WIP A Strange Altar

A Strange Altar
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[UPDATE: I'll release the first version of A Strange Altar for testing tomorrow night. In this test version, you will use a torch to create the strange altar, and then using it can craft the other items. The other crafting stations will probably not yet be included at this point. For now all the items will all cost only a torch, just to make testing easier. Later the materials used to make the items will be balanced out.]

Oolean Instruments (Weaponized Instruments)

With the strange altar, you can create a device that allows for you to turn your instruments into powerful weapons, so that you can trek across the galaxy destroying alien civilizations with the power of your rock.

The DeathAxe -- the First Weaponized Guitar

This is actually a really interesting weaponized guitar. It was a good first mod, and I learned a lot about modding by doing it. Not only that, I think it is probably one of the funnest weapons I've used in the game so far. It takes some getting used to, basically the skull is set to appear right on your character, so to use it offensively, you need to get used to the physics of it. To attack in front of you, you sort of jump forward, and then go back in midair to "throw" the skull forward. You can also kite enemies and run backwards playing the guitar, leaving a trail of skulls that they will run into, like a metal pied piper of doom.

I also gave it an array of attack sounds, using the guitar sounds already in the assets folder for guitar sound effects, so everytime you "attack", or play the guitar, it plays a different chord. It doesn't make beautiful music or anything, it is basically random guitar keys being played. It sounds cool, though.

Also there is a glowing effect on the player, that you can sort of see here in the gif. There is a little bit of an AOE from that, as you are hurting your enemies with the power of your rock, and also it is handy in dark places. The only thing I wish I could have figured out, that I didn't, was how to make the skull face in both directions. Currently he only looks to the right in the original version of the weapon, regardless of where the player is facing. The shooting skull version is not effected by this, because it has to do with the speed of the projectile, which is set at 0 for the "original" version. For some reason having a 0 speed seems to effect the projectile's ability to flip horizontally when facing in a different direction.

Re-skinned and Slowed Down

Alternate Fire

And More Guitars...

Oolean Spellrings

The strange altar also allows for you to create an ancient Oolean relic that allows you to melt down found objects into powerful spellrings.


Two Fire Spellrings

Rainbow Spellring

I am currently in the process of balancing out the spellrings. To make them more fun and unique, I am tweaking them so that they use up different amounts of power, come out at different speeds, do different amounts of damage, have different casting effects, etc. They are a hell of a lot of fun to play with right now.

They are all one-handed weapons so you can dual-wield them, and I made icons for them so they are easier to differentiate. There a LOT of rings. An insane amount, really. Like pretty much one for every projectile in the game. I just made three gifs because it would take too long too do a gif for each one.

...too much rings.

As mentioned before, the rings should actually show up on multiplayer servers, even if the other clients don't have the mod installed. If you give the ring to another player who does not have the mod installed, though, it will turn into a perfectly generic item. When equipped like a weapon they will grant you the ability to use the various NPC / monster projectiles. The projectiles will show up correctly on multiplayer servers.

It looks like AkumaMini had a similar idea, and made a magic mod already. If you can't wait for mine, check out his: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/magic-spells.47075/

It looks pretty cool, too, and I'll make sure to make mine different enough that it is still worth the time I invested in it. Guess I should have released some of the rings sooner, haha. Oh well.

[ NEXT ]

I made the thread title "A Strange Altar," because this is just one of the many things to come. I have made a new crafting item called "A Strange Altar," which will be used to create all of the modded items I make. There will likely be other crafting items that are built using this, so that in a way the mods are categorized, and installation of my mods will be relatively streamlined.

After the items are done being made and balanced, I will probably add a questline of some sort to this.

Anyway, wish me luck, and feel free to make suggestions.

 

Very cool! I have never seen a mod with a weapon effect like this.
Suggestion :
Make a skull barrier ability! (Maybe a skeleton race...)

 

Thanks.

http://playstarbound.com/weekly-update-1122/

In this weekly update they showcased the asset I modified for the guitar. I'm not sure if this bonestaff has been implemented into the game, I've only seen it there and in the asset folders. I didn't create any of the resources used, all I used for this mod was notepad.

There is a forcefield augment that I want to use for a cape, and I'll see if I can use the bone swoosh to make a bone barrier variant of the forcefield augment.

(A skeleton race would be pretty sick!)

 

Update: Balancing Oolean Spellrings.

First release imminent.