Mini-mod: LRM to cluster missiles

Edit:
This is now officially my Missiles mod, I've tweaked the weakest missiles of each category instead of replacing all the LRMs like I originally did - apparently some people like sniping with LRMs

Also as promised, this read will include the results of some digging around in the rocket definitions. Hardly did much actually, it was mostly an exercise in figuring out what the entries do and moving stuff around. Feel free to pick it apart and use it in your own mods!

Out of the 20 existing missile types, 8 of the weakest ones have been modded. Be advised that missiles are now dangerous! Yes, you missile specialists out there should have a great time, but this also holds true for the AI. Put a wingmember on missile defense or invest in passive countermeasures - you'll regret it otherwise. Don't be put off by the high missile total - the game counts every warhead in multirocket designs. I'm the kind of guy who likes balance (or even harder challenges) so don't worry about this mod turning the game into an easy boring clickfest.

You may experience some lag in large battles. Game basically slows down to a crawl <5fps during endgame engagements. It's hugely annoying. Accordingly I've speeded up the warheads so they die faster (less objects to clutter space), and I'm reconsidering the MultiRocket MIRVs. This mod, after all, largely started as a proof-of-concept, and most of the values used were more along the lines of "let's go wild and see what this can do!" rather than "this should produce a reasonably balanced effect". I'll probably lower the warhead count and up the damage.

Thanks to Goblin Wizard who clarified some stuff, and all you guys in the modding thread who gave me the idea to poke around the scripts. Also thanks to Aleksty and the guys in the english-language thread at the StarRover forum, he mentioned some things I didn't notice before. The inspiration for this came from Touhou, what else?

There shouldn't be any game-stopping errors, but let me know about balance issues. Prices, damage, effectiveness, etc. Yes, the missiles are actually weak, vulnerable to countermeasures, and expensive. However, this means missile expert pilots are now viable heroes unlike in the original unmodded game; remember, all your missile bonuses apply to every single missile, thus quantity > quality.

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How to install:
1. Unzip the archive. There's a \Data\ folder in there.
2. Copy-paste it to the game's folder. It will overwrite a few files so just say yes when it asks. This mod is NOT compatible with the Fleet/Mothership mods if you download it from here. A compatible version of this mod has been included in Mod Pack 1, see the mods thread.

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Updates:
[ Version 3/June/2010 ]
- increased explosion flare live time for all 4 danmaku types

[ Announcement 7/June/2010 ]
- Ha, sorry for the delay. Had to balance some stuff especially prices versus bang-for-buck - it was too easy to simply load a Bident and own everything. I've confirmed that the ones I've put in (half done actually) work as planned, so it's just a matter of finishing the rest and doing some final testing.

[ Version 7/June/2010 ]
- Alright, it's up. Fully compatible with Goblin Wizard's mothership mod v0.24. An unmodded game is also fine.
- Screenshot 1 added. Damn, I'm getting my ass handed back to me. Hard mode rocks.

[ Announcement 7/September/2010 ]
- No update, just a reminder that this mod is NOT fully compatible with the latest mothership mod. Download Mod Pack 1 from the Star Wolves 3 Mods thread instead - I have handpatched my mod there for compatibility.

[ Announcement 26/October/2010 ]
- No update, just a progress note. Been experimenting with a missile type where the purpose isn't to inflict a lot of damage but to blast ships out of their flight path. Creative players should note the possibilities for breaking up formations. UPDATE: the effects weren't quite as useful or interesting as I'd thought them to be, most of the time it just prolongs the already longish combat. Breaking formations required an absurd collision distance so it was impractical. Plus it provided yet another way to screw with the scripts like for example if you hit a trigger-carrying target out of range.

[ Announcement 10/September/2011 ]
- No update, just an observation. The standalone expansion should be out in October - within a month or two from now. Depending on how similar it is I'll likely mod the crap-end missiles in that game as well. Not sure whether to go along with the (ill-fitting) danmaku theme or try for an in-universe (which may likely end up reading very dull) theme.

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Looks kinda messy in the screenshots but that's because I suck at taking pictures. In the first you can see the blooming green-white explosions in the far background. In the second you can see the first few seconds of a head-on engagement (enemy on the left, player on the right). You can see the enemy missiles flaring around the player ships (deflected by ECM) while on the enemy side they hit and detonate, scattering whites and blues and reds - the missile explosion flares have been coloured a bit and the bloom time lengthened so that you can see the flames linger for a couple of seconds before fading out.

I know you can "snipe" targets outside of their range but I consider that a bug because they don't respond to getting hit.