[Weapon/Equipment] Tranquilizer

[new_civilian]

Hi there, it's me, civilian, I only have a new email and had to re-register. I made a small mod.

Here the readme:

Tranquilizer Mod v.1.1
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This mod adds a small device to the game that allows you to make sure that stunned or knocked-out SMALL enemies (it does not work on 2x2 units of course) stay unconscious until the end of the mission. The Tranquilizer can be bought right from the game start. It is a tiny low-tec device and can easily be stored on e.g. your unit's belt or shoulder pads.

To use it you simply stand over an unconscious unit and apply it like you would the medi-kit. Then use the "Stimulant" button. Done.

Installation:
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Simply put the DATA folder from the zip into your OpenXcom folder. Then enable the mod in the game options. It is called WEAPONTRANQUILIZER. Done.

Credits:
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As I am writing this on an offline computer, I can not check the forum for the creator of the original idea. All I can say is: This was not my original idea, I only turned it into a usable and mostly-balanced mod. Of course i will give full credits in the release thread/locations, don't worry.

v.1.0: Original release
v.1.1: Raised the weight to 3 and the required Time-Units to 30 to make the device more like default X-Com Equipment. Changed ufopaedia-text.

Minor issues:
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When you click on the Tranquilizer it says "Use Medi-Kit" not "Use Tranquilizer".  Not a big issue, but I thought I better mention it before someone asks. :-)

Hints:
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The way the device works gives you many tactical uses for it:

1. You can use it as intended to keep small aliens (which are stunned or knocked-out) down for the rest of the mission. One dosage of Stimulant is enough for at least 50 turns. Each device has 4 refills.

2. You can use it as a "melee" weapon against small units. Walk up to a small alien and give it a dose or two. If the alien is weakened enough by this, it will be immobile during the rest of the turn as it has no energy to do anything, not even blink an eye. Once you click "end turn", the alien will drop down unconsciously, sometimes even during the turn. Beware however: You need 20 Time-Units per dose, some aliens will need several doses AND you will have to move your unit next to the (live-and-kicking) enemy unit, so plan carefully! Also beware that the Tranquilizer drugs need time to work, the aliens don drop right away, so don't waste several precious shots on an already fully sedated but yet-still-standing unit :-)

3. You can use it against mind-controlled soldiers. That way you can make sure they are alive at the end of the mission and can (if you enabled it in the game options) learn and improve their psi-defenses. AND they will not wake up again before the missions end (and maybe become a danger again) like when you use the stun-rod to do this.

4. You can use it "against" civilians, getting them out of harm's (Aliens usually do not attack unconscious civilians) and your units way. You can of course do that with the stun-rod, too, but the Tranquilizer is smaller and weights less. And lasts longer. Happy sleeping, civilians!

5. ****SPOILER ALERT*****
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Technically this could be classified a small exploit...: It works against units that normally are rather stun-resistant. Not a big problem, ok, but I still consider it spoiler-alert-worthy  :-D
FWIW, I haven't been able to use it against Zombies yet as they are so rare, so I don't know what happens. Possibly nothing or the zombie simply drops unconscious like anybody else.
Anyway, the device is not too strong so this all is not really unbalancing.
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Technical Stuff:
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The device is 1x1 fields big, weights 1 weight-unit. It has 4 refills (aka "shots") and each usage needs 20 Time-Units. Each dose applies 50 stun AND 50 energy damage to the opponent. For comparison: The stun-rod applies 65 stun-damage and needs 30 Time-Units and has unlimited ammo. This means the device should be rather balanced.

FWIW, during the development and testing I gave the TRANQ (how I personally call it) 200+200 damage and 20 shots, which took 5 TUs to use. Then i suddenly realized that the device can be used OFFENSIVELY as well..  and nerfed it back down again right away!  :-D

Then I re-upped it to 100+100 and it was fine for unconscious units but too strong in offensive mode. So 50+50 it was. Perfectly enough for already stunned units and not too strong against conscious ones.

The TRANQ can not be used against 2x2 units. There actually is no need for that, because of the games mechanics those units already receive 4 times (for each field they occupy) the stun damage, meaning that e.g. an unconscious Reaper will stay unconscious for the whole mission in 99,99% of the cases. By default. Luckily hat also gets rid of a possible of a "stunned tank" scenario.

I playtested the values quite a bit and consider them ok now. Changing the values will lead to strange and unbalanced results, you have been warned.

Editing the Usage text (Use Medi-Kit) is possible but not plausible as it would change the text for ALL equipment using the medi-kit routine.

Made by Civilian in October 2014 (after a long break from modding due to health issues). Feel free to use this mod in any way you want, just try to give credits to the guy who had the original idea (and maybe me as well), as it is quite rewarding to see your name somewhere in the credits, you know  :-P It keeps the mods and ideas coming...

have fun!


Unused ideas:
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For a moment I thought about adding  a heal-button to the TRANQ that ONLY cures fatal wounds and does not replenish health. That way you could make sure a possibly wounded unconscious alien survives until the mission ends. But that would make the device WAY too useful, you would have some kind of weird super-medikit right rom the start...


Sadly I can NOT find the thread where the original Tranquilizer idea was posted, the SEARCH function was of no use. If you know/are the person of the original PLEASE post here so that I can add the name to the Credits accordingly.

Oh and its nice to be back, I missed especially Dioxine and SolariusScorch 


...UPDATED...

[Dioxine]

Nice idea! I am so jealous I wasn't the first to come up with it! OF COURSE you can add negative values to all healing properties... You've also made me realize how useful my Vodka bottle can be - it does exactly that, removes fatal wounds but doesn't heal. Naturally you could simply disable alien's 100% smoke res and leave a cloud of smoke to keep them company...

I won't probably copy this idea straight away... it does ignore stun res AND armor, and the damage isn't random, so it can be OP as hell if a mod has enemies who are meant to be un-stunnable BUT the energy thing, haha, this is very cool although the aliens regenerate their energy at a very fast rate so the usability is limited (also energy is only used for movement, NOT attacking... there was actually an idea floating to make immobile turret-type enemies by the virtue of them being constantly at 0 energy).

Also nobody can find you Farm terrain anywhere, hope it gets uploaded to the modsite someday!

[new_civilian]

Yes, all my mods are up again at the mod-site, i reuploaded them all in an orderly manner.

And the stun-ignoring: The weapon is not that strong, i think it is rather balanced. You are right about the unstunnable enemies, though.

Have to check your vodka bottle right away! I really love your mod ideas.

About the smoke: When using the Real-Vision exe I realized that an invisibility device maybe could work by spawning a 1x1 smoke tile with 100% sight blocking, but the exe is too resource-hungry for my old PC, so I couldn't go further...

About the energy: Try doing something with no energy (after you have been tranquilized ingame) , you can't even throw things!  I had to chuckle when I first tried the mod

[ivandogovich]

Great idea!  I'll think on maybe bringing it into the UpClose and Personal series!

One thought on your item stats.  1 weight may be too low.  Standard items all start at 3 weight, iirc, because of throwing mechanics.  I don't know if they fixed that or not, but I think they could break (maybe crash?) the game because the arc could leave pass out of the top level of the battlescape.  Something to consider anyway.  And I could see how chain tossing them to a soldier next to a baddie or over a baddie could be useful.
And welcome back! Hope you are feeling better. ~ Cheers!

[NoelBuddy]

Well maybe I'll finally be able to figure out what that zombie research listing does since it's there but up till this there was no way of actually capturing a zombie or zombie corpse and none of the medics reference it.

Also neat idea using the existing mechanics to do something new.

[new_civilian]

@ivandogovich: 1 is the working minimum weight, I tried ZERO once and as you said it crashes the game. You might be right about the too small weight, though, I will maybe change that in a possible future version. And thanks for the welcome-back!

Oh and I have a small idea for your mod: A 1x1 sized electro-shocker, replacing the unnecessarily big 1x3 stun-rod. I made something like that for my own personal mod (including the handobjects) but I am not happy with the look of my bigobject, still working on that. But maybe you are faster?  If not: I will upload my version soon, that is if I manage to make a nice graphic for it...

@Noelbuddy: Please post your results with the zombies here, I am VERY curious about that myself.  But the idea was NOT my idea, I only edited it slightly and turned it into something usable. I still haven't found the original author of the idea, if anyone knows who that guy was/is, please post it here, I have to give him/her proper credits. I remember the original thread having some custom medi-kit graphics (white with green cross or skull on it?)...

[ivandogovich]

Oh and I have a small idea for your mod: A 1x1 sized electro-shocker, replacing the unnecessarily big 1x3 stun-rod. I made something like that for my own personal mod (including the handobjects) but I am not happy with the look of my bigobject, still working on that. But maybe you are faster?  If not: I will upload my version soon, that is if I manage to make a nice graphic for it...

Ah yes, the "Zapper"  -  I have one as part of my mod pack but its a 2X1 which fits nicely on the belt.   Faster and more powerful than the stunrod.  - Requires Alien Alloy research.  Its one of my hand made mods.

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2725.msg28755#msg28755

[new_civilian]

Duh, and here I was making this: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=3001.0 

File updated, Tranq now weights 3 and requires 30 TU like the Stun-rod.  Many thanks for the feedback!

[KiethSomataw99]

Having trouble with this mod:
[04-09-2020_14-27-05]   [INFO]   requested file not found: Resources/TRANQ/Floorob_TRANQ.gif
[04-09-2020_14-27-05]   [ERROR]   Resources/TRANQ/Floorob_TRANQ.gif:Couldn't open Resources/TRANQ/Floorob_TRANQ.gif

Also having a similar problem with breaching charge.