Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 8

Author Topic: [0.65.2a] EVE Mod  (Read 83709 times)

celestis

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 285
    • View Profile
[0.65.2a] EVE Mod
« on: May 26, 2014, 11:08:35 AM »

Hello All!
Here I present the EVE Online mod for Starsector. A lot of improvements have been made since the first version, making the mod much more solid.
The mod is a total conversion, so don't look for vanilla stuff and don't try to integrate with other mods.

Working with v0.65.2a (RC2)
Current build: 6 (2.3) (22 February 2015).
Requires LazyLib
Download

What does the mod have in its current state:
  • More than 100 original EVE Online ships: frigates, destroyers, cruisers, battlecruisers, battleships, carriers, dreadnoughts. More to come
  • Bunch of weapons: autocannons, artillery, blasters, railguns, missiles, pulse and beam lasers
  • Campaign integration. Campaign has 8 star systems
  • Factions: Caldari, Gallente, Amarr, Minmatar, Angel Cartel, Servant Sisters of Eve, Sansha's Nation, Blood Raiders, Guristas Pirates, Mordu's Legion, Rogue Drones. Plus pirates and independent
  • 15 missions

Campaign map:
Spoiler
[close]

Talking about ships, systems, hullmods and weapons, I tried to make the game correlated with EVE universe as much as possible. This means, that you can generally apply the EVE rules here: blasters for short range and high damage, Amarr having bonuses for lasers, Gallente focusing on drone swarms, Heron quite useless in rough combat, etc.

Ship hull types:
Spoiler
  • Fighters [Fighter size]: nuff said - ships coming out of the carrier deck. Note, that in this mod fighters are EXPENSIVE and almost useless without a carrier support. But a single fighter is just a bit less powerful than a frigate.
  • Frigates [Frigate size]: often even smaller than vanilla frigates, these tiny ships have incredible speed and mostly close-range weapons. Hit and run. Stealth bombers also belond to frigate size.
  • Destroyers [Destroyer size]: being much bigger than a frigate, they are easier to hit, and lack defence capabilities. Though, they carry tons of light weapons, making them specialized frigate-killers.
  • Cruisers [Destroyer size]: the main strike force of a small fleet. There are plenty of them around, so these ships are very versatile. Make them super-tanked of fast enough to catch a frigate.
  • Battlecruisers [Cruiser size]: more powerful and protected version of cruisers. And slower too. Biggest their problem is low vent rate, so watch the flux level. These are mostly useful in large fleets.
  • Battleships [Cruiser size]: these beasts usually carry stockpiles of heavy weapons and have excellent armour and shields, but they lack light armament and are an easy prey for a couple of frigates, which are fast enough to evade battleship main caliber.
  • Carriers [Cruiser/Capital size]: the same as in vanilla - a support base for fighters, having tons of hitpoints. In EVE there are no light carriers, so expect these ships to be quite an end-game stuff - they are the most expensive vessels in current version of the mod. Later, logistics capabilities will be added.
  • Dreadnoughts[Capital size]: currently the only capital combat ships. These are true behemonts of the battlefield with powerful "siege mode" system, allowing to fire at incredible distances with powered-up weapons. But they are almost useless without escort: swarm of small ships will easily deal with them.
[close]

Ships:
Spoiler
Full size
[close]

Special systems/weapons:
  • Target painter[beam weapon]: increases damage done to a hit ship. Less effect on big targets.
  • Jammer[system]: disables some weapons on enemy ships nearby for a few seconds. Number of affected targets ranges from 1 (frigates) to 2 (cruisers and battleships).
  • Stasis webifier[system]: greatly reduces speed and turn rate of enemy ship for some time. This system changes the gameplay A LOT, because with the web even slow clumsy ships are able to catch agile opponents, so don't rely on your speed too much.
  • Energy Vampire[system]: drains energy from nearby ships, adding flux to enemies and releasing some flux of host ship.
  • Remote repairer[beam weapon]: this weapon targets allies and slowly regenerates their hull hitpoints. It can not be found on market, but it is a built in weapon on carriers, support cruisers and some other dedicated ships.
  • Energy transporter[beam weapon]: this weapon targets allies and slowly reduces target flux level. It can not be found on market, but it is a built in weapon on carriers, support cruisers and some other dedicated ships. Impact of the beam immediately stops overload.

Introduction of these systems/weapons makes the gameplay quite different from vanilla, so do not underestimate these little helpers.

Screenshots:
Spoiler







[close]

Changelog for last build (2.3):
Spoiler
  • Added new star system Y-4CFK
  • Added Guristas Pirates and Mordu's Legion
  • New ships: Garmur, Orthus, Barghest + skinned ships for Guristas. Some of the skinned ones changed ship system and are quite different from the original ones.
  • Fixed problems with bounties by adding comm relays in every system. Bounties are no longer offered by minor factions.
  • Angel Cartel and Guristas will trade while hostile, just like the pirates.
  • Greatly reduced number of asteroids, should have positive impact on performance.
  • Weapons rebalance (again). Ballistic guns now reload in clips and regenerate ammo.
  • Reduced number of drones for small ships (1 at a time for under-cruiser ships).
[close]

What is planned for next major release:
Spoiler
  • Sleepers, W-space exploration
  • Serpentis factions
  • Tracking disruptor, sensor dampener
  • Convert EWAR and other utility systems to weapons and make them interchangeable. This depends on the implementation of my suggestion though.
[close]

What is planned, but might be not soon to come:
Spoiler
  • EoM, ORE, Jovians
  • T3 cruisers, but I don't promise :)
  • Blueprints and production
  • Skills redesign

If you would like to see some of these (or other) things in the next release, please post your opinion - I will adjust priorities.
[close]


What is NOT planned:
Spoiler
  • I have no intention to introduce every single ship. Mostly this is because it is difficult to specify a role for them. Also Oracle and Myrmidon will not be added because they look ugly from top :-)
  • The same about the weapons. Hullmods, damage type and mount type classification together give pretty various configuration possibilities. Though I suppose I will add a bit more weapons in future.
  • Realistic economy: though trading in Starsector is very simplified, while EVE is a vast self-regulated economy, I'm not going to make things complicated here. Really, admit that it's a different game.
  • Solar system security status and CONCORD: I don't think that it will be fun having whole star systems without battles. And it is difficult to implement, too.
[close]

Copyright:
Spoiler
I prepared ship and weapon sprites, but they are a render of original EVE content, and thus remain the property of CCP. Commercial use of this content is not allowed. This copyright notice should be displayed, if you are going to use the images somewhere else.

Here is the message from CCP support, kinda giving the permission to use all the stuff in the non-commercial mod (here the talk is about the fansite, but this is because the official rules are described only for them, the idea is more general):
 Your mod would not qualify as a fansite. However, you can consider the following rule to apply to the mod:

"Non-commercial sites may use content and resources from the official EVE Online website under the condition that the copyright notice below is displayed prominently on each page where those items appear. When using materials or content that was originally published elsewhere, proper credit must be given to the original author and used only by permission. When using content, including forum posts or blog entries, from the official EVE Online site, please include the name of the contributor and a link to the post or location of the content you're using."
To sum up: free to use for non-commercial purposes.
[close]

Kudos
First, thanks to CCP, who allowed to use their wonderful art and to introduce their universe in a mod!
Also, though I'm rather new to this forum, I have received plenty of help from answers to my dumb questions)
Apart from that:
-partly the code for target painter (EnderNerdcore),
-hard flux beams script (Debido and Xenoargh)
-game creation options in rules.csv (akeean)
-some sounds from freesound.org
Hope, the authors do not object. So, thank you guys!
And the developers of Starsector, of course, your game is awesome =)

Enjoy!
« Last Edit: February 22, 2015, 02:06:55 AM by celestis »
Logged

haloguy1

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 45
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2014, 12:37:46 PM »

My god what do we have here eve mod that is awesome going to check it out soon.

EDIT. I just finished my game session and i have to say your mod is awesome but at the beginning there is little fleets to kill.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2014, 01:20:55 PM by haloguy1 »
Logged

celestis

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 285
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2014, 08:38:30 PM »

Glad you liked it!
As for small fleets, there are some solo ships for Mercenaries (spawn in empire) and Pirates. Also, you can try to beat supply convoys: they look a bit big, but usually consist of 2-3 harmless industrials and a couple of frigates.
Or you may just start campaign in "easy" mode and gain a cruiser!
Logged

xenoargh

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
  • naively breaking things!
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2014, 08:46:24 PM »

Great accomplishment; so glad to see a major new mod here! 

Please credit the people whose code / content you're using by name; we're pretty laid back about these things but that's one of the requirements of stuff in the Code Dump :)
Logged
Please check out my SS projects :)
Xeno's Mod Pack

celestis

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 285
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2014, 08:55:47 PM »

Ok, no problem, I think I'll find some time today to mention all that I used.

EDIT: Done. Will add more if I forgot someone
With last update also replaced some external stuff.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2014, 09:27:24 AM by celestis »
Logged

DornoDiosMio

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 30
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2014, 11:07:36 PM »

Always nice to see new mods around here!  I'll be sure to check it out once my current Uomoz game is complete.

Excellent idea to incorporate the Eve universe into a mod as the two IP's likely apply to a similar group.

I used to play Eve, but, eventually I quit as the server latency between my location and CCP just drove me bonkers.  I also lost my best ship while going down stairs for '1 minute' to help with groceries, hehe.

Logged

Griffinhart

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 169
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2014, 03:56:12 AM »

I would like this mod so much more if the ship sprites were properly scaled. It's weird seeing the Hurricane be almost as long as the Machariel.

-- Griffinhart
Logged


"Rrha ki ra tek wim tes yor
en weel waath dius manaf, Yat!
"

celestis

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 285
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2014, 04:04:54 AM »

I know that sprites are not scaled properly, but I still have to deal with Starsector scale: I can't make a full-sized dreadnaught without either making all frigates 10x10px or making the dreadnaught so huge that it doesn't fit in the screen. So, that's why the difference between ship hull sizes is intentionally much smaller.
Logged

Blade Skydancer

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 71
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2014, 07:47:03 PM »

Well, I've been playing around with this mod for about an hour now, running around with an Omen with 5 heavy pulse lasers and eating things up.

I have a concern, and that's energy-damage weapons being FAR and away more effective than any other weapon type. I started with a Rifter and got my ass handed to me because the AC's HE damage just couldn't get through any shields. I would say make ACs deal kinetic damage, blasters do HE damage, beam lasers do kinetic, and tone down the pulse lasers quite a bit. They're rather ridiculous. Railguns are pretty nasty too.

As for shields, they could stand to be a bit weaker across the board(more inefficient), and I'd probably make them all 360 degree shields. After all, shields protected all angles in EVE, though I understand this is a different game. At least give those ships designed to be shield tanks(most Caldari, some Minmatar, ect) omni shields.

Rockets should be non-tracking(no turning speed), and regular missiles track *very* aggressively, could probably tone that down some.

Also, ships should be more frequently sold in the stations of the factions. Not quite sure how to make that work as I never quite got the hang of populating stations in the middle of a game. At the least right now, make 2 of every ship class for a given faction available on a faction's home station, with a handful of fighter wings at the start of the game.

At any rate, I'm having fun with the mod so far.

EDIT: The fighters are WAY too big right now...I think. Dunno how big fighter craft are in EVE, but I'm pretty sure they're not bigger than frigates.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2014, 09:32:09 PM by Blade Skydancer »
Logged

JDCollie

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 261
    • View Profile
    • My Youtube Channel
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #9 on: June 04, 2014, 08:40:42 AM »

I can drive a Megathron in Starsector. My life is now complete.
Logged

snull

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 9
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #10 on: June 05, 2014, 11:24:02 PM »

Love the Eve Universe - even though, I dont have the time to play it - moreover thanks for the feeling of that mod added and the beautifully ships I missed,

heyho +1

;-)
Logged

celestis

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 285
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #11 on: June 06, 2014, 01:02:38 PM »

Blade Skydancer, thanks for such detailed suggestions, I was already thinking about some rebalancing, especially about beams. I think I will nerf all weapons except ACs, so that they become more equal. During several campaign plays I also found that lasers and rails are much superior to other weapons. Not sure about damage type suggestions still, but I will experiment to find out what is better.
As for shields, I don't think making all of them 360deg will be fun. Currently, Caldari & Minmatar have slightly better shield effectiveness and have OMNI. All frigates have FRONT. But I agree that it's better to make some ships dedicated shield tanks, like Drake, giving them that 360 coverage, and that the shield should be overall less powerful.
About rockets: well, missiles were the most difficult thing to fit in the mod due to their "support" role in Starsector. I first made rockets unguided, but you know, it was really impossible to hit a frigate with them (and they are mostly anti-frigate in EVE), so I decided to add turning speed. And actually in EVE rockets maneuver very intensively (visually). I'll think about reducing their dps/range though.
The stations now are divided by:
a) faction (you won't find minmatar ships on gallente station). There are Trade Hubs also, which have plenty of everything. Supply convoys often deliver stuff to the hubs, because they are friendly to everyone.
b) category (NAVY or common). NAVY stations have all available ship kinds. Common stations have only light ships. All major factions have a one of each kind in their home system.
Perhaps, I will rework the system a bit in the future.
And yeah, I fully agree about fighter, will make them smaller.
Thank you!
Logged

Blade Skydancer

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 71
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #12 on: June 07, 2014, 03:14:16 PM »

More thoughts.

Remembering the way beam lasers behaved, they were on for a short while then faded. Perhaps you should make them that way in the mod. Longer duration than the pulse lasers, and more damage per individual shot, but much slower than the pulse lasers. Also, beam lasers are kind of worthless compared to pulses. Blasters need far more damage as well.

As for range, it's currently only very slight differences. Beam lasers and missiles should have the longest range, given the nature of those weapons(one being a beam of light which has theoretically infinite range, and the other being a self-propelled projectile whose range is only limited by the amount of fuel. Railguns next longest range, then a drop off to artillery. Then, for the DPS weapons, pulse lasers, then autocannons, then finally blasters.
Logged

Griffinhart

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 169
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #13 on: July 06, 2014, 08:59:20 AM »

Blade Skydancer, thanks for such detailed suggestions, I was already thinking about some rebalancing, especially about beams. I think I will nerf all weapons except ACs, so that they become more equal. During several campaign plays I also found that lasers and rails are much superior to other weapons.

Keep in mind that, in Starsector, range is king, swiftly (heh) followed by speed. If you've got long range and high speed, you can kill everything and can't be killed by anything. All other numbers are irrelevant (as long as you can deal enough damage to surmount your target's flux-dissipation, but that's a fairly low bar).

-- Griffinhart
Logged


"Rrha ki ra tek wim tes yor
en weel waath dius manaf, Yat!
"

celestis

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 285
    • View Profile
Re: [0.6.2a] EVE Mod
« Reply #14 on: November 15, 2014, 10:33:26 AM »

I'm glad to present the update for 0.65.1a! This is not just a compatibility patch: a lot of stuff was added to the mod and the experience should be quite different from the previous version. See the OP for more info. I did my best to integrate with new huge changes of 0.65, tested most cases, but if you find a bug please post here and I'll try to fix it ASAP.
Enjoy!
Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 8