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31

Mods / Re: [0.96a] Console Commands v2023.05.05

« on: March 13, 2024, 12:48:17 PM »

but it didn't work.

When you say "it didn't work" - how does it not work? Can you see the mod at all when you try launching Starsector? What does it show as the required version there? (If you can't see the mod at all, then that means that it can't read the mod_info.json file at all, which could be evidence of an accidental file name change, or could be evidence of some sort of permissions issue, or, etc.)

Also, did you actually check the file name?
Keeping in mind that windows in particular loves to hide parts of filenames, i.e., if you just look in the folder and see "oh, that file is named mod_info.json", it could still actually be named mod_info.json.txt because windows will lie about that unless you've explicitly told it not to.

32

Mods / Re: [0.96a] Console Commands v2023.05.05

« on: March 13, 2024, 09:29:38 AM »

How do we update the mod ?

I tried to change to change the  "gameVersion": "0.96a-RC6" into  "gameVersion": "0.97a-RC11"  in the mod_info.json but it didn't work.

Can someone explain the process step by step ?

That is literally exactly the needed step, so something else must have gone wrong. Did you edit mod_info.json with the windows default text-editor and accidentally end up with the file renamed to mod_info.json.txt or something? When you say "it didn't work" - how does it not work? Can you see the mod at all when you try launching Starsector? What does it show as the required version there? (If you can't see the mod at all, then that means that it can't read the mod_info.json file at all, which could be evidence of an accidental file name change, or could be evidence of some sort of permissions issue, or, etc.)

33

General Discussion / Re: A discussion of skills that affect ship loadouts (e.g. Best of the Best)

« on: March 12, 2024, 03:41:42 PM »

While I don't entirely agree - certainly even with BotB and Flux Regulation I'm not getting anywhere near everything I want on any ship - I've got to say that overall the argument is sensible and well-reasoned.

I'll note, though, that for my preferred playstyle, BotB is basically mandatory just for the deployment bonus; I much prefer running a relatively lean fleet, and stuffing officers into nine ships is just too many ships. (Whether this adds to or detracts from your argument, I'm not sure, but it's a possibly-relevant data point none the less.)

34

Mods / Re: [0.97a] Starship Legends 2.5.2 - Extra flavor for ships, crew, and NPCs

« on: March 12, 2024, 01:16:31 PM »

Would you mind clarifying, please, exactly what the "Skilled Engineers" trait does?

I ask because "+X% repair rate" could be referring to the rate at which hull and armor is restored in the campaign, ala the Field Repairs skill, or it could be referring to the rate at which disabled weapons and engines are repaired during combat, ala the Damage Control skill, or even potentially both.

35

General Discussion / Re: Is the Hephaestus at a good spot?

« on: March 12, 2024, 11:55:36 AM »

Also, the TL is very very bursty. In the amount of time it takes the TL to break through most ship's armor, the HAG - while theoretically higher DPS in some usually-non-existent long run - is still plinking away.

Now, if you're fighting an Invictus, or even 'just' an Onslaught with all the armor boosts, then yes, an HAG or HIL can be a better choice. But against anything with normal armor, the TL outperforms everything that's not a Reaper torpedo. (And even in those cases, I personally would rather use a TL for my anti-armor; the mass EMP is very helpful for actual-in-practice kill times by shutting down enemy weapons and letting you actually just sit there and fire without having to back off.)

EMP does no damage to armor or hull and so this is neutral.

Direct EMP does no damage to armor or hull, yes. The Tachyon Lance's spawned EMP arcs, by contrast, will do damage to armor and hull. Often not much, since they'll often be targeting sections of the ship with intact armor rather than where the main beam landed, but it's not zero damage, either.

So Vs 1000 armor a single tachyon Lance will do 946 DMG in its first burst. But it’s second burst will come 10 seconds later.

So it breaks 1k armor in one burst. Less than, actually, because your math is over-simplified: You took the armor reduction that would be applied at the very start of the TL burst, and applied it to the entire burst duration, which isn't how it works; the first tenth-of-a-second tick gets the full ~.43 reduced damage, but the second tick is only against ~940 armor, so it deals more damage, and etc.

36

General Discussion / Re: Is the Hephaestus at a good spot?

« on: March 12, 2024, 09:19:25 AM »

The point was HIL and Heph are ~the 2 best non-missile anti-armor weapons for most uses. Mentioned Hellbore as being in competition above but it misses too much and even hits are spread out.

You're missing the actual number one non-missile anti-armor weapon: the Tachyon Lance. Now, the TL does come with some caveats: the AI has trouble aiming it when it's in a turret, and if you're fighting an Invictus or similar super-armored mod ships, then the HIL will (eventually) pull ahead. But the Tachyon Lance otherwise outperforms all the competition.

37

Suggestions / Re: Officer promotions

« on: March 11, 2024, 10:18:06 PM »

Re: the experience gain. I suppose I had not considered that the player is always with bonus XP, because that just doesn't happen in my gameplay. I just don't see opportunities to spend S points as often as I gain experience - unless I'm misunderstanding something, that means that the total S points in the bank have to be very small at any given time, like a max of 4 if always spending 100% bonus items? I must just not be spending enough, or something - the idea of spending 30+ S points by the time I'm halfway through the levels seems wild to me.

Not sure what you're doing different, but I absolutely do always have bonus XP running - aside from very rare situations, usually very early game - and it's certainly no barrier to building up large numbers of story points. That's kindof the whole point of the 100% bonus; you do get them back (as long as they're not stuck behind a huge pile of other bonus XP).

Say you're level one, and (somehow) have two story points, that you immediately burn for 100% bonus XP each. You hit level two (and four story points in the bank) in the amount of XP it would've taken you to get halfway there without the bonus. Then you re-invest those two story points, and they accelerate your trip to level three in the exact same way. So by the time you're at level 15, sure, on paper you've 'spent' 28 story points on various bonus-xp-generating options... but it's really been just the same two, over and over again, and you've also gained 56 story points in total, leaving 28 unspent.

The same XP total with no story points spent ever? You'd be level 8 instead of level 15, and you'd have 28 story points.

So if you're out of bonus XP, and you see an opportunity to spend a story point on something with 100% return, do it. If need be, salvage some random hulk, s-mod something on it, and then immediately scrap it; that's 100% bonus XP right there, and it gets you your next level faster. (And once you're level 15, bonus XP has a doubled return on investment, so it's still a good deal if you're out.)

But like I said, it's really rare for me to need to resort to that sort of thing, just from natural expenditures on mentoring officers, building s-mods into ships, etc.

We don't call purchasing an officer at the bar spending 4k credits for a random officer - it's 4k credits for an officer with a specific skill and personality.

I absolutely would call a purchase at a colony buying a random officer. Yes, it's one where the dice were rolled before you decided to buy, but that doesn't mean there weren't dice involved.

As a question: how long does it take people to find officers? Because for me it is highly variable. In some games I find them faster than I find a decent set of ships to put them on; in others like my current one officers are incredibly hard to find.

It does vary some, yes, and if the RNG has decided to curse you then maybe promoting an officer would be worth it. But it's at least as likely for the RNG to decide that you never get any promotion candidates you'd want, too, which certainly doesn't help with the option being generally a bad one.

38

Suggestions / Re: Officer promotions

« on: March 11, 2024, 05:47:39 PM »

There is no point at which the xp return makes something strictly or “mostly” up-side.

Before level 15 it is 100% at all times strictly beneficial

Both false, imo. If you don't currently have any bonus xp, then it's beneficial to do something to gain bonus XP - and if that's promoting an officer you don't want and then immediately firing them, so be it.

However, if you do have bonus xp, then there's no particular rush or reason to spend bonus XP on this particular thing, unless it's actually a good deal. (Regardless of whether you're level 15 yet or not.)

Which - again, in my opinion - it is not. Even the extra 50-100k cash you can get from a story-point-boosted delivery mission is usually a better deal than gaining a random level one officer; you can get random level one officers just about anywhere. Even if the story point one actually has one of the skills you want - there'll be more of those available for mere credits on down the line, why spend a story point on it?

39

Suggestions / Re: Undercover colonies

« on: March 11, 2024, 01:44:02 PM »

you'll want to store your loot somewhere for later use, but your only options are either to buy storage space somewhere and then pay a not insignificant monthly fee, or to found a colony

It's not at all obvious, but there is a third option: you can safely store things at any of the game's abandoned stations. Such as Asharu's abandoned terraforming platform in the Corvus system.

(That said, I am in favor of having the option to make a low-profile colony of some sort, whether it be via spaceport-alternative, or even just an intel item that pings up and says "Your colony at Blah is ready to grow to size four! At size four you will gain hostile attention from this list of factions. Allow this expansion yes/no?")

40

Suggestions / Re: Ship loadouts

« on: March 11, 2024, 01:24:37 PM »

you can't remember your fits?

Also, no. Not all of them, not precisely, and especially not when I've gone through half-a-dozen different subtle variations on each of a dozen different hulls as I work to optimize weapons and hullmods based on what I have available at the time.

If you have a perfect photographic memory, and never lose track of fine details, grand! But most of us don't.

41

Suggestions / Re: Officer promotions

« on: March 11, 2024, 12:32:32 PM »

Ah - I mean, that's fair, but I suppose that means you are doing other things that give you bonus XP, so it's less that this is a bad deal in terms of story points, and more that you prefer other deals in terms of bonus XP? Hm, maybe too fine a distinction.

You could probably make that distinction if officer promotion candidates were something you saw frequently? But they're not; I can't rely on them coming up, so yes, I get my bonus XP elsewhere, and then when they do happen to come up, I've already got bonus XP and they don't feel like a good deal.

42

Suggestions / Re: Armor damage visualization should scale non-linearly

« on: March 11, 2024, 11:12:10 AM »

Huh. Yeah, now that you mention it, this sounds like* a good idea.

Same goes for the player ship's armor grid, I'd think.

* I say "sounds like" because this is also the sort of thing where I'd really want to get some playtesting in to see how it feels in actual play before saying "yes, absolutely do this".

43

Suggestions / Re: Officer promotions

« on: March 11, 2024, 11:07:32 AM »

Since you do get 100% bonus XP for both of the options - the promoting, and the mentoring - this just seems like mostly upside, no?

It's upside if I'm low or out of bonus xp, yes. As I mentioned in my original post in this thread.

However, my personal experience is that it is very rare for me to be low or out of bonus XP. And if I already have bonus XP running through and past level whatever-level-is-next? Well, sure, I'll get those points back eventually, but right now it's a very real "this costs me 2 SP that I will then not have available for other things".

44

Suggestions / Re: Auto Resolving Chasing Enemies is Really Bad Right Now (Borderline Broken)

« on: March 11, 2024, 10:41:28 AM »

Sending too few ships of either kind results in damage to your ships, higher CR loss, even loss outright if you do something dumb like sending two hounds against eight fleeing destroyers.

Autoresolve went through a bunch of different versions early on, back in the Corvus days, and one of the lessons learned from that was this: If there's a chance of autoresolve destroying player ships, the player will absolutely not use it.

Now, should sending two hounds against a fleeing fleet of combat-capable destroyers result in more than maybe one or two of those destroyers dying? No, it probably shouldn't. (On the other hand, frigates vs. destroyers- should one hyperion be able to take out the lot of them? Probably yes!)

But if autoresolve is a risk, it won't be used, and the entire point of it is so that the player's time isn't being wasted on non-meaningful fights.

45

General Discussion / Re: How does Flux Shunt interact with Elite Field Mod and S-mod Stabilized Shields?

« on: March 11, 2024, 10:27:20 AM »

Stabilized Shields s-mod converts a portion of incoming damage into soft flux (which can then be dissipated normally). On a hypothetical ship with infinite flux dissipation, it's effectively 10% less damage taken by shields.

Flux Shunt & Elite Field Modulation, by contrast, allow a percentage of your ships' dissipation to work on hard flux while your shield is up. A hypothetical infinite-dissipation ship with either (or both) of these would take damage and then instantly reset to zero flux, only overloading if a single frame's worth of incoming damage was beyond its flux capacity.

How exactly these interact for the case of a real ship with finite flux dissipation, I'm not entirely certain, but even the worst case - where it dissipates the soft flux first and then applies whatever-percent of the remaining dissipation to the ship's built-up hard flux - the stabilized shields s-mod effect is still a decent buff to survivability.

(Though I personally wouldn't s-mod stabilized shields - or front shield emitter - unless the ship was also going to have hardened shields installed.)