[TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.j - 9 May - Holiday Edition

[ivandogovich]

With 400% I can gas my enemies Might be fun.
With specialized Smoke Gear aviable from the start its not that punishing for dedicated snipers.

Also may be make Synthsuits vulnerable to Acid? I have a fond memory of my first successful anti-Merc operation, lots of Pythons with acid ammunition were deployed.

I'm not sure what smoke gear is available from the start.  I all have is pirate duds and runt outfits, and the ladies natural rigging.  Maybe you mean its available early if you research a key tech (... but I don't have any idea what that might be.. not enough experience yet).   And as far as 400% goes, I think Dioxine only meant to penalize the pirates, not the enemies, but I may be wrong.

The molotov did get me thinking about an equivalent "flask o' acid" weapon that would act just like the molotov for deployment.  Components for manufacture would require Chemicals.  Not sure where it would fit in research, but it could be a decent counter to specific enemies with acid weakness.  Just some brain fodder here.

Also.  Can anyone convince me why I should use an Axe?  The hammer hits harder, and is more accurate.  The Cutlass just gives up 15 damage for being lighter and more accurate.  The hammer uses concussive rather than piercing but that feels like an advantage rather than a disadvantage.  The only drawback for the hammer is not being able to target from the diagonals? (they tend to be more that 1 tile distance per calculation).

[Dioxine]

Thanks for the support, dudes!

I MC some of the Cyclops Guards and they are without image in the equipment screen.

This is because the game can't handle it - if it's AI unit, you either have inventory picture AND ufopaedia crash, OR no inventory picture AND ufopaedia armor entry. I might have to go around this like with other kinds of armor (creating a faux armor entry, just for the Pedia), but the problem is more widespread - Deep Ones, Dark Ones... and creating dozen of faux armors is both bothersome and prone to erroneous information when armor resistances are updated.

@400% Smoke:
Why, naturally it would affect every unprotected enemy. It would be illogical to do otherwise (naturally, despite all appearances, Personal Armor IS protected ). About the anti-smoke tech - yeah, it's there just before your eyes - Smoke-Ops Gear, 3-8 days of research w/ 3 Brainers, depending on luck Plus you have the grog (I might increase its unstunning effect).

@Acid flask:
Well that's an idea... you have an 'acid' flask in the game already but it's, let's say, extremely rare. I think I have an idea where to put this (likely early) research, but it can't be powerful enough to take down Personal Armor in a single hit Why would you need guns for if it did? The range will probably have to be limited to like, 16.

@Synthsuit acid nerf:
Hmm... it's just because they have no resistance to Acid, unlike damned 60% AP... No vulnerability per se. Nah, I don't think this would change much, even if indeed Synthsuits are really, really good, maybe too good. Otoh you're quite unlikely to meet Mercenaries in Year 1 now, so there's that. General line is that it's the flying armors what is vulnerable to Acid.

@Axe vs. Hammer
Basically I'm using mostly Axes, since Hammer is slow & heavy (and it starts to be a problem once you want to dual-wield or wear any solid armor), while cutlass is much more prone to disapointingly bouncing off a Power Armor or a tank...
But let's see (Str 40 fighter taken as base for comparison):
Axe pros:
- Can attack diagonally
- Attack takes 65% tus of what hammer takes
- Occupies 30% weight not 50%
- Trains melee for future weapons
- Mutons aren't axe-proof
Hammer pros:
- Basically never misses
- Can attack vertically
- Can breach walls
- Inflicts +20% damage
- Trains Firing Accuracy

Hmm... still it seems balance favors the hammer slightly. I think I'll bump both its weight and TU use by 2.

[Ridаn]

I just captured a "living" Sectopod, is it WAD?

Also Smugglers strike back again - I took down a single smuggler ship, but forgot to loot it, and the next thing they do is steal a Cruiser full of plasmaguns and crash it into my base.
It got me intersted - what if someone shoots down a Deep Ones probe - would same thing happen? Is it tied to score?

[Balbinator]

I can`t develop or buy craft weapons (only spike rockets).
It`s a bug or feature?

[Dioxine]

I just captured a "living" Sectopod, is it WAD?

Also Smugglers strike back again - I took down a single smuggler ship, but forgot to loot it, and the next thing they do is steal a Cruiser full of plasmaguns and crash it into my base.
It got me intersted - what if someone shoots down a Deep Ones probe - would same thing happen? Is it tied to score?

Both those things are WAD... by OXCom team. I can't change either even if wanted to Both races have Retaliation: false, but this doesn't mean they won't react to direct attack - they will only not launch "normal" retal missions. Not saying either thing is something I can't live with.
Also not tied to score or anything, knocking off a Probe (which IS tied to Deep Ones) will probably get you attacked. Ground assault without shooting anyone down - I think it won't trigger retal, otoh.

I can`t develop or buy craft weapons (only spike rockets).
It`s a bug or feature?

What are you saying, naturally you can. Loads of them. Just not right off the bat. Gotta earn it, dude.

[Dioxine]

New version is up, and it's not 0.91 yet . Added a couple of early Acid weapons, added Death Realms' Arena stuff, increased Smoke damage, updated SSRL and made a bunch of fixes & updates, most of them recently proposed here, plus some late-game tech tree changes. Used some more Ryskeliini's awesome pixel art.

[ivandogovich]

New version is up, and it's not 0.91 yet . Added a couple of early Acid weapons, added Death Realms' Arena stuff, increased Smoke damage, updated SSRL and made a bunch of fixes & updates, most of them recently proposed here, plus some late-game tech tree changes. Used some more Ryskeliini's awesome pixel art.

LOL! And I was just going on about the SSRL in my video I recorded today saying that it was too hard a sell, in comparison with the RPG.
Cheers!

[Dioxine]

LOL! And I was just going on about the SSRL in my video I recorded today saying that it was too hard a sell, in comparison with the RPG.
Cheers!

Yeah it sucked pretty bad, but now, 120 HE + new awesome graphics might tempt someone into buying it One way or another, a good LP is also a great beta-test. Oh and I like that Roland music very much, seemingly the same as vanilla yet so much richer.

[ivandogovich]

Yeah it sucked pretty bad, but now, 120 HE + new awesome graphics might tempt someone into buying it One way or another, a good LP is also a great beta-test. Oh and I like that Roland music very much, seemingly the same as vanilla yet so much richer.

LOL!  I also just created a new custom music set for the game.   Ep 9 will debut it!
I do like the Roland music too, but it feels very XCOM, and not as much PirateZ.
Can't wait to show it off!

[Alex_D]

Boo for the hammer!
By the way, the text that pops up when one tries to use an alien weapon that was not researched is not very pirate-y.

[Dioxine]

Boo for the hammer!
By the way, the text that pops up when one tries to use an alien weapon that was not researched is not very pirate-y.

Damn! You keep doing things you're not supposed to! Which is very good, fixed that

[Vesparco]

I've been trying the mod since last Friday. The experience in a few words:

1.- I spent Friday laughing at each bootypedia page I uncovered. Post apocalyptic cuisine made me fell down to the floor. They get you quickly into the pirate mood. I woke up saturday with pain in the ribs.
2.- I manage to learn the "game mechanics" by burning my hand repeatedly (totally Xcom spirit xd). I've been impressed by rework of the game mechanics (goverment and faction mechanics).
3.- I built up a team of fighters from flintlock, knifes and rum to a bluish assault team with smartweapons, savaged lasers, cool melee weapons. They preserved their booze's smell though.
4.- I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel by churning booze (now red chips) from my Casino Exports base. Once the flow of money is somewhat stabilize you feel a little bit less flat-footed.
5.- Armored beastmaster took me hard with its ablative cover XD.

Said this, congratulations, your piratez mod is an impressive work of art. I would say is quite an approach to the unborn project of the one after TFTD. It remakes the whole game into a fun and entertaining experience .

Said this, I would like to state some thoughts on the progress and suggestions so far in the game (sorry for being those kind of people who hassle and then begs xd):

- My supply of damaged grav units has decreased considerable due to the later enemy pools in the game. Could they be considered to be crafted from electronics and/or other components?

- Seeing the approach of "organic" harvesting and taming, I had the thought of "breeding" them. You could use soylent or slaves to perform such breeding (in order to control the gold mine). Also in case of fearing tank spamming they could generate a lesser element that only servers for harvest ("young reaper", although maybe it could double as an improved attack dog xd). Of course the same approach could be made with the celatid and crysalid creatures (a plank directly into the crysalid's pit) xd.

Then more weirder ideas:
- Beastmaster's weapon : A cannon that shoots crysalid's eggs (acid damage/zombification). It would be a nasty weapon during terror mission and during fightings with this unit.

[Solarius Scorch]

LOL!  I also just created a new custom music set for the game.   Ep 9 will debut it!
I do like the Roland music too, but it feels very XCOM, and not as much PirateZ.
Can't wait to show it off!

That's exciting. I wonder, if it's cool with you (and cool in itself), maybe it could be added to the mod? I agree vanilla music is not as fitting as it should be.

[Dioxine]

Said this, congratulations, your piratez mod is an impressive work of art. I would say is quite an approach to the unborn project of the one after TFTD. It remakes the whole game into a fun and entertaining experience .

Thank you so much! It's good people have fun playing this... the difficulty is there to ward off those who are easily bored anyway

- My supply of damaged grav units has decreased considerable due to the later enemy pools in the game. Could they be considered to be crafted from electronics and/or other components?

Hmmm.... Maybe, not sure if it'd be a good design decision - limited access to what you like forces you to seek alternatives. Possible as a late-game advance. In my current playthrough, its early Feb 2601 and I'm sitting on literrally like 200 Grav Units. Want more grav, wait for enemies who wear it

- Seeing the approach of "organic" harvesting and taming, I had the thought of "breeding" them. You could use soylent or slaves to perform such breeding (in order to control the gold mine). Also in case of fearing tank spamming they could generate a lesser element that only servers for harvest ("young reaper", although maybe it could double as an improved attack dog xd). Of course the same approach could be made with the celatid and crysalid creatures (a plank directly into the crysalid's pit) xd.

No tamed Chryssalids, forget about it As for the rest, I might think about it, but I'm not sure if Reapers are worth such an effort... I consider them pretty useless but since there was popular demand, and it was logical you could have them...

- Beastmaster's weapon : A cannon that shoots crysalid's eggs (acid damage/zombification). It would be a nasty weapon during terror mission and during fightings with this unit.

No can do. Weapons are deployed on per-mission, not per-faction basis. Basically I could only add such a weapon to Church Only missions (so far, they have just a single one - Conversion). The weapon idea itself, is, naturally, interesting. Evil. Very evil. I like it.

[Vesparco]

No tamed Chryssalids, forget about it As for the rest, I might think about it, but I'm not sure if Reapers are worth such an effort... I consider them pretty useless but since there was popular demand, and it was logical you could have them...

No of course, I meant the possibility of "feeding" the creature (silacoid/crysalid) for generating spoils. Nevertheless I understand that the xeno armor and the gauntlet claws are quite top tier so forget about that suggestion (at least for those two).