aliens

Author Topic: Suggestions on how to improve the mod  (Read 288237 times)

Offline khade

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #210 on: May 24, 2016, 04:56:24 am »
That was a possibility too, but again, pragmatic, why release someone who is still useful?  But since the engine can't selectively do that, I won't worry about it, and will assume releasing.

Offline Dioxine

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #211 on: May 24, 2016, 07:18:21 am »
Pragmatically it makes no sense, but maybe it's some sort of pirate tradition - after being interrogated, you're released (the  Prison description hints at that).

Offline Rince Wind

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #212 on: May 24, 2016, 10:07:31 am »
Just have your brainers read enough pillow books, then you don't need to waste slaves.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #213 on: May 25, 2016, 09:09:10 pm »
Not sure it it's a random requests thread, so feel free to move this. :P

Since we have a parody of Star Wars, we absolutely cannot ignore Star Trek. (Also because SW fans on average seem to have a higher melee stat. Ba-dum-tsss.)

Anyway, The Academy was allowed to have a small wing of space-capable vessels for scientific purposes. They have no interstellar capability and so are usually active within the Solar System, searching for rare minerals, physical phenomena and general trouble.
The ships are, surprisingly, manned by Osiron. These missions are five years long (well, the system is big and they use ion engines, lol). Very few Sorceresses are willing to spend so much time away from politics, tormenting Beastmen and proper baths, so they're a minority and generally not (officially) in charge.
This would obviously be a space attack scenario, but we could also send this ship normally across the map, claiming it does some sort of manoeuvres before/after going into deep space. Hell, someone even made the Enterprise map long ago.
If this ship is interceptible (is there such a word?), then it should have a powerful, but very slow and inaccurate weapon, as well as little HP for its size but with decent shield (DR).

What's inside?
People in Standard Nonresistant Academy Fleet Uniforms. In short, SNAFUs. (Has to be drawn, but should be trivial.) No armour.

1. The Captain.
Use the karateka head, it'll look good on the red SNAFU. Has obscene stats, but still no armour. Usually carries an iGun. There's also a chance for a Tommygun with some really nasty ammo. Can actually say some advanced things about the Star Gods and their Empire, though I have no idea what exactly.

2. The Commander.
The most average normal guy in the ship, so everyone's bloody scared of him. Carries a high-end rifle (plasma rifle? Reticulan plasma rifle?). Has a manly beard which will certainly be fun to draw.

3. The Doctor.
What do you get if you take a Provost and change her armour to SNAFU? That's right, she's the Doctor. Well, except for psi; nobody would send talented psionics to loiter in the Solar System for years on end, sorting pink rocks and trying to secretly steer their crewmates' love lives out of boredom. Anyway, she should have a Dart Pistol to defend herself. Yeah, it sucks to be her.

4. The Science Officer.
But some psions can into space after all! This is basically an Esper with geekier clothes and loose hair (still has glowing green eyes and all). Her psi is obviously a problem to the player, she also tends to use wacky equipment (up to Microwave Cooker).

5. The Security Officer.
A half-naked Uber guy who only wears SNAFU pants (the upper part won't fit). The only one to carry around a heavy weapon, so he's quite maniacal about its firepower (some high-end guns, for example Plasma Blaster; no Microwave Cooker though, it's too so-phi-stee-kated). When captured, he won't talk, but the girls will like him!

6. The Token Alien.
A catgirl wearing SNAFU. Otherwise very catgirly in the traditional way, with katanas and everything. When captured, is just a normal catgirl too, which I think is telling about her species.

7. The Token Robot.
Not sure about the sprite (which means I have no idea where to get it from), but it's as dangerous as it is annoying. Only melee attacks. Immune to stun, explodes on death.

8. The Helpless Masses.
There to die in droves. Wearing SNAFUs, armed with various mid-level weapons like laser pistols. When captured, they tell engineering stuff and can be enslaved.

Offline AncientSion

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #214 on: May 25, 2016, 09:24:39 pm »
In that case, i request a homage to the best SciFi Show in the history of TV, which would obviously be Babylon 5. I will offer a more indepth suggestion if my request is approved :p

Offline Dioxine

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #215 on: May 25, 2016, 09:35:45 pm »
@Solar: all good ideas. Maybe it can be somehow linked with the space missions I'm planning ('Zero-G', 'Nazi Moonbase' and 'Don't fall into the Sun').

In that case, i request a homage to the best SciFi Show in the history of TV, which would obviously be Babylon 5. I will offer a more indepth suggestion if my request is approved :p

Too late (tip: the Shadows, the Well-Wisher) :P Yeah Babylon 5 was really good... although it went belly-up after they changed the lead character between seasons 1 and 2. Then on it went from top notch to well designed of but boooriiiing. Certainly it wasn't the best Sci-Fi show ever though - that was Lexx :)

Online Meridian

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #216 on: May 27, 2016, 12:05:31 am »
I'd rather see:
A filter that allows me to switch off all things I can't currently manufacture due to lack of materials.
A filter that allows me to switch on things I can't currently manufacture due to lack of base facilities. (To let you know what you're lacking.)
An 'alphabetical sort' option.
A 'do not show' list, for obsolete weapons I'm never going to make.

Obviously, some of these would be quite difficult to do...

All except alphabetical sort are done.
Btw. alphabetical sort will be superseded by "quick searcher box" some time in the future.

After some more testing, I will publish a new version.

PS: the current saved status of all items will reset... all items will be marked as "new" after this change.

Code: [Select]
extraStrings:
  - type: en-US
    strings:
      STR_FILTER_DEFAULT: "Default"
      STR_FILTER_DEFAULT_SUPPLIES_OK: "Default (supplies OK)"
      STR_FILTER_DEFAULT_NO_SUPPLIES: "Default (no supplies)"
      STR_FILTER_NEW: "New"
      STR_FILTER_HIDDEN: "Hidden"
      STR_FILTER_FACILITY_REQUIRED: "Facility required"
      STR_MARK_ALL_AS: "Mark all as:"
      STR_MARK_ALL_AS_NEW: "New"
      STR_MARK_ALL_AS_NORMAL: "Normal"
      STR_MARK_ALL_AS_HIDDEN: "Hidden"
« Last Edit: May 27, 2016, 12:10:34 am by Meridian »

Offline Mattdo

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #217 on: May 27, 2016, 12:55:55 pm »
Cool! Will it be possible to tell which base facility you're missing?

Online Meridian

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #218 on: May 27, 2016, 08:32:07 pm »
Cool! Will it be possible to tell which base facility you're missing?

It will be possible to say what pre-requisites you're missing.... by right-clicking on the table... the category will be replaced by missing pre-requisites.
You can translate them to roughly correspond to facilities, e.g. like so:

Code: [Select]
extraStrings:
  - type: en-US
    strings:
      ALKO: "Still"
      CPU: "Lab or Computer Core"
      CPU: "Computer Core"
      FUS: "Fusion Reactor"
      GAUSS: "Gauss Battery"
      LAB: "Laboratory"
      LAS: "Laser Defenses"
      LIB: "Library"
      MINT: "Mint"
      PRINT: "Printer"
      PWR: "Power Station"
      REFI: "Refinery"
      SHOP: "Anything"
      SPA: "Luxury Spa"
      SUMM: "Summoning Circle"
      SUR: "Surgery Room"
      WELL: "Extractor"
      WORKS: "Workshop"

Offline legionof1

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #219 on: May 27, 2016, 09:45:23 pm »
A thought occurred to me while i was setting a breaching charge with a grenade launcher ready to obliterate the room full of terror units on the other side. Why do we not have timed explosives launchers?

Offline khade

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #220 on: May 29, 2016, 03:00:01 am »
If I'm remembering right, as I don't currently have a save which has any ore, a single unit of ore uses up less space than the 50 units of scrap you can convert it into. Seems odd, given that a quick search on iron ore indicated that good ore tends to have around 60%-70% of its mass as actual iron, while less good ores were in the 20%-30% range, it's a bit odd that getting rid of the useless bits increases the space it takes.  I tend to think that the ore we steal is likely to be less good.

I have a couple of ideas here, one is sadly a nerf, where either the ore increases in the space it takes up or we get less scrap per unit of ore, with the possibility of different grades of ore giving different percentages of their mass in scrap(probably too complicated and would needlessly clutter up the manufacturing screen).

Another idea would be to just have the runts not be efficient at storage with specific materials and add some research projects that make those materials use up less space to indicate increases in organizational skills and techniques, I'm not sure what else would make sense other than scrap, but I'm sure there are other things too.

Note that I have no issue with the junk piles taking up less space than the stuff they hold, a precarious pile of stuff takes up less floor space than everything in it in neat stacks, in my experience.

Offline Mr. Quiet

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #221 on: May 29, 2016, 06:33:44 am »
I hope you continued to build upon making the pirates dependent on engineering for your weaponry and ships. I can't think of anything else as I haven't been keeping up with the direction you went with the pirates. I'm sure everything will be awesome. I can't wait for 1.0 unless it's considered balanced and mostly feature complete, aside from donation tiers, which sound great!

Offline Mattdo

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #222 on: May 29, 2016, 06:56:31 pm »
a single unit of ore uses up less space than the 50 units of scrap you can convert it into.
Here's how I mentally justify that: ore is dull-looking and low in value, so you can leave most of it just lying around outside the base, not taking up any vault space, and it won't draw any attention.

Offline lusciouspear

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #223 on: May 31, 2016, 10:55:58 am »
Factories should double as Prints imo. They take up so much room already...

Offline LexThorn

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Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod
« Reply #224 on: June 01, 2016, 06:20:24 am »
Factories should double as Prints imo. They take up so much room already...

Agreed. It will be better that way. Factory has a lot of space, i think there is room to fit industrial printer device there. Logically.