Mod: Odd Adventures In Infinite Space v.003

[ExplorerBob]

Welcome to the topic for the newly released Weird Worlds mod, Odd Adventures in Infinite Space.

What This Mod Does:
I started out this mod just to add a quest or two; then my scope expanded as time went by. In particular, I decided that I wasn't entirely happy with some of the aspects of WW balance, and returned it to SAIS norm, in many cases. I also eliminated some of the options; in the end, the mod should be a rather nostalgic experience for many of you SAIS fans.

There have been many changes to fundamental weapons; in general, if a weapon didn't match up to SAIS stats, I altered it, heh. Many WW items have been altered to conform to the new overall level; the most notable change is to the neptunium railgun, which is no longer uber...mostly.

A lot of things are relatively self-explanatory, but here's a few of the more important changes.

• Chaingun shots are now slow, about the same speed as they would've been in SAIS.
• There are only two, I believe, point-defense weapons in the game, and neither of them are easily player-accessible.
• The only ship the player can start with is the Corvette, which comes equipped with an impaler rack and a chaingun.
• Hope has much weaker, low-tech weapons in stock.
• Most of the other races' ships have been nerfed, in accordance with SAIS.
• Beams have been changed. All the beams that exist in SAIS have been made about the same as they were there; the ones that don't, have been made largely into near-constant beam weapons, like the strange quark projector, and follow along a similar classification system as the existing beams, from the weakest (gatling laser) to strongest (probably the antichronon blaster; I don't remember off-hand).
• Drives are probably faster, on average, but the drive you start with moves at a piddling six times the speed of light.
• ...the better drives, say, the one that moves twice as fast, also moves twice as fast through nebulae, though.
• The hyperdrive is no longer uber, moving at 15 times the speed of light, both ways. I might change it again later, to make it more interesting.
• There are now Tan Ru and Urluquai allies.
• Esmerelda can sabotage your ship, destroying most anything (except for star drives).
• There's another item that deals with Esmerelda, in a very spectacular fashion.
• The Mantle of Babulon is no longer uber. Specifically, owning it cuts off your relations with the Klakar. Unfortunately, there are some bugs with this concept (you can still trade with them even after you have the Mantle), but I think it's good enough for a first release.
• Cameos by the Science Vessel and Frigate, in two brand-new events.
• A new, black background, lifted from SAIS. I think it really changes the atmosphere; if you don't like it, that's okay; I'm not sure I like it either. This could change in the next release.
• A new device known as the Time Trapper exists. Trust me when I say this is possibly one of the most useful things I have ever added to WW.
• The Plasma Torch is now a short-range death beam.
• Urluquai Deep Hunters use plasma torches.
• Ravian ships no longer have any shielding (but they're still pretty dangerous!)
• Terran ships no longer automatically repair
• Ravian ships do

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Changes to come...maybe:
• Variable relations
• Mirror rebalancing
• New Mantle origin
• Rebalancing
• Difficult-to-capture creatures
• Unusual new allies
• More fighter-sized items
•...and more?

Let me know what you think!

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Note: The file attached to this post is 001, the original version of Odd Adventures. It has since been superseded by a more recent edition, 003. Go to the third page, or click this link to get to the most recent version. You are, of course, still welcome to pick up this old version, or 002.

New information regarding the mod can be found here, at A Thought Repository.

[sgqwonkian]

You've done a great job catching the feel of the original SAIS.

I also like how enough things are different that you really have to stop and reread every item. No taking things for granted in this mod!

[ExplorerBob]

I figured now would be a good time for a 002 preview, since it's coming along well.

New changes include rebalanced ships and weapons, GUI revisions, and some other miscellaneous stuff. If you liked the original Odd Adventures, you'll probably like this too.

Odd Adventures v.002: Possibly coming sometime in 20XX.

(Image hosting is provided by my preferred image hosting provider, Imageshack.)

[Lost In Space]

Can't wait for 0.002!

Maybe you should re-check your Imageshack links, the preview images are too small.

[ExplorerBob]

002 is basically ready to go. If there's anything that's glaringly wrong, it can be removed next time, right?

What New Things This Update Does:
Most of the changes originally added in 001 are still in force. That said, I have extended some changes and made some more alterations to things, especially weapons and ship balance.

• Chainguns do much less damage; 40 damage per shot (instead of 100).
• Moly cones do much less damage; 200 damage per shot (instead of 300)
• Many beams have been made more powerful.
• Missiles have been boosted, to do more damage; some are also faster.
• The Tchoraks have received a world-class nerf -- they no longer regenerate, their systems are now destructable, and all of their weapons are far less powerful.
• The Neptunium Railgun has been tinkered with.
• The Mantle of Babulon may now be donned or taken off, instead of automatically working.
• The hyperdrive now takes about half a year to recharge, but otherwise functions as in normal SAIS and WW, instead of moving 15/15, like in 001.
• The Time Trapper has been nerfed.
• The Tan Ru Demolisher bug that allowed the ship to fail to appear has been fixed.
• Changes have been made to the GUI and interface, intended to make it look more like SAIS.
• The Plasma Torch is no longer a short-range death beam.
• Various changes have been made to ships' armaments.
• The Melodium Conograph has been made less interesting.
• Planet, pilot, ship, and star names have been removed, altered, and added to the lists.
• The retreat buttons have been removed from the game.

Other information is included in the read-me file.

Unlike the last time, I have few ideas for major changes after these. No, that doesn't mean that there definitely won't be another Odd Adventures mod -- just that I need time to get more ideas and stuff to implement into the game. Also, I'm limited in what I can do by my inability to procure unique graphics, so I can't create a lot of races and items like other modders have done. Hopefully that will change so you can see a greater variety of stuff in a hypothetical Odd Adventures 003.

Let me know what you think of it.

Thanks to Christ Jesus for allowing this mod's development, and thanks to all of you that helped me out along the way.

[ExplorerBob]

Oh, and it looks like my zipping it up ate the banner again. It's a real pity y'all can't get a decent banner to go with the mod, but oh well.

Maybe next time I'll subcontract the banners out to sgqwonkian.

[ExplorerBob]

(Re?)discovered a bug that happens after you subdue a Muktian fleet; the game crashes rather violently.

Will attempt to solve when I get the chance. Might try to make either a 003 micro-release, with some bug fixes and maybe one or two new features, or a 002b bug fix patch.

[ExplorerBob]

The above bug may be a hoax.

[Lost In Space]

Thanks for sharing this great work of yours, ExplorerBob. Your tweaks rough out a few eccentricities that the game could do without, and offer a much more satisfying game, to me anyway. I'm not sure what to think of the new Hyperdrive yet, but any change is an improvement over the old way.

• The Melodium Conograph has been made less interesting.

What was so interesting with it beforehand? If it's like the regular game, it was pretty much a waster of time, except for its monetary value.

[ExplorerBob]

Well, the Conograph was at least marginally interesting the first time around, when you didn't know what it would do and could activate it.

In my mod, you don't even have that option; it's just an ordinary piece of loot.

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The hyperdrive tweaks are a step in the right direction, I think, but I'm not sure even these are final either. The idea behind the hyperdrive in this one was that I wanted to make it, well, usually the best option, but not always -- so that you could get better performance in some cases, if you were close to another star.

However, thinking over it, the hyperdrive might be more interesting if I gave it a year-long recharge time (as I indeed thought about doing before I settled on half a year). This would make it more of a "strategic" drive; instead of using it all the time, you would just periodically use it to jump to hard-to-reach places, and use the fastest conventional drive the rest of the time.

At any rate, I'll keep it in mind.

Thanks for the feedback; I've been looking forward to it, and really appreciate it now that it's here. The more you have to give, the better; it's not easy to release stuff like this and not get any response.