[Ship] [weapon] Federation Ambusher 1.2

[Cyl0]

*Change log:
1.2 Fixed console and added in battery room and two small "closets" for hacking and mindcontroll, now ready for advanced edition. *Known graphic bug with low oxygen display in the uneven rooms
1.1 Fixed cloak image and added two custom weapons also made the ship start with sensors to offset the worsened power management.

Here we go my first completed ship! Custom graphics based on game entities including ship with cloak, new floors and gibs all in the flavor of the original game.



(Activated rooms for the picture)

X - 9 Prototype (replaces the Kestrel)
Half finished prototype of the fast twin engined ambush class. This fast but cramped design was constructed drawing on lessons learned from the Federation scout and bomber ships to create the perfect ambusher. Unfortunately this prototype needs some work to attain full potential and the small craft wont stand up to as much punishment as a bigger ship.

Gameplay: You start with a strong engine two ion lasers and a pre-igniter, what can possibly go wrong? Allot apparently... You start with the bare minimum of systems active and a crew consisting of only 3 humans. The first sector will be easy on you but then it will quickly become tight since you will need quite a lot of scrap to make the ship able to handle the stiffening opposition. To make it even worse your ship only have half the number of hit points so when things go bad they go bad quickly, at least you have a quick charging FTL drive so you can get out of dodge reasonably fast.

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vq8qqfxdq9lgt8b/Federation%20Ambusher%201.2.ftl?dl=0

PS: I would love to have some feedback on the ship. I haven't found any bugs but if you do please tell me. Other than that I would just like to hear how you think it plays and if it feels balanced power wise with the vanilla ships.

[codyfun123]

Boy! To say the least, this ship is quite difficult.

Only about 1/3 dodge isn't incredibly reliable, and then there's initially no other way of protecting yourself. It doesn't help that the ship dies twice as fast. I don't think it's even fair to say that the first sector is easy on you!

The Weapon Pre-Igniter forms a sort of luck-based balance in which you have to survive long enough to get powerful weapons and then be able to power them, kind of like how the Basilisk requires you to find more boarding crew.

Anyways, your ship provides a challenge where I had to rethink some of the strategies I normally use. Nice job.

Oh, about your cloak image. I really like that you made it match the way vanilla cloak images were done, but I noticed a problem... you should check out 5thHorseman's signature.

From the Wiki: cloak images are 10 pixels bigger in every direction than base images. For example, a 200x200 ship graphic should have a 220x220 cloak image. Otherwise, the cloak image is stretched in-game to match these dimensions.

[Cyl0]

Well initially you have a very effective way of defending yourself, your guns With the ingiter and the quick refire on the duals you should get of two salvos before the enemy, use that to keep you safe. (And fear beam drones)

But you need to update allot of stuff to make it work in the later sectors so its certainly not easy.

I guess I could throw back the sensors to make it a bit less expensive to upgrade, what do you think about that?


I have also been considering making some sort of custom laser for it (still used in a pair), any idea about what that could be. For a while i planned giving it two rapid fire single shot lasers, but that would make initial weapon upgrades even more urgent to handle ships with more shields.
Hmm maybe I could throw in one ion damage on them as well. with a fast enough refire rate they should be able to fire the next salvo while the shields are down, and it would also say in theme with the use weapons to stay safe play-style.

How does that sound?

[codyfun123]

I'd actually say that the ship gets (much, much) BETTER in the later sectors, because that's when your Weapon Pre-Igniter starts to pay off and you've managed to afford more defensive systems.

I'm in sector 3 now and I've acquired some beams, as well as both shields and cloaking. In fact, this ship is quite strong like this.

The custom laser idea sounds like an interesting idea. The addition of ion damage would mean that once you've gotten past their shields, you can start hammering away at their other systems too.

[Cyl0]

Yea depending on how lucky you are early on in getting stuff you can be in a rough spot in sector 2-4 and if you wont find some viable weapons/systems to back you up by then you die. Late game the biggest threat to the ship is the fact that it only has half the usual hitpoints, so you pack a wallop thanks to the pre-igniter, but when things start going bad it can end quickly.

I'l see if i can manage to squeeze the new lasers out this weekend. But I have been having loads of fun with the dual lasers and thanks to the low power usage they are useful late game as well you just have to supplement them with something more powerful.

[codyfun123]

My playthrough ended badly because I could never hold on to any of my crew

Anyways, despite my bad luck, I quite liked your ship. Good job with it.

Are you going to fix the cloak image as well?

[Cyl0]

My playthrough ended badly because I could never hold on to any of my crew

Anyways, despite my bad luck, I quite liked your ship. Good job with it.

Are you going to fix the cloak image as well?

Tnx for the playthrough I will fix the cloak when I look into the lasers.
Do you think it should stay without sensors in the beginning for balance or could I activate them?

[Cyl0]

Updated the OP with a changelog for the new version.

The ship might be a bit hard to play now, and I would like to know if people are able to cope

[Alvarin]

Just finished the second playthrough, winning this time. First time died two jumps before the exit of sector1... boarding events in a nebula are hard with this ship...
I played the original ship, so my feedback might not be valid in 1.1 version - the shield room has the operator position wrong.
Very enjoyable ship it was. Now need to check the new revision.

[Cyl0]

Just finished the second playthrough, winning this time. First time died two jumps before the exit of sector1... boarding events in a nebula are hard with this ship...
I played the original ship, so my feedback might not be valid in 1.1 version - the shield room has the operator position wrong.
Very enjoyable ship it was. Now need to check the new revision.

Tnx for the find, I think I know what you mean about the shield room, I'l fix it in the next version. I just need to make up my mind about the balancing before polishing it of with 1.2

Question: Are the Ion lasers good enough to be used the entire game or should i lower their power cost and make the ship harder to start with in some other way?