No problem, totally forgot I wrote it. Glad it was at least some assistance.

Thanks so much for the essay, Xander! I really appreciate it, saves me a lot of time in trying to test this one!

You'd think I'd learn my lesson after the last time I tried to write an essay in a Steam comment section lmao

Conclusion: It's still a fun idea, and if more time was spent tweaking certain aspects it could be lots more fun. I understand from the comments that the author is no longer active in ARK, which given my own experiences with the game, I completely understand not wanting to come back. If you're thinking of using this mod, just keep in mind that it IS an older mod. It still works, it's not going to crash your game; it just has a few flaws that would deter potential users. If the author does not have the time or will to work on the mod, may I suggest making it open-source? That way, someone else with an enthusiasm for weird west mods can pick it up and bring it up to speed. All up to the author, of course. Take care!

Cons Pt. 3 because Steam comments are stupid:
- The last update was back in 2017, and the last comment before my own is from 2020. Updates were discussed around 2018, but apparently never implemented. While I try not to criticize mod authors for late updates - real life happens and all - anyone expecting an update after 5+ years are likely to be disappointed.

Cons Pt. 2:
- I was unable to tell whether the Lifelock Pistol worked with PvE friendly fire turned off. It works slightly differently from the Tek Pistol, with a healing buff applied with each shot (5 in a clip), but if any healing happened, it was very weak and barely made a difference. And given how overly potent the rest of the gear is, I'm inclined to believe this is the fault of my settings, not the gun itself.
- This is more a personal point for me and was probably done more to fit the style of the mod, but both pistols make a horrific sound when fired. It was clearly an attempt at making a magic-infused gunshot, but it is so distorted and loud that it made me quickly rethink using either of them.

Cons:
- A lot of the gear here could also be considered just a little broken, with the Arkane armor having more armor than Riot gear, the pieces being relatively cheap for their power, and the rest of the armor being essentially the Riot gear except with a bulls-eye looking mark on the chest.
- The Heatlock Pistol could also be seen as broken, being cheap to make and maintain as well. Some balance appears to have been attempted in making the weapons cost Silica Pearls, but after a certain point pearls become trivial to collect, especially on SE where you don't have to brave any oceans to get them.

Right, so after toying around with this mod, and with little word from the author themselves, I've got a little mini-review of what's within it.

Pros:
- Really powerful gear: the Heatlock Pistol does more damage than its vanilla counterpart AND inflicts fire damage on top of that, meaning that burning down a Rex is much easier on SE.
- The Lifelock is essentially the Tek Pistol before it was even a thing, though I'll get into that later.
- The Arkane Cowboy armor is ridiculously potent, with both high armor and environmental protection, as well as a unique model for the helmet that's very stylish.

more*

i wish there were screen shot to see what its like not much for me to go off of.
hmm yes a cowboi riding a t-rex i see (no offense just poking a little fun at the image)

This mod looks dope, it's nice to see a modder who still has yet to abandon a good mod because they quit ark. Keep it up!

Did anyone get a chance to test the Lifelock pistol for healing before patch 258? Thoughts? Improvements, did it heal and work for you?

Patch 258 revealed a flaw in my mod. It will crash your client if you try to equip or use any of the pistols or rifles as near as I can tell. I believe this was my use of a material instances in texturing some of the items, the error log is kind of vague. As soon as the dev kit gets updated I will open it up and see if I made a mistake somewhere and how I can insulate my design from breaking in future big patch releases from ARK. I apologize for the inconvenience, I'm certain this is a flaw in my newbie design and will get better as I learn more. Thanks for your patience.

Thank you for the feedback! I just put the next update out. Ok this one has a full set of armor with Stetson hat...the armor is based off of the Riot armor for now...but I'm interested in thermal settings and keeping it a pretty well balanced all season armor. Tough durability and good protection for end game. I boosted the damage on the rifle and we now have two revolvers a Heatlock and a Lifelock. The heat lock revolver is a 9 shot that does good heat and fire damage. Not as long a range as the single shot rifle of course..and the lifelock pistol is my first attempt at a healing pistol. To heal allies and dinos by shooting them. Still testing and balancing of course. Going to work on getting my own skins for the armor eventually. I did manage to get an arcane symbol onto the chest of the Riot armor as part of this test. So total items at this point are the Arkane Smithy, Arkane Rifle, Full Suit of Armor, and two revolvers. Much more to come...

No worries! I totally understand you're learning.
I have tried the rifle, but only with the heat bullets I think they were called, not the poison ones. It seemed a bit underpowered imo.

I am I had to pull it out...it was buggy, still working and learning. I'm sorry about that. Rifle and narc bullets are working...hat is working, still experimenting a little bit. DId you try the rifle? Do you think its over powered/underpowered?

Are you still working on this?
The pistol isn't craftable I don't think, or at least I wasn't able to find it anywhere.

Ok, got Heat bullets and Poison bullets in place.
Still fine tuning settings and animations for the pistol and rifle.
Custom sounds now in place for the guns.
The Arkane Cowboy Smithy look is done I think for now.

Researching how to make a Holster that actually helps load, unload, and manage bullets for your pistol and rifle.
Also looking at a Whiskey Still and a few other things.

Discuss this update in the discussions section.

Ok, sorry about the very little detail there. I just got the basic mod up, which includes the Arkane Cowboy Smithy, pistol, stetson hat, and rifle. These items are "enhanced" just a bit trying to keep them from being game breaking but add in a little utilitarian Arkane Cowboy fun and wierdness. This really is my first mod, (though I've been a commercial programmer for 12 years), I at least can speak the language...MUCH to learn. My intentions with the mod are still forming but anything Western Wierd Technology is on the table, and as I learn more I'd like to even go into building structure assets that include a wierd blend of western and ARK Tek. We'll see.

Grats on your first mod, broham. But, uh, what can we expect it to do? GL on the mod building!

Does this adds weapons/armor/saddles that adds elemental attributes like fire,ice,lighting,wind,earth or adds skills to be used on hotbars or on custom shortcuts?