SE4 Modder Ver 1.76 (updated for ver 1.91)

[jimbob]

Very sweet, the program has come a long way since the first edition!

The damage ratio is useful because it tells you how many damage points the weapon will punch out each turn per kT of space it takes up on your ship. (the calculation takes the reload time into consideration so the damage/kT is reported as if the weapon fires every turn)

The Alpha (First) strike value is useful because it tells you the ratio of damage done by the weapon on the first round of combat*. This is cool, because some weapons have a long reload time.. so their damage ratio as calculated above might suck. HOWEVER if the first strike value is really high, you can cripple your opponent on the first volly, and then the second, third and even fourth rounds cease to be a concern 'cause the other guy is either dead or close to it!

These two values are very important (IMHO) for making sure the weapons are balanced.

EDIT: Just one thing that I noticed when using the modder. When more than 4 abilities are attached to a component or facility, there is no scroll bar to allow you to look at the additional abilities. This is of course most important when lookin and editing things like the B5 mod, where some facilities have 7+ abilities.

EDIT #2: Is it now possible to define what ship type will be found in a specific location within a fleet formation?!!?

Edit #3: Oh, and I think that the program reports the ability 'star unstable' as armor. Would it be possible to change this, as many mods use this non-sense place holder for descriptions, etc.

* well it's not just the first round of combat, but every round that the weapon fires. I just said first round for the sake of simplicity.

[ December 24, 2002, 20:06: Message edited by: jimbob ]