Subset Games Forum

You all remember my Tinstrel for a Christmas-based ship?

Well I'm thinking of making the Santasprey this weekend. Basically it's the Osprey but done in green and red colours. But the gimmick will be something unique.

The ship starts with a decent set of systems and an artillery beam, but it will have no weapons! And it will have no crew, the selection of members being chosen at the start.
No combat weapons? But why would that be?

Because the ship will have a single augment called "Christmas Gift."

Depending on your crew, the Christmas Gift can be used to unlock new presents. I was thinking something like this:

Here's your objective, blah blah blah, enemy plan, blah blah blah Flagship, blah blah blah secret intel, blah blah blah counting on you, win, good luck.
Open your presents!

You crew gets to work unwrapping the Christmas present. There is excitement to be had as:

(Engi Crew: Your Engi Crew member lights up in what appears to be happiness as it reveals schematics for a brand new Combat Drone and an Ion Blast II! "Firepower needs adequate" it states.)

(Human Crew: Your Human smiles as it presents a package of Earl Grey tea. Also, there's a Burst Laser II)

(Mantis Crew: The Mantis is ecstatic at being gifted with beef jerky! They always wanted to take some shore leave and get some of that. Also inside the package was...[Need weapon idea here. Or maybe it adds another Mantis to the crew])

(Slug Crew: The Slug hisses in joy as being presented with a fine slimy vintage from their home nebula. They also find a Stun Bomb and a Fire Beam)

(Zoltan Crew: The Zoltan warms up and states "I think I'm authorised to be happy at this juncture!" before showing off the latest edition of the Zoltan Holy Codex and a Pike Beam and Dual lasers)

(Rock Crew: The Rock, while hard-set on their religious oaths, always harboured a deep love for Christmas and the gifts of joy. This was no exception as they unwrap a hard alcoholic beverage and a Hermes Missile Launcher)

(Lanius Crew: The Lanius is unsure what the whole celebration is about, having only participated because everyone else was doing it. But it turned out the gift was for them as it was filled to the brim with scrap metal. In gratitude, the Lanius forms it into a pair of Flak I cannons. There is also some scrap left over. +20 Scrap)

(Crystal Crew: Something about Crystals here and the reward being Crystal weapons. Not sure which though.)

(Ghost Crew: Optional)

I need some help with filling out the race-appropriate blanks and dialogue.
The augment should be sold after its used to avoid breaking the fairness of the game, just like Captain's Edition's Trade Goods.

Of course, I would probably need to change a few things if its to be used with Gencool's Christmas sprites. Or maybe it should be another set of options. So you can go with the Crystal/Engi present or the Santa/Elf present, depending on how you want to play the game.

But I'm hoping to get the ship hull design created and uploaded by the weekend. So if it doesn't work out, there's a cool hull design for the Ship Randomiser, I guess.

I was also thinking that perhaps instead of the Osprey, a green and red Flagship with a Santa hat instead of an Eagle. Just for those who don't want a fair game... and just a quick romp through the galaxy and spreading Christmas joy.

Mantis: considering there weapons in WT vanilla is burst lasers and less often bombs.

so I imagine the Burst Laser being a Mantis favorite weapon. Or it gives Mantis Pheromones and a new mantis.

Zoltan: OBJECTION! they should get a stun ion instead of a duel laser. Stun ions fit zoltans more considering they heavily use ion (and beam) weapons as well as do not like violence. a weapon used to stun enemies will fit them better.

Crystal: lockdown bomb.

Ghost: um.... a breach bomb and another ghost (ie long lost love)

Crystal crew will be oblivious about christmas due to no interactions with humans before. much like the lanius.

so I imagine the Burst Laser being a Mantis favorite weapon. Or it gives Mantis Pheromones and a new mantis.

A burst laser? Doesn't that ruin the thrill of the fight if they blow up their prey rather than slaughter and enslave them? I notice they quite favour bombs actually. Perhaps a Small Bomb and a Dual Laser for a bit of support in shield-busting/Zoltan Dealing With.

And Mantis Pheromones being a gift? Why not cut the middleman out and just give 40 scrap, since that's what everyone will do anyway

Zoltan: OBJECTION! they should get a stun ion instead of a duel laser. Stun ions fit zoltans more considering they heavily use ion (and beam) weapons as well as do not like violence. a weapon used to stun enemies will fit them better.

Good point. Stun ions for Zoltan. With a beam for support

was picturing that the Pheromones was a side effect of having another mantis on board without having any explicit details.

Mantis do not use bombs more then burst lasers but the reason it seems like it does happen more often on mantis then other races as other races do not use bombs nearly at all.

Mantis do not use bombs more then burst lasers but the reason it seems like it does happen more often on mantis then other races as other races do not use bombs nearly at all

Except for pirates. But they'll use anything really.

But if you look at the Mantis cruisers, they tend to use bombs as boarding weapons with lasers being support (and pathetic really)
Then again I only play with the Basilisk which has no guns.

stylesrj wrote:

Mantis do not use bombs more then burst lasers but the reason it seems like it does happen more often on mantis then other races as other races do not use bombs nearly at all

Except for pirates. But they'll use anything really.

But if you look at the Mantis cruisers, they tend to use bombs as boarding weapons with lasers being support (and pathetic really)
Then again I only play with the Basilisk which has no guns.

Technically the type B and C should be taken only with a pinch for an idea on the weapons on a race.
For eg The Rock type C is when the crystal and rock got back together and made a good ship. This is technically a time problem because in the time where you're in the hanger the portal between their sector and our universe isn't open yet. That and I doubt every rock ship has crystal weapons yet.

Or lets say the Stealth cruiser, the first one is Engi commissioned by the Federation. While the type C is a combined work of Zoltan and Engi.

So there is a high chance that the faction/ race responsible for the first ship isn't valid for the later ships.

However it does still give some insight. The later engi ships. (which you should trust me when I talk about engi. due to my overhaul literally anything I do in ftl research and modding is Engi) still use popular weapons and drones that the Engi use. This involves: ions, heavy lasers, duel lasers (out off all player ships, Ships made by the engi have the highest about of duel lasers) etc.

Anyway. Mantis = Burst lasers and Bombs.
They use some missiles and chain laser as well.

Ok, so I was going to try the Christmas Osprey but then I thought "Why not have an overpowered flagship clone in Christmas colours?"



Of course it's not the ship that I'm having problems with.
I'm trying to make a cool new gimmick for it - Picking your crew!

For a test run, I decided "Hey why not use characters from my fanfic canon for starters"

But I can't seem to be able to make more than 2 event choices. If I add a third choice, the game crashes when I hit the blue option. I tried messing with a few tags (a lot of events have a "hidden" part to it with no requirements), looking at other examples and using them but somehow it just won't work.
I also tried putting them into one big event and while the game doesn't crash, only two options show up, the others hidden away.

So when I can't get it to work, I simply pack what I've got into a neat folder, upload it and post it here and see if anyone else can point the obvious out for me.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/rugmv ... agship.ftl
(Replaces Engi A)

The idea is that you can choose a default package of Santa's Elves (or Engies if you're not using Gencool's Christmas Sprites), you can choose 1 of 3 packages from my fanfic line (shameless promotion!) or you can get a lucky dip of randomly crew (or perhaps not-so-random with modified names like Raven, Ten-Kai, Jeancool and anyone else who wants to put their names in the barrel. As a way to say "Thanks for helping me with the mod!" or the whatnot)

Then once the crew was out of the way, you could unwrap your presents and get the guns/drones package. But one hurdle at a time. Why are the events not working?

In the ZRPC_TEAM eventList, you are missing a </choice> for the last one.

RAD-82 wrote:In the ZRPC_TEAM eventList, you are missing a </choice> for the last one.

*slaps forehead* Doh!
Now it's working perfectly! Thanks.

Now then, I was thinking instead of giving a random crew some random names of FTL forumers, how about a custom team?

Things like "Raven Team" or "82nd Radicals" with crew and personalities (and team names) decided by... well the person the team is named after. Because why not? Be good for at least one game or a laugh or two.