I've decided to make a Type C version of every ship with an emphasis on making them generally more challenging than the vanilla ships. As with all mods, these ships will actually be replacing existing ships (the type Bs). They were primarily made for myself so that I could continue enjoying the game after beating it with every ship, but I figured someone else out there might be interested. I don't have a lot of experience/interest in the graphics aspect of the game, so any new ships and weapons just use vanilla images (but if someone is interested in making graphics for them, that would be cool, and I would do the small effort required to implement them). These ships are in various stages of development, so I'll post the rest as I finish them. Let me know what you think, questions, suggestions, etc.
Mantis Type C: The Sarcosuchus (No O2 Boarding! Replaces Mantis Type B)
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?eoro5aw0fza320o
While extracting information from the Rebels, your ship sustained heavy damage, lowering shields to one bar and destroying sensors, doors and most importantly the life support (O2). Most of the crew has also died leaving you with just 1 Mantis and 1 Crystal. Though lacking several standard issue systems, it has many amenities to compensate: cloaking, drone control (system repair and antipersonel), a 4 crew teleporter, a 5 crew medbay, and level 2 piloting. The weapons system is limited to just a Heal Burst and a Minibeam essentially necessitating boarding. I suggest self enforcing a 5 crew limit. One can certainly manage more, but it becomes very tedious and it doesn't feel very thematic (I would've put the limit in myself if I could). The ship is challenging, but my win rate on normal is still >1/3 so it's certainly doable and I think quite fun. This .ftl file also modifies the starting event to include an optional, fleshed out story of The Sarcosuchus.
Warnings:
[*]When you load this ship in the hangar, you are advised to quickly start a game and move your crew to the medbay. They will be suffocating in the meanwhile (even in the hangar).
[*]All of these mods may or may not work in conjunction with other people's mods; however, 5thHorseman's Low O2 Icon mod (http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=14243) is compatible with them and may be aesthetically desirable for The Sarcosuchus due to the 2x3 medbay and constant lack of O2.
Engi Type C: The Singularity (Boarding Drones! Replaces Engi Type B)
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?6w276uq0b4ony5b
Cornered by the Rebels, the Engi have brought back their fearsome boarding drones and radiation weapons, which were (and still are) banned by a galactic protocol. This ship comes with 2 boarding drones (only requiring 2 system power) and supports them with a "dirty bomb", a bomb that does only 1 system damage but does 4 additional personel damage (this damage does not affect the boarding drones). Boarding drones never seemed like a viable primary strategy in FTL, so I wanted to make a ship that could (and must) do it. My win rate is about 1/3 with this one. Running out of drone parts, despite starting with 25, is a serious concern. At some point you will probably have to transition into traditional weapons, but you should have several sectors of boarding drone fun. Tactically and efficiently using the dirty bombs is engaging even though the boarding drones are autonomously doing a lot of the heavy lifting. The starting event has been modified to have a short fleshed out story of The Singularity.
Zoltan Type C: The Annihilator (No Starting Reactor Power! Replaces Zoltan Type B)
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?894eby8w7fn4x7q
The Annihilator has used an experimental Zoltan weapon, the phase beam, to extract key information about a Rebel attack planned against the Federation capital. Escaping from Rebel fighters, The Annihilator rushed into its FTL jump, overloading and ultimately destroying its reactor. The Annihilator comes with 4 Zoltan crew, the only source of power at the start of the game, but you are able to buy power bars like normal (thematically repairing the reactor). I wanted to increase the cost of the first 5 power bars, but unfortunately those costs are hard coded for some reason. The Annihilator's only weapon is a custom weapon I call the phase beam. It requires 3 power and is essentially a minibeam that has 2 shield piercing and a really long (20 second) recharge time. You will not be able to run all of your systems at the same time to begin with, but the Zoltan shield should help you survive long enough to use the phase beam despite not being able to use the usual defenses. The starting event includes a short story explaining The Annihilator.
Rock Type C: Krakatoa (Fire Boarding! Replaces Rock Type B)
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/17ehh ... akatoa.ftl
Krakatoa is a non-military ship manned by a Rock religious sect, the Fire Monks. In order to defend themselves as they race to warn the Federation, they must exploit the weakness of aliens (from the perspective of Rocks) to fire. Krakatoa comes with a pyrogenic missile, the Vulcan Missile that does only 1 damage but is highly likely to start a fire. It also has an artillery weapon, the Prometheus Ray, that continuously attempts to ignite fires at random on the opposing ship. It comes with three Rocks and a two personel teleporter, so that you can (and essentially must) begin fire boarding from the outset. Since it is not a military ship, it does not come with shields, but it does have heavily reinforced armor (triple rock armor). Additionally there are many empty rooms increasing the likelihood that hits do not damage critical systems. The Fire Monks believe that artificial intelligence is an offense to the gods, and so they refuse to use drones (Cannot have drone control). Fire boarding is a lot of fun, but it's very impractical in the game. Also, I found it very strange that the pyrogenic weapons in the game combined best with Rocks, but didn't feel very Rock-like (bombs and beams are the least Rock feeling weapon types in my opinion). Anyway, this may be the easiest of the challenge ships I've made so far, but it is still more difficult than vanilla ships (especially with the lack of shields) and it is a lot of fun. The starting event includes a short story for Krakatoa.
Warnings:
[*]Do not buy drone control at stores! It won't do anything.
[*]Rock armor was modified to cost less (so you can only sell it for 20 scrap) and be cumulative. This will affect other ships while the mod is in effect.
[*]The Federation cruisers will have the Prometheus Ray rather than the usual Vindicator Beam it comes with. This will probably make the Federation cruisers very strange to use...
Thanks go to Kartoflane for making Superluminal (used to mostly design these ships) and all sorts of other help in the modding process. Also thanks go to the game developers for a great game and benevolence towards the modders. Enjoy and let me know any questions/suggestions/comments!
