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[TheEndstoneGolem]

Hi there,

Prospective modder here.

Let me tell you about the general idea for the faction:

-Non aggressive
-Existed over several epochs (before and after collapse)
-Mixed tech, gradually progressing from low-mid-high overtime. (uses all types of ships in the modern sector because of a need for ships)
-The non aggression will be reflected in the ships if possible (see questions below)
-They are mainly focused around exploration

Here's ideas for the ships:
-Mainly focused on broadside engagements. As a result, they have High speed, High lateral movement, and really crappy turn rates.
-Ok side armour
-Strong shields
-Bad flux capacity (REALLY BAD)
-Bad venting
-Broadside weapons are fixed hard points (0-5 degrees movement)
-Only able to mount HE weapons in certain points??? (Not sure if its possible)

Weapons:
-Focused on close support
-Less HE weapons
-Long reload times

Generally:
-The weapons and ships promote defence and make it difficult for the player to play agressively
-The ships are better in playing defensively
-The ships have high burn speeds which reflect exploration
-This will be implemented really when there is more of a focus around industry etc

Questions:
-Is it possible to lock shields in a side position?
-Is it possible to have shields take higher/lower damage in different places?
-Is it possible to have different armour strengths on different parts of the ship?
-Can you have it so that only certain weapon roles can be mounted in certain spots? (e.g. a close support only slot)

That's it for now, I will add more questions as I think of ideas and stuff etc...

Also, Im pretty new to coding, I mean, I know the game uses Java and I can do basic stuff, like REALLY BASIC.
So I need a good place to go and learn java/other languages that are useful to code in.

If it isnt possible to do the things above I will make them happen once I learn how to xD.

Thanks,

TheEndstoneGolem

[Spoorthuzad]

Regarding those questions: Pretty sure you can't achieve those things. Atleast not without some heavy modding.

Pretty cool idea though. I don't think we have an exploration aimed faction yet.

[Snrasha]

Questions:
-Is it possible to lock shields in a side position? Yes, like front shield, i think and i believe. You have a method force facing for that.
-Is it possible to have shields take higher/lower damage in different places? Like a shield have a resistance damage in mutableshipStatsAPI , this resistance is unique, so, no easy, i think.
-Is it possible to have different armour strengths on different parts of the ship? Same "thing", but you can put a best resistance damage if you use BoundAPI (hitbox of the ship) and work for have a result equals to shield of templars mod. Too hard for me, so i have maybe big mistake, ah ah.

-Can you have it so that only certain weapon roles can be mounted in certain spots? (e.g. a close support only slot)   No. '.'

I need know how work templars shield, but i think, you can maybe for armour strengths, for shield, i think no.

Good luck for your faction.

[Tartiflette]

Questions:
-Is it possible to lock shields in a side position?
-Is it possible to have shields take higher/lower damage in different places?
-Is it possible to have different armour strengths on different parts of the ship?
-Can you have it so that only certain weapon roles can be mounted in certain spots? (e.g. a close support only slot)

- I don't have the API handy, but I'm fairly sure you can. Problem is, the AI won't understand it and it might not have the effect you want.

- Easily, but like the previous one, the AI won't "know" how to use it to it's advantage. Might be okay, or it might not. Depends a lot on the weapon layout to "trick" the AI in the behavior you want.

-Technically that sould be doable: you can have a global high value for the armor and damage some cells at the start of the battle, then and restore them at the end. However it's very involved, and while the AI will be able to understant it, it won't apply to auto-resolve or AI vs AI battles.

-You can easily do that, but you won't be able to make a custom UI to explain it to the player.


  Overal my main concern would be what purpose will that faction fill? What I mean is that those ships doesn't seems be great additions to a player fleet, their main attribute being burn speed at the expense of everything else. But burn speed is a finicky attribute, +1 burn compared to vanilla is a small edge, +2 is overpowered as hell since Capships can then catch slow frigates! So there is not much room to play with that.
  And the player won't have much interest in attacking them if they are pacifists: It's closer to be a civilian independent faction. So while interesting for the universe's flavor, a mod like that is still is an awful lot of work for little return.

  Don't get me wrong, I really like the underlying idea (I'm even making Seeker for similar reasons), but I think you may need to refine their goals and purpose from a campaign gameplay perspective before comiting yourself to the wonderful but exhausting world of modding. Otherwise it could lead to a lot of frustration after a lot of effort...

[TheEndstoneGolem]

Questions:
-Is it possible to lock shields in a side position?
-Is it possible to have shields take higher/lower damage in different places?
-Is it possible to have different armour strengths on different parts of the ship?
-Can you have it so that only certain weapon roles can be mounted in certain spots? (e.g. a close support only slot)

- I don't have the API handy, but I'm fairly sure you can. Problem is, the AI won't understand it and it might not have the effect you want.

- Easily, but like the previous one, the AI won't "know" how to use it to it's advantage. Might be okay, or it might not. Depends a lot on the weapon layout to "trick" the AI in the behavior you want.

-Technically that sould be doable: you can have a global high value for the armor and damage some cells at the start of the battle, then and restore them at the end. However it's very involved, and while the AI will be able to understant it, it won't apply to auto-resolve or AI vs AI battles.

-You can easily do that, but you won't be able to make a custom UI to explain it to the player.


  Overal my main concern would be what purpose will that faction fill? What I mean is that those ships doesn't seems be great additions to a player fleet, their main attribute being burn speed at the expense of everything else. But burn speed is a finicky attribute, +1 burn compared to vanilla is a small edge, +2 is overpowered as hell since Capships can then catch slow frigates! So there is not much room to play with that.
  And the player won't have much interest in attacking them if they are pacifists: It's closer to be a civilian independent faction. So while interesting for the universe's flavor, a mod like that is still is an awful lot of work for little return.

  Don't get me wrong, I really like the underlying idea (I'm even making Seeker for similar reasons), but I think you may need to refine their goals and purpose from a campaign gameplay perspective before comiting yourself to the wonderful but exhausting world of modding. Otherwise it could lead to a lot of frustration after a lot of effort...

-First of all, what is API xD
-Is it possible to create my own AI, specific to the ships?
-And how involved is the java in this, because I can't "java" enough to create a mod, where can I start to learn? (I'm thinking of computer science kinda stuff for uni)

[Tartiflette]

Your first question should answer your last...

But with more details:
- API stands for Application Programming Interface, it's all the bits of code that allows the scripts that make the game to communicate with the underlying game engine and between themselves.

- While possible in theory, you should know that Alex spent more than a full year (maybe even more than two) coding his ship AI and is one of the best game AI I have seen. It is also completely obfuscated so you can't take a look at it. Short answer, it's full-time professional level of coding.

- Making a "basic" mod doesn't require any coding. Doing a few funky effect is doable without any prior java knowledge by looking at other mods' scripts. But if you want to do avanced stuff right off the bat, you should buy a few books then.x

[Lucian Greymark]

Idk if anyone's mentioned this yet but you can (sort of) make side locked shields fairly easily. Just sprite your ship on the side, have the 'front' be the side of the ship with the hardpoints, the left/right side be the rear/front and make the shield front locked. Then you can drive it around (awkwardly) and the ai *should* spin to use the guns to fire because it will treat the 'side' of the ship as the front. It'll just be a bit harder to pilot manually but it should work.

Sort of

A bit.

[Tartiflette]

Idk if anyone's mentioned this yet but you can (sort of) make side locked shields fairly easily. Just sprite your ship on the side, have the 'front' be the side of the ship with the hardpoints, the left/right side be the rear/front and make the shield front locked. Then you can drive it around (awkwardly) and the ai *should* spin to use the guns to fire because it will treat the 'side' of the ship as the front. It'll just be a bit harder to pilot manually but it should work.

Sort of

A bit.

That would just make his ships deploy and fly with the engines on the side.

[Lucian Greymark]

... True.

Put engines on multiple sides maybe? Idk, when I did it with a test ship the ai seemed to know what it was doing but that might have been a fluke

[Gorgonson]

To create side-locked shields, would it be possible to create a variant of the Frontal Shield Emitter hullmod, except with a modified angle?
I can't say how viable that would be to implement, though.