WW: Imperial Star Destroyer mod 2.0

[CaptBenson]

Version 2.0 is hot off the press. To install, unzip the attached file into your weird worlds directory. Make sure you read the readme.txt in the isd2.0 directory to see all the changes that have been made.

[PvK]

Very nice! Very fun to lay waste to things with an ISD that can't be wiped out immediately.

It is really powerful, though. I took on two Garthan fleets (4 carriers, 5 frigates) and won. I also took on two Tan Rau Decimators (and eight fighters) at once head on and won (that's charging right up two Particle Vortex Cannons!), though I did have some improved equipment at that point.

The mercenary ISD ... I wished I could break my accidental alliance when I got it - there was no one left to kill at that point.

I tried it against Yellow Kawangi though and it's not tougher than they are. ;-)

PvK

[PvK]

The TIE fighter weapons seem like they should be pulses rather than beams. The TIE fighter launcher also seems fairly unnecessary.

Oh, and I did run into a weird thing with the UI. The cargo is very large, so the UI scrolls vertically for it when it fills up, and an ambassador or other passenger will end up partly off the bottom of the screen. The really weird part though was I seem to have broken the UI by then closing the cargo and ship displays while it was in a scrolled position - it doesn't scroll back to the top when those are closed, leaving no way to access the controls at the top of the UI! At least, that's how it seemed. They did reset however after I engaged in another battle. That's really a game/UI bug (or at least failure on my part to find a sooner way out of that situation). The only way to mod it out would be to reduce the cargo capacity.

PvK

[CaptBenson]

I've done no changes to any weapons themselves, but it's slated for the total conversion mod. I just wanted to get out what I had finished since I promised it would be out this week and I'm not sure how long it will take to rig up some new TIE Fighter equipment. I'll likely post an update that includes just those changes to the TIE Fighters. I'm still debating between making the TIEs extremely weak (both defensively and offensively and having about 6 to 12 launch at once) or keeping it roughly the way it is now (except change the graphics/audio of the weapon and reduce its damage maybe). I mainly just picked that weapon because it was a green laser of sorts until a better one can be made.

As for the UI and the cargo, this is likely an issue of your resolution. At 1280x960, I don't have the problem. When making the ISD, I modeled it stat-wise largely from the Damocles. This includes the maximum cargo capacity of 20 items. So if you ever happened across the Damocles in an un-modded game, you would theoretically experience those same problems. I'm not familiar with them since I don't use a low resolution. What size do you use?

Regarding the ship being overpowered, it is definitely overpowered when you've got it all rigged up with the best equipment and especially on the easier gameplay settings. I only play on the hardest settings and the largest map. Despite its strengths, it is not remotely invincible. Many a time, I've lost battles to the Tan Ru. I've yet to fight the kwangi, but I suspect you're right about it losing to them without a fleet to back it up.

Ultimately, I want to set up purchasable items at Coruscant that adds a ship to your fleet. When that's implemented in the total conversion (if it's doable), I will likely reduce the strength of the ships to try and balance it out. I just think it'd be really cool to see 3 ISDs taking on a big fleet of bad guys. Thanks for the feedback!

[Shadowcat]

The scrolling-and-closing the cargo bay issue is a known 'feature' of the game, but if you press 'C' to toggle the cargo bay back on you can work around it.

[CaptBenson]

Yeah, I just tested it out last night at the lowest resolution it would let me set it to and I had no problems just scrolling it up and down by moving my mouse to the top of the screen or the bottom. I usually play the game with both the ship systems screen and the cargo hold open at the same time.

[PvK]

Ok, I didn't think to look up keyboard shortcuts. Clearly it's a UI cesura that you get an oval with no controls if you have a big cargo, low res, scroll and close the ship/cargo sections, but no big deal, and not strictly limited to this mod. Can be confusing though. I run at 1024 x 768 by the way.

Personally I could do without the fighter launcher on the ISD, but that's just my vague taste.

As for balance, I'd suggest increasing the difficulty of the fleets out there, rather than weakening the ISD. It'd be more fun, spectacular, and "thematic", I think, to be able to get up to three ISD's, and still have challenging battles because there were some really large or otherwise tough alien fleets out there. Maybe beef up the homefleets so they are really challenging, add some rebels, rebel ISD's, or whatever.

PvK

[CaptBenson]

I was thinking either increase hitpoints across the board or decrease damage to make battles last longer. It won't be cheap to buy yourself a fleet of ISDs. I was thinking you would have to trade in 10 coins worth of items for one ISD. This would mainly be just to have fun with it (or get extra firepower if needed).

Regarding the fighter bay, you *might* be able to paste the old ISD.ini file in gamedata/hulls for the new directory and it should replace the fighter bay location with a system hardpoint again. I know some people prefer no TIE and some probably wanted to see it so I at least wanted to make them available. The terran.ini file will probably try to equip it with a fighter bay anyway, but without the slot, it should just ignore that part of the code. I'll test it real quick to find out.

Edit: I just tested it and it seemed stable and it did replace the fighter bay with the system hardpoint. So that's a workaround you can use if you don't feel comfortable modifying my mod.

[PvK]

Oh, interesting. Thanks!

PvK