Expanded Weapon Generation 10/31/17

What I've wanted to do with Starbound since Glad Giraffe is to diversify the kinds of weapons that can be procedurally-generated, such as dividing pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, and rocket launchers into multiple smaller sub-categories (such as battle rifles, high-caliber pistols, submachine guns, anti-material rifles, and mini-rocket launchers to name a few). I also wanted to create additional abilities to place on them, as well as make some abilities which are normally-exclusive to common weapons (such as Piercing Shot or Spray n' Pray) available for uncommon or rare weapons (and vice-versa). However, as of now, the vast majority of these new abilities are variants of existing abilities (such as one being a combination of the Piercing Shot, Bouncing Shot, and Spray n' Pray abilities).

As of the most recent release, this mod adds/modifies the following weapon classes (which can be found as loot and npc drops, and can even be found being sold by merchants):

Shields:

- Tower shields: these shields use the unused uncommon shield sprites, and were given the same stats as the Riot Shields.
- Small Shields: They no longer suppress your ability to run, making them more useful for highly-mobile characters.

Guns:

- Assault Rifle: Buffed rate-of-fire and dps, and nerfed accuracy, to better differentiate them from battle rifles as a more short-ranged alternative, much like such modern-day assault rifles as the AK47 and M16.
- Battle Rifle: Statistically very similar to vanilla Starbound's assault rifles (aside from a slightly lower minimum rate-of-fire, and never having a burst fire mode), they fire more powerful rounds than this mod's version of the assault rifle, with better accuracy, at the cost of rate-of-fire. Real-world examples include the M14 and SCAR-H.
- Squad Automatic Weapons: Also commonly referred to as Light Machine Guns or Light Support Weapons, they have a higher dps than assault rifles, at the cost of quite a lot of accuracy. Examples include the M60, M249, and RPK.

- Semi-Automatic Rifles: Formerly known simply as sniper rifles, they've been given a slight buff in rate-of-fire and damage-per-second, and a slight nerf in accuracy, to make them perform more like such semi-automatic rifles or designated marksman rifles as the Mk12 Special Purpose Rifle, or the MSSR. Compared to battle rifles, these rifles have a lower rate-of-fire and dps, but better accuracy.
- Anti-Material Rifle: Compared to ordinary sniper rifles, these rifles have very high damage-per-shot, and slightly higher damage-per-second and accuracy stats. The tradeoff? They have painfully-long reload times, so you'll need to make your shots count. Based off of such real-world anti-material rifles as the McMillan Tac-50 and KSVK.
- Beam Rifle: Fires a large perfectly-accurate stream of rounds at distant targets, though the reload time in-between streams could be problematic for some.

- Shotgun: Although rate-of-fire was nerfed (to make it more like a traditional pump-action shotgun), everything else was given a buff, including dps, number of projectiles per shot, and especially the accuracy (which is now on par with an assault rifle).
- Automatic Shotgun: Has a higher rate-of-fire and dps than this mod's version of a basic shotgun (almost comparable to a battle rifle), albeit with an even wider spread. Possibly one of the best guns for close-quarters combat? Inspired by the AA-12 Automatic Shotgun.
- Short-Barreled Shotgun: A shotgun that can be easily used with one hand, although they pack a bigger punch than even a high-caliber pistol, they, sadly, have a very wide spread (on par with the Spray n' Pray ability's accuracy), and a low rate-of-fire.
- Flak Cannon: Although this shoulder-mounted man-portable cannon has a wide spread and a painfully-slow rate-of-fire, whatever's caught within the spread should expect to have a very bad time.

- Semi-Automatic Pistol: Formerly known simply as pistols, they were given an increase in their dps at the cost of rate-of-fire.
- High-Caliber Pistol: Like your standard .357 Magnums, these pistols sacrifice rate-of-fire for an even more powerful punch.
- Beam Pistol: A handheld version of the beam rifle.

- Machine Pistol: Not much is different, aside from a higher rate-of-fire, and the possibility of them having burst-fire capabilities.
- Submachine Gun: A handheld machine gun that's almost as powerful as a battle rifle, the fact that it has such poor accuracy makes it ideal as a short-range firearm, either dual-wielded Akimbo-style, or with a shield (among other things).

- Handheld Grenade Launcher: Although the dps remains unchanged compared to vanilla Starbound's version of the grenade launcher, it sacrifices quite a bit of its fire rate (and a bit of accuracy) for a much more powerful damage per shot, and lower energy consumption rate.
- Multi-Grenade Launcher: Inspired by such grenade launchers as the Milkor M32 MGL, this 2-handed grenade launcher lobs grenades at a fairly high rate.

- Rocket Launcher: Compared to vanilla Starbound's version, these rocket launchers were transformed into true anti-tank weapons, sacrificing alot of their fire rate (and a tiny bit of accuracy) for a much more powerful damage-per-shot.
- Mini-Rocket Launcher: Statistically, these are closer to vanilla Starbound's rocket launchers. However, while their dps and accuracy are lower, they can have a fire rate as low as two rockets per second.

As of 3/8/17, the following mods and mod packs are known to build upon this mod's assets in some fashion or another:

- Shadow Wolf TJC's NPC Pack: The Better NPC Equipment mod within that mod pack changes the loadouts of various NPCs within vanilla Starbound so that they use a more threatening array of weaponry, especially guns, while the various addons within the mod pack extend these modified loadouts to the various NPCs that are introduced within that mod pack (including the New Tenants mod, and the Non-Playable NPC Race Quests and Crew mod). There even exist some addons within that mod pack that force NPCs to use assets that the Expanded Weapon Generation mod itself adds, so that NPCs may themselves wield weapons like Battle Rifles, Auto-Shotguns, Beam Rifles, and Flak Cannons to name a few.

As of 3/8/17, the following mods and mod packs incorporate this mod's assets into themselves (meaning that the Expanded Weapon Generation mod won't be needed, unless, perhaps, you plan on overwriting those mods' or mod packs' versions of this mod's assets with more up-to-date versions of them):

- Frackin' Universe: This mod's assets have been incorporated into Frackin' Universe, though updates to this mod may not necessarily be reflected immediately in Frackin' Universe.

As of 3/8/17, the following mods may conflict with this mod (unless there's an addon designed to make them compatable with eachother):

- Manufacturer's Touch: Adds a new elemental type for weapons (explosive), and changes how weapons are generated, neither of which the Expanded Weapon Generation mod natively supports.

Note: This mod has a priority of -9998, meaning that it's likely to load before any others. This is so that it's not as likely to overwrite other mods, even if they don't have a defined priority setting (which will default to 0), though it also makes it more likely that its assets would be overwritten.


Disclaimer: This mod may be freely used in mod compilations, or its assets altered or redistributed, provided that those doing so notify me (no permission needed), and credit me.

Mod Pack Permissions:

You must get the author's consent before including this mod in a compilation.

Mod Assets Permissions:

You must get the author's consent before altering/redistributing any assets included in this mod.