Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hi David, good to see you around too, are you still working on art for Malfador?

Well in that case it might be usefull to tell a bit more about the dramatic downfall of the Jitwick Empire in my last game:

The war with the Cue Cappa had raged for years, only a few remembered how it all started. The treacherous Cue Cappa, once close allies, had attacked the Jitwick by suprise, and there had been no answer to their huge fleets of ships and missile technology, and many, many innocent lives had been lost.

The Jitwick however had learned from these early encounters: Their superior technology would not help against the cue cappa, they destroyed our fleets from long range with their more primitive, yet effective missile technology before we could use our state of the art weapons. We needed to build a large fleet with strong point defense to counter the threat. We would also need a more resource based economy. Work on the project started immediately.

And it worked! Captain Twurckle still fondly remembered how they defeated, a year ago, a huge Cue Cappan fleet of around 60 ships. Our fleet of 30 ships had been outnumbered but had had backup of point-defense weapon platforms from the planet below them. We suffered no losses. There was other news, the second Jitwick fleet was in Cue cappan teritory and was destroying their smaller colonies, it lacked the firepower to destroy their main worlds, but it was a start, the Jirwick were winning the war. The Cue Cappa were not about to give up: scouting forces warned of a 59 ship fleet that was approaching the homesystem, and reports from some small skirmishes elsewhere said that the cue cappa had acquired new technology: fighters. The large fleet had 5 carriers.

Captain Twurckle took immediate action. conventional point defense weapons (in Devnull) would not help against fighters, so he quickly produced and retrofitted several ships to use anti-fighter pd missiles. He parked his 27 ship fleet on top of a nearby world that had lots of conventional point defense (but not much offensive weapons) a quick calculation showed that they had more point defense than they needed.
The Cue Cappa fell for the trap, they thought the small Jitwick fleet would be easy prey, and they entered the sector. Captain Jirwick laughed his maniacal laughter when he saw the wall of fighters and misilles approach and nearly spilled his coffee.

He actually did spill his coffee when he saw things did not go as planned. The anti-fighter-pd missiles, which had longer range than the conventional pd, suddenly started firing on the incoming missiles. All of the anti-fighter pd was depleted when the conventional pd kicked in. The enemy missiles were easily destroyed but there was no means left to kill the fighters. The fighters came in at high speed dodged some panicked shots of directed fire weapons and started tearing apart the large Antares class pd ships that defended against the Cue cappan missiles. Captain Twurckle called for retreat, but with the Antares class ships gone he had no chance to outrun the cue cappan missiles.

After this the cue cappan quickly took out my most important worlds and I had no change to rebuild (losing important worlds can be painfull on a small map). I would probably have won the battle if I had used fighters myself, instead of anti-fighter pd, which is a usefull thing to remember for the future. Anyhow the point is that the anti fighter PD seems quite useless against fighters if the enemy also uses missiles, maybe their range should be reduced so they fire after conventional point defense, or they should no longer target seekers.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Narf, Mom is doing as well as can be expected, thanks for asking.

Henk, yes I'm still doing Artwork for Malfador..

thread hijack over,..

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Well, if that means she's getting better, that's good. But that's probably private, so I'll but out now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: New version: 1.80
 

After a long distraction by normal life I want to start
playing SEIV again.
I never tried latest Devnull. One think I don't like
in unmoded sEIv is fast pace of research.
I often play with "high cost" and also reduced output
of research centers by 1/2.
I wonder what effect would it have on Devnull mod ?
Will it make game too slow ??
I'm planning to play large galaxy ~200 system with
~15 AI on low or medium bonus.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Devnull Mod Gold plays at the same pace as stock SE4. So lowering the research output will have the same effects.
I can not think of any mod specific reasons that speak against it.

Will it make the game too slow? Yes, IMHO it will. But to each his own. If you like slower research, go for it.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Rollo, in the devnull mod Im doing, the Sonne race freaked out somehow and went on a mad rampage... Their research and resources are 5x that of any other empire cept mine... and I'm consistently ranking half they are in everything else... despite me capturing several early enemy race's HW's. Only thing I'm leading in is population.

What the hell happened? They are going nuts... You do anything special with their AI scripts or did they just get lucky this game? I'm especially impressed with their research and tech levels. Super impressive. When I got word they created a planet... I felt like a third world country at the advent of the atomic age...

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hey Dizzy, nope there isn't anything special about their script. But yes, the Sonne do have the potential to be a formidable opponent.
Just a mix of solid research and designs, and of course a portion of luck. Have fun with your battle against them.
Glad to hear the script works out to give you a challenge and even impress you.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

BTW, it might be usefull to update the download link in
the sticky "newbees" thread. It is still to 1.71
I started a game and played for a while bedore noticing 1.8 patch.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Ya, only mod I play. I do want to try SJ's CBmod.

At this point in my campaign... Im thinking of a sneak attack against the Sonne. I dont know what AI are capable of when they get that nasty Stellar Manipulation Tech... but I'm kinda afraid to find out. If the Sonne created a planet... wont be long before they destroy one... and then start opening up warp gates into my backfield...

Course... its gonna be tough biting the hand that feeds me. My TR alliance with them is a HUGE chunk of change. Dunno what to do... Only thing I've managed to do is gift older outdated war machines to the United Flora Empire so the Sonne war with them lasts a while and keeps them occupied.

I'm edging toward a Japanese style Pearl Harbor attack... Course look how that went for the Japs...

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hey Rollo

I was wondering... it was you that did the AI in CBMod, yes? I remember a long time ago playing devnull mod when devnullicus did it.. did you do the AI in the current devnull mod? Is it possible to compare the devnull AI to the CBMod AI? I don't PBW so mods with strong AI have immense appeal to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Thanks!