[SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE]

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rjcobourn
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[SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE]

Postby rjcobourn » Sun Jun 12, 2016 6:59 am

Hey everyone! The other day I was watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Specifically, it was the episode where the crew encounter a race called the Ramurans. Their ships are unique in that they have proton beam weapons which penetrate all shields and can shoot through their cloaks without disrupting them. I never had made a mod for ftl but the lore just fit so well with this game. I pulled the artwork from: http://ccdump.org/ and traced the image out so that I could use it in the game. Here is a picture of the ship:

NEWEST DOWNLOAD LINK!!!-https://www.mediafire.com/?iuc4zz5hibnib73 PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS VERSION, IT IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE OTHERS!!!

Image
(I know the editing is not the best, but it looks fine in-game with the rooms)
The ship is probably a bit overpowered right now, so any suggestions would be welcomed :)

Here is a pic in the hanger:
Image
And finally, here is a download:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/kz18r7727a7j86m

EDIT:
Here I will post all subsequent versions until release and document their changes.

Version 2-http://www.mediafire.com/download/j66dyj4c2g81s4e

Code: Select all

Changed the miniship image to fit the UI
Changed starting shield amount from 2 bars to 1 bar, meaning the ship does not start with shields
Changed the damage of the proton beam from 2 to 1, making the weapon much less effective\

I played through Version 2 once on easy difficulty. The start required a few restarts but once I got to the mid-game it went smoothly. I reached the final boss but lost on the third stage. Of course, I am not the best player. If you'd like to try this new version then I would highly appreciate feedback. Thanks!


Version 3-https://www.mediafire.com/?iuc4zz5hibnib73
UPDATED PIC*
Image

Code: Select all

Reduced proton beam length from 30 to 25
Added custom sound for proton beam (please give feedback on this, it's not exactly what I wanted)
Added hacking and transporter room by making weapons and shields 1x2 rooms
Added a floor image
Added back 2 bars of shields meaning that you now start with shielding again
Changed human to slug to fit the lore in a more interesting way and to facilitate Mind Control
Changed cooldown of proton beam from 15 to 14
*update* changed sound on beam weapon to 12
*update 2* Stations are now fixed so that they fit the images within the systems

I am starting to feel that this ship is getting more balanced. It might need 1 more buff, so if anyone has any ideas i'm open to suggestions. Getting an extra level of weapons is useful early on because if you only keep the weapons control at level 3 then a tiny amount of damage can mean you have no offense and quickly doom your ship. Please continue to give feedback. I have to thank user stylesrj for all of the help he has given me. Thanks everyone who has commented!


Special notes:
Some rooms such as hacking, sensors and teleportation are impossible to get on this ship. However, they will still appear in stores. Make sure not to buy these from stores. If anyone can help make it impossible to find these in stores, that would be awesome. Also, if anyone has any criticisms (aside from the art, I know my image editing sucks) then i'd be glad to take it.

A bit of lore:
The Romuran people use their cloaking technology in order to help themselves remain isolated from the rest of the delta quadrant. They also release pheromones that make it impossible for any computer system or human mind to remember them after a few days and are impervious to sensor technology (thus why the ship has no sensors). The ship is named the Tracer Vessel because well, it was the vessel the "tracers" used in this episode. The tracers are part of Romuran society. Their goal is to make sure that Romuran people cannot leave their isolated society, essentially by hunting them down and erasing their memories of the outside world (thus why it is possible to attain mind control with this ship). Well, that's about it.

Video Playthroughs:
stylesrj-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq4DZFlghVw

If you have made a playthrough of my mod, then please just pm me the link or post it on this thread and I will add you to the list.

Thanks again for taking the time to look at my ship!
Last edited by rjcobourn on Sat Jun 18, 2016 8:44 am, edited 10 times in total.
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stylesrj
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby stylesrj » Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:08 am

Hacking, Sensors and Teleportation is it?

Add this to the blueprints.xml.append (add them above your ship blueprints):

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<systemBlueprint name="teleporter">
   <type>teleporter</type>
   <title>Crew Teleporter</title>
   <desc>Allows you to send your crew-members to board enemy vessels.</desc>
   <startPower>1</startPower>
   <maxPower>3</maxPower>
   <rarity>0</rarity>
   <upgradeCost>
      <level>30</level>
      <!-- level 2 -->
      <level>60</level>
      <!-- level 3 -->
   </upgradeCost>
   <cost>90</cost>
   <!--CHANGED was 75-->
   <locked>1</locked>
</systemBlueprint>

<systemBlueprint name="sensors">
   <type>sensors</type>
   <title>Sensors</title>
   <desc>Reveals the interior of your ship and gives information about enemy ships.</desc>
   <startPower>1</startPower>
   <maxPower>3</maxPower>
   <rarity>0</rarity>
   <upgradeCost>
      <level>25</level>
      <!-- level 2 -->
      <level>40</level>
      <!-- level 3 -->
   </upgradeCost>
   <cost>40</cost>
</systemBlueprint>


Make a file called dlcblueprints.xml.append and add this:

Code: Select all

<systemBlueprint name="hacking">
   <type>hacking</type>
   <title>Hacking</title>
   <desc>Targets a single system, locking its doors and granting the ability to temporarily disable or disrupt it. Requires drone part to launch.</desc>
   <startPower>1</startPower>
   <maxPower>3</maxPower>
   <rarity>0</rarity>
   <upgradeCost>
      <level>35</level> <!-- level 2 -->
      <level>60</level> <!-- level 3 -->
   </upgradeCost>
   <cost>80</cost>
</systemBlueprint>


That should do the trick. Essentially, I've set the rarity of the systems to "0" so you won't find them in stores... hopefully.
I'm not sure if I should do a video run as I only know a bit of Star Trek lore and I haven't actually watched a single, full episode yet of any of the series. So my commentary would be rather "bland."
But I think the beam might be interesting. Although maybe it should be an artillery.
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rjcobourn
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby rjcobourn » Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:20 am

Thanks, I'll add that into the files and update the download link tomorrow when it's not so late. I don't really like artillery beams and I thought the ship would be a bit overpowered with cloaking and an artillery beam that doesn't use any power. I also changed the graphics of the beam to be blue (like in the show) so it follows the lore a bit better. Anyways, i'd be glad if anyone wanted to do a run with it or a "play testing" run-through to help give feedback. Thanks again!
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stylesrj
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby stylesrj » Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:33 am

Well at least your ship isn't insanely overpowered.
But an Artillery still needs power to operate. Just that Level 1 is the worst cooldown time. And it leaves room for other weapons to supplement it if needed.
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rjcobourn
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby rjcobourn » Sun Jun 12, 2016 8:01 am

Yeah, I still think I need to nerf something. Also, I was talking about system power and not overall power, I should have made that clear, sorry. Anyways, if you have another idea for how I could make the ship harder while maintaining the lore then i'm open for suggestions.
meklozz
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby meklozz » Sun Jun 12, 2016 10:23 am

Yeah, it is rather OP.
It's mostly because you pretty much have all you need to beat the flagship from the start, with an amazing end-game weapon and cloak to upgrade for enough time to use it freely.

Knocking the beam down to one damage would make it less dependable later on. If you feel it makes it that much weaker, you could also lower a cooldown a bit, maybe?

Another way would be depriving the ship of something more vital, like shields. But that'd just make the start harder.

Next, though stealth weapons is a theme thing you probably want in, it does nothing for beams, as they already don't shorten the cooldown. In-game, this is literally free scrap at the start of the run. It would also be nice if you added a floor in superluminal (though the ship image would probably be a little hard to see then, and it's already blurry..), and miniship image is a little big, but whatever.

Nice to see you got around to posting it!

@edit
Image
I don't think I'm finishing this run.. But even without both these goodies in sector 3 (!), there'svery little urgency to get better, as enemy shield levels are not a concern. It would be impressive if you could balance it, but I'm not sure such a powerful bream can really make for an interesting game.

Oh, and about the systems you can't get, I'm not sure if you meant this as a nerf, but it's generally not very replayable to be locked into a single configuration. Especially since, with drones, you'd retty much be well on you way to be a tank along with the cloak, and there is enough firepower here t not need anything else, like I already said.
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rjcobourn
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby rjcobourn » Sun Jun 12, 2016 5:28 pm

About the ship being a bit blurry: It was very hard to get the ship image by itself and look good. This is because it was designed for a black background, and thus had pixels fading into black. It was hard to know when I should leave these pixels in and when I should not. In the end, I didn't like the end result and the edges looked... well... terrible. The only solution was to blur the thing. If anyone is a good graphics artist and knows how to get the think out of it's background and look better, the image is: Image

About the no transporters, no sensors and no hacking: Again, sensors would not fit the lore, so we are left with transporters and hacking not being available. Really. the reason why there is no hacking and transporters is because I did not have space. I cut out the image, put it in sl and there was not space for those 2 systems. Any suggestions on how I could fill them in?

About the balancing... What if I made no shields to start (meaning getting shields would be very expensive, counter-acting the free scrap from the cloak and stealth weapons), changed the damage from 2 to 1, and kept everything else the same. I think that would transform this ship from something OP to a decent challenge. I can try to playtest a nerfed version and then change the download link if I think it works well.

Anyways, thanks for the comments :)
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rjcobourn
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby rjcobourn » Mon Jun 13, 2016 6:02 am

Version 2 is out! I still need to add transporters and hacking, but I am still unsure how to fit them into the layout. I would be grateful for any suggestions. I fixed a few things and nerfed the ship severely. I hope it is more exciting to play now. If you think I should change anything, just let me know. Thank you everyone for your help!
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stylesrj
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby stylesrj » Mon Jun 13, 2016 10:42 am

If you want to add those systems onto the ship, you can try room stacking. But that has its own problems.
Either that or you add new rooms somewhere, somehow.

Also, do you think you could do a custom sound for your beam? Or do you need a guide on how to make that happen?

Lastly, I think it needs a good level 1 shield. It's not good at dealing lasting damage with the small-length beam and only doing 3 damage.
I did three test runs so far with this on Normal. #1 had everything aimed at Weapons and it was a Forward Scout. So bad start.
#2 ended up with a Forward Scout destroying everything BUT weapons but it was no matter as everything else was on fire and exploded with my ship.
#3 Asteroid Field. How many fires is a ship supposed to have?
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rjcobourn
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Re: [SHIP] Ramuran Vessel [AE] [WIP]

Postby rjcobourn » Mon Jun 13, 2016 6:38 pm

I could use a tutorial on how to make custom sounds. I might be able to find the sound of it shooting somewhere in the episode... or find a sound that would work. But I don't know how to do that, so I would need a bit of help.

I have not heard of room stacking or the problems involved... So I probably want to try to find a way to avoid it. Not sure how though.

Also, if I add a starting shield level do you think anything else should be changed to compensate?