Beta players/testers needed for new mod

[Gandalph]

I have just finished my preliminary work on my mod. You can get it by clicking -->here<--
I am calling it BOD Mod, for Better Opponent Design. I have made extensive changes in a variety of areas and instead of flooding the board with a long post, I will provide this link -->BOD Mod Info
I am in need of anyone willing to play test, balance test, and/or help design AI files to suit the mod. I have already done some of the AI modding to make it playable, but the whole intent here is to give a large variety and better AI for single player games. If you can/are willing to help, please post here or send me an email. More helpers means it gets finished sooner.

Thanks

[Pax]

Which Version of SE4 is the mod for? 1.49, 1.67+, etc ... ?

[Suicide Junkie]

I am curious as to why you have decided to increase the number of ground combat turns.

As far as I can see, it will make larger planets undefeatable in ground combat, and ensure everything is over instantly. I fail to see the effect you are trying to achieve with this change.

In my mod, I have gone the other way entirely, reducing the number of turns to 2. Major battles can thus Last years, allowing time for reinforcements to arrive from both sides.

[Puke]

reduce turns, eh? when i was modding it, i made population harder to kill, and made militia more prevelant, increased their hitpoints, and decreased their damage rate.

your way sounds easier, though i think i want to keep the harder-to-bomb population.

[Gandalph]

This was designed for use with ver 1.67

The thought behind the increase in combat turns was that with offensive power somewhat weakened and defensive power strengthened that shorter battles would result in little damage to either side and, if using shields, would give full shield strength return between combat rounds. With longer combat, there is time to wear down and penetrate shields and armor, and therefor get some damage in before the round ends.

[Suicide Junkie]

While it is possible that the Last few troops on each side will be able to run it down to a stalemate, is that really a problem, or a feature?

In order to get a stalemate, both sides will have to be very short on firepower indeed. I don't see that as being to unrealistic.
Aside from that, once combat has progressed to that stage, all you need to do is drop a handful of reinforcements. A single transport would be way more than enough.

[Gandalph]

Well, in fact, the offensive and defensive pluses and minuses don't trickle down to ground combat completely, so I can turn this back to 10 turns for ground combat.

EDIT - I have changed combat turns back to 10 and restructured domed planets, as I had previously intended but missed. The new info is here. I will not be upgrading the actual mod files until things settle down.

[ July 19, 2002, 00:50: Message edited by: Gandalph ]

[capnq]

if using shields, would give full shield strength return between combat rounds.

Component damage isn't tracked for units; shields on ground troops just add to the total damage it takes to kill them.

As I understand it, the only "return" will be the strength of the Last unit per round that didn't absorb enough hits to die.

[Fyron]

reduced combat sensors to 20%, 30%, 40%
reduced ECM to 20%, 30%, & 40%

Umm... Combat Sensors are higher than ECM for a reason. The hull bonuses, Stealth and Scattering Armor bonuses, and range bonuses to defense all add up to more than Combat Sensors, so they need to be higher than ECM to get some balance in there.

[Phoenix-D]

Added to the fact that you loose hit probability every square of distance