Mod challenges 2.0

[Betelgeuse]

ok all you modders do you think you are good? here are some challenges that are all doable but will test your skill. Remember expandability (adding new things to the mod without touching the original file) is always a wanted feature.

random spawns that slow down: The basic idea is that the longer the player is in a system the enemy wouldn't keep on sending things to there death so the time between random spawns would increase.

every ship is unique: no ship/station will have the same devices as any other ship in its class (you can treat things with different enhancements as different items)

no gates: Make a game where there are no gates but there will be a way to the end in every game (the last gate doesn't count).

friends with the pirates: make a mod where if you have a certain item equipped you can dock and trade with various pirates but if you don't have it they will shoot on site.

not friends with the commonwealth: make a mod where just having a certain item makes the commonwealth attack on site but once the item is not on you they are fine (bonus points for spawning hunters from the commonwealth if you have the item)

[Periculi]

no gates: Make a game where there are no gates but there will be a way to the end in every game (the last gate doesn't count).

A) I created a mod that does remove the necessity of gates already- it's uses Nav items to GateTo the Node directly and all the gates point to a 'drainage' link to SE...

Umm... B) the gates are an important part of the game mechanics for the ship AI and Spawns and such, don't you think? I think that they are needed as fundamental and intrinsic elements for the game engine, Betel.

I know that I had a system with gates that didn't connect to anything and the ships piled up on the gates and continually attempted to leave, but they couldn't actually gate out!

Lot's of code would break softly, such as domina pointing out the "outbound" gate.

And I seem to recall that Nodes without gate settings crash the game.

And what happened to Mod Challenge 1? I think you had one entrant there... did he umm... get the prize or what?

[Betelgeuse]

he got a prize of being one of the top modders

but two things I wanted from the no gate system would be the ability to return to places you have already been and verifying that there is a way to the end (no being lazy and just making a set path). As for spawns well that is also part of the challenge. It wouldn't be much of a challenge just to make a set of gate items. (that is fairly trivial)

but as before soft crashes are not important (those can be fixed) as long as you can show a proof of concept you win

[F50]

I just about have the pirate thing done. All I would have to do is to attach it to an item. I even have missions for the pirate outposts almost done (anti-korolov). Once I finish that I have another set of missions and two unique missions and then I will have a complete mod, but it could easily be released early for this challenge 8).

random spawns that slow down: how is that possible with current mechanics?

every ship is unique: no fair, already done by Periculi.

not friends with CW: redundant with pirates.

[digdug]

the "every ship is unique" is easily done by expanding the randEquip mod to all the ships and by adding a random enhancement of the installed weapon.
Random colored ships are not possible because <ImageVariants> is not implemented for <ShipClass>. Unless you add duplicates of every ship ingame with different colors, speed,...

[Betelgeuse]

when I say every ship is unique I mean it, no matter how many ships you destroy and how many reinforcements and spawns get called no ship will be like any other ship that has ever been created (I don't care about graphics)

And just to make sure I want 0 chance not a low chance of them being the same. (the random equip mod does not satisfy this)

[Periculi]

And just to make sure I want 0 chance not a low chance of them being the same. (the random equip mod does not satisfy this)

Yet it merely wet the appetite for truly unique ships, I see.

[Betelgeuse]

I just about have the pirate thing done. All I would have to do is to attach it to an item. I even have missions for the pirate outposts almost done (anti-korolov). Once I finish that I have another set of missions and two unique missions and then I will have a complete mod, but it could easily be released early for this challenge 8).

sounds cool just remember just having the item doesn't count in the pirate one, you have to have it equipped and for the commonwealth one you have to consider that you can find it randomly (both things not hard to do)

remember this is about expanding your skills so I would love to see how you did it and have other people see it too so they can gain from your work. 8)

[F50]

Another idea for a contest mod: make CW and armor dealers (bushido, Mayakev, etc.) only give regular loot instead of a the huge list they give now. I assume that Ares communes are as loaded as CW settlements, so there's no reason they should have a vast disparity in loot. Bonus for doing it with pirate/ranx/sung/ares stations.

remember this is about expanding your skills so I would love to see how you did it and have other people see it too so they can gain from your work. 8)

Indeed. The pirate mod was my first mod where I dealt with serious scripting, so it has significantly expanded my skills. I intend to describe what I have done when I am finished to a degree in which other modders can do the same thing to, say, the Ares or Ranx or Sung. Its not that hard, although I had some snags. One of the biggest changes I would like (but probably won't bother to mod myself until I have all the missions completed) is described in the contest suggestion above.