Forts Modder Showcase: Fortships by AlexD

This Month's Spotlight: Fortships

(by AlexD)

[dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1966308308"]

Inspired by Airships: Conquer the Skies, this flight-focused mod brings maneuverable aerial warfare into Forts using Suspendium lift, intuitive altitude controls, and a suite of devices built specifically for high-altitude battles. Instead of static defenses, you’re commanding airborne vessels by adjusting height, managing thrust, and engaging with weapons designed to thrive above the battlefield!

With dedicated systems like the Fortship Controller, Altitude Controller, and lateral Jets, alongside aerial-ready tools like Carpet Bombs, Hanging Flak, and the Area Denial System, Fortships transforms the way players think about positioning, pressure, and control.

A chat with AlexD:

Hello, my name is AlexD. I (unsurprisingly) like playing games, and I actually started programming to make games.

I started modding after playing a lot of really fun mods, like Tanya’s Mod and Birdies Guns, and wanting to add things with interesting mechanics. I created a variety of mods with plenty of help from the community, such as Weapon Pack 101, and I have the most fun finding crazy workarounds to the limits of Forts modding.

I also started playing Forts competitively and I’ve found a lot of friends in this community. Nowadays, I spend my time developing software for satellites or working on high-performance graphics software. I still often come back to play or mod Forts when I find the opportunity.

Q: What inspired you to start working on Fortships, in the first place?

I wasn’t very good at managing the weight of a Flying Forts, but I really enjoyed maps with prebalanced Forts and I was also inspired by an old zero-gravity “gamemode” called BattleForts.

So, I made a mod called “True Dynamic Barrel”, which was an addon mod to Flying Forts (by Samster Birdies) that auto balanced your weight. And at the time I was watching a lot of Airships: Conquer the Skies videos, and I liked the way you controlled ships. So I took those controls and dynamics and created a mod, and so Fortships was born.

From there the controls and stability of fortships progressively improved, to the point where it is today. I also want to thank all the people who have contributed to the mod, with special thanks to Samster Birdies, Land Planters, and LancenShield.

Q: Were there any Forts mechanics that surprised you in how well (or poorly) they adapted to aerial gameplay?

It is really impressive and quite surprising how most of the core mechanics still work despite the ability to move around. Moreover, the building mechanics of Forts produce really diverse, and I think enjoyable, gameplay with Fortships.

There are also a lot of opportunities for map makers to be creative, and I’ve seen a lot of fun tactics and playstyles. Balance is another topic, but I left the basegame weapons as is and for the most part that has worked pretty well. However, one consistent issue (especially for balance) has been the lack of collisions between bases. It has also proven difficult to make a collision mod that feels good, is balanced, and is performant.

Q: Do you have a favorite weapon/device or system in the mod? (Either because it was fun to design or because it plays especially well)

Definitely the chambers. It is really the epitome of what I love about Forts modding.

There are literally a hundred different versions of the chamber device, each with different negative mass values, and the mod script rapidly upgrades each of them using a control system to keep a fortship stable at a set height.

Another fun trick happens when you place the fortship controller device. The mod instantly destroys the device and creates an identical weapon in its place. This allows you to group Fortships controllers, despite placing them as a device. So, really what I love about modding is finding ways to work around limitations within the modding API to create cool gameplay or quality of life features.

Q: Fortships ended up inspiring a bundle collaboration with Airships: Conquer the Skies. How did it feel seeing your mod resonate to that extent?

I think it’s really cool to see. Modding is really about making new fun experiences based on the already great foundations of existing games. Both Forts and Airships are great games which I’ve both thoroughly enjoyed and taken inspiration from, and I really love that I can give even more fun experiences to those who play my mods.

Q: If you were designing Fortships today from scratch, is there anything you’d approach differently?

Fortships was created over 5 years ago, and my inexperience at the time shows. I would certainly write the entire thing differently now. But honestly, the control system is a miracle born through obsessive tuning and it is shocking that it works so well.

At the time I was throwing everything at the wall then and a few things stuck. At some point I played around with some more standard control system approaches, but I quickly realized a control system that works for most fortships regardless of size, shape, and structural integrity is a difficult problem. Moreover, when I do make a very nice control system it feels too perfect, too ideal. How it feels really matters, and that’s where I think you need to either get lucky or try a lot of different things.

Condensed Fortships Resources:

[dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1966308308"] Workshop | Fortships Official Discord

Our modders create and maintain their projects in their spare time, purely out of love for the game. If you enjoy what they've built, consider supporting them directly through a kind comment or commending their mod on the workshop.

A Full-Circle Moment:

Fortships was directly inspired by Airships: Conquer the Skies, and with the Forts x Airships bundle entering its final month, this felt like the perfect time to highlight the mod that helped connect these two communities.

If you’ve enjoyed commanding the skies in Fortships, and would like to find out what's inspired it, this is your last chance to grab both games together at 10% off while the bundle is live!

[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/59685/Forts_x_Airships_Conquer_the_Skies/"]

Our hearfelt thank you to AlexD, for the creativity and effort behind Fortships. Mods like this are a reminder of how one idea can merge two entire communities and find new ways to pay homage to the games we love. Nicely done, commander!

A Note from the Team:

The modding scene is one of the best parts of this community. Every map, every mechanic, every idea adds something new to Forts, and we're beyond grateful for the passion you all bring to the game. For that reason, we urge you all to help us celebrate every small victory so that we can all benefit from our shared passion for Forts for many more years to come!

You can find more community creations, or share your own, on the Official Forts Discord.

Cheers, EWG