[Ship][AE] Auto-Cruiser 1.01 & Auto-Constructor 1.0

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kartoFlane
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[Ship][AE] Auto-Cruiser 1.01 & Auto-Constructor 1.0

Postby kartoFlane » Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:17 pm

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Stolen by the Federation during a raid on a Rebel-held shipyard, this experimental cruiser hosts an AI capable of handling all combat-related functions. The ship relies on drones to take care of physical tasks, and while it allows the cruiser to function without organic beings aboard, the crew is hardly superfluous -- rudimentary maintenance, repairs in hard-to-reach places, or simply getting better at ones job, are things the AI is not capable of.

The ship was still in refit when the Rebels retaliated, and the Federation was forced to release the cruiser before it was filled with supplies, cutting-edge systems and advanced weaponry... In the turmoil, a lone engineer named Saren was trapped on board of the ship, and barely managed to get the life support system working.

You are the ship's AI. It is up to you to deem him an asset, or a hindrance.

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Auto-Cruiser: Sovereign

The ship is focused on drone combat and themed around causing breaches in the enemy ship's hull to asphyxiate the crew. It is intended to be pretty difficult, and requires a bit of luck and creativity from the player to get around its initial limitations.

The ship is automated, and as such can carry out rudimentary repair to systems and "man" them when the crew is overstretched. Also, losing all biological crew does not mean mission failure. As an additional feature of this mod, the piloting system cannot be manned by crew.

Image

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Non-standard equipment:
    Weapons:
      Hull Slicer Beam - very short beam that deals 1 system and 1 biological damage (15 crew damage), and has medium-high breach chance.
      Recon Scanner - an advanced scanning device that allows you to uncover the selected room even when sensors are not an option. Lasts 20 seconds. (idea borrowed from CE)
    Drones:
      Laser Drone - very simple, slow drone that continually attacks the enemy ship. 1 shot dealing 1 normal damage
    Augments:
      Captured Tech - a various assortment of tech that the Federation extracted from the cruiser. Serves no purpose aboard the ship, though some merchants may be interested in acquiring it...

The ship starts without any missiles, and only 3 drone parts to account for the fact that it starts with Drone Recovery Arm.

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Auto-Constructor: Phaeston

This ship is focused on sustainability and late-game scaling. It lacks direct offensive capabilities, instead relying on a wide variety of ion-based weaponry to subdue the enemy ship and prevent damage.
It has a rough start, not being able to defeat automated ships in any way -- those fights should be avoided early on. The ship is very self-sustainable, however, and can repair damage to the hull using the Ship Repair drone.

The ship is automated, and as such can carry out rudimentary repair to systems and "man" them when the crew is overstretched. Also, losing all biological crew does not mean mission failure. As an additional feature of this mod, the piloting system cannot be manned by crew.

Image
Hull & gibs courtesy of Sleeper Service


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Non-standard equipment:
    Weapons:
      Incendiary Ion - a suppresive ion weapon which releases two discharges of superheated plasma in an area (35 radius). Each blast deals 1 ion damage and has 30% chance of starting fires.
      Disruptive Ion - an ion weapon designed to subdue biological targets. Deals 1 ion damage and stuns for 2 seconds.
      Melting Ion - an ion weapon which releases a single blast of plasma with corrosive properties. Deals 1 ion damage and 1 biological damage (15 crew damage).

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Download

Important: both ships require Universal Starting Beacon framework mod and SMM 1.2 or later!

Auto-Cruiser AE (USB).ftl - replaces Engi A

Auto-Constructor AE (USB).ftl - replaces Engi B

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Credits

    Sleeper Service - for the Recon weapon image & idea (both taken from CE), and for the Auto-Constructor's hull image & gibs

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Changes

Code: Select all

version Auto-Cruiser AE 1.01:
  - Removed Sensors from Auto-Cruiser's initial loadout (forgot to remove it in 1.0 version, whoops)
  - Reorganised post with TaxiService's ship presentation template: http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=26530&p=86283#p86283

version AE 1.0:
  - Updated Auto-Cruiser to work with AE -- had to remove the encased system feature to do that :(
  - Removed the changes to drone system pricing
  - Added Layout B with hull created by Sleeper Service -- Auto-Constructor
Last edited by kartoFlane on Wed May 25, 2016 8:01 am, edited 9 times in total.
Superluminal2 - a ship editor for FTL
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Sleeper Service
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby Sleeper Service » Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:25 pm

Sweet! Really neatly done. The thing looks super grim and evil, event more than the vanilla auto ships. I really like the room layout as well. From the description it sounds like it plays quite slow.

I personally prefer to put the encased systems in-between rooms, to set them apart form other systems, but that's up to taste of course. It's a nice perk for the ship and also really fit's the lore.
dalolorn
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby dalolorn » Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:58 pm

So... is this safe or not? One minute you're saying it's unstable, and the next you're publishing and praising a ship including it, respectively.

Oh, and seeing as I'm short on ships for TFSB...

Can I use this? :twisted:

Edit: I think this picture is a bit too big. Maybe I should scale it down.

Re-edit: Much better. :)
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kartoFlane
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby kartoFlane » Mon Aug 26, 2013 7:44 pm

Sleeper Service wrote:Sweet! Really neatly done. The thing looks super grim and evil, event more than the vanilla auto ships. I really like the room layout as well. From the description it sounds like it plays quite slow.

Thank you :) Yeah, it is a bit slow, and it irks me a little, but I guess there isn't much that can be done to have a ship be breach themed, fast-paced, and not OP at the same time...

Sleeper Service wrote:I personally prefer to put the encased systems in-between rooms, to set them apart form other systems, but that's up to taste of course. It's a nice perk for the ship and also really fit's the lore.

I considered that, but I really wanted to avoid having the system's icon partially covering a door, or some other system. At least in this layout, I didn't really have anywhere else to place it to make it look good.

dalolorn wrote:So... is this safe or not? One minute you're saying it's unstable, and the next you're publishing and praising a ship including it, respectively.

We were still testing it when Sleeper made the assessment. Since the ship I used for testing the 0x0 rooms has been crashing on me all the time, I informed him about it -- but later it turned out to be a problem with the ship, and not 0x0 rooms.
I've also done some quick test runs with the ship, and it's running fine, so I'd say it's perfectly safe.

dalolorn wrote:Oh, and seeing as I'm short on ships for TFSB...
Can I use this? :twisted:

Be my guest. Just keep in mind that it modifies the starting event, so you'll either have to incorporate that or scrap the starting crew member.
Superluminal2 - a ship editor for FTL
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Sleeper Service
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby Sleeper Service » Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:00 pm

Ha just realized that it has no medbay as well. So Sarren might die a slow death inside this AI monster, receiving injury after injury with no way to patch himself up. That is if you don't decide to flush him out of the airlock right at the first beacon.

Transition to a chewable ship is another challenge the player has to face I guess. Nice.
dalolorn
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby dalolorn » Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:17 pm

kartoFlane wrote:
dalolorn wrote:So... is this safe or not? One minute you're saying it's unstable, and the next you're publishing and praising a ship including it, respectively.

We were still testing it when Sleeper made the assessment. Since the ship I used for testing the 0x0 rooms has been crashing on me all the time, I informed him about it -- but later it turned out to be a problem with the ship, and not 0x0 rooms.
I've also done some quick test runs with the ship, and it's running fine, so I'd say it's perfectly safe.

dalolorn wrote:Oh, and seeing as I'm short on ships for TFSB...
Can I use this? :twisted:

Be my guest. Just keep in mind that it modifies the starting event, so you'll either have to incorporate that or scrap the starting crew member.


Ah, good then.

As for my... request? Question? Plea? :? The idea was for me to use the graphics, not the mod itself.

Edit: Also, it might not be a bad idea to incorporate 0x0 room functionality into Superluminal somehow, if it's really stable.
speedoflight
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby speedoflight » Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:28 pm

Really nice splicing job there KartoFlane, nice design and layout. But what can we expect from the king of superluminal LOL :lol: ?, even if i never liked non-tripulated ships, maybe i will try this one, just to make you a little feedback for your great superluminal editor and how saved our lives 8-) .
My currently mods / wips ->
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Sleeper Service
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby Sleeper Service » Mon Aug 26, 2013 9:27 pm

Failed to acquire any shield depleting weapons by sector four and died. But got a lot of stuff that supported the crew kill/breach tactic (Light Laser MKIII, Hull Beam MKI) on the way there. Feels very interesting to play overall. It is slow, but intense at the same time. Using timed drone shots to deplete shields for getting beam hits in is definitely something new. Having to juggle power into AP drones makes boarding crews quite dangerous, but the doors give you a lot of control at the same time. Trying to keep Seren alive and out of fights all the time is also interesting. He survived because I got a heal bomb early on. I skipped on the medbay in favour of sensors to know where to aim the light laser. I was blind-firing for a whole sector, but it still worked out pretty well. Together with all the breaches and system damage, crew was eliminated pretty effectively most of the time.

The ship could have a half chain able ion drone to make it a little more effective at the crew killing thing. But that would also take away it's versatility. It's actually not bad at killing other AI ships right now. But the player really depends on getting more fire-power (either as drones or guns) soon, or else failure is assured. Which is of course true for any ship that can't deplete two layer shields... I was kind of lucky not to encounter so many two layer enemies early on (kind of more common in the current CE version than in vanilla).
Seldser
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby Seldser » Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:58 am

nice Mass Effect reference, i should give it a try soon, when i have more time to play FTL
MantisGeneral7
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Re: [Ship] Auto-Cruiser v.1.0

Postby MantisGeneral7 » Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:59 pm

The King Of Super Luminal Made a Ship Nice Design And Dr. Jones Died Because a Mantis Boarding Party :cry: But Screw Him It's Automated! :twisted:
The MG Fleet Is Here!