Evil mod idea about missiles

[Sinapus]

I was looking at some of the mods on the mod board and remembering some comments about how missiles aren't as effective against human players later in the game. I came up with an evil thought: why not increase seeker speed for all weapons to something like 8 or 10?

It would give less opportunity for point defense to engage and very few ships could back away fast enough to get out of range. Also, missiles -should- be incredibly fast compared to the ships they target.

Okay, I'm evil and I like missile swarms. If this isn't evil enough I'll think about lowering the reload time on the launchers to 1 or something. Hmm... will the game fail if you set the range past 20?

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--
"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough
to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a
pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors
come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless
eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your
associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

[General Hawkwing]

And this changes would not significantly effect(decrease) game balance? The AI currently fails to research propulsion quick enough and only a few of the races research CSM or PD's. Why not think of a way to aid the AI, instead of making it easier to defeat?

[Taqwus]

*frown*

It may actually make the game harder -- certain AIs like to defend their planets with missile-laden WPs, but for now a high-tech ship can orbit the planet at a short radius, keep bLasting with range-8 weapons, and never get hit. But then, I rarely use missiles myself (being mostly a late-game warrior), so maybe it would make it easier. Hrm.

I've built battleships that move at combat speed 6, without advanced prop -- against that speed, none of the CSMs are particularly useful, and even Plasma IV/V can't catch up -- they tie. So it might possibly help the computer defend its planets (albeit better would be convincing it to build fighters, to use intel to capture ships threatening it, and to launch mines when a system is threatened -- in 1.19, hard, I've caught AI planets that had mines in their inventory that should have been launched before I got there, even when they *knew* that I had a ship in range. Suggestion sent to Malfador.)

Perhaps base/WP missiles could be presumed to have much more powerful launchers, and get their full movement immediately upon launch rather than the turn afterwards...



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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Sinapus]

quote:

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Originally posted by Taqwus:
*frown*

It may actually make the game harder -- certain AIs like to defend their planets with missile-laden WPs, but for now a high-tech ship can orbit the planet at a short radius, keep bLasting with range-8 weapons, and never get hit. But then, I rarely use missiles myself (being mostly a late-game warrior), so maybe it would make it easier. Hrm.

I've built battleships that move at combat speed 6, without advanced prop -- against that speed, none of the CSMs are particularly useful, and even Plasma IV/V can't catch up -- they tie. So it might possibly help the computer defend its planets (albeit better would be convincing it to build fighters, to use intel to capture ships threatening it, and to launch mines when a system is threatened -- in 1.19, hard, I've caught AI planets that had mines in their inventory that should have been launched before I got there, even when they *knew* that I had a ship in range. Suggestion sent to Malfador.)

Perhaps base/WP missiles could be presumed to have much more powerful launchers, and get their full movement immediately upon launch rather than the turn afterwards...

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Well, I was also thinking about the AI when I destroyed a neutral race and had to resort to missiles and standoff attack them. I wanted to make things more difficult by giving WP weapon mounts the same benefits as base weapon mounts. E.g, more range.

As for what to do with AI and missiles, didn't the Sergetti mods give them two attack ship types? Why not arrange for a missile and a point-defense attack ship and defense ship designs for the AI? (And try to get them to build it correctly/place in fleets.)

I haven't looked too closely at the Sergetti designs. Do they have some sort of ratio for those two attack ship designs in the game?


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--
"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough
to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a
pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors
come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless
eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your
associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

[Daynarr]

quote:

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Well, I was also thinking about the AI when I destroyed a neutral race and had to resort to missiles and standoff attack them. I wanted to make things more difficult by giving WP weapon mounts the same benefits as base weapon mounts. E.g, more range.

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I have made a little mod that changes only CompEnhancement.txt file. It adds additional range and accuracy to WP mounts to be like the ones used on bases (the damage is not changed). The second additions are new Point-defense mounts for bases. They add longer ranges (no increase of damage) and AI USES them. If you like, I could post them here.

quote:

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As for what to do with AI and missiles, didn't the Sergetti mods give them two attack ship types? Why not arrange for a missile and a point-defense attack ship and defense ship designs for the AI? (And try to get them to build it correctly/place in fleets.)

I haven't looked too closely at the Sergetti designs. Do they have some sort of ratio for those two attack ship designs in the game?

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Unfortunately, I have found no way to specify to AI what to put in the fleet or what attack type of ships to built. It seems to be random. AI has some special rules when designing same types of ships and when I get a hang of it I will post them for all moders here.

[dmm]

The most realistic way to make missiles more effective would be to have the computer target more than one ship. Even if it doesn't have MultiplexTracking, it shouldn't fire a second salvo at a ship that's already being chased. I've encountered AI fleets with several missile ships, and every missile gets fired at only ONE of my ships. (This is using the V formation, for which the leading ship is the lone closest ship.) So, of course, I just run that one away and attack with the others. And if the AI does have MultTrack, it should use it -- target every enemy ship with at least one missile before sending a second one against a ship. And hold some in reserve -- don't launch 30 missiles at one ship just because it's the only one currently in range!

[WhiteHojo]

Daynar - I would like to see this WP mod you refer to... a posting of it would be nice - thanks in advance

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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.