[MOD/SHIP] Arwing

[Gencool]

I originally posted this in Previews, but realise it kindasorta needs it's own thread.

I know I need to update The Tardis at least one more time, but it's getting to a point where I'm not enjoying working on it, and have wandered onto something else till I chill out a bit.

I know VoV made an Arwing pre-AE, but I can't find any up-to-date versions floating around, so I figured I'd have a go;




Currently I have the ship nearly fully built (save gibs and a bit of fine-tuning), and the drones and weapons are mostly coded/planned (like The Tardis, the actual weapons will probably be hidden under the ship, so it's just effects that need spriting)

The Gimmick with the ship is that your own ship is very weak (1 weapon slot, any room hit takes out at least 2 systems, little to no room for customization), but you have a team of drones that make up for your weaknesses (each has a distinct roll, they do not need power to work so even if you ship is totalled they will carry on fighting/defending)

The Other Gimmick is that, at the start beacon, you get to choose one of four loadouts for your ship. This should heavily influence your entire run, as the loadouts are hopefully powerful enough to last through to the end game without being over-powered at the start.


I don't want this to be a long-haul project, though, and I'm kind of worried about the start beacon stuff (The Tardis put me off that whole malarkey)
If anyone is willing, and knows how to do start-only events, please feel free to help out!

Also, anyone at all feel free to crit and feedback!


http://www.puppetsquid.com/FTL/Arwing_Alpha_V001.ftl (a proof of concept for the basic ship and drones)
-note, without the starting loadouts this ship is prettymuch unplayable-

[Yizzzy]

From a ship design standpoint I'd say make the snout longer and skinnier if your going for the more classic arwing look, and have the blue fins be more detached from the hull. Right now it looks like the arwing design form StarFox 64 3d, instead of star fox 64, SNES, or the gamecube one. I don't know if that's what you wanted, but I personally like the older design/gamecube one over it. Up to you though . Otherwise all your ideas seem really neat. I'm a big fan of what your planning to do and I know it will be great like your tardis mod.

[stylesrj]

I'm guessing the ship will start with no crew, so that the systems can autorepair (Only 4 rooms? Sounds like stacking might be needed. Or should be used for more danger)

[Gencool]

Yiz- I wanted it to be as small as possible, and still fit into the FTL style.
Ideally it'd be four rooms big, half the size, and a bit skinnier, but then the game wouldn't be happy once you got your fifth crewmember and the floor would over-lap the hull (which I'm not a fan of visually, Tardis aside.)

Thankyou though, I hope it all works out well (honestly this ship will probably be a nightmare)

Styles - got it in one. Without the autorepair the game basically ends after your first hit. Without crew a single hull breach will make the game impossible to continue, but you get one dude to start with who's probably fully leveled.
Basically it's a case of ultra-powerful loadout, insanely weak ship.



[sneaky update]

If anyone wants to try it, the latest version is;
http://www.puppetsquid.com/FTL/Arwing_Alpha_V004.ftl

It's nearly complete, just needs smart bomb explosion sprites and sounds, maybe some testing (see if Rad's right about laser mk3s crashing the game)

[Gencool]

Quick update;

Here's the latest version if anyone wants to help test it -

http://www.puppetsquid.com/FTL/Arwing_Alpha_V005.ftl

Pretty much everything's here except

• Gibs
• Room Images
• Miniship Image

Stuff in the mod (for reference)

• Core Arwing ship (4 rooms, autopiloting, stacked systems. Very weak to Beams and Solar Flares)
• Start event that adds crew, systems, etc. - gives 4 different loadouts with unique playstyles
• 5 new weapons (all available from start, each one a level up from the last - upgrade you system to use them)
• 1 new artillery (SBomb!)
• 4 new drones (use no power, will work even if your system's down, powerful should not be relied upon too heavily)
• Removed shield overcharge drones from enemy ships (nessasary due to how they handle sprites) (I'm mostly assuming it works since i've not seen any in playtests)
• Lots of sound effects (from spriter's resource. Lylatwars, yo!)

Stuff that I could use help with

• Testing the ship vs weapons that fire more than 4 projectiles (edit: tested. Rad's correct, the game crashes. Decided i'm going to limit all weapons to max 4 shots/charges - considering how this could still easily wipe out your ship it seems fair)
• Checking CE compatibility (afaik it'l be fine, but I don't often run CE and as such don't know the intracacies)
• Fixing the UI breakage (the ship only has 1 weapon, and would be overpowered with 2 slots, but 1 slot breaks the ui. It's not game breaking, but I can't figure it out)
• Crew cannot be bought in stores. Not sure why. It actually suits the gameplay, so I don't mind, would just like to know if I messed up or if it's a known issue with autoships
• General criticism and input

Thank you!

[RAD-82]

I seem to have missed a PM. Unfortunate about the \n thing. I just tested it myself.

It seems to have some problems, but I don't know what causes them. When I choose McCloud, the pilot system is not on top. It seems to put oxygen on top. When I choose Peppy, then piloting is on top. I assume it is a problem caused by adding the backup battery, but I don't really know why. I never liked stacked systems, and I've never tried them before.

Testing the ship vs weapons that fire more than 4 projectiles (edit: tested. Rad's correct, the game crashes. Decided i'm going to limit all weapons to max 4 shots/charges - considering how this could still easily wipe out your ship it seems fair)

I haven't tested an enemy with a Burst Laser III yet, so no input on this.

Removed shield overcharge drones from enemy ships (nessasary due to how they handle sprites) (I'm mostly assuming it works since i've not seen any in playtests)

Once you patch the mod in with SMM, you can go to the XML Sandbox up in the File menu. You can check the files to see if your changes are in there. Shield drones are removed from various places.

Fixing the UI breakage (the ship only has 1 weapon, and would be overpowered with 2 slots, but 1 slot breaks the ui. It's not game breaking, but I can't figure it out)

I believe you are stuck with that.

Crew cannot be bought in stores. Not sure why. It actually suits the gameplay, so I don't mind, would just like to know if I messed up or if it's a known issue with autoships

You didn't mess up. It is a known issue with autoships.

I like the weapon charging graphic. I didn't know what it was at first, thought maybe it was the artillery, but then I realized it was just the charge glow. I've thought about making a charge/chain weapon before, but then I didn't since they both use the same <boost> tag in their animation code. I didn't pay close attention to see how the chain and charge interacted.

When you add crew, the use of the all_skills attribute disables the use of the individual skills, so none of the characters are max level pilots.

(honestly this ship will probably be a nightmare)

I think this mod is a nightmare.

[Gencool]

Thankyou for all the feedback!
Glad you liked the weapon sprites.

The way stacked systems work *is* really weird.
I don't know how to tame it, but since posting v05 I've actually already moved the battery to the front room, and everything seems... maybe not 'right', but at least the piloting can always be manned...
Ditto the Crew Skills and 4+ shots; it was all stuff that I figured needed testing, and I've done so today - I think it's all fixed (or, again, worked around).

I think this mod is a nightmare.

You're not wrong. But this has become a mission now. Everything I'm doing is so broken that it's kinda fun to try to make it playable.


I've been working with the UI to try and salvage what I can.





It's a bit of a mess, but it's growing on me.
Occasionally the enemy systems are difficult to distinguish (the icons overlap sometimes) but you can hover over their system tray to figure out where everything is.

Once you patch the mod in with SMM, you can go to the XML Sandbox up in the File menu. You can check the files to see if your changes are in there. Shield drones are removed from various places.

I'm really sorry, but I have no idea what that sentence says...



I wanted to try to blast this out tonight, but it's officially waaaaay past bedtime. I'l try to get the gibs done tomorrow, then I think it's as good as I can make it.
Still can't source a clean audio file for the Barrel Roll, which really erks me...

Latest version;
http://www.puppetsquid.com/FTL/Arwing_Alpha_V006.ftl

[Yizzzy]

Oh wow, those targeting computers, that UI. This is real slick. Looking great.

[Sleeper Service]

Wow this really looks amazing. I didn't think a small craft mod could be pushed that far. Keep up the great work!

[dizzy_xc]

How did you get the Autofire button to work on the UI with using only one weapon slot? My mod uses two and its visibly absent and shows up only on three or four weapon slot configs.