BSG Mod: Revival

[Adm_Z]

LOL in making the title of this Thread, I might have just come up with the perfect name for my mod.

Anyway, thats right, I"m out of my gaming mood and back into modding. As such, I felt it appropriate to start a new thread since the last one was named for the premature preview released so many years ago. The mod, in its latest form is in my opinion, is much more accurate to the show and overall theme of bsg. My notes as to how the game will work are listed below.(rough sketch) Some of the major mechanics are in place, but most of this still requires implementation. At the time of the post, I am working on getting the rest of the Civilian ships ingame and up to FO standards. There will be a lot of them.

Spoiler: The Plan

The colonials:

Start with a battlestar(valkyrie type) and a civi ship.(probably the red version of the president's ship jet did).

As your civie ship survives, more randomized civie ships FTL jump in. Civie ships will have some special weapons, tech, bonuses and the like, and they will all have the ability to jump to the rendezvous point during a battle.*example Obviously, the longer you keep your ships alive, the more ships you get, and the harder it is for the other team to win. The problem with more civie ships is that you need more battlestars to protect them, so, how do we fix this?

Each civi ship will generate command points while they are alive. You get more ships by buying them from your government rep ship and jump in from....somewhere else...


The only way to win is obviously to remove the cylon threat, but you have to keep your civie ships alive to do this. Government ships will get to buy more military ships, allow the use of nukes, and other stuff soecific to their class. Military ships will also have specials depending on their type. Your ultimate goal would be to get enough military ships that you could completely take out the enemy and not lose civie ships in the process.

If you lose all your civie ships, you would not be able to get more military ships but have a military ship left, it can only use minimal weapons, and will call in a new government ship after a while. It is still possible to win if you lose military ships should repair a bit faster if they are near civie ships. Manufacturing ships would have the ability to heavily repair a ship or even build small military support ships and fighters.


*the rendezvous point would be a weapon you use when cylon ships start attacking your ships and you don't want to risk losing them in a minor skirmish. what you would do is select all your civie ships, and click this button. The ships would all FTL jump away. thats it. They would then, say 1 minute later jump back in to their previous position. You would basically have to make a bet that your ships would be able to either destroy the cylons and hold that position until they came back, or decide to try and protect the ships while you retreat.

Cylons will have a resurection ship and get a baseship or two, they will have to get kills with their fighters and capital ships to get more. If their resurection ship is alive, any ship that is destroyed after reaching a rank will be able to be "resurected."

Gameplay will be very cat and mouse between cylons and colonials, though Cylons and Colonials can both reach critical mass and you will have to fight. Colonials will have to stand and fight sometimes, and cylons have to fight to get more ships.

Sofar, the story of my mod is based around the idea that a large portion of the colonial fleet survived(at say, scorpion fleet shipyards) and, though it was still destroyed, there was time for people to evacuate from Caprica and the twelve colonies. There is no search for the 13th colony and earth, but rather new systems to establish bases in. The ships in the fleet split up, and sectors of space must be deemed safe before more ships can be relocated there. Aware of the CNP hack, old mk2 vipers were reproduced to a degree, and so are still in use on some ships. Civilan ships are used from many things they were not originally intended for.

The Cylons, without a sufficient way of tracking ships through FTL, must search for the colonials system by system, using small resurrection ships to provide immediate support to their ships.


Ideas, requests, please input here. I will try to continue work and post updates here.

Oh, and a teaser pic is attached.

 

[thunderfoot]

Looks to be coming along nicely already. Need anything? If I did it, you're welcome to use it.

 

[Adm_Z]

As a matter of fact, I am trying my best to utilize the physics you have in the HRM, as I believe they simulated the ships movement very accurately.

Edit: Just finished getting all 6 luxury liners in.

 

[Adm_Z]

The Class System

Alright, so I just finished getting all of the civi ships in. They have nothing more than skeleton odf's with basic tooltips, but they are all scaled and glowed up.

Now I am going to explain the class system the civi ships will abide to in my mod.

You will start with a single Government Rep ship. This ship, ~every 5 minutes it survives, will jump in another civi ship for as long as it is still flying. Of these civi ships, there are five classes they may fall under. Here is a tentative break down of what you will receive.

First jump: Cargo Ship
Second jump: Fabrication Ship
Third jump: Passenger liner
Fourth Jump: Science/Research ship
Fith Junp: Cargo Ship
Sixth Jump: Economy Ship(or maybe agro)
Seventh Jump: Passenger liner

And then the cycle repeats after maybe a 10 minute break.

These ships will be randomized so your fleet will look different every time you play the game. What I mean by this is that there is a pool of ships for each class. Currently, there are 4 different cargo ships, 3 fabrication ships, 8 passenger liners, 4 science ships, and 4 econ ships. I will probably move some around to accommodate the higher reoccurrance of certain classes, but for now, this is what I have. Each class will have a specific roll which will either benefit your military ships, or your civilian fleet. It may be to allow the use of certain technology or ships, it may be to simply provide buffs to your fleet. There will be rare ships within a class(like the cloud 9 ship, or space park) which will have other bonuses in addition to their normal abilitys, mostly because of their size making them easy targets. I intend to have certain buffs be offensive in nature, so sometimes the colonials want to keep the civi ships close in a battle, rather than have them jump away. It is a risk that might be worth the possible loss of a civi ship. In addition to this, Civi ships generate the credits needed to purchase more Military ships, and eventually, to allow the use of nukes. In the next version of FO, the devs have added intuitive techtrees, so I can make it where you require certain types of ships to purchase others. Basically, I will require any one of the cargo ships in order to buy a valkyrie, or any one of the passenger liners to build a cygnus. A econ ship to buy a mercury, and so on.


Also, to buy military ships, you have to have the research, and the credits, but you can only buy them from your government ship. If it is destroyed, any military ship can call in a new one, but it will be very costly. I'm not entirely sure how yet, maybe a 10 minute cooldown and a drain on resources during that time.

 

[Zelph]

Hmmm, methinks you posted in the wrong thread there Z....

 

[Adm_Z]

LOL must have hit back too many times. Hopefully a mod will catch it

 

[Styer_Crisis]

Omi gosh, i'm so glad to see this back up and running, if you need any help at all PM me and i'll see what i can do... i can't wait to get to beta test it.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:

As a matter of fact, I am trying my best to utilize the physics you have in the HRM, as I believe they simulated the ships movement very accurately.

Edit: Just finished getting all 6 luxury liners in.

View attachment 8342

I totally agree with you, Thunderfoot makes amazing Physics files, so no doubt about how these ships will move inagme .

And awesome about the Luxury Liners! I simply love those ships .

 

[Adm_Z]

Just as an update, Progress is going smoothly. Ran my first complete game today against the AI using the new civilian system, lasted nearly an hour.

Sofar, I have all of the systems working as much as they can in this version of FO, the ships spawn every 5 minutes, generate supplies and command points to fuel fighters and requisition ships. Now, I need to make some abilitys.


Here are the classes and some brainstormed abilities. Uncommon abilities are intended to be unique but not very powerful and are only available on some civi ships.

I would appreciate any ideas.


Cargo ships: Passive, generates more supplies than normal civi ships. Passive, all ships have increased special energy recharge rate while in range. Active transfer cargo ability -> expend all special energy to fill another ships. Need idea for uncommon ability

Fabrication ships: Passive, ships heal faster while in range. Active, repair ship -> limited repair capability's which drain special energy. Uncommon Active ability, Salvage viper -> launch an ace viper. costs supplies and has large cool-down.

Liners: Need Passive ideas. Active ability -> transfer crew. Need Uncommon ability ideas

Economy ships: need passive ideas. Active ability - purchase or sell command points, Need Uncommon ability ideas

Science ships: Passive, missile guidance jamming. Active ability - FTL research, choose either increased efficiency or range. Uncommon Active ability, Stealth viper -> launch an stealth viper. costs supplies and has large cool-down.

Rare ship ability: There is an atmospheric shuttle available as both a science ship and cargo ship. both are extremely rare. One, if not both will have an active ability which replaces any normal class specific ability. Rare Active Ability -> Government Oversight, allows you to replace the shuttle with a random ship from any class selected. If it is not to OP, I might make it so the science version can replace the government rep ship for free, instead of another ship class.

(other passive ideas: fire rate increase, sensor range increase, and other subsystem buffs)


So I need lots of ideas, and input on the abilities I already have planned. I'll post more pictures of the specific ships later.

 

[Adm_Z]

No takers? Maybe pics will help. Here are the ships for each class.

Cargo Ships:
Colonial Movers, Gemenon Traveler Uncommon -> Gemini Freighter, Colonial Tanker
View attachment 8355View attachment 8357 Uncommon -> View attachment 8354 View attachment 8356
+ Shuttle

Fabrication ships:
Single-deck Flattop, Mobile Refinery, Uncommon -> Dual-deck Flattop
Uncommon ->

Economy Ships:
Botanical Cruiser, Material Processor, Colonial Tanker, Uncommon -> Cloud 9 colony
Uncommon ->

Passenger Liners:
Assorted Liners, Uncommon -> Cloud 9 Luxury Liner, Space Park
Uncommon ->

Science ships:
Research Cruiser, Gemenon Traveler, Uncommon -> Space Park
Uncommon ->

Other:
Government Representative, Atmospheric shuttle




And that should be all of them. Getting any ideas anyone?

 

[kjc733]

Getting any ideas anyone?

That was one of the annoying things whilst ding HRM - what to do with the civi fleet? There were two ideas we tried to implement:
1. Nuclear authorisation (i.e. Nukes as a special requiring the existence of colonial 1)
2. Ability to recrew ships from the civis using a modified boarding party - for some reason I could never get this to work right!

Other ideas:
a. EMP blast (as seen in the pilot episode when Apollo triggers some ftl equipment on Colonial 1)
b. some sort of leadership bonus
c. Make the civi ships mobile trade stations to build up currency

Of course, all my knowledge is stock A2 so I don't know how relevant this may be. Looks good though

 

[Adm_Z]

That was one of the annoying things whilst ding HRM - what to do with the civi fleet? There were two ideas we tried to implement:
1. Nuclear authorisation (i.e. Nukes as a special requiring the existence of colonial 1)
2. Ability to recrew ships from the civis using a modified boarding party - for some reason I could never get this to work right!

Other ideas:
a. EMP blast (as seen in the pilot episode when Apollo triggers some ftl equipment on Colonial 1)
b. some sort of leadership bonus
c. Make the civi ships mobile trade stations to build up currency

Of course, all my knowledge is stock A2 so I don't know how relevant this may be. Looks good though

Thanks kjc, and yeah it is hard to figure out what these things can be goof for sometimes.

1. Nuclear authorization is actually something I am going to implement on my game already. In the mod, I have two types of resources, one being supplies, and the other, command points.(could use a better name) Command points are the main choke point in the game because you can only get one every time you rank up a ship, or every 5 minutes when a new civi ship is called in. In this case, they are very rare, and valuable. Once you get all the way to a mercury class(which costs 5 cp's, and generally not available until 30-40 minutes into the game) you can authorize the use of a nuclear warhead from your government rep ship(colonial one) but it will cost you a command point or two.

2. As I mentioned a couple posts back, this will also be in my mod(great minds huh? ) Civilian passenger liners will have the ability to transfer crew to other ships, and the ability will be unique to their class.

a. I remember that! I will have to keep that in mind. It would make a good ability and have a cool affect. Maybe exclusive to colonial one?
b. In the mod, since it is FO, if you rank your ship up 5 times, you can promote them to veteran rank. In context of my mod, you will be able to set a ship to Admiral status, giving them access to special ability's unique to that type of ship. It will not be easy, but it can happen. Fighters also get a similar bonus after getting several of their own kills. They are automatically changed to Ace status and gain increased weapon accuracy and decreased hitchange by all other weapons.
c. This is also implemented in my mod in a way. Since I don't want to deal with mining, my civi ships, instead, generate supplies. Cargo ships generate more supply's than other civi ships, and economy ships have the ability to "trade" between supplies and command points. Sell command points for supplies, or vise versa.


This also gives me an idea for a new economy uncommon ability. Black market. Not sure what it will do though, maybe someone else will get an idea?


And thanks for the response kjc, it is much appreciated!

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello.
The Black Market ship was the warehouse-looking ship that Coxxon did not build. Itried one but it doesn't look right and need retouches. Maybe I can help with that one when I get some spare time, the problem is that I do my own style of texturing so it will not match with Coxxon's ships.

I like the idea of making civilian ships useful. Just remember to protect the Passenger Liners since they do have the bulk of human survivors, and mean Cylons would like to target them every now and then even though there are bigger targets around .

Keep it up!

 

[Adm_Z]

Hello.
The Black Market ship was the warehouse-looking ship that Coxxon did not build. Itried one but it doesn't look right and need retouches. Maybe I can help with that one when I get some spare time, the problem is that I do my own style of texturing so it will not match with Coxxon's ships.

I like the idea of making civilian ships useful. Just remember to protect the Passenger Liners since they do have the bulk of human survivors, and mean Cylons would like to target them every now and then even though there are bigger targets around .

Keep it up!

Well, I think the Black market will simply be an ability for my econ class ships, I'm not sure what it will be though, maybe purchase cp's cheaper or something. I appreciate the offer though!

Also, with the passenger liners, I plan on giving them very little hull strength, and very high crew. This will make them high value targets for cylons since they are easy to kill, and it will make them valuable to the colonials since it is the only way to recrew your military ships. Not to mention they also generate supplies like all the rest of the civi ships.

Right this minute, I am working on how much crew the civi ships have. This is harder than I would have thought.

So far, I have the colonial one set at 150 crew as my control. The rest in order of crew size:

shuttle - 10
gemenon traveler - 100
colonial mover - 200
gemini freighter - 250
flattop - 350
tanker - 500
dual deck flattop - 800
refinery ship - 1000
research cruiser - 1250
luxury liners - 1500
botanical cruiser - 2000
cloud 9 colony - 2500
cloud 9 liner - 3000
space park - 4000

Does anyone have any suggestions on this? Note that only the liners are at full capacity, the rest of the ships should be at normal operating crew levels. It is really hard to figure out how many people would realistically be on these ships when there can be as many as 500 on colonial one, but the Pegasus was manned by only around 2000.

 

[thunderfoot]

Galactica was forty years old at the time of the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Pegasus represents the latest generation of Colonial warships. Pegasus has a crew which is reduced in size when compared to that of Galactica due to the computerization and automation of various things which used to be done by humans. When you free up one Colonial Warrior from manning/overseeing the waste water treatment/recycling plant, this lets you put one more Viper pilot into the air. And this nicely reflects the Real World. I've no idea what the crew complement of a US Navy Arleigh Burke class destroyer is exactly, but I do know it is considerably less than that of the class of vessels the Burkes are intended to replace.

The civvies having lots of crew isn't a problem, Z. Look at how airliners are designed and built. They are intended to move larger groups of people more efficently. Last time I was on one the seat was so small and so jammed up against the others around it, I had to stand in the aisle to change my mind. If you insist on the math, look up the cubic space allotted by NASA or the Russian Space Agency to each astronaut. Since we can make intelligent guesses about how big the Colonial ships are, should give you a pretty good idea of just how many people can be aboard.

Or you could pull a number out of thin air which 'feels right' and 'works'. I would suggest this last, modding for effect rather than accuracy. To save yourself from all the calculation. In the end, there will be someone who says your numbers are incorrect and he will then post a W.O.T. "proving" just how wrong your numbers are. Sometimes, the downloaders can be a modder's "bestest frens", right? rofl.

 

[Adm_Z]

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion on the pegasus, and lol yeah, always our best friends.

So, unless anyone sees any problems with the crew counts I have posted there, Those will be the finals.


BTW I still need ideas for those civi ships too. They don't all have to have uncommon abilities since I can always have extra ship classes, but I would still love an idea or two. Especially for AoE buffs

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
Well, I am not very good coming-up with custom abilities for ships as I have not made any modding for FleetOps and I don't know all it can really do; but I can give it a thought.

I might have some ideas for Cylons for whenever you get into them .

Keep it up!

 

[Adm_Z]

ARISE! Just as a kinda heads up, I will be working on this mod and my SW mod over the next month or two. I'll post more info on this soon, but I would love some ideas and or feedback on what has been posted already. I would like to bring both my mods to a somewhat stable, single player, 1.0 before the next FO version comes out.

 

[Majestic]

This is great news Zaxxon. I am no longer actively developing BSG content, I only have a few older ships to release. So this would be awesome. I look forward to seeing this completed.