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[Under Development] Xenonaut Weapon Revamp


RaccoonTOF

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This started out with me wanting to add some more regional diversity to ballistic weapons - adding in a full starting suite of Soviet weapons, which then led to adding some European weapons. And then I decided that I wanted to redo even the existing weapons, to base them off of real-world weapons and match the same style of the others.

Eventually I want to have a full set of basic ballistic weapons for each of US/Soviet/Euro (pistol, assault rifle, sniper rifle, LMG, shotgun, carbine/SMG) and then an intended later research for "upgraded" versions of them all, for those that want to continue using ballistic weaponry (which will flat replace them in the purchase/equip screens, just as grenades and medpacks auto-upgrade now).

Currently I've got a fair number of the weapons created, but thus far I've only got the Dragunov SVD-63 implemented fully in game. My choke point right now is with animations - some of them I can use existing assets with, as due to the small scale in GC, the difference between say, an M16, M4, and G3 are not really noticeable. For others though - particularly the M21, Dragunov, and the SMGs I'm currently working on - none of the existing animations are really a good match. So, I'd like to put a call out for anyone willing to help with these; it's not particularly difficult, and is fairly simple "pixel art" for the most part, but there are a LOT of images to update for each weapon (every angle of every pose and every action taken, with each of the different armor types...).

Meanwhile, I'll be finishing up the artwork and XML for at least the first round of regional weapons, plus the batch of restyled laser weapons. Below is what I've got so far (although again, only the Dragunov is fully-implemented in-game thus far, but the rest will be coming soon).

Ballistics Revamp

M16A1.jpg

M16A4.jpg

G3.jpg

AK_74_WithMag.jpg

M21.jpg

M25.jpg

SVD_Dragunov_HiRes.jpg

Advanced_SVD_Dragunov_HiRes.jpg

Updated Laser Weapons

Laser Pistol.jpg

Laser Rifle.jpg

Laser Sniper.jpg

Laser Shotgun.jpg

Laser LMG.jpg

Laser Carbine.jpg

M16A1.jpg

M16A4.jpg

G3.jpg

AK_74_WithMag.jpg

M21.jpg

M25.jpg

SVD_Dragunov_HiRes.jpg

Advanced_SVD_Dragunov_HiRes.jpg

Laser Pistol.jpg

Laser Rifle.jpg

Laser Sniper.jpg

Laser Shotgun.jpg

Laser LMG.jpg

Laser Carbine.jpg

M16A1.thumb.jpg.2926740ac89aeb9dd9a71883

M16A4.jpg.522533246a37cea11cc0ecdb609fc8

G3.thumb.jpg.8f86b722aa2b0f396213e6d6a37

AK_74_WithMag.thumb.jpg.70a2d80ad00ebee6

M21.thumb.jpg.64385ef372432d79226a0488c5

M25.thumb.jpg.bb14164ec96f36ded7e4471c85

SVD_Dragunov_HiRes.jpg.9cb3b6adc75ac1769

Advanced_SVD_Dragunov_HiRes.jpg.129c23ce

577e7d3487588_LaserPistol.jpg.55108ef6d3

577e7d3489db4_LaserRifle.jpg.fbf4032cca8

577e7d348c3df_LaserSniper.jpg.55eb41e0fc

577e7d348ec6e_LaserShotgun.jpg.a786679e5

577e7d34913cc_LaserLMG.jpg.3ca6600032260

577e7d3493d16_LaserCarbine.jpg.e0203ef4f

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Nice weapons there. . It's nice to see many ppl try to revamp game weapons. But the usability is important too.. they are many ppl mostly update or work on games first ballistic tier which you use not for a long time in game. You need to give different purposes to weapons..

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As max said, editing sprite animation nearly impossible. They are all rendered in 3d applications with right light and angle. You need to have the models then animate and put it to game.. auditing sprites one by one at a 2d program will take so long and won't look well. You can play with colors if u want.

Fall19, we duplicate lasers from enemy energy weapon. But I like ballistic weapons so I added some to every tier at my mod. But whatever you do, standart ballistic weapons from that times armies would be absolute very soon.

some ppl like to see more weapon designs from cold war, some ppl use more futuristic ones. I like updated weapons with more human style weapons. .

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Totally agreed on the usability, which is why I am adding the advanced ballistics as well. Also, each of the different weapons will have slight variance from the "generic" versions currently in game also, in line with their real-world counterparts (the clip size and round shown in the images above being just one example of this.) In general, ballistics vs energy weapons will do more damage with less accuracy (lasers and advanced ballistics will be roughly equal in overall DPS, and I plan to rescale plasma and mag weapons along similar lines). Plus, ballistics are unlimited in supply (including advanced, once researched), while the rest require manufacturing time and cost. That alone will give a bit of an edge to the advanced ballistics over lasers, to help balance the added in-game value of accuracy trumping sheer damage.

As for the sprites - there is no need to edit the actual poses or general appearance, like would be necessary with an armor mod (although the 3d models are provided to us for doing so I believe, I've not looked too closely yet at the models posted here). For the weapons changes though, it is primarily an issue of recoloring stocks and adding/removing scopes from the current assets, which can be done manually fairly easy for a SINGLE image, as it is only a few pixels that need changing in most cases. The main reason it is such an issue is because of the sheer number of individual images that need changing - a few dozen images for a single short animation, such as firing...from a crouch...wearing basic armor. Repeat for each possible combination of weapon, armor, pose...it's just a LOT of small changes to make - and if possible I'd like to spend my time working on the larger-detail images and the stat balancing :)

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Racoon.. as i am working similar project as you, i can give you some friendly advises, i hope u dont get me wrong..

1. As soldier sprites, there was Max's project to add different armor and making sprites for it with using 3d models.. as i follow that topic, he got so many problems and need to quit.. or pause for now.. so after some play, you dont realy see that difference.. i mean 1 mm longer rifle wont get anybodies attention maybe after first check.. Another thing is the sprites takes so much place as memory.. i rearmed the aliens with new weapons and i wanted to change the alien plasma guns color red to white.. i did it but when i try to implement to game it took nearly 1 gb alone... As short, give your efford other things and as "last" thing, work on those sprites..

2. The biggest different between energy and ballistics is "damage type".. you need to understand good to make different purpose weapons.. if you work on aliens resistances, you can make 2x weapon types.. If you dont touch to aliens, all your weapons will act same as damage.. dont miss this opportunity..

I know my english is pain to read but check my discussion thread at my signature.. i try to explain this idea much more detailed there..

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Yup, already planned on tweaking the damage types when I got to the plasma/mag rebalance (and was looking into the need to add/alter alien armor to add proper resistances to them as well). But even without changing the base damage type, there is a lot of differentiation that can be done with RoF (by tweaking TU costs and by altering burst sizes), accuracy, dmg per round, clip sizes, reaction modifiers, range, etc. For example, all of the "suppressed" ballistic weapons will have a slight reaction modifier bonus to them (best I could do to simulate the advantages of a silencer), while having a slightly lower max range and in some cases a mild accuracy penalty (not all suppressors decrease accuracy within their operating range, but they DO all have max range penalties - at least all of the weapons I'm including with them...in the real world, they would be firing subsonic ammunition, but I'm not going to be quite so nitpicky as to require using different ammo, I'm adding enough new ammo types already). The general idea is to have all of the weapons work "generally" like the do in the vanilla game, but with minor variations between sub-types, and to give each "tier" a definite niche that it is best at.

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This thread got me thinking along some new lines.... and reminded me of Falling Skies.

If only we could code research-unlocked ammunition upgrades, like what happens with grenades and rockets where the new model replaces the old, then we could research Alien Alloy Munitions for ballistic weapons which could put starting ballistics on par with laser weapons...

Edited by DarkExcalibur42
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Just the vanilla didnt use the damage types and you just use better weapons for more damage.. I didnt know there is a damage type differences at game before i start modding.. but if you dont use the enemy resistances, you will always stick to same weapons..

For example: Just think that there is no damage differences and resistances in game.. You made many weapons with RoF.. but i would choose the best damage weapon with moderate accuracity.. if i can kill the enemy with this weapon, who cares surpression, 1-2 range differences, reactions.. so give me 2 sniper 2 shotgun and others rifle.. even i want to use another weapon, it would be just to check them...

But if you give different resistances to enemies.. even your best rifle can be useless at some situvations..

Anyway, i will wait your mod! good luck and much patience to you :)

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This thread got me thinking along some new lines.... and reminded me of Fallen Skies.

If only we could code research-unlocked ammunition upgrades, like what happens with grenades and rockets where the new model replaces the old, then we could research Alien Alloy rounds for ballistic weapons which could put starting ballistics on par with laser weapons...

You can do it.. just you will make "same weapon" per new ammo.. and when you want to update the ammo, you will make the game update the weapon as well.. You will use the same pictures and same string name.. no one will know the weapon changed and you will have same weapon with updated ammo..

Wow.. this idea came to me now.. lol.. why didnt i use this.. fck.. :P

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Just the vanilla didnt use the damage types and you just use better weapons for more damage.. I didnt know there is a damage type differences at game before i start modding.. but if you dont use the enemy resistances, you will always stick to same weapons..

For example: Just think that there is no damage differences and resistances in game.. You made many weapons with RoF.. but i would choose the best damage weapon with moderate accuracity.. if i can kill the enemy with this weapon, who cares surpression, 1-2 range differences, reactions.. so give me 2 sniper 2 shotgun and others rifle.. even i want to use another weapon, it would be just to check them...

But if you give different resistances to enemies.. even your best rifle can be useless at some situvations..

Anyway, i will wait your mod! good luck and much patience to you :)

Yeah.... if we had a way to upgrade ballistics, then downgraded MAG weaponry we could make a 3-tier system:

Starting Ballistics

Alloy Munitions / Laser Weapons

Plasma / MAG weapons

Ohhh.... oh yeah. I like this a lot. I'm stealing this for when I rebalance weapons and alien armor values.

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You can do it.. just you will make "same weapon" per new ammo.. and when you want to update the ammo, you will make the game update the weapon as well.. You will use the same pictures and same string name.. no one will know the weapon changed and you will have same weapon with updated ammo..

Wow.. this idea came to me now.. lol.. why didnt i use this.. fck.. :P

WAIT.... you can do that?! I thought there were all sorts of posts on the modding boards about how we couldn't get multiple ammo types to be used by the same weapon... except for rocket launchers for some reason.

Now I'm confused, because I don't see how it works in the xmls. I was just comparing rocket weapons in the weapons_gc.xml to ballistic weapons, and it looks like all that happens is they have multiple ammo types listed. So next I'm looking through the strings.xml and weapons.xml, but i need to download Libre Office to make these tables easier to read.

Where is this that you tell the game to replace an old ammo type with a new one? I'm fascinated now!

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This?
ReplaceItem("weapon.grenade.frag","weapon.grenade.alenium");

Found it in the strings.xml, though I don't think I yet properly understand the context and how to place it into the file appropriately.

At research.xml you will see that replace code.. it means when u finished that research, x will become y..

So i dont talk about multiple ammos here.. a weapon cant use 2 ammo type.. so for this reason you cant replace x ammo to y ammo.. but you can replace "a" weapon with "x" ammo to "b" weapon with "y" ammo... if you make "a"weapon and "b" weapon same, you will have "a" weapon with "y" ammo...

For example.. you got ballistic rifle with standart magazine.. you make another weapon with same pictures and stats (you can change picture and stats too ofcourse so u update not only ammo but weapon too) and make a "alienallowmagazine".. then you add a replace code to alienallow research.. u replace only weapons.. then when u researched alienallow you have a same looking same named (at string.xml.. string.xml is using only giving names to objects in game.. weapon.nucmiss.rocket = Nuclear Missile for exm..) rifle but with alienallow ammo.. the player wont notice the weapon changed.. he will see only changed ammo...

oki?

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So i dont talk about multiple ammos here.. a weapon cant use 2 ammo type..

But that's exactly what the rocket launcher does... it uses 2 ammo types. AND it uses ammo that auto upgrades on research.

so for this reason you cant replace x ammo to y ammo.. but you can replace "a" weapon with "x" ammo to "b" weapon with "y" ammo... if you make "a"weapon and "b" weapon same, you will have "a" weapon with "y" ammo...

Well this will definitely work, no question about that. But I think I'm going to play with the code and test to see if i can upgrade just the ammo. It'd save time and make the final mod smaller.

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But that's exactly what the rocket launcher does... it uses 2 ammo types. AND it uses ammo that auto upgrades on research.

Well this will definitely work, no question about that. But I think I'm going to play with the code and test to see if i can upgrade just the ammo. It'd save time and make the final mod smaller.

Yes only rockets and launchers do that. It's coded only for rocket types. You can add rockets to a launcher but you can't add ammo to a non launcher weapon. Because the rockets are not ammo they are weapons too. U can't add more ammo to a weapon at weapon.xml . I tried and asked it but just stuck..

u can't replace ammo only because ammo stats are at weapon coding. If u use my method you only add 10 lines more to game code. But try your ideas.. maybe u catch something we miss...

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u can't replace ammo only because ammo stats are at weapon coding. If u use my method you only add 10 lines more to game code. But try your ideas.. maybe u catch something we miss...

You're right. For some reason I was thinking I'd need to make copies of art assets for some reason... now I can't remember why I thought that was necessary.

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