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[Borgoid]

First impression of Mirage is " Augh freaking bright blue/white spot in the center of my screen, go the hell away!"
quickly followed by 5 minutes of trying to look at other things while my peripheral vision informs me " Wauuuuuoooooghhaaa! Warning! Bright thing!! You should look at it! "

I'm not normally someone who gives a crap about that sort of stuff but I couldn't believe how strongly it affected me, it actually gives me horrible eye strain after only a few minutes because I can't seem to stop compulsively and frequently looking at it.

The 30 mins of what I played was a significant improvement however.
Liked what you did with the coilguns/railguns, solid changes there that bring them a little bit more in-line with not only vanilla but also one another.

Small side note about the light railgun arrays ( The pd ballistic guns) Any time there isn't a missile on the screen these things are absolute monsters. Not sure it's a problem but it's pretty noticeable when you stack up various ships with them. They might not be great PD but they're great kinetic weapons vs ships.

[Talkie Toaster]

And ooh, that's sort of a nasty image bug. I'm not much of an image editor, do you think it would work if I just blurred the left and right extremes of the texture file? 

GIMP can handle it if you run the filter Map->Make Seamless.

[Taverius]

It also has a much greater chance of surviving if you're forced into a retreat.

That's kind of negated by the extra fuel tanker I have to lug around.

I'm fine with it being a little more expensive, but 60% is a bit much.

TBH I might keep it with no empty stations in the Kadur system -- anything there would have been claimed by the Theocracy immediately, or broken down for scrap and tech. It's a very small system, and their home, etc. Without an economy, the only real reason to go there is to wage war on the Kadur, and I like the idea of needing to return to a different system to resupply/sell loot/perform drydock repairs in that case.

The other reason is to play the Kadur and defend the home system from the Insurgency, which unless you're weird and never need storage for crew/supply/fuel/ship stockpiles is Very Hard mode in Kadur.

Even as a friendly I only go there to buy ships to transfer to my base elsewhere because there's nowhere to store them, which is a little nonsensical. I guess it would be nice if the Kadur/Insurgency had a loyalty item like Bushi/Hiigaran do which then opened up the usage of a warehouse station.

[Darloth]

is it 60% more? I remember Oxen as being fuel 6/ly, which would mean it's only 25% more.

Additionally, the Dolphin is large enough to put an Unstable Injector on, so you can actually get more use out of it on a very fast fleet (such as the Kadur) compared to the Ox.

[Taverius]

Ox is 5f/ly.

Btw, the Qamar large fleet name is too long, appears as "Qamar Insurgency Great Holy War Fle'.

P.S. The Dolphin is not set to 'No Fight', so you get hilarious Dolphin teams scurrying about, when fighting Qamar at least. As funny as it to have such a useless ship about the battlefield (explosions are pretty!) you might wanna fix that, its a bit silly.

P.P.S. Move Mirage I and II a little further apart, in conjunction they pass close enough for Jump Point Alpha to be over II. And also their orbits would destabilize and they would probably collide, but then those two stars so close together = instant nova, and certainly no liveable worlds, so lets not go there.

P.P.P.S. Something needs doing about the PD Railguns. The DPS is so good, and the flux hit so low, that the AI tries to move any ship with it into range ... and gets pasted. Can we have a frag PD gun with PD_ONLY, for the AI's sake? As it is the PD weapons are useless against missiles ...

Edit to P.P.P.S. I spent a good half hour in the simulator and I've never seen either railgun or the missiles hit anything that wasn't coming straight at the launcher. Might as well not use them, I've taken them off all my ships.

[Vayra]

Oop, fixed the Holy War Fleet name. Thanks for catching that.

I've actually been working on putting together a script to let you join the Kadur. Wonder if I can make it add a Kadur storage station -- if not I'll probably just have a little abandoned something there too. edit: this seems to work! rejoice!

I'd noticed that the planets in Mirage were all a little too close together in general, actually. It made for faster play, but I've spaced them all out a bit. If I did all my basic math right there shouldn't be any more celestial collisions there -- I haven't slept in going on 30 hours though, so there's no guarantee I did my basic math right at all, heh. Probably gonna check this one over again before I release.

As for the Dolphins trying to combat, I actually kind of like it. Remember, they have near cruiser-level hull and armor strength and every torpedo they catch, every 300 flux that gets burned trying to kill them, etc. is a torpedo or 300 flux that's not being used on something actually threatening. Also, I harbor secret dreams of one day making a functional AI script for the ram drive. Oh, and if they're your Dolphins, you can stick Javelins (or heavy railguns or burst PD lasers, etc) on them for a slightly more useful support craft in combat.

And you caught me on the Light Railgun Arrays. They're not very good PD weapons at all. I've increased the projectile speed slightly, but they're really still kind of pinned in a role as a) probably the best PD Kadur ships can get without resorting to outsider tech, and b) a devastatingly effective short-range (by Kadur standards) kinetic weapon with low flux generation.
The AI isn't very good at it, but kiting missiles (which is very possible in any Kadur frigate or the Falchion, and some of the cruisers) increases the effectiveness of the Kadur PD weapons many times over. Beyond that tactic, it's kind of a weakness of the faction as a whole -- they're really only good at missile combat from extended range where they have the spare flux capacity to block incoming missiles with their terribly inefficient shields, and where missiles fly towards them in a straight line to get popped by Hoplite batteries, etc.

Edit:
...aaaaaand BAM! New version, 1.1.3, including a slower camel, a way to ally yourself with either the Kadur Theocracy or the Qamar Insurgency, planets in the Mirage system that don't smash into each other, and badass belligerent boss battles.

note: ways to ally yourself with peoples and badass belligerent boss battles will probably require starting a new game. alas.

[Vinya]

Liking this mod, adds a nice level of new stuff while keeping vanilla-ey.


Good-natured criticisms:

Spoiler

The non-vanilla weapon sprites don't blend too well with the vanilla ships, and IMO this would've been even more awesome if the ships kept vanilla Midline colors, rather than the yellow-ish they are now.

[close]

[Jazzrish]

epic work! enjoy the concept and the style of ships, witness the progress and always stick to the newest version. but have to say the most serious one problem is the brightness of background pic in Mirage system.

First impression of Mirage is " Augh freaking bright blue/white spot in the center of my screen, go the hell away!"
quickly followed by 5 minutes of trying to look at other things while my peripheral vision informs me " Wauuuuuoooooghhaaa! Warning! Bright thing!! You should look at it! "

I'm not normally someone who gives a crap about that sort of stuff but I couldn't believe how strongly it affected me, it actually gives me horrible eye strain after only a few minutes because I can't seem to stop compulsively and frequently looking at it.

this is not that exaggerate as it seems to be. i make it to 15 minutes in 1.1.3 and tend to be in some other system for the sake of my eyes... please take it seriously.

[HELMUT]

They are freaking though to take down, which is surprising given they are low tech ships. i tried to fight their cathedral fleet with my own carrier based fleet (who crushed everything else in the sector) to end up being steamrolled. Maybe that's because fighters aren't very efficient against a fleet that can swarm the screen with so many missiles but still, surprising. I'll try with a capital ship based fleet.

I also tried some of their ships, and they are pretty fun. Unlike Tavernus, i don't have trouble with keeping my Hauberk alive but i also avoid to put it on the frontline, i usually tell it to wander around on the other side of the map and give his buff to the rest of the fleet.

I love the Buzzard, lovely little sniper ship. It fly like a brick though, and there is nothing scarier for a Buzzard than a buffalo unleashing all of its missile payload on it.

Have to try more in depth this faction, but from what i have seen so far, it's very fun to play with.

[Vayra]

Liking this mod, adds a nice level of new stuff while keeping vanilla-ey.

The non-vanilla weapon sprites don't blend too well with the vanilla ships, and IMO this would've been even more awesome if the ships kept vanilla Midline colors, rather than the yellow-ish they are now.

Thank you! I aim for vanilla balance as much as possible. It's an ongoing battle, but I think I'm getting there.

As for the sprites, I'm very aware. Pixel art is not exactly my forte, hence the clumsy kitbashed faction in the first place. I'm definitely keeping the colors for the hulls, as I feel like it helps the player identify which hulls are Kadur at a glance, but the weapon sprites are definitely something that could change whenever I get or make better ones.

epic work! enjoy the concept and the style of ships, witness the progress and always stick to the newest version. but have to say the most serious one problem is the brightness of background pic in Mirage system.

First impression of Mirage is " Augh freaking bright blue/white spot in the center of my screen, go the hell away!"
quickly followed by 5 minutes of trying to look at other things while my peripheral vision informs me " Wauuuuuoooooghhaaa! Warning! Bright thing!! You should look at it! "

I'm not normally someone who gives a crap about that sort of stuff but I couldn't believe how strongly it affected me, it actually gives me horrible eye strain after only a few minutes because I can't seem to stop compulsively and frequently looking at it.

this is not that exaggerate as it seems to be. i make it to 15 minutes in 1.1.3 and tend to be in some other system for the sake of my eyes... please take it seriously.

And thank you as well! Re: Mirage brightness... huh. It's never bothered me, and I usually fly around Mirage almost exclusively when I actually play because I feel like it's the liveliest system right now. Is it just the two bright blue "near stars" in the image? Photo editing is also not my strong point, but I'll see what I can do.

They are freaking though to take down, which is surprising given they are low tech ships. i tried to fight their cathedral fleet with my own carrier based fleet (who crushed everything else in the sector) to end up being steamrolled. Maybe that's because fighters aren't very efficient against a fleet that can swarm the screen with so many missiles but still, surprising. I'll try with a capital ship based fleet.

I also tried some of their ships, and they are pretty fun. Unlike Tavernus, i don't have trouble with keeping my Hauberk alive but i also avoid to put it on the frontline, i usually tell it to wander around on the other side of the map and give his buff to the rest of the fleet.

I love the Buzzard, lovely little sniper ship. It fly like a brick though, and there is nothing scarier for a Buzzard than a buffalo unleashing all of its missile payload on it.

Have to try more in depth this faction, but from what i have seen so far, it's very fun to play with.

I'm glad you're enjoying the mod. They are indeed tough to take down -- heaviest armor in the sector, right there. If you're wanting to fight the Kadur though, here are some tips: (these might also help anyone else looking to kill a Cathedral fleet or one of the new boss fleets, and stop them from screaming "OP!" if I'm lucky)

• Kadur ships aren't very maneuverable, and the AI is pretty bad at using Phase Shunt to compensate like the player can. An agile ship like the Medusa, Hyperion, Afflictor, Shade, Tempest, Seski, Wolf, or Hound can get behind them and take out their engines to prevent them from turning, and then destroy their armor with impunity.
• Kadur shields are terrible as a rule, and even the "high-tech" shields like those on the Rukh are only passable. If you plan to fight the Kadur, outfitting your ships with nearly all High-Explosive weapons to combat their armor is a great idea -- they won't be able to keep their shields up regardless of how little Kinetic damage you brought.
• Sort of contradicting the last point, but high per-shot damage Kinetic weapons like a Hypervelocity Driver, Gauss Cannon, Sabot SRM or one of the Kadur's own railguns on just a few ships in the fleet can actually overload Kadur ships fairly reliably, due to their inefficient shielding. Just don't overdo it, or you'll be wasting flux and OP on Kinetic shots that just ping off of the armor on an already overloaded ship.
• As has been mentioned in the thread, Kadur PD weaponry is sort of lacking. Coincidentally, missile weapons are great for cracking off chunks of armor that would otherwise be too heavy to penetrate. Pack some Harpoons, Pilums, or the Kadur VLRMSs. If you're having trouble with the bigger Kadur ships, try bringing some Reapers -- just be careful that their speed doesn't carry them out of the way.
• As mentioned above, Kadur don't often have their shields up, (not that they're much help when they do) and unlike say the Thule Legacy they have no built-in defense against EMP weaponry. Disabling the main guns, or more importantly the engines, can let you take down a ship much larger than yours without risk.
• Remember, just because a ship has armor everywhere doesn't mean you need to remove all of the armor to kill it. Focus fire on single points, ideally engines or wherever has already taken a torpedo/hellbore cannon/etc. hit. This might seem obvious, but I find myself forgetting it constantly in battle myself so I thought I would throw it out there. 

I'm glad you like the Buzzard! It's one of my favorites, actually. There's something charming about a ship that's basically just a big gun stuck onto a set of engines and covered in armor. It is indeed weak to missiles, or if left on its own in general -- It's pretty much the Kadur version of the Brawler. You might want to consider ordering it to escort something like a Lasher (or vice versa) and having them work as a team, or do what the Insurgency does and replace the Buzzard's heavy electromagnetic projectile accelerator with something a little more defensive... like a Guardian PD Array.

[Borgoid]

This is specifically what I'm referring to. The one that's double-circled definitely bothers me the most but they're both pretty bad

Spoiler

[close]

It's literally the first time I've ever had eye strain playing any game in 10 years

Edit: Also in general it's really hard to see your weapons arcs ontop of the red .. arc.. thing... that's in between the two blue stars
Edit:edit: Space is dark! DARK I SAY!

[Jazzrish]

you may refer to \\starsector-core\graphics\backgrounds\*.jpg. all of the original background pics are darker in general and those luminous celestial bodies are much less in number, smaller in size and darker in brightness. consider all photos of bright universe are the results of long exposure.

[Vayra]

Ah, yeah. I just wanted to have pretty systems. 

The offending background will be darkened a bit for the next release. Speaking of which, I'll be putting out a new update soon as Exerelin just released and I want everyone to be able to claim systems in the name of the Theocracy should they so choose. Sadly I'm busy all day today, but tomorrow I am free to pore over .faction and .java files until my eyes fall out so you can expect an Exerelin compatibility patch around then. I had it compatible with the old version for Starsector 0.54.1a, so it shouldn't be too much work... I hope. :v

[Zaphide]

Ah, yeah. I just wanted to have pretty systems. 

The offending background will be darkened a bit for the next release. Speaking of which, I'll be putting out a new update soon as Exerelin just released and I want everyone to be able to claim systems in the name of the Theocracy should they so choose. Sadly I'm busy all day today, but tomorrow I am free to pore over .faction and .java files until my eyes fall out so you can expect an Exerelin compatibility patch around then. I had it compatible with the old version for Starsector 0.54.1a, so it shouldn't be too much work... I hope. :v

If you had the fleets setup for the old version of Exerelin you may not have to do anything

Two of the Exerelin fleets are no longer needed, and the weapon list is now determined by the fleet definitions so no worries there.

I assume your happy for me to include support for the Theocracy?

[Vayra]

Ah, yeah. I just wanted to have pretty systems.  

The offending background will be darkened a bit for the next release. Speaking of which, I'll be putting out a new update soon as Exerelin just released and I want everyone to be able to claim systems in the name of the Theocracy should they so choose. Sadly I'm busy all day today, but tomorrow I am free to pore over .faction and .java files until my eyes fall out so you can expect an Exerelin compatibility patch around then. I had it compatible with the old version for Starsector 0.54.1a, so it shouldn't be too much work... I hope. :v

If you had the fleets setup for the old version of Exerelin you may not have to do anything

Two of the Exerelin fleets are no longer needed, and the weapon list is now determined by the fleet definitions so no worries there.

I assume your happy for me to include support for the Theocracy?

They haven't been updated for a few revisions, so I'll probably take a look at the other currently implemented factions and balance them a little/add the ships that have been added since I wrote those lists. Which ones are no longer needed, in-system attack and supply fleets, or..?

And yes, of course! In 0.54.1a if I wasn't playing Uomoz's Corvus with a pile of extra mods, I was playing Exerelin.

edit: By the way, I'll totally mess with my scripts to not generate if Exerelin is active.