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

[Estel]

The whole indexing things is as dumb as the registry imo, and about as usefull but it's better not to fight it. Because if you're gonna fight indexing you might as well use debian...

Exactly - and, WinXP (which was last Win that at least pretended to work well, which of course doesn't mean it is good system) also relies on indexing for file content. There is also problem of file extension - is you use "content" search for filetype that just happens to be data file for some other program (happens all the time, for example with .dat files, or sometimes, even .CFG files can be few megabytes-sized data packs, particularly for older programs), you may as well go for a walk and return after thousand of years.

100% agree with "you might as well use debian" (or arch, in particular ), that's why I suggested it as better way than trying to force windows into being nice system for serious work.
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But, aren't we getting too much off-topic here, already?

/Estel

[umbralAeronaut]

Amazing mod!

I noticed one thing about Stores however: all too often, when a store should be offering you three choices of a new Weapon / Drone / Crewmember, one of those slots is simply blank, leaving you with only two options. Especially because of the higher density of Weapon and Drone choices that come with the Balanced Arsenal and new drones, this can really hurt your choices of useful additions to your ship (because AP/Support Lasers and the like can be great to have, but are often only truly worthwhile as backup to an already well-rounded conventional weapon array, which is now even statistically harder to get!).

I'm not sure if this is a result of the Mod specifically, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't happening nearly as often in the base game. Does anyone know why this is and if there is a workaround that can help with this issue?

[Sleeper Service]

As far as I know, besides from adjusting general item rarity, shop randomization is completely out of modders hands. I can't know for sure, but I'd say the mod has nothing to do with it.

[Estel]

From your favorite bug department, here comes another bunch of things needing a fix:

1. At sector 8, there is a custom event where Federation Cruiser is banged by Rebel Cruiser - message ends with something like "God, helps us, we're sitting ducks!". If one fight and destroy rebel cruiser, something strange happens during after-battle notification. Player ship hull gets damaged for no reason - there is "screen shaking" effect and damage, just like when auto-turret explode - but nothing suggest that it is intentional.

During similar encounter at sector 8, when Rebel Cruiser bangs planetary colony, there is *no* such buggy damage, after defeating cruiser.

2. Sometimes, when we see pirate chasing civilian ship *and* we have strong armament, blue-event option "fire warning shot from strongest weapon" appears. This choice seems to be bugged - after it, nothing happens, literally - dialog disappears, and we can jump away, like sector was empty. No attempt to contact chased ship, no after-text, nothing.

3. There is misplaced weapon slot at "R. Asteroid miner":
[click to open image]

4. "Fire missile" shots only black rectangles - no rocket image appears, ever. I don't know if it's related, but Heavy Ion drone looks like black square half of the time (it just becomes proper image/black square randomly, swapping in and out during single fight).
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Now, from suggestion department:

1. Heavy Ion Drone. [dramatic pause]. This one really should get it's energy usage increased, as it's total overkill. Now it uses 3 energy, it should use at least 4 - heck, I would use it even if it would require 6, or absolute maximum (tm). Using this drone = win. It take 4/5 of Zoltan shield in one shot, it chains it's effect (so is able to take out four or 5 shields just on his own - with a little luck, or for stationary target [stations], it would deplete 999 shields, too...).

It's not that its too over-powered - for it's price and rarity, he's OK. It's just that 3 energy bars is a joke for such powerful device. 4 seems bare minimum, and 5 or 6 wouldn't be too much.

2. Auto-laser - this one seems under-powered for it's two energy bars. I think both MK I and MK II should use only 1 energy bar, especially for high price of Mk II. Currently, there is always better choice (= never good reason to buy it) for spending 2 energy.

3. Effectors are great idea, but implementation is glitched. currently, best one is smallest effector, that does 1 Ion damage every 7.5 seconds. Medium and big variants are, in fact *downgrades* - doing 2 and 4 Ion damage, respectively, every 15 or 30 seconds, is just worse - bigger gap between "shots" (= you can use small one to starve enemy of oxygen, but bigger counterparts just won't work well enough), and more granularity (one miss is catastrophic for biggest effector, where smallest one doesn't care so much).

It would look differently, if they wouldn't be able to "miss" (how you can "miss" a shot with hacking/magnetic field combo device?), or if gap between shot would be reduced for bigger ones (so, let's say, 7.5 seconds for small one, 14 for medium, and 26 for big).

Also, while using effectors in blue-event option, there is no difference between having smallest and biggest one. I think bigger ones should give better results/allow more blue event options.

Cheers,
/Estel

[umbralAeronaut]

As far as I know, besides from adjusting general item rarity, shop randomization is completely out of modders hands. I can't know for sure, but I'd say the mod has nothing to do with it.

That makes sense. After playing some more I've found out that I'm still getting the full 3 choices from a fair number of stores, so maybe it was just a string of awkward luck that had me worried. As you were!

[Estel]

Just another small glitch - during one of station events, we're told that AI took control and suffocated crew. Hoever, station itself doesn't look very "suffocated":
[click to open image]

... allowing to send normal desant team, and breathe with relief
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Using this occasion, i just can't stop myself from posting this - sneak-peak from latest playthrough:
[click to open image]

This is what I call Engi Death Commando (2nd engi is also master at fighting). The one on picture had quite a bright future ahead:
[click to open image]

...including deeds like blowing up (from inside) a few battleships, too

Before anyone asks - no, this ship wasn't result of cheats, just "Normal" difficulty and quite a lot of lot, thanks to Basilisk. At sector 8, I ended up with fully upgraded ship and 900 spare loot...

/Estel

// Edit

While we're at it, I was wondering - is there a hard limit for amount of hull given to ships? I don't find it quite fun, that we're always "most tough" one with our 30 hull. In comparison, battle stations with their 20 looks pathetic - considering their size (and lack of dodging), they should have pretty awesome hull, like 60 or more. Cruisers should have at least 40 and battleships 50 - it really looks silly to see battleship, that got weaker hull than our "old" kestrel.

[kartoFlane]

I think the graphical enemy health bar might bug a bit, but other than that, there should be no hard cap.
Looking at the enemy health bar mask graphic, it has 22 "chunks"... So it's either that enemy health is capped at 22 - or anything over 22 just won't be shown until the player beats it down - or like with player ships, the health bar will be divided in smaller chunks than the graphic suggests.

[Sleeper Service]

Indeed, some stations and cruisers have much more hull points than actually indicated by the bars. Rebel cruiser HP are pretty much on par with player cruiser. Some stations already have a lot of HP, but I wont increase them further because grinding them down isn't the most fun thing ever. It also would make boarding them even more easier in comparison to fighting them. I'm looking into ways to balance boarding enemy stations further.

Just another small glitch - during one of station events, we're told that AI took control and suffocated crew. Hoever, station itself doesn't look very "suffocated":
[click to open image]

That was actually intended, there is a chance that auto stations have a working o2 system. I liked the idea of having a auto enemy with working live support to allow for more ways to deal with it. The text is kind of misleading there, also the hacker AI might activate live-support again to make the station inhabital for Rebel acupation forces that are to arrive later. Thinking of it I might let them shut down their o2 after you start to engage them... that would give you kind of a (generous) time limit for boarding them. I experimented a lot with limiting enemy systems lately and there are interesting things to be done with that...

I'll look into all you reports. The heavy ion drone image glitch has been secretly fixed already.

Using this occasion, i just can't stop myself from posting this - sneak-peak from latest playthrough:
[click to open image]

Yes, boarding stations and cruiser is too easy right now...

2. Auto-laser - this one seems under-powered for it's two energy bars. I think both MK I and MK II should use only 1 energy bar, especially for high price of Mk II. Currently, there is always better choice (= never good reason to buy it) for spending 2 energy.

Auto lasers get a lot of criticism, but I still believe that they are all right like they are. They simply fill another role than regular lasers and still are very handy if used correctly and in synergy with other weapons. DPS wise they are equal to laser combat drones, but they don't require drone parts, can be aimed and cost less power.

A lot of weapons already have been considerable rebalanced (I totally agree with what has been said about Ion drones and Effectors for that part) for the next version and Solarion is also half way done with spell-checking. So overall 1.05 wont see a lot of new contend, but will hopefully improve existing contend on many levels.

/EDIT
Oh yeah, there was this one new drone...

[Estel]

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply - I just can't wait for new version then Looking ahead to adjust my tactics *again* for new situations (absolutely positive!), and keeping my thumbs (or neons, if anyone got the pun).

/Estel

[Torchwood202]

This mod, I assume being a major overhaul, is hard work! Congratulations! Take as long as you need to update it, but at least tell us when your going to stop working on this.