Subset Games Forum

Caution: Image-heavy post ahead...

I finally got around to scanning in all that crap I'd promised. While none of it is exactly worthy of the Louvre, hopefully it's at least enough to convince you that despite the age and relative stasis of this thread, Incursion is neither dead nor forgotten. So, here we go:

*Early Concepts, Archon still in development*
I was still attempting to nail down the overall aesthetic for the Incursor stuff, and I have a certain weakness for asymmetric ship designs. Shown are side-pylons and scraps, cockpit configurations, and some rough work I used while trying to find a good shape for future ships. I have no intent to use any of these.


When I was sketching the rear portion of the Demiurge, I noted a design I thought might make for an interesting cockpit section. The rest of the half-ship above is built around that idea. The extra pylon shown was another Demiurge cast-off, though I may refine it in the future.


And here's the beast you've heard me talking about for months with naught to show. It's essentially a thicker, sturdier version of the Archon (and intended as the Alternate B-type), and will have an emphasis on drones over weapons. May consider mounting artillery, but I feel it's important to note that all Incursor ships are designed to fit the Enemy window and will be encountered as hostile in normal gameplay.
*When this conversion is complete, it's recommended to start over fresh, as I intend to provide unique circumstances for ship unlocks wherever possible.


Designs for Incursor drones. Standard equipment includes 2-4 weapons, at least one drone bay, Z-shield augments, and Slug Repair Gel (which will be renamed to Hull Sealant).
That first one reminds me too much of a Mantis design though, possible I may not use that one (or drastically redesign it).


Weapons concepts of varying degree. The smaller ones in the top row are the lasers I mentioned in previous posts - the "pulsed" multi-shot ones on the left, and the "Heavy" ones on the right.
The larger cluster along the bottom are designs for artillery-scale "Big Gun" pylons, intended to be mounted on certain classes of Incursor ships. These will only carry one or two weapons, but on a massive scale - a single salvo may be more than enough to ruin your day.


First concepts of the Monad flagship. Apologies for not cleaning this up better, I was trying to avoid losing some of the lighter mini-sketches along the bottom. Perhaps you can see where my "Bird of Prey" comments came from...
Central to the design is the notion of "artillery pylons," which go hand-in-hand with the Big Gun work above - that is, entire sections of the ship are composed of weapon art rather than the ship_base.png and will have a more visceral visual impact when they ignite. Not that you'll really want them to.


Monad, Version 2.
The BoP idea has been abandoned entirely in favor of a more elegant dragonfly shape, and revives the pylon-forward look of the Archon and Demiurge. Though difficult to see, the wire-frame bit below the text shows the artillery pylon array - one on each wingtip. A standard weapons system will also be employed, if possible (I haven't tried this yet, I'm simply going on the oft-flawed assumption it will work), giving the Monad a terrifying arsenal of eight weapons, across five different subsystem controls - and, this being the Stage 3 boss, is in addition to the Zoltan shield, crew invasion, and laser-burst superweapon. To quote my earlier post, it will either be the most amazing boss battle ever, or the most horribly bullshit one in existence.

...On the bright side, I'm also designing the campaign as a series of quest chains that will hopefully prepare you better than FTL's original did, where the boss is essentially an ass-pull from left field. We'll see. Either way, the work continues...

I suppose everyone ran screaming for the hills at the sight of my terrible "artwork" sketches.

Did some concept work with Slug equipment today. The idea's been kicking around in my head that races should have weapons more... uniquely suited to their ships. Note how the Crystal guns are actually crystal - the Incursor weapons I've done match the rest of the ship's aesthetic, or how the Obsidian's two weapons fit with the hull design.
It may sound ambitious, but something tells me that'll actually be the easy part.

On the topic of Slugs specifically - one of the few vanilla races that get to survive the post-war holocaust - I'm torn in two directions. On the one hand, they retreated into their nebulas to hide, and one might assume build up their arsenals so they don't meet the same fate as the Mantis (or worse, the Engi). That train of thought means taking the existing Slug designs to the next level, making them sleeker and more advanced. On the other hand... galactic trade has gotten really rough if you're not human and with other species pushed aside, marginalized, or outright exterminated, where will they get the materials? Which translates to aging, cobbled-together designs with bits falling off.

While I'm on the subject, the Crystals are helping their successors maintain their blockade, so Rock-controlled sectors (and Rock ships) will see an equal likelyhood of Rock and Crystal tech, and some intriguing blends of both.

Thoughts, comments, criticisms?

Your concepts are great, it's nice getting a sneak peek into your plans for the future

I love your intentions for the rock and the crystal, encountering them will definitely be an interesting experience

The slug is a difficult one to choose, however I think the idea of cobbled together ships would be more fitting, as a species that narrowly avoided extinction, they would be hard pressed for materials

To really top it off though would be a quest line that explores the fate of the exterminated races. Maybe it would start with a ship discovered drifting in space, on which you discover the co-ordinates of a ruined city on a distant planet. Upon exploring that city, you find the last survivors of their kind huddled away, and you have the option of leaving in peace, attempting to communicate, or destroying their last hope for resurgence

Seldser wrote:To really top it off though would be a quest line that explores the fate of the exterminated races. Maybe it would start with a ship discovered drifting in space, on which you discover the co-ordinates of a ruined city on a distant planet. Upon exploring that city, you find the last survivors of their kind huddled away, and you have the option of leaving in peace, attempting to communicate, or destroying their last hope for resurgence

While Incursion will have its own overall storyline (at least, I intend it to, there's a lot of ways the RNG can break something like that), most sectors will have their own tales to tell also. I think my favorite, conceptually, is the last vestiges of what used to be the Federation. Imagine the captain of a patched-up Kestral calling you out for destroying the galaxy...

Also, I decided to reinstall Magix, and read the soundpools from the backup drive (since I haven't really got enough room to spare on my stand-in C:\ drive).
Turns out I have the work-files for both Slow / Hard Burn, though Nebula Grit was lost. Didn't stop me from making a battle-track for it anyway. Enjoy.
Nebula Grime

Looks like it could be pretty nice. It's a shame our mods seem to be in conflict, though.

dalolorn wrote:Looks like it could be pretty nice. It's a shame our mods seem to be in conflict, though.

I wouldn't say "in conflict" so much as entirely separate subjects. Yours is immediate aftermath, mine is 20 years down an alternate time-line. It'd be like saying you wanted to run a ship mod that replaces all of them with Star Trek vessels, then one that replaces them all with Starcraft ships - there's simply no logic to the decision.

Kieve wrote:

dalolorn wrote:Looks like it could be pretty nice. It's a shame our mods seem to be in conflict, though.

I wouldn't say "in conflict" so much as entirely separate subjects. Yours is immediate aftermath, mine is 20 years down an alternate time-line. It'd be like saying you wanted to run a ship mod that replaces all of them with Star Trek vessels, then one that replaces them all with Starcraft ships - there's simply no logic to the decision.

Good point. It is a pretty large amount of time, and my story could result in yours becoming possible.

More music. I may possibly have overdone it a tad on this one...?
The Endgame

Kieve wrote:More music. I may possibly have overdone it a tad on this one...?
The Endgame

That's some really epic music there, but there's really nothing excessive about it. I gotta say, the artwork and music and everything else you put up here is all excellent. Even if you never release a mod, I'll at least have appreciated seeing such cool stuff.

Although if you were going for overdone, I'd suggest taking inspiration from your pause screen.

Finally decided to sit down properly and sprite some of those ship concepts.
As you may have all noticed by now, I've been using Gnostic terms for Incursor stuff. There's a few reasons for that, although my personal beliefs aren't among them (I'm actually devoutly non-religious). Drone ships will be identified as "Hylic [X]" (Rank)

n the gnostic view, hylics, also called Somatics (from Gk σώμα (sōma) "body"), were the lowest order of the three types of human. Unable to be saved since their thinking is entirely material, incapable of understanding the gnosis.

Seemed fitting for soulless automated ships, as opposed to ones with a crew.
I've been trying to narrow down terms, but so far my google-fu has been weak. I can't find any ranking system that incorporates "Prime" outside of Transformers, and even then it just seems like "Prime" and "Everyone Else" - if you guys know the proper terms for ranks below Prime, let me know. Otherwise I'll probably scrap it in favor of a more standard rank like Alpha / Beta / Gamma, etc. Given that half the Gnostic glossary seems pulled from ancient Greek, I guess that wouldn't be such a bad move anyway.