[RFC]: Ability to make permanent changes to player's flagship or specific ship in fleet

[Zitchas]

Problem Description

Within the realm of science fiction that involves spaceships, it is commonplace for things to happen to the ship. Not just minor scuffs or depletion that vanish within a few days or after the next port visit, but longer term things. Expenditures of major limited resources, permanent degradation of equipment, improvements to the ship's hardware, etc. These are valuable and useful tools for creating a more engaging story in which the ship is a participant, not just a tool; but these capabilities are completely lacking in Endless Sky Delta.

Related Issue Links

n/a

Desired Solution

A means to allow content creators to specify permanent changes to a ship's attributes within conversations; as well as a means to have outfits do so as well.

Alternative Approaches

Unknown.

Additional Context

Idea 1:

• An additional attribute or code that can be placed on outfits that, when detected on an installed outfit, copies the outfit's attributes onto the ship it is installed on, alongside an attribute identifying the source outfit, and then deletes the outfit. The outfit could then be setup so that it could not be reinstalled when the attribute is present, thus creating a situation where something can be purchased, and have a permanent effect on the ship, and be neither sellable nor uninstallable.

Idea 2:

• Conversation code be developed along the lines of the "give" command that applies a variant template to either the Player's flagship or, if specified, to a ship with a specific UID within the player's fleet. Variants can alter every aspect of a ship, from its name to its sprite to hardpoints to all the attributes and outfitting; and thus it is a very versatile holder of the information to be applied. Existing variant coding is already designed to be overlaid ontop of exisiting ships. The difference is that we would need to figure out how to apply it to the player's ship from within a conversation.

I have considerable more ideas on the exact framework for this, but these are the ideas I have currently.

[Zitchas]

For idea 2, what I'd like to be able to do is this: In the course of a conversation, add in an action node as per normal, and within that node use a modifyship

conversation [<name>]
	action
		modifyship [<UID> or <model> or flagship] <variant>

modifyship is the starting command.
[<UID> or <model> or flagship] is the target, so it must have one of a UID, or a ship model, or the word "flagship". If it is UID, then it targets that UID if present, or fails if it is not present. If it is "flagship", then it just applies directly to the current flagship whatever that happens to be. If it is , then it looks for the first ship of that type in the player's fleet, and applies to that ship.

is the template that is applied to the target ship. This is a standard variant ship format, and could in fact be a typical variant. If the variant specifies outfits then it tries to give the player any outfits that the target ship does not already have, and will install them if possible. I don't expect this to happen very often, but I see good potential for it in some cases. The main focus is on the ability to add/remove/clear attributes from the ship, including name, sprite, and all valid attributes for ships. These are all added to the targeted ship.

Example variant

ship "Marauder Splinter" "Marauder Splinter (Engines)"
	sprite "ship/msplintere"
	thumbnail "thumbnail/msplintere"
	add attributes
		"engine capacity" 27
		"lateral thruster slot" 1
		"reverse thruster slot" 1
		"steering slot" 1
		"thruster slot" 1
	outfits
		"Plasma Cannon" 2
		"Quad Blaster Turret" 2
		"Heavy Anti-Missile Turret"
		
		"Fusion Reactor"
		"LP036a Battery Pack"
		"D67-TM Shield Generator"
		"Liquid Nitrogen Cooler"
		"Water Coolant System"
		"Security Station"
		"Laser Rifle" 21
		
		"A370 Atomic Thruster"
		"AL379 Atomic LTC"
		"A525 Atomic Steering"
		"Hyperdrive"
	
	engine -15.5 115 .7
	engine 0 117
	engine 15.5 115 .7
	turret "Quad Blaster Turret"
	turret "Heavy Anti-Missile Turret"
	turret "Quad Blaster Turret"
	description "You're not likely to find a sub-kiloton warship faster or more deadly than this one. Large sections of the hull have been covered with extra hull plating and shield emitters. Much of the cargo space has been converted to outfit space, a great deal of which is at the rear of the ship, which features a new engine port."