Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

A few responses:

a) Those files are in the active queue for a change or two with the exception of AtmosphereTypes.txt

b) At this time I'm only adding colony types that can be understood and used by the AI. I do have plans to expand the list though.

c) It doesn't matter. They are alpha-sorted in the game anyways.

d) It's not an inconsistency. Engines provide 5 standard movement points and each ship has a different engines-per-move (ie how many engines does it take to generate the 5 movement points) value. So a destroyer can move 7eng*5mp/3epm or 11 movepoints (it's always truncated). Note that bigger ships do move slower as well - so a Dreadnought would do 16eng*5mp/10epm for 8 movement.

e) Colonization is an expensive tech that can led to the AI being outclassed by its enemies early on because they are lacking in ship tech like sensors or weapons. I have it set for "Age 3" of AI research where in theory the AI should have a good enough research points base to research colonization techs in a timely fashion.

The .csf files are compiled script files for the AI. The source files are found in the Utililies directory along with the script parser that converts the AI's .txt files into .csf files for use by the game.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Thanks for the responses.

b) Well having added "misc colony" to my list I can safely say it doesn't seem to have affected the AI's game at all.

e) That's about when I try to research the colonisers myself - when I have sufficient RP to do it in a "timely fashion". Problem is, I invariably get there many many turns before the AI.

I think I'll go look into those csf files, thanks.


Anyhow, I decided to conduct a little "scientific test".
Balance mod 0.92 vs' SEV Stock.

I used the same gamesetup (including map) for both.
Map: Large Galaxy edge. Player starting positions manually placed so as to have four warp points connecting each. All had at least 3 empty systems between them and the next one.

High difficulty, high AI bonus. No neutral players.

30 turns. I just sat back and kept hitting F12. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Results:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/4239/finun2.th.jpg


As you can see, they were both practically identical planet count wise. For some reason the AI in BM love troops, but it does have a few more ships to show for its efforts too.
Standard seems to have done better on Research points and population.

Tech lvls, resources and score cannot really be directly compared due to the changes.


Oh and a bug. - you may note that I have 129 tech levels in standard - no idea why, i didn't research a thing. It started the game like that. Yet I don't actually have anything to show for it. Weird.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Those are different empires in the two tests. They've got different abilities and advantages, etc. Try creating 3 custom empires with different advantages and use those 3 in both the tests at the same starting position, instead of just randomly selected empires.

While research is not comparable between stock and Kwok, Population, units, ships( and resources?) should be, if you use the same empires at the same starting positions for both tests. I believe there is a few random factors in there, though.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I have the AI sending hordes of colony ships into my warp point defense that are defending what used to be one of his systems. Isn't there any way to prevent the 'No memory at all about what happened the last time I did this'-bevaiour? I suppose 'no fog of war' might do the trick as then the computer would know about those ships I have at the warp point, but shouldn't this be taken up with Aaron?

I noticed the same issue with my own ships; they were trying to fly to a warp point, but as they got close enough for the sensors to find out there was an enemy ship there, they went back one grid so that the enemy ship was out of sensor range again: being AI, there now appeared to be no threat at that warp point, so they changed back to the original course, only to discover that *somehow* the enemy ship was still there! They did this until they were out of movement points: one forward, one back.

Perhaps he could make the AI assume that the ships he met the last time were still there, and act accordingly? Same with planet ownership etc. I.e., he wouldn't actually try going through that warp point again until he felt he had a fleet that could destroy the ships/units I had there the last time he attacked.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

If only boarding parties weren't horribly broken you could steal tons of colony ships this way! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Looks like empires with the Organic Technology trait needs a fix. They appear only to be using a single Plasma Charge weapon on all their Attack Ships. Since that weapon has 1 range, none of their ships actually reach me with weapons intact. Only seen frigates so far, so not sure how they set up the larger ships with organic technology.. But still, Plasma Charge needs to be seriously un-nerfed or the AI need to stop using it. It has basically ruined any chance they might have had in killing me: They really had a ton of ships.

At turn 110, none of the 9 AI Empires have researched more than Level 1 of Medium sized ships, aka Destroyers. Do they start researching sizes again later? Should be about time though.

I noticed a rather big AI problem when I logged into one of the empires. See attachment. That battle has been going on for...ever? Basically units that are too fast to be caught, but can't otherwise move away from the sector, so they're stuck in an endless battle with the other empire's ships.

Rioting now appears to be very rare. I noticed about 1 planet in two out of 9 empires.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

What about Allegiance Subverters?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Ack. There was a typo reducing the effecting range of the Plasma Charge to 10 range, it actually has 50-70 range depending on tech level.

It depends on tech level and cost for research rate, but I think I'll through light cruisers into the "2nd age" of AI development. I think I stuck them at the beginning of the "3rd age".

There was a setting introduced in the 1.08 patch and that you could have combat run to the full-time if enemies were still present. I think I'll through that back to false.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

There was a setting introduced in the 1.08 patch and that you could have combat run to the full-time if enemies were still present.

I probably didn't express it the best way: I was talking about turns. They go through 20 seconds of that fight every single turn, the fighters just fly further and further away for each 'session', for probably 10+++ turns in a row now. A bug/oversight with the code I'd say. The fighters can't leave that sector because there's no ship to transport them away( they were all killed). Messy situation.

I.e. possible solution: Have the game destroy all fighters(and drones?) at end of combat if there's no friendly carriers left.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Not a bad suggestion - but disabling the afforementioned setting will at least save time for processing while the 'bug' exists.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

The same problem also occurs with non-combat ships.
You also end up with a stupidly large combat map.

I would like to see the option for a combat border. Prevent these infinite combat chases, and keep the map sane.
Steel Cage matches between fleets: no wussing out http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Yah, but the non-combat ships have the option to move away from that grid sector. The AI is wasting like half his fleet on capturing those ever-fleeing ships and fighters though. It's also sort of silly that one can go to combat with someone at a warp point, 'flee' until the fight is over, then continue through the warp point in the system view.

The game mechanics definitely need *alot* of programming work before they're acceptable. And the AI needs fixing and adjusting to the new features like fog of war.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Actually it would be interesting if ships would start to slow down after going a certain distance at full speed. Say thier engines start to lose charge and have to slow down to maintain power to the rest of the ship's systems. This would keep combat more or less contained without imposing unrealistic borders in space, and still allow for faster ships to retreat if they need to.

Though in retrospect, what might work better and simpler is to mod the ship sizes and component levels so that there is more variety in ship speeds during combat. It seems like just about every ship of the same vehicle size goes the same speed because everyone just maxes the engines out.

Another thing that would be interesting is if warp points could act like "instant escapes" in combat. Instead of fleeing into infinty, ships could make a bee-line for the warp point, but only if they already had orders to go through the warp point. Would add an interesting "blockade running" aspect to combat.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Okay, some notes/suggestions.

1) This is a great improvement. Again.

2) The Space Foreigner's setup files may some changing/optimising, or whichever one is the one where they decide what their heavy/primary weapons etc are for designs. A lot of them aren't building designs with anything other than DU cannons lvl 1 and armour lvl 1. Have you got the AIs researching more exotic weapons, but left some of them with the primary weapon as the DU cannons?

Or have I missed something?

3) Was it your intention to make level one destroyers actually less effective than level 3 frigates? With the increased space needed for another life support and crew quaters, and two extra engines (60kt) you actually have 10kt less effective space on a 350kt destroyer than you do on a 300kt frigate. If so, fair enough - but it might be an idea that the AI research to level 2 medium hulls at whatever age you've got the AIs currently researching the level 1 medium hull in.

4) Your changes to diplomacy work well. However, I'd be cool if they were a little more aggressive in declaring war.

5) AI should research sensors earlier. Level 1 combat sensors just don't cut it.

6) The AI builds ships with point defence on them, and even dedicated point defence ships. Which is cool. But, at least in the early game, unless they come across a human player that uses cap ship missles, the point defence cannons are wasted. How about the AI also uses a missle boat design, that lurks at the back hurling missiles while the attack ships get stuck in?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

For low tech, the only weapons that are available are the DUC and CSMs, so that's why their use is prevalent with the AI. However, the AIs will use other weapons if available depending on their race, but they're just not getting to that point yet with a low tech start. You will notice though that AIs with racial traits will use their racial weapons etc. as they become available.

At the same time I'm building new infrastructure in the AI data files to support a new weapon distribution scheme. Currently the AI is setup to have a primary, heavy, and special weapons at various percentages. I've added a secondary category for flexibility. I'm also working out what weapons each of the major empires will use, particular the combinations for the races without a dedicated racial tech area. For example, I'll probably have the Terrans start out as DUC/CSM mix leading into an APB-Torp combo, complemented by specialized ships with WMGs and perhaps ionic dispersers or something.

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The PD ships are not built in too large a quantity and they do have some offensive capability as well and it's better to have a few rather than none as a preventative measure. I'll also be adding specialized Explorer/Surveyor ships in the next version - essentially unarmed ships with lots of supplies for peaceful races, and single-weapon armed ships with supplies for more aggressive empires.

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I'm currently organizing the research pathway to alleviate most of the noted problems with tardy research in important areas. The layout of the original file was not very good, particularly after the balance mod changes. I've actually got the file opened right now and I'm hoping for a v0.93 tomorrow with the changes.

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I did some work with the attack algorithm. I increased the attack chance for the more aggressive empires. One problem I still need to work out a solution for in the code is the fact that the AI will does not want to enter the attack state when there are still unexplored systems.

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Originally I had Destroyers coming in at level 2 of frigates (like the staggered arrangement for all larger ship sizes) but many said it was available too early - even though I personally thought it was good because each ship hull had its own qualities (and I still might change it back that way). I guess the redeeming feature of the current layout is that the destroyer can be retrofit to the larger size and more useful size.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Unfortunately, I lost my game to a crash so I can't give you concrete examples, but these AIs had destroyers and still only had level one armour and level one DU cannons. They were all ahead of my in terms of tech levels, yet I was producing far better designs. The only AI with anything else was the phong, who employed their racial tech.

For what it's worth, I agree with you about destroyers at level 2 frigates. Bigger ships give you more design options, which means more fun. There's very little you can do with frigates in balance mod, and the increased tech costs means you're stuck with them for a while.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

It seems AI's will research war technologies even when they are focusing on exploration/colonization, but won't actually build any war ships to take advantage of thier advances until they actually go into attack state -- even if they're being attacked. There should be something in the code that ensures that the AI's will start building up-to-date warships when they get attacked, if they aren't already.

How about letting the AI's go to attack state based on thier personality traits and whether they have explored systems belonging to a nearby empire that is relatively small and would be an easy target (based on available information). Obviously, peaceful AI's wouldn't attack at all unless they were being attacked but the agressive ones would naturally want to focus on weaker empires, and the really agressive ones would prioritize this over exploration at the earliest opportunity.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Yah, there definitely needs to be some AI agression change. All 4 empires I've discovered just wants to make deals with me; I had to be the one to declear war. And when I reject the deal they offer they will spam me with different treaty proposals every one or two turns.

At turn 123, all the 9 empires, except those 4 who had crystalline/organic technology, were using Level 1 Armor, Shields, DUCs and Sensors. In other words, they're not doing so well in combat.

The Organic and Crystalline races on the other hand, were actually doing really well, one guy having level 8 Organic Weapons and level 10 Organic Armor.

So it appears empires wont actually research weapons and armor unless they've got Org/Cryst technology, and even then they're still not researching sensors and shields.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Don't worry, research will be fixed soon. Just a minor issue with the arrangement of techs. The new file I'm building and hope to be finished today will be a lot better.

For AI aggression, it depends on what races you encounter as well. Certain races like the Abbidon, EEE, Phong are friendly and peaceful and less likely to attack. Others like the Jraenar, Sithrak, Xiati, Xi'Chung are in theory more aggressive - but I will make some more tweaks though so they are more aggressive and get angry over your ships and planets more. That should help with them declaring war.

Has anyone seen the AI proposing treaties with dentrimental conditions? What about stellar manipulation conditions? I made a quick change so that they should only propose those later on when they have the tech.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

It might be cool to have the agressive empires differ in outrightly declaring war and alternatively making tribute demands and subjugation-style treaty proposals. This would give them more variety. You'd have some who just want to wipe you out of existence, while others who would rather dominate you through sheer power. On this vein, you could have genocidal empires who seek to destroy a specific race, irregardless of any specific empire. Every planet that contains that race would be a target, regardless of who owns it, unless its one of thier planets (in which case it would be something akin to a concentration camp). Another empire might want a specific race as a member and would pursue conquest or treaty options to that end. Not sure how much of that is possible in the AI files, but it would be a very interesting way to give the empires personality.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

War hungry A.I's make it an easy game for the Human.Civ4 and Galciv2 have A.I's that don't go to war until they have enough power,and they try to make it a 1 vs 1 war.

The human player can declare war anytime he wants.I say no to war hungry A.I's.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

If you would like the ai to declare war immediately, then just start a game on hard difficulty.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Possible bug ??
Sorry, just got the game and not time to really play, just a little testing.

Point defence cannons to hit modifier.

Ver.: 0.91 (may be not exact but you get the idea)
range 0=> modifier 20, range 50=> mod.0, range 90=>mod. -40

Ver.: 0.92
range 0=>mod.0, range 5=>mod.20, range 90=>mod. 50

It seems that in Ver. 0.91 the chance to hit a seeker/fighter is at first(long range) pretty bad and gets better in the last seconds, which I would expect of a close in defense system.
In Ver. 0.92 it seems the pd will hit heavy at long range and miss pretty much in the last defense stages, which seems odd.

Otherwise it seems to be a very nice mod. I will enjoy the game as I get some free time in November.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Woops. I forgot to make a negative number when I removed the positive modifier.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

If you would like the ai to declare war immediately, then just start a game on hard difficulty.

I play on hard with medium AI bonus, yet still all 5 empires I've met spam me with treaty proposals until I accept, so I doubt that'll be much use.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Well, not every AI empire needs to declare war right away. It's just one variation of the agressive persona. You'd expect a race with lots of early combat advantages to do it. They'd start building warships on the first encounter with another race and strike when they were more militarily powerful than that empire. Later wars would only break out after a considerable amount of buildup, and in those cases then you could have global-themed wars like genocides and such, that span the entire map, rather than one neighbor trying to take out the other.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I've re-ordered the tech list for research, but unfortunately I'm having trouble getting the weapon tech areas as defined in each race's main file to come up on the research list. That's why the racial AIs are the only ones plowing ahead in weapons research since there tech area is called in the pooled AI research file...

Hopefully I can get some more info as to what is going on so I can fix it and get the next version out.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I only have stock to go on, but here's what I see from it:

In AI_Research.txt->Add_Wanted_Tech_Areas_For_Designs(), called from [race]_Main_Script.txt->Main,

it looks like this test always true:
"if (add_all) or (not item_added) then"
because add_all is always FALSE and item_added is always FALSE

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

At turn 140'ish(with 0.92), none of the empires have actually deployed satellites at warp points. Looks like most, if not all, have a couple of Satellite Deployer designated ships, but they appear to be unused.

Also, it appears the AI barely build any satellites in the first place. A couple of planets in their entire empire might have a satellite group of 4-5 satellites, that's it. On the other hand, they appear to build dozens of fighters, yet never appear to put them in a carrier, so they're just planetary defense. In fact, none of the AI's appear to have 'Carriers' at all?

The AI also has tons of troops on just about all his planets. He also has Troop Transports. I'm unsure if he actually use troops in attacks, though?

I also noticed a few cases where the AI was trying to retrofit ships with cargo. Obviously that didn't work, and I'm guessing he's gonna keep trying until the end of time.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I suspect the reason that satellite layers are not picking up sats anymore is because I made planets launch all their sats rather than keeping 50% in cargo meaning that there is probably no stock for the sat layers to grab and distribute. I can tweak the priorities for satellites though to get a few more constructed.

You're not seeing any carriers for the simple reason, none of the AIs are reaching fighter 2 tech, which would give them the carrier hull. It should be fixed in v0.93. At least I remembered to keep 50% of fighters in storage on the planet for use in ground combat or for carrier pick-up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

I have seen the AI send out a troop transport with troops on it to join a fleet but I'm not sure if it will follow a capture planet strategy. I'll have to investigate this and maybe edit some strategies to ensure ships break formation - I can just see it now with the cargo and repair ships in fleets being the leaders and the AI fleets fleeing in combat. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

The retrofit with cargo bug is an SE:V issue. Although I think I need to tweak done the priority for colony ships. In all my test games, the AI has more colony ships than planets to colonize. Even worse is that it will send all the available ones to the same planet (SE:V bug again, but at least fixable in the scripts) and so on.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I'd suggest a big increase in Satellite building and prevent planets from launching more than just a few; fighters are way better planetary defense than stationary satellites, while satellites are ideal for warp points. With 30'ish satellites at each border warp point, the AI can keep his territory very safe for just 1k'ish mainatenance cost per border.

I'll keep an eye out for 'invading AIs'. I suspect the whole 'land troops' action is beyond the reach of the current AI, though.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I don't think so. I think if the same conditions are met as in SE:IV, the troop transport will land its troops. Now the bigger problem will be if the troop transport is unarmed will it run away first until the planet defenses have been destroyed first and then return? Is SE:V different in what it considers a "defenseless" planet and is there some bug like WPs not being damaged from space? If I give the transport a weapon will it follow the capture planet strategy and launch a drop pod? That'll we'll have to watch for.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Looking at the 'Capture Planet' strategy, it appears to be exactly like the Optimal Firing Range strategy just with the 'Capture planet' setting at TRUE. In other words, it's likely to behave just like the regular ships...? I'll try an invasion myself and see how it acts in combat.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Although if the ship doesn't have offensive weapons than it will flee first and then return once the danger has been neutralized. I suppose I will have to make sure that fleets break their formation and follow their own strategies once combat begins - this plus a single weapon on the troop transport will probably be the most effective way for the AI to drop troops off.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Okay, here's the invasion report.

I created a Troop Transport ship, Large Freighter, no weapons, 1 space yard component and lots of cargo space. Capture planet strategy.

I then made an Invasion fleet, two task forces. In one task force was my 10 attack ships, in the other was the Troop Transport ship with 31'ish troops. Both task forces had the 'capture planet' strategy.

Sent them to the planet, watched while the computer did all the fighting. As soon as the fight started the troop ship went straight for the planet alongside my attack ships. The planet started firing back and my ships fired at the planet.

It appears that WPs do get damaged, but either they are *very* hard to hit, or they do not get damaged until nearly all of the facilities have been destroyed. In other words, WPs aren't killed until you've nearly wiped out the entire planet.

Anyway, my troop transport eventually reached the planet and flew 'above' it. I got a message saying my troops had been deployed and ground combat would start next turn. At that point all my ships stopped firing at the planet( the WPs were still firing at me) and started to retreat/ go out of firing range. Then the combat ended.

Pressed end turn, ground combat started after AI's were finished. What I noticed here was that my troops went straight for the enemy weapon platforms; even though there were enemy troops firing at me. Had there been a few more enemy troops all my troops would have been killed while spending minutes killing those WPs( which were harmless to my troops) if I hadn't done something.

Anyway, I killed the enemy troops, took out about 3 of 7 WPs, then ran out of ordinance O_O

Noticed that my troops had 'Optimal firing range' as strategy by default. I'm guessing that strategy prioritize WPs over troops? In that case, perhaps a new 'troop' strategy should be made and used as default by ground troops? One that makes them first target other troops, then WPs.

*Edit*

I noticed some variation in the space battle above the planet as I did it a few more times. 4 out of 5 times the whole thing will work out like it should. However, a few times the attacking ships from the other task force will *not* retreat after the troops have been deployed. However, they *will* stop firing, but the WPs do not. In other words, they just stand around the planet getting destroyed by the planet's WPs without returning fire or retreating, even after the troops have been deployed.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

As I mentioned in a previous post WPs are one of the three units set to be active in ground combat, however none of the ground combat capable weapons can be mounted on WPs using the stock data files. Very easy fix though.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Just an idea but could the Planet Utilization tech-area be rearranged in this order:
Climate Control Facility, Atmospheric Modification Plant and then Value Improvement Plant?

Also can anything be done about fighters and drones losing all but one movement point after being launched from the system screen?
[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img]

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I noticed that if you change the design names file, the autocomplete feature of the ship builder won't work properly (for instance, telling it to build a colonizer causes it to build a ship without a colony module). At least, I think its the design names file that's causing it. Do you suppose that could also affect how the AI builds ships?

Or am I the only one having this problem?

I also noticed loading a saved empire in new game causes the empire's tech levels to all be set to 0. You can set them in the empire edit, but everything starts at 0. Then, when the game starts, you get all the normal starting techs, in addition to the ones you chose in the empire editor, but because of the bug you can end up paying tech points for techs that are supposed to be starting techs. This won't happen if you create a new empire in the new game screen, only if you load an existing one. I don't know if that's stock SEV or balance mod, but I suspect its stock SEV.

I also noticed that I ended up starting with all of the plague bombs available, but I did not allocate any starting research into biological weapons, nor did I have levels in it when the game started (didnt even have the requisite for bio weapons). But I could build ships with the weapons. Not sure how much of that is Stock related either, and I have a suspicion it may be related to the above issue.

If all of these issues are not Balance-mod related, then sorry for posting here, but I wasn't sure, and I noticed them when using Balance mod. I'd test them out in stock to see for sure but won't have time for a few days, so I figured I'd post them while they were still fresh in my mind.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Speaking of design names...there is no Satellite Layer on the list...might be helpful...Also does the AI use these design names to determine the type of ship to build, and what goes on the ship, from the AI ship design file?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

The AI has reciprocal entries for all the design type names in the Balance Mod and I guess even a few more for stellar manipulation and satellite layer (of which I should probably add so players can use autocomplete for it).

You need to pick a "valid" ship size or type for autocomplete to work properly really. For example, pick a fighter hull for a fighter design. For ships, the Balance Mod prefers the use of transports for most non-combat ships or colony ships for colonizers etc.

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The plague bomb issue is just being caused by a minor typo, it's been fixed in the upcoming version.

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The drop all levels to 0 for empire files is a known SE:V bug.

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I'm not sure if WPs should be functional in Ground Combat...

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Fighters and Drones only get 1 movement point after launch on the system screen because there are no limits to launch/recover of units during game turns. It would be unbalancing otherwise.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Regarding WPs for ground combat, IMHO I think one should be able to build some type of ground based installation to aid the troops in defending the planet. The problem as I see it now is that even a lvl 1 small weapons platform is 200Kt. Load this with armor, shields and a bunch of small DUCs and it will be a very tough nut to crack. Just a few of those on a planet would dramatically change the balance of ground combat.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I had considered the creation of "ground turrets" for the SE:V version of my Space Food Empires thing - they would be between ~20-40kT and use the same small weapons as fighters/troops. But for a stock-like mod? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Another quick and dirty solution is to allow satellites to be active for ground combat and allow mounting ground capable weapons. Just a couple of quick adjusts to the data files.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

If I do add another element to ground combat it would use the small weapons. I might throw in a mount for the weapons if its another unit type - but I don't want to edit any of the main ship weapons to have ground damage fields.

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I'm still waiting on Aaron to get back to me on some research pathing/priorties questions I had. I hope to hear from him today so I can go ahead and finish off v0.93, if not I'll probably still release the update for the bug fixes but the regular AIs will probably be lax on directed weapon research.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

It seems to me that it is only fair that platform weapons which can shoot fighters in space should also be able to shoot them on the ground.

Targetting troops is another matter entirely.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Brings up another question though, is line of sight functional in ground combat and are facilities capable of being damaged by friendly fire? I assume if you start firing heavy weapons in the city somebody is going get hurt.

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

Well, major difference for shooting ftrs on the ground and in space. In space, you can stream your bullets all over trying for a hit on an evasive group of ftrs. You try that on the ground and you're looking at considerable collateral damage.

That says to me that if the defsats dont catch the ftrs in space, then it's up to the ground installations and defenses that shoot skyward to finish the job. Personally, I wouldnt want my space weapons coming down on me out of the heavens trying to hit an attacking ftr... I'd take my chances with my shoulder mounted rocket or find a nice ditch to hide in...

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

About the AI research Kwok, isn't it just a matter of, for instance, changing

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>call lst_Armor_Wanted_Tech_Level.add(1)</pre><hr />
into
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>call lst_Armor_Wanted_Tech_Level.add(10)</pre><hr />
in the Empire Main scripts to get the AI to research better standard armor?

Then doing the same with the normal weapons, i.e. Depleted Uranium Cannon, Proton Beam, etc. for those that doesn't have Cryst/Organic traits?

How does it work in relation to the Set_Age research calls and the general research files?

Re: Balance Mod Available for SE:V
 

I emailed this to Malfaydor - but you can echo my sentiment.

Re: Balance Mod AI Research
 

The armor and stuff of that sort is already prioritized and I can add weapons to the general pool, however since the races use different weapon techs for mid to late game, they would lose research efficiency by researching weapons they wouldn't use. I'll probably throw in DUCs and CSMs for now though as a temporary measure until it's fixed properly.