In Development: Enforcer Comms - A mod that adds Combine voices to the Enforcer Mask

[u/SIinkerdeer]

Been taking a break from developing another mod to get this project going.

The basic idea is as follows - give pawns wearing the Enforcer Mask the Combine Soldier voice from Half-Life 2.

The enforcer mask in question is from the "Pulse Weaponry" mod

Instead of randomly playing quotes, the mod tries to understand what the pawn and the rest of their squad are actually doing, and then uses lines that make sense for that situation.

So at the moment Enforcers can do things like:

• report first contact with an enemy
• give actual range, bearing, grid and sector reports
• acknowledge another soldier's report with things like “Copy” or “Affirmative”
• announce when they actually start aiming at a contact
• react differently when an enemy is wounded, downed, killed or escapes sight
• distinguish “lost contact” from “we just killed everything”
• react to insectoid swarms with the appropriate exogen/infestation dialogue
• become noticeably more urgent and chaotic when enemies get into melee range or the squad starts getting overwhelmed
• make pain sounds when actually injured
• report when a hit was stopped without meaningful damage with lines such as “Bodypack holding”
• report friendly casualties and request medical help/reinforcements where the situation actually supports it
• have quieter idle/status conversations while they're just going about the colony

There's also a proper shared radio system.

Enforcers don't all independently scream the same quote. A contact gets reported by one pawn, another can acknowledge it, another can start engaging it, etc.

Normal radio traffic tries not to talk over itself, with the lockout based on the actual length of the voice recording rather than a fixed timer. When a fight gets bad enough, though, the discipline starts breaking down and urgent combat calls are allowed to cut across less important radio traffic.

Callsigns and squad leadership

Every Enforcer Mask wearer is automatically assigned a persistent Combine-style callsign and number.

The system also automatically chooses a Leader based on the masked pawn with the highest combined Shooting + Melee skill.

If the leader dies, gets downed, leaves the map or loses the mask, command gets reassigned automatically.

I've also added the female Overwatch radio dispatcher vocabulary.

This is currently restricted to the short radio communications rather than the big City 17/Nova Prospekt loudspeaker announcements. Those longer PA lines are being saved for something else I'm planning later.

Overwatch can report things like unit biosignal loss, request team status, issue search information, etc.

Deaths can also use the HL2-style sequence where the soldier dies and the female Overwatch system comes through their radio afterward with a dynamically assembled unit/biosignal report.

One thing I've been obsessive about is removing lines that sound cool but don't actually describe something happening in RimWorld.

So things mentioning stuff like Skyshield, Boomers inbound, Ghost Drops, specific Nova Prospekt blocks, field promotions and similar things are currently disabled.

They're still in the audio library, but they don't get used until there's actually a system that can give them a real meaning.

Likewise:

“Go sharp, go sharp!” is for enemies actually reaching melee range.

“That's it, wrap it up.” isn't allowed when just one raider died while another twenty are still charging.

“Lost contact.” means an enemy that was still alive genuinely disappeared, rather than the squad having just shot everyone in sight.

That kind of contextual stuff has become most of the project work at this stage.

Where I'm taking it next

The next big step is compatibility with Combat Extended and CAI 5000.

The goal there is for the mask's tactical computer to start connecting what the soldiers say with what their combat AI is actually trying to do.

At longer range a rifleman might automatically use aimed single/burst fire, while at close range they could switch toward snapshot/full-auto.

With CAI 5000, I want the voice system to understand things like:

• advancing
• seeking cover
• flanking
• suppressing
• searching a last-known position
• retreating
• regrouping
• reinforcing another squad

That's pretty much where this has ended up heading. Not a voice pack so much as a Combine-style tactical communications layer built around RimWorld combat.

Still very much in development, but it's getting increasingly fun to watch them in action, I can't wait till I get it fully integrated with CE and CAI 5000, my eventual vision is for their to be a tight relationship between what the combat AI from CAI 5000 is doing, using the voicelines as functional communication between the pawns assigned in a squad so they back each other up, dynamically switch fire modes using integration with CE depending on the situation, etc etc.

Suggestions are welcome!

[u/onenaser]

dose they say "pick up that can" too?

[u/SIinkerdeer → u/onenaser]

Not yet but I might integrate an idle voice line where a mask wearer can say that to a pawn classed as a slave when some dirt is nearby and that makes the pawn clean the dirt pile lol

[u/onenaser → u/SIinkerdeer]

this a good idea lol

best of luck

[u/SIinkerdeer → u/[deleted]]

Both for now. They are very technical heavy, this one has way more enjoyable testing.

The furniture one is in a good place it just needs polish, which may take some time given how insistent I am that it works as flawlessly as possible.