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Author Topic: so I've made up a Idea for a mod...  (Read 2034 times)

HGScout

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so I've made up a Idea for a mod...
« on: April 10, 2016, 02:20:19 AM »

here's a setting for a faction idea that I've been modifying for a few years, changed to set in starsector.

Faction name: UNITY of the free people (or just unity for short)
 
why did you make this:
1. I wanted a mad scientist/engineer with some dash of totalitarianism (but with specific restraints to prevent going full nazi/communist) faction.
2. a Faction with missiles as their PRIMARY weapon. and missile spam!
3. more ship customization options. more hullmods!
 
summarized faction specialty: two types of ships, more hullmods and ship refitting
+low-end civilian ships heavily modded to be combat capable
+high-end ships that is composed of powerful engines and long~short range regenerating missile spam as the only arsenal
-shoddy deployment time and explodes violently
-Powerful PD shuts down any meaningful offensive action
 
ship specialties
*faction-unique weapon
+Missiles! all missiles regenerate, and has about the same stats to the other types of weapon slots of that size.(for example, a medium missile with a fire rate/damage/damage type of a pulse laser)
+missiles home in on target, and regenerates ammo rapidly
-Opponents with powerful PD will shut you down
 
*low-end, retrofitted civilian ships
=(civilian (and pirate) ships may be brought to UNITY markets and be retrofitted into unity variants. ships retrofitted from pirate variants gain further built-in hullmods that strengthens the features below))
+greatly increased venting, slightly increased flux capacity (compared to civilian variant)
+increased shield efficiency (compared to civilian variant)
+certain specifically designed ships very fast and maneuverable compared to military craft, generally higher burn(compared to civilian variant)
+good turret coverage that can be fitted for both offense and defence
+often has missile slots bigger and often compared to ships of their class
+more OP(compared to civilian variant)
+built in hullmods
-massively reduced hull and armor (they literally remove beams and structures to throw in more caps)
-massively reduced peak performance time(90/120/210/270 seconds)
-most ships have high maintenance and/or delicate machinery hullmod
-built in hullmods may be inappropriate for the ship's intended roll in fleet(SAFETY OVERRIDES? PRAISE LUDD!)
-Limited OP that forces you to give up mounting certain weapon slots to mount proper weapons for their role
-greatly reduced cargo/fuel capacity. (they needed to make room for more guns somewhere, and that's the cargo holds.)
-overclocked cores may or may not explode violently when disabled
 
*high-end, originating faction ships
=(found in military markets in UNITY planets and stations)
+great flux performance, with high active/passive venting
+even higher speed/maneuverability/burn
+shields are easily modifiable(or made) to achieve full coverage(300/360 front shield or 150/180 omni shield)
+when fitted with faction's regenerating missiles, can create missile volleys that looks cool
-shoddy hull and armor(average of 500/1000/2000/4000 for ships of their class)
-probably will die when caught with shields down/venting
-terrible peak performance time(60/90/120/180 seconds)
-most ships have delicate machinery hullmod
-equipping non-regenerating missiles greatly cripples their firepower
-fleet/ships with powerful PD will brutally shut down any attempts of assault.
-most definitely explodes violently when disabled, but may be propelled forward while doing so
 
*hullmods
=(intended to add multiple hullmods that can be applied, hullmods that may have been unique/specific to ship may be installed as assembly/package hullmods with reduced efficiency.)
some examples:
 
>fractured armor assembly
=(retrofitted ships that had compromised armor gains this as built-in hullmod after refit)
+increased venting
+increases CR recovery rate/repair speed
-Greatly reduced armor strength
-Peak performance time decreased
-Increased maintenance/repair cost
 
>stripmodded combustion chamber
=(retrofitted ships that had degraded engines hullmod gains this as a built-in hullmod after refit)
+increases max speed
+increases burn
+decrease supply cost
-increase fuel cost
-increase ship detection radius
-decreased maneuverability
 
 
summarized lore: currently a collective of people who fled the primary factions in search for 'fair'(like in justice, shares, ect.) life. society is divided into "civilians" and "military". "civilians" are divided into "scientist/engineer", with "other civilians". all three groups vote on the general matter on what unity as a whole should do and set parameters and objectives. the overseer, who commands both the military and organizes civilian affairs, receives this info and lays out the general plan on who does what. the civilians are instructed to do what they are to do, depending on their skills. the deployment of military forces can only be done when UNITY assets are threatened by outer forces, or with general consent from the civilian population. the overseer may call off the aggression for a day, up to 7 times, if it judges that the action is unnecessary and believes that it requires more consideration.
 
 fleets are built up from the original factions ships and civilian retrofits. civilian ships are bought across the sector and are brought to UNITY occupied stations. they are violently torn apart and put together, removing anything that isn't vital, which creates more room for improvements.
 
 their primary objective being survival, and their weird interest(or addiction) for shipmodding made them try to appeal to multiple faction and be favorable to as much people as possible, which also discretely includes certain large pirate clans as well.

I still have more lore to write in, and just started trying my hands on the buffalo retrofit. which is hard. thoughts?
« Last Edit: April 10, 2016, 02:25:17 AM by HGScout »
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Tartiflette

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Re: so I've made up a Idea for a mod...
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2016, 03:10:48 AM »

A few advice, learned from hard personal experience:

Start small to get your feet wet. Make a couple of ship sprites, put them in the game, that will give you a better idea of the total amount of work required. It would be a shame to spend hundred of hours spriting only to discover your ships aren't looking that good in-game and you have to modify all of them, or that it's a lot of trouble to implement most of them and you have to scrap those. It will also allow you to see if the fundamental design philosophy of your faction is sound or need some adjustments before making the full mod.

Stay conservative with your stats at first, and check if the AI can handle the ships. Then work your way up until going farther from vanilla create more issues than benefits. Balancing is an extremely time consuming task, and get exponentially worse the more distinct your faction is. In addition to that, more extreme quirks can create issues with other mods, both in optimizing the loadouts with other faction weapons (and vice versa) or by facing hard counter to your faction.

Always keep an eye on the Modding Guidelines. While those rules can look very constraining, they are a great to check how far from vanilla you currently stand. You'll also notice that most of the popular mods respect them or went out of their way to code fail-safes and custom AI to handle their ships.
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HGScout

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Re: so I've made up a Idea for a mod...
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2016, 09:37:10 AM »

Start small to get your feet wet. Make a couple of ship sprites

Always keep an eye on the Modding Guidelines. While those rules can look very constraining, they are a great to check how far from vanilla you currently stand. You'll also notice that most of the popular mods respect them or went out of their way to code fail-safes and custom AI to handle their ships.

well, I've been trying to cut parts from vanilla ships to attatch onto a modified buffalo sprite. the hardpoints, turret mounts, antenna bits, and others. this is kitbashing, right?

and yes, I've read down the guide while writing this. I've realized that retrofitted pirate-D versions coming with additional built in hullmods might be a problem.
what I had in mind was since the codex mentions that pirate-D ships are heavilly modified-BUT- recieves poor maintenance, I wondered how they would have been like if they received proper maintenance, along with creative engineering ideas. and my prior experience with fleet/spaceship games(EV series with NAEV and others) told me pirates would favor fast speed, hit-and-run tactics to prey on traders and run from law enforcement, be fragile and stuff. so I plan to build it that way.

but the problem is that D ships are disadvantageous and cheaper than normal ships. so if the retrofit gives hullmods for free then it's a problem. maybe make it cost more after the refitting is done and buying back, to offset this could help, but I should be thinking these stuff after I've managed to make some sprites.

thanks for the advice!
« Last Edit: April 11, 2016, 09:39:40 AM by HGScout »
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