[WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

[a Sir]

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"Sir, incomin' telegram from an ally airship," delivered the automaton.

"Our steamship is goin' down... We 'ave failed our purpose. Deliver this information, we had tried our best at, to the Confederacy, prior to being stricken. We believe it's contents shall be vital for our fleet to win the war. I beg to inform the Insurgents are following us closely. Adieu, and godspeed."

As the transmissions cut out, the automaton records the essential data. Havin' received the information, you start your steam engines and 'ead for the Confederacy base almost 8 airspaces away... But be careful, the Insurgent fleet of airships is right behind you.




Lighter than air is a complete modification of FTL, from new ships to new hud and even a new gameplay style. We are aiming to transform completely transform FTL from science fiction to steampunk, with airships replacing spaceships, completely new sets of events and a unique and compelling story that requires multiple playthroughs to complete.

Here are some major changes we are hoping to achieve:

-New fast-paced gameplay focusing on crew micromanagement. This would be possible by limiting energy to make it extremely costly and low while making the most common race, humans, have the zoltan passive. There would be a lot more crew movement in the airship. The other races will be different types of automatons,

-Removal of Shields system, mainly because it doesn't make sense, also because of the new energy system. The removal of shields will be balanced with a lot more hull, and hull repair. (the idea is to be able to repair your hull during combat, at the cost of using two or one of your crew (this can be accomplished by using the hull repair drone, and drone system)). Cloaking and Oxygen will be replaced with Swiftness Surge and pressurization/heating/filtering or some other clever steampunk-related name.

-Graphic overhaul of almost everything in the game. New ships, new weapons, new characters, new background, new ui.

-Side view instead of top view. Some clever tweaking of the art makes this possible.




Playable ships:
Kestrel replacement
Federation replacement
Stealth replacement
Engi replacement
Rock replacement
Mantis replacement
Zoltan replacement
Crystal replacement
A decent amount of enemy ships
A couple weapons
A couple drones
Some wallpapers
Some really nice sprites

ps: if anyone thinks they can improve any or all of the ships, go ahead! I wouldn't mind at all!

Don't look forward to seeing this mod finished soon... be patient, it will take a loooooooooong time. (but with your help it might get finished faster;)

If you like any of the ideas or ships used in the mod, feel free to use them The mod is meant to be collaborative, meaning that everyone can participate to help us out!

• a Sir: Project director, main coder and artist
• xlandar: Weapons and UI specialist
• Gencool: Sprite virtuoso
• R4V3-0N: Drone fabricator
• rannl: Programming wizard

If anyone wants to join, feel free to ask!


Honorable mention (!!!) to:

• Russian Rockman: The one who helps us a lot with many many many suggestions and ideas!
• Darth Baron: The one who decided to post a list of names as his first post in the forums!

Tell me if I'm missing anyone... sorry if i did D:



We would love to hear feedback, opinions and suggestions! We would love to have some help from the community, from art to ship names to ideas, anything is welcome!

[xlandar]

Seems like a very interesting mod! Can't wait to see it! One thing, how do you propose removing oxygen? You would need some sort of custom engi med-bay, because you can't remove the actual oxygen mechanic.

[a Sir]

Seems like a very interesting mod! Can't wait to see it! One thing, how do you propose removing oxygen? You would need some sort of custom engi med-bay, because you can't remove the actual oxygen mechanic.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure about the oxygen though. The engi med-bay method works, but it would remove fires. I imagined a lot more fire to compensate for the lack of hull breaches. I'm still trying to figure out another way...

[R4V3-0N]

maybe make it that the ships are at a so high altitude that you need the O2 room to have the inside pressurized? something like that.

[Gencool]

If the embedded system - crash bug gets fixed, you could just use that. No damage to O2 = fewer O2 issues, and you could remove its graphic.
From there you could alter the red lines to be 'ice' or something and rename o2 to pressurisation or heating?


Also, I like the idea of making Zolts into Humans, but I recon Rocks/Mantis could be light mech suits (Think Warrior pirates and big daddy) so that you still have boarding crew. All others could be easily dropped, or you could make them into special event characters (A telepathic guy you happen to pick up? Maybe Lanius could be Ghosts? Humans\Engies could become specific escort missions...)

[Sleeper Service]

If the embedded system - crash bug gets fixed, you could just use that. No damage to O2 = fewer O2 issues, and you could remove its graphic.
From there you could alter the red lines to be 'ice' or something and rename o2 to pressurization or heating?

Suns can still damage embedded systems by the way. This might be noteworthy in case OP still wants to keep that hazard. I kind of doubt that embedded systems will be fixed, cause them not working does not constitute and actual vanilla game bug.

Are you definitely going to use side view for ships? That is kind of new but I still find it not as organic as the top view. Top view steampunk ship models could still be feasible with some general style alteration (balloons below the ship?)

The removal of shields will be balanced with a lot more hull, and hull repair. (the idea is to be able to repair your hull during combat, at the cost of using two or one of your crew (this can be accomplished by using the hull repair drone, and drone system))

I also believe this will be way harder to balance than it might seem. There is no way to remove drone part requirements from drones by the way, so you'll have to take care of that somehow as well.

Pretty cool mod presentation you got going so far. Looks overall promising, but you have a lot of work in front of you. Rewriting the entire game events or providing enough new events for an entire new campaign is big task. Looking forward to what you come up with.

[Tweevle]

This is a really nice idea. Re: the oxygen problem, maybe you could set the game in a heavily polluted world and have it as an air-filtration system instead? So instead of air leaking out, pollutants would leak in, and nebulas could be areas where the smoke is particularly thick (over a city, maybe?). This may work better if it were Dieselpunk, IDK.

Are you definitely going to use side view for ships? That is kind of new but I still find it not as organic as the top view. Top view steampunk ship models could still be feasible with some general style alteration (balloons below the ship?)

The side view could work if you replaced the "north" and "south" walking animations with climbing ladder animations, and maybe just had flat rooms in either direction, to represent floors and ladders?

[a Sir]

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Thanks for the feedback everyone! Just finished the second ship and updated the main post:




Is there anything I could improve for the ships? EDIT: actually after looking at it for a while I think I will try to detail it more...

maybe make it that the ships are at a so high altitude that you need the O2 room to have the inside pressurized? something like that.

If the embedded system - crash bug gets fixed, you could just use that. No damage to O2 = fewer O2 issues, and you could remove its graphic.
From there you could alter the red lines to be 'ice' or something and rename o2 to pressurisation or heating?

This is a really nice idea. Re: the oxygen problem, maybe you could set the game in a heavily polluted world and have it as an air-filtration system instead? So instead of air leaking out, pollutants would leak in, and nebulas could be areas where the smoke is particularly thick (over a city, maybe?). This may work better if it were Dieselpunk, IDK.

I love the heating/pressurization/smoke ideas! But I'm not sure how the oxygen system will work with the new crew-dependant gameplay. With not enough energy for all the systems, it might be either more annoying or challenging to have someone at the Oxygen system half the time. I'll definitely keep these ideas in the bank!

Also, I like the idea of making Zolts into Humans, but I recon Rocks/Mantis could be light mech suits (Think Warrior pirates and big daddy) so that you still have boarding crew. All others could be easily dropped, or you could make them into special event characters (A telepathic guy you happen to pick up? Maybe Lanius could be Ghosts? Humans\Engies could become specific escort missions...)

I really like the idea of special event characters! It could really add some depth to the story!

Are you definitely going to use side view for ships? That is kind of new but I still find it not as organic as the top view. Top view steampunk ship models could still be feasible with some general style alteration (balloons below the ship?)

Tweevle got the general idea:

The side view could work if you replaced the "north" and "south" walking animations with climbing ladder animations, and maybe just had flat rooms in either direction, to represent floors and ladders?

The north-south walking animations will be climbing ladders. The rooms' art will contain subtle ladders everywhere so it looks better. I'm aiming to create a new "feel" to the game with the side view. Also, I don't think top-view airships would be very nice.

Pretty cool mod presentation you got going so far. Looks overall promising, but you have a lot of work in front of you. Rewriting the entire game events or providing enough new events for an entire new campaign is big task. Looking forward to what you come up with.

Thank you I love CE by the way! Add so many new things!


I might be able to finish another ship today or work on something else! I'll keep you guys updated!

[Sleeper Service]

I love the heating/pressurization/smoke ideas! But I'm not sure how the oxygen system will work with the new crew-dependant gameplay. With not enough energy for all the systems, it might be either more annoying or challenging to have someone at the Oxygen system half the time. I'll definitely keep these ideas in the bank!

IMO you won't have much choice in the matter as you can't just remove the oxygen system without causing further problem (crew will suffocate.) There is the Engi Medbot workaround, but that would deprave all of your ships of one augment slot and you still need a crewmen to power the medbay to get this to work. So you might not get around incorporating oxygen somehow, with whatever lore explanation you choose.

The north-south walking animations will be climbing ladders. The rooms' art will contain subtle ladders everywhere so it looks better. I'm aiming to create a new "feel" to the game with the side view. Also, I don't think top-view airships would be very nice.

That won't be possible for all rooms, as only rooms with systems can have room graphics assigned. Also: re-spriting crew animation is pretty complex and a lot more work.

The ships look solid though. Keep up the great work.

[a Sir]

IMO you won't have much choice in the matter as you can't just remove the oxygen system without causing further problem (crew will suffocate.) There is the Engi Medbot workaround, but that would deprave all of your ships of one augment slot and you still need a crewmen to power the medbay to get this to work. So you might not get around incorporating oxygen somehow, with whatever lore explanation you choose.


That won't be possible for all rooms, as only rooms with systems can have room graphics assigned. Also: re-spriting crew animation is pretty complex and a lot more work.

The ships look solid though. Keep up the great work.

I guess the mod will have to have some sort of Oxygen system :/

Is it possible to change the default white room texture? That might solve the ladder problems...

I'm actually looking forward to making the crew animations. It sounds fun!

Thanks for the feedback I actually have almost no experience in art so the compliments mean a lot to me