The Liberator

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AussieAndo
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:30 am

The Liberator

Post by AussieAndo »

Hi all.
Love this game but have unlocked all the ships and most of the achievements including the ones on normal. So it's starting to wear a bit thin.
I've read through some of the topics and have a question.
I've seen some of the mods with new ships (which i might try at some stage) but has anyone done one of the Liberator from Blake's 7? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_(Blake's_7).
I'm not very techie so it would be beyond me to design it and it would be difficult to reflect it on FTL.
The Liberator has 3 lasers, 1 plasma weapon (maybe use an ion substitute?) and missiles. It also has a teleport system and a limited cloaking system and "herculanium" hull plating. It also fixed itself after battles...
This might make it too powerful for the game. Though this could be offset by reducing other systems....such as

Can sensors be limited to just one bar?
The power bars would have to be juggled throughout the early stages - whether to decide to attack or defend - and the power bars can be less when you start as opposed to other ships. Also make the power bars more expensive if this can be done.
Only have one docking door (near the teleporter) and no door control (no doors at all if possible)
Drone control cannot be installed.
The TV series began with 5 crew (with another 1 coming not long after) and the ships computer - so the FTL version could start with 6 crew members and that''s all or the crew limit could be 6 maximum and start with 2 or 3. (only humans allowed).

If anyone can design this i could use the mod to change around the rooms - unless it looks as close the Liberator as the game allows.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?
alextfish
Posts: 184
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:24 pm

Re: The Liberator

Post by alextfish »

A lot of this is actually doable. Some bits of it would affect all ships when the mod was installed - i.e. we can make sensor upgrades cost 9999 scrap, but that would apply to all ships that start with sensors 1, not just the Liberator. (People can always just uninstall your mod to use other ships though.)

Going through:
AussieAndo wrote:I'm not very techie so it would be beyond me to design it and it would be difficult to reflect it on FTL.
The Liberator has 3 lasers, 1 plasma weapon (maybe use an ion substitute?) and missiles.
The limit of 4 weapons slots is fairly hard, so I suggest "3 lasers" becomes a 3-shot Burst Laser. "Plasma" could be beam or ion as you wish.
AussieAndo wrote:It also has a teleport system and a limited cloaking system and "herculanium" hull plating. It also fixed itself after battles...
Hull plating is easy to do: the Rock Plating can be trivially renamed. The closest we can get to "fixed itself after battles" is the Repair Arm (or I suppose the Hull Repair drone plus removing all other ways to get any drones).
AussieAndo wrote:This might make it too powerful for the game. Though this could be offset by reducing other systems....such as

Can sensors be limited to just one bar?
Sortof. We can set the price for sensor upgrade to 9999 scrap, but that'll apply to all ships while this mod is installed.
AussieAndo wrote:The power bars would have to be juggled throughout the early stages - whether to decide to attack or defend - and the power bars can be less when you start as opposed to other ships.
This is a good idea.
AussieAndo wrote:Also make the power bars more expensive if this can be done.
I... don't actually recall if it's possible to change the reactor bar prices.
AussieAndo wrote:Only have one docking door (near the teleporter) and no door control (no doors at all if possible)
Limited docking door and no door control are perfectly doable. Some doors are needed though if you want the crew to be able to get to systems to crew them.
AussieAndo wrote:Drone control cannot be installed.
This is easy to do: just don't specify any room as the place for that system.
AussieAndo wrote:The TV series began with 5 crew (with another 1 coming not long after) and the ships computer - so the FTL version could start with 6 crew members and that''s all or the crew limit could be 6 maximum and start with 2 or 3. (only humans allowed).
Starting with 2 or 6 human crew are perfectly doable. It's not possible to limit the crew to 6 or make only humans allowed (although you can change the rarities of other races turning up in shops and events to make it only humans that turn up).
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.
thashepherd
Posts: 194
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:45 pm

Re: The Liberator

Post by thashepherd »

alextfish, I disabled drones on the UE Destroyer in Sonata in the way you described, but it'll still appear in stores and screw you when you buy it. Do you have a more effective mechanism?

EDIT: Removed typo caused by whoa damn that was a lot of vodka.
Last edited by thashepherd on Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You are the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men - but I'm trying, I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd.

"Wow, that Kieve guy is one angsty nerd eh."
Sonata - "Best use of Common Lisp in an indie space roguelike!"
alextfish
Posts: 184
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:24 pm

Re: The Liberator

Post by alextfish »

thashepherd wrote:Kieve, I disabled drones on the UE Destroyer in Sonata in the way you described, but it'll still appear in stores and screw you when you buy it. Do you have a more effective mechanism?
Heh. I'm not Kieve, but I'm quite complimented that you confused me with him :)

I've had similar problems with my robotic ship that has no oxygen or medbay: they both keep cropping up in stores even though buying them accomplishes nothing. The only solution I can think of is the following:

What may work is to edit the <systemBlueprint> and change its <rarity> to 0. That will apply to all ships with the mod installed, not just the ship in the mod, but that may be sufficient. I've not tried this yet.
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.
thashepherd
Posts: 194
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:45 pm

Re: The Liberator

Post by thashepherd »

Yeah, that'll knock it out of stores completely. Probably acceptable for oxygen, doors, sensors, or medbay - I don't think I could live without being able to buy drones :)

It's OK, I'm quite comfortable screwing over my players.
You are the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men - but I'm trying, I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd.

"Wow, that Kieve guy is one angsty nerd eh."
Sonata - "Best use of Common Lisp in an indie space roguelike!"
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