This is a rebalancing of the Bloodsucker configuration-file for Dead Air v0.98b.
This is a rebalancing of the Bloodsucker configuration-file for Dead Air v0.98b.
The aim of this config is to fix some of the inconsistencies I found in the parameters that were set by the DA dev team. The incredibly fast movement speed paired with a half broken invisibility made Bloodsuckers far beyond deadly.
I understand Bloodsuckers are supposed to be an apex predator yet mankind itself still holds that achievement at least in book.
In essence this config puts a big gopnik sized nerf on our most beloved transparent creatures.
First off all movement speeds for all Bloodsuckers have been reduced. Furthermore once they enter partial or full invisibility their movementspeed will reduce even further. I did this to simulate a rather lurking hunter opposed to an active one. So when they are not fully visible they will move quite more "lumbery". Yet once they leave stealth their movement speed will return to faster values to give the player a feel of being snuck on and then charged.
As for the invisibility itself: once I had successfully reduced the movement speed I noticed that some Bloodsucker-skins do not call the parameter "Predator_Visual = monsters\krovosos\krovosos_xray" correctly. Leaving the Bloodsuckers that use those skins with a weird invisibility behaviour that would render them visible at invisible speed. I couldn't quite figure out if it's a matter of wrong parameter settings or the skin itself having issues. In the end there 4 types of Bloodsuckers that seem to not trigger a "partially visible" behaviour. They are the small & big black and the small & big green ones. These 4 suckers literally pop in and out of full invisibility at their liking without ever triggering a translucent/transparent particle effect. You cannot even see the glow in their eyes. Though I have to say most of my testing was done during daytime in Jupiter so I *might* have missed it but it happens on multiple skins so I'm guessing it's not me.
To remedy the aforementioned effect I reworked the invisibility radii for all 4 invisibility modes defined in the config.
For the Bloodsuckers which do not trigger a transparency effect I reworked the modes [invisible_ability_0] & [invisible_ability_3] to use a new cloak released by the user bvcx for Anomaly. Consider it a port.
The stealth modes [invisible_ability_1] & [invisible_ability_2] are used for the Bloodsuckers that do have a transparency effect. Both ranges have been increased on these modes as to give the player more of a fighting chance to actually spot the Bloodsucker should one have the keen eyes necessary (the transparency effect is still very hard to see).
Attackranges have been decreased a little bit as to avoid being hit while the Bloodsucker is still in partial or full invisbility.
Some sounddelays have been reduced so more audible fore-warning. Also increased the distance from which sounds are triggered.
Reduced visual accuity a little bit.
Decreased HP values by 10%. Decreased armor rating by 10%.
Changed [vampire_ability_3] to trigger after 1 not 0 hits.
Increased enemy search range and optimal distance from target.
Update v. 0.2
"Return of the hunters."
Three big things in this update: new bloodsucker cloak for the types that were not calling it correctly before, re-tweaked movement speeds again, optional new textures and meshes for some of the more hideous looking variants of Dead Air with friendly permission of the user paranoiia8.
Afaik the skins and meshes contained in here a kind of special they are not available for public download anymore and haven't been used in any other Stalker mod that I know of (correct me if I'm wrong).
A grain of salt: paranoiia8 knows and acknoweldges that the skins are not a 100% optimized. So they could give some trouble, that's why I made it an optional archive contained in the *.zip.
Feedback is encouraged.
Also minor tweaks to panic thresholds, attackranges & ability distribution.
Bloodsuckers will again be very dangerous, not quite as much as vanilla Dead Air levels but harder than before but with working cloaks all around *I hope*. ;D
Many thanks and credits go to CheekySp & Darvin76 of Moddb.com for their respective bloodsucker reworks.
Also credits to bvcx of Moddb.com for his bloodsucker invisibility cloak.
And special thanks to paranoiia8 of Moddb.com for the excellent new meshes and textures.
HOW TO INSTALL:
- choose you desired package "New cloak + new skins" !OR! "New cloak only"
- drop the included "gamedata" folder of the respective package into your Dead Air main directory
- overwrite if prompted
- HORILKA!
How TO UNINSTALL:
- navigate to your gamefolder Dead Air/gamedata/configs/creatures
- delete m_bloodsucker.ltx
- navigate to \gamedata\meshes\monsters\
- delete the "krovosos" folder
- navigate to \gamedata\textures\act
- delete "act_krovosos_inv.dds" & "act_krovosos_inv.thm"
- navigate to \gamedata\textures\act\
- delete "bloodsucker" folder
Changes do not need a new game. Loading a game that is in combat with bloodsuckers might be a problem.
As you can see lots of changes in many different parts of the config-file so bugs are not unlikely. If you find any bugs or odd behaviour I'm more than happy to have another look into the config and get it ironed out.
Have a good one
Dhatri
Feedback, suggestions & critizism is welcome. :D
I tried to modify stats of mutans by myself, succesfully changing chimera from invincible tank to challenging mutant but I couldn't modify bloodsuckers like you. Great job!
I'm glad you like it. :)
Have you noticed any odd behaviour in the bloodsuckers?
I found 2 bloodsuckers in my game in Jupiter that seemed to bug out and not move at all. Seemed to be a one off since all other bloodsuckers I have met were working as intended.
And oh yes that chimera ... just no! My chimera is nerfed too. Their regenerationspeed was way too high. Sometimes it feels like the DA Devs put a zero too many or too few in some spots.
I think that the problem you mentioned includes all mutants, not only bloodsuckers. Found a few similar situations with pseudodogs or snorks so I think it's not bugged by you :3 With my nerf I was basing with grenade launchers. Chimera should die after two VOG grenades, not after 5 RIGHT IN THE FACE (well, two faces xD). So i changed its armor a little bit and explosive resistance to make it fall like it should - two VOG grenades, three full AK magazines and two full Saiga magazines are fair in my opinion. Especially when I like to play with "scarce loot" feature.
I don't blame the devs, they just couldn't polish everything because there are many things to take care of. And it's still beta so I can understand bugged mutants or f*cked up Zaton xD I check Lanforse's Patreon page to be aware when the mod will be ready to try in its final form and I JUST CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER :3
i didnt try it yet, but personally i never had a problem with DA 'suckers. What really needs a nerf in DA are Chimeras and Pseudogiants. I don't mean the one-shot deadliness but their amout of HP is stupidly high. The HP needs a nerf.
I think in DA the order of mutants u would definitely not want to fight is:
- Pseudogiant
- Chimera
(any of these 2 can solo-wipe a whole map of NPCs and are close to impossible to kill)
- Burer
- Controller
- Snork
- Bloodsucker
I rate 'suckers low because you can always high-ground them. Snorks are much more deadly than suckers just cause of the jump.
Ofc you can high-ground pretty much any mutant yet I don't like that tactic and it doesn't add to my immersion. One of the mainreasons why I nerfed the suckers was because 1 of those guys whiped out the whole merc-station in dead city repeatedly when it was still crammed full with mercs and that didnt seem right.
I do get the drill of DA: if you want your local bases to thrive you will have to put time and effort into keeping those bases safe yourself. I do agree about the lethality of the chimera and the pseudogiant yet I think those mutants are rather straight forward: they are big top-tier-i-don't-wanna-meet-that-******-ever! mutants and them cleaning out portions of the map is okay with me (my pseudos and chimeras are nerfed HP wise).
What I wanted to improve was the "fight or flight" decision-making because if you meet a horde of DA suckers on open terrain you have no chance of escape, the *only* hope you would have is to find somethibng to hop onto and seriously bloodsuckers not being able climb or hit your feet when you are no 6 feet up in the air doesnt feel cheeky to me at all. ;)
Edit start: I dont find snorks intimidating at all. DA pushes a shotgun on you from the very start pretty much and the moment the snork starts jumping at me I usually think something along the lines of: "PULL!".
Another thing about the bloodsuckers was their incredibly high feel-range basicly they would always be coming after the player once LOS was established even for the smallest amount of time. Also delayed sounds dont make it easier shooting a guy that comes out of full invisibilty 3m away from you but I digress.
Edit end.
Your input is very much appreciated though. :D
well as u said.. u edited Chimera and Giant HP. Off course they dont feel as broken as they do in vanilla DA.
Snorks are bad when they gather in 3-4 because unlike Bloodsuckers you cant actually go high ground and escape. But overall i dont mind any mutant that dies in 1 or 2 shots.
Yeah.. unfortunately way too often NPCs get wiped out. Its annoying because the important ones like Beard dont get replaced by randomly generated ones if they die. And this leaves the Zone a wasteland. I have playthrough with more than 100 game days. And there are less people than there used to be.
Well broken is a relative term I have read plenty about people who do not mind the giants and chimeras as they are in DA but after having put about 50k rubles worth of shotgun ammo into a chimera myself something had to be done.
I don't mind mutants regenerating yet I'd like them to do it when I'm not looking as in they run away to lick their wounds and fight another day. The DA snorks are a beast granted and *sarcasm on* I have to say 30+ meter leaps onto elevated terrain makes perfect sense for a highly contaminated creature that looks like it sweats blood on a regular basis. *sarcasm off*
I used CheekySp's tweaks to reduce their jumprange they can still get me when I'm ontop of a structure yet they usually don't get me with a leap attack when you stand on the far side of the elevated structure. Sidestep is usually quicker than the speed they come flying in even in vanilla DA but that's me assuming without actually having checked whether cheeky changed anything about movement-speeds.
Well if you dont mind mutants that go down in 1 or 2 shots it seems you have not met a big black bloodsucker yet in vanilla DA those guys will not go down with 2 shots to the head they eat quite a lot.
As for the NPCs I really do not like how bases that seem like established communities (rostok) have their garrisoned duty trader wander off to agroprom or god knows where just because they are treated as normal stalkers who can change camp once the checkpoint-guards are dead. It's like Petrenko is saying: "Wait all my guards have died. Maybe I should recruit new guards... wait... no!.. I'm the general! I will show them who is boss around here!" Unreasonable behaviour imho.
I am currently on a 80+ days game and it's running swell apart from that Nimble died on day 1 to an unfriendly wild dog also he was the *only* one to die. The traders do not make it easier on themsleves by running out into the open once a mutant enters their aggro range but seeing they are forbidden from carrying guns it's the DA devs aim to kill them off sooner or later. The way they execute this behaviour though is suboptimal imho. *cynic remark start* pseudo-giant killing sakharov while he should be safely hidden in his bunker is only fun if you have to reload 20+ times *cynic remark end*
Yeah, the Zone dies out because important NPCs die to damn dogs and as you said.. cant remember when was the last time the entrance to Rostok was guarded. Ever sincr the Warden died its been abandoned.
I also had the Yanov Doctor die to a cat because he thought it was a good idea to go outside to fight it.
I wouldnt mind if the important NPCs died if they got replaced by others.. I mean spawn a random generated doctor in the place of the dead guy.
Also respawn guards from time to time...
Yea the AI is wonky in vanilla DA. Values are not very well optimized compared the perception of some mutants. The devs clearly want mutants to have the upper hand in the Zone. And I'm okay with that but at the same time I don't agree on how this is achieved. Namely making human NPCs almost blind to the point where explicitly placed guards become mere placeholders. Important NPCs dieing is also owed to this exact same fact, the entry guards are just props that lure in the mutants. Which in turn move at lightningspeed (hello, doggos!).
About NPCs being replaced... I had a weird experience some time ago where Sultan would spawn into the Rostok duty base onto the exact same spot where Voronin is selling you the military permit. Alas Voronin was standing outside the the room where Sultan was now residing without aggroing each other. Shortly after that all my duty guys left rostok again for god knows where.
Controller is easy too if you have some place to hide. But with the first three I totally agree. And personally I would add... poltergeists. Yes. Their invisibility is ******* me off...
Have you ever met a poltergeist at night? Some of them are emitting light which makes for a *really* spooky experience. But other than that they wont hurt you if you stop moving. ;)
sorry, if my question is dumb, but I don't have a "creatures" folder.
It ends with few files in "configs" folder. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
no you are not just create a new folder in the configs folder that is named "creatures" and put the m_bloodsucker.ltx in there.
thanks a lot!
New update! ;D
The search range of the blood suckers is ******* insane i just entered the army warehouse i afk up on the truck near the entrance for 2 min and all the bloodsuckers just running around me
welcome to Dead Air. where all A-life is set to be hostile towards the player (except friendly human NPCs). the monsters (except rats) are actually just waiting for the player to make a too loud move so they can actually aggro onto something.
in my NPC rebalance i included an alternative "gamerelations.ltx" that has more of a *foodchain* setting for enemy relations. beware tho this will take away quite a bit of difficulty from DA seeing not *everything* is just waiting for the player to kill it.
good mod :)
ty! :D