1
Mods / [0.97a] Fleet Size By DP
« on: July 03, 2021, 12:40:25 PM »
What does this do?
This mod changes the game to set your max fleet size using the total deployment points of your fleet, rather than raw ship count. Similar to vanilla this is a "soft" limit, and you can exceed it at the cost of increased supply use and reduced burn speed that scales proportionally based on how much you exceed the base limit.
Why?
What is configurable?
The DP limit and over-limit penalties can be changed in settings.json. The default DP limit is 600: anecdotally, most end-game vanilla bounty fleets seem to hover around this range (some over, some under).
Should I use this mod?
It would depend on how you like to build your fleets: if you find yourself running balanced (in terms of ship class) fleets and find yourself chafing against the vanilla limit, this mod will be an overall buff. If you like to run fleets composed entirely of Paragons and Gowns, you will probably be happier with vanilla's fleet limits.
Anything else?
Check the README: this mod works by adding a hidden skill to the player, so there are some additional steps that you may need to take if you wish to remove this mod mid-game.
Previous versions
FAQ
Changelog
This mod changes the game to set your max fleet size using the total deployment points of your fleet, rather than raw ship count. Similar to vanilla this is a "soft" limit, and you can exceed it at the cost of increased supply use and reduced burn speed that scales proportionally based on how much you exceed the base limit.
Why?
Spoiler
The Venn diagram of people reading this post and the people who have watched High Tech Best Tech is a single circle.
Why (seriously)?
I'm not the only one who's noticed this, but as a player frigates only "feel" relevant in the very early game when money is tight and their cheapness is the major selling point: once you start having a decent amount of money to throw at your fleet frigates tend to be overlooked in favor of bigger, flashier choices, and most frigates you have wind up being purged from your fleet in favor of larger ships. You might keep a couple around for capping points at the start of a battle, but that's largely it. This is a shame, because (ignoring the Tempest, vanilla's problem child) the modverse has some interesting and creative frigate designs that don't ever really get their due.
However, if you've watched an AI fleet tournament you've probably noticed that it isn't the multi-capital fleets that tend to run the table: these often end up doing average or poorly. Instead, the fleets that usually have the most consistent performance are frigate/destroyer swarms, with a few larger ships thrown in as support. While the fleet tournaments are not a 1:1 representation of campaign fleets (notably, there's no individual player to tip the scales and wider fleets reduce the effect of one ship's AI going derp), it shows that smaller ships can still be relevant on the tactical map. So why do we tend to not give them a second look?
The vanilla fleet cap tends towards/rewards top-heavy fleets: with a 30 ship limit, eventually the only way to improve the quality of your fleet is to upgrade to bigger ships. This was worse in .91 when fleet DP determined starting points: I found myself using Infernus and Cathedrals as cargo/fuel haulers to tip the initial deployment balance in my favor for some of the more over the top mod bounties and fleet encounters. Moving to officers in .95a made this less absurd, but the issue remains: you don't have a choice between an Onslaught and seven Brawlers, you have a choice between one fleet slot and an Onslaught, or seven fleet slots for the Brawlers. This means that smaller ships--which rely on numbers and wolf pack tactics to compensate for individual inferiority--can't use either in a player's fleet, nor do they have the slack for the higher casualties this strategy tends to generate.
This mod seeks to rectify that: even if you don't want to recreate Cums' greatest hits, moving to a DP limit allows you to bring smaller ships in a quantity that makes them useful beyond their current "cap and forget" role, while still remaining (somewhat) balanced.
Why (seriously)?
I'm not the only one who's noticed this, but as a player frigates only "feel" relevant in the very early game when money is tight and their cheapness is the major selling point: once you start having a decent amount of money to throw at your fleet frigates tend to be overlooked in favor of bigger, flashier choices, and most frigates you have wind up being purged from your fleet in favor of larger ships. You might keep a couple around for capping points at the start of a battle, but that's largely it. This is a shame, because (ignoring the Tempest, vanilla's problem child) the modverse has some interesting and creative frigate designs that don't ever really get their due.
However, if you've watched an AI fleet tournament you've probably noticed that it isn't the multi-capital fleets that tend to run the table: these often end up doing average or poorly. Instead, the fleets that usually have the most consistent performance are frigate/destroyer swarms, with a few larger ships thrown in as support. While the fleet tournaments are not a 1:1 representation of campaign fleets (notably, there's no individual player to tip the scales and wider fleets reduce the effect of one ship's AI going derp), it shows that smaller ships can still be relevant on the tactical map. So why do we tend to not give them a second look?
The vanilla fleet cap tends towards/rewards top-heavy fleets: with a 30 ship limit, eventually the only way to improve the quality of your fleet is to upgrade to bigger ships. This was worse in .91 when fleet DP determined starting points: I found myself using Infernus and Cathedrals as cargo/fuel haulers to tip the initial deployment balance in my favor for some of the more over the top mod bounties and fleet encounters. Moving to officers in .95a made this less absurd, but the issue remains: you don't have a choice between an Onslaught and seven Brawlers, you have a choice between one fleet slot and an Onslaught, or seven fleet slots for the Brawlers. This means that smaller ships--which rely on numbers and wolf pack tactics to compensate for individual inferiority--can't use either in a player's fleet, nor do they have the slack for the higher casualties this strategy tends to generate.
This mod seeks to rectify that: even if you don't want to recreate Cums' greatest hits, moving to a DP limit allows you to bring smaller ships in a quantity that makes them useful beyond their current "cap and forget" role, while still remaining (somewhat) balanced.
[close]
The DP limit and over-limit penalties can be changed in settings.json. The default DP limit is 600: anecdotally, most end-game vanilla bounty fleets seem to hover around this range (some over, some under).
Should I use this mod?
It would depend on how you like to build your fleets: if you find yourself running balanced (in terms of ship class) fleets and find yourself chafing against the vanilla limit, this mod will be an overall buff. If you like to run fleets composed entirely of Paragons and Gowns, you will probably be happier with vanilla's fleet limits.
Anything else?
Check the README: this mod works by adding a hidden skill to the player, so there are some additional steps that you may need to take if you wish to remove this mod mid-game.
Previous versions
Spoiler
For those of you playing on older versions of Starsector. Please note that only the latest version linked above is actively updated/supported.
[close]
FAQ
Spoiler
I installed this mod but the number of ships I can deploy in battle didn't change!
This mod affects the number of ships you can have in your fleet on the campaign layer: what you can deploy on the battle map is affected by the number/levels of each fleet's officer and your battle size limit, which this mod does not touch.
I installed this mod and now my game is having performance issues.
If possible, make sure that you are using the most recent version of all mods in your game: the overhead for this mod should be low on its own, but there have been a couple odd conflicts with other mods in the past that were causing issues when used together. If there are still issues, please post/PM me with the details.
This mod affects the number of ships you can have in your fleet on the campaign layer: what you can deploy on the battle map is affected by the number/levels of each fleet's officer and your battle size limit, which this mod does not touch.
I installed this mod and now my game is having performance issues.
If possible, make sure that you are using the most recent version of all mods in your game: the overhead for this mod should be low on its own, but there have been a couple odd conflicts with other mods in the past that were causing issues when used together. If there are still issues, please post/PM me with the details.
[close]
Changelog
Spoiler
1.0.2b:
-Initial Update for 0.96a.
-Add setting to enable/disable the over DP notification on the campaign layer.
1.0.1b:
-Update skill_data.csv file to match new format in 0.95.1a.
-Update README.
1.0.0:
-Add campaign layer notification to alert player when over fleet DP limit.
0.9.1b:
-Fix for NullPointerException error on game load.
0.9.0b:
-Beta Release.
-Initial Update for 0.96a.
-Add setting to enable/disable the over DP notification on the campaign layer.
1.0.1b:
-Update skill_data.csv file to match new format in 0.95.1a.
-Update README.
1.0.0:
-Add campaign layer notification to alert player when over fleet DP limit.
0.9.1b:
-Fix for NullPointerException error on game load.
0.9.0b:
-Beta Release.
[close]
