hey, first post from a lurker here
I've been doing a little modding, thinking of making a ships mod not exactly as a counterpart to the weapons mod, but it was my inspiration. I've been doing both coding/balancing and spriting, both of which are probably a little iffy, but I'll put my sprites up here for use and give a general direction for how each ship has turned out with my balancing or how I hoped to make the ship handle.
The sprites are all made by kitbashing.
Ship class: Sentinel
This was my first ever ship for starfarer. It's best in escort duty due to its comparatively low speed, and despite its medium energy hardpoints it is little able to cope with the flux generated by much more than graviton beams.
Ship class: Buffalo B-type
This destroyer was supposed to player like a pocket-sized low-tech version of the conquest class. it has the potential to have a potent weapons array in its broadsides and has some point defence capability, but is slow and does not fare well against other ships of its size, excelling versus frigates.
Ship class: Lance
The Lance was intended to be a more maneouverable and faster alternative to the Dominator - it's supposed to represent a more recent development of the Hegemony. It's supposed to posses a single large ballistic hardpoint, and enough PD to get by. I recommend having it have better speed and agility than the Dominator but at the cost of armour and perhaps hull hitpoints.
Ship class: Stoat
This ship was made from the request of a friend I had testing the mod. He wanted me to create a smaller ship in the same style as the oddysey. This was my result. It was only after I finished the ship that he told me he'd expected a destroyer rather than a cruiser. At the moment this is probably too similar to the Aroura in combat capability.
Ship class: Dart
Alright, I know this ship isn't really shaped like a dart so of course you're free to name it whatever you wish if you use it, and in fact that applies to any of the ships here. I never properly finished coding and balancing this ship - from my perspective it's too small for a destroyer but too large for a frigate.
Ship class: Manta (I suggest a bird-related name as it follows the style of the Eagle and the Falcon)
This ship was intended to be a missile destroyer, and with a capable captain can fulfill this role well. My tactic was to use a Pilum to get the enemy ship to raise their shields, overload them with sabot SRMs, then finish them off with harpoons. I recommend the PD slots are universal or energy to fit in with its midline appearence.
Ship class: Behemoth
Quite possibly redefining the meaning of "overpowered", this ship was originally made just for fun and eye candy of watching ballistics flying everywhere. It's capable of soloing entire fleets easily. Using the enhanced range provided by the integrated targeting unit and stabilised ballistic emplacements (from the weapon pack), this ship's PD was able to overload the shields of anything and shred the hull underneath to swiss cheese. The problem was getting close enough for the PD to even fire due to the ship handling like a large space bus. Running out of ammo was also a recurring issue for me. Watching a salvo of annihilator missiles come at this thing is quite the sight to watch its 50+ PD slots shooting down.
So, I hope you guys like my ship sprites, and I can't wait to see this project gather some momentum! :3
Edit: and if any coder wishes, I can upload .ship files so you don't have to set up all the hardpoints/engines/bounds. I wouldn't recommend taking my csv file though as I don't trust my own balancing ability
