Glad you enjoy my videos. Although I wonder, does Vanguard still play FTL and make videos of it?
I like the picture. The Basilisk meets the Federation Cruiser.
Although you may need to remove some excess glows. The ship has glowing bits at the bottom that looked like they were part of a box or something. So you could trim those out easily enough.
When designing a ship, I tend to use the Magic Wand a little bit above the edges of the ship and remove those "glows" to avoid further issues. Sometimes I remember to put them back in or just leave it free of glowing bits. The Miniship also needs to be reduced in size to match the other Miniships. The game doesn't do it automatically.
Alright, so my artistic critique out of the way, let's look at the ship itself in terms of "balance."
Now when it comes to making a ship, I compare it to the Shrike. I always do that because I love that ship. It's the apex of FTL ships. Any ship that crosses that line is what I call "overpowered."
But it doesn't end there. There's also a line I call the "Big Bang Cruiser" line. Well actually it's a peak. You can't really go over that.
Loading up the Vanguard/Justice in FTL and looking at the weapons, systems and augments available immediately throws the ship past the Shrike Line.
So immediately here's a few ways to fix things to make it close or below the Shrike Line and why:
Augments:Zoltan Shield - Has to go. It doesn't really meet the "aesthetic" you're going with on the ship and it's additional protection that makes the ship unkillable considering what it's packing in Sector 1.
Slug Repair Gel - Also has to go. Like the shield, it doesn't meet the aesthetics and in Vanilla FTL it's extra Scrap at the next store. In CE, it means you can break truces and double loot enemy ships with your big guns.
Systems:Shields - Take it down to 1 layer. The Basilisk can get away with it considering it's a boarding cruiser. This one is not. So one layer please. Although if you want, you can take it down to 1 bar so it costs 100 to upgrade and then you can put the Zoltan Shield on. Like the Zoltan B does.
Artillery - Either needs to be custom or taken out entirely. The game doesn't like Artillery that uses missiles.
Drone Control - What's that doing here, not serving any purpose but to take up a system slot?
Cloaking - I love Cloaking but I feel it has to be earned. Unless the ship has crippling problems at the start (like the Stealth ships or the Crystal B) then I recommend you take this off
Engines - There's no station assigned to the crew here. Intentional to reduce evasion or an oversight?
Also, you may want to realign stations with the consoles as it looks funny to see the pilot typing away on a wall far from the console or the Engi typing at the side of the Weapons console.
Firepower:Glaive Beam - The Stealth B starts with a Glaive Beam and no protection for a reason. The Glaive is too powerful to be put in the hands of a well-defended ship. I can see myself going through all the sectors without having to spend much Scrap because of this.
Mini Beam & Ion Charger - A really good combo and I think you should keep that. Charge the ions, hope one of them hits, then make like the Beam Master and show them your superior beam weaponry! Ah-hah! Now that thing is fun and really tense to work with in early sectors! No really, I can't help but say how something so weak can be exciting to work with, along with complaints of "What am I paying you for?" to the person operating Weapons.
Crew:Not much to change here. It's crew. You have Humies and an Engi.
Considering the theme of the ship, I'd replace a Human with a Mantis but your preference.
Overall, the ship has great potential but so far it's fallen into the pitfall every first modder tends to do - My First Overpowered Vessel.
By the way, here's how to make the Artillery Bomb work properly and what I think is balanced.
Code: Select all
<weaponBlueprint name="ARTILLERY_ION">
<type>BOMB</type>
<tip>tip_bombs</tip>
<title>Ion Bomb</title>
<short>I. Bomb</short>
<locked>1</locked>
<desc>Self-teleporting explosive that uses ion damage to disable systemsp.</desc>
<tooltip>Bomb weapon; does no damage but deals 4 ion damage.</tooltip>
<damage>0</damage>
<ion>4</ion>
<shots>3</shots>
<sp>0</sp>
<fireChance>0</fireChance>
<breachChance>0</breachChance>
<stunChance>2</stunChance>
<cooldown>40</cooldown>
<!--was 21-->
<power>1</power>
<cost>55</cost>
<!--was 65-->
<bp>4</bp>
<rarity>0</rarity>
<image>bomb_ion</image>
<explosion>explosion_big1_ion</explosion>
<launchSounds>
<sound>bombTeleport</sound>
</launchSounds>
<hitShipSounds>
<sound>ionHit1</sound>
<sound>ionHit2</sound>
<sound>ionHit3</sound>
</hitShipSounds>
<weaponArt>bomb_ion</weaponArt>
<iconImage>bomb</iconImage>
</weaponBlueprint>
40 second cooldown (20 seconds at level 4) drops 3 bombs on the enemy ship and doesn't use missiles.
Be sure to throw that above your ship's blueprint in the blueprints.xml.append and change the ship's Bomb_Ion artillery to it.