[MOD] Turning The Tide v1.0

[Alblaka]

Well, giving a ship mediocre weapons, but solid shields and 50 hp can count as an 'evil destroyer', too. Though it benefits those players with boarding crews

[Kieve]

Well, giving a ship mediocre weapons, but solid shields and 50 hp can count as an 'evil destroyer', too. Though it benefits those players with boarding crews

Yeah well, the Destroyer class has plenty of those too. Just fair warning

So, updates for tonight! I've had a ton of spare time this evening and managed to get a significant chunk of Destroyer-event writing done. Also:
-The first option "Run!" is your only 'safe' bet. You'll only get a little fuel out of it, but it has the least chance of dropping any new enemies on you. It's also the only choice that has a 100% chance of avoiding a Destroyer encounter.
-A new option "Stand your ground" is available from the post-"LONG_FLEET" fight. That one's 100% Destroyer, though a few lucky event chains might land you the initiative. They also have a good chance of taking on additional damage and/or boarders. There's also a special chain for those with a Slug on board, if you're lucky and the RNG likes you.
-I made adjustments to the autoReward functions, so farming the Rebel fleet should no longer be as profitable. You might be able to come out ahead overall, but some semblence of balance has been restored.
-I desperately need ideas for Cloaking and Teleport options, both bad and good.

Sprite for Destroyer is still WIP, but I may use the red Rebel_Long if you guys want a new build out tonight.

[Zaffre]

Here's some ideas for events. They will be in this format:

Event #
Event Text

Choice Text
1. Outcome 1, and so on
2. Outcome 2, and so on
Special Text
1. Outcome 1
2. Outcome 2, and so on

Event 1
As the elite fighter explodes into debris, one of the destroyers gets within firing range. Its weapons begin to power up!

1. Power your impulse engines and try to escape.
1. You salvage what you can, power up your engines, and attempt to escape. The destroyer fires a warning shot and then turns back to try and rescue survivors of the ship. You only managed to salvage some scrap, however.

Low scrap reward.

2. You salvage what you can, power up your engines, and attempt to escape. The destroyer fires a warning shot and then turns back to try and rescue survivors of the ship. You didn't salvage much, but you realize you've grabbed the fuel tank of the destroyed fighter!

Ten fuel reward.

3. You salvage what you can, power up your engines, and attempt to escape. The destroyer fires a warning shot and then turns back to try and rescue survivors of the ship. Unluckily for you, the shot hits your impulse engines and disables them, allowing another fighter to move in and attack!

Attacked by elite fighter; engines disabled.

(Cloaking) Cloak and attempt to escape.

1. You activate your cloaking field and start to fly away with your impulse engines. The destroyer starts searching around, but hasn't seen you. Eventually it gives up and attempts to rescue survivors.

Low scrap reward.

2. Your cloaking field turns on and you phase out of vision. However, the destroyer has a beam weapon and starts using it to search for your ship. It strikes your cloaking bay and disables it, forcing you to attack!

Attacked by destroyer; cloaking disabled.

(Teleporter) Attempt to teleport the driver of the cruiser to your ship.

1. The teleporter zaps and the destroyer's crew member appears aboard your bridge; you quickly shoot him in the head. The destroyer is sent into chaos and you doubt they can attack now. You finish the salvage operation.

Generic reward, very low success rate.

2. The teleporter calls back but nothing arrives. Suddenly a laser smashes into the side of your hull and causes a huge breach, which sucks out one of your crew before you can react. The destroyer moves in for another shot.

Lose one crew member, hull breach appears. Attacked by destroyer.

Hope this helps some.

[blaeron]

hull breach appears.

That's actually not possible using events, sadly.

[Kieve]

That's actually not possible using events, sadly.

Indeed not, although it is possible to disable or inhibit any system to simulate "permanent" damage, both to the player and the enemy ship.

*snip*

That's not quite how these events function. Some events yes, but for the fleet battles I'm pulling from a set of event-lists. For example, this is the list the game picks from when you "destroy" the first LONG_FLEET elite fighter, and decide to run.

Code: Select all

<eventList name="LONG_FLEET_DESTRUN">
   <event>
      <text>You quickly secure a small amount of fuel and power up the FTL engines. Destroying one ship won't put much of a dent in their fleet, but it will slow them down a little.</text>
      <modifyPursuit amount="-1"/>
      <autoReward level="LOW">fuel_only</autoReward>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>It would be crazy to risk another fight. You secure what fuel you can and prepare to jump.</text>
      <autoReward level="LOW">fuel_only</autoReward>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>You've bloodied the fleet's nose a little but a sea of warships still surrounds you in the black. You scrape what fuel you can from the wreckage and engage the FTL drive before they can close in further.</text>
      <autoReward level="LOW">fuel_only</autoReward>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>Destroying one ship won't slow down a fleet that size for long. You secure a small amount of fuel from the wreckage and prepare to jump.</text>
      <modifyPursuit amount="-1"/>
      <autoReward level="LOW">fuel_only</autoReward>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>The Rebel ship's destruction might delay the fleet a little, but it's sure to draw their attention too. You quickly salvage some fuel from the wreck and prepare to jump.</text>
      <modifyPursuit amount="-1"/>
      <autoReward level="LOW">fuel_only</autoReward>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>Before you can jump out, another Rebel ship closes in!</text>
      <ship load="LONG_FLEET" hostile ="true"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

As you can see, the "run away!" option has about a 50/50 chance of slowing them down a little, or not at all, and only rewards a small amount of fuel, with an even smaller chance that another Elite Fighter will swoop down on you anyway. The trouble I'm having is, the lists for Cloaking and Teleport are considerably shorter, because I just have no idea what else to put in them. (Okay, mainly Teleporter. Cloaking + DEADCREW is pretty decent right now, if you kill off the Elite's crew. Needs more "oops, bad idea" though.)

Thank you for posting those however, it does give me some inspiration for more events.

[Zaffre]

needs moar oops bad idea

How about this:

Outcome 1
As you eliminate the last of the fighter's crew, an advanced AI system takes over. The AI opens the airlocks to vacuum out any intruders, and one of your boarding party is flung into open space before he can react. The oxygen system on the ship shuts off and it powers up its weapons. You'll have to destroy it!

Ship turns into an AI ship. Ship's O2 shuts off. You lose one crew member.

Outcome 2
Your boarding party kills off the last of the enemy crew when a powerful laser smashes into the fighter's side, killing your boarding crew. One of the Destroyers has gotten within firing range, and you have no choice but to attack!

Attacked by Destroyer. The crew on board die. This can be done by removing the encounter and loading the Destroyer encounter, and deloading the fighter encounter will deload the crew as well if I'm not mistaken.

Outcome 3
The ship is successfully emptied but not before one of your boarding party is hit in the windpipe. You attempt to beam him back, but he expires before you can.

You lose one crew member.

Outcome 4
The ship is left derelict. As you prepare to beam your party back, a beam cuts across the fighter's hull, destroying the oxygen generator and slicing one of your team in two. You have to pull out!

Ship's O2 shuts off, you lose one crew member.

Not sure how hard these would be to code. However, I think the breach might be possible by instead adding that one of your crew is sucked out but your team repairs it after the room is drained of oxygen.

[nukularpower]

Is that guide you mentioned in the OP by the Minecraft modder (Author of IndustrialCraft2) Alblaka? O.o

[Kieve]

Is that guide you mentioned in the OP by the Minecraft modder (Author of IndustrialCraft2) Alblaka? O.o

He's on these boards, why not ask him? I think so but I haven't used IndustrialCraft (nor heard of it) so I really wouldn't know.

[Kieve]

I seem to have run into a problem, where the Destroyer just won't load.
I'm not sure why - perhaps only one ship can be loaded at each node?
Here's an example from the "Challenge" list, which is supposed to call out a Destroyer for you to fight.

Code: Select all

   <event>
      <text load="FLEET_CHALLENGE_LIST"/>
      <event>
         <text>An intimidating Rebel Destroyer moves into position, its weapons going hot. Time to nut up or shut up...
</text>
         <ship load="REBEL_DESTROYER" hostile="true"/>

      </event>   
   </event>

Code: Select all

<textList name="FLEET_CHALLENGE_LIST">

   <text>Boldly, you broadcast your message to the waiting fleet. "Is that the best you've got?"</text>
   <text>You switch the comm over to an open channel, and declare brazenly, "Is that the best you can do?"</text>
   <text>You've had enough running. "Bring it on, Rebel scum," you demand coldly.</text>
   <text>This fleet has hounded you from one end of space to the other. Time to make them pay for their mistake.</text>
   <text>"Is that all you've got, you Rebel bastards?" you transmit defiantly.</text>
</textList>

Now what happens is, the text from the "CHALLENGE_LIST" will load just fine. And then... nothing happens. No destroyer appears, none of the follow-up text happens. The event just doesn't seem to trigger.
Is there any way to "un-load" a ship so a different one can replace it? I wonder if perhaps the LONG_FLEET fighter occupying the enemy slot is breaking the function, though I've tried it both ways - dead crew, derelict ship, and destroying it outright. Maybe the event pop-up isn't giving the "destroyed" fighter time to delete itself, but I don't know any way to time-delay an event either. Anyone have an idea?

[dalolorn]

I seem to have run into a problem, where the Destroyer just won't load.
I'm not sure why - perhaps only one ship can be loaded at each node?
Here's an example from the "Challenge" list, which is supposed to call out a Destroyer for you to fight.

Code: Select all

   <event>
      <text load="FLEET_CHALLENGE_LIST"/>
      <event>
         <text>An intimidating Rebel Destroyer moves into position, its weapons going hot. Time to nut up or shut up...
</text>
         <ship load="REBEL_DESTROYER" hostile="true"/>

      </event>   
   </event>

Code: Select all

<textList name="FLEET_CHALLENGE_LIST">

   <text>Boldly, you broadcast your message to the waiting fleet. "Is that the best you've got?"</text>
   <text>You switch the comm over to an open channel, and declare brazenly, "Is that the best you can do?"</text>
   <text>You've had enough running. "Bring it on, Rebel scum," you demand coldly.</text>
   <text>This fleet has hounded you from one end of space to the other. Time to make them pay for their mistake.</text>
   <text>"Is that all you've got, you Rebel bastards?" you transmit defiantly.</text>
</textList>

Now what happens is, the text from the "CHALLENGE_LIST" will load just fine. And then... nothing happens. No destroyer appears, none of the follow-up text happens. The event just doesn't seem to trigger.
Is there any way to "un-load" a ship so a different one can replace it? I wonder if perhaps the LONG_FLEET fighter occupying the enemy slot is breaking the function, though I've tried it both ways - dead crew, derelict ship, and destroying it outright. Maybe the event pop-up isn't giving the "destroyed" fighter time to delete itself, but I don't know any way to time-delay an event either. Anyone have an idea?

Hold on. This doesn't feel right.

Ok, try merging the two texts into one (copy the contents of the rebel destroyer text into the challenge list individually or otherwise), then remove the text tags and the inner event tags. It should leave you with (i think) this:

Code: Select all

<event>
             <text load="FLEET_CHALLENGE_LIST"/>
             <ship load="REBEL_DESTROYER" hostile="true"/>
         </event>

Also, check your spelling. I expect the event code is extremely sensitive to spelling mistakes. I've modded a few games using XML before. (just an amateur modder though)