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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: Starsector 0.7.2a (Released) Patch Notes  (Read 355128 times)

Alex

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Starsector 0.7.2a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: February 01, 2016, 01:26:07 PM »

Blog post/download links here.

Changes as of March 03, 2016 (hotfix, -RC3)

Bugfixing:
  • Fixed pricing bug that allowed infinite money to be generated by buy/selling certain commodities at certain markets repeatedly
  • Fixed mismatch in Harbinger's rear turret arc facings
  • Fixed issue w/ cargo scan repeating if player re-opened comm link
  • Fixed arming time on torpedoes not being considered when impacting asteroids


Changes as of March 01, 2016 (hotfix, -RC2)

Bugfixing/other
  • Fixed issue w/ officer when picking the start option that gives you an extra frigate
  • Fixed Hammerhead and Conquest engine glows
  • Fixed encounter music playing in campaign issue
  • Fixed bug with faction hostility that would sometimes misapply the reputation bonus at end
  • Entropy Amplifier properly increases EMP damage taken
  • Fixed occasional pricing issue w/ fuel, supplies, and marines on the black market
  • Removed Wolf frigate as restart option
  • Fixed several typos


Changes as of February 26, 2016

Campaign
  • Procurement missions:
    • Now count for raising local suspicion (if appropriate) and getting trade experience
    • Adjusted dialog text for illegal deliveries
  • Increased Volturnian Lobster production at Volturn. A lot. Can actually be bought in reasonable quantities.
  • Updated ships the player can restart in: now Lasher, Wayfarer, Centurion, and Wolf

Combat
  • Ship AI
    • Cautious - more likely to move in; will always move in when assisting in a flanking maneuver and behind target
  • Deployment dialog: pressing "All" now cycles between selecting all non-civilian, all, and none

Modding
  • CombatFleetManagerAPI:
    • boolean isSuppressDeploymentMessages();
    • void setSuppressDeploymentMessages(boolean suppressDeploymentMessages);
  • WeaponAPI
    • void setMaxAmmo(int maxAmmo);
  • CombatEngineAPI
    • CombatNebulaAPI getNebula();
  • CombatNebulaAPI
    • int getTilesWide();
    • int getTilesHigh();
    • float getTileSizeInPixels();
    • boolean tileHasNebula(int cellX, int cellY);
    • boolean locationHasNebula(float x, float y);
    • int getLeftOf();
    • int getBelow();
    • int getRightOf();
    • int getAbove();
    • void setHasNebula(int cellX, int cellY, float brightness);

Bugfixing
  • Fixed memory leak caused by interacting w/ a market, opening any screen, getting a tooltip to display, pressing escape to exit, and then reloading the save
  • Fixed bug that caused trade disruptions to end early



Changes as of February 22, 2016

Campaign:
  • Patrols
    • Will not keep being aggressive if the player turns their transponder on and turns out to be hostile and stronger
    • Will no longer be concerned with transponder status in deep hyperspace/not near their source system
    • Removed reputation penalty for escaping w/o dealing major damage
  • Added "cargo scan" patrols may perform when the player's transponder is on
    • Chance to happen if player has been doing smuggling at patrol's source market
    • Instant (i.e. no progress bar/interruption)
    • Only happens near said market
    • Standard reputation loss/surrender contraband if contraband found
    • Reputation loss if patrol judges cargo to be likely destined for black market, even if it's otherwise legal
      • Higher chance if player was doing a lot of smuggling at market
      • Higher chance if player has more cargo
      • Also happens for "transponder off" cargo scans
    • Prevents getting into market until resolved or patrol involved loses track of the player
    • Not done more than once a month or so per market
    • Free ports don't do this
    • Factions that allow transponder-off trade *do* do this
  • Adjusted market smuggling "suspicion level"; now depends on ratio of legal to illegal and so can't be reduced to 0 purely by legitimate sales
    • Also depends on market size compared to amount of goods sold
  • Removed smuggling investigations
  • Redid campaign starting options
    • Four "career" choices, choice of 1 of 2 ships per career (with some overlap)
    • Different starting bonuses (more balanced against each other), pick 1 of 2 per career
    • Possible to start non-hostile with pirates
    • Increased starting credits to 5000
  • Independent faction no longer offers commissions or engages in faction hostilities
    • Military market access doesn't require commission, just reputation
  • Player fleet able to interact with objects immediately after battle, i.e. now possible to escape through a jump-point after retreating from battle w/o always being re-engaged by enemy fleet
  • Improved fleet AI performance by ~50%, should be something like a 10-15% overall performance improvement in campaign
  • Fleets will no longer use emergency burn while only trying to maintain contact with another fleet (i.e. hanging around but not attacking)
  • Fleets will try to avoid storms while traveling through hyperspace
  • Trade disruption events: doubled duration (to make easier to take advantage of), reduced probability
  • Procurement missions:
    • Missions you find out about are more likely to be close to your current capacity to carry cargo
    • Added wider range of quantities
    • Increased low-end and reduced high-end profit margins
    • Fighting pirates that occasionally attempt to take your cargo will no longer ruin your reputation with the pirates, though it will still result in a slight penalty
  • Food shortage event: made more profitable
  • Asteroid belts/fields now also help conceal stationary fleets, like other ring systems
  • Trade fleets and fleets with only civilian ships will not longer try to "maintain contact" with a stronger enemy
  • People that are important to talk to (i.e. target of delivery mission) are now marked in the comm directory
  • Captain tooltip now shows "none" when the player or officer has no combat skills
  • Fleets that are standing down will no longer join nearby battles unless friendly nearby standing down fleets are involved
  • Person bounties:
    • Much more likely to spawn from non-hostile factions, less likely from hostile factions
    • Player fleet being destroyed reduces current bounty level by 1 (it goes from 0 to 10) and resets progress to next bounty level (requires 3 successful completions per level)
  • Intel screen prices are now updated when the player both enters and leaves the market (previously, only updated on entering)
  • Removed a lot of intel messages from map view (e.g. bounty payments and other messages where positional information isn't important)
  • Widgets in the lower-left logistics display now highlight on mouseover to indicate that they can be interacted with (i.e. to show tooltips)

Miscellaneous
  • Rewrote game launcher in OpenGL (was in Swing)
    • Improves compatibility for certain versions of OS X and Linux
    • Allows downgrade to the more stable Java 7
    • "legacyLauncher" option in settings.json to use old launcher
  • Downgraded to Java 7 (more stable)

Hull mods
  • Hardened Shields now reduces the chance for shields to be pierced by Ion Beams and other similar weapons
  • Blast Doors hullmod now reduces CR loss from hull damage by 75%
  • Insulated Engine Assembly now also reduces sensor profile by half

Combat
  • Atropos torpedo:
    • Increased OP cost for single-shot version from 2 to 3
    • Increased speed to 500 (from 250), reduced flight time (range is around 1200 su)
    • Increased maneuverability, a lot - somewhat avoidable by frigates, easily hits anything larger
    • Added large yellow engine glow to make more visible
    • Essentially, more expensive and much more damaging, but shorter ranged, version of the Harpoon
  • High Intensity Laser:
    • Damage type changed to "high explosive"
    • Dps and flux/second doubled to 500
    • OP cost increased to 20 (from 16)
  • LR PD Laser: range increased to 800, flux/second increased to 100
  • Burst PD, Heavy Burst: charges increased to 3 and 5 respectively
  • Reaper torpedo: added 5 second refire delay (only comes into play w/ Missile Specialization's +1 ammo)
  • Heron: will now act both as a carrier and a combat ship, meaning it will engage enemy ships but also be assigned to the "carrier" task as appropriate
  • Astral's PD drones: now use PD Laser instead of LR PD Laser
  • Improved choice of task created on right-click. In order of precedence:
    • When the selection is a lone ship of any type, will create a "capture"
    • When all ships selected are civilian, will create a "rally civilian" on waypoints/non-enemy objectives
    • Will create "assault" on enemy battle objectives and "rally" on friendly ones
    • "Rally strike force" or "rally task force" on any waypoint, depending on whether selection is all bombers or not
  • Ship AI:
    • Now aware of potential reinforcements coming when facing a bigger target; won't engage as recklessly (unless aggressive personality)

Modding
  • PD AI will no longer attempt to fire at missions with collisionClass "NONE"
  • AI specified in a phase cloak's .system file will now be used when the system is a right-click phase cloak
  • Added "minRefireDelay" to settings.json; allows weapons to go above 20 shots/second
  • Added "xpGainMult" to settings.json; affects player and officer XP gain
  • Added "nosell" tag for commodities, commodities with this tag will not show up on submarkets
  • MissileAPI: added methods to control number of times missiles can shrug off EMP arc hits
    • void setEmpResistance(int empResistance);
    • int getEmpResistance();
    • void decrEMPResistance();
  • ShipEngineControllerAPI:
    • void setFlameLevel(EngineSlotAPI slot, float level);
    • ValueShifterAPI getExtendLengthFraction();
    • ValueShifterAPI getExtendWidthFraction();
    • ValueShifterAPI getExtendGlowFraction();
  • Added "nomap" tag to reports.csv; prevents message from being shown on map

Bugfixing
  • Fixed bug where only the damage type modifier was not being applied to beams for the armor damage reduction calculation only
  • Fixed bug where combat music would keep playing after coming back to the encounter dialog
  • Fixed bug where player could get into a market while being pursued by a patrol by turning their transponder on
  • Fixed issue with weapons not having the proper chance to be looted when helping out allies in a battle
  • Fixed issue where nearby patrols would not join up with a patrol doing a transponder-off inspection if the player was friendly to the faction
  • Fixed issue where patrols trying to intercept the player for having the transponder off would keep trying to intercept regardless of strength after open hostilities start



Changes as of February 01, 2016

Campaign
  • Faction commission and hostilities changes
    • Removed monthly reputation drops for being hostile to a non-enemy or non-hostile to an enemy
    • Battles against a non-enemy of the commission faction will:
      • Reduce your reputation with the commission faction
      • Increase probability of hostilities between commission faction and non-enemy
    • If you're holding a faction commission, hostilities automatically set your reputation to "hostile" with the other faction
    • Given 10 day warning before hostilities break out
    • Reputation partially restored (to previous level - 20) once an armistice is reached
  • Added list of destinations to tooltips for jump points leading in-system
  • Added view panning, right-click to toggle
  • Redid the layout of the intel tab
    • More space devoted to message detail for easier reading, bigger minimap
    • Bigger main intel map
    • More vertical space for filter
    • Makes better use of higher resolutions
  • Player fleet will now "hold station"/"orbit" when stopping inside moving terrain, near a planet, or near a jump-point
  • AI fleet commanders now always take the largest combat ship for their flagship, if one is available
  • Smuggling investigation bribes capped at 100k credits
  • Phaeton: reduced fuel capacity to 700
  • Conservation efforts have been successful and a small number of Buffalo Mk.II's have been spotted in the wild
  • Accidents now occur when ships are at 0% CR (and only affect those ships) instead of happening when your fleet is out of supplies
  • Emergency Burn:
    • Now requires all ships to have enough CR to use
    • Having any mothballed ships in the fleet prevents the use of EB
  • Added "value per unit" breakdown to transaction widget in trade screen
  • "Timid" officers no longer show up in AI fleets; replaced with "Cautious"

Ships and weapons
  • Added new "Synergy" mount type, fits energy and missile weapons
  • Added new "Composite" mount type, fits ballistic and missile weapons
  • Aurora: changed front hardpoints to "Synergy" type; large hardpoint is now medium
  • Added new medium energy weapon: Ion Pulser
  • Added new medium energy weapon: Ion Beam
  • Tachyon Lance:
    • Reduced OP cost to 25
    • Reduced cooldown to 4 seconds
    • EMP arcs have a chance to bypass shields based on target's hard flux level
  • Phase Lance: removed EMP damage component
  • Added Harbinger-class destroyer (system: Entropy Amplifier)
  • Added Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)
  • Added Scarab-class frigate (system: Temporal Shell)
  • Added Wayfarer-class frigate (combat freighter, system: Flare Launcher)
  • Afflictor: new ship system, "Quantum Disruptor"
  • Doom:
    • Changed medium missile hardpoints to "synergy"
    • New ship system, "Interdictor Array"
  • Brawler: replaced ship system with Damper Field, significantly reduced flux stats
  • Wolf (D) variants now have Degraded Engines hullmod
  • Added a converted version of the Mudskipper to pirate fleets
  • Luddic Path ships now have built-in "Ill-Advised Modifications" hullmod that gives a small chance of critical weapon malfunctions
  • Afflictor: changed energy turret to have 360 degree coverage
  • Afflictor, Shade: increased armor to 350 (from 250 & 300 respectively), increased deployment recovery costs
  • All phase ships: increased CR to deploy and CR recovery rate
  • Hyperion: updated sprite
  • XIV variants: some adjustments to bring the bonuses in line with each other
  • Added "weapon slot cover" graphics for empty weapon slots
  • EMP ship system now disarms warheads of any missiles it hits

Combat
  • Phase cloak changes:
    • Phased ships will experience time at 3x the normal rate
    • Phase cloak now has a 2 second cooldown. Phase coil animation indicates cooldown progress.
    • Missiles will no longer track phased targets, but will resume tracking when they unphase
      • This change is made in the missile AI, so any mods providing missile AI are not affected
    • AI will try to "suppress" phased phase ships by firing a small number of weapons at them
      • Will continue firing at an overall rate that avoids excessive flux buildup
    • After peak time runs out, phase ships lose CR at an increased rate; "Delicate Machinery" built-in hullmod on all phase ships
  • Slightly smoother view panning
  • Critical malfunctions will continue to apply damage when the malfunctioning ship is down to just 1 functional engine or weapon, but will still be able to be repaired
  • Phase skimmer: removed flux cost
  • Burn Drive: now disables venting while active
  • High Energy Focus
    • Removed downside (increased damage to own weapons/engines)
    • Now has 3 charges, regenerating a 1/20 seconds
    • Each charge lasts 3 seconds
  • Ion Cannon: reduced range to 500 (from 600)
  • Shields and phase cloak are now disabled when combat readiness is at 0 (prevents unwinnable standoffs)
  • Ship AI
    • Improved choice re: direction when backing off from an enemy
    • More aggressive venting; does not always back off while venting
      • Aggressive officers may choose to stay at the very edge of the safe range while venting
      • Cautious officers always back off while venting
    • Improved behavior for detecting when it's safe to lower shields; analyzes statistics/trends to see if current behavior is working
    • Improved fortress shield handling; no longer as twitchy
    • Cautious officers now move in for an attack more often
    • Hard flux levels making a ship back off now depends on officer personality and enemy ship size
      • A cautious officer facing a larger ship will back off almost immediately
      • An aggressive one may press the attack longer
    • Aggressive officers now not suicidal when facing larger combat ships
    • Improved detection of guided missile overkill
    • Improved AI governing phase cloak use
    • Adjusted escort behavior to reflect captain personality more
    • Improved escort behavior overall; fixed bug where it wasn't properly avoiding getting in front of the ship being escorted
  • Added travel drive auto-shutoff when there's a collision danger while burning in
  • Added short "arming" time for torpedoes; will bounce instead of exploding if fired at point-blank range
  • Increased range of "avoid" order to be just outside of peak-time-ticking-down range
  • Increased engine hitpoints for ships larger than frigates

Modding
  • Probability of random hostilities goes down as number of factions goes up; overall number of hostilities increases roughly linearly instead of quadratically
  • ShipAPI
    • void setAlly(boolean ally);
    • void setJitterUnder(Color color, float intensity, int copies, float range);
    • SpriteAPI getSmallTurretCover();
    • SpriteAPI getSmallHardpointCover();
    • SpriteAPI getMediumTurretCover();
    • SpriteAPI getMediumHardpointCover();
    • SpriteAPI getLargeTurretCover();
    • SpriteAPI getLargeHardpointCover();
    • void setOverloadColor(Color color);
    • void resetOverloadColor();
    • Color getOverloadColor();
  • ShieldAPI
    • float getUnfoldTime()
  • CombatFleetManagerAPI
    • List<FleetMemberAPI> getDisabledCopy();
    • List<FleetMemberAPI> getDestroyedCopy();
    • List<FleetMemberAPI> getRetreatedCopy();
    • String getId(); // returns UUID for this instance of a ship
  • MutableShipStatsAPI
    • MutableStat getTimeMult();
  • FactionAPI
    • String getPersonNamePrefix();
  • Added settings to settings.json that change the minimap size and allow minimap scrolling (using right-click and drag)
    • "intelMapSectorWidth", "intelMapSectorHeight", "intelMapSectorVisibleWidth", "intelMapSectorVisibleHeight"
  • Added "noVent" column to ship_systems.csv
  • CombatEngineAPI
    • MutableStat getTimeMult();
  • ShipSystemAPI
    • float getChargeUpDur();
    • float getChargeDownDur();
    • float getChargeActiveDur();
  • Added ShipSystemSpecAPI
  • Removed willTradeWhenHostile .faction custom (it wasn't doing anything anyway)
  • Added "economyEnabled":true to settings.json. If off, will still load markets but won't do any supply/demand processing etc
  • SpriteAPI
    • Color getAverageColor(); // returns average of all non-fully-transparent pixels
  • Added optional coversColor to .ship files (string, "255,255,255,255" format) and to .skin files (json array, [255,255,255,255] format)
  • FluxTrackerAPI
    • void beginOverloadWithTotalBaseDuration(float totalDur);
    • boolean showFloaty();
    • float getFloatySize();
    • void playOverloadSound();
    • void showOverloadFloatyIfNeeded();
    • void showOverloadFloatyIfNeeded(String text, Color color, float fontSizeBonus);
  • ShipEngineControllerAPI
    • void forceFlameout();
  • Added "impact" to mirv spec to control warhead impact
  • MissileAPI
    • boolean isArmed()
  • Added optional "armingTime" to missile .proj files
  • Fixed bug where integer comparison wasn't working in rules.csv
  • ShipAPI.setJitter: added "Object source" parameter; allows multiple jitter effects from different sources to be interpolated
  • Added ShipSystemStatsScriptAdvanced interface:
    • boolean isUsable(ShipSystemAPI system, ShipAPI ship);
    • String getInfoText(ShipSystemAPI system, ShipAPI ship);
  • CombatEngineAPI.maintainStatusForPlayerShip() no longer needs to be called while the game is paused
  • Fixed missile-missile collision bug which affected which missile would be "hit"

Bugfixing
  • Fixed bug with initial deserter bounty message showing lower reward
  • Player tooltip on fleet screen no longer shows (maximum) when they're level 20
  • Tooltip for officer bar at level 20 shows "Maximum level reached" instead of progress to next level
  • Fixed bug where capital-ship weapons still required market size 6 to spawn
  • Fixed bug where on respawning, officers that could level up would no longer be able to level up
  • Fixed bug with some procurement missions requiring an extra unit of the commodity in your cargo hold to complete
  • No more reputation drop for not being hostile to the Knights Of Ludd when accepting a Tri-Tachyon commission
  • Mirv submunitions now properly gain bonuses from player skills and other modifiers
  • Procurement missions now show flag of faction offering mission instead of flag of faction of market where mission was accepted
  • Inactive gate names now properly do not scale with zoom level
  • Fixed issue with mothballed ships having a sensor profile of zero
  • Fighters should no longer have a chance to drop their weapons as salvage
  • Buffalo (A) now properly loses "Civilian-grade Hull" mod
  • Fixed issue where fighter wings would show "Not enough crew" overlay when at zero CR
  • Fixed rare issue where having a savefile from a few versions ago would crash the load game dialog
  • Fixed bug where having allied carriers deployed could cause your lost fighter wings to be unrecoverable
  • Fixed issue where deploying a ship under officer control and transferring command to it would give the officer XP for the time you spent piloting the ship
  • Phase ships now properly show "Overload!" floaty and play sound when overloading
  • Fixed some issues with weapon groups not properly updating after critical weapon malfunctions
  • Fixed bug where binding zoom in/out to a keyboard key would cause using these to cancel a video feed from another ship
  • Fixed autofire issue where it would try to fire weapons it didn't have enough flux to fire
  • Fixed bug that caused damage floating text in combat to sometimes not be displayed
  • Fixed bug where a faction could occasionally declare hostilities with itself
  • Fixed being able to deploy undeployable ships by selecting the control group
« Last Edit: March 10, 2016, 06:31:18 PM by Alex »
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JohnDoe

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2016, 01:27:38 PM »

My body is ready.
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Cik

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2016, 01:39:22 PM »

looks pretty good, but i don't see any fighter changes! surely you want to help the poor, starving fighters, don't you?

don't make me bring out the puppy dog eyes. i will, you know.
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2016, 01:42:46 PM »

looks pretty good, but i don't see any fighter changes! surely you want to help the poor, starving fighters, don't you?

Been thinking about it, but don't think I'll be able to squeeze it in, unfortunately. Just too many other things still left to do.
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SafariJohn

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2016, 01:47:32 PM »

  • Added view panning, right-click to toggle

Is this referring to the Intel map?
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Cycerin

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2016, 01:47:48 PM »

Nice changes all around, especially the AI stuff. Interesting.

Quote
Added Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)

Is this the midline combat frigate I've been craving since 2012?

Quote
Conservation efforts have been successful and a small number of Buffalo Mk.II's have been spotted in the wild

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Cik

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2016, 01:50:20 PM »

looks pretty good, but i don't see any fighter changes! surely you want to help the poor, starving fighters, don't you?

Been thinking about it, but don't think I'll be able to squeeze it in, unfortunately. Just too many other things still left to do.

as long as it's in the pipe somewhere. recent additions, while pretty cool crowded them out of the battlefield IMO.

without specifically quoting out half of your OP, pretty much every change looks excellent. i especially like the changes to supply-based malfunctions, which will make far more sense now. top notch stuff.
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Cycerin

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2016, 01:52:34 PM »

The removal of fighter 0 flux boost and then the addition of Officers were the two nails in the Fighter coffin imo. Simply reverting the flux boost change or globally boosting fighter speed would go a long way towards making them better again.
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Schwartz

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2016, 01:53:10 PM »

Quote
Improved behavior for detecting when it's safe to lower shields; analyzes statistics/trends to see if current behavior is working

Is it.. is it learning? Is it aware?

I can't wait to see these AI changes in action.
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Nanao-kun

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2016, 01:53:55 PM »

Hell yes.

Quote
Improved behavior for detecting when it's safe to lower shields; analyzes statistics/trends to see if current behavior is working

Is it.. is it learning? Is it aware?

I can't wait to see these AI changes in action.

Alex has doomed us all!
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Wyvern

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2016, 02:06:17 PM »

I expect fighter fixes will come with the eventual skill revamp - it was skills (and especially officers with skills) that pushed them towards irrelevance.  In the meantime, some mods (SS+, for example) do add some skills that boost fighters.
Or, for quick fixes to a small subset of the fighter problems: maybe fighters shouldn't count towards that 25 ship limit?  Or maybe AI fleets should actually respect said limit?  One or the other should make a difference here.

Brawler: Unless the "Damper Field" significantly improves flux stats somehow, this looks like a pretty severe nerf to an already rather niche vessel.  I guess we'll see how it plays out, though, given that I don't actually know what that ship system does.

HEF changes are interesting; makes it merge pretty well with burst damage weapons like the plasma cannon.  Now if only I could actually make a good plasma cannon Sunder again... the (relatively) recent flux cost increase made that pretty much a non-starter, though; you need SO and a lot of vents to have the dissipation - and then you find that firing the thing fills up 2/3 of your flux bar and any incoming damage locks you out of using your main gun.

Tachyon Lance changes are also interesting; I was one of the people who thought its current state worked pretty well, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with a buffed version.  (Specifically, it's great on a Sunder in the early game, when you're mostly going up against pirate ships that can't just laugh off the soft flux.)

You listed weapon slot covers twice.
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2016, 02:10:13 PM »

Nice changes all around, especially the AI stuff. Interesting.
I can't wait to see these AI changes in action.

I don't want to oversell this change. It's not learning, really (that's a whole other thing, and probably not a good fit) - just some cases where it can look back to examine trends. For example, it can now answer a question like "am I being successful in pulling away from an enemy, over the last X seconds?" and then use that information to make a decision, instead of all decisions being based on data from the current instant.

It only does this in a handful of places to resolve cases where the AI gets "stuck" with a bad behavior and doesn't realize it's not doing what it wants to accomplish.


Quote
Added Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)

Is this the midline combat frigate I've been craving since 2012?

It just might be.


Or, for quick fixes to a small subset of the fighter problems: maybe fighters shouldn't count towards that 25 ship limit?  Or maybe AI fleets should actually respect said limit?  One or the other should make a difference here.

Hmm - don't really want to muck around with "quick" fixes here. As you say, there's a pretty clear time to address this anyway.

Brawler: Unless the "Damper Field" significantly improves flux stats somehow, this looks like a pretty severe nerf to an already rather niche vessel.  I guess we'll see how it plays out, though, given that I don't actually know what that ship system does.

It's a defensive system, and the main reason for boosting the Brawler's flux stats was to allow it to stand up to larger ships in direct combat. One nice thing the system does is make the Brawler's frontal shield and lack of PD less of a liability.

You listed weapon slot covers twice.

Oops! Cleaned that up.
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HELMUT

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2016, 02:12:17 PM »

  • Added Centurion-class frigate (system: Damper Field)

RIP, imperial Centurion.

Also that new Tachyon lance is going to be terrifying. Brawling against a Paragon will be impossible.

And those MIRVs scaling with skills, Jesus... It reminds of something...

Otherwise, lot of very interesting change. I'm eager to see those AI improvements.

Edit: Also, +1 for Cyc's suggestion about fighters. It shouldn't be too hard to squeeze it in the patch and would make fighters a bit more worth it.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2016, 02:14:54 PM by HELMUT »
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #13 on: February 01, 2016, 02:17:05 PM »

RIP, imperial Centurion.

Oh dear. The "namespace" for this stuff is surprisingly small.

Edit: Also, +1 for Cyc's suggestion about fighters. It shouldn't be too hard to squeeze it in the patch and would make fighters a bit more worth it.

The problem with that was it made fighters really aggravating to fight against in a frigate.
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Cik

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Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #14 on: February 01, 2016, 02:19:53 PM »

fighter lobby, assemble!
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