OK, I went ahead with the idea I've mentioned in the Scout Armor topic, namely a heavier variant of Personal Armor. And the whole thing sort of expanded. So I'm going to test four new types of armor, all in one mod:
Personal Armor Variants - OpenXcom MOD
The goal of this mod is to offer greater variability in early to mid game armors by introducing several modifications of personal armor. Why? Because I like more options and because I've always liked Personal Armor's looks more than the Power Suit. Heck, I've even stormed Cydonia using Personal Armors...
About the individual variants:
Heavy Personal Armor - slightly better armor, -12 TUs, weight 9; somewhat better armor but lower mobility and not very good for weaker soldiers.
Powered Personal Armor - a sort of precursor to Power Suit, front armor 75, strength bonus lower than its weight, -4 TUs; requires UFO Power Source so you'll be getting the Power Suit at about the same time, meaning this is a much weaker alternative that doesn't use Elerium.
Heavy Powered Armor - weaker than a Power Suit and slower to boot but doesn't require Elerium, which is good when you're worried about sustainability and plan to keep building these long after you've defeated the aliens and all the Elerium is gone.
Ablative Personal Armor - this variant is more resistant to laser and plasma, taking about half the damage from a plasma rifle compared to vanilla Personal Armor, but is more vulnerable to explosives, AP and some other things. More interesting in mods where the enemy uses other things besides plasma.
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INSTALLATION
1.
unzip inside:
OpenXcom\data\
2.
Activate the mod from the "Options" menu, inside the game.
The mod should be compatible with most other mods out there so far.
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CHANGELOG
0.5
- first version, to test the mod and hear people's opinions.
CREDITS:
Robin, for his Armored Vest helmets, which I've barely changed.
https://www.openxcom.com/mod/personal-armor-variants