AE R&D - What is new? What can we do now?

[dalolorn]

Hey Sleeper, here are a bunch of shots of the various new features. Feel free to edit your first post to put these examples in. Sorry if the picspam is annoying anyone.


(Flak attack)








(shield drone)



(hacking stuff - hacking is a skill - hacking subsystem icon has a bar with drone and crosshair buttons)


(Mind control room and new medbay. Sometimes they still use the old + medbay is still shown - even on the enemy ship on the same screen - but that could just be WIP. Or maybe they realized the Red Cross has a logic-defying trademark on all red crosses. Seriously, look it up.)


(mind controlling boarders in the hacking room)




(regular mantis and light)


(what are the green dots?)


(weird manned/unmanned icons on sensors and doors - I think the yellow bar indicates if you man it, you get an extra free power - it's not from Zoltans because in that shot they're being manned by Engi/Rockmen)

I hope I don't hate mind control. In the original X-Com, it became a game balance issue. Seems like now it would give you another "must shut down" target to divert your fire from keeping enemy weapons on lockdown.

Group 1: I have no comments other than what has been said by Sleeper before.

Group 2: That charge laser... could it be that each time its charge-up (the timer to the left of the weapon name on each weapon in FTL) completes, one of the 4 cells underneath its name fills up, improving it in ways that are unknown to us?

Group 3: The more you shoot, the faster it fires? The indicator under its name is a bit ambiguous, but that seems likely.

Group 4: Probably does the same as that drone in group 9, stunning people in a room and ionizing the system.

Group 5: The shield definitely has a greenish Zoltan tone to it. I concur with Sleeper's original post.

Group 6: I'm guessing the drone button launches the hacking drone you see in the images, while the crosshair lets it switch between systems.

Group 7: I agree - it is probably the medbay. However, how it may have been changed is a mystery to me. Oh, and there's still a part of a red cross in there.

Group 8: Seems like a one-target action - and temporary, though your image failed to display the latter part.

Group 9: Boarding drone doing the same as ion stunner?

Group 10: This, as well as several other images, suggests that crew skins now exist.

Group 11: Destination markers. Send units to other rooms, you'll see the dots. Not new.

Group 12: Yeah, the shape also suggests that you need to man it to improve it. Sleeper's OP got it right.

Group 8:

[Sleeper Service]

Hey Sleeper, here are a bunch of shots of the various new features. Feel free to edit your first post to put these examples in.

I did, thanks!

[jep]

Group 10: This, as well as several other images, suggests that crew skins now exist.

Yeah, a lot of what I was posting was just to confirm/expand SS's post with images.

But from looking over the video tons while doing these screenshots, I think it's going to just double the existing skins. I think humans are going to have four skins - two for each gender. They'll be the dark one and the light one for each. And aliens will now have two skins (so basically like the previous humans). You may even ONLY be able to choose light or dark skin for all humans since they don't show any mixed crew in the video, though I think that's a big leap.

And I don't think you're going to be able to pick uniform colors. I think you'll always get blue and enemies will always get white. This makes sense from a user interface point of view because it helps you distinguish between your crew and the enemy. But that could be a bad assumption and we could just be seeing unfinished/undemoed features.

Group 11: Destination markers. Send units to other rooms, you'll see the dots. Not new.

Where's the emoticon for :facepalm: again?...

Group 12: Yeah, the shape also suggests that you need to man it to improve it. Sleeper's OP got it right.

Yeah, I was mainly clarifying Sleeper here. Sleeper said it looked like crew experience didn't happen for them, and I was clarifying that I thought manning them acted like a Zoltan and gave them an extra power bar instead. A power bar that they can't get otherwise.

Whatever you do, don't man them with a Zoltan. KABOOM!

I did, thanks!

Anytime!

[Sleeper Service]

A new development update on AE is out, mainly introducing the new faction, the Lanius, which has the interesting ability to drain oxygen from the room it's in. But read for yourself.

Lanius ships seem of a quite sophisticated sprite design, making use of a lot of glow. The sprites are at least as complex in shading and structure as the one for Zoltan B.



Also announced/confirmed:
- Lanius get their own player ship
- 8 Ships (probably all but the Crystal ship) get a C layout, featuring the new systems and equipement
- There is another new system, the backup battery (probably the strange system in place of the medbay in the first trailer)
- Shield Drone, Intruder Drone and (wohoo): Anti Combat Drone, which shoots down enemy combat drones. Having all this new drone categories to work with will be interesting.
- Crew names will be changeable midgame
- Among the many confirmed things are mannable door and sensor system and crew sprite variations

Not so much news for the modding side of things this time, but further announcements will happen before the release, so let's see.

[Kieve]

Lanius boarding party sounds even more broken and OP than Crystal.
I wonder what their stats will be to offset this?
Also, damn those ships are sexy. I love the blade-effect of the wings.

[jep]

I don't think that new medbay icon has anything to do with the batteries. I think it's just the new medbay icon. I think they just didn't have anything done with the batteries before that video was made.

I should also point out that they said the batteries will be a SUBsystem rather than a full system. And it says it's there just to give the engines a boost. Kind of puzzles me, really. I can only guess it's fairly cheap and only gets used if the engines are completely out of power. Otherwise, why put money into it rather than just more power bars?

Also, here's an image from that page of a Lanius ship:


I'm a little puzzled why THEY have an O2 on their ship at all. I guess for the human they have on there driving. But with their explanation for the Lanius, having them mix with the other races doesn't seem to make as much sense. I guess it'd be hard to keep them apart without really changing how ftl works, though.

[jep]

The two most basic things I wish they'd added in terms of modding for AE is for a "cargo" item in addition to the weapon and drone type of items. This would just be an item that goes in your four cargo slots and can't be slotted into a weapon/drone slot. It could be sold and would be very useful on quests. They kludged this kind of thing in with the crystal stasis pod.

To go with that, the second thing I'd wish for is the ability for mods to take away weapons/drones/augs/cargo. This would allow far more flexibility in terms of settings up complex events and trade systems.

But neither will probably happen. I just wish they would because they seem like they'd require minimal coding as compared to a lot of other "goodies" modders would wish for.

[dalolorn]

A new development update on AE is out, mainly introducing the new faction, the Lanius, which has the interesting ability to drain oxygen from the room it's in. But read for yourself.

Lanius ships seem of a quite sophisticated sprite design, making use of a lot of glow. The sprites are at least as complex in shading and structure as the one for Zoltan B.



Also announced/confirmed:
- Lanius get their own player ship
- 8 Ships (probably all but the Crystal ship) get a C layout, featuring the new systems and equipement
- There is another new system, the backup battery (probably the strange system in place of the medbay in the first trailer)
- Shield Drone, Intruder Drone and (wohoo): Anti Combat Drone, which shoots down enemy combat drones. Having all this new drone categories to work with will be interesting.
- Crew names will be changeable midgame
- Among the many confirmed things are mannable door and sensor system and crew sprite variations


Not so much news for the modding side of things this time, but further announcements will happen before the release, so let's see.

Actually, the backup battery appeared in the IPad section if I'm not mistaken. I think your OP noted that. Other than the Lanius, the C ships, and the anti-combat drone, the announcement was just a confirmation of our speculation.

I don't think that new medbay icon has anything to do with the batteries. I think it's just the new medbay icon. I think they just didn't have anything done with the batteries before that video was made.

I should also point out that they said the batteries will be a SUBsystem rather than a full system. And it says it's there just to give the engines a boost. Kind of puzzles me, really. I can only guess it's fairly cheap and only gets used if the engines are completely out of power. Otherwise, why put money into it rather than just more power bars?

Also, here's an image from that page of a Lanius ship:


I'm a little puzzled why THEY have an O2 on their ship at all. I guess for the human they have on there driving. But with their explanation for the Lanius, having them mix with the other races doesn't seem to make as much sense. I guess it'd be hard to keep them apart without really changing how ftl works, though.

Actually, they did note the possibility for diplomatic interaction with the Lanius relatively early in the blog. I can tell you one thing - the Lanius and ghosts are made for each other.

As for the batteries, it sounds like you can deplete them temporarily, transferring their power (also temporarily, probably shorter than the recharge) into the reactor. Nice if you need that tiny last burst of power - which we probably all will, considering the arrival of mind control and hacking.

[R4V3-0N]

-cut-
I'm a little puzzled why THEY have an O2 on their ship at all. I guess for the human they have on there driving. But with their explanation for the Lanius, having them mix with the other races doesn't seem to make as much sense. I guess it'd be hard to keep them apart without really changing how ftl works, though.

The same reason you got a MANTIS on the federation cruiser? or the rock man as well.

Maybe the reason how the federation own not 1, not 2, but (technically) 3 Mantis cruisers filled with mantis they trust to deliver a top secret message to the federation fleet? Last I check the lore suggests there is barely anything under the skin for locusts (metaphorically), being mean fighting machines that are so blood thirsty for fighting that they will kill each other to kill the target. etc. next minute you got one with top secret message/ on a ultra high tech cruiser (mantis cruiser and federation cruiser).

Similar reason with other races, Slugs (I can imagen them trading of the valuable information for scrap) or Rock, etc. And I think they want it so the first crew you pic up won't die instantly. remember this is an official ship, not a mod ship.

[jep]

Actually, the backup battery appeared in the IPad section if I'm not mistaken. I think your OP noted that. Other than the Lanius, the C ships, and the anti-combat drone, the announcement was just a confirmation of our speculation.

Interesting. I missed that and looked back and it wasn't Sleeper's OP but aaaaaa50 that pointed that out. I think I'm not the only one because it was never mentioned again right up there.

Anyway, here's a pic from the ipad part:

(sorry it's blurry, but the whole ipad section is blurry)

I'm still thinking it must be REALLY cheap to make it worth not just buying more power bars. Sure, you eventually run out of bars to buy but that would relegate the batteries to a small corner of the game.
And yeah, you can cook up explanations for the Lanius, no doubt. I'm just saying the way they described them makes them sound even less likely to join your crew than a rebel.