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1

General Discussion / Re: How do you make the game's AI work?

« on: February 08, 2023, 07:36:37 AM »

What's bugging me is that DEFEND order is really useless. Assigned to defend ships will stay afk behind and watch "defended" ship die no matter what... or maybe I just need "SUICIDE DEFEND" button and more reckless officers.

I think it suffers mainly from lack of explanation, along with escort, because both are very useful, but only if you know what they do.

Defend would be better named "Rally" in my mind, because that is what it does: it makes a good number of ships use the spot/ship as the center of their movement area. Like normal, if your ships in that area are winning, they will push forward and attack. If they are losing, they will be pushed back. This means that the "defended" ship can be left alone if it is slow and the other ships are outmatched.

If you want the "defending" ships to surge forward and protect the main ship, you can order that by telling them to eliminate the threat! Select them and right click the enemy. Once they are engaged and the main ship has had a chance to vent/repair knocked out weapons, cancelling the eliminate order is a good idea because otherwise the smaller ships are both going to block the line of fire and are also going to get killed.

Escort is a much shorter leash, and it assigns ships to fall behind and to the sides of the escorted ship - it might be better called "Protect Flanks" though that is a bit of a mouthful. If the escort is short ranged, or not aggressive, they won't even be able to fire at what is in front of a capital! So they aren't that great at protecting the "escorted" ship from the front. However they will stick to their posts quite well so are good for stopping a ship from getting flanked on the side, because they won't chase other ships very far at all. I strongly prefer having aggressive or reckless escorts with decent range, because in that case they are more willing to push forward and can fire forward. The same trick of ordering an escort to 'eliminate' a target in front that you need them to kill applies to get them to really go forward and cover, with the same caveat of cancelling the order when appropriate.

HVD/Mauler/flak Enforcers (officered or not) with aggressive/reckless settings make fantastic escorts as they are tough enough to survive capital level firepower (for a short time at least), shoot down fighters and missiles, bring missiles of their own for finishing support, and can even bring an escort fighter too, though that starts to eat into the OP budget a lot. Plus by being escorts the primary weaknesses of the enforcer (slow, vulnerable to getting swarmed) are mitigated.

An excellent and accurate summation of the differences in behaviour between the two commands.

2

Suggestions / Re: Converted Hanger Rebalancing

« on: February 07, 2023, 08:29:35 AM »

I mean another way to potentially balance CH carriers vs. Dedicated Carriers would be to give carriers a hullmod that adds "+1 or 33% fighters/bombers to the current wing size, whichever is greater." meaning Wasp gets +2 wing size, everything else +1, point being, strike craft from Dedicated Carriers would have a greater damage potential compared to CH carriers. The real question is would this be enough to make fielding Dedicated Carriers preferable over spreading them out across the fleet?

Carriers tend to be OP starved until they get one or even two s-mods, at least if I want weapons (and the flux to use them) and 8+ OP fighters.  They have barely enough OP to get the necessities.  Some like Condor and Heron, do not feel like they have enough unless I downgrade something from midgrade to cheap low-grade, and that hurts for the mostly energy-based Heron (although -1 OP for LR or burst PD for next release may mitigate this slightly).  Also hurts Astral because they want bombers for their system, and they also want missile mods for heavy missile spam.

Expended Deck Crew has been weakened enough that I no longer bother getting it (costs too much OP for too little gain, especially compared to skills) because getting it would mean the only viable loadouts would likely be unarmed (no weapons, no ITU, less flux stats) if I want decent fighters.

Come to think of it except on the Astral I basicly never run EDC either.

3

Suggestions / Re: Converted Hanger Rebalancing

« on: February 07, 2023, 08:26:36 AM »

I mean another way to potentially balance CH carriers vs. Dedicated Carriers would be to give carriers a hullmod that adds "+1 or 33% fighters/bombers to the current wing size, whichever is greater." meaning Wasp gets +2 wing size, everything else +1, point being, strike craft from Dedicated Carriers would have a greater damage potential compared to CH carriers. The real question is would this be enough to make fielding Dedicated Carriers preferable over spreading them out across the fleet?

Carriers tend to be OP starved until they get one or even two s-mods, at least if I want weapons (and the flux to use them) and 8+ OP fighters.  They have barely enough OP to get the necessities.  Some like Condor and Heron, do not feel like they have enough unless I downgrade something from midgrade to cheap low-grade, and that hurts for the mostly energy-based Heron (although -1 OP for LR or burst PD for next release may mitigate this slightly).  Also hurts Astral because they want bombers for their system, and they also want missile mods for heavy missile spam.

Expended Deck Crew has been weakened enough that I no longer bother getting it (costs too much OP for too little gain, especially compared to skills) because getting it would mean the only viable loadouts would likely be unarmed (no weapons, no ITU, less flux stats) if I want decent fighters.

At first I was wondering what you were talking about, but then I realized I wrote "a hullmod..." instead of "a built-in hullmod" lmao, edited, and yeah, most carriers are OP starved, hence a hull mod that needs to be added wouldn't be feasible.

4

General Discussion / Re: How do you make the game's AI work?

« on: February 07, 2023, 07:52:51 AM »

In terms of ordering an engage on an enemy capital and not having your frigates go to attack it, you have a couple of options:

4) Set them on Search & Destroy, which will exempt them from global orders.

That does stop them from following engage/eliminate orders, but Search & Destroy tends to get frigates killed in and of itself.

Frigates rarely do well in direct combat, usually they are relegated to escort duties, though some specific frigates (Tempest, Scarab, Wolf, Lasher, Brawler & all phase frigates) can do well, but must operate as a group with either the "Escort" or "Defend" commands set on one of them, or they (usually) get killed off while in Search & Destroy.

Additionally a lot of (almost all) of my frigate builds use SO, the notable exceptions that don't are Tempest (On some builds, most still run SO), Scarab (Same story here) & Omen (Never run these SO'd as they act as dedicated escort frigates), if you count the Brawler as a frigate (I would, it's priced the same supply wise) then there's only 1 Brawler build out of the 4 that I use that does not use SO's (though SO's from the (LP) variant though, so built in/free).

That said here's a few things to keep in mind when using frigates in general:

1. Choose ahead of time what your frigate hulls will do and build them accordingly, Escort frigates (generally) need Peak time & PD, Wolfpack frigates need DPS and ideally burst DPS with a priority on Kinetic Damage, so that even against ships that they cannot outright kill they can atleast convince to back off to dissipate flux. Mixed role frigates rarely do well or end up taking some sort of tradeoff.
2. Don't operate non-phase frigates alone, always send them in packs of 2 or ideally more say 3-4 as single frigates are far to likely to die without accomplishing much, alternatively you can pair them with a destroyer.
3. Avoid high kinetic alpha damage targets (Anything carrying a Sabot SRM, Heavy Needler or large quantities of MG's etc. etc.), unless you have built your frigates specifically built to counter those, or lack shields but not other defensive systems, such as Phase Cloak or Damper Field.
4. Don't overcommit to Expanded Missile Racks, there's several builds that don't need it, but as a rule of thumb, if you bring sabot and it's your primary or your only Kinetic damage weapon then always take EMR, otherwise, consider the pros & cons and don't default to it, that might lock you into less optimal builds on some hulls.

Additionally, accept some amount of losses within your frigate lineup, especially in dangerous fights, most frigate lineups cannot surive the later fights without atleast some losses.

5

Suggestions / Re: Converted Hanger Rebalancing

« on: February 07, 2023, 06:55:42 AM »

I mean another way to potentially balance CH carriers vs. Dedicated Carriers would be to give carriers a built-in hullmod that adds "+1 or 33% fighters/bombers to the current wing size, whichever is greater." meaning Wasp gets +2 wing size, everything else +1, point being, strike craft from Dedicated Carriers would have a greater damage potential compared to CH carriers. The real question is would this be enough to make fielding Dedicated Carriers preferable over spreading them out across the fleet?

Another point is that while spreading out your bays across the fleet with CH does reduced the overall alpha strike of any singular strike it also provides fighter/bomber support to a wider area than carriers do, since theoretically each ship at destroyer size or above could bring it's own complement of fighters/bombers, wether this fact should be countered with balancing patches or not is another question entirely, but this should be kept in mind for balancing as CH's distribution effect is double edged, that is to say, it's both positive and negative as far as CH's potential goes.

Edit:
Changed "a hullmod..." to "a built-in hullmod..."

6

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Nexerelin v0.10.5b "Sierra Nevada" (update 2022-09-17)

« on: February 06, 2023, 06:29:58 AM »

So I recently got my own colony back after it being invaded.
However instead of being returned to my faction it was given to the Roider Union (Roider comission).
I can now buy the governship but its still roider union and not my own faction, do I need to ensign with my own faction for it to return to me or something?

You can get the colony back by choosing the 'take' option in the ground battle's intel screen (this should have no rep penalty if it was originally your own colony, but I haven't verified if this still works).
If you already missed the decision window, enter setmarketowner <planet name> player in the Console Commands console.

I keep getting an error when i try to launch with nexerelin. Due to the fact my pc is not able to be hooked up to the internet rn can i get a discord tag or something so i can shsre my starsector lol with you? I keep getting an obj json error

Are you the one who pinged me on Discord the other day?
If not, at a guess you need to navigate to the Starsector website and download the newest installer (I'd recommend tethering your phone to PC rather than downloading it direct to phone).

So I've been trying to get a specific behaviour set up.

I want to run non-random core worlds, with invasions on BUT with one caveat, I don't want them to invade any of the core worlds, I want to have the AI factions fight only for colonies established after the game starts.

Now I saw that some planets are blocked from invasion if you have the story planets invasion protection on, is there a way I can extend this protection to the rest of the inhabited core worlds so I get the above behaviour and if so how do I go about doing so?

Copy and paste the following into console:

Code: java

runcode for (MarketAPI market : Global.getSector().getEconomy().getMarketsCopy()) {
	if (market.getMemoryWithoutUpdate().getBoolean("$nex_npcColony")) {
		continue;
	}
	if ("player".equals(market.getMemoryWithoutUpdate().getString("$startingFactionId"))) {
		continue; /* don't protect player-founded colonies */
	}	
	Misc.makeStoryCritical(market, "$i_dont_want_invasions");
}

(note that colonies created by Vayra's Sector factions will also be protected)

Would it be possible to filter or disable blueprints in the faction starting bonus? Having enough mods makes it extremely slow in the window.

Sorry, can't be disabled currently! Maybe a setting in the future.
(Also I'll try to find out what's causing this slowdown and report to Alex if relevant)

i know that this kinda defats the purpose of this mod but is there any way to make it vanilla as possible as i only use it cause the uaf mod requires it and not for any of the 4x aspects as i pefrer how vanilla starsector handles factions

The big thing you probably want to disable is invasions (and sat bombs), with the enableInvasions and allowNPCSatBomb settings
You could also disable diplomacy by editing its file in the config folder (make the event interval super long), and re-enable the vanilla hostility system with console (copy and paste the following):

Code: java

runcode import com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.intel.FactionHostilityManager;
FactionHostilityManager fhm = new FactionHostilityManager();
Global.getSector().addScript(fhm);

If you look around, there may also be other stuff you might choose to mess with (just try not to blow up your game in the process).

Much appreciated, will try this next run for sure.

Have tried it quite a bit now, works perfectly, much appreciated.

7

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Nexerelin v0.10.5b "Sierra Nevada" (update 2022-09-17)

« on: November 25, 2022, 12:10:19 PM »

So I recently got my own colony back after it being invaded.
However instead of being returned to my faction it was given to the Roider Union (Roider comission).
I can now buy the governship but its still roider union and not my own faction, do I need to ensign with my own faction for it to return to me or something?

You can get the colony back by choosing the 'take' option in the ground battle's intel screen (this should have no rep penalty if it was originally your own colony, but I haven't verified if this still works).
If you already missed the decision window, enter setmarketowner <planet name> player in the Console Commands console.

I keep getting an error when i try to launch with nexerelin. Due to the fact my pc is not able to be hooked up to the internet rn can i get a discord tag or something so i can shsre my starsector lol with you? I keep getting an obj json error

Are you the one who pinged me on Discord the other day?
If not, at a guess you need to navigate to the Starsector website and download the newest installer (I'd recommend tethering your phone to PC rather than downloading it direct to phone).

So I've been trying to get a specific behaviour set up.

I want to run non-random core worlds, with invasions on BUT with one caveat, I don't want them to invade any of the core worlds, I want to have the AI factions fight only for colonies established after the game starts.

Now I saw that some planets are blocked from invasion if you have the story planets invasion protection on, is there a way I can extend this protection to the rest of the inhabited core worlds so I get the above behaviour and if so how do I go about doing so?

Copy and paste the following into console:

Code: java

runcode for (MarketAPI market : Global.getSector().getEconomy().getMarketsCopy()) {
	if (market.getMemoryWithoutUpdate().getBoolean("$nex_npcColony")) {
		continue;
	}
	if ("player".equals(market.getMemoryWithoutUpdate().getString("$startingFactionId"))) {
		continue; /* don't protect player-founded colonies */
	}	
	Misc.makeStoryCritical(market, "$i_dont_want_invasions");
}

(note that colonies created by Vayra's Sector factions will also be protected)

Would it be possible to filter or disable blueprints in the faction starting bonus? Having enough mods makes it extremely slow in the window.

Sorry, can't be disabled currently! Maybe a setting in the future.
(Also I'll try to find out what's causing this slowdown and report to Alex if relevant)

i know that this kinda defats the purpose of this mod but is there any way to make it vanilla as possible as i only use it cause the uaf mod requires it and not for any of the 4x aspects as i pefrer how vanilla starsector handles factions

The big thing you probably want to disable is invasions (and sat bombs), with the enableInvasions and allowNPCSatBomb settings
You could also disable diplomacy by editing its file in the config folder (make the event interval super long), and re-enable the vanilla hostility system with console (copy and paste the following):

Code: java

runcode import com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.intel.FactionHostilityManager;
FactionHostilityManager fhm = new FactionHostilityManager();
Global.getSector().addScript(fhm);

If you look around, there may also be other stuff you might choose to mess with (just try not to blow up your game in the process).

Much appreciated, will try this next run for sure.

8

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Nexerelin v0.10.5b "Sierra Nevada" (update 2022-09-17)

« on: September 24, 2022, 08:16:51 AM »

So I've been trying to get a specific behaviour set up.

I want to run non-random core worlds, with invasions on BUT with one caveat, I don't want them to invade any of the core worlds, I want to have the AI factions fight only for colonies established after the game starts.

Now I saw that some planets are blocked from invasion if you have the story planets invasion protection on, is there a way I can extend this protection to the rest of the inhabited core worlds so I get the above behaviour and if so how do I go about doing so?

9

General Discussion / Re: Is it time to get rid of Blast Doors?

« on: September 24, 2022, 08:05:43 AM »

My take on this is probably no, there are certainly some builds that won't be sustainable without blast doors and thus it shouldn't be removed.

Genuine question: what builds exactly would become unsustainable without blast doors?

Hull HP increase:
Delaying destroyers, built with max surivaibility to surive high damage for a hit or two.

Certain Hull tanking builds on Capitals and Cruisers. Notably not as strong as their closest comparison point of Heavy Armour + Various Offensive HullMods, but if you just need to buy time, these work and will get you more time, requires Heavy Armour, Blast Doors & Reinforced Bulkheads.

Crew Loss reduction:
Certain edge cases where you build to maximize profitability by keeping few crew around, usually only for deep space exploration and salvaging. I.e we are talking about adding this to an entire combat fleet, not just one or two ships, so as to maximize crew preservation since in this case we only brought a small overhead as a "just in case" buffer but no more, so preserving crew becomes key to keeping the expedition going not just fuel + supplies. (Rarely something you do late game, mostly an early, maybe mid-game thing. Late game you just don't care about the crew cost most of the time.)

10

General Discussion / Re: How to build a strong fleet?

« on: August 22, 2022, 10:27:32 AM »

I have heard a lot of advice along these lines, but unfortunately I haven't had a lot of success figuring out what "good" means.

While I can't speak for everyone I'll give you my two cents to see if it'll help.

My definition of "Good" is two things if I had to get specific.
A. Consistent AI behaviour, with AI piloting the vessel to atleast a modicum of efficiency. (I don't count this for player ships, see below.)
B. Is able to beat a sim opponent of the same hull if available without officers, S-mods or orders without incurring an armor breach. Able to beat the former + an additional opponent with no or neglible (10% or less) hull damage without S-mods or orders, officers allowed for this one.

I have been having a nightmare of a time trying to get a fleet together that works; the AI regularly just slices through my fleets twice its size, and I have absolutely no idea why. Whatever the AI does seems to work, and when I try to mimic it, it just doesn't.

I can't really give you too much advice here because different enemy fleets provide different types of threats but there are some general things I can and I'll explain them below.

A. With the exception of massed Energy damage boats, all my ships bring both Kinetic & High Explosive damage of some sort in sustainable form i.e weapons with charges or ammo not counted. The only exception to this is if the ship mounts either 2 Gauss Cannons or 4 Hypervelocity Drivers or more, 3 with Accelerated Ammo Feeder is also acceptable. The reason for this is that Gauss Cannons hit hard enough to be effective enough against medium armoured opponents regardless and Hypervelocity Drivers have a small EMP payload.

B. If it can mount it & the build can afford to mount it I try to mount some kind of EMP weapon when able, Ideally ones that arc. EMP helps you win the flux war by disabling enemy weapons and can let ships recover while in combat because their opponent has been disabled enough that it no longer presents a credible threat.

C. My ship builds generally fall into 3 categories.

Spoiler

c1. Player controlled only, builds that I NEVER give to the AI because it's not "Good" in their hands but good in player hands. This doesn't count builds that are ok in AI hands or good in AI hands but exceptional in the player hands, this is specifically for builds the AI is unable to pilot effectively. There's never more than 2 of these ships in my fleet, usually only 1.

c2. AI ships intended to engage in the line so ships that form the central core of your fleet, keep the enemy occupied & are built to maximize range. Integrated Targeting Unit is ever present here.

c3. AI ships intended to engage on the flanks emphasis on speed and built to maximize burst damage output. Most commonly where you will find Safety Overrides.

[close]

General tips:
1. It's worth learning how to pilot a ship well the potential of any ship in player hands is greater than the AI's due to some AI inefficencies. The impact of a player who knows how to pilot well with Combat skills is very, very high.
2. Learning to pilot is good, learning to command your fleet is ESSENTIAL. While yes a well built fleet should generally be fine on their own, the effectiveness of timely commands is significant.
3. Phase vessels with officers is quite powerful. Phase vessels have a different set of strengths to them than shielded ships but overall, shield ships have longer sustain whereas phase is immune to alpha strikes so long as they are able to phase, as such despite the AI being honestly frustratingly dumb at times with phase ships it's still worth bringing them for certain fights.

11

General Discussion / Re: Asteroid Collision

« on: August 22, 2022, 07:52:52 AM »

If someone figures this one out then please do share.

12

General Discussion / Re: How to build a strong fleet?

« on: August 22, 2022, 07:26:42 AM »

But I feel your pain. I sometimes still wonder when I read about fleet comps if people are trolling me. Then it turns out every ship should have 3 S-mods, an officer specifically built to fly that specific ship and you should also be flying a blinged out flagship yourself actually killing everything while rest of the fleet mostly exists to draw enemy fire. But they always forget to mention that part.

Irks me to no end this does.

13

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Terraforming and Station Construction (v8.1.5)

« on: August 21, 2022, 12:15:45 PM »

Does the construction of inactive gates have an associated cost and if so is it possible to tweak that cost?

Yes, the inactive gates cost Domain-era artifacts and some metals and machinery. There's no settings option to configure the cost so it will be necessary to edit the source code and recompile TASC with your preferred values if you don't like the current ones.

Fair enough, atleast it's doable.

14

Suggestions / Re: Some portraits seem unneccessarily gender-locked

« on: August 20, 2022, 01:28:45 PM »

Some unlockable honorifics for getting rep with each faction could be neat

I love this idea, especially if said honorifics could provide certain small bonuses while in use.

15

General Discussion / Re: Wasted torpedoes by AI, how to prevent

« on: August 20, 2022, 01:13:43 PM »

In my experiences, the AI don't really miss captials as much as they horribly misstime their shots and thus striking shields instead of hull or armour. Really just adjusting when the AI fire or don't fire would do a lot, especially making the AI more aware of shield opening speeds to more intelligently predict hit vs. intercept.