SS2 Coloured Laser Rapiers All-in-One

[6741e8edc27b1sarge945]

Okay this seems pretty stable now.

@Deu sex and anyone else who has played the Beta versions, can you give some feedback? I want to move this from a Beta state to a full release.

[6741e8edc2aa0Deu sex]

sarge945
Last time I checked it was working quite nicely, no issues as far as I can remember since the latest version.
RoSoDude is going to release RSD's next version soon, I'll try it again in a full run during that playthrough and if everything is fine, I'll give it a green light, not that you need it or anything though haha just a little external validation roleplay.

Don't hesitate to stress the mod yourself too!

[6741e8edc2c09sarge945]

Yeah I've been stress testing it in a playthrough, but having others to help out always makes testing way better, since people will think of different things and do different things.

It's why software projects can go through years of testing only to break on the day of realease when customers start using it in all sorts of strange ways.

I don't really play Secmod though (don't like the mod personally), so someone should really test that.

[6741e8edc2fbbsarge945]

sarge945RoSoDude is going to release RSD's next version soon, I'll try it again in a full run during that playthrough and if everything is fine, I'll give it a green light, not that you need it or anything though haha just a little external validation roleplay.

Sorry for bump, but did this end up happening @Deu sex?

I really want to get this out of BETA

[6741e8edc3219Deu sex]

sarge945
Nope I was waiting for the next version, it did release a week ago though but I only realized it now, I'm getting RSD beta 13 now and I'll be playing it during the week

[6741e8edc35a5sarge945]

sarge945
Nope I was waiting for the next version, it did release a week ago though but I only realized it now, I'm getting RSD beta 13 now and I'll be playing it during the week

You're better off now. It had some nasty issues a week ago which luckily got fixed.

[6741e8edc38adDeu sex]

sarge945
I've been playing with it quite a lot, got almost all colors, tried to change floors, etc... No issue so far, I think it's great.
Little update on the color values/saturation which feels more natural imo :

Code: [Select]

["blue",    1.0,      1.0,             [150,0.66,0.80],
["red",     1.0,      1.0,             [150,0.98,0.90],
["green",   1.0,      1.0,             [150,0.40,0.80],
["purple",  1.0,      1.0,             [150,0.80,0.80],
and light properties :

Code: [Select]

SetProperty("AnimLight","min brightness",200);
SetProperty("AnimLight","max brightness",250);
SetProperty("AnimLight","millisecs to brighten",1400);
SetProperty("AnimLight","millisecs to dim",1000);
Feel free to update them, or not! Anyways the mod is ready as far as I'm concerned

[6741e8edc3ba9sarge945]

Deu sex
Do you have any comparison shots. Your blue and red are identical to mine, and I can't tell any difference between your green and mine despite the numbers being different. Your purple looks much better, though.

I don't like your reduced brightness values. They make the rapier look like it's only emitting a small glow, despite being a massive bright light in your hand.

I have also done some playthroughs and the mod has been working just fine for me too. I might move it out of beta.

[6741e8edc3d2fsarge945]

This is no longer in Beta, I have released a new version v1.04

@voodoo47 would you please remove the 1.04 beta versions, transfer the download counts across to the new 1.04 version, and set it to never expire? Thank you!

@Deu sex you can now easily set the brightness using constants under the colour table. I didn't like your values, but you should now very easily be able to change them to your liking.

[6741e8edc3f85Deu sex]

sarge945
I guess the brightness is very dependant on the monitor, I have a monitor with very bright and powerful colors, so even just a tiny bit pops. You're the mod creator though, so your value matters. And thanks for putting options to change it easily!

[6741e8edc4108sarge945]

This is ready to go, would just like some feedback on the idea before I release it.

I can't seem to find a way to make a MFD appear for it, but even then, it would likely just be empty. I wonder if there's a way to bring up the normal "description" MFD with a plug for hacking/modify/etc.

@RoSoDude I know you've done UI work, do you know if this is possible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjEVYn-bROs

[6741e8edc42e8ZylonBane]

You're charging players four times more nanites than it takes to reconstruct an entire human body from scratch just to change the color? Come on, this is just a silly cosmetic mod. There should be no cost, and it should cycle through the colors linearly instead of randomly.

Also it would also be better if there was a UI sound effect played when you change colors.

As for an MFD, are you talking about the Query panel? That flat-out will not display hack or modify buttons. That's why guns don't display it when you query them, vs the right-click Settings panel where it does display.

You could make a Settings MFD display, but since laser rapiers don't have settings, that would just be confusing for people.

[6741e8edc4660sarge945]

I just ended up using a stock MFD image of a security computer

I was actually able to make it display the Hack button on the Query panel, but some internal pointer was screwed up, it would often hack the last thing I interacted with, rather than the rapier.

I have now changed it to be a proper hack, 10 nanites per go. It still rolls randomly. I know this is a dumb cosmetic mod, but I still want different colours to feel special, rather than just being something you toggle between at will. A relatively cheap and easy hack (but with a high skill requirement - currently 4) should be enough to do it, but you've still got to get lucky to get the one you want.

Hacking the GamePig costs 50 nanites per attempt(!), is very hard, and doesn't really affect gameplay (except in Overworld Zero). This sort of precedent is already set. But I might add a version that simply rerolls on right click, for free, with no hacking at all, to appease everyone.

Here it is automatically working with RSD's new hacking minigame.

Also, @RoSoDude the hack text (+ObjProp -24 "HackText" = "Weapon: "Sets a new Rapier Color"") works perfectly fine with the vanilla hacking minigame, so I am officially REPORTING BUG TEXT. It also doesn't print "Hacking Successful" to the log like the vanilla minigame does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXeg8Isx2RY

[6741e8edc4989bombum]

ZylonBane
That reconstruction costs about the price of a snack in a replicator. Nanites work in mysterious ways

[6741e8edc4acbsarge945]

To be fair, the nanite costs in the game are totally insane across the board.

I can fully heal all health, toxin and radiation at a bed for 5 nanites, and fully reconstruct myself for 10 or so nanites. (I don't use QBRMs so I forget the price). But a single med hypo can cost nearly up to 50 or so nanites.

So no matter what I set it to, someone will be unhappy.

[6741e8edc4c08sarge945]

I have uploaded a new beta version. Please note there's 1 known issue currently - When playing with RSD the hack text doesn't appear, but it's a minor issue. I have asked RoSoDude to look into it.

[6741e8edc4e98ZylonBane]

So no matter what I set it to, someone will be unhappy.

Literally nobody would be unhappy if it didn't cost any nanites at all. In fact I'll predict right now that removing the nanite cost will be one of the first support questions. Imposing a game resource cost for an action that has no gameplay effect is a very strange choice.

[6741e8edc52c2sarge945]

Literally nobody would be unhappy if it didn't cost any nanites at all. In fact I'll predict right now that removing the nanite cost will be one of the first support questions. Imposing a game resource cost for an action that has no gameplay effect is a very strange choice.

I'd be unhappy, because it takes something away from collecting rapiers. Giving everyone the choice to immediately choose whichever one they want for free takes away some of the fun of searching for the rapier colour you really want or finding all of them.

There's value in rarity and in finding something rare that you want. This is also why people are willing to pay money for "legendary loot boxes" on the off chance of finding a rare cosmetic that they like. Getting excited when finding something rare like that is a core part of human nature and I like that you can't simply toggle the rapier you want.

But I don't think it will be a support question at all since it's already been accounted for. Check the first post for the new beta which has 2 versions, a hack version which is what you see in the video, and a version where right clicking simply cycles through the available colours for free.

The free version is there for those who want it. I recommend the hack version, as it keeps the rarer colours (like the black rapier) special, but to each their own. I'm not going to judge anyone for using either version, and nobody is "ruining" their experience by using one version over the other. I'm more than happy to provide multiple versions. It's not exactly difficult to do and largely handles itself automatically.

I guess we can see how many downloads each version gets, but I think you'd be surprised how many people will want to have that extra level of resource investment.

Nobody is clamoring for a "Freely unlock all GamePig games" mod either, despite the hack for it being very hard and requiring significantly more resources than the rapiers in this mod. People are more than happy to pay for non-gameplay rewards that add flavour or enjoyment to a playthrough without being numerically advantageous. All the lore-building non-gameplay fluff that's interactive and part of the world is the essence of what makes these sorts of games so immersive for so many people.

[6741e8edc53f8Deu sex]

The ability to change the color has an unintended side effect, it makes future encounters with laser rapiers less exciting because you can control the color yourself, there's something exciting about not having control and hoping the next one you find is a color you prefer.
Just my opinion of course.

[6741e8edc5510sarge945]

I could always make a version with NO colour changing. It's very easy to do.

But I find having to hack them with a somewhat expensive HCK 4 hack, is already enough of a barrier to entry to the point where unless you become hackerman, you're still going to be excited about finding the next rapier.

[6741e8edc5623sarge945]

400+ downloads on the Beta version and nobody has reported feedback so that I can release it out of beta? Seriously?

I guess no news is good news, and I'm going to assume this doesn't have any glaring issues.

Just waiting for the broken hack text fix from RoSoDude, then I will release it out of beta.

[6741e8edc571csarge945]

This is now out of Beta.

@voodoo47 can you do the stuff with the thing?

[6741e8edc5854sarge945]

After looking at SCP b6's script code, it showed me how to interact with user.cfg values.

I have updated this mod to work by reading values from user.cfg, rather than having to edit the squirrel file.

I also fixed a bug where using the "cycle" option would allow cycling to colours which had zero drop weight (they were effectively disabled).

@voodoo47 can you please transfer over the download counts, and then nuke the previous version?

[6741e8edc59aevoodoo47]

in 2 days when I get back home, would take 2hrs on this mobile connection.  //done.