Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Excalibur Bane]

Well, I just gave this mod a go. Ran through all the starting options and what not. Claimed my first station, but now what? There's nothing around of my level that I can kill and loot and my supplies are quickly draining. Am I missing something?

[FasterThanSleepyfish]

Go through hyperspace and start a war with another faction. The are all in different systems now.

[Excalibur Bane]

Yeah, that's not happening with a frigate. I have like 20 supplies left. Heh.

I got Tri corp in the same system but all their fleets are massive.

[Zaphide]

Yeah, that's not happening with a frigate. I have like 20 supplies left. Heh.

I got Tri corp in the same system but all their fleets are massive.

Their mining fleets should full of juicy supplies with only a couple of freighters and mining drones

[xenoargh]

@Zaphide:  The above is a real issue.  Sometimes there aren't any juicy mining fleets around, and no patrols either.  If you've put that stuff I made for Vacuum in for crew wages, then it's safe (and will make newbies reeeeally happy) to bring Supply prices back down to earth again.  Otherwise, I wouldn't- will go back to being Easy Mode.

I fixed this issue in Vacuum by fiat, by creating a new type of fleet- a Patrol- where it was limited in size... but that was just a kludge.  

Was going to do a really proper fix with the Universal Spawn Point thingy, if I can ever get back to coding that.  Oh, and had an idea about that, design-wise- one pass for each Faction, check a global that the Faction AI sets for what it wants next and where

Anyhow, as a quickie fix- maybe have a randomizer where even if the local materials are high, sometimes it spits out 2-3 small fleets, 1-2 Frigates and maybe a Wing, using the limiter code to pretend that resources are really tight?  Just a thought.

[Excalibur Bane]

Hmm, no the gas and asteroid mining fleets that the Tri corp had running around all had destroyers with them. I tried to take one of them down and it ended horribly, so yeah. I dunno. Great mod otherwise.

[Zaphide]

@Zaphide:  The above is a real issue.  Sometimes there aren't any juicy mining fleets around, and no patrols either.  If you've put that stuff I made for Vacuum in for crew wages, then it's safe (and will make newbies reeeeally happy) to bring Supply prices back down to earth again.  Otherwise, I wouldn't- will go back to being Easy Mode.

I fixed this issue in Vacuum by fiat, by creating a new type of fleet- a Patrol- where it was limited in size... but that was just a kludge.  

Was going to do a really proper fix with the Universal Spawn Point thingy, if I can ever get back to coding that.  Oh, and had an idea about that, design-wise- one pass for each Faction, check a global that the Faction AI sets for what it wants next and where

Anyhow, as a quickie fix- maybe have a randomizer where even if the local materials are high, sometimes it spits out 2-3 small fleets, 1-2 Frigates and maybe a Wing, using the limiter code to pretend that resources are really tight?  Just a thought.

Oh yeah no argument that it is an issue

For the next version I have changed the Rebel spawn mechanic to run from the start of the game (it was delayed for two game months, in hindsight a pretty stupid decision ) and it will spawn fleets in systems that are roughly similar to the players fleet size to provide targets of opportunity. It seems to work fairly well. The other thing the mechanic achieves is minor resource cost for factions (as each ship destroyed is a cost of resources) so there is more of a rotation of defense/patrol/mining fleets, even when not at war.

There was actually a randomizer in a few versions ago, but it had the horrible chance of a faction deploying small fleets into the maw of an enemy huge fleet, and thus throwing away resources All solvable, but I have taken the path of least resistance...

Also, it is unlikely I'll add a wage system. While I agree it a solution for the too-much-money problem, I'm hoping the CR changes and supply cost changes should alleviate that (once I lower the drop rate of supplies after battles). After all, CR kind of is a wage system (partially).

EDIT: When I say lower the drop rate of supplies, I just mean the larger-than-normal amounts dropped (such as killing a freighter/atlas etc). You should be able to sustain your fleet via farming other fleets for supplies, just not grossly profit from it

Hmm, no the gas and asteroid mining fleets that the Tri corp had running around all had destroyers with them. I tried to take one of them down and it ended horribly, so yeah. I dunno. Great mod otherwise.

Destroyers in the mining fleets? Hmmm there shouldn't be?  

Anyways, as above I think the no-enemies-at-start-of-game issue should be alleviated for the next version

[Excalibur Bane]

I dunno, I think it was a destroyer. It was big and ugly as sin and it handed me my ass pretty quickly, that much I DO know.

[Krelian]

I just tried the mod for some hours, here is my feedback.

As noted above, the start is super hard. The first couple of battles in your punny frigate are the hardest on the mod. You basically have to aim for remains of fleets that lost a battle recently, hoping to not run out of supplies before that.
After that, the problem reverts. Right now I have more than one million credits, and raising fast. Clearly I cant spend that much, and I wont have economic problems ever again.

One thing this need is more information about the mechanics. For example, what exatly is Outpost efficiency? What planet types give better bonuses?  What is more important, gas planet mining or asteroid mining?

But overall, the mod is awesome. It add what the game is currently missing the most. An objective. Finally something to do with that big fleet, other than kill weaker fleets for the lulz.

Suggestion: Add some examples (with screenshots) of what to expect with the starting options. What size is a "small system" for example. My first try I set systems to big, and a lot of stuff was kinda outside of the map (the one with TAB). Maybe add a "recomended" set of settings. The way it is balanced the most. I have no idea what a good relation of planets to asteroids to outposts is balanced.
Also, the could be an option to select one by one the enemy factions, instead of all random.

Excelent mod.

PS: What is this!, a Changelog spoiler for ants?

[Zaphide]

I just tried the mod for some hours, here is my feedback.

As noted above, the start is super hard. The first couple of battles in your punny frigate are the hardest on the mod. You basically have to aim for remains of fleets that lost a battle recently, hoping to not run out of supplies before that.

Yeah as noted above I should have solution to this issue for the next release

After that, the problem reverts. Right now I have more than one million credits, and raising fast. Clearly I cant spend that much, and I wont have economic problems ever again.

Haha yes, I should have a solution to this too

One thing this need is more information about the mechanics. For example, what exatly is Outpost efficiency? What planet types give better bonuses?  What is more important, gas planet mining or asteroid mining?

I will (hopefully) get around to adding that info to the OP at some point

Suggestion: Add some examples (with screenshots) of what to expect with the starting options. What size is a "small system" for example. My first try I set systems to big, and a lot of stuff was kinda outside of the map (the one with TAB). Maybe add a "recomended" set of settings. The way it is balanced the most. I have no idea what a good relation of planets to asteroids to outposts is balanced.
Also, the could be an option to select one by one the enemy factions, instead of all random.

Yeah not a bad idea. I'll also add this to the 'Quick Guide'.

Quickly though:

Code

4 systems
small system size
12 planets
0-2 asteroid belts
15-20 stations
3 factions
factions spawn up to max of starting 
respawn timer 4 months

is what I usually play on

Excelent mod.

Thanks, and I appreciate the feedback

PS: What is this!, a Changelog spoiler for ants?

Sorry I don't understand? Do you mean the code tags in the spoiler tags don't show properly?

[Scrambles]

Only recently started playing the game so forgive any stupid questions I may ask

The mod is awesome and seems to be working perfectly for me, so no game-breaking issues to report.

In terms of feedback, I think what people have said about the start is fair - it might be good to have random tiny pirate/rebel fleets about the place just to give us something to feed on in the early days.

In my current game I've been lucky enough to have a hostile faction (with mining fleets...) to prey on in my home system, so I think I got off to a pretty lucky start.

This is possibly a core game issue rather than a mod issue, but it's pretty hard to keep track of what's happening with all of the faction relationships - unless I'm missing something. All I see are the once-off notifications - the ability to view 'sector-wide faction standings' or the like on demand would be a big help. I'm thinking of a diplomacy screen as you would see in a lot of games.

As you've already suggested, a Quickstart Guide would be very helpful for noobs like me I'm gradually figuring things out as I go but information on how station take-overs, faction relationships etc. work would be good to have on hand.

Finally, thanks for the excellent mod! Keep up the good work - hopefully the other great factions out there will be brought up to date and made compatible soon! I suspect there will be a great many hours of space exploits ahead

 

[molotof]

In my current game I've been lucky enough to have a hostile faction (with mining fleets...) to prey on in my home system, so I think I got off to a pretty lucky start.

I had the same luck, maybe a good way to start is to follow a command fleet at the beginning of the game and then settle in the same system, but i'm not sure that a conflict will occur from it. 

[Erick Doe]

In my current game I've been lucky enough to have a hostile faction (with mining fleets...) to prey on in my home system, so I think I got off to a pretty lucky start.

I had the same luck, maybe a good way to start is to follow a command fleet at the beginning of the game and then settle in the same system, but i'm not sure that a conflict will occur from it. 

You can always start the conflict. 

[Krelian]

PS: What is this!, a Changelog spoiler for ants?

Sorry I don't understand? Do you mean the code tags in the spoiler tags don't show properly?

It was a joke from zoolander. Its because the code tags show (barely) one line of text with a long scroll :p

[anud]

I've been playing the mod for quite some time and its very enjoyable because everytime I launch a new game the world is new. But something is still missing.

For example I am the kind of person who likes to explore big worlds (sometimes to big) and using the 24 systems choice its quite fun , but sadly there aren't many factions so that the universe feels populated .

It has some hints of new "lesser factions" with the new rebel fleets but those are the replica of your faction. Its a nice touch but i was wondering if it could be expanded so there are more empires available. Sure in the future it can be expanded with more mods adding a new set of ships and weapons , adding up to the empire count but it would've been interesting to see different factions appear using a mix of ships available from a pool available.

I am really looking forward to your reply.

And great job on the mod. Its really enjoyable (even with the problematic 8+ system track management)