Elvish Pillager's Crazy Mod

Eli Dupree, Elvish Pillager on the UQM forums, created an extensive mod of The Ur-Quan Masters that changes all Super Melee ships and even some of its rules. The most recent version of the mod can be found here, and a Windows build here.

Gameplay

(As per version 1.4.1)

Rule changes

• 14 planets at once instead of just one (and since they're randomly distributed, there'll often be clusters and large empty spaces.). They are destructible, having 42 hit points, and respawn at a constant rate when they're destroyed.
• 10 asteroids that sometimes home randomly in one of the players, annoying him (they don't home in the AI player).
• Up to 30 ships per team instead of just 14.
• Destroyed ships and asteroids keep inertia while exploding. (mostly a graphical change)
• The camera is slightly more zoomed out, especially during the victory ditty.
• Projectiles remain in the arena even after the destruction of the ship that launched them and after the ensuing victory ditty.
• Planet collisions do less damage: instead of killing 1/4 of the ship's crew to a minimum of 1, they kill 1/8 to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5, and if a ship sticks to the planet and collides many times within a few frames, no extra damage is done. On the other hand, there's a small increase in damage proportional to the collision speed.
• The AI doesn't handle the ships well. The Weak Cyborg may use ship specials.
• In the full game, The Flagship moves four times faster in Super Melee and in HyperSpace; the game is started with 1,000,000 RU.

Ship changes

• Androsynth Guardian
  • Primary: Dual white laser, medium range, 1 damage, fast energy consumption
  • Secondary: Blazer mode, can be stopped at will
  • Super Melee cost: 24
• Arilou Skiff
  • Special notes:
    • Causes loss of synchronization in netplay.
    • Now has inertia
    • While the ship is in the arena:
      • All asteroids emit bending lasers with random facings
      • Planets randomly explode and launch debris which deals damage upon impact
      • Everything in the arena is randomly accelerated by a little, including the planets' gravity.
    • When the Skiff dies, all planets are destroyed.
  • Primary: Confusion ray (like the Melnorme Trader's one)
  • Secondary: Invisibility (like the Ilwrath Avenger's one)
  • Super Melee cost: 28
• Chenjesu Broodhome
  • Primary: Now is homing
  • Secondary: Now has point defense
  • Super Melee cost: 23
• Chmmr Avatar
  • Special notes: 9 ZapSats defending half of the ship, with reduced hitpoints
  • Primary: Triple focused X-Ray laser
  • Secondary: Faster tractor beam
  • Super Melee cost: 39
• Druuge Mauler
  • Primary: Shoots faster, pushes impacted ship backwards much more violently, has unlimited range (thus can hit the Druuge itself)
  • Secondary: Unchanged
  • Super Melee cost: 15
• Earthling Cruiser
  • Primary: MX missile that accelerates constantly
  • Secondary: Faster point defense, no energy cost
  • Super Melee cost: 38
• Ilwrath Avenger
  • Special notes: Very fast, so much that gravity whipping is hardly useful.
  • Primary: The flamethrower now shoots in five different directions
  • Secondary: Unchanged
  • Super Melee cost: 41
• Kohr-Ah Marauder
  • Primary: Now homes in to the enemy when released (high speed)
  • Secondary: FRIED blasts last much longer and destroy planets on touch
  • Super Melee cost: 47
• Melnorme Trader
  • Primary: Starspray — a spray of random Melnorme projectiles of various sizes/colours
  • Secondary: Now is cheaper
  • Super Melee cost: 21
• Mmrnmhrm X-Form
  • Special notes:
    • Now has 64 facings instead of 16 (a laser-like line which deals no damage at impact and ignores collisions indicates the exact facing)
    • May crash the game if it collides with the enemy ship
    • While this ship (in X-Form) is in the arena, all asteroids are tractored toward it
    • The X-Form has slow turning, acceleration and maximum speed, while the Y-Form is fast and nimble
  • Primary: Launches the asteroids in front of the ship forward as projectiles which deal 6 damage at impact and bounce. Costs no energy, but has a slight recoil.
  • Secondary: Change to Y-Form (which has no primary and does not attract asteroids)
  • Super Melee cost: 32
• Mycon Podship
  • Special notes: Automatic, faster regeneration (still costs energy, but less)
  • Primary: Now can be held a-la-Kohr-Ah Marauder before being released (granting it speed and invincibility at the expense of homing), after which it behaves like a normal Mycon plasmoid.
  • Secondary: Allows for faster turning, consumes energy very fast
  • Super Melee cost: 37
• Orz Nemesis
  • Special notes: An invincible Space Marine spawns with the Nemesis, attacking the enemy ship.
  • Primary: Double bazooka
  • Secondary: For 7 seconds the Nemesis is indestructible and damages anything it hits. Gulps all energy.
  • Super Melee cost: 43
• Pkunk Fury
  • Special notes:
    • Slows down the game (intentional, not bug)
    • Takes only 1 point of damage from planets
    • Regenerates energy normally
  • Primary: Unchanged
  • Secondary: Does nothing.
  • Super Melee cost: 36
• Shofixti Carrier
  • Special notes:
    • Now looks like the Vindicator
    • Now has 144 crew instead of 6
  • Primary: Six-directional Mendokusai machine gun
  • Secondary: Launches a Scout which explodes when the Special button is released (costs 6 crew and half the battery). The Scout may be controlled with the arrow keys (the Carrier cannot be piloted meanwhile).
  • Super Melee cost: 34
• Slylandro Probe
  • Special notes: Now has inertia and normal turning
  • Primary: Launches 8 non-homing nukes forward
  • Secondary: Accelerates the ship backwards, spawning asteroids in front of it.
  • Super Melee cost: 27
• Spathi Eluder
  • Primary: Disperses a very large number of normal Spathi forward bullets. Gulps all energy.
  • Secondary: Faster B.U.T.T. missile with a longer range that kills 3 crew
  • Super Melee cost: 35
• Supox Blade
  • Special notes: Now has 18 crew instead of 12
  • Primary: Shoots with 3 invincible Glob bullets. They do not collide with enemy Glob bullets, but when they encounter any other enemy projectile, they keep colliding until the latter is destroyed.
  • Secondary: Puts the ship into a temporary mode with double turn speed, triple max speed, triple acceleration, and immunity to damage from planet collisions. It costs 1 energy every 2 frames and lasts until the Blade runs out of energy.
  • Super Melee cost: 26
• Syreen Penetrator
  • Special notes: Has an invincible ZapSat and a "mace" (which uses Blazer graphics) with inertia sticked to the ship via a purple rope. Collision with either the mace or the rope deals damage (note that they are not solid — may be passed through).
  • Primary: Short-range laser that bends towards the enemy
  • Secondary: Forces enemy ship to turn and thrust towards the Penetrator.
  • Super Melee cost: 42
• Thraddash Torch
  • Special notes: Is slow, turns slowly, and has 42 crew.
  • Primary: Non-homing shot with afterburner
  • Secondary: Homing shot with afterburner (costs more energy and reloads slower)
  • Super Melee cost: 40
• Umgah Drone
  • Primary: Instantly destroys anything it touches except Supox Glob bullets; planets are destroyed after a short delay (the cone deals 18 damage per frame to them)
  • Secondary: Unchanged
  • Super Melee cost: 26
• Ur-Quan Dreadnought
  • Primary: Returns to the ship like a homing boomerang if it doesn't hit anything, giving the Dreadnought back the energy consumed by firing; note that it still has limited lifetime
  • Secondary: Launches 4 fighters for 1 crew; since they return as 1 crew each, they can be used for healing between battles
  • Super Melee cost: 45
• Utwig Jugger
  • Special notes: May not regenerate energy by any means; has a large stockpile of energy
  • Primary: Extremely fast firing rate
  • Secondary: Does not recharge the Jugger's energy
  • Super Melee cost: 27
• VUX Intruder
  • Special notes: Faster energy regeneration; always starts far from the enemy
  • Primary: Nigh infinite range laser (Often goes around the arena many times if fired at an angle)
  • Secondary: Repel incoming projectiles
  • Super Melee cost: 33
• Yehat Terminator
  • Special notes: Intermittent permanent shielding
  • Primary: Unchanged
  • Secondary: Pulls the Terminator towards the enemy with a high speed, like the Chmmr tractor beam in reverse
  • Super Melee cost: 38
• Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger
  • Primary: Five-directional shot with a long range
  • Secondary: Continuous tongue (no battery consumption, but stalls energy regeneration)
  • Super Melee cost: 16

Bugs

• The Arilou Wizard causes loss of synchronization in netplay.
• Graphical glitches in the fleet selection screen (due to the large number of ships per team).
• The Mmrnmhrm X-Form can cause crashes if completely surrounded by asteroids while in the standard form.

See also

• The Pillager's Den
• "New crazy mod" thread at the UQM forums