Community project.

[Knightmarez]

Hello fellow FTL Captains!

I am a 200+ hour FTL player, and I have been modding games for years since i was a child.

I have been silently watching and playing many of the various mods, and playing with the tools made available on this forum, for some time now.

Very impressive stuff, a year on and captains edition still gets up dates! However, as with skyrim, i am a fan of combining the best and most polished mods together into one 'community project'.

I plan to combine improved backgrounds, Captain's edition, and certain features from other mods. I imagine many things with the hope of making 1 mod that is even more amazing than captains edition.

I studied Game design and Visual effects for my Degree, and i'm a game designer.

One of the key features i want to personally do is really spruce up the graphics for various weapon effects even more, without losing the original style. Great work has already been done...but standing on the shoulders of giants and all that jazz.

Along with fixing spelling errors and various other things, i also want to over-haul all the players ships (except the Kestrel type A, since the tutorial is so good) and increase the difficulty level of the game. 'easy' mod is a joke, and normal isn't too hard......and since anyone who bothers to install a mod has probably already completed the game, this won't be too hard. Power Creep and other issues aside, many subtle changes can really improve a game.

The name of this mod will be FTL Community project, and i hope that it will become a 1-file executable, making it easier to download and run for people in general.

I find in most modding projects calling it CP (community project) means people know what they are getting. Something to be said for labeling Sugar '' Sugar '' on the marketing side of things.

Although i want to oversee all the details of this mod, it is as i said, building on the shoulders of giants. As such anyone who helps even 1 pixel of content will be included in the credits.

I get out of this the sweet joy of creating content, a life long passion i have had for many years, and if this helps FTL get mores sales in the indie market even then so be it

Thank you all for reading this, and i hope together we can build something beautiful, who knows.....with the right game-designer contacts it might end up on PC-gamer's page...they often mention mods that have that professional polish.

I will be asking lots of questions about what can and cannot be easily done here, and will be cherry picking the best of various creations.

So, to summarize.

FTW Community Project = Combine the Best of all the various mods into one Easy-to-Use executable file and market it as far and wide as possible.

To an amazing game, Knightmarez.

[aaaaaa50]

"one Easy-to-Use executable file"? I'm sorry, but have you actually looked at FTL modding? Slipstream is an amazing utility that lets anyone pick and choose which mods to combine. Anyone can use Captain's Edition, Improved Backgrounds, and more together. As for increasing difficulty, there are many custom ships that offer unique play that's often harder than vanilla. If you want to make your own mods that include other's content, feel free to do so as long as they agree to share with you and you give them credit, but throwing around claims of how good you are at modding and how excited you are doesn't compare to actually showing something you've made for FTL. There are many great modders here, and right now you're not one of them.

[Knightmarez]

Well i'm going to start by releasing a re-design/balance of all the player ships, The thing is that i really wanted to include weapons from the Captains edition.....since it is so bloody good.

With regards to the 'one executable file'. well slipstream mod manager actually caused problems for me that Grog's did not.

I was thinking that something like grogs (or slipstream) could be modded into full installation program with a different GUI and one mod.

One exe...double click, window pops up '' install FTL CP mod ...find directory...done.
I was imagining something that was a modded version of the mod installer.

Most people are lazy/computer illiterate/etc so if you want the maximum number of people playing your modified version of the game ....as few button presses/moving folders around/installing files/etc as possible is good.

Some phone companies even hire people who's sole job is '' to check that any feature can be accessed in 3-4 button presses''.

Look at apples success for example...

But i digress, in the mean time i shall come back here and release my new and improved player ship models.

btw....does anyone know why a 6 man mantis teleporter doesn't work?

[Knightmarez]

On that note i should go into more detail of what i am aiming to do.

My player ship overhaul (which will leave the kestrel untouched) will include all new textures for the internal parts of each ship. Zoltan looking smooth egg shapes glowing green in the zoltan ships for example...i've used photoshop for a long time so doing some nice pixel art that's racially themed will be painstaking work with enjoyable results.

Aside from graphical changes i also wanted replace the stealth B with the Auto-cruiser. a fantastic mod....although i'm going to give it 'ghost crew' and the AI augment to replace the 50-scrap-sellable-tech it comes with.

Along with mounting weapons in more appropriate places on all the ships, i also want to replace the artillery cannon on the federation type B ship with a custom weapon. It will work the exact same way but i want it to fire a 5 shield piercing bullet instead of a beam ...slow moving with a high chance of missing, but more damage than the Type A artillery. V high chance for breach and fire...if it hits.

I always want to work in the advanced subsystem mod into the captain edition mod...with a few tweaks.

i felt that the gameplay was very same-y between the races ships, anyone else get the feeling they pretty much flew the same? well i want to make it so that the different ships would have different upgrade costs and upgrade max-levels for different subsystems. The federation type A and B for example wouldn't be able to get crazy high dodge chance, even with good pilots...due to how big their ships are. And the rock ships i was planning to make slower as well.

Anyhow, i think you guys are getting the idea of what i'm aiming for.....

[R4V3-0N]

this would work better with a bunch of small mods and a new mod to wrap everything up.
Captains edition is like updated every 3 days, I don't think anyone would commit to updating everything to make the project work.

[Sleeper Service]

Originally, CE was kind of intended to accomplish what you are trying here. To some extend it assimilated (Turning the Tide) or full out integrated (Diversity Mod) other mods. But mod integration was never it's highest priority. As mentioned, the mod mangers make mixing mods pretty accessible and FTL has less compatibility problem than Skyrim I'd say. I deliberately abstained from changing player ships in core CE, because people can easily do that to their own liking with all this other mods out there. Putin in custom/modified player ships would just limit the player to a different set.

In my opinion the threshold for using the mod manager isn't that high, but a executable file would of course still be more easy to use. I'm not sure how feaseable/legal that is though. Well, you are the software engineer, so I guess you know what you are doing there.

Most people are lazy/computer illiterate/etc so if you want the maximum number of people playing your modified version of the game ....as few button presses/moving folders around/installing files/etc as possible is good.

Some phone companies even hire people who's sole job is '' to check that any feature can be accessed in 3-4 button presses''.

But I don't really think that phone companies set a good example for... anything. Aren't that the guys that shut peoples communication down when they demonstrate in the street so that the police can beat them up more effectively and no one can even call an ambulance? Aren't they let the government and other corporation spy on everyone? Anyway, I guess this has nothing to do with FTL...

You can of course use any of CEs assets for this project. If your skills are as good as you claim than I'll probably be interested in reverse integrating some of your stuff into CE. If you interested in improving visual details you might consider continuing this thing. I really think this mod should be salvaged, thought about taking it on myself a few times.

Anyway, you have taken on a big task here. Welcome and good luck!

[kartoFlane]

Now that's an interesting project we have here.

It's awesome to see people with the enthusiasm to undertake such big projects. I can only hope that you have the perseverance to see this through


That said, several things:

With regards to the 'one executable file'. well slipstream mod manager actually caused problems for me that Grog's did not.

If there's a problem with SMM, you should post about it in its development thread, so that it can be fixed.
Same thing goes for usability suggestions. SMM is meant to be an improvement over, and a replacement for GMM.

Most people are lazy/computer illiterate/etc so if you want the maximum number of people playing your modified version of the game ....as few button presses/moving folders around/installing files/etc as possible is good.

I get what you're saying about some people being computer illiterate... But I don't think creating a custom installer for just one mod is the right way to go.
I think that the one big advantage that FTL modding has is the integrity of it - all mods use one system, and you can easily switch them around, or combine them.

We shouldn't be too fast to discard this. SMM is already very straightforward and easy to use, all of that while being powerful and flexible.
You say you've been into Skyrim modding. You should see that SMM is basically NMM for FTL.

well i want to make it so that the different ships would have different upgrade costs and upgrade max-levels for different subsystems.

One of the bitter and disappointing things you'll find about modding FTL is that it's very limited...
Changes to systems affect all ships, and because of this, it's not possible to have a different upgrade costs or maximum level for just one specific ship.

slow moving with a high chance of missing, but more damage than the Type A artillery. V high chance for breach and fire...if it hits.

The only thing that determines whether a ship will be hit or not is the target's evasion chance. So it's not possible to have a weapon that misses more often than others (except for beams, since they always connect)

btw....does anyone know why a 6 man mantis teleporter doesn't work?

I don't actually know the answer, but given what I wrote earlier, as well as previous experiences, I'd say the teleporter is hardcoded to expect up to 4 people.
But that's just a guess *shrug*

Aside from graphical changes i also wanted replace the stealth B with the Auto-cruiser. a fantastic mod....although i'm going to give it 'ghost crew' and the AI augment to replace the 50-scrap-sellable-tech it comes with.

Well, thank you As I said with someone else, anyone's free to use it (within common sense and courtesy, of course)

[Knightmarez]

Ships can't be coded to have hard limits to the upgrades?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. oh the bitter taste!

See perhaps if this FTLCP one run executable was made....some of the internal guts of the game could be fiddled with.
I would love for people to help me with this because i'm good at programming, but Photoshop and game design/development are my main strengths.
I think the different race having different max upgrades/etc would really add what's called '' racial flavour''.
With regards to the ship balance and design...trust...i will give the ships flavor and style so it doesn't always feel like your doing the same job when playing FTL. repetitiveness is bad!
Has anyone got the list of things we know can be edited in detail? would save me alot of trial and error.

With regards to the graphical update mod i'll get right to it, i think the current 'grey box' is boring and flat. Not critizing the game for being made by a 2-3man team....one texture isn't high on the list when putting blood sweet and tears into getting a game on steam...but you know....grey box is boring

[Sleeper Service]

The R&D Thread discusses some stuff, but there is no complete list on what can be modded and what not. I recommend you ask in the forum before attempting big projects, or make some proof of concept test mods yourself, if the forum should not be sure.

The Mod Reference Thread also has a lot of tutorials. What is described there is the stuff that generally works.

Ships can't be coded to have hard limits to the upgrades?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. oh the bitter taste!

Yeah, that's actually the constant aftertast of FTL modding.
My bitterness scenario for this month: I really wanted hyperspace travel events, but backgrounds can't be changed two time in one event.

I can try to give a broad overview of what is possible/impossible, maybe it would be worth to do this as some collective work (github?) to have a proper summary on that topic at some point...

Possible
-Most combat/ship/weapon/drone/crew/ui visuals can be modified. Basically everything that you see in the img folder can be reworked
-Vanilla ship/weapon/drone/aug/crew blueprints can be modified in different degrees
-Most things that happen in vanilla events can be replicated (exeptions are removing augs, things that happen in the bossfight and some other stuff)

Easier to say what can't be done...

Impossible
-New crew blueprints with new traits (most asked moding question ever)
-New Aug blueprints that have actual, non event triggered effects; dummy augs are possible
-New hazards, although dummy enemy workarounds would be possible (not very elegant though)
-Weapons that behave vastly different than vanilla weapons categories
-Drones that don't use missiles
-Drones that use bombs
-New internal drones with different traits/abilities
-Negative crew damage (healing) on anything beside bombs
-Bomb weapons on drones
-Beam weapons on defence drones
-New Artillery, the existing one can be modified though
-Non artillery weapons on Flagship
-Randomized Systempower on Flagship
-The Flagship events in general, apart from the texts
-The structure of the last stand
-Changing beam colour
-Animated beam impacts
-New player ship engine fires, existing ones can be modified
-Non default impact graphics for missiles (do not centre correctly)
-Weapons sheets with larger frame numbers
-Weapon/explosion anims with sheets larger than 2000x2000 (not sure about that, game definitely glitches out at about 3000x3000)
-Scatter-fire like the enemy does it
-Weapon accuracy; hit-chance is only influenced by evasion value
-Textsboxes with more that 512 characters or a certain length (unconfirmed, but large texts definitely crash the game)
-Event loops
-Changing background in mid event
-Generally: forcing the player to do things beside what is possible in events. Removing and unequipped equipment or forcing jumps etc is not possible.
-Detecting anything about the enemy in events
-Also in events: Detecting anything about the player besides the binary existence of a blueprint and its level in the current equipment (available resource amount can be made a condition though)
-Detecting which sector you are in during an event
-Calling any other events than the default ship event's during fights
-Calling events apart from at beacon arrival or during fights (aka default ship event possibilities)
-Randomizing the names of the starting sector, the crystal sector or the last stand
-Many other things

[Knightmarez]

Ah but work-arounds can do wonders. for example you say no forced jumping, yet in the infinite space mod when you go to the exit it would force jump you back into a new (crystal?) sector.