Calling all Survivors! The REAL "PSC in Space"

[MongooseCalledFred]

Incoming Transmission from Federation High Command!*
I have a proposition. I want to make a PSC mod for Halcyon 6. My qualifications:

• 137 hours of Halcyon 6 playtime
• Familiarity with the Halcyon 6 .lua's
• My only other real previous mod was a copy-and-paste with my own images, effectively what would happen here (minus the images).

Summary: I think I can make the .lua files do just about anything they were intended to do, maybe more. However, I don't know PSC--all I could do by myself is scrap together some names from the forums and whatever statistics I could find on blogs. This is where you come in.

With your help, we can make a mod that captures the maximum PSC feel possible. Here's what I want to include, in stretch goal order:

• Replace the officer names with Survivors' names. Sign Ups here: http://forums.pleasestaycalm.com/index.php?topic=15749.0.
• Have Survivors pick their powers and traits.
• Replace the ground combat abilities with PSC weapons. (Possibly using the equipment system that I expect to be implemented.)
• Zombify the random encounters.
• PSC-ify the space combat abilities.
• Rework the currencies to match PSC.
• Replace the existing factions with Apocalyptic factions. (Zombies? Green Zones?)
• Replace the whole plot with something one or more of you writes.

In theory, there is probably more that could be done, and that order does not need to hold if more complicated stuff gets support. Interested in making this happen? Suggestions? Questions? Comments? Post below!

*This is Halcyon Mongoose Modding Federation, the group I just created for keeping tabs on the people who want to help on the production end. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/HalcyonMMF Send me a PM if you want an invite.

[Nic Saunders]

This is an awesome idea!

I don't have any experience with H6 (yet), but if this can all be done, I'm surprised MDI hasn't thought about doing something like this already. (or maybe they have?)

Some thoughts from a regular PSC player:

There was a lot of PSC artwork salvaged from the game through screenshots. Weapons, player stats, zombies, misc. items, etc... We are still working on finding good ways to share these images though, so you have to ask around.

Would factions make sense to line up with PSC strongholds? There were about 25 popular ones at the end of the game, plus many, many older ones that had storied histories.

There are definitely writers in the community too if you go that route. I think you'll see significant support for something like this. At least I hope you do.

[MDI_Cassentra]

This mashup is MDI approved.

It'll be neat to see where this goes! Have fun, Commander Survivors.

[MongooseCalledFred]

Would factions make sense to line up with PSC strongholds? There were about 25 popular ones at the end of the game, plus many, many older ones that had storied histories.

There are definitely writers in the community too if you go that route. I think you'll see significant support for something like this. At least I hope you do.

Factions could line up with strongholds, if someone comes up with a good plot. The current factions are pretty much "ask for help when the Chruul show up, raid each other, and try to make you think you're getting the better end of the deal." That's not the impression the forums give me of the strongholds. However, all that interaction ought to be moddable, so it should be fairly simple to rewrite faction behavior to something more like friendly rivalry. I'm guessing Halcyon 6 itself (the player faction) would be one of the strongholds, maybe a new one.

[MongooseCalledFred]

I found a tweet on the Halycon 6 twitter that showed an alien officer with a new ground combat animation. That tells me that modding the animations will be possible. Unless I can recruit an artist or the mod tools are really strong, I'll probably use whatever the stock animations are.

At the moment, I'm thinking of limiting the officer pool to the sign-ups and making everyone available at the start. Reworking powers shouldn't be too hard. I just have to wait for the branching progression system to see how much they change.

[MongooseCalledFred]

I have some new ideas for the mod.

Announcing: Please Shoot Chruul

Story: The Chruul invade the way they normally do. After promoting your first officer, you discover a prototype time ship. It's a bit questionable whether it works and how long it will stay that way. Being a big history buff, you remember the last group to thrive in a crisis--the Survivors of the 21^st century Zombie Apocalypse. Who could be better at thriving in the Chruul Apocalypse? You send the first officer to retrieve some. The officer goes back in time, rounds up all the survivors he/she can find (read: everyone who signs up to be included), and brings them back to Halcyon 6. The time ship blows up shortly after their return. You now get the basic Halcyon 6 plot, only you have a bunch of Legendary officers to start with.

Events: I'd like to go through as many events as possible and make sure that the PSC officers' traits will always trigger an extra option. For example, "Cocky" currently allows you to show cadets how to shoot a bigger hole in the wall. I don't really know how many extra options are already programmed in.

Combat: I'd leave space combat approximately the way it is. I could add new legendary powers or equipment if someone wants them. Ground combat would get the whole rework mentioned in the first post. I can try to add drinks, stims, pills, and whatever other loot people want.

Simulated Microtransactions: I can make the loot mentioned above require a new currency that gets earned through various means. Examples: complete research tasks, win ground combats, spend Materials or Dark Matter. This will only be added if the PSC players want it.

Are these dumb ideas? Should I rework them entirely? Am I a genius? Are any PSC players still lurking in these forums? Let me know below! 66% of recent posts can get lonely after a while.

[MongooseCalledFred]

I've decided that the Lightspeed Edition update is far enough out that I should just mod now and update later. Looking at the opening cinematic's file, I think I can build one like it for the survivor recruitment part of the story. I just have to figure out how to get the game to use it. I've been intimate with the power files for some time, so building those should be a snap once I figure out names, icons, damage types, status effects, all the differentiating features... I'll start by looking at the $10 credit package weapons. Now, the animations will be a bit trickier. I've found the existing files that put pieces together, so I should be able to at least experiment with them. The best news: I think I've cracked the secrets of the in-game Dev console. (Don't worry. I'll only use them for testing purposes. If I intended to cheat my way to achievements, I would have succumbed to the temptation to build super-shuttles long, long ago. )

[MongooseCalledFred]

After further inspection of files, initial versions will not include the grand "trip to Earth" part. I've managed to write a quest that adds a task to the station bridge and then recruits a legendary officer when you complete it. (That's what it is supposed to do. I need to test it first before I share it.) If it works, I'll try adding some dialogue.

[MongooseCalledFred]

Well, the quest works only in so far as the console recognizes that 'collect_survivors' is a valid input to ActivateQuest(), but I can't get it to respond with anything other than false. Trying to activate a different quest gave the same result. The good news is that the campaign selection screen is fully operational. I may try building some officers and trying to embed their recruitment into an existing file.

[MongooseCalledFred]

Well, it looks like Starbase Commander won't get the full mod support, but Lightspeed will. On that note, there are some new questions. Should I make one skill tree for PSC officers? Or should I make multiple? I don't really want to simply add PSC players to the character selection for Legendary officers, but I can if that's what those who have signed up want. I could theoretically just add the new classes and characters, plus any additional non-officer related things. On the other hand, I could still try to make a Starbase Commander mod. Thoughts?

[MDI_softcookie]

The PSC skill tree sounds cool! It'd be a nice addition and insight to other Halcyon 6 players that have never played PSC before.

[MongooseCalledFred]

Now I just need to figure out what skills and power to include. Advanced Dueling? Throw Down A Glove? (Causes confusion because the enemy has no idea what it means.) This looks like a time for the people who know what they're talking about to step in.

[Agent D]

Well... despite supposedly being in retirement:

The base player skills were:

Hunt - Played into damage dealt against the undead, as well as accuracy to a degree from what memory tells me.
Scavenge - Bonus supplies awarded upon a successful scavenge.
Trade - Number of outposts a player could establish to get time based resources (supplies and money)
Healing - Increased the amount potentially healed per stamina spent aiding other survivors
Dueling - Bonus to duel score against other survivors during the random voodoo math calculations.
Energy - use of the in game energy restore items leveled this skill, adding to total available max energy as the level increase.  Think of it as frequent customer perk?
Stamina - same as energy, but got the stamina gauge.

I attempted to attach an old screen of my skills page for reference, we'll see if it takes.

I'd say that's your base skills to start?  If looking for more PSC 'culture' based ones -- I'd have to go do some rounds on the WordPress pages and forum posts to brush back up.  Unfortunately, I'm not a Halcyon 6 player so as far has making an intelligent recommendation on how those could integrate offhand, I'm at a loss.

[MongooseCalledFred]

Since these skills act as upgrades in Halcyon 6, maybe:

Hunt - +10% damage, unlocks/upgrades a power (read: weapon) related to hunting.
Scavenge - +10% extra resources from battle, +2 evasion, unlocks/upgrades a siphon power.
Trade - +10 to the generation of points toward tasks. (Makes officer complete tasks faster.)
Healing - Upgrades/unlocks a single-ally healing power.
Dueling - Upgrades/unlocks another attack power.
Energy - Boosts speed (turns come sooner) and unlocks/upgrades a beam power.
Stamina - Boosts health and damage resistance, unlocks/upgrades a self-healing power.

Each of these would have 3 levels, with the first level unlocking the power and the higher levels upgrading the power.