Chitin Matters

What does this patch do?

This is a patch that attempts to integrate and balance out chitin from Alpha Animals Insects and Vanilla Factions Expanded - Insectoids. Load after both of those mods. It more or less leans more towards Alpha Animals' presentation of chitin (since there is more variety there).

No really, what exactly does it do?

• Simplifies alpha animals' insect chitin, iron chitin, hardened chitin, black chitin and VFE-Insectoids' chitin into a more seamless set of chitin types with clear use cases and differences. While balancing I took a look at existing regular leathers (best common vanilla leathers in terms of protection *cough* rhino *cough* and more rare, advanced types like thrumbo), and vanilla metals.
• This patch places AA chitin in general as a more clear option for early/mid game alternatives to devilstrand which outranks all common top tier leathers like heavy fur, and rhino leather. It however nerfs down insulation more so that there is a clear distinction that although it provides very good armor protection, it doesn't fare well against the weather (though it's still better than plate armor insulation-wise). This was how alpha animals' authors originally designed their chitin materials, I just made it more explicit. Hence, there is still clear room for regular leathers as insulators.
• As for VFE-Insectoid's chitin, it felt weird that it was better than any stone as a building material. So I nerfed it down so that its just as good as steel as a building material. However, it is now a priced resource in crafting, in particular armor. Yet, it remains non-smeltable. So once you give it a final shape, there is no going back :D. The material is now more rare to obtain from ruins or vendors. Ironhusk beetles from AA are now the only renewable source for this material, so seriously consider purchasing one if you see a vendor selling one. In only one quadrum you'll have at least enough for a full set of plate armor. A year after, you'll break even and start collecting dividends ;)
• I tweaked practically all chitin color overlays. Same textures, just color tints that more closely resemble the majority of insects in vanilla and added by these mods. Black chitin's color specially got brightened up some so it would no longer look like a giant dead pixel on my screen. Now you can actually see the outline of the material :).
• updated descriptions to more readily describe the stats and to be more lore-friendly.
• fixed some non-sense stuff like VFE-Insectoids' milk beetles having "shearable wool: #%" when it would just drop chitin. Or Alpha Animals' ironhusk beetles having "steel chunk loosening: #%" when it would just drop steel. Both now say "chitin loosening: #%".
• since infestations make chitin easier to obtain than hunting for leathers, drop rates have also been nerfed down for chitin.

More on the Chitin Types and Drops

Chitin: This is the Alpha Animals' "Insect Chitin" re-colored. Majority of Alpha Animals' insects, VFE-Insectoids, and regular vanilla insectoids drop it. Hardened Chitin: This is the Alpha Animals' "Hardened Chitin" re-colored. Alpha Animals' drops unchanged, but now certain VFE-Insectoids drop it. This type of chitin provides more combat protection than regular chitin, but is heavier and harder to obtain. It makes killing those megapedes all the more satisfying. Black Chitin: Largely unchanged. Only nerfed down insulation and armor blunt rating (the armor blunt rating without the patch is 2-3x higher than any existing leather, even thrumbo or hyperweave... too unrealistically OP imo based on creature stats alone). Metallic Chitin: This is VFE-Insectoids' chitin material nerfed down to not be such a good building material. Instead, this is now a better alternative to steel for crafting. The only way to obtain it is by farming Iron Husk Beetles who used to drop AA Iron chitin, but now drop metallic chitin instead. Metallic chitin is almost as good in armor rating as Uranium, but only as durable as steel. As a weapon it does more damage than steel, but worse armor penetration. Commonality has also been reduced so it doesn't show up as much in old ruins or vendors. It's now 5 times less common than steel, but 4 times more common than plasteel. Thus, the material fits nicely as a steel replacement for combat purposes in mid-game when plasteel and uranium supplies are tight or non-existent.

FAQ

Save Game compatible? Yes. Though, if you got any iron chitin lying around you'll get a non-game breaking error, just dismiss it. This patch removes iron chitin because it was no different than hardened chitin stat-wise or purpose (it wasn't even classified as a metal). load order? Load after the 2 mods it patches :D That is all, hope I made your game that tad bit more enjoyably balanced :D. Leave comments below for suggestions or issues otherwise.

Source

This mod only contains XML - which you can just get directly from the workshop mod folder. However, to facilitate referencing and accessibility, I've also uploaded it to https://github.com/Steveblandon/RWMod-Bundle, where you can also find the source files for some of my other mods. cheers.