Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 8

Author Topic: [0.97a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.8.3  (Read 112141 times)

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
[0.97a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.8.3
« on: November 14, 2021, 06:51:06 PM »


Stardust Ventures


Download Mod
Requires MagicLib
Requires LazyLib
Optional LunaLib

A ship pack centered around light, fast Midline ships that excel at long distance exploration missions. All of them have extended fuel range, larger than normal fuel tanks, and built in resistance to hyperspace hazards. While they integrate well with any midline or high-tech fleet, the Stardust Ventures ships are designed to work best as a cohesive fleet. In fact, the more of them in your fleet the higher a bonus to agility you get for the entire fleet in hyperspace!

Safe to add mid-save.

Ships

[close]

Weapons


Proton Guns - Ballistic shell weapons that do Energy damage and EMP

Diana's Darts, Arrows, and Spears - Fires out bursts of self-guided shells that home in on the targeted ship. Comes in Fragmentation, High Explosive, and Kinetic varieties for all three sizes. Currently only found on mercenary and Sindrian ships.

Fel Weapons (Free-Electron Lasers) - Pulse energy weapons with longer range than vanilla pulse lasers, lower damage, with a bit of EMP thrown in.

Plasma casters - Good damage against both hull and armor with a fairly low OP and flux cost, the plasma casters only real drawback is their slow fire rate and mediocre ability to take down shields on their own.

Mist Point Defense System - Slow firing but very cost effective energy based PD

Cloudburst missile launchers - Fires a guided missile that splits apart near the target into multiple warheads. These warheads explode into large clouds of charged energy. Effective both as area of effect defense against missiles and fighters and for finishing off damaged ships, the Cloudburst makes for a good multi-purpose combat missile.

Lithobreaker Torpedo launchers - Fires a guided torpedo that releases a high powered kinetic shot at the target when in range. Useful in both mining and warfare.

Streak MRMs - Very fast guided missiles with fairly low payloads. Excellent for taking out smaller vessels. Comes in Amber (frag), Azure (kinetic), Crimson (energy)

Scorpion Beam - A power hungry but versatile support beam that can safely fire over allies

Pirate Weapon - The Walloper, two Thumpers strapped together for twice the fun! Makes for a really cheap large slot weapon, and can prove surprisingly effective in the right situations


Walloper
[close]

If you are running Nexerelin, the mod has a custom start called A Golden Ticket, which starts you off with a VIP version of the Storm Seeker carrier and a bundle of Stardust Ventures blueprints. Perfect if you want to quickly jump into a SDV run!

As of v0.8.0 you can now find Stardust Ventures shops on select Independent planets. By deafult, this will be Ilm, Agreus, and Baetis, although you can configure the mod to spawn on additional planets if you wish.

NOTE: This mod is still in development, so expect a good bit of change as things get tested, balanced, cleaned up, and generally tweaked.

Thanks to theDragn for help with campaign map movement modding, ruddygreat, Wisp, Lukas04, PureTilt, and Vanilla for helping me get past some code hurdles, and the Unofficial Discord folks in general for help with all of this!


EVE Copyright stuff
"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."

Thanks to celestis for the old Eve ships mod which I plundered as part of the kitbashing to make these ships originally.
Everything is pretty much new and only inspired by the EVE stuff, now, but keeping this in anyway.
[close]


Change log
v0.1.1 = Initial upload
v0.1.2 = Vortex Hunter takes over the Light Cruiser role from the Storm Herald, which is now more in line with the Eagle.
           Various rebalancing to make the ships more consistent with things like shield effectiveness and fuel efficiency.
           Added the new pirate hull the Cosmic Fury.
v0.1.3 = Additional balancing of various hulls
             Added the Storm Bringer battlecruiser, Warp Diver Electronic Warfare destroyer, Comet Tail missile frigate, and Plasma Burst superfighter.
             Bumped up the size of the Solar Flare's sprite & bound box to be more appropriate for its hull size
v0.2.0 = Renamed the tags for all files from sv_ to stardust_ (this will break saves!)
              Art pass on all of the Frigates
              Some minor balance tweaks
v02.1 =  Swapped out the carrier decks as requested
v0.2.2 = Added two new weapons, the dual proton gun and heavy proton gun.
              Added the new weapons to some variants
              Small modifications to the Ion Skimmer and Comet Tail sprites     
v0.2.3 = Compatible with 0.95.1a-RC6
              Art rework of the Starlight Guard
              Stats rebalance of the Starlight Guard   
              Added three new pulse laser weapons, the Fel Repeater, Fel Pulsar, and Fel Cannon. Longer ranger than the vanilla Pulse weapons but do a bit less
damage.
v0.2.4 = Art rework of the Warp Diver, Stargazer, and Sunbeam Rider
              Added a new missile type, the Cloudburst. A mirv weapon like the Sabot that does wide AOE designed to take out groups of missiles and fighters. 
v0.3.1 = Added in a new fighter, the Meteorite
              Added a new proton gun, the single-barrel light proton gun
              Added a Large mount Cloudbust weapon, the Stormfront launcher
              Art rework on the Vortex Hunter and Cosmic Wind ships
              Art rework on the Fel Pulsar and Fel Cannon to make them more distinct from vanilla energy weapons.
v0.4.1 = REQUIRES A NEW SAVE
              Added in a new fighter, the Stormwing
              Art rework on the Storm Herald, Void Nomad, and Starlight Raider ships
              Rebalance of abilities on the Starlight Raider and the weapon mounts on the Storm Herald and Void Nomad
v0.4.2 = Art rework of the Solar Flare
              Rebalance  of hull mods and stats on the Solar Flare
              Added in Moonbreaker bomber wing and Stormlight gunship wing
              Added in Lithobreaker torpedoes and double, pod, and barrage versions(s/m/l)
              Added in nex mining capabilities to the Void Nomad and Lithobreaker torpedoes
v0.4.3 = Art replacement of the Storm Bringer
             Major rebalancing of the Storm Bringer
             Added custom faction skins for the Plasma Burst - Persean League, Hegemony, Sindrian Diktat, Mercenaries           
v0.5.0 = MAY BREAK SAVES
             Added in a new Destroyer, the Storm Seeker
             Reworked the Cosmic Fury into the Cosmic Horror with new art and some big stats/hardpoint adjustments
             Added in a new weapon type, the Plasma Caster with Small, Medium, and Large slot versions
             Added in a new Large proton gun, the Proton Autocannon
             Added in a new Large version of the Thumper, the Walloper
v0.5.1 = Added in a new variant of the Storm Seeker that swaps the large mount for a fighter bay
             Added in a new set of weapons, Diana's Dart/Arrow/Spear with Frag, HE, and Kinetic versions of each
v0.5.2 = Bugfix to prevent issues on Linux systems
v0.5.3 = Added the Oort Traveler, twin-linked fel repeater, and quad-linked fel repeater
             Updated the sprites for a few ships
             Adjusted the stats on a few ships to improve balance
             Fel weapon shots are now a bit more blue looking
             Moved the Diana's Dart/Arrow/Spear to being Sindrian Diktat and merc only, and actually gave some factions access to the Cloudburst pod, Stormfront launcher, and Stormlight gunship
v0.6.0 = BIG CHANGES - MAY MAKE SAVES WONKY
          NOW REQUIRES LazyLib and MagicLib
          Solar Shielding swapped out for Stardust Core Drive, which has slightly weaker effects but also adds a fleetwide boost to campaign map agility, up to 50% improvement for all-SV fleets
          Added in Stardust Engine Enhancements hullmod, which gives +1 burn, +10% combat speed, and +20% maneuverability.
          Cosmic Wind is now cheaper to deploy and maintain
          Warp Diver has more OP and better flux stats but costs more to deploy and maintain
          Adjusted some loadouts and ship variants, particularly for the Warp Diver
          Stardust Venture blueprints have been split out of the midline pack and into two packs, one for civilian and one for military
          Did some rebalancing of which factions get access to what bps
          Added Industrial Evolution integration for reverse engineering and ship duplication
          Fixed a sound issue with the linked fel and fel battery weapons
          Added versioning support and direct download for SMOL         
          Various bugfixes
          Various minor art tweaks      
v0.6.1 = Bugfix
           Fixed an issue with the version checking files   
v0.7.0 = Starsector 0.96 Update
          Updated code to handle MagicLib changes
          Added new ship, the Celestial Guide
          Added new fighter, the Gamma Racer
          Added new weapon, the FEL pds
          Updated graphics for the Starlight Guard
          Upped Stardust Core fleet agility boost to 100% max bonus from 50%
          Tweaks to various variant loadouts
          Tweaked Faction usage of SV ships/equipment to better fit new lore
v0.7.1 = Added Environmental Shielding hullmod
       Added Mist PDS
       Added Amber, Azure, Crimson, and Violet Streak MRMs (in small/med/large mount sizes)
       Fixed Celestial Guide not showing up as often as it should
       Fixed Celestial Guide not giving the intended 30% nav penalty reduction
       Updated the Gamma Racer to also use a Mist PDS
       Updated some variant loadouts to include the new weapons
       Updated the Exploration ships to include built-in Environmental Shielding (Horizon Chaser, Stargazer, and Void Nomad)
v0.7.2 = HOTFIX for the Celestial Guide harmonics crash
v0.7.3 = Added Twilight Defiance missile cruiser
       Fixed Environmental Shielding not showing up as often as it should
       Updated engines to have a little less smoke in the contrail
       Adjusted Independents to use SDV ships a little less often
       Adjusted some descriptions
       Added S-Mod bonus for engine mod
v0.7.4 = Added Fel Defender and Guardian
         Added Proton Gun Battery and Heavy Proton Battery
       Art update for Plasma Burst, Storm Seeker, Vortex Hunter, and Cosmic Wind
       Cosmic Wind gains a new unique ship system
       Updated various weapon stats
       Updated Storm Runner stats (slightly tankier, slightly slower, better flux dsp.)
       Mercenaries get their elite Plasma Burst
       Color shift for Proton weapons and Fel PDS based weapons
       (Linux) Fixed a capitalization issue that could cause crashes
       Added VIP version of the Storm Seeker (c) as a rare blueprint
       Added a Custom Nex start using the VIP ship that includes the two base Stardust Ventures blueprint packages
       Updated various variant loadouts
       Rebalanced the Stormwing fighters
       Save compatable, HOWEVER some OP costs have changed so your ships may be over/under on existing saves
v0.8.0 = Added Stardust Ventures Store to some Indy markets
       VIPs get special treatment
       Added mod configuration files and Lunalib support
       Scavengers can now use some SDV ships
       Toned down SDV ship usage in most factions
       Art update for Sunbeam Rider
       Save compatible, stores WILL generate in markets on game load after update if enabled.
v0.8.1 = Updated some ship variant loadouts
       Fel Guardians are less common (autofit was abusing it to the detriment of AI ships)
       Fixed an issue that was causing crashes with Java 7
v0.8.2 = Added unique base for Streak MRM (double) versions
            Fixed market blacklist not working
       Fix - Golden Ticket start now gets a skill point
       Art updates for Horizon Chaser and Void Nomad
       Horizon Chaser now has Advance Survey Drones (This reduced the available OP slightly)
       Updated various variant loadouts
v0.8.3 = Starsector 0.97 Update
       Extended the shield bubble for Vortex Hunter
       Tweaked some weapon arcs
       Updated some descriptions
       Rebalanced some ship stats, and gave Solar Flare Harmonic Winds instead of Active Flare system
       Rebalanced some weapon stats
       Added Stardust Ventures ship name list
       Added the Scorpion Beam weapon
       The Twilight Defiance's internal Streak MRMs now have slow ammo regen
       Reduced Moonbreaker wing size down to 2, as well as OP cost to 14
       Updated some variant loadouts
[close]

« Last Edit: February 10, 2024, 02:46:15 PM by Mephansteras »
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.1.1
« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2021, 06:51:26 PM »

Mod notes:
  • All ships in this pack are faster than most vanilla ships with considerably less hull, armor, and flux capacity to balance this. They are all solidly Midline, restricted to Front shields, and do not get things like teleportation or phase. All of them now have built in a Stardust Core Field hullmod to allow for somewhat less risky travel through hyperspace as well as better fleetwide agility on the campaign map. They also generally have better fuel efficiency and often hold more fuel and less cargo than similar vanilla vessels.
  • This mod is designed to be balanced against vanilla ships, weapons, etc only. I'm not terribly concerned how well it mixes with other mods and factions, at least a this point.
  • Currently this is a vanilla-integration content pack. All of the ships, weapons, etc that are added will show up as part of the normal vanilla factions. I've put some restrictions into place, but for the most part any faction that uses midline equipment can have them show up. You can also find them in the shops of most factions.
  • This will probably be a faction at some point, but that's a lot of extra work so no real timeline on that.

Any suggestions, issues, balancing notes, and whatnot much appreciated!


Looking ahead, I have a few plans. No real order on when I'm going to get to any given piece.
  • Split the Stardust Ventures items out of the midline blueprint pack and move to its own.
  • Custom ship systems for many of the hulls
  • Integrate Ontheheavens' Forge Production into a set of custom capital ships to really let you wander the our regions of the sector for long periods of time
  • More exploration content
  • Turn Stardust Ventures into an actual faction!
« Last Edit: December 04, 2022, 03:45:34 PM by Mephansteras »
Logged

6chad.noirlee9

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 368
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.1.1
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2021, 07:06:26 AM »

Looks interesting.
Logged
edit: edit: maybe were just falling with style LOL.  make a bubble, make the space in front of it smaller and just fall forward

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.1.1
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2021, 07:36:54 AM »

Put some more work into this. I've done some re-balancing and added in two new ships.

The Cosmic Wind now has its sister hull, the Vortex Hunter:



I've also added in a Pirate section which is what I'm using rejected designs for.
« Last Edit: November 16, 2021, 07:45:47 AM by Mephansteras »
Logged

6chad.noirlee9

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 368
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.1.2
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2021, 07:50:43 AM »

Ah. the rejects love more rejects.
Logged
edit: edit: maybe were just falling with style LOL.  make a bubble, make the space in front of it smaller and just fall forward

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.1.2
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2021, 09:12:57 AM »

Heh. We'll see how it goes. I actually haven't had too many rejected hull designs so far.

Right now I think I'm looking at 6 more ships planned for the pack.

A Battlecruiser, which will be the heaviest combat-focused ship this pack gets since it's more of a swift strike set and not so much on heavy line combat.
An electronic warfare ship, either frigate or destroyer sized.
Another frigate/destroyer. Probably a missile boat of some sort. Size would be whichever isn't used for the EW ship.
A capital sized Exploration/Flagship. Not a true dedicated combat ship, but strong enough to work as a flagship while still being focused on Exploration.
A capital sized Refinery/Forge ship based on Ontheheavens Forge Production hull mods.
A capital sized general logistics ship with a starborne city motif. Pondering trying to give it some slow commercial goods/farming/crew production as well. Would have large minimum crew requirements, but also fits the "stay out on the rim for extended periods of time" theme of the pack.

Thoughts? Anything I'm missing that you'd love to see in this pack?
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.1.2
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2021, 08:08:42 AM »

Currently working on testing out my new battlecruiser, the Storm Bringer class


And a WIP missile frigate, the Comet Tail:
« Last Edit: November 18, 2021, 09:34:00 AM by Mephansteras »
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.1.2
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2021, 11:10:34 PM »

A bit more testing and balancing to do, but I expect I'll have v0.1.3 up this weekend.

This one normalizes some more of the stats across the ship pack and adds in some new ships. In addition to the Storm Bringer and Comet Tail, we have the Warp Diver (EWar Destroyer) and the Plasma Burst (basically a frigate classed fighter).
         

Plasma Burst wasn't really part of my intended plans, but it just kind of came together. It's kind of neat and can be fun to fly, but isn't terribly powerful. Still, it can make a decent little escort ship and works pretty well for anti-fighter duty if you don't have any fighters of your own.

I might hold off on the non-combat Capital Ships until I get to the hull mods they'll need to be interesting.

So next release after this will probably be v0.2, which will move on to adding in some weapons to the pack.
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.1.3
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2021, 09:57:32 PM »

v0.1.3 is now up.

I am going to hold off on the last few capital ships for now and move on to some of the other bits. So next up is weapons.

I may end up shifting the Storm Bringer's design to one of the non-combat hulls at some point. I like it, but not really as a combat ship for this pack. It'll probably end up being the city-ship.

On the whole, though, I'm pretty pleased with the balance I have so far. The ships feel pretty good, they don't look terribly out of place compared to the vanilla art while still looking distinctive, and they are fun to use without feeling OP.
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.2.0
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2021, 10:01:02 PM »

Started doing an art pass on the ships. I'll probably end up doing multiple of these, but it's a good start.

Also made the mod items less likely to collide with other mods by changing the prefix of all the tags.
Logged

Thaago

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 7214
  • Harpoon Affectionado
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.2.0
« Reply #10 on: November 25, 2021, 10:37:36 PM »

Please do respect this Mephansteras and remove those parts: DME is published under a no-derivatives license and the mod's FAQ explicitly asks others not to use their sprites or portions of them.

There is a sprite thread here: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=12896.135
and here: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=1131.0
which are all free for use if you want parts/inspiration.
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.2.0
« Reply #11 on: November 26, 2021, 09:39:59 PM »

Yeah, I'll get the flight decks replaced. Sorry about that!
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.2.1
« Reply #12 on: November 29, 2021, 06:32:30 PM »

Carrier decks have been replaced.

I do apologize for that. I had just skimmed things in the thread and the license and had mistakenly assumed it was similar to many creative commons style licenses that I'd encountered in other areas where using stuff was fine as long as you didn't claim it was yours or try to make money off of it. Good reminder to make sure I read things more carefully in the future and not make assumptions! Won't happen again.
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.2.2
« Reply #13 on: December 08, 2021, 12:41:09 PM »

v0.2.2 is out.

Added in two new weapons, the dual proton gun and the heavy proton gun. These are both basically mini-mjonirs. The dual is pretty long range point defense gun that is also good at disabling ships. The heavy is better vs ships, though still not great against strong armor. They seem to do well when paired with anti-armor weaponry.

They probably need more balance tuning, but so far they seem to work pretty well and have a nice distinctive look to them. I've added them to some of my ship variants. Mostly the smaller classes of ships.

Other than that I did some tweaks to the Ion Skimmer and Comet Tail. They're getting a bit closer to how I think they'll ultimately end up looking.
Logged

Mephansteras

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
Re: [0.9.5a] Stardust Ventures ship pack v0.2.3
« Reply #14 on: December 20, 2021, 09:07:15 PM »

0.2.3 is up!

Redid the sprite for the Starlight Guard, which looks a bit beefier now and more like the tanky light destroyer that it is. Also did some light rebalancing of it.

           
       Old                             New
       
I've also added in a few more weapons. New pulse lasers this time.

Fel Weapons (Free-Electron Lasers)
                                          
Fel Repeater       Fel Pulsar      Fel Cannon 



Next up is the sprite re-work for the Warp Diver and Stargazer class ships as well as a new missile or two.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 8