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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: [0.95.1a] TC: Archean Order: Rebalanced Combat/Lore RPG - *hotfix* 4/14/22  (Read 722459 times)

Morrokain

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Sorry about the extended wait, it will be a couple more days.  :-[

It'll be the difference between procgen spawning ships with no weapons on occasion and broken capitals without large guns vs some pretty cool variance among factions, though.

I really, really like the new faction file formats, but they require a fair bit of suffering thought, trial and error to get the right fleets generated and I think the extra polish time will definitely be worth it for the update. It's necessary to maintain the .8 version's experience.

Still, apologies.
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Death_Silence_66

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Take as long as you need.
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Morrokain

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Disclaimer: I haven't been able to play test the late game as much as I would have liked, but I want to get an update out there and faction fleets, markets and everything related to the original dialogue scripts look pretty good. There is still plenty of polish left, but this should be a good start. Feedback welcome. I'll also post what I will focus on in the next update a little later, but a general idea is already listed under "Patch Notes and Features" on the first page.

Download
Main Mod Directory

Current Patch Changes: Update v1.3.0 1/19/2019
Spoiler

Content Additions

Updated for Starsector 0.9a features

New Ships
  • Shrike
  • Gremlin
  • Guardian
  • Radiant

New Ships
  • Cobra
  • Perdition

Station Battles
  • Stations come in 3 tiers, like the base Starsector original design.
  • All factions now have stations guarding their primary strongholds, with station strength varying depending on the colony's importance.
  • New station types for a couple of the new factions and updated existing faction's stations designed around Archean Order's balance.
  • Increased strength difference between tiers such that upgrades have more impact.
  • Third tier stations can single handedly combat multiple fleet deployment waves.
  • Lowered station deployment cost to allow for more escorting fleet ships.
  • Third tier stations can single handedly combat multiple fleet deployment waves.
  • Station upgrades typically impact at least 3 of 4 general areas. See description text for details. General upgrade areas listed below
  • Long range strike capability.
  • Fighter wing additions/fighter defense capability.
  • Defenses, either stronger existing ones or additional layers of defense.

Blueprint System
  • Complete rework of blueprint spawn rates to balance for Archean Order's tiered weapon balance.
  • Base blueprints are much smaller in number, but blueprint unlocks are more varied and slightly more common in the case of packages.
  • Blueprint packages spawn in three tiers for each tech type with increasing drop rarity as tier strength increases.
  • New ultra rare blueprints and packages give access to the most powerful weapons, hulls and fighters available.
  • Blueprint lines available for most factions, to increase replay-ability and give a bit more randomness to loot.
  • Each blueprint line unlocks multiple sets of blueprints based on the factions preferences similar to tech tiered packages.
  • Blueprint package lines based on factions spawn at varying rates depending on the strength of the blueprints unlocked.

Procgen Autofit System
  • I tried to do my best to playtest enough to treat this on a case by case basis where possible. As it currently stands:
  • Most high tech capitals or higher end variants of cruisers or destroyers relying on large weapons for balance will not autofit.
  • Most vessels below the cruiser level will autofit based on faction weapon doctrine.
  • Hopefully the above changes will provide a stable, balanced experience with factions yet greatly increase overall npc fleet variance.


Balance Changes
  • Merged a few of the new factions' minor colonies with their nearby stations to further improve campaign performance. See below for details.
  • Description text remains to separate the two entities (like Jangala), but their markets are now shared.
  • Merged markets will be displayed without the station in the starmap.
  • Increased Interceptor and Fighter refit time across the board.
  • Built-in drones, such as those found on the Acolyte or Tempest, are now generally replaced less quickly than standard Drone LPCs.
  • Increased hit strength of graviton beam line of weapons by ~25%.
  • Increased defenses of midline capitals substantially to better align their combat capability with other tiered tech counterparts.

Bug Fixes
  • Corrected attack run ranges of a few bombers that led to them not releasing their payloads fast enough when engaging a targeted enemy.
  • Corrected falcon_d skin's weapon changes so that its large weapon is now a medium weapon as intended. A wrong id was causing it to change one of its missile slots.
[close]
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d12ddd

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I only registered to thank you for making this mod. This is truly an overhaul that makes the game much more fun and challenging. Starsector is a great game but the battles are way too dynamic for me and the way you rebalanced everything made me love the game once more. I stopped playing the game quite a lot of time ago and didn't play it until the huge colonisation update came out, but I just couldn't get into it because I didn't like the combat without AO. Now that the mod is finally updated my soul can rest in peace I can finally play the crap out of this game once more. ;D
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Morrokain

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^
Thank you very much for your kind words! I hope to continue to bring such content in the future, and it is because I love this game and the modding support it has received. :)
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A Random Jolteon

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Yes it's been updated!!!...Sadly I'll be doing stuff for a tournament so I won't be playing as long as I'd like, but I'll still be playing each day!
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Morrokain

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Thanks for the support! Let me know if anything seems weird. I haven't been able to fully test autofit in every scenario yet so I'm sure adjustments will be needed in some cases.
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Bishi

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I finally got around to trying your mod.
I seem to have run into an issue early on though, I accepted a delivery mission (350 domestic goods) at the second station I visited and proceeded to fly to the destination (Sci Corps Directorship HQ), the problem is they don't seem to want to receive the goods. I've double checked the mission and its definitely this location.
Am I missing something obvious? I've played vanilla starsector lots so im used to the trading
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Morrokain

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I finally got around to trying your mod.
I seem to have run into an issue early on though, I accepted a delivery mission (350 domestic goods) at the second station I visited and proceeded to fly to the destination (Sci Corps Directorship HQ), the problem is they don't seem to want to receive the goods. I've double checked the mission and its definitely this location.
Am I missing something obvious? I've played vanilla starsector lots so im used to the trading

Hmm, I haven't checked missions yet for new factions in this build. It could be the Rules for those have changed, and so it is not picking up the mission return rule in the dialogue. If you have a second, more information would be great. Do you at least see the person you are supposed to drop the goods off to? Is the issue that you talk to them and they don't give you the correct dialogue to finish the mission, or absolutely no contact and the market just looks normal?

And is this happening with all missions or just that particular one?

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I will investigate.
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DatonKallandor

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The heavy shocklauncher missile probably has too much mass - if they hit something between flameout and fadeout whatever they hit gets launched away at ludicrous speeds. This might also be true for other missiles, but the shocklauncher one is where I noticed it (because of the starting sunder).
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Morrokain

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The heavy shocklauncher missile probably has too much mass - if they hit something between flameout and fadeout whatever they hit gets launched away at ludicrous speeds. This might also be true for other missiles, but the shocklauncher one is where I noticed it (because of the starting sunder).

Yeah I think a couple people pointed that out before and it was on a to-do list before development had to stop. Non-pd Beams piercing through missiles was another item there.

Is mass what does that? I had thought it was possibly a very high launch speed, and reworked all rockets for the next release because of that and I haven't seen it happen since. I was able to reproduce it a couple times before those changes, so I'm hoping the next release fixes it.  That should be pretty soon I think, depending on what bugs are found and how much I decide to tackle content wise.

Speaking of that, may as well update the patch notes I've documented:

**RELEASE DOWNLOAD NOT YET AVAILABLE THIS IS JUST DOCUMENTATION**

Content Additions

 -- New Ships:
    -


 -- New Strike Craft:
    - Mauler (Heavy Interceptor)
    - Barbarian (Base Gunship)
    - Warrior (Lowtech Gunship)
    - Talon (Hegemony)
    - Talon (Luddic)
    - Talon (Tri-Tachyon)
    - Vanguard (Hegemony)
    - Vanguard (Luddic)
    - Warthog (Hegemony)
    - Warthog (Luddic)


 -- New Weapons:
    -

 -- Campaign:
    - New/replaced stations for many major factions strongholds. Now there should be a lot more tactical diversity even among tech tiers.


 -- Station Battles:
    - Balanced most factions' station style to match their respective technological access and doctrine.
    - Upgraded the tier of some stations, and added some where none existed. The purpose was better faction balance.
    - Unique station looks and loadouts for:
       - Hegemony
       - Pirates

 -- Blueprint System:
    - Further separation of tech tiers with more base strike craft available at the start.
    - Higher tier versions of some base strike craft bp available as single drops or in the various tech/faction bp packages.



Balance Changes

 - Hegemony now has slightly better strike craft with a tactical focus on anti-ship weaponry. They no longer use bombers very often.
 - Luddic Church and Luddic Path have new strike craft skins with unique loadouts.
 - Higher tier strike craft has increased the Luddic factions' military potency by a noticeable degree. Not to the degree of the highest tier military powers, however.
 - Slightly adjusted sprite for Perdition to match its role as a Luddic heavy bomber. Now has two side-turret Machine Guns to support against interceptors.
 - Tri-Tachyon Corporation now has a heavy interceptor to support their advanced interceptor drones.
 - Hercules-class Heavy Gunship has had its primary turreted weapon upgraded to a dual cannon, and has an updated sprite.
 - Hydra-class Gunship has an updated sprite.
 - Added shield modules to the sides of Trader Guilds' battlestations. They were slightly weaker -defensively- than intended.
 - Changed rocket launch behavior. Only a minor adjustment in overall functionality, but a different start-up to full speed. (Reduced launch speed but greatly increased proj acceleration).
 - Marauder, Warthog, and Gauntlet are now base bps.
 - Vanguard is now a low_tech bp (tier 1).
 - Rebalanced Luddic Church Condor variants.


Bug Fixes

 - Hopefully corrected issues with rockets sending flamed-out ships launching away at large speeds.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2019, 04:15:00 PM by Morrokain »
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eidolad

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first five minute impressions:

1.  Whoa tech base is way different...laughs as I inadvertently phase-collide, um, I mean, phase jump my frigate right into an enemy ship, and we both die to end the battle.  Didn't salvage the frigate. 

2.  Stopped to read the faction descriptions...there's some seriously tasty sci-fi lore in here. 

3.  This pirate group sure has a lot of...fighters who just ate my face.  Because I was too busy watching my Condor screaming around fighting like an Enforcer on intravenous Red Bull.

Gonna be in this for awhile...think I'll join the sci dudes for awhile and see what happens.
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Morrokain

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Thanks for the impressions. :)

I highly recommend glancing through the Tactics Manual if you find yourself stuck or wanting some additional information on the combat system. It details some of the tech changes and basic strategies. I haven't added station tactics there yet but the majority of the early game is covered.

-----

I also wanted to let everyone playing know that I am aware of the current inability to hire new faction officers, though I think traditional markets will be fine. This is also likely a rules issue so I am going to need to go through that file. I'll update the upcoming patch notes as I go.

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Bishi

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I finally got around to trying your mod.
I seem to have run into an issue early on though, I accepted a delivery mission (350 domestic goods) at the second station I visited and proceeded to fly to the destination (Sci Corps Directorship HQ), the problem is they don't seem to want to receive the goods. I've double checked the mission and its definitely this location.
Am I missing something obvious? I've played vanilla starsector lots so im used to the trading

Hmm, I haven't checked missions yet for new factions in this build. It could be the Rules for those have changed, and so it is not picking up the mission return rule in the dialogue. If you have a second, more information would be great. Do you at least see the person you are supposed to drop the goods off to? Is the issue that you talk to them and they don't give you the correct dialogue to finish the mission, or absolutely no contact and the market just looks normal?

And is this happening with all missions or just that particular one?

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I will investigate.

Images of issue: https://pasteboard.co/HYHFFjf.jpg https://pasteboard.co/HYHFLMs.jpg
Save game: http://www.filedropper.com/savenasty8109031963081034761

No idea if it happens with other missions as I'd only just started a new game and played for 15 minutes and I haven't played since I encountered the issue :)

Btw you should ask them to update the mod sticky as it still says your mod is not 0.9 compatible.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2019, 07:37:27 AM by Bishi »
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Noomsy

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Fun mod, nice change of pace.

A few bugs/issues Ive seen:

Wolf seems imbalanced, I started with 80 of 50 op....also it feels like it has too many mounts given its OP.

I bought a hammerhead and it had ghost mounts ballistic/hybrid, and i could add a weapon to one mount and it "teleported" to another spot? Weird...

I seem to be getting negative faction hits alot from just carting around normal pirate drops. (from bounty hunting)
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