Elvish Pillager's Crazy Mod

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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