Tryptic's Mod V3 Under Construction

posted on April 4th, 2016, 12:00 pm

Hey guys, just wanted to keep anyone updated who's still paying attention XD

I have been delving deep into Tryptic's Mod for the past 2 days and enjoying myself thoroughly. I am beginning work on two major features to be added to the game.

The first major feature will be that once a Mixed-Tech variant of a ship has been unlocked, ships of that class will have the option to be refitted into it. I would like to put these refits under a separate Refit menu once I learn how. This, along with some minor tweaks to the ships themselves, should complete the Mixed Tech rework that I started before.

The second major feature will be reworking all of the Starbase upgrades. Each race will be given a unique upgrade tree with one or more final options. For example, the Romulans will only ever have a single Starbase at a time. Their Disruptor Turrets will be dirt cheap, but the energy field is limited. An upgraded Starbase will receive massive sensor range and the ability to support more turrets.

The Borg, on the other hand, will be able to construct multiple Assimilation Matrixes for relatively cheap, however only one will be active at any given time (the one containing the Borg Queen). They will have the ability to move the Queen to any Assimilation Matrix, bringing its weapons and manufacturing abilities online.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for what the other races' starting buildings should get, feel free to post them here. I'm still in the planning phase and looking for good ideas to make them all unique and interesting.

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These big changes are going to keep me occupied for a little while, but I am still taking balance feedback into account. If anyone is interested, I am seriously in need of the following art assets:

New model and/or texture for Generix Centurion class
New buttons for Mixed-Tech Refits (a picture of the ship with a glow outline in the color of the other race will do fine)
New button for Generix Centurion refit
New button for Generix Refits technology
New button for Rhienn Refits technology
New button for Mixed Tech Transfer
New animation/sound for Mixed Tech Transfer
If you are feeling ambitious, new models for the outposts with little doodads added as they are upgraded

posted on April 4th, 2016, 2:02 pm

Sounds like you caught the modding bug again.

posted on April 6th, 2016, 12:13 am

Good to see! I'm looking forward to what you come up with.

posted on April 6th, 2016, 12:21 am

well, as it stands so far I've bitten off a very big chunk of coding with the Mixed-Tech refits >_<

So that will take me a few days at least. I still need to analyze the cost of the Mixed-Tech ships and come up with refit costs, since I am having all of my refits cost a little bit more than building the ship from a yard. I'm thinking of making the refit be the cost of the Mixed-Tech variant minus the cost of the regular ship, plus maybe 15% of the regular cost. The refit will take 30 seconds and reduce the ship's hitpoints to half while it is refitting. Does that sound about right to you guys?

Even with the extra cost, the ability to apply Mixed-Tech bonuses to your existing fleet without even building a Mixed-Tech yard should serve as a strong incentive to trade techs, I think

I'm about to apply this to 12 ships x 6 ranks x 2 avatars for a total of 144 entries plus the supporting files, so changing it later will be kind of a pain.

posted on May 12th, 2016, 11:39 am

Status?

posted on May 12th, 2016, 2:51 pm

I'm about to apply this to 12 ships x 6 ranks x 2 avatars for a total of 144 entries plus the supporting files, so changing it later will be kind of a pain.

Wish I'd read this earlier.

I'd argue against halving HP during refit, as this penalises races without cloaked scouting. I'd also suggest making refit time dependent on rank, say from 20 seconds from starting / no tech ship to 30 seconds to top tier.

Cost seems fine, though some mixed-tech ships are more worth it than others. Doubt I'd ever use a mixed-tech E2, while the mixed-tech Defiant is a must have.

posted on May 12th, 2016, 5:41 pm

Well, I've made some minor adjustments to the less-useful Mixed-tech ships to try to bring them into line (Klingon-Romulan Brel gains Advanced Cloak for example)

Status update! I am nearly done, completed all of the mixed-tech refits and the tool-tips, now I'm just working on cleaning up the hotkeys. I'm going to call this version Tryptic's Mod 2.4.

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Then I'll begin working on Tryptic's Mod 3, which will feature an overhaul of the Borg faction. Here is my current thinking:

I'm going to remove CC as a resource that gathers over time. Instead, the Borg will have a mechanic called Vinculums.

Scoutcubes, Dodecahedrons, and Adaptors use Small Vinculums
Assimilators, Spheres, and Pyramids use Medium Vinculums
Diamonds and Cubes use Large Vinculums.

The Borg player must build Small, Medium, and Large Vinculums which function as ship caps. When a ship is destroyed, its Vinculum is recovered and can be reused. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the cost of a Borg ship will be its Vinculum, depending on the ship of course. This should have several effects on the Borg faction, most notably:

1. Continuing to build small ships for scouting in the late game will be easier, since you already have their Vinculums. A late-game Scoutcube will no longer cost 700 Dilithium to crank out, since it is no longer worth that much.

2. Losing a cube will no longer mean losing the game for a Borg player, as it does in the current version. The initial investment to produce a cube will still be huge, as will fielding multiple cubes at once. However, building a single cube, losing it, and rebuilding it will become cheaper; after a cube is killed, the enemy will need to push and take advantage of the victory before another cube comes out. The Borg player no longer loses the entire game the moment his cube is destroyed.

Let me know what you guys think of this idea, as it's still in the early stages. I want to make sure this system limits Borg rushes in the early game, as that's a big part of why the devs added CC in the first place. But I believe it has really good potential, and will make them easier and more fun to play.

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Note that the unique starbases are also planned for V3, and I've already worked out some more mechanics for them ^_^

posted on May 15th, 2016, 10:05 am

Hey Tryptic,

sounds very interesting!

I am curious: what will become with the Conduction Matrix and its technologies, since they are no longer important? Do you plan to increase the costs of vessels (vinculum+chassis+moduls) to balance the Borg vs. the other races?

Will it be possible to build the Transmission Matrix right from the start?

I suppose each vinculum will be a structure... What size do you plan for the 3 versions of vinculums?

Will you be able to change the AI, so that it builds vinculums intead of the normal structures?

Thx for your answers!

posted on May 17th, 2016, 4:04 am

Well, keep in mind I don't have the ability to add new models to the game (unless someone feels like helping XD)

Vinculums will be a set of three research options at the Conduction Matrix, and will replace Node Levels. Players will be able to do them over and over to increase the number of Vinculums available.

Of course this will require a lot of rebalancing, which will be tricky given my limited resources. I'll give more information as I get further into the project.