[Devnullicus]

OK, well, things are going well for Version 1.3 of devnullmod. There's so many changes it's amazing. And all of them good =)

Anyway, I'm on the Last part of it now, tweaking the races to use the new technology, etc. Should be ready in a couple more days. A BIG HUGE thanks to Zeno for his wonderful mod tools. They've been a HUGE help. And I would encourage anyone who's going to do mods to check out the diffexam tool. The most incredible diff'ing tool I've ever used (and I've used a lot of them =) ).

Here is a list of the changes so far in Version 1.3 of devnullmod:

-updated data files for SE4 Version 1.35

-Modified Light Weapon Mounts slightly as they were a bit overpowered. Reduced range by one.
-Made all missiles half size, +25% cost.
-Split up point-defense weapons into two Groups -- one for seekers and the other for seekers/fighters/satellites.
-significantly raised seeker damage resistance for heavy bombardment missiles to make them worthwhile
-slightly increased sprint missile damage
-reduced sprint missile seeker damage resistance
-raised supplies used by missiles significantly
-since missiles are so much more deadly, races now start with point-defense I. Military Science will still
have to be researched to get Point-Defense 2+, Anti-Fighter Missiles, and Mini Point-Defense.
-made supply storage 10 tons instead of 20 to help make it fit better and be more useful. Halved the supplies
stored with each component.
-increased supplies stored by higher-level engines
-added mini point-defense cannons for very short-range point defense.
-increased anti-fighter missiles range and damage in order to make them viable.
-added Reactive Armor to Psychic Technology Tech tree. As regular armor with a 1-shot super Point-defense
built-in
-Created a new technology: Monolithic Construction - prereq Construction. Monolith Facilities now
need this tech instead of Stellar Manipulation. Ring/Sphere World Placement Pods and Cables/Plating now need
this tech as well as Stellar Manipulation.
-Revamped costs of many components in an effort to make the game not quite so skewed toward just minerals. Raised
the amount of radioactives used on many things, reduced the amount of minerals on many things, and raised the
amount of organics on some things. This changes the balance of the game somewhat, but I believe it's a good
change overall. I will be continuing to tweak these values as I play in order to balance them more.
-significantly reduced cost of a number of small weapons to make the costs consistent with their damage output.
-Gave new components good pictures and switched a few old component pictures.
-re-ordered components.txt file to streamline ship design
-modified description of satellite engines and barge engine that they don't currently work because MM has
hard-coded that satellites cannot do combat movement and bases cannot do regular movement.
-BUGFIX: re-ordered new enhancements in CompEnhancement.txt because apparently the order that they're listed in
the file is meaningful.
-BUGFIX: made family unique for all new seeking parasite missiles so that AI upgrades work
correctly (really, I actually did this time...honestly)
-BUGFIX: fixed typo for vehicle type with satellite engines that was causing them to not show up for use
-BUGFIX: made the families and roman numerals for
plasma charge -> hyper plasma charge,
electric ray -> lightning ray
acid globule -> enveloping acid globule
be consistent to help the AI upgrade correctly.


Selected mods from Pirates & Nomads v1.4 by Suicide_Junkie:
-made emissive armor soak 80/90/100 to make it worthwhile (esp. since emissive armor seems to be broken
in general (only the first hit gets 'emissed', and even then if the damage is > the emissive value, it all
gets through).
-"normal" shield generators provide the amount of hitpoints that "phased" shields used to. Normal shields are
now only on odd tech levels, 1/3/5/7/9. Phased shields are available on even tech levels, and provide
slightly more hitpoints than the previous normal (at techs 2/4/6/8/10). Normal and phased Shield generators
I/II/III/IV/V provide 1/2/3/4/5 points of shield regeneration.
-Shield Regenerators - Available on even tech levels. Provide bonus shield points equivalent to one turn of
regeneration.
-Split up Small Armor into Small Armor I/II/III
-Split up Small Emissive Armor into Small Emissive Armor I/II and upgraded it's armor value
-Split up Small Organic Armor into Small Organic Armor I/II/III
-Interspersed Small Shields and Small Phased Shields and gave them slight regeneration
(NOTE: Unit shield regeneration is not currently working in SE4)
-Improved Range of higher-level Wave Motion Guns (range now 8/10/12)
-Kamikaze warhead I/II/III do 60/120/180 damage.
-Added Ablative Armor I/II/III/IV/V
-Tachyon Dampener. 30Kt, 100 hitpoints. Will absorb a fraction of weapon-destroying attacks.
-Reduced Shield Generator I/II/III. 10kT, provides 25/50/75 shield points, regenerates 2/4/6 points/turn.
Provides 30/40/50 armor points. Requires shield tech level 3/6/9. Requires Armor tech 3/5/7.
-Reduced Shield Regenerator I/II/III. 5kT, regenerates 2/3/4 points per turn.
Requires shield tech level 5/7/10.
-Heavy Shield Generator I/II/III. 200kT. generates 1500/2000/2500 shield points.
Regenerates 50/75/100 points per turn. Requires shield tech level 11/12/13.
-increased max armor tech to 11
-increased max shield tech to 13


Emissive Armor Classic by Suicide_junkie:
-Added Emissive Armor Classic. Not working yet because emissive armor in general is screwed up. But when
emissive armor gets fixed, it should negate the first X points of damage every hit, taking that X off of the
damage that gets through (currently, if the damage is greater than the emissive ability of the armor, the full
damage goes through).


Mount Mods by DeathStalker:
-Mounts for weapons have been added to give each of the different ship sizes different roles in combat instead
of 'bigger ship, bigger guns' that exists now.
-Destroyers have extended range weapons (+50% size/cost, 90% damage, +2 Range, -10 to hit)
-Cruisers have Pulsed Weapons (+25% to hit, +25% damage, +1 rng, +50% cost/size)
-High Energy Focus Mount has been added for Baseships (5x cost/tonnage, 8x damage/Supplies, -1 Range, +10 to hit)


Point-Defense Mount by Daynarr:
-Added Daynarr's Point-Defense mount mods for Weapons Platforms and Bases. Increases range of Point-Defense Weapons
for these units when these mounts are used.


Intel_Fix 1.1 mod by Lucas:
This modification is designed to make the AI players' use of Intelligence more effective. To help the AI,
I have restricted them from using less effective Intelligence projects, or projects
(like "Force Concentrations") which they aren't clever enough to use effectively.

To gain access to all of the Intelligence projects, be sure to research "Human Intel".

If you don't research "Human Intel", then the only Intelligence projects you will have access to will be the ones I have restricted the computer to using, which are:

Ship Bomb
Crew Insurrection
Cargo Bomb
Anarchy Groups
Puppet Political Parties
Technological Espionage
Technological Sabotage
Intelligence Sabotage
Counter - Intelligence Level 1
Counter - Intelligence Level 2
Counter - Intelligence Level 3


[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 25 April 2001).]