[FotF] Zoltan Ship Preview, Quest Comments; Collaborators?

[Whale Cancer]

Short video preview of some ships along with some comments on quests and events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM4NpiOeRf4&feature=youtu.be

mantis-cruiser-as-enemy.png

Anyone interested in collaboration?

[Zaffre]

Very interesting. I don't think I'd be able to help out much (I can't even mod events without it crashing, durr) but I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

EDIT: I may be able to help. I made a ship mod (Blazing Cruiser) but I can't do much graphics work, hence the fact that the ship lacks any real shading.

[Icehawk78]

Anyone interested in collaboration?

What would you be looking for?

I'm quite incapable of doing any graphics work, but if you need help with anything development-wise, I may be able to help.

[Whale Cancer]

EDIT: I may be able to help.

What would you be looking for?

So, here is a list of things that I need or want to do. I would appreciate collaboration on any of them.

Monkey-Code (stuff that is easy to do, but is time consuming)
* Aligning Gibs on new Player (federation ships done, Zoltan and Engi need alignment) and Enemy ships (the cruisers)
* Aligning weapon mounts on Enemy ships (Cruisers; players ships are all alligned)

Events
* Spit-balling event and quest ideas appropriate to the era
* Modification of some existent events to reflect the era the game takes place in
* Event idea generation, as long as they are fully planned and the collaborator at least understands the limits of the XML
* Fully coded events to drop into the code

Testing and game Balancing
* Testing isn't important at the moment, as not enough of the game is implemented yet (other than combat)
* Game Balancing, especially in regard to the new weapons (Autocannons, multi-minimissile launchers) and to the more strongly themed weapons list (Engi are even more drone and ion heavy, Zoltan like heavy lasers and beams and defense sysrepair and boarding drones, Federation spams autocannons and mini-missiles, Mantis use lots of burst lasers and boarding, Rock use incendiary weapons and big missiles along with boarding, Slug uses... probably breach weapons [I originally had them using anti-personnel weapons, but the computer doesn't know how to target weapons with personnel damage])

Spriting
* Original or edited sprites to add depth to the game (I have about 10 or 12 recolors done, 3 of which involved some minor editing; I have done one 'original' sprite which is just bashed together from other sprites [the federation rigger] http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/download/file.php?id=133)
* My dream list of new sprites would be a couple of civilian ships (transport, colony ship) for events, a rock bomber, a mantis assault, space stations, a slug scout (so, even smaller than the interceptor), a space whale... and that is just the beginning. I can do some of these with a lot of time and effort, but it won't be as good as if a competent spriter did them.

Anyone who contributes will be listed on the title menu (will move my name to the left and just turn it into a list of collaborators).

[Icehawk78]

Monkey-Code (stuff that is easy to do, but is time consuming)
* Aligning Gibs on new Player (federation ships done, Zoltan and Engi need alignment) and Enemy ships (the cruisers)
* Aligning weapon mounts on Enemy ships (Cruisers; players ships are all alligned)

Nah, I'm lazy too.

Events
* Spit-balling event and quest ideas appropriate to the era
* Modification of some existent events to reflect the era the game takes place in
* Event idea generation, as long as they are fully planned and the collaborator at least understands the limits of the XML
* Fully coded events to drop into the code

Testing and game Balancing
* Testing isn't important at the moment, as not enough of the game is implemented yet (other than combat)
* Game Balancing, especially in regard to the new weapons (Autocannons, multi-minimissile launchers) and to the more strongly themed weapons list (Engi are even more drone and ion heavy, Zoltan like heavy lasers and beams and defense sysrepair and boarding drones, Federation spams autocannons and mini-missiles, Mantis use lots of burst lasers and boarding, Rock use incendiary weapons and big missiles along with boarding, Slug uses... probably breach weapons [I originally had them using anti-personnel weapons, but the computer doesn't know how to target weapons with personnel damage])

These I can certainly help with - I'm fairly certain that I understand a majority of the XML strengths and limitations (among other ideas, I'm considering writing an "event generator" program that will allow future mod creators to make their own event trees with a GUI), and while I may not have much in the way of original ideas, I'd be more than happy to provide a sounding wall and gameplay feedback on existing ideas.

Anyone who contributes will be listed on the title menu (will move my name to the left and just turn it into a list of collaborators).

If I do help/contribute in any way, I'd actually rather not, if it's all the same.

[Whale Cancer]

Monkey-Code (stuff that is easy to do, but is time consuming)
* Aligning Gibs on new Player (federation ships done, Zoltan and Engi need alignment) and Enemy ships (the cruisers)
* Aligning weapon mounts on Enemy ships (Cruisers; players ships are all alligned)

Nah, I'm lazy too.

This is why my name gets to be on top! All the monkey code... my god...

Lists of stuff!

These I can certainly help with - I'm fairly certain that I understand a majority of the XML strengths and limitations (among other ideas, I'm considering writing an "event generator" program that will allow future mod creators to make their own event trees with a GUI), and while I may not have much in the way of original ideas, I'd be more than happy to provide a sounding wall and gameplay feedback on existing ideas.

I had a similar thought on making an event generator, but I could only write it in the non-crossplatform GML. I started on a ship editor as well, but a bunch of them sprung up (although none of them are really fully functional yet).

Anyone who contributes will be listed on the title menu (will move my name to the left and just turn it into a list of collaborators).

If I do help/contribute in any way, I'd actually rather not, if it's all the same.

haha! NO! You must take credit (international sarcasm mark here).

[Icehawk78]

This is why my name gets to be on top! All the monkey code... my god...

Haha, yes. The bane of every developer's personal project (and a fair number of professional ones, too, lol).

I had a similar thought on making an event generator, but I could only write it in the non-crossplatform GML. I started on a ship editor as well, but a bunch of them sprung up (although none of them are really fully functional yet).

I'm a lot less up to snuff with non-web-based GUI things, so the "ship editor" idea sorta died en route, but the event generator should be relatively easy, since in all actuality, it's really just an XML editor with arbitrarily enforced schemas. Who knows, though? It'll prolly end up being like the 50 other personal projects I started on and then never finished. (Hell, I've got .merge.xml support 3/4ths of the way done in Ruby, and that's still not done, either.)

haha! NO! You must take credit (international sarcasm mark here).

Aw, but moooooooom!

[cogitator]

Hey all,

I've been lurking on these modding forums for a while now and I think it may be time to... get involved!
For the time being I think I'm going to try and write a few custom events, maybe add them to AET.
However, with that being said, I am more than happy to help test balance and write more events for this mod. I have some experience writing for mods and (I think) a decent imagination. For the time being I'm going to try and get more comfortable with the scripting for custom events; monkey code help may be off in the future but I work full time and have school too. One thing at a time eh.

Anyway, just wanted to say hello and tell you how awesome FotF looks already!

[cogitator]

Just a few quest ideas I've had over the past few days. This mod is definitely on my mind frequently; especially since I spend so much time trying to stay in the theme of FTL, I often think about underlying systems and events that led to the current state of affairs in the galaxy.

Quantum Teleporters: During the rise of the federation several species experimented with quantum teleportation, which theoretically could allow transportation over nearly infinite distances. This would likely have led to space travel being obsolete as a method of transportation except in specific cases. In FotF, the player could encounter scientists working on quantum teleporters that are malfunctioning. Engi crew with teleporters could probably use their robot brains to adapt a normal teleporter and save the test subjects, improved scanners would result in valuable data being collected, sufficient power could overload the feedback capacitors, etc. Inspired by several star trek episodes and an episode of warehouse 13 (ssn1).

Space-born organism(aka space baby event): While exploring the vast uncharted space that is the frontier, your crew encounters some types of energy being that feeds on reactor energy. Can be dealt with in several ways: weapons fire, sheer engine force to detach, venting some atmosphere to blow it off your ship. Potential for some special zoltan racial text, for sure .

Alien virus attacks your data banks: This one is a little... lovecraftian. There could be an artifact you find in deep space with mind-boggling amounts of data and an impossible energy generation system. It might transmit some kind of incomprehensible code which overloads your computer, some type of virus that affects your whole ship - causing it to vent or something -, a virus which is transmitted into your crew by viewing a strange video burst. I like the last one... "You come to some time later to find your ship in shambles. Evidently some type of attack was embedded in the video feed. You discover that, disturbingly, several of your crew took their lives unable to comprehend what was happening."

Any hoo, just a few ideas. I'm more than happy to help with new event crafting if you want the help, but right now extra scoop is the priority so... yeah. Let me know if there are any specifics you want and I'll whip some up for you!

[Whale Cancer]

Hey cogitator,

Those are some great ideas, and I will definitely incorporate them! (I really like the idea of events that are callbacks to science fiction movies and tv shows; the first event I ever programmed was an encounter on an unidentified moon with an alien beacon...).

I don't really need help with events (in terms of XML), I've been learning to mod this game starting only a little while after it came out. I think I understand most things that can be accomplished via XML. The kind of help I need would be things that speed the development of the mod along, so... ideas like you have given or straight up code I can drop into the mod. You're more than welcome to contribute as much as you like to FotF if Extra Scope is finished (Which seems impossible given its goal?) or gets put on hold or what not.

For everyone else: I am setting up the 'skeleton' of beacon events, debug menus, and sector_data. Once that is complete, I will figure out the best way to solicit participation.