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Author Topic: [0.97][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.75c ( Hotfix 3 )  (Read 569315 times)

ChillySillyWilly

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #345 on: September 15, 2022, 09:51:11 PM »

Found a bug in the current version(0.72g1b) that allows you to talk to the queen without having to going through the questline. Step1: talk to the queen, you're denied. Step2:go to bar, Step3: Leave bar. Now it should show you the options "do you have a task for me","converse" etc...
Edit: I am playing a bunch of mods but the last version of the mod didn't have this happening.
https://youtu.be/oiK5Z8KuVFo
« Last Edit: September 15, 2022, 10:07:40 PM by ChillySillyWilly »
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theDragn

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #346 on: September 16, 2022, 01:44:43 AM »

Sorry in advance for the long post.

As requested, I'm gonna go down the list of ships and give you some feedback. I'm not gonna touch the (M) and (SP) variants (unless they're the only version of the hull), but generally speaking, nearly every (M) or (SP) variant is hugely stronger than equivalent ships in vanilla. These variants have power similar to one-off bounty flagships, not standard hulls that regularly appear in a faction's fleets.

Broadly speaking, most ships in this mod have significantly more flux dissipation and speed than vanilla ships with roughly equivalent roles and DP costs. This will be a recurring criticism (sorry), but it's an important one. Dissipation is the main limiter on a ship's firepower; outsize dissipation values without a significant downside (such as a huge loss of range and peak performance time, like how Safety Overrides works) make a ship unfairly (and more to the point, boringly) strong.

It's worth noting that having individual ships be stronger than vanilla "counterparts" is fine in terms of balance, but with certain qualifications. A good example of this is the now-defunct Templars, who had ships that were far more powerful than they "should" have been for their size — but they were priced like it. A Templar frigate was 10 to 15 DP; a cruiser cost around 50. This let them be a "boss faction", but still leave players able to acquire their guns and ships. DP is the king of balancing, particularly when the player can easily acquire the ships in question.

Ships
Spoiler
Frigates
Spoiler
- Minoria: This is generally not worth the DP (pretty common for frigate carriers), aside from its very high base speed, which rather than making it good, just makes it incredibly annoying to fight, because it kites forever. Also, why is a 10 DP ship a frigate and not a destroyer?
- Nakiha: Has double the flux dissipation of a lasher, 20 more speed, and a medium ballistic, all for only 1 DP more. This has more dissipation than all vanilla high-tech frigates (and all the modded ones I can think of), which is nuts for a ship that uses ballistic weapons.
- Novayu: Weird to have a 12 DP frigate without anything super funky going on. 2 medium missiles + fast missile racks is a lot, but it's 12dp and doesn't have much else going on. Probably okay.
- Osela: This is a logistics ship, but it's insanely good. Compared to the Hound, it has more than double the cargo space, tons of fuel and crew space to spare, and survey equipment. And though it only has one weapon slot, it has way better flux stats. And a shield, which the hound doesn't. And it has all this for 2/3rds the supply and DP cost of a Hound.
- Perwira(M): Way better logistics stats than its closest competitor (the Kite), but that's not even the relevant part here: 2 medium missiles for 3 DP is frankly insane. 2 medium missiles is something you get on a 12 DP destroyer, not a 3 DP frigate.
- Rama: Effectively a Wolf with a worse system and slot layout, but using ballistics means it can take better advantage of its slots than a Wolf. And it's 60% of the cost of one, and has 50 more seconds of PPT.
- Sekai: Actually not that great? The competition is a Dram, which has almost as much fuel space for a lot less DP/supply cost.
- Supolev: Has like twice as much cargo space as it should for its supply cost.

Destroyers (only one of these, I guess)
- Lovela: This one is basically fine. It's a Hammerhead with a little less speed and a good deal more flux dissipation, but I don't know if that's worth 2 DP more.
[close]

Cruisers
Spoiler
- Akatsuzuma: Same price as a Falcon, with more dissipation, a significantly better slot layout (all ballistics!), and more speed, for the cost of being a bit more fragile. Honestly not that egregious, compared to some of the other stuff here, but it could take a flux nerf imo.
- Exoria: This runs into the same problem as the Minoria- it's not actually that good (the comparison here is the Heron, which has Targeting Feed and 3 bays for the same DP), but having Maneuvering Jets makes it fast enough that it just kites forever. Not very fun to run into. (The Exoria(M) is actually pretty reasonable, though.)
- Inazuma: A lot of guns on this one. And most of its base flux gets used up by the built-in guns. But also its supply cost does not match its deployment cost, which is annoying.
- Lillaru: A faster Eagle with better armament, and more PPT for some reason. Better than the Eagle in almost every way, for the same cost.
- Machi APA: This one is bad compared to the Valkyrie.
- Miyo Juiliet: Also just bad. Compare to the Colossus. One extra maximum burn isn't enough to make this worthwhile.
- Scinaut: A cruiser-size Surveying Equipment and Salvage Gantry for 6 DP instantly makes this the best utility ship I've ever seen, and that's before I looked at the cargo/crew/fuel stats. Way too good. Why does this have better cargo, crew, and fuel-per-supply efficiency than your dedicated cargo and tanker ships??
- Seniraja: A lot like the Lillaru in that it makes the Eagle completely obsolete. Has most of the same stats and a way better armament. Medium ballistics are very good, and this has six of them, and they can all point at the same target, and that's before you start talking about the 9 small ballistics. Also has 15 more OP than an Eagle.
- Sentry: Primary gun is way too good. Too much hit strength and too much range. The only gun with similar stats is the Gauss, and that's way more inefficient, does less damage per hit, and has less range. Also this has reloading short-range Harpoon missiles for some reason?? For a ship that is noted to be a "glass cannon", it has about as much effective health as an Eagle. Also it's cheaper, faster, and has the same flux dissipation. (Lots of Eagle comparisons today.)
- Shinoria: A bit fast for a ship that can fit HVDs and Maulers *and* two wings of fighters. Otherwise probably fine.
- Sunami: This has way too much ground support strength.
- Wo: Worse than two Phaetons.
[close]

Capitals
Spoiler
- Eyeseau: Some janky stuff going on with the radar dome weapon, but I'm more concerned about the stats. Better flux and shields than an Oddysey, for the same DP (also the supply cost does not match the DP). At least the armament isn't that bad, but the turrets have absurdly huge arcs, firing over parts of the ship that they shouldn't be able to.
- Fusoreina(P): First, the lore mentions "super-heavy armor plating", and this only has 1k armor. The Dominator (a cruiser) has 1500; the Onslaught has 1750. Second, that doesn't matter, because the rest of this ship is extremely powerful. It has six converging medium ballistics/hybrids and two large ballistics, which would make it too good for 35 DP in the first place, but then it adds in AAF to really just smash through any pretensions of reasonableness. Also it has significantly more OP than the 40 DP Legion. This could easily be in the 50 DP range and still be strong.
- Isenoria(P): Odyssey comparison again. This has better shields, more dissipation, and better guns for the same price. And while the bomber is aesthetically pretty darn cool, it's awful to play against, because it just doesn't die if you shoot it and you have no way to avoid 2 Reapers worth of HE damage. An Onslaught worth of PD does not kill it. Also, its huge size physically blocks incoming fire for the carrier.
- Junyo Delta: This is worse than an Atlas; it has less cargo per supply cost. The only place where it's better is that it can flee the battle a bit faster and has better shielding, but that's largely irrelevant for a ship that will only see combat if you've already lost.
- Nebula Bravo(M): Same as Junyo Delta.
- Neuxoria(SP): An Astral costs 55 DP and has six wings, two large missiles, and Recall Device. This is cheaper (50 DP), twice as fast, has better flux stats, has more OP, and has better armament. Why would you ever pick any other capital carrier over this ship? Also it has the same problem with turret arcs as mentioned before.
- Purcellyra: Improved since the initial version that had four modular large missiles, but not by a significant margin. While this is the only capital with remotely reasonable flux stats, it makes up for that by having an insanely heavy missile armament. Five medium missiles, two larges, and then four built-in quick-reloading larges is just too much burst damage on a single hull. There are very few ships that can survive a volley of sabots, squalls, and Minirests. Oh, and even after all that, it has Fast Missile Racks, so it can dump missiles even faster. Pure missile hulls are almost always just a bad idea, and this one isn't an exception.
- Reisen: Better than basically any other vanilla capital by a large margin. Has more dissipation than the Paragon, and it doesn't fit a single energy weapon. Has a stronger converging main battery (four large ballistics, four medium ballistics) than almost any other ship I can think of, even going into the 60+ DP range. Also, it's only 40 DP.
- Reisen(M): This one gets a special mention because its stats are so out there. It has more dissipation than the Radiant, a ship with five large energies, and more armor than the Onslaught. Also it upgrades those ballistics to hybrids, so you can do the fun Gauss/HIL combo. Costs 5 more DP than the normal version, which is absurdly cheap for the huge stat stick it gives you.
- Rillaru: Faster and tankier than a Conquest with none of the Conquest's downsides. I guess you don't get the large missiles, but that hardly matters with how strong this is. The (SP) version is even more egregious, with better-than-Paragon kinds of flux stats and adding the large missiles back in.
- Tsutsumu: Worse than the Prometheus by a fairly large margin in terms of fuel-per-supply. Very strong otherwise because it's a 15 DP militarized capital with lots of OP for logistics hullmods. Might actually be fine; idk, wouldn't use it over a Prometheus because I care about the fuel stats more.
- Zepporia(M): Surprisingly, the "Fleet Supercarrier" is significantly cheaper than the Astral, and significantly better in every way except raw number of fighter wings. For the price of 1 less fighter wing than an Astral, you get more flux dissipation, more shield, a massive amount more guns, and also a nice discount of 12 DP. I suppose I have to take back my statement about the Neuxoria, since the only carrier that competes with it is this.
[close]

Two final points that apply to everything:
- A lot of these ships have weird PPT values that don't fit well with other vanilla or modded ships (which are almost always in increments of 60 seconds), or even other UAF ships. (For example, why does the Inazuma have 5 seconds more PPT than the Akatsuzuma???)
- Almost every ship has very, very generous turret arcs, to the point where they don't make sense- the capitals are particularly bad about this, with turrets being able to shoot "over" sections of the ship that visually appear to be higher than the turret.
[close]

Weapons
Spoiler
Only gonna be hitting the big outliers here.

Missiles: First of all, it looks like literally all of the UAF missiles reload, except the Semibreve. They shouldn't do that, particularly the torpedo- or Harpoon-style missiles. Most of those missiles are good without reloading. With reloading, they're just flat-out better than other options.
- Semibreve: There's no way I'm the first person to mention these, but I'm gonna mention them anyway. If I saw the weapon card, I would assume that they were a boss's built-in weapon that wasn't supposed to drop. These are simply a Bad Idea. They should not exist in their current form. They are horribly unfun to play against, because the AI is not smart enough to get out of their way, and if you get them, you have now won the game. "But their cooldown," you might say. You have conveniently included a ship in your mod with large missile slots and Fast Missile Racks, which completely bypasses that restriction.
- Swaras MLRS (M): This reloads faster than it fires.

Ballistics: Generally these have the problem of being very difficult to tell apart. Very similar colors and shapes; even the names are only a few letters off from each other.
- Catantata/Weiss 50 AC: These have identical sprites but deal different damage types. Visual clarity might be important there.
- Tona III 452: This is almost a direct upgrade over the Gauss. Better hit strength, same range, lower DPS.
- Cyrexa 452 AP(T): This is a direct upgrade over the Mark IX in almost every way. Better accuracy, longer range, better hit strength, lower DPS (but better actual DPS because of the accuracy).
- Cyrexa 452 AP(Q): Actually just straight up better than the Mark IX. Also, the naming convention sucks on these; one letter of difference is not enough to make them easily distinguishable.
- Tona II 452: Better hit strength than the HVD, still has EMP, and it's more efficient and costs less OP.
- Medlav 254 AP(D/Q): Straight-up better than than the Heavy Autocannon. At this point I think the pattern should be obvious- most of these guns are just direct upgrades over their vanilla counterparts.
- Ivory 254 HE(T/D): Same as above.

Energies: If I though the ballistics were hard to tell apart, these are worse (visually, anyway. At least the names are distinct). I only have one stat criticism here: These all have far too much range for hard-flux energy guns. Cut them all back to the 600s for mediums and 700s for larges and they'd be fine.
[close]

Fighters
Spoiler
Broadly, these are all too strong. Too much armor (fighters should basically never have more than 200 armor, and even then only the toughest ones should have that much), too much hull HP, too much damage, too much range, too much speed. Compare their stats to vanilla wings with similar OP costs! Also it looks like they were "balanced" by increasing replacement times to an extreme degree, which only does anything if they're dying in the first place.

I was gonna do each of these individually but honestly I'm burnt out at this point.
[close]

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my TED talk. This is, of course, your mod, and you're free to do whatever you want, but if you really do want to address complaints about balance, the stuff above would be a good place to start.

hydremajor

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #347 on: September 16, 2022, 02:02:03 AM »

I thought the whole "dev despising balance comments" from the video was just a joke but no there really do be guys out there trying to tell the guy MAKING THE MOD what "fun" actually is like ****ing nerds
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Xdes

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #348 on: September 16, 2022, 02:19:59 AM »

First time downloading and using the mod. Can’t run it for some reason even after I get the needed mods. Says;
Fatal: Error loading [graphics/ships/Fusoreina_Prototype_glow1.png]
resource not found in…mods. How do I fix this?
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theDragn

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #349 on: September 16, 2022, 03:30:32 AM »

I thought the whole "dev despising balance comments" from the video was just a joke but no there really do be guys out there trying to tell the guy MAKING THE MOD what "fun" actually is like ****ing nerds

cy specifically asked me to post it here (instead of on discord where it'll get lost in conversation) so that's why I did

Ryxsen1421

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #350 on: September 16, 2022, 06:58:30 AM »

Sorry in advance for the long post.

Your post have been noted and I'm already discussing with significant people that I trust or usually consult for balance. They seems to agree with your points thus far, but I'll also take into account of those people also played the mod and from other point of view as well. However, there are some main points to consider and you should understand these first.

I understand where you're coming from really - you made good points and I applaud you for finally taking your time to write these feedback rather than just blabbering in the discord and expecting things to change. Thank you for being different than the others and posted your feedback in a place where I can freely use as a note.

First and foremost, this is not a vanilla mod. The UAF will not try to be or abide to vanilla style and balancing but they will respect it in their own ways and based around them. The mod's primary goal is to world build around the queen and establish a playable experience that'll also tell the story of the queen. Balancing is really just a constant subject to change no matter how hard you try to justify its importance. The more people keep pestering me about this without acknowledging that the mod is a work-in-progress. The more you're just in the way of my personal progress really.

I also find to be more enjoyable to focus on making things feel right. I want my weapon to feel like big naval guns depending on their calibers and my arsenal to cater into our fighting doctrines which are different from vanilla. Furthermore, don't bother using vanilla weapon as a point for balancing. UAF doesn't use them at all - so its better to just balance everything around ourselves instead. It might be worth noting that I'm not an experienced modder, I learn things as I go. The fact that some ships saw major positive changes proves that.

Also, this is another factor that may influence my opinion. I personally know you claimed you din't try the mod just because it's anime and unbalanced. My first impression with you have gone sour and negative because of this. So I find it very hard to convince myself to let you influence my mod's balance while knowing you simply don't play them yourself. No offense but I'd rather not sacrifice my passion and other people's fun just for your sake. If you did played the mod though, that'll definitely change my stance for sure.



Now we got that out of the way, here's my reply.

Spoiler
Ships
NOTE: All ships are subject to change, nothing are spared from this. Especially if they have vanilla ship systems, they're not final.

FYI;

Standard ships are usually all-rounder and served as fillers for the faction.
[M] November ships are armored, slow and made for the front lines.
[SP] Automata ships are much more advanced and made to fight against certain enemies and exploration but at the cost of shorter PPT and weaker durability.
[P] Prototypes are suppose to be rare ships that arent necessarily better or worse than anyone, but they werent accepted for a reason of their own. They'll come in limited numbers per game
once we have the shop ready for implementation.

Frigate and Corvette
Spoiler
Minoria
-It's a frigate because I want a carrier ship that can flank from the side in pursuit battle. Its high speed compensated the lack of personal defense, if you've shot down their wings. They're pretty much vulnerable for you to kill. There are no vanilla equivalent other than the Condor and that ship was designed with a different purpose in mind. I find the current version to be acceptable for now.

Nakiha
- It used to be 10++ DP previously but my core audience complained it was simply too costly for what they are. So I brought them down so that it doesn't soak up all the precious DP that could've been used to field more powerful ships. The ship's class is called Frigate Leader, it is essentially a destroyer in disguise basically. I'd say they're working as intended as UAF ships doesn't have beam weaponry for sustain fire. So they rely more on first strike capability and hit-and-run instead.

Novayu
- Ah yes, something that we can agree on. I made this ship back when I din't really grasp the full potential of missile mounts. So once I learned how dangerous they can be, I tried to balance her out without having to remove them off the mod.

Osela
- You're comparing a combat freighter to a research ship that was designed to expect hostility during exploration. I don't know why are you expecting anyone to field these ships into combat.

Perwira
- I'll admit I left this ship in the backburner because it wasn't important. It was created many years ago and never used since thus why it wasn't balanced at all. You're on point with this ship.

Rama
- Yep, it's suppose to dance like a butterfly ( thats what Rama means ) and annoy the adversary rather than being a direct competitor. It'll die the moment you slap the ship, so it has to rely on its mobility to live.

Sekai and Supolev
- For what its worth, they're just there to provide the UAF the means of small logistic support. If they're better or worse than the vanilla, that's not a major concern. Although I'll take another look into Supolev again. I do feel like they're overperforming.
[close]

Cruiser
Spoiler
Akatsuzuma and Inazuma
- This will be an occuring theme by the way. Without considering the stats as they're always changeable. I designed my ships to be optimal at what they do, they're also made for beyond 2D space which wasn't a thing for Starsector ships. David confirmed this himself when I enquired about Legion when I drawn that more than a year ago. So yeah, UAF ships are more or less made with realistic weapon emplacements in mind along with optimal positioning for 2D gameplay in consideration. You're lucky that half our weapons are unavailable simply because they're below the ships.

Anyway, these two are basically the same hull but altered for different purposes. AK is an all-rounder while INZ is an artillery cruiser made for anti-ship combat. Each ships came with their own ups and downs, you just have to decide how to make them optimal.

Exoria and Shinoria
- These ships are made to provide two different carrier gameplay style for the player. You can have more fighters and maneuverability but you have to sacrifice firepower and durability in return. This will be an occurring theme depending on what the variants try to address based on their subfaction's desires. Its okay for them to be worse or better than the vanilla counterpart, they're made to fill in the blank for the faction roster.

Lillaru and Seniraja
- Refer to above but change the carrier thingy to ballistic gameplay. Seniraja however is a special case, I really like Eagle and I chose it to be a ship that UAF tried to reverse engineer and ended up copying them but improving on the design.

Wo and Miyo Juliet
- Working as intended.

Scinaut
- I agreed, they're overperforming as we speak and I intend to address that. However I need a certain logistic cruiser to happen first before I can do the necessary changes. I'll let people enjoy the free overpowered logi ship while that ship hasn't come yet. I din't really like the way she looked either.

Machi APA
- Recently nerfed intentionally to promote the new prototype assault landing ship. That's basically the next stepping stone but it'll come in limited numbers.

Sunami
- Working as intended.

Sentry
- Working as intended, its basically a giant sniper gun strapped with engines to make it flyable. You're basically comparing an effective vanilla ship-based weapon design to what is basically an entire ship. It is a glass cannon by UAF standard and served a niche purpose very well.
[close]

Capital
Spoiler
Eyeseau
- I agreed with the weapon mounts. I think I screwed that up when I was editing the ship and forgot to double check. By the way, you're not suppose to bring that into combat as it is a capital class survey and command ship but it is designed with that into consideration. I'd say its fine as it is currently so long as I din't increase its firepower intentionally.

Fusoreina(P)
- Super-heavy armor plating by UAF standard. It was created during the time where UAF doesn't even have shield on their ships to begin with and it was hastily made to give UAF a fighting chance to fight back against the onslaught of vanilla capital ships. AAF is a placeholder, so that can be addressed later.

Isenoria(P)
- Working as intended. It is actually a discount Reisen by design and it used to be a lot more overpowered. Did you know it used to have 4 large ballistics and 1 universal mount with 3 hangars? A lot of people told and warned me not to implement the super heavy bomber but I persevered because I need it to exist so that it'll serve as compensation for such huge nerf. If you can't move out of the bomber's way or intercept its bombs in time, that's a skill issue. It doesn't even respawn if you managed to kill it.

Junyo Delta, Tsutsumu and Nebula Bravo
- That's right. I don't need it to carry more than the Atlas if they have a better chance of retreating safely. If you have better alternatives, you as a player have the freedom to pick what suit you fancy but not the UAF. They're a faction from another world, not you who is a starfarer with flexibility and freedom to pick anything else.

Neuxoria(SP)
- Aha, my crowl jewel of the UAF carrier roster! Recall device is placeholder. It was designed after we learned a thing or two from Astral. It deserved to be better for how rare and effective they are in combat. I'm not sure if Astral is more expensive than Neuxoria, if it is - I'll do the change in the future.

Zepporia(M)
- Do you finally get when I say 'do not use vanilla as comparison' for our ships? Zeppy is the alternate choice for Neuxoria. One is a front line carrier and another is a rear line support carrier. I think it would be fairer to compare Legion to Zeppy in terms of ship role as both are front line carrier ships. I'll stick to my ship however if I want a pure faction gameplay rather than min maxing my fleet to the brim.

Purcellyra
- Thanks for not flaming the hell out of her. Indeed, she is a far better ship than she was before but sadly at the cost of her base loadout which is 4 nuclear launchers top-side. Fast Missile Rack is a placeholder. The ship was designed for the faction as a force projection ship. A retaliatory warship capable of nuking everyone if they decide to fight against a faction that doesn't even want to interact with the core world to begin. The UAF need powerful ships as an active deterrence against potential adversaries, she is one of those ships. Balance-wise, you might as well throw that off the table. She's designed as a missile ship and I won't change that because it isn't. What's the point?

Reisen and Reisen(M)
- They're actually warships designed to counter vanilla capital ships. They do not possess special armaments like Thermal Pulse Cannon or beam weaponry like Tachyon Lances. They rely on the standard heavy weaponry currently available in the arsenal. They're kinda niche tbh and I personally favor Rillaru over them. I think they're fine as they are atm since hardly anyone complain about them. Think of them as fleet anchor or rally point, then you'll see they do their job well as a floating artillery platform.

Rillaru and Rillaru(SP)
- Yep, its suppose to have four large mounts but two of them are underneath the ship. Its a very versatile battlecruiser and I very much like them so much that I never bothered to use the rest of the ballistic capital line up unless the need for static heavy hitter are required. I'm aware of how versatile and powerful the upgraded version is. It's both my personal favorite and fan-favorite ship and often chosen as a flagship. Rillaru(SP) is not better than Paragon in some circumstances but it is generally meant to dance around such a static target and that's what she do best.

Final Note Reply;

Again, they're not vanilla ships and my ships are designed for 3D space warfare, not just 2D. I know we're playing a 2D game here but I personally think its more important to stick to my own ideals rather than forcing myself to adapt to something I know I won't enjoy and people will always find a way to bash me no matter what. If you can point out what ships have weapons firing over a higher position, please let me know so that I can have a look.
[close]

Weapons
NOTE: UAF is ideally a low tech faction and I quote; "Beams are bad, projectile's good!" by Ironclad Lion. Even our energy weapons are projectile based and simply upgraded variants of their predecessors. This is a pretty controversial point but some people enjoy uniform designs over the weapons along. I am one such people, I'd rather my ships and weapons to be grounded on their own design philosophies rather than trying to be unique on all aspects especially when there's no need to do so. However, I have listened to a useful feedback and future changes are coming to address the oddities on my weapons.

Spoiler
Cantata/Claris, Ivory and Medlav series
- Literally the same gun, if I can have a system that changes ammo type for them. I'd do it but thats impossible.

Tona Railgun series
- Sometimes its just better to throw a simple piece of hardened metal and use its own momentum to cause damage and prioritize on maximum accuracy instead. Its a sniper gun and different from Cyrexa as it comes with its own pros and cons as well.

Quad and Triple Cyrexa, Dual and Triple Herexa
- As I mentioned above, some weapons are subject to change and these are a good example. I'll do what I can to improve on naming convention and visually so that people can at least tell the difference a bit easier. I still won't name them like vanilla though. They're not better than Mark IX imo, vanilla have the sustain fire ability while you can't really spam our guns if you're not careful with the flux management. Each with their own distinct features I suppose.

Missiles
Semibreve
- Sorry to hear that you're on the other side. Good thing you're not gonna face those nukes other than fighting UAF ships right? I'm not gonna remove them no matter how hard you try to convince me, they're not even a boss weapon to begin. They're more of a tool for you to use as a last resort weapon if you can't win an impossible fight. So instead of cheating yourself to victory or use an obviously overpowered ship, why not throw a bunch of these in and see if they'll worked out or not? Throwing nukes at everyone won't solve everything however and the friendly fire are definitely a feature. It served as a reminder not to mess with the UAF or you'll face these nukes. They're also interceptible and pretty slow so long as the launcher wasn't affected by player missile skill. That's what made it more dangerous.

The rest of the reloadable missiles
- I need the missiles to be reloadable so that my missile ships can buff them exclusively. Currently I'm trying to play around with flux to fire stat as a balancing act in return for these seemingly infinite reload missiles. Ideally I want them to take forever to reload but only enough to give you that much needed "one last shot" to win. I wish its easier to read the weapon_data.csv and figuring out what numbers does how long one reloads but eh. I'll figure it out in time. 

Energy Weaponry
- As I stated earlier, they're the upgraded variants of the ballistic base weapon that improves on what they do best. Their problems are pretty obvious though, not only they cost higher to fire.. they're also too specialized to the point where its ill-advised when not used in suitable situations. At least I tried to make them more unique and stand out compared to our generic arsenal! I probably won't reduce their range that hard because they're still suppose to be ballistic upgrade with energy rounds instead. We'll see how that goes overtime.
[close]

Fighter
Spoiler
Yes they're pretty overpowered if you just look at the numbers but I can also recall vanilla fighters that can outperform and even provide a worthy fight against them. I'd personally recommend you not to bother with trying to reason with balancing when it comes to my fighters. I'm not budging and that much is clear. I want to promote a fun and engaging carrier gameplay and you don't necessarily have to like them if you're not into it. Personally, I think they're not OP. They used to be overpowered but you weren't there when they were.
[close]

As my final note, if you manage to survive all this wall of text and got this far. Thank you for reading and giving me constructive feedback that aren't toxic and filled with filler bullshittery that I usually get. I think you can tell with the on-going theme that I'm not going vanilla and will never try to be. It's better to just leave me to my devices and pretend that UAF isn't canon and doesn't exist if you dont like it that much. That's one major reason why I don't want the mod to be in the mod index. Its a niche mod for a niche experience. Only download if you know what you're gonna experience.

I have my own ways of balancing my contents. It'll come on its own and I would rather do them when Im in the mood or having fun with the development at least. It makes me happy when I see people enjoying what I came up with rather than constantly bullying me for being different than the rest. If you can at least spare me that, you have my thanks. So... remember, UAF only exists if you choose to let it appear in your Starsector. Its all up to the player's choice and not mine. I just want to create a story and make it playable.
[close]

Thanks again for the reply. If you see other people complain about my lack of care for balance without sacrificing my vision and dreams. Show them this reply and think again.

TL;DR;
Let me do my own things and leave me alone so that I can balance them out later when everything are in place.

P.S,

I din't realize you're the person that made Apex. Good mod btw! I haven't fought against them yet since mod development hell is a thing but they're pretty a quality mod for sure. I can at least tell that much.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2022, 07:16:56 AM by Ryxsen1421 »
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theDragn

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #351 on: September 16, 2022, 02:06:14 PM »

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I'd personally recommend you not to bother with trying to reason with balancing
Regretfully, this seems to sum up the entire mod.

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If you did played the mod though, that'll definitely change my stance for sure.
Yes, I have. Fairly extensively at this point; I played just with UAF and vanilla. (I didn't use other mods because most mods are balanced around vanilla, and it's unreasonable to expect authors to balance around specific mod interactions.) When I'm saying things are unfun to play against, or boring to play with, it's not from just looking at the stats on them, it's because I've played with and against them. But, also, most of these ships didn't need playtesting to tell they were overpowered. There is no magic juice in there that makes the UAF having straight-up better everything work fine in concert with other mods and the base game.

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The UAF will not try to be or abide to vanilla style and balancing but they will respect it in their own ways and based around them.
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Furthermore, don't bother using vanilla weapon as a point for balancing. UAF doesn't use them at all - so its better to just balance everything around ourselves instead.
...Then what's the point of the faction if it doesn't care about vanilla? This mod only adds one faction and that faction exists alongside vanilla; you either use UAF ships against vanilla/modded ships (boringly easy, it's like shooting fish in a barrel), use vanilla/modded ships against UAF ships (very rough; it's a "challenge" but it's not a fun one), or use UAF ships against UAF ships (still unfun- Semibreves, crazy strong fighters, and crazy powerful capitals mean most fights are very one-sided). UAF does not exist in a vacuum, and unless you add a few opposing factions and make this a total conversion, it will never exist in a vacuum.

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I personally know you claimed you didn't try the mod just because it's anime and unbalanced.
I was right, though: It definitely is anime, and it definitely is unbalanced. I have played it now, though, so I hope you'll actually listen to my feedback.

Quote
It makes me happy when I see people enjoying what I came up with rather than constantly bullying me for being different than the rest.
Please don't interpret this as a personal attack on you. You aren't being bullied for being different, you are being told your mod is overpowered. I'm telling you this because you've clearly put a lot of effort into your mod, and it would be a real loss to have all that effort result in something that people don't want to use because it's too powerful to be fun. My opinions, of course, are my own; there are clearly plenty of players who do not care about that sort of thing.

Ryxsen1421

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #352 on: September 16, 2022, 02:52:00 PM »

Spoiler
Please don't interpret this as a personal attack on you. You aren't being bullied for being different, you are being told your mod is overpowered. I'm telling you this because you've clearly put a lot of effort into your mod, and it would be a real loss to have all that effort result in something that people don't want to use because it's too powerful to be fun. My opinions, of course, are my own; there are clearly plenty of players who do not care about that sort of thing.
[close]

Thank you for your feedback. I can tell that this conversation isn't going anywhere beyond this point. We both made our points, so let's just end it here shall we? I know my mod is overpowered currently, that's what the [WIP] tag is for. If you can't let me develop the mod at my own pace and ideals. I don't know what else to tell you.
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MattyK

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #353 on: September 16, 2022, 08:55:15 PM »

Mmm, I'm looking forward to that logistics cruiser.

Oh, uh, talking of which, there isn't really a tug-class or salvage class in the frigate/destroyer lineup I noticed, possible idea for the future?

And yeah, I think with the exception of the Scinaut, the logistics vessels of the UAF definitely portray a certain flavour that makes them unique (having enough teeth to deter flankers during pursuits).
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HereticKannon

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #354 on: September 16, 2022, 10:02:36 PM »

I'm glad I gave this mod a try, it has quickly become one of my favorite faction mods. The ships and portraits look great and have a nice style to them. The music is unique and keeps me from just listening to my own playlist which is saying something considering how many times I've heard the vanilla tracks. The weapons have good sound effects and are varied enough that you can go your entire playthrough using only UAF tech and not feel like you're hamstringing yourself. Flying around in an SP Lillaru smoking pirate capitals and stations with a Semibreve while the ballistics sing has been some of the most fun I've had in Starsector for a long time. Is it perfectly balanced? I don't know and honestly that isn't overly important to me. It's fun. That's what matters to me. I'm not saying balance and fun cannot exist simultaneously, but if I had to pick one I'd choose fun every day of the week.

From an observer's standpoint I've seen mod authors seemingly drive themselves crazy with one balance patch after another trying to bring their mod in line with people's feedback and personal views until they walk away from the project or nerf it into the ground just to be done with it. It's an unobtainable goal, vanilla itself isn't even balanced. This is a single player game where players are free to edit values from any given mod at any time to better suit their own wishes for balance or for fun. That's just my opinion, take it for what you will.

Thanks for all your work on the mod, it is appreciated.
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Commodore Stephans

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #355 on: September 17, 2022, 07:48:57 AM »

tbh imo the only real overpowered part of the mod is the solverina but most likely it's more that my enormous skill issues just automatically balance the mod for me lol
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Oni

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #356 on: September 17, 2022, 08:30:09 AM »

I just assume "balance" is something you work out once everything else has been finalized. Kinda hard to determine relative strength of ships when you're still not entirely sure how many ships you'll even have in the final build. So other than making a note of it somewhere to get back to when you're getting near the release version, trying to balance mid WIP would be difficult at best if you weren't trying to do it from the outset.

Yes I'm aware I've commented on balancing before, mostly how the tac nuke should be a 1 shot instead of a 4 shot (cause it's an AOE super Reaper), but I in no way expect anything to be done in a WIP build beyond making a note of it since I'm sure the creators have more important things to do.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2022, 08:36:23 AM by Oni »
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UlyssesASL

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #357 on: September 17, 2022, 09:56:14 AM »

I'm not sure if this is a display bug or something else, but for giving gifts to Yamato at Nur Processing Plant, she asked for 200 choco lava, but when I bring the amount she doesn't accept them. Am I bringing the wrong item, or is something bugged?

Edit2: Turns out she want 2 things: chovo lava & donuts. Also the item and amount is slightly not in sync, and the number doesn't say which one for what amount, so that might be what confused me. 500 choco lava, 200 donuts is what she asked.

Edit1: I also want to put in my 5 cents regarding the Semibreve: it is certainly very strong, maybe too strong, but I also really enjoyed the giant explosion. It looks so nice! But I do feel like if it's speed or HP is just lower a little bit, it would be better than it's current state. It is still very reliable to get pass even station defenses, when the station is just slightly distracted. And for many if not all capital ships, as long as you are not sending the missile straight into enemy salvo, it also seems very likely to reach target.

Surprisingly, giving it's slow reload speed, I think fighter formation is the best "counter" to Semibreve, because it's so easy to hit some other targets midway.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 03:50:55 PM by UlyssesASL »
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Harmful Mechanic

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #358 on: September 17, 2022, 10:08:15 AM »

I think the balance issue is one of community-wide good practices; there's a tendency for power-creep arms races to spill over into feedback on other mods ('UAF is a powercreep munchkin mod{1}, why isn't your mod a powercreep munchkin mod? Make it like that! All mods should be like that one mod I like!') which is annoying but also pretty easy to filter out once you know that tendency is there.

But I agree that bothering Ryxsen is not the way to go about it. Personally, I took a look at the preview posts and decided 'nah' a long time ago; I'm sure if/when it's finished I'll take another look for curiosity, but the mod doesn't grab me now and doesn't seem like it's headed in a direction I'll like, so... I'm just not using it.

Simple as that. Not everyone has to enjoy or approve of every mod.

{1}Note; I don't actually think UAF is a powercreep munchkin mod, at least not by design. I'm just using it as an example because we're in the UAF thread. Feel free to mentally substitute some other mod if this hurts your feelings.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2022, 10:10:58 AM by Harmful Mechanic »
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Bluedeferum

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Re: [0.9.51a-RC6][WIP] United Aurora Federation 0.72g1b
« Reply #359 on: September 17, 2022, 10:21:07 AM »

y'all talking about balance meanwhile i'm here waiting for the next tilted dagger continuation  :'(
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