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1

Suggestions / Make SMODS a post-battle upgrade only option

« on: January 06, 2023, 01:45:01 AM »

The current SMOD implementation of building in mods with an arbitrary token is not very interesting. Why should a brand new ship printed off the production line be able to install hullmods for no cost? "Story point" hullmods should be reserved for ships that have distinguished themselves in battle and have the battle scars necessary to allow the extensive conversion and intrusive maintenance to justify the installation of SMODS, where enterprising engineers can find an opportunity to make an aftermarket modification an intrinsic part of the ship's identity.

Hence my idea is to add an additional dialog to post-battle salvage where ships have a chance to be eligible for removing the OP cost of one of their installed hullmods and making it a permanent SMOD on the ship hull. Commanding officers can increase the chance significantly. I think this will go a long way to making SMODS feel a lot more like the player writing their own story instead of being a generic premium currency for making ships more powerful.

2

Suggestions / Give the pulse laser a bonus vs shields

« on: December 19, 2022, 10:39:20 PM »

The pulse laser is easily the least useful medium energy weapon in my experience because it lacks any specialised role and just isn't worth the slot when weapons like the ion pulser exist. Giving the pulse laser a ~25% bonus vs shields would go a long way to making it have any effective use in high tech loadouts.

3

Modding / [0.95.1a-RC6] Combat Misc Utilities v0.3.2

« on: December 05, 2022, 07:58:49 AM »

Download

This mod is a library mod that is required for several other mods I have in development. Other mods may use this as a dependency but I do not guarantee support unless you message me about write/release access to the git repository.

Feature List
Shaders:
    -High performance pooled particle renderers with full control over particle behaviour
        -Simple to implement and debug
        -Use default or custom compute methods to determine particle advance behaviour per frame
            -Use to change alpha, shape, colour etc. over time
        -Particle count cap settings to stop bad implementations overwhelming others
        -Uses global manager to prevent going over particle cap
    -Sprite renderer
    -Implosion effect shader
    -Segmented line shader program renderer for trails etc.
        -Render sprites or custom shader programs along segments
        -Additional helper class for managing trail instances
    -Supports custom shader plugins that extend BaseRenderPlugin
    -Requires OpenGL 3.3 support
Subsystems:
    -Feature-complete scripts that mimic ship systems
    -Allows for arbitrary script execution based on specific ship
    -Can be applied in any combination
    -Automatic hotkey mapping
    -Fully custom UI implemented
        -Hooks for rendering own UI without visual overlaps
Debug GUI:
    -Display data from any script with global methods
    -Requires data to be set per-frame, smooth fadeout over 1 second
    -Uses simple keymap system to maintain text in list
    -Flexible graphing tool
    -Dynamic display panel adjustment with '[' ']' keys
    -Support for custom renderer containers

4

Modding / [0.95.1a-RC6] Combat Multiplayer Project

« on: May 07, 2022, 01:33:44 PM »

Allow a user to host a multiplayer combat session that other users may connect to via direct IP address and participate in. Built on an optimised custom-written netcode architecture. Mod compatibility is a goal but a very complex (yet solvable) problem, current aim is complete vanilla compatibility before any initial release (of course you can try downloading commits to the git repository but it's still unfinished).

Placeholder, for now...
Development here: https://github.com/automatopaste/Multiplayer

no, the mod is not playable yet (unless you like seeing ships flying around aimlessly and lots of fancy graphs) and requires allowing system file access so the underlying networking library can function

5

Mods / [0.95.1a-RC6] HexShields - Shield Reskin v1.2.0

« on: January 25, 2022, 06:49:19 AM »

Requires the CMUtils mod as a dependency!

man is back with more procrastinations (sort of)

Feature list

• smoothly reskins shields with cool hexagons
• two shading modes available (settings.json to change)
• can be added/removed from saves whenever
• uses whitelist csv to replace shields based on hullstyle (won't affect modded hullstyle ships unless mod adds whitelist csv entry to its config, or user adds manually)
• efficient renderer, virtually no performance impact on most systems (requires hardware supporting gl 3.3,  might even boost performance like FER mod, needs testing)
• seamless 360 shields (unlike vanilla, shields are ruined forever)

note 1: jitter level can be adjusted (and disabled) by going to data/shaders/shield.frag and setting the jitter multiplier value to the desired amount
note 2: some scripts that force shields to be a certain colour on frame may run after this plugin, making a double shield appear (e.g. paragon fortress system, caliph)

6

Suggestions / Add a unique Ground Support Package hullmod to civilian shuttles

« on: December 31, 2021, 07:31:00 AM »

Title explains it essentially, the idea is to give civilian shuttles a comedic niche use as useful raid vessels. Basically, the new hullmod would provide a much reduced assault bonus compared to the regular hullmod, but the twist would be making it reduce the reputation impact of a marine raid, providing a huge reduction on a tiny marine force, but falling off with larger raids. This would be since the player is using anonymous civilian ships to ferry marines, which could be much harder for ground authorities to associate with the player as being responsible.

7

Mods / [0.95.1a-RC6] Fast Engine Rendering v1.1.2 - Combat FPS Booster

« on: September 13, 2021, 02:13:19 PM »

Fast Engine Rendering v1.1.2



Uses modern OpenGL rendering techniques to efficiently render custom engine plumes. The purpose of this mod is a performance boost, taking better advantage of GPU horsepower. The performance boost is found by using a single batch call to render plumes in a single operation, avoiding the lengthy frame time that vanilla uses to render engine plumes iteratively with fixed function rendering.

Requires a GPU that supports OpenGL 3.3

Features:
- Replace SHIP (and fighter) engine plumes and glows with a fast instanced renderer. Moderate testing suggests a ~25% increase in performance in large battles with many fighter/ships, your mileage may vary.
- Crisp and smooth engine visual

Caveats:
- Does not affect missile engines, they will still use vanilla behaviour.

v1.1.2
-visual improvements
(full changelog in mod folder)

Vanilla




FER

8

Suggestions / Every ship requires officer

« on: July 28, 2021, 12:06:44 AM »

Considering how powerful skills are, ships without them act as pretty much cannon fodder. My suggestion is requiring a ship to have a commanding officer before it can be deployed in combat. This would see a lot more skill-related counterplay in the player can pick targets based on skills, and since there would be fewer targets with no unique characteristics to stomp combat would be more interesting. This also has the effect of limiting fleet size based on the number of officers the player is fielding.

Some tweaks to accomodate this would be allowing the reassignment of officers in combat and/deployment, making officer leveling more nuanced, and increasing the rate at which officers can be acquired, potentially through capturing, promoting etc.

9

Mods / [0.95.1a-RC6] DroneLib v1.1.1

« on: July 12, 2021, 08:23:31 AM »

- discontinued -

Much of the code and concepts in this mod were moved to CMUtils for various reasons.

10

General Discussion / Ship engines using pure GLSL shader maths

« on: June 30, 2021, 02:37:51 PM »

Hello, I've spent an 'evening' fiddling with GLSL shaders in a bid to approximate vanilla style engine rendering, which uses a few glow textures and the fixed function render pipeline. The performance increase of using a modern fragment shader is debatable but it was a fun project. There is a suprisingly little amount of maths required to produce a convincing animation! The shader was developed using shadertoy.com and will probably be used for some of my mod-related shenanigans at some point.

Demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/WJbti8B6cis

GLSL code

void mainImage( out vec4 fragColor, in vec2 fragCoord )
{
    // Normalized pixel coordinates (from 0 to 1)
    vec2 p = fragCoord.xy/iResolution.xy;
   
    float a = iTime * 0.5; //speed
    float b = 8.0; //lobe depth
    float n = 2.5; //number of lobes
    float x = p.x;
    float y = p.y;
    float pi = 3.14159;
    float h = (1.0 - (x * x * x)) * ((cos(pi * 2.0 * n * (x - a)) / b) + (1.0 - (1.0 / b)));
   
    //abs distance from func   
    float e = abs(y - 0.5);
    float d = abs(e - h);
   
    float t = clamp(((d / e) - 1.0), 0.0, 1.;
   
    float w = clamp((0.75 * h + 0.75) * 3.0 * abs((0.45 * -(1.0 - x)) + e), 0.15, 3.0);
    t *= w;
   

    vec3 color = vec3(1.0, 0.5, 0.0);

    // Output to screen
    fragColor = vec4(color.xyz * t, 1.0);
}

[close]

11

Suggestions / Add expired/rejected scan missions to fleet log

« on: May 29, 2021, 09:01:02 PM »

Fairly simple suggestion; when 'scan research station/orbital habitat/minor weapons cache etc. etc.' missions expire or are abandoned they are lost and the player has to make a note of their location. It would be logical for them to be added to the fleet log when this happens.

12

Suggestions / Weapon range reworks and weapon MutableStatsAPI implementation

« on: May 23, 2021, 03:38:20 AM »

One of the problems with modded ship design is that energy weapons require a lot of intelligent design to be viable when compared to ballistics, which are generally accepted to be baseline stronger weapons because vanilla only has to balance them around the three ship design archetypes and their mounting options. My suggestion is to rebalance vanilla ballistic weapon ranges until they are as strong as energy weapons as a baseline.

The kicker is to create a MutableStatsAPI attached to the weapons on mounts baked into a ship. If vanilla ballistic mounts had an e.g. +25% range bonus on attached weapons by default then the present balance would be conserved, but it would create more options for modded ship designs that utilise many more hybrid/synergy mounts than vanilla and want to offer a more balanced choice between mounting viable energy and ballistic weapons, based on the unique characteristics of a particular weapon mount. This could include modifiers from the vanilla ship mutable stats like energy/ballistic weapon flux, RoF, recoil etc. etc.

There are a number of solutions to managing multiple mount types with different stat modifications.

Number one is creating a mount_archetypes format file, like hull_styles.
{
   "MYMODPREFIX_STANDARD_BALLISTIC_RANGE":{
      "script":"data.scripts.weapons.mounts.MYMODPREFIX_StandardBallisticRangeMod,
   },
}

Then, a *.ship file might look like this
{
    "bounds": [
        ...
    ],
    ... #and so on

    "weaponSlots": [
        {
            "angle": 30,
            "arc": 180,
            "id": "WS 001",
            "locations": [
                59,
                23
            ],
            "mount": "TURRET",
            "size": "SMALL",
            "type": "BALLISTIC"
            "archetype": "MYMODPREFIX_STANDARD_BALLISTIC_RANGE",
        },
        {
            "angle": -30,
            "arc": 180,
            "id": "WS 002",
            "locations": [
                59,
                -23
            ],
            "mount": "TURRET",
            "size": "SMALL",
            "type": "BALLISTIC"
            "archetype": "MYMODPREFIX_STANDARD_BALLISTIC_RANGE",
        },
        ... #etc etc
    ],
}

Finally, the script MYMODPREFIX_StandardBallisticRangeMod might be something like

public class MYMODPREFIX_StandardBallisticRangeMod extends BaseMountArchetypeMod {
    protected static final float BALLISTIC_MAX_RANGE_PERCENT = 25f;
     
    public void advanceInCombat(float amount, ShipAPI ship, WeaponAPI weapon, String id) {
        float mod = BALLISTIC_MAX_RANGE_PERCENT * ship.getFluxTracker().getFluxLevel();

        weapon.getMutableStatsAPI().getBallisticWeaponRangeMod().modifyPercent(id, mod); //unique mount weapon range goes from +0% to +25% as ship flux level increases
    }
}

This would also open many opportunities for modders that wish to modify weapon abilities individually, especially for unique built-in weapons, that are currently impossible. Weapon mutablestat effects like range could stack additively with ship mutablestat effects from hullmods and the like.

13

Modding / [0.95a-RC16] Low Scatter Amplifier

« on: May 05, 2021, 07:07:50 PM »

Low Scatter Amplifier

LOL

Adds an alternative to HSA: Reduces the range of beam weapons by 25% while decreasing their damage by 25% and makes them deal hard flux damage to shields.

Download

14

Bug Reports & Support / [0.95a-RC12] Purchasing ship from contact doesn't lose focus

« on: March 31, 2021, 06:58:34 PM »

Minor bug when purchasing military ship from a contact, the ship focus window doesn't disappear when inquiring about a different option.

15

Bug Reports & Support (modded) / Fighters launching from slots added by hullmods don't use launch bays

« on: February 18, 2021, 12:30:24 AM »

When a hullmod such as converted hangars adds fighter LPC slots to a ship, fighters launching from or landing on that ship will only do so from the ship's centre, instead of using launch bay locations if they are provided. This naturally applies to all hullmods that add fighter slots, but isn't a vanilla issue since no vanilla ships have launch bay locations defined in the eventuality of converted hangars being used, making it a modded issue. This could also make the decorative hangar bays on the eagle/falcon functional as an easter egg of sorts .

Upon inspection, the onslaught, eagle, falcon, tarsus, mule and paragon sprites appear to have some form of shuttle bay that could be defined to fit the theme of the hullmod.