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1

Suggestions / Making Hostile Activity more intuitive

« on: September 07, 2023, 05:38:42 AM »

Current state:
- system with 10 patrols station has the same bonus as a system with 1 patrol station
- pirate fleets that raid the system seem to scale of the players fleet and not the hostile activity meter -> makes patrol fleets kinda useless
- Pirates and Ludic path increase the same meter -> using tech becomes a disadvantage -> reduces the benefit of engaging in exploration
- relations with the luddic church seem to have no influence
- amount of pirate worlds have no influence
- position of ludic path and pirate bases have no weight on their influence
- pirate influence (10 + size - stability + pirate base in range) ranges from 3+c to 16+c, defense from 5 to 18, ludd from 0 to 25?, yet the hostile activity meter stack on that due to its negative stability modifier. Hence what happens is that if the luddic path gets triggered because you went over 7 point you immediatly are in a 11+c to 24+c situation at best and usually closer to 15+c to 28+c. Meaning that no matter how much defense you build, hostile activity will just go up and up.
- getting rid of all pirate planets does nothing for the sector
- Luddic faith is totally unaffected even if they lose all their worlds

Suggestions:
- separate pirates and ludds into separate meters (they are lore wise separate)
- make things stack so that the player has agency:

Defense Rating:
patrol stations +(insystem), military bases ++(5ly), command post +++(10ly),  sensor relays +, stable worlds+(insystem)

Pirate Activity:
empty worlds(insystem), unstable worlds (insystem), pirate bases+(10ly), pirate worlds++(15ly), enemy faction worlds+(15ly)
base value added would be trade volume of all planets in system added up and devided by a factor. That way it scales with size and type of colony.

Ludic Activity:
empty worlds(insystem), unstable worlds (insystem),luddic path worlds++(20ly), luddic path bases+(10ly), ludic church worlds+(20ly)
still triggers at the same techpoints level, but instead of adding the tech score flat, add just the part over 7 permitted base points

- normal enemy spawn fleets in your system should depend on the meters and trade amount, not your fleet size
- event fleet size can depend on player fleet size


Effects:
- it now follows the simple logic of destroy enemy origins so that enemies stop coming
- player now has a reason to occupy more than just the best worlds in a system
- paying for defence becomes viable, hence you can make a fortress system if you want it to be defensible
- patrol fleets can actually deal with pirate fleets in your system
- finding Domain tech in exploration is again rewarding since you can use it without being forever stuck defeating pirate fleets
- makes the sector react to the player action in a way the player can feel (destruction of the luddic and pirate worlds)
- being at war with a faction has an actual downside now and isnt just a free capital ship delivery
- colonizing multiple close systems becomes more advantageous than far spread out colonies
- incentivises colonizing further out from the core to reduce the number of enemy worlds affecting the meter

Notes:
- unless I read the wiki I never knew you could pay off the pirates or the ludds, so that should be mentioned/suggested somewhere on the screen of the hostile activity meters
- Kanta really doesnt feel like anyone important in the game, so his ability to give a protection really is kinda strange. His base is just far too crappy and has no big fleets to indicate status. (The main quest has the flaw of saying that he is influencial, but not SHOWING it. Hence he feels like just another henchmen. ...oh right he was supposed to be a women, but since he doenst look or behave like one I always forget about that)

2

Blog Posts / Re: Wormholes and Sundry - Getting Around the Sector

« on: September 05, 2023, 06:46:20 PM »

The new travel options sound nice, but im worried about the Slipstream mechanics, the ability create a surge, add a wormhole and a gate making the game have too much fast travel options and hence leading to a lack of loss of scale. (this looks like going from Morrowind fasttravel to Skyrim fasttravel)


I see the Inversed Slipstream mechanics causing 4 things.
1. It makes the trick of perfectly navegating the border of a slip stream going in the opposite directio to evade storms obsolete, hence reducing the fun of traveling.
2. Will prevent the player from having to take alternate routes and making the space feel too friendly and accomodating, given that the sector is supposed to feel hostile.
3. Makes escaping from persuing fleets too easy, since I doubt the AI will be smart enough to follow a player entering a stream with reversed polarity.
4. enables worlds that have eternal slipstream radiating outwards from them to be a thing. So a world you can see but only visit once you unlocked the skill. (hey at leasst one positive)


There is a mod similar to the surge mechanic called something like "hyperspace jump", which you unlock after defeating a Radiant. The consequence of the mod was that I essentially stopped using anything else besides it for traveling.(I ended up removing it from my games) While the mod didnt have the limitation of needing planetary bodies, that actually doesnt feel like a limitation, since you are essentially always traveling from a system to another system. So it works as a simple fast travel system instead of a rare oportunity. Limiting it to Black holes and neutron stars seems more reasonable and I hope it also has quite a high cost to offset the advantages of
1. ignoring terrain
2. ignoring storms
3. greatly reducing the amount of time -> supply, salary, opportunity, planning needs


As for wormhole and making a gate, it will certainly reduce the mystery of the Domain tech when you are suddently able to make one. So it certainly would need quite the reaction from the factions and some serious questing to make it feel fitting.

In the end, would this also make outposts kinda irrelevant?


As for the UI hotbar. Please make it possible to add two rows and change its size. so that its:
Alt+[0-9]
Ctrl+[0-9]
[0-9]
That would give 30 slots which is highly needed since many mods have special abilities and just no place to put the icons. (maybe with the +/- lock system from the BG3 hotbar)

On a similar vein, the infoscreens with all its tabs (gates, salvage, contacts, important....) needs to have hotkeys, since they arent ordered or color coded, so its always a pain to find the button for the right thing.
Hence it would be nice if the most used would be able to go ctrl+Initial leter.
ctrl+g gates
ctrl+c contacts
ctrl+i important
ctrl+....
or even better enable the API to assign hotkeys, then StellarNetworks can add them to all their extra tabs.

or enable collabsable hotbars where we can link buttons to spezific tabs.

3

Mods / Re: [0.96a] Industrial.Evolution 3.3.a - Campaign content expansion

« on: August 15, 2023, 09:05:52 AM »

Hostile Activity they introduced is quite badly balanced, since if you have 1 patrol station or 10 with cryo engines and alpha in a sytem doesnt change anything. In fact adding alpha cores to the patrol station is a detriment since ludic path gets for some reason lumped together with the pirates.

Is there a way to make the game count each patrol station seperately and also change how much patrol stations and military headquartes give you in terms of counter to hostile activity?

4

Mods / Re: [0.96a] Nexerelin v0.11.0b "Dark Tower" (fixes 2023-06-17)

« on: August 15, 2023, 09:00:35 AM »

Is there a list of the Midnight quest line? I dont know if I did all or not since I maxed out relations with her and the remnants, but nothing popped up after killing that rougue AI.

Why is Midnight talking about killing Omega all of the sudden in the mission where she sends you to kill the rougue ai?

Is there anywhere I could look at on how to add a second type of marine and crew to the game that have different values from the original? (I did a Remanant only with 0 crew playthrou and planet survey, salvage, interaction, ground combat where the main problem points, so I wanted to replace the Crew with Drones and the Marines with combat robots)

5

Mods / Re: Thog's [REDACTED] - More Remnant Drones

« on: August 15, 2023, 08:11:43 AM »

Good point. I don't know if i can add raw replacements for crew because that stuff gets kind of tricky, but i can definitely add some autonomous logistics vessels come next update. I released one today but it doesn't have logistics in it, so the next one will.

Yes it sounds quite tricky. I will ask around on a few discords if such code already exists somewhere.

For surveys of planets an alternative to messing with crew is to add an item based on the planetkiller, just instead it being a survey probe.
For salvage a skill that goes out like a sensor burst, just smaller that consumes all and then returns to the ship would be an option there to sidestep crew numbers.
For post battle loot its the hardest, there I have no idea.

6

Mods / Re: [0.96a] Quality Captains: A Skill Rework - Now with perks! v1.5.0

« on: August 15, 2023, 07:46:41 AM »

I noticed that I seem to be moving quite slowly in nebulas and that my sensorprofile is tiny even with larger ships when I go dark. Is that intentded? (Compared to vanilla skills)

7

Mods / Re: [0.96a] Ore Refinery v0.7 - 05/06/23

« on: August 15, 2023, 07:42:46 AM »

So a problem I ran into was that mining stations often have 15000 to 50000 in ore, but I only had 600 cargo space, hence it took so many loads to get it done.
Would it be possible to add a to the skills the following:

Code

if(skillOn = true && cargo>maxCargo)
{
  setMaxBurn = 0
  setSupplyPenalityMultiplier = 1 // or just suppInf = true
}

So I could just load the 30k and let my fleet essentially be a temporary stationary factory, instead of all the micro management.


A second thing is, I know there is a mod somewhere that has a skill which transforms metal+heavy_machine into supplies at a 0.8 cost factor. Could you please add someting like this for food and metal? Or just converting food into organics and metal into anything else.

8

Mods / Re: Thog's [REDACTED] - More Remnant Drones

« on: August 12, 2023, 06:07:22 PM »

Something that is missing for the redacted are logistics ships. I did a run trying to be a AI that escaped from Tritech, but always have to use human crew at some point. I made some quick smashed together to use, but it looks horrible.
Similarly there is no replacement for crew when it comes to salvage and planet survey, but my attempts have failed until now.

9

Mods / Re: [0.96a] Random Assortment of Things

« on: August 08, 2023, 04:02:14 PM »

The 1.5.0 version is giving
203223 [Thread-3] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain  - java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: lunalib/lunaRefit/BaseRefitButton
with LunaLib 1.7.8 and 1.8.2.

The 1.4.2 version is giving
java.lang.RuntimeException: Using LunaLib with this mod requires at least version 1.7.4 of LunaLib. Update your LunaLib, or else...
with LunaLib 1.8.2.

10

Mods / Re: [0.95a] Trailer Moments 1.4 - projectile trails for vanilla

« on: July 25, 2023, 09:16:33 AM »

Hi Nia, Im getting an error with the texture trails_trail_zappy. I dont know if its Trailer Moments or Dakka Holics since both use these use that texture.

Game is version 0.96
DakkaHolics version 1.7
Trailer Moments version 1.4

I just noticed that DakkaHolics has a version 1.9, so im going to try updating and see if it continues crashin. Problem is I dont know which of the gauss and plasma weapons use that texture so its hard to reproduce.
Edit: still having the same error

Error:

Spoiler

Code

19221153 [Thread-3] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain  - java.lang.RuntimeException: Texture [trails_trail_zappy] from category [fx] not found
java.lang.RuntimeException: Texture [trails_trail_zappy] from category [fx] not found
	at com.fs.starfarer.settings.StarfarerSettings.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.settings.StarfarerSettings.class(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.settings.StarfarerSettings$1.getSprite(Unknown Source)
	at org.magiclib.plugins.MagicAutoTrails.createTrailSegment(MagicAutoTrails.java:147)
	at org.magiclib.plugins.MagicAutoTrails.advance(MagicAutoTrails.java:136)
	at com.fs.starfarer.title.Object.for$Oo.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.super.new.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatEngine.advanceInner(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatEngine.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatState.traverse(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$1.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

[close]

Mods:

Spoiler

Code

  "PAGSM",
  "$$$_lightshow_nc",
  "pantera_ANewLevel40",
  "advanced_gunnery_control_dbeaa06e",
  "aod_capital",
  "Cryo_but_better",
  "aod_core",
  "lw_autosave",
  "CJHM",
  "combatactivators",
  "chatter",
  "cmutils",
  "lw_radar",
  "lw_console",
  "istl_dam",
  "exoticatechnologies",
  "fleetsizebydp",
  "HexShields",
  "hostileIntercept",
  "sun_hyperdrive",
  "IndEvo",
  "Imperium",
  "largerZoomOut",
  "lw_lazylib",
  "leadingPip",
  "ArkLeg",
  "logisticsNotifications",
  "luddenhance",
  "luddenhanceied",
  "lunalib",
  "mag_protect",
  "mag_protect_soldier",
  "MagicLib",
  "Mayasuran Navy",
  "MoreMilitaryMissions",
  "Musashimanufactor",
  "nexerelin",
  "pn",
  "wyv_planetaryShieldAccessControl",
  "portrait_changer",
  "portrait",
  "progressiveSMods",
  "pt_qolpack",
  "assortment_of_things",
  "scalartech",
  "scan_those_gates",
  "Scrapyard",
  "secretsofthefrontier",
  "speedUp",
  "sun_starship_legends",
  "superweapons",
  "tahlan",
  "Terraforming & Station Construction",
  "uaf",
  "variants_lib",
  "WEAPONARCS",
  "audio_plus",
  "shaderLib",
  "zzz_DakkaHolics"

[close]

11

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Random Assortment of Things

« on: April 13, 2023, 05:04:43 AM »

Why do the best mods have such unassuming names or are just downright hidden?
This is now a must have on my modlist.
Thanks a lot

12

Modding / Re: superweapons arsenal: and further employment of non standard copyrights

« on: April 05, 2023, 01:17:47 PM »

Very understandable.  Out of curiosity has there been any movement on mllhild's remake?  As the super weapon mod is one of my favorite mods with all sorts of fun weapons.  It's a shame that the mod used assets they didn't have permission to use but I hope a remake is ready soon!

Since Im going the way of redrawing everything that isnt vanilla its taking me some time. Im also fiddling around with the weapons that felt rather underwhelming or annoying to use.
Easter is a nice four day holiday here in germany so I should have something to show after it.

Regarding the copyright issue:

Legality isnt really the relevant point here. The modding scene depends on a conjunction of visual arts, audio, writer, programmer working mainly for free on projects. If you *** them off they leave and the modding scene dies. So its in the interrest of the forum to maintain a semblence of order by applying the copyright more in a coloquial than a precise sense.

Enforcing copyright legally in the modding scene is practically impossible. You first would have to figure out who the person behind the account actually is and then serve them often an internatinal lawsuit going over different countries. Thats just not happening due to costs. Modders arent Disney afterall.

13

Modding / Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.73c / 0.73c1

« on: March 20, 2023, 09:38:05 AM »

Im having a problem with Minibreves on the Puricella.
So I got ahhh...., all slots with minibreves that are possible, so 8 small and 4 medium I think.
If I set them to Linked it is obviously overkill and a waste of ammo.
If I set them to alternating, due to the firing time they come out one after the other with quite some delay making them useless against ships with PD.
If I set them into 3 weapon groups Im again back to the problem that I dont have a fine control of how many I shoot and cant see all their reload timers at once.

So in essensce while a delayed missle firing might seem nice when using them linked or only one, its quite frustrating to deal with when the number goes up.

I tried to find where the delay timer is in the files, but didnt manage to find it.

14

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a-RC6] Hiver Swarm - V1.07 - Dazs made a boo boo, sorry :( - 03/15/23

« on: March 20, 2023, 08:57:57 AM »

So here testing results:

Aim:
1. Not having two battles per fleet

Possible solutions:
1. Enemy uses all vessels in combat
2. autoresolve does consider logistics vessels weak enough to autoresolve

Attempts:

1. Changing supertanker and super freighter to combat freighter
- resulted in no noticable change

2. change fleet points to 1 for logistics vessels
- resulted in no change (this could have been obvious if I googled how the autoresolve works https://fractalsoftworks.com/2011/11/09/automatically-resolving-combat/)

2. change DP to 1 for logistics vessels
- resulted in no change

3. Removing the Civilian tag + combat freighter
- AI now is fielding the logistics ships as combat vessels -> objective achived
- side effect 1: it now feels like you are attacked by quite the number of bugs with more visual variety(positive)
- side effect 2: combat last longer (positive)
- side effect 3: larger ships are more valuable due to higher peak performance time (neutral??)
- side effect 4: nerfs missle, phase and Safty Override ships due to more ships to destroy (anything that is bad for phase ships is good in my book)
- side effect 5: if you are fielding frigates, destroyers or cruisers you now will want to rotate your ships during combat or finish quickly to prevent additional CR losses due to exceeding peak combat timers.

I didnt test the removed Civilian tag alone since Im now out of time.

Suggestion:
- remove the civilian tag from all ships
- Lower the DP of super tanker/freighter to 18, or replace one or two small slots with medium slots on them
- this might influence how they do in autoresolve vs other factions

@mllhild I started looking into your concern and I noticed an error on my end that I *think* may be the root cause. If you navigate to the Hiver Swarm mod folder data\world\factions and open the file called "HIVER.faction" using notepad++. Scroll down to line 269 "combatFreighterCombatUseFractionWhenPriority" it is currently set to 1 now change it to 0.1 also change line 268 "combatFreighterCombatUseFraction" to 0.1 as well and then save. It will not effect fleets that are already generated in game but it should lower the use of logistics ships when it generates a new fleet. I am still doing testing on it so there is more to be done before I release an update but I figured since you were already doing some testing on your own you may be interested.

After testing a bit Im actually quite found of fighting fleets with those huge bugs (logistics ships) mixed in. It also makes for a interresting battlefield due to the large debrie generated.
Also if you decrease the amount of logistics ships this could quite boost the power level of their fleets in the autoresolve.

15

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a-RC6] Hiver Swarm - V1.07 - Dazs made a boo boo, sorry :( - 03/15/23

« on: March 19, 2023, 06:21:53 AM »

Regarding the Tanker and Freigters again, would changing their class into Combat Freoghter and Combat Tanker make the AI use them as reinforcements?
If that would work and as you kill their combat ships the AI starts to trow their logistics ships at you in the same battle, this would
1. fit their no retreat doctrine,
2. make them more of a endless swarm feeling enemy

Do I have to change anything other than the
ship_data.csv in data/hulls
default_ship_roles.json in data\world\factions
to test this?

To explain better why I want this:

Typical invasion fleet having X amount of fleets means X amount of battles with a CR cost per battle of X*15%CR on average depending on shiptype and DP costs on both sides.

A normal ship has 70% CR.
Debuffs start at 50% CR to damage taken increased, damage dealt decreased,slower fighters respawn, reduced maneuverability
At less than 40% CR a ship will have reduced missile magazines (dropping to empty at 10% CR) and will experience temporary, random malfunctions in combat that take weapons, engines or the shields offline
At less than 20% CR a ship will suffer critical malfunctions upon deployment and in combat, which will disable a weapon or engine for the duration of the battle and cause hull damage

CR gets reduced at the end of the battle, so independent of your combat performance:
Fight 1: 70% CR -> all ok
Fight 2: 55% CR -> all ok
Fight 3: 40% CR -> damage taken increased, damage dealt decreased,slower fighters respawn, reduced maneuverability
Fight 4: 25% CR -> damage taken increased, damage dealt decreased,slower fighters respawn, reduced maneuverability, reduced missile magazines, temporary, random malfunctions
Fight 5: 10% CR -> ships are useless

If you look at invasion fleets from most factions, there usually are around 2-3 of them. Which means that the player fleet can fight them in peak condition or close to it.

Now with Hivers this looks a bit different since you have to fight always a second battle against the supply ships. -> So each fleet creates 2 battles. -> each fleet costs 30% CR to fight

This means that that no matter how well you do in battle, you have to sit on top of a friendly planet to fight more than one hiver fleet.
The other option is what Im doing and having a full capital fleet where I can have essentially two battle fleets and hence deal with 2 or 3 fleets without getting ground down purely on basis of CR.
Still with Hiver inasion fleets often having 4 to 5 fleets this means I still have to go back to a station to repair.

It just makes the fighting very restrictive and not fun since it just turns into lets sit on the planet and have a cargoships full of supplies.