Subset Games Forum

The problem here is that there is no way to control which crew variants appear on an enemy ship or even yours (unless the player deliberately chooses crew variants that show a certain faction). If you use all the different faction layers on the Zoltan crew blueprint than that will also require that the different variants have a clear overlap hierarchy that works out ingame. I'm also not entirely sure if the enemies will be able to manage their power effectively if they only get it through crew, I somewhat doubt it. I guess enemy power could just be handled like in usual FTL. And on top of that I'm not entirely sure how you want to prevent the player from simply buying power bars. You can't change their cost or change the limit of how many are available. So from what I can tell the "energy only through crew" concept will face a lot of problems.

Sleeper Service wrote:The problem here is that there is no way to control which crew variants appear on an enemy ship or even yours (unless the player deliberately chooses crew variants that show a certain faction). If you use all the different faction layers on the Zoltan crew blueprint than that will also require that the different variants have a clear overlap hierarchy that works out ingame. I'm also not entirely sure if the enemies will be able to manage their power effectively if they only get it through crew, I somewhat doubt it. I guess enemy power could just be handled like in usual FTL. And on top of that I'm not entirely sure how you want to prevent the player from simply buying power bars. You can't change their cost or change the limit of how many are available. So from what I can tell the "energy only through crew" concept will face a lot of problems.

Well a Sir figured out a way to limit power by half by calling the ion storm "hazard" in every event. This will effectively make power bars twice as expensive. Also, all ships will start with very few power bars.

Like Sleeper said though the AI will not be able to manage their power efficiently if they don't have any inherent power, they are not programmed to move Zoltans around to get extra power. Therefore they will have to have a little more inherent energy than the player and therefore there is no reason to make them all humans.

Furthermore, there is no way to control what skins appear on enemies so if you want to have a Wasp ship with Wasp people there would be no way to ensure they are wasps if they are just an alternate human skin. You could end up with only repair bots instead.

Humans can still be the most common form of crew for the player, but if you want to have different distinct "factions" you will have to have different skins replace the different races.

Where's the download? How come I can't find it. BTW Love the work so far

There is no download because there is none, nothing has been released yet. Its' a WIP

Gencool wrote:As Sir said.
'SupportGuard- whilst not as tough as a standard Guard, these suits allow areas of a ship to be locked-down'

If we follow the idea of whale oil being lockdown mechanism, the Crystal crew could be oil-dispensing suits or something...

Sleeper Service wrote:The problem here is that there is no way to control which crew variants appear on an enemy ship or even yours (unless the player deliberately chooses crew variants that show a certain faction). If you use all the different faction layers on the Zoltan crew blueprint than that will also require that the different variants have a clear overlap hierarchy that works out ingame. I'm also not entirely sure if the enemies will be able to manage their power effectively if they only get it through crew, I somewhat doubt it. I guess enemy power could just be handled like in usual FTL. And on top of that I'm not entirely sure how you want to prevent the player from simply buying power bars. You can't change their cost or change the limit of how many are available. So from what I can tell the "energy only through crew" concept will face a lot of problems.

Basically, there is no faction-specific race... like all the people in different factions look the same. They are all humans after all. We should be able to limit energy by a lot if we lower the price of everything else and apply the ion storm to every fight. Although it wouldn't eliminate reactor energy, it should be more preferable to buy other things.
The enemy would probably need to work like a normal FTL ship... There isn't much way to change the AI.

Russian Rockman wrote:Furthermore, there is no way to control what skins appear on enemies so if you want to have a Wasp ship with Wasp people there would be no way to ensure they are wasps if they are just an alternate human skin. You could end up with only repair bots instead.
Humans can still be the most common form of crew for the player, but if you want to have different distinct "factions" you will have to have different skins replace the different races.

Sorry to disappoint, but the idea is that there is no difference between the race's crew. The wasp-people might be confusing to be led to believe they are part of the wasp-faction, but they are merely combat suits used in every faction. Its like the Federation and the Rebels, different factions but they are both humans. In this case all the factions (except maybe not tesla) will be humans. :/

thedude1099 wrote:Where's the download? How come I can't find it. BTW Love the work so far

I'm sorry, the mod is still in a really early phase and there isn't a playable version yet. I'll update the OP to make it more clear. Hopefully, after superluminal2 is released we could release a version with only graphical changes in a few months. Thanks for the compliment!


I just finished another layout of the mantis faction. I assume it should be called "The Thyreus"

Great name for that ship. I googled what a "Thyreus" was and it looks exactly like that ship! I think it may be a little too dark though. How did you do the shading?

a Sir wrote:Sorry to disappoint, but the idea is that there is no difference between the race's crew. The wasp-people might be confusing to be led to believe they are part of the wasp-faction, but they are merely combat suits used in every faction. Its like the Federation and the Rebels, different factions but they are both humans. In this case all the factions (except maybe not tesla) will be humans. :/

Ah, I finally get what you were saying about the factions! So they will all be part of the same "faction" just different automatons or people with suits.

I thought that having those different people as different factions would allow you to have more variety in the mod. Each faction could replace the vanilla sectors, so you could have a variety of different sectors... But it's your mod.

Russian Rockman wrote:Great name for that ship. I googled what a "Thyreus" was and it looks exactly like that ship! I think it may be a little too dark though. How did you do the shading?

I was searching for awesomely-colored bees and I just had to imitate one of these.. I made it a bit less dark and more colorized:
Also, for the shading, I drew them myself with a big brush with low opacity on another layer set to "darken"

Russian Rockman wrote:Ah, I finally get what you were saying about the factions! So they will all be part of the same "faction" just different automatons or people with suits.
I thought that having those different people as different factions would allow you to have more variety in the mod. Each faction could replace the vanilla sectors, so you could have a variety of different sectors... But it's your mod.

There can still be sectors for the different factions... but the crew's race is mostly the same for everyone. I would love to make it so humans from every faction look different, but sadly that's impossible. Maybe it could work with something like overdrive...
I was also wondering, if all the art is custom-made, and we used an overdrive-like project, could it be considered another game? Like Theseus' paradox: There's an original ship. After many years of usage, one by one the planks of the old ship are replaced by new ones. When all the pieces of the ship are replaced, is it still the same ship? If we kept all the old pieces and made a new ship with it, witch one is the original ship? My mind doesn't like this very much.

Done with Federation layout B:

rawr

EDIT: I felt as if the pirate kestrel and this one wasn't different enough to be considered another layout, so I added more pirate markings/purple to the ships.

you just blown me away sir.

You started form "cool! you made artwork better then I could ever on paint.net!" to making some of the most awesomest custom ship hulls I've seen in this modding community.

If you re did all the art and basically the majority of the game mechanics that would indeed be considered it's own game. Matthew and Justin have said they are fine with games being "heavily" FTL inspired, as long as you don't actually use any of their assets. So hey, if you wanted to work hard enough you could quite possibly create your own game from this. . I wish I had a little more programming knowledge.

Russian Rockman wrote:If you re did all the art and basically the majority of the game mechanics that would indeed be considered it's own game. Matthew and Justin have said they are fine with games being "heavily" FTL inspired, as long as you don't actually use any of their assets. So hey, if you wanted to work hard enough you could quite possibly create your own game from this. . I wish I had a little more programming knowledge.

Suuuuuuush, he could use this knowledge to blow away the copy right terms and conditions and make it cost money as he doesn't use any assets...
We do not want something this cool to cost money do we.