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Author Topic: Adding custom ships  (Read 229449 times)

mendonca

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #90 on: May 16, 2011, 12:23:03 AM »

Cool.

There *is* a log file in the main Starfarer directory (I think it's called starfarer.log)

Whilst not perfect, if you identify the point in that log file where it displays the error, it can make it a lot easier to find. At least down to the file which is giving the error.

If you find this and it's not immediately obvious what you are dealing with, post here and I can try and help? (emphasis on try ...)
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baxmau

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #91 on: May 16, 2011, 12:25:38 AM »

Thanks a lot! I edited my post a bit. I thought I'd be a little more vocal when trying to solve these issues, in case anyone else has these problems in the future :)
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mendonca

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #92 on: May 16, 2011, 12:33:18 AM »

Am I to understand that the ship hull files should be use as more of a "class" of ship, and any actual ship to be implemented should be in a "variant"?

Yeah, this is in line with my understanding.

The SHIP is the 'hull'. The physical lump of metal, with the fixed and rotating weapon fixing points. Engine and base shields etc. are defined by .csv file (i.e. Hammerhead). I think this kind of data is seperated in to the .csv file for ease of access for balancing the game, primarily.

The VARIANT is what you do with that hull, i.e. weapon loadout etc. (i.e. Balanced Hammerhead as existing, or you might make one called Elite Hammerhead [perhaps called hammerhead_Elite.variant], and give it some fancy lasers and extra flux capacitors etc.).

The VARIANT is the one that you call in to the game, on the current mission definition process.

EDIT: Forgot to say, let us know how you get on and feel free to post screenshots  :)
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baxmau

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #93 on: May 16, 2011, 12:47:00 AM »

Ok, the weapon mount points are all wacky still, and the loadout is quick copy-paste but i just *had* to show you guys :)


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Ivaylo

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #94 on: May 16, 2011, 02:07:35 AM »

Oh my god.


That is so awesome man!
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Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #95 on: May 16, 2011, 07:27:56 AM »

Did you do the graphics yourself?

baxmau

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #96 on: May 16, 2011, 10:01:36 AM »

Thanks! :) I know its terribly off-canon to have a bunch of guns on Serenity, but hey.. I'm holding out for the trading aspect of the game :)

Avan: I found an image on google and modified it a bit to closer fit the art style. I plan on making one from scratch. I actually just preordered Starfarer last night. After playing a couple missions, the first thing I did was dig into the directories to see if I could make my own ships and missions. After hitting a snag, I came here. I'm super pleased with how easy it is to mod the game. I can't wait for the next build :)
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Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #97 on: May 18, 2011, 10:47:00 PM »

I've been planning out and working on various weapons and jumping around from various ships designs to other ship designs

I hope to at least get some weapons done tomorrow (probably in my afternoon)

Sinned

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #98 on: May 19, 2011, 03:34:57 PM »

Impressive peeps, the content you added/created looks great.

Wish I had more time to play around with this stuff :) Buy my newborn is keeping me busy pretty much. Keep it up though, hope we can enjoy more of your handiwork!
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mendonca

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #99 on: May 22, 2011, 03:01:02 AM »

The Hammer is now a little bit less clean cut, her machine guns are now located below her hull (hidden mounts) and she is kitted out with three packs of annihilators.



She has heavymg x2 on the front, these are actually more effective than the annihilators in the field. It's very difficult to hit with the annihilators, even though they spread quite wide in the 5-shot salvo (or fifteen in the hammers case). And then, when they do hit, they don't actually seem to do much damage. My thought is to bump the damage up ever so slightly, and also bump the speed / acceleration.

It just feels less like an Apache satisfactorily unloading its hydras and more like someone scattering some sausages, or something.

I'll test it and report back my feelings.

EDIT:

The annihilators at 300 damage, 400 max speed and 150 starting speed feel a bit more like I think they should, and they can relatively easily disable a frigate (if they can get through the shields). It helps as well if the three packs are on 'alternating'. having three linked annihilators, whilst bags of fun, does not make for good warfare control.

Oh by the way (because I know you are interested) ... two sickles and two hammers can easily mop up on 'Turning the tables' with no help, tactics or whatever. Strikes me that the pulse laser on the sickle is making it 'overpowered'. Might need to think about how I balance that so I can fit this in with the general concept for the ship suite I am bodging together. The general thought has always been some kind of cyber-gypsies, stealing high-tech from wherever and whacking together a space-ship from whatever bits of metal they can get (I know this is a bit outside the Starfarer lore, but that's the beauty of modding, eh?  :)). So they shouldn't be quite so tough as the sickle is. Perhaps she needs less energy flux reserves to draw on.

EDIT:

The sickle variant still had 10 flux capacitors and vents (as a holdover from copying the hyperion). If she loses them she more quickly becomes an overloaded sitting duck, which is nice, and maybe she feels alright now. We'll see when she is in her own mission though, I guess.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2011, 03:22:12 AM by mendonca »
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Alex

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #100 on: May 22, 2011, 07:56:01 AM »

Lookin' good.

About the Annihilators - yeah, they could use some tweaking. Part of it is the AI isn't particularly effective with them - they can already do a lot of damage when fired at a larger ship in an up-close salvo, but they're hard to use.


Some thoughts about balancing ships (since you seem to be thinking about that) - keep in mind that if you put a medium energy slot on, that means it could be fitted with any medium or small energy weapon. You can't force it to have a pulse laser for example - the player could fit it with say a graviton beam (for a long range support role) or with a PD laser (underutilizing the slot, but saving ordnance points (OPs) for a mod like "heavy armor").

Likewise for small missile slots, you're looking at a potential single torpedo/srms/mrms/etc - missile slots are easily the most versatile in the game. So the Hammer could be fitted with three dual-racked Atropos-class torpedoes, making it a very potent strike craft. ("Strike" is the role designation for ships that are fitted to take on ships larger than themselves).

Oh, and the pulse laser is indeed very strong, to fill its intended role as a close assault weapon. In theory that's balanced by its lower range and high flux requirements - if that turns out not to be enough, its OP cost could go up as well.
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mendonca

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #101 on: May 22, 2011, 09:29:04 AM »

Thanks Alex,

Yeah I accept part of the battle in all this will be getting the 'Ordnance Points' and 'Fleet Points' right to make fun, balanced fleets. I don't suppose we're subjected to all that at the minute, as theres no check on whether ships are overloaded or really the concept in my mind of what an 'Ordnance Point' is.

Will be fun to find out though, as things develop!

And my two communist buddies have some more little friends to play with:



The spike (a heavily armored fighter, maybe looks a bit too much like the big ship from blasteroids to be a coincidence). Takes Talons to the cleaners. Comes in wings of two.

And the cleat (a lightly armored, fast bomber). Surprisingly sturdy, mainly due to the shield which is obviously being quite effective as they have low armor and hitpoints.

Nothing new, but as I have said before, it's too much fun watching your own ships whizz about!
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mecharm

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #102 on: May 23, 2011, 04:27:22 AM »

Looking awesome guys! Keep up the good work, it's appreciated!
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Magicked

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #103 on: May 23, 2011, 01:30:47 PM »

Wow, I'm out of touch for a couple weeks (vacation and whatnot) and come back to all these new custom ships!  Really impressive!
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Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #104 on: May 24, 2011, 02:30:19 PM »

I'm working on a older-tech style 'torpedo boat' sort of ship, with a single heavy missile hardpoint and a small ballistic turret (for some kind of light defense system) - might add a small missile slot as well.
I have the basic template done, but I still need to smooth out the colors, and then pixelize it. (Trying david's way)
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