[SHIP] Traveller Scout

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Mr_Ekshin
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2022 4:43 am

[SHIP] Traveller Scout

Postby Mr_Ekshin » Thu Dec 22, 2022 8:05 pm

This file contains two versions of the Scout ship from Traveller.

Minor tweaks to TScout-A and TScout-B.

Scout A (Far Traveller) replaces Kestrel A
Scout B (Thoth) replaces Engi A
Scout C (Sleeper) replaces Kestrel B

Scout B: has almost every system. Starts with 6 energy, and barely workable gun scheme. I like this ship because its attack scheme changes with every enemy, as well as every upgrade to reactor power. Don't lose sight of needing to build up weapon scheme for final boss. You can't do everything, so you need to pick a scheme. (Game won with 2x Flak 1).

Scout C is just pretty. The 2x Dual-Shot blasters will beat everything through sectors 1-3. This uses a clone bay, and still needs ample upgrades for the final boss.

Here's the file: https://www.mediafire.com/file/6c56iaxu ... _3.7z/file

After playing this game all of 3 minutes, I said to myself, "This reminds me of Traveller..." I honestly believe that this game has to be based on what Traveller did back then (the Kestral even mimics the Gazelle close escort).

Traveller was/is and table-top RPG that goes back about 45 years (oh my god...). Anyway, It was complex and detailed as all heck. Lots of fun for people who didn't have home computers yet.

So I decided to put the most ubiquitous ship from that game into this one.

The Suleiman class scout: I started with a floor plan and converted it in general ways to fit with this game environment.
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Lots of images on the net. I used these for inspiration:
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My floorplan:
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Scout ship art: (seems Imgur flattens the transparent pink ship glow)...
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Details:
1. Cockpit is slid sideways but should be considered to be centered. I tried a 3-wide cockpit, but that made the hull too big, and allowed enemies to triple-team the pilot. We'll just have to pretend it's on the center-line.

2. The little blisters all over are "Respirator masks". The standard system graphics extend to have the masks in rooms when they are both empty and when populated with a system.

3. The forward exit should be a floor hatch. Come to think, I guess I'll draw a floor hatch there.

4. The ship is a terrible floorplan for this particular game. It's cramped, and too many rooms dead-end. It eagerly burns like no other ship I've played, since fire hops through walls. I would have used the extinguisher augmentation, but another ship already does that, and I thought it interesting to use the respirators. I've come to use a tactic to vent the ship with crew standing in vacuum while the fires go out around them. It's weird, but properly venting this ship is difficult and it needs the help of the respirators.

5. The O2 and Door controls are down the central corridor. It makes the most design sense, but... This ship is difficult for fighting a boarding squad. I tend to perform a complete vent, then fight from Medbay and Weapons. While on fire.

6. The weapons are on turrets centered on top (and later bottom) of the ship. You can't see them while playing. You've played plenty of ships where you can see the weapons, you won't miss them. They ARE far to the rear of the ship though, and thus they take a little longer to fire across the screen. I noticed the slight delay in game timing, so I'm sure you will. Just something to note.

7. I wanted to base it all on a mining laser (hull beam) and a basic blaster (defense laser). That worked okay at first, but missing shots becomes disastrous. The Ion weapon is now paired with the beam. It will get you through the first two sectors, but won't cope with 2-strength shields. You must improve your weapons as soon as possible.
IF you can get the shields down, the hull beam happily wrecks shi... things.

8. Most ships are based on quick firepower to gain painless initial wins. NOT THIS. This ship gets beaten like a red-headed stepchild the entire play-through. Enemy missiles are it's bane. This needs a defense drone, but that seemed too much of a gimmie. The hull repair drone sort-of copes with this play style (for you Eve players, we're hull-repping, baby!). This constant need of repair becomes the theme of this ship, and seems oddly lore-friendly for the old Traveller games I played. The scout ship is an old beat-up piece of crap and required constant repair. It would fall apart while sitting still on the pad.

9. Everyone in your crew becomes good at repair.

10. The engine room looks like a 2x3, but is actually a 2x1. I wish there was another way to do this, but I would need Medbay/Clonebay stations (that cannot be stepped on) to populate the engine room. For now, it's doesn't always darken or color properly. The ship gets the bonus of those engine areas being empty space, but trust me, it needs all the help it can get.

11. This ship has complete gibs and all the trimmings. Even the pink outer glow around the gibs. (I never before realized how much I hate drawing paths).

12. Pilot starts at 2, to help resiliency. Engine starts at 3 but with only 8 power, the ship can power 2 engines at first while medbay has to remain off during combat. Drone starts too low to function. At normal game level, the starting 10 scrap goes to upgrade the drone.

13. Adding a final 4th crew member came last, to help with repair operations and boarding woes.

SO...
I believe I understand game design. How much scrap can be made and how much to spend to improve the ship to keep up with the game levels. Still, I'm losing my perspective from playing this thing so much. If anyone plays this, let me know how it's working.

There are two versions. The Egyptian one is my covert-ops ship, which has every single system to start except clone bay (and starts with 6 reactor power). I used it to learn how all the systems work. It's interesting when you can choose how you want to fight each enemy. The game does hit you HARD when your ship has many systems. I can't win with the darned thing yet, due to not yet coming up with a battle scheme for the final boss. Completely fresh ideas for that version will be welcome.

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I finally won with this scout ship on normal difficulty. I had picked up a defense drone, a pre-igniter (in all its broken glory), and replicating missile augment thingy. My weaps were crap, but pausing the game and staring at the screen like I was playing chess got me by. I started phase 3 with 100% hull and 8 multi-skilled crew. I had to hull-rep during phase 3, and ended with my ship trashed and only 3 crew left. 5 crew all died at the end trying to put out fires. At least I don't have to pay them any more.

To understand my ability to judge its difficulty: My current skills are so-so. I beat Kestral, Engi-A, and Zoltan on easy. Then beat Mantis-A and Slug-A on Normal. Now I keep trying to tweak this darned ship. I'd like it to require skill, but not end up being based on a lucky run to win. My own winning run had me unable to get cloaking and small teleport bomb (I had 52 missiles with no way to use them until 1 jump before the final sector). Being able to win after making dumb mistakes makes me think that this design is close to final.

Sadly, I've discovered this game 10 years too late, and no one cares about ship mods any more. Glad I made them though. Peace out. ;)