Lets make some new abilities!

from Sins Forums
Now that i am quite finished with my rebalance project (although there might be an update coming next week) i have turned my eye to the ships abilities.

Even with just editing the files directly and not with the forge tools, there are really a lot of abilities and i am currently playing around with what is possible and what isn´t.

I am currently making a few abilities that i´ll be using in my planned TC once the game is out. Even if the system is not final yet, its still much fun to play around with.

I have made a very nice self destruct ability (will be a ultimate capship ability) with which you can sacrifice the cap but damage or destroy anything in the vicinity.
The capital overloads its phase engines inside a gravity well and the cascade failure creates quite a shockwave.
After a fuse of 10 seconds everything in close proximity to the cap is damaged severly and everything further away still gets quite some.

Both enemy and your ships are being destroyed by this huge explosion.

I would like to make some videos to show you, cause it looks really nice ( i can´t edit particle systems yet, but i have rigged a few of the ones currently in use to produce some really nice effects :)

Sadly my gamecam makes SINS crash and fraps only produces corrupt avi files.
Any idea what capturing program i could use other than those?

Also give me your ideas for wacky or cool abilities you´d like to see.
I will make them and if you like create new files for them or make them instead of an existing ability so you can try them out ingame with your installation easily.
So give me all your ability ideas you like to see.

Once my video capturing works i can also show you the abilities you requested in videos if you don´t want to alter your sins installation (just create a backup you pussy :P)

That way we can also see what possible and what not and thus give the devs input in what we modders would like to see in the final :)
modding
26,726 views 47 replies
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
can you make a polymorph ability?
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
:LOL:
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
yesssss, mod war3 abilities into sins!

AKKAN GETS BLADESTORM!
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
sounds cool , and a great idea to boot!
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
will be a ultimate capship ability

a*n*

but anyway: "ultimate" capship ability??? as in level 6??? you should make it wipe out everything in half a gravity-well's radius!
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
seconded!
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

can you make a polymorph ability?


Best polymorph ever: I made a sheepmage, and gave it polymorph. It turned your enemies into villagers.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

will be a ultimate capship ability

a*n*

but anyway: "ultimate" capship ability??? as in level 6??? you should make it wipe out everything in half a gravity-well's radius!



ultimate = lvl6

It currently does 6000 damage to everything in a 3000 units radius and 3000 to everything in a 6000 units radius. Its a one shot, but it can kill whole fleets of frigates and cruisers very dead. Capships also get seriously hurt or destroyed.
If you save the antimatter until your cap is almost down anyways you can give the enemy a very serious blow!

One shot though :P

I will look into the polymorph thing, currently i have some templates to easily tranfer energy between shields, weapons and engines (i want to make a vario cruiser)

and i still need suggestion for a video capture program!
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Fraps is what we use at Ironclad.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
mhh, which version at what settings?
my version just produces corrupt files that i can´t convert anymore :/
Already tried redownloading.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
Here's an ability: Tractor Beam

It would have a very long range (if it didn't it probably wouldn't be very useful) and would grab a single target ship and rapidly pull it close to the ship that used the ability. This could be used on enemy ships to isolate them from their supporting fleet and pick them off or it could be used on a friendly ship to pull it quickly away from danger.

The use of this ability against a hostile unit would lend itself to a battleship/dreadnought type ship (such as the Kol) since you are dragging a victim in close for a slugfest. On the other hand, the use of this ability on friendly units would lend itself more towards a carrier type ship since those often (or more frequently than other cap ships at least) stay on the periphery of the battle so they would be in a good location to provide that sort of emergency extraction.


Another: Umbrella

The ship using this ability would receive a temporary massive increase in shield power (maybe 3-5X) and it's shields would expand to cover friendly units in a radius around it. Any damage that would have been taken by a nearby friendly unit is instead absorbed by this ships shield. But the ship using the ability would not be able to fire it's own weapons or move while the ability is in effect for two reasons: 1. This would keep the ship from using the ability to just protect itself and 2. It would be explained that the massive increase in shield power is only possible by redirecting power from all other ship systems.

This ability would probably be most appropriate for a support type ship such as the Dunnov or Akkan. It also seems very Adventish since from what little we know from the lore the Advent seem to be more shield oriented than the other races.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
It also seems very Adventish since from what little we know from the lore the Advent seem to be more shield oriented than the other races.


How so?
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

It also seems very Adventish since from what little we know from the lore the Advent seem to be more shield oriented than the other races.


How so?


Well, I don't know where it is off to now but many moons ago we had links to more information about each race including a few ships, abilities for said ships, and orbital structures. Maybe someone still has the old links stashed away somewhere (Multianna, you have those by any chance?). Anyways, one of the tidbits was that the Advent heavily used Psitech powers in combat. But these powers were restricted by thick armor plating. Therefore, most of their ships were made of thin, light materials to minimize the interference. They made up for the lack of armor with more reliance on shields.

Then again I've been following this game for what... 2 years now? So this could have all changed by now.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
WWW Link sins.bz download
God awful quality :p
At least i got i working, now, but i only can record 30 second shorts with the trial version :/
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
Well i have modded the next bit:

A tanker station: (converted trade station)

The station periodically spawns tanker ships that can transfer their own antimatter to a targets ship (ability).
They can not phasejump (ability) so they can only service ships inside the gravwell the station was built.
The station itself has an aura (ability) that restores antimatter to nearby ships, that way you can refuel your tankers when they return after a trip or ships that stand very close by to the station aswell.

But be warned the station also blows up if it is destroyed (ability) damaging all ships in the vicinity, so the refuel aura should better not be used in combat situations, use your free tankers instead.

The tanker will automatically fly to ships nearby their position (you can station them anywhere near the gravity well) refuel and then return to their station.

I am currently working on something to let them return automatically to the fuel port when they are empty, dunno how to do this right now.
If the ai gets moddable in the full game this should be doable, but maybe i can find a workaround aswell :)

Antimatter (or its equivalent) distribution will be a critical ressource for one of the races in my TC as they are heavily reliant on it for their abilities/weapon systems.
Only with enough juice they will be able to show their full force, so keep an eye for your fleets supply ;)
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
thats awesome.

AWESOME. :HOT:
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
So, i have finished my vario cruiser now, you can buff with its abilities either weapons, speed or shields by 25% but each ability lowers the other two by 15%.
The abilities cost nothing to cast, but as energy gets lost in the transfer its not good to activate them all at once, only the one you are currently needing.
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
anti-bomber shield umbrella ability

Basically anything under the protective umbrella which has a limited radius whilst active is 90% resistant to bomb attack damage. The unit can be a cruiser that specialises in protecting caps from being alpha-bombed by hunter carrier packs for a short duration.
The ability has no effect on other weapons. The Lore , is that the umbrella creates a disruption field that causes bombs to malfunction by disabling their circuitry.





Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
I have a very nice new ability:

The black hole generator

This device that can be dropped at a given location by a support cruiser.
It can then be activated remotely to create an immense gravity field, drawing all vessels friendly or enemy to it and crush them by its strong gravitational forces.
The larger the ship, the slower the pull.
Once near the source the ships hull gets crushed and eventually destroyed.
The larger the ship the higher the damage done.
Once activated the generator is ripped apart by its on forces and destroyed 60 seconds after activation.
The gravitational crush ignores shields and directly damages the hull.
The generator is shielded to prevent it from being easily prematurely destroyed.
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
Nasty!
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
its a good area denial weapon and nasty for traps near jumppoints :)
As usual gravity messes with the phasedrives, so if you manage to catch the enemy fleet in one of these just after a jump they are in a world of hurt ^^


Edit: @P5yy

Made your ability, was not much of a problem.
Worked it analog to the akkans target computer.
only that it targets enemy bombers and reduces their damage, aslong as they are in range of the projecting ship.

Nice idea for an ability, i like it :)

Anybody any other ideas they want to see realized, or see if they can be realized with the game in its current state?
Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top
I would like to see a pure and simple stealth ability which takes cloaked ships off the radar but leaves you with faint graphical artifacts when viewing their movement.

Not unlike the Spy paranoia that infests Team Fortress 2.

What is really important though is ships do not have a 100% cloak, you just have to look real hard into the darkness of space.....