Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion

[Ed Kolis]

There is only one shield regeneration ability. AFAIK it works on both types of shields...

[Rollo]

That's cool Henk, no hurry, but I am always looking for feedback, of course.

se5a, what exactly do you think needs fixing with shields? Can you be a bit more specific?

And yeah, as Ed already said, shield regen works for either shield.

[henk brouwer]

I finally got around to playing a game and so far it's great, one note so far, it seems that the AI's in my game are not investing as much in research as they should. I'm only 6th by total score but my research output is 5 times higher than any of the other races, in fact they are all still very close to the amount of research they started out with, and none of them seem to have build any research stations in the last 4 years (it's 2408 now). They keep up quite well when looking at the amount of tech levels they have researched because of their AI bonus, but they could do much better.

Here's a screenshot of the scores, it's a high tech cost, no intel game, I changed the monster's flag in my game because it looked a lot like the neutrals (I forgot to switch them off at the game start) I'm player 1 (the taera shipset)


The problem is probably made worse by the galaxy settings, (small, sparse galaxy) at this point most of the planets have been colonized and there's not much room to expand or build additional research facilities. Anyhow it couldn't hurt if one or two of the AI's were designed to build more research stations.

Anyhow, even though I'm doing well on the research front I'm having a lot of trouble keeping my empire together, I did manage to conquer the Jraenar empire early on, but now the Cue Cappa attack me from behind. They use a lot of seekers (which are far more difficult to defend against in Devnull) and because of AI-bonus they can support huge fleets. (i'm having trouble with my upkeep at only 26 ships) My ships don't stand a chance against their fleets out in open space, but well designed weapon platforms with lots of pd at the planets bordering their empire can just stop them for now. I however still lost two far away systems to large Cue-Cappan fleets over the last year. Also the space monsters have picked me as their favourite victim I'm getting monster attacks almost every turn. Looks like I'm really going to need the research advantage I have build up .

[henk brouwer]

Never mind that last post, I just started a new game and the AI is building huge amounts of research facilities. I'm playing on a slightly larger map this time, but otherwise the settings are the same.

Why did I start a new game you ask? Well because the AI humiliated me in the last one . I might have been ahead in technology but that did not save me from the Cue-Cappan fleet of 59 ships with missiles and fighters that suddenly entered my homesystem.

Anyhow, geat mod. the techtree (or what I've seen of it) is mostly the same as stock, but weapons and components have been tweaked a lot, and interesting new ones have been added. It seems far better balanced compared to stock and the AI does a very good job at using the new options it has. I'm looking forward to new versions

[David E. Gervais]

I'm here lurking too,.. <waves to everyone> Hi people.

Cheers!

[Rollo]

Thanks for the great and informative feedback, Henk.

Glad the AI is researching better in the 2nd game. Honestly, I hadn't really known how to reply to the first report. But yeah, small Galaxy and monsters could easily throw the AI off-balance I assume. Killing fledgling research worlds very fast, and not letting the AI get a foot on the ground. And also glad the Cue Cappa managed to give you some troubles . Looking at your scores it did seem to me you invested a bit too much into research and not enough resources to maintain a large enough standing fleet. Serves you right =P.

Keep us posted how the 2nd game goes, if you feel like it.
That applies for everyone, of course. There have been some extensive changes to to-hit chances, seekers and fighters. So looking for feedback and insights on that, but anything else as well really.

As for new versions... well, let's just say I hope it doesn't take over 2 years again. But I wouldn't expect anything for the next couple of months either. Apart from small typos, fixes, or any glaring mod breaking errors that have not been found yet.

and David! I knew you'd be lurking around somewhere... but I had no clue you were hiding in THIS thread . I hope everything is well on your end. And thanks again for the pixel work tutelage. You will find some of your artwork that you sent to me oh so long ago in this new version.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

/me waves back.

How's your mother doing? I remember you saying you were busy taking care of her.

[henk brouwer]

Hi David, good to see you around too, are you still working on art for Malfador?

Rollo said:
Keep us posted how the 2nd game goes, if you feel like it.
That applies for everyone, of course. There have been some extensive changes to to-hit chances, seekers and fighters. So looking for feedback and insights on that, but anything else as well really.

Well in that case it might be usefull to tell a bit more about the dramatic downfall of the Jitwick Empire in my last game:

The war with the Cue Cappa had raged for years, only a few remembered how it all started. The treacherous Cue Cappa, once close allies, had attacked the Jitwick by suprise, and there had been no answer to their huge fleets of ships and missile technology, and many, many innocent lives had been lost.

The Jitwick however had learned from these early encounters: Their superior technology would not help against the cue cappa, they destroyed our fleets from long range with their more primitive, yet effective missile technology before we could use our state of the art weapons. We needed to build a large fleet with strong point defense to counter the threat. We would also need a more resource based economy. Work on the project started immediately.

And it worked! Captain Twurckle still fondly remembered how they defeated, a year ago, a huge Cue Cappan fleet of around 60 ships. Our fleet of 30 ships had been outnumbered but had had backup of point-defense weapon platforms from the planet below them. We suffered no losses. There was other news, the second Jitwick fleet was in Cue cappan teritory and was destroying their smaller colonies, it lacked the firepower to destroy their main worlds, but it was a start, the Jirwick were winning the war. The Cue Cappa were not about to give up: scouting forces warned of a 59 ship fleet that was approaching the homesystem, and reports from some small skirmishes elsewhere said that the cue cappa had acquired new technology: fighters. The large fleet had 5 carriers.

Captain Twurckle took immediate action. conventional point defense weapons (in Devnull) would not help against fighters, so he quickly produced and retrofitted several ships to use anti-fighter pd missiles. He parked his 27 ship fleet on top of a nearby world that had lots of conventional point defense (but not much offensive weapons) a quick calculation showed that they had more point defense than they needed.
The Cue Cappa fell for the trap, they thought the small Jitwick fleet would be easy prey, and they entered the sector. Captain Jirwick laughed his maniacal laughter when he saw the wall of fighters and misilles approach and nearly spilled his coffee.

He actually did spill his coffee when he saw things did not go as planned. The anti-fighter-pd missiles, which had longer range than the conventional pd, suddenly started firing on the incoming missiles. All of the anti-fighter pd was depleted when the conventional pd kicked in. The enemy missiles were easily destroyed but there was no means left to kill the fighters. The fighters came in at high speed dodged some panicked shots of directed fire weapons and started tearing apart the large Antares class pd ships that defended against the Cue cappan missiles. Captain Twurckle called for retreat, but with the Antares class ships gone he had no chance to outrun the cue cappan missiles.

After this the cue cappan quickly took out my most important worlds and I had no change to rebuild (losing important worlds can be painfull on a small map). I would probably have won the battle if I had used fighters myself, instead of anti-fighter pd, which is a usefull thing to remember for the future. Anyhow the point is that the anti fighter PD seems quite useless against fighters if the enemy also uses missiles, maybe their range should be reduced so they fire after conventional point defense, or they should no longer target seekers.