TL;DR
Want to suggest modifying existing recipe of poison capsule a bit, because it unfits the impression as a chemical weapon.What?
Changing the recipe of poison capsule to:10 Coal + 1 Electronic Circuit + 50 Sulfuric Acid + 8 seconds → 1 Poison Capsule
(Exact amount or type of ingredients are just rough suggestions. Details below.)
Why?
The statements could be long to some readers, so I split them into several sections for easier reading:Current Setting
Before discussing anything, let me state the current recipe of poison capsule first, copying from Wiki page:10 Coal + 3 Electronic Circuit + 3 Steel Plate + 8 seconds → 1 Poison Capsule
Total Raw:
10 Coal + 4.5 Copper Plate + 3 Iron Plate + 3 Steel Plate
Facts
- First of all, poison capsule releases some poison cloud that suspends in hazy form over air. It also damages air-breathing entities only. So it resembles some nerve gas/agent, or at least some poison gas. That means it is a "chemical weapon", right?
- As a chemical weapon, some chemicals should be a major ingredient. For example, mustard gas (formally as sulfur mustard) requires sulfur dichloride, hydrochloric acid and other unstated chemicals as ingredients. It is also common to use sulfur or some acids to make other types of nerve agents. (This game does not have chlorine, cyanide, etc, so I skipped them anyway.)
- Poison capsule can be handcrafted directly. IRL nerve gas/agents are manufactured in chemical plants with extra insulation.
- Most nerve gas/agents are organic compounds, or at least featuring carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine, fluorine, sulfur, phosphor atoms in it. Current poison capsule contains carbon (from coal) but nothing else related.
- In terms of total raw, the current recipe is consuming much more iron ore overall than a grenade! (It is also true if comparing to other major "metal-heavy" ammo.) Not reasonable IMO.
Suggestions
- As a "chemical weapon", I would like to suggest more use of chemicals (existing vanilla resources) and less metallic ingredients.
- I would like to keep coal (for carbon), while adding sulfur or sulfuric acid as ingredient.
- Poison capsule needs to be manufactured in chemical plants (just like the flamethrower ammo). Cannot be handcrafted.
- Reduce/remove the amount of copper/iron/steel plates. Maybe just need some iron plate as the "container". Introducing sulfur/sulfuric acid (or other chemicals) as ingredients should balance the "cost".
- As above, should greatly reduce the amount of metals in the ingredients list.
10 Coal + 1 Electronic Circuit + 50 Sulfuric Acid + 8 seconds → 1 Poison Capsule
Sulfuric Acid and Electronic Circuit already "contains" some copper/iron plates in it, so would not make the new recipe too cheap. (But welcome to adjust the numbers to something after a careful calculation. My numbers are just rough numbers for reference.)
I feel the new recipe will make the poison capsule more "feel like" to a a chemical weapon.
PS:
I would like to suggest changing the colour of poison capsule and poison cloud from green to yellow as well.
Most poison cloud ranges from colourless, white to light yellow haze. While colourless or white may not be good from gamer perspective, I would suggest using yellow!
The current green is too strange for a chemical weapon, and the game already has uranium weapons using green. So would be better choose some colour OTHER THAN green.
My mod Schall Tank Platoon has changed the colour
Update:
The recipe change was implemented in my mod Schall Tank Platoon. For those interested, please download and try it out.