FTL Captain's Edition 1.308/Inf 1.301b/EL 1.308

[Mr. Mister]

Hey, here's a thought: The Crystal Cruiser will be the only one of the classic ships to lack a new third starting layout.

Sooooooooooo...

Who else wants a purple crystal ship? And if you make new crystal weapons incorporating some of AE's new weapon functionalities, you could make those weapons' crystals purple (or the ship's colour if you settle on another) to fit with it.

As to how to make it stand out... I say it starts with drones but lv1 weapons. WIth a flare drone and a hull repair drone. And both Crystal Vengeance, Rock Armour and Titanium CAsing (or two vengeances and one rock armour). Apart from the hacking system.

You see where I'm going with this, right?

I'm watching the AE run they played during their interview (funny how even the devs can make some small mistakes, like not prioritizing hacking a Leto over an anti-ship 1), and apart from the new weapons and such, a relatively unexpected new feature is that choices that result in a new crewmember now display said subject's race (and name) before you select it. Not sure if it can be toggled (or otherwise you just put an extra text window in-between), but it seems it'll make slave surrenders interesting.


Also, if you're ever adding a C layout for the new species' ship, I think it' fairly obvious it should start with two lanius and two AI Avatars, and no oxygen system (to be bought for, say, 50 scrap).

[Railgunner2160]

What interview?? Can you please provide links?? I'm curious to see some of AE.....

[Mr. Mister]

I'm in bed on the Upad now (no typo, the WiiU one), so go look at the subreddit for the link.

"I let the two humans get killed by boarders in order to show the clone bay in action, but I forgot about the ion storm".

Come to think of it, that might make CE's ion storm breaking out mid-fight even more dangerous than it is now (it can already screw you a tad if it knocks out a fully charged weapon you were aiming) if it automatically depowers the clone bay.

So far though, and apart from the PDS, I haven't seen anything that would completely substitute a any piece of CE's gear. Some might need renaming though.

[Sleeper Service]

Who else wants a purple crystal ship? And if you make new crystal weapons incorporating some of AE's new weapon functionalities, you could make those weapons' crystals purple (or the ship's colour if you settle on another) to fit with it.

As to how to make it stand out... I say it starts with drones but lv1 weapons. WIth a flare drone and a hull repair drone. And both Crystal Vengeance, Rock Armour and Titanium CAsing (or two vengeances and one rock armour). Apart from the hacking system.

You see where I'm going with this, right?

Towards a remake of the Obsidian Cruiser? Not quite the same as what you suggested, but I still though about it immediately. Player ships isn't really what I'm into. Maybe you should make the ship, as you seem to have figured out the concept already anyway.

So far though, and apart from the PDS, I haven't seen anything that would completely substitute a any piece of CE's gear. Some might need renaming though.

Yeah, I'm confident that the AE gear won't interfere too much with what CE adds.

I consider scrapping the onboard clone-lab, cause the ability to get new crew kind of becomes arbitrary when you can revive anybody all the time with the regular clone bay. Which is probably also much wider available.

The internal effector probably will go as well. Hacking seems to do the same thing in much more interesting way.

I consider having the two PDS exist beside each other. The event texts will telegraph if you are targeted by long range artillery or the mid range anti ship batteries (AEs PDS).

The video in question can be found here by the way.

(funny how even the devs can make some small mistakes, like not prioritizing hacking a Leto over an anti-ship 1)

I wouldn't concentrate that much as well when I'm busy giving a live interview at the same time...

[Russian Rockman]

A purple Crystal ship would be cool. Ive always liked the idea of a Crystal ship that relies on the Crystal vengeance augment. Not sure about that specific loadout though. Don't you actually have to take take damage for Crystal vengeance to work, so the Rock plating might be counter productive. It wouldn't be very difficult to recolor the vanilla ship, but it would be difficult to make it look right. I actually tried creating a purple "Amethyst" Crystal ship, a green "emerald" one, and even a yellow one just the other day.

About CE stuff vs AE stuff:

• I think the Ammo replicator might reduce the usefulness of things like the ammo manufacturer.
• I really think the internal effector should be kept because it works differently than the hacking system. It requires no drone and might possibly be more reliable as it limits system power permanently.
• The on board clone lab would be cool for making new crew still, but I do see how less useful it is compared to the cone system. (Maybe it would be useful to be able to keep you Medbay still? Maybe you could create a crew member after every encounter? Maybe we could add a 4th clone bay power that does the same thing as an on board clone lab?)
• i like the idea of keeping both the AE and CE PDS and having the coexist in harmony.
• The chain weapons seem very interesting, I'm wondering how they would compare to the Auto Lasers?
• The "Swarm" missile launcher in AE is very similar to the already existing Multi-shot missiles in CE, but maybe they will retain some uniqueness because they can be used as single or multi-shot like the chain lasers.
• i hope the Lanius don't overwrite the ghost race! I don't think they would though

A few tiny things I noticed about AE:

• Small graphical updates to the events text screen. What's weird is the rewards screen seems to have a different more solid texture than the rest.
• All of the warnings seem to be in red now, no more white ones.
• The new map and sector screen looks cool
• OMG Two store pages!!!
• Anybody else wonder how manned level 3 doors and sensors would act?
• New explosion animation for missiles, I kind of miss the old one though, I'm so used to it. I feel there will be a place for mods that revert specific things back to vanilla.
• what do you guys think of the new Type C ships? They look like custom mod recolors. I like them, but wasn't expecting those designs.
• Some system icons and status UI icons seem to have been redone and smoothed over. Me like.

Sleeper, do you have any ideas for new weapons or ideas on how current CE weapons could be tweaked etc... To use the new weapon mechanics?

Things I would have liked to see:
I am very surprised that Matthew and Justin said they don't get many requests for new aliens!!! I like that all the aliens they add have their own unique culture though rather than a ton of tiny ones. I could think of a few other races for them to add though. A common suggestion would be plant race, I can see them being pacifists and I can see them healing crew in a room they are in or providing oxygen to that room like the opposite of the Lanius.

I was wishing we could carry more than 3 augments though. A really good suggestion someone had before is 5 augment slots, but some require more than one slot, like a weapon pre-igniter would be 2-3 slots and Adv. FTL Navigation would just be one slot.

I wish there was a way to give blue options depending on what ship you are using, but I guess we don't know they haven't added that yet.

Only 8 sectors still. I was kind of hoping the number of sectors would increase to like 10-12 to extend the game a little bit. I was actually wondering about a "Lite" version of the Infinite add-on that would extend the game just a little bit. Maybe you would have to accumulate 10+ fuel in order to travel to Deep Space rather than the other way around. The only problem would of course be the fact that there is no Crystal sector, but I guess you could get around that the same way the Infinite add on does already with the Ancient Sector. Maybe some non-unique sectors would just send you to deep space anyway, maybe the Ancient Sector could be one of these labeled differently so you don't know it's the Ancient Sector.

[Mr. Mister]

The Ammo Manufacturer can coexist with the Ammo Replicator I think, as a cheaper alternative for it, just like how the Drone Factory is a cheaper alternative to the Drone Recovery Arm. It's also a safer bet too.

You're probably right on rock plating interfiering with crystal vengeance though... so it would have to be one crystal vengeance and one titanium casing, and this way you can use CE's engineering to get a second vengeance ASAP. Start with clone bay and hacking (maybe lv2), with shields (which you'll power down in order to get revengeance) and good engines (for PDS events).

I'm thinking it would start with a chaff launcher (it only needs one power, right?), a hull repair drone, and a flare drone. Only damage output is vengeance, though you can still hack enemy weapons to prevent the big-projectyle/beam ones (which out-damage your vengeance per shot) from firing. Chaff and flares are to cover your vengeance shards.

As for crew, maybe put a Lanius in it too? It could have been captured, like the ship, and Lanius don't have that bad a synergy with Crystallites.

[Sleeper Service]

I think the Ammo replicator might reduce the usefulness of things like the ammo manufacturer.

Yeah, to me it looks like they still have a different feel to them. I might keep the manufacturer along.

i hope the Lanius don't overwrite the ghost race! I don't think they would though

From my perspective, that is highly unlikely. I think the AIs are safe.

OMG Two store pages!!!

Yeah, I'd say this will work super well with CE.

Sleeper, do you have any ideas for new weapons or ideas on how current CE weapons could be tweaked etc... To use the new weapon mechanics?

There seems to be this content separation between AEs content and vanilla. I think that I will divide CEs content like this as well. I consider CEs weapons finished things and rather add new gears instead of modifying the old gear. Just like the defs obviously did (old weapons might get new mechanics in vanilla, but I somewhat doubt that with this content separation at hand).

So I rather will make completely new weapons as CEs "AE content". I have some concepts, but I obviously can't tell you anything certain till AE is out.

[RMackay88]

New ship design in FTL: AE, how will CE fit them into the narrative (like you have for Fed Cruiser B & Zoltan B)

[Sleeper Service]

Thats all hard to say right now. I guess the new layouts ships will be equipped with CEs AE content at some point (with the CE vanilla ship addon updated as well of course, to let the user decide which loadout to use). The Kestrel C and the Fed Cruiser C will most likely get the new Requisition License aug, would seem fitting. Some new enemy ships and stations might get these paint jobs at some point.

[Mr. Mister]

The Zoltan C's paintjob looks more fitting for the AI Overrun sector ships though, don't you think?

Slug C, with that yellow, looks like a highway mechanic/emergency vehicle. You ain't gonna hide very well with that colour.

Mantis C's digital camo totally suggests digital warfare.

Fed B... I'm not sure. It looks more outlaw-ish than pirate-ish.