In my own tests, the Jumprifle projectiles do hit their targets, but the explosion doesn't occur exactly at the hit position, but very slightly behind it. Never enough for the explosion not to hit the target, but I can imagine that this might change from PC to PC. I'll do some tests with the projectile's innate physics settings ("maxMovementPerStep", to be precise) to see if I can improve on this at all.

The Doomcannon route is interesting, I'll have to look into that soon. If I understand it alright, your suggestion is to have the jumprifle projectiles deal 0 damage, but apply a status effect to the target which causes them to instantly explode for X damage?

As for the DPS for jumpweapons, I'll have a look at that soon. I didn't want them to feel overpowered (being explosive weapons and all), but I might have tuned them down too much. I also have to look at whether or not the caches spawn their content at the right level - I hadn't really tested that as much as I should have, for a lack of time. I'm also still planning on giving them secondary abilities, which is one facet in which they are definitely lacking compared to other weapons.


As for your last question, I haven't actually played Starbound in multiplayer in a very long time. This is mostly because I always have a WIP version of the mod installed, which always contains new assets or other changes that makes it incompatible with the version installed by others... I'd like to play some multiplayer again though, and I think I can easily switch between versions of the mod (although I'm not sure what will happen to my characters - I might have to swap out the entire storage folder, or at least the player folder). Are you in the Steam Group yet? There have been some discussion about a possible Elithian Starbound server on there!

Also, I love it that you like the mod so much! These types of comments are the kind of things which make modding worth all the time and effort I put into it :D

Alright, I just did some more testing, and it seems the jumprifle bullets DO pass through enemies, and it's not because of their physics settings. This isn't true for all monsters, however. I'm looking into what might be causing this right now!

Question, what monsters did you test this on? It seems that the bullets pass through anything that is passive, but not through monsters or enemies which are currently aggressive towards you. Entities such as critters and bugs won't be hit by the bullet, but the explosion will still kill them. However, this is true for all projectiles which deal no damage on their own, such as the rockets from rocket launchers, even the vanilla ones.

I did not know that a steam group existed. Also for the switching between versions of mods you should be fine with making a new character and then just enabling the version of the mod based on which character you are playing. Its a bit of a hassle but some mods just despise existing characters but once you remove them the character attached to the mod dies but your previous ones reappear as long as you haven't deleted the storage file for said character.

Yeah. Because as long at the projectile hits then even if someone is lagging or for any other reason the damage would be dealt. It would also give you a few interesting options in terms of secondary fires you could give jump weapons. The projectile doing zero damage would work the best because as long as it is registered to make that it 'hit' something like a normal shot then it should fix the apparent issue of it not being able to hit hostile mods that aren't yet agro on you. Though I don't know the actual coding to the doom effect damage only that is does its damage flat with no possible reductions or increase.. So I might lock a weapon to the exact damage it states on the weapon if you go that route which would mean you would ether have to make them rare as all hell to balance with the damage they do. Or have them be semi low damage in terms of the primary and have something energy extensive but completely insane as the secondary. *Coughs* Fire black hole into a eldritch hellscape of doom*coughs*

Also I am one of those players who likes to kill things well before they agro on me. Currently it is a constant even with agro that it passes through the little fire breathing fox thing. Other mobs if they are agroed it seems like it is a fifty fifty on if it hits.

Hmm that is.. Strange. Why don't rockets have a passing through issue? After all it is the explosion alone that does the damage. Though the same thing happens with the grenades as well since it only does damage on the explosion. Could you possibly rip the rocket projectile code to the jump weapon projectiles? Because I've never seen a rocket phase through any enemy besides the ones which can go ghost. So that would ensure that the jump weapon projectile is exploding on contact with the first entity it hits right?

Edit:

Right! Forgot to talk about the dps. It might just be how varied the over all damage between random spawning weapons can be compared to set spawning weapons. But it could be that it doesn't seem to pop the elemental effect that the jump weapons are implied to have or the over all issue that was discovered with the hit detection. Tweaking damage in general is a balancing act since Frackin has been doing is for ages and they still tweak and balance damage and armor states. So finding that sweet spot where you are happy with a weapon, people are happy with the weapon (Not all people because someone is always going to ♥♥♥♥♥(, and it is viable in play is a time consuming task. So take your time Aegonian.

After all I would be sorely upset if you burned yourself out trying to balance and fix everything without given yourself time to enjoy your own amazing work or have fun doing what ever the hell you want.

Did some more testing, on the Fennix (fire breathing fox) and other enemies, but still haven't ever seen the projectile pass through an enemy completely - they just detonate a bit too late, and because the projectiles have bullet drop, it looks like they pass htrough and explode upon hitting the ground. I removed the bullet drop to be sure of this, and the same delayed explosion issue occurred.

Also, the jumprifle projectiles actualy use the exact same collision type as vanilla rockets - the only difference being that they are affected by gravity, and have a smaller explosion radius on destruction. My testing also revealed that vanilla rockets suffer the exact same issue of passing through enemies and having a delayed explosion, only you don't notice it because the explosion is big enough the hit the target anyways. The only viable fix seems to be an increase in the explosion radius of jumprifle projectiles.

I also did some testing on the 'maxMovementPerStep', turning it down from 0.4 to 0.1, but I saw no change at all in the way the projectiles behave. They still suffered a delayed explosion.

Also looked into the doom cannon a bit, and I no longer think this is a viable option, unfortunately. The doom projectiles deal damage of their own - which we don't want for the jumprifle projectiles - and the explosion will only occur if a target is hit, making it useless when you hit the ground right next to a target. Besides, I can't find any way of making the status effect inherit the damage from the projectile, and as jumpweapons are randomly generated, a set amount of damage won't work either (otherwise the fastest firing weapons would always be best).

I think I'll increase the explosion radius of jumprifle projectiles, which should improve the reliability of the weapons a bit. I won't make them rocket-sized (that would be OP), but a similar size as used by the Harbinger sniper seems to improve the passing through enemies issue for me (which would effectively double the explosion radius, which is a pretty hefty improvement either way).

Oh.. Well that is a shame. I'm sorry I sent you on a wild goose chase concerning the doom cannon. I thought it might help with some issues or give you new options for some weapons.

Also thank you for all your hard work looking into this issue. I know you are a busy person when it comes to a mod of this size. But you are on the ball when it comes to responses and seeing what the hell is going on when someone mentions something.

But really. Do what ever you think is best. I could see the jump weapons being poor to use again small enemies but for mini bosses, bosses, and groups? I think that is where it would shine with the explosions and all.

Oh and you mentioned a steam group for this mod. I can't seem to find it so do you think you could link it to me if it isn't any hassle and maybe.. If ya want.. Be friends?

No problem, I'm just glad we now know what is causing the issues! Making the explosions larger will help to resolve the issue in some situations, even if it won't fix the problem completely, but I think it's just an inherent issue of the way Starbound was coded.

I'll send you a friend request, that way I can also add you to the Steam group!

Thats the spirit! Its best to go down dead ends to have explored your options then dismiss a option and it turns out to be the fix. Also it is a inherent issue with starbound. I am noticing hunting spears do the same thing as they will pass through some creatures heads.. It seem that the hit box on some creatures don't exactly match the size of their icon. But if the spear hits right in front of them it normally kills them. The issue seems most apparent in small creatures.

Also your request was accepted my friend. I do hope we get to play together some time. Its always amusing to see the different play styles of others.