-Fixed missing door/changed room graphics for Ashkelon's Reprise
Known issues:
-Completely lacks gibs.
Currently this mod adds 9 ships and >14 weapons, all with custom art (and animations and audio), in addition to altering and reflavoring a pile of augments. This mod is -not- vanilla balanced, with ships ranging from "so weak even easy vanilla is a challenge" to "curbstomp CE without breaking a sweat". There's an enormous amount of lore, which I won't get into for now. Some of it is ingame in weapons text and ship descriptions, some older& obsolete versions of the lore can be found on the FTL forums.
Files available from:
MEGA
Nexusmods
Mod Design/Planning thing:
Google Docs
From strongest to weakest (roughly speaking) these ships are:
The Direct Diplomacy is a Casserite-Class Light Frigate, replacing the Kestrel C. It starts with a personnel complement of:
2x Rockmen
2x Crystal
1x Engi
And features two custom weapons:
The Plasma Repeater is a laser/ion replacement with improved chance to cause fire. Though it has less raw DPS than a Burst Laser II, it has strong utility.
Attack Type: Laser/Ion
Power Draw: 2
Cooldown: 6
Damage: 1
Other: 1 point of ionization, 40% chance to ignite.
The Shard Cannon consumes ammo, but is low power, has the potential to lockdown multiple rooms, preparing the battlefield for a boarding party or outright asphyxiating enemy crew trapped with a hull breach.
Attack Type: Flak (CEP 35)
Power Draw: 1
Cooldown: 12
Shots: 2
Damage: 1
Shield Pen: 2
Other: Drains 1 ammo per burst, +1 damage against systemless rooms, Lockdown, 50% chance to breach.
With 22 maximum health, two weapon slots and zero slots for more systems the Direct Diplomacy is going to have a tough time late. On the other hand, 4 man teleport bay + weapons especially suited for crystal/rockman boarding teams make early game a breeze.
The Huginn and Munnin are variantions of the Valvravn-Class Destroyer, replacing the Kestrel A and B. Lorewise they are in service with different factions of the Concordiat; the Huginn with the Pan-Human Movement (Great Unificationists) and the Muninn with the Society of the Luminarch Awaiting (Revelationists)
They start with personnel complements of 5 and 3 humans respectively.
They are armed with a rotary ballistic cannon, an missile launcher, a plasma cannon, a defense drone and an attack drone.
The Assault Cannon can suppress shields extremely well, as long as ammo is available. The tremendous DPS is inefficient at actually destroying ships; the gigantic CEP (Circular Error Probability) of 60 (yields a hit circle 120 pixels in diameter) means it has a significant chance of missing against 2x2 and even 3x3 rooms.
Attack Type: Flak (CEP 60)
Power Draw: 0
Cooldown: 8 to 4 (-1 per salvo)
Shots: 4
Damage: 1
Other: Drains 1 ammo per burst. Will not distract Defense Drone I
The Autocannon has both lower DPS and less damage per point of ammo when compared to the Assault Cannon, but can penetrate 1 layer of shields, is far more likely to actually hit rooms, and will do terrible things to crew/systems when it connects.
Attack Type: Flak (CEP 30)
Power Draw: 0
Cooldown: 10 to 5 (-1 per salvo)
Shots: 3
Damage: 1
Shield Pen: 1
Other: Drains 1 ammo per burst, +1 damage systems, +1 damage against personnel, 30% chance to breach. Will not distract Defense Drone I
The Doomstrike Torpedo Launcher has pretty insane DPS for low power draw. But with it's low speed, it's target has all the time in the world to arm/replace a defense drone, recharge cloak, use an overshield drone, or finish charging FTL and jump away. Even worse, it has a sizable targeting circle and thus a substantial chance to miss, especially against smaller rooms.
Attack Type: Flak (CEP 40)
Power Draw: 1
Cooldown: 16
Damage: 13
Shield Pen: 10
Other: Drains 3 ammo per shot, Speed 7 (Normal Missiles are ~35), will ignite or breach on impact.
(A long time ago, I learned the hard way setting Missile means the projectile will not animate, only use frame 0)
The Circus Light Missile Launcher has no innate miss probability, and with it's large salvo size mitigates both defense drones and standard ship evasion. It does fall off late game against targets with heavy shielding, and lacks secondary effects (such as fire/breach/stun)
Attack Type: Missile
Power Draw: 1
Cooldown: 10
Shots: 4
Damage: 1
Shield Pen: 3
Other: Drains 1 ammo per shot.
The Plasma Cannon has much longer cooldown than the Plasma Repeater, and thus has inferior shield suppression, though it's DPS and fire chance are better. Not the greatest of weapons, but not bad and doesn't need ammo.
Attack Type: Laser/Ion
Power Draw: 3
Cooldown: 15
Shots: 2
Damage: 2
Other: 2 point of ionization, 50% chance to ignite.
The Muninn replaces it's Combat Drone I with an Ion Combat Drone I, with some mildly customized graphics. They are significantly slower ~~for balance reasons~~ due to the increased mass of the ion weapon.
Type: Attack Drone
Power Draw: 2
Speed: 8
Damage: 0
Other: 1 point of ionization
Given their starting armament, both the Valvravns are capable of beating the vanilla boss, that is, if they can upgrade their support systems/defenses and meet the boss with a large enough pile of ammo. The Huginn has more raw combat power thanks to it's Weapons & Shield boosting augments, while the Muninn is less ammo-intensive and will be able to explore more nodes with it's Distraction Buoys and Advanced FTL.
With just 20 max hull and their absurd jigsaw room layout, there is a non-trivial risk of melting from beam swipes (a Glaive can do 15 to these in a single attack), but overall they are going to be easier than the Direct Diplomacy.
The Jeweled Basilisk and the Hemoferno are variations of the Sapphire-Class Cruiser, replacing Rock A and Rock B. Lorewise they belong to the Remineralization Sect (Recombinationists) and the Church of the Purifying Crucible (Subliminationists) respectively.
Their crew complements consist of:
3x Rockmen
3x Crystal
1x Engi
1x Zoltan
The Jeweled Basilisk is armed with a Shrike Cannon, a Plasma Repeater (previously covered), and 2x Burst Laser MkII, a Hull Repair Drone, an Attack Drone, and a Defense Drone.
The Shrike Cannon is a rotary version of the Shard. While it has the potential for phenomenal DPS (especially when hitting empty rooms) the windup is non-trivial, and the ammo consumption considerable. The large circular error does have the potential to just lockdown large swaths of the enemy ship.
Attack Type: Flak (CEP 55)
Power Draw: 2
Cooldown: 16 to 8 (-2 per salvo)
Shots: 4
Damage: 1
Shield Pen: 2
Other: Drains 2 ammo per burst, +1 damage against systemless rooms, Lockdown, 50% chance to breach.
The Hemoferno features a Vulcan, a Pyrotherapy Bomb, and a Breach Bomb MkI, a Hull Repair Drone, an Attack Drone, and 2x Boss Boarding drones.
(I have a hard time imagining what constrains the design of Teleporting Bomb Launchers, so I merged vanilla gfx)
The Pyrotherapy Bomb, oft called "The Sacred Fire" by particularly faithful Rockmen is a potent boarding support weapon.
Attack Type: Bomb
Power Draw: 1
Cooldown: 15
Shots: 1
Damage: 0
Other: Drains 1 ammo per shot. On impact, will set fire in target room and heal its occupants for 75HP.
Overall (as the ship's ingame lore/description/flavor explains) the Jeweled Basilisk is a gunship that has an away party and can provide support/shape the battlefield for them, but is more than capable of just zeroing the target's hull.
Though Hemoferno's Vulcan allows it to eventually batter down the defenses of most ships, it's long windup makes it suboptimal compared to leaning on it's boarding team. Between the two bombs, boarding drones and Reconstructive Teleport the ship is well suited for supporting them.
With their hybrid Rock Hull* & Crystal Hull* the Hull Repair Drone is particularly efficient on these ships; as long as your drone control holds up, taking damage is not particularly fatal while resulting in more attacks against the opponent. This is especially true for the Jeweled Basilisk due to having Hardened Systems*.
=]|[=
And now we have the exotic hulls.
The Eightfold Path is a Nirvana-Class Battlecruiser, replacing the Engi A. Lorewise it is in service with Freebooter Engi. It has the following exotic feature:
Overpowered Reactor: This ship has 30 reactor power ~~which just so happens to be the maximum non-Zoltan power a ship can have without crashing in ion storms~~ a level unachievable by vanilla cruisers.
It's personnel roster consists of:
3x Engi
1x Human
1x Mantis
1x Slug
It is armed with a Heavy Plasma Howitzer, an Advanced Flak, a Shard Cannon (previously covered), and Flak (Artillery), a Repair Drone with Relay, an Antipersonnel Drone, a Boss Defense Drone MkII, and an Ion Combat Drone.
The Heavy Plasma Howitzer is tremendously satisfying to use. Perhaps it's the amazing audio.
Attack Type: Flak (CEP 35)
Power Draw: 4
Cooldown: 10
Damage: 4-6 (+1 per shot)
Shield Pen: 2
Other: 1 point of ionization, 60% chance to ignite, will breach if it does not ignite.
The Repair Drone with Relay is an attempt to make the much despised system repair drone more useful, using Gencool's Variable Capacitor logic. I don't think I succeeded.Type: Crew Drone (System Repair)
Power Draw: -1
Other: Provides 1 power to drones after it in series.
The Eightfold Path can do almost everything. With it's nanotech medbay*, drone speed* and anti-personnel drone, it is fairly resistant to AI boarders. Between the Shard Cannon and the 4-man teleport bay, crewkills are quite practical. And of course, between the good weapons and ion drone, you can just overwhelm the enemy's defenses and hullkill them.
There is quite a bit of lack of synergy; drone speed augment rewards you for taking crew drones, but the recovery arm rewards you for taking more combat drones. And while the medbay combo is defensively par excellence, a clonebay could save your meatbags when if you oops'd with the Flak Artillery during boarding.
The Insignia Hetoimasia is a Gram-Class Heavy Cruiser, replacing the Federation A. Lorewise it is in service with Society of the Luminarch Awaiting (Revelationists). It has the following Exotic features:
Automated Ship: By starting with 0 crew (then adding crew via a First Beacon Event Mod**), FTL automatically assigns this ship the Automated feature, allowing it's systems slowly self-repair (if no hull breach) and always count as manned by unskilled crew if no meatbags are available.
Solid State Design: In the past 0x0 rooms was amazingly overpowered and were protected from weapons when placed between two standard rooms, now they still get hit. Even so, 0x0 can make the ship less vulnerable to beams & boarding... if you're okay with slow Automated repair.
Overpowered Reactor: This ship has 30 reactor power.
The normal crew a Gram-Class is two (fairly skilled) humans.
It's armaments consist of an Auxiliary Reactor, a Phased Lance, a Dual Railgun, and the Phased Cannon Array (Artillery)
The Auxiliary Reactor is when 30 power still isn't enough; trade a weapons bus slot for more power. Mechanics stolen from Gencool's Skimmer Mod, this was powerful enough I decided to avoid giving it a useful effect, but giving it a short cooldown beam attack let it play a cool charging/discharging animation.
Attack Type: Beam
Power Draw: -6
Cooldown: 4
Damage: 0
Beam Length: 5
Other: Provides 6 power to weapons after it in series.
The Phased Beam Lance can be thought of as a Halberd++. Not as dependent on other weapons to knock out/suppress shields, but less maximum damage than the Glaive.
Attack Type: Beam
Power Draw: 4
Cooldown: 18
Damage: 2
Shield Pen: 2
Beam Length: 100
Other: 50% chance to ignite.
The Dual Railgun is fairly quick to fire and has great effects after warmup. Has some problems penetrating late game shields.
Attack Type: Laser/Ion
Power Draw: 3
Cooldown: 9
Shots: 2
Damage: 2-3 (+1 per shot)
Shield Pen: 3
Other: Drains 1 ammo per salvo, 1 point of ionization, 100% chance to breach.
The Phased Cannon Array is what the Fed Cruiser Artillery Beam wishes it could be when it grows up. Due to FTL code oddities, an beam with ion damage instantly obliterates all shields (unless they have Zoltan power) and thus is quite suitable in the artillery slot, where it cannot be pre-ignited.
Attack Type: Beam
Power Draw: 99
Cooldown: 40
Damage: 3
Shield Pen: 2
Beam Length: 640
Other: 1 point of ionization, 100% chance to ignite.
The Hetoimasia is pretty durable and packs a punch, but has some oddities. Your 0x0 systems (Everything other than Piloting/Shields/Weapons/Engines) can only be slowly fixed by the Automated Ship feature. The crew is very reliant on medical nanite remote healing as they cannot access the 0x0 medbay. Selling the augment can be a mistake. The disconnected rooms will cause crew to be stuck in the nether if you give orders while they are moving between rooms.
Overall one of the strongest ships in the mod.
"But NAOP-sempai, wait. You said the ship classes were ordered in order of estimated power level!" Yes, that's true. There is another Exotic [s]exploit[/s] feature coming up, more so than 0x0 or variable capacitors.
My best splicer hull yet. In some ways, it looks better than vanilla.
The Ashkelon's Reprise and the Martyr are Justiciar-Class Battlecruisers replacing the Zoltan A and B respectively. Lorewise they are in service with the Sancti Conclave and the Ordo Apostolus.
They share the following Exotic hull features:
Automated Ship: By starting with 0 crew (then adding crew via a First Beacon Event Mod**), FTL automatically assigns this ship the Automated feature, allowing it's systems to slowly self-repair (if no hull breach), and always count as manned by unskilled crew if no meatbags are available.
Combined System Architecture: By assigning multiple systems to the same room IDs, Zoltan crew can power all of the systems simultaneously. That is, if you have 4 Zoltans in a room with combined shields and engines, each system receives 4 Zoltan power for a total of 8 ion-proof power. Filling the Justiciars central room with 8 Zoltans grants more than 30-40 free, ion-proof power. Absolutely ludicrous. The drawback, however, is that any hit damages all the systems in that room, meaning a big hit can knock out most of the critical functions of your ship. Worsening the problem, your crew can only repair breaches/fire and the 'topmost' system, and the other systems depend on terribly slow Automated Ship repair.
The starting crew of a Justiciar consists of 5 moderately skilled Zoltan specialists and a unskilled trainee.
The Ashkelon's Reprise is armed with a Glaive Beam, a Chain Laser, an Heavy Ion, and the Triplex Acies (Artillery)
Mechanically speaking, the Triplex Acies is actually 3 artillery beams with the same cooldown; this yields a weapon that fires three beams from the same origin on the player's ship and sprays three different colored beams with different effects across the target's hull, with the ion damage instantly nuking non-protected shields allowing the other beams to wreck havoc. In terms of raw numbers this combination does more damage than the Phased Cannon Array as well as causing more effects (a single 'hit' can only generate 1 fire or 1 breach), but the lack of shield penetration makes it ineffective against targets whose shields are protected from Ion damage.Attack Type: Beam
Power Draw: 99
Cooldown: 40
Damage: 1
Beam Length: 500
Other: 1 point of ionization, 50% chance to stun crew.
Attack Type: Beam
Power Draw: 0
Cooldown: 40
Damage: 1
Beam Length: 500
Other: 90% chance to ignite.
Attack Type: Beam
Power Draw: 0
Cooldown: 40
Damage: 1
Beam Length: 500
Other: +1 hull damage against systemless rooms, 90% chance to breach.
The Martyr is armed with a Fire Beam, a Chain Laser, an Ion Bomb, and a Breach Bomb MkI, two Boss Boarding Drones, an Antipersonnel Drone, and an Ion Combat Drone. All of these weapons are either vanilla or have been featured before.
Between it's large offensive drone fleet, decent starting weapons, and artillery superweapon there are few targets the Ashkelon can't murder in short order, and shared medbay-central compartment makes fighting boarders trivial.
Meanwhile, the Martyr is designed to suicidally drop boarders and hazards onto the enemy ship; if the breach or fire kills your Zoltan boarder first they explode doing damage to the enemy crew, as you prepare to teleport the next wave of clone troopers to them. Unfortunately the 3x3 teleporter still only teleports 4 crew at a time.
The brittleness of these ships is hard to underestimate - a series of heavy hits to the central compartment often will not only cripple shields/engines/weapons/etc but also murder all your Zoltan crew. It is for this reason I have externalized Oxygen/Cloaking/Drones/Hacking; in a pickle you have the option to evacuate the central compartment and try to survive with these tools.
*Augmentation Changes:
-Most flavor text and/or names modified.
-FTL Inhibitor Field multiplier increased from 2 to 3, cost doubled. Not sure if it works, or is a placebo, effects may be hardcoded.
-Slug Gel effect increased from 0.25 to 0.5. Cost reduced to 20 for lore reasons.
-Drone Power Relay speed boost increased from 0.25 to 2.0. Cost increased to 75.
-Medical Nanites heal factor increased from 0.25 to 0.75. Cost increased to 180.
-Ion-Shielded Systems protection chance increased from 50% to 75%. No longer stacks.
-Repair Arm penalty decreased from 15% to 5%.
-Hardened Systems protection chance raised to 33%. Cost increased to 120.
-Living Rock Hull protection chance raised to 25%. Cost increased to 120.
-Living Crystalline Hull retaliation chance raised to 100%. Cost increased to 120.
-Salvage/Mining Arm bonus raised to 15%.
-FTL Overcharger bonus raised to 50%, no longer stacks. Cost increased to 75.
-Weapons Overcharger bonus increased to 15%, no longer stacks. Cost increased to 60.
-Shield Overcharger bonus increased to 25%, no longer stacks. Cost increased to 60.
-Distraction Buoys bonus increased to 3 jumps. Not sure if it works, or is a placebo, effects may be hardcoded.
-Emergency Respirators depressurization damage modifier changed from 50% to 25%, that is crew will only take 25% damage from no air.
-Anti-Drone EW Suite defense scramble factor reduced to 50%. Cost reduced to 60. Needs more playtesting
*Other Changes:
-Flak II and Flak Artillery changed from 7x 1 damage to 4x 2 damage. This is to head off any flak targeting bug induced crashes.
