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 1.4.2)

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.
• There is no limit on the number of the objects in the arena at any given time.
• Destroyed ships and asteroids keep inertia while exploding. (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. Selling VUX Intruders also gives 1,000 Biological Units, and pressing F8 in a game compiled with a debug configuration instantly starts the final battle with the Sa-Matra regardless of the point in the game where the player is.

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:
    • Now has inertia
  • Primary: Fast, long-range projectiles which deal no damage, instead increasing the acceleration and the maximum speed of the enemy ship exponentially. They crash the game upon colliding with a Mycon Podship.
  • Secondary: Relatively safe teleport
  • 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 or projectile 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
  • Primary: Triple flamethrower
  • Secondary: Launches several gouts of sticky fire — projectiles which start at the ship's velocity, do not collide with enemy projectiles, and attach to the enemy ship upon hitting it, dealing approximately 8 damage over time.
  • 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, and its effects last after the Trader is destroyed.
  • 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)
    • 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: Launches an additional three projectiles which go in the same directions but have velocity relative to the ship.
  • Secondary: Rear-facing tongue which deals 100 damage.
  • 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 during this time).
  • 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
  • Special notes: Double acceleration
  • 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 which cost no crew. There is virtually no limit to the amount of fighters which may be in the arena at any given time, and the fighters aim better than the original ones and shoot at asteroids. They become unable to shoot and they return to ship when they run out of fuel. They also return to ship when the battle is over, but without actually disappearing.
  • 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: 22
• 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
  • Special notes: Made of 31 segments which look like a normal Stinger. Each segment has 6 crew. The player controls the head segment, and the other segments follow it; when the head segment is destroyed, the next one takes its place. Only the head segment takes damage from planet collisions.
  • Primary: Long range homing spit.
  • Secondary: Long tongue which is not stopped by colliding with projectiles.
  • Super Melee cost: 16

Bugs

• Graphical glitches in the fleet selection screen (due to the large number of ships per team).
• The Stinger may crash upon entering the arena (this happens less frequently with an AI-controlled Stinger).

See also

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