The Cramporium mod [2.5.2]
This mod is made for game version 2.5.2.19, same as all my other projects. HOWEVER, this one uses a dll plugin file. As such it is 100% garantueed INCOMPATIBLE with any game version but the oldcampaign beta – in contrast with my other little modding projects.
Don’t say you weren’t warned
This small mod contains a bunch of modded components for crannons (cram cannons). I developed this mod for two purposes. First of all, I wanted to give small caliber (sub 1000mm) crams an actual niche in the game. Secondly, the mod contains two full parrallel sets of barrel components. One with regular thickness, the other with a more sleek appearance. Within each of these sets is a selection of modded speed-boosting barrels, and the vanilla specialist barrel types set up to look like regular barrels. All of this is for the purpose of aestetics.
In vanilla FtD, small caliber crams are perhaps the most useless weapon system in the entire game. Moreso than drills or simple weapons even. They have pathetic damage output and muzzle velocity, making them completely useless in all but the nichest situations. And in those few situations where they can pop of shots, you would probably be better off using any other weapon system anyway.
I am a big fan of crams and I consider this a waste of potential. In order to give small caliber crannons some love I modded in a set of barrel types that have a rather extreme muzzle velocity boost. This allows small and comparatively fast firing kinetic or (AP)HE crannons to have some use as compact secundary weapons or tank guns.
The scaling of crannons at low gauges is very wonky however, especially sub 500mm. Modding this falls outside of the scope of this mod. However, I think the mod is still a fine tool for fooling around with small rapid firing cram guns. They are fun as casemates, modern naval guns on destroyers and frigates, secundary gun batteries, …
I hope that this mod will provide an addition of value to the base game through opening up more possibilities for one of my favourite weapon systems.
So what’s to prevent me from slapping these barrels on a 2000mm crannon and turning it into an OP 2km/s railcannon?
- Self-discipline
- Self-control
- A sense of fair play
- Otherwise, nothing really
I admit to using them to buff some high gauge shells to 250 or 300 m/s using the built-in muzzle velocity limiter. But if the above aren’t your strong traits and you feel you won’t be able to help yourself you have my condolences :p
As mentioned above, a full line of the usual specialist barrels that look like regular barrels are introduced. A secundary complete set of such barrels are added, called the ‘lightweight’ barrels. These are functionally similar but have a sleeker appearance. That should allow you to make some ‘conventional looking’ crannons on your ship if you’re more of a realism fan. This is something vanilla crannons don’t lend themselves to overly well.
My original intent was to try and modify crams so muzzle velocity would scale inversely with gauge. This proved too hard a coding project for a total novice. As such I merely inherited the basic barrel types and created several variants.
This mod used a ‘replacer’ block for the regular basic cram barrel that slightly increases accuracy and muzzle velocity. After uninstalling you will have to retrofit all cram barrels accordingly.
