Ian.747: I've noticed on the launcher, there are 2 mods: Halloween and WinterHoliday.
Any idea what these are?
They don't make major changes to the game, but add a bit of flavor:
Winter
- The three main characters get dressed up in winter attire. Think 'ugly sweater' and stocking cap type stuff
- I think the cannon weapons shoot snowballs. Might not be all of them, but at least one does.
- The cargo crates are now wrapped and decorated packages.
- After some enemy kills (happens around 10-15% of the time, seems like, the kill will generate a plate and cookies. Santa Claus will be attracted and as he approaches 'presents' will fall from the sleigh. There will be a concentration centered at the plate and cookies, and also a trail both before and after along his flight path. And a loud burp. Looks like the presents are all data.
- The asteroids are snowballs.
- The rez is represented by candy canes.
- In the background you occasionally see a tiny Santa flying by, dropping presents in his wake. You can't pick these up.
Halloween
- The three main characters get dressed up in costumes.
- The Clockwork gets spiderwebs.
- Weapons stay the same.
- Cargo stays the same but the rez-filled asteroids are now pumpkins.
- When a ship dies, you see the ghosts of dead crew members.
- In the background there are flashes of storms in space, and you'll sometimes see ghostly faces.
- Halloween Elsa creeps me out. haha
- The big change is at space stations. There is now a menu option of "Trick or Treat". Choosing this puts you back outside the station and you will encounter one of three things:
a. something about 'testing experimental defenses'. Some rotating beam carriers will emerge from the station, with the beams damaging anything that enters its radius o' death. They also spew out 1-point data globes. This is dangerous early on but later in the game even your smallest ships can handle the beams no problem. Lasts about a minute. You can get a surprising amount of research. On a level 0 base, it might not send out the beam carrier doohickeys; can't quite remember. 10% of the time, feels like.
b. I forgot the name, but it's something about a critter storm. Basically a zombie attack. Screen goes purple and it's a bit hard to see. Lasts about a minute. Maybe 5% of the time. If I don't feel like waiting it out I'll just flee the area from the F2 screen.
c. TREEEEATS! You get this one most of the time, so I guess about 85%. From the station will shoot out a load of asteroids, haz waste barrels (that explode when you shoot them), and one of three things depending on what type of system you're in (Science, Colony, Mining): explosive flaming bags of dog poop (not making that up) with a lot of data, goon pods, or regular crates mostly filled with rez and a few with data. At the Science bases you can easily pick up 500 or more data by Trick or Treating.
I prefer the Halloween mod since you can get a lot more data. If your stock of rez is full then don't bother Trick or Treating at a Mining station. Ditto goons and Colony stations. But you can always use more data.
Yoiu can switch between the two modes (or standard) at the initial screen that pops up when you start the game. Doesn't mess with saves so you can jump back and forth between them in one playthrough.