Subset Games Forum

Just throwing this out there in case nobody has thought of it.

FTL needs a total reskin and not much else - to turn it into a 18th century pirate adventure. Instead of running from a rebel fleet, you'd be running from say, an imperial power. Instead of jump beacons you'd have port/island/whatever destinations. Ships would just be varying sizes, weapons would be cannons / marksmen / whatever.

Aside from a basic reskin and a few adjustments, rewriting the flavour text (could probably keep most of it, change "giant spiders" to "angry natives", voila.)

I think the engine is just ideal for something like this.

MAKE IT SO

YOU make it so.

No seriously. What you're suggesting is in fact possible (mostly), it just requires a significant amount of time and a lot of new graphics. So if you want to see it done, pick up the mouse / stylus / whatever, and get arting. There are a few quirks to modding but nothing insurmountable.

Also yes, it's been suggested before.

Not a bad idea, but not quite as simple as you make it sound. It is possible though.

But a question.. how many different types of cannons and cannonballs could there be? The weapons would need to be made much simpler to fit the theme and that would reduce the tacticall options of the game and turn it into a series of overly similar battles.

Then again, having 16 or 32 cannons sounds... good!

Obibun wrote:Just throwing this out there in case nobody has thought of it.

FTL needs a total reskin and not much else - to turn it into a 18th century pirate adventure. Instead of running from a rebel fleet, you'd be running from say, an imperial power. Instead of jump beacons you'd have port/island/whatever destinations. Ships would just be varying sizes, weapons would be cannons / marksmen / whatever.

Aside from a basic reskin and a few adjustments, rewriting the flavour text (could probably keep most of it, change "giant spiders" to "angry natives", voila.)

I think the engine is just ideal for something like this.

MAKE IT SO

Take it a step further and simulate Victorian naval combat. Shields become torpedo nets and stop missiles (torpedoes). Shells ignore the nets and are blocked by a custom augment replacing Rock Armor which has a different percentage for each ship. Damage control modeled by crew, reactor power models available ship tonnage.

Or what about making a fighting game? Weapons represent techniques with a power/speed balance, shields represent a block, oxygen is lungs and the pilot's chair is the brain. Do the graphics pokemon-style and they'll work in FTL.

What about an early 20th century ideology simulator? Battles represent class warfare, boarding drones are the vanguard party, ship health is the proletariat, and reactor power is the means of production.

Hell, as long as we're getting crazy, we could probably even make FTL into a decent spaceship simulator.

UltraMantis wrote:Not a bad idea, but not quite as simple as you make it sound. It is possible though.

But a question.. how many different types of cannons and cannonballs could there be? The weapons would need to be made much simpler to fit the theme and that would reduce the tacticall options of the game and turn it into a series of overly similar battles.

Then again, having 16 or 32 cannons sounds... good!

4/6/9/12/18/24/32pdr, solid/heat/chain/dual/grape/case shot, cannon/carronade/swivel/rifled/shell gun (depending on era), Dahlgren/Paixhans/etc, "Dynamite guns", the Nordenfelt, early Maxim weapons, Whitehead torpedos (c1870s), ram bow, launches/gun boats, ....

They're all cannons though Well grape and chain can at least do different damage.

UltraMantis wrote:They're all cannons though Well grape and chain can at least do different damage.

Hmm...what about cannon size dictates damage and power requirements. Chain damages systems, grape damages personnel, heated shot lights fires, solid shot breaches. It'd be tough to come up with a missile or beam-type weapon, though. The arty cannon would be great for broadsides if you could change the graphic, but you can't. It'd also be nice to have a pre-battle dialog to allow you to decide what kind of shot to fire, but I can't think of a way that'd be possible.

I'm telling you - go Victorian! You get torpedoes and gatling guns and lots of other strange stuff.

EDIT: Imagine how cool it would be to play as the CSS Alabama, the SMS Seeadler, or the Kormoran! ('Bad guy' ships, but hero ships nonetheless)

Wow, that Kieve guy is one angsty nerd eh.

I haven't really thought through the entire concept but I think it'd be nearly a 1:1 conversion with current weapons.

Shields would just become something akin to non-lethal shots, "Outer Hull" or something. The fact they "recharge" (but can mess you up if you take too many at once) wouldn't be too far from the actuality of the thing. Old timey naval ships could take cannonballs through their hulls for hours and days if you weren't hitting anything vital or below the waterline. At the same time, four or five at once in the same location is liable to cause a problem somewhere.

In terms of different weaponry, I think you'd mostly be looking at different types of shot and "quantity" of cannon rather than size. A beam doing 1 damage would be glossed as 6 cannons, 2 and 3 damage as 15, 20, whatever. They'd all be firing together anyway so it stands to reason that you could shove them into a single weapon category.

Things like missiles and lance weapons would be grapeshot, canister, heated shots, etc. Obviously there'd need to be a few changes but I think it would still be a fairly tactical battle, all things considered. Would just require a little change in method of thinking.

The biggest problem I could foresee would be the boarding actions - because right now they're boring as balls. But I'm sure that'll change eventually too.

I'd actually have no problem putting together all of the skins and graphics for this if somebody could actually work the engine.

Obibun wrote:Wow, that Kieve guy is one angsty nerd eh.

He is also the author of working mods that are currently available and usable. You are not. He did not insult you, but you did. He just made it very clear that ideas are dime a dozen, what matters is making them real. Many of your ideas depend on "somebody (...) actually work[ing] the engine", this is not how you create a mod. You start the work, and maybe (just maybe) someone else will help you. By the way, "working the engine" is mostly not possible currently.

Obibun wrote:Wow, that Kieve guy is one angsty nerd eh.

I'm not angsty at all.
And yes, I do get that the "MAKE IT SO" in caps at the end is a 'Trek reference and not I AM SHOUTING AT YOU TO MAKE ME THIS MOD.
That said, this bears reading, for both yourself and a lot of other people who wander in with "Mod Idea" topics. As boa13 said, it's not that ideas are bad but anyone can be an idea person. Being able to show that you have something to contribute will count for a lot more and garner a better reception than something that's essentially brain vapor.

If you think this is something you actually want to pursue, you'll find a lot of folks on these boards can be very helpful (myself included) in where to start, how to get things working (where the engine allows), and ironing out the kinks and bugs when they arise.