Suggestions

[Bente]

I just bought FTL on Steam about a week ago, and Im already a huge fan. However, I feel like the game is quite shallow, so when I couldnt get sleep last night I started thinking about ways to improve it. Here is what I came up with:

Unique crewmembers and a captain
Have every crewmember get a little backstory, some dialogue and a quest. When you make the beginning crew, choose one of them to be the captain. This will be the main character who wont have a quest, but should maybe have a little more hp and/or somehow improved abilities. If the captain dies, the crewmember with the highest amount of masteries will become the new captain. (I realise writing a ton of backgrounds could be quite a job, so if you need, I will volunteer to do that myself. As long as its going to be a free update)

Ground missions
Add ground missions, where you must teleport (or somehow transport) your crew to a space station, derelict ship, groundbase etc where they must complete a mission of some sort while the ship can give them fire and drone support.


The ability to switch sides
At maybe sector 5, the player can be convinced to switch sides to the rebels and will get to fight the federation base at the end. Obviously this could be a bit of a tricky thing to procure, but I figured it would be a fun add on if done properly.


Add a morale system
Having a lot of fuel, having some sort of an entertainment module active and having completed crewmember missions improves their morale, low fuel, low hull health etc decreases it. Morale should affect every skill a little.

Space stations
This could be implemented even with just text. When the player comes across a space station, they will have choices such as let the crew have time off (increased morale again ), search for new volunteers, find intel etc... Maybe even to try to contact one of the groups in the game.Of course things can go wrong too here . If you decide to implement stations more thoroughly, there could be rescue attempts, bar brawls, escaping from an exploding station....


This is all I can remember for now, if something else comes to mind I will post it here later.

[UberFubarius]

Unique crewmembers and a captain

Writing a backstory for every crewmember would be very time-consuming. Having a captain seems possible, although I'm not sure that it's very useful.

I agree, having a backstory for every crewmember would be very time-consuming. However, I do like the idea of a captain. There's another suggestion, somewhere, for a "New Game+" like mode where you can import one of the previous crew member as a captain of sort. Perhaps each ship can get a unique ability based on captain's race.
Note1: Each captain receive double the HP.
Note2: Activated ability are similar to Crystal Lockdown in terms of recharge time duration unless otherwise noted.

Human Captain:
"Operational Training" - Manned stations receive bonus 1 level above the manning crew's existing bonus (if at max level, it extrapolates what the next "level" bonus would be and use that. For example, a lvl 3 pilot would grant 12% evasion bonus as oppose to just 10%).
OR
"Expert Operator" - Captain's manning bonus is doubled (10% evasion at level 3 becomes 20% evasion at level 3).
OR
"Crazy Ivan" - When activated, captain's manning bonus is multiplied by 5 (At level 3, +50% evasion for engine or helm, +145% shield recharge rate, +95% weapon recharge rate).

Mantis Captain:
"Combat Training" - Combat experience are gained at double rate. All crew receives +10% combat bonus.
OR
"War Lord" - Any crew fighting in the same room with captain receives +20% attack bonus.
OR
"Elite Brawler" - Captain has +50% combat bonus.
OR
"Berserker" - Active ability. When activated, mantis captain receievs +200% combat bonus.

Engi Captain:
"One with the Machine" - All ship system repairs at mantis repair rate at all time (regardless of breach, fire, or if there's combat in the room).
OR
"Machine Resurrection" - Active ability. When activated, the system the captain is in is repaired to full immediately (instant, not over time effect).
OR
"Frantic Repair" - Active ability. When activated, the room repairs at the same rate as having 4 engies in the room.

Slug Captain:
"Expert Merchant" - Store's sell price -20%, buy price +20%. Does not affect fuel, missile, drone nor repair cost.
OR
"I see you!" - Your ship is always visible, at all time. Can identify enemy crew's race even without functioning sensor (or just lvl 1 sensor).
OR
"Mind Screw" - Enemy crew suffers the following: -10% movement speed. -10% combat damage, -10% repair speed.
OR
"Mind Control" - Active ability. When activated, a random enemy crew becomes an AI controlled crew that targets enemy (sort of like a boarding drone on enemy ship, or anti-personnel drone on your ship). The effect last for 15 seconds.

Zoltan Captain:
"Power Overwhelming" - Manned station receives 4 additional powers instead of just 1.
OR
"More Power" - All manned station gets 1 power for free (in total, 4 free power that cannot be reallocated away from the system) as long as Zoltan Captain is manning at least 1 station.
OR
"Sanctuary" - Active ability. When activated, create/recharge 3 points into Zoltan shield.

Rockman Captain:
"Solid Ground" - The room occupied by the captain is immune to system and hull damage and cannot be breached nor set on fire.
OR
"Imposing Presence" - Enemy suffers -25% combat when within the same room as the captain.
OR
"Impenetrable" - Ship gains 10% resist to hull and system damage (like free Rock Plating + Titanium System casing).
OR
"Shockwave" - Active ability: When activated, put out all fire on the ship the captain is on and inflict 40 HP damage to all enemy on ship (good as counter-boarding ability, or boarding if you don't care about keeping their ship on fire).
OR
"Rockman Training" - All crew gets +25% HP.


Crystal Captain:
"Airless Meditation" - All crew member suffers half the suffocation damage (stacks with crystal's inherent resistance to suffocation).
OR
"Crystal Traps" - Active ability. When activated, all enemy crew on the ship the captain is on is frozen. They cannot attack nor move nor man their station.

Ground missions

I like this idea. I'll probably try implementing this for FTL:Overdrive.
Can you give some examples of such missions?

I'm a bit worried about how the UI could be implemented, but here's some suggestion on a very simple ground mission. In short, all mission would have a neutral "ship" on an enemy side, which your crew behaves as if its your ship (repair system, use medbay, put out fire, put out breach). The ship's condition would be dependent on "enemy" ship setup.
1. Station on Fire:
The space station is on fire you need to put out the fire before the fire destroy certain system/kill a certain system. There's no door system to stop the fire (door is non-existence as air-lock, so fire won't "suffocate" until the entire station ran out of oxygen). Space station may or may not have a medbay you can use. Success condition is when you put out all fire. Failure happens when a failure condition is met before your "success" condition is met. A common "failure" condition could be O2 reaching 0% (or the ship has an invisible O2 system to keep the oxygen at 100% all the time). The ship may have a couple of "civilians" whose AI consist only of running away and keeping themselves alive.
A. Fire in Asteroid Field: A fire has broken out in a station located within an asteroid field. Your goal is to put out fire without the station being destroyed (which has a shield room, which you must keep from being destroyed by fire else the station could be destroyed before you have things under control).
B: Protect Critical Subsystem: A fire threatens a subsystem. You must put out the fire and stop it from reaching the subsystem (like, say, a reactor core). Lost of the subsystem destroys the station.
C: Emergency repair in solar flare: A civilian ship hail you nearby a solar flare. Their engine and/or helm is disabled (maybe even their shield). They're asking for your help fixing their ship before the solar flare destroy it. Winning condition is having the helm and and engine repaired and their FTL drive charge (any crew on board their ship will automatically be teleported back before they FTL away).

2. Station Repair:
Your crew need to repair a certain/all subsystem on a station/neutral ship.
A. Ship suffering from micro-meteor impact: A neutral ship/station hailed you as you approach. Their ship/station was caught in a storm of micro-meteors. Most of their subsystem is down and there are hull breach everywhere.
Success: Repair all subsystems and breach.
Failure: Depending on specific scenarios.
A. O2: One of the damage subsystem is the O2 system. If O2 drops below a certain threshold, the civilians on the ship will die. You'll have failed and could only get a small reward from scrapping the ship.
B. Sparse Asteroid Field: The damaged ship is near an asteroid field. While there are fewer asteroid, their ship will get bombarded by an asteroid once in a while. You must repair their system before the asteroid destroy them (so, priority on O2 and Shield).

3. Crowd Control
A maximum security prison/plauge colony had lost control. These station have at least a lvl 2 door that you can traverse and will slow down the "enemy". The enemy crowd should be around 4~8 of a certain type depending on scenario (for example, mantis prisoners with 4~8 mantis). This scenario allows your ship weapons to help (but you must be careful NOT to destroy the station on accident).
A. Stop them from reaching teleporter: You must stop them from reaching the teleporter. They will still stop and fight your crew (but the extras will try to "rush" the teleporter).
B. Stop them from destroying a subsystem: Same as above, but with more "lenient" condition in that you must protect 1 or more subsystem from being destroyed (just need at least one in each system at all time to stop them from attacking the system itself).

The ability to switch sides

Seems pretty interesting. Should it be available for you in every game, or only if you get certain event?

I like this idea too.

Add a morale system

Is it per-crewmember or per-ship?

I think it could be either. Although a ship-wide morale would be easier to track (lose a crew = big lost of morale. Wipe out enemy crew = big gain in morale. Destroy enemy = morale gain. Subsystem damage = small morale lost. Hull damage = small morale lost).

Space stations

If having text menus is enough, it can already be made with mods.
But if you want to actually teleport your crew on the station, it can be implemented the same way as Ground Missions.

I agree, as stated these event can be "easily" implemented using existing event system.

[Bente]

I get that the unique crewmember thing would be pretty time consuming, but I only mean small texts that provide some background and maybe the reason for the crewmember´s own quest, ie "Grew up on a small space station in the rock home system, where (enter character name here) was constantly harassed for being an alien. On (enter character name here)´s 15:th birthday a group of rockmen beat (enter character name here)´s brother to death and burned their home". Then this could mean that the character wants revenge on those rockmen or maybe to just return home and try to get over it all.

[MANtisB]

Unique crewmembers and a captain
Have every crewmember get a little backstory, some dialogue and a quest.

Half the fun of the game is the utter lack of character backstory. I love writing my own. I second DiEvAl on the Skyrim reference, too. "Generic" characters (like the guards) should just be left without a backstory, because once you catch on to the fact that the backstories that are provided are all stock profiles, it just looks overwhelmingly cheesy. And given the randomized nature of the game, all of the characters are going to be generic.

[bulba]

I think a capitan is terrible idia that will require the whole game rebalance. Having doble hp manthesis is already waaay to powerfull

also I think morale is a good idia, but needs to be implemented in the opposite direction. ie when you have little crew/ammunition crewmembers perform better, while if you have lots they become lazy . this will help make the game more balanced

[FTL_Marky]

I love the idea of a having a ship's captain, but he doesn't have to be vastly overpowered. Maybe there should be a bridge and while he's there, everyone gets a bonus to efficiency/morale? I also think that you should be supplied with a captain, who has a higher than average captain skill and can level it up significantly faster than anyone else. That way, if you captain does die, he's not easily replaceable.

[Bente]

I love the idea of a having a ship's captain, but he doesn't have to be vastly overpowered. Maybe there should be a bridge and while he's there, everyone gets a bonus to efficiency/morale? I also think that you should be supplied with a captain, who has a higher than average captain skill and can level it up significantly faster than anyone else. That way, if you captain does die, he's not easily replaceable.

I really like this idea!


Another thing that occurred to me is the game would benefit from buyable gear for crewmembers, and also a randomized bonus modifier for all charaters, so that not all humans are common and uninteresting in the same way :p

[ZiMMy]

I like the idea with captain, but IMO he should affect people only in the same room with him (faster healing in the mb, faster repairing, increased attack/defense in battle, etc), maybe depending on the "captain" skill which can be level upped like any other. Thus, it wouldn't be op and can be easy balanced, and at the same time, will make the captain not sitting in one room, but really "command" his subordinates.

[Darkelve]

For the ground missions, similar mechanics could be used than for the ship's fight.

You get a bird's eye view of the planet's surface with your team represented by green dots. Every team member has one or more energy bars (comparable to the amount of HP?).

Your team has a shield around them, just like a ship has (one of the final battles of Mass Effect II has something like this, or The Witcher II just before you arrive in Flotsam), and can use basic weapons and special abilities, also powered by energy bars.

Ground missions are random events with a mini-story. This mini-story is told through text dialog, and at certain points you get to make a decision, you're ambushed, ... .

You can teleport back to the ship in an emergency, except if that ability is unavailable somehow.

Succesfully completing the mission gives you a reward of some kind.

Basically, you create a new ship and make it look like a ground team. The background is the planet and the graphic for the enemy ship could be enemies on the planet.

Perhaps such a thing can even be modded right now:
- if there's a beacon without a fight: random chance to get a planet 'event' (0.15 chance?)
- if there's a beacon with a fight: after the fight, generate a random chance for a planet 'event' (0.15 chance?)

[Bente]

I like the idea with captain, but IMO he should affect people only in the same room with him (faster healing in the mb, faster repairing, increased attack/defense in battle, etc), maybe depending on the "captain" skill which can be level upped like any other. Thus, it wouldn't be op and can be easy balanced, and at the same time, will make the captain not sitting in one room, but really "command" his subordinates.

Yep, thats basically the way i imagined the captain as well. And slug captains can maybe affect several rooms but offer less bonuses? I also like the idea that the captain gets some sort of a perk or an ability, kinda like the lockown the crystals have.