[Saber Cherry]

Thanks for reading and replying to my post!

Captain Kwok said:
Lots of little items to respond to.

The first item is actually an SE5 display issue.

There were no settings at the time v1.09 was created that could alter the trade percentages. That will be changing with the next SE:V patch. You're high trade income in that game is really misleading how much you'll need to build resource facilities otherwise.

Well... I mean... my high trade income is important, and of course, too high. But I don't understand why resource extractor output was nearly tripled from SE:IV, too. The upkeep on units and facilities merit a higher extractor output... but not 2000, IMO. Even without any trade, resource extraction is just so grossly high that my empire's tiny economic base could support 50% of my total usage... with only 15% of my colonies doing any extraction, only 1 of them breathable.

You'll want carriers to move fighters to non-colony systems.

Freighters do better. They're cheaper, hold more (using cargo bays instead of fighter bays), have lower maintenance, and can unload unlimited fighters in space in one turn with a single fighter bay... which is better then sending them out in flights from a carrier. Once you get through a wormhole (assuming the other end is safe), a carrier becomes a liability, to some extent. If fighters were slow in map movement, carriers would make much more sense, though I admit this is personal taste.

Rocket Pods look pretty good, but they do use ordnance and they have a low fire rate. Their overall damage ratios are similar to most other small weapons.

But rocket pod damage is frontloaded, and you don't need the fighters to survive after the initial salvo to fire a second, anyway, so reload rate and ordinance are not really all that important. Can a fighter really live long enough to run out of ordinance? If he did, that would be after 10 shots, or 500 damage PER POD, even without an ordinance module! And more importantly... Emissive Armor can render a ship immune to normal fighter weapons, but not rocket pods. They get through point defense and emissive armor.

After many simulations, I was shocked to discover that I could not build anti-ship fighters with armor, rocket pods, sensors, and ECM that could beat my anti-fighter frigate with APBs, point-defense, sensors, ECM, and emissive armor, at equivalent costs. So perhaps I am wrong. But, on the other hand, small rocket pods seem so much better than an equivalent tonnage of capital ship missiles that it is hard for me to feel like they are both balanced relative to each other.

I've added more cost to Colony Components for v1.10.

Good!

Don't neglect that hulls can be upgraded, and those iffy level 1 350kT destroyers can easily be made into 400kT destroyers with a bit of research, which are also able to use large ship mounts.

I realize that, but... it is very disappointing to discover that destroyers 1 and 2 are strictly inferior to the frigate 3 that you will already have when you get destroyers. There's no reason for destroyers 1 and 2 to exist, as long as frigates are so big (and faster, cheaper, more fuel-efficient, and more evasive).

Essentially... I don't think you should have to max out a ship type's technology for it to show any improvement over the old ship type. In that case, it is better to research strictly improving technologies - namely, anything else. Even destroyer 3 is only questionably better than frigate 3, given the disadvantages in speed, fuel efficiency, cost, and evasion you pay for a mere 60kT of extra usable space. That is to say, it is NOT better, unless you have pretty good large ship mount technology, too.

The remainder of the ship hulls are more intertwined, so it's usually a close equivalent when the next hull becomes available. There's also the addition of 5kT LS/CQ components in v1.10, that will help save space on some of the larger designs.

It is a close equivalent in usable space, but the new model is much more expensive, has lower evade, is slower, and uses more fuel. So... the shiny new technology is generally going to be a bad choice.

Medium and large freighters have had their upper limits for size increased, so this should help improve their space factor.

OK, good; I'll look forward to that. Though I rather think that the medium freighter would be happier with 8 engines / 80 points per move, rather than 10/100... which makes them strictly inferior to small freighters for the first however many levels are needed until/unless they ever reach 800kt.

There are no size limits to Warp Points. It was never implemented.

Well, warp points still SAY they have a size limit, so I never tried to push a larger ship through...

The upgrades for sensors have to worthwhile per level - anything less than 5% per level is useless. Keep in mind ECM advances at 4% per level, so assuming most players research these areas at about the same rate, you're only really seeing a few percentage points improvement anyway. Also note, that due to additive to-hit modifiers, 10% Combat Sensors are not twice as effective as 5% sensors.

Sorry, I was unclear. To rephrase: Like most of the things in your mod, I agree with your rate of advance for combat sensors. The problem I have, which is entirely subjective, is with basic sensors. I'd feel better if they started with a range of 5 and increased at 1 per level.

Boarding components are 20kT and are generally defeated by an equivalent size of crew quarters... so I don't think that's unreasonable.

No, not unreasonable at all. What I mean is, I would never research those components past the first level, because they increase so slowly, and the first level is already good enough to use for the rest of the game. This would be true unless they increase faster or start weaker.