Just releasing the first screenshot. LOTs of work still to do…
O.o - Looks rather awesome
hmm i wonder what that semi transparent ball in the middle is ?
GAH - Can’t. zoom. in.
looks awesome. same artist as the other races?
looks new and fresh, but still GSB enough for GSB 
Oh My Gawd!!! They look supra awesome!!!
Ditto darkstars post 
Thinking on hulls using those sections >:D
Got my credit-card standing by, Cliff. The Parasite ships are intriguing…vaguely Rebel-ish. I can’t help but speculate about the new race’s tech capabilities, and what they may bring to the game with things that have not yet been done in GSB. Whenever you’re ready, bring it on!
Very cool. I like the sort of multiple-sections hull feel, kind of like the Order (but with a sense of symmetry). Hopefully these guys will be more appealing to the general population than our favorite red-hulled religious fanatics seem to have been?
Considering what I was thinking when I saw ‘Parasite’ as the name, pleasent surprise seeing the finished result. Looks swanky, can’t wait to see how this goes from here!
I like the Order very much…they’re my favorite DLC race. 
They introduced more new and radical tech to the game than any other DLC has: radiation guns & missiles, using a completely new method of damage propagation; firefly rockets; the clever anti-fighter limpet; and those awesome multi-hulled, tractorbeam-linked Space Opera-ish hulls with those huge & ominous pulsating energy reactors.
It’s my hope that the Parasites will likewise push back the limits of existing GSB tech by bringing something totally new and refreshing that wasn’t previously possible for players to do! 
Whole Heartedly Agree - I have been reading back through some of Cliff’s Blogs and I think we might be in for a shock
Cant wait for the next teaser post.
I haven’t even really decided on whether or not the parasites get any radical new weapons or equipment. game balance is always a worry. Plus the vast time taken to test and debug anything new.
Once I have all of the ship hulls configured and working in the game I need to actually balance the hull stats, and then think about new modules.
I am thinking about very rapid firing pulse laser type weapons. Something we haven’t really had is stuff with a massive salvo and then long reload time.
I’m open to suggestions (relatively simple ones pls :D) about what new areas of functionality you would like to see for them. I’ve always wondered if the means to teleport somewhere when in trouble might be a good idea. Or maybe ‘emergency thrusters’ that only kick in during retreat maneuvers.
suggestion: force fields.
a defensive module that projects a small force field against all weapons except missiles. works almost like PD modules, but against bullets and beams. has a limited stopping value, so that stronger weapons can punch through it.
i got the impression that these ships are weak and therefore has advanced force field tech to keep them together.
I like it, It might be a second form of shielding but i have no clue how easy or hard it will be to put into the game.
I dont know how simple any of these ideas are to impliment or what kind of damage they will do to the balance.
Personally i am happy to wait until you have the time to test them out fully rather to give the Parasite race a unique edge.
Few random weapon ideas
- Tractor beam that can crush its target (based on armor rating, high refire rate, low damage)
- Advanced EMP beam can deal damage
- Return to Sender Missile Guidance Scrambler
- Drone Launcher with 2 new flavors “anti missile” and “anti everything else”
- Salvo for Missiles and Plasma (so as your suggestiong plasma fires a salvo of 5 then Loooooong reload)
- Payloads for Plasma weapons
- Area effect payloads for bullet / missile / plasma weapons complete with gratuitous explosions
Modder stuff
- New turret slots, give the modders something to play with
- Enable the field “description” so we can port some of these stories into the scenario with mission based music.
- Multi race restriction in files for ships & weapon / a way to stop a modded race have access to standard weapons
- Weapon Upgrade system, multi stats in weapon file reduce the clutter in the interface
UI stuff
- Scroll bar for the weapons list in game and in the ship placement screen for people that have ships with 21 or more modules
I didn’t mean to imply the Order was bad. I love their clunky, asymmetric ships, and rad guns are always fun. But the Order challenges I used to see always seemed to be one-trick ponies (rad guns, rad guns and more rad guns). Hence the comment about them not seeming to appeal greatly to the player base. Could just be my perception, too.
I like this. We’ve seen many different race philosophies, but we don’t have one yet whose tech supports a philosophy of “He who fights and runs away, lives to run another day.” Or more simply, “RUN AWAY!!!”
This could be interesting. A race that incorporates damage into EVERYTHING it can do to the enemy. Sounds like something that belongs with parasites (aggressive ones that kill the host, anyway).
- Hull bonus: increasing (or decreasing) overall weapon damage
- Module: increasing weapon damage (all weapons or just beams OR bullets OR …)
- Missile-based weapon that infects its target. The infected ship fires now randomly on friendly AND enemy ships, for a short (moddable) time.
Obvious protection: Point-Defense, Scrambler, SmartBomb
Alternate protection: Standard Shield?, ECM-Shield?
I like your suggestions and especially this one.
Awesome ideas, but i love a lot more the highlighted ones.
MY GAWD! YES!! An emergency teleport system that makes the ship go an X range from the closest enemy in the oposite direction, with a good visual and sound effect and allow us to modify them would be EPIC!!!
A whole bunch of stuff I want to see, but first
- UNLIMITED TELEPORT!!! Please please please don’t waste such awesome potential on useless retreat only. Please don’t hardcode smart feature on it to make it useless. Just make it dumb and let it teleport after every cool down as though it is moving normally. The catch? Extremely heavy so a ship with one cannot move with engines, and must wait for the cooldown to TELEPORT. I can guarantee you that it won’t be OP as long as it’s properly priced (500 ish credits) and ships with 0.2 speed can catch up to them.
Also, please don’t hardcode the teleport range or the cooldown, and leave it in the txt for modders to play around with.
Besides, you know if an idea even sound remotely OP, I would be writing paragraphs to complain about it, and here I am not complaining.
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A “Beam” that disrupts shield instead of the current missile only.
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New type of weapon that can fire while the ship is camouflage
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A dumb camouflage that doesn’t try to be smart and just flicker on and off based on time duration.
Yes as a modder I always hope for new mechanics to work with.
Oh, i like this idea as well. Cliff was thinking something similar (a mini slot system) a long time ago.
Similar to the Modules that can increase the tracking speed have modules that increase
- Range
- Rate of Fire
- Damage
And as you suggested have a field where you can select which WeaponModule to effect (ie SIM_Bullet, SIM_Missile, SIM_BEAM etc)
I like the idea of a beam that returns missiles to the sender. That could be the ultimate hilarious counter to missile spam. Probably a nightmare to code (realtively) but would be truly hilarious.
Would especially be a delightful “in-your-face” to masses of EMP-missile-equipped frigates.