[SHIP][AE] Lanius Frigates V2.2

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FederationScumX1999
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[SHIP][AE] Lanius Frigates V2.2

Postby FederationScumX1999 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:01 am

Hello everyone! :D Tonight I introduce another ship mod that I kinda ended up making on the spur of the moment when the thought came to me. Here is...

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...the Omniscience! Followed by...

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...the Rejuvenation! And finally...

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...the Anaelisk!

If anyone's ever played the original Homeworld, you'll remember that the Kushan had a unique frigate-class vessel that could deploy a field of drones which were incredibly proficient against strike craft (read: fighters and corvettes) but barely able to scratch capital and super-capital ships. So, essentially, I decided to embody a similar concept in this ship as its drones are great for dealing with projectiles and strike craft (drones, in this case) but the ship is poorly armed initially (and even later on, it only has two weapon slots).

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LORE - SKIP IF YOU WANT TECHNICAL DETAILS AND DOWNLOAD
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The Lanius have existed as a space-faring species for centuries and, in order to sustain themselves on scarce metal, have pursued a myriad of both peaceful and aggressive tactics alongside impressive technological adaption and advancement. Hacking and mind control were the latest of their achievements after awakening from a long hibernation in a war-torn quadrant of galaxy, whereupon they set themselves on acquiring the plentiful, resource-rich ruins of battles long since fought between the Federation and Rebellion.

Modern Lanius vessels are well-known for their brutally effective boarding and disruptive tactics which appear to have superseded the use of drones of any kind. Before their hibernation however, the Lanius obeyed a similar philosophy to the Engi's - a good defense is a good offense. Powerful point-defense drones were the key to victory in rendering enemy offenses utterly useless. Even with the development of cloaking technology, drones reigned supreme.

At the forefront of utilizing this technology were the Lanius's drone frigates. These were the mainstay of their fleet, ensuring many successful harvests, and only came into disuse when tensions cooled between the Lanius and other races with the former going into hibernation. The exact number of years is unknown, but decades are believed to have passed since the frigates were either dismantled for salvage or decommissioned. Computer simulations led to the commencement of new systems and the installation of bombers as the new mainstay of their fleet, and the frigates were all but forgotten.

But some Lanius, in hindsight through observations of Engi tactics, began to revitalize the frigates for use once more. The Omniscience is the first retrofit of this relic and she has been equipped with enhanced variants of the most advanced defense drones currently in the market. Her computer systems are not able to recognize the most modern Lanius tech, but this is overlooked for the simple prospect of seeing whether or not she is capable of making a name for herself in battle like in her glory days. What better way to test the legends of old than setting them against seemingly impossible odds?

The Rejuvenation was the result of a rare partnership between the Lanius and Zoltan who refitted this frigate with a regenerative super shield drone offered by the Engi. This frigate was designed to win battles of attrition where opponent's attacks could not only be countered or evaded, but rendered totally ineffectual. This gift of technology was offered for the opportunity of sharing Zoltan philosophy with the Lanius. In time, the hope is that the Zoltan's message of peace and diplomacy will encourage peaceful relations in which no one will live in fear of the "metal monsters".

Drastic times call for drastic measures, and select individuals go against the doctrines of their cultures to fight for what they believe in. Thus, an even rarer alliance later occurred between the Lanius and Crystals, ancient enemies whose natural abilities and powerful technology combine in the form of the Anaelisk. Unlike other Lanius frigates, this refit is more about an aggressive, overwhelming offense with a prototype drone that can continually crystallize and breach any room it fires at. This opens the doors for many devastating tactics to be utilized, including the mythical Lanius-Crystal boarding party. With sworn enemies united for the first time, the Rebels have trifled with galactic affairs for the last time.

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GENERAL

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- Hacking, Mind Control, and Batteries cannot be bought or installed on this ship. Everything else can, except Artillery (for those playing CE).
- Being the precursor to the Lanius Bomber, the Lanius Drone Frigate has only 20 hull.
- Drone power can be upgraded to a maximum of 10 and upgrades past level 4 have been made cheaper, allowing the player to field some additional advanced drones to augment either their offense or defense.
- Weapon power can only be upgraded to a maximum of 6.

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BEGINNING STRATEGIES
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Omniscience

The Omniscience is armed similarly to the Kestrel-A (especially its CE variant) so it is easy to get straight into. Competing zealously for your first 50 scrap is an upgraded variant of the Scatter Defense Drone from CE, a drone that fires several shots at incoming projectiles. It is capable of shooting all projectiles, but you'll mainly appreciate it (as is the case with all defense drones) as missile defense. The Effector Drone+ is an underrated gem that will likely not see nearly as much action as the SDD, but that does not detract from the fact that the Effector essentially makes enemy drones irrelevant. Yes, that includes the drone swarms summoned by the Flagship's power surges. It is something that must be seen to be believed.

Important to note is that the Drone Frigate is very much a drone ship. Your weapon customization is limited as a trade-off for a powerful and easier-to-upgrade Drone system that comes with four slots for all kinds of goodies. Aside from that, all three ships can only install pre-AE systems (nevermind the Clone Bay), though this still provides you with additional offense in Teleporter and defense in Cloak. Needless to say, you must make the most out of your drones to ensure survival.

Rejuvenation

The Rejuvenation is a homage to the Stealth-C, a ship with an infamous reputation for being among the most difficult and underpowered ships to fly. It is a reputation unjustly earned I must say, as the weapons get the job done, but its the Shield Overcharger+ that makes its star shine in the abyss of space. Therein lies a world of limitless defensive potential that mirrors the Federation-C's unrivaled offensive potential.

So, the Rejuvenation utilizes a Shield Overcharger+ and Cloaking as its only line of defense initially. Unlike the Omniscience however, you have more systems at your disposal and, once you have Shields, you will be sitting very pretty defensively. Cloaking is excellent for stalling and giving your drone the time it needs for missile-proof shielding, and that isn't mentioning that a Defense Drone will increase your odds immensely down the line.

Like the Stealth-C, the Rejuvenation comes into its own late-game as a tanky little ship. The Charge Ion and Small Beam are excellent starting weapons that can hold up for the first few sectors and synergize well with your stalling tactics. Also, with only Shields and Teleporter to (optionally) worry about, you can focus more funds in kitting yourself out. Keep in mind, however, that the ship comes with a Med-Bay; do not get careless, especially with your Lanius and Zoltan likely to pass by one another.

Anaelisk

The Anaelisk grants you the opportunity of combining the powers of the two rarest beings in FTL and comes equipped with the perfect drone to highlight their beneficial relationship. Unlike the other two ships, the Anaelisk has an offensive drone that continually pelts the enemy ship with shield-piercing crystals. What's special about it is that the crystals cause breaches and lockdowns at a regular interval and, allowed to run amuck, will cause havoc amongst the enemy crew. By itself, the drone is capable of venting an enemy ship in due time while potentially causing massive delays for the enemy to repair its damaged systems. Supported well, its usefulness can last all the way to the Flagship and, since it does no damage, can easily benefit Lanius and Crystal boarders. As an added side-note, it is able to ignore Zoltan Shields entirely due to its lack of damage of any kind.

Your Burst Crystal I should suit you well enough, though its longer-than-average charge time can leave you vulnerable to opening volleys. The layout may make getting around in a hurry fairly tricky, but there are handy airlocks throughout the ship that can keep fires and boarders under control (especially in tandem with the Crystal's Lockdown ability).

Overall, some might say that a Teleporter is a given purchase for this ship in order to experience the Crystal-Lanius boarding party. In my opinion, it is not as world-shattering as many might hope. However, if you are fortunate enough to get Ruwen from his stasis pod or find access to the Crystal Homeworlds in the Rock Homeworlds sector using your Crystal crewman, then a Teleporter is heavily recommended. A two-Crystal, two-Lanius tag team is perhaps the most powerful, unsupported (meaning no weapons to take out recovery rooms and what not) boarding team in FTL. The choice is yours.


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Only ship I haven't played a full game with so far is the Rejuvenation; the other two can beat the game just fine on Normal mode.

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DOWNLOAD

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http://www.mediafire.com/download/9fvei ... esV2.2.ftl

Recommended for these ships, Kierany9's excellent Alternate hull strength HUDs (more specifically, the 20 hull strength variant):

viewtopic.php?t=21578

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SHOWCASES

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ResidentEvil063's TF: FTL Mods 3: Lanius Frigates
Part 1: Omniscience
Part 2: Rejuvenation
Part 3: Anaelisk

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* Effector Drone, Scatter Defense Drone, and Crystal Anti-Ship Drone images and sounds are all from Captain's Edition
Last edited by FederationScumX1999 on Tue Oct 27, 2015 12:27 pm, edited 12 times in total.
The future hinges on each of a thousand choices. Living is making choices! - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
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stylesrj
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby stylesrj » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:11 am

I'll look into this one. While I don't like Drone Ships very much, that's mostly because it takes up Drone Parts to run. And we all know why the Bulwark sucks.

Hopefully this one works out well and I don't end up without any parts to spare.
FederationScumX1999
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby FederationScumX1999 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:17 am

stylesrj wrote:I'll look into this one. While I don't like Drone Ships very much, that's mostly because it takes up Drone Parts to run. And we all know why the Bulwark sucks.

Hopefully this one works out well and I don't end up without any parts to spare.


I'm not too crazy about Drones myself (except for defense drones - those nifty little buggers), though I'm sure the drones I picked will help to make the experience less painful. Better than relying on a combat drone for sure. -w-;
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stylesrj
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby stylesrj » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:29 am

The problem I have with Defense Drones is also why I prefer Cloaking.

Drones have a remarkable talent of blocking enemy shots with their face. Whether it's the missile they were supposed to shoot down, a stray asteroid they couldn't hit or a shot from the enemy's laser array that misses your ship and swoops out the other end to destroy your drone.

Sure Cloaking only does add 60% Evasion so if you have 35% from Engines and piloting, there's a 5% chance of the enemy's weapons going through but I'll take that risk over having the next shot destroying my precious Drones.

And yeah, I agree, a single combat drone isn't something to rely on. You need at least two or three.
FederationScumX1999
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby FederationScumX1999 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:37 am

stylesrj wrote:The problem I have with Defense Drones is also why I prefer Cloaking.

Drones have a remarkable talent of blocking enemy shots with their face. Whether it's the missile they were supposed to shoot down, a stray asteroid they couldn't hit or a shot from the enemy's laser array that misses your ship and swoops out the other end to destroy your drone.

Sure Cloaking only does add 60% Evasion so if you have 35% from Engines and piloting, there's a 5% chance of the enemy's weapons going through but I'll take that risk over having the next shot destroying my precious Drones.

And yeah, I agree, a single combat drone isn't something to rely on. You need at least two or three.


I can see where you're coming from, and sometimes even having two or three in the battle with the Flagship generally means that all of them will fire at the same time at the same rocket out of the trio. But being able to shoot down those fat breach missiles fairly consistently is generally enough for me to forgive their flaws. I definitely love Cloaking, though I feel it has its greatest potency against the Flagship (dodging power surges never felt so good) whereas defense drones have greater potency over the course of the game (as long as u keep tabs on your supply, but eh).

If I had one compliant about the Drone system, it's that I feel combat drones are more trouble than they're worth because, ultimately, you need to punch down the shields for them to rip ships to shred in the first place. Running several of them for the chance of punching through thick shields to damage the enemy ship is time, power, and resource consuming. Topped off by the fact that they will aim at rooms other than the ones you desperately want destroyed, and I find that to be the biggest letdown. Ah well.
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby stylesrj » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:42 am

Just wondering:

is it possible to make a Perfect Defense Drone? Fires rapidly and shoots everything down.
I know the Burst Scatter Drone could take on a Flagship barrage (or a 4 missile barrage) without problems but what if that drone was made to shoot everything?
What's the maximum firing rate for a Defense Drone? 0.3 seconds?

Could make for an interesting Type B.
FederationScumX1999
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby FederationScumX1999 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:50 am

stylesrj wrote:Just wondering:

is it possible to make a Perfect Defense Drone? Fires rapidly and shoots everything down.
I know the Burst Scatter Drone could take on a Flagship barrage (or a 4 missile barrage) without problems but what if that drone was made to shoot everything?
What's the maximum firing rate for a Defense Drone? 0.3 seconds?

Could make for an interesting Type B.


There'll no doubt be a correlation between this ship (and any layouts I may make) and the Federation Defenders in emphasizing a strong point-defense system, so its fair to say I was inspired by those ships as well when making a concept for a Lanius drone ship. :)

Also, in direct reply, I think it may be possible for a defense drone to fire every 0.1 seconds by setting the cooldown to 100 (the Defense Drone Mark 3 is set to 500 for its .5 second reload). I'll have to experiment, though a "perfect" defense drone would probably have to be balanced by the exclusion of shields starting out probably. We shall see. -w-
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby R4V3-0N » Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:46 am

stylesrj wrote:Just wondering:

is it possible to make a Perfect Defense Drone? Fires rapidly and shoots everything down.
I know the Burst Scatter Drone could take on a Flagship barrage (or a 4 missile barrage) without problems but what if that drone was made to shoot everything?
What's the maximum firing rate for a Defense Drone? 0.3 seconds?

Could make for an interesting Type B.


Well, there is a tag to allow the drone to possibly dodge the fire I think it is. Which could possibly make the defense drone unable to be killed.
Another thing would be that defense drones are better on smaller ships as they have better time to react to the incoming fire.
Rapid fire drone that can take anything out could occur but may increase miss chance as it may fire a little to early or late at the next projectile and it doesn't fire twice on the same projectile.


This is why the engi cruiser is the best ship in vanilla for defense drones:- it is because it is the SMALLEST ship for player control in game with the type B being so small that literally each room is one of the systems and it has no empty rooms.

How I did it in my mod for the defender as mentioned above is that basicly the ship is immune to enemy drones (kinda) and also being at the centre of the ship- was able to have the best optimal chance to shoot down incoming fire. The only problem is scaling for it is hard and due to how small my shield bubble was it created unforeseen bugs such as shield drone causing crashes, enemy drones don't work, if your drone still somehow got destroyed or what ever it never comes back, etc...
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FederationScumX1999
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby FederationScumX1999 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 7:46 pm

I was curious about that - what exactly is stopping enemy drones from attacking your ship?

Also, as for challenging game-crashing bugs with the one-pixel shield, might it be possible to make it so the turret rotates around the top of the ship with a slightly bigger shield? The shield itself could be textured and colored to fit with the ship it's set on (or even look like an array) which I'm sure you've probably tried before.
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Re: [SHIP][AE] Lanius Drone Frigate V1.3

Postby stylesrj » Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:02 pm

Drones are tied to the Shield Ellipse surrounding your ship. This applies to both friendly and hostile drones.
If you have no ellipse, enemy Drones can't dart around and shoot things, but your defense Drones can still open fire.

Fun fact: Zoltan Shields still work. They won't block any shots but it will prevent Hacking, Mind Control and boarding operations (outside of events).