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Messages - Tartiflette

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2746
Suggestions / Re: Making CP more useful - Authorization
« on: June 13, 2015, 09:16:35 AM »
That might be just me but I'm generally not fond of the MMORPG-like "magic" action bar. The one coming for the campaign layer in 0.7 already feels weird to me, I'd rather have something like Nexus where you could manage your power-grid manually, and drain your capacitors for that extra bit of power you needed. If the combat end up the same that would really be a turn off for me.

I understand the idea, but it's just not something that appeal to me, sorry.

On the other hand, I agree that there is a problem with the current CP system: You start with so few you can't do anything but either keep all your ships together, or let the AI run around and get its pixel rear kicked. And later on when you have many, you don't need them so much except to designate the first two or three points to capture and force the carrier to stay back...

2747
Modding / Re: The Radioactive Code Dump
« on: June 11, 2015, 07:39:50 AM »


Scratch that script! I show a much better version in my next post!


Spoiler
Another one that might interest other people:
With Deathfly we managed to create some pretty convincing fake beams that can be spawned from anywhere.
Spoiler


[close]

They impact instantly, deal soft flux, do not mess so much with PD weapons as the invisible missile trick. The core of the idea is still a dummy missile, but this time it's only for manipulating it's beam-like sprite and it's not moving toward the target. The script is the dummy missile's AI, that way it's instantiated and get removed with the beam fading. I added the few files I used in this example for reference.

Code: Java
//Fake beam AI script: stretches a "beam" shaped missile to the nearest intersection with any ship or asteroid and apply damage on impact.
//By Tartiflette and Deathfly
package data.scripts.ai;

import com.fs.starfarer.api.Global;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.CollisionClass;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.CombatAsteroidAPI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.CombatEngineAPI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.CombatEntityAPI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.DamageType;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.GuidedMissileAI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.MissileAIPlugin;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.MissileAPI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.ShieldAPI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.ShipAPI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.WeaponAPI;
import static com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.WeaponAPI.WeaponSize.LARGE;
import static com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.WeaponAPI.WeaponSize.MEDIUM;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.geom.Line2D;
import java.util.List;
import org.lazywizard.lazylib.CollisionUtils;
import org.lazywizard.lazylib.MathUtils;
import org.lazywizard.lazylib.combat.CombatUtils;
import org.lwjgl.util.vector.Vector2f;

public class SCY_fakeBeamAI implements MissileAIPlugin, GuidedMissileAI {
    
    private CombatEngineAPI engine;
    private final MissileAPI missile;
    private CombatEntityAPI target=null;
    private Vector2f start = new Vector2f();
    private boolean runOnce = false;
    private float aim=0, timer=0;
    
    //DATA
    //beam MAX range
    private float range = 500;
    //beam DURATION in seconds
    private final float duration = 0.5f;
    //beam WIDTH in su
    private final float width = 15;
    //beam burst DAMAGE
    private final float defaultDamage = 200;
    //beam damage TYPE
    private final DamageType type = DamageType.HIGH_EXPLOSIVE;
    //beam EMP
    private final float emp = 50;
    //impact SIZE
    private final float size = 50;
    //impact COLOR
    private final Color color = new Color (150,200,255,255);

    //////////////////////
    //  DATA COLLECTING //
    //////////////////////
    
    public SCY_fakeBeamAI(MissileAPI missile, ShipAPI launchingShip) {
        this.missile = missile;
        
        //adjust the range depending on the source weapon size
        WeaponAPI.WeaponSize wSize = missile.getWeapon().getSize();
        if (wSize.equals((WeaponAPI.WeaponSize)LARGE)){
            range = 700f;
        } else {
            if (wSize.equals((WeaponAPI.WeaponSize)MEDIUM)){
                range = 600f;
            } else {
                range = 500f;
            }
        }
    }
    
    //////////////////////
    //   MAIN AI LOOP   //
    //////////////////////
    
    @Override
    public void advance(float amount) {
        
        if (engine != Global.getCombatEngine()) {
            this.engine = Global.getCombatEngine();
        }        
        //cancelling IF
        if (Global.getCombatEngine().isPaused()) {return;}
                
        timer+=amount;
        
        //random delay
        if (Math.random()+timer*5 <= 0.85f){return;} //comment out this line to remove the random delay
            
        //only run once, with a random delay first
        if (!runOnce){          
                        
            start = missile.getLocation();
            aim = missile.getFacing();            
            CombatEntityAPI theTarget= null;
            float damage = defaultDamage;
    
            //default end point
            Vector2f end = MathUtils.getPointOnCircumference(start,range,aim);
            
            //list all nearby entities that could be hit
            List <CombatEntityAPI> entity = CombatUtils.getEntitiesWithinRange(start, range+250);
            if (!entity.isEmpty()){
                for (CombatEntityAPI e : entity){
                                        
                    //ignore phased ships
                    if (e.getCollisionClass() == CollisionClass.NONE){continue;}

                    //damage can be reduced against some modded ships
                    float newDamage = defaultDamage;

                    Vector2f col = new Vector2f();                  
                    //ignore everything but ships...
                    if (
                            e instanceof ShipAPI
                            &&
                            CollisionUtils.getCollides(start, end, e.getLocation(), e.getCollisionRadius())
                            ){
                        //check for a shield impact, then hull and take the closest one                  
                        ShipAPI s = (ShipAPI) e;

                        //can the beam intersect a shield
                        Vector2f cShield = getShieldCollisionPoint(start, end, s);
                        if ( cShield != null ){
                            col = cShield;
                        }  

                        //now check for a direct hit
                        Vector2f cHull = CollisionUtils.getCollisionPoint(start, end, s);
                        if (
                                cHull != null
                                &&
                                MathUtils.getDistance(start, col) > MathUtils.getDistance(start, cHull)
                                ){
                            col = cHull;

                            //check for modded ships with damage reduction
                            if (s.getHullSpec().getBaseHullId().startsWith("exigency_")){
                                newDamage = defaultDamage/2;
                            }
                        }                    
                    } else
                        //...and asteroids!
                           if (
                                   e instanceof CombatAsteroidAPI
                                   &&
                                   CollisionUtils.getCollides(start, end, e.getLocation(), e.getCollisionRadius())
                                   ){                              
                        Vector2f cAst = getCollisionPointOnCircumference(start,end,e.getLocation(),e.getCollisionRadius());
                        if ( cAst != null){
                            col = cAst;
                        }
                    }

                    //if there was an impact and it is closer than the curent beam end point, set it as the new end point and store the target to apply damage later damage
                    if (col != new Vector2f() && MathUtils.getDistance(start, col) < MathUtils.getDistance(start, end)) {
                        end = col;
                        theTarget = e;
                        damage = newDamage;
                    }
                }
            }
            
            //if the beam impacted something, apply the damage
            if (theTarget!=null){
                
                //damage
                engine.applyDamage(
                        theTarget,
                        end,
                        damage,
                        type,
                        emp,
                        false,
                        true,
                        missile.getSource()
                );
                //impact flash
                engine.addHitParticle(
                        end,
                        theTarget.getVelocity(),
                        (float)Math.random()*size/2+size,
                        1,
                        (float)Math.random()*duration/2+duration,
                        color
                );
                engine.addHitParticle(
                        end,
                        theTarget.getVelocity(),
                        (float)Math.random()*size/4+size/2,
                        1,
                        0.1f,
                        Color.WHITE
                );
            }          
            //stretch the "missile" sprite to the impact point, plus a little margin
            float length = MathUtils.getDistance(start, end);
            missile.getSpriteAPI().setHeight(length+10);            
            missile.getSpriteAPI().setAdditiveBlend();
            //never run this again
            runOnce = true;
        }
        
        //check for removal
        if (timer>=duration){
            engine.removeEntity(missile);
            return;
        }
        
        //check if the position and orientation has been changed by other scripts and weapons
        if (missile.getLocation() != start){
            setLocation(missile, start);
        }        
        if (missile.getFacing() != aim){
            missile.setFacing(aim);
        }
        
        //fading
        float fadeColor = Math.max(0,(Math.min(1,(float) Math.cos(timer * Math.PI/(2*duration)))));
        //shrinking
        float fadeWidth = width*fadeColor;
        
        missile.getSpriteAPI().setWidth(fadeWidth);
        missile.getSpriteAPI().setCenterY(fadeWidth/2);
        missile.getSpriteAPI().setColor(new Color(fadeColor,fadeColor,fadeColor,fadeColor));        
    }

    @Override
    public CombatEntityAPI getTarget() {
        return target;
    }

    @Override
    public void setTarget(CombatEntityAPI target) {
        this.target = target;
    }
    
    /////////////////////////////////////////
    //                                     //
    //             SHIELD HIT              //
    //                                     //
    /////////////////////////////////////////
    
    public static Vector2f getShieldCollisionPoint(Vector2f lineStart, Vector2f lineEnd, ShipAPI ship){
        // if target not shielded, return null
        ShieldAPI shield = ship.getShield();
        if (shield == null || shield.isOff()) return null;
        Vector2f circleCenter = shield.getLocation();
        float circleRadius = shield.getRadius();
        // calculate the collision point
        Vector2f tmp = new Vector2f(lineEnd);
        boolean shieldHit = false;
        Vector2f tmp1 = getCollisionPointOnCircumference(lineStart,lineEnd, circleCenter, circleRadius);
        if (tmp1 != null){
            if(shield.isWithinArc(tmp1)) {
            tmp = tmp1;
            shieldHit = true;
            }      
            // just in case...
            // if the hit come outside the shield's arc but did not hit the hull and hit the shield's "edge".
            if (!shield.isWithinArc(tmp1)){
                // find the hit point on shield's "edge"
                Vector2f shieldEdge1 = MathUtils.getPointOnCircumference(circleCenter, circleRadius, MathUtils.clampAngle(shield.getFacing() + shield.getActiveArc()/2));
                Vector2f tmp2 = CollisionUtils.getCollisionPoint(lineStart, tmp, circleCenter, shieldEdge1);
                tmp = tmp2 == null ? tmp: tmp2;
                Vector2f shieldEdge2 = MathUtils.getPointOnCircumference(circleCenter, circleRadius, MathUtils.clampAngle(shield.getFacing() - shield.getActiveArc()/2));
                Vector2f tmp3 = CollisionUtils.getCollisionPoint(lineStart, tmp, circleCenter, shieldEdge2);
                tmp = tmp3 == null ? tmp : tmp3;
                // make sure the line did not hit hull.
                if (CollisionUtils.getCollisionPoint(lineStart, tmp, ship) == null){
                    shieldHit = true;
                }
            }
        }
        return shieldHit? tmp : null;        
    }
    
    /////////////////////////////////////////
    //                                     //
    //       CIRCLE COLLISION POINT        //
    //                                     //
    /////////////////////////////////////////
    
    // return the first intersection point of segment lineStart to lineEnd and circumference.
    // if lineStart is outside the circle and segment can not intersection with the circumference, will return null
    // if lineStart is inside the circle, will return lineStart.
    public static Vector2f getCollisionPointOnCircumference(Vector2f lineStart, Vector2f lineEnd, Vector2f circleCenter, float circleRadius){
        
        Vector2f startToEnd = Vector2f.sub(lineEnd, lineStart, null);
        Vector2f startToCenter = Vector2f.sub(circleCenter, lineStart, null);
        double ptSegDistSq = (float) Line2D.ptSegDistSq(lineStart.x, lineStart.y, lineEnd.x, lineEnd.y, circleCenter.x, circleCenter.y);
        float circleRadiusSq = circleRadius * circleRadius;
        
        // if lineStart is outside the circle and segment can not reach the circumference, return null
        if (ptSegDistSq > circleRadiusSq || (startToCenter.lengthSquared() >= circleRadiusSq && startToCenter.lengthSquared()>startToEnd.lengthSquared())) return null;
        // if lineStart is within the circle, return it directly
        if (startToCenter.lengthSquared() < circleRadiusSq) return lineStart;
        
        // calculate the intersection point.
        startToEnd.normalise(startToEnd);
        double dist = Vector2f.dot(startToCenter, startToEnd) -  Math.sqrt(circleRadiusSq - ptSegDistSq);
        startToEnd.scale((float) dist);
        return Vector2f.add(lineStart, startToEnd, null);
    }
    
    /////////////////////////////////////////
    //                                     //
    //        SET TELEPORT LOCATION        //
    //                                     //
    /////////////////////////////////////////
    
    public void setLocation(CombatEntityAPI entity, Vector2f location) {  
        Vector2f dif = new Vector2f(location);  
        Vector2f.sub(location, entity.getLocation(), dif);  
        Vector2f.add(entity.getLocation(), dif, entity.getLocation());  
    }
}

[edit1] slightly modified the code to make the beams impervious to most scripts except the ones that replace a missile AI (like flares).
[edit2] New shield hit calculation from Deathfly that detect "sideway" hits to shields.
[edit3] Further refinement to avoid missfires: beams now ignore projectiles, most notably flares.
[edit4] More misfire avoidance: the lasers now ignore anything that isn't either a ship or an asteroid. Also corrected an issue while hitting shields from the "back".
[edit5] Should be good now, uploaded the latest files, swapped the missile to FLARE type so that it get ignored by most AI, checked for Exigency ships beam damage reduction and cleaned up the target type detection.
[edit6] Those bugs are getting on my nerves...

[close]

[attachment deleted by admin]

2748
Mods / Re: [0.6.5.1a] The Mayorate v0.8.1 (updated 3/11/14)
« on: June 11, 2015, 06:44:33 AM »
Well, it worked for me this time. Interesting stuff Kazi, I wonder how much will be doable in vanilla once 0.7 gets out though. It certainly gives me hope that Seeker will be possible.

2749
Mods / Re: [0.6.5.1a] The Mayorate v0.8.1 (updated 3/11/14)
« on: June 11, 2015, 03:03:23 AM »
Copyright block for me...

2750
Mods / Re: [0.65.2a] Seeker v0.1 - Prototype (06/06/2015)
« on: June 10, 2015, 12:20:58 AM »
Thanks everyone for your kind words, and for the feedback on the missions that some sent me.
But do not get your hopes up yet. As I said it's at least a two man job and as of now I only received a single proposition to give me a hand, with a lot of reserves since that person is already quite busy...  :-[

It's way to early to call it a failure, but understand that I'm serious when I say I won't do it alone.

2751
Modding Resources / Re: Textures Pack for New Systems
« on: June 09, 2015, 11:14:12 PM »
I won't force you to do it, but a little thanks in your thread with a link to this one would be nice.

2752
Mods / Re: [0.65.2a] Seeker v0.1 - Prototype (06/06/2015)
« on: June 06, 2015, 02:55:07 AM »
06/06/2015
Spoiler





Prototype release: Three missions as an appetizer.


Require LazyWizard's LazyLib
Compatible with LazyWizard's Version Checker.



What's that? Well it's my secret project I've been working on for a looooong time. With the next update focusing on sensors, characters and assignments, I figured it's time to show it a bit. It's goal is to liven up the sector by adding quests (pardon me, "missions") and exploration, featuring many unique ships and more scripted encounters. Some of these missions will be solvable peacefully, other less so. Some may be triggered by a random encounter, other will be given to you. Gameplay-wise, expect more events that can directly be influenced by the player, hidden "empty" systems all over the place that can be explored and consequences for your actions that goes beyond earning or loosing some reputation points. But the meaty part of this mod is the Anomalies and the Artifacts.

Anomalies are a class of objects found in the sector (and for all we know everywhere else) that are artificial constructions of unknown origin and purpose. Some seem to be aware of their surrounding, other are mindlessly doing what they were built to do but they share one thing: they do not seems to do anything constructive. What is sure however, is that there are not two identical Anomalies, and their functioning is completely beyond our knowledge.

Unlike the Anomalies, Artifacts are man-made. The product of ground-breaking Domain technology, sometimes learned from the Anomalies. When the gates closed, pure scientific bases lost their purpose and were abandoned, but some remained operational, or their content did. Since those objects are within the reach of our understanding, studying them often yields significant technological advancement or powerful new material. They also include several relic ships that can be captured for your own as they are.

I won't spoil the discovery of any of these, try the missions to discover the first three.
*Note about the missions: Right now, the Seeker itself isn't doing anything. It's a ship that will have a very important work in the campaign, but since the missions are combat-focused it's pretty much useless.*

In addition, You may encounter several, often unique, ships like these:
Spoiler

Crane-class Composite freighter

   In 193, the Valis system went through a succession of uprisings that left the dominant government quite weakened. Dangerously close to bankruptcy, the planet could no longer afford its oversize military fleet. After securing the borders through a diplomatic agreement with the Hegemony against century long exploitation rights for the rich asteroid fields, the government went on to tackle on rebuilding the infrastructure in ruins. The idea was to fund the reconstruction by selling half the ships of the fleet, and keeping only a quarter of them in active duty to maintain the fragile peace. That sale attracted a lot of propositions from rather shady groups from every nearby stars. Worrying to willingly arm pirates, and not eager to further reinforce the local presence of the Hegemony in the system, the sale was postponed until they could have the insurance these weapons would never be used against them. The obvious solution was to disarm them, but then nobody would buy them. These were warships, even removing the mounts wouldn't create much usable cargo space without a serious refit of the interior space.

   The decision was taken to only sell Eagle class cruisers, redesigned as fast, lightly armored freighters to reduce the cost of the modification. The specification document asked to remove all but one turret, but also add two small drone bays in the space emptied from the frontal armament. The launching doors would also be used to load the cargo with great efficiency. This new class of ships was to place itself as an alternative between Mule and Venture class freighters. Fast as a Mule, but with the Cargo space of a Venture, and a drone system to avoid any damage should the ships encounter pirates.

   Sadly, the redesigning took quite some time, and the first conversions didn't go that well. While the Crane class Composite freighter is now a commercial success, the Valis system had to sink deeper under the Hegemony influence to secure reconstruction funds and avoid a total breakdown of the Planet infrastructure. Now the government is but a puppet of the Hegemony, but the system is renowned for its ship refitting industry and talented engineers in converting existing ship models.


TTC Demeter, Farm ship

   In cycle 182, Tri-Tachyon engineer Mark Stanlor discovered a way to fine tune shields emitters so that they could filter the stars dangerous radiations while letting the light pass through. This could finally allow space culture to become a viable solution for non terraformed worlds by preventing the degeneration of the crops.

   At that time, a bottleneck in Paragon class power-plants production left several unfinished hulls taking space dust in shipyards. Nobody know exactly how he managed to get several execs to support his project, but Mark was allowed to buy one of those for one symbolic credit. He then sold back the fortress shield emitter to finance a general reconversion of this hull into a massive mobile space farm. Using several loopholes in private armed ship legislation, he managed to keep 2 of the large turrets mounts, but the rest was removed to accommodate a vast flight deck for shuttle loading. The large central space was floored, closed by a dome on each side, covered with earth, watered, fertilized and connected to a massive environmental system to keep the conditions perfect for the cultures.

   The domes had their own shield system tuned for filtering radiation, but in case of an attack or an asteroid shower, Mark wanted to be able to deploy a normal combat shield. The problem was, both couldn't be activated at the same time. As close to a sun as the ship was expected to sit, the few seconds of exposition during combat shield raising would suffice to burn the crops to a crisp. To avoid that he managed to create a jump-start system that would allow an the shield to raise almost instantly, at the cost of large flux production.

   The ship was named Demeter and launched in 185 for it's test flight. Thanks to it's on-board genetic labs and the ideal conditions for growth, the first harvest occurred 2 months later. It was a tremendous success, the fruits and vegetables where sold in a mater of hours to the greatest restaurants and chefs for more than 100 times the normal price. That's when Mark revealed his true objective: having proven the viability of the concept, the ship was now for all intents and purpose his! And the sudden surge in wealth of the execs that supported his project raised many suspicions on how he managed to negotiate such a generous contract. Then, instead of selling rights to build other farm ships, he jealously kept his prize and now sell high quality product to the most luxurious establishments in the sector.


BHL Titanic VII, Armored passenger cruise liner

  After the terrible battle in the Coral nebula, the Onslaught class HSS Incorruptible managed to get back to the nearest Hegemony base only to discover the damages received were too great for repair. Most of the ship was salvageable but restoring the two arms housing the TPC's would require to effectively cut them off and attach new one. The overall structure would have been be much weaker and the ship was branded non-combat worthy and destined to recycling. Hearing of this, the Black Hole Line company sent an offer for purchasing the demilitarized hull. The Cruise company was seeking to find a second breath by offering more exiting travels close to the most violent stellar phenomenons. The well known sturdiness of the Onslaughts would allow them to make this plan a reality without endangering the life of their passengers.

   The arms and most of the space formerly occupied with weapon was converted in luxurious dining rooms and cabins, pools and tennis court... while the former cramped crew quarters were kept for the new personnel. Another major modification was the removal of two third of the engines: high speed wasn't a requirement and with all the weight gained by removing the armament the main engine was enough. This operation only possible thanks to the high modularity of the core epoch ships allowed to accommodate more storage area and fuel tanks for longer trips.

   The ship was re-branded BHL Titanic VII by the CEO of Black Hole Line, in spite of the opposition of his counselors: the Titanic VI catastrophe was just fading from the collective memory and many employee saw in this name a bad omen. For her's maiden voyage, she is going to offer her passenger an incredible spot to observe a rogue giant plunge into a white dwarf. The ticket have been all sold the first week.


ISS Blitzkrieg, Heavy blockade runner

    This decommissioned Conquest has been bought back by a small fret enterprise without most of it's weapons. After extensive modifications it as been re-purposed into an armored freighter with limited carrier capacity. Now free from the "dead weight" of heavy weaponry, the venerable engines can finally give all their measure, making this ship the fastest capital sized freighter in the sector. And what it can't outrun, the fighters and medium armament left can take care of. With this single ship as their asset, the small freighter enterprise is now a major player, specialized in blockade running and fret contracts in unstable regions.
[close]







Now that I'm pretty sure I got everyone's attention, here's the bad news:

I can't do all of that alone.

It's as simple as that, I can make ships and weapons sprites, I can code their ship-systems, some AI and crazy visual effects, I dabble a bit in sound effects... But the campaign layer coding is beyond me! And with the amount of work planned, it's at least a two-man job with me and a real coder. Then the more the merrier and someone able to do good sound effects or write a lot of encounter dialogs would be more than welcome in the team, but I'll gladly accept any kind of help. So if anyone is interested in giving a hand, please do post a comment or PM me, and thank you.




CHANGELOG:
Spoiler
Code
V0.1
05/06/2015

Initial prototype release

CONTENT
 - Three missions featuring the ASR Seeker scientific platform, the DCS Lookout Clipper-class Cruiser, the J.W. Gibbs Ubique-class Artifact and the Bone-Breaker Anomaly.
 - Clipper-class Cruiser after restoration
 - Erasmus-class bomber wing
[close]



Thanks to Cycerin that finalized the Teaser's sound and really brought it to the next level.



All the original sprites in this mod are NOT for the taking. The vanilla modified ships however are fine to be kitbashed from.
[close]

2753



Prototype release: Three missions as an appetizer.


What's that? Well it's my secret project I've been working on for a looooong time. With the next update focusing on sensors, characters and assignments, I figured it's time to show it a bit. It's goal is to liven up the sector by adding quests (pardon me, "missions") and exploration, featuring many unique ships and more scripted encounters. Some of these missions will be solvable peacefully, other less so. Some may be triggered by a random encounter, other will be given to you. Gameplay-wise, expect more events that can directly be influenced by the player, hidden "empty" systems all over the place that can be explored and consequences for your actions that goes beyond earning or loosing some reputation points. But the meaty part of this mod is the Anomalies and the Artifacts.

Anomalies are a class of objects found in the sector (and for all we know everywhere else) that are artificial constructions of unknown origin and purpose. Some seem to be aware of their surrounding, other are mindlessly doing what they were built to do but they share one thing: they do not seems to do anything constructive. What is sure however, is that there are not two identical Anomalies, and their functioning is completely beyond our knowledge.

Unlike the Anomalies, Artifacts are man-made. The product of ground-breaking Domain technology, sometimes learned from the Anomalies. When the gates closed, pure scientific bases lost their purpose and were abandoned, but some remained operational, or their content did. Since those objects are within the reach of our understanding, studying them often yields significant technological advancement or powerful new material. They also include several relic ships that can be captured for your own as they are.

I won't spoil the discovery of any of these, try the missions to discover the first three.
*Note about the missions: Right now, the Seeker itself isn't doing anything. It's a ship that will have a very important work in the campaign, but since the missions are combat-focused it's pretty much useless.*


To allow everyone to learn a bit more about Seeker without ruining the surprise, I'm dividing the updates in three kind:
 - The NO SPOILER section will present things that are either related to the Prototype, or well known in-universe.
 - The MINOR SPOILER section will reveal some of the rewards, or some minor elements indirectly related to the quests.
 - The MAJOR SPOILER section will show some of the minor Anomalies and content directly related to the quests.
The Anomalies and the major Artifacts won't be revealed. Please use spoilers too if you wish to talk about the content of the mod.

NO SPOILER

Spoiler

Crane-class Composite freighter

   In 193, the Valis system went through a succession of uprisings that left the dominant government quite weakened. Dangerously close to bankruptcy, the planet could no longer afford its oversize military fleet. After securing the borders through a diplomatic agreement with the Hegemony against century long exploitation rights for the rich asteroid fields, the government went on to tackle on rebuilding the infrastructure in ruins. The idea was to fund the reconstruction by selling half the ships of the fleet, and keeping only a quarter of them in active duty to maintain the fragile peace. That sale attracted a lot of propositions from rather shady groups from every nearby stars. Worrying to willingly arm pirates, and not eager to further reinforce the local presence of the Hegemony in the system, the sale was postponed until they could have the insurance these weapons would never be used against them. The obvious solution was to disarm them, but then nobody would buy them. These were warships, even removing the mounts wouldn't create much usable cargo space without a serious refit of the interior space.

   The decision was taken to only sell Eagle class cruisers, redesigned as fast, lightly armored freighters to reduce the cost of the modification. The specification document asked to remove all but one turret, but also add two small drone bays in the space emptied from the frontal armament. The launching doors would also be used to load the cargo with great efficiency. This new class of ships was to place itself as an alternative between Mule and Venture class freighters. Fast as a Mule, but with the Cargo space of a Venture, and a drone system to avoid any damage should the ships encounter pirates.

   Sadly, the redesigning took quite some time, and the first conversions didn't go that well. While the Crane class Composite freighter is now a commercial success, the Valis system had to sink deeper under the Hegemony influence to secure reconstruction funds and avoid a total breakdown of the Planet infrastructure. Now the government is but a puppet of the Hegemony, but the system is renowned for its ship refitting industry and talented engineers in converting existing ship models.


TTC Demeter, Farm ship

   In cycle 182, Tri-Tachyon engineer Mark Stanlor discovered a way to fine tune shields emitters so that they could filter the stars dangerous radiations while letting the light pass through. This could finally allow space culture to become a viable solution for non terraformed worlds by preventing the degeneration of the crops.

   At that time, a bottleneck in Paragon class power-plants production left several unfinished hulls taking space dust in shipyards. Nobody know exactly how he managed to get several execs to support his project, but Mark was allowed to buy one of those for one symbolic credit. He then sold back the fortress shield emitter to finance a general reconversion of this hull into a massive mobile space farm. Using several loopholes in private armed ship legislation, he managed to keep 2 of the large turrets mounts, but the rest was removed to accommodate a vast flight deck for shuttle loading. The large central space was floored, closed by a dome on each side, covered with earth, watered, fertilized and connected to a massive environmental system to keep the conditions perfect for the cultures.

   The domes had their own shield system tuned for filtering radiation, but in case of an attack or an asteroid shower, Mark wanted to be able to deploy a normal combat shield. The problem was, both couldn't be activated at the same time. As close to a sun as the ship was expected to sit, the few seconds of exposition during combat shield raising would suffice to burn the crops to a crisp. To avoid that he managed to create a jump-start system that would allow an the shield to raise almost instantly, at the cost of large flux production.

   The ship was named Demeter and launched in 185 for it's test flight. Thanks to it's on-board genetic labs and the ideal conditions for growth, the first harvest occurred 2 months later. It was a tremendous success, the fruits and vegetables where sold in a mater of hours to the greatest restaurants and chefs for more than 100 times the normal price. That's when Mark revealed his true objective: having proven the viability of the concept, the ship was now for all intents and purpose his! And the sudden surge in wealth of the execs that supported his project raised many suspicions on how he managed to negotiate such a generous contract. Then, instead of selling rights to build other farm ships, he jealously kept his prize and now sell high quality product to the most luxurious establishments in the sector.


BHL Titanic VII, Armored passenger cruise liner

  After the terrible battle in the Coral nebula, the Onslaught class HSS Incorruptible managed to get back to the nearest Hegemony base only to discover the damages received were too great for repair. Most of the ship was salvageable but restoring the two arms housing the TPC's would require to effectively cut them off and attach new one. The overall structure would have been be much weaker and the ship was branded non-combat worthy and destined to recycling. Hearing of this, the Black Hole Line company sent an offer for purchasing the demilitarized hull. The Cruise company was seeking to find a second breath by offering more exiting travels close to the most violent stellar phenomenons. The well known sturdiness of the Onslaughts would allow them to make this plan a reality without endangering the life of their passengers.

   The arms and most of the space formerly occupied with weapon was converted in luxurious dining rooms and cabins, pools and tennis court... while the former cramped crew quarters were kept for the new personnel. Another major modification was the removal of two third of the engines: high speed wasn't a requirement and with all the weight gained by removing the armament the main engine was enough. This operation only possible thanks to the high modularity of the core epoch ships allowed to accommodate more storage area and fuel tanks for longer trips.

   The ship was re-branded BHL Titanic VII by the CEO of Black Hole Line, in spite of the opposition of his counselors: the Titanic VI catastrophe was just fading from the collective memory and many employee saw in this name a bad omen. For her's maiden voyage, she is going to offer her passenger an incredible spot to observe a rogue giant plunge into a white dwarf. The ticket have been all sold the first week.


ISS Blitzkrieg, Heavy blockade runner

    This decommissioned Conquest has been bought back by a small fret enterprise without most of it's weapons. After extensive modifications it as been re-purposed into an armored freighter with limited carrier capacity. Now free from the "dead weight" of heavy weaponry, the venerable engines can finally give all their measure, making this ship the fastest capital sized freighter in the sector. And what it can't outrun, the fighters and medium armament left can take care of. With this single ship as their asset, the small freighter enterprise is now a major player, specialized in blockade running and fret contracts in unstable regions.
[close]
Spoiler
Those ships in-game:
[close]
Spoiler
Here's the ASSA Station that will act as the hub for the missions, and maybe some other fancy stuff to justify it's existence. I know it's flat, but it is for a reason so don't worry about that yet.
[close]
Spoiler
Nothing flashy, it's a Target Painter weapon. It can't do much by itself but raise a bit the damage received by the target from other nearby weapons, and double the chances of disabling it's weapons and engines... Although it's main role is actually to help the AI find a better range of engagement, since missile-only ships tend to hug their target and suffer from their explosions.
[close]
Spoiler
I'm writing texts for test missions that try to evoke the context of the quest. It won't make it into the final mod, at least not in that form, but it should give a good feeling of the spirit of Seeker.

Location: Thick nebula near the Great Trenches
Captain's Log, 208.173
 
After a couple of weeks combing the region we finally detected an object yesterday morning. We barely had time to regroup the fleet when it vanished in a flash of high energy particles. The science team is unsure of what it is but that flash rules out the possibility of a ghost signal. However they are assuring me that this cannot be the sister Anomaly of the Bellatrix. The flash may have reached the same energy peak but it's characteristics are nothing alike. In any case we fond something and just need to resume scanning the region to find out where it went.
 
Captain's Log, 208.217
 
What a PAIN it was! Okay so: We spent nearly a month carefully going back and forth a light-week wide cube of space trying to find where the Anomaly jumped without luck. Then we decided to inspect the nearby stars to see if we could find it there. We were observing our 18th one when we detected the exit flash of the anomaly around the companion star a light-month and a half away! A freaking seventeen light-years jump! The energy required for that distance is unfathomable! The team said if it's efficiency is similar to Bellatrix' functioning, it would have required the total energy output of Askonia's star during a full year to power that feat... I'm very worried about trying to capture something that could contain that much energy.
 
Captain's Log, 208.221
 
We found it probably recharging it's energy banks, whatever they are, in close orbit of the companion star. It's way bigger than Bellatrix, and decided to call it Betelgeuse. Now after some careful observation and deliberation, the Science team assure me that it must be more or less out of energy. (Something to do with quark capacitors, exploiting micro-sized fusion reactions, and the maximum amount of energy that can be stored in such volume and mass) Thus it's up to me to decide if we should get it or not. My officers are a divided on the proceeding, but mostly in favor to at least peek a closer look and I can't blame them. That expedition lasted much longer than we anticipated and the crew is restless. Going back empty handed wouldn't be good for morale. Not to mention our finances. We will probably try to reach it on a slow Hohmann transfer while limiting our sensor profile.
 
Captain's Log, 208.234
 
THAT BLOODY THING JUMPED AGAIN!!!!
 
Captain's Log, 208.236
 
... Fortunately it was a shorter jump and we detected the exit flash only a few hours later. That clearly supports the Team's hypothesis that it is out of energy and was recharging. We are now closing in at full speed to get to it before it can jump again. The crew is really nervous now, several fights broke in the last weeks and I had to sentence a few to the brig. The imminent encounters seems to have diverted their energy toward their duties but I'll make sure to remind them we want to capture that thing, if possible...

[close]

MINOR SPOILER

Spoiler
Added the Owl-class SpecOps cruiser. A fast modification of an Eagle-class hull, armed with four medium ballistic hard-points and five small energy turrets (all in hidden mounts). It also has a "Switch mode" ship-system that halve the top speed but deploy two drones armed with Graviton Beams and raise sharply it's maneuverability. This ship will be a reward for one of the quests.

[close]
Spoiler
Now this one I'll let you speculate on it's purpose and role in the mod  ::)

[close]

MAJOR SPOILER

Spoiler

DSS Wolverine, Guardian-class Dreadnought

   While the Onslaught class battleships were designed to be the Fist of the Domain's might, the Guardian-class dreadnoughts were designed to be it's gate-keepers. Quite literally in fact since those gargantuan ships were only deployed to guard strategic hyperspace gates. With all their firepower concentrated in a small frontal cone, they were meant to cork any invasion attempt by raining shells on anything that emerged from the gates. And to avoid any interruption in their strike, they were equipped with an active flux dissipation system. By purging their cooling fluid, they could dramatically increase their dissipation rate for a short duration, reducing flux buildup. Unlike normal venting systems that can take a while at emptying the flux capacitors, that one had a fixed limited time. However any ship caught in the cloud of vapors would see it's own flux capacitors filled. Since the Guardians were supposed to hold their position alone, it wasn't considered an issue.

   Unlike it's smaller cousin, the Guardian blueprints were never updated when shields and missiles became more common. At first because the technology couldn't allow a radius large enough, and then because the production of those colossus ceased due to the availability of better, cheaper designs. Since with an up-to-date load-out they were still able to fill their role, the few existing ones were maintained in active service for centuries.

   When the gates shut, only one Guardian was present in Corvus. It wasn't even meant to: an engine failure during a transit left it stranded in the young sector, without a dry-dock large enough to fit in for repairs. It was waiting for the Domain to send special tugs for weeks when the Collapse occurred. Then the war broke out, and this huge unmovable slab of metal was abandoned, looted and forgotten.


And yes, triple Hellbores!

(for those of you curious, a Firecane is the hypothetical result of a lightning storm in a hurricane that is passing over an oil spill...)
[close]
Spoiler
I can't reveal anything about it without ruining the mission completely but I suppose you don't need me to understand that this thing is dangerous.(click to enlarge)
[close]


Work In Progress:
While the campaign stuff is pretty much waiting Starsector's 0.7 update to start, the work on the Anomalies and Artifacts themselves is progressing satisfyingly. That is, almost 3/4 of them are done and implemented in the game as missions. Of course the Campaign stuff is the lion's share of the work, but worst case scenario you can at least expect a release with random anomalies flying around like the super bounties in the Starsector Plus mod. Hopefully that won't be the case and the API released by Alex is promising to say the least.


CHANGELOG:
Spoiler
Code
V0.1
05/06/2015

Initial prototype release

CONTENT
 - Three missions featuring the ASR Seeker scientific platform, the DCS Lookout Clipper-class Cruiser, the J.W. Gibbs Ubique-class Artifact and the Bone-Breaker Anomaly.
 - Clipper-class Cruiser after restoration
 - Erasmus-class bomber wing
[close]



Thanks to Cycerin that finalized the Teaser's sound and really brought it to the next level.



All the original sprites in this mod are NOT for the taking. The vanilla modified ships however are fine to be kitbashed from.

2754
Suggestions / Re: I have a suggestion...
« on: June 05, 2015, 10:40:09 AM »
Read the title,
Frowned,
Came to see expecting yet another "You should totally make a Kickstarter" or "I think Multiplayer would be great",
Read,
Smirked...

2755
Suggestions / Re: At last! What to do about ship capturing/boarding.
« on: June 02, 2015, 03:46:01 PM »
While adding more player agency in boarding would be really nice, what I'd really like to see is salvaging. Unlike boarding it would consist in towing a disabled hulk of your choosing (between a few "salvageable" ships) with tugs to the nearest star-port equipped with a drydock (a new economy building). There you could restore it. In addition, having a construction rig in the fleet could allow to repair some of the engines giving the hull a burn of one instead of 0, leaving you the choice to use either tugs or rigs or both. The hull complete repair would cost the same or even a bit more than buying a new ship, but it could allows the player to build a decent fleet without having to farm reputation with every factions and then visit all the markets hopping to find the right ship. And given that towing would be slow, it would be quite dangerous to do so in an hostile system but very rewarding (especially with the sensor update coming).
So more player control over witch ship get salvaged, more use for the tugs and rigs, and more reasons to wage war upon non pirates factions!

Next to that the current boarding stay mostly as it is, but like Gothars suggested only for surrendered ships. Those could be in a much better state, but you may have to overcome some defenses.

On the other hand I'm not into the idea of in-combat boarding as it could be confusing and easily exploitable (see Homeworld's ion frigates armada).

2756
Mods / Re: [0.65.2a] Nexerelin v0.3.8b (hotfix 2015-05-12)
« on: June 01, 2015, 11:03:27 PM »
Well he did made a list of the compatible ones in his OP.

2757
Mods / Re: [0.65.2a] Scy V0.93c Hidden mount fix (01/06/2015)
« on: May 31, 2015, 11:28:09 PM »

A quick patch to fix the hidden mount crash with the miniguns weapons.

2758
Damned, I thought I prevented Miniguns from crashing when mounted in hidden mounts, seems I failed. Can you try to use this version of the jar? If everything's working again I will upload a full version tomorrow.

[attachment deleted by admin]

2759
Modding / Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« on: May 29, 2015, 09:00:27 AM »

Captain's Log, 207.198
"We are finally flying! Took us nearly three months to bring enough systems online and escape that hell-hole of a moon, but I can tell it will be worth it! Of course half the crew disagree, they think the ship will break apart when we will try to reach hyperspace. I know they are wrong: the hull may have been chewed away by the acid rains but the super-structure is intact. Heck, I didn't spent 30 days in a freaking NBC suit inspecting that hulk top from bottom before committing to salvage it for nothing! I don't know where this "DCS Lookout" comes from but she's a beauty! How comes someone abandoned her to rot? Okay the reactor was dry but still... Anyway, I can't wait to bring her to a dry-dock and restore her to her former glory."

2760
Blog Posts / Re: Terrain
« on: May 29, 2015, 12:03:45 AM »
Speaking of minor graphical upgrade, the small particles that help with movement awareness do not scale with the zoom... I find it a bit disturbing when alternating quickly close ups and wide views.

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