Full Thrust

[Keldane]

Full Thrust is a tabletop fleet combat game created by Ground Zero Games. The rules are available for free from their website, and are designed to be compatible with any setting you want to adapt them to. It is due to this adaptability, which necessitates a simple set of weapons, that I selected it for my first modding attempt.

The pictures I have to share are of my attempts at developing the core three weapons of the ruleset - those being C, B, and A-Class laser batteries (magenta, blue, and cyan, respectively). At this point in time, I'm torn between the two styles. I have Beam batteries:


Or Pulse Batteries:
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Some other information on the mod:

- Shields, called screens in this setting, only protect against laser batteries. Additionally, they only reduce the damage taken, rather than absorbing incoming fire.
- Ships have far less survivability than your average Nexus ship.
- Weapons have a much greater range than your average Nexus weapon. A-Class Batteries and Plasma Torpedoes can fire at ships up to 20,000 meters away.
- Accuracy is quite low, ranging from 16% to 50% hit chances.
- The mod will be designed to use predefined Ship Types, and as such, will be balanced for them.
- As shown, the mod will feature custom weapon animations. It will not, however, feature any custom ship designs.

So, could I trouble the folks here to weigh in with their opinions?

[Arparso]

Sounds definitely interesting, although I can't say much more without having actually played it.

As for the weapon's looks: with that many laser effects around I'd prefer the pulse laser approach - using beams exclusively makes it hard to see who's firing at whom while you can still see the movement direction of pulse lasers. You could also try mixing them... make A-class lasers look like beams and the rest become pulse lasers.

[Keldane]

I'm going to need to figure out how to make AI ships use the longest range weapons beyond 10 000 m, otherwise the only benefit they'll draw from A-Class Batteries will be an increased accuracy when within normal firing ranges. =P

So far, the only flaw I've found with pulse lasers is the sheer demand on the video card when you have a large number of ships firing at the same time. The lag I experienced there, though, was pretty much the same as I would have in any other scenario where there were that many ships attacking one another at once. It probably wouldn't be a significant issue for most people playing the game, and for people like myself who dare to game with an integrated video card that shares system memory, it might be somewhat problematic at times.

[Keldane]

UPDATE:

Sixteen ship classes have been defined, ranging from the extremely fragile but fast Courier to the tenacious and ponderous Super Dreadnought. So far, they only use A, B, and C-Class laser batteries, and basic multi-role fighters. If I can get my graphics card to cooperate (and the AI to stop panicking), I anticipate being able to release my first demo video before early next week.

Edit:
And here we are! A-Class Battery Demonstration.

Edit2:
First successful integration of Arparso's Warfare mini-mod into a mission. I must have spent upwards of an hour trying to get it to work, only to realize I was missing the Include line. *facepalm*