[AA] CE Advanced Armory

CE Advanced Armory

You want guns? I've got guns. Namely, whatever I felt like implementing. Every weapons mod is, implicitly, a theory about how violence scales. Most of them answer "bigger numbers." This one tries to answer it the way an actual arms industry would: chemical propellant is a nineteenth-century technology with a hard ceiling, and once your colony's fabrication benches can do better, it will. Nineteen Combat Extended-native weapons for your pleasure, and the displeasure of your enemies. Starting with cased telescoped ammunition, the last clever thing anyone did with gunpowder; we run through electrothermal-chemical ignition, where plasma injection squeezes the final ten percent out of a burning solid. Then it leaves the propellant era behind entirely: bolters, directed energy, hypervelocity microdarts, and electromagnetic rail weapons that treat a projectile as a physics problem rather than a chemistry one. Requires Combat Extended. RimWorld 1.6.

What it adds

• 19 weapons with custom artwork, several new custom ammotypes
• Seven research projects with coherent technology progression
• Full CE integration

  Weapon roster

  Advanced conventional and ETC (the end of the chemical era)
• 6.5mm CTA rifle
• 7.62x51mm ETC battle rifle
• .408 ETC anti-materiel rifle "Lance"
• 12.7mm ETC machine gun
• 25mm programmable grenade rifle
• 20mm AHEAD support cannon

Bolter and directed energy (for when you'd rather the target simply stop existing)

• .75 caliber bolter
• .998 caliber heavy bolter
• Pulse laser rifle
• Plasma rifle

Microdart and rail weapons (kinetic energy, delivered by magnet)

• 3mm needle carbine
• 2mm rail autopistol
• 4mm rail carbine
• 5mm rail rifle
• 5mm rail light machine gun
• 6mm rail designated marksman rifle
• 8mm rail medium machine gun
• 12mm rail anti-materiel sniper
• 20mm rail anti-materiel cannon

Ammunition

Purpose-built CTA, ETC, programmable 25mm, AHEAD, microdart, and rail ammunition, alongside Combat Extended's native .75 and .998 bolter rounds, lasgun power packs, plasma canisters, and 6mm, 8mm, and 12mm rail ammunition where reuse made sense. Available loads include conventional ball and armor-piercing, incendiary and sabot, duplex cartridges, programmable HEDP, airburst, EMP, smoke and enhanced-blast grenades, microdarts, and heavy rail sabots.

Design and balance

Balance? Never heard of her. Jokes aside, I'm a busy man, and this mod might need further balancing and adjustment. Right now, it feels about right, but I'm sure there's room for improvement. The bulkier weapons will absolutely benefit from having juiced out pawns. Don't expect Granny to manage an HMG, even if she can technically lift it.

Load order

• Combat Extended • CE Advanced Armory

Compatibility

XML-only, built specifically for Combat Extended. No, there won't be a vanilla patch, I've been playing with CE since A13.

Roadmap

Post-launch stretch goals include Muzzle Flash compatibility, a line of advanced launchers to round out the heavy end of the progression. No promises on timelines; promises on timelines are how modders die. I'll probably add more guns as and when I feel like it, but feel free to leave suggestions. Right now, more plasma and laser weapons sound nice to me.

Credits and license

Created by AlphaAmpersandOmega. Combat Extended definitions and adapted sound recordings are credited to the Combat Extended team. Combat Extended and this derivative work are distributed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. RimWorld is developed by Ludeon Studios. This is an unofficial fan-made mod.

Feedback

Reproducible errors: include a full HugsLib/Player.log link and your active mod list, or the bug report is a Rorschach test. Balance feedback: most useful with the weapon, ammunition type, range, target armor, shooting skill, and aim mode.