, a better variety to choose from) not only makes a player be more careful that he doesn't allow the enemy to shoot first, but it also makes the game more interesting in that players don't always get the same small selection of items each mission.

Second, as I have REPEATEDLY stated, altering the HPs of enemies is outside the scope of my mod. And I won't change the scope of my mod to include it. If someone else wishes to do it, that's their business. I welcome anyone who wishes to create a complementary mod that works with my mod. However, my mod is NOT a fix-everything, do-everything mod, nor will it ever be.