Arania’s Contraption Damage Engine
This has been my pet project for the better part of a year, and I believe it may finally be time that I show of the fruits of a near 12 months worth of poking Gmod with a very sharp stick
What is it?
The Contraption Damage Engine (CDE or CoDE) is my solution to what I considered to be a critical flaw in currently-available damage engines: You build contraptions in Garry’s Mod, from large spaceships to small automated drones, and yet both CDS and GCombat use weapons that apply damage on a per-entity basis.
CDE does the exact opposite: damage from weapons is applied to an entire contraption, and it is only destroyed once its cumulative health reaches zero, allowing for more extended firefights which can last for minutes at a time, instead of mere seconds. Larger contraptions tend towards being more durable, instead of the existing model of only being as strong as their weakest part.
Primarily, CDE is designed to be as simple and streamlined as possible for players, allowing them to focus on contraption building and combat rather than fiddly combat mechanics, while providing maximum functionality to developers through a modular design allowing them to easily make their own weapons and damage types, or even tie the addon into a gamemode!
Features
[list][*]Damage applied to entire contraption, rather than individual components (can be toggled off for a more Gcombat-like feel)[*]Destroying a contraption will leave wreckage, which then fades out over time (Wreckage settings can be modified via convar)[*]Cinematic death explosions that can take more than 5 minutes to complete for large contraptions, such as space stations (Can be toggled off for a more fast-paced combat style)[*]Shielding that covers an entire contraption, along with more conventional spherical shields that cover an area[*]Shield spheres overlap properly, producing the impression of a large shield ‘blister’ instead of a bundle of disparate bubbles[*]Modular damage system allows custom entity and damage types to be added easily (such as anti-missile or anti-shield damage types, for example)[*]Works with Gcombat and CDS weapons (See posts below)[/list]
Media
Pics:
Before, During and After shots of a Wi-Fi hotspot getting destroyed-


Shield Dome Exterior Shots-



Overlapping Shields, Interior and Exterior Shots-



Contraption-Conforming Shields on an SBMP Ship. Unshielded and Shielded Shots-

Videos:
Coming as soon as my cameraman gets sick of me poking him
When will it be released?
I’m hoping that I will have a version stable enough for public beta by the end of the year, provided people express interest in the idea!
Questions are very welcome