Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

It was updated to 125 in the meantime.
I'll just link to the directory, so the latest will always be here:

http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/MM/SE5/Mods/

A number of minor issues were discovered in the GGirc game yesterday, so a 125-B has been posted.

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

Any intro as to what GG does as opposed to stock/BM?

Thanks

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

The easiest way to describe it is a combination of GritEcon and Carrier Battles mods.


Totally a humans-only class mod.
I'd be happy to see somebody write AIs, but that's not going to happen for a long time. The mod is still developing, and there aren't many people with AI skills out there either.

As far as individual details:
- All ship hulls are available from the start. However, build costs are proportional to size SQUARED. Maintenance is almost flat-rate.
You can build 20+ 45kt scouts in one turn, or you can spend 2-3 turns building a 300kt dread.
In the long run, the dread will cost only a little more than one scout to maintain. In the short term, the scouts will outmass you by a very large margin.
Overall, this makes all the ship sizes useful, and the size you build depends on how much time you can afford to spend on them and how many spare resources you have.

- Weapons are CBmod style. You've got DUCs, Plasma, Lasers and Torpedoes for direct fire, with missiles to round it out. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages, and they support each other well in mixed fleets. Each weapon comes in 5 different sizes from 20mm (size 2-3), all the way up to 100mm (size 100-150)
Fighters use small mount ship weapons.

- Note the lack of PD guns...
Small mounted regular guns are used for that, which helps to keep things balanced. At some point I may upgrade to a new scheme, where there are dedicated leaky PD guns (fixed 1% hit rate, with hundreds of shots per second for a poisson distribution of missile kills)

- CBmod style cultures, the key to which is extreme differences in a balance. Match it to your playstyle for maximum fun. Still needs playtesting of the balance, and to make sure all the effects it uses are actually implemented in the exe.
Stuff like Berzerkers, with double damage weapons, and about 50% more damage taken from enemy hits. Along with some penalties to production to even it out.
Or Preservationists, with half damage from enemy weapons, big bonuses to repair skill, but very slow build rates.

- GritEcon resource economy. Facility maintenance is based on common sense, not the build cost. A geothermal plant requires only a few organics to feed the workers... a hydrocarbon power plant burns copious amounts of organics to produce power (rads), but is independent of planetary value.
Greenhouses, industrial farms, deep shaft mines...
Overall, you've got tradeoffs between build costs, resource output, planetary value dependence, maintenance costs, and space efficiency.
You've also got to build up an interdependent economy... Farms need power, fission plants need fuel, mines need workers.
And then some factories to turn resources into supplies and ordnance for your ships.

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

Welp, just started the GG game. it looks very cool, however I am lost http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

There are no freighters/colony ships anymore? it seems like a colony ship has to be a Battleship or greater? I made a cruiser size one, and I could only really get a movement speed of 2.

I can pump out 15 scout ships a turn from 1 yard! I know they are small, but its just shocking http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Having all that tech available at the start is overwhelming.

There seem to be 7-8 different research areas for missiles and only 1 for torpedoes?

Sensors are not available at the beginning?

Legacy Sensor network?

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

All the hulls are generic. You can fit a colony ship on a cruiser hull if you pack lightly.

Colony module, bridge, three supply tanks, three large engines, and enough basic crew quarters and lifesupport to satisfy the requirements should *just* fit, and will give 3.5 speed (rounds down to 3)
That's the price you pay for cheaping out on the hull http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Using medium or small engines should let you eke out another speed point.


The thing to keep in mind, is that those scouts are only 50% more tonnage than a large fighter...
They're basically mobile, warp capable, maintenance costing fighters.


Missiles have 5 areas, but 7 missile types.
Direct fire has 4 areas, and 4 weapon types.
Its not so crazy if you think of it that way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Ships all start with range 1 sensors built in. Researching sensors allows you to boost that to range 2 (basic sensor array) or range 3 (large sensor array), and more with tech.

Legacy facilities are uberfacilities that are only seen on homeworlds, and can not be built in-game. It gives full sensor coverage of the homesystem.

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

Thanks for answering the questions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I just saw Ice shields... they seem sorta out of place as the 1st shield level. There are fighter shields and ice shields?

Seems like I'll have to get used to ships not moving as fast as in stock/BM, which is a good thing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

Yeah, the fighter vs ship shield techs is a little inconsistent description/tech wise. But it was like that in SE4 too.

You'll probably want to get a SYS and set up satellite sensor nets across your systems. With ships being slower, you actually have time to react to a detection.

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

I noticed something funny about maintenance in this mod the other day (v1.25 B, game version 1.25). It was roughly the same for Dreadnoughts as for Destroyers, about 200 of a resource. There's probably some variable on the mounts that's scaling down the maintenance on the bigger ships. This, of course, will result in fleets of dreadnoughts and only dreadnoughts, which is what makes me think it's not intentional.

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

Actually its intentional. The dreads take about the same maintenance, but they take a LOT longer to build.

Re: Gritty Galaxy Mod Downloads
 

Hmm. And that works, in your experience with the mod? Because it seems to me that people can use orbital shipyards to build lots of them in parallel, thus making build time less relevant and allowing them to build up to their resource limit that's determined mostly by maintenance. In most of the SE games I've played, there's been enough time in peace time to build arbitrarily large fleets with this method, because only a large fleet can break through stacked defenses on a chokepoint, and it would take the other guy just as long to build a fleet capable of doing that.

Seems like building a bunch of base space yards and then stacking defenses like crazy to stall the enemy while the space yards build hundreds of dreadnoughts is the path to victory. Sure, it will take a few dozen turns to get the things built, but the low build rate will allow you to construct more of them in parallel, and hundreds of dreadnoughts would mop the floor with a mixed force of a few dreadnoughts, a few dozen battleships, and a few hundred cruisers.

Also, the longer peace time goes on, the more an initial force of destroyers and cruisers will get replaced by dreadnoughts.