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Author Topic: [0.96a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla - v1.2.4 Balancing  (Read 348613 times)

MajorTheRed

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[0.96a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla - v1.2.4 Balancing
« on: October 23, 2017, 03:36:08 PM »

Hello guys,

This mod is based on personal needs for specific ships to fill in gaps I experienced when playing Starsector. Initially it was a personal project, but since I receive much precious help on the forum, I figure it would be nice to publish it.

The theme:
Starsector has some inspiration in Battletech universe, which is a dystopic sci fi setting where there is plenty of technology but nobody understand it or is able to emulate it. This inspired me as I was thinking that there was lacks of ships filling several role in faction. I was also inspired by the many blog posts about the history of the sector.
I wanted to create ships based on needs of each faction, but which are limited by their actual ability to design new ships. This means that most of them don't have fancy ship system or they have a specific role and are not always able to cop with vanilla ships.

Recap
•   41 new ships
•   5 skins
•   18 new weapons
•   3 new stellar systems with 7 new markets
•   Luddic faction expanded

Aim of the mod
•   Add several ships for more variety in specific role currently lacking in vanilla (scout, science vessel, high tech light carrier…)
•   Give more flavor to Persean League and Luddic Church fleets by adding ships specific to these factions.
•   Balance number of ships designs according to tech level (i.e. more low tech frigate and mid tech capital), as well as some new weapons
•   Forgotten weapons and ships found in lost space or sometime used by salvage company

Disclaimer
•   I never done spriting before, some of the ships are kitbashed and other are build from scratch. While I understand there is always room for improvement, my interests ar shifting after more than 4 years of modding and more of playing Starsector
•   I did the best to balance ships with vanilla, but if someone think a ship should be nerfed or bousted, he is more than welcome.
•   English is not my first language, I did my best but there will probably (certainly…) remains typos in texts. Many thanks to all the forum users who provided help at some point to correct descriptions in this mod.
•   Many ships have a similar role to ones you can found in Disassemble Reassemble mod by AxleMC131 (most notably the Revenant and the Hoplite). It was not intended, as I’ve already draw prototype of ships before knowing this mod. In fact I suspect that AxleMC131 created his mod with the same premise than me : filling in gap in available ships in vanilla. I suggest playing this mod with Disassemble – Assemble as they both share similar aims : news ships to fill in vanilla gaps.

Acknowledgment :
•   To AxleMC131, for giving advice for spriting and giving motivations by its mod DisassembleReassemble (that you should try!)
•   To King Alfonzo, for giving a nice tuto on « greebling »
•   To Sarissofoi, for refusing to play anything without a description
•   To DiM, Plantissue and BladedQueen for screening every descriptions for spelling and syntax errors
•   To Sundog, for pointing the way and giving courage to dive in the realm of Java compilation


Ships

Low-tech
Spoiler

Asp:
Last-resort bomber


Maringuin:
Kinetic support bomber


Pyrphoros :
Pirate frigate


Huntsman :
Luddic Church and Hegemony Support gunship (upgraded sprite)


Ballista :
Missile Destoyer


Wardlaw:
Q-Ship


Cossack:
Escort carrier


Adjudicator:
Hegemony and Luddic Church Patrol/escort cruiser


Opportunity :
Pirate (and shadowy neutral) converted heavy cruiser


Starblazer :
Converted carrier
[close]

Luddic Church
Spoiler

Fulk:
Knights of Ludd defense frigate (upgraded sprite)
         

Templar :
Knights of Ludd missile destroyer   


Bogomil:
Knights of Ludd artillery destroyer   


Hammerhead (CGR)
Knights of Ludd destroyer   


Era (LC)
Converted carrier


Cathar :
Knights of Ludd heavy cruiser
[close]

Middle-tech
Spoiler

Ethon :
Interceptor

   
Velite:
Mass produced PL frigate (and pirate version)


Herder:
Light carrier


Nitassinan:
Patrol destroyer (converted tug)

   
Wagner :
Neutral line (or light) cruiser and pirate version

   
Charon:
Dropship and pirate carrier


Trajan:
Midline battlecarrier
[close]

High-tech
Spoiler

Rosatom:
Combat auxiliary frigate


Pyrrhocorax :
Try-Tachyon support destroyer/light carrier


Minos :
High-tech defence destroyer

   
Formica :
Assault drone carrier and its suspicious-looking wings


Apex:
Combat carrier
[close]

Civilian
Spoiler

Dove :
Courrier and scout


Traverse :
Civilian freighter


Chondrite:
Tri-Tachyon freighter

   
Copernic :
Science vessel (support ship) and Hegemony auxiliary vessel

   
Foundation :
Salvage cruiser and its helping hands


Era :
Factory ship


Babel :
Mobile dock

[close]

New weapons
Spoiler

Makeshift weapons


Common archeotech weapons
[close]


Log

Spoiler
v1.2.4
-various re-balancing of weapons and ships according to 0.96a
-adjustment ships availability by faction
-added Capital ship availability for continuity
 
v1.2.3
-Added Rugged Construction built-in mod to Porphyros
-Validated spawning of various ships
-(Re)Added the Babel
-Apex renamed to Auspicious
-Tantive has been removed
-Automated ships should now be salvageable with proper skill
-Mining values for Nexelerin

v1.2.2
-Added the Charon (P) carrier
-Added the Formica drone carrier and Bentu drone fighter
-Added Maringuin kinetic bomber
-Added Rosatom auxiliary frigate
-Replaced Fundation sprite (roughly the same ships) and added Filum drones
-Replaced Huntsman sprite
-Replaced Traverse sprite
-Removed Merx and Salvage Corvette
-Asp got an increase in speed
-Bogomil trade Heavy ballistic integration for Range Finder and extra OP
-Apex trade Thermal Pulse Cannon for large energy mount
-Ballista got Civilian and Rugged construction hullmods
-Tantive gain Advanced ground support hullmod
-Dragoon gain Damper field system
-Added crew capacity to Copernic
-Fixed descriptions of some ships and weapons
-Fixed som game stats for David SRM, Charged laser, Aton laser, Mosychlos
-Opportunity got the flak cannister system   
-Herder got cargo aligned on Drover
-Changed industry for Lepia, removed Commerce
-Checked various spawning problems of HT and LC ships

v1.2
-Retrofit of several features (version checker and java compilation removed)
-Fixed many typos thanks to forum members Plantissue and BladedQueen
-Balance changes for the Herder, Trajan, Charon, Foundation.
-Many ships have changed names to be compliant with names used by other mods.
-Merx and salvage corvette removed
-Added/changed a few variants for the civilian ships.

v1.0
-Compatible with Version checker
-1 New weapons (Swarm medium mount)
-3 New ships (dropship, midline destroyer, salvage corvette)
-Background images for Bythinia and abandoned platform in Utic
-Remove cluster launcher
-Tweak a few details about the Zenith, Era, Contemptor and Matsar
-Luddic Church starting option a bit more relevant

v0.78
-New sprite for the Opportuniy
-Foundation gets 2 built-in borer drone wings
-Starblazer gain back the Reserve Deployement system
-New TT Corvette
-New LC carrier
-New Large Kinetic LRM
-New Large Energy Archeotech
-New Cluster missile launcher

v0.77
-New sprite for the Ballista
-Prices changed to fit with 0.91
-Little twists to mining beam array and heavy ming beam
-Impaler and Bardot are remove from the mod
-Fix error in .faction files preventing several ships to spawn.
-Thanks to DiM, most of ships descriptions have been check for english spelling and wording

v0.76
-New ship: Era factory ship
-New wing: Ethon interceptor
-Copernic get Survey and Solar shielding as default mod
-Impaler and Dove slightly modified.

v0.75
-New ship: Wardlaw Q-Ship
-Medium David launcher
-New Large Missile
-Many rare blueprints now inside blueprint package
-Twits on many weapons
-Minos re-imagined

v0.74
-New ship: Impaler fast destroyer
-2 new secrets
-Removed Carcajou frigate
-Tried to fix all variant and spawning problems related with .faction files
-Adjusted probability of variants for most ships

v0.73
-New sprite for the Copernic
-New ship: Barbot exploration ship (based on the Mule)
-2 new mining-based weapons
-Some modification on the Wagner, the Starblazer

v0.72
-Balance changes for Opportunity cruiser
-2 New weapons
-Mysteries (small ones)
-One new wing
-2 new ships

v0.71
-Updated version for 0.9a
-Minos destroyer slightly modified
-Twisted some characteristics of some ships and weapons for balance purpose

v0.61
-Added the Starblazer carrier
-Added a medium ballistic and a small missile weapon
-Added description to all weapons and ships
-Added several variants for vanilla ships
-Variants and factions files cleaned up
-Fix errors in price and descriptions
-Balanced cargo values for small freighters and OP for Arbitrator

v0.6
-Added the Pyrphoros and the Minos
-New stellar system
-Fixed some minor things on the Wagner and Ballista
-Fixed prices for ships
-Updated lore for several ships and missions
-Fixed several orbits in Utic and Byzas systems

v0.4
-Resolved several errors on Ballista, Hoplite (P) and Tantive
-Added the Triumph and the Cathar
-Huntsman gets the Fire control ship system
-3 Missions
-2 new solar systems

v0.31
-Added Pirate Wagner
-Upgraded sprites for Copernic, Martyr and Huntsman
-Add Ballista (destroyer)
-Added codex entry for 9 ships and all weapons
-Added Lopot cruise-missile

v0.3
-Added Herder (ligh carrier), Wagner (cruiser) and Chondrite (freighter)
-Added 3 weapons
-Changed some error on ship files

v0.2
-Changed conflicting class-names
-Added Dove (scout vessel) and Carcajou (sister class of the Scarab)
-Added skin for Hoplite, Opportunity and Carcajou
-Upgraded sprites for Copernic, Hoplite.
[close]

« Last Edit: June 06, 2023, 03:04:41 PM by MajorTheRed »
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lechibang

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2017, 10:46:36 PM »

Cool, looking forward for new content from you. In addition, I'm currently doing my own ship pack for starsector here: https://bitbucket.org/lechibang/spiral-arms-ship-pack using sprites taken from the sprite dump thread, but it's not currently getting anywhere just yet. :'(
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AxleMC131

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2017, 12:25:37 AM »

Looks like you're off to a decent start Major!  ;) And you are right, DaRa aims (just like SWP) to fill in certain niche roles that the stock game seems to be lacking ships for, as well as adding some unique content that perhaps other players or modders had never considered before.



Now, do bear in mind that I have not played or even downloaded your mod yet, but I thought I'd give some immediate feedback, as useful resources per se.

First and foremost, if you aren't already on it, don't forget that Starsector has an "unofficial" Discord channel were a large portion of the community gather to discuss the game, including basically all of the big modders. It's a great place to discuss ideas, hear direct feedback and also learn techniques and skills for modding in general.
(Relevant link: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11488.0 )

Second, I notice that a few of your ships share class names with ships from other mods. This is generally bad practise, and can often cause confusion for players and sometimes - worst case scenario - game crashes, when two mods are using the same file names for two different ships. To avoid this, there's a helpful database of ship, weapon, faction, hullmod, system, etc. names used in most mods. If you come up with a name for a ship, it's always a good idea to check there first and make sure it's not already used.
(Relevant link: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=9550.0 )

Anyway, that's all I can say from my current standpoint. Spriting is extremely hard and you're very much a beginner, so I'm not going to judge any of your ship sprites here, but if you are looking for help in that regard, again do come to the Discord channel and ask for assistance. Basically everyone there will be willing to provide assistance - including yours truly if you happen to be in the right timezone, hehe!  8)
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MajorTheRed

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2017, 08:16:28 AM »

Quote
In addition, I'm currently doing my own ship pack for starsector here: https://bitbucket.org/lechibang/spiral-arms-ship-pack using sprites taken from the sprite dump thread, but it's not currently getting anywhere just yet. Cry

Seriously, you should give it a try. Assembling the mod is not the hardest part, and it's probably one the funniest. In my case, after playing with AxleMC131 mod, it gives me encouragment to create mine. So I took its mod folder, and start removing files and folders I knew I would not need at the beginning (sounds, weapons....). Alex did a great job at making the game easy moddable. Most files are alterable with notepad, others are .csv and pretty self explainatory. Ship files and variants are easy to create with Trylobot shipyard software. Even the error log are ok to read.
(all that I said is when talking about just adding ships to the game. This is another reallity if you want to start creating new worlds, shipsystem, crasy graphic effects....)

Quote
First and foremost, if you aren't already on it, don't forget that Starsector has an "unofficial" Discord channel were a large portion of the community gather to discuss the game, including basically all of the big modders. It's a great place to discuss ideas, hear direct feedback and also learn techniques and skills for modding in general.
(Relevant link: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11488.0 )

...

Anyway, that's all I can say from my current standpoint. Spriting is extremely hard and you're very much a beginner, so I'm not going to judge any of your ship sprites here, but if you are looking for help in that regard, again do come to the Discord channel and ask for assistance. Basically everyone there will be willing to provide assistance - including yours truly if you happen to be in the right timezone, hehe!  Cool

Yeah, I'm starting to consider to join it. But, writing in english is something, speaking in a microphone and understanding other peolple is another thing. For the sprite, it even amaze me that I was able to try it and even publishing it. Still many things to learn, kitbashing is a little bit easier to do but not entirely satisfying....

Quote
Second, I notice that a few of your ships share class names with ships from other mods. This is generally bad practise, and can often cause confusion for players and sometimes - worst case scenario - game crashes, when two mods are using the same file names for two different ships. To avoid this, there's a helpful database of ship, weapon, faction, hullmod, system, etc. names used in most mods. If you come up with a name for a ship, it's always a good idea to check there first and make sure it's not already used.
(Relevant link: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=9550.0 )

Ha! This was something I was espected to come across! Honestly I was pretty sure it would happen, but I didn't care at the moment because :1) I'm not expecting this mod becoming a top 1, 2) I didn't want to look for names of ships for every existing mod. I wasn't aware of this compilation file. Will do the necessary changes. Thanks!

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AxleMC131

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2017, 10:31:18 PM »


Yeah, I'm starting to consider to join it. But, writing in english is something, speaking in a microphone and understanding other peolple is another thing.


Oh, no one uses voice chat!  :P All the discussion takes place in the text chat.
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Dudok22

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2017, 11:28:57 AM »

I really like the look of Revenant! I'll add this to my current modded campaign to try it out.
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Schwartz

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2017, 12:14:11 PM »

Those frigates and the Revenant look awesome. Nice job.
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gruberscomplete

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2017, 05:04:20 PM »

Really like the original art-style of the Copernic and Bulwark. The opportunity looks like it would be interesting to blow up.
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MajorTheRed

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2017, 03:25:13 PM »

New version available

http://www.mediafire.com/file/i7mb2mo5lbzmcsk/Stop_Gap_Measure_v0.2.rar


Most notably I added 2 new ships, 3 skins, and upgraded 2 sprites, while changing names for several ships.

Also, it would be really nice if someone tried it and have thoughts on balance.
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MajorTheRed

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2017, 01:54:04 PM »

Version V0.3 available :

https://www.mediafire.com/file/xh8gcit7wps40ca/Stop%20Gap%20Measure%20v0.3.rar

Include 3 new ships :
-High-tech quick freighter
-Mid-tech line cruiser based on the Valkyrie
-Mid-tech light carrier identical to the Drover game-wise

 3 new weapons:
-Small mid-range energy plasma gun. A salvo light pulse laser with poor accuracy
-Small mid-range flak shotgun. Fire 6 slug with a slow rate of fire.
-Small mid/long range HE gun. Slow and poorly efficient but accurate with EMP effect
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lechibang

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #10 on: November 26, 2017, 01:30:01 AM »

You should PM a moderator and ask him to move this topic to the mods section.
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Morbo513

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #11 on: November 26, 2017, 06:27:33 AM »

These look great!
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MajorTheRed

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #12 on: November 28, 2017, 08:01:45 AM »

Quote
You should PM a moderator and ask him to move this topic to the mods section.

Yes you're probably right... I will wait for the next batch of stuff to be implemented (in maybe 2 or 3 days). I still have some problems wit a new weapon I made.
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MajorTheRed

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #13 on: November 30, 2017, 05:54:27 AM »

New version! (0.31)

This one is more about fixing thing (mostly sprites) and adding lore for existing stuff.

I got a little bit distracted by doing other ships. The Ballista missile destroyer was not on my to-do list by was a great fun to kitbash from the Prometheus.

I also try (and failed) to do some kind of ion torpedo with AoE, but in the end it turns out as a mid-long-range cruise missile :


this is going to end badly for the Hammerhead

For now its a medium mount, 3 missiles package, energy dmg and high emp value. Speed of a harpoon but manoeuvrability of a Pilum. Dont use it against frigates.

As always, C&C are welcome.
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MajorTheRed

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Re: [0.8.1a] Stop Gap Measure - Ships for Vanilla
« Reply #14 on: December 15, 2017, 07:23:22 PM »

Another update !

Here is v0.32 :
http://www.mediafire.com/file/juwwbpp1zjpeag2/Stop%20Gap%20Measure%20v0.32.rar

-Include 2 new ships and a skin for a Luddic Hammerhead
-New samll mount for the Lotop Ion LRM
-Hull mod for Luddic ships which upgrade hull, lower supply consomption but lower speed.
-The Wagner get a new ship system, a Fire COntrol which increase its range by 20% for a short period.
-5 new ship descriptions

Thanks to mendoca for moving the thread.

Next upgrade, I want to try creating 2 new systems to increase available military market for Tri-Tachyion, Luddic Church and Neutral.
I also want to include 3 missions to allow people to discover the new ships.
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