TBR’S MINISTRY PAGE
…So. I was, a ways back, going to do a full rewrite of the ships in the game with the intent of giving all of them forty facings. I didn’t have access to the original graphics at the time and didn’t know about PSD, meaning I now have approximately a metric kackton of ships.
I suppose that means I should do something with them.
Wolfy is partially to blame for this one, since he’s the one who suggested it. I say “partially” because there’s a high probability that I would have eventually done something along these lines, anyway. And since I already had the ships built, it was mostly just a matter of assembling them into factions as necessary — which took some mix-n’-match work, since a lot of vanilla factions only have, like, two or three ships, and I wanted a certain feel of stylistic continuity between them. Fortunately, a few of the ships were fairly easy to convert into stations, which solves part of the problem Wolfy seems to run into a lot. What I have in mind is somewhere around eight factions and an alternate path, starting from either Eridani or Tau Ceti, through to somewhere around Point Juno or thereabouts.
To that end, here are some of the ideas I have for factions:
» Avian Enterprises — If you’ve used my mod that put out a few new playerships, this is what the AE stands for. Here, it will be a Corporate-style faction. They’ll accept either credits or rins, but will probably only pay out in one or the other (which will likely depend on system level). I’m not planning on a direct conversion between the currencies at their stations, but buying from them in one currency and selling it in another will be doable. One of the highlights at the stations will be either a weapon, device, or set of four armor segments with the NotForSale attribute (which may or may not be useful, depending on what the RNG feels like throwing at you, since you could easily wind up with a Heavy CLAW or an Ares Plasma Archcannon at any of them).
» The Quadri Collective — Also introduced in my playership mod as one of the NPC ships. No concrete plans as yet, save that they’re a non-hostile AI.
» Legion — The name may be expanded later. The idea here is a group of neo-human supremacists who are hostile toward any they deem to be lesser beings. Yes, this includes you. While their long term goal may be galactic domination, in the short term they just want to wipe out any non-neo-human races. The good news here is that they really don’t have the resources to pull it off, and most other neo-humans are bright enough not to trade extensively with them.
» The Lambda Coalition — A mercenary faction. You never know what faction they’ll be (whether vanilla or mod) at any given encounter. You’ll have the option to hire a wingman or two at their stations.
» Bane Starshipwrights — Religious extremists with a chip the size of Jupiter on their collective shoulder. Having renounced Domina in favor of Oracus, they feel they’ve been betrayed by him as well. Now they just want to see it all burn.
» The Beasts — A federation of risen zoanthropes who have overthrown their neo-human masters. They’re generally only friendly with Ferians, and are in particular hostile towards slavers and neo-humans.
» Trinity — A religious order other than the more commonly accepted Domina and Oracus churches. This faction consists of three subfactions, and while they’re all friendly with one another, they have their own individual alliances and enemies. None of them like either Domina or Oracus, or any of their followers. This includes pilgrims.
» Afus Independents — A group of three neutral and unaligned ships. No particular friends or enemies.
» The Yatfwan Accord and Ironground Jurisdiction — These two factions are openly at war with one another. The Yatfwan Accord believes the Ironground Jurisdiction want to eliminate personal freedoms; the Ironground Jurisdiction thinks the Yatfwan Accord are bent on sowing chaos and dissent. …Neither side is really particularly wrong.
The Yatfwan Accord is technically a neutral faction, but they will attack slavers and Ironground or Commonwealth Militia/Fleet vessels. If you have a military rank, this also includes you.
The Ironground Jurisdiction is technically a hostile faction, but will only attack if attacked first. The exceptions to this are Black Market vessels — including yours, if you have a Black Market rank — which they will attack on sight.
» Haetenaro Union — An outlaw faction of unknown motivation, but they’re very definitely not friendly with the Black Market. Further details once I work them out. ¬.¬;
» d’Etat Protectorate — A neutral faction under the protection of the Ironground Jurisdiction, largely because Ironground didn’t think they would be capable of making them part of the Jurisdiction.
» The Unbound — A neutral but unpredictable faction, in which individual ships may occasionally decide they aren’t so neutral after all. Loosely allied with (but not a part of) the Yatfwan Accord
» The Starborn — Space hippies, in so many words. Peace and love toward almost everyone. They’re not quite pacifists, but have a very much live-and-let-live philosophy.
» The Zyrran Magistracy — A low level friendly faction with a death-before-dishonor mentality.
Also planned in this mod are a handful of new weapons, armors, and devices, some sidequest stuff that can score you points with either the Yatfwan Accord or Ironground Jurisdiction (probably including an upgrade of some sort to your ship from each), and at least one really good boss fight before you get to Point Juno. More stuff will likely creep in along the way. I am probably going to be asking coding questions throughout creating this thing, though. A lot of them.
Currently Completed:
» A lot.
To Be Done:
» A lot more.
Also, just so it’s easier to find both for anyone who wants to see it and for me when I want to update it, here’s an image of all of the ships currently included in TBR.
