I'm afraid not! That's all hardcoded and it would be a massive change to make it moddable. Sorry!
Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dev Diary #6: Combat Units 1
- Thread starter Tombles
- Start date
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Sad face. There is so much modding possibilities if damage channels could be expanded. If there's any way for you to take another look, I know the community would be very appreciative. I think this enhancement is a highly valued item.
The real question, since we haven't seen any yet, would be the viability of multi-channel attacks. Something like D1+D2 = (I[1] x 0.9^R) + (I[2] x 0.9^R), where R is variable based on the damage type received. It doesn't seem unlikely, since the math isn't any more difficult to parse through the formula, just doing two values at a time. You may be avoiding it for whatever reason, but I'm guessing it just hasn't been shown yet on the very small set of units we've seen.
For example, a Kinetic weapon with a small Arc charge(as part of a mod that allows it to penetrate a point or two of shields, or something), or incendiary rounds. Or a Biochemical attack that contains a hallucinogenic component inducing Psionic damage.
If we see these, aside from a sparing few units, I imagine it would come from the mod system primarily, though.
For example, a Kinetic weapon with a small Arc charge(as part of a mod that allows it to penetrate a point or two of shields, or something), or incendiary rounds. Or a Biochemical attack that contains a hallucinogenic component inducing Psionic damage.
If we see these, aside from a sparing few units, I imagine it would come from the mod system primarily, though.
Thanks for this nice little breakdown. It further cements my suspicion that the 6th faction is Syrons.
Triumph knew that some people would be upset by the switch to sci-fi, or if not by that fact alone, by the fact that the AoW name and franchise would be used. So, without an obligation to do so of course, they made the connection that was obvious and unambiguous. AoW has always been fantasy, but it has had elements of sci-fi in the past (Shadow Magic). In fact, I think there were quite a few players who disliked the Syrons because they were too sci-fi. Syrons were dealers of shock damage and I can see them having developed psionic abilities as well. They would make a perfect fit here.
I could be entirely wrong, of course.
Could have Cryo as a mod to Thermal in a few rare places that modifies the side effects of the attack. Being resistant to temperature changes works against heat and cold, so you don't need to have an extra resistance channel.
Would be a bit like having Biochemical having acid and blight flavours, where sometimes the attack reduces armour, other times it weakens biological units.
Would be a bit like having Biochemical having acid and blight flavours, where sometimes the attack reduces armour, other times it weakens biological units.
That's strange since the word "cryo" itself is typically used in a futuristic context and is often present in sci-fi. Talking about ye old freeze rays, pursuit of life extension etc.
You could have a Frost themed minor faction, a counterpart to the fire themed Prometheans. When the "Big Bad" happened a group of scientists put themselves into cryo stasis as a way to ride out the apocalypse and rebuild later on. Once the automated systems woke them up they found a ruined world and set out to do their thing. Being experts in cryogenics, like everyone else, they used what they knew and had to fight and survive.
You could even say there was a side effect to their cryo stasis, their bodies changed and now they can no longer survive in non-cold environments so they use power armor and mechs that are basically walking freezers. They could have a fancy name like the Winter Institute or something.
Last edited:
A white-blue version of the Thermal Damage icon 
Thermal Resistance applies as normal against it.
Perhaps they are simply saving Cryo damage for the expansion, when they introduce a particular species from the Void, quite related to the Kir'Ko. Psionic/Cryo(Thermal) as their primary types, most likely.
Thermal Resistance applies as normal against it.Perhaps they are simply saving Cryo damage for the expansion, when they introduce a particular species from the Void, quite related to the Kir'Ko. Psionic/Cryo(Thermal) as their primary types, most likely.
Mr Freeze (you know, the Arnold Schwarzenegger role) would probably qualify as sci-fi ("camp sci-fi"?).
The mention that the damage channels are hardcoded and cannot be easily changed would also make it slightly problematic to add cryo damage in a DLC. I wonder what lead to this (code) design decision.
The mention that the damage channels are hardcoded and cannot be easily changed would also make it slightly problematic to add cryo damage in a DLC. I wonder what lead to this (code) design decision.
Generally speaking, it's much easier to hard code something than to make something mod friendly, especially if it's something which you don't really expect to change or need to reconfigure that much. The damage channels were added very early in development of AoW3, when we weren't thinking just getting off the ground and it never occurred to me that they would need ot be mod friendly.
And, it's not so much that Cryo damage isn't sci fi, it's more that, in a sci-fi setting, cryo damage is a gimmick. You might have a freeze ray or something, but having whole races or technologies didn't seem necessary. So we decided at the time, that it wasn't worth dedicating a whole damage channel to it.
And, it's not so much that Cryo damage isn't sci fi, it's more that, in a sci-fi setting, cryo damage is a gimmick. You might have a freeze ray or something, but having whole races or technologies didn't seem necessary. So we decided at the time, that it wasn't worth dedicating a whole damage channel to it.
Well...we told you back in AoW3. But you said Planetfall still has them non-customizable...
Planetfall is heavily based on AoW3 code, and the damage channel stuff is still mostly the same system as it was before. I didn't rewrite it because, to be frank, I'd forgotten that people wanted them to be moddable.
Changing that system now would be a huge amount of work, first all the damage calculation code would need to be rewritten, then all of the resources that make use of them would all need to be modified as well. I can't say that we'll never do it, but right now everyone is working very hard to finish the game, and diverting a ton of people's time to rewrite a system that in many respects already works perfectly well is not an easy thing to get scheduled in.
Changing that system now would be a huge amount of work, first all the damage calculation code would need to be rewritten, then all of the resources that make use of them would all need to be modified as well. I can't say that we'll never do it, but right now everyone is working very hard to finish the game, and diverting a ton of people's time to rewrite a system that in many respects already works perfectly well is not an easy thing to get scheduled in.
All the systems support multi-channel damage, but we haven't actually been using it because it makes the interfaces harder to read and it doesn't really add very much mechanically. In AoW3's damage system, mult-channel damage interacted in lots of cool ways with flanking and flat damage reduction. In Planetfall it's all proportional, so in many respects 5 kinetic/5 arc is the same as 10 kinetic (assuming the target doesn't resist either kinetic or arc).
I kind of like the fact that there are fewer damage channels in use at the same time. While it makes countering easier, it bothered me in AoW3 that against heavily armoured/resistant units you were better off with weak multi-channelled attacks (guaranteed 1 damage per channel) that strike multiple times than with supercannons of any single damage type. I'd rather have three guns, each doing a specific type of damage well, rather than a swiss-army gun that does everything slightly.
Well, I can see how that would be tricky, in regards to modding. If anything, it mostly just seems a shame since we are losing a numerical damage channel, from six to five. If I'm reading things correctly, that is.
Physical/Fire/Frost/Shock/Blight/Spirit -> Kinetic/Thermal/Arc/Biochemical/Psionic
That being said, not only do fewer damage channels allow things to be much cleaner, since having to consider potential resistances for each new type of damage is likely a big hassle, the fact that you have things like Psionic damage ignoring armor makes things more unique. I'm already presuming Arc damage units will lend themselves to overcoming shields in some way(reducing or partially ignoring, via an emp-like means), similar to how it was mentioned that some Biochemical attacks can shred armor with acid.
Ultimately, I'm not actually opposed to the change, and I can see why it was left out. Just waiting for that Void(Frost-like, absence of heat/life, something-something) damage type to come in the future.
Also, yeah, with the defense system change, I can understand why multi-channel attacks are not really a thing, but units do have variable defenses, and units mods will likely further enhance those, conversely making a multichannel attack sometimes desirable. Of course, single-channel attacks makes balancing cleaner and easier, too, so I can see why it might be favorable.
Sometimes rule of cool versus rule of reason is tough.
Physical/Fire/Frost/Shock/Blight/Spirit -> Kinetic/Thermal/Arc/Biochemical/Psionic
That being said, not only do fewer damage channels allow things to be much cleaner, since having to consider potential resistances for each new type of damage is likely a big hassle, the fact that you have things like Psionic damage ignoring armor makes things more unique. I'm already presuming Arc damage units will lend themselves to overcoming shields in some way(reducing or partially ignoring, via an emp-like means), similar to how it was mentioned that some Biochemical attacks can shred armor with acid.
Ultimately, I'm not actually opposed to the change, and I can see why it was left out. Just waiting for that Void(Frost-like, absence of heat/life, something-something) damage type to come in the future.
Also, yeah, with the defense system change, I can understand why multi-channel attacks are not really a thing, but units do have variable defenses, and units mods will likely further enhance those, conversely making a multichannel attack sometimes desirable. Of course, single-channel attacks makes balancing cleaner and easier, too, so I can see why it might be favorable.
Sometimes rule of cool versus rule of reason is tough.
I'd really like to know if these dmg channels will all come with inherent status effects or some kind of ability (like psionic ) as was the case in AoW2 and before.
Presumably your referring to something like:
- Biochemical innately has a chance to deteriorate armor.
- Arc innately does similar to shields. A sort of EMP effect. Or, it can disable non-melee attacks, by similar logic.
- Psionic ignores armor, as mentioned, but is generally lower damage values.
- Thermal can light terrain on fire, and can apply a similar effect to Inflict Immolation, for morale penalties and damage per round.
- Kinetic... does damage. >_> Honestly, this would be the best place for 'Impact' to be a potential effect.
- Biochemical innately has a chance to deteriorate armor.
- Arc innately does similar to shields. A sort of EMP effect. Or, it can disable non-melee attacks, by similar logic.
- Psionic ignores armor, as mentioned, but is generally lower damage values.
- Thermal can light terrain on fire, and can apply a similar effect to Inflict Immolation, for morale penalties and damage per round.
- Kinetic... does damage. >_> Honestly, this would be the best place for 'Impact' to be a potential effect.
Hmmmm...right now in thinking how to stop you from forgetting next time. Would holding Sikbok hostage in my basement work ?
Could you add in say 5 extra empty damage channel slots, that aren't used in the game at all, but can have icons and stuff assigned by modders at a later date.
We would have to come to some sort of agreement amongst ourselves as to which slot is what for mod compatibility though, but it might be better than nothing?
We would have to come to some sort of agreement amongst ourselves as to which slot is what for mod compatibility though, but it might be better than nothing?
Tombles:
"Changing that system now would be a huge amount of work, first all the damage calculation code would need to be rewritten, then all of the resources that make use of them would all need to be modified as well. I can't say that we'll never do it, but right now everyone is working very hard to finish the game, and diverting a ton of people's time to rewrite a system that in many respects already works perfectly well is not an easy thing to get scheduled in. "
"Changing that system now would be a huge amount of work, first all the damage calculation code would need to be rewritten, then all of the resources that make use of them would all need to be modified as well. I can't say that we'll never do it, but right now everyone is working very hard to finish the game, and diverting a ton of people's time to rewrite a system that in many respects already works perfectly well is not an easy thing to get scheduled in. "