Morrokain, similar to tseikk1 I was having issues figuring out the balance and choice making, it made my own decisions feel like guess work. While finally searching for what I realized must be common issue I stumbled across your above explanation. I appreciate the well thought out and candid response on what felt like the major pain points. Going into the next campaign I'll give it another shot with less expectations from prior knowledge.
I'll also keep digging for guides but if you can point me towards a good summary of the major differences or a CAQ threat I would appreciate it. Thanks for the effort as it's a real specific itch your mod scratches in a game that was already hitting spots I almost didn't know I even had.
Cheers,
*edit* Big oof, just found the .doc .
Thanks and hope the doc helped. It's a little outdated. That's one of the things I want to take care of for the next update for sure.
Sup lad its me again, Really strange glitch I keep stumbling into when black market dealing and haven't found a workaround it yet in game.
When the AI heads this way too search me after I sell VAST amounts of goods at 0 traiffs, they are stuck in a 'engage or open coms' without the ability too leave without fighting them which RUINS my relationship or relogging an earlier save. I've had this happen at 2 different ports. Both were Archean order this run so far but this is a strictly allied Archen run or atleast was.
Thanks for the report and sorry for the experience. (I thought I tidied all that up but looks like I was wrong
) That might be fixable in a hotfix since it sounds like a rules issue. So I'm clear on the details: it happens only while smuggling with high reputation with the Archean Order faction or were you aligned with another faction? (That's the problem when a faction matches the name of the mod- it can create a little confusion at times haha)
Is there a way to make the AI stop firing large, overpowered weapons with long cooldowns at enemy fighters and instead just leave that to their dozen point defense guns instead so that they can actually use their megacannons on actual enemy ships?
I know this is probably just a vanilla thing, but I thought I'd ask. I also noticed that the AI has real trouble with the large laser tri-beam; specifically its range. It always seems to fire it at targets that are just past its actual range. That's the only weapon that seems to have that issue, too, at least as far as I've noticed.
Meanwhile... have you ever thought about doing (or asking someone to do) compatibility patches with various shipmods? Because the flux system from Achean is awesome, but once other shipmods come into play they don't mesh well with it at all. So something that bridges those mods to fit the Achean system where PD doesn't use flux and the other/new ships are further tweaked to fit into the system here better?
Weapons:
What weapons were you using, specifically?
If you're feeling up to some client-side (i.e. your own computer) personalized modding, adding the following:
"STRIKE, USE_VS_FRIGATES"
to the 'tags' column of the weapon(s) in question in \StarSector\mods\Archean Order TC v1.3.4e\data\weapons\weapon_data.csv, would at least minimize the wasted weapons fire (will only deliberately target frigates or larger, but stray fighters WILL absorb said weapons fire, if in the way).
As I do not use this mod myself, I cannot make the changes for you, as I have little knowledge as to which weapons need the changes to suit your needs.
First off, thanks for helping out someone who posted on this thread. I appreciate it.
Most weapons that fit the description NephilimNexus used already have that tag, so that ideally shouldn't be the problem unless I missed something- which is very possible. That tag doesn't prevent the AI from using the weapon against fighters if no other ships are in range and the AI ship feels "threatened" by nearby fighter swarms.
In the past, I've requested a separate tag from Alex that completely prevents weapons from targeting fighters for any reason, but I don't think he has had time as I assume that would be a little intensive to implement.
Faction Mods:
Ask other modders to make extra version of their mods with every ship having more mounts and a completely rebalanced set of weapons is your best bet.
Yeah I agree this is the only way that it would be possible. Anytime I have brought this up in the past, however, I have been declined. Most modders don't want to do that kind of work and don't want me doing it either. I'll eventually make a thread on how to do it and let other modders give their consent or submissions by posting there.
Speaking of faction mods...
I have successfully removed all the vanilla weapon and projectile overrides that would otherwise cause issues with mods like SWP that rely on or add to vanilla files. So that's pretty good news as it was a large part of the work required. (had to change about 1000 ids... even with my IDE's mass search and replace it was a considerable effort)
I still have to handle ship hulls, industries, and fighters before those types of mods won't crash, however. I'll post work updates here as they become available/noteworthy.