Opinions wanted on new tech (Pirate Mod)

[Marty Ward]

I like the all ideas but I have 2 questions.
Would linking the planetary shields give you free shield levels if you discovered them on a ruin?
Should there be a counter for the hardened bulkheads? Without them being able to be countered with some weapon you probably could make an undestroyable ship.
Also, you may want to consider adding a varient of the small missile mod if you add another PD type. I think it is in the D-Man mod if you need ideas. You can create cheap deadly missile ships with this. The laser PD reminds me of a close support weapon.

[This message has been edited by Marty Ward (edited 22 April 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

Finding planetary shield tehc in a ruin will give you MPSG tech level 1.
You still need shields 3 to get a MPSG I facility.
If you captured a planet with a MPSG you might be able to get free shield techs, but I don't think you can analyse facilities.

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Should there be a counter for the hardened bulkheads? Without them being able to be countered with some weapon you probably could make an undestroyable ship

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Doubling your ship's hitpoints with HB will boost the price of your ship to double also.
So, for the cost of a double-hitpoint HB ship, you could build two standard ships.
HBs can stop armor-penetrating, shield penetrating, shield destroying, weapon destroying weapons. The counter for that is simply standard weapons, which do much more damage than the specialty types, and so they will cut through the HBs.

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Also, you may want to consider adding a varient of the small missile mod if you add another PD type. I think it is in the D-Man mod if you need ideas. You can create cheap deadly missile ships with this. The laser PD reminds me of a close support weapon.

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My PDC is a "one square away" close support weapon, the PDL, can cover ships much farther away, and will have a chance to fire twice (at half-power) on missiles coming for the PDL ship.
In fact, I believe that my PD is weaker than the standard files' PD.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 22 April 2001).]

[Deathstalker]

I posted a CompEnhancement mod awhile ago in the data mod section that had both 'hardened componants' and missile mounts (a light one), your welcome to take a look and use any of the ideas if you want. There are also mounts for other weapons as well, they were mainly used to force the AI to use different ship sizes in different roles.
The 'hardened componant' could be used for any componant to double the dmg resist/cost of the comp.

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Suicide Junkie]

The only reason why I didn't go with a component enhancement for hardened components was because it would apply to armor as well. Armored armor is kind of silly...
I think I may add some missile mounts though.

[Deathstalker]

True, if you look at it as 'Armoured armour' it is silly...but then again, really what is Plate Mail armour but chainmail with a few metal plates over top?? Or in other words, 'armoured armour' Whenever I used my mod I just looked at it as a costlier Version of the normal armour, better materials (ie, steel plate vs. say 'bronze' plate).....(that and why would I want two componants that have 30resist each that I would have to repair seperately when I could have one with 60 that would need repair less often??)....But hey, thats why I LOVE this game, everyone mods it to their own likes and dislikes...The game may be good but the support/people who play it make it Outstanding!

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Trachmyr]

Ok, comments and suggestions....

1) Shield generators are a good idea, however I think you might be overpowering the upper levels... after all they still use only 1 fac spot.

2) I'll get to that at the end

3) I agree that if you make a better mount type for sats it should improve range not damage so much... personally I don't use sats, so I'm not sure how they'll play out, but remeber that the AI will always use the biggest mount (or the one further down the list) available.

4) Even though the hull is strengthened, the struts/thicker wall/ect. will still use some space... perhaps 1-5KT, Also now that "One per ship" restriction is active, perhaps you can utilize that feature for "Heavy/Very Heavy/Extremely Heavy" reinforcement. I'm planning on adding something very similiar to the Crystalline tech (Crystalline Structure... LOTS of hits, uses 20 tons and a lot of radioactives, one per ship)

Now for PD weapons...

I think you set the range for PD lasers too high... I have had PD GUNS (5 Ton, 2 range, 1/2 damage) in my mod for a while.... at first their range was 3, but I found myself never using the cannons. Why? Because at range 3, a few ships could easily protect the fleet from incoming missiles/fighters...
But by dropping range to 2, these guns really only protect their own ship and sometimes their neighbor (the way it should be), thus I still mounted cannons on the larger ships to protect the fleet. I have had a lot of time tweaking theese, so believe me... at range 3, Half damage and only 5 tons... your PD lasers are very unbalanced!

Additionally, as an additional reason for big ships to mount PD Cannons, I added the tag to make PD GUNS be treated as armor... these small, lightly armored turrets get picked off easy by weapons fire, furthermore this gives fighters a chance against these smaller guns/lasers. I also added the "External Missiles" and made the be treated as armor as well.

Here is a list of PD weapons in my mod, if you see anything you like... feel free to borrow it:

PD Cannons: Basically the std PD's from MM, but with a range of 3-6.

PD Guns: As described above, 5Tons, 1/2 damage, range 1-2, deystroyed with armor.

PD Rockets: 40 tons, 50% better damage, range 8-10, reload rate 2. (these are still being tweaked, they are not seekers, this way distant fighters have a chance to get in)

RAP Armor: "Reactive Armor Plating", each 10 ton piece of armor (as good as std armor), has a PD weapon with a range of 1, hits only seekers, reload rate 30, does enough damage to kill any seeker. Ever wonder what the Last few tons should be, PD or armor? Well now you can have your cake and eat it too!

Well that's my 2 cents.

Opps, sorry misunderstood what your PDC/PDL were... I thought you made a smaller Version, (that's what I get for skimming through).... I'm not sure about your arangement, Tell me how they do, I might add analogs to my own mod!

[This message has been edited by Trachmyr (edited 22 April 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

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Opps, sorry misunderstood what your PDC/PDL were... I thought you made a smaller Version, (that's what I get for skimming through).... I'm not sure about your arangement, Tell me how they do, I might add analogs to my own mod!

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2) Point Defence Lasers. The PDCannons, are limited to 3 range at max, while the PDLasers go 8, but are limited to half damage. PDC's then defend your ship, while the PDL's defend the fleet.

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PDC:
-range 3 at tech lvl 5
-Full damage (kill one seeker /shot)
-20kT
-reload 1

PDL:
-range 5 to 8, at higher tech
-roughly half damage. (typically two shots /seeker)
-20kT
-reload 1.

Basically, its a short range kinetic kill cannon, or a "scratch em till they bleed" long range laser.

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Shield generators are a good idea, however I think you might be overpowering the upper levels... after all they still use only 1 fac spot.

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You'd be surprised what a 100% hitrate can do for your damage capabilities. But still, when you get 16 tech levels in shields, you deserve something tough. It will also encourage troop landings (like starwars).

I still have to see how they play out, though.

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Even though the hull is strengthened, the struts/thicker wall/ect. will still use some space... perhaps 1-5KT, Also now that "One per ship" restriction is active, perhaps you can utilize that feature for "Heavy/Very Heavy/Extremely Heavy" reinforcement.

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"One per ship" would definitely not be enough. This stuff is not armor, so if you only had one, it would only stop about 4% of the hits. I need this to be lots of components, since its non-armor.

how it works, is that with a 20 component ship, you add 20 HB points, and you reduce internal damage by 50%.
Add 40, internal damage is reduced by 65%
add 60, I.D. is down by 75%
add 80, 80%
add 180, 90%

thing is, at $400 a pop, ($100 maintenance)that comes to:
20 = 8k minerals
40 = 16k
80 = 32k
180 = 72k = 18k mintenance! = bankrupt empire

Think of it as ripping up the carpeting, stripping the walls & putting in ablative armor instead

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Also now that "One per ship" restriction is active, perhaps you can utilize that feature for "Heavy/Very Heavy/Extremely Heavy" reinforcement

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I'm curious as to how that would work. would it be a single armor component, or what?

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that and why would I want two componants that have 30resist each that I would have to repair seperately when I could have one with 60 that would need repair less often??)....

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Ahh, but in this case, it is: "should I use the 30kT armor that gives me 200 hitpoints, or the thirty 1kT armor segments that give me 300 hitpoints, but take four turns to repair?"

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 22 April 2001).]