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16

Suggestions / Show damage numbers on top of explosions

« on: December 15, 2014, 09:20:29 AM »

Thread title.  (Maybe a bug?)

When a ship is destroyed, it explodes.  This damages you.  This is a fact that, while seemingly obvious, is not terrible intuitive.

Thus I feel the damage incurred from such explosions should be showed by damage numbers.

17

Mods / Re: [0.65.1a] The Patrian Principate Alpha v2.1 - The Patrian Navy

« on: December 15, 2014, 08:50:15 AM »

And I have another Question, you're not gonna to support the version for 62a RC4?



Oh, and the "Mayflower-class Dreadnought" could have a bit more weapons; a single fight between the "Yamato vs Mayflower", the Yamato is winning.

62a RC4?  I didn't know it was out yet.  Once it's officially released I'll update the mod.

And as HELMUT said, it's more of a mobile artillery ship.  It's purely support.  If something gets in its face it's doomed; that's why its guns have a frightening 2000 range.  It can support an entire fleet and demolish ships from kilometers away.  Extremely powerful, but also extremely situational.  Just like most other things in the Navy.

Ahhhh, it isn't compatible with SS+.... That explain why i gained a "OutOfMemory" log.

It is compatible with SS+. The "OutOfMemory" bug seems to come directly from the Patrian mod.

Here:

Spoiler

[close]

There are way more ships than in a normal game. It felt like the Patrian mod somehow duplicated everything else in the game, which is why it might have caused the OutOfMemory bug. I think i heard another modder talking about this bug when trying to update their mod to 0.65. Something to fix.

For the Mayflower, it always have been more of a mobile artillery than an actual battleship. The Yamato on the other hand is one of the strongest battleship in the game, so no wonder it wrecked its opponent. They just don't fit the same combat role. I haven't played them yet in the campaign but when i'll do, i'll tell you if something need to be changed.

Also the fighter wing bug have been fixed in the last version. Nikolailev, it would be good if you posted the changelogs of yours mods on the front page to see what exactly changed.

Wow.  That is... fascinating.  I can't say I have any idea what's going on here, but I'll take a look.  Don't expect much though; I have no experience with SS+ and the campaign integration was already... iffy.

On another note: Patria needs you!  If you would like to help development on a couple niggling issues I cannot for the life of me seem to solve, don't hesitate to sign up!  In particular, here is a list of things beyond my ability:

Ship System: Small Battery Stabilizers

Spoiler

A system that increases the range of small ballistic and energy weapons in exchange for decreasing their turn rate.

While increasing the range of ballistic and energy weapons and decreasing their turn rate was easy enough, what I haven't been able to implement is making the system only affect small weapons, as well as adjust the range bonus per hull size (like ITU does).  A nice touch would be to exclude PD weapons from the range bonus, but still applying the turn rate decrease to them (as gameplay wise, it's supposed to reduce the potency of any PD in exchange for range).

[close]

Ship System: Micro Missile Fabricator

Spoiler

Not to be confused with a Micromissile Fabricator (I'm sure I'll implement a micromissile weapon at some point), this system shuts down weapons, engines, and/or shields in order to begin constructing and reloading missiles.  This I can likely do myself, but hey, help is always nice.

[close]

Fighter AI

Spoiler

This has always been the sticking point with Patria; aerospace fighters were always intended to lack lateral and reverse thrusters, relying on their superior speed and firepower to stay out of harm's way.  They should generally fly at maximum or close to maximum speed and use "zoom and boom" tactics to destroy enemy fighters and engage larger ships.  Serpentine maneuvers should also be available to more skilled pilots to evade incoming fire, as Patrian compact shield emitters are not [supposed to be] powerful enough to stop much damage.

[close]

I'll keep this list on the front page, as there's other stuff I could use help on I think.

18

Modding / Re: Newb trying to mod.

« on: December 15, 2014, 03:12:20 AM »

I have been trying to mod on my own using the information given in various threads.
I have tried Intellijhttp://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=6809.0 and Eclipsehttp://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=4344.msg67576#msg67576, to poor results. I am unable to compile 1 java or build a working jar.

I know more info would be needed to help educate me, or to clarify the question, but I am not sure what else to put down at this moment.

Thanks for your time,
Ratheden

Compiling a .jar?  That's something you do?  I never have.

(Point is: I'm a modder and have never compiled a .jar.  You don't need to to mod!)

19

Suggestions / Re: AI won't suitably charge extreme-range opponents

« on: December 15, 2014, 03:10:06 AM »

Thanks for the video, always good to have that to make sure we're talking about the same things.

Hmm. What exactly is the Onslaught supposed to do at that point (~30 seconds in), though? Its flux is high, it can't back away to vent, and the Paragon's flux is low. Its choices are 1) burn in and die quickly or 2) maintain range and die slowly. I suppose a "vent then burn in" maneuver might be an option too, but given that the Paragon's flux is low and its got the fortress shield, an Onslaught is unlikely to break it with a charge, and it'll just end up at close range with high flux again. There are some points where the Paragon's flux is relatively high, but not high enough (compared to the Onslaught's) to give the Onslaught a real opportunity.

It's just a bad fight for the Onslaught IMO, doesn't seem to be many good options. Your thoughts?

Charging in to bring its full power to bear will ultimately win out over the Paragon's low DPS, long range weaponry.  The issue is largely that the AI let its flux get that high to begin with, but even so it can simply keep its shields down since the damage it takes will pale compared to the damage the Paragon is going to take at close range.

"Hold position and wait for support" might accidentally be a good idea in a fleet scenario, but one thing the AI should strive to be is unpredictable.  While it'd take a while and it lacks omni shielding, a good idea may be to turn around and full burn away.

That said, the best change here I can think of is to give the AI the tools necessary to observe what kind of weaponry a given ship has when it's within sight radius, and then draw conclusions about how to fight it.  If an enemy ship has a lot of long range beam weapons, it ought to charge in guns blazing.  If it's being fired at by kinetic weapons that aren't actually hitting it, it should keep shields up.

20

Modding / Re: Interest Check: Star Trek mod (another one!)

« on: December 15, 2014, 03:04:42 AM »

The only condition I have for a Star Trek mod is that it must bring some new gameplay to the table. For example, phasers would make burst beam weapons great for prolonged assaults, but are ineffective against fast/small and hightech ships

Actually from my perspective phasers are kinetic beams, used for overloading shields while HE torpedoes peel away the armor and deal crippling blows.

21

Mods / Re: [0.65.1a] The Patrian Principate Alpha v2.1 - The Patrian Navy

« on: December 15, 2014, 03:03:27 AM »

This mod looks nice, do you know if it's compatible with SS+ ?

No idea, but I can make it so, if it isn't difficult!

22

Suggestions / Re: AI won't suitably charge extreme-range opponents

« on: December 14, 2014, 10:46:04 AM »

Seriously.  Load up a Paragon with 4 HILs and go up against an Onslaught.

I get what you're saying, and I've seen the behavior before, but I can't actually reproduce it w/ this setup. I even bumped up the base range for the HIL to 1500 and added optics and ITU. What happens is the Onslaught stays around its maximum range, firing off TPC bursts and keeping up pressure w/ Annihilators. Occasionally it'll use burn drive to really close the gap and maul the Paragon. If anything, it seems to be playing this pretty well. Obviously, you're seeing something different - maybe your Onslaught loadout is different? I'm testing with the stock simulation Onslaught.

That's really strange.  I could try making a video.  It's a Run Simulation against the default simulation Onslaught.

EDIT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_sZ4wD8yYw&feature=youtu.be

There you go.

This isn't even one of the more ideal tests.  The first time I tried recording the Onslaught scarcely fired a single shot.  I bet if I put hvel drivers on the Paragon it'd be even more hilarious.

Embarrassingly, I seem to also have stumbled upon the AI's predliction to think it's about to be hit by weapons even though they're out of range.  See: the heavy needlers.

23

Modding / Re: Interest Check: Star Trek mod (another one!)

« on: December 14, 2014, 06:49:31 AM »

Well, since this thread is asking for people's input, I'll be brutally honest with you here. I won't ever play it. Adaptations of TV shows/movies/other videogames are boring, lack creativity, and don't mesh well with mods/vanilla. And on top of that, even though the TV show and movies are quite entertaining from time to time, Star Trek has horrible art direction for the most part. The ships simply don't look good from the top down and everything will just look like a lame variation on the Enterprise.

Nothing against you personally, but if you want to make a mod that people will actually play, do something unique and new. People will like it more, and you'll improve your art/writing/coding skills more that way.

That said, if you're dead-set on making a Star Trek mod, why bother asking our opinion? You shouldn't bother with what we think if that's what you want to do.

This is less "Should I make a Star Trek mod guys?" and more "Should I bother releasing it when I do?"

As I've mentioned before (and should be somewhat obvious from my signature) I've already made something new and (mostly) unique.

24

Mods / Re: [0.65.1a] The Patrian Principate Alpha v2 - The Patrian Navy

« on: December 13, 2014, 10:27:09 PM »

Missions are fine, it was in the campaign.

Woops, found the problem.  Faction file.

Will be fixed within the hour.

EDIT: Should be fixed.  Let me know, and thanks for the feedback!

25

Mods / Re: [0.65.1a] The Patrian Principate Alpha v2 - The Patrian Navy

« on: December 13, 2014, 09:30:41 AM »

Fighters are considered as ships rather than wings, it cause a crash in battle. You might need to fix this first.

Code

2556552 [Thread-5] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  - java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.ai.FighterAI.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatEngine.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.void.void.class$super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.A.oOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

That's strange.  In what mission did this occur?

26

Suggestions / Re: AI won't suitably charge extreme-range opponents

« on: December 13, 2014, 04:23:06 AM »

How hard would it be to make the ship AI (or the admiral AI, assuming it doesn't have problems with running out of CPs) be able to handle this problem? Specifically:

• If we're already engaged with the enemy, continue with whatever we were doing unless specifically ordered otherwise.
• If we can close and kill the enemy's long-range ship without getting into too much danger or getting diverted from our current orders (e.g. capturing a point), do so.
• If we can't, but the enemy can't get through our shields (low DPS soft flux), stay where we are.
• If the enemy can get through our shields, back off.

The reason I bring this up is because it would look really silly if the player could bait enemy ships to their deaths by poking them with a HIL/Tachyon Lance from afar and provoking them into rushing into close combat against three times their own firepower.

This is usually only really an issue with duels.  The AI handles actual fleet scenarios decently well.  If it's such an issue then just disable the charge behavior when other ships aren't around.

Ships should charge as a group against even or lesser foes, and they should have logic to determine the rough likelihood of winning an engagement based on their primary DPS values.

27

Suggestions / Re: AI won't suitably charge extreme-range opponents

« on: December 13, 2014, 01:37:41 AM »

Well, yeah, but that's hardly the only engine limitation modders have to work with. Even just looking at the AI, you could come up with an endless array of weapons the AI won't know how to deal with, either defensively or offensively.

After testing, I've found this occurs even with vanilla ships using the High Intensity Laser.  You can do it on slow ships like the Paragon, combined with an Integrated Targeting Unit.  The AI's just too scared of it, even if it's another Paragon.  This is especially gamebreaking when the AI's shields can't keep up with however many HILs you have.

Seriously.  Load up a Paragon with 4 HILs and go up against an Onslaught.

I think this is worth fixing.

28

Mods / Re: [0.65.1a] The Patrian Principate V2 - The Patrian Navy

« on: December 12, 2014, 11:44:33 PM »

It's back!  The Patrian Principate has finally not only been updated to current SS as well as given Exerelin compatibility (I think; not tested), it's received a major overhaul.  Forget everything you knew about Patria.

Mind you, this is again a sort of "pre-release"; it's missing a lot of things I originally planned and due to my laziness lack of professionalism unique release model I'll be adding these over time.  Among these are (still) weapon sprites, various ships, and ship systems.  Some things are pretty obviously placeholdery, but apparently some people actually want to play this mod.  So here it is!

Another note: This hasn't actually received constant work over the last year.  Development resumed as my interest picked back up with .65.  A few months ago it was in pretty much full swing and it's probably 75% complete.

The changes from the previous version are far too numerous to list.  But among them: new ships, new sounds, massive fighter re-work, general balancing, and a shift from Maser technology to plasma and magnetic acceleration technology.

So I hope you enjoy it, despite the lapse in development!

29

Modding / Re: Interest Check: Star Trek mod (another one!)

« on: December 12, 2014, 10:44:03 PM »

Frankly, i'd rather want you to work again on the Patrian Principate than another Star Trek mod. Especially if you just plan to lazily copy/paste the sprites from silent's mod.

I'm sure other people would probably enjoy it but personally i'm not fan of the Star Trek universe, at all. Not even sure i would even try it to be honest.

Work on Patria is actually sort of close to being done, so don't worry.  It's a huge overhaul too.  Work on the ST mod would only become a focus when/if I ever became happy with Patria's state of development.

I for one support this endeavor and would gladly play your mod. If you want to use the older sprites from other mods, may I suggest you re-scale them ? Most of them are way too big:) I wish you luck.

Absolutely.  I'd make sure everything was polished as much as I could make it, and everything would be scaled to fit with Starsector.

I'd rather see the piles of unused original free-to-use sprites that lies in the forum finally get in the game rather than yet another big IP adaptation, hammered down until it may or may not vaguely fit with the SS universe.

There is so much more new stuff to create, why stick to old ropes? I mean, I like the StarTrek/StarWars/Stargate/Babylon/Battlestar universes, but it's like every single space game ever released have 10 mods about each! Personally I've seen enough of them and I think the amount of work it would require to fit SS could be better spent creating an original faction that naturally belong.

So no, I would probably not play a StarTrek mod, but i'd love to try anything new instead

(that being said, I won't tell you NOT to do a Startrek mod, I just feel it's very un-original and un-surprising to play)

The short answer is because I like Star Trek.  If done properly then they would also offer quite a unique gameplay style.

I haven't looked at the unused sprites, but frankly, if I did my own original creation (which I'm doing), then it'd be, well, my own creation.  Though if I found some sprites that happened to fit with my mod I might use them.

30

Modding / Interest Check: Star Trek mod (another one!)

« on: December 12, 2014, 07:51:06 AM »

I'm interested in beginning work on my own Star Trek mod.  It will be largely designed from scratch but will likely use (with permission) sprite and sound assets from StarTreker http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=3257.0

However, it'll feature a focus on higher simplicity (eschewing the Mk system silentstormpt implemented) and a focus on vanilla balance and compatibility.  For now I'm mostly interested in Federation ships but if this reaches sufficient interest I'd be plenty willing to port over the already-done non-Federation ships.

Beyond that, I just want to get the ships and some basic campaign integration into Starsector, with everything balanced against vanilla as best as possible.  The Federation would likely play like a high-tech faction with propietary defense systems that mitigate damage rather than block it, as well as a dependence on kinetic beam weapons (phasers) and guided HE torpedoes (photon torpedoes), though the energy/fragmentation approach silentstormpt took was interesting.

So!  I'm wondering how many people are interested in seeing and playing a Star Trek mod that's kept up-to-date.