Subset Games Forum

Sleeper Service wrote:

R4V3-0N wrote:I seriously can't wait for the up coming updates and to see where this mod will go!

Well, I can give you some hints:



Augment Extension preview


1.07 beams

Did you steal that idea from that space station brainstorming thread I created?

Sleeper Service wrote:

Haha! I had an extremely similar idea for a missile-heavy ship mod bouncing around in my head, after gifting ghosts with empty beacons in another ship.

5thHorseman wrote:I had an extremely similar idea for a missile-heavy ship mod bouncing around in my head, after gifting ghosts with empty beacons in another ship.

Yeah that ship was indeed quite an inspiration. With the next update, empty beacons will actually become useful for several things.

I've been playing Captain's Edition since a week after getting FTL, and I love the content added by it. I do, however, have some balancing concerns about some of the enemies in the early sectors. I generally play on normal, so I'm used to sometimes being horribly outmatched in the first sector, but the current balance of the game has shifted to where sometimes has become more often than not. I know this mod compilation aims to expand the game's content while keeping it feeling like vanilla... just more vanilla.

If you don't mind chatting with me about it, I have been keeping records of some of the O.P. encounters in the first sector. There are many enemies that a starting player simply can't beat, or would be reduced to the verge of death for trying to defeat. If it were an isolated one or two encounters, I'd not have spoken up, because it's a roguelike, and they are designed to screw the player sometimes. This goes beyond that. I'm pretty sure this result wasn't intended.

I'd also not mind volunteering some time to help proofread the events in the mod, since there are scores of typos and such in it.

PaladinGreco wrote:I'm used to sometimes being horribly outmatched in the first sector, but the current balance of the game has shifted to where sometimes has become more often than not.

It's interesting that you found that, because I actually felt that it was the opposite. There are so many new weapons added in that can't deal with your shields that I found that many enemies just didn't have the firepower they needed. On the other hand, some of the new drones were quite nasty, as was the accursed Terminator ship in a certain run, but I didn't really feel Captain's Edition made the game unreasonably hard. Evidently you have some form of proof though, which undoubtedly helps prove your points.

It depends. That's just FTL being FTL, random, there are times where it seems really easy and times where it seems hard.

That and skill level, not saying your bad, but VoV spent a lot of time in FTL and plays on normal a lot.

Reminder: These are sector 1 encounters.

Auto-Ship: Twin Laser mk2 (seriously?), dual shot ion gun, cloaking device, a system repair drone, and all systems had extra system bars, as hitting them did not take the targeted system down at all. I was in the Man O War. It defeated my ship. Hitting it, even with the cloak down, was a pain, but I'll chalk that up to just the RNG deciding it was my time to go. I didn't think it was possible for early ships to have cloaking and drone control at the same time. Way to prove me wrong. The Torus or Red Tail might have a shot at this enemy. Everything else is pretty much boned.

PS: This enemy had Titanium System Casings (plural)

Auto-Turret (Explosion Edition): Heavy Cluster Laser Drone, 2 System Repair drones, Light Defense Drone mk2 (why?), Cluster Bomb Launcher, Burst Laser mk2, Heavy Cluster Laser, 3 bar shield system (1 layer), 1 Engine, 2 Helm. FTL Overloaded in 7 seconds after announcing it would overload, before my heavy ion gun could recycle to take the shield down for my heavy laser. I was in the Vortex. It defeated my ship. Of note, it pulled a Terminator Ship, and FTL'd (suicided in this case) extremely quick. Too quick for a mere 1 engine. I needed about 15 seconds to take the engine offline, and had 7 to do it with. What were you expecting from me at this stage of the game? Save editing? Please look into that. D:

PS: This enemy had a Titanium System Casing and Rock Hull Plating

Rebel Rigger: 2 hull repair drone, 1 system repair drone, 1 anti ship missile drone (fast), burst laser mk2, pernach beam, and all systems had extra system bars as hitting them did not take the systems down at all. It had 14 HP. It successfully escaped, but only after leaving me with most of my ship on fire, and all but 3 systems (doors, helm, and artillery beam) utterly destroyed. I was in the Nisos, and it fled before the artillery beam got one shot off. I have no idea what you expect the player to do with this enemy, except let it go warn the fleet. I suppose the Noether or Red Tail might have an outlier chance against this, but the RNG would have to come down overwhelmingly in the player's favor.

Rebel Fighter: swarm missiles, burst laser mk1, twin laser mk1. 4 engine and apparently a maxed out helmsman. 3 bars of shield (1 layer). It escaped with just 3 damage. Most of my shots missed. Of note, it had at least 2 bars of unused weapon system. I could not take anything I targeted offline (shields and weapons). I was in the Noether. It let me live, frankly, as it had most of my ship shot to bits. The Nisos or Red Tail might have a shot at this enemy, but it would mean the RNG favors the player in the extreme.

Pirate Rigger: Hull repair drone, system repair drone, boarding drone, and ungodly quick anti-ship beam drone. It was also armed with a twin laser mk1 and an auto laser mk1. It has 3 bars of shields (1 layer). I'd have escaped it if I could have kept the engines and helm online long enough to do so. I was in the Torus. To be frank, this is another enemy I just have to ask: What were you expecting from the player? This is the perfect setup to priority overload a player, keep their shields down, and cut the ship to pieces. And it did just that. There really wasn't much I could do about it. This enemy had Rock Hull Plating.

This is a tad excessive for Sector 1. I encountered all of these in one thirty minute sitting. And yes, there are some enemies that are just sad, as well, such as the auto turret with 2 ion drones... and that's all. Poor things. :'D

I ran into a variant of the above Pirate Rigger that swapped the auto-laser with a pernach beam, and the anti ship beam drone with a super quick missile drone. It also dropped the boarding drone and added a second system repair drone. To be fair, if luck were more on my side than it was, I could have beaten this one.... just barely. I was in the Osprey. They burned down my artillery beam and engines first thing and kept them down, so there you have the bad luck. *shrug* It happens.

Also, I think I'm roughly at VoV's skill level. I've watched his most recent LPs. And by at his skill level, I mean his not-doing-an-LP skill level, as when you have to entertain, you end up doing things you normally don't do when you're playing without distraction. I don't even mean deliberate choices to pick the Giant Spider Please Eat My Crew event choices either because it's entertaining, I just mean playing with having to talk to people and knowing you're being watched and judged. That is distracting just enough to make the player make mistakes they don't make playing solo. I'm an occasional livestream LP-er, myself, so I know how that goes, too. Not that any of this means a whole lot because this is sector 1, and players don't have terribly much to work with yet.

EDIT: I'm still offering to proofread events for you, by the way.

Ok I will look into the balancing again, although I would like to point out that the mod simply extend the ammount of weapons enemy and the player have access to. In dps, recharge time and burst potential, this weapons are all similar to existing weapons. There are no missiles that charge faster than vanilla missiles, also there are no enemies with multiple system casings or rock plating and system casing combined.


1.06
-Augment Extension component added, includes ten new augments with various combat and support functions
-Very broad event modifications in order to integrate the new augs (includes every single event that makes a ship hostile)
-Holographic AI avatar crew added (aka ghosts)
-Cut vanilla ghost events modified and re-added to the game
-BA: Four beams added (side-note: Scythe Beam graphic is now used for a similar, more powerful weapon, so watch out!)
-TB: One new enemy class added
-DE: One drone added
-The Rebel Fleet will now always send cruisers in when it catches you without fuel
-Player ship addon updated, several ships received some of the new augs


From the OP:


Augment Extension (AE_)



I guess you get the idea. Augment Extension (AE_) currently adds ten new augments to the game. Passive vanilla-like augments with new effects currently can't be made via xml.editing. That's why the AE augs are all dummies that enfold their potential through events. The implementation is designed to be well streamlined. This component introduced a hidden choice layer in every situation where an opponent gets hostile, allowing you to deploy your augs. So you finally can hack your enemies lifesupport, disrupt their teleporters or scramble their weapon targeting.
AE's augments fall into three categories, although the lines between them are a little blurry:

Combat Augments (Currently 5)
Can be used as soon as an enemy gets hostile. Your ship only provides enough power for one of these, but with certain equipment it's possible to put together a dedicated hacker ship that can run more than on combat aug at the same time. (Note: disrupting a system that has already been disrupted by another augment will override the effect and is not advisable.)

Support Augments (currently 3)
Help to gain or conserve resources. Need empty beacons to be used.

Contextual Augments (currently 2)
Provide blue options in certain situation. Generally pretty cheap.

WTF!!! Kesrel have new wearons and augs. And I did not install ship's addon. FIX this!

Nider_01 wrote:WTF!!! Kesrel have new wearons and augs. And I did not install ship's addon. FIX this!

Uploading fixed version now...