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Create your own ship?

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 3:08 pm
by Warhawx
I know this is rather far fetched, with bugs to fix and things to tweak and all that, if this were ever to be implemented, it would unsurprisingly take quite some time.

However, after reviewing on how we can name the ship and the crew members, I think that we could go a step further in the personalization area. I think this should only be available after the first time you finish the game though, to add replay ability. Each ship would have a minimum/maximum number of squares. This would be done by adding pre made rooms onto the ship. I understand that a room can only be 1x2 or 2x2, that is why I suggest the same size rooms with different appearance when the hide room function is used. After the rooms are done, it would be time for decoration, such as thrusters (such as Krestel rear thrusters) which does nothing but give a cosmetic effect. After that, you will paint the ship in 3 categories- primary color, secondary color and thruster flame color.

After you name your ship, it would be good to go. It might even recieve a function to share ship designs. (maybe through Steam Workshop?)

It may be just me, but personalization is a very important thing in my opinion

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 1:08 am
by robolove
This was in the original design doc and it wasn't fun when actually tested. There ended up being the optimal build and experimenting only meant handicapping yourself. Just min/maxing. So, the creators had thought it was a good idea too. Don't expect to ever see it though. I'm very happy with their solution... the variation between ships is fantastic, keeps things fresh, and the best part is the ships have strong intention with their function that just couldn't be replicated with a build your own system.

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:29 am
by Sacarathe
I've not unlocked all the ships, but is there a 4 drones 1-2 guns boat?

I wouldn't mind seeing a single augmentation for specially(racially doesnt work to well, and i dont think species-ially is a word.) pure ships, for example, if all the crew are:

Engie - Your crew no longer need life support or O2 to survive.
Human - Your crews ability to use duck tap has added buff: Ship systems have a 40% chance to ignore 1 point of damage(resets every 10 seconds), hull damage unchanged.
Voltans - Voltan shield regenerates every 90 seconds
Rock - Fires do not spread between rooms
Mantis - Mantis pheromones(existing augment) or ??????
Slug - ??????

Crystal... lol


Racial purity on a ship in space in the future is perfectly plausible when race is being used to refer to species.

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:48 am
by cookie42
I won't discuss it further before the game is actually released, but this game isn't too hard to mod. Some have already made minor modifications if you look around.

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:03 am
by fall_ark
Sacarathe wrote:I've not unlocked all the ships, but is there a 4 drones 1-2 guns boat?


None. Even the Vortex has 3 gun 3 drones. If you want to have such an experience, it's always possible to manually edit the data file (but back up first, of course). 4 or even 5 drone slots are surprisingly well-supported by the engine. 5 weapon slots, not so much.

I wouldn't mind seeing a single augmentation for specially(racially doesnt work to well, and i dont think species-ially is a word.) pure ships, for example, if all the crew are:

Engie - Your crew no longer need life support or O2 to survive.
Human - Your crews ability to use duck tap has added buff: Ship systems have a 40% chance to ignore 1 point of damage(resets every 10 seconds), hull damage unchanged.
Voltans - Voltan shield regenerates every 90 seconds
Rock - Fires do not spread between rooms
Mantis - Mantis pheromones(existing augment) or ??????
Slug - ??????

Crystal... lol


Racial purity on a ship in space in the future is perfectly plausible when race is being used to refer to species.


I, too, would love to see a ship that doesn't need oxygen to operate. Even Crystal on an Engi ship wouldn't do the trick right now though.

Regeneratable Zoltan shield (could be a system like the Federation beam right now), boss final-form style, would also be an interesting addition.

As for humans, I'd rather see them portrayed as "diplomats" - a few discounts here and there, just to make them more versatile.

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:14 am
by Gorlom
I thought the energy race was called Zoltan? I've seen Voltan be used a few places on the forum now. Have I been using the wrong name all this time? :?

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:14 am
by fall_ark
Gorlom wrote:I thought the energy race was called Zoltan? I've seen Voltan be used a few places on the forum now. Have I been using the wrong name all this time? :?



Mistakes. They are infectious... :?

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:40 am
by Dal
fall_ark wrote:
Sacarathe wrote:I've not unlocked all the ships, but is there a 4 drones 1-2 guns boat?


None. Even the Vortex has 3 gun 3 drones. If you want to have such an experience, it's always possible to manually edit the data file (but back up first, of course). 4 or even 5 drone slots are surprisingly well-supported by the engine. 5 weapon slots, not so much.


Oh, I can think of a zillion thinks I'd like to tweak. What are you using to open the .dats?

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:53 am
by fall_ark
Dal wrote:
fall_ark wrote:
Sacarathe wrote:I've not unlocked all the ships, but is there a 4 drones 1-2 guns boat?


None. Even the Vortex has 3 gun 3 drones. If you want to have such an experience, it's always possible to manually edit the data file (but back up first, of course). 4 or even 5 drone slots are surprisingly well-supported by the engine. 5 weapon slots, not so much.


Oh, I can think of a zillion thinks I'd like to tweak. What are you using to open the .dats?


Any binary editor (Ultraedit, for example) should be fine. Two important notes regarding editing the data file:

1. You can view the files in ASCII mode. It'll be much clearer that way as HEX mode doesn't allow text formats. However you must make changes while in HEX mode to avoid file corruption.
2. The size of the data file must remain the same. This means that if you want to, say, change a number "9" into "10", you must do so without actually "inserting" a byte. HEX mode usually doesn't allow easy insert/delete function, so it should be fine so long as you are careful.

Anyway always have a backup version available - add them to a rar/zip file after every update.

Data files are only loaded when you start the main program, and you can edit it while playing the game to refer to the numbers.

Re: Create your own ship?

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:15 am
by Dal
Wow, I had no idea so much of the game was in plain text. It looks like it could be unpacked pretty easily at that. A shame about the protections, it looks like it would be really simple to create custom content for the game.