Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Flunky]

I noticed a complaint about the new skill-requiring hullmods on the Bay12 forums along the lines of "Picard didn't have to master warp core engineering!"

Setting aside the fact that this setting is rather quite different than star trek, it did get me thinking-- as it stand right now, aside from your starter ship there does indeed seem to be no way to get a hullmod beyond DIY. Surely there are others out there in the sector who could provide access to hullmods?

The (in my opinion) problem of hullmods stripped on capture is one thing, but what about a method linked with faction relations? For example, as long as you're in good standing with the Hegemony their stations could install heavy armor on your vessel. Perhaps it could even be tied to individual stations instead of broad factions-- the techies over on Xingbat III really know how to get the most out of targeting systems, say. These could be free as long as you have sufficient friendship, or they could be for a price. A freeport (pirates), say, would always have some engineers willing to do some quick and dirty mods for the right price.

Does this sound palatable at all? The ability to be able to do-it-yerself anywhere, anytime hullmods seems like it would still be quite useful, while at the same time large numbers of hullmods are not forever locked away to a character.

[ArkAngel]

 Seems like a great idea. Another way to sped my credits to  although I do think that on your own station you should need your skills to make hull mods

[Axiege]

+1

[Gothars]

I like it. Will make more sense when multiple systems come around.
We don't know anything about what officers will do though, maybe it's something in that direction.

[Vind]

Right now you getting all hull mods if enemy ship surrenders - not sure if it is a feature or oversight.

[Talkie Toaster]

Alex has already mentioned you'll be able to buy blueprints from stations that will include hullmods/weapon loadouts that might be beyond your character's OP and knowledge- that's why blueprints are stored per save, rather than accessible to all characters once you've made them.

[Gothars]

Alex has already mentioned you'll be able to buy blueprints from stations that will include hullmods/weapon loadouts that might be beyond your character's OP and knowledge- that's why blueprints are stored per save, rather than accessible to all characters once you've made them.

That would be cool, do you have a link to where he said that?

[Talkie Toaster]

That would be cool, do you have a link to where he said that?

He's mentioned it very recently, but IIRC it's been a stock reply to questions about "Why does variant X have more OP's worth of weapons than it's allowed?" for a while.

[Flunky]

Thanks for pointing that out, Talkie Toaster. To be honest I suspected that this idea would not be wholly new to Alex, so it's good to see evidence of it out there.

[Gothars]

@ Talkie: Actually, he only talked about ships with pre-installed hullmods in that post, nothing about blueprints.  Mhhh...You did mean Variants, didn't you? That would make sense.

[Talkie Toaster]

I meant the blueprints for variants. Rereading I misinterpreted that post- but I'm pretty sure he's mentioned being able to buy the blueprints for variants that you can then apply even if you don't have the skills to set up the variant yourself.

[JT]

I noticed a complaint about the new skill-requiring hullmods on the Bay12 forums along the lines of "Picard didn't have to master warp core engineering!"

I think that logic is a little flawed (my Vulcan costume ears are still in their box, honest). You can assume that if Starfarer were Starfleet, then junior officers would start as level 10 or so. The game's skill tree then works perfectly fine. Remember that the thing that makes humans so resilient in the Star Trek universe is their special military academy training elite officers, and where the crew complements have a disproportionately large ratio of officers to enlistees. When you start a new captain in Starfarer, read the starting scenarios carefully: none of them suggest you've had a great deal of formal training.

By the time you hit the equivalent of a Star Trek captain, you're probably level 20 or so in Starfarer terms. So yes, Picard did have to master warp core engineering, or at least he had to have officers who did while he specialised in other skills like fleet tactics and leadership.

Let's bear in mind that Picard is flying a heavy cruiser, the largest hull size in common use in the entire Star Trek fleet (battleships really only come into play in the unofficial expanded universe), and that he also flies the flagship of the fleet. While some allowances have to be made for sake of cinematic dramatism, Picard was also instrumental in -- and gained experience from -- many, if not all, of the most major incidents in the galaxy during his career. In those terms alone, Picard is easily level 30 or 40 or so. If Picard didn't have to master warp core engineering as far as Starfarer terms go, I'll eat those Vulcan ears. (Note: I do not actually own Vulcan ears. ;-))

***

That treatise aside, I still agree wholeheartedly with the original post: the means to acquire hullmods aside from learning how to do them yourself would also be very welcome. I agree in principle with the "free" option at certain locations and factions, and also agree in principle with Alex's mention that purchasing hullmod blueprints makes sense, but also think that their higher-value modifications should require you to purchase plans, and only then could the originating faction actually install them using those plans -- think of it as purchasing licensing fees. There is, after all, a certain element of risk in giving away their trade secrets to others with 100% freedom.