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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Messages - Jazwana

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1
If this isn't a case of The Cold Equations I don't know what is.

2
Suggestions / Re: How to get a non-exploitable time pressure on combat
« on: December 08, 2014, 05:57:27 AM »
I like the idea Tartiflette.   My only suggestion,
Quote
the only difference with the flux is that it doesn't stack with Soft CR but overlap it.
It probably should stack with Soft CR - simplifies the mechanic across the game to reduce confusion, and easily balance-able.  As for an excuse: your crew is super tired, so maybe they miss the small energy imbalance in the pulse laser cooling circuits and it malfunctions sooner than in should.


3
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.65.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: December 08, 2014, 05:47:53 AM »
Thanks for the feedback as always :)

4
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.65.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: December 07, 2014, 07:53:05 PM »
IIRC Alex stated in the 6.5.1 thread that his goal was to take a pass at balance/combat in 6.5.2 and then focus on further new features for the next patch after this.

My overall thoughts:  I'm willing to wait and see how it plays.

Quote
    Removed energy weapon bonus damage from high flux level
    Increased damage values for non-beam energy weapons by roughly 25% to compensate
Sad to see a skill-cap / player technique cap mechanic disappear.  I understand the AI did not use the mechanic effectively.  Neither do brand new players.  As the player is supposed to become godly with leveling up bonuses, why would the player also not become godly with hours spent understanding the mechanics of the game?  Is the problem that either a) game is balanced for the player's choice of ships and thus AI high tech ships were underwhelming because not using weapons effectively, or b) game is balanced for AI ships and thus high tech ships are overwhelming for the player?  As for players "abusing" the mechanic by firing at nothing to keep their flux high remember they are also keeping their ship speed low, their defensive capabilities low, their total damage/ROF low, etc.  It's a skill decision for perhaps optimal play, not necessarily abuse.


Quote
    Beam weapons:
        Standardized range to 1000 for most non-PD, from Tactical Laser to HIL
        Increased range for PD Laser and LR PD Laser
        Slightly reduced OP cost for all beam weapons
        Tactical Laser, Graviton Beam, and Phase Beam are no longer interrupted by missiles
        Greatly reduced fade in/out time for most beams
I'm sad beams won't pass through (over/under) friendly ships but I'll get over it.  In my experience running large fleets with mostly beams in SS+ mod the longer range and standardized range really helps the AI roam as a pack and focus fire ships with beams. Mixed ranges means ships get in the way of one another's firing arcs as short range ships close to engage.   This probably needs a second balancing pass on damage, because now HIL is really underwhelming for a large mount vs 4 tac lasers.   If tac laser is used with PDAI, will it engage missiles or hold fire if a friendly ship is further downrange?


Quote

   Missiles:
        Salamander: both versions have unlimited ammo and require 20 seconds to reload
        Hurricane MIRV: regenerates 1 ammo every 20 seconds
        Pilum LRM: regenerates 1 ammo every 10 seconds
Still not sure why other missiles/rockets wouldn't regenerate even with ridiculously long timers if this is the way you're going.  (1 min, 4 min, etc).  With salamander, why can't the AI just treat it as a short range weapon such as Sabots even if range is medium (special rule)?  Tried it and it still doesn't work?


Quote

   Ballistic weapons:
        Now have unlimited ammo, except for Bomb Bay
        Reduced OP cost of Light Dual MG
I tend to agree with previous comments on implementing some form of magazine reloading.  Another option might be a steep sliding curve of ammo loaded (like missiles loaded/not loaded) vs CR, so that at high CR there is plenty of ammo, medium CR there is roughly equivalent to current ammo levels, and low CR not much at all.  It links into CR, uses the same mechanic as missiles loaded, and differentiates ballistic vs energy by CR...hm, not great but a low tech 'you need your crew to fight' solution?  Maybe energy mounts are more likely to malfunction at low CR/EMP to balance?


Quote
   Ships
        Destroyers and cruisers now have a peak effectiveness timer like frigates
            Roughly 5-7 minutes for destroyers and 7-9 for cruisers
            High-tech/faster ships have shorter timers
        Sunder: increased top speed, acceleration, and flux capacity. Reduced shield efficiency.
        Brawler/Shepherd: increased burn level by 1 (to 6)
        Condor: reduced supplies/day by 1 (to 4)
Ok with balancing pass, not convinced on timers but probably will be a non-issue.  I'd probably prefer the CR degrades slowly when in combat but less/no drop just to deploy.  Why do frigates need to be so fast now if nearly everything is on a timer?

5
General Discussion / Re: Boarding. 0.65
« on: November 21, 2014, 06:08:59 PM »
the worst (and usually the stupidest) situation is, if a freighter (from a trade fleet you outnumber 3:1) comes "back alive" and the marines fail and it gets away... he gets away with his cargo WTF from a military force they just kicked the *** out of his fleet.

Admiral Piett felt the same way  ::)  That hyperdrive was down!

6
General Discussion / Re: Anyone found an astral-class yet?
« on: November 10, 2014, 03:01:54 PM »
Tri-Tach military can carry them, I've seen them in my not current save.


7
General Discussion / Re: Feedback on current version
« on: November 10, 2014, 10:59:35 AM »
A few thoughts on what has been discussed above:

-The Industry skill tree is unused as of yet, it wouldn't surprise me a skill to ameliorate tariffs (you know which palms to grease, learned the loopholes in the byzantine Luddite tax code, etc) appears there when balance is looked at again by modders now/Alex in the next release.

-If you want greater complexity, tariffs could vary based on system and local government (Corporate Tri-Tachs are all about free trade, right?), type of good being purchased/sold, local industry base or union jobs to protect, etc.

-Faction relationship could affect tariff rate too.  



As to surviving as a pirate/privateer; in history (1600-1700s) it has nearly always payed to be a privateer vs a pirate.  Privateers brought captured ships and goods back to port where government agents would have agreed to buy in advance, securing profits.  Pirates had no such luxury and the only money they could make came from what was carried by ships.  In addition, pirates were often unable to secure food, fresh water, or repairs to their ships as they could not enter ports safely.  With the extra large crew sizes needed as a pirate (50-100+ on boats that might hold 15 normally) nearly every boat that passed was captured just to take enough fresh water to survive.  This seems like an apt comparison to the situation in the Sector.

-It would be great if bounties (i.e. Letter of Marques) could be offered by governments hostile to each other, not just pirates.

-System/local stability should increase every time a bounty is collected in a system.  With appropriate scaling, tapering off at certain levels, etc.  The sheriff has to pay if <hero> shows up with a holo-log of pirates he just blew up.  But are the locals sure that these are the same pirates who looted the mining equipment last month?

8
Ran out of fuel and started drifting, patrol shows up to scan which I accept but while scanning my fleet drifts beyond range and scan fails with normal penalties.   Bug, or WAD?

9
General Discussion / Re: Sector Battles: Tournament
« on: October 14, 2014, 12:19:05 PM »
This tournament went the way of the Honorverse  :P

10
Suggestions / Re: Quality of Life Improvements
« on: June 20, 2014, 07:10:42 AM »
The quality of life improvement I would like most is when you press "escape" mid-battle it quits to the main menu, not shuts down the game application entirely.  I would also enjoy an Iron Mode autosave each time you dock. 

11
General Discussion / Re: Java
« on: June 20, 2014, 07:02:26 AM »
Most generic computers will have trouble with large mods without 64-bit Java.  The above instructions have been a lifesaver in solving out of memory crashes on the large mods.



12
Mods / Re: [0.6.2a] Starsector+ Vanilla Enhancement Mod 0.8
« on: March 26, 2014, 08:08:38 AM »
I had this crash (nothing enabled besides LazyLib alongside SS+).   Looks like the script needs to rename tick_Hull to ssp_tick_Hull.




Code
2905891 [Thread-5] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  - java.lang.RuntimeException: Ship hull variant [tick_Hull] not found!
java.lang.RuntimeException: Ship hull variant [tick_Hull] not found!
at com.fs.starfarer.loading.L.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.loading.SpecStore.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.fleet.FleetMember.õÖÖ000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.fleet.FleetMember.<init>(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.fleet.FleetMember.<init>(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignEngine.createFleetMember(Unknown Source)
at data.scripts.world.corvus.TriTachyonSupplyFleetSpawnPoint.addRandomShips$(TriTachyonSupplyFleetSpawnPoint.java:125)
at data.scripts.world.corvus.TriTachyonSupplyFleetSpawnPoint.spawnFleet(TriTachyonSupplyFleetSpawnPoint.java:82)
at data.scripts.world.BaseSpawnPoint.advance(BaseSpawnPoint.java:61)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.BaseLocation.advance(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignEngine.advance(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.A.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.B.ØÓÒ000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.oOOO.A.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)


13
Ran into a out of memory crash when jumping into a system outside corvus  - with the usual fixes to vmparams and 64-bit version java already applied.

Spoiler

Code
2069510 [Thread-5] DEBUG com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader  - Loading image graphics/backgrounds/background5.jpg into existing tex id 327
2069933 [Thread-5] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  - java.lang.OutOfMemoryError
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError
at sun.misc.Unsafe.allocateMemory(Native Method)
at java.nio.DirectByteBuffer.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.nio.ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(Unknown Source)
at org.lwjgl.BufferUtils.createByteBuffer(BufferUtils.java:60)
at com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.util.ReplaceableSprite.class.int(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.BackgroundAndStars.ØO0000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.BaseLocation.renderBG(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignEngine.renderBG(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.A.ØØ0000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.B.ØÓÒ000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.oOOO.A.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

[close]

14
Suggestions / Re: Defending forces are easily distracted
« on: March 19, 2014, 07:14:32 AM »
.  Personally, I'd rather see the ships follow orders and die rather than trying (and usually failing) to remain alive when a point is highly contested, they have engagement opportunities and heavy friendlies aren't anywhere near. 

I agree with this - I feel like tightly obeying commands puts the responsibility on the commander. That said, this could be something that captains influence once they are implemented, so it may be a good idea to make this a tweakable parameter.

I agree with both statements as well.  It seems like the leash length / follow orders vs engage nearby target parameter would be a variable strongly influenced by ship captain type.   As to how sticky the ship should be - that needs to be balanced against how much you as a game designer want the player to be checking the tactical map and issuing new orders as a point comes under attack.  If very sticky, essentially you'll need to train the player to watch for their ships getting in over their heads.  This also means more command points will be needed to effectively micro the fleet around, etc.  I wouldn't say at this point whether that is a good or bad thing, just a different avenue to go down.

edit: also, the AI fleet behavior might need to have a longer leash, so it's harder to exploit by the player with long range weapons.

15
Suggestions / Re: Combat Readiness: Supplies and Lore.
« on: January 26, 2014, 05:53:45 AM »
One suggestion (possibly made before) is to give a small Logistics Capability increase each level (regardless of skill point, but perhaps you could focus a level for larger gains).

As to the crushing penalties for going over LR, well...

“My logisticians are a humorless lot...they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.”
--
Alexander


“Logistics comprises the means and arrangements which work out the plans of strategy and tactics. Strategy decides where to act; logistics brings the troops to this point. “
--
General Antoine Henri Jomini, Summary of the Art of War


“Logistics is the ball and chain of armoured warfare.”
--
Guderian


“Gentlemen, the officer who doesn’t know his communications and supply as well as his tactics is totally useless.”
-- General George S. Patton, USA


etc etc

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