Here is my mega reply now that I am caught up:
Just noticed a couple of the Hiver Swarm ships are ludicrously cheap, particularly the Swallowtail and Princess Heavy Cruisers which both run in the 20K range , being cheaper than destroyer level freighters. Just something I noticed during a build slot event. It also might be worth changing their Tag from High Tech to Hiver Swarm.
Good catch, I'll be adding a 2 in front of the current price in the upcoming update. Typo on my part TY for noticing it.
hi some comments from first playthrough:
1. Yeesh my starting system had a Hiver planet, and two faction planets. It was very entertaining to watch the local patrols engage and then jump in on the battles...and view just how nasty the Hiver ships are. I stayed and helped/fought long enough to get a story point and capture a Hiver destroyer. Boy was that a power up. By that time, the patrols were mostly gone and I had to leave the system.
Before I could return and do some more coop farming...the factions had reinforced much quicker and took that colony.
2. Yes, Hivers are designed to be an Almost-Grand Menace and are balanced as such. Like, as in Hivers can out duel two or three similar ships. And, they all regenerate (even the fighters IIRC?). As prizes, it's a tossup on what I find more valuable: their repairing hulls, or the super efficient weapons. I guess the nod goes to the weapons.
Hivers are well worth hunting...but I almost never engaged them alone. I would go in as support for another faction.
I agree, if you are not well established with the ability to recover from losing an entire fleet, then that is the recommended strategy and one I employ myself.
3. In terms of Nexerelin 4x: just about every other faction jumped on the Hivers and took most of their worlds early. I never heard much from them after the mid-game. I will even have to check to see if they are still around. I haven't seen a "news event" concerning the Hivers in many many months.
4. If it is possible: I would prevent Hiver weapons from ever showing up in store inventories. Their weapons should only be obtainable via salvage from a derelict or post-battle salvage. However I should note that I've only see very, very rare instances of Hiver weapons in stores. But boy do I stop what I'm doing and consider the purchase. The few I've seen, especially the large weapons, are worth twice anything else.
I would curious to know which stores toy find them in. I have several blacklists and preventions from them spawning in any other factions inventory.
5. To help the Hivers against the "Nexerelin dog pile", in random game creation: do the Hiver have now, or could have later: a secondary capital that is NOT in the core world radius? I suppose the balancing act is "if we make Hivers too powerful then every time we include them in a random game...they just take over" sort of thing?
You comments in points 1, 3 and 5 are from playing with random core worlds. It is hard coded in NEX that when that option is selected then any mod's map coordinates or added systems are ignored. The game takes each mod faction you have enabled as well as the vanilla factions and just randomly puts them in the core sector. Hivers are a full faction unlike [redacted] or other mod baddies like Blade Breakers or Agni and as such they are included in the random pick and it becomes, as you state, a dog pile since they are set to hate and to be hated by everyone and are forced to spawn in the core.
Also their weapons, if one gains their blueprints, should probably be way more expensive, an order of magnitude so because some of them are basically the best weapons in the game overall exceeding even [REDACTED] weapons in quality, while the latter can cost 500 000 when bought from the [REDACTED] NPC.
I am at a loss as to why their BP are still obtainable. I have put several blocks in to prevent it, I'll look into it further. As to the price, I looked into it and you are correct. I will raise the prices in the next patch.
Great mod. Had a lot fun repelling or beenig caught by few Hiver fleet. Few thoughts about making mod more balanced. Hiver's ships have biolagical hull perk, but weapon counts as high tech, so it can be used by anyone without penalty. It will make sense to give non-hiver ships penalty for bioweapon use(maybe to build into the ship modification, like nutrition tank, which allows to use it, or give it weight and flux penalty, dunno). Late game i am just ignore 1000 range 800 dps fluxchip cannons, otherwise it will ruin game. We need more missiles, guided, acid based, pd distracting.
I am glad to hear you are having fun fighting them. I like the idea of making them Hiver ship only but I am unaware or a way to do that. I'll put that on the research to-do list. I set a limit to their missiles and focused on their drones as their long range fighting capability. I believe that if I were to add more missiles and/or missile centric designed ships it would be overboard.
for some reason your mod causes to game to lag extremely in combat. I don't know why but it does this but it does.
Have you increased your vmparams? Dark Revenant wrote a good example and explanation
https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8726.0 I recommend at least 6GB if you play with multiple mods enabled.
- The fighter are too op especially the one from mother carrier. it really can kill all the ship if not get a focus fire and spawn too fast, like i state above tough is ok but can you change the respawn time ? or atleast made it glass canon dmg dealer or super tank but low dmg.
One exemple that make me rage like hell are the fighters. For exemple my parangon with its full escort got wrecked by a part of the hivers fighters without having even a chance to see any enemy ship. And i try some tactics with different ships even a fleet full anti fighters and even that isn't even efficiency.
I've seen this comment numerous times on the forum and in discord. I will be addressing this in the upcoming patch, ty both for bringing it top of mind.
One thing, please do not nerf Hivers. It is interesting as tough faction. Some things as locations, specialized industrisies, star bases, maybe, but overall, you can beat them. Speed, distance, firepower, they gone. I personally will be hapy to see super Hiver (to confront Gown from scalartech solutions, or sajuuk-khar), but other, those who got their immertion broken. Maybe give them weaken version of mod? PS they are not superpower or something, big ships do not have speed boost or kind of flicker, missiles not swarmers and can be intercepted.
I have dome my best to make them a challenge at mid game and a threat as the game progresses. As I stated earlier, I do believe their drones are a little too good and I have an idea to address it while keeping that in mind. As to a weaker version of the mod, I do think it is a good idea and would give an option to the players that would like that. However, that would take a lot of work and effort that I do not believe I have the time for while working on my three other mods and living a balanced life
Guys, ive run Hiver ships..ive run against Hiver ships. Early or mid game, you may struggle. Once you get over the mid game hump and have some stuff of your own you can spank Hiver fleets. You know where the systems are, you know that they have to cross space to get to your colonies. If you set up in a spot that allows them to easily reach your colony without interdiction well...yall kinda asked for it. Its like...thinking you can just go out with a vanilla fleet set with cruisers and up and right away go after the Templar systems back in the day lol. No..just not gonna happen. Running Hivers as your only mod next to Nexelerin and everything else vanilla is a mistake if thats what people are doing. You need the tools: ships, weapons, ship mods, leveled captains and a decently filled out main character to fight on par. Last stage defense stations, money to buy some support fleets, a couple of high commands etc.
Anyway, thumbs up Dazs! Glad to see its still around. Too many factions just really dont provide much of a late game challenge.
You essentially have it correct, maybe I'll add some sort of disclaimer on the front page
Thank you for the kind words.
I've made multiple notes and am working on an update. I should have it out by tomorrow. I'll keep an eye out for any more suggestions while I tinker so if you have them, keep them coming. I appreciate it!
