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1

Suggestions / Campaign Map Speedup Indicator

« on: May 12, 2019, 05:34:45 PM »

Now that this is a toggle, the fact that the Game Paused text often makes the current speed-up status invisible is turning into something of a UI problem. The current status of the speed-up toggle should be shown somewhere, at all times. Hell - make it a clickable GUI element somewhere so people that prefer that to hotkeys can toggle the speedup (and pause?) too.

2

Mods / [0.96a] Missiles and Sundry - Missile tweaks for vanilla

« on: January 14, 2019, 11:45:05 AM »

Regenerating Missiles and Clip-based ballistics for vanilla Starsector. In addition to regenerating, missiles have reduced re-fire rates to stop one-shot eliminations and strange scaling with expanded missile ammo hullmod.

Rule of thumb for the regeneration times is: The smaller the mount the slower missiles will regenerate. Missiles generally regenerate one-firing-amount at a time, it does not replace the entire magazine at once but it does replace enough to not fire partial volleys for launchers that have bursts.
Rule of thumb for refire rate is: The bigger the mount, the higher the missile volume - and the weaker/lower tech the missile is the higher the refire rate. DEMs have higher refire rates than equivalent non-DEM missiles.

All strikecraft that used missiles have received their own versions of those missiles that do not regenerate, to keep the strikecraft gameplay intact. The exception are strikecraft that used missiles that already did regenerate - Talons using swarmers for example. Those missiles are named [Missile Name] (Strikecraft) to differentiate them - they should not appear in blueprints or acquireable in any way hopefully.

WARNING: Autoloader Hullmod does nothing (but indicates it does nothing in it's tooltip) at the moment, since it ignores any missile that has regenerating ammo. Which is all of them.

Ballistics clips are based on Alex's values from a the version of Starsector when ballistics were clip-based, with addition tweaks where playtesting found certain values to be out of whack.

Download: https://github.com/DatonKallandor/Missiles-and-Sundry-for-0.96a/releases/tag/0.96a

Missile Only version included in download:
To enable, go into the mod folder/data/weapons and rename the missile_only_weapon_data.csv to weapon_data.csv (replacing the existing one).

Example Pictures:
Big Reaper vs Small Reaper:

Spoiler

vs

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Strapping a single missiles to the hull of your ship vs dedicated triple rack

Spoiler

vs
 *this comparison makes me think single missiles might need to be a little worse*

[close]

Heavy Autocannon vs Heavy Needler

Spoiler

vs
 Big props to Alex values here, because suddenly the Heavy Needler has a real big upside. Those sustained values are very nice.

[close]

New for version 0.96a:
Regeneration for DEMs and other new missiles. Regeneration rate based on equivalent non-DEM missile, but slightly higher refire rates due to lack of hard flux and reliance on overwhelm.
New for version 0.95a RC12:
Currently Missiles-only, Breach Missiles have Harpoon/Sabot reload times, slight tweaks to Salamander and Sabot Pod.
New in version RC3:
Strikecraft specific weapons now invisible in Codex and Arcade
New in version RC2:
0.9.1a weapon stat changes integrated!
Light Needler sustained damage buff - Light and Heavy Needlers now trade single-projectile damage for superior sustained damage in long engagements.

3

General Discussion / New Weapon Tooltips

« on: December 05, 2018, 12:07:17 PM »

The new weapon tooltips are awesome, please keep them in.

4

General Discussion / Anyone got a pre-hotfix 0.65.2a?

« on: July 26, 2017, 06:29:24 AM »

As per Subject - anyone got that version or the weapon_data.csv from it?

I wanted to bring back the clip-based ballistics for a personal mod, but it turns out because that got removed in a hotfix not a numbered update I can't even get that version back. And that versions numbers are a pretty great starting point.

5

Suggestions / High Quality Fleet Focus Skills

« on: May 02, 2017, 05:54:35 AM »

Since we've now got skills that encourage a fleet composed of D-grade wrecks, how about a skill (or multiple) that benefit ships that don't have D-Grade mods? Something along the lines of "Maximized Performance" - pristine ship gains % bonus OP, pristine ship gains % bonus top speed, etc.

Could even attach it to existing Tech skills like the one that gives 10% extra OP, by having it give double benefit to ships in perfect condition.

6

Modding / Missile Mod

« on: April 22, 2017, 02:38:01 PM »

Hey, just some input needed here for a small missile overhaul mod.
Assuming these values (which I think establish what the direction is supposed to be)

Code

Reaper Single		120s Reload		30s Refire
Reaper Medium		90s Reload		25s Refire
Reaper Large		100s Reload (2per)	20s Refire (2per)

Atropos Single		60s Reload		20s Refire
Atropos Double		45s Reload		15s Refire

Hammer (Single)		60s Reload		20s Refire
Hammer (Double)		45s Reload		2s  Refire
Hammer (Barrage/Quad)	60s Reload (2 per)	20s Refire (4per)

Swarmer SRM		10s Reload (4per)	5s Refire (4per)
Annihilator Small	15s Reload (5per)	5s Refire (5per)
Annihilator Med		15s Reload (10per)	0.5s Refire
Prox Charge		5s Reload		3s Refire

Single Missiles		60s Reload		20s Refire
Triple Missiles		50s Reload		15s Refire
Missile Pods		90s Reload (4per)	20s Refire (4per)

What would you think would be good stats for the Hurricane MIRV, the Squall and the Locust? I don't use them enough (and there's not a lot of large missile mounts around) to say if they need help or are at more in the Swarmer (small buff) or Torpedo (tiny buff, some nerfs) section (or god forbid, the Prox Charge section)?

A quick test suggests that Locusts are very much Swarmer tier, while the Squall is amazingly good.

7

Suggestions / Escort Missions

« on: September 14, 2016, 03:48:28 AM »

I think this has come up before, but escort missions would be a really good addition to the game as it stands currently. The mission types availible are okay for a trader (deliver missions) but for a fighter they're very lone-wolf and early midgame. Escort missions are the perfect solution for easier, on average less rewarding, missions that are missing for fighting players to do right from the start.

Now that we've got the ability to join battles in progress, there should be no big tech hurdle anymore. The reverse, hiring a mercenary fleet to escort your own, would also be quite helpful for the more dangerous trade runs, but isn't an important missing piece like being hired as an escort.

More mission types in general would be great, but I think this is a good easy start, ever since the battle-in-progress addition.

8

Suggestions / System-Map Stealth

« on: October 04, 2013, 10:44:49 AM »

Now I've been playing some Pirate runs recently and figured - hey, why I see where everyone is? And why can everyone see where I am? Wouldn't pirates get completely destroyed in a world where sensors cover the entire system and are unbeatable?

So I've come up with a potential system that will make playing a Pirate a little more interesting - and maybe even help out AI pirates:

Fleets that are static on the system map slowly accrue "stealth" points. Every fleet rolls a sensor check (or if you don't like randomness, a straight comparison check) when a fleet with stealth points comes within a certain distance of it. If they beat the stealth the static fleet is revealed, if they don't it stays hidden.

Now as long as moving doesn't instantly deplete your stealth points (you could have them vanish fairly quickly over the course of a few seconds) the ambushing fleet - if it guesses the intended victims course right and lays up ahead for long enough to become hidden - can quickly pounce on the unsuspecting fleet. This could give you a special pre-combat dialogue with a couple of extra options to take apart from the usual "engage, disengage, etc.". Maybe a special "ambush" battle option - similar to a Pursuit in that you can deploy frigates and fighters from several angles, maybe even with reduced CP for the enemy fleet to represent them having to suddenly scramble ships to respond.

The latter option especially would let smaller fleets defeat bigger fleets by ambushing - as long as they can inflict enough casualties in the opening battle (in which they've got a huge positional and numerical advantage) to make the follow up battle (which is back to the default battle options and thus more even) winnable.

Best of all this approach to stealth opens up some avenues for skills as well: Better sensors (isn't there already a sensor skill this could be added to?), faster stealth gain, slower stealth loss when moving.

And lastly the whole thing is very player skill based - you need to guess fairly well what approach the fleet you want to ambush is going to take. Although the ability to station-keep with orbital objects while remaining "static" would truly help if this system is adapted.

I've deliberately kept the numbers and stuff vague because that's all open for balance concerns - but basically: Less than total vision over the whole system at all times, more "kinds" of battles than just straight field battles and pursuits, deeper gameplay for pirates and blockades.

Thoughts?

9

General Discussion / Fighter Wing Supply Costs

« on: October 01, 2013, 12:49:36 PM »

So after getting to the "endgame" a couple of times in 0.6a, I gotta say while most of the new CR/Supply/Carrier mechanics are great there's something off about fighter logistics and supply costs.

First of all one of the big problems is that fighters cost a lot of supplies - and it's based purely on wing-size which is weird as hell. Fighter types that are specifically intended to be fodder that swarms (the 6-per-wing Wasps, the 4-per-wing Mining Pods, the 4-per-wing-Talons) are more expensive, by a large margin, than elite super-high-tech fighters (2-per-wing Xyphos, 2-per-wing Tridents, etc.).

Then there's the fact that fighters tend to lose a lot more CR per deployment than other ships when they take casualties (which is the whole point of the new fighter mechanics! they are supposed to take casualties!) which drives the maintenance costs up even more.

I'm wondering if there shouldn't be some sort of benefit to carriers in general or flight decks in particular that gives you fighter wing supply/logistics discounts. Maybe even bring back the old Hangar stat on select destroyers and bigger. Something like a large decrease (50% at the least) or even a free maintenance for a wing of fighters per hangar would really help the swarming large-amount-per-wing fighters. Hell it'd be a great way to give an advantage to "true" carriers like the Condor (more hangars) compared to the combat carriers like the Venture (1 flight deck, but only a small amount of, maybe 1, hangar/s).
Plus it gives you a neat tool to bring the less-used capital ships up to spec.

If that's too radical even just a rebalance in fighter supply costs to make crap-but-swarming fighters not a gigantic waste of money would be really great. Especially the Mining Pods - I mean come on: They're supposed to be converted mining equipment, they shouldn't be more expensive than a freaking Xyphos Wing.

As an aside I wonder if we'll ever see a Phase-Fighter or Phase-Bomber wing. There's precedent with the Terminator Drone after all.

Thoughts?