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16

Suggestions / Re: External armor plates on low-tech ships, like low-tech Star Fortresses have?

« on: December 03, 2022, 08:12:47 AM »

They also add a fair bit of overhead; you don't really want a lot of them flying around, certainly not as line combatants. And module armor is more interesting on larger ships that already have a lot of ability to absorb damage.

A couple one-off ships might be in the cards; a unique low-tech cruiser with module armor would be a cool reward for a Luddic mission set. I'd certainly like it if vanilla were using the SHIP_WITH_MODULES code; makes me less nervous about it being weird buggy mod-only stuff.

17

Suggestions / Re: Eagle and (base) Falcon remain anemic

« on: December 01, 2022, 12:53:24 PM »

I, too, am playing around with the proposed changes in a mini-mod, and here's my take:

1) upping base speed to 60 is probably a good idea,
2) controversially... if you want to change a slot? Make the centerline medium Energy a large.

Having a single large Energy slot gives you the option of HIL/Grav Beam or Tach Lance fits. It makes an Autopulse Laser attractive. I can even imagine fits where it wouldn't be completely stupid to use a Plasma Cannon.

This might be too much overlap with the Champion, but I think it feels pretty good. Does it 'fix' the ship? Maybe. It's definitely more varied and fun.

18

Suggestions / Re: Food Comsumables.

« on: October 21, 2022, 06:08:47 PM »

Sure, what the interaction is doesn't matter. The point is to have something that doesn't just split Supplies apart into a shopping list that takes more time to fill but ticks down the same way.

19

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a-RC6] Hiver Swarm - V1.0 - 10/03/22

« on: October 20, 2022, 04:06:40 PM »

You can then make them available to the player by a number of methods (unique campaign entities that draw on a unique set of drop groups, listeners, scripted interactions) that you have more control over.

That is where I start entering unknown territory that may as well say "here there be dragons" in my coding knowledge. I started this whole mod thing to learn Java and I guess that will be my next step in the learning process. Again, my thanks for the help.

It's not that painful to do campaign entities - you can do pretty much all of it just in drop_groups.csv and salvage_entity_gen_data.csv, looking at the vanilla files for things like Remnant-tagged campaign entities.

20

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a-RC6] Hiver Swarm - V1.0 - 10/03/22

« on: October 20, 2022, 03:45:32 PM »

Makes sense in battle salvage, but right now I find a bunch in just random salvage everywhere, mining stations, ruins and such. Maybe removing bug stuff from normal loot spawns would fix this. It should be a trophy from a tough fight, not just random find.

Well same for the weapons, a binary choice. I do have several blacklists so they do not show up in places like the Prism Freeport and some other modded ways of obtaining them. I will look over the SS code and see if there is a way to exclude them from ruin and mining station salvage as well. I also will be including an optional weapon_data.csv that, if used, will make their weapons unrecoverable as battle salvage.

The 'restricted' tag will ensure that Hiver weapons never drop, unless you specify a drop group for them that ignores that tag (this is how Omega weapons work in the vanilla game.)

You can then make them available to the player by a number of methods (unique campaign entities that draw on a unique set of drop groups, listeners, scripted interactions) that you have more control over.

21

Suggestions / Re: Food Comsumables.

« on: October 20, 2022, 02:43:15 PM »

Using organs to "reverse" crew casualties? A lobster shipment to improve colony stability?

Hmm. If I were designing mechanics for stuff like this, I'd treat it like an alternative to story points - IE, you could spend a story point to revive an otherwise unrecoverable officer, or you could spend 1-3 units of Harvested Organs and/or Recreational Drugs.

Comparable interactions with something like Metals or Food might consume a larger, sliding-scale amount (expedite repairs by spending 100 Metals...) of the commodity.

22

Mods / Re: [0.95a] SAD: Sanguinary Autonomist Defectors

« on: October 20, 2022, 02:24:08 PM »

The themegen script populates by looking for desirable planets; the only way to really fix conflicts like this long-term is to target different systems.

23

Mods / Re: [0.95a] SAD: Sanguinary Autonomist Defectors

« on: October 19, 2022, 04:22:02 PM »

From my memory of how DME's themegen script worked (before I deliberately made it run after Remnant spawns), even with the two scripts running at the same time and competing for systems, you almost never got zero Remnants - if you want to check, make a save copy, then do this:

1: turn on devmode (in settings.json or via Console Commands - enter 'devmode'),
2: turn off sensors (ctrl-z on the campaign layer), and
3: enter hyperspace.

Now you can look at the full, revealed campaign map, and you should have intel notifications for all the warning beacons on the map, sorted by faction. If there really are no Remnants on the map, you'll know.

24

Mods / Re: [0.9.1a] Neutrino Corp. (v. 1.86-RC3)

« on: October 19, 2022, 01:31:27 PM »

I gotta say, given the amount of... let's be tasteful and call it 'Safety Overrides'... legacy code in Neutrino, I wouldn't blame anybody for deciding they don't want to ride that tiger.

25

Suggestions / Re: Food Comsumables.

« on: October 19, 2022, 11:50:28 AM »

I'd rather see all the commodities get unique gameplay interactions of their own than become Supplies and Other Supplies to no benefit in actual fun.

26

Modding / Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b / g1da_exp

« on: October 13, 2022, 05:38:19 PM »

MacOS actually doesn't - I've made this exact mistake before - but in my experience Linux users are some of the nicest and most helpful bug reports I get, so I make an extra effort to fix any case issues when they show up.

I recommend other modders do the same - never a bad idea to cultivate the users who give you the best information about what went wrong and how to fix it.

27

Modding / Re: Comissions?

« on: October 13, 2022, 05:03:22 PM »

Another thing everybody here should be aware of is that if you're hiring someone, or doing work for hire, it's important to have a contract, or at least a formal, written agreement of who owes who what end product for what prices and when it's due. Disputes over this stuff can bring your project to a halt real fast.

The very handy contract() tool makes this pretty painless:

Making your agreements explicit from the very start of your project sets expectations right, sets the tone of your working relationship, and can motivate those working on the project. However, consulting an attorney to make you an agreement is not cheap, so most game developers who can't afford an attorney scour the internet for something that looks reasonable. Unfortunately, most agreements you'll find on the internet are fear-spreading, full of incomprehensive legalese, terribly biased towards a single party, or based on laws from a different country or state.

contract( ) (pronounced 'do contract') generates a free agreement in plain language, covering most things you want to agree on before working together with someone in the games industry. contract( ) is based on the idea that 1) developers do not need difficult language to come to an agreement or to resolve a disagreement, and that 2) a comprehensible agreement is a much better start of a working relationship than a document with incomprehensible language. contract( ) is for developers, by developers; not for attorneys, by attorneys.

28

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Luddic Enhancement Mod 1.2.5l

« on: October 12, 2022, 03:32:55 PM »

One potential solution could be to slap a hullmod on it that slows the ship down when it's at high flux; that would make attacking it a viable option; you might still lose some ships, but it'll be easier to run from if you respond to it, you get more benefit from catching it early, and it feels like you at least tried if the thing still blows up in your face.

29

Blog Posts / Re: Hyperspace Topography

« on: October 12, 2022, 02:43:24 PM »

I can tell I'm going to fall in love with these events - it's just such a nice, clean gameplay interface for 'a long-term thing is happening, you'll want to keep an eye on that'. Lots of gameplay potential, lots of modding potential, and a nice antidote to predictable optimization routines, the bane of a sense of adventure.

30

General Discussion / Re: Why Alex doesn't want early access on Steam

« on: October 11, 2022, 01:16:17 PM »

Yeah, a 30% cut is pretty decent for all the things Steam gives you in return. Those analytics alone would be worth it. And you're not chained to Steam as an exclusive platform; Starsector can keep plugging along on BMT Micro payments or go up on Itch.io and GOG.com and make sales on those platforms as well. It's not wise to chain yourself to any one platform.

One thing I hope at least some people took away from the endless debacle of Star Citizen and other vaporware is that the parasociality around a game's development is sufficiently exciting to some people to count as a product in and of itself - one they're willing to spend the rent money on, with the right cracks in their psyche. More empty updates - phatic game development, you could call it - would just serve to reinforce that kind of fascination.

The future of that should scare the hell out of all of us. That shouldn't be something we want.