Modding Discussion A custom race we would like to see

Discussion in 'Starbound Modding' started by Shadow20218, May 6, 2017.

?

Would anyone like to see this race?

  1. Yes

  2. Maybe something similar...

  3. Don't care

  4. Yes, with this change- *respond in thread*

Results are only viewable after voting.
  1. Shadow20218

    Shadow20218 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    We would like to see or help create a race of our own design but we have no prior experience in creating mods or any sort of pixel art. Unfortunately we have no way to create our own race and do not posses much motivation to do anything as it is. But this is not a pity seeking post.

    The race we wish to create is very specific, a race of AI robots inserted into the heart of corpses. Sorry not much of an artist so we aren't that great at rendering images of the way we would like this to look. The race is based off the character from this song:

    created by GHOST on Youtube, if GHOST asks for this to come down or any changes it will happen. However we simply wish to put this up for a mod creator with more experience to at least consider.

    The lore:
    A small underground corporation know as GHOSTS (in honor of GHOST) creating Robotic Heart AI, (RHA) in an attempt to create a Glitch like robot. There intention is to create these Artificial Intelligences' as scientists to explore the universe, expand social knowledge of any other races in the universe, and expand general knowledge of inter planetary physics.

    Before the destruction of earth, some were deployed into the protectorate at an attempt to learn how to construct matter manipulators of their own and to expand the technology (players' reason to be in the protectorate)

    After the destruction of Earth GHOSTS was destroyed and the remaining robots had experienced no major changes as most were outside the normal ranges of communication for the GHOSTS to reach them that far out in space. Those that were in range of Earth during the destruction (such as the player) feel released from duties to the GHOSTS. They now explore the universe in search of a planet they considered perfect habitation.

    The Race:
    Because they posses complete connection to their bodies they will protect it from destruction but will replace it if they find it to be damaged or for other reasons unusable. During transfer the AI will be moved from the corpse to a endoskeleton to perform self restoration or replacement of corpse. They will enhance their body with internal or external enhancements where ever they see fit. They will use stationary they created to expand their capabilities.

    Due to the weakness of the structure between the flesh and some external components they require a steady stream of maintenance to keep them running in optimal conditions.

    Some prefer to create stationary databases and create safe havens around them to defend them selves to expand the data base as they feel that by doing so they can expand their knowledge of the planet they re on. They may also abandon these bases after learning what they can from the place to move onto a new location, after destroying everything they can. They may leave automated defenses in place to defend the main terminal but they will mainly move that and the entirety of the database along with them.

    Due to their curiosity and disconnection from the GHOSTS, see lore, they will kill others of any race to observe their anatomy personally, see capabilities to make them into an outer shell, and/or see if they posses any cybernetic enhancements, that may be taken and improved. If they find another of their own race they will attempt to dismantle them to their cores for replacement parts, however they will never destroy another AI.They will connect them to a database within their ship to extract all knowledge and 'memories' from their databank, or they may take the AI and give them another less high maintenance body in order to reform them as a crew member.

    In game:
    -designs
    They would posses a body based off the vanilla races, however all have a collection of wires in the center of the chest. Some variation have wires externally on other parts of the body.

    -crafting
    They would have an endoskeleton android aboard the ship for crafting bodies, armors, and vanity
    have specialize healing stations that appear to remove the AI for repair and general maintenance
    Specialized food crafting to make foods that they can eat

    -ship
    An older more damage ship with a central database and communications center that the GHOSTS could provide on a larger scale.

    -armors
    They are capable of enhancing their body through the use of most normal methods; armour, injections, or techs. However they also are capable of enhancing their body from stealing techs from other RHAs or other robots, meaning they can craft unique robotic items or armour types to enhance certain aspects of themselves, such as energy reserves, durability, health of body or damage.
    can craft racial of armors that can suit their corpse
    - will craft armors around the body in the station to go on the AI
    - Can craft external wiring or machinery to improve movements
    - will use robotic components to do so, but become more specialized in stats
    vanity
    -Can craft external wiring or machinery on bodies
    - see GHOST's mv for examples
    - Can craft "corpses" of other races

    -food
    They are incapable of eating so they must take raw ores or minerals to make a "food" like substance for the body to break down and add to the construct. (FR style carnivore debut but for all normal foods)

    -stats (FR style)
    -Due to the frailty of the external frames of their bodies, they have extremely lower health than most races.
    -Because they are robotic they have a higher energy capacity, but take longer to regenerate it. (FR Glitch stat)
    -They posses immunities to most poisons, gases, no oxygen necessity, and radiations, as long as they replace the body (acting as a radiation sponge) from time to time.
    -their attack would be slightly lower as they are not combat focused



    All suggestions are open however know all will not simply be taken
    If any modern wishes to take this project up or at least inspiration from this thread, please notify us as we wish to see any mods like it
     
  2. projectmayhem

    projectmayhem Spaceman Spiff

    Sounds really cool :) Good luck!
     
  3. DraikNova

    DraikNova Spaceman Spiff

    Hmm, seems interesting. I'll see if I can whip up some simple sprites for you tomorrow. The fragility of their frames, reduced damage and increased energy capacity is probably something I can get into the base mod if you want; no need for FR. As for a ship pet, perhaps some sort of grub/maggotlike creature with mechanical enhancements (the implication being that it produces preservatives for their frames)? Something like this, but less humanoid. If I understand correctly, the GHOSTs themselves should look like mildly technologically enhanced human corpses (in a vaguely frankensteinian fashion, which is to say with weird, off-kilter proportions, only vaguely explicable metallic parts, like bands to keep the corpse from bursting, mechanical limbs with a resemblance to old-fashioned prosthetics, stuff like that) normally, and go through a fully robotic stage in their respawn animation? I'll see what I can do. Making settlements might have to be sacrificed, since the variety of such a species would be difficult to achieve with just one species file given Starbound's limitations on how varied a single species can look like, unless you'd prefer that I'd make some mechanical enhancements armor-only, rather than part of character creation?

    As for why I'd want to limit their appearance to human corpses only, I'd have to make seven times the sprites and seven times the species files if I wanted to do otherwise, which would clog up the species select screen tremendously as well. I also doubt the creepyness factor would transfer over to all races.

    So, my current thoughts on how to implement this as best as possible: I'll try and exploit the hairstyle system to make it possible to replace the eyes with various creepy implements, some cosmetic and some functional armors will give the arms or legs the appearance of being replaced with mechanical prosthetics; these armors would be crafted at a crafting station that looks like an android. I'm not sure how to make an object usable only by one species, and it seems to me that more damage would be sustained to their frames than to their CPUs, so I'm not sure about the healing station idea. As for foods, I don't think making most vanilla foods inedible to them would be balanced. Making all those foods inedible would also be a lot of work. There are 220 food items in the game if I remember correctly, and having each and every one of those go through the steps to check the player's species would be a pain in the butt to do. (nevermind, didn't read that that was FR only. I still think giving them the capability to eat normal foods makes sense though; see following lines) So I'd suggest saying that they use gut bacteria like humans do, but state in a lore codex that one of the reasons they're so frail is that, given their corpse frames, these bacteria have a nasty tendency to break down the user's flesh as well.

    I'd also like to know whether you've contacted GHOST regarding this mod.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2017
    projectmayhem likes this.
  4. Shadow20218

    Shadow20218 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    We completely forgot about ship pets... the grub is an interesting idea, perhaps though a small repair droid could be aboard to repair the ship, however they would not directly provide any REAL effect, just appear to be repairing the ship by stopping extending a welder, heating, then leaving; it could replace the sleeping animation.

    Yes the normal style of villages or towns, were sacrificed form the beginning as it did not seem to fit how these style of characters would work but we have recently thought of Dungeons based on the safe havens they would build for their databases, or abandoned wrecked ones after they have moved onto new planets.

    Yeah, the human only thing would make sense since they are based on earth and only know of the species on that planet, from the protectorate and don't have the corpses of those.

    The Frankenstein idea would be interesting but, we think the design process would be easier with the parts of the corpse coming from one body, to simplify the process. There is also the fact that one of their primary objectives is to interact with other races, and they would appear to be a technological enhance individual if the corpse is one whole rather than an amalgamate of pieces. GHOST in their music video had done an excellent design regarding a single body.
    Perhaps the Frankenstein style characters could be used in abandoned bases or some sort of test facility, in other words as dungeons monsters, like the mutated apex.
    if you would like to create your own Frankensteinesk race, feel free to, no complaints on our end.

    The digestive issues are very interesting and yes we agree that this makes sense.

    Regarding armor, the idea of mechanical prosthetics is an interesting one that would be nice. However do not forget that the heart is where the AI is sending electrical impulses through the nerves to manipulate the body. The healing station could be something like a workbench and the idea behind it is that the AI is removed while the body is repaired, so as to not have any possibility the AI could be damaged in the process, and it could be inspected in case it did take damage.


    What sorts of programming software would you recommend? We have never done a mod before and have been incapable of finding anything for a MacBook pro OS X. Would you happen to have anything for it? If there is no way then that means we're stuck with just providing ideas.


    We have not contacted GHOST in regards of this mod, as it is only based on a character from a song they wrote. May we ask why you are interested?
     
  5. DraikNova

    DraikNova Spaceman Spiff

    The reason I would like to make sure this mod is okay with GHOST is to make sure I don't put in a lot of effort into something that gets vetoed at the last second. As for why I'm interested, well, I like the style this race suggestion seems to have, and I haven't done a full-blown race mod yet and I want to learn from this opportunity.

    As for programming software, Starbound modding involves very little actual coding. It's possible to make an entire mod with zero coding, in fact, since 95% of Starbound modding involves a: making a sprite, b: writing a simple plaintext file indicating to the game what the thing you're adding is, the name, etc and where to find the sprite and c: adding a reference to the relevant place for it to be created. So, to make a Starbound mod, here's what you'll need to do:
    1: Unpack your assets: there's a tutorial on how to do this in this very forum. You need to do this to know the file structure of Starbound's own files, because you'll have to mimic that when making a mod so Starbound can read your files properly. It's also good to get a reference on how certain things are coded.
    2: Get a plain-text editor: Notepad++ is the most commonly used one for Starbound modding, but it's only for windows. You might have to search around a bit to find one that works for you.

    Congrats, that's all you really need.

    As for the ship pets, of course they wouldn't really apply any special effects, but I thought it would add some flavor. As for the Frankenstein thing, I meant that less in the "several corpses stitched together" sense and more in the "parts of the corpse are kind of mutilated to make space for the mechanical components", to give them the slightly off-kilter look of the character in the video, since I'm not sure how much of the style of the species could be brought through the sprites if I were to stick to making their non-human traits more subtle. As for the mechanical prosthetics, I was mostly basing it off of the various looks the individual in the video had. I was thinking of making the ski-stick-like leg prosthetics and the wing-like arm prosthetics part of the damage and the energy-based top-tier armor sets. It's also worth figuring out what clothing sets should be accessible to them as part of character creation.

    Regarding the healing station, I'm worried that that might make a vanilla feature, the medic crew member, useless, although it would definitely help compensate for their reduced health. And, again, I'm not sure I could get the workbench to work for only this species.

    As for more concrete things, I was thinking of just using the basic human sprites, recoloring them to be slightly more washed out and corpse-colored, and adding some minor mechanical details, including a square area near the gut to house the CPU.

    Oh, and here's a useful resource for modding I found: http://community.playstarbound.com/resources/unofficial-modding-ebook-2-0.2930/
    It lists some good text editors for Mac, and also explains how Starbound's file formats work and stuff like that. There's also this tutorial if you'd prefer to learn using a video:
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2017
    Shadow20218 likes this.
  6. Shadow20218

    Shadow20218 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Excellent help, just going to say that first. That just simplified our search so much.

    Your right about the ship pet, it is purely atheistic but we just wanted a different animation then sleeping, as even the avail drones, a robot, sleeps.
    Thank you for explaining the Frankenstein thing, and yes that would make sense. Yeah and that seems more right for the characters. And yeah your right about the character creation.

    The haling station, at least in our option, doesn't completely make the medic useless, as the medic provides a mobile source of free healing. And it would be a more mid to late game item, perhaps durasteel would a fine level due to planets at any higher level providing a decent amount of healing items as it is.
     
  7. DraikNova

    DraikNova Spaceman Spiff

    Okay, so a durasteel-level healing station seems reasonable. I think I even have an idea that'll make it look non-awkward even if used by other races. If I can get the coding to work, I'll see if I can throw in an additional "apply elemental resistance status effect if given this resource" thing as well, to make it more than just a really powerful bed. If you try and contact GHOST to make sure that this is okay with them, then I'll try and have the first sprites ready for you tomorrow evening.
     
    Shadow20218 likes this.
  8. Shadow20218

    Shadow20218 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    EFFFFFFF.... GHOST said no. Well there goes our ideas, might still make it for personal use but never be permitted to release it.
     
  9. DraikNova

    DraikNova Spaceman Spiff

    Well, we could also just come up with an alternate name for the species and ask if it's ok with them now that we've removed their name from any actual content of the mod.
     
  10. Shadow20218

    Shadow20218 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    The species was of our creation, they had no name other than the vocaloid singer in the song. The only thing from GHOST is the general design from drawings and the AI in the heart. We have asked but no response yet.
     

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