Deadly Islands mod v1.39

[species1571 65]

An early version of the mod had the island defense upgrades applied to all islands, including your own, and it resulted in the enemy carrier never being able to take any of your islands, so I changed it only to apply to enemy islands. After all, the main purpose of the mod is to make it more challenging, not more easy. You can still upgrade your island ratings in the usual way, by having them connected to a defense island.

I will add the refuelling sounds for the next update. I will make it so it only plays at the same time as the messages, so it won't play when it is nearly full, that will avoid it constantly playing.

I don't take your comments as a bad review, I know you can't please 100% of people 100% of the time, that's why I've tried to make it as flexible as possible with the customization options, so that nobody is forced to use a particular feature if they don't like it.

The thing with the guns, I have seen people reporting guns switching in the un-modded game, but I've never seen it happening with a gun you didn't already have before. The game seems to want to switch weapons when you arrive at an island, and the mod prevents it when possible, but in situations, for example when you load a saved game for the first time in a session, or from one save to another where you may have genuinely had a different gun, there's no way of knowing which gun it was supposed to be.

[quiet_man 8]

@Species1571

you could limit the carrier refuel to start only when carrier fuel is below 90% or 80%? That would avoid steady on/off toggling.

edit:

or just don't show the messages when carrier fuel is above 98%?

[species1571 65]

@Species1571

you could limit the carrier refuel to start only when carrier fuel is below 90% or 80%? That would avoid steady on/off toggling.

edit:

or just don't show the messages when carrier fuel is above 98%?

I've already implemented it for the next update. Actual refuelling will always happen, but notifications and sounds will only happen below 95%.

[quiet_man 8]

that was fast :)

another request: I would like to be able to place my vehicles and have them fire their weapons without moving.

e.g. would it be possible to enable AI weapons on vehicles that are suspended but the player is not actual controlling them?

[species1571 65]

Not that fast, I did it yesterday.

So what you essentially want is an option to fix units to the spot when they don't have a waypoint and aren't currently selected, but the AI can still fire at targets from that position?

[quiet_man 8]

yes ;)

[species1571 65]

Ok, we can try that.

[harbinger 1]

Species - if you could do that, it would be awesome!

[atroublestarter 3]

Hi,

the Mod is really great and it adds a lot to the game. I just have the following comments:

- the manta "straight line" landing provided by the mod looks broken. the mantas look like they are suddenly on "air rails" and they still move to fast and not smooth.

- why is the carrier refuelling by islands so slow? i think it is reasonable for docks to provide carrier fuel at usable speeds.

- why is island carrier refuelling not sped up by time warp? time warp should speed up everything (as it does with building, repairing etc), and it does not make sense that refuiling does not speed up.

- the carrier refuiling on island should use the walrus refuiling/refueling done - sounds

- i wonder what purpose the sloooow refuiling has? what problem does it solve? i am not waiting 20 minutes real-time for the carrier to refuel.

- the new in-dock views for mantas and walruses are very nice, but i would prefer if it was a static view for mantas (as it is for single walruses) as it adds to reality. a circling view would need a circling camera and it dives through the ship walls on launch and dock.

- the usage of rocket launchers as turrets on islands looks funny if the spot used to be a smaller mg turret only, such as above entry-pathways for structures. the rocket launcer looks as if it should fall over from the blowback.

but bottom line is: excellent work and very nicely done!

it does work nice on the steam version btw.

- faber42

- Not even the game developers themselves have an ideal system of mantas returning to the carrier. Often the manta will just hover there and continue taking fire when issued the dock command, and also I don't think the stock landing animations are all that realistic either (they are not smooth nor do they look like they're moving correctly when descending onto the carrier platforms)

- I think the new internal dock views are AWESOME. The only weird thing I can see is multiple walrus selection makes the camera face towards the Mantas instead.

-----------------------------------------

Species, I've noticed that assisting manta are soooo much better when they are in offensive stance. Is it possible through scripting to automatically put mantas in offensive stance when they are given an assist command? it's not that important since you can do each one individually, but i'm curious as to whether it's possible and could go on the to do list.

As usual, nice work. The best mod keeps getting even better.

[species1571 65]

- I think the new internal dock views are AWESOME. The only weird thing I can see is multiple walrus selection makes the camera face towards the Mantas instead.

The main point of the multi-select angles was to give a wider view of the hangar. I couldn't find angles where all walruses are in view, so I made it so you get a view looking out from that walrus's position instead.

Species, I've noticed that assisting manta are soooo much better when they are in offensive stance. Is it possible through scripting to automatically put mantas in offensive stance when they are given an assist command? it's not that important since you can do each one individually, but i'm curious as to whether it's possible and could go on the to do list.

I don't think that's a good idea, I find that units on offensive stance wander off on their own looking for targets and get into trouble, so I think it's best left up to the player to do that. Like you say, it doesn't take a second to activate it.

[atroublestarter 3]

The main point of the multi-select angles was to give a wider view of the hangar. I couldn't find angles where all walruses are in view, so I made it so you get a view looking out from that walrus's position instead.

I don't think that's a good idea, I find that units on offensive stance wander off on their own looking for targets and get into trouble, so I think it's best left up to the player to do that. Like you say, it doesn't take a second to activate it.

Have you tried it with mantas on assist? I have found so far that the matas will still follow me. I suppose on deadly islands it's a bit more suicidal, but I just find mantas on assist are still taking a long time to begin firing, when they are on defensive stance.

[species1571 65]

Yes, I tried it last night and immediately they flew past me and started attacking a target I couldn't even see. I think on defensive stance they will only attack something they are taking damage from.

[SoulAssassino 1]

Hi Species1571!

Just popped in to say thank you very much for your mod, it improves the game immensely. I honestly think the dev team could lift some of your work into the official patches.

Since this thread is reasonably active, I'll ask this here: what's your opinion on the viability of some of the following ideas:

-A proper walrus tank cannon. One that shoots in a reasonably straight line in stead of the weird grenade launcher scenario. It could be a bit lower damage to compensate for the fact that it actually can be aimed at things.

-A spotter attachment to mantas/scout drone. It would basically create a 2 component weapon system, where you have a walrus with the howitzer, and you have a manta up in the air, with this (replacing all/both weapons) basically spotting+marking targets for the howitzers. To balance it, the artillery could be quite inaccurate for example, and possibly a bit lower damage.

I had several other ideas i can't recall right now, i'll update this post if they come to mind.

Thanks again for your work, I have played this game a lot, and you have just added another 100 hours for me with your mod.

Cheers

[species1571 65]

Hi SoulAssassino, thanks for your comments.

Unfortunately, those things require mods to the unit weapons system, which is not possible currently.

[parmenides 11]

Would it be possible to get the Early Warning Messages written to the log, and maybe giving a special sound so that it cant be overseen.

Thanks for your good work again, I am having a lot of fun with CC and your mod. I know I will play this game for a very long time :)

[species1571 65]

I will add early warnings to the log, but not reminders or long range reports.

[rob04 10]

-A proper walrus tank cannon. One that shoots in a reasonably straight line in stead of the weird grenade launcher scenario. It could be a bit lower damage to compensate for the fact that it actually can be aimed at things.

The plasma cannon that the walrus has seems to fit your description of a walrus cannon that you want. It fires straight, not on an arc. Personally, I think there are too many walrus weapons that fire on an arc. There are 4 of them (grenades, HEAT, howitzer, and shell). At least they have the plasma cannon that shoots level.

[quiet_man 8]

what really annoys me with arc weapons is the barrel straight in your face when aiming high.

[rob04 10]

what really annoys me with arc weapons is the barrel straight in your face when aiming high.

Yeah, that annoys me too. It blocks my vision especially when firing multiple times at a target. I thought it would have been better if there were maybe just two arc weapons and the other two could have been replaced with two other weapons or maybe one other weapon and a shield like the manta has. The walrus could use a shield.

[quiet_man 8]

@Species1571: got any idea how to stop the walrusses? Set max speed to 0 or remove fuel or release the air from tires :p

[species1571 65]

@Species1571: got any idea how to stop the walrusses? Set max speed to 0 or remove fuel or release the air from tires :p

Yes, all units have the option of holding position in the next update.

[quiet_man 8]

:bounce3:

[SoulAssassino 1]

The plasma cannon that the walrus has seems to fit your description of a walrus cannon that you want. It fires straight, not on an arc. Personally, I think there are too many walrus weapons that fire on an arc. There are 4 of them (grenades, HEAT, howitzer, and shell). At least they have the plasma cannon that shoots level.

That is indeed true, but i still find the projectile to be too slow. I'd like a cannon that behaves like..well... a cannon. Think the Mako cannon in Mass Effect. I agree that there are too many arc weapons. The grenade launcher is fine, the Howitzer is quite good,(apart from the whole aiming issue) the other two... i avoid as they're just not fun to use to me.

[rob04 10]

That is indeed true, but i still find the projectile to be too slow. I'd like a cannon that behaves like..well... a cannon. Think the Mako cannon in Mass Effect. I agree that there are too many arc weapons. The grenade launcher is fine, the Howitzer is quite good,(apart from the whole aiming issue) the other two... i avoid as they're just not fun to use to me.

I personally would like just the howitzer and the HEAT. I like the plasma cannon. I understand your point about the plasma cannon's projectile speed being too slow, but other than that it seems to be a fairly good weapon that fires level.

[disorder 1]

Quite tricky since the speed which is instant according to the game, has a flight time that is visible by the human eye anyway. Unless the speed works in negatives and I have no idea what -100 speed would do to a shell.