[CE+EL Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01c [Revived!]

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Kiloku
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[CE+EL Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01c [Revived!]

Postby Kiloku » Tue May 20, 2014 6:59 pm

Download 0.01c
Open-sourced on Github

Installation: Use Vhati's Slipstream Mod Manager, and set the mod load order to load the Blueprint Weapons Crafting mod AFTER all of the Captain's Edition related mod files.

What it does: The Blueprint Crafting mod adds a new feature to Sleeper Service's Captain's Edition and Endless Loot. It allows you to build weapons from blueprints you find while playing. Depending on how much you spend to get the weapon built, you might get a better or worse version, among the many incredible variations from Rann L.'s prefix generator.

How it works: You might get a blueprint in a few events, they are augments that do nothing (similar to the Trade Goods), except that, when you reach a Store, you get the choice to go to a company that will build your weapon for you. You pay some money to get the weapon built, which can have many different types of modifiers. The more expensive the company you go to, the better the modifiers.

What it has: 12 different weapon blueprints, integration with a bunch of events from CE (I suggest talking to Engi and AI crewmembers more often ;) )

Screenshots:
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The mod requires Sleeper Service's FTL: Captain Edition mod (with the Endless Loot module), as well as Vhati's Slipstream Mod Manager

What'll be in the next versions: Many more blueprints, drone blueprints, more events, a few all new weapons and this mod sets the groundwork for my next mod idea (Super rare weapons).
Last edited by Kiloku on Wed Oct 21, 2020 7:00 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Sleeper Service
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Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby Sleeper Service » Tue May 20, 2014 7:35 pm

First of all: I love the your banner. :)

I had a quick look on it and it looks solid so far. Right now there are just a few weapons blueprints available, so this will offset weapon rarity a bit; but its your call on how far you want to go with this.

When seeing the "Have a weapon build." event something came to my mind... Let me draw your attention to this AE event:

Code: Select all

<event name="REBEL_CHECKPOINT">
   <text load="REBEL_CHECKPOINT_TEXT"/>
   <choice>
      <text>Fend for yourself, attack and escape.</text>
      <event>
         <ship load="REBEL" hostile="true"/>
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice>
      <text>Bribe the Rebels to release the civilian ships.</text>   
      <event>
         <text load="REBEL_BRIBE_TEXT"/>
         <item_modify>
            <item type="scrap" min="-15" max="-10"/>
         </item_modify>
         <choice hidden="true">
            <text>Contact the civilian ships.</text>
            <event load="REBEL_BRIBE_RESULT"/>
         </choice>
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice>
      <text load="GENERIC_HIDE_TEXT"/>
      <event/>
   </choice>
</event>

As you can see with GENERIC_HIDE_TEXT, textlists can be used to have randomly generated choice texts. Not sure if that was possible before AE... IMO it might come in handy for the mod. With using textlists you could actually have various randomized companies to hire for each price class, instead of Glurgh's Workshop having a franchise at every single shop in the game. ;) Its only a small addition of course, just felt like pointing it out.
Kiloku
Posts: 66
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:52 pm

Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby Kiloku » Tue May 20, 2014 7:55 pm

Thanks Sleeper :)
Most of my event editing knowledge was learned by reading the xmls in CE ;)

I really like that idea, and I think I'll add it into the next version, it really is weird that Glurgh's dirty old workshop is everywhere :lol:

This version is still very barebones, so there'll be more content for the next weeks. Mainly more blueprints, 12 is nice, but doesn't give many options.

BlueTemplar wrote:Awesome! Reminds me of the greatness of Diablo 2...

Thanks, BlueTemplar, but the awesome Diablo-like loot comes from CE's Endless Loot, my mod just adds crafting options ;)
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rannl
Posts: 335
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Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby rannl » Tue May 20, 2014 7:59 pm

Great job Kiloku. Looking forward to seeing how this turns up. I hope Sleepy will put this in CE/EL after the beta is done.
Any spoilers you can share on your rare weapons idea?

Just one small point, and sorry for the nit-picking. It's Rannl (Rann L.), not Ranll. The nick is actually my name, so I have a soft spot for it's spelling.
Kiloku
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Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby Kiloku » Tue May 20, 2014 8:14 pm

Sorry about that, I just edited it to put the correct spelling in the original post. It's not nitpicking, I'd do the same ;)

Any spoilers you can share on your rare weapons idea?

The idea is that if you have certain blueprints, augments, crew of certain species and such, you could run into certain very complex events (maybe as hard as the old way to get the Crystal ship). After following through, you use the blueprint to build a special super powerful weapon (I'm thinking of one per race, at the moment.)

These super-weapons would be very taxing, though, with very long cooldowns and high power usage. But still, just one shot might be devastating.
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rannl
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Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby rannl » Tue May 20, 2014 8:53 pm

Kiloku wrote:Sorry about that, I just edited it to put the correct spelling in the original post. It's not nitpicking, I'd do the same ;)

Any spoilers you can share on your rare weapons idea?

The idea is that if you have certain blueprints, augments, crew of certain species and such, you could run into certain very complex events (maybe as hard as the old way to get the Crystal ship). After following through, you use the blueprint to build a special super powerful weapon (I'm thinking of one per race, at the moment.)

These super-weapons would be very taxing, though, with very long cooldowns and high power usage. But still, just one shot might be devastating.


Thanks buddy. So something on the lines of finding Excalibur stuck in an asteroid ;) ? Sounds like a very nice plan, if only there was an achievement attached to finding those weapons :)
Nicb1
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Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby Nicb1 » Wed May 21, 2014 1:41 am

oooh. Nice looking mod, will be keeping an eye on it. (Will likely test it as soon as I have a bit of free time). Especially like your idea. Also good job on the banner.

On a side note I've also been trying to make an unofficial addon for CE as well (Glad that other people are doing this), Just having trouble implementing the new weapons into the game since I haven't had a lot of time on my hands lately to work out how to do it.(And yes i am indeed a noob at modding)
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Estel
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Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby Estel » Wed May 21, 2014 4:21 pm

I'm glad you've implemented that idea, after all! It looks very nice, and BTW, I also love your banner ;) When you've presented the idea for the first time, I thought that it will require more things to do weapon (blueprint's, certain augment and/or crew, for example), but will allow to create weapon at any empty beacon. But, your idea of the opposite thing (easier to get thing, but available in more limited places) seems to work nice, too :)

When we are at it, I have some ideas, that you might want to consider:

1. It would be nice, if the type ("rarity", aka how good weapon is) would depend on sector type that we're in. So, in the "agressive" sectors, we would get expensive, powerful damaging weapons, as opposed to cheaper, more "generic" ones in civilian sectors, for example. Or weapons focused on healing/damaging crew in quarantine sectors. Hi-tech specialized weapons in Engis's sectors, and even more so in AI-controlled ones.

Of course, I don't mean availability of making certain weapons from blueprints - I think about probability of getting certain prefixes. Would require some work, surely, but would be a nice, interesting touch, possibly increasing rewards for going into dangerous sectors.

2. More ways to get blueprints. Those events with rebel ship "for transport rather than combat", which, upon destruction, may leave "blueprints from broken machinery", is *asking* to have possibility of getting blueprint in case that we manage to capture it intact, or a very low chance of doing so if we destroy it (just like there is a very low chance to find living slave/prisoner in an intact piece of hull, after destroying enemy slaver/prisoner ship).

Low possibility of getting blueprints from pirating civilian ships etc. - the siuations, where we get trade goods now - would be nice, too. The events where we have high chance of finding weapon could have a lower chance of finding blueprint "only"*, or the same base chance for blueprint in case of destroying ship, if capturing it is a "requiment" for weapon chance (I hope you got what I mean here ;) ).

Of course, I understand that it is a alpha/beta release, so probably, You thought about some of those things, alredy.

3. You might consider using "dummy weapons" (ones that do nothing) instead of "dummy augments" for blueprints. As we can build them only in shops, it wouldn't be hard to put blueprint into weapon slot before jumping there, and it would allow to store blueprints into cargo hold, instead of cluttering three-slot only augments. This way, it wouldn't "interfere" with trade, too (again, by using same super-limited aug slot... Remember, when playing most ships, we're talking about 2 slots only, as 3th is occupied by faction-characterizing one, like Slug Gel, for example).

If you're concerned too much about players forgetting to equip blueprint into weapon slot before jumping to shop, or wasted opportunities during "surprise" shop events, user Russian Rockman have discovered, once, a way to allow player equiping it *after* jumping to shop beacon, and still getting approriate event. IIRC, it required some coding mumbo-jumbo, but worked fine. You might want to contact him, I'm sure he will be more than enthusiastic to help.

Kiloku wrote:The idea is that if you have certain blueprints, augments, crew of certain species and such, you could run into certain very complex events (maybe as hard as the old way to get the Crystal ship). After following through, you use the blueprint to build a special super powerful weapon (I'm thinking of one per race, at the moment.)

These super-weapons would be very taxing, though, with very long cooldowns and high power usage. But still, just one shot might be devastating.


Sounds a little like building (recently added to CE) player artillery :D

/Estel
Kiloku
Posts: 66
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Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby Kiloku » Wed May 21, 2014 8:00 pm

Estel, thanks for the amazing review and hints! :D

Let me answer your topics:

Estel wrote: I thought that it will require more things to do weapon (blueprint's, certain augment and/or crew, for example), but will allow to create weapon at any empty beacon.

This is also planned, actually, if the player has the On-Board assembly line. But it would have nearly no variations (building usually the standard variation of the weapon), and if you had certain crew or augs, you could use them in combination with your assembly line to expand your choices.

From the numbered points now:

1. Changing the rarity of certain prefixes per sector is a really interesting idea, and while it's harder to implement, I loved the suggestion and intend to include it in a future version of the mod!

2. Most ships which don't have a special predefined event for when the crew dies has a chance of dropping a blueprint! I don't know if that's the case with the rebel transport, but you're right that it'd be a great addition.

The idea of having ships that drop weapons have a chance to drop blueprints instead is also really good, it's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know more about. This is my first experience with event modding, so I didn't know yet what were the best events to add the blueprint drops, this kind of feedback is exactly the help I need :D

3. I had heard the Dummy Weapons idea before (I think from RR himself, actually), but I didn't understand it well at the time. I like the idea of it not occupying an augment slot. This would actually allow more variation to the options, too. I'll probably check it out!

Estel wrote:
Kiloku wrote:The idea is that if you have certain blueprints, augments, crew of certain species and such, you could run into certain very complex events (maybe as hard as the old way to get the Crystal ship). After following through, you use the blueprint to build a special super powerful weapon (I'm thinking of one per race, at the moment.)

These super-weapons would be very taxing, though, with very long cooldowns and high power usage. But still, just one shot might be devastating.

Sounds a little like building (recently added to CE) player artillery :D

I wish we didn't have that trouble with the save+quit bug, artillery is awesome! I didn't check it out yet because I'm playing with Infinite edition, so I don't have time to play in one seating :/
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Estel
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Re: [CE Add-on][Beta] Blueprint Weapons Crafting 0.01b

Postby Estel » Wed May 21, 2014 8:49 pm

Kiloku wrote:Estel, thanks for the amazing review and hints! :D

Let me answer your topics:

This is also planned, actually, if the player has the On-Board assembly line. But it would have nearly no variations (building usually the standard variation of the weapon), and if you had certain crew or augs, you could use them in combination with your assembly line to expand your choices.



I'm glad that my ideas might prove to be useful for something, and - in fact - thank *you* for creating this mod! Most people just drop suggested ideas if their suggestion wasn't accepted into "mainstream" (whatever type of mainstream we're talking about), and you've not only take your time to do it yourself (and learn how), but also created something that looks very well-thought and elegantly coded. Hats off, and much encouragement !

As for assembly line, it's very good idea - sound obvious and natural (but of course, while thinking about what augment could fit here, I had no ideas :rolleyes:).

From the numbered points now:

Kiloku wrote:2. Most ships which don't have a special predefined event for when the crew dies has a chance of dropping a blueprint! I don't know if that's the case with the rebel transport, but you're right that it'd be a great addition.

The idea of having ships that drop weapons have a chance to drop blueprints instead is also really good, it's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know more about. This is my first experience with event modding, so I didn't know yet what were the best events to add the blueprint drops, this kind of feedback is exactly the help I need :D


Ah, good to know that you've already added those blueprint chances to a more general-happening things. As for the events with (relatively) high chance of giving weapon, apart from rebel transport, there is:

1. (Vanilla?) Nebula event about a "ship trying to stay away" which we presume is a smuggler (killing his crew instead of blowing up have one of biggest chances of gaining weapon in game, IMO, not checked in script files as I prefer being oblivious about such things).

2. CE's event with station that is repeatedly attacked by pirates - if you decide to stay a while longer and help them (or use any of the blue-event choices, I believe, like mining their proximity), you have a chance to get a result where they give you weapon, as "they won't need so many those things anymore". Could as well have equal chance for blueprints.

3. Event where settlers complain about some of their friends taking up on piracy, and asking you to give them a lesson, without actually killing offenders (this one have a *guaranteed* weapon reward - would be interesting if had low - like, 20% or so - chance of getting blueprint instead).

4. Event where you help someone attacked by pirate - one of the possible outcomes is a shipwright (never understood when it would be shipwright giving us weapon...) that want to "help us as we have helped him and install weapon in our ship". Some other possible outcomes include scientists, that just give standard supplies as a thank-you. Could, as well, have a chance of them giving blueprint in addition to supplies.

5. Last but not least, there is this "merchant" in the nebula, that tell "tales about dangers in the nebula", that we can ask about special tech in the CE - gives list of most exotic weapons in the game (chaff launchers, Ion Intruder, etc). It seems as absolutely perfect place for buying schematics for some exotic weapons.

That are just a few things from top of my head - I'm sure that you could get more weapon-related suggestions from others, too. I'll keep and eye on those events during my playthroughs, and write them down, so expect more posts with those, if you're interested :)

Kiloku wrote:3. I had heard the Dummy Weapons idea before (I think from RR himself, actually), but I didn't understand it well at the time. I like the idea of it not occupying an augment slot. This would actually allow more variation to the options, too. I'll probably check it out!


Nice to hear that (the same for the fact that you like idea of prefixes varying with sectors, BTW, I hope it will turn out doable without too much hassle)! Expect that it takes some crazy and tedious coding IIRC, but unless it's not too overwhelming, I think it's totally worth it. It's a pity that Sleeper haven't decided tp give it a try for main CE trade system - but, I understand, that with whole CE he don't have so much time to spend for such specialized features (not to mention unbalancing effort/reward ratio for trading, it would require re-calculating if we had more place for trade goods). For weapon blueprints - that are *totally* new thing in FTL - creating if from scratch as weapon dummy doesn't pose any balance problems, and helps to save frustration in the future.

Kiloku wrote:I wish we didn't have that trouble with the save+quit bug, artillery is awesome! I didn't check it out yet because I'm playing with Infinite edition, so I don't have time to play in one seating :/


Yea, I must admit that for Infinite, I also never made a single-seat run. As you may remember from CE thread, there are some methods to circumvent the save problem, as it doesn't appear if player ship have artillery from very beginning. (Ab)using it, we can have artillery from start, disabled by every event, and a special augment/weapon/whatever, that gives a blue-event before every battle, activating artillery. Technically, it works just like with combat augments, or countering effects of enemy combat augments (you start battle with system disabled, until you have augment that gives you a blue choice to have it working).

While it's a little problematic for main CE, it could work well for you "special quest" idea - a optional submod to your mod ( just like CE have it with some features :lol: ), that gives disabled artillery for all ships (artillery "stub"), and gaining a special augment through your quest allows it's actual usage.

The only downside (apart from coding, coooding, coooooooding) would be that Fed cruisers wouldn't be able to get anything from that quest :/ so maybe it's just a wild idea without much sense.

/Estel