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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: [0.95.1a] TC: Archean Order: Rebalanced Combat/Lore RPG - *hotfix* 4/14/22  (Read 722387 times)

Morrokain

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Wow, great work.
Thanks! Hope you are enjoying the mod!

Did a little play-testing today and realized the Cease-Fire and Bribery mechanics were not working as intended in certain situations.

Hot-fixed. Also added a small way to track bribes so that fleets shouldn't repeatedly request them if you continue to get yourself into combat scenarios after successfully bribing a fleet to disengage.

**Edit** This will not break saves. Just an update of rules.csv
« Last Edit: January 02, 2018, 12:10:10 AM by Morrokain »
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Morrokain

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After starting ~15 new games, I've decided to scale back the workload for EZFaction for the new factions.

The previous colony count per new faction was 6-8 before. This can sometimes create some pretty weird clustering situations and can even cause crashes if too many colonies are put in a system you don't catch it and re-roll the new game.

Eventually I want to custom generate faction colonies myself, but in the meantime I have changed the count to 3-4 per faction (so roughly halved them) and this has noticeably improved campaign performance and the clustering issues are at least greatly reduced if not completely solved.

This will, unfortunately, require new games to be made to see the changes- but shouldn't break existing saves. If you were having the above issues, this should help!
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MesoTroniK

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Why not hand place more content, and make the proc gen placement stuff just a small fraction of the overall campaign rig?

Morrokain

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Why not hand place more content, and make the proc gen placement stuff just a small fraction of the overall campaign rig?

That is indeed the plan!  :) Working on it as soon as the tutorial is done, but just didn't have time so far to hand-implement everything. But from my experience editing the tutorial I can fairly confidently say I have the technical capability to do so and will in the very near future. The only thing I may need to fiddle with is hooking them up to the economy reliably.

The current implementation is a "scale-able" placeholder. It's partly to get a feedback sample from the community on other aspects and begin to make the final design on the number of strongholds per faction.

I also am going to see if interest is there for some collaboration from artists on more custom portraits (especially for the Trader Guilds) and, more importantly, background illustrations instead of the placeholders and story illustrations.

I don't know if I'm there yet with my paint.net capabilities.  ::)
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Thaago

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Ok! Review from just an hour of playtime (and reading your manual):

I chose the Wolf and Drone Tender start, and immediately bought a Condor-H and a Steady carrier officer (level 3). A rather nice find in the starting Corvus black market. Skills are Combat 1 with Defensive subsytems and Impact Mitigation.

Loadouts:
Spoiler

Drone Tender: Default.

Wolf armed with: Starting set, took off the + burn speed engine mod to add stabilized shields and 2 more caps.

The condor is armed with: A Retribution, a Talon, a mass driver and dual autocannon facing forwards, a salamander and 2 bolas, 1 point defense gun forwards and 2 machine guns backwards. 12 Caps, 5 Vents
[close]


First impressions, in no particular order:

I like the long delay, long range skimmer. Weapon placement on the Wolf is nice, as is the Condor - I really like the more, smaller mounts on ships that I've seen. Missile balance is nice - a lot of HE burst from swarmers, but they rely on the target having PD and shields down or they do nothing. Bola SRM's on the Condor are surprisingly effective! Really a nice little missile, and your balance of refire time vs reload speed is really good.

Piloting the Wolf so far is quite boring. None of the weapons on it take flux except the swarmers and my dissipation quickly takes care of that, so I don't need to dart in and out of combat to vent (no flux management). Its 'combat speed' is only 70, so if I'm not travelling (larger 0 flux bonus) its very sluggish. I just kind of sit near an enemy pointing near them until they die, which takes a while due to higher armor and lower dps. And the guns fire slowly, so there isn't much to look at either :P.  The enemy, just pirates so far, don't have anything that pressures the (7400 with .85 efficiency) shield very well, and with everything doing so little damage/having a long refire timer I can just vent at 700 range or so and take like 5 armor damage if I'm feeling lazy. Or use a skimmer charge and pop away if I'm feeling like not risking it. The Wolf does have the same deployment cost as the Condor, so maybe its just supposed to be a very powerful ship compared to pirates? Whatever the case, there's just nothing for me as a pilot to do while using it.

I did have one good fight where I was very outnumbered and I was trying to take down a kite - it could dodge every shot from the pulse cannons at medium range and was faster than me so I needed to skim on top of it repeatedly without getting fragged by its missiles. That was a good interaction.

The 'shields up reduces passive venting too' hasn't effected me at all yet, will reserve judgement.

The fighters make things more interesting, and I quite like all of the different kinds you've made. I really like how they have defined roles, and I really like how every cruiser has fighter bays, though I haven't been in any combats with cruisers yet. The fighters themselves are moderately effective, though as with everything their overall DPS is low. Certainly the Condor loadout above can smack around pirates with ease. From reading your manual, I think that the fighter update from a few versions ago pre-empted a lot of your fighter changes - speeds and wing sizes seem similar to vanilla. Balance is a bit better than vanilla imo and the few carriers I've tangled with were not overpowered, perhaps because they didn't have good escorts.

Smaller fighter size + low hitpoints works great! PD weapons are good at their roles without being effective in ship to ship combat, while the slow projectile speed of main guns makes them ineffective unless in a great big barrage.

Weapons:
Visuals, descriptions, and relative balance of power seem good from what I've seen so far (and I already said I liked the missiles and fighters). I am skeptical of having entire classes of weapons with 0 flux - but I also understand that that is how you are differentiating 'assault' type weapons from 'fire support' type weapons. Looking at my starting Wolf, I really think the ship would be a flat 50% stronger if I took out the forward PD and replaced it with another pulse cannon - there's no flux usage to balance around. You did say in your manual that specialization is important, so is this just a manifestation of that? Removing the flux management of SS combat contributes to dull frigate combat, but I'll wait to see how big ship play turns out.


Suggestions:
Hard to make because I haven't played much and don't know the larger ships, but... double frigate offense or half their defense? Higher speed? More weapon mounts for frigates in general?
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Thaago

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Quick bug note: Eisheth II has 0 population listed on the map and on the star info page, but is a pop 5 planet. It also has very very few things for sale.

Setup bug?
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Morrokain

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Spoiler
Ok! Review from just an hour of playtime (and reading your manual):

I chose the Wolf and Drone Tender start, and immediately bought a Condor-H and a Steady carrier officer (level 3). A rather nice find in the starting Corvus black market. Skills are Combat 1 with Defensive subsytems and Impact Mitigation.

Loadouts:
Spoiler

Drone Tender: Default.

Wolf armed with: Starting set, took off the + burn speed engine mod to add stabilized shields and 2 more caps.

The condor is armed with: A Retribution, a Talon, a mass driver and dual autocannon facing forwards, a salamander and 2 bolas, 1 point defense gun forwards and 2 machine guns backwards. 12 Caps, 5 Vents
[close]


First impressions, in no particular order:

I like the long delay, long range skimmer. Weapon placement on the Wolf is nice, as is the Condor - I really like the more, smaller mounts on ships that I've seen. Missile balance is nice - a lot of HE burst from swarmers, but they rely on the target having PD and shields down or they do nothing. Bola SRM's on the Condor are surprisingly effective! Really a nice little missile, and your balance of refire time vs reload speed is really good.

Piloting the Wolf so far is quite boring. None of the weapons on it take flux except the swarmers and my dissipation quickly takes care of that, so I don't need to dart in and out of combat to vent (no flux management). Its 'combat speed' is only 70, so if I'm not travelling (larger 0 flux bonus) its very sluggish. I just kind of sit near an enemy pointing near them until they die, which takes a while due to higher armor and lower dps. And the guns fire slowly, so there isn't much to look at either :P.  The enemy, just pirates so far, don't have anything that pressures the (7400 with .85 efficiency) shield very well, and with everything doing so little damage/having a long refire timer I can just vent at 700 range or so and take like 5 armor damage if I'm feeling lazy. Or use a skimmer charge and pop away if I'm feeling like not risking it. The Wolf does have the same deployment cost as the Condor, so maybe its just supposed to be a very powerful ship compared to pirates? Whatever the case, there's just nothing for me as a pilot to do while using it.

I did have one good fight where I was very outnumbered and I was trying to take down a kite - it could dodge every shot from the pulse cannons at medium range and was faster than me so I needed to skim on top of it repeatedly without getting fragged by its missiles. That was a good interaction.

The 'shields up reduces passive venting too' hasn't effected me at all yet, will reserve judgement.

The fighters make things more interesting, and I quite like all of the different kinds you've made. I really like how they have defined roles, and I really like how every cruiser has fighter bays, though I haven't been in any combats with cruisers yet. The fighters themselves are moderately effective, though as with everything their overall DPS is low. Certainly the Condor loadout above can smack around pirates with ease. From reading your manual, I think that the fighter update from a few versions ago pre-empted a lot of your fighter changes - speeds and wing sizes seem similar to vanilla. Balance is a bit better than vanilla imo and the few carriers I've tangled with were not overpowered, perhaps because they didn't have good escorts.

Smaller fighter size + low hitpoints works great! PD weapons are good at their roles without being effective in ship to ship combat, while the slow projectile speed of main guns makes them ineffective unless in a great big barrage.

Weapons:
Visuals, descriptions, and relative balance of power seem good from what I've seen so far (and I already said I liked the missiles and fighters). I am skeptical of having entire classes of weapons with 0 flux - but I also understand that that is how you are differentiating 'assault' type weapons from 'fire support' type weapons. Looking at my starting Wolf, I really think the ship would be a flat 50% stronger if I took out the forward PD and replaced it with another pulse cannon - there's no flux usage to balance around. You did say in your manual that specialization is important, so is this just a manifestation of that? Removing the flux management of SS combat contributes to dull frigate combat, but I'll wait to see how big ship play turns out.


Suggestions:
Hard to make because I haven't played much and don't know the larger ships, but... double frigate offense or half their defense? Higher speed? More weapon mounts for frigates in general?
[close]

Thank you very much for your feedback and experiences!  :)

I am glad you are liking the general feel of the balance so far and appreciate your feedback on the sluggishness of frigate combat.

- I have to admit, I spent the greatest amount of time on the feel of medium-large scale engagements that tend to at least have destroyers in them, not just frigates. So that may be something I need to keep track of. Let me know if you continue to feel this way after further play-testing and trying on some of the harder, faster opponents!
 
- Speaking of that, if you are looking for a challenge, you may want to consider fighting something other than Pirates or Independents. They are the weakest factions by quite a large margin and more there for the new player than the experienced wolf pilot. (In AI battles, just about any other faction absolutely massacres pirates unless extremely outnumbered!)

- The Hegemony, Tri-Tachyon, Elite Guild Mercs, and especially Archean Order and Adamantine Consortium will give you a run for your money, I think.  ;)

Keep me posted on the general flux management feel. It was designed to be slightly less about player-ship flux management and more about tactics - which is why I made command points more accessible (I'm pretty sure). I'm hoping this proves to be the case but definitely keep the feedback coming!

Quick bug note: Eisheth II has 0 population listed on the map and on the star info page, but is a pop 5 planet. It also has very very few things for sale.

Setup bug?

Hmm. Care to post a screenshot? Is that an EZFaction colony? It may be a bug with that mod. I don't know any changes I would make that should affect populations yet. I have only hand crafted a single market in Galatia: Eldrus

(And that is more for the tutorial story even though it is currently functional.)

**Edit: Also, if it is an EZFaction colony, where did you get your copy of that mod? My download or Xeno's? It may be that I have an outdated version here, haven't checked for an update in a couple weeks.  :-X
« Last Edit: January 02, 2018, 05:40:13 PM by Morrokain »
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Death_Silence_66

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The safety overrides hullmod says it reduces weapon range beyond null units
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Morrokain

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The safety overrides hullmod says it reduces weapon range beyond null units

Thanks! Looked into it and it looks like it's a tool-tip error.

It hopefully should still reduce the range beyond 450 substantially.

I'll get that fixed before the next release.
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Death_Silence_66

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I've been getting crashes when selecting some systems from the intel screen map.


Pretty sure the code below is the crash log.
Spoiler
28316 [Thread-4] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain  - java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.o0OO.void.return$new(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.o0OO.afterSizeFirstChanged(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.sizeChanged(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.OO0O.set(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.thisnew.super(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.j.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.advance(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.OO00.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.O0oO.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.advance(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.OO00.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.B.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.advance(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.B.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.if$7.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.if.setCurrentTab(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignState.showCoreUITab(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.coreui.map.A.super(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.coreui.map.Objectsuper.processInputImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.processInput(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.V.o00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.BaseGameState.traverse(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$1.run(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
[close]
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Morrokain

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I've been getting crashes when selecting some systems from the intel screen map.


Pretty sure the code below is the crash log.
Spoiler
28316 [Thread-4] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain  - java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.o0OO.void.return$new(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.o0OO.afterSizeFirstChanged(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.sizeChanged(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.OO0O.set(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.thisnew.super(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.j.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.advance(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.OO00.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.O0oO.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.advance(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.OO00.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.B.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.advance(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.intel.B.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.if$7.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.if.setCurrentTab(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignState.showCoreUITab(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.coreui.map.A.super(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.coreui.map.Objectsuper.processInputImpl(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Q.processInput(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.ui.V.o00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.BaseGameState.traverse(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$1.run(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
[close]

Based on: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=12504.75

Trashman was having similar errors on the intel screen when using EZFaction. Should have been fixed in a later release.

Doesn't mean that is for sure what is going on, but to clarify everything and create a control I will try and separate Archean Order from EZFaction in the next ~month or so If I have time.

I'll create faction colonies with custom plugins and that will provide me a better idea if something I've done messed up the proc gen or its the support mod. In the meantime, I apologize for the inconvenience!

Possible solutions:
- to be absolutely sure, I re-downloaded and re-uploaded the most current version of EZFaction in case you got it from my link. Make sure you have the current version. (You will probably have to generate a new game to know for sure :-[ )

- If that still doesn't work, as a workaround I notice it doesn't happen (as often) when using the starmap screen- at least for me. I use that primarily and have only encountered that error a couple times and those were before the fix.

Help that helps!
« Last Edit: January 03, 2018, 01:29:02 AM by Morrokain »
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A Random Jolteon

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Right. I have used Console commands to get ships since I am lazy. I also haven't gotten into any decent fights (though I recommend waiting a little on that. After I post this, I am going back in to get said big fight) that actually push my to do more than "Charge in, Murder" with my Pillager. I will say that a swarm of 5+ squadrons of Talon's is...shockingly effective vs my Pillager's PD. It has half of its small slots filled with MG's, and the other half Point defense (and at one point all point defense...which was slightly less effective). One flak at the back too...And I have found a stupid amount of XIV ships in Hegemony markets. o.o

Last thing I want to say before I start getting into fights: I LOVE THE WEAPON SPAM!!! You have truly shown the Star Wars inspired side of this mod with that! ^^
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Hi. I exist. Bye.

Morrokain

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Right. I have used Console commands to get ships since I am lazy. I also haven't gotten into any decent fights (though I recommend waiting a little on that. After I post this, I am going back in to get said big fight) that actually push my to do more than "Charge in, Murder" with my Pillager. I will say that a swarm of 5+ squadrons of Talon's is...shockingly effective vs my Pillager's PD. It has half of its small slots filled with MG's, and the other half Point defense (and at one point all point defense...which was slightly less effective). One flak at the back too...And I have found a stupid amount of XIV ships in Hegemony markets. o.o

Last thing I want to say before I start getting into fights: I LOVE THE WEAPON SPAM!!! You have truly shown the Star Wars inspired side of this mod with that! ^^

Thank you for your feedback! The Pillager is one of my favorite ships.  ;D

The Point Defense Cannon is slightly better against missiles and bombers, the machine gun is slightly better against faster threats like interceptors. So combining the two actually is the optimal way to go since they play off each others strengths! (Also the machine gun is probably best in class at finishing off "almost kills" from larger per shot weapons that fire slowly- so it is just nice to have a couple regardless.)


I have tried to make all point defense options synergize this way-
 good at least in some scenarios: investing in additional ordinance points to increase effectiveness- but combining different kinds of weapons increases effectiveness more than only focusing on only one type.

As to Talons being good at pure point defense, since you tend to have a lot more interceptors as a whole to potentially work with, you need an interceptor screen from your own fighter bays defending your capitals as well if you are outnumbered. Otherwise enemy fighters will eventually disable your turrets and keep your engines offline. Then you're in real trouble if a strike ship shows up. Well, that's the idea anyway.

What I am very pleased with is how much the AI seems to understand this. I am always so impressed with this game's ability to just roll with things that way. lol

**Edit** Missed your note on XIV ships! Yes the Hegemony has rediscovered the ability to convert these hulls. ;) All Hegemony ships are now either "XIV" which means modeled after that battle-group with relevant stats or reinforced civilian auxiliaries like the Heg Hound and Cerebus. So most vessels found in Hegemony markets have their mark on it. They are also quite expensive compared to their standard counterparts.

Standard hulls are still found in Heg markets, but also predominantly in the black market and independent markets- since to me that's what would make sense from an immersion perspective.

Don't be fooled, however, that doesn't mean you get the best finds with the Hegemony by any means. Other factions' vessels are just as powerful and can come with their own stat modifiers. Mid-tech and Hi-tech vessels tend to not have these, but factions who use those vessels also can have conversions of lower tech ships to entice you. Not to mention their weapons and fighters.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2018, 01:22:58 PM by Morrokain »
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A Random Jolteon

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Right. I have used Console commands to get ships since I am lazy. I also haven't gotten into any decent fights (though I recommend waiting a little on that. After I post this, I am going back in to get said big fight) that actually push my to do more than "Charge in, Murder" with my Pillager. I will say that a swarm of 5+ squadrons of Talon's is...shockingly effective vs my Pillager's PD. It has half of its small slots filled with MG's, and the other half Point defense (and at one point all point defense...which was slightly less effective). One flak at the back too...And I have found a stupid amount of XIV ships in Hegemony markets. o.o

Last thing I want to say before I start getting into fights: I LOVE THE WEAPON SPAM!!! You have truly shown the Star Wars inspired side of this mod with that! ^^

Thank you for your feedback! The Pillager is one of my favorite ships.  ;D

The Point Defense Cannon is slightly better against missiles and bombers, the machine gun is slightly better against faster threats like interceptors. So combining the two actually is the optimal way to go since they play off each others strengths! (Also the machine gun is probably best in class at finishing off "almost kills" from larger per shot weapons that fire slowly- so it is just nice to have a couple regardless.)


I have tried to make all point defense options synergize this way-
 good at least in some scenarios: investing in additional ordinance points to increase effectiveness- but combining different kinds of weapons increases effectiveness more than only focusing on only one type.

As to Talons being good at pure point defense, since you tend to have a lot more interceptors as a whole to potentially work with, you need an interceptor screen from your own fighter bays defending your capitals as well if you are outnumbered. Otherwise enemy fighters will eventually disable your turrets and keep your engines offline. Then you're in real trouble if a strike ship shows up. Well, that's the idea anyway.

What I am very pleased with is how much the AI seems to understand this. I am always so impressed with this game's ability to just roll with things that way. lol

**Edit** Missed your note on XIV ships! Yes the Hegemony has rediscovered the ability to convert these hulls. ;) All Hegemony ships are now either "XIV" which means modeled after that battle-group with relevant stats or reinforced civilian auxiliaries like the Heg Hound and Cerebus. So most vessels found in Hegemony markets have their mark on it. They are also quite expensive compared to their standard counterparts.

Standard hulls are still found in Heg markets, but also predominantly in the black market and independent markets- since to me that's what would make sense from an immersion perspective.

Don't be fooled, however, that doesn't mean you get the best finds with the Hegemony by any means. Other factions' vessels are just as powerful and can come with their own stat modifiers. Mid-tech and Hi-tech vessels tend to not have these, but factions who use those vessels also can have conversions of lower tech ships to entice you. Not to mention their weapons and fighters.
Wait...so Talon span on my 4 falcons and 1 eagle would be useful? (evil thoughts) So the MG's and Talons are no longer useless! BULLET SPAM HERE I COME!!!

Anyway, got a...decent fight. Gonna use the Spoiler thing to make this a smaller reply.
Onslaught
Spoiler
Glad to see the Onslaught can still delete most cruisers...Though I still prefer my TPL's, the Term beams are better for me since I have bad projectile aim. Still need to edit my build, but to do that I need a large kinetic weapon that doesn't have a range of 800 meters. Curse my luck!
Besides that, putting a MG and PD mix into all the small slots, and FLAK in all the medium slots is extremely strong and gives a defense that requires 4 squadrons to last more than 10 seconds against. Who needs a Paragon level shield when you have a stupid amount of armor, a stupid amount of HP, and a stupid amount of guns! I do think I would prefer to have the Burn drive over the AAF however, 90 is okay for speed, but it takes a while to get anywhere. Pretty much have to bring it in first, or not at all.
[close]

PD weapons
Spoiler
I did some testing, and they seem...pretty bloody balanced,
but seem to have a hard time actually hitting targets that are strafing. This may be a Vanilla problem, but thought I'd say it just in case. Either way, glad to see they are pretty much worthless against anything larger than a bomber.
[close]

Missiles
Spoiler
Once again fairly balanced. However, it seems that when they are countered, they are countered hard. It is almost impossible to get even large swarms of harpoons through a even larger swarm of...every fighter that has ever been made? Cut me some slack darn it, they look like tiny bloody dots!
[close]

Fighters
Spoiler
I'm gonna sum this one up easily, and quickly.

(in refit screen)
"I have some pretty good PD across my entire fleet! This should be easy!"
(in battle)
"HOLY F***ING MOTHER OF GOD THAT IS A LOT OF DOT SHAPED FIGHTERS!"
[close]


That's all I will say for now. I need to play more in order to give more feedback, but everything I have faced so far has been very balanced...
Spoiler
I just don't want to have my entire ship lose all of its PD because the enemy wave of fighters decided to do a bloody flyby of my ship with guns blazing!!!
[close]
...At least the mod is darn fun...GIVE ME YOUR DROID CONTROL SHIP/MEGALITH DARN YOU AI!

**Edit**
DHDBUS FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT HOW MANY SHIPS YOU CAN BRING IN!!!...And the number of fighters you can get in a battle.

Number of ships you can bring in
Spoiler
THAT IS A LOT OF POTENTIAL ONSLAUGHTS I COULD SEND INTO BATTLE...DO YOU KNOW HOW OP THAT CAN BE!? And not just the Onslaught,
Cap ships in general.  The Paragon is be far the strongest ship in Vanilla, and my testing showed it carried into here among the Vanilla ships.
I doubt the AI will do Cap Spam, but the player almost certainly will. I recommend keeping the cruisers the same in Deployment Cost, but make the Deployment Cost of the Cap ships more around that of Vanilla...or maybe just double what it is now. That should keep Cap Spam from being AS viable, as the player should face about 4 cruisers per cap ship, with escort. Though that one should be debated a little, as I do go more for effect.
[close]

Fighter Numbers
Spoiler
My computer is an absolute potato and should never be used to play starsector, but the number of fighters the Falcons can put out is ridiculously overpowered when you think about fleet battles. A Hegemony fleet could have maybe 5 cruisers with around 2 bays each,
totalling 10...Combined with Caps, and other carriers. That is around a Vanilla size fleet...The fleets in this mod have the potential to be bigger, and can easily lag out major computers. I suggest not having any bays for Light cruisers, one for Heavy cruisers, and whatever for Cap ships.
[close]
« Last Edit: January 03, 2018, 07:45:25 PM by A Random Jolteon »
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Morrokain

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Spoiler
Wait...so Talon span on my 4 falcons and 1 eagle would be useful? (evil thoughts) So the MG's and Talons are no longer useless! BULLET SPAM HERE I COME!!!

Anyway, got a...decent fight. Gonna use the Spoiler thing to make this a smaller reply.
Onslaught
Spoiler
Glad to see the Onslaught can still delete most cruisers...Though I still prefer my TPL's, the Term beams are better for me since I have bad projectile aim. Still need to edit my build, but to do that I need a large kinetic weapon that doesn't have a range of 800 meters. Curse my luck!
Besides that, putting a MG and PD mix into all the small slots, and FLAK in all the medium slots is extremely strong and gives a defense that requires 4 squadrons to last more than 10 seconds against. Who needs a Paragon level shield when you have a stupid amount of armor, a stupid amount of HP, and a stupid amount of guns! I do think I would prefer to have the Burn drive over the AAF however, 90 is okay for speed, but it takes a while to get anywhere. Pretty much have to bring it in first, or not at all.
[close]

PD weapons
Spoiler
I did some testing, and they seem...pretty bloody balanced,
but seem to have a hard time actually hitting targets that are strafing. This may be a Vanilla problem, but thought I'd say it just in case. Either way, glad to see they are pretty much worthless against anything larger than a bomber.
[close]

Missiles
Spoiler
Once again fairly balanced. However, it seems that when they are countered, they are countered hard. It is almost impossible to get even large swarms of harpoons through a even larger swarm of...every fighter that has ever been made? Cut me some slack darn it, they look like tiny bloody dots!
[close]

Fighters
Spoiler
I'm gonna sum this one up easily, and quickly.

(in refit screen)
"I have some pretty good PD across my entire fleet! This should be easy!"
(in battle)
"HOLY F***ING MOTHER OF GOD THAT IS A LOT OF DOT SHAPED FIGHTERS!"
[close]


That's all I will say for now. I need to play more in order to give more feedback, but everything I have faced so far has been very balanced...
Spoiler
I just don't want to have my entire ship lose all of its PD because the enemy wave of fighters decided to do a bloody flyby of my ship with guns blazing!!!
[close]
...At least the mod is darn fun...GIVE ME YOUR DROID CONTROL SHIP/MEGALITH DARN YOU AI!

**Edit**
DHDBUS FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT HOW MANY SHIPS YOU CAN BRING IN!!!...And the number of fighters you can get in a battle.

Number of ships you can bring in
Spoiler
THAT IS A LOT OF POTENTIAL ONSLAUGHTS I COULD SEND INTO BATTLE...DO YOU KNOW HOW OP THAT CAN BE!? And not just the Onslaught,
Cap ships in general.  The Paragon is be far the strongest ship in Vanilla, and my testing showed it carried into here among the Vanilla ships.
I doubt the AI will do Cap Spam, but the player almost certainly will. I recommend keeping the cruisers the same in Deployment Cost, but make the Deployment Cost of the Cap ships more around that of Vanilla...or maybe just double what it is now. That should keep Cap Spam from being AS viable, as the player should face about 4 cruisers per cap ship, with escort. Though that one should be debated a little, as I do go more for effect.
[close]

Fighter Numbers
Spoiler
My computer is an absolute potato and should never be used to play starsector, but the number of fighters the Falcons can put out is ridiculously overpowered when you think about fleet battles. A Hegemony fleet could have maybe 5 cruisers with around 2 bays each,
totalling 10...Combined with Caps, and other carriers. That is around a Vanilla size fleet...The fleets in this mod have the potential to be bigger, and can easily lag out major computers. I suggest not having any bays for Light cruisers, one for Heavy cruisers, and whatever for Cap ships.
[close]
[close]
I'm glad it feels balanced so far! It was the largest and hardest part of development, along with sprite editing. I pretty much had to re-invent the wheel with load-outs.

**EDIT** As to Harpoons, I'll keep track to see if an increase in hit-points is necessary. It is a finisher weapon for overloaded ships, so ideally it only excels with minimal PD- hence its speed, low maneuverability.

I think I tried to make it more durable and it makes the weapon ridiculously OP due to its speed. A couple hit points can be the difference between it always getting through frigates and destroyer PD... and that makes those ships worthless to large spam of the missile since it hits like a truck.

Advice: try combining it with missiles like the Locust, torpedoes or a couple pd frigates to create some pandemonium first.

Always try and avoid firing into heavy interceptor swarms, however. They actually will suicide into the missile as a last resort to protect their carrier, so even if it get's through the pd sometimes it can be frustratingly denied. Happened to me too many times for it not to be a thing, and the faster ones are shockingly good at it.  :-X

I consider it a necessary evil considering all missiles have infinite ammo.


I also definitely get some of your concerns regarding performance due to fighter spam. I have gone back and forth on how many I want per battle a couple times now, and some tweaking and pruning may be in order here and there. I'll look a little more into it, but to be fair, I AM going for:  ;D ;)

https://youtu.be/xPZigWFyK2o?t=2m3s

https://youtu.be/hlecG3nYaLw?t=32s


All jokes aside, though, perhaps a little higher deployment cost for capitals and a reduction in battle size? I don't want to go chopping away at fighter bays just yet, because ships actually are balanced around them. For what it costs to deploy a Falcon, two bays isn't all that much when you consider ships like... the Osprey, for example. The pirate version of that is less than a supply to deploy and its pretty much just a flying, broken, sad flight deck.  :P

The reason for the deployment costs being low is actually more to do with economy than wanting a ton of ships per battle. It's super difficult tricky to mess with the price of- say- supplies, so if I want a certain feel to both progression speed as well as the "punishment feeling" of suddenly needing more supplies due to defensive deployments or E-burns, I have to reduce those costs another way.

That was one of the reasons I felt Vanilla really needed a way to requisition aid and resources from NPC fleets. As a newbie I often found myself adrift- or went for a bounty, got  stranded or lost a fight and had to flee, and lost everything. It seemed a little unforgiving for new players, even with the tutorial giving you a foot-hold. That was something I intended to address both with lower deployments costs in general (especially to start) and the fleet dialogue features.

Every time, I thought: "Hey look, there's a Hegemony trade fleet, loaded with supplies... but, I'm a nice guy, loyal and all that... so I can't just take them. Why is not a single soul within this organization that I've been fighting pirates for for cycles now friendly enough to help me out or even just sell me some emergency supplies at a mark-up?"

So, I built a system to do just that. Speaking of which... ok, ok, I'll stoop to fishing: Anyone try that out yet? I know Cease-fire is still a little buggy. It's surprisingly hard to get hostile/vengeful fleets to not want to blast you away.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2018, 10:11:29 PM by Morrokain »
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