[MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
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Kieve
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby Kieve » Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:16 pm

Would it be possible to revise the "Distress" beacons to read something like "Danger!" and use those events for the cruisers? That way you could still use Quest popups for a bit of story and direction.

Also, while I don't quite share 3.14's "hardcore" enthusiasm, I do think Infinite Space is striking about the right balance with difficulty, for the most part. Some ships are a cakewalk, others are challenging, and the cruisers / elite cruisers are supposed to be tough miniboss fights. They might need a little balance tweaking here and there, but for the most part I'd agree they're fine the way they are.

@Hawk: Yeah, crystal boarders suck if you're on the receiving end, but keep in mind you can do the same to them too. The shops in the "Deep Space" sectors do sell crystal crew on occasion, as well as lockdown bombs.
Tip - if you see they have a teleporter and are likely to board you, crank up your cloaking to the max and cloak immediately - that way they won't be able to board you right away and it'll give you some time to work out a tactic for repelling boarders (pulling crew into the medbay, venting various rooms, consolidating your strength so you don't have that stray Engi or Zoltan left to die. Engi Nanobot augment is also handy for that. Or you can just focus on disabling their 'porter before you uncloak.
Bottom line, it's not that IS is too hard, it's that right now you lack the experience and strategies to cope with what it's throwing at you. Trust me, OP ships aren't the answer, you won't learn anything that way.
Whoopty
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby Whoopty » Fri Jan 25, 2013 3:27 pm

If there's want for more Quest related Events I'll see what I can do. Depends if Drk Templar is happy to free up the Quest icon though.
DrkTemplar
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby DrkTemplar » Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:10 pm

Clearly the majority feedback right now is to keep the balance the way it is, an if anything ADD harder content.

I looked through the data files and I don't see where I can rename the DISTRESS beacon text. I have the same issue with Nebula. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but it references the rebel fleet in the tooltip on the sector map. I assume that text is hard coded. If we were able to change that value, we would want to remove or update all the distress beacon events as well. That would kinda suck.

So instead, what I'll do is simply bring back the quest events, and if you happen to get a vanilla quest event while you have a Cruiser one, hopefully you paid attention and know which one is which. The plus side here is I can easily bring back all the quest that unlock ships. Of course some ships aren't unlocked through quest events.
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BrenTenkage
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby BrenTenkage » Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:12 pm

can't wait for more, I want to keep doing LPS of Infinite space, but I need more interesting stuff to happen LOL
I make a lot of lets plays of FTL, I also use mods I find on this site http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... 06hca_PXuX
I am also a modder as well, here is my mod hub viewtopic.php?f=11&t=32269
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Kieve
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby Kieve » Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:15 pm

DrkTemplar wrote:I looked through the data files and I don't see where I can rename the DISTRESS beacon text. I have the same issue with Nebula. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but it references the rebel fleet in the tooltip on the sector map. I assume that text is hard coded. If we were able to change that value, we would want to remove or update all the distress beacon events as well. That would kinda suck.


"Distress" is actually a UI element in images I believe. It'd be a matter of a small graphical alteration, not a text change.
As for the rebel references, there's actually a "tooltips.xml" in data that can be changed - Sonata already does this - so that should clear up your stray Rebel Fleet stuff.

Won't lie, it'd be nice to have a continuing 'story' to follow, at least for a few sectors.
DrkTemplar
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby DrkTemplar » Fri Jan 25, 2013 9:29 pm

Kieve wrote:"Distress" is actually a UI element in images I believe. It'd be a matter of a small graphical alteration, not a text change.
As for the rebel references, there's actually a "tooltips.xml" in data that can be changed - Sonata already does this - so that should clear up your stray Rebel Fleet stuff.

Won't lie, it'd be nice to have a continuing 'story' to follow, at least for a few sectors.


I've looked in the UI before, and I'm downloading Sonata as I type this to see what they have done. In reference to the nebula, the actual tool tip that appears I never found in UI or text. Either way, it would be a choice between losing distress events or quest events. I don't care for either of those options, even though the current version of Infinite Space basically got rid of quest events. If only I could add a new one...

So I'll see what sonata is doing, but will probably just bring back quest events and continue to use quest events for Cruiser fight rewards. Unless someone completely disagrees with that.

@bren, I understand, I'm working with Whoopty to get new events in there. I see no reason why we couldn't add more quest events.

*EDIT: I don't see any image added in sonata that would change Distress to something else. I could very well be missing it though. They seem to have included more images than they probably needed. Regardless, if you know where the image is, please let me know.
alextfish
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby alextfish » Sat Jan 26, 2013 12:17 am

The distress beacon image is img/map/map_box_distress.png and img/map/map_box_distress_shadow.png .
Many years ago I created the FTL Starcraft mod: 18 new challenging ships to fly through the FTL universe!, and wrote a tutorial on creating your own FTL ships. They haven't been updated for AE though.
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Kieve
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby Kieve » Sat Jan 26, 2013 12:54 am

DrkTemplar wrote:*EDIT: I don't see any image added in sonata that would change Distress to something else. I could very well be missing it though. They seem to have included more images than they probably needed. Regardless, if you know where the image is, please let me know.


You misunderstood me, I just meant that Sonata alters the tooltips.xml file to newer, more lore-appropriate stuff for the mod. I'm not sure what tooltip you mean but there is this:

Code: Select all

tooltips.xml
<nebula>You're inside of a nebula. Your sensors will not function, but the rebel fleet will advance more slowly towards you.</nebula>

Even if that's not it, it should probably still be changed.

And alextfish already pointed out the distress object. I don't recall IS making significant use of Distress events anyway, so I wouldn't consider reworking them a great loss.
Grett
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby Grett » Sun Jan 27, 2013 7:12 pm

So I just started using this mod and I really love it, but all the cruisers and boss fights don't have the energy to use weapons or drones. The fight basically turns into trying to deal one or two damage between cloaks which is tedious and boring. Is this a bug? Intended (certainly not)? Also, when I kill stealth cruisers it says I unlocked technology...but what does that mean? I see no discernible change in the game. Am I missing something?
DrkTemplar
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Re: [MOD][WIP] FTL Infinite Space

Postby DrkTemplar » Sun Jan 27, 2013 9:35 pm

Thanks alextfish.

@Kieve, I was talking about when you hover your mouse over the icon on the sector map.

Distress and Quest work differently. Quest being one that converts a beacon to the quest event, and distress is added when the sector map is randomized. I'm thinking now though, if I convert Distress to Quest, it would look like random quests are generated on the sector map. Than I can still use the quest event itself for rewards for Cruisers. I can just make the existing distress events "quest" ones, and I don't think it would matter much. How does that sound?

@Grett, That doesn't sound right. Are you using other mods? If so which ones? You should get a weapon or drone from defeating the Stealth cruiser. Cruiser ships should have enough power to power their weapons and drones.