Subset Games Forum

This is my first ship mod, so it's bound to not be the pinnacle of mod quality. Still, everyone has to start somewhere, right?

v1.1 Changelog
Balance Changes

• Removed Scrap Recovery Arm
• Removed Drone Recovery Arm
• Added Titanium System Casing
• Reduced starting drone power to 2

Graphical Changes

• Added properly-aligned gibs

Summary



The Predator is a heavily-armed cruiser that relies on its ability to swiftly damage and destroy systems to make up for its lack of defenses. Its only defensive measures from the start are a rank 2 cloaking device and a few drones. Shields, door control, and teleporters must be purchased. However, with any cunning, you should be able to kill them before they kill you.

WHERE DO I GET IT?!
Right here.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/70186175/Relea ... edator.ftl

HOW DO I INSTALL IT?!
You'll need Grognak's Mod Manager. Drop the .ftl file into your mods folder in the FTL game root folder, run GMM, select it, and patch. You should be good to go. This ship replaces the Type B Engi Cruiser, the Vortex.

If you don't have GMM, you can find it here!
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2464

What does the ship come with?

Full-sized image below, because the forum page clips it.
http://i.imgur.com/pQZ34KH.png

The name of the game is strong weapons and drones, and weak everything else. Your cloaking device offers you a good bit of evasion, but your weak engines may still guarantee that you take a few hits. You've got an anti-ship drone and a defense drone, and two Mark II Burst Lasers. Your reactor's a bit stretched at the beginning, but hopefully your quick wits and hardened systems will allow you to endure until you have the scrap to fill in the gaps in your defense.

What's left to be done?
There's probably some more visual polish due in the future, like cleaning up weapon mounts such that they're exactly symmetrical. Right now, the ship is based off the Auto-Assault hull (which is how I imagined his ship to appear to begin with). Last, but not least, there's balancing to be done. Is the ship too strong or too weak? Do weapons or drones or systems need to be tweaked? All of this, however, can only be revealed through playtesting!

Last but definitely not least, some have suggested that the Predator feature a weapon unique to it. I'll be very heavily considering this, and hopefully the next version of the ship will have something to this effect!

Narrative Fluff
Iako Nak'Randis, a member of a species of aquatic invertebrates who use exoskeletons to move about on land, had just escaped from years of tortuous enslavement at the hands of the Mantis. Forced during his servitude to work as their ship engineer, Iako developed a savant-like aptitude for tinkering and invention, and soon set off to construct his own vessel. Having long been relegated to the niche of a prey species, both on his homeworld and in space, Iako elected to develop a hull that victims would have only a fleeting glimpse of before it was upon them. Unfortunately, with his scarce supplies, he was unable to produce his prototype exactly to specifications. In the midst of his tinkering, he caught wind of the desperate cries of the Federation, asking any available vessel to act as courier for the vital tactical data regarding the Rebel Flagship. Excited by the idea that his findings along the way would be payment, Iako accepted.

All feedback is appreciated and welcome. I aim to make a ship that's both fun and challenging to play.

That is a very good first effort.

Putting out fires will be a pain in the early game, but there is supposed to be some challenge to a game.
I don't know if its balanced or not to have end game firepower right at the start. It certainly handy to have it, rather than rely on stores and random events. Recovery arms are probably too much to be gifted right away though.

The ship needs some weakness, to give the player a "hill" to climb. All in all, it looks good. As for gibs, why don't you use Auto-Assault gibs? You'd have to position them and edit the gib direction and speed, but you don't have to draw them at least.

I was going to use the Auto-Assault gibs. I've just yet to go through the tedium of positioning them through trial and error. Is there an easier way to do it that doesn't involve booting the game and dying hundreds of times?

As for weaknesses, I agree in retrospect that the recovery arms are too much. I'm considering removing them in favor of a Titanium Systems Casing...

Give the ship 1HP so at least you die in the firt fight.

Positioning gibs is easiest in a layered editor (photoshop, gimp) or in plain ol MS Paint. Load the ship_base image and gibs as layers. Move a gib around until you place it in the correct spot. Then take a look at the coordinates of the top-left corner of the gib image. That is what you enter in shipname.xml

how bout a unique weapon to go with this, make it stand out.

BrenTenkage wrote:how bout a unique weapon to go with this, make it stand out.

I was thinking about a special drone in place of one of the anti-ship drones. Not sure if it's possible to add to your scrap count while in combat, but I just had the idea of a special beam drone that added a certain amount of scrap to your total per room hit would be cool. Sort of like it's picking off pieces of the enemy ship for you to use as raw material.

Hey, I did a Let's Play of your ship, was incredibly fun... and although I did end up dying, I would say that this ship is rediculously powerful. Still though, an incredibly fun ship to use.

here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT-5OZ8Z ... e=youtu.be

Ginger Dragon wrote:Hey, I did a Let's Play of your ship, was incredibly fun... and although I did end up dying, I would say that this ship is rediculously powerful. Still though, an incredibly fun ship to use.

here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT-5OZ8Z ... e=youtu.be

Oh my! That's awesome! Seeing your videos is what inspired me to get my feet wet with this, so I guess I owe this ship's existence to you somewhat. The ship's augments and power layout's changed a bit from the video, simply because I thought it -was- a bit much. I'll have to watch your video now and see what you thought. Thank you so much!

Dark Spartan wrote:Oh my! That's awesome! Seeing your videos is what inspired me to get my feet wet with this, so I guess I owe this ship's existence to you somewhat. The ship's augments and power layout's changed a bit from the video, simply because I thought it -was- a bit much. I'll have to watch your video now and see what you thought. Thank you so much!

Thats Awesome!
Anyways, I'll wait and see if you make any further changes after watching my video before I play it a second time, just to make sure the second playthrough captures the final version of the mod.