[MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

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NewAgeOfPower
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[MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Sun Sep 22, 2013 2:29 am

As promised, here is a cleaned up version of one of my vanilla mods.

Name: Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel
Class: [Frigate Hull] Ludendorff Class Support Frigate
Role: Repair and Salvage

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Originally designed by the Concordiat for rapidly repairing naval vessels, this unit was captured and repainted by the Rebels, before being captured yet again by the Federation for your mission.

Starting out with Scrap/Repair/Drone Recovery Arms, Hull/System Repair & Beam Drone, a Ion Blaster and a Halberd, this ship has a significantly stronger start than most Vanilla ships, although, you only have 6 reactor power at the start (8 including the 2 Zoltans).

However, without cloak, teleportation, or artillery, it's growth potential is limited- and it's also capped at 2 weapons/3 drones slots.

Download link here: http://depositfiles.com/files/vn7pwdt39

Tested on Slipstream Mod Manager; should work with Grognak's Mod Manager but no guarantees of compatibility. Mod constructed mostly by Superluminal, with some manual work.

Comments/Reviews/Bug Reports welcome. May be somewhat buggy due to having played this mod only twice.
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UltraMantis
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby UltraMantis » Thu Sep 26, 2013 10:05 am

Not from DepositFiles, sorry. :(
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Fri Sep 27, 2013 6:23 am

Sure... I'll upload to dropbox... After awhile...

First, I'll have touch up the rough spots on this mod first, then add some gibs, then build the Concordiat version and the Concordiat DD.

Which will happen after I've finished writing the storyline details which fills in the blanks of FTL and incorporates the Concordiat- so far, 4,700 words of the Galactic primer are done- and two species have been covered. Posting the Mantis section below as a sort of tease;

Note, this is a rough first draft.

ICN Fleet Intelligence, Basic Galactic Primer
Section I: Species and Factions

Factions and races are sorted by population size.

Mantis
-Total Manti population- ~612 billion
-Manti-dominated political units control over 349 systems.
-Homeworld je jIchIS, Estimated population 44 billion. System population nearing 80 billion.
-Spacefaring for ~300 years. Interstellar & FTL for over 220 years- independently discovered FTL.
-Race has a strong preference for boarding combat.



Manti Biology, Life Cycles, History and Culture

Mantis biology and life cycles are only semi-analogous to terran hive-insects. Despite exterior appearances, Manti have durable internal skeletons in addition to their exoskeletons; otherwise, they'd die from the weight of their own bodies.

Mantii stand around six feet tall, but with a cross-sectional density similar to that of slugs, giving an individual similar mass to an adult human. Mantii are hexapedal. The foremost four limbs evolved into powerful weapons, equipped with razor-sharp, retractable chitin blades that are continously grown and replaced throughout it's lifespan, rather like Terran shark teeth. The proboscis of a Mantis can fire a rather potent acid up to 30 yeards and Mantii in general seem to be born marksmen with this acid.

Although the exoskeleton of a Mantis makes for very tough armor, their innards are actually more vulnerable to damage than that of a Slug. This fact, combined with the tools of modern hand-to-hand combat (outside of Concordiat space, at least- forget particle projectile rifles and beam swords- these idiots don't even use oxygen masks!) being laser pistols and monomolecular knives, which puncture chitin with ease, they aren't actually more durable than, say, the average Engi.

Of the three known carbon-based sentient species, they and humanity have L-chirality amino acids; i.e. Mantii can safely eat and digest Terran lifeforms; including humans, without suffering from poisoning.

Note: In an attempt to intimidate Federation forces during the Manti/Engi wars, the Mantii invaders committed highly publicized massacres of humans (who were consumed alive). As a result, many Federation veterans (and now Rebels) developed an intense hatred and phobia of Manti.

Most (est 99.9992%) of Manti are born gendered but unable to reproduce, and will reach adult sizes within 2 years. Mantii princesses reach reproductive maturity within 4 years, and can give produce a larvae every few hours (!), which combined with the rapid maturation rate of 'commoner' Manti, allow for explosive population growth, limited only by available resources and the drain from constant warfare.

When seperated for long periods from a Mantis Princess and her pheromones, most 'commoners' will suffer extreme withdrawal symptoms. After 3 months, nearly all of these Manti will die.

Due to these factors, Manti colonization of space itself was incredibly slow. By this, it doesn't mean habitable planets, but the resource rich asteroid belts and moon systems of gas giants; in fact Mantii can easily colonize a wide range of worlds, selection rivaled only by that of Rockmen, due to their hardy biology and rapid life cycle, but on cramped mining bases there is little space or infrastructure to support a Princess.

It is only until the Manti encountered the Engi, whom kindly developed the Mantis Artificial Phermone Technology for them (and the Manti promptly repaid by invading Engi space), that Mantis space exploitation really took off.

Due to these factors, despite their incredible population base and large empire size, Manti have relatively little industrial capacity compared to other races.

The influence of Manti pheromones is incredible among Manti. Most non-reproductive Manti cannot resist the orders of a Princess or Queen. Manti will act more rapidly in the presence of pheromones. Only those who have gone near-death from withdrawal will gain a certain amount of resistance, but even these individuals are still highly affected.

On occaision, a Manti will live through the full withdrawal cycle without being re-exposed to Pheromones- and proceed to their next life cycle stage. Female Manti who survive will become Manti Princesses, able to lay eggs. Male Manti will become Manti Princes, able to fertilize eggs.

The average (non-reproductive) Mantii will die a violent death before the age of 30. Mantii that do not tend to reach the age of 50 before significant degredation in physical capacity begin- and then they suicide 'for the good of their tribe'. Reproductively capable Mantii can live for over 200 years before physical degredation even begins, and there are stories told of thousand-year old Queens who just kept living until overthrown by one of her daughters.

Manti Princesses are able to lay eggs that will give birth to reproductively incapable Manti. Upon deep isolation from other Princesses for an unknown amount of years (Concordiat intel suggests between half a decade to one decade) a princess can then molt and shift into a Mantis Queen.

Manti Queen, in addition to her ability to produce 'commoners', can lay eggs that will birth Princesses, but not Princes. Due to this fact, there is a massive demand for Princes amongst Manti factions- it is not unheard of for wars to be fought over a 'handsome' Prince.

There is an infamous Mantis Prince, named KazaaakplethKilik, known by races with simpler vocal structures as Kazaak, whom is regarded as very attractive, yet decided to reject all female suitors, some of whom offered outrageous sums for his body, er, hand...

The contending princesses and queens were on the verge of starting a major civil war (for there is always a degree of violence in Manti space) over his reproductive rights when he vanished from his tribe, and began a scandalous career as a legendary space pirate.

Speculation for his departure from upscale Mantis society ranged from the romantic; that Kazaaak wished to spare his love, a minor princess, who could not possibly fight off her competitors, to the nasty; that Kazaaak was asexual or homosexual (widely considered taboo amongst Princes, although accepted among Princesses) to the strange; that Kazaaak was the product of an Engi, Zoltan, perhaps even a Human experiment.

Concordiat intelligence suggests Kazaak was simply tired of courtly life, the manouvering & the infighting, and prefers the cold, unforgiving nature of space combat over politics.

Non-reproductive stage Manti have minimal sexual dimorphism. A Mantii (outside the presence of Pheromones) displays intelligence lower than that of a genetic baseline human. Inside the presence of Pheromones, Mantii become intensely focused and driven, but gain a sort of 'tunnel-vision' effect. Concordiat psychohistorians hypothesize this evolved for increased productivity and efficiency whilst still guaranteeing 'Princess Control'.

Manti are extremely similar, genetically speaking. The variation within the Manti genomic pool is significantly less than that of the Terran cheetah- even Zoltan scientists were astounded that they survived the genetic bottleneck. Although the bottleneck-induced genetic monomorphism has lead to a drastic falloff in evolutionary speed, it also had the effect of eliminating genetic diseases within the Manti species, in fact, the Manti do not have a word for 'cancer', and did not add 'tumor' to their lexicon until the development of radiological technology.

Concordiat scientists, studying genetic drift with over 40,000 larvae captured from a Mantis colony ship (even Concordiat scientists considered this experiment to be unethical and disturbing), concluded that the Mantis species had a population bottleneck averaging under 10 reproductive individuals for at least 2 millenia.

Tellingly, there is no positive/negative connotation for the word 'incest' in the Mantis lexicon; although outbreeding is preferred to secure political alliances, there are neither Mantii who fantasize about inbreeding, nor Mantii who are disturbed about inbreeding.

Manti-dominated Factions & Politics
The Mantii, like the Engi, have a very fractured political structure, with thousands of tribes and splinter factions each whom claim to be unique and different, but for very different reasons. The Mantii are splintered due to their extremely war-like culture. The two largest factions below:

>tlhIv je SoHbogh may'; estimated population 244 billion.
Estimated over 6,000 FTL capable ships, about 2,000 combat units equivalent to last-generation Federation designs or better. *** Older designs, when properly piloted, will defeat improperly commanded newer designs!
Modern/Semi-modern fleet strength (est): 20 BB, 180 BC, 500 CR, 400 CL , 900 DD
Faction emphasizes cunning guerilla warfare, missile alpha strikes, alongside the racial preference for close combat and boarding.


Roughly translated as "the Purity of the Way of Battle", this 'faction' is more like a loose collective, united only by their common hatred and enemy of the next largest Mantis faction, whom kicked them off their homeworld.

Driven mostly by an ancestral urge for revenge, they control the Mantis Shell worlds and some of the Core worlds.

Lately, there has been some internal dissension as Engi space was discovered, but due to internal dissension (whether to invade their nemesis's space or to invade the Engi) the choice Engi worlds were quickly seized by their historical foe, afterwards, even more infighting, blame-shifting & fingerpointing against each due to their inaction & subsequent Mantii humiliation when Federation armadas shattered the Mantis offensive into Engi space.

There are regular civil wars among this faction. Despite the fact they control the largest area of Manti-dominated space, they do not control a proportional amount of industry, due to having been kicked off the Mantis homeworld and having to build their industrial base from colonial infrastructure.

Currently, it's ruling council has finally achieved internal peace as the Rebellion begins to destroy Federation fleet capacity, making Engi space once again vulnerable to invasion.

>ghobe'-Qovpatlh tlhIH mIw SuvwI; estimated population 162 billion.
Estimated over 8,000 FTL capable ships, about 2,600 combat units equivalent to last-generation Federation designs or better.
Faction emphasizes drone/stealth warfare, alongside the racial preference for close combat and boarding.
Modern/Semi-modern fleet strength (est): 30 BB, 270 BC, 320 CR, 400 CL , 1580 DD


Roughly translated as "the Warriors of the Crimson Path", this faction of deeply interrelated tribes is practically one giant extended family.

Being the first true faction to emerge from disunited tribes, they were able to exterminate, kick off, and subjugate (with forced interbreeding & eugenics protocols) other tribes on the Mantis homeworld, je jIchIS.

Led by the eldest Mantis Queen, VlaanaaprathVazak, or 'Vlaana' as Human ambassadors call her (the Zoltans seem to be able to enunciate any form of language, the Rockmen refuse to send ambassadors, the Slugs have not formed any permenant factions and the Engi utilize a digital translator to communicate with every race), this faction holds the most sway within Mantis politics, simply by being the most unified and cohesive large faction.

They are extremely xenophobic, and strongly resent the peace settlement enforced by the Federation. Currently, they are also taking advantage of current events to invade Engi space once more.

This faction's territory has the highest degree of industrial exploitation of all the Mantii factions, but it's expansion has historically been hemmed in by the tlhIv je SoHbogh may''s territory.

After decades of fruitless warfare with minimal gains, they encountered Engi space on their other frontier- and promptly decided expanding into a peaceful race's territory was far more cost effective than fighting other Manti, until hastily constituated Federation battlefleets drove them back.

Other Factions
No other non-monotribal faction controlling over 2 billion Manti has lasted for over a decade before collapsing into civil war, and thus they are not considered major Manti factions. However, 'frontier barbarians', as the Homeworld, Core world and Shell world Manti describe them, are a very large fraction of the Manti population.

It is interesting to note about 16.2 billion Manti belong to tribes who go as far as considering some members of other species equal in value to Manti.
Last edited by NewAgeOfPower on Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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UltraMantis
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby UltraMantis » Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:57 am

Someone is a SOTS fan. :D Great stuff.
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:33 pm

UltraMantis wrote:Someone is a SOTS fan. :D Great stuff.


While I enjoyed SOTS, the concept that the supermajority of individuals within an insect colony are non-reproductive members is something that is found in nature.

And the idea that a near death experience (phermone starvation) could lead to the next stage in their reproductive cycle is completely my own.

About the only thing I could be accused of lifting from SOTS is the queen/princess concept, where a Princess has to become isolated for long durations to transform into a queen. Even that was heavily modified from 'centuries' to 'under a decade'.

Man, SOTS 2 was such a disappointment.
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby Terminus » Sat Sep 28, 2013 12:34 am

Not a bad design on the ship, but the true gem in this thread was that nice fic on Mantis Culture. The way you portrayed their social structure reminded me of the Kzinti of Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe, albeit with insectiod ancestors.
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Sat Sep 28, 2013 8:37 am

I'm working on a ubermod; story, new ships, new events. So far I have 3 custom weapons built and .5 ships built for it, along with about 20% of the story written out.

Going to push for the DD release this weekend, because I realize that with the class workload increasing I won't be able to work on this mod for 2 weeks (at least) : /
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby UltraMantis » Sat Sep 28, 2013 8:42 am

Hmm my comment wasn't an accusation. A very high point of SOTS is the racial detail, and your post reminded me of that. I was absolutely not accusing you of stealing or even copying.

And yes, SOTS2... why did that happen at all?
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:24 am

I see. Well, I'm a extremely detailed sort of writer/GM; a world builder.

Anyways, I'm on the verge of collapse; some previews of what I've been making from my mod:

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I'm rather pleased with my audio choices for these weapons as well.
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Re: [MOD] Captured Concordiat Engineering Vessel

Postby UltraMantis » Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:37 pm

Holy expletive! That is awesome, no wonder you are crashing. :D
Animations kill FTL modders, excellent work.
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