[AE&CE Mod] Engi B Rebalanced 1.31

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Noobjuice
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[AE&CE Mod] Engi B Rebalanced 1.31

Postby Noobjuice » Tue Dec 31, 2013 2:11 am

This mod aims to rebalance the Type-B Engi Cruiser to make it more fun to play. A lot of people have been complaining that the Engi B is too difficult, and those that do make it work tend to completely strip it out and repurpose it.
This is a shame, because the drone-ship idea is pretty cool, it’s just suffering from poor implementation. That’s why I decided to make these new versions of the Engi B, based on suggestions from the forums.

I’ve been playtesting these ships for a while now and aimed to make them as balanced as possible, but if you have any comments or suggestions please let me know.


The Ares
The Ares is the next generation of Engi Automated Cruiser. Equipped with a state of the art autopilot and more efficient weapons and drone systems, this ship surpasses the Vortex in almost every respect.
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Screenshots:
AE Layout
CE Layout

This is a rebalanced version of the original Engi B. It can now pierce level 2 shields thanks to its dual laser and has a defence drone to compensate for its poor engines. It also has a L3 helm, so now your lone Engi can risk leaving the cockpit from time to time.

Download Ares 1.31


The Vega
A newly developed prototype cruiser, the Vega sacrifices weapons power in favour of a much larger drone bay. It also has a top of the line autopilot and a variety of on-board drones to assist its crew in almost any situation.

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Screenshots:
AE Layout
CE Layout

This cruiser has 4 drone slots, which gives it a unique playstyle that relies on drone power and versatility. It also has a L3 helm and an Ion Boarding Drone, which makes it much more fun to play in the early stages of the game.

Note: Because this ship only has two weapon slots the auto-fire button won’t show up on the UI. If you want to use auto-fire I suggest using the hotkey (V by default), or holding ctrl when selecting a target.

Download Vega 1.31


NEW: The Enso
This old Engi Cruiser has been hastily upgraded with a prototype ion weapon and an AI salvaged from a rebel Auto-Cruiser. Whether the AI will choose to accept its new masters or brutally murder them has yet to be tested.
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Screenshots:
AE Layout
CE Layout

This is another rebalanced version of the Engi B using the new AE content. The Chain Ion allows you to stack ion damage if you wait long enough, while the Clone Bay helps your lone Engi to survive longer.

Download Enso 1.01


Extras

Engi B Autoship Patch
This patch allows the Engi-B repair and pilot itself like a rebel Auto-Cruiser. It will work with any of the cruisers here as well as the vanilla Engi B, and requires the Universal Starting Beacon mod, which you can download here.

In SMM, you’ll need to load the mods in the following order:
-Captains edn (optional)
-Universal Starting Beacon
- Engi B Rebalanced
-Autoship Patch

Note: While using the Engi B with the auto-cruiser patch you won’t be able to hire crew in stores, although you can still get them from events. This bug is hardcoded, so unfortunately I can’t fix it.

Download Autoship Patch


dronesplus Mod
Want to get the most out of these ships? You should try out the dronesplus mod by Karmos. This mod adds a bunch of new drones, including the Ion and Missile Drones that were originally planned to be in the game.

DronesPlus hasn’t been updated for AE yet, so I threw together an AE-compatible version which you can download here.

Code: Select all

Changelog:
1.31
-Fixed a bug with the artillery on the CE Versions.
1.3
-Added a new cruiser: The Enso.
-Added Captains Edn versions for each cruiser.
-Added Auto-Cruiser Patch.
-Replaced the Vega’s Boarding Drone with an Ion Boarding Drone.
-Fixed a minor graphical glitch on the Vega.
-Fixed image filename syntax, to make it easier for other modders to make changes.

1.2
-Updated for Advanced Edn.

1.0
-Initial Release.
Last edited by Noobjuice on Mon May 25, 2015 2:01 pm, edited 18 times in total.
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TaxiService
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Re: Engi B Rebalanced – The Vega and The Ares

Postby TaxiService » Tue Dec 31, 2013 2:30 am

Sounds cool! Will try to play a couple of runs with them as soon as possible. : )
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R4V3-0N
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Re: Engi B Rebalanced – The Vega and The Ares

Postby R4V3-0N » Tue Dec 31, 2013 8:10 am

Am I the only one who likes the Engi Cruiser B?..... and (usually) keep all the stock equipment till the near end?
R4V3-0N, a dreamer.
UltraMantis
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Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:17 pm

Re: Engi B Rebalanced – The Vega and The Ares

Postby UltraMantis » Fri Jan 03, 2014 2:46 am

I'm a big fan of the Vortex, incredibly fun to play.

The Vega and Ares look like great modships in their own right. By the sound of things they are buffed when compared to the original, but i haven't played either so i can't really say. I will give it a go.

And they'll feature on the Mod List once i figure out how to cram even more ships in there. ;)
UltraMantis
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Re: Engi B Rebalanced – The Vega and The Ares

Postby UltraMantis » Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:58 pm

Took the Ares to a funky victory yesterday. Well made ship, though by it's nature it is still a bit luck dependant. It's at least much sturdier and i would recommend it to all who hate the vanilla Engi B.

It's a fun ship with no fault i could find, and it feels just like a vanilla ship as well. Job well done sir.

Livestream recording: http://www.twitch.tv/frumple1/c/3581402

EDIT - For the record the Vortex is my 2nd favorite ship, very closely following the Nesasio. But it is very bad in terms of strengths and weakneses. So weaker than most but funner than most, i say!
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Noobjuice
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Re: Engi B Rebalanced – The Vega and The Ares

Postby Noobjuice » Tue Feb 11, 2014 2:23 am

Hey Ultramantis, wow thanks for the feedback. Glad to know there are people enjoying this mod. :)

I like what you did at the end of your livestream, too. It's strangely fitting to have no crew left alive at the end, leaving the Ares and its L3 autoplilot to fly off into the sunset.
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Noobjuice
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Re: [AE][Ship] Engi B Rebalanced

Postby Noobjuice » Wed May 28, 2014 12:05 pm

Just updated this mod to be AE compatable.
It seem to be working fine now, but if you find any problems let me know.
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ScubaSteve3465
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Re: [AE][Ship] Engi B Rebalanced

Postby ScubaSteve3465 » Mon Sep 15, 2014 7:56 pm

For some reason no matter what I do I cant get both the ships working at the same time. I tried to make the Ares replace Engi A and Vega for Engi B. Which should be VERY simple but its not working like it should. I edited the blueprint file for the Ares to this but it always makes the Vega both ships, A and B.

Code: Select all

<shipBlueprint name="PLAYER_SHIP_CIRCLE"



Wait.... it seems like the blueprints file the vega are in a backup folder... Idk I cant figure out how to get this working. Even removing the old files and using the correct backup ones that have the actual vega data and not the ares and it still doesnt work.
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Noobjuice
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Re: [AE][Ship] Engi B Rebalanced

Postby Noobjuice » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:55 am

Hi Scuba Steve, sorry for the late reply.

I think what you’re trying to do is a bit more complicated than that. As well as changing all instances of "PLAYER_SHIP_CIRCLE_2" to "PLAYER_SHIP_CIRCLE” in the xml file, you also have to change the names of the all the images and txt files.

There was also a bug in the xml file though, which wasn’t helping. Both of the ships were named “The Vega”, so I went ahead and fixed that. Thanks for drawing my attention to it. :?

Anyway, I threw together an Engi A version of the Ares,just to save you the hastle. You can download it here.
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Noobjuice
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Re: [AE][Ship] Engi B Rebalanced

Postby Noobjuice » Tue May 19, 2015 5:03 am

New update, here's a list of changes:
1.3
-Added a new cruiser: The Enso.
-Added Captains Edn versions for each cruiser.
-Added Auto-Cruiser Patch.
-Replaced the Vega’s Boarding Drone with an Ion Boarding Drone.
-Fixed some minor graphical glitches on the Vega.
-Fixed image filename syntax, to make it easier for other players to modify them.

Enjoy :mrgreen:
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