Mod interest check
 

So after leaving it sit and stew in the mental closets for a few months, I've turned my attention back to my mod. It'll have to be scaled down a lot to fit in with what Starfury can do, but I think I can finish it now.

The question is, does anyone still play Starfury? I'm trying to figure out if its worth the effort to finish or not.

Re: Mod interest check
 

I still play from time to time. Perhaps more if a new mod was available.

Re: Mod interest check
 

I still play, still looking for my SEIV disk so I can reinstall that too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Mod interest check
 

I still play from time to time.

Re: Mod interest check
 

I'm ready to play a new mod.

Re: Mod interest check
 

I'll work on it, then.

Points that might be interesting so far:
-the component level system is gone. It uses a more SEIV styled system

-that means that leveling up improves your crew skills only.

-Enemy ships also have effective crew levels now..and like many RPGs, enaging an enemy who's much higher level is likely to mean your death.

-enemy ships don't drop fully functional components anymore. Most of the time unless you get lucky, you'll have wreckage that isn't useful for anything but selling (at a much-reduced price).

-The general gameplay has less of an arcade feel, more of a capital ship feel, and I've tried to balance it so trading, hunting and mining (yes, mining) are all viable options.

-Do enough missions against one side, and they'll get pissed and start shooting you.

-You start out as a civilian, with an option to join the military. Joining means you're much more restricted on mission options, but gives you access to better gear. Mount that heavy gun on your civilian ship and you better hope no government ships get close enough to scan you..

One question though. I'm thinking about putting in heavier craft and Escorts the player can buy. The problem is SF doesn't have code for that, so I have to use the fighter bays.

Is it too much to ask players to use the honor system there, and not launch heavy bombers from a bay that only accomodates light fighters?

Re: Mod interest check
 

Did someone say 'Mining' in a Starfury Mod? Well, that's just the kind of bait that gets this guy's attention. Now I'm looking forward to this new mod.

Hot dang, Mining in SF. Now that sounds sweet, I wonder how you're going to manage that.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Mod interest check
 

There are several ways (good, cheesy, and extra-cheesy), it depends on how Starfury handles them. The best one I suspect is going to be a MASSIVE resource hog. :/

Re: Mod interest check
 

Hi Guys,

I am thinking of cranking up StarFury again. After the ski trip, and if it doesn't conflict with bowling, dancing, happyhours, and dating.

A good MOD campaign would be a pleasure to play.

Re: Mod interest check
 

Mining? *raises an eyebrown* This mod is starting to sound really good.

Oh, and we're coding the missions in The People's Mod right now. Hopefully we get 0.2.0 out soon.

btw, is it possible to do give more crew points when leveling up?

Re: Mod interest check
 

I don't think so, but you can always lower the costs of raising all the attributes; same effect.

Re: Mod interest check
 

My guess is a new faction that has only weaponless "satellites" to represent mineable asteroids. They would drop resources (components) after you "blow them up," which you would then go and sell.

Will this be doable at any date?

Re: Mod interest check
 

That's plan one for the mining. Except IIRC there is actually a target type for asteroids. The problem is AI..which this immobile, unarmed rocks WILL have, go figure..takes up a lot of resources. Its also the reason that most planets won't be destroyable.

Given the number of asteroids most of my systems have, it may not be feasable. The other option is having fewer asteroids to blow up, or having one in the center of each cluster that acts as a "node", representing mining the entire cluster. If that doesn't pan out either, there's always the El Cheapo option: giving those node asteroids a "shuttle over" option. You'd then go to a mining menu, and depending on the equipment in your ship, some ore would be deposited in your hold.

You'll be able to mine certain planets as well, but it'll be more difficult and require heavier equipment, and it'll only use the el cheapo option.

" Will this be doable at any date? "

At any game date? Not exactly. If you turn the initial offer down you can't do that mission tree. What you can do is get a merc license, and/or join the reserves. The reason for that is the military missions will be carefully balanced for the player only having a certain amount of resources, and if you can spend months gathering cash beforehand that won't work.

Re: Mod interest check
 

Why not just have a few random "treasure horde" asteroids with various pirate goods?

Re: Mod interest check
 

That would work but not quite what I was shooting for. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Mod interest check
 

Sure, but could be a nice addition anyway.

Re: Mod interest check
 

Searching through a large asteroid belt to find the few asteroids with usable resources in them would be appropriate prospecting work http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Mod interest check
 

The radar sort of makes that pointless; anything that can be damaged shows up as a colored blip.

edit: though, that wouldn't happen with the cheese method..I think. Hmm.

Re: Mod interest check
 

Ok, a component display question.

Each component has a ID number, which tells the game when the player is and isn't allowed to carry it. If you aren't, and it is detected, you will be fined and/or fired on.

The question is, how to related that to the player? The starting race has several levels of permission:

Civilian
Merc
Military Class 1
Military Class 2
Military Class 3

Right now I have it indicated like so:

Component X
[MERC] (component Description)

But that eats into the description space, which is limited as it is. I'd prefer something like

[Merc] Component X
or
Component X [Merc]

but that looks..sort of cluttered. So which would you prefer?

Re: Mod interest check
 

Yay for announcing things before you have time to work on them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I've had to pretty much scrap all the weapons I had before to get PD properly balanced. A 'default' PD gun is now rated to destroy a 'default' incoming missile 100% of the time..but just short of impact, and only if both are stationary. A second missile will ALWAYS overload the defense and impact.

This means charging a missile-firing unit is going to hurt, because even that first missile is going to hit now and then. Its also better balanced than it seems because most PD guns now cover only a single firing arc.

Re: Mod interest check
 

If you don't think you have the time to do your mod, The People's Mod team is looking for new members.

Re: Mod interest check
 

Yep. People who would want to test and scale the models in the game would be nice because right now atleast some of the ships in the mod are scaled all wrong.

There are also some components issues and generally the redo of Main_Enemies.txt which will be quite a pain I believe.

Anyway all help is greatly appreciated.

Re: Mod interest check
 

I have a 196 system completely mapped out system map. Mostly bug-free, at that. (I think.)

I'm NOT going that far and stopping. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I have time now, just didn't until now.

Right now I'm fiddling with the first race's ship design. I have it set currently so that some things (eg smaller weapons) can go on the "outside" of the ship. Not sure if that's a good idea or not.

For a while I had it so -anything- could go on the outside.

Then I realized that would let people stick three Heavy Mass Drivers on their ship and do 1k points of damage to anything within 220 LS. Err..no. BAD idea. It did take up 600kt, but nothing could go near that design and live..

Re: Mod interest check
 

Status update:

Since Moveplayer doesn't work, I went with my backup Hyperspace system. The original idea was that you'd drop a component, which would "open a portal" (move you to a exit outside the main system map).

Now you fly to a hyperspace point. But you have to have a hyperdrive or hyper intiator on board; if you don't, you'll be destroyed. The difference between the two is the Initator only has one charge, and then POOF, its gone.

Hyperspace itself has been completely implimented. It has two modes- one is like normal travel except the warp points are closer together, and thus faster to get to. The second is MUCH faster- it consists of 5 hyperspace systems with exits to every system in the quadrent. But its also very very dangerous.

I'll post some screenshots when I get the graphics done.

Re: Mod interest check
 

I'm getting quite sick of having a good idea, then Starfury looking at it and spitting it out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Non-functional events found so far:

Status Game Date After Date (fails with " is not a valid integer messgae- change After to Before and the same param works)

End Game- does nothing

Move Ship To Location - doesn't seem to work

Move Player To Location - doesn't work

Move Ship Within Range Of Space Object - questionable

Move Player Within Range Of Space Object - doesn't seem to work

Change Player Experience - crashes game with " is not an integer

Change Player Credits - crashes game with no error message

Change Map System Type - doesn't seem to do anything

Re: Mod interest check
 

Move Ship To Location would be awesome. I mean you could do a Star Trek Voyager like campaign. First do some missions and then suddenly after completing them you are teleported to the far side of the galaxy just when the neighbourhood started to become familiar. Too bad it doesn't work. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif