Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => Mods => Topic started by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 07:11:16 AM

Title: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 w/ campaign - mod pretty much cancelled
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 07:11:16 AM
Introduction:
Hi all,

Ever since I started playing with mods in 0.50, I felt that the Tri-Tachyons didn't get all the love they deserved. I personally love the Tri-Tachyons, because I'm a sucker for energy weapons and all that other high-tech stuff that the Tris like to tout. The problem is that a lot of modded factions seem to have them as an enemy as well, which makes seeing a Tri fleet on a well-modded game a fairly rare sight. So I started thinking up ways to help the Tris out a bit. I used to do PAWN scripting which is actually quite similar to the way Java is used in Starfarer mods, so I figured... Why not start work on my own mod?

The Positron faction mod is the result, and the version that's up for download below has been the result of 30-40 hours of modding. This is an early test version, but it aims at giving a good impression never-the-less. However, because it is a test version balance issues and the like may arise. PLEASE REPORT THEM IF YOU SEE THEM. This mod is supposed to become a very much balanced addition to the core campaign over time, but that can only happen with your feedback.

Downloads:
The current version is v0.1, which is the first public release. It contains the new Positron faction, a matching orbital station (which deploys after ~7 days of game time), and 21 different ships. Once again, if you find any issues, please report them!

*click me to download* (http://ugstunt.com/Positron0.1.zip)

The story:
The date is April 24th, cycle 189. The increasing amount of dismay within the Tri-Tachyon high command has come to an end - a split is to occur, breaking up the Tri-Tachyons into two parts. The Tri-Tachyons have had an unstable command structure for several cycles now, with a few members exerting more and more radical ideas onto the others. "We cannot hope to survive against the Hegemony warmongers without radical changes.", they argued. "If we keep living this way, our technological advantages will be lost to those Hegemony bastards forever and we'll be enslaved!".

And so, the split came to pass. The ones that wanted change went out and started building an orbital station of their own on the other side of Corvus V, growing explosively in the cycles following the split. While still dependent on the Tri-Tachyon mainstay for protection, a new faction was born, their goal being full independence and enough staying power to keep that so. This new faction called themselves the Positrons.

Pioneering many new technologies and creating many new blueprints from scratch in the coming cycles, independence came closer and closer, and almost all of the old Tri-Tachyon designs were trashed in favor of in-house technologies. Production was going well, recycling the many ships fallen in battle to gain remarkable amounts of resources. Things were going so well, in fact, that the power the Positron faction carries now rivaled the Tri-Tachyons themselves. Engine technology especially became a Positron forte, with almost all of their ships being comparably very fast - a requirement for not being caught by the Hegemony, bent on destroying this new and dangerous faction above all else.

...

The date is now the 5th of December, cycle 205. The Positron people are ready to fight. They're ready to claim their freedom, to crush the Hegemony forces for their persistence. They have faith in their capabilities, having massed significant fleets and power in only a short amount of time. Their Orbital Station is ready to be uncloaked, showing the world that the Positron faction exists and will continue to exist. Independence is closer than ever.

The ships:
Below are pictures of the ships included - lore can be found in the Codex in-game.

Amy:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/amy.png)

Arachae:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/arachae.png)

Ares:
(http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1131.0;attach=414;image)

Artifact:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/artifact.png)

Crate:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/crate.png)

Cyclic:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/cyclic.png)

Dronart:
(http://i.imgur.com/oeU1d.png)

Epitaph:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/epitaph.png)

Frontier:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/landhere.png)

Hauler:
(http://ugstunt.com/hauler.png)

Launcher:
(http://ugstunt.com/launcher.png)

Mended:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/mended.png)

Nipper:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/nipper.png)

Onna Stick:
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/onnastick.png)

Quartz:
(http://ugstunt.com/quartz.png)

Rang Rang:
(http://ugstunt.com/rangrang.png)

Scorpion:
(http://i.imgur.com/hEGjO.png)

Spade:
(http://ugstunt.com/spade.png)

Speartip:
(http://ugstunt.com/speartip.png)

Stinger:
(http://ugstunt.com/stinger.png)

Swarmer:
(http://ugstunt.com/swarmer.png)

Credits:
Most of the ships in this mod were made by Medikohl, taken from his ship sprite thread (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=1131.0). The Cross, Dronart and Swarmer designs were made by arcibalde for the same thread. The Speartip and Quartz were kitbashed by me, using Medikohl's worksheet. Without the spriting work of Medikohl and arcibalde, this mod would not have been possible. Some of the internal campaign coding was taken from the TimCORP mod by Upgradecap.

In closing:
Comments are always welcome, and suggestions and ideas will be highly needed to get the campaign sorted. If you have anything to share, please do! :)


EDIT #1: Changed "Wingman" to "Scythe" because apparently it had a name. :P
EDIT #2: Removed the Everest destroyer because it's already in use.
EDIT #3: Lore fail. Originally the lore was set to be in a period of about half a year, so the text was written with "months" referring to time. I moved that to cycles later on to make the Positron community's growth more believable, as in: children being born and raised, expanding the very small community by a lot. Should've totally updated the text when I did that, too. :D
EDIT #4: Removed the Scythe as it is in use. We'll get a new capital ship, no worries.
EDIT #5: Removed the Sensor bombers because they are in use as well. Also renamed Land Here > Frontier.
EDIT #6: Added the Arachae capital ship. Thanks, Medikohl!
EDIT #7: Updated the lore on several ships, added sections for credits and progress, and generally tidied things up.
EDIT #8: Added the Crate, Cross and Swarmer ships, along with matching lore. Also updated the credits.
EDIT #9: Added the Dronart by Arcibalde, and the Ares by Medikohl. Also updated several pieces of ship lore and their roles. Oh, and I added a new teaser picture.
EDIT #10: Took out the Launcher due to the style differing a bit too much. I already have some really good fitting carriers right now. :)
EDIT #11: Added a new description for both the Ares and the Arachae. The Ares is now a leviathan, which is to be very rare and costly (both in buying price and upkeep) once the mod gets a campaign.
EDIT #12: Took a good look at ship classifications, and changed a few descriptions and ship types based on that. That Hauler is hard to classify, though...
EDIT #13: Added my first "own" design, made with parts from one of Medikohl's worksheets - the Speartip frigate!
EDIT #14: Did a few color shifts on the Stinger and Swarmer to make them much more theme-coherent. I didn't notice the Stinger was that green before. O.o"
EDIT #15: Also recolored the Rang Rang, Spade and Hauler. Especially the Hauler looks much more gritty now, a very serious look that fits its role in this mod well.
EDIT #16: Turns out I came out a bit short on carriers, even though I expected to have enough. The Launcher is back in action, and with a fitting recolor! Also, updated progress.
EDIT #17: Added the Quartz heavy tanker along with matching lore, to fill a gap in the Positron ship line-up. It's a custom version of the already-custom Buffalo Broadside from the sprite thread. ;D
EDIT #18: Major updates. Campaign is nearly ready for release (I skipped the mission), lore got updated, and the ships got sorted and lore'd properly according to mod files.
EDIT #19: First release! Woo! Also, massive post update to make it a lot shorter, as all of the ship info can just be found in the Codex.
EDIT #20: Likely stopping work on this mod, so a thread title update. No actual content updates as of yet.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: Dante80 on March 11, 2012, 07:16:12 AM
Looks extremely interesting, would love to have them in game. Keep the goodness coming man, cheers...^^
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: Apophis on March 11, 2012, 07:20:20 AM
All the ships below were made by Medikohl, as far as I am aware. They are from his ship sprite thread, and have not been used in any other public mods that I know of.
For an unfortunate coincidence i have already used the everest ship and it will be in weapon packs 0.15
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 07:22:19 AM
Looks extremely interesting, would love to have them in game. Keep the goodness coming man, cheers...^^
Thanks!

All the ships below were made by Medikohl, as far as I am aware. They are from his ship sprite thread, and have not been used in any other public mods that I know of.
For an unfortunate coincidence i have already used the everest ship and it will be in weapon packs 0.15
Gotcha, I removed it from the mod plans. I have two ships that I can add as replacements if I end up coming short, too. :)
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: Apophis on March 11, 2012, 07:23:31 AM
proof that i have already made this before your post

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 07:24:50 AM
No need for that, I'm rather inclined to believe good mod makers right away with stuff like that. :P
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 07:25:34 AM
proof that i have already made this before your post
you just like jamming missles on my designs. admit it! lol
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: Apophis on March 11, 2012, 07:30:12 AM
That 2 are universal mount so you can put energy weapons :)
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 07:31:32 AM
proof that i have already made this before your post
you just like jamming missles on my designs. admit it! lol
you may want to consider adding some of your custom weapons to your variants, otherwise no one is going to face against them.

that's actually been a bit of what I liked about making ship designs (.png, .ship, and variant files) for minimash. I've been using a large chunk of your weapons in the designs.
(love the raptor by the way)

also a note to the esteemed creator of this Positron(ic?) mod. we've used some of these designs in minimash, however, I've recolored them. if you'd like me to pallet swap these for you just give me a shout.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 07:34:01 AM
the scythe is already in minimash.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 07:34:23 AM
proof that i have already made this before your post
you just like jamming missles on my designs. admit it! lol
you may want to consider adding some of your custom weapons to your variants, otherwise no one is going to face against them.

that's actually been a bit of what I liked about making ship designs (.png, .ship, and variant files) for minimash. I've been using a large chunk of your weapons in the designs.
(love the raptor by the way)

also a note to the esteemed creator of this Positron(ic?) mod. we've used some of these designs in minimash, however, I've recolored them. if you'd like me to pallet swap these for you just give me a shout.

Which designs were they? (apart from the Scythe)
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 07:44:07 AM
the heavy fighters, although I recolored them purple.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 07:48:15 AM
If that's all that's not much of a problem. Recolors aren't really a fix here, because I'm aiming at making this faction entirely unique, to match the lore idea of "throw everything away and start anew". But a few missing fighters won't be an issue at all.

Might drop by your thread with a new capital ship request if this mod takes off, though. :)
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 07:51:46 AM
If that's all that's not much of a problem. Recolors aren't really a fix here, because I'm aiming at making this faction entirely unique, to match the lore idea of "throw everything away and start anew". But a few missing fighters won't be an issue at all.

Might drop by your thread with a new capital ship request if this mod takes off, though. :)

Just please rename them, most of the titles were just things I took off the top of my head.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 07:52:28 AM
onna stick, and LAND HERE
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 07:57:05 AM
I love the Onna Stick, only just found out the pun behind it. Land Here just got renamed to Frontier, but can I keep Onna Stick? :D

PS. Thread updated, removed the bombers and renamed the Land Here as said.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: cp252 on March 11, 2012, 08:02:52 AM
It's weird how modders who use medikohl's sprites never rename them. :P That said Onna Stick is a hilarious name, if immersion-breaking.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 08:19:12 AM
The names are perfectly fine, in my view, so why not use them? :P

Also, first ship is being added right now. Or well, fighter wing. It's the Amy that's being added first, and from there on I'll work my way up. Redbull's editor is pretty easy to use, it seems. ;)
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 08:45:03 AM
It's weird how modders who use medikohl's sprites never rename them. :P That said Onna Stick is a hilarious name, if immersion-breaking.
I know, most of them aren't too bad, but there are a few that are just too generic. more of a role than a title.

also. here is your cap ship.
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/arachae.png)

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 08:47:53 AM
slightly bigger than the odyssey
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 08:50:42 AM
Oh wow, that thing is brutal. Thanks a lot!

Also, I now have an "Amy-class Amy amy wing" in the game. Yeah, it needs some work, but... It's in! :D
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 08:51:50 AM
Oh wow, that thing is brutal. Thanks a lot!

Also, I now have an "Amy-class Amy amy wing" in the game. Yeah, it needs some work, but... It's in! :D
the amy is just a slightly modded weapon sprite. specifically the (A)nti(M)atter
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 08:54:21 AM
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/arachae.png)(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/parrot.png)(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/nevermore.png)

these are the top three cap ships I've made, in my opinion.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 08:58:12 AM
I'll be using a bunch of Medikohl's ships. He actually made a lot of ships (enough to support this entirely new faction) that would tie in really well with the style I'm aiming for, so I got lucky with that. ;)

hell, there is enough to support an entirely new game.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 09:01:53 AM
Updated the front page with the new ship. :)

Also, story redux for the mod description:
"Born out of dismay with the stoic Tri-Tachyon rule, a new split faction sees the light of day after many cycles of silent growth. Now allied to the Tri-Tachyons for defense only, the newly started Positron faction starts its quest for glory."
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 09:07:06 AM
yeah that ship is 90% enforcer 10% venture
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 09:20:47 AM
Amy is now in-game (well, codex only, balancing starts later). Next up... The Arachae! Doing it alphabetically, so yeah... The second ship I add will be the Arachae. Holy ***.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 09:43:29 AM
Amy is now in-game (well, codex only, balancing starts later). Next up... The Arachae! Doing it alphabetically, so yeah... The second ship I add will be the Arachae. Holy ***.
good practice.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: Apophis on March 11, 2012, 10:13:04 AM
you may want to consider adding some of your custom weapons to your variants, otherwise no one is going to face against them.

that's actually been a bit of what I liked about making ship designs (.png, .ship, and variant files) for minimash. I've been using a large chunk of your weapons in the designs.
(love the raptor by the way)
Yes there is this problem with added weapons that few ships use them, it would be nice if also other modders use them.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 10:20:40 AM
I might make installation of the custom weapons mod be required for this mod. That way, it will only work with that mod installed but on the other hand I'll have lots of new toys to play with on some funky variants. ;)

On a side note, adding the Arachae is going pretty well so far. Hardpoints and turrets are a bit of a pain in the ass to get just right, but I'll get there.

EDIT: On to engines! Also, 21 energy and 3 missile mounts. :D
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 11:59:18 AM
(http://ugstunt.com/arachae1.png)

Far from final, using stock weapons and with some very much untested stats, but yeah... Here she is. :)

I will make this specific weapon setup an Anti-Shield Dreadnought later.
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 12:24:39 PM
just as a bit of an example, this is what we ended up doing with the parrot.

(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/screenshot008.png)
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: medikohl on March 11, 2012, 12:27:33 PM
for balancing we left a gap in the shield, gave it a worse shield ratio than the paragon, more armor than the paragon
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 12:52:15 PM
Nice idea. I'll balance my stuff off of stock too, when I get around to it. Currently working on the Artifact. All the big ships come first! :)
Title: Re: Positron faction mod WIP - suggestions? Ideas?
Post by: Apophis on March 11, 2012, 12:53:47 PM
I might make installation of the custom weapons mod be required for this mod. That way, it will only work with that mod installed but on the other hand I'll have lots of new toys to play with on some funky variants. ;)
it would be great
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 11, 2012, 02:23:40 PM
OP updated with a vision of the mod's future, a teaser picture (the Arachae one), updated ship lore and more. ;)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 12, 2012, 01:46:57 AM
(http://ugstunt.com/arachae2.png)

Managed to squeeze it into the campaign through save game editing, and did a lot of balancing on it just to get an idea of how it'd perform. It's awesome! Just need to fix hull boundaries now, as I made a little mistake there which nearly makes it invincible.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: Arghy on March 12, 2012, 02:55:06 AM
Holy crap love how you took medikohls sprites and made an entirely new faction out of it. Looking forward to crushing them ingame as hegemony!
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: medikohl on March 12, 2012, 09:05:30 AM
Holy crap love how you took medikohls sprites and made an entirely new faction out of it. Looking forward to crushing them ingame as hegemony!
I think four or five more people could get away this before I'm out of sprites....Damn I do stupid things when I drink.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 12, 2012, 09:18:38 AM
I found some new ships while scavenging the Spiral Arms sprite thread. Quotes follow!

(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr20/medikohl/starfarer/crate.png) crate freighter

(http://i.imgur.com/hEGjO.png)
WideR (XpanD: To be called the Cross if I can add it)

(http://i.imgur.com/KEGcs.png)
Swarmer

These are well-designed, and would tie in nicely with the theme. The Crate is a little bit hit-and-miss, but it would fill a key role within this new faction and I think I can make it work. I've sent Arcibalde a PM to ask whether I can use his WideR (to be renamed Cross) and Swarmer in this mod as well. :)

EDIT: I got permission, woo! Will be writing up lore later if nobody comes up with a ship being in use already.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 12, 2012, 02:05:15 PM
Bump for 5 new ships including a capital, an updated front page and a new teaser picture.

(http://ugstunt.com/scorpionheavyassaultcruiser1.png)

6 ships in game so far, 2 of which are relatively balanced and in the campaign already!
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: arcibalde on March 12, 2012, 03:17:59 PM
Wohohohohoh i can tell you right now that 3000 points for armor is impenetrable. I put that value on 1 ship and he was indestructible :) Anything larger then 2000 (and 2000 is extreme) is way too much and really, really OP  ;D  If you what to make balanced ships compare to vanilla that is.
Just look at onslaught he is bulkier thing there ise. If your ship is bigger then him then you ship should have more HP BuuuuuuT be aware that onslaught is low tech ship and they have more HP and more armor. This is what i'm using when making stats for ship, just compare it to vanilla ships of same tech level and class.

Or, you can just ignore me  ;D
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 12, 2012, 03:38:58 PM
Those are test values, don't worry. Look at the Scorpion picture to see how I'm balancing stuff now - this is a cruiser that's bordering capital ship status, and costs about 70000 credits. I'm balancing with the core campaign. ;)

Also, I might just split off the Arachae into a separate mod for other people to work off of, and go with the Ares as my single capital. Not sure yet. The Ares is just so damn amazing right now - 10 small missile mounts, 2 large missile mounts, 14 small ballistic mounts, 7 medium ballistic mounts, 2 large ballistic mounts, 2 small launch bays and 2 medium launch bays. To balance all that armament, it'll be rather fragile (for a capital ship!) when the shields go down, making prolonged front-line fighting a very dangerous idea. Oh yeah, and it will be fairly low on ordnance points, promoting either leaving some mounts empty or going for tons of cheaper weapons.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: medikohl on March 13, 2012, 01:08:46 AM
Those are test values, don't worry. Look at the Scorpion picture to see how I'm balancing stuff now - this is a cruiser that's bordering capital ship status, and costs about 70000 credits. I'm balancing with the core campaign. ;)

Also, I might just split off the Arachae into a separate mod for other people to work off of, and go with the Ares as my single capital. Not sure yet. The Ares is just so damn amazing right now - 10 small missile mounts, 2 large missile mounts, 14 small ballistic mounts, 7 medium ballistic mounts, 2 large ballistic mounts, 2 small launch bays and 2 medium launch bays. To balance all that armament, it'll be rather fragile (for a capital ship!) when the shields go down, making prolonged front-line fighting a very dangerous idea. Oh yeah, and it will be fairly low on ordnance points, promoting either leaving some mounts empty or going for tons of cheaper weapons.
I think you miscounted somewhere
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 13, 2012, 01:16:16 AM
Nope. I added 8 small missile mounts and 2 small launch bays myself, and re-purposed 2 medium missile launchers into medium launch bays. Hence the odd counts. ;)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: medikohl on March 13, 2012, 01:26:31 AM
Nope. I added 8 small missile mounts and 2 small launch bays myself, and re-purposed 2 medium missile launchers into medium launch bays. Hence the odd counts. ;)
very unbalanced, just change a couple of medium mounts to universal and you have your missle capability
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 13, 2012, 01:39:53 AM
I think I'd rather lower the ordnance point count and ramp the price up a good bit, so that it cannot be filled up but does allow a whole bunch of options. Then again, I have no idea if that will actually work in-game so I might just end up going your route later on either way. :P

Another idea might be to put the price up even further, give it some significant debuffs affecting the rest of your fleet (as in very high fuel usage in the overworld, barely any cargo capability, very high crew requirements) and bump it up to the Leviathan class.

For now, I'm focusing on getting all of the custom ships into the game first. Full-on balancing starts after, and I'll be taking a lot of input there once the mod comes out as I doubt I can get all of that right by myself. :)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: arcibalde on March 13, 2012, 01:54:34 AM
...14 small ballistic mounts, 7 medium ballistic mounts, 2 large ballistic mounts...

This is gonna eat your flux supply like hungry Ivaylo  ;D    I have something like that and 40k flux with 2000 flux regen went down really, really fast. So you don't have to worry about OP :) So if you want to use those weapons constantly you will need 50k-70k with 2000-3000 flux regen. Just try it with normal values and see where it's gonna lead you to...

As i see it now, making Juggernaut with bunch of weapons is very veeeery difficult job if you want to make it balanced.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 13, 2012, 02:07:44 AM
Haha, yes. That's what I think will happen too. But just in case it doesn't, I have some other plans to still balance it pretty well. By the way, I just made the Ares a Leviathan officially. Even with a cost of ~300000 credits, it should still be a pretty decent investment. I'll probably set the Ares to only spawn in combat-ready fleets VERY rarely (5% chance for a fleet to spawn with it every x days?), so that capturing it is not really a possibility and you don't get your ass handed by it randomly.

So yeah, thread start update incoming. :P
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: Upgradecap on March 13, 2012, 03:35:07 AM
The ares Looks nice. But it'll be dwarfed by my leviathan. MUHAHAHAHA  ;D
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 13, 2012, 11:58:34 AM
Just kitbashed together my very first ship, using medikohl's worksheets! The Speartip is to be a fast and agile frigate, designed mostly for personnel transport.

(http://ugstunt.com/speartip.png)

Thoughts? :P


EDIT: All ships are done and in-codex right now! There's just one small problem - the Spade isn't showing up for some reason. I'll look into it tomorrow. I also recolored a few ships to fit the overall theme better, by the way. Oh, and the Stinger Bomber looks awesome with that antimatter gun. :)

Things are starting to take shape now! ;D
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: Darloth on March 14, 2012, 09:44:50 AM
Looks good, though I'm a little surprised it has two medium turrets rather than hardpoints.  Of course I can't tell what the arcs are just from the graphic, so if they're fairly narrow it should be fine.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - work in progress - suggestions/ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 14, 2012, 09:51:00 AM
Thanks. They're 60-degree turrets, to allow for a bit more flexibility - I might tone them down to hardpoints later, though, if the design proves a bit too "easy". :)

EDIT: Just added the beast below to the mod, a further-modified version of the Buffalo Broadside from the sprite thread. It's called the Quartz Heavy Tanker.

(http://ugstunt.com/quartz.png)

EDIT #2: All stats are done! Untested, ofcourse, but still - really getting somewhere here! I hope to get a public version (with the test mission but no campaign yet) out Thursday or Friday. So far there's 21 new ships to play with, ranging from the very quick (200 speed!) Spade frigate all the way up to the Ares Leviathan with TONS of missiles on it. ;D
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - nearing first release - ideas very welcome!
Post by: XpanD on March 15, 2012, 12:46:54 PM
Updated the threadstart! The campaign is nearly ready for release (!), as I decided to just skip building of the planned test mission entirely. Everything's working so far, but I'm working out some of the worst kinks first before I release it to the public. Expect the first few releases to be buggy and unbalanced anyways, though - that kind of stuff comes with time, and every bit of advice I get helps towards making the mod more awesome.

Also updated lore, by the way. ;)

EDIT: Gah, Redbull's ship editor seems to be down. Time to do some kitbashing then, I guess. :P

EDIT #2: OH GOD THE PAIN IT BURNS
(http://ugstunt.com/whyilovethisgame.png)

In other news, I've just finished all the standard ship variants that will be in the mod. I will make more at a later date, but for now this will do. Had a bit of a delay due to the ship editor being offline (I had to make some changes manually in the end - gotta love the dev mode variant editor though!), but the mod should still be releasing Saturday if things go right. ;)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: XpanD on March 17, 2012, 09:02:43 AM
Topic updated, first version is out! Pretty full-featured too - a working campaign, an orbital station that automatically gets resupplied, lots of different fleet types and a pretty good (I think) spawning rate. Check the front page for a download.

If you grab it, don't forget to leave some feedback! I'll need the help of as many people as possible to get this mod fully balanced against the core game. ;)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: Darloth on March 18, 2012, 09:47:06 AM
Played it a bit, fought with and against the positron forces in a few cruiser-flagship scale battles.

You're right in that the stats need some balancing - generally, the Positron forces feel a little too good for their price. That might be what you're aiming for if you thought the tri-tach weren't good enough, but I think they're just a shade too good for the cost right now.

That being said - I thought all of the support ships were going to be too tough - for example the Hauler class is pretty heavily armed for a freighter! (it also has a massive 800 cargo which I was unsure about, but I haven't really paid enough attention to cargo capacities to be sure yet)
That wasn't the case though, they went down without any trouble, never really did more than fire a couple of missiles that weren't a big threat, so perhaps I'm wrong about that.  The Onna-Stick (don't like the name but not up to me :) ) seems like it fills a hole in light-freighter, though the 2-deck carrier does seem too small to actually have 2 in my opinion.

Generally I think their shields might need to be a bit less efficient - Positron ships are either fine, or dead, with not much in between, and even my Dronart carrier just absorbed a worrying amount of fire without cracking.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: XpanD on March 18, 2012, 10:52:58 AM
Thanks a lot for the constructive criticism. That all-or-nothing feeling is something I noticed too with my limited play-testing, but how to go about fixing it may be a bit of a problem. Lowering the shield efficiency on some ships sounds like a good idea, but one thing I've noticed before would be that a few ships currently seem a bit too low on flux to maintain their otherwise great shields. I'll have to look into that properly later on, to avoid breaking one ship while fixing another.

The Hauler's carrying capacities come from the fact that the cargo spots on it are essentially 2/5th of those on a Atlas superfreighter. Maybe speed should come down a bit, or the missile mounts should be removed. Or the price should be raised, not sure yet.

Regarding the Onna Stick's name - any suggestions? I can imagine it being a bit immersion breaking indeed (like somebody else mentioned earlier in this topic). I still like it, but that is probably because I haven't done much actual playing yet, just lots and lots of tweaking.

I'll consider fixing the Dronart up a bit, and the Frontier could do with one less deck too. Not sure why I set it to two before, but it's a bit silly in hindsight. :P

If you have any other specific things I could look into, don't hesitate to leave a message! ;)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: medikohl on March 18, 2012, 06:34:05 PM
you should lower the flux capacity of the stinger by about half

nipper wings have too many ships, also too high of hull integrity.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: XpanD on March 19, 2012, 06:31:35 AM
v0.2 is under way! Here's the changelog so far:


I'll update the OP once it comes out, and this post will see updates based on what I do. I'll probably get the biggest balance changes coming in v0.3, but individual tweaks are easy to tackle. Keep the feedback coming! :)

EDIT: Got some issues (lost progress, etc.), next version will take a bit longer to come out. :(
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: Timasaurus 007 on March 22, 2012, 12:49:55 AM
I'll try this out :P
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: mkire on April 10, 2012, 07:38:59 PM
if the stinger was the high-tech brawler like ship, it needs its flux capacity brought back up again. It can't fire the two antimatter blasters at the same time
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: starfigter on April 13, 2012, 11:41:55 PM
Any chance you will update this soon?
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: XpanD on April 14, 2012, 01:26:20 AM
I've quit Starfarer for a bit to focus on other games. When the new update comes out I'll probably bring out another release, though. ;)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: craftomega on April 14, 2012, 08:45:35 AM
ok this is a bit random... but I absolutly adore the Swarmer sprite. I was wondering if i could use it in my mod "Omega's Minimash".

Its just... so awsome!
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: arcibalde on April 14, 2012, 08:47:58 AM
ok this is a bit random... but I absolutly adore the Swarmer sprite. I was wondering if i could use it in my mod "Omega's Minimash".

Its just... so awsome!

LOL Thank you  ;D  And if you like it so much you can have it  :D
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: starfigter on April 14, 2012, 02:33:53 PM
I've quit Starfarer for a bit to focus on other games. When the new update comes out I'll probably bring out another release, though. ;)
Ok, thanks for replying at least.
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 w/ campaign - mod pretty much cancelled
Post by: XpanD on April 20, 2012, 06:32:16 AM
Back to playing for now, but I am strongly considering dropping the mod in favor of another idea I've come up with, which would come along with unique self-bashed sprites and even new weapons. All just an idea for now, and no idea if I'll actually get working on it, but yeah.

Anybody who wants to pick this up or mess with it (or parts of it), you have my permission. Some good descriptions in there, maybe? Just keep those credits intact! ;)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 w/ campaign - mod pretty much cancelled
Post by: starfigter on April 20, 2012, 01:46:33 PM
Back to playing for now, but I am strongly considering dropping the mod in favor of another idea I've come up with, which would come along with unique self-bashed sprites and even new weapons. All just an idea for now, and no idea if I'll actually get working on it, but yeah.

Anybody who wants to pick this up or mess with it (or parts of it), you have my permission. Some good descriptions in there, maybe? Just keep those credits intact! ;)

As long your new idea is as good as this, do wathewer you want!
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 released WITH CAMPAIGN! - feedback pls
Post by: WKOB on April 22, 2012, 12:43:06 AM
ok this is a bit random... but I absolutly adore the Swarmer sprite. I was wondering if i could use it in my mod "Omega's Minimash".

Its just... so awsome!
Nab the spade too, while you're at it. Gotta admit that's a nifty one. :)
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 w/ campaign - mod pretty much cancelled
Post by: 7007King0770 on April 23, 2012, 09:21:46 PM
Back to playing for now, but I am strongly considering dropping the mod in favor of another idea I've come up with, which would come along with unique self-bashed sprites and even new weapons. All just an idea for now, and no idea if I'll actually get working on it, but yeah.

Anybody who wants to pick this up or mess with it (or parts of it), you have my permission. Some good descriptions in there, maybe? Just keep those credits intact! ;)

Awwww. Tis a shame, this was my second favorite mod... Promise us the new mod will be just as awesome?  ;D
Title: Re: The Positron faction mod - v0.1 w/ campaign - mod pretty much cancelled
Post by: XpanD on April 24, 2012, 01:41:40 AM
Back to playing for now, but I am strongly considering dropping the mod in favor of another idea I've come up with, which would come along with unique self-bashed sprites and even new weapons. All just an idea for now, and no idea if I'll actually get working on it, but yeah.

Anybody who wants to pick this up or mess with it (or parts of it), you have my permission. Some good descriptions in there, maybe? Just keep those credits intact! ;)

Awwww. Tis a shame, this was my second favorite mod... Promise us the new mod will be just as awesome?  ;D

I'll try! If it comes out it will probably be a bit smaller, but on the other hand there will be new weapons and the like added into the mix too. I will need to improve my spriting and kitbashing skills a fair bit though (keeping everything original), so we'll see what comes out of that. The theme will be quite different, with much more of a focus on old and even ancient tech and a somewhat religious point of view for the new faction.