STM shuttlecraft mod

[AngleWyrm]

I really like Atrocities Star Trek Mod, it's about the only thing I play. Here lately, I've been wanting to make some minor improvements to it, specifically the way shuttlecraft and fighters are set up. It took editing almost fifty files to get the ai to work with it, but it works.

I set up the tech tree so that "Support Craft" has five levels, one for each size of shuttlecraft. At Support Craft III, the Fighter tech tree becomes available, which is also in the Support Craft category. The long-range race-specific fighter beam weapons require fighter technology (and the appropriate beam tech level), but the basic phaser/phase cannon only require shuttle tech.

Also eliminated some duplication of cockpit/life support componants, modified the hanger bays, and changed what appeared to be a typo in Small Phase Cannon-I weapon damage table.

The shuttle sizes have been spread out more evenly between 10kT type-I and 65kt type-V. Fighters still range from 20kT to 40kT for normal, and up to 70kT for Warrior.

Edit: doggone ISP size limits! The attachment in the heading section above works. Atrocities STM v1.9.1.2 with (about 27meg)

[Atrocities]

This is very good. I have been meaning to redo the fighter/shuttle craft thing. The reason why fighters were considered support craft was so that they could be, and by extension the carriers, excluded from the game while keeping Shuttle Craft I - II.

I wanted to revamp the shuttle tech level but did not because it would break peoples save games. So I was holding off on it until later. But since you did the leg work on it, and thank you by the way, I guess I will have to include it in the next version. (We are getting dangerously close to the final final last and finally finished version.

[AngleWyrm]

Thanks!

I've been playtesting it today, and so far I'm kicking some serious a$$ with a combination of fighter waves and bording party ships, with a follow-up wave of neutron planet bombers and landing troops.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Finished version? You mean you're actually going to call it finished before version 9.73? AT, you surprise me!

[AngleWyrm]

But there's so much to do!

For one thing, the Massive Planetary Shield Generators all seem to cost the same 30k-1k-10k, even though they offer a range of shield points. Seems like it could be a gradient, so that players could trade between build time and protection.

And there's something odd about Starfleet Troops tech, which seems identical to regular troop tech, but costs some research to get.

Unless that bizarre alternate reality commonly referred to as IRL gets in the way.

[Atrocities]

Refining the details is something that I have been asking for help on since last October. Aiken and a few others have been gracious enough to help but it is a big mod.

[AngleWyrm]

If there's anything I can do, I'de like to help!

[AngleWyrm]

The appearance of monsters in the game has been a show-stopper for me; they come in with way more than anyone else, and bring to bear 900kT monsters while everyone else is struggling along with 300kT destroyers. By the time they arrived, they were invulnerable to minefields, shuttlecraft, and most weapons of the era produced to-hit percentages just over 1%.

So I've done some tweaking to the monster hulls. Turns out they weren't being charged for tonnage. Also, the hull sizes were rather haphazard. Below is an overview of some changes that balance them out. Also, being space creatures, the prices are weighted toward Biological instead of Minerals. Prices are listed at the end of each row, as Minerals-Organics-Radioactives:

Code:

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TL1 200kT Frigate       Entity       50-200-100 

TL2 290kT Destroyer     Calmarian    75-290-145

TL3 410kT LightCruiser  Tarrellian   100-410-205

TL4 550kT Cruiser       Combat Drone 150-550-275

TL5 710kT BattleCruiser Crystalline  170-710-375

TL6 810kT Battleship    Gomtuu       200-810-405

TL7  10mT Worldship     Doomsday     2500-10k-5k

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Also, adjusting Monster Tech to 100k cost in TechAreas, because it's used as the primary hull tech.