Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Save/Load UI, Autosave, Intel Map Markers, and More (04/10/24)
got another bug for you
I first want to say how much I really appreciate you taking up the task of getting this mod up to standard.
I've been play testing it, and I hope this information is useful to you. I've played nearly every mod extensively and have been at it for two years or so. Note that I have no idea how to do these things, nor how much work it would take, but I felt compelled to provide it regardless.
To do to get up to 9.1a standard
- Ship deployment costs need to be increased across the board
- Ship costs need to be increased across the board, especially the capital ships
- Core turn-in values need to be lowered (you already mentioned this)
My recommendations to get closer to vanilla balance
- The weapons are too powerful. Look at the efficiency values of flux/damage. Generally, a weapon loses efficiency to gain range. Armor penetration, accuracy, and rate of fire are other factors.
- The heavy laser does way too much damage. It should be toned down and its flux costs adjusted.
- Hiigaran ships seem to fit within the high-tech profile. Their prices, shield efficiency, armor, operating costs, and crew requirements should reflect that.
- Hiigaran missiles are too powerful
- A balance pass on some ships may be warranted. For example, the heavy missile cruiser has six heavy missile slots, 2 heavy kinetic mounts, and 6 medium kinetic mounts. This is quite excessive even without the missile mounts. If possible, the mounts should be shrunk to mediums. Even then, this ship would outgun literally every other vessel except for the dreadnought.
- The Dreadnought is far more powerful than any other ship I've seen. It flattens pandemoniums, paragons, karkinos, and orbital stations all by itself. This is fine... but it should cost a hell of a lot to field.
Good luck!
I wish I could do it myself, but there are too many reasons why I can't and won't right now. But it makes me very happy when people think it's worth a resurrection.
Someone else posted somewhere that (s)he's having a jab at it as well, and someone else PM'd me a while ago, asking me permission (which wasn't needed to ask, due to my statement in the main post). I'm hoping there won't be multiple people trying to do the same thing, but then again, I get the feeling most people will give up halfway through anyway. It is a lot of work.
If you can see it through to the end though, then I'm sure you'll be making some people very happy. So again, I wish you good luck.
