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Topics - Ranakastrasz

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Suggestions / Alternate relationship model.

« on: November 20, 2015, 03:40:45 PM »

As is, although magnitude for actions as you get further from neutral reduce effects, it isn't really enough to prevent you from easily hitting vengeful or welcoming, which considering that once you hit one of those states, they tend to result in huge reputation issues all around, you may want to avoid them.

Crossing a reputation threshhold (away from neutral) requires specific actions. Each tier has lesser actions give no bonus to reputation.
Additionally, reputation (very) slowly degrades towards neutral unless at maximum state or neutral already.Maybe 1 per week, 1 per 2 week if at hostile, friendly.

Ascending

Vengeful:
Impossible to reverse
Hostile:
Decay only
Inhospitable:
Assist with Fights.
Suspicious:
Public trading, assisting with Fights, bounties, quests.
Neutral:
Public trading, Assisting with fights, bounties, quests.
Favorable:
Assisting with Fights, Bounties, Quests
Welcoming:
Reputation specific quests.
Friendly:
Faction Alliance Quest
Cooperative:

Decending

Cooperative
Full Betrayal
Friendly
major black market activity, fighting fleets.
Welcoming
significant black market activity, fighting fleets,
Favorable
black market activity, fighting fleets,
Neutral
black market activity, fighting small fleets.
Suspicious
Significant Black market activity, fighting medium fleets.
Inhospitable
Destroy a high level fleet
Hostile: requires
Destroy multiple high level fleets.
Vengeful

Decays over time towards neutral, unless neutral, cooperative, or vengeful. Maybe one point per week?
Reputation specific quests are required to get to welcoming or higher, which involves a significant investment in a faction. At that point, no other faction allows you to become welcomed.
A full alliance quest of some sort lets you fully join the faction, presumably with significant campaign-scale changes, and will drop all other factions down to match that faction's relationship + 1 level, or lower.

Quests which involve attacking a station/planet in some way would cause reputation loss with the target faction, and a gain with the enemy that launched it.
Attacks on pirate bases would be common.

Killing enemy fleets when not identified may cause an investigation of some kind instead of an instant reputation loss.
Fleets which were recently running with transponder off, or just activeated burn might not cause as much loss, or any, since they weren't showing themselves as part of the faction.
You have to take significantly larger and more specific actions to go further away from neutral.

Cooperative: Joined faction. Share reputation to large extent. Access to faction specific Missions.
Friendly: Allied with faction. Some reputation sharing, Access to faction specific Missions
Welcoming: Good relationship. Allows equipment/ship access, and allows for reputation quests.
Favorable:Positive relationship.
Neutral:Neutral
Suspicious:Negative relationship. Increased black market investigation issues.
Inhospitable:Loss of trading rights with transponder on/identified. Lack of transponder may cause you to be attacked on sight.
Hostile:Attacked on sight, cannot trade at all. Bounties will be posted.
Vengeful: Attacked on sight, considered a full scale threat/Enemy faction member. Large bounty is likely.

Pirate faction
Relationships are different from usual. Not going to go into specifics.
Killing pirates that attack you has no penalty. Black market transactions on pirate bases has a lower penalty.
Actively fighting pirates costs reputation, meaning you launch the attack.
A high reputation would cause pirate fleets to not attack you.

http://fractalsoftworks.com/2014/08/12/faction-relationships/

Code

Effects of Reputation
Adjusting the player’s reputation is all well and good, but it doesn’t mean anything unless it actually means something, if you know what I mean. Let’s take a look at what each level means in concrete, mechanical terms.

Favorable
Gain access to faction-specific military submarkets, where you can buy fuel, supplies, and weapons.

Welcoming
Higher-quality weapons available.

Friendly
Even higher-quality weapons available.

Cooperative
Best-quality weapons available.

hegemony_militaryThe Hegemony military market, reputation – favorable. Most weapons aren’t available yet.

Suspicious
No effect at this point; more of an indicator that maybe they don’t like you a whole lot.

Inhospitable
Markets will refuse to trade with you, except for pirates, who aren’t really a unified faction to begin with. Whether/how this applies to the black market and smuggling is TBD – that is to say, I’m in the process of working it out.

Hostile
Combat-capable fleets will attack you on sight. (This is the starting relationship with the pirates, and yes, they’ll still trade with you.)

Vengeful
You know things are bad when the pirates don’t want to trade with you. Right now, this category matters more for being impossible to get out of than being that much different from “hostile”. There’s some room for more targeted faction actions against you (posting a bounty? an organized effort to bring you to heel?), but it’s not concrete enough to really discuss.

Suggestions / Allow flux vent "Disable Special" even with safety overrides.

« on: November 19, 2015, 07:42:48 PM »

I've tried out safety overrides, and while it is pretty cool, I find that my muscle memory disagrees with the vent hotkey doing nothing. I keep trying to vent, which fails, which should be expected. However, I would like it to disable shield/cloak/burndrive/etc, as it does when venting normally. With those disabled, you vent faster, even passively, and it would be convenient.

Not a huge problem, but would help with not requiring you to adjust your muscle memory as much.

Modding / Economy Config metadata

« on: October 31, 2015, 03:20:39 PM »

I was planning on messing with the economy config, but while some of the settings are relatively obvious, some are not. Also, the probable effects of some seem to require another to work as I would expect.
I would request additional information on what these values do.

Code

"economyIntervalnGameDays":30, # If i reduce this, the economy should tick faster. However, unless there is a way to also scale down the change per economy tick, I think it would not work out so well
	"economyMinFramesPerSecond":30, # No idea
	"economyRollingAverageFactor":0.1, # No idea
	"economyMaxStabilityPenaltyFromUnmetDemand":5, # These three are pretty obvious
	"economyMaxStabilityFromMetDemand":3,
	"economyMaxStabilityFromImportExportSmuggling":5,
	"economyDemandMinGreedFraction":0.1, #These two probably have some influence on how demand alters prices.
	"economyGreedToDemandPriceMult":0.5,
	"economyAbsoluteMinNonZeroDemand":10, # Threshholds for something?
	"economyAbsoluteMinNonZeroSupply":5,
	"economyPurchaseStockpileFraction":0.2, #Something to do with how much is hidden and not for sale?
	"economySaleStockpileFraction":0.2,
	"economyMinPurchaseAsDemandFraction":0.01, #No idea on these
	"economyMinSaleAsSupplyFraction":0.01,
	"economyMinStockpileSizeToSellAsSupplyFraction":0.1,
	"economyMinStockpileFractionToLeaveWhenRemovingDemand":0.2,
	"economyMaxPurchasesFromMarketPerDemand":10,
	"economyMaxSalesPerCommodity":20,
	"economyAbsoluteMinSaleOrOrderSize":1,
	"economyMinDemandForPricing":10,#Threshhold?
	"economyMinStockpileForPricing":10,
	
	"economyMaxPlayerSmugglingStabilityPenalty":5,# pretty obvious
	"economyPlayerTradeImpactMult":10, #Not sure what it impacts, only the first one says stability
	"economyPlayerSellIllegalImpactMult":5,
	"economyPlayerSellMilitaryImpactMult":5,
	
	"economyPlayerTradeVolumeForRepChangeMin":100000, #Presumably these three are part of a factory on how much you have to be shipping for reputation changes to occur. Threshhold or divisor perhaps.
	"economyPlayerTradeVolumeForRepChangeMax":1000000,
	"economyPlayerTradeVolumeForRepChangeIncr":100000,
	"economyPlayerXPPerCreditOfProfit":0.25,# Very clear
	"economyMaxRangeForNegativeTradeRepImpactLY":0, # 0 = same system #Not clear
	
	"economyAverageFractionOfStockpilePlayerCanBuy":0.2, # for price update tooltip display purposes only #Unclear
	
	"economyTargetPlayerProfitMargin":100, # per unit; also what the game considers "significant" #Threshhold before you get XP from profit?

Modding / ship_data and weapon_data Scripted Overwrite

« on: April 21, 2015, 05:04:08 PM »

Is it possible to have a script of some kind, from a mod, access the fully setup ship_data or weapon_data files and edit them via whatever rule set you want?

I want to be able to apply certain changes to every ship globally, and doing so manually, or via an external program would be a pain, as well as requiring a redo with any alteration to said data.

My main intention is to increase armor (similar to orost's Revenge of the Armor Plates), and add hull and Armor regeneration (Orost's Armor Repair Hullmod), by adding passive hull mods and altering base value.

Additional things I want to try is altering ship's weapon type (energy/projectile/missile) depending on angle and angle size, and alter weapon types as well, to make something like Vacuum has. Also add ammo regen to all missiles, and other stuff. Mainly just want to be able to test global balance tweaks.

I mainly want to set this up for my own use. Hence I don't really care about innate balance, so much as being able to know if it is possible.

Suggestions / Station Hull Mod Assist

« on: April 09, 2015, 08:00:19 PM »

Hull Mods

At stations, allow you to install any hull mod, enabled or not, for a fee.
1k per OP point. Optionally make it 1k per OP, per level difference between the player's corresponding level and the hull mod, or else the level of the hull mod (Level as in ability level required)

This will allow you to fully custimize ships without specially going into whatever skillset is required for the hull mods. However, this will still be expensive.

OP Points
(assuming 30% op point bonus max. I think 3 skills with 10% each. If incorrect, may need to alter values)
Allow you to break the OP limit up to the standard 30% bonus.
Each 5% bonus increases the cost. This is from the base value, or from the player level difference.
Price for first 5% is 200/Op break. Additional 200/Op for each 5% after that, maxing at 1200/OP

Full Repairs
Allow you to convert a damaged ship to the fully functional version, for 200%-500% base price. (or more)

This would reduce the frustation of only finding damaged ships, but again, would require significant funds to do.

~Side idea of allowing upgrading to UBER versions, but that is a bit more questionable balance-wise. Unlike the rest, it could give an unfair advantage.

Paint
Minor addition, Allow you to, for 5-10% base price, convert the buffilo freighter's faction color.

(Values are always arbitrary, and should not be taken as reason for this being a bad idea)

Suggestions / Command Point Regeneration, Usage while depleted

« on: March 10, 2015, 06:31:27 AM »

Suggest that Command points be more available in general.

Command points regenerate at a rate of x per 3 minutes, continuous, with X being the number of command points you start with, plus any bonuses.
If you have 3 command points, one is gained every minute.
If you capture a control point, that boosts the regeneration rate. It doesn't give an instant bonus.

You may issue commands to any ship at any time, even with no command points.

When you issue a command with no control points, your command ship and the targeted ship recieve a 5 second debuff which triples damage taken (all damage, shield, armor, health, collision) cuts movement speed by 30%, and cuts weapon attack speed in half.
This simulates the disruption of trying to command many ships when you are not really skilled enough. It is an easily fatal distraction, but still always an option.

Optionally, if you switch command ships, you lose some fraction or set number of command points, and have a similar debuff on the ship you leave and the ship you join when said event occurs.
Optionally, you might have a way to issue orders without using a command point, in case it is a low-risk situation.
Optionally, you can have hull mods that give more command points, or reduce penalties. Cut debuff duration in half for example.

All Numbers, as always, are arbitrary, and should not be taken into account as final.

Suggestions / Omni-shield Control Conflict.

« on: March 09, 2015, 01:39:02 PM »

This has of course been discussed before, but seeing as it still isn't resolved, I feel I need to post it again.
I still also would be very happy if anyone at all could tell me how to sanely use omnishield myself with the current control scheme. It is easily possible I just don't know all the ways to control them.

In this game, I cannot use Omni shields on any ship I control. They are almost worse than useless. As soon as I can convert them to a forward facing shield I do. Its not like I can turn them while fighting anyway. At least not with spinal weapons. If you line those shots up, the omni shield always drifts to the front, which defeats the purpose in it's entirety.

The problem, as I see it, is that your precision steering, meaning turn-to-cursor, conflicts with the omni-shield's own turn-to-cursor effect. The obvious solution would be to personally not use turn-to-cursor for steering my ship. However, the control scheme makes it difficult to rotate your ship with any precision, which is required for usage of Spinal Weapons. If you use arrow rotation, you always overshoot, because there is rotational inertia.

Thinking this out, a new solution became obvious, to me at least. This going on top of the 3 or so other possibilities I recall.

The new one is the ability to have your ship lock-on to a target, and always face it while it is active.

Old ones that i recall.
Lock shield to direction. Bound to map or bound to ship rotation. The ability to lock a shield over your engines would on it's own be useful.
Lock shields to face target ship. Which isn't itself particularly locked.
Allow AI to control shields. Possibility to have those shields be permitted to toggle actively as well. Obviously disallow venting.

Locking shields to a direction, via hotkey and click. One hotkey locks to compass direction, other hotkey binds it to ship's rotation. Cover damaged armor, or engines, or else match approximate direction of enemy ships. Not so flexable aside from covering vulnerable points.
Lock shields to enemy ship. Easy enough, just hotkey and Point to enemy ship. Switch to another ship at will. I cannot see this as being awkward in any way whatsoever.

Allowing the Ai to control the shields is also an obvious solution. Seriously. The enemy Ai does a great job of using omnishields, even while engaging another ship. Same with my ships using AI controlled omni-shields. This is because they can line up their ship, face whatever way they want, and also rotate the shield wherever they want at all times without awkward control schemes.

Suggestions / Replace ballistic/Energy with Spinal/Turret

« on: March 09, 2015, 01:28:03 PM »

This is mostly ripped from the old Vaccum Mod. For all of it's flaws, it had a few good ideas.

Energy Weapon Hardpoints are renamed as Spinal Mounts. They are every slot that has little to no arc, probably 30 Degrees or less. They are heavier weapons than turret type weapons, with more range and damage in general. They have minor turning speed in any case.

Turret Mounts are Ballistic weapon hardpoints. They have 30+ degree arcs, like any point defence or otherwise larger angled gun. They have higher turning speed, but lesser damage as normal.

Missiles, of course, are unchanged.

Suggestions / Weapon Tooltip Additions

« on: March 09, 2015, 01:24:10 PM »

Suggest ability for any and all weapons to have their tooltip data for each stat be overridden.
Suggest additional Tooltip Elements

-Volley Size
-Volley Damage
-Volley Flux-Cost
-Volley Duration
-Volleys per minute

-Recoil Default Arc
-Recoil Cap Arc
-Recoil Increase Rate
-Recoil Decrease Rate

-Projectile Speed
-Missile Acceleration
-Missile Top-Speed/Friction/whatever
-Missile Targeting Description (Engines for Salamander, for example)

And ability to add any category you dang well please, such as Chain-lighting Jump Radius, or Damage per second from Acid.

Suggestions / Defective Ships, Intrinsic Hull-Mods, Repairs, Requests

« on: November 06, 2014, 01:16:56 PM »

The obvious part is that the defective system seems to have simply been a ton of copy-ships with irremovable Modifers added. This results in them showing up as duplicates in the Codex. Same with faction-colors, for that matter. Both of those should probably be traits or themselves hull-mods. (Color Hullmod?)

First thing, is to make those all the same ship, just altered due to hull mods. Need to have ship cost be able to look at hull mods, as well as weapons, so as to allow that to work.

Also, the option to, only at a station, remove/add intrinsic hull mods (probably faction specific) for significant prices, would seem reasonable. Obviously the cost of fixing a ship with one of those defects would be massive. After all, it suggests that you would be better off scrapping the ship. Seeing as many ships are hard to find, it would still be well worth it at this time.

Also, the ability to request a faction to build a faction-ship/weapon for you (added to your storage) at cost (more than normal purchase price, and probably requiring raw materials) would make it far more reasonable.

I could see pirate stations letting you install shielded cargo bays, Hegenmy probably selling enhanced armor, and Tri-tachyon selling flux or shield amplifiers.

Suggestions / "Fleet Too Slow"

« on: November 02, 2014, 02:42:47 PM »

For the "Fleet too slow" event, where your fleet is too slow to engage an enemy, you have the option to harrass them but not engage. This makes a bit of sense. You cant really get close enough to engage, but they have to push their engines harder to avoid such.

However, if they are unloading cargo, or otherwise mostly immobile, you can do this repeatedly until their CR is at zero. At that point, or even at a mere 40%, you ought to be able to engage with them. Even if only with lighter ships. After all, what massive fleet doesn't have a few outriders, Assasins, or otherwise fast ships of lesser size?

I suggest being able to engage with them, But only being able to deploy ships that are fast enough to keep up. Additionally, If their combat Readiness is below 40%, (as the standard "Low CR" threshhold) then a full-scale battle, should be possible to force, with those ships having weaker engine capabilities as is.
~As a side note, low enough combat readiness, as in 40% or lower.

Suggestions / Personal Intel Database Records

« on: October 31, 2014, 04:39:14 PM »

Suggest that on docking with any station, All items, ships, etc, are recorded in your ships's database.
Quantities, Prices, and supply/demand/market stability, and station factors, and absolutely everything else you might find useful later.
Also any event modifiers should be marked as such.
All of this still that is able to change should be marked with a date, and age should be automatically calculated. Older data will be known as such, and will, naturally, be less accurate.
If you re-dock at a station later, it should update and overwrite all invalid data. same with any communication messages.

Add new intellegence tab, Both listing all stations you have visited, as well as intel age. Allow you to view all data gathered, and compare all prices.
All and all, this would let you set up trade routes easier, or find better sources of stuff to sell in the case of famines.
Allow you to search and sort by any item you have encountered, price, quantity, and supply/demand. That lets you find where is is best to get whatever you need, without having to rely on external paper or memory, both of which are tedious and unreliable.

Suggestions / More Filters

« on: October 31, 2014, 04:28:18 PM »

Add Filter to Military shipyard and Item shop, to hide anything you lack the rep for.
Add Filter to hide any defective ships/highlight them more clearly.

Add filter to system view. Fleet Filter, size/Faction. Station/planet only view (good for plotting courses) and bounty view (display any wanted fleets and estimated bounties.. And mark anything already friendly differently)

Allow multiple filters to be selected as checkboxes for Intel menu.
Allow filtering out Particular faction stations. You may want to avoid seeing Pirate stations when trading, due to reputation issues, unless desperate.

Add new Intel Tab. System-view. Only view events and such for a single system, not all of the galaxy at once. Locations can more easily correspond to Station locations. Allow selecting a station in Intel to plot a course to it.

Suggestions / Toll- Rep Gain

« on: October 31, 2014, 03:50:24 PM »

Suggest a minor Reputation gain each time you pay a toll. If you freely allow an inspection and pay the toll (which is often steep) then it shows that you are somewhat more trustworthy. Should be really gradual, possibly +1 per occasion, regardless of size or cost.

General Discussion / Pirate Side-Switch

« on: October 31, 2014, 11:13:35 AM »

I seem to have run into around pirate ships (single frigate) who on my approach, should switch faction to independent. Better yet, the Independent Faction decided this spontaneous change of heart made them instantly legitimate independent traders, considering I took 75 points of reputation loss. Surely they should see through this ruse?