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[xenoargh]

I think I've got it fixed up; during the first 90 days, nobody's allowed to spawn anything really huge.  They're restricted to small patrols that players can expect to find easy to tackle (i.e., 2-3 Frigates / Fighter Wings at the very most).

You'll have to start a new game there, but it's working over here in testing.

I like the idea of making it much less likely for attack fleets to spawn vs. defense fleets during the first 180 days or thereabouts, too.  That way everybody most likely has a guard up before the slugging match starts in earnest.  Anyhow, I'm doing some internal cleanup of some documentation atm but I'll push out a new build as soon as I've gotten that done and have tried out the "no big attack fleets until 180 days" idea

[silentstormpt]

Well, there's the rub atm; once the economy was working well enough to spawn large fleets again, it sometimes does that kind of thing, and with the economy effectively allowing for a faction to get shut down, it can be a serious problem for the player.  This is one of the niggling issues I've inherited from Exerelin that I need to address moving forwards.

So what I need to do at this point is construct a genuine difficulty ramp, methinks.  Luckily, I don't think that will take very long; I can add a small patrol fleet type and force the game to keep the numbers low enough to be reasonable during the first 90 days or so, giving players some breathing room.  I'll take a look at this right away and see if I can solve this issue

How about setting a default value to make sure a faction is never at its limit

[xenoargh]

It already has that; it won't keep spawning if it hits the upper numbers on fleets allowed.  

The issue is largely getting the difficulty ramp tuned, I think; during that early period, it would really suck to have a Faction declare war on you and then proceed to stomp your mining fleets, leaving your faction high and dry.  

Should be fixed in the next build, or at least the structure's there to make adjustments later and I know how to get it done.  Anyhow, I'll set it up so that it's staggered, and defensive fleets always get built first; that should help a lot.

[SainnQ]

It already has that; it won't keep spawning if it hits the upper numbers on fleets allowed.  

The issue is largely getting the difficulty ramp tuned, I think; during that early period, it would really suck to have a Faction declare war on you and then proceed to stomp your mining fleets, leaving your faction high and dry.  

Should be fixed in the next build, or at least the structure's there to make adjustments later and I know how to get it done.  Anyhow, I'll set it up so that it's staggered, and defensive fleets always get built first; that should help a lot.

Here's a question.

Would it be possible to allow the player to contribute to a factions financial well being through the Germanium they mine?

[xenoargh]

Would it be possible to allow the player to contribute to a factions financial well being through the Germanium they mine?

You do exactly that already.  The spawning system uses the Germanium and Fuel you mine, just like it uses the Germanium and Fuel the Mining Fleets mine.  The issue, in terms of final balance, is getting the balance right for the player vs. the mining fleets.  

Right now it's set up so that getting Germanium is very slow compared to how fast your fleets get it, but you can mine Fuel a little faster than the AI can.  So the player's probably going to help his / her Faction out more efficiently by killing the enemy's mining fleets atm (which is more-or-less intended).  Also, players always have the option of visiting a Station of another Faction and buying up their Germanium, transporting it to their Faction at a loss.  Expensive, but it can be done in an emergency.

Anyhow, I'm looking at some minor stuff and am trying to finish up a new ship sprite; the Triple Plasma Blaster is now available and the Shard Gun / Thermal gun have the "plasma effect", i.e., they may ignore shielding sometimes.  This probably makes the Thermal Gun pretty OP, but I haven't checked it out yet.

[xenoargh]

New ship, the Spearhead, to help the Hegemony juggernauts do furious battle.  Credits to Mendonica for the sprite upon which this is based

[SainnQ]

Question, do the indies get a capital ship or cruiser?

I never saw any in either of my two games.

[xenoargh]

Yeah, they certainly do.  They have the Falcon, Eagle, Conquest, Black Eagle, amongst others.  The Black Eagle is pretty respectable, and the Falcon / Eagle are both decent.

The Conquest is probably the weakest capital in the game, though, so I've been thinking about how to fix it for a bit.

[xenoargh]

Next version is about ready.  Fixes up the remaining economic issues, improved balance for fighters and a few other things got tweaked.  Requires a new start.

I'm going to try and get all of Thule's Punk Junker and FarScope ships set up and make mini-factions out of them for the next build

[xenoargh]

Got the Punk Junker art ready. 

Here's Thule's awesome stuff with a few cleanups and such by me:

[NITROtbomb]

I love them and I know thule did them originally but I think the two that are symmetrical don't fit in with the rest of them or rather, the theme of the Punk Junkers.

Just my opinion

[xenoargh]

Yeah, I agree.  Was in a hurry to get them to the prototype stage so that I could get them in and do some testing and for this mod they have to have all of the classes represented (and ideally have freighters and stuff, but whatever). 

The Knight is a really strong Frigate atm; those are two Heavy Assault Guns, serious firepower against unshielded targets.  Not very happy with the Archer, though; I think I need to go back to start on that one.

Anyhow, I'll do another pass on them tomorrow and break up their symmetry and stuff

[GUNINANRUNIN]

Got the Punk Junker art ready. 

Here's Thule's awesome stuff with a few cleanups and such by me:

Oooh. These are pretty neat. <3

[xenoargh]

OK, got the Archer fixed up.  You may need to refresh that image to see the change.  Making the Knight more "junky" and less symmetric should be pretty straightforward.

[xenoargh]

OK, Knight's redone.  Need to fix the ship stuff and do a little more coding, then they can be a Faction.