Tactical Extremity Protection [BAL]
Changelog
10 April 2024: Faceshields had their rendering method changed with 1.5. Please leave a comment if they appear wonky still.
12 Aug 2021: Fixed faceshields to work with helmets again after the 1.3.3080 patch broke them.
5 July 2021: Mod marked as compatible with 1.3. Mod appears to function with zero changes necessary, but please report any errors you encounter ASAP!
17 Jan 2021: Heavy Arm Protectors now actually fit on the arms as intended, and not the legs.
15 Jan 2021: Mod launched!
What this mod does
It's a few months after you crashlanded onto this godforsaken rimworld. You've got walls and turrets. You've got guns. You've even got flak vests, helmets, and flak jackets—
And yet another one of your pawns lost a leg to a couple of (un)lucky pila throws, joining the growing ranks of the peg-legged until you can scrounge up bionics. To make matters worse, that brawler you recruited a week ago just lost an eye to a spear.
Enraged, you look up what you can craft at your workbenches, wondering how you can prevent this in the future. Medieval-era plate armor protects the legs, but it's really bulky and has relatively poor protection across the torso. Spacer-era power armor helmets protect the face, but it'll take so much research to get there…
As you feel your blood pressure start to rise, you also realize that with winter coming, your flak jackets simply won't be warm enough to keep your pawns from starting to suffer from hypothermia at the pickets. And just last raid, one of your pawns couldn't handle being in pain [b]and[/b] sweaty and decided to go into a sad wander in the middle of a firefight.
[b]There's got to be a better way![/b]
This mod adds 9 new pieces of industrial-era armor, as well as 2 of spacer-era, that have been designed to fill the gaps that currently exist in the base game's selection of armor. They all fit on either the middle or outer layers [b]only[/b], allowing for a high level of loadout customization to suit your needs. These loadouts have been meticulously balanced with [b]MATH[/b] to not be clearly superior to existing Core/Royalty power armors.
These armors do not introduce new researches into your game. Instead, they simply require techs already in the base game (Flak armor and Marine armor), meaning you won't have to go out of your way to start incorporating these new items into your armories.
Mod Inventory List
* Light arm protectors (LAP)
* Light leg protectors (LLP)
* Heavy arm protectors (HAP)
* Heavy leg protectors (HLP)
* Light faceshield
* Heavy faceshield
* Flak duster
* Flak parka
* Assault rig
* Frontier carapace
* Frontier longcoat
[url=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.com%2FdG0xadvA]Full breakdowns here.[/url][pastebin.com]
How will this mod affect my gameplay?
Due to the increased availability of industrial-era armors that require Flak armor research, Flak armor becomes much more of a priority. There's greater incentive to stay in the industrial-era for longer and research other industrial-era techs to round your colony out, rather than simply rushing for Microelectronics, Multi-analyzer, and Marine armor every single playthrough. Additionally, the increased power and flexibility of Flak armor makes playing with long mod-lists, which tend to have an overwhelming number of new researches, far more pleasant, as you're not punished as hard for not rushing Marine armor as soon as possible.
Tested With
Mod order seems to be irrelevant as long as it comes after Harmony and Core+Royalty.
Graphics
Extremity protectors, the assault rig, and frontier carapace were drawn by [url=https%3A%2F%2Fko-fi.com%2Fadrianalastair%2Fposts]Alastair[/url][ko-fi.com].
Faceshields, the flak parka, and the frontier longcoat were drawn by the humorously named [url=https%3A%2F%2Fko-fi.com%2Ftmcguy%2F]Tittymcswaggy[/url][ko-fi.com], who also has his own selection of [url=https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198026437881/myworkshopfiles/?p=1]Rimworld weapon mods[/url] on the Workshop.
Flak duster textures are used [url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fw9fQmzU.png] with permission[/url][i.imgur.com] from the now discontinued [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1843482822]Flak Dusters[/url] mod, by [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/VerriganHolmes/myworkshopfiles/]Verrigan Holmes[/url].
About and Acknowledgments
Please let me know in the comments section if you encounter any problems with this mod. I have little experience with game modding, so any comments, feedback, and/or coding/implementation pointers are greatly appreciated.
The calculator I used to help balance this mod is too good not to be shared. [url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fspreadsheets%2Fd%2F1P92RfwiYK7pctjCAOgYoyRJUYwHBX9We1XcBceU-Hc4%2Fedit%3Fusp%3Dsharing%5B%2Furl]Here it is![/url][docs.google.com] First, File->Make a copy to get a version of the calculator you can personally edit. Input your weapon and armor data into the blue boxes, and your results will appear in the graphs and green boxes.
If you would like to show your support, please consider donating to my [url=https%3A%2F%2Fko-fi.com%2Fbalistafreak0436]Ko-fi page[/url][ko-fi.com]. Every penny I receive means I can spend less time on other work and more time on realizing mod ideas such as this one.
If you're a fellow Rimworld modder, please do your part for inter-mod soft compatibility by making your mod's buildings Stuffable, as opposed to requiring exactly Steel or WoodLogs.
A very big thanks to:
Everyone who cheered me on and gave their support while I was working on this mod, including a close friend in meatspace who provided me with the above calculator. He doesn't even play Rimworld; all hail his mathematical prowess!
[url=https%3A%2F%2Fko-fi.com%2Fbalistafreak0436][img]https://i.imgur.com/THBzOXr.png[/img][/url][ko-fi.com]
[url=https%3A%2F%2Fdiscord.com%2Finvite%2F7befJWr9xS][img]https://i.imgur.com/cfoFEMA.png[/img][/url][discord.com]
