Subset Games Forum

Base Mod: Captain's Edition needed

Download: Version 1.2 for Captain's Edition 1.217 and later with FTL Advanced Edition

I love the Captain's Edition mod, and the trading system, but losing 2 fleet pursuit jumps (one for buying, one for selling) is often not worth trading in my opinion.

This replaces the TRADER_LIST events, every store and trader has a small chance to have a cargo teleporter, which speeds up trading. Sometimes it is broken, but maybe you are able to repair it? Check details below for the chances of having a teleporter.

Place in mod order list anywhere after Captain's Edition base mod. Made for version 1.216b, but should work as long as the trade event names do not change.

Breakdown:
Every store has a 33% chance of not having a cargo teleporter, 33% chance to have a faulty one, that can be repaired with scrap, an engi or a hacking system and a 33% chance of having a fully functioning one.

This makes sense to me, as this will boost the income from stores, if customers need less time for shopping.

Expected to work with future versions of CE, unless the trade event names change.

Great job on the mod! But I think the delay in the trade system is necessary for balance because some of the trade rewards are ridiculously high, especially for hard mode. It also takes the usefulness out of the Cargo Teleporter augment itself. But it is interesting as I have often discussed how a legitimate trade ship needs a Cargo Teleporter and possibly also the Production Line augment, leaving you with only one augment slot remaining for actual Cargo.

I think it would be cool if the Cargo Teleporter also had some blue options allowing you to steal supplies from the enemy. And if the Long Range Comms augment hadn't been removed it would be interesting if you could put out a sector wide advertisement to see if anyone is willing to buy what you're hauling. I also think that we should have the option of buying AND selling at a store rather than just one or the other, doing both would only cause the fleet to catch up 1 jump instead of 2 at different stores. It could lead to some great results if you plan out your route and are able to visit at least 1 store in every sector.

This mod may help me do something I have been wanting to do for a while to adjust the trade system. I wanted to change the trade system so that all trade goods go in your cargo hold instead of in augments by making them "dummy weapons" instead of augments.

The only downside is that the player would have to "equip" the goods whenever they got to a store, but I have found a way to allow the trade goods to be equipped in the store menu and then have the trade event after visiting the store rather than before. The player also would have to go back and open up the store menu manually to sell off the goods. Some might call this system less "intuitive" than the existing system, but personally I think it would be better because I'm still not completely fond of trade goods taking up augment slots. Mainly because there are so many good augments in CE and because most faction specific ships need to keep their unique augment, allowing you to only ever really carry one trade good at a time in many cases. Or none at all if you have a full complement of augments.

However, now that Sleeper added in a ton of "basic" trade goods though I have come up with a 2nd alternate trade system:
Instead of ALL trade goods being dummy "weapons" all BASIC trade goods, which only ever sell for 30 scrap anyway, are dummy "weapons" instead of augments. "Large shipments" require an augment slot still, these are goods that can potentially sell for large amounts of scrap to the right buyer. And that I can buy into, a military ship might not necessarily be outfitted to carry a ton of cargo, but pirate ships can still take enough loot from multiple ships to make it worth the trouble.

I am starting to like that 2nd version more now because it fixes the problem with pirate ships (e.g. Rock, Mantis, and Lanius) being unable to carry goods if they have 1-2 augments in addition to their starting one. Because most of the loot you receive from piracy is basic goods anyway they could just go in your cargo bay and be sold off quickly like a normal weapon at any store. It also doesn't require every store event to have its code massively revised in order to allow for events after the store menu.

Anyway, good job on the mod. Sorry for my rant on the trade system.

You have some amazing ideas, maybe this will help you a little bit as a starting point to modify all trade events. One thing I am not sure about is, I placed a modified rock trader event in both events.xml(.append) and one in events_rock.xml(.append), so I placed two identical events, but its the same event xml code so it doesn't break anything I think.

I understand that it makes trading too profitable on hard, but I usually play on normal or easy, because I am bad. This mod definitely makes certain things easier so if you are looking for the challenge it is not for you. Do you think this could be brought into balance by making something like "broken/hacked/... cargo teleporters" that need a blue option of some kind to fix them and possibly also lowering the chance to have a teleporter in store?

Would something like this lessen the impact on the trade system while still providing a faster trading experience from time to time (e.g. five options):
1. store does not have teleporter
2. store does not have teleporter
3. store does not have teleporter
4. teleporter in store was hacked (fixable by blue option with engi or hacking system lvl 1)
5. teleporter in store is damaged (pay scrap for a repair - comparable to a rebel delaying event)

Actually in the grand scheme of things, %50 for a Cargo Teleporter is not really a big deal. It's only a few extra beacons... So it doesn't really "break" anything. I'd be fine with a mod that removed the delay entirely, I just thought this would make the actual Cargo Teleporter augment not so useful and I kind of like that augment.

Figuratively speaking if you were going to remove the fleet delay entirely but still try to keep things balanced then all you would really have to do I think is lower the max possible reward from trade events.

My biggest gripe with the trade system in CE is that you have to "commit" to bring a trade ship. I think that you should be able to get "more" scrap by committing to trading, going all out and buying the Cargo Teleporter and Production line augments, etc... But when you come across a random trade good in an event, say, it should still be worth all the trouble involved in hauling it around and selling it.

When you commit an act of piracy, for example, often the only reward you get is a basic trade good. If you have 3 augment already you won't even be able to carry trade good at all so you will get nothing at all. Basic trade goods should able to be stored in your cargo just like any other item and sold off at a store regularly for around 30 scrap. Other "large" high demand shipments should take up an augment slot and that will allow them to work the same way with blue events and also give a greater benefit to someone who is willing to hang on to them long enough to them worth more.

I understand what you are saying, I also like the Cargo Teleporter augment and its effect, because it allows you to play more of a trader kind of ship. Maybe I will have a try on what you said in your previous post, changing the basic trade goods to dummy weapons instead of augments. I am in modding mode right now.

For now I like the idea of having a little more interaction between the stores, so I changed the chances of having or not having a cargo teleporter:

Every store has a 33% chance of not having a cargo teleporter, 33% chance to have a faulty one, that can be repaired with scrap, an engi or a hacking system and a 33% chance of having a fully functioning one.

im i the only one that noticed that 33% + 33% + 33% = 99% ?

jeffg10 wrote:im i the only one that noticed that 33% + 33% + 33% = 99% ?

In the remaining 1% of cases, the game crashes.

I can write 1/3 instead, if you like.

Version 1.2 with fixed event texts.

CE had some wrong texts, and there was only one text for each event, now there will be a little bit more variety.

So as mentioned in the CE thread I really liked the idea and would like to integrate it to some extend. Your thoughts on that?

Sure, if you want to integrate this or the general idea into the CE, I would like that.