1. That's not true, but I'm not going to waste time arguing about it.

2. Not true. Read the history file, as I've told you before.

3. Not true. See answer to #1.

to be honoust i have never used any grenades in Aftershock
not 1

the game is allready ez enuff as it is

Well, on another note, I'd like it if the Reticulans were made more dangerous as well. You've done it for the Wargots and the Starghosts, why no love for the little greys?

Increase the unshielded ones' resistances to about the level as if they were wearing Aftermath basic alien armor or something. Or if you want to be really cruel, give them Bio armor resistances. And give the shielded ones more.

It's not that much of a change, but I always found it grating that the Reticulans somehow lost all their armor and had to make do with forcefields.

Love for grays?? hehe I guess their new-found ability to climb ladders isn't enough. Okay, I'll see what I can do to spice up the pipsqueaks.

Also, on the mutants... if you're making the Wargots and Starghosts super-dangerous, might as well make them a bit more nasty as well.

I find the ludicrous lack of resistance that Brainmen and Morelmen have to projectile weapons or any kind of weapons, in fact... disturbing. For a bit of irony, make those two more resistant to AP bullets than standard rounds.

Something with that added bulk and no pain reflex would have an easier time dealing with AP bullets, which stay in one piece during their trip through someone's body, than with JHP rounds which would mushroom or break apart inside their bodies and do more mechanical damage.

It's not actually a difficulty change, it's more just so that the resistances make sense.

I'd say do the same with the Flaster, but I don't know if that'd make them even more annoying than before.

First, not every critter in the game warrants being turned into an uber-monster. Second, modern AP ammo is deigned to yaw (tumble) inside a body, inflicting grievous internal injuries. Go study the wound tracks for 5.56mm, 5.45mm, and 7.62x39mm ammo.

My (wicked) pleasure, I assure you. Thanks, again, for the ideas. Speaking of which, I didn't implement (yet) the suggestion for auras for the SG Cloud because I wanted to have some feedback on the improved SGs before I did that. Once you've gotten a feel for these new beasties, let me know what ONE aura you'd like to see the Clouds have (it's not possible to give them more than one).

Hmmm... as far as nifty items go, how about a warp demo charge? I don't recall there being one in the game.

Stick it next to a wall, set a timer, run away and you get a new door. Or chuck it and *RUN*!

I hope you can get the commando energy weaponry done faster, as right now, there are no melee weapons (save the warp resonator and plasma shotgun-what? They've got a range of about ten inches) which can be used against Ghosts effectively and the Duralloy Katana isn't enough against the heavier Wargots (I remember the times where I had my commando chase down and beat up a Wargot power armor by himself with a knife. Using melee weapons against the new Wargots kinda feels like that some of the time.)

As a weapon idea, a HERF gun doing EMP damage. Fry those pesky electronic enemies without using grenades.

Stun gas grenades.

A realism change which might or might not be unbalancing-make the .50 BMG AP rounds into .50 BMG explosive rounds, and make the standard .50 BMG already do 'hard' damage.

All .50 rounds are rather armor-piercing compared to other bullets already. Bog-standard .50 can already be used to shoot through light vehicles or punch holes in car engine blocks, AFAIK.

As another ammunition type, perhaps HVAP ammo for certain small arms. Increased damage and range plus armor-piercingness, but greatly increased recoil and cost. So sure, you can make your M60 machine gun have the range of a sniper rifle and do enough damage to shred even armored Wargots, but it'll recoil like a mother****er and won't hit anything past the third bullet unless you trick it out with all the recoil mods.

One shot healing-stims which only take up 1*1 space, heal a decent amount (maybe 1.5* that of a standard medikit?), and don't need medic training. With the new mod, people get beaten up a lot, and if my medic goes unconscious, I rarely need more than a bit of healing before he can get back up, but carrying around basic medikits reduces inventory space by quite a bit. This isn't supposed to be an alternative to medikits, this is supposed to be a 'in case I screw up and my medic gets fragged' thing. It shouldn't be efficient compared to medikits, but it should save on space.

A psi shield system that could be integrated into armor as an alternative to the standard power shield would be interesting.

As a corollary, add the multiple types of shields that we had in Aftermath. Anti-projectile, anti-energy, and general (we have the 'general' one already, the two others might be nifty).

TOTALLY NOT SERIOUS, although some of them might be fun ideas:
Warp Sniper Rifles. For when you really want to get the BIGGEST CRITICAL EVER.

Warp bullets for firearms!

Nuclear hand grenades.

Antimatter bullets in rifles. (when you really need to blow up a city in one burst, accept no substitutes.)

Okay on a more serious note, I'd like to see the group attack bonus aura for Clouds. Makes them more effective in a fight.

About the Barrett M82A1Sniper rifle, you should add the ability to aim at body parts.

I’m a sniper at the army and I took a head off from 2500 meters (literally took it off)

Trust me you can aim body parts at a very long range.
Another thing that you can do with a Barrett M82A1is hit behind walls, because of the great fire power it has, it can penetrate wood, steel, and even brick walls.
If that guy was unarmored (body armor, like Kevlar or ceramic) it actually does even greater damage because it make an even bigger hole.

Btw. What about Bi-pods?
Any weapon should get a big bonus to aim using bi-pods when shooting in the prone position.

About the Barrett M82A1Sniper rifle, you should add the ability to aim at body parts.

I’m a sniper at the army and I took a head off from 2500 meters (literally took it off)

Trust me you can aim body parts at a very long range.
Another thing that you can do with a Barrett M82A1is hit behind walls, because of the great fire power it has, it can penetrate wood, steel, and even brick walls.
If that guy was unarmored (body armor, like Kevlar or ceramic) it actually does even greater damage because it make an even bigger hole.

Btw. What about Bi-pods?
Any weapon should get a big bonus to aim using bi-pods when shooting in the prone position.

I've already had that discussion with him. He modded target body parts out in his mod, and he has his reasons. I don't agree with all of them, but shooting with a M82A1 from prone position under 200m in range, I would think things moved to fast to target body-parts. Especialy since you have to be careful with your positioning because of the large recoil.

If you still disagreee with ShadoWarrior, who has made a great mod (still loving it), you can always learn the basic of modding from the forums and retro-engineer the barrett each time he updates his mod.

A few relevant facts:

The current record for longest range sniper kill is 2,430 metres (7,972 ft), accomplished by a Canadian sniper Master Corporal Aaron Perry in 2002, during the invasion of Afghanistan, using a .50 BMG (12.7 mm) McMillan bolt-action rifle. This meant that the round had a flight time of four seconds, and a drop of 44.5 m (146 ft). The previous record was held by Carlos Hathcock, achieved during the Vietnam War, at a distance of 2,250 m.

The longest confirmed sniper kill of the Gulf War was reported to have been made by a Barrett Model 82A1 sniper rifle at a range of 1,800 meters.

Longest confirmed kill in Iraq with a 7.62mm rifle: 1,250 meters, by Sgt Gilliland.

You'll forgive me if I don't accept your story of blowing someone's head off at 2500m.

The issue of the Barrett has been discussed in this thread before and I will not change the weapon. Reasons why are given in the mod's FAQ. I suggest you read it.

Bipods have also been discussed before. They cannot be properly implemented in this game.

Thank you, NightHaunter. Sure, any competent sniper could do body part targeting using a M82 at the ranges in Aftershock. However, as you point out, the setup time for the weapon is so great that you'd be dead before you could take your shot. I made a choice: keep the setup time short and remove called shots, or keep called shots and make the setup time so (realistically) long that the weapon would be all but useless. I think you'll agree which is the better choice to make. What I won't do is let people have their cake and eat it too.

People who want to do targeted shooting must use a lighter, easier-to-handle weapon like the MSG90 or the L115A1. That's the way I want it. Consider it game balance, if the other reasons aren't acceptable enough.

When this mod first came out, I hesitated to get it, because of the barret-prone restriction. Over time I realized it was totally unrealistic to have a guy swing a .50 barret to the right and fire it, standing, and point blank, into a cultist psionic's head, and not go flying into the other wall with a broken arm. I used it alot without this mod. Now though, I use the L115A1. Good power, range, accuracy, etc, and with a scope and accelerator it's excellent.

I have about 6 more days until the WG's get here (I haven't played in a while), but I'm looking forward to putting the gauss weapons and the meson rifle up against them.

I am very happy with this mod, and If SW decides something, you could bet that I'd stand behind him 100%.

Sounds like a fair trade to me.

Although I think a degree of realism is important in a game there are times when you just have to accept that the game is more important than realism.

As Shadow says, what would be the point of having the M82 being able to target body parts and cutting the time taken to fire the shot. All you get is an über rifle with no balance.

While we are at it, how about we suggest that sniper rifle tech had moved on a bit and you could fire a 2 or 3 shot burst with it?

A lot of effort goes into modding and getting the balance any changes a mod may made. If time and care are not taken then the game balance is destroyed and it either becomes to easy, to hard or the modder forces the player into using a certain style of play which is not what should happen.

Some people may say that shadows mod ina way forces a player to use snipers a lot, that may or may not be a valid argument but we should remember that the vanila game also favours sniper based play.

Thank you for noticing that fine point. I've taken pains to try to preserve the same balance as in the unmodded game, at least with regards to the relative usefulness of the various weapon types. (Yes, I know that, currently, melee weapons are disadvantaged versus late-game enemies. I'm also not done with the mod, as the to-do list should attest to.)

Oh, Shadow, a temporary workaround for stuff like the +mechanical chipset and fluid motion items and +stealth stuff...

Have you tried making them give the user the skill which gives that bonus? E.g. mechanical bonus for that chipset, 'dodge' for the FM vambraces, so on and so forth. It might work, it might not, but if they do something, it's better than being totally useless.

The end result would have no benefit for people who already have the skill, but at least it'd make them have some kind of usefulness if it actually works.

MJ12, it's the skills that are broken. How the hell do you think items with +bonuses to a skill operate? Please give me enough credit to assume that I try whatever's possible to make things work. Oh, and while you're at it, please quit telling me what to fix if you're not going to bother reading the mod's FAQ and history files. It annoys me no end.

...I did read the FAQ. And the history. I just don't have it on the same computer as I'm typing this so I'm going on memory.

The skills you get from training that give bonuses, like Mechanical Bonus, Dodge, and so forth are bugged? I didn't realize that. I'm pretty sure they work. Then again, Ambi chipsets IIRC were bugged too, so it isn't all that unexpected.

I hope they listen to you for 1.3, because this game needs some bugs fixed.

On another note, my game crashes some of the time if I use the gauss weapons. Don't know why.

The skills themselves aren't bugged, per se. The game code for items using certain skills is. And the problem has been reported to Altar by myself (along with many others I don't doubt). I'm sure Altar by now has quite a very long list of bugs.

So... which bonuses to secondary stats work and which don't?

I know bonuses to primary stats like agility and such seem to work fine, bonuses to which skills like rifles and such work now?

And any luck getting a texturer?

Hmmm... some model swaps which (for me, at least) would make the guns look a bit better. Although it's your choice, because most of this is 'only me'.

Make the railgun use the Barret model. I don't know, it just would look better IMO.

Is it possible to make the Gauss Autocannon use that Wargot gatling gun's model? It'd look more unique in that case, IMO.

Use the laser pistol model for the warp pistol?

The gauss rifle would look better, IMO, using the plasma rifle model than the sonic gun model.

That plus too many things which look similar is somewhat confusing if you browse the weapons menu by look as I've done a few times. This way there'd be less doubling or tripling up on models.

I have my two heavy weaps guys using warp devastators on the SG Defenders. I've tried rifles, and axed them in favor of dual warp pistols. Still have a guy using a laser MG until the SGs get close enough for devastators -- usually only the Defenders.

When I finish this game, I'm going to use the Heroic Assault mod. Which begs the question:

How can you kill SG Defenders in HA? If you only have seven soldiers, and those Defenders are going to be extremely numerous, how can you take them out? Even with Devastators it takes forever to kill them.

Against Defenders I just concentrate fire on them. That or use a proxy warp mine.

The Laser MG is usable against Starghost, but it's not all that great.

Another question: Are gauss weapons silent? The readme doesn't answer that.

If yes, I don't think they should be. However, they shouldn't have any muzzle flash. A proper gauss weapon which doesn't rip its own rails apart (and hence isn't single-shot) would have no flash, but hypersonic projectiles aren't exactly going to be quiet. Another aesthetic difference I'd kinda like-the gauss autocannon, at least, should have a meaty CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK type of sound instead of the puny-sounding PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW sound it already has.

I personally believe the reason Wargots charge through withering gauss autocannon fire which shreds even Wargot power armor in seconds is because the gun sounds so puny they don't think it's a real weapon until they're looking at those massive holes through their abdomen.

And for SW, are SG Defenders vulnerable to *ANYTHING*? Because they don't seem to have a single resistance less than 90%.

BTW, you know that with the Warp Devastator, you can crit for about 20 K if you have superheroic enemy skill and fire at something with 0% warp resistance...

Big numbers like that make me happy. Warp supershotguns for the win.

On another note, since the Devastator is basically just a Warp Resonator with more firepower as well as battery consumption (although that doesn't really matter, since one Energon gives you two shots and even if you're using a Psionic, you'll have about twenty shots if you pack in the goodies, which should be enough unless she's going solo) and slightly less accuracy AFAIK (I'm pretty sure everything else is identical), perhaps make the Resonator use close range instead of mechanical to give people a reason to use it? Or make its fire rate slightly higher.

Wait... didn't the entry on the Devastator say that they can't use standard Energons? Because my Devastators use regular Energon cells for ammo instead of heavy-duties. You might want to look into that.

And I'd like some kind of underbarrel psi weapon for Psionics who use rifles. The psi weapons don't look all that large, it'd probably be fairly easy to build a version which clips under the barrel of a gun.

And for the newbies, as soon as you get the ability to start researching railguns, do so. The rail weapons (gauss rifle, needler, gauss autocannon, railgun) are the ultimate weapons against anything except starghosts.

Seriously, I love the gauss autocannon loaded with a laser sight and weapon link.

My guy with +1 superheroic mechanical skill and very good enemy skill tends to tear holes right through half a dozen Cultists before the first one hits the ground.

In other news, I really really hope you don't give Cultists gauss autocannon. Or the game might get excessively painful. I'd be more scared of a Cultist cyborg with a GAC than I am of half a dozen Starghots (assuming I have the right weapons for each job).

Finally, a question. What damage type do 40mm HEDP/HEAT projectiles do? Because from the sound of the description it's plasma, but I'd have guessed 'burn'.

Read the Glossary entry for it.


They are slightly more vulnerable to two certain types of damage. You'll have to figure out what that is the hard way.


The Glossary entry tells you exactly what type of damage it does, no guessing is necessary or desirable.

It's a decent distance weapon. Concentrating fire seems to be the only way to take Defenders out, but it's still nice for my heavy weap guys to be able to contribute at range. And that Laser MG does wonders against most SG types.

So, Shadow, any chance you can make the Gauss weapons have a meatier sound?

Because they sound rather puny, even though they rip apart anything which isn't made out of Starghost Invincibilium.

Not the slightest.


"Invincibilium"? Not bad, but I prefer "Impervium".

I was wondering about weapons having underbarrel PDWs.

I can see a use for a underbarrel SMG using the 'Close' skill, if, say, you had a really slow firing weapon like a warp rifle to shoot people with a relatively quick-firing weapon which makes lightly armored targets die. In other words, the option to duct tape a nerfed MP5 or something to the bottom of really really sloooooow weapons which take half a millenium to fire.

And can the Warp Devastator/Resonator get underbarrel slots if not? They're designed as demolitions devices, I'd think someone would have stuck a underbarrel laser or something similar to allow the users to defend themselves at medium range without having to drop the weapon and take out another.

There already are: the UB laser gun and UB shotgun. Please, please read ALL of the history file, as I've repeatedly asked you to. And I won't be adding any new UB weapons, of any sort.


They are too bulky and heavy to allow for the proper use of a UB weapon. Also bear in mind that combat engineers are supposed to have buddies to provide covering fire.

*Quietly scratches a request for a underbarrel warp gun off his list of things to grovel for.*

Look at it as an opportunity to find something else to grovel for.

Actually, Shadow, I wanted the underbarrel ballistic PDW like, say, a underbarrel MP7, because it would be, IMO, amusing to build a OICW by getting a XM26 and sticking a underbarrel PDW under it.

Although, laser guns do work well enough for it, it just doesn't have that... feel.

On another note, as of right now there is no reason to use the Warp Resonator as the Devastator does everything it does except better and with IIRC slightly more battery consumption, but again, when you can crit for 20K or so on most enemies except SG Defenders, you don't need more than 10-20 shots.

An underbarrel slot on the Resonator would make it useful again. Stick a UB laser gun on it, you'll have something to do with it.

That and make the Devastator use heavy-duty Energons because in my game, it uses regular ones, which isn't what the glossary implies.

It doesn't unbalance the game, IMO, if you can stick a UB lazer gun on the bottom of the Resonator.

When I say "no", it means "no", not "if I'm pestered enough about it maybe I'll change my mind". It is not a wise move to pester me. It will never work and annoying me will eventually cause me to just ignore any request from you.

BTW, the glossary specifically states that heavy-duty batteries are for machineguns. The Glossary description for the Devastator doesn't say (or imply) anything at all about heavy-duty batteries. There are 3 types of regular-size batteries: standard, E-cells, and Energons.

I never really got into this game much at first, but I've had a relatively quiet last couple of weeks, and after installing your mod, have had a blast getting going with the game.

I'm currently having some trouble with the cultists, but as I aquire more of their gear (and can produce my own) they're becoming less of an issue.

I can't wait to see what else you have in store for us!

Welcome to the forum(s). Glad you're enjoying the game, and my mod. See the bottom portion of post #1 in this thread for a list of things to come.

Folks, in the five days since I released version 3.13 I have had no comments regarding the changes made in v3.13 (other than from Gastrian, who suggested most of them). Constructive feedback on how these changes have affected the game is important, so that I know whether further tweaks are necessary. I'm not fishing for compliments either (welcome as they are). Want I want is impressions, anecdotes, and (practical and balanced) suggestions. I haven't fought the changed SGs yet (I'm still killing WGs on the mothership), so I don't know how balanced, challenging, or exciting they may be.

Updated the mod to version 3.14!
(please see first post in thread for download link and changes)

Some more rebalancing. Enjoy!

Some feedback, as requested.

New player, 1st time through the game, playing on Veteran. I had played up to meeting the cultists on easy, but decided that was too easy, but now tryin to fight your "improved" starghosts, I'm thinking that perhaps I should have stayed with my easy game.

1) Please make the Starghost defender, and Spider, vunerable to AP, like it says they are, in their lab autopsy reports.
I Also find it very hard to take devenders down, and they have been doing a lot of damage to my point and close combat men.
Because when they are in your base, or in buildings, you can't bring lots of firepower to bear, and for a poor sod armed with twin laser pistols, or a laser rifle, just can't hope to knock them out before he get's taken down himself.
Also I'd like to point out the the defender and spider have a hard exoskeleton, rather like crustatian/spiders/insects, and so should be vunerable to AP rounds anyway, as anything that can crack the exoskeleton should do significant, if not lethal, damage to them.

2) Please make the 4.7mm caseless default AP, it's that way in real life, and I've found the G11 to be effectivly useless as it is, as being an advanced assault rifle, it become avaliable way too late for it's soft ammo to be viable.
I've been using XM-8's and M-60's instead, as at least these can be loaded with AP.
If yo are not going to make it AP, the please delet it and add in the Steyer or FA-MAS instead.

3) Please make the Deserd Eagle 9mm either a Glock 17/18 Beretta 92/93, or change it's ammo to .357 magnum. If converting to a Machine pistol (the 18 or 93) please make it have a decent burst size, and faster ROF.

4) Handgun ranges are too high, should be cut back at least 50%,

5) Deserd Eagle .50AE too accurate, should have problems hitting a brick wall at 20 m

6) M4 range is too long, it's a carbine with a significantly shorter barrel than the other 5.56 rifles. or alteratively, increase the ranges of all the other assult rifles.

7) What's with the increased reasearch times in the new 3.14?

I'm one day from launching my spaceship, and I have yet to research warp wapons, and I've only just finished researching Energons, and only just finnished making my duralium medium armor sets, and the advanced human weapons I build almost come into service too late as it is!
Given that you have to actually build them, and their ammo and all!

So if I unload your current mod, and re-install v3.11, will that screw up my current game, because I really dont like you "improved" starghosts, and the new research times are frankly too much!

PS Otherwise good mod, am engoying the extra weapons and tech!

Welcome to the forum.

1. The SG lab reports no longer say what you think they do. I changed them at the same time I changed the SGs. I have no intention whatsoever of allowing AP ammo to work on the SGs. They use an advanced armor, even tougher than Duralloy, that is nigh impervious to kinetic attack. If you're having trouble with the SGs you'll need to employ different tactics than what you've been (unsuccessfully) using. The feedback on the SGs I'm looking for is on their offense. I'm quite satisfied with their defense.

2. 4.7mm caseless ammo is standard FMJ (non-AP) ammo. (I'm tired of arguing with people about this. Please do your homework. Try Google for starters.) The Steyr AUG is on my to-do list.

3. The DE 9mm is a Beretta 92. I have not changed the name in the game in order to not break people's savegames. I explained this in the thread a long long time ago.

4. No. If I did that they'd have the same range as shotguns and thus be useless.

5. No. The .50AE as represented in the mod is realistically accurate, according to my own real-life experience with it.

6. No. The M4 carbine has a longer barrel length than the XM8 carbine. Both fire the exact same ammo.

7. As I said, game balance. After thinking about it for the past few weeks I've decided that these techs and the items associated with them come too early in the game, so increasing the research and build times is an attempt to fix that.

In my Superhero game I had the techs you've only recently finished a full week earlier than where you say you're at. Managing the strategic aspect of the game is key. I control the entire planet, and have done so for quite a while. I base my decisions on balancing the mod on what I've been able to accomplish at the most difficult settings possible. A few people will have an easier go of things (perhaps being luckier or more efficient than I). Most will find it harder. Those that cannot handle it have the option to play at a lower difficulty level.

If you load an earlier version you may screw up savegames depending on what you've already researched, what's in the queues, and what weapons you've made.

I think the one thing that No-one wants to do is read through the last 106 pages of this thread, just in case the answer to their question is there!

Started my new game last night with your mod, finally. Love the work on the reticulan laser rifle and especially the pistol (it's no longer a useless weapon!). Just for the record (and I'm sure this is a reeeeealy stoooopid question), updating to 3.14 will no stop my 3.13 game working, right?

Keep up the excellent work!

Oh, and what award did your mod win?

1. That's what SEARCH is for.

2. It won't.

3. Go check out the (now-finished) Creativity Contest at StrategyCore.

I must note, I love how you can now aimbot someone from way-the-hell-over-there with the Barret.

Sniper: *BOOM HEADSHOT*

Wargot: WTF J00 HAXOR NOOB TURN OF AIMBOT HAX

Now, if only we could do the same to Starghots.

Just for the record, you still cannot do headshots with the Barrett, despite what MJ12 posted.

I know that, it was a Counterstrike reference if you didn't get it.

It's still cool being able to aimbot someone from across the map, even though the railgun is a better sniper weapon most of the time.

Hmmm... what about a drone gauss autocannon? It seems strange that Drones don't have a gauss weapon of their very own.

Have you looked at post #1 in this thread anytime in the past, oh, 3-4 weeks?

I have.

*looks*

*facepalms*

Oops.

Request additional fuse types. The existing -- motion and thermal -- trigger very erratically against SGs. Perhaps psi fuses? I assume this is possible only because thermal is possible, but we also know what sorts of "well, this is, so this should be" arguments have been disproven by the modding "capability" of the game thus far.

I'll look into it, Glacialis. Thanks for the suggestion.

Idea I had which you may have already tried and determined not to work. But it might be a good workaround for putting two skill pre-reqs on an weapon. Put one skill requirement on the item item itself and then another on the ammo. Theoretically this should require both in order to use the item. Anyway like the new changes add a bit more challenge to the WG delaying guass weapons a bit. Haven't gotten to the Starghosts yet.