I had an idea today !
If you want to make a mod with multiple games, I have an idea.
I will take Freelancer and Freespace 2 as example.
In fact the concept take shields as feature. This feature will force the player to use ships and weapons of the same game univers. Freelancer with Freelancer and Freespace 2 with Freespace 2.
Combined with specific weapon classes and type according to the game univers we can create shield and weapon types for each univers.
Freelancer weaps will have no effects on Freespace 2 shields.
Freespace 2 weaps will have no effects on Freelancer shields.
The result, if you want to fight against Freespace 2 ships with a Freelancer ship, you will not be able to do it, forcing you to buy a Freespace 2 ship with allocated weapon classes and shield type/classes. For example class 1 to 5 will be Freelancer weaps ans class 6 to 10 will be Freespace 2 weaps. It must be applied to the shield classes too to be consistant.
Freelancer’s weap classes :
Class 1 = FL Class 1 and 2
Class 2 = FL Class 3 and 4
[…]
Class 5 = FL Class 9 and 10
Freespace 2’s weap classes :
Class 6 = FS2 Class 1 and 2
Class 7 = FS2 Class 3 and 4
[…]
Class 10 = FS2 Class 9 and 10
Same with shields.
In terme of ship coding, just allocate class 1 to 5 shields and weaps for FL and class 6 to 10 for FS2.
The only thing that remains to do is to rename the weapon and shield classes.
This can be applied for other univers but I think there is a theorical limit of the number of univers you can add to your mod. Due to the fact there is a limit of 10 classes in FL.
The limit is 5 game/movie/series univers per mod.
For example
Class 1 shield = Fighter shield
Class 2 shield = Capital Ship Shields
Etc.
If you want to level the shield for specific ship classes just us the cargo hold size to limit the use of a specific shield.
For gunboats’ shield a specific cargo hold.
For cruiser’s shield a specific cargo hold that is too big for gunboats.
Etc.