In case you have not read Cliffski blog recently positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/?p=843 it looks like the development of Gratuitous space battles will be coming to a close after he finishes the campaign as he moves on to the next project before the money runs out. (which is standard business practice after all)
So i am posting my wish list of “things i wish i could change when modding” in hopes that one / some / all of these items make it in a patch before Cliffski moves on to his next game . .
Salvo for missiles and plasma
Same way we can have salvos for beams and bullets, it would be rather gratuitous to be able to send a volley of rockets across the battle field.
Sub_munitions
I am assuming that the upper limit of 6 was to stop idiots like me making a missile with 100 warheads.
Can we negotiate on this limit ?
Moar bullets
For Plasma and Bullet weapons we can only use the graphics in plasma.dds and bullets.dds It would be nice to be able to change which .dds files to use (same way beam weapons can choose their graphics) - And maybe the flare on missiles as well ?
Radiation-damaging self-repair reinforced tractor beams
I would like more homogeneity between module types. For example, I’d like to be able to add power production or crew production to anything. Or armor. Or repair capability. Or regeneration. Whatever. The possibilities would be… well, not endless, but maybe more gratuitous?
Built-in Ship Systems
I would like ship variables to no longer produce power, but instead have something more sensible to ship types such as crew, hull points, or weight. Power production on a hull just seems kind of random and strange. I know it was put on for fighters, but still. Having sensible variables to play with would help us balance out ships.
User Error: Abort, Retry, Ignore?
More orders. Better orders. This may not seem like a modding issue, but there are many ship designs and ideas that just don’t work because of the AI. Helping the basics of gameplay helps everyone.
The people’s choice: GSB Suggestions
A lot of people liked the “point defense for fighters” idea. Nobody seems to care very much for boarding pods or a crew status bar.
Fighters, Frigates, and Cruisers! Oh my!
I wouldn’t mind having the capability for fighter turrets put in. I would really like to see a method to restrict modules to certain hulls or hull types, effectively allowing us to re-work around your hard-coded classification system. Perhaps a variable like “Access = 14” would then allow us to put modules on that ship that had a variable “Restriction = 14”, etc.
Assuming you mean an actual turret sprite drawn on the battlefield, I believe you can just change the turretsize variable in the module description (for fighter weapons it is set to 0). At least when I changed it on some frigate/cruiser weapons I was fiddling with, it increased the turret sizes accordingly.
It doesn’t work at all for fighters no matter what that number is set to.
I wanted to put the muzzle flash of one of the Tribe projectile guns on a fighter and couldn’t for this reason.
Good I saw this thread while looking over the forum. I won’t put stuff which I think would involve heavy changes in the game code
Mixed module’s stats
More or less what Cetiah said.
But there’s something about module classes I’m wondering.
@Cliff, are module’s stats set per each classname or are there a bunch of stats coded around as general (hp, weight, cost)? Just to know if adding regeneration (or anything else) to many classes would involve considerable work.
Customizable explosions
I already know about all those files in the folder explosions with the code for explosions (at least part of the code, some names need to be discovered yet).
Would be really hard letting me ADD more files of explosions there? :3
(I don’t want to release mods with those files changed, could lead to some strange things in the vanilla ships)
i agree with many of the proposals from my fellow players. There’s a lot I’d truly love to see added to GSB before development closes down completely. However, two items deserve special mention:
The ability to add more than one kind of “attribute” to a module would be very much welcomed. A mod that I’m interested in badly needed the presence of a new kind of engine that also produces a certain amount of power on its own. Such functionality is, alas, not possible yet.
I’m very tempted to toss the rest of my “wish list” into the trash as long as I can get THIS. [size=150]The ship A.I. still needs major help.[/size]
Please repair it such that the movement function and the weaponry function are in accord – and prevent gunners from blasting target types that the ship was ordered to ignore! I could live with the absence of other new low-key tech, or even other dodgy parts of the game going unfixed, as long as we have those A.I. flaws fully removed. I’m talking about basic, fundamental game functionality that’s broken. I don’t want any other eye candy or gosh-wow! coolness while the A.I. is still in need of attention.
I don’t know what he had in mind, but to be able to upgrade modules would be fantastic - i could get rid of the varient system i am using in my mod and use this instead Also to be able to add other bonuses to ship hulls (ie able to shoot while stealthed) would also be equally be as cool.
This. I’d love to have the ability to specify exactly what modules a hull, or failing that, a race, has access to. I’m imagining something like the turret mapping segment of the race configuration file, except with a boolean for each module by name, authorizing or prohibiting access to it. I’m cooking up the often-mentioned and (as nearly as I’ve been able to tell) never exectued BSG mod, but the colonial fleet really shouldn’t be able to throw beam lasers around. I’m obviously going to homebrew a ton of projectile weapons to replace them, but still.
