Schall Gun Pod

Summary

Adds several bullet-consuming defense equipment. Designed for vehicle grids, function as gun pods (external mount guns) like in modern military aircrafts. Suitable for moving turret creep tactics. Also adds dedicated pods for armoured trains.

Introduction

Bored by using personal laser defense equipment only? Want some defense equipment not using power? Want the autocannons (from Schall Tank Platoon mod) autofiring? Want to do turret creeping, without having to construct and deconstruct (and place poles or bullets) at the time? Then I proudly present this mod for you! This mod fulfills all these wishes!

This mod provides the following gun pods:

• Gun pod (or MG Pod): using bullets as ammo. (Shared by pistol, SMG, tank machine gun, etc.)
• Minigun pod: using bullets as ammo. (Shared by pistol, SMG, tank machine gun, etc.)
• Sniper pod: using bullets as ammo. (Shared by pistol, SMG, tank machine gun, etc.)
• Rocket pod: using rockets as ammo. (Shared by rocket launcher, rocket artillery.)
• Autocannon pod (20 mm): using autocannon shells as ammo. (Shared by light tank autocannon.)
• Cannon pod (75 mm): using cannon shells as ammo. (Shared by medium tank cannon.)
• Flamethrower pod: using flamethrower fuel as ammo. (Shared by flamethrower, tank flamethrower.)

This mod provides the following ammo-consuming particle pods, if Schall Alien Tech mod is installed:

• Particle beam pod.
• Particle cannon pod.
• Stasis beam pod.
• Force cannon pod.

This mod provides the following ammo-consuming train gun pods, if Schall Armoured Train mod is installed:

• Train minigun pod.
• Train autocannon pod (20 mm).
• Train cannon pod (75 mm).

This mod provides the following ammo-consuming particle pods, if both Schall Alien Tech and Schall Armoured Train mods are installed:

• Train particle beam pod.
• Train particle cannon pod.

Usage

Placing Gun Pods

Place into vehicle equipment grid like other equipment. Note that the "empty" gun pods cannot be placed into grid directly. They have to be loaded with their respectively ammo first (via crafting, like crafting a fully loaded gun pod).

Also note that there are class restrictions as listed:

• Rocket pod: all vehicles and tanks.
• Gun pod (or MG Pod): all tanks.
• Minigun pod: medium tanks or above.
• Sniper pod: all tanks.
• Autocannon pod (20 mm): medium tanks or above.
• Cannon pod (75 mm): heavy tanks or above.
• Flamethrower pod: heavy tanks or above.
• Particle beam pod: all tanks.
• Particle cannon pod: heavy tanks or above.
• Stasis beam pod: all vehicles and tanks.
• Force cannon pod: all vehicles and tanks.
• Train minigun pod: armoured locomotives and armoured draisines.
• Train autocannon pod (20 mm): armoured locomotives and armoured draisines.
• Train cannon pod (75 mm): armoured draisines.
• Train particle beam pod: armoured locomotives and armoured draisines.
• Train particle cannon pod: armoured draisines.

For example, cannon pods cannot be mounted on a light tank. In contrast, A heavy tank can use any types of gun pods (except the train-dedicated ones).

Train pods are usable only on armoured trains from Schall Armoured Train.

Schall Arachnid Platoon is fully supported by this mod, and is using the same class system on Spidertrons. Light Spidertrons are treated as light tanks, medium Spidertrons are treated as medium tanks, etc. Hence they follow the same class restrictions as above.

About Energy Consumption...

On hovering mouse cursor over the gun pods, you will see "energy consumption" values. That is not case, as all the gun pods from this mod neither consume nor charge from batteries or generators. The "electricity" bar, however, is a useful information, since it indicates how much ammo is left in the gun pod. The bar shortens according to how many times the gun pod has fired. A MG pod has 1000 shots, while a rocket pod has 100 shots. When the bar depletes, the gun pods will no longer fire.

About Firing...

All gun pods automatically fires when enemies get in range. Note that the ranges are shorter (about 2/3) than their original counterparts. This is done so, since they are kind-of supplementary or self-defense guns rather than as well-placed main armament. This nerf is necessary for balancing. (Think about a heavy-tank with multiple cannon pods. If they all have full range, who can get close to it? Imagine it appears on enemy team in a PvP game!) The damage and shooting speed, however, are fully preserved. All gun pods also benefit from the same upgrades as their original guns and ammo.

Unloading Gun Pods

Since the "electricity" is not intended to be used as ammo bar in vanilla game, removing a partially/fully filled gun pod will not return the remaining ammo to the inventory, if clicking on the equipment directly. Therefore, this mod introduced a unload gun pod hotkey (default: Control-L) to unload all gun pods from grid you are opening. (Any other equipment such as battery, shields are unaffected.)

Here is an example showing the introduced features. We now have 3 groups of gun pods like in the picture. The group of 2 gun pods (MG pods) are both half-full (500/1000 bullets, or 50/100 magazines each). The group of 3 rocket pods are all full (100 rockets each). The group of 2 autocannon pods are also full (1000 shells, or 100 magazines each).