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[Sundog]

In my experience EXI ships are much more reliable when clumped together in groups of three, especially when each group has at least one ship with a repulsor beam. Fast ships won't charge to their doom when they have to escort their slow buddies.

[HELMUT]

The thing with other ships is that thick armor and/or shields can forgive some of the AI's mistakes. Exi got neither, if an Exi ship does something stupid, it's doomed. Especially for frigates, losing your engine is very punishing for any ship but it's a death sentence for Exigency.

It's more of a first impression than a proper feedback though. I definitely still need to play some more, for now i'm just trying to "harvest" ships and weapons at the Omnifactory.

Sundog, yeah i just started to get a decent blob of frigate and they work better as a pack. I don't really like the Repulsor though, i had a bad experience once when my ally ship decided to throw an Enforcer with its engine disabled at my face, its maulers weren't disabled though. Also not always a good idea to use when chasing a fleeing ship. For now i prefer the Sidewinder, the Repulsor beam might find some proper use when i'll expand my fleet with bigger ships though.

[Sabaton]

On a side note, when will Exi get the super cap ship that was shown some time ago? The gate guardian or something, the pain in the ass to balance.

[Sundog]

..i had a bad experience once when my ally ship decided to throw an Enforcer with its engine disabled at my face, its maulers weren't disabled though.

Haha nice.

I agree that EXI ships are less forgiving of mistakes, but where vanilla ships have shields or thick armor, EXI ships have regenerating hull to help them make a comeback. At least, when they're not bursted down in one salvo...

[MesoTroniK]

On a side note, when will Exi get the super cap ship that was shown some time ago? The gate guardian or something, the pain in the ass to balance.

When it's done™. But seriously the sprite you see hiding in the install is the old version prior to the big rework of everything, it seems probable the reworked sprite is complete or close to it. And I think I have some better ideas now on how to fix the issues that it had with balance in the past, while still keeping it a powerful ship roughly on par with the Paragon.

I agree that EXI ships are less forgiving of mistakes, but where vanilla ships have shields or thick armor, EXI ships have regenerating hull to help them make a comeback. At least, when they're not bursted down in one salvo...

Do you feel like they are overly easy to burst down in one salvo? In general not very many vanilla ships or weapons can do that...

[Sundog]

Naw, I don't think EXI ships are easier to burst down than vanilla ships, but I see how I could have given that impression. Vanilla ships die just as fast when they get themselves into sticky situations. I only mentioned burst damage because it negates the benefits of hull regen.

[MesoTroniK]

Ok good, maybe I am not crazy then hehe. I spent a lot of time playtesting and can say with confidence that they are as balanced as you can reasonably expect against vanilla ships, for breaking so many "rules" of the game...

Anyways, feed back is always appreciated and expect the update cycles to go a bit faster from now on

[HELMUT]

Do you feel like they are overly easy to burst down in one salvo? In general not very many vanilla ships or weapons can do that...

Missile based ships like Buffalo MKII can burst down many ships, especially when they enter "panic mode" and unleash all their payload. I'm always playing with Starsector+, so it's not unusual to see some fancy variant with powerful missile like the voidspear from BRDY, even on low-tech ships.

The main problem with frigates is that when an enemy is badly damaged, your frigates tend to hug it to lend the killing blow, when they lack shield they usually die in the explosion. I lost countless Exi frigates that way. I guess this problem will be solved later when Alex will introduce the officer system that'll you can tweak the ship AI, a bit like in UsS mod currently to avoid your ships to be too aggressive.

I tried all the frigates available for now. I'm not sure what is the role of the Elhiur, it's fast and small but that's all, it's extremely fragile and will die to everything. As a flagship it can be an interesting starter ship or something like that, but once you get your hand on the superior Yria, the Elhiur can be sold, you don't want to let the AI pilot that thing.

The Rauwel is the exact opposite of Exi frigates, it's pretty underwhelming as a flagship but its toughness make it a perfect backbone ship for your fleet. While i was losing a lot of Yria before, the enemy is struggling to take down my Rauwel swarm. Plus the MX10 with the sabot cannon make it effective against everything.

I also got my hand on an Indra with full combat skill tree. It feel so glorious, would be fun to try a tree way battle between the Indra, Hyperion and Imaginos, just for maximum confusion.

AAs still don't want to sell me Exigency's destroyers and big ships. Welp, guess i have to camp the Sindarian station now.

Small anecdote, i ran out of fuel while going to the AA station, got stuck at Tasserus and was too slow to catch any Exi small fleet. FML.

[MesoTroniK]

The main problem with frigates is that when an enemy is badly damaged, your frigates tend to hug it to lend the killing blow, when they lack shield they usually die in the explosion. I lost countless Exi frigates that way. I guess this problem will be solved later when Alex will introduce the officer system that'll you can tweak the ship AI, a bit like in UsS mod currently to avoid your ships to be too aggressive.

Yea, that unfortunately falls into the category of something I could correct but would rather not in the context of a faction mod. Vanilla will fix it eventually, or if you play UsS when the new Exi version is integrated very soon.

I tried all the frigates available for now. I'm not sure what is the role of the Elhiur, it's fast and small but that's all, it's extremely fragile and will die to everything. As a flagship it can be an interesting starter ship or something like that, but once you get your hand on the superior Yria, the Elhiur can be sold, you don't want to let the AI pilot that thing.

The only point of that ship is a throw away objective capper, or chasing down other small craft and even fighters. It is mostly useful in the early game but, with skill upgrades to get more OP's on it you could do some hilarious things with that small 360 degree universal slot. And yes that brings me to my next point, I do plan on making more turret weapons for Exi very soon. Stuff like modular (but weaker) versions of the built in shield piercing weapons, artillery missile launchers with custom guidance AI, and maybe some other stuff so the variants can be diversified and also more loot to put on non Exi ships

The Rauwel is the exact opposite of Exi frigates, it's pretty underwhelming as a flagship but its toughness make it a perfect backbone ship for your fleet. While i was losing a lot of Yria before, the enemy is struggling to take down my Rauwel swarm. Plus the MX10 with the sabot cannon make it effective against everything.

Does it feel overpowered to you?

I also got my hand on an Indra with full combat skill tree. It feel so glorious, would be fun to try a tree way battle between the Indra, Hyperion and Imaginos, just for maximum confusion.

That ship is hilarious to use I know, really high skill floor and ceiling though.

Small anecdote, i ran out of fuel while going to the AA station, got stuck at Tasserus and was too slow to catch any Exi small fleet. FML.

To be honest that part of the, map is supposed to be very high risk vs reward kind of area. But the way the fleets patrol static positions in Tasserus for a while before moving on, you should be able to catch any of them in theory.

AAs still don't want to sell me Exigency's destroyers and big ships. Welp, guess i have to camp the Sindarian station now.

Heh, I really hate how the resupply works for the Askonia system station. Alex will correct it eventually when the factions are "proper". Anyways the way the resupply script for Avesta Station works is like this.
       

Code

RESUPPLY_GOODS.add(new GoodInfo("exigency_compactfrigate_Hull", // Hull ID (String)
                FleetMemberType.SHIP, // Ship type (FleetMemberType)
                3, // Max allowed in inventory (int)
                .05f, // Chance of restock per week (float)
                1, // Minimum added per restock cycle (int)
                2)); // Maximum added per restock cycle (int)

It is mostly just how the dice rolls to add something every week, and everything that is in the resupply list has different probabilities and other stats on it. Some thing are very rare, which is honestly my intention per the storyline etc. If you want some stuff to be more common, just edit the script as it is very well commented and easy to change.

Locate the script at:  data/scripts/world/systems/ExipiratedHyperStationResupplyScript.java

[FasterThanSleepyfish]

Hey yall, made another video trailer for Exigency! Cheers to Mr.MesoTroniK for a great mod!



Watch to the end... and enjoy!

[HELMUT]

Does it feel overpowered to you?

Nah, i think not. While it's a though frigate, it's still "just" a frigate. Its utility become limited against bigger ships.

Just played a carrier campaign in Exerelin, unfortunately it was pretty underwhelming.

Glynados are reasonable cannon fodder crafts. I found them slightly inferior to the Talon as their autoguns can't turn like the Talon's turret. Kinda meh as an interceptor as it can't actually intercept things in time. Only interesting if you can spam an outrageous amount of those, assuming you can take down bigger targets faster than their flaks can decimate you.

The Kaivor is much better, not only it's a good interceptor but the Mx4 make it relatively useful against bigger targets. When fielded in mass, their repulsor can protect each other so they can be pretty though to take down.

The Naxos however is the weak point of the Exi fleet. The lancet missile by itself is extremely weak as it can be very easily intercepted. Because of its longer range than the rockets, the bomber always fire it first and it end up wasted against PDs fire or shields. The rockets works better but it still have a hard time breaking enemy shields and heavier armors.

I encountered the Hegemony in Exerelin and as usual they liked fielding capital based fleets of one or two Onslaughts with a bunch of Dominators. But even with more than a dozen wing of Naxos i struggle. The first coordinated wave will always wreak one ship or at least damage it badly but then come the other problem with this bomber.

It need a lot of launch bays to be re-armed, which Exigency lack. The Nasir works okay early game but you can't afford to field a lot of those later one when your logistics points are invested in more bombers. Also the Nasir have very limited utility in combat. The Irithia have the same problem, 2 launch bays are very few for its logistic cost. As such, Bombers can't be resupplied fast enough to attack in swarm and can't break the enemy defenses anymore. One possible solution would be to give it more ammo capacity, enough for two or three bombing run, like the Piranha. That way it will still keep the pressure on the enemy and let the carriers more time to resupply the rest of the fleet.

Exigency works better as a semi carrier fleet. Kaivors are good all around fighters that can keep the enemy shield under pressure while the rest of the fleet, especially the Irithia with its torpedoes can land the killing blow. But as a pure carrier fleet? Not really convinced.

Just thought about a big band torpedo bomber, now that would be much more handy to take down big ships!

Also, nice video Foxer.

[MesoTroniK]

Talon's and Glyando both have 5 degree arcs for their weapons. Also Glynado is faster than a Talon, with much better anti armor firepower. I understand how you might not like the Naxos, but in my experiences I find them more reliable than Daggers. Naxo's are faster, have firepower that is impossible to intercept 100% of, their Repulsor field is part of their offensive package, and with Dagger it is either nuclear sucker punch or epic fail with no middle ground at all. I can see your point about them not having enough fighter bays to support a carrier based fleet but I cannot really buff the Irithia or reduce its fleet point cost. It is almost as powerful as real battleships, yet has two flight decks which is a tough compromise to also balance properly at the same time. And a bomber carrying a Big Bang would look a bit odd considering how large that weapon is

Anyways Helmut, your thoughts are being taken into consideration. But in the near future I am going to make a few more kinds of turrets with more alpha strike than what is currently available like was mentioned previously. And in the less near future I am going to make a whole new line of ships following different design philosophies.

Basically every vessel they have now are glass cannon specialists, the new classes will be more generalist ships of the line. The first ship that will be built like that is the Ulrith Dreadnought, trading most of their built in weapons for turret arrays, stronger armor and hull that is less skeletal looking, while retaining the classic Repulsor / no shield and hull regen defense. They will be balanced in a manner so that both these and the specialist hulls are equally useful.

Expect a quality of life patch here relatively soon™

[HELMUT]

Talon's and Glyando both have 5 degree arcs for their weapons. Also Glynado is faster than a Talon, with much better anti armor firepower.

Hmm? That's weird, i swear my Glynado are having some trouble in the campaign despite apparently being superior to the Talon. Maybe the slow projectile speed of the Vindictive autogun make them miss a lot? The explosive damage type not being as effective against hull? Not really sure anymore...

[MesoTroniK]

So fellow modders and malcontents, here is another update. Why would I bother to release a new one so soon that has no real content, but instead is just some balancing and fixes? Well the answer is more speed! All scripts were updated again to be much more efficient and the biggest optimization was using completely new AI on the Mx missile weapons that acts slightly different in combat, but is much faster than the vanilla AI which were never meant for firing in large swarms like my mod does.

Basically if your computer cannot maintain 60fps in combat with Exigency's missiles barrages and other scripted gimmicks, 0.59b is roughly 6fps faster than 0.59a. For point of comparison 0.59a was about 5fps faster than 0.58d. For all intents and purposes, during combat this mod is no slower than vanilla now. So I highly recommend updating to this version as soon as possible and enjoy the speedups and other tweaks

Now compatible with Exerelin - Dynamic Sector and Faction War.
(Dev version of Exerelin only for the time being.)


So go ahead and grab the new version from original post.

Changelog:

Spoiler

0.59b "More Speed"

- Complete redesign of the Mx series missile launcher weapons, instead of using vanilla missile AI profiles they now have custom ones that behave slightly different in combat but are much more optimised. Approximately 50% less CPU time is required to process the Macross Missile Massacres!
- Most of the scripts were updated to Java 7 standards, cleaned up and commented more thoroughly, and packed into a .jar for even more optimisation.
- Overall if your computer cannot maintain 60fps in combat with Exigency's missiles barrages and other scripted gimmicks, 0.59b is roughly 6fps faster than 0.59a. For point of comparison 0.59a was about 5fps faster than 0.58d. For all intents and purposes, during combat this mod is no slower than vanilla now.
- The Ahriman Association station now has Veteran Crew added via the resupply script (forgot that before).
- Corrected some minor mistakes in all of the the .SHIP files.
- Corrected minor mistake in the sounds.JSON.
- Moved the Tasserus star system westward so it is spaced farther from the Kadur system (from another mod). Now located at -2450, 14500 was previously at 2060, 14500.
- Buffed the Repulsor ship system slightly by improving the reaction time of the AI for it by a small amount.
- Twin Sabot cannon and Sabot cannon weapons were nerfed slightly by reducing the muzzle velocity to 1000 from 1200.
- Stinger Rockets were buffed slightly by no longer having a self destruct fuse.
- Removed some duplicate weapons that are no longer needed due to script changes.
- Some file / folder structures were rearranged.
- Changed listed difficulty of the Wargames mission to HARD.
- Minor changes to all of the missions.
- Two new portraits are available to the player that will also be used for the mysterious third faction someday™.
- Minor change to the Lancet missile sprite.
- Probably some things I don't recall.

[close]

[MesoTroniK]

So I had a question for anyone who follows this mod. Would it be preferable if I did frequent small updates, or large polished releases with a lot of content and fixes but at a vastly reduced pace? The latter of which is my normal way of doing things.

I ask this as my pace of modding is erratic. Sometimes it goes fast and sometimes it goes slowly, and not many people comment in this thread. Likely because most enjoy this mod inside of Uomoz's Sector: Journey. And on top of this they are likely considered as NPC ships generally; even though purchasing them is not that hard anymore (in the standalone / Starsector+ / Exerelin).

Anyways, any opinions on this subject or just on the mod in general is appreciated