I’ve been thinking of making a mod which would involve classifying all ship components into (probably) 5 categories: Class A - E. Class A would be the smallest components, fighter/gunship size stuff. Class E would be reserved for very large super weapons and such.
Each slot on any given hull would only accept components of that particular class. A Destroyer could have 2 or 3 class B weapon slots and maybe 1 or 2 class C slots. Different hulls would have a different mix of both number and size of components.
Hi, Dweemish; welcome to the GSB2 Modding Galaxy! You’ve posed a really interesting question.
Sadly, what you seek is not quite moddable at present. Here’s why:
Aside from the basic fact that module slots can carry only modules while the weapon slots can each hold a weapon OR a module… the slots aboard the hulls are completely “content-neutral”.
They do not care exactly what you place inside of them – nor can they currently enforce a tighter regime of limitations than what exists right now. (But who knows about the future?)
So other than the internal check of “is that a module or is that a weapon?”, the slots themselves are uninvolved. Beyond that point, it is the individual shipboard item itself which carries the attribute concerning what size of hull it can legally be carried upon. This functionality affects the entire official game; not just modder-made content.
If we modders could reverse the existing system by putting the limiting factor onto the slots rather than onto the items, player mods would skyrocket to amazing heights of awesomeness. Why not ask the developer himself to consider this change? Cliffski is certainly willing to consider suggestions from modders.
Hmmm interesting… so you are suggesting ship hulls that (for example) supported ‘shields-only’?
Theoretically not too hard (although as always with new functionality the bigger work is explaining it simply to the player!), as all that is required is a new variable for each slot (optional) which says which module class types it supports, and thus an additional check on validity when dropping a module.
Visually I guess some new icons ‘greyed out?’ inside an empty slot showing what it supported would be the best system?
Not quite what I was thinking. Originally I was just thinking of making a new class of super weapons of which you could only put two or three on a dreadnaut, and on some cruiser hulls you might be able to put one of them. Then I thought why not carry the idea throughout the entire range. Have some frigates that could use one or two cruiser class weapons etc. Or perhaps go the other way and have a destroyer which could only primarily use fighter class weapons (but a bunch of them).
Then I though 'why not do it for non-weapon components also. Have really large shield gens, engines, etc… but again, really limit the number available.
On the subject of super weapons, how hard would it be to make a shotgun style plasma gun. one that shoots out 15 or so plasma balls in semi-random cluster?
Ideally, I’d have each class of modules have different sized Icons/slots. I didn’t think this was doable without you reworking a bunch of stuff in the code, so I’d probably just put a big ol’ class letter right on the module in the top left corner or something. Having a letter on the slots would be helpful, but that too would probably involve source code changes.
Aha sorry, you mean you want ship hulls from one class that can equip modules from another class, although presumably only in particular slots? That might get a bit confusing, because players immediately get baffled as to why the last fighter they built had this weapon option, and this one doesn’t… It needs some thought.
Although when it comes to my confusion…do people actually like the idea of slots restricted to a specific module class? ie: A new cruiser that has 2 more slots than normal, but they are ONLY usable by engines (or left empty…).
I think what he meant was categories of weapons, ‘A to E’ as he named them. A would be tiny little point defense guns, whilst E would be planet-busting missile launchers etc.
So, for example, a Dreadnought might have a class E slot in the middle, a few Ds at the edges, some Cs mixed inbetween, and so on.
It would certainly make it easier to make sure people don’t use multiple Dreadnought Apocalypse Cannons on one ship.