[SHIP][AE] The Potential - UPDATED 2015/08/16

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5thHorseman
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[SHIP][AE] The Potential - UPDATED 2015/08/16

Postby 5thHorseman » Thu May 30, 2013 10:26 am

Using the potential field between white and black holes in the engine core, this ship can power anything you can attach to it.

Download of PotentialAE here: http://pulpaudio.com/ftl/PotentialAE.ftl
(if you have trouble downloading, try right clicking and selecting "save link as..." in the menu)

Download the old version (NOT FOR ADVANCED EDITION!) here: http://pulpaudio.com/ftl/Potential.ftl
(if you have trouble downloading, try right clicking and selecting "save link as..." in the menu)

This ship replaces the Kestrel. It also modifies the game in several ways so you should only have it loaded when you're playing it, then uninstall it afterward. This ship is NOT compatible with Captain's Edition. It will probably work, but there are likely beacons in CE that I don't know about that could crash the game.

ATTENTION: YOU SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO CRASH THE GAME WITH THIS MOD. That includes Zoltans and Ion storms. Hire Zoltans at will and feel free to frequent nebula sectors and beacons all you want. I've removed ion storms from the game for this mod so you'll never encounter one.
note: Zoltans won't help much, except in keeping things from getting ioned. You'll never actually need their power though

NEW as of 2015/08/16:
Scanners! Because I wanted to :)
1st Weapons Upgrade costs 50 now, so you have a flat decision to make with your first 50 scrap, weapons or shields or (several) engines?
Mini Beam in storage. You can't power it, but "all" it takes is 50 scrap.
Drones cost what they cost in stock now, instead of costing 20 scrap more to purchase at stores.
Gibs! I took the old gibs from the original Potential and added them to the new one. The ship will again collapse into its black hole when you die. Yay!
All in all, these changes make the ship easier. It's still pretty hard in hard mode, but you actually have a shot at seeing the final boss now. In Normal and Easy mode it will be MUCH easier, but this ship is optimized for HARD MODE.

NEW in version AE:
60 power More than enough power to power EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME. Mostly becasue...
No ion storms! Ion storms were actually beneficial to the Potential in the old version. In the new version, they crash the game. So, I removed them :)
Power-12 Systems! Both Weapons and Drones can be powered up to level 12. Yes, that means you can have 3 Vulcans if you want. And can afford them.
Power-10 Shields! Always wanted 5 shields? Well enjoy. If you can afford it.

Image

The Potential is my attempt at not-overpowered, but overly powered ship. It comes with 60 power to start with. How, then, is it not overpowered? Well, it doesn't come with much else.

This ship will sometimes die in the first encounter. It will also sometimes meet the final boss so decked out that the battle is a laugh. How you get from one to the other makes for a pretty unique experience each time. Everything the ship has to start (other than the 60 power) is there because it's nearly impossible to play without it. That includes the Engi and the door control.

Thanks to:
Jeff's Custom Ship Hulls for the original hull.
Chrono Vortex for a better, more normal cloak.
TaxiService for a cleaned up hull image.

To do:
Nothing?
_______________________________________________

Back Story:
The stolen Rebel Rigger, billowing smoke from multiple hull breaches, coasted into the hangar and hit the deck with a loud clang. It slid to a stop in the middle of the large, empty room. The ship had seen better days; it was shot up and scarred with the wounds from dozens of beam hits. Several weapon mounts were utterly destroyed, and a single mini-beam dangled from what used to be its own mount. The airlock opened, creating yet another hole for smoke to escape but also allowing a single figure to fall out, coughing. He didn't look to be in much better shape than the ship.

"Clancy!" the Mechanic yelled while running up to the collapsed figure. An Engi, the only other living thing on the entire base, lumbered up as well.

"Did you get it?" The Mechanic asked. "The data?"

Clancy rolled onto his back and pulled a data pad from his breast pocket. He grinned and coughed. "Got it. Full stats on the Rebel Flagship." He looked around. "Where is everybody?"

The Mechanic's smile faded. "All gone. They abandoned the outpost. The entire fleet's making their final stand in Sector 8."

"It's gotten that bad?" Clancy asked.

"It's gotten that bad."

Clancy thought for a few seconds. "But... why did you stay?"

The Mechanic grinned. "I knew you'd come back."

Clancy laughed, and the laugh turned into more coughing. He rolled onto his side, and coughed up some blood.

"You need a med bay..."

"No," said Clancy. "The Rebels are right behind me. We need a ship. This one's spent."

The Mechanic looked over the smoldering hunk of metal that Clancy had somehow piloted back to the base. "I think it's a bit more than spent."

Clancy looked around from his position lying on the ground. "I don't see any ships."

"Like I said, they're gone. All gone. They all went to Sector 8."

Clancy's eyes turned down. "Then all is lost."

"Well..." started the Mechanic.

"Well what?"

"There is... one ship. But it's not ready yet."

"It'll have to do. I can fly anything." He coughed again, wincing in pain as more blood spilled onto the flight deck.

"Well, you're not flying anything until we patch you up," said the Mechanic.

"Someone has to fly it! What ship is left?"

"The Potential."

Clancy frowned. "That prototype? Is it working?"

"Well... it works. I mean, the drive came up and it's registering 60 power units."

Clancy's eyes widened. "60!? That's over double what any other ship's got!"

"But that's all that works. I mean, it's only got half of the base systems! It's missing cloak... drones... Just today we installed the sensors..."

"Those are all luxuries," Clancy grunted in pain. "What kind of shield?"

"Basic. And the thrusters are barely there. For all that power, it's going to move like an office building. It does have a nice big med bay, though... Look, we need to get you to the med bay."

Clancy nodded, panting. "Okay. Patch me up and I'll fly this office building for you. You can man the guns. It's got guns, right?"

"A dual laser."

"...and?"

"...and that's it."

Clancy shook his head, a bit sad. "I think the mini beam on my ship still works. That, and the radio are about all that does. Help me up..."

He got on his hands and knees, then pushed up to stand. The Mechanic helped him to his feet. Immediately, though, Clancy collapsed, his head swimming. "I think..." he stammered, "I'm worse off than I thought."

"Come on," urged the Mechanic. "You need to fly us there, remember?"

"I'm not going to make it, pal. You're going to have to do it."

"ME!? I can't fly a shuttle, little alone a cruiser!"

Clancy coughed up more blood. "It's easy. Vertical pedal on the right and keep the yoke steady. Jumps go to beacons automatically. Shields will take the lasers but you gotta dodge the missiles."

The Mechanic blinked. "Dodge? I... I can't."

Clancy forced himself into momentary clarity. "You HAVE to."

"It's barely spaceworthy! It needs work on every single system!"

"Do it on the move," wheezed Clancy. "Hit shops. Upgrade. That ship's got a great name for what she is."

"What do you mean? It's named after the potential field between the white and black holes in the engine core."

"But she's also perfect for upgrading. She can do ANYTHING. She's got... potential." He coughed again, weaker. He was fading fast. "Infinite potential."

The Mechanic looked back at the door to the prototype hangar. Was it possible?

"Do you really think I can do it, Clancy?"

When Clancy didn't answer, the Mechanic turned back around.

Clancy was dead.

The Mechanic turned to the Engi, the only other living being on the base. "I guess it doesn't matter if I can do it or not. Like he said... I HAVE to."
Last edited by 5thHorseman on Mon Aug 17, 2015 4:37 am, edited 24 times in total.
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Sleeper Service
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby Sleeper Service » Thu May 30, 2013 11:05 am

Interesting concept. The hull design really looks like the ship mainly houses an overpowered generator, nicely done! Beam hits to the front section are going to be devastating.

Does the ship can get the artillery beam as well? Cause the design really suggests that to me.

Like your little lore as well! (The Engi must have spent quite some time with humans, a the Engi you encounter during the game seem to have much more problem with regular English syntax. ;) )
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5thHorseman
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby 5thHorseman » Thu May 30, 2013 12:58 pm

Sleeper Service wrote:Interesting concept. The hull design really looks like the ship mainly houses an overpowered generator, nicely done! Beam hits to the front section are going to be devastating.

Beams to anywhere hurt, but it's mostly the missiles that devastate this ship.

Does the ship can get the artillery beam as well? Cause the design really suggests that to me.

No! I tried, but the artillery beam is just WAY too OP when you don't have to pay to power it. I worked through about 5 designs that included the beam. All of them skyrocketed with power.

Like your little lore as well! (The Engi must have spent quite some time with humans, a the Engi you encounter during the game seem to have much more problem with regular English syntax. ;) )

Thanks! But "The Mechanic" isn't an Engi. He/She is whatever Human you get to start. The Engi is... well... the Engi you start with. He's not quite so talkative.

Though amusingly I thought about giving the Engi some lines that would imply he was a little more conversational than you'd expect an Engi to be!
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The Black Opal - The Asteroid - The Enforcer - The Pyro

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aaaaaa50
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby aaaaaa50 » Fri May 31, 2013 8:27 pm

As someone who takes power micromanagement to the extreme, this was a very different experience. (It's rare to have both my medbay and 02 on at the same time during battle.) Upgrading from 5 to 30 power bars takes 550 scrap, but even better than not having to deal with that is upgrading a system and having it instantly work. Plus, ion storms were all one-sided fights. That said, why did you limit your ship to only having three weapon slots? For most of my run I was stuck with that duel laser and two burst laser mark ones, which is the most boring loadout I almost ended up killing the boss with. (Found a Hull Laser 2 and a basic attack drone.) So I'm hoping for better luck in my next run. Thank you for a great ship!

And a side note; you can modify the cost to upgrade systems. Maybe making the artillery laser more expensive to upgrade to level four might balance it out. Though it might be worth keeping the four tile sensor room in. (Why do I find that so hilarious?)
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5thHorseman
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby 5thHorseman » Sat Jun 01, 2013 2:47 am

aaaaaa50 wrote:As someone who takes power micromanagement to the extreme, this was a very different experience. (It's rare to have both my medbay and 02 on at the same time during battle.) Upgrading from 5 to 30 power bars takes 550 scrap, but even better than not having to deal with that is upgrading a system and having it instantly work. Plus, ion storms were all one-sided fights. That said, why did you limit your ship to only having three weapon slots? For most of my run I was stuck with that duel laser and two burst laser mark ones, which is the most boring loadout I almost ended up killing the boss with. (Found a Hull Laser 2 and a basic attack drone.) So I'm hoping for better luck in my next run. Thank you for a great ship!

And a side note; you can modify the cost to upgrade systems. Maybe making the artillery laser more expensive to upgrade to level four might balance it out. Though it might be worth keeping the four tile sensor room in. (Why do I find that so hilarious?)


I wanted the ship to, other than the (essentially) infinite power supply, SUCK and 3 weapons made it suck more. I only gave you doors because the ship was harder to win with than the DA-SR12 without them.

When you modify the system costs, is it a game-wide mod, or can you mod them just for the ship? I'd like this mod to be a simple plug-and-play with the main game and modifying systems is just not doable. I'd also like to make it so you could, if you wanted, have 12 total weapon power so if you got a lot of scrap, you could get something like 2 BL3s and a Glaive Beam at the same time.

Regarding the 4-tile sensor room, that was actually a design choice that I made early but didn't stick with. Every system was 2x2 and every non-2x2 room was just a hallway. I changed that late in the game because with a 4-man teleporter (and 4-slot medbay, something I *LOVE* as a player) there was *one* viable strategy with the ship: 4 mantises (or rockmen, or humans if you HAD to) and teleport onto every ship. I didn't want this ship to be a one-trick pony. I wanted every reasonable strategy to be ... well ... reasonable :D

Thanks for the feedback. I wanted the ship to be a unique experience and I'm glad it provided one. I suggest you try it a few times. In my testing I had some pretty wild runs. My last run, I beat the final boss with no scanners at all and it was weird not being able to see where their crew was.
Last edited by 5thHorseman on Fri Jun 07, 2013 9:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Alvarin
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby Alvarin » Sat Jun 01, 2013 2:59 am

Taken me 7 tries to get out of sector 1, but when I did, it was awesome. Great ship!
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Ora_unit_SR388
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby Ora_unit_SR388 » Sat Jun 01, 2013 3:05 am

It has, well, potential....



:lol:
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5thHorseman
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby 5thHorseman » Sat Jun 01, 2013 6:20 am

Alvarin wrote:Taken me 7 tries to get out of sector 1, but when I did, it was awesome. Great ship!

That is exactly the experience I wanted people to have. :)

Ora_unit_SR388 wrote:It has, well, potential....
:lol:


And that's the conclusion I wanted you to have.

All in all I'm calling this one a success. Now to actually make that 4-teleporter, 4-medbay ship I've always wanted.
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Simo-V - The Potential - Automated Scout - "Low O2" Icons
The Black Opal - The Asteroid - The Enforcer - The Pyro

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ELDT
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby ELDT » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:24 am

This ship is amazing-ish to use in infinite galaxy. Died about twenty times before I was able to survive, but is was an immensely enjoyable experience. This ship lives up to it's name and kudos to the author.
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Re: [SHIP] The Potential

Postby mattimao » Fri Jun 07, 2013 1:48 pm

Grabbed this mod the first day it came out. I love it!
The fact you are so helpless at the beginning makes it a whole new type of ship for me.
The 3 weapon slots made for a very tense game as I had a VERY hard time coming across any better weapons. :?
Finally an event gave me a great weapon that allowed me to beat the boss. :D
Great job with this ship, the fiction you wrote for it, and the name. A+ on this mod! 8-)