Greetings my fellow travellers, I will try and explain a rather simple system for weapon modification and upgrades that may or may not be better than random weapon drops around the world. This system could even be expanded towards armor, remember I am trying to keep the system itself relatively simple. Introduction A couple of needed changes: Recipes for weapons needs to be more expensive then, so people will get more attached to their weapons, as well as the addition of an Armory (Akin to the tech changing module) Weapon drops should also be reduced and in general be replaced by mods. Armory: Recipe: 20x Steel, 5x Iron, 2x Copper. Interface: One slot to insert the weapon that you wish to modify, then more slots based on weapons type will appear. Melee Slots: Handle, Blade, Guard, Ability. Gun Slots: Magazine, Barrel, Scope, Ability. Each of these will be represented as a box to insert the weapon modifications you wish to add to the weapon, visible on the weapon where they are supposed to be entered.There will be a slight pixel cost associated with REMOVING a Mod from the weapon based on the Weapon tier as well as the rarity of the Mod. For the pixel cost of removing a Weapon Modification check the link below with the table. Common and Uncommons are free to remove, but they are destroyed when removed. Rare and Uniques are expensive to remove, but they are are not destroyed when removed. They can be removed for free, but then they are destroyed. Weapon Modifications Here is a way to add a cool little way to modify your weapons to further fit your playstyle.The bonuses in general from these modifications should be "rather" minor so they do not interfere to much with the base balance of weapons. The numbers should in general be in % rather than flat numbers, to make sure that the mods are not necessarily useless on some weapon types. There exists two kind of stats for the mods, Primary and Secondary stats. The primary and secondary stat vary depending on the slot they would be placed, but what it means is if a Mod has a primary stat on it, the number would be higher than if it had been a secondary stat. Look at the examples at the bottom. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Atjn6QcvyL22dFZOSG1NQ2d3R0pmcElkM2tpTkpGVFE&usp=sharing Here is a table showing what the numbers if a stat was primary and if it was not, could be. These are obviously subject to change. There should also be a server setting whether or not Mods should be recraftable, if they are, you can insert a Mod into the weapon slot, and it will tell you how much it will cost to copy it. The recipe should be pretty expensive but I'm not sure on what or how yet. Melee Melee mods will mostly only have bonuses and rarely have penalties, and only if its bonus is significantly higher compared to its rarity. [Handle] Primary: Attack Speed, Attack Delay (Does not affect attack speed, but the time it takes before the attack hits) Secondary: Damage, Critical Strike Chance [Guard] Primary: Critical Strike Chance, Knockback Secondary: Size (Reach), Attack Speed [Blade] Primary: Damage, Size (Reach) Secondary: Knockback, Attack Delay [Ability] This can be a variety of abilities, all from increased pixel gain, to shoot an orb that does a percentage of the melee damage, all the way to small blinks or automatic blocks, what ever you can think of that can be passively activated or activated by for example pressing W (UP) while attacking. Guns Gun mods will often have penalties and the most common penalty is increased energy drain, but obviously not all Gun mods will have it, but it usually depends on the severity of the bonus. [Magazine] Primary: Attack Speed, Energy Drain (Less energy used) Secondary: Projectile Speed, Critical Strike Chance [Scope] Primary: Accuracy (Reduced Bullet Spread), Critical Strike Chance Secondary: Attack Speed, Damage [Barrel] Primary: Damage, Projectile Speed Secondary: Accuracy, Energy Drain (Less energy used) [Ability] This can be a variety of abilities, all from increased pixel gain, to shooting extra bullets, teleporting hit targets a small distance in a direction or anything else that can be passively activated or activated by for example pressing W (UP) while attacking. How to find them In general I would limit these to exploration only, no crafting and MAYBE a few vendors could have 1 or 2 in stock. The point of these is to incentify further exploration even after you have crafted your perfect gear. So where you would find them would primarily be chests and dungeons, and Apex dungeons would most likely favor Gun mods over Melee mods, and Glitch and/or Avian dungeons would probably favor Melee Mods over Gun Mods. All of the mods should be completely randomized so finding a "perfect" mod with the stats you want on them would be a MAJOR prize and have that "Wohooo" feeling. Think of Mods like the Prefixes of Terraria, even though they will be able to add a major effect to a weapon, most of them will have very minor effects. The drops would be like the following: Common and Uncommons would be primarily drops from mobs, and higher drop rates on the random camps and humanoids you follow around, as well as the random chests around the map. They will not be present in every dungeon. Rares will be chest exclusive and have a high drop rate in the dungeons, and a lower but still substantial drop rate in random chests around the world. Uniques will be dungeon chest exclusive and will have a rare chance of dropping. Examples (What you have all been waiting for): Firstly, these are just some that I have come up with, I will leave a template at the bottom where you guys can add your own examples, although the most interesting Mods to create will most likely be the more unique mods of ability mods. Don't be afraid to suggest some "Unique Rare" mods with major fixed bonuses but with major weaknesses as well. Rules for Random Mods: Rarity selection: Common, Uncommon, Rare, (Unique, but these are premade, not random) There is three different type of Mods: One Stat Mod: These have 1 stat, can be either Primary or Secondary Stat Increased Stat Mod: These have 1 stat but it is higher than the One Stat Mod, can be either Primary or Secondary Stat. It also has 1 completely random penalty stat, the stat number is propertional to the bonus stat. Two Stat Mod: These have 2 stats, it will always be one primary and one secondary. It also has 1 completely random penalty stat, the stat number is propertional to the average of the two bonus stats. Note: The penalty stat is obviously selected from the list of the 6 stats the weapon can have (Melee or Gun) and is completely random, a Mod can have both a bonus and a penalty of the same stat. Table for stat numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Atjn6QcvyL22dFZOSG1NQ2d3R0pmcElkM2tpTkpGVFE&usp=sharing I will also make a Random Mod generator so you guys can see examples of mods. But that will be in a couple of days. Handle [Common] +2% Attack Speed Handle [Uncommon] -10% Attack Delay +5% Damage -4% Damage Guard [Common] 2% Critical Strike Chance Guard [Uncommon] 5% Knockback +5% Size -4% Attack Speed Ability (Melee/Gun) [Common] +20% Extra Pixels dropped from Monsters killed by this weapon. Ability (Melee) [Uncommon] Every second attack shoots a little orb that does 20% of the weapons Damage to all mobs it hits. Ability (Gun) [Uncommon] Enemies killed by this weapon explodes after a small delay dealing 20% of the weapons Damage in a small AOE with a very weak knockback. Ability (Gun) [Uncommon] The gun has an attached Flashlight. Ability (Gun) [Rare] Every third shot the gun fires a slow grenade projectile with a small AOE and weak knockback that explodes and deals 20% of the weapons damage. OUTRO: Remember you can all help me out here and support me with more suggestions and examples of Mods, and especially Mod abilities would be nice, I will once in a while edit this post and add some of peoples Mod suggestions to the list. and I would definitely also like to hear feedback from everyone on my idea, although simple, it can be very fun, and it wont be as tasking for the Devs to implement, compared to a lot of the more complex ideas I've seen so far. Either way: Have a good day PS: I may also look at if this would be possible to make with mods yet, if it is I might make this into a concept mod to show what I mean. EDITS: 30'th of December Added a few more abilities, changed Projectile Speed to Accuracy Changed Knockback on Gun Mods to Projectile Speed ChaoticGamer have been nice and sent my suggestion to the devs, yay! Holding my fingers crossed. 31'th of December Added a table for example numbers of stats Clarified the Random Mods rules for generation Clarified how Mod removal works Preferably going to be shit faced drunk tonight! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
Sorry snowstorm so I'm using my phone for internet and might have missed some key points. I need a flashlight mod for say assault rifles, laser sight, extended mags might make it so you use less energy per shot. Longer barrel equals less spread. I think my expectations for weapon mods are a bit more geared toward function and interchangeability depending on the situation. EDIT: I'm a bit against removal of mods once placed. Realistically you could remove them, but I like the idea that you need to carefully consider the mods you choose for your weapon, as pixels are easy to come by, but a decent base weapon might be a bit more difficult to find. I think Diablo II similarly prevented removal of gems but I could be wrong it's been a while.
I like the general concept. Mainly posting right now to keep me posted on how this thread comes along. I'm sure I'll be joining in on discussion later.
In terms of removal of Mods it probably would depend on how common mods are, if they are super common I would say that you should not be able to remove them, on the other hand, if they are rather rare then you should be able to remove them. Anyone else have a thought on this?
I don't see why mods couldn't be removed regardless of rarity if there was a different kind of limitation on it. For example it could require a special table to do it, forcing you to do it at your base or carry on with you. Or it could take a certain amount of time to switch parts. I would say the second one would work because it leaves you vulnerable while doing it and getting interrupted by moving or getting hit could cancel it. Sure players can wall themselves in to do it but if they do that they will abuse block mechanics regardless.
You know the tech wall mount on the ship at the moment? I was thinking something similar to that so you can only add and/or remove Mods on the ship personally And removing should always be possible, but whether or not the mod will be destroyed depends on the testing honestly
I'd love it if weapon mods were in the game. They wouldn't only be awesome, but the modding capabilities (actual modding, not weapon mods) would be make the game even more big.
That would work for me. I would personally say they should not be destroyed because that isn't realistic and if you are taking a part off it is either a straight upgrade, meaning you will sell or trash the old part anyways, or it is a temporary switch like attaching a light for at night, which would suck to get a single use out of it.
sure we add this to plains I'll ask one the developer team members and see they think this would work out or not. edit 18pm 12/30/13 sent. I hope you earn yourself da potato, a good potato.
Just my 2 cents, as long as the damage output remains on a set baseline for the given weapon/tier, feel free to modify it as much as you want - but modifications, cost. Not just pixels.
How I am envisioning it will be exploration, you find mods, you don't craft them. Mods in my opinion should almost completely replace weapon drops, so you customize weapons rather than find a "slightly" different weapon.
Well yes. That is in essence what I tried to imply. You do mods per earlier finds, maybe even improve as you progress to more difficult places. What I'm saying... you get weapon X with stat Y, weapon Z with stat B, and so forth - you can mix and match anything those weapons have, within limit that you can't exceed e.g. dps 1900 because you've not found yet anything that could do such... but you could make your pistol a fire spewing scatter-shot instead of a point-blank slug thrower... But once you've found a mod, one certainly can reverse-engineer one and re-craft ad infinitum - that tho takes some time and resources.
Honestly I'd say mods should be non-reverse engineerable, so they feel more unique, I'd also say they should be rather common as well. If you noticed my examples they were all percentage based so a limit should not be needed. When it comes to mods I am very much against flat numbers as they have very varying effects based on attack speed and damage, making for example flat damage better on high attack speed, low damage weapons. EDIT: Mods should not be tier based, but the later the tier of the Sector, the more common the uncommon, rares and legendary mods become. So Mods should always be useful.
Well, what comes to reverse-engineering in itself. Anything besides "something your brain simply cannot comprehend" is reverse-engineerable, and even if not, a suitable equivalent is producable if withing limits of one's comprehension and expertise. Real-life example: the chinese. From Rolex to (maybe/arguably improved) Windows, not to add reverse-engineering cryptographics...
I understand the concept of realism in terms of this, but I'm talking more in the terms of gameplay in this. In my opinion Mods should feel special and you should be happy for each one you find. Also since I hope they will be random, whenever a "max roll" Mod is found on a Multiplayer server, someone could just copy it and start selling this max roll to everyone. Think of it kind of like Path of Exile, or Diablo I/II/III, finding a good rolled Mod should be something you should be exceedingly happy about, and should be something that is worth trading. Also in terms of removing mods from weapons, common mods should be rather common, so they should be destroyed upon removal from a weapon, so you are kind of forced to (at early game) to try out different mods, while later in the game you get more permanent mods that you can move back and forth. Kind of like: Common and Uncommons can be removed but gets destroyed. Rares and Uniques can be removed and does not get destroyed, but a substantial pixel cost is associated with removing it. The price will depend on the Tier of the Weapon and the Rarity of the Mod, so a Tier 10 weapon with a Unique modded into it will suddenly cost half a fortune to remove safely. Maybe there could be an option that the mods can be removed for free, but on the other hand they will destroyed.
Well, in Starbound I don't see trading being anything substantial per se - so once you encounter a mod, you could crank it out, with suitable cost. Well, *information* sharing/trading is another issue...
I understand your reasoning but it is not of my opinion, and honestly you are entitled to yours. If the dev decides to read and implements this suggestion I also hope they read everyones feedback, including yours, and implement it in the way they feel is best :=) Either way, thanks for your feedback.
As it's a sandbox, most suitable option would be to include any and all options - as long as all who play with you abide to same rules. In "MMO servers", as they're not something one hosts (aside the host themselves...), one would be required to abide to those rules, however different they were from the single-player/with-friends mode...
