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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 722362 times)

Morrokain

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I can't respond in full detail at the moment, but a couple points that stood out from the above couple posts I wanted to respond to:

1) Markets - yeah I liked how markets were handled in .6 the best, honestly. Then it limited weapons/ships to mostly whatever the hulls/variants of the market's faction utilized, and locked all the good stuff (tier 2 and above) behind that faction's military market. Then the black market had some of that tier 2 and 3 stuff, and a few other things at complete random it seemed. It had a nice feel to it. The current market system seems like it just randomly pulls weapons based on their tier and rarity across all markets evenly, and doesn't do important things like guarantee point defense weapons are always available.

2) DnD is exactly the kind of dynamic I was going for, yeah. I play a lot of RPG's as well as RTS, and that has definitely been an influence for this entire mod. :)

3) AI assault/support pairs or task force groups - You can do this pretty reliably actually. Keep in mind there are increased command points in this mod, so:

Step 1: Select your assault group and tell it to escort a support ship. The recommendation for this is that the assault escorts are either a class smaller or at least fairly faster than the support ship. 0-flux boosting helps this a lot with assault and strike ships though, so you will be surprised what you can get away with there. Do this for each support ship in your fleet.

Step 2: Select the support/strike ships (Only the support/strike ships, mind you) you want to have target a priority enemy ship and right click that enemy vessel. The support ships will focus either their missiles or fighter waves on that ship, and strike vessels will close for a salvo.

Why this works well:
- The key here is that the AI is very aware of when it is "flankable" and will behave much more cautiously when it has that liability unless an eliminate command is explicitly given. That's why numbers are so important because the larger group has the flank advantage and can sometimes outright intimidate the other side into being overly defensive and not using their strike weapons until its too late. Escorts, however, provide flank defense the AI is aware of, and even the minor distraction of having to briefly engage an escorting frigate can buy enough time to make the AI confident enough to fully engage their weapons. This can often mean the difference between an attack killing a target (optimal outcome) or merely overloading it and hoping the long range missiles can get through the enemy fighter screen and finish it as it limps off. The escorts for your long range support ships are to ensure that they don't get similarly surrounded and sniped while your "away" at the enemy battle line.

4) Carrier weakness/uniqueness from the large fighter nerf that's coming will be addressed because they will all have built-in hullmods reducing fighter replacement time substantially- both to give them the actual sense of being a carrier and slightly weaken the fighter strength of standard assault vessels so comparison between the two classes can be more easily drawn. It isn't as noticeable for frigates or destroyers since the majority of them can't field fighters if they aren't carriers, but the lines get really blurred above that. Cruisers meant to be hybrids (like the midline Eagle or Megalith, for instance) will still feel that way because of their ship systems. For many carriers, limited ammo being a factor will also greatly increase the strength of the majority of carrier-based ship systems in comparison to the current release, so that will also make them stand out more.

5) ITU can stack in this mod with the built-in range modifiers to make some ships unique (Paragon, Megalith, Astral and Apogee), or the general range modifiers of cruisers and capitals because they need them to feel as powerful as they do.

6) The Dominator is terrible when flanked and not recommended as a stand alone ship so that's probably why you didn't have much luck in the simulator. It benefits the most from larger fleet actions where it can be supported, and there is shines, as it can outmatch or keep pace with almost anything of its class no matter the tech level. Impressive for such an old geezer, I promise you. ;) As a side note, improving shields is useful, but its shields are also terrible because it is low tech and from back when shields were new. Rely on them against fighters, but rely on your armor and massive forward dps combined with your Ammo Feeder to engage other ships.

To be honest, I more fear a Dominator catching me over-extending with its guns in range far more than an Aurora or Eagle. If it engages its ship system, even at low flux I'll probably be lucky to escape with my armor intact, if I escape at all.

*Edit* Actually for a really good example of this, try out the "Last Hurrah" mission. If you are unlucky enough to get the spawn where the Onslaught actually comes in first (doesn't always happen) escorted by the two Dominators and a frigate/destroyer screen, you will see just how hard a nut that can be to crack through a frontal assault. :D
« Last Edit: May 01, 2019, 03:45:36 PM by Morrokain »
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JDCollie

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Just so you know, Alex is addressing weapon availability in the next update:

Quote
Weapon availability at colonies:

    Ensures weapons for several different roles (PD, anti-shield, etc) are available if possible
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Morrokain

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^ Indeed.  :)

 That is why I am not providing a custom solution for markets just yet, I am hoping that fix will suffice for this mod. The scope is already pretty big as it is.
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eidolad

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I'll freely admit that I've never needed to test a Dominator in the simulator in the various Starsector games/mods: this ship just does its job.  AND I rarely pilot one because I am much more valuable roaming around then tanking/holding.  Then, I forgot why I like/want this ship and jump in the simulator when I salvage BOTH an Apogee and a Dominator in the same battle in an early phase of my game career...and grump/post.

Sorry JDCollie for not being clear:  my Dominator could dissipate 600+ flux...while full weapons fire would consume 350-400 of that dissipation capability...leaving @250 dissipation capability left to deal with hard flux reduction.  Seemed like a fairly good setup.

Your advice I think points out that I'm completely about shield fighting and that a Dominator is not a good ship at all for me to pilot/figure out in the simulator except for perhaps one-on-one to determine  weapons and resiliency.  Especially for a pilot who also gets an Apogee so rarely that I wasn't aware of how good it is at fighting alone.

In-game, I peeked at the ship hull description card for the Dominator vs. Apogee and here are the numbers posted for "Shield flux/damage" in the current Archean Order mod version:

Apogee:  .8
Dominator: 1.2

I'm not much for engineering/numbers in my gaming worlds, so I don't know exactly the math involved with the above numbers...I spend my time on the bridge where all the girls are.  Still, comparing the two numbers...the Apogee's shields are 35%-ish better in total flux performance if my English-major interworking with Windows calculator app serves me properly. 

I do see the Dominator as having a position/role indeed:  stuck right in the exact middle (horizontally speaking) of the entire battle line...where shields go down lots and thick armor is a big deal...and friends are on either side.  Want some Dominator, Mr. Enemy?  Gotta close in and pay cash to a cruiser's front side that has the armor to spare.  In fact I rarely lose one in vanilla once I get to a fleet size to want one...so I guess I'll be nicer to the next one I salvage.  I think I'll christen her the "Armor Warrior" in honor of your (and Morrokain's) feedback.

______


Morrokain:  interesting stuff about the rpg-grouping.  I guess I am too used to assigning escort orders and watching those ships die because their overall engagement locus becomes centered on the escortee...and they end up in exactly the wrong place (hi Shepherd...what are you doing IN FRONT OF ME with that enemy on the other side?  I just wanted you to loiter safely near me to have your mining drone wing nearby, not die hero-stupidly).  So I like to preserve my command points entirely for fleet/carrier strikes or for fine positioning...and give all ships full independence of movement.

It could be because the only time I give escort orders are

1.  for an occasional frigate escort for a carrier.

2.  For an evenly matched, large fleet battle, Admiral Eidolad sometimes calls for a "CAP and strike":

a) I lead my fleet and get the closest ASAP to the enemy capitals to draw all enemy attention (and most of their fighters)
b) Before, or once, the enemy fighter key begin to key on me:  I order my carriers to escort me:  fighters are on me for "Combat Air Patrol" to begin a battle with to ensure that enemy fighters do most of the dying first
c) prior to me telling the carriers who to kill (usually near me, but farther away from the enemy main than where I am, since I'm still the "fighter lure")

Otherwise I don't bother at all with escort orders if my fleet is outnumbered.  No way...my guys need full mobility.  Let *me* do the risky stuff (with carrier strike support) while the rest of work 100% on staying alive.

______

Okay I feel really dumb:  how do I access "named missions" like "Last Hurrah?"?


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Morrokain

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Oh yeah you will still lose escorts for certain, but in an even strength battle you will ...probably... lose less overall with said tactic. That being said, its certainly not a hard and fast rule and my playstyle may just synergize better with that strategy, who knows. I play the game like a tactical RTS and typically only directly give orders to my flagship in emergency situations where I feel my second isn't being bold, or scared enough. :)

They aren't unlimited or the skills wouldn't matter, but from my last estimation of unmodded Starsector I believe you get a considerable amount of command points in comparison. But I haven't actually checked the tone of that in a while.

I will say you have to keep track of the evolving battle and get snapshots of the battlefield from time to time to make sure nothing is closing in that can just pommel everything in the task force or it won't matter and all the escorts will die lol. "Avoid" orders can help with this, but sometimes its better to simply select the whole group and set a rally point to just get the hell out of there depending on what's coming.

In this mod if its bigger it will probably kill you and all your friends so be careful. Capitals especially, and especially-especially well supported capitals.
------------------------

You can play missions from the main menu where you started the new campaign. They contain both new lore based around the new factions, and the old stock missions (should be) are balanced for the mod.
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Ranakastrasz

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The Simple Core Systems Hull Mod doesn't have a percentage label for the second variable.
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I think is easy for Simba and Mufasa sing the Circle of Life when they're on the top of the food chain, I bet the zebras hate that song.

Cigarettes are a lot like hamsters. Perfectly harmless, until you put one in your mouth and light it on fire

Morrokain

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^ Thanks fixed
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eidolad

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thanks...I've only played campaign mode the whole time I've played SS and didn't even see the missions...double duh.

So I think I've gotten a good early sense of the mod's very very tasty weapons and ship setups from my 2-3 days playing, and evolved from:

1.  loving those non-flux weapons...hey lets try to build around them.  Nope don't have infinite OP points to spare.  Now I only mount the non-flux burst PD weapons to cover all axes.

2.  loving the missile loadouts...hey let's try to build around them.  Nope.  Flux budgets.  Only a few of my ships have a alpha missile strike.  However those non-flux finisher loadouts are still really golden given that most have auto-loaders now.

3.  collected a huge armory of 4 of every weapon...then tried them out.  Yup...balanced designs with good flux margins work for me.

4.  A solid core of carriers with preferably advanced "class blue" fighters is reasonable dress code at all times.

5.  Loving the 360 shields given the evil Salamanders and their sneaky cousins the Bolo missiles.

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Morrokain

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^ You will probably like the next update then. Added quite a few more weapons to fill in various niches.

And I just saw two Lashers and an Enforcer take down a Valkyrie MkII with some heavy weapons. It was hard won victory, but I am definitely pleased with the destroyer and frigate health buff.

Cruisers and Capitals that are well supported will still likely be very difficult to defeat, but I find myself ignoring the smaller ships much less now in larger battles. It feels pretty nice.
-------------------------------

Still a lot to do, but updating patch notes. Star-wrapped notes are whats new over the last post:

Spoiler
Campaign Content Additions and Balance Changes
-------------
 -- New Ships:
    -

 -- New Fighters:
    - Banshee-class *Interceptor* (No longer a heavy interceptor)
    *- Sentinel-class Heavy Interceptor*
    *- Goliath-class Heavy Gunship*

 -- New Weapons:
    - Shattercell Cannon (Small PD/Assault Energy Weapon)
    - Heavy Shattercell Cannon (Medium PD/Assault Energy Weapon)
    - Smokescreen Rocket Launcher (Small Anti-Fighter Rocket Weapon)
    - Heavy Smokescreen Rocket Launcher (Medium Anti-Fighter rocket weapon)
    - Twin Shockwave Launcher (Medium Strike Rockets)
    - Triple Shockwave Launcher (Medium Strike Rockets)
    - Rupture Shockwave System (Large Strike Rocket System)
    *- Obliterator Cannon (Medium Strike/Assault Energy Weapon)*
    *- Heavy Obliterator Cannon (Large Strike/Assault Energy Weapon)*
    *- Burst Pulser (Medium Assault Energy Weapon)*
    *- Punisher Artillery System (Large Ballistic Fire Support Weapon)*
    *- Heavy Fissure Cannon (Large Ballistic Strike Weapon)*
    *- Razor Tri-Beam (Large Energy Assault Weapon)*
    *- Heavy Autocannon (Medium Ballistic Assault Weapon) - Original Heavy Autocannon renamed.*
    *- Vulcan PD Cannon (Medium Ballistic PD Weapon)*
    *- Heavy Vulcan PD System (Large Ballistic PD Weapon)*
    *- Micro Repeater (Small Energy PD Weapon) - Original Mirco Repeater renamed.*
    *- Dual Micro Repeater (Small Energy PD Weapon)*
    *- Cutlass Laser (Medium Energy PD Weapon)*
    *- Heavy Cutlass Laser (Large Energy PD Weapon)*
    *- Proximity Mine Launcher (Large Missile PD Weapon)*
    *- Trapdoor Mine Launcher (Large Energy PD Weapon)*
    *- Widow MRM Launcher (Medium Anti-Fighter Missile Weapon)*
    *- Heavy Widow Launcher (Large Anti-Fighter Missile Weapon)*


 -- Market Changes:
    - Bomb Bay is no longer an available weapon in markets. It was mostly useless and was taking up valuable weapon choices when it spawned. (Now bomber only)
    - Removed slight rarity modifier of PD Cannon spawning in markets.
    - Reduced rarity modifier of Burst PD Laser spawning in markets.
    *- Now over 130 different weapons, not including built in fighter weapons.*

 -- Faction Balance Changes:
    - Another round of dialogue polish. (So as I catch things)
    - Replaced Piranha bombers from pirate Enforcer-class destroyers with pirate Mauler heavy interceptors.
    - Adamantine Consortium will no longer deploy many Spectre interceptor drones, and will favor Banshee interceptors instead.
    - Osprey-class Light Carrier no longer autofits. Variants for each factions have been expanded to compensate. (Too many empty fighter bays in campaign fleets)
    - Zero chance for non-standard fighters (faction-equipped variants) to be found in Independent fleets and a very, very low chance in Scavenger fleets.
    - Reduced chance for Exile-class Light Carriers to spawn in Archean Order fleets.
    - Separated out Doom variants between Adamantine Consortium and Tri-Tachyon Corporation. (Tri-Tachyons shouldn't be using phasetech weapons)
    - Changed some factions so that when they pursue the player for smuggling or black market activity that they actively pursue the fleet instead of sometimes merely harrassing.
    - Changed some factions so that under certain varying circumstances when pursuing players for black market activity or contraband high rep will:
        - prevent contraband from being confiscated.
        - cause a negative impact to reputation rather than an outright attack.

 -- Blueprint Changes:
    - Pirate Talon is now a pirate blueprint unlock instead of a base blueprint.
    - Luddic and Pirate blueprints are no longer unlocked by tiered tech blueprint sets (lowtech in particular).
    - Bomb bay is no longer a blueprint.
    - Spectre-class interceptor drones are no longer unlocked by the Admantine Consortium blueprint package.
    - Added Cobra heavy bomber and Banshee heavy interceptor to the Admantine Consortium blueprint package.
    *- Apocalypse Cannon is now ultra rare instead of legendary.*
    *- The Heavy Apocalypse Cannon is now legendary bp.*
    *- Goliath-class Heavy Gunship has been added as a legendary bp.*

 -- Feature Enhancements/Additions:

   Cease Fire Enhancements:
     - Adamantine Consortium fleets can be more successfully negotiated with if you hire one of their officers and so know their politics.
          - New description, dialogue and possible results when negotiating Cease Fires for:
      - Archean Order
      - Adamantine Consortium
      - Pirates
       - Luddic Path
     - Bribes
      - Bribe results and descriptions are more faction specific for some factions to shed more light on how effective bribery will be for that faction's commanders.
                - Increased base chance for bribe requests over outright refusals when attempting a bribe-free Cease-Fire.
                - Pirates will have an even greater chance to ask for credits rather than fight when attempting bribe-free Cease-Fires.
      - Pirates will accept bribes and ask for bribes over fighting even when vengeful to the Player's faction.
      - Less lawful factions like the Luddic Path, Adamantine Consortium and Pirates will now give a reputation boost for successful bribes up to a certain reputation level.
-----


Combat Balance Changes
-------------
 - Slightly increased deployment cost of Legion, Megalith, Malevolent, Tyrant, Astral, and Paragon.
 - Increased range of Rapier SRMs. (From 900 to 1000)
 - Slightly lowered max charges for Micro Repeater and reduced the amount of charges returned each recharge cycle.
 - Nova Cannon proximity blast radius is doubled, and the fuse range is doubled, but the fuse will now only trigger on missiles.
 - Increased Nova Cannon damage by 20%.
 - Increased Machine Gun damage by 25%.
 - Increased Electron Cannon damage by 33% and increased range to 450. (Up from 400)
 - Increased Pulse Laser Damage by 50% and increased range to 450. (Up from 400)
 - Increased Assault Beam damage by ~15%.
 - Increased PD Beam damage by ~40% and increased range to 350, up from 300.
 *- Increased Squall SRM hitpoints by 200%, missile speed and turn rate by ~600%, and range by 200. (Was VERY underwhelming for its tier in larger battles)*
 - Reduced Atropos Torpedo turn rate by 40%. (I'm hoping this reduces the chances of the AI wasting it against slower fighters like gunships)
 - Changed Ion Cannon and Heavy Ion Cannon to now have regenerating charges, but they also deal more burst damage either through faster firing or damage per shot.
 - Fissure Cannon (formerly Sunder Cannon) has increased range (500 to 600). The fighter variant range remains 500.
 - Iridium Cannon has increased range (500 to 700). The fighter variant range remains 500.
 - Scythe Cannon has decreased range. (600 to 500)
 - Assault Autocannon has increased range. (600 to 650)
 - Icer Gun has increased range. (600 to 700)
 - Lowered projectile velocity of Phalanx Cannon and Hypervelocity Driver. (They were a little too powerful and hopefully this will balance them out a bit)
 - Increased turn rate of Strike beams to help prevent the A.I from wasting them while maneuvering to evenly distribute armor damage.
 *- Apocalypse Cannon is now 30 op (down from 32)*
 *- The Heavy Apocalypse Cannon is now an available weapon at 32 op.*
 *- Increased health of destroyers and frigates by ~15-20%. (Slightly better balances out the strength of cruisers' easy access to fighter bays)*
 *- Increased damage of Ion Pulser by ~70%.*
 *- Rebalanced stats and OP cost of medium ballistic line of weapons.*
 *- Hivemind nanite clusters now go directly for the kill rather than seeking the targets engines.*

 -- Overhauled flux costs of the entire rocket line of weapons:
     - Reduced flux cost of Shockstorm rockets per salvo by 50%, increased max rockets for medium variant, and increased rocket speed and range slightly. (Large buff overall)
     - Increased flux cost of Annihilator rockets (small variant) by 25%, but flux costs for medium variant reduced to match flux per rocket of the small variant.
     - Annihilator rockets (small variant) now gets 4 rockets back on reload (was 2) though reload time per rocket (DPS) remains roughly the same.
     - Reduced flux cost of Javelin rockets by 25%, and reduced their flight speed.
     - Reduced flux cost of Fury Rocket System and Hailstone rockets by 33%.

 -- Overhauled Fighter Combat Layer --    
 -- Not all of the individual changes will be documented. Here are some general points:
     - Now over 60 different fighter wings.
     - All fighters now have limited ammunition which gives them a specific combat time before some kind of rearmament is required.
     - Rearmament design-wise is intended to give ships a window of recovery between strikes and reduce fighter swarming in favor of assault wave behavior.
     - Rearmament stats are unique to each individual fighter weapon, though some general rules apply:
     - Magazines of fighter weapons only last around 5 seconds of active combat time.
          - Non-missile weapons will reload their magazines in a set amount of time, typically 12-20 seconds depending on the the fighter role. (AI can't handle finite ammo)
     - Missile weapons almost always require redocking with the carrier, and often have even more limited ammunition than non-missile fighter weapons.
     - Fighters, gunhsips and interceptors that use finite missiles will usually redock with the carrier immediately, or soon after they have used them all.
     - Mostly removed the use of flares in midtech and low tech fighters, gunships and bombers. Only the highest tiered craft will use them.
     - Fighters now deal 200% additional damage to other fighters, making interceptors and anti-fighter roles a serious threat to unescorted bombers and gunships.
     - Fighters now deal 200% additional damage to ship hardpoints (weapons and engines), up from 150%.
     - Balance pass on most fighter replacement rates. Some have increased rates, some have decreased rates depending on balance adjustments. As a soft rule, however:
          - Bombers have increased replacement times. (They also tend to have the highest strike impulse)
          - Gunships have been moved to closely match Bombers in their replacement times. (They also tend to have the longest active combat times and largest magazines)
          - Fighters have slightly reduced replacement times. (They have various specialized roles)
          - Interceptors have moderately reduced replacement times. (They are powerful bomber/gunship killers, and important escorts for your own fighter/bomber/gunship strike groups)
     - Removed Fighter Systems hullmod's effect on weapons in favor of fighter-specialized weapons. Fighter weapons are now less effective against ships.
     - Though still present for descriptive flavor, Limited Range Finders hullmod on fighters doesn't actually do anything. Range is handled through fighter weapons.
     - Reduced health and shields of high tech gunships and bombers and some midline and low tech gunships and bombers.
     - Reduced general health of the higher tiered fighters, and any fighters that use shields have much lower flux dissipation to make PD beams more effective against them.
     - Rebalanced OP cost around new fighter craft additions that were added in some of the more recent updates.
     - Reduced OP cost and efficiency of some pirate fighters even further, while balancing other weaker ones to make them useful to the player in some circumstances.
     - Many low tech fighters, bombers, gunships and interceptors now have proper OP costs considering their combat effectiveness.
     - OP to Power ratio when scrolling up and down the "equip fighter wheel" on the refit screen should now make more intuitive sense.
     *- All fighter weapons are now added to the codex with a basic description of how fighter weapons differ from standard ship weapons as well as hard weapon stats.*
     *- Balance pass on fighter crew requirements and costs. General increase in crew required for gunships and bombers, scaling better with size.*
     *- Balance pass on fighter mass. (Doesn't make too much a difference but documented anyway just in case).*
-----


Bug Fixes
-------------
 - Corrected issue with Cease Fire requests not working on patrols who are attacking you from smuggling or black market activity.
 - Fixed issue with overspawning faction-specific fighters in Independent and Scavenger fleets.
 - Corrected Pirate Talon bug with base blueprints.
 - Devastator Cannon should now properly hit ships along certain angles of fire that caused the proximity fuse behavior to trigger early.
 - The Nova Cannon should now effectively hit ships at all times, making it more in line with the intended dual assault/pd role.
 - Removed accidental chance for Fighter-class Light Pulse Laser to spawn in campaign markets or loot.
 - Added a description to the Archean Order station's heavy anti-capital weapon in the codex.
 - Hopefully resolved issues with Hailstone Rockets and Fury Rocket System sometimes causing the flameout slingshot behavior on ships.
 - Corrected the Adamantine Consortium Condor skin to no longer change its medium missile mount to energy.
 *- All fighter wing descriptions should have the brief summary portion that describes their role.*
 *- Fixed merge issue with Helmsmanship skill stacking on top of the original version.*
 *- Correct equip-screen description of Militarized Subsystems to better reflect what downsides it removes from civilian hulls.*
 *- Hivemind nanite clusters now effectively hit ships at all angles.*
 *- Corrected Simple Core System's description.*
-----


Misc
-------------
 - Due to storage space, versions lower than v1.2.1b are no longer downloadable, though their patch notes will remain documented.
 - Sunder Cannon has been renamed to Fissure Cannon to avoid confusion with the Sunder-class destroyer. XD Must have been in a hurry on that one lol.
 *- Round of polish on the Heavy Apocalypse Cannon sprite.*
 *- The Heavy Autocannon has been renamed to the Heavy Dual Autocannon.*
 *- Slight round of polish on the Velocity Cannon.*
 *- Micro Repeater has been renamed to Micro Blaster because the original name felt better for a PD weapon and this was more of a strike weapon.*
-----

[close]
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eidolad

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MORE weapons.  It's funny how far down my four-across armory in my inventory stretched already :)

TLDR:  Request to add some middle-weight ships (a few cruisers, or a destroyer or two or five) to the Luddic and Pirate fleets?  They are trying to hold battle lines with modded freighters and tons of frigates...all massively lumbered up with up to five d-mods each as well!
_____

I feel a bit guilty after reading the sheer tonnage of the incoming changes to the mod to ask, but could we do some tinkering with the "enemy" fleet compositions at some point?

A buff on the weight of metal for Luddic Path and Pirate fleets, if possible.  The last two Luddic Path systems I stumbled across were rolled over easily...mostly due to their defensive fleets having a bunch of combat freighters and light carriers as the core.  They could use some legit CR/DDs in their order of battle.

The sheer number of d-mods should be enough of a nerf for most players to find these two groups to be good early prey...especially given the incredible power of the lead faction ships.  Sure, do continue to have lots of d-mods on those CR/DDs...it is too easy to salvage them otherwise so make them worth less to the player makes sense.

I only speak from a solid experience as an Archean Order Rogue Knight.  My next game when the incoming patch rolls in will likely take me into Adamantine Consortium service.

However I wouldn't want to suggest that there would be more of those nasty pirate battlecruisers laying about.  Nah, that would be...

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Morrokain

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^ Noted I'll see what I can do. :)
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Morrokain

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Yay! 0.9.1a of Starsector is out!  ;D

Going to have to double my efforts to get this next release polished and and out there, but there is a lot to do and now even more was added with the new update.

Once I get everything compatible, I'll start investigating whether or not this was sufficient enough to solve the market issues the mod has been having lately.

More updates soon, but for now some update patch notes. :)
-----------------------------

Spoiler
Campaign Content Additions and Balance Changes
-------------
 -- New Ships:
    *- Prometheus MkII*
    *- Atlas MkIII*

    - New Skins:
       *- Luddic Path Eagle*
   *- Luddic Path Crucible*
   *- Luddic Church Crucible*
   *- Luddic Path Rhino*
   *- Luddic Church Rhino*
   *- Luddic Church Wolverine*
   *- Luddic Path Enforcer*
   *- Luddic Church Enforcer*
   *- Luddic Path Hammerhead*
   *- Luddic Church Hammerhead*
   *- Luddic Path Condor*
   *- Luddic Path Mora*
   *- Luddic Church Lancer*
   *- Pirate Shrike*

 -- New Fighters:
    - Banshee-class Interceptor
    - Sentinel-class Heavy Interceptor
    - Goliath-class Heavy Gunship

 -- New Weapons:
    - Shattercell Cannon (Small PD/Assault Energy Weapon)
    - Heavy Shattercell Cannon (Medium PD/Assault Energy Weapon)
    - Smokescreen Rocket Launcher (Small Anti-Fighter Rocket Weapon)
    - Heavy Smokescreen Rocket Launcher (Medium Anti-Fighter rocket weapon)
    - Twin Shockwave Launcher (Medium Strike Rockets)
    - Triple Shockwave Launcher (Medium Strike Rockets)
    - Rupture Shockwave System (Large Strike Rocket System)
    - Obliterator Cannon (Medium Strike/Assault Energy Weapon)
    - Heavy Obliterator Cannon (Large Strike/Assault Energy Weapon)
    - Burst Pulser (Medium Assault Energy Weapon)
    - Punisher Artillery System (Large Ballistic Fire Support Weapon)
    - Heavy Fissure Cannon (Large Ballistic Strike Weapon)
    - Razor Tri-Beam (Large Energy Assault Weapon)
    - Heavy Autocannon (Medium Ballistic Assault Weapon) - Original Heavy Autocannon renamed.
    - Vulcan PD Cannon (Medium Ballistic PD Weapon)
    - Heavy Vulcan PD System (Large Ballistic PD Weapon)
    - Micro Repeater (Small Energy PD Weapon) - Original Mirco Repeater renamed.
    - Dual Micro Repeater (Small Energy PD Weapon)
    - Cutlass Laser (Medium Energy PD Weapon)
    - Heavy Cutlass Laser (Large Energy PD Weapon)
    - Proximity Mine Launcher (Large Missile PD Weapon)
    - Trapdoor Mine Launcher (Large Energy PD Weapon)
    - Widow MRM Launcher (Medium Anti-Fighter Missile Weapon)
    - Heavy Widow Launcher (Large Anti-Fighter Missile Weapon)


 -- Market Changes:
    - Bomb Bay is no longer an available weapon in markets. It was mostly useless and was taking up valuable weapon choices when it spawned. (Now bomber only)
    - Removed slight rarity modifier of PD Cannon spawning in markets.
    - Reduced rarity modifier of Burst PD Laser spawning in markets.
    - Now over 130 different weapons, not including built in fighter weapons.

 -- Faction Balance Changes:
    - Another round of dialogue polish. (So as I catch things)
    - Replaced Piranha bombers from pirate Enforcer-class destroyers with pirate Mauler heavy interceptors.
    - Adamantine Consortium will no longer deploy many Spectre interceptor drones, and will favor Banshee interceptors instead.
    - Osprey-class Light Carrier no longer autofits. Variants for each factions have been expanded to compensate. (Too many empty fighter bays in campaign fleets)
    - Zero chance for non-standard fighters (faction-equipped variants) to be found in Independent fleets and a very, very low chance in Scavenger fleets.
    - Reduced chance for Exile-class Light Carriers to spawn in Archean Order fleets.
    - Separated out Doom variants between Adamantine Consortium and Tri-Tachyon Corporation. (Tri-Tachyons shouldn't be using phasetech weapons)
    - Changed some factions so that when they pursue the player for smuggling or black market activity that they actively pursue the fleet instead of sometimes merely harrassing.
    - Changed some factions so that under certain varying circumstances when pursuing players for black market activity or contraband high rep will:
        - prevent contraband from being confiscated.
        - cause a negative impact to reputation rather than an outright attack.
    *- Numerous new variants for the new skins for Luddic factions have been added to the campaign fleets.*
    *- Ships supplies per month is much lower, universal among tech tiers and based on hull size. (I felt it was unncessary now with monthly costs per crew filling the same role)*

 -- Blueprint Changes:
    - Pirate Talon is now a pirate blueprint unlock instead of a base blueprint.
    - Luddic and Pirate blueprints are no longer unlocked by tiered tech blueprint sets (lowtech in particular).
    - Bomb bay is no longer a blueprint.
    - Spectre-class interceptor drones are no longer unlocked by the Admantine Consortium blueprint package.
    - Added Cobra heavy bomber and Banshee heavy interceptor to the Admantine Consortium blueprint package.
    - Apocalypse Cannon is now ultra rare instead of legendary.
    - The Heavy Apocalypse Cannon is now legendary bp.
    - Goliath-class Heavy Gunship has been added as a legendary bp.

 -- Feature Enhancements/Additions:

   Cease Fire Enhancements:
     - Adamantine Consortium fleets can be more successfully negotiated with if you hire one of their officers and so know their politics.
          - New description, dialogue and possible results when negotiating Cease Fires for:
      - Archean Order
      - Adamantine Consortium
      - Pirates
       - Luddic Path
     - Bribes
      - Bribe results and descriptions are more faction specific for some factions to shed more light on how effective bribery will be for that faction's commanders.
                - Increased base chance for bribe requests over outright refusals when attempting a bribe-free Cease-Fire.
                - Pirates will have an even greater chance to ask for credits rather than fight when attempting bribe-free Cease-Fires.
      - Pirates will accept bribes and ask for bribes over fighting even when vengeful to the Player's faction.
      - Less lawful factions like the Luddic Path, Adamantine Consortium and Pirates will now give a reputation boost for successful bribes up to a certain reputation level.
-----


Combat Balance Changes
-------------
 - Slightly increased deployment cost of Legion, Megalith, Malevolent, Tyrant, Astral, and Paragon.
 - Increased range of Rapier SRMs. (From 900 to 1000)
 - Slightly lowered max charges for Micro Repeater and reduced the amount of charges returned each recharge cycle.
 - Nova Cannon proximity blast radius is doubled, and the fuse range is doubled, but the fuse will now only trigger on missiles.
 - Increased Nova Cannon damage by 20%.
 - Increased Machine Gun damage by 25%.
 - Increased Electron Cannon damage by 33% and increased range to 450. (Up from 400)
 - Increased Pulse Laser Damage by 50% and increased range to 450. (Up from 400)
 - Increased Assault Beam damage by ~15%.
 - Increased PD Beam damage by ~40% and increased range to 350, up from 300.
 - Increased Squall SRM hitpoints by 200%, missile speed and turn rate by ~600%, and range by 200. (Was VERY underwhelming for its tier in larger battles)
 - Reduced Atropos Torpedo turn rate by 40%. (I'm hoping this reduces the chances of the AI wasting it against slower fighters like gunships)
 - Changed Ion Cannon and Heavy Ion Cannon to now have regenerating charges, but they also deal more burst damage either through faster firing or damage per shot.
 - Fissure Cannon (formerly Sunder Cannon) has increased range (500 to 600). The fighter variant range remains 500.
 - Iridium Cannon has increased range. (500 to 700) The fighter variant range remains 500.
 - Scythe Cannon has decreased range. (600 to 500)
 - Assault Autocannon has increased range. (600 to 650)
 - Icer Gun has increased range. (600 to 700)
 - Lowered projectile velocity of Phalanx Cannon and Hypervelocity Driver. (They were a little too powerful and hopefully this will balance them out a bit)
 - Increased turn rate of Strike beams to help prevent the A.I from wasting them while maneuvering to evenly distribute armor damage.
 - Apocalypse Cannon is now 30 op (down from 32)
 - The Heavy Apocalypse Cannon is now an available weapon at 32 op.
 - Increased health of destroyers and frigates by ~15-20%. (Slightly better balances out the strength of cruisers' easy access to fighter bays)
 - Increased damage of Ion Pulser by ~70%.
 - Rebalanced stats and OP cost of medium ballistic line of weapons.
 - Hivemind nanite clusters now go directly for the kill rather than seeking the targets engines.
 *- Slightly reduced deployment cost of Aegis cruiser.*
 *- Increased max flux of Aegis and Eagle cruiser by 1000.*

 -- Overhauled flux costs of the entire rocket line of weapons:
     - Reduced flux cost of Shockstorm rockets per salvo by 50%, increased max rockets for medium variant, and increased rocket speed and range slightly. (Large buff overall)
     - Increased flux cost of Annihilator rockets (small variant) by 25%, but flux costs for medium variant reduced to match flux per rocket of the small variant.
     - Annihilator rockets (small variant) now gets 4 rockets back on reload (was 2) though reload time per rocket (DPS) remains roughly the same.
     - Reduced flux cost of Javelin rockets by 25%, and reduced their flight speed.
     - Reduced flux cost of Fury Rocket System and Hailstone rockets by 33%.

 -- Overhauled Fighter Combat Layer --    
 -- Not all of the individual changes will be documented. Here are some general points:
     - Now over 60 different fighter wings.
     - All fighters now have limited ammunition which gives them a specific combat time before some kind of rearmament is required.
     - Rearmament design-wise is intended to give ships a window of recovery between strikes and reduce fighter swarming in favor of assault wave behavior.
     - Rearmament stats are unique to each individual fighter weapon, though some general rules apply:
     - Magazines of fighter weapons only last around 5 seconds of active combat time.
          - Non-missile weapons will reload their magazines in a set amount of time, typically 12-20 seconds depending on the the fighter role. (AI can't handle finite ammo)
     - Missile weapons almost always require redocking with the carrier, and often have even more limited ammunition than non-missile fighter weapons.
     - Fighters, gunhsips and interceptors that use finite missiles will usually redock with the carrier immediately, or soon after they have used them all.
     - Mostly removed the use of flares in midtech and low tech fighters, gunships and bombers. Only the highest tiered craft will use them.
     - Fighters now deal 200% additional damage to other fighters, making interceptors and anti-fighter roles a serious threat to unescorted bombers and gunships.
     - Fighters now deal 200% additional damage to ship hardpoints (weapons and engines), up from 150%.
     - Balance pass on most fighter replacement rates. Some have increased rates, some have decreased rates depending on balance adjustments. As a soft rule, however:
          - Bombers have increased replacement times. (They also tend to have the highest strike impulse)
          - Gunships have been moved to closely match Bombers in their replacement times. (They also tend to have the longest active combat times and largest magazines)
          - Fighters have slightly reduced replacement times. (They have various specialized roles)
          - Interceptors have moderately reduced replacement times. (They are powerful bomber/gunship killers, and important escorts for your own fighter/bomber/gunship strike groups)
     - Removed Fighter Systems hullmod's effect on weapons in favor of fighter-specialized weapons. Fighter weapons are now less effective against ships.
     - Though still present for descriptive flavor, Limited Range Finders hullmod on fighters doesn't actually do anything. Range is handled through fighter weapons.
     - Reduced health and shields of high tech gunships and bombers and some midline and low tech gunships and bombers.
     - Reduced general health of the higher tiered fighters, and any fighters that use shields have much lower flux dissipation to make PD beams more effective against them.
     - Rebalanced OP cost around new fighter craft additions that were added in some of the more recent updates.
     - Reduced OP cost and efficiency of some pirate fighters even further, while balancing other weaker ones to make them useful to the player in some circumstances.
     - Many low tech fighters, bombers, gunships and interceptors now have proper OP costs considering their combat effectiveness.
     - OP to Power ratio when scrolling up and down the "equip fighter wheel" on the refit screen should now make more intuitive sense.
     - All fighter weapons are now added to the codex with a basic description of how fighter weapons differ from standard ship weapons as well as hard weapon stats.
     - Balance pass on fighter crew requirements and costs. General increase in crew required for gunships and bombers, scaling better with size.
     - Balance pass on fighter mass. (Doesn't make too much a difference but documented anyway just in case).
-----


Bug Fixes
-------------
 - Corrected issue with Cease Fire requests not working on patrols who are attacking you from smuggling or black market activity.
 - Fixed issue with overspawning faction-specific fighters in Independent and Scavenger fleets.
 - Corrected Pirate Talon bug with base blueprints.
 - Devastator Cannon should now properly hit ships along certain angles of fire that caused the proximity fuse behavior to trigger early.
 - The Nova Cannon should now effectively hit ships at all times, making it more in line with the intended dual assault/pd role.
 - Removed accidental chance for Fighter-class Light Pulse Laser to spawn in campaign markets or loot.
 - Added a description to the Archean Order station's heavy anti-capital weapon in the codex.
 - Hopefully resolved issues with Hailstone Rockets and Fury Rocket System sometimes causing the flameout slingshot behavior on ships.
 - Corrected the Adamantine Consortium Condor skin to no longer change its medium missile mount to energy.
 - All fighter wing descriptions should have the brief summary portion that describes their role.
 - Fixed merge issue with Helmsmanship skill stacking on top of the original version.
 - Correct equip-screen description of Militarized Subsystems to better reflect what downsides it removes from civilian hulls.
 - Hivemind nanite clusters now effectively hit ships at all angles.
 - Corrected Simple Core System's description.
-----


Misc
-------------
 - Due to storage space, versions lower than v1.2.1b are no longer downloadable, though their patch notes will remain documented.
 - Sunder Cannon has been renamed to Fissure Cannon to avoid confusion with the Sunder-class destroyer. XD Must have been in a hurry on that one lol.
 - Round of polish on the Heavy Apocalypse Cannon's sprite.
 - The Heavy Autocannon has been renamed to the Heavy Dual Autocannon.
 - Slight round of polish on the Velocity Cannon sprite.
 - Micro Repeater has been renamed to Micro Blaster because the original name felt better for a PD weapon and this was more of a strike weapon.
-----
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eidolad

  • Commander
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Having now encountered the new Atlas pirate refits in vanilla .91a...like I've got a pirate grand fleet with SIX of those things and massive numbers of companions, floating around unchallenged.   Nothing else in the system is even close to its power

...I cannot await a clash when the new Archean Order is ready and the pirates come calling with such a formation.

Well I mean, when I'm ready.  Taking down just one of those things with my early destroyer level fleet was...interesting.

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Morrokain

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  • Megalith Dreadnought - Archean Order
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I haven't quite balanced everything yet, including the new pirate atlas. Getting pretty close though. The biggest thing will be rebalancing and adding variants based on the new weapons and general huge list of balance changes.. Not looking forward to that at all.  :P

I have spent a pretty large amount of time doing another balance pass on stations, because it is important for the player to be able to choose the station they want based on play style or flavor, not which one is the best, and the flux changes to long range missiles along caused some stations to be stronger than others, sometimes very noticeably so. I've managed to get orbital stations and battlestations unilaterally balanced, so now moving on to starfortresses (easier because they are just meant to be hugely strong)

Right now as it stands, however, there are two tiers:  ---SPOILERS AHEAD---

Spoiler
Tier 1 station sets: (meaning orbital stations, battlestations, and starfortresses collectively)

 - Pirate (Low-tech stations)- Weakest station meant to be a second level introduction to station combat after the weaker REDACTED.

 - Independent (Low-tech stations)- Weaker than core faction's stations, but stronger than pirate stations. Mostly this way simply due to lore. This may change in the future.


Tier 2, or otherwise standard player station sets:

 - Luddic (Low-tech stations)- Focused on armor/structure defense, long range ballistic cannons, and unguided rockets and torpedoes.

 - Hegemony (Low-tech stations)- Focused on very powerful heavy strike cannons, high armor, and long range guided low tech missiles.

 - Trader Guilds (Mid-tech stations)- Focused on very powerful long range kinetic cannons, gunships, and superb anti-fighter defenses.

 - Persean League (Mid-tech stations)- Focused on heavy kinetic assault beams, heavy fighter and interceptor defense swarms, and massive waves of high tech missiles.

 - Tritachyon Corporation (Hi-tech stations)- Focused on very powerful strike beams, heavy bomber strikes, and long range guided high tech missiles.

 - Sci-Corps (Hi-tech stations)- Focused on both long range and close range ion weaponry, large concentrations of high tech missiles, and heavy kinetic assault beams.

 - Archean Order/Adamantine Consortium (Hi-tech stations)- Focused on capital-class long range energy cannons, numerous weapon platforms, and long range energy missiles and AI nanite strikes.

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Rybon66

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So I thought I would try the mod and I am getting the following error.   Fatal:Ship hull Spec(Legion_Hegemony not Found!   I am currently using Starsector 0.9.1a-RC should I be using something different.
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