[MOD] Hold the Line

[SlowerThanLight]

This is a simple little mod that I'd thought I'd share. You can get it here:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|890p9 ... p|1358|0|0

I know that many of you probably don't like downloading rapidshare files from random people. I don't know what to tell you other than to scan it first. The only thing in the archive are a few modded copies of the data.dat file and a readme. It's pretty safe.

From the readme:
This simple mod will allow you to delay the rebels by attacking their fleet. If you successfully destroy or capture a rebel ship inside of their occupied area, they will lose a certain number of turns of advancement. The exact number depends on which version of this mod you install. I slightly rewrote the text for these events to make it clear to the user what is happening.

Much of the tension in FTL comes from your inability to fully exploit every star system in the game. Giving yourself more time will make the game much easier. I recommend that you play the game normally first and experience it the way that it was intended. That being said, I understand the desire to be able to explore at your own pace and have more of a sandbox experience rather than a hardcore rogue-like experience. The only incorrect way to play a non-competitive single player game is in a way that you aren't enjoying.

I made 7 versions of this mod. You can choose to be able to delay the rebel fleet by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, or 10,000 turns for every victory you score against their fleet. A one turn delay makes getting caught by the enemy slightly more palatable, but is hard to leverage. A two turn delay might let you fight a small delaying action to let you finish exploring a tight cluster of stars that are about to fall under enemy control. Higher delays allow you to launch more more elaborate operations. The 10 turn delay effectively lets you toggle the rebel fleet on and off as you please. The 10,000 turn delay is if you just want to disable the feature entirely. Yes, the delay does carry over from sector to sector.

Installation:
1) Go to your FTL Faster Than Light\resources\ folder and make a backup of data.dat. Put it somewhere safe.
2) This archive is divided into 7 labeled folders, each one containing a different version of the mod. Pick the one that you want and extract the data.dat file from it.
3) Overwrite your old data.dat with the new one from the folder
4) Done!

This has gotten a minimal amount of testing. I was able to play several games without any obvious bugs, but it is possible that I missed something. I haven't tested this on an ongoing game and have no idea how FTL handles it when the data files gets altered midgame. Experiment at your own risk.

Uninstallation:
1) Delete the data.dat file out of your FTL Faster Than Light\resources\ folder
2) Replace it with the backup you made of your original file.

Compatibility
This mod was made by altering a few lines in the LONG_FLEET and REBEL_FLEET_FUEL sections of the events_ships.xml Presumably, any mod that alters events_ships.xml will conflict with this one.

[MantisAboardShip]

Neat! The reduced time pressure should allow for more options, and more options allows for more decisions, and that's roguelike as hell.

Gonna give it a try

[chiefyk]

Risk vs Reward! I love it.

Gonna give this a try now

[curithwin]

This is a VERY good idea. Have you thought of making the delay random? between 2-6 so it would be more interesting?

[StealthCl0wn]

I approve of this, so much.

[fanatictentacle]

Damn it!

Now the time has come, where I would need a merging tool for mods. I already modded my data to an immense extend, so just overwriting would definitly suck. Which xml file have you modified? Maybe I can merge them manually

[Stealth]

Excellent idea for a mod. Thank you. I'll try it on my next restart/replay.

[zndr]

Thank you for this. Will try it out and report and bugs.

[Kieve]

Now this is a concept I absolutely love. Being able to "take back" a sector by pounding the snot out of the fleet chasing you? Hell yes! Brilliant idea STL, thank you for this.

[LUCADENA]

Great mod! love it