Author Topic: Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks  (Read 6436 times)

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks
« on: November 28, 2015, 04:43:53 pm »
Mod page: https://www.openxcom.com/mod/-tanks-reaver-039-s-tanks

Video showing the tanks in action: https://youtu.be/PzLoMC3VFb4

This mod does not add any new graphics, but simply splits up the existing tanks into three varieties:
Guardian tanks: strong armor and a weak weapon; lower accuracy, time units, and reactions
Battle tanks: almost the same as before; reactions are slightly improved, some weapons hit harder, and aimed shots are much more accurate
Assault tanks: weaker armor but a very powerful weapon; higher accuracy, time units, and reactions



The mod gives you a Guardian, Battle, and Assault version of every kind of tank. You can purchase the cannon or rocket types right away from the store. The cannon battle tank hits a lot harder now, making it a more useful choice as a starting tank. The cannon assault tank can be used to take out mutons or other heavily-armored units if you don't have any laser weapons yet.

Guardian tanks are very durable and are great for drawing enemy fire and hiding your troops behind. If it's the first thing off your craft it'll tend to survive being shot at, and can get those pesky first-turn reactions out of the way without any losses. Guardian tank armor is both stronger and more even, so it doesn't make much difference whether it gets hit from the front, the back, or even underneath. The tank's low reaction stat makes aliens more likely to react to its movements.

Assault tanks have a very accurate aimed shot. Their armor is weaker but also less even. It is weakest in the back and strongest in the front, so as long as it takes all its hits in the front it should usually be okay. The higher reaction stat on these tanks isn't going to put your soldiers to shame but it can help protect the tank from reaction fire or you can reserve time units and let it fire on the aliens' turn.

Researching the Laser Rifle unlocks the Laser Guardian Tank, Heavy Laser unlocks the Laser Battle Tank, and Laser Cannon unlocks the Laser Assault Tank. This way you can get some laser tank going earlier if you like, but you have to put in some good laser research to get that beast mode laser on the assault tank. It'll drop a sectopod in one hit more often than not.
In version 2.x forward, you research Laser Weapons to get the Laser Guardian Tank, and Heavy Laser Weapons to get the Laser Battle and Assault Tank. You must also research alien alloys for these tanks.

Hovertanks are now unlocked with research into UFO Construction, you do not have to research New Fighter Craft to build them.

The plasma tanks are unlocked similarly to the laser tanks, each one to a different plasma weapon you research. Now with all this making weapons more powerful, I wound up with a plasma weapon that was more powerful than there was much point to have, so I altered it into a faster-firing variant. Now the plasma turrets deal less damage per hit but have a lower time unit cost to fire and auto shot capability.

The fusion missile tanks are all unlocked at once with the Fusion Missile research. The guardian fusion tank maintains the old weak 140 damage but has the explosion radius greatly reduced. It blows up an area about as big as the assault rocket tank, but its damage is significantly higher. The battle tank's missile is like the PWT Launcher in TFTD and will blow more than a neat little hole in the side of a UFO. The assault tank's missile is too powerful and you shouldn't use it. Really. I mean it. Don't even make one of those. It's not worth it. You have stuff to live for.



Version 2.0 release:
Several changes, some small and some important, detailed in Reply #2 below.

Version 1.1 release:
Changed Assault Hovertank (Plasma) hit points from 90 to 60
Added listOrder rule so that all tanks list in correct order with everything else
« Last Edit: June 11, 2017, 04:12:21 am by The Reaver of Darkness »

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2015, 10:20:02 am »
I made a version update fixing one bug (sorry!) and updating the ruleset with a useful new rule. This should add a fair bit of polish to the mod, but won't impact the gameplay except for the bug fix. Updating your version is safe even with an active game using the mod, and if you are in a mission with a plasma assault tank, its current hit points shouldn't be affected for the remainder of the mission.


Can I get a moderator to move my thread to the completed mods forum? Thanks in advance!
« Last Edit: December 13, 2015, 09:33:13 am by michal »

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2015, 07:30:42 am »
I am releasing a major update to my mod. In the future I intend to release other "Reaver's X" mods in a feature-complete state in which they will not need any major updates, but this was the first in this series. I have solved some compatibility issues which will give it full compatibility with either vanilla or any combination of future "Reaver's X" mod releases from here on out, but you'll have to download the 2.x release to get proper compatibility. If you use the 1.x version with another "Reaver's X" mod that affects the laser research tree, you will not be able to manufacture laser tanks.

The 2.x version features a few groundbreaking changes:



1.) the laser research tree is altered--now there are just a few research options which are slower to research but each one unlocks multiple laser technologies. This is the same laser research tree that I will be featuring in 'Reaver's Ground Weapons' and 'Reaver's Air Weapons'.
 * Laser Weapons gives you weak laser weapons including the guardian tank
 * Automatic Laser Weapons gives you fast-firing upgrades, which are added in the "Reaver's Ground Weapons" mod
 * Heavy Laser Weapons gives you powerful and cumbersome lasers
 * both Heavy and Automatic are needed for the most powerful laser weapons



2.) You will need to research Alien Alloys to get laser tanks, but they now have significantly improved armor. They are cheaper to build than hovertanks, and offer an excellent mid-game HWP option.



3.) various tweaks make many small changes to better balance everything, but Assault Tanks have been buffed a bit and are also cheaper to offset how easily they break, while Guardian Tanks are now more expensive and while they have been nerfed slightly it's only the weapons so you won't really notice it much. The manufacturing and sale costs for all items in this mod have been rebalanced to fit with my new manufacturing profit model which makes manufacturing for profit more intuitive and is something I will be showcasing later in my mod 'Reaver's Industry' soon™. All "Reaver's X" mods will fully incorporate this model into the items the mod affects.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2017, 01:57:34 pm by The Reaver of Darkness »

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2015, 08:50:56 am »
2.0.1 release - fixed text bug which prevented mod from loading

Sorry for the mistake! This version actually works!

Offline Oladele.Itsifanus

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Re: Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2017, 12:13:49 am »
Could you make it compatible with the Commendations mod? (so the Ufopedia entries won't show up in Commendations.)

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks
« Reply #5 on: June 11, 2017, 04:13:07 am »
Could you make it compatible with the Commendations mod? (so the Ufopedia entries won't show up in Commendations.)
Could you elaborate on what is going wrong? And are you talking about the Stat Tracking mod? I can't figure out how to install that mod to test it, but the built-in soldier diaries seems to be working fine with my mods.

--- posts merged ---

I added a video to demonstrate the tanks in action:
« Last Edit: June 11, 2017, 12:34:51 pm by Solarius Scorch »

Offline Oladele.Itsifanus

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Re: Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2017, 09:07:34 pm »
Stat Tracking mod is actually integrated in the latest nightlies. I meant that the Commendations mod (separate mod yet) for Stat Tracking uses the Weapon entries to display commendations in Ufopedia, and since the tank mod uses it too, they are mixed together. Here's a screenshot about it:



Nice video BTW:)

Offline The Reaver of Darkness

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Re: Reaver's Tanks - Guardian and Assault tanks
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2017, 12:10:47 pm »
I don't understand what I could do to fix that. I don't know why it uses the weapon entries or how it sorts mod weapons from base ruleset weapons. As far as I know, I have to set weapons for the tanks. It seems to me the burden would be on the Commendations mod to have compatibility with other weapons mods. Or am I misunderstanding something here?

Can you give a link to where I can download the commendations mod? I looked for it but I can't find a download link.



edit: I found the mod. I see what the problem is: it coverts the HWP section of the UFOPedia into the commendations section. It then moves HWPs to craft armaments. In order for me to have compatibility with the mod, I would have to put my HWPs into the craft armaments section. What you can do is add some code to the commendations mod that moves my tanks to the craft armaments section and it might work but it depends on which mod--mine or commendations--has priority.

Code: [Select]
  - id: STR_TANK_CANNON_GUARDIAN
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_TANK_ROCKET_GUARDIAN
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_TANK_LASER_GUARDIAN
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_HOVERTANK_PLASMA_GUARDIAN
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_HOVERTANK_LAUNCHER_GUARDIAN
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_TANK_CANNON_ASSAULT
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_TANK_ROCKET_ASSAULT
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_TANK_LASER_ASSAULT
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_HOVERTANK_PLASMA_ASSAULT
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
  - id: STR_HOVERTANK_LAUNCHER_ASSAULT
    section: STR_XCOM_CRAFT_ARMAMENT
This code should work, just put it in the CommendationsUFOpedia.rul file next to the other bits that look like this. I haven't tested it but I think I got the spelling correct.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2017, 09:43:58 pm by The Reaver of Darkness »