[Squad] BioResearchers

[arcayn]

Decades of research has given these mechs the ability to change the nature of vek life

Adds a squad of three mechs




With three unique weapons

Range up: Increases range by one tile
NB bosses cannot be mind controlled

No damage: Blocking units take no damage
+1 Damage: The artillery will also deal one damage to the targeted pawn
NB blocking the tile on which the vek will respawn leads to the blocking unit taking one damage (w/o upgrade) and the vek being killed. Cannot be used on friendlies

Push: Shots always push 1 tile regardless of enemy type
+1 Damage: The beam deals +1 damage to enemies it would normally deal damage to (alphas still take no damage)

The squad is based around the mind controller weapon's ability and is designed to be an interesting and complex squad with a very unique playing experience
Download here
Install with Cyberboy's modloader

[Captain Trek]

A few interesting interactions I've noticed. Are these intentional?

1: I mind controlled an enemy on one health and had it block the square I had just use the Disintegrator on. There was a Blood Psion on the field, and the enemy regenerated as normal, only to take 2 damage and die when it blocked the respawn.
2: When a mind controlled enemy returns to enemy control, if they are standing on a forest tile at the time the forest will be set on fire (and them along with it).
3: Shooting a mind controlled alpha with the Conversion Beam causes it to be damaged rather than converted.

[arcayn]

A few interesting interactions I've noticed. Are these intentional?

1: I mind controlled an enemy on one health and had it block the square I had just use the Disintegrator on. There was a Blood Psion on the field, and the enemy regenerated as normal, only to take 2 damage and die when it blocked the respawn.
2: When a mind controlled enemy returns to enemy control, if they are standing on a forest tile at the time the forest will be set on fire (and them along with it).
3: Shooting a mind controlled alpha with the Conversion Beam causes it to be damaged rather than converted.

Hmm most of these are bugs

Mind control works by moving the pawn off the board and spawning an identical pawn on the board. When the mind control ends, the temp pawn is removed and the original pawn is moved back onto the board. The only way to account for damage the temp pawn has taken is a spacedamage - this is why the forest is set on fire - no biggie tho, its quite an easy fix to move the pawn off to another square before the damage is applied.

The mind control also appends "_controlled" to the end of the pawn type name - which messes with the 1/2 pawn name alpha nomenclature - hence that issue. Again a pretty easy fix.

As for number 1 - im a bit at a loss as to how this has happened - the only thing i can come up with is that all those spacedamages (regen, respawn and un-control) are getting confused and out of order. Im going to do more testing later and implement the change in how equaliser damage is applied as described above to stop the forests going on fire (/sand going smoke)

Thanks for playing and bringing these to my attention!

[Captain Trek]

Excellent. I'll try the squad again once bugfixing is complete.

[Captain Trek]

Okay, let's see...

This is a very unique and interesting squad, with a curious, eccentric suite of weapons that work quite well together both thematically and in terms of gameplay. In an odd way, they're almost the opposite of the pre-rebalance Archive Armors, as they start off quite strong (as mind controlling the alpha that appears on "high threat detected" missions to one-shot not-alphas effectively allows the squad to deal with four enemies on most turns), but taper off somewhat (though by no means catastrophically so) towards the late game as most alpha Vek cannot reliably one-shot each other. Overall, I would, like with original Archive Armors, say they fall on the higher side of balanced, akin to Rusting Hulks. Their upgrades can feel slightly lacklustre, but I do believe them to be balanced and not in need of significant changes. It might, however, be nice to make "No Damage" on the Disintegrator 1 core, as I didn't see much use for that upgrade and that way the squad would have an immediate and "obvious" choice to put the first core it attains from the first time pod on the first island into. This is by no means urgent, however, and 'nor is the bug where the mind control weapon does 1 damage to enemies inflicted with ACID.

Overall, I give this squad a B. This is essentially a B-, buoyed up by the sheer uniqueness of the squad's gameplay. It should, of course, go without saying that custom spritework would be the next step in further improving this squad.

[5thHorseman]

I've found this squad's interactions with "killed vek" mechanics to be buggy. Take the below situation:



The "not quite killed" vek there is the exploding psion. The vek I'm about to kill with a weapon says it will explode, which I personally think it shouldn't but that's debatable, and at least it tells me that it will. When it does explode, though, that kills the beetle to its south, and that beetle does NOT explode.

[SwishyFishy400]

Really should fix the issue that Psions still affect eneimes while they are disistegrated, and enemies that are desintigrated still benefit from psions.

Apart from that, I love this squad.