[SS] CornCobMan's Fun Mod version 1.75 (07/05/2013)

[RMX]

I hadn't read Corncob's message, lol. It's like he actually read my mind. Battlefortress and Swordfish in CCM are exactly what I thought when Zany released his goodies.

Did he ever do anything for the DE or SoB?

[corncobman]

The only thing he did with regards to the DE is the Blaster upgrade for Reaver Jetbikes and the Talos jumping animation. He was going to do something with regards to Retributers but he went off to University and stopped working on TTRU entirely.

[Cylarne_04]

Ok, wait a minute. When and where did Zany come in to say "hi"? If you catch my drift.

[RMX]

It was during the time you were incapacitated, I presume

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthre...U-modification

[Springy194212]

am I the only one tho hoom the download links dont want to work

[Rotlung]

Gamefront links look okay to me. You might want to click the Download Now button a couple more times if it simply refreshes instead of bringing you to the download link.

[Springy194212]

gamefront just hates my internet explorer

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

Hey Corn? May I suggest an idea?

Can u make the Mandrakes harvest souls like in DoWpro? It shouldn't affect balance too much, and would be awesome 'cause slaves die, and Talos is hard to make.

[corncobman]

That can definitely be done once I've asked for permission.

EDIT: Done and done.

[Rotlung]

Yeah I remember that mechanic from DOWpro. Did they have an animation for it though? I can't quite remember.

[corncobman]

I think they just use the point capturing animation and have purply bits around their wrists.

EDIT: So I'm finally getting my thumb out and I'm packaging the stuff up into packages ready to upload for you to download when I finish uploading after I've finished packaging it up. Yeah.

[corncobman]

Update schmupdate:

Art file: http://www.gamefront.com/files/21623...M_Art_1_72_zip

[jONES1979]

It's always good to have a new schmupdate! Thanks!

[RMX]

Sweet! Here are some problems and suggestions after quick-testing 1.72:

- I can't field Tau Relic Units anymore: I only see the Swordfish add-on in the Vehicle Beacon, after I research it it disappears and nothing replaces it. Greater Knarloc is nowhere to be seen. I tried both going Kauyon and Mont'ka, and I also checked without any other mods present (so it's not jONES' mod or my own crap messing around). Someone confirm it's not just me.

- Swordfish in army painter shows BAD FX purple billboard coming from the blue engine core things. I suppose the glow FX is missing there.

- I think the Battle Fortress looks too small, for an Ork giant tank. Compare it to the Squiggoth.

- The guys of UA made some TC textures for the Battle Fortress. It'd be a good idea to get those.

- I think Zany had some Greater Knarloc model with a mounted crossbow. It would be cool so have that as well.

[Rotlung]

Just downloaded, the Art file just got a lot smaller...?

Also, your changelog has some repetitions from the previous version.

[corncobman]

Yeah the art file is smaller because I got rid of some rtx files which are only used when the player selects no teamcolour or if they fancy using another colour scheme in campaign which hardly anyone does.

The changelog I didn't really read properly.

I'll try to check the other problems.

EDIT: seems I forgot to add the Swordfish to the Vehicle Beacon building, and the Greater Knarloc research to the Kroot Shaping Centre.

EDIT2: Updated attrib file:

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21628...rib_1_72_5_zip

[RMX]

Cool. It works now.

Also, when the Swordfish fires its railguns I only see one of them firing (the right one I think), and the Battle Fortress's left turret moves weird and there are too many Zap cannon FX's at times

[corncobman]

Yeah the Battlefortress Zzzap gun appears to shoot constantly. I might ask GrOrc for use of his version.

[subspace5000]

Hi,

Ever since I downloaded the latest version of this mod, trying to play Soulstorm has been giving my PC blue screens of death. Has anyone else had this problem? I'm assuming I just did something very wrong when I was installing the mod, but...

[corncobman]

Seems like the Swordfish firing and aiming has been borked for about 4 years even in the TTRU mod. Unless someone with modelling skills fixes it up I don't think it will ever be fixed.

@Subspace5000 - I have no such problems here, I don't believe your issue is related to the mod.

[subspace5000]

Hmm...I guess I'm just having my normal luck when it comes to computers, then. I'll try reinstalling my SS at some point and see if that fixes it.

[RMX]

No matter. The Swordfish is something the UA team are going to want to use. I'm sure they'll fix it someday.

[MonkeyXXL]

I have fixed Swordfish, long time ago. 'n I know it was needed almost 4 years. Corncobman, pm me if you want to see it . And as the author of TC textures for Battlefortress (and not only) I can give you the newest one.

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

Nicely done with the Mandrakes, thanx.

I got the new Tyranid Mod, but my armies still don't have their banners showing up, its just blank.

[corncobman]

I have a feeling it's because the objective points mod needs to be added to the Tyranids add-on module file.

[subspace5000]

Alright, it's working now and is as fun as I remember it.

Thank you for this mod. Keep up the great work

[RMX]

Is there any way to extract any useful data from CTDs from any logs? Like when I'm playing and DoW crashes mid-game.

[Cucaracha]

Is it really necessary to delete all the content inside the folder and install the new version, or can I just overwrite?

Excellent! Got it.

[corncobman]

@RMX - if it's a crash straight to the desktop mid-game, I've found that there often won't be anything useful in the logs.

@Cucaracha - it's not absolutely necessary to delete everything, it's just a precaution in case something from previous versions messes up.

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

So can I do anything? Just merge the objective_point_SS files with CornCobMod_Nids? Or rename some module files?

[corncobman]

Download this modified module file and replace the old one with it:

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21655...od_Nids.module

[Cylarne_04]

Oh JEEZ, you got a Lord of Change! Permission to extract your abilities into the UA mod and Daemons mod?

By the way, name a date you got free time to do up the Daemons mod. I'm ready when you are, finally.

[corncobman]

Well I've sorta got different abilities lined up for the version of the LoC that's in the Daemons mod. The coding for which should be done barring some balancing and or bug fixes.

I just need to go through the model and replace the references to the Sisters of Battle effects with Chaosy versions and do some testing.

I'm not really sure when I'll be free but I should have some time at the weekend I think.

[Cylarne_04]

I just need to go through the model and replace the references to the Sisters of Battle effects with Chaosy versions and do some testing.

P-U-R-E Heaven mate!

I'm not really sure when I'll be free but I should have some time at the weekend I think.

I'll plan out a long list of things until then.

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

@CornCobMan: Yo it WORKED! The god damned awesomeness is back. My Banners... it fucking worked!!!!!!!! Thank you.

Seriously this is the first time I've actually seen banners in your mod. Oh and thanx for Mandrakes. Makes them awesome-o.

[corncobman]

Thanks, glad to know it's actually working.

I won't have time this weekend, got exams coming up and stuff.

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

The Sound fix for DE voice makes the voices volume too low. It also doesn't do anything to some unit voices, like the Beastmaster, Ork Tankbustaz and/or Kommandos.

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

This is gonna be a big ass post for u pussies who don't like to read, because it's all my well thought out ideas for the man with the damn good corn-ncob about modifying the Dark Eldar:


TAKEN FROM THE END OF THE POST:

One more thing, that sound 'fix" some guy made that u integrated into your mod - it lowered the volume of the voices for the DE? It's not good. It's too quiet. Might as well get rid of it and revert to the original volume.

There are unit voices across the board in almost every race that are waaaay too loud compared to the normal volume, and it's kinda gay. The good ppl of WH40K modding need to fix this somehow, someway...






I just gotta say: Dark Eldar are fucking awesome, especially in this mod. Best rush race EVER. They literally own everything when they rush, no race can stand up to them if they RUSH, and I mean RUSH like a mother. Never stop attacking. Of course thats what u do with all the races, but the DE can establish its base and forces sooooooooooo much quicker than the rest.

I've got some wicked ideas of modifying the race a bit without giant GFX overhauls. First, here's one about the whole soul harvesting system:

FUCK IT! It sucks ass, I hate it to be honest, I want to cap it's sucky ass. Can we get rid of it? Can u get rid of it Mr. Corn? And I mean GET RID OF IT, powers and everything. I hate how DoWpro actually made it REQUIRED instead of as a secondary thing. Even as a secondary thing, nothing is a secondary thing! If it's part of the game I will do it, but it's such a pain in the ass (to harvest souls that is, stupid click festering mechanics) and seems so irrelevant (the expensive abilities also suck ass), why not do away with it entirely?

The soul abilities don't even make sense from a lore stand point. It just doesn't, because (unfortunately in my eyes) GW is totally down playing the DE's psychic potential, which sucks ass IMO.

... and the soul abilities should be tied to a unit, not be a global super weapon. Thank god the lore still hints at DE achieving psychic OOMPH! like the Eldar can, with soulstorms and shit. DE having psychic potential has even be demonstrated in a BL book!

- - -

Coming up next on this program we've got the buildings of the DE. Man are they big. But I like how the guy with the corn left them big, and don't like how DoWpro made 'em tiny. If anything they should be bigger, you know, so people can actually get inside them - as it is right now you're gonna hit your head off the top of the threshold, impaling your head on the spiky door frame.

Anyways, the DE, as they are implemented by Iron Lore into SS, ARE FUCKING HARDCORE - the word FUCKING is for emphasis, kids. It's a great word, use it more often. It makes u hardcore when u say it, especially to old people.

So DE are hard as fuck the most in DoW SS, because the way Iron Lore implemented them was making them have giant bases! That's totally unlike Eldar. The Craftworld Eldar have little to nothing for their bases, it's all just portals. But the DE in SS actually establish dark fortresses, and live there. They got everything they need, drugs, sex, entertainment, comfort, etc.! Those are some damn big buildings. They don't even use Webway gates! Except for small ones installed into soul chambers.

So the next idea is, get rid of some of the buildings, because they seem really unnecessary. Specifically, fuck the Soul Cage. Make it a research like Chaos Energies. Then fuck the Wych Cult Arena, it's way to tiny and has barely any researches.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

OK, so I've established the basis for my thoughts. Now here are the specifics. It's gonna be a rework, and since I've never tried modding this game myself (I tried once but I ended up getting scared and ran away) I don't know if its even possible, but here are the ideas, food for thought, and it's all good shit, I swear on some guys grave:

--------------------------------

Building changes:

- Remove Wych Cult Arena, doesn't look porportioned anyways so fuck it (that's one small ass stadium, and where the hell's the audience?), then transfer the 4 researches as follows:
-All of them to Hall of Blood

- Remove Soul Cage, then change the Reap Soul research into a 4th tier upgrade like Chaos Energies, move that research to the Dark Foundry.

- Increase size of Slave Chamber so it looks bigger, and increase health (c'mon, u can't fit that many sex slaves in there as it is! Realism man!).

- Remove all research for base buildings to have the morale aura drain (the one that makes the buildings have cages) and just make the buildings have that aura always. The buildings are spooky as hell and have some weird interaction with the ground, what with that purple energy permeating the soil, cutting it's way out of the crust of the earth.

--------------------------------

Soul resource changes:

"HE IS ONE DANGEROUS, MUTHAFUCKIN' ARCHON, SPEWIN FANCY SHIT FROM HIS MIND (Outside of Commoragh, respectfully)"

- Remove the souls, stupid little pink things. Makes game less laggy hopefully. Then transfer the soul abilities with slightly extended cool down times to the following units:

- Rend Soul to Archon.
- Corrosion to Haemunculi. BTW Corrosion doesn't seem to do much, does it effect infantry or just vehicles? Buildings? WHAT THE HELL DOES IT DO, I don't notice much when I try to use it. Either increase the damage it allows other units to inflict upon the units standing in it, or make it actually do damage overtime to units inside of it, or both.
- Soulstorm to Archon. BTW Soulstorm sux as is, should increase damage by 15% (at least), or make it last longer, because the soulstorm doesn't last long at all.

- Screams of the Damned to the Dias of Destruction. If possible, make it so it crushes morale of nearby units, and not the whole map.
- Piercing vision to Mandrake. Or just get rid of it.
- Does Rekindle Rage even work? It's supposed to fully recharge all of the targeted unit's abilities, but I've not noticed it dong it's job. I've clicked and not noticed. I've paused by pressing pause (so U can still interact with the game instead of the menu), then while paused, clicked the ability and targeted the Archon as his abilities are recharging, then unpause, and nothing happens, except maybe the animation. Anyways, if it does work and I'm just trippin out, give it to the Incubi Squad (more on that later)

The abilities I guess should be researched:

- Rend Soul to Kabal Fortress.
- Corrosion to Hall of Blood.
- Soulstorm to Kabal Fortress.

- Piercing Vision always available.
- Screams of the Damned always.
- Rekindle Rage always.

An alternate ides is to just get rid of all of the abilities, of course. I guess the icons are gonna be smaller than normal unit ability icons, unless u can blow them up somehow.

---------------------------------------

Unit abilities:

- WTF does the Haemonculi even do with his Soul blast ability? I think it's useless. Make it like the DoWpro one, where it's a targeted explosion. Way cooler IMO.
- The poison dart seems weak to me. But we don't wanna overpower everything, so I guess it's fine as it is.

------------------------------------

Unit voices:

I love how the-dude-that-has-corn-but-possibly-doesn't-eat-corn-because-we-don't-know-that-as-stated-fact-he-eats-corn-we-only-instinctually-percieve-him-to-eat-corn-because-lets-face-it--he's-got-corn-he-might-as-well-eat-some-or-sell-some gave the Eldar and Chaos some lowered pitched voices like the guardians and cultists.

You know theres nothing better than more love, so why not extend this concept to moar units?

Unit voices to be lowered:

- DE Warriors, Hellions, Reaver & Raider

that is all... although Chaos marines would be cool sounding lower...

-----------------------------------

New Unit:

THE INCUBI SQUAD:

Just like in DoWpro, the Incubi are now a seperate unit from the Archon. Fuckin A! I think they have their icons and voices already in the game, just unused, but then again, it could ave been made by DoWpro. Those guys are intense.

Just make sure u don't make the same mistake the pro ppl did - not incorporating the squad with the "Heroes" skirmish option. Not doing the aforementioned is a sin, so if u don't do it, you will be damned to be raped by a giant preying mantis with a 13 inch cock of brittle exoskeleton right up your face. Incubi need their heroic-ness too.

Available at the Hall of Blood (if there are enough button spaces left - if not, the Kabal Fortress, and only after the Archon is made), the Incubi squad does not suck ass, in fact it kicks ass, alot of it.

-------------------------------

Fuck the soul harvesting. It's gay. This is gonna be one hell of a project, but yo Corn... U can do it. Mainly because I said so


One more thing, that sound 'fix" some guy made that u integrated into your mod - it lowered the volume of the voices for the DE? It's not good. It's too quiet. Might as well get rid of it and revert to the original volume.

There are unit voices across the board in almost every race that are waaaay too loud compared to the normal volume, and it's kinda gay. The good ppl of WH40K modding need to fix this somehow, someway...



Peace.

----------

I just remembered. The Ork battlewagon or whatever, the Orks standing at the top of it are really small. Tiniest Nobs I've ever seen.

[RMX]

Very inspired post to say the least.

- I'm not a huge fan of the soul system, but mostly because I suck. Picking them up from the battlefield is not a viable thing to do, unlike Kroot Cannibalize where it actually pays off. Otherwise it works like your average RTS resource and it balances out the fact that Tortured Slaves have Protoss building powers. If things like the Talos or the Haemonculus could instantly collect all the souls around him using their skill I would appreciate it.

- Dark Eldar buildings are a tad on the big side, but I'm not really bothered by them. Specially the Soul Cage. In T4 there's always some useless huge-ass building but if you get there you have more space than enough to put it.

- I like the voices as they are now.

- I have no distinct opinion about the Incubi squad. I'm more used to having them as a retinue, but that's it.

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

- The seperate Incubi squad is kinda unnecessary in SS. I just like TT moar.

- Another reason I hate the souls and the soul powers are because of the AI. Even in a 8 player FFA the DE AI will target you and ONLY you with it's soul abilities, half way across the map, and they don't have to harvest shit. Honestly I don't even like the tortured slaves as they are. Their building mechanic is fine, and repairs, I just don't think the DE builder should be some stupid human baby voiced slave, instead it should be something like a bonesinger.

- For the big ass buildings, at least the Orbital uplink/Daemon pit/everyone else's crap has awesome units to build and wicked upgrades. The Soul Cage on the other hand has NOTHING. The Wych Cult Arena, compared to the Sacred Artifact or the Sacrificial circle, has almost nothing to offer. So fuck them. Make the DE more like the Eldar. The Eldar have only 3 buildings, plus the HQ. The DE could downsize to that no problem.

- The voices are pretty intense. I just like how the Eldar Guardians and others benefited from the new cool low voices. The Scourge sounds fucking awesome as it is, but the rest are kinda high pitched, but definitely crazy and mean sounding. Much better than the Cultist's default voices.

[Rotlung]

To be honest, I did not like a number of the new voices (they detracted too much from the original game), but thanks to CornCobMan I do have a way to restore the original voices for most units. It's a matter of preference I guess.

RMX's suggestion about instantly gathering souls is a very interesting idea. I quite like it, very handy for quickly getting your soul count up after a large battle. I'd recommend the Haemunculus for this (Talos is fine if the instant gathering ability has a global cooldown, because being able to get tons of soul from several sources at one time just screams imba).

Regarding downsizing on DE buildings or reorganising them, I think you're thinking more of the Dark Eldar mod (which is still a WIP, if I'm not wrong).

I find that your suggestions in general are geared towards homogenising (removal of soul system, making Dark Eldar closer to Eldar, Incubi squad ala seer council) the DE race. As things currently stand, I think they're already fairly interesting to play and are in no need of change (what they need are more units to match the variety that SM/Chaos/Eldar enjoy). What DoWpro did with the soul system was to further differentiate the races so they played out more uniquely. Personally I don't see any issue with the soul system (short of AI spamming it). The gathering of souls on the battlefield can be a little awkward and sometimes unnecessary if you can simply farm them with multiple slave pits, but I think you can't expect a single slave to farm continuously from a slave pit now, but I might have that mixed up with another mod I used to play. I personally am of the opinion that the soul system can be tweaked to be easier to use without it being removed outright/homogenising.

Note that if the Incubus squad is implemented, you'll need to think about the preferred tier for it to appear. If it appears later, the Archon will need to be buffed to match up to other commander units in T1. Personally, I'm used to it being used as a retinue (the only other commanders with the retinue are the IG Command Squad and the Chapter Master) as opposed to a separate unit. It's possible to reinforce the Archon from the squad should he get killed too, which is a plus. Otherwise, if the Archon were to be killed, you'd have to rebuild him from base.

What does Soul Blast in DoWpro do? There used to be a bug with Soul Blast in SS that prevented the haemunculus from using it when he's under attack or something. I think CornCobMan fixed it recently but I haven't tested it extensively (it happened quite some time back). It's supposed to destroy a bunch of corpses in an area for damage.

Rather than removing the Soul Cage, I'd rather possible researches, etc to be added to it. There are balance implications to it being a building as opposed to research (you can destroy a building, but not undo a research) but I doubt it has that much of an impact to be honest. The same issue with a building that does little is the SoB shrine that produces the Living Saint.

About the cages around buildings:
If I'm not wrong they work as a triggered ability (like the cages on slave pits), can't remember if they have a passive morale drain. Having it on all buildings can be absolutely annoying if you're raiding a DE base early game (similar to Tyranids with the slow aura miasma in earlier versions of the mod), so I think they should stay as an optional upgrade.

Slave chambers being bigger does not make sense to me - unless CornCobMan has changed his stance on scales, he isn't aiming for true scales, just more realistic ones. I think buildings as a whole aren't scaled properly, so if you want to apply realistic scaling to slave chambers, you'd need to apply it to all buildings as a whole.

Adding more health to slave chambers? I'm neutral on this one. I don't think it's needed (you normally build quite a number of these anyway) but if they get destroyed too easily in the early game, a health increase might be necessary.

[corncobman]

Holy crap that's a long post. I'm going to read it more carefully but I'm going to post my initial thoughts.

The problem with the Haemonculus collecting souls is that his weapons, ranged weapons in particular, somehow stop working after harvesting. I have no idea why it happens but I had to remove the harvesting from the Haemonculus for this reason. The Haemonculus Soul Destruction ability is still a little bit unreliable when he is in combat it's a little bit better than before but it still fails on occasion. I might try to make it into a targettable ability to see if it helps, it also means you don't have to march the Haemonculus right up to the exact spot where all the souls are in order to use the ability.

I'm really not sure about completely overhauling the souls and soul abilities. Having abilities for specific units is interesting but I'm not sure it needs changing really. Also having a morale draining ability on the Dais of Destruction which is already pretty strong is probably a bad idea.

A separate Incubus squad is an interesting idea, but I quite like the way they can be reinforced from the Archon currently. If I make the Incubus squad separate I would probably have to buff the Archon which might make the squad as a whole (Archon + Incubus squad) too strong.

Building sizes I haven't really thought about that much TBH.

I don't think adding health to the Slave Chamber is a good idea. It's a spammable building which can do damage and also a lot of disruption.

[Rotlung]

Updated keydefaults here: http://www.mediafire.com/?dunen4k8ldj9x29
Main fixes are for Tau hotkey placements

By the way, Greater Knarloc research uses the same hotkey as the Greater Knarloc unit itself, but the research and the unit icons do not use the same position in the grid. Might be a good idea to have them use the same icon position, or have separate hotkey entries.

[corncobman]

Do you mean that the research and the unit currently doesn't use the same icon position?

[Rotlung]

Yep, will edit to make it clearer. Sorry.

[RMX]

This place has been rather quiet lately. Have you been working on the Daemons race or on a well-deserved break, Corncobman?

Nevertheless I have my usual share of selfish requests:

-Could the Fun Mod get UA's Dark Eldar Wracks? I couldn't resist when I saw them and they would make nice elite melee infantry like DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr wanted for the Incubi squad.

-I know you said you don't want to get near the Dark Prophecy mod because it means trouble permission-wise. Still, I'd like to tempt you with the Daemonhost. It seems to be a modified Deceiver model with FoK/PoK's -]I[- slapped on it. I don't know if I'm getting myself into a minefield, but I thought it was worth the try.

-For some reason I love the GK squad and the IG Inquisitor, but I also struggle to find them a replacement so all the Inquisitory stuff could go to the SoB (although to be honest the SoB are kind of on the upper levels of the food chain, so it'd have to be some sort of branching thing like PoK does and that's a crapload of extra work). Anyways, in light that it's a hell of a task to find something melee for the IG that aren't Ogryns or Catachan jungle fighters (which I'd kill for), my best alternative would be to switch the Colonel with a Lieutenant (or 2, given the Colonel isn't much more than a glorified Commissar right now), replace the Inquisitor with the Colonel (buffed up ofc) and lastly change the GK squad to an 'Officer Squad' that could contain all the crap that doesn't fit anywhere else: Master Vox, Banner bearer, Veteran Medic, more Veterans. I know it doesn't sound very attractive. I'm just leaving this here as more food for thought.

[jONES1979]

BTW, People say that it is not the UA's Dark Eldar Wracks but Dark Prophecy's Dark Eldar Wracks - model made by _Warsmith_. Just need to wait a confirmation from him.

[corncobman]

Yeah I've kinda been kicking back and I haven't really done much. I was going to get a release ready with the Tau Mounted Greater Knarloc but I've been kinda busy lately with other stuff.

[Rotlung]

I think it's interesting to see more Inquisitorial stuff to SoB. If there isn't enough material for Inquisitorial branches, I think it's still adequate to simply slap the non-Witch Hunter stuff there too without branching.

The Officer squad sounds a lot like a support kind of command squad (regimental advisors?), but attach the Colonel to it? Or you could add the squad members to the Colonel (like in the case of the usual command squad?). Sounds very interesting, and personally I don't mind that IG have few melee options. If there's a real need for it, consider penal legion troopers! Hell if I know of suitable models for those though.

[Cylarne_04]

Err yeah something to definitely point out...

BTW, People say that it is not the UA's Dark Eldar Wracks but Dark Prophecy's Dark Eldar Wracks - model made by _Warsmith_. Just need to wait a confirmation from him.

Dead on Jones, dead on... when I thought it came from someone else... don't use the Wracks, I repeat do not use the Wracks they are rip offs from Warsmith as I just found out recently all thanks to Gorb. RT2, my team member is later/sooner (maybe right now?) ripping off the head of it and making it totally anew and sparkly clean, THEN you can use it. My fault, my bad.

Well now I'm here...

Sounds very interesting, and personally I don't mind that IG have few melee options. If there's a real need for it, consider penal legion troopers! Hell if I know of suitable models for those though.

Hmm... or add a possible research like "Sharp Pointy Bayonet Guns With Swords" that applies to all Guardsmen that increases their melee damage? Guardsmen effective at ranged and melee combat may prove OP but sounds like loads of fun.