Subset Games Forum

This is what I was looking for! I'm curious as to what happens with the game "balance" with this.

Well, unfortunately this will screw balance into player's favor.

What rebel fleet does is basically limit the amount of beacons you can visit in one sector. In first two sectors it is especially limiting because you mostly cannot afford to fight rebel elite encounters (which means you'd rather miscalculate and visit one less beacon, but be safe), but even in latter ones it still does limit you (you can sometimes visit one or two extra beacons on purpose, the go back through rebel elite encounters, but its not much).

Even if you do not explot it (free fuel and even more extra scrap, since now waiting for fuel is pure profit) you still get more scrap, missiles and drones than before. Since enemy generation remains as is, this means you will get powerful sooner, and game encounters will be way easier for you because of this. You probably will have to buy more fuel, but you will still not run out of it, because you rarely buyout entire shop's fuel more than three times in the entire game, thats 3 of ~14 shops that you visit in first 7 sectors. But even if you do, running out of fuel will be benefitial to you, because you get free fuel and scrap and stuff out of it.

Plus, it removes a big part of the game - that is, approximating rebel fleet approach and laying correct route from start to exit. Now will be all about solving a typical graph task "visit each node at least once while visiting least possible amount of nodes total" which is very simple, plus you wont lose much if your route is not optimal (you revisit some nodes).

In order to balance this, fuel must cost more, preferably progressively more (scales the same way sector rewards scale - same price for fuel in S1 as it is now, but more expensive in each consequent sector). Also, "no fuel" encounters must be made 100% unprofitable - they should turn the sector into rebel sector (red sign with !!), effectively making you fight a battle for 1 unit of fuel, where you have no chance to gain anything else.

Plus, something must be done to "speed up rebel fleet" and "stop down rebel fleet" event outcomes. I think they should give and take fuel, respectively (speed up takes away 1 fuel, stop grants random of 2-3 fuel) (if you dont have 1 fuel, speed up takes away random amount of scrap from current fuel cost to twice current fuel cost, if you dont have that, takes away same amount of missiles or drones, if you're totally broke, you're a cheater)

Then this would be indeed another take at the game, probably equally interesting and balanced as the original.

BTW, if i'm not mistaken, this is code-able with the current FTL engine, is it not?

Hissatsu wrote:(post)

It's a valid point, and I appreciate the well thought out ideas to keep things constrained. Unfortunately, I'm not yet at the skill level to do a mod that elaborate. My intent here was just to give a more open-world/exploratory option for myself and anyone else who might want it.

However, if you or anyone else wanted to a mod based on fuel scarcity as you outlined, I'd certainly be interested in trying it.

Hi there.

Great Mod. I'm new to all this... How hard is it to just slow down the fleet? An earlier reply mentioned -10 turns? This sounds good without making it too easy.

I've never so much as even installed a mod until yesterday, let alone write my own! (I'm recovering from XBOX and PS3 gaming and only just bought a decent PC).

Wedgybaby wrote:Hi there.

Great Mod. I'm new to all this... How hard is it to just slow down the fleet? An earlier reply mentioned -10 turns? This sounds good without making it too easy.

I've never so much as even installed a mod until yesterday, let alone write my own! (I'm recovering from XBOX and PS3 gaming and only just bought a decent PC).

That is quite easy. Just change -10000 to -10

Personally I would make it so that had to choose the delay at each sector, but that might become annoying. But I like to play with the fleet, without it seems a little dull.

How do I open the file to change it from -1000 to -10?

Nothing comes up in-game, is it meant to? Perhaps it's conflicting with another mod?

If you need another program to open the file could you tell me what it is?

(I already have the mod-enabling-software installed)

Wedgybaby wrote:How do I open the file to change it from -1000 to -10?

Nothing comes up in-game, is it meant to? Perhaps it's conflicting with another mod?

If you need another program to open the file could you tell me what it is?

(I already have the mod-enabling-software installed)

It is simply a ZIP file, just extract it. then edit the .append file in notepad or something like that. Save it, and ZIP it again, change the ext to .ftl again and wolla!

Cheers - I have been able to unzip it, open it in notepad and change to -10. I then saved it and am trying to re-zip it up but the only file extension it gives me is .xml ???

I have manually renamed it .ftl but when i run Grognaks mods program it lists the file ive created but flags up an error.

What am I doing wrong? Please explain how you would to your grandma, as im aware im slow with PC's.

I'm using WinZip to do all of this. I'm good up until the point i gotta re-zip the file...

Awesome, now my ship can be destroyed in a freak accident after I put 20 times more effort into it!!

Wedgybaby wrote:Cheers - I have been able to unzip it, open it in notepad and change to -10. I then saved it and am trying to re-zip it up but the only file extension it gives me is .xml ???

I have manually renamed it .ftl but when i run Grognaks mods program it lists the file ive created but flags up an error.

What am I doing wrong? Please explain how you would to your grandma, as im aware im slow with PC's.

I'm using WinZip to do all of this. I'm good up until the point i gotta re-zip the file...

What error does it give?