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Author Topic: [0.9a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.6.1c (hotfixed January 13, 2019)  (Read 241312 times)

2_Wycked

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Re: [0.8a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.2.0 (updated May 27, 2017)
« Reply #45 on: June 06, 2017, 03:23:40 PM »

Awesome! Really digging those new fighters btw, especially the color.
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Shyguy

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Re: [0.8a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.2.0 (updated May 27, 2017)
« Reply #46 on: June 08, 2017, 11:36:52 AM »

Question, does the Angon have a more damaging explosion on death than other ships as my barbarian which was about 200 away from one got utterly obliterated from full armour and hull.

Edit: Also noticed the starting ship selection not appearing in Nex, all that appears is the randomisation option, doesn't cause any crashes however so it just means you cant join as the Coalition as a starting option.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2017, 09:50:48 AM by Shyguy »
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Machine

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Re: [0.8a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.2.0 (updated May 27, 2017)
« Reply #47 on: June 14, 2017, 11:14:03 PM »

There is no special code for the Angon besides the modular bay, and the Ram drive. The 0.8a version of the mod was not compatible with Nex, this is fixed in the current 0.8.1a build, which is just below.
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Machine

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #48 on: June 14, 2017, 11:15:03 PM »

Version 1.3.0 (for Starsector 0.8.1a)
"Nexerelin/Ethical" edition
More information on the original post


(Requirements: LazyLib)
(Supports: Version Checker, Graphics lib and Nexerelin)
(Patch mod no longer required, works with Nexerelin right out of the box).


Meanwhile 0.8.1a did not break the mod, the mod required some balance changes, especially regarding fighters, which got changed quite a bit in some cases. Honestly I expected more nerfs for vanilla fighters.
The mod is now also compatible with the current  version of Nexerelin, and no longer requires the small patch.
Besides that, some polishing touches and bug fixes were also implemented.


Animated preview of the new Lotus-class Torpedo in action
Spoiler

[close]

Changelog:

Version 1.3.0:
Spoiler
   -Mod updated to 0.8.1a.
   -Gameplay Changes:
      -Halberd-class Battleship built-in Disruptor Beam Cannon stats made identical to the modular-buyable version.
      -Halberd-class Battleship ship system "Phase Jump" replaced with "Ram Drive".
      -Halberd-class, Lance-class and Angon-class are now "Ships with modules", and now equipped with a secondary shield emitter activated by turning on their "Ram Drives".
      -Angon-class Transport "Ram Drive" is now a lesser version (less efficient shield) of the one equipped by the Angon-class and Halberd-class.
      -Amentum-class Carrier "Recall Device" ship system replaced with "Reserve Deployment".
      -Kestros-class Cruiser "Reserve Deployment" ship system replaced with "High Energy Focus" (this is a temporal measure, since I've not coded or sprited its new intended system).
      -Buffed the Tessen-class, longer peak CR time, lower deployment costs, now it is a good alternative to sacrificing a combat ship's battle effectiveness by adding the Fleet Server Hullmod to it.
      -All TSC fighters got the vanilla "No Weapon Flux" hullmod.
      -Combat stats of Gunship style fighters (Scimitar, Chakram and Tomahawk) were buffed a bit.
      -Fighter LPC OP cost reduced a bit overall.
      -IR Pulse Lasers employed by TSC fighters replaced with IR Pulse Lasers (High Delay) the vanilla fighter version of the weapon.
      -Added a fighter IR Pulse Laser to the Kunai-class Strike Fighter.
      -Added a fighter IR Pulse Laser and a Stinger-class Proximity Mine to the Shuriken-class Interceptor.
      -Javelin-class Heavy Bomber, Chakram-class Support Gunship and Tomahawk-class Attack Gunship had their sprites redone.
      -Javelin-class Heavy Bomber, Chakram-class Support Gunship and Tomahawk-class Attack Gunship had their speed stat equalized, they are currently designed to be used in tandem.
      -Chakram-class dual Ion Cannon's replaced with a single Ion Micropulser, a smaller version of the Ion pulser.
      -Javelin-class dual Reaper-class Torpedoes replaced with the new Lotus-class Torpedo (overall damage nerf).
      -Javelin-class now has an Omni shield and Maneuvering Jets as ship system.
      -Added Advanced Optics hullmod to Sai-class Defense Drones in order to make them "competitive" when compared to Wasps.
      -Increased the number of Corvo-class Combat Drones deployed by the Corvo Drone Rack weapon to 4 drones in a single wave.
      -Increased the number of Caltrop-class Phase Mine carried by the Caltrop Mine Rack weapon to 3 mines, deployed individually.
      -Increased the number of Misericorde-class Phase Drones in a wing to 4.
      -Increased the number of Buckler-class Shield Drones in a wing to 3.
      -Replaced the Decoy Flare Launcher ship system of the Buckler-class with a lesser version of the Active Flare Launcher system.
      -(D) skins are now closer in line to vanilla (D) skins.
      -All (D) skins can now be restored to their default skin, for most ships this means the TSC skin, even for those that have a TT skin.
      -Medusa (D) is now a vanilla Medusa-class skin.
      -Introduced a new missile weapon, the Lotus-class Torpedo Launcher, it comes in fighter size (single), small mount size (Lotus-class Torpedo), medium mount size (Rainstorm Lotus Launcher), large mount size (Monsoon Lotus Launcher). The weapon is a poorly guided MIRV-like missile that splits into 8 two stage rockets that deal energy damage, the warheads themselves are not very accurate.
      -Ship loadouts altered to reflect changes.

   -Bug Fixes and Improvements:
      -Major unreported bug regarding weapon spawned drones (Corvo and Kulbeda) where they were able to attack an enemy ship and suffer no counterattack was fixed. (Main reason for the delay, required me to figure a way to deal with their AI, and maybe lose the search pattern they exhibit, thankfully I was able to keep the behavior thanks to a second AI altering script).
      -Removed deployment spam messages when spawning weapon based drones.
      -Player or the AI, can't turn the shield off when using the Ram drive shipsystem (affects Angon-class, Lance-class and Halberd-class).
      -Claymore built-in missile can no longer get more than 1 ammo, mostly flavor, its reload time was too long to actually happen.
      -Fighter wings removed from the simulator.
      -Fixed the use of incorrect directory separator in "Coalition_texture_data.csv".
      -Replaced the use of "cover" with "Cover" in "hull_styles.json".
      -Added system weapon slots for the ship hulls that use a weapon shipsystem, that were currently missing it.
   -Misc. Changes:
      -Anything else I forgot to type here.
[close]

EDIT: FIXED THE LINKS IN THIS POST.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2017, 07:42:50 AM by Machine »
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Takion Kasukedo

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #49 on: June 15, 2017, 01:36:02 AM »

That torpedo is a very interesting MIRV.

I can't wait to see that new system by the by.
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Is now able to cook a decent Creamy Salmon Pasta, amok other things.

Still loves purple. Still not skilled enough to make a mod that doesn't get that one damn error.

Shyguy

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #50 on: June 16, 2017, 07:39:18 AM »

I noticed that repairing the D mod Labrys in the previous version didn't restore its large missile hardpoint, was that resolved in the new update?
I also noticed that the D mod variant was the only one to appear in non coalition markets (unless it is just that rare) and it always and only had the destroyed weapon mounts.
The 100 point mining strength for the Maul, does it mean the Neutrino Maul or the Coalition Maul as neither seem to give more than 40 mining strength (unless i've gotten something wrong).

Thats it really, thanks for making the mind thought, the new ships add to the game in a good way.

Spoiler
The pavise is a strange creature.
[close]


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Machine

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #51 on: June 16, 2017, 08:55:50 AM »

Well restoring to base hull was only added in this update, so before a Labrys (D) would restore to a Labrys (D) minus dmods. The destroyed mounts hullmod is also entirely cosmetic, just to showcase to the player that this (D) hull is lacking some weapon slots, by itself it does nothing, the actual changes are in the skin file.

I could have gone the current vanilla route and add the slot back, but I think a pirate fleet with easy access to large missile weapons is quite scary, it would also make the player's access to them easier. Other way to do so was to degrade that mount to medium sized, but I already did that for the Sagaris (D).

But that's resolved, every added (D) hull restores to base, specifically to the TSC skin (with the exception of the Medusa (D), which restores to vanilla Medusa), if one doesn't then that's a bug, most likely me forgetting to set it to doable in the skin file.

Also, only (D) variants are available on non TSC markets, unless the ship is a civilian ship (everything yellow), or has a faction specific skin (mostly TT skins, the multiple Angon skins, and the (XIV) Koncerz).


I'll look into the Maul, it should be giving 100 mining strength...


Spoiler
A pavise shield is a large shield not designed to be carried in one arm (strapped to the forearm or using a handle), like a normal shield. Instead it was carried on your back then planted on the ground and used as mobile cover for archers/crossbowmen similarly to the "siege weapon" called a Mantlet. Inspired by its namesake the Pavise-class is a defensive cruiser, that usually just won't die, send it to attack a large target to keep it locked in place, or rally it into the middle of battle so it can shield other vessels.
[close]
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Althaea

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #52 on: June 19, 2017, 11:50:42 AM »

@Machine: the OP suggests that a patch is still needed to make Tyrador Nex-compatible.
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HELMUT

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #53 on: July 06, 2017, 12:59:25 PM »

I finally found the time to play a full campaign with Tyrador, and i liked it. The faction felt a bit like a mix of low and high-tech, slow and tough (with some exceptions), with a focus on energy weapons. They're pretty well rounded for all parts of the campaign. Their frigates bring a decent amount of pain in early game, carriers and fast destroyers are very strong after that, and they have plenty of front-liners to survive late game.

Before starting, let's get done with the boring stuff. The Javelin's description makes mention of reapers torpedoes, but now have Lotus instead. The station's music sounds weird, there's definitely an issue with the sound quality on this one. Fleet server hullmod efficiency should scale depending on the hull size rather than the current reduced fire rate scale, moreover, it doesn't works on "continuous" beam weapons. Deployed drones counts in the battle deployment points, which i think isn't supposed to happen. Another thing, the mod add a loooot of ship skins, i'd be curious to know what is the VRAM cost of Tyradir, i did crash once during the campaign, can't certify this is the reason though.


Now that we've dealt with this, let's start with the fun part.

The Koncerz was my starter for this campaign, a nearly identical variant of the Wolf, except for its larger mounts. Despite being very similar to the Wolf, i think the Koncerz is noticeably superior. Two med energy hardpoints and one synergy turret tends to be allow for a wider variety of weapons and roles. I outfitted mine with a pair of phase lances and a sabot pod, which allowed me to tear through both shields and armor during early game bounties. Even later on, when the Wolf tend to fall off, the Koncerz can still fill the role of missile support similar to the Vigilance, which keep a place for it even in larger battles. Even when fighting late game IBBs, i still had a pack of graviton/missile Koncerz going with me.

While i'm not against a ship that can fulfil two roles, i think some of its stats should be nerfed in some way. A lower PPT would make it inferior to a dedicated support frigate for late game, and a slightly lower speed would keep the Wolf competitive for early skirmishes.

The Adarga is supposed to be a point defense frigate, but is sadly overshadowed by its vanilla counterparts in that role (Centurion, Monitor). Not having Damper field or Fortress shield prevent it from surviving larger engagements. It's otherwise a pretty solid attack frigate, with reasonable armor and heavy frontal firepower. Sadly very slow at 80, even most destroyers will outrun it. Still, i managed to make a very decent Safety Override variant thanks to its numerous mounts. 3 IR pulses, 1 ion cannon and 1 phase lance to brute force through most opponents early on. There's still the issue of catching them, even with SO.

The Ranseur is a better combat frigate in that regard. Reasonably fast, with the ability to mount a pretty large amount of small missiles. While not exceptional, it'll perform well enough during early game. It still suffer from the presence of the Koncerz that is a flat out better in every roles except anti-fighter.

The Tessen was like an unicorn, i only found one in my entire campaign. An extremely fast, but barely armed support ship, quite similar to the Omen in some way. Its sole purpose is to buff carriers with the Fleet Server hullmod and de-buff enemies with Entropy Amplifier, there's no reasons not to have at least one of those in the fleet. It's very fragile though, its very narrow shield arc differentiate it from the Omen, definitely not an escorter. Better leave it alone doing its thing far away from the main brawl.


In the destroyer category, the Sabre felt very strong. Basically a Sundusa, or Meduser, something fast with a big gun. Just like the Koncerz, the Sabre can perform both a role of attacker or fire-support throughout the campaign. A long range beam harasser? Naturally. An all around skirmisher? Of course. A SO brawler? You bet. It combines both very good stats and exceptional weapon layout (one large energy turret, two medium missiles hardpoints), this makes the Sabre an arguably superior alternative to both the Medusa and Sunder. Not by a massive amount, but still noticeable. I think a 0.8 shield efficiency would be a good start to nerf the beast. Even then, it would still stays very strong.

The Aspis is a luxury Omen. Tougher, stronger, and more than twice as expensive to field. Unlike the Omen however, the Aspsis is not just a mobile EMP emitter. With one medium energy hardpoint and two synergy, the Aspsis also makes for a pretty good fire-support. The kind of ship you need to swat fighters and missiles, while firing at the enemy. Is also endowed with some pretty epic flux stats for some reasons.

The Sagaris is the dedicated missile boat of the faction. A strange and unwieldy thing with a large missile hardpoint and awkward turrets arcs. A poor front-liner, but otherwise a fairly good PD/support craft. Surprisingly, i would have usually considered a destroyer with a large missile impossible to balance. Way too strong, way too easy to exploit. But after trying to field a large amount of those, and getting inferior results to an equivalent carrier fleet, i'm not sure what to think. Perhaps 0.8 changed the balance more than i expected. So... Innocent until proven guilty for the Sagaris i guess?

The Labrys is the little brother of the Sagaris, with its design philosophy taken even further. Capable of lobbing a ludicrous amount of missile for its size, but also stupidly expensive to field, and otherwise a very crappy destroyer in all regards. The kind of weirdo you get out of its padded cell when you really need a lot of lrms (because you're certainly not going to risk putting torpedoes on that thing, hmm?) and not much else. A niche pick for a normal campaign, although i expect some cheesy strats to be possible with this one.


The first cruiser i got was the Lance, a curious mix of awesome and awful. Awful because of its tendency to use its ram drive to dive deep in the enemy fleet by itself. Awesome because of its tendency to use its ram drive to dive deep in the enemy fleet by itself. Because it can't stay in place, an agressive loadout tends to work best, with a lot of EMP weapons to improve its survivability in the inevitable brawls it'll find itself into. A whole fleet of agressive Lances tends to be quite spectacular and effective, until they are outnumbered and surrounded. Narrow front shield, long profile and light armor tends to make them easy preys to flankers. I didn't had to retire my Lances as they all eventually died in battle, now i had to find a proper front-liner that wouldn't go full Pather in every battle.

By the way, the Angon, the civilian alternative of the Lance, cost the same for barely improved freighting stats, and obviously much worse combat capabilities. I liked the hullmods changing the ship sprite though.

I found that front-liner in the Kestros. Actually more fragile than the Lance, but with a better profile, wider shield and a safer system. Also comes with a pair of phase fighter wings. The Misericordes aren't really good at killing thing, thanks to their tendencies to stay cloaked most of the time, but will still distract the AI for a while. The Kestros relatively low fire-power is kinda offset by high energy focus, i outfitted mine with a graviton/tachyon loadout which makes for a pretty tricky ship to approach, especially in fleet battle.

At some point, i encountered ships that even a bunch of Kestros couldn't quite stop. Fortunately, it was also the moment i decided to buy a Trollvise Pavise. An extremely cheap, schadenfreude powered cruiser with the tendency of never dying, ever. Fortress shield tends to do that. Just like the Tessen, it's always a good idea to have at least one of those available. Just give it an eliminate order on that big, scary battleship, not to take it down, but to keep it distracted from the rest of your fleet. I like giving my Pavise Safety Override for better mobility and dissipation, as well as a pair of Ion Pulser and Reapers to keep the "tagged" enemy ship on its toes. Converted hangar isn't a bad idea either if you're looking for a more combat focused variant rather than pure tanking.

I'm not looking forward to the day i'll face one of those though. I'm not sure it should stay the way it currently is, probably extremely un-fun to fight against. Reducing its shield arc wouldn't work that well since it'll just make extended shield, or even front shield emitter, a necessary OP "tax" to keep the full coverage. So... Nerfing the overall OPs? Not a very interesting way of doing things though. I'm not sure how to do it, but the Pavise definitely need something to make it less heinous to destroy.


For the capital ships, the Halberd was the first big one i got. Basically a bigger Lance cruiser, fulfilling a similar role on the battlefield. Fortunately, the Halberd doesn't quite share the Lance's vulnerability to flanking, it's tougher, with better PDs on the sides and rear, and a powerful omni-shield. Like its little brother, the Halberd is better outfitted with an agressive loadout to combo with the ram drive. I found Accelerated Shield to be a very important hullmod for this ship. Since the Ram drive's shield shut down once the ship reaches its destination, usually right on top to the target it was charging, raising it back up quickly is imperative to avoid a surprise alpha strike to the face.

Quite an important addition to the fleet since Tyrador's desperately needs a reliable attack ship for late game battles. Not my favourite flagship though, i kinda struggled to find a reliable "in your face" loadout for that one. On the other hand, a Tachyon lance/Sabot boat works very well for the AI. If Safety Override could be mounted on capital ships, i think the Halberd would like it very much.

The Atlatl sits somewhere in between the Astral and the Legion on the battlefield, with the disadvantage of being more fragile than both. Its heavy armament gives it quite a punch for a carrier, more than the Astral, but maybe slightly less than the Legion. Mine had a pair of Squalls and Tachyon lances for poking, as i never felt very confortable letting it come too close to the frontline because of its relative vulnerability. I admittedly didn't played that much with this one, as it was a very late addition to my fleet. And while the Atlatl could make for a decent flagship, another one already caught my heart.

The Claymore battlecruiser, or what if a Conquest and an Olympus had a child. Unlike its mid-tech counterpart, the Claymore is blessed with an extremely strong shield emitter, making it a much tougher alternative broadside ship. Speaking of broadside, the Claymore is armed to the teeth, 4 medium energy turrets and 1 large per side (with arguably more punishing arcs than the Conquest), plus a rear medium turret that can reach the sides. Add on top of that 4 front medium missile hardpoints, and the built-in Judgement super-torpedo, the Claymore knows how to deliver the pain. Which is why is used it as my flagship for most of the late game.

My Claymore filled an important role in the fleet, the role of finding and destroying the enemy's flagship as quickly as possible. For this purpose, i went for an asymmetrical broadside loadout, with a wall of Heavy Blasters (and one Ion Blaster) on its left, and simple LRPDs on its right, with Sabots on the front. The Blasters were more backup weapons than anything, used to clear a path to my main target which would have the privilege of taking the 12K HE torpedo to the face. Needless to say, this is a strong ship, very strong. Too strong? A powerful shield on a very mobile ship tends to be a winning combo in most situations, even more so when it's backed up by overwhelming firepower. Just like what i suggested with the Sabre, perhaps a slightly less efficient shield should do the trick. Although i would personally go a bit further and downgrade at least two of the missiles hardpoints to small, no one should have that many sabots.

That's all for the ships! A few things about the weapons now, haven't thoroughly tested them all, but i at least took some time to check on those cool little drones launcher.

The drones are at their strongest early game, where one or two "fighter wings" can drastically change the outcome of the battle. The Kulbeda are serviceable in that regard, they can deal a reasonnable amount of damage to frigates while offering decent PD coverage around them. The Corvo felt much stronger though, IR pulse drill through armor much faster than PD lasers, and most importantly, the Corvo comes with shields, which makes them surprisingly durable. The Caltrop mines are... Weirder. Basically flying torpedoes, as such the AI won't use them against frigates. They also have strange behaviour where they'll stay phased on top of a target until they reach their limit, then launch a point blank attack.

While drone launcher are very strong early on, they fall off really hard in larger battle, where heavy fire will rapidly swat them out of the sky before they can contribute. And unlike fighters, there's no replacement for drones. I've been thinking about "infinite ammo" launchers, similar to Salamanders, that would periodically send out smaller waves of drones, self-destructing the previous ones to avoid drone hoarding on the edge of the map. Smaller swarms would nerf the drones for early game, but constant stream of death-bots would keep them relevant for late game. The idea would require some testing though.

I tried a bit the Disruptor beam cannon, which is pretty much an energy based HIL that can deals some hardlfux when used on enemy shields (hardflux beams? Preposterous!). I wasn't really a fan of them though, more expensive than HILs, lower range, less killy, and waiting for the enemy's flux bar to raise tends to be anathema to my playstyle. So i can't really pronounce myself on that.

I can definitely pronounce myself about the Monsoon launcher however, it sucks. Make no mistakes, i really like the Lotus torpedoes, but more than twice the OPs for just a few more ammo? Come on, at least give me an improved auto loader on that thing! (it would probably need more to be honest).

As for the Plasma Lance, this is basically a Plasma cannon for reasonable people. Less killy, but much more flux friendly, the AI loves it. Also a tiny bit more range.

Finally! Writing those always take a while. So in the end, how is TSC? I personally think it's a very good mod, a defensive oriented faction with only a few attacker ships, not groundbreaking by itself, but the execution is good. Top notch sprites too. Add a vanilla friendly lore on top of it, and i think i'll try to lobby TSC Dynasector's integration to Dark Revenant.

tl;dr : Defensive high-tech faction with a few scary killer ships. Really good kitbashed sprites that fit with vanilla, both in appearance and lore. It's a good mod, get it.
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Dark.Revenant

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #54 on: July 06, 2017, 10:45:58 PM »

VRAM: about 180 MB.  SWP is 215 MB for comparison, and vanilla around 350 MB.
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Machine

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #55 on: July 07, 2017, 07:12:10 PM »

@alguLoD:  Thanks, I was going to fix it when I had more content to post (as in some animated previews of current content) but real life got a bit in the way.


@ Dark.Revenant: Thanks for the information.


@HELMUT:

I've been waiting for this... oh feedback, gloriously large amounts of feedback.

Thanks for the bug reports, also I was sure I had included the latest changes to the descriptions.csv file, but it seems I forgot to include some of them.
I agree with most of the feedback, I'll apply some nerfs here and there, and for the ships that need them, a buff. I'll address some of the feedback specifically.

I'm not changing how the Fleet Server hullmod works, making it scale depending on hullsize would also merit a different indicator on the fighters/drones affected depending on the ship granting the buff, changing the penalty on the hullmod carrying ship is not out of possibilities though. But currently I think it works well. Would you give the hullmod to a Halberd?, in most circumstances no, it's a ship with a lot of guns and would suffer greatly from it, but a Halberd filled with defensive hullmods, and few weapons, gives you a heavily armored source of the buff, right on top the enemy, the Pavise also works great for this, but it won't reach the frontline as fast. BTW, I have not implemented those variants ingame, because they could easily spawn in fighter-less fleets, maybe in a future mission.

I'm not so sure on what I should do with the Ranseur, it probably needs to be re-implemented, it is just not as good as the Adarga or Koncerz, it's like an underperforming mix of both, and it would lose its place if I make the Adarga faster (which I'm not against). If I don't end up replacing/removing it, the Ranseur is likely getting the Ram Drive shipsystem, in order to fit closer to its naming pattern (a spear-like weapon). I'll see what I can do with the Adarga, since it is underperforming in its intended role.

The Tessen is meant to be a rare ship, mostly because it is dead weight in an AI fleet if it spawns without fighters, so the unicorn moniker fits nicely. I'm planning to give it some support weaponry, specifically a built-in scout probe (because probing was the best part of Mass Effect 2). Heh, more seriously, the idea came after noticing how good were the drones at exploring (which lead to their nerfed sight range). Still not sure if I'll add that weapon to the Tessen, but it seems like a good fit, and it's also not a good candidate for a "modular" weapon.

Regarding the Angon, its combat stats are getting a nerf and its maintenance stats are getting a buff. I'm also introducing 2 more variants, following the same concept as the Colossus, mainly because the Angon, with my mod installed is a widespread enough transport. Anyway, on a related subject, I know the potential problems with VRAM, so I'm not going to include a lot of extra graphical content, at the very most one extra civilian ship, and a Hegemony skin or 2, might re-implement some of the already existing (D) skins as pirate/pather modified skins (more than just a damaged hull image with some dmods), that said those are longer term plans. I wish the game supported some sort of team color, maybe a tint mask, it would make making faction skins cheaper on the graphics card.

Not sure what I could do with the Pavise, it doesn't die, but neither does a Paragon, however that comparison is quite unfair, since the Paragon is not as common. So far I've reduced its OP, so it's harder to mount defensive hullmods, and also increased its deployment costs and fleet points. Although that seems more like nerfs for when it's player controlled. Anyway, when facing one, I usually ignore it as best as I can and deal with it once there's little opposition left.

Regarding the weapons I took a deep look at the Monsoon Lotus Launcher, and honestly I should have never tried to make it inferior to the Hurricane MIRV, since it is meant to compete with the Cyclone Reaper Launcher. Currently increased its ammunition to 18 missiles and increased its fire rate.
And finally the drones. I'll add more weapons that deploy drones, this does not necessarily mean more drone variants. Looking at the graphics folder, should give one idea on what I've been planning. BTW, it's not the "Drone Bay", that was removed for the potentially infinite spawning of drones. Reaching critical drone mass with them is not a good idea. If drones are to be "permanent", drones can't regen ammunition.
I've considered the idea of making the drones self destruct if a new wave is spawned, but discarded it, since I had no idea on how I could achieve that, and it also makes it work too similarly to the current fighter implementation.

That said, I'm not against ammunition regen. I've considered using limited lifetime drones. Like CR limited drones, probably with a script that kills them when their CR gets too low, otherwise you'll see them fleeing the battlemap. Other idea, is ammunition limited "suicide" drones, which after expending their ammunition self destruct by kamikazeing into an enemy ship.

I like this idea and given it a lot more thought, I would make it so that when the drone's weapon gets low in ammunition, the weapon's script gets the parent ship (the drone), and issues a command to use an AI-less shipsystem, the ship system is a weapon type shipsystem (like flares),  which acts similarly to how the Caltrops currently act (removing the ship and spawning a drone shaped missile). Both ideas are fully compatible though, do they make the drones too similar to missiles?, I'm not sure. If implemented will I make it affect the current drones?, maybe it would be a big nerf for them, but seems easier to balance. Anyway if I do so, I would increase the ammunition of the current drones.

There was also another idea, for which I wanted to reuse the Drone Bay sprite, I considered making static defenses, a weapon that spawns small stations, however after discussing it with Mesotronik, it seems clear that it would be quite hard to code a proper AI for that, I still like the idea though, mostly because it was part of Battleships Forever, and I like using Ravens in SC2. Reloading and limited lifetimes could make it more excusable for the AI to waste them from time to time, otherwise you would want them powerful, and for the AI to only use them on relevant locations like combat objectives and where it would expect heavy combat.





Considering I'm posting and I like posting with new content, some spoilers (which I actually spoiled above)

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Outro

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #56 on: July 09, 2017, 03:42:33 PM »

I think the modular cargo bay mechanic is excellent, and I love that it actually affects the look of the ship if you have it installed.
The tooltip is confusing though, I am unsure of what the "units" actually refer to.
For example "increases overall fleet capacity by 4 units" actually adds 240 units of fuel space to the Adze.
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Histidine

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #57 on: September 05, 2017, 07:31:50 AM »

Dunno if you saw this on Skype, so I'm crossposting + editing it here for reference:

The Coalition seems to have a disproportionate number of military markets (5 out of 7). For comparison: Hegemony are 6/12,  Luddic Church 1/4, League 4/12 and Tri-Tachyon 2/5.

I'd remove the base from Atrio; it's just a dumpy size 4 mining world and the player can do their military shopping at Arcon.
CSV Andes could be deleted outright (or at least relocated) on similar grounds, it doesn't have any real reason to exist orbiting out there when the system (Arydas) already has a much bigger TSC market.
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Machine

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #58 on: September 05, 2017, 06:13:12 PM »

I did see it... earlier today.

I'm keeping those large mobile shipyards where they are, but I admit I want to drop their status as markets, and keep them as fleet spawners. So that would be 2 military markets less. I'll keep the under construction CSV Urals as a market though.
In the case of Atrio, well there's a reason for it, lorewise. The planet is not just a small mining planet. It's probably more apparent if you translate the name.

Atrio is Spanish for the Latin word Atrium, a large open area of the domus (upper class roman home) usually located right after the entryway of the residence. In this case the entryway would be the inner jump point located at L1.

An "Atrio", when related to churches, is also the place where people that are not entering the church must wait (where only the faithful are able to enter). This is referenced by the independent market that its station houses, and its status as a free port.

Atrio's station is also named because of it, although the connection is... well... a bit more tenuous. A common element found in roman Atriums was the Impluvium, where rain water would be collected. Since I was not just going to slap a Roman name into the station, I chose something somewhat similar, My first choice was Aljibe, also a Spanish word (although from Arab origin), which would be an underground/partially underground water cistern. But Aljibe station/market just sounds bad to me so I just went with a type of well.

Next is the asteroid belt and the "small" defensive platforms located at Atrio's-Tyrador lagrangian points. The idea here, is to reinforce the notion that the system was/is being  transformed into a fortress, hence why Atrio has a notable military presence, and because of it, a military market, at least currently, I'm not against removing it for balance reasons.
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Delta7

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Re: [0.8.1a] Tyrador Safeguard Coalition 1.3.0 (updated June 15, 2017)
« Reply #59 on: September 08, 2017, 10:48:10 PM »

i love this mod, but was very sad to discover that the Maul-C variant lacks the same ludicrous mining capabilities of the normal maul, rendering it as a more lightly armed version of the original that is also worse at mining. the salvage gantry doesn't really make up for that, and the non-combat converted variant should, sensibly, be the variant better equipped for mining.
maybe that'll change when construction ships start being able to construct other ships from raw resources, but for now, it's useless, which i find unfortunate considering how cool looking it is.
i tried changing that myself in the game files like so: text file: C:\Users\User\Saved Games\Fractal Softworks\Starsector\mods\Tyrador Safeguard Coalition\data\config\exerelin\mining_ships added line: "id,strengthTSC_Maul_C,100"
it didn't seem to work, so either i missed something, or the text file doesn't consider the C variant maul skin as being the same ship as the maul. the problem might actually be with Exerilin, not this mod, though i could be wrong.
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