You can expect a lot of explosions and destruction with this mod.
This update has taken quite a while to cook. WirawanMYT told us that besides having to sort out his IRL matters, he wanted to solve several issues in his mod backlog. He has been steadily fixing the Lua bugs in the mod since the earlier versions, but that has taken a toll on the overall pace of development. The release of World Expansion 3 has not made things any easier, introducing changes to existing Lua scripts and adding completely new ones, which Wirawan couldn’t have accounted for. Still, he braved on, learning and improving as he went. Here are some of the things Wirawan has changed in the latest update.
The reworked gravity blasters are great against hordes of smaller enemies.
Since the mod’s name is Expanded Arsenal, it’s natural that we will talk about weapons first. Wirawan’s mod introduced unique elemental heavy blasters with several firing modes - a regular one, a charged shot, and an alternative charged shot that triggered if you held the charge button longer. The latest update revises some of the second firing modes of these blasters to make them more useful—for example, the heavy magma blaster used to lay mines as an alternative charged shot. To improve its usability, it releases a magma wave instead, providing a temporary area denial against smaller mobs. Other heavy blasters changed similarly - we’ll let you discover precisely what they do.
The bouncing blade tower looks like a lot of fun, and a lot of carnage.
Magma artillery doesn't seem like it would do great in the MOIST conditions of the Fungal swamp, but it does!
This might look like white phosphorus, but it is not. It's cryo artillery!
The defensive tower suite has also received some updates. The volley tower has been replaced by an all-new type of tower that shoots bouncing blades. It is an excellent anti-swarm measure but not very effective against singular targets. The elemental artillery tower suite has also been reworked. Instead of being simple copies of the artillery tower with different damage types, various artillery towers now have different shells and impact effects. The acid artillery explodes into a gas grenade, affecting multiple enemies over a long period. The cryo artillery shoots a shell that splits into five smaller shells, dealing cryo damage in a wider area. The radioactive artillery uses a fragmentation shell and bursts into piercing radiation in a horizontal axis, dealing almost instantaneous damage. This expanded and reworked lineup of towers offers excellent strategic and tactical depth. Not to mention all the cool effects Wirawan made from scratch - you must see them for yourselves.
How about a flaming power rod, which turns into a tornado after it expires?
Wirawan’s mod had long-range missile towers long before the release of World Expansion III and the arrival of HCMs and Power Rods. The modded towers were more powerful, with their ranges spanning the entire playable area. With the addition of the “official” long-range towers (and the accompanying Lua improvements on our side), it made sense to restrict the range of the long-range towers. To make up for that sacrifice, Wirawan gives each missile tower a unique effect meant to deal with a specific type of threat. Now, you have plenty of towers to choose from, and they differ in the amount of damage and type, projectile travel time, or damage pattern. There are plenty of things to experiment with.
Each shot from towers like these will drain your liquid storage reserves, so make sure to have a lot stocked up in case of a lengthy defense.
Naturally, with great power comes great upkeep cost. To fully utilize the power of all the new defensive towers at your disposal, you must supply them with various fuel types, including several different liquids. Pipe crossings will become your best friends as you try to supply each tower type with its corresponding liquid and solve the pipe spaghetti. Moreover, Wirawan has brought back a mechanic from The Riftbreaker’s past. Towers have a certain upkeep cost when they are in idle mode. That cost rises dramatically when towers are firing at enemy creatures. This requires you to have a strategic reserve of liquids saved up for attacks, further increasing the strategic complexity of your base economy. Be sure to manage your resources wisely and plan ahead to ensure you always have enough reserves for when the enemy attacks.
Here, you can see enemies spawning from the magma eruptions. You have to stay vigilant, as the enemy might literally spawn behind your back!
Wirawan introduced innovations not only in the weapons department but also in the weapons department and wave spawn mechanics. By playing around with spawn rules, Wirawan managed to give some enemies the ability to spawn in unusual circumstances. For example, acid rain can bring in waves of creatures from the Acidic Plains biome as an “extra” attack outside the regularly scheduled ones. Earthquakes and other geological events might cause the Volcanic Zone enemies to appear. Falling meteors can take some bio-hybrids from the Metallic Valley along for the ride. You get the point - you are not safe and should invest in some new defenses and be on high alert. Hostile Galatean creatures may appear in unexpected places! And remember, Wirawan’s Omega creatures are much more potent than the ones you can expect from us!
Wirawan's Omega creatures can shoot down the incoming artillery projectiles.
It’s also worth mentioning that in the Expanded Arsenal mod, neither the players nor the creatures are defenseless against artillery attacks. Wirawan has spent considerable time implementing the “active defenses” mechanics, which allow all sides of the conflict to shoot down enemy projectiles mid-air. The player can do that using their defensive towers or mech upgrades - projectiles on the collision course will be automatically intercepted and shot down. Some aliens, especially the Omega strains, also possess this ability. However, such defenses aren’t impenetrable. Simply launch more shells and overpower the enemy’s defenses with the sheer volume of projectiles. You can also use weapons that do not use projectiles at all - like the flamethrower or laser.
Your towers gain the ability to shoot down artillery projectiles!
Unfortunately, so did other enemy creatures and structures.
The list of changes and improvements could continue, but trying the mod out on your own is best. Go to Steam Workshop or mod.io and download Expanded Arsenal. We recommend playing it in a new Campaign, though - there is so much new tech to learn that a Survival run simply will not do it justice. If you have any questions, the mod's author is very active both on Steam and on our Discord server at https://www.discord.gg/exorstudios, and we’re sure that he will answer all the questions you might have!
See you next time!
EXOR Studios
Disclaimer: Make sure to back up the files you save before you play any mods. Modded saves are incompatible with the vanilla version of the game.
