[TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.62)

[Steelpoint]

Standard issue X-COM uniforms, and thanks to our weapon contacts, refitted with modern alloy protective plate inserts. Only marginally more effective than dive suits against alien weaponry. However our Aquanauts should be pleased to not have to wear diving suits on the surface. Can only be worn on the surface

This took painfully longer than I actually expected it to, but I've finished it. A full coverall armour sprite set for TFTD, painfully including all 64 male/female unique inventory portraits, I'm fairly confident this should be compatible with the mod, and I already tested it by overwriting the Personal Armour sprites.

If it were up to me, I'd suggest putting the coveralls in after researching 'surface weapon acquisition' with the note that X-COM got in contact with a supplier to supply alloy armour inserts for their surface duty uniforms, my head canon is that because actual full body combat armour that most soldiers would be wearing is likely mostly ineffectual against the Alien's new weapons, there's no point going beyond armour inserts.

First time for everything, I hope this is decent enough for a first effort.

[shinr]

Drifted away from OXC for 6 or so years, and then nostalgia struck me and decided to check it out.

And to my delight one of the first things I see is a major mod for TFTD, my favorite of the series.

Installed it, started it, on the 3rd of January my first battle is with the Hallucinoids who are more or less invincible to my starting "Weaponry".

Got more lucky on my next run, starting with the vastly more manageable creepers... and then the Cultists attack one of the shipping lanes before the proper weaponry could be delivered, and had to resort to battlefield scavenging to stand a chance.

Other than those unlucky moments, I'm liking it so far.

Any beginner's tips?

[Nord]

Any beginner's tips?

1. Dont try to win all battles.
2. If enemy does'nt fall, bring more explosives.

Nice. Will add it.

[xcommie]

Well this is epic! Great job! 😮

This is so much deeper (ha!) than TFTD; I had no idea what I was getting myself in for! Kudos to all involved. Amazing work.

======

A few issues popped up that I noted down as they happened.

(Possible) mod bugs / quirks.

* When my units inevitably get MC'd and they are still in a group (the triton), they always drop the dye grenade first. This despite every one of them always having an actual explosive grenade on them too.
This is great for me as no damage gets done (and I probably wouldn't be able to complete many missions if they used the explodey one given how they cheat and do units they can't see), but this seems rather... silly.

* Despite having a transmission nexus, probably 70% of the UFO's only have basic info.

* I researched the Jelly Treaty but I'm still seeing Jelly UFO's popping up for the next several months. This includes that huge monstery thing that flies around the GeoScape; that turned up a few months later; I'm assuming it was theirs (no idea what it was). I did later get the Jellyman outpost defence mission and don't think I've seen any since.

* There doesn't seem to be a "Repair Mag Armour" option. This makes losing an aquanaut wearing one of these ridiculously expensive (recycling gets back a fraction of what they cost).

* "Mag Armour" remains appear as "power armour remains" in stores and as "recycle power armour" in manufacturing.

* Alien barge has levels L0, L1, L2 all scrollable but inaccessible to units (no map down there).

* Chainsword and chemical neutraliser target like weapons not melee/medkits.

* (Possibly intentional) Disruptor bomb explosions destroy deployed bioflares.

* I just researched Sonic Manufacturing and now I can produce the Zrbite battery... why would I want this? I assume it's going to be for some of the sonic sub-techs that I don't have yet, but this isn't clear; it has no ufopedia entry that I can tell nor does Sonic Manufacturing mention it. Surely it should only appear when one of them is researched?

* Military base defence against the church; the mini map looks extremely garish. The ground colour is orange and orange stripes! This makes spotting your (yellow) units very difficult, let alone the (also orange!) friendly military units.

* Manufacturing says "Acquire Suppressor" for the "Squeezer"

* Manufacturing says "Acquire Spawner" for the "Breeder"

* STR_HEAVYGILLMAN_COMMANDER and STR_HEAVYAQUATOID_COMMANDER aren't a dependency for STR_LEADER_PLUS, even though the former two have the later in "unlocks".

* Same for STR_MEDIC_PLUS - doesn't have STR_HEAVYAQUATOID_MEDIC in it as a dependency

* T'Leth: I've researched everything (including all aliens/medics, squad leaders, most UFOs/technicians), but my research % is still just 91%. Research completed: 386 (wow!). Looking at the tech tree, it seems the entire Ion tech tree was missed.

* MC Implantation protection bugs:
a) The Aquanauts page keeps saying "In MC Implantation" over a month later.
b) Any soldier you put this through always stays as "Unknown" on MC Training, no matter how many months you do it on them.
c) Their MC stats never show up on the aquanauts stats page.
d) Even months after I did the implant thing, the units are still susceptible to MC.

* The blurb for adv medikit says "can heal more per critical wound treatment". But it still just heals 1 per 10 TU.

* One of the unresearched techs is INTERCEPTOR. "Get free with armored gillman engineer." Except I've defo researched them (the tech tree agrees), and STR_HEAVYGILLMAN_TECHNICIAN doesn't have any interceptor tech as unlocks

----

I struggled with understanding how to use the new MC stuff once I had an MC lab. For one it talks about recruiting "M.C.-Gifted Aquanauts", but it took me a while before I could figure out how to "manufacture" them.

----


Typos (UFOPedia):
Alien Interception: "It looks like the alien have start to deploy their own interception crafts [should be 'craft']"
Also: it gives a couple tips about "hunter". Should use another word as "Hunter" is also a USO type name.

Protobiont Physiology: "As [a] side effect of [their] fast growth" - [] are missing.

Balance concerns:
* You spend the entire middle game (all the tasoths) with no effective grenades (unless I missed a tech somewhere).

* Chainsword - the action cost is ridiculously high (60% of max TU) versus a heavy thermal lance (18 TU fixed). Especially given the HTL actually has a higher hit chance too (confirmed by equipping both on the same person). I can do 3 HTL attacks (150 damage) in the same time I can do one Chainsword attack (200 damage) when equipped on a good soldier, *and* each HTL attack has a higher % chance of hitting.

* The Thermal Shock Bomb comes too late in the game to be useful. By the time I've got it I've had everything alive for many months. The only things I've not seen/got yet are Freaks, tricenes, & hellcrabs, and they have 0 effect on the last of those so...

* I acquired a cyborg via manufacturing - the stats look as average as the rest of my fishfood.

* The Displayer/Sonic does less damage (110) than the Turtle/Gauss that you get ages earlier (120).

* Displacer/PWT only does 140 damage versus the actual disrupter which does 210. Given you can stick 7 disruptors on a aquanaut *and* reload during multi-part missions, there's no advantage at all to the displacer edition.

* In the entire game (before T'leth) I only came across 2 Ion Cannons. And no other class of ion weapons at all. That's 117 succesful missions.

* By the time the Leviathan is researched and built it's completely unnecessary. I built mine and immediately had the Flounder under construction as soon as the Lev was finished. I didn't need to do another interception or mission at all at that point; just wait a week then do the final mission.

------

General thoughts:
* Loving the oh-so-deep tech tree.

* The alien barge mission the first time = brilliant. Almost ran out of ammo!

* Great variety of missions.

* Brilliant the alien fighters dynamic. I mean it's annoying as hell, but hey. :-)

* The alien bases spawning surrounding ones is annoying. Taking out a base is a big deal (if only because the missions are very drawn out and time consuming). Making basically respawn for free is tiresome. Especially with the fighter dynamic.

* Sub equipment is nicely done.

* Expansion of the Geo game is great.

Overally, 5*. Amazing job. Hopefully the above lets you iron out a few quirks and make it even more awesome, if that's possible.

[Nord]

Hi. Thanks for feedback, it is warm feeling to read this.
Answering:

* When my units inevitably get MC'd and they are still in a group (the triton), they always drop the dye grenade first. This despite every one of them always having an actual explosive grenade on them too.
This is great for me as no damage gets done (and I probably wouldn't be able to complete many missions if they used the explodey one given how they cheat and do units they can't see), but this seems rather... silly.

Normal vanilla behavior.

* Despite having a transmission nexus, probably 70% of the UFO's only have basic info.

You need to discover USO with resolver to see his stats.

* I researched the Jelly Treaty but I'm still seeing Jelly UFO's popping up for the next several months. This includes that huge monstery thing that flies around the GeoScape; that turned up a few months later; I'm assuming it was theirs (no idea what it was). I did later get the Jellyman outpost defence mission and don't think I've seen any since.

Game engine limitation, no new missions will spawn after treaty, but old missions remains. And they can last month or two.

* There doesn't seem to be a "Repair Mag Armour" option. This makes losing an aquanaut wearing one of these ridiculously expensive (recycling gets back a fraction of what they cost).

* "Mag Armour" remains appear as "power armour remains" in stores and as "recycle power armour" in manufacturing.

Well... it was intended, but i can redone this in the name of balance.

* Alien barge has levels L0, L1, L2 all scrollable but inaccessible to units (no map down there).

You can float there. It is ocean, remember?

* Chainsword and chemical neutraliser target like weapons not melee/medkits.

Engine limitations. New possibility has been added by Meridian and Yankes in the newest OXCE, but 'if it works-dont touch'

* (Possibly intentional) Disruptor bomb explosions destroy deployed bioflares.

Normal vanilla behavior.

* I just researched Sonic Manufacturing and now I can produce the Zrbite battery... why would I want this? I assume it's going to be for some of the sonic sub-techs that I don't have yet, but this isn't clear; it has no ufopedia entry that I can tell nor does Sonic Manufacturing mention it. Surely it should only appear when one of them is researched?

Ok, i'll do something with that. Not an prettiest decision indeed.

* Military base defence against the church; the mini map looks extremely garish. The ground colour is orange and orange stripes! This makes spotting your (yellow) units very difficult, let alone the (also orange!) friendly military units.

Oh... maybe someone fix it for me? It is so boring to do...

* Manufacturing says "Acquire Suppressor" for the "Squeezer"

* Manufacturing says "Acquire Spawner" for the "Breeder"

Thanks, i'll check.

* STR_HEAVYGILLMAN_COMMANDER and STR_HEAVYAQUATOID_COMMANDER aren't a dependency for STR_LEADER_PLUS, even though the former two have the later in "unlocks".

* Same for STR_MEDIC_PLUS - doesn't have STR_HEAVYAQUATOID_MEDIC in it as a dependency

Intended.

* T'Leth: I've researched everything (including all aliens/medics, squad leaders, most UFOs/technicians), but my research % is still just 91%. Research completed: 386 (wow!). Looking at the tech tree, it seems the entire Ion tech tree was missed.

Ion weapons becaame on the battlefield when you play bad enough. If you lose enough, more ions will spawn.

* MC Implantation protection bugs:
a) The Aquanauts page keeps saying "In MC Implantation" over a month later.
b) Any soldier you put this through always stays as "Unknown" on MC Training, no matter how many months you do it on them.
c) Their MC stats never show up on the aquanauts stats page.
d) Even months after I did the implant thing, the units are still susceptible to MC.

a)vanilla
b,c)soldier must keep training for a month to gain results. Without breaks.
d)Please provide savegame, so i can be calm that it is not a bug.

* The blurb for adv medikit says "can heal more per critical wound treatment". But it still just heals 1 per 10 TU.

It restores more HP per one wound.

* One of the unresearched techs is INTERCEPTOR. "Get free with armored gillman engineer." Except I've defo researched them (the tech tree agrees), and STR_HEAVYGILLMAN_TECHNICIAN doesn't have any interceptor tech as unlocks

Tech is called 'STR_SEEKER', i have'nt hear about problems with it. Can you explain further?

I struggled with understanding how to use the new MC stuff once I had an MC lab. For one it talks about recruiting "M.C.-Gifted Aquanauts", but it took me a while before I could figure out how to "manufacture" them.

You need soldiers with MC-skill and proper equipment. (MC-disruptor, focuser and armor.)

Typos (UFOPedia):

Thanks.

* You spend the entire middle game (all the tasoths) with no effective grenades (unless I missed a tech somewhere).

There are TOO effective grenades. I want to remove them from underwater use entirely, but gamers will not excuse me for this. Try magna-pack.

* Chainsword - the action cost is ridiculously high (60% of max TU) versus a heavy thermal lance (18 TU fixed). Especially given the HTL actually has a higher hit chance too (confirmed by equipping both on the same person). I can do 3 HTL attacks (150 damage) in the same time I can do one Chainsword attack (200 damage) when equipped on a good soldier, *and* each HTL attack has a higher % chance of hitting.

It is intended. Chainsword is more tool for breaching walls  than combat weapon. As it written in ufopedia...

* The Thermal Shock Bomb comes too late in the game to be useful. By the time I've got it I've had everything alive for many months. The only things I've not seen/got yet are Freaks, tricenes, & hellcrabs, and they have 0 effect on the last of those so...

Maybe. But other way it will be too easy. Or not?

* I acquired a cyborg via manufacturing - the stats look as average as the rest of my fishfood.

They can achieve more after training.

* The Displayer/Sonic does less damage (110) than the Turtle/Gauss that you get ages earlier (120).

* Displacer/PWT only does 140 damage versus the actual disrupter which does 210. Given you can stick 7 disruptors on a aquanaut *and* reload during multi-part missions, there's no advantage at all to the displacer edition.

It is intended.
[/quote]
* In the entire game (before T'leth) I only came across 2 Ion Cannons. And no other class of ion weapons at all. That's 117 succesful missions.
[/quote]
Answered before, ions for bad players.

* By the time the Leviathan is researched and built it's completely unnecessary. I built mine and immediately had the Flounder under construction as soon as the Lev was finished. I didn't need to do another interception or mission at all at that point; just wait a week then do the final mission.

Just as vanilla game.

[xcommie]

You need to discover USO with resolver to see his stats.

What do you mean? All the USOs would have been discovered with the Wide Array Sonars at my bases. The Blurb for the Transmission Nexus implies that you only need one Nexus; no need for lots of resolvers:

Code: [Select]

The Synomium technology now serves us for Alien detection purposes. Upgrading our Naval Control Center is the next step. This facility provides detailed info about previously detected USO's across the globe...If it doesn't work across the globe what's the point of the Transmission Nexus as a tech if I would otherwise have lots of Transmission Resolvers?

b) Any soldier you put this through always stays as "Unknown" on MC Training, no matter how many months you do it on them.
c) Their MC stats never show up on the aquanauts stats page.

b,c)soldier must keep training for a month to gain results. Without breaks.
d)Please provide savegame, so i can be calm that it is not a bug.

b / c) I've had tons of soldiers go through MC training and they all show fine. The only ones that don't are the implant ones. See attached save.

d) Even months after I did the implant thing, the units are still susceptible to MC.

Save attached.

Note: The save is from just before launching t-leth. I simply sped through the last game-month ignoring everything (all USOs, base attacks (Why I don't have a Transmission Nexus; it was at one of the lost bases)), and doing absolutely nothing with any of the soldiers. "Dev Malik" for example has been in MC training for 3 full months as the best example, but anyone else in MC Implantation has had at least 1 full month at this point

I struggled with understanding how to use the new MC stuff once I had an MC lab. For one it talks about recruiting "M.C.-Gifted Aquanauts", but it took me a while before I could figure out how to "manufacture" them.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. What I meant was that it wasn't clear on how to recruit these MC Gifted aquanauts. I figured it out in the end. However most of them were useless and quite a few had MC Strength *worse* than my regulars.

----

Leviathan:
Yes, but in Vanillia you *need* to build Leviathan for T'Leth. There's 0 reason to build it here because only Flounder can do T'leth.

----

Thermal Shock Bombs: - Maybe. But other way it will be too easy. Or not?

Isn't the point of alien tech to make things easier for the player? Capturing already becomes pretty easy mid-game even with just thermal shock rods because you can have meeleee soldiers dual-wield with lances. All the bombs do is reduce risk, which better armour does anyway. As it stands researching them is entirely superfluous; they're useless to the player.

[Nord]

What do you mean? All the USOs would have been discovered with the Wide Array Sonars at my bases. The Blurb for the Transmission Nexus implies that you only need one Nexus; no need for lots of resolvers:

Due to game engine work process, you need to discover USO by resolver to see his stats. If you discover it with sonar, you will see only size, depth and speed. No matter if nexus watches over that USO later, it will remain sonar-detected. You still have 2% chance to discover uso by nexus itself.

b / c) I've had tons of soldiers go through MC training and they all show fine. The only ones that don't are the implant ones. See attached save.

Ah, you are talking about MC-shielded aquanauts. They can not train MC-skill, but have 100 MC-strength to resist MC. So they are not immune, but resistant to control and panic.

Leviathan:
Yes, but in Vanillia you *need* to build Leviathan for T'Leth. There's 0 reason to build it here because only Flounder can do T'leth.

Well, not 0 reason, some people like it.

Isn't the point of alien tech to make things easier for the player?

Who said that? 

[xcommie]

Due to game engine work process, you need to discover USO by resolver to see his stats. If you discover it with sonar, you will see only size, depth and speed. No matter if nexus watches over that USO later, it will remain sonar-detected. You still have 2% chance to discover uso by nexus itself.

May be worth making this clearer in the UFOpedia blurb. I read it to mean "Nexus means you don't need lots of resolvers". So I never built any resolvers.

Well, not 0 reason, some people like it.

I like the Leviathan too, but (and it's a big but), there's absolutely zero reason to build it currently. By the time it's available I never once needed it. I only had the T-leth mission left to do and it can't even do that.

Put another way: This isn't a case of "it's cool but it'd be nice earlier", this is a case of "it's cool but there was absolutely 0 use for it because it only appeared at the same time as t'leth in the research tree".

They can not train MC-skill,

In that case I'd suggest they shouldn't appear on the MC Training end-of-month thing. Otherwise players will waste valuable slots on them.

But again, great job on the mod.

[Nord]

I like the Leviathan too, but (and it's a big but), there's absolutely zero reason to build it currently. By the time it's available I never once needed it. I only had the T-leth mission left to do and it can't even do that.

Maybe i should nerf flounder in the term of speed. Like, very strong nerf.

In that case I'd suggest they shouldn't appear on the MC Training end-of-month thing. Otherwise players will waste valuable slots on them.

Impossible. I should ask OXCE autors for such possibility.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I recently finished watching Hadriex play through the mod. I really like it! I especially like the jellymen and mind worms. Hadriex kept saying that the worms hiding in the holes on the island were obnoxious and not fun. I think the exact mechanics of the island could use some tweaking, but the ambience of the place is great!

I didn't get a look at its attributes, but the Turtle with gas cannon HE seemed overpowered. Hadriex used it a lot and it was regularly one-shotting tough enemies. Often his only easy way to kill something was with the Turtle. I think most other tanks could use some buffs, but that one could use a bit of a nerf. The arcing shot is already really good, not only for going over obstacles, but also because it improves hit rate significantly.

The Officer Laser Pistol is a fun weapon that I like, but it still seems a bit weak to justify using it. Its low weight makes it nice as a backup weapon, but it could still use a small power increase. And it should probably be pretty accurate, especially as a low power weapon. If it has fairly short ranges but high accuracy, it could excel as a backup weapon when used at short to medium range against low-armor targets. There are many use cases for that in your mod. I want to like the Officer Laser Pistol!

Game engine limitation, no new missions will spawn after treaty, but old missions remains. And they can last month or two.

A potential workaround: make the missions smaller so that they end sooner. You can use missionScripts to build out a long campaign of multiple small missions strung together instead of one long mission.

Oh... maybe someone fix it for me? It is so boring to do...

I got you fam. =]

It is intended. Chainsword is more tool for breaching walls  than combat weapon. As it written in ufopedia...

I was noticing that the chainsword often needs a second hit to get through a tile which has an impassible broken form, or a double wall. I think if it had a TU cost of 45%, it would significantly improve its effectiveness in getting through some walls, without greatly enhancing its melee weapon capability. In order to use it twice against an enemy in one turn, you'd basically need to end your turn standing next to them and hope they neither run away nor kill your chainsword holder. So in practice, it would still only get one attack per target.

Maybe. But other way it will be too easy. Or not?

I think the limitation of ammo is already good for curbing the use of Thermal Shok weaponry. It should be available a bit sooner I think.

Maybe i should nerf flounder in the term of speed. Like, very strong nerf.

The Flounder seems fine to me. It's essentially useless for anything other than going to T'Leth, making it a gimmick ship for specifically that. It is too defenseless to risk flying it anywhere else.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the Leviathan's attributes. What's happening is that players feel they ought to go to T'Leth as soon as it becomes an option. If this is how you intend it, then the Leviathan should become available sooner. But if you don't expect players to necessarily jump straight into T'Leth the moment it pops up, then you should add some post-T'Leth content on the geoscape to give players a reason to delay it. Or perhaps you could extend it with a campaign in which you unlock the Leviathan and then use it to complete missions which are needed to finally unlock T'Leth.

* Sub equipment is nicely done.

I felt that their drawbacks were too drastic since they are also taking up a weapon slot. Based on their bonuses, they would be reasonable to use if they took up a weapon slot and had no drawbacks beyond that. However, if various craft were given one or more slots which only fit equipment items, then the drawbacks would be far more balanced.

[Nord]

Hi, Reaver. Thanks for feedback

I recently finished watching Hadriex play through the mod.

Hadriex was very... ignorant, and uses at maximum 35-40% of mod possibilities.

The Officer Laser Pistol is a fun weapon that I like, but it still seems a bit weak to justify using it.

[/quote]
The Officer laser pistol is just a lore weapon, i have not put any practical meaning in it.

I got you fam. =]

Thank you!

I think the limitation of ammo is already good for curbing the use of Thermal Shok weaponry. It should be available a bit sooner I think.

I'll think about it.

[Steelpoint]

Most of the surface weapons are there for fluff. I'm pretty sure the best surface weapon is the X-Rifle which you can get access to very quickly, maybe the Plasma Rifle but the aimed mode restriction really hinders it.

[xcommie]

Hadriex kept saying that the worms hiding in the holes on the island were obnoxious and not fun. I think the exact mechanics of the island could use some tweaking, but the ambience of the place is great!

Agreed. I only had one mind worm island mission; probably my very last mission before t'leth. So I had MC Armour which made finding the hole aliens easier once I figured out they were a thing. I'd have failed had I not had MC capable folks though (wouldn't have survived long enough to find them all, or had MC Armour that could "see" into the holes easily).

Agree on liking Jellys (their entire mini-story) and mind worms.

And agree with your thoughts on the Leviathan.

But if you don't expect players to necessarily jump straight into T'Leth the moment it pops up, then you should add some post-T'Leth content on the geoscape to give players a reason to delay it

That's an idea, although then you need to give the player the motivation to do those missions. And a in-universe reason why there's something even more important than stopping the entire invasion outright.

[sub equipment] I felt that their drawbacks were too drastic since they are also taking up a weapon slot. Based on their bonuses, they would be reasonable to use if they took up a weapon slot and had no drawbacks beyond that. However, if various craft were given one or more slots which only fit equipment items, then the drawbacks would be far more balanced.

By the time you get the equipment you also have cannons that aren't useless (gauss). Sure I skipped the accuracy equipment, but the shield in place of a torpedo that you never fire (because you only use cannons) is a no-brainer. At least, that was my craft play style. Note: My craft even at end game were a mix of morays/baracudas with just two deep angels. None of the advanced ships.

Hadriex was very... ignorant, and uses at maximum 35-40% of mod possibilities.

Possibly, but you have to remember: there's far too much content for everyone to use all possibilities. I did the entire game playing with only at most 20% of the equipment options, and definitely a different set to what others use. I never built / used whole suites of equipment, armours, and craft. Everyone's going to use different stuff that suits their play styles.

[Nord]

Possibly, but you have to remember: there's far too much content for everyone to use all possibilities. I did the entire game playing with only at most 20% of the equipment options, and definitely a different set to what others use. I never built / used whole suites of equipment, armours, and craft. Everyone's going to use different stuff that suits their play styles.

Yes, and this is good. I play like that myself (other mods etc). But not for streamer, who must show all what game have. It is my opinion, else i dont know why streamers even exist.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

The Officer laser pistol is just a lore weapon, i have not put any practical meaning in it.

I'm not asking for it to be good or optimal, I just don't want to be punished for choosing to use it. At current, it's at best a noob trap and at worst vendor trash. A lot of the fluff is like that:

Most of the surface weapons are there for fluff. I'm pretty sure the best surface weapon is the X-Rifle which you can get access to very quickly, maybe the Plasma Rifle but the aimed mode restriction really hinders it.

I like having interesting lore weapons, but it bugs me when, like the plasma rifle, they don't really work. The X-Rifle is basically the only thing getting used because it's better than everything else.

- - - - -

By the time you get the equipment you also have cannons that aren't useless (gauss). Sure I skipped the accuracy equipment, but the shield in place of a torpedo that you never fire (because you only use cannons) is a no-brainer.

To me, that is less of a reasonable concession and more of a failure of the weapons lineup. If there aren't any good weapons to put in a weapon slot, then is it really a weapon slot?

Yes, and this is good. I play like that myself (other mods etc). But not for streamer, who must show all what game have. It is my opinion, else i dont know why streamers even exist.

I see streamers as giving the mod some attention. Those of us who lack the drive to play a mod we know nothing about can get a preview of it by watching someone else play. You also learn things from that person's playstyle, or have a good laugh at their struggles. You don't need to see the whole game in one stream or in one playthrough, in fact I much prefer games with a lot of replay value. In my mod I have deliberately hidden several things so that you probably won't find them all on your first time through. It helps keep it fresh if you come back for seconds.