Easy Energy Cells -- Integrated Retainment Latches

[zimon9]

About The Pull Request

All energy weapons now come with a retainment clip for their energy cells, if their cells are designed to be removable. After a cell is unlatched, a user will be able to remove the cell like as they would a magazine from a ballistic weapon. However, one must remember that these retainment latches were designed into these weapons for a reason. Firing one with a latch hanging loose will likely cause the cell to fall out and/or disconnect due to jostling.

In order to latch or unlatch a retainment clip, one must alt-click on their weapon.

If one is using a dual-mode weapon, such as an E-40, they will need to switch to laser mode in order to latch and unlatch the retainment clip, and remove the cell.

If one has attachments on their weapon, you'll need to remove the cell on their weapon before attempting to remove an attachment. For the E-40, one simply needs to swap to the ballistic mode in order to do that.

A line indicating the latch status was added to the examine text of energy weapons.

This PR also slightly modifies the examine text of the E-40 to include cell charge characteristics.

Small sample of it in operation:

Cell-Retainment-Clip-Demo-Partial-Updated.mp4

Full demo of it in action:
https://youtu.be/Be1c_0AFAds

A clip of the state of the latch sprites at this time:

Latch_Sprites_Updated.mp4

Why It's Good For The Game

Having cell removal be tied to alt-click felt smoother to me, compared to the current way that cells are handled, with removal requiring a screwdriver. The time it takes to remove and replace a cell is comparable as before the change, but it no longer requires a screwdriver to do.

Changelog

🆑
balance: replaced screwdriver cell removal with a cell-retainment clip mechanism
/:cl:

[DIB-DOG]

Hallelujah, praise be to the killer of the screwdriver reload.

[thgvr]

Needs some visual feedback, check how safety icon/drill icon is displayed

[rye-rice]

@Apogee-dev

[zimon9]

Needs some visual feedback, check how safety icon/drill icon is displayed

You're right, that'd be really nice. I'll start working on that now

[DIB-DOG]

Just curious, can the latch be opened and closed while moving or does the user need to remain still like it was for the screwdriver?

[thgvr]

Oh, also needs the gear overhead, i believe it's a flag for doafters

[zimon9]

Just curious, can the latch be opened and closed while moving or does the user need to remain still like it was for the screwdriver?

EDIT: I think this should remain where it is, with a user required to stay still in order to toggle and untoggle the latch, actually. It felt a little strange to me to be able to toggle the mode while on the move, but I am open to thoughts on the matter.

[zimon9]

Oh, also needs the gear overhead, i believe it's a flag for doafters

Ah, I believe it should do that (It's the hidden flag, right? I've left it set to false)

dreamseeker_BMw6SkschR.mp4

[DIB-DOG]

EDIT: I think this should remain where it is, with a user required to stay still in order to toggle and untoggle the latch, actually. It felt a little strange to me to be able to toggle the mode while on the move, but I am open to thoughts on the matter.

Balance is of course always something to consider, but comparing energy weapons with ballistics from a purely mechanical POV, the action of popping open a retention clip certainly isn’t any more taxing than operating the bolt of a weapon or otherwise, right? Ofc it shouldn’t be as fast as operating a bolt, but I feel it’s something that could be done while moving.

[zimon9]

EDIT: I think this should remain where it is, with a user required to stay still in order to toggle and untoggle the latch, actually. It felt a little strange to me to be able to toggle the mode while on the move, but I am open to thoughts on the matter.

Balance is of course always something to consider, but comparing energy weapons with ballistics from a purely mechanical POV, the action of popping open a retention clip certainly isn’t any more taxing than operating the bolt of a weapon or otherwise, right? Ofc it shouldn’t be as fast as operating a bolt, but I feel it’s something that could be done while moving.

Certainly, but this is more because of mechanical limitations on my end. I wanted to make it so that moving would roll a chance for the cell to pop out, but I haven't had much luck in implementing this. The inability to move while latching and unlatching is a stop-gap measure for this.

[Erikafox]

Certainly, but this is more because of mechanical limitations on my end. I wanted to make it so that moving would roll a chance for the cell to pop out, but I haven't had much luck in implementing this. The inability to move while latching and unlatching is a stop-gap measure for this.

You'd probably want to use a signal that listens for movement. Pretty sure we have some.

[zimon9]

Certainly, but this is more because of mechanical limitations on my end. I wanted to make it so that moving would roll a chance for the cell to pop out, but I haven't had much luck in implementing this. The inability to move while latching and unlatching is a stop-gap measure for this.

You'd probably want to use a signal that listens for movement. Pretty sure we have some.

Maybe. I'm worried that a cell might pop out while someone is moving around, and if so, it might get annoying with how one would end up unable to stop the latch/unlatch attempt other than by swapping their hand (and if they're wielding their weapon, it might just end up taking too long to unwield and swap their hand before the latch state changes). Leaving them with a closed latch and a dropped cell.

I want to see how it feels in a proper game first, I think. After feedback, I can revisit this. I will swap the mode so that it can be unlatched while moving for now, though.

[zimon9]

Needs some visual feedback, check how safety icon/drill icon is displayed

Visual feedback is in now. Sprite might need a little bit of touching up, but it may be serviceable for now.
This should be ready for further testing.

The PR body has been updated to reflect the changes.