SEV 1.08, Balance Mod 0.91

[Captain Kwok]

I have the AI launching fighters in v0.92, which I'm trying to get finished for tonight. It will be save-game compatible and can hopefully rescue the other AIs somewhat before they hit the wall circa turn 50-75.

[Devnullicus]

Turn 2402.0
Researched: Ion Engines 2, Crystalline Weapons 2

The Amon'krie are no more and I've mostly finished re-colonizing their homesystem. The last of their ships made a desperate run for my home system, but was stopped dead by the swarm of fighters at my warp point. Only about 50% of them ran away - the other 50% kicked butt.

Unfortunately, with the early war, I've definitely fallen way behind on research and I need to scramble to catch up. I've sent out a bunch of colonizer ships (good thing I scouted ahead during the war so I know where to send the colonizers!) The Amon'krie home system also had about 7 habitable planets (2 of which were even breathable!), so I'm going to be building up for a while yet.

I haven't met any other races yet, and I'm hoping I don't for a bit so I have a chance to build up and catch up on research. Luckily, I can easily pump out 2 colonizers a turn with my super-duper shipyards at my home planet.

[Devnullicus]

Turn 2402.5
Researched: Light Hull 2, Armor 3

My little corner of the galaxy is much calmer now that I'm by myself. The Amon'krie worlds are coming along nicely and I'm spreading into several systems beyond the original Amon'krie home system. Occasionally, some of my citizens report a few ghosts in the ruins, but I just shake my head and think, "Gee, if they'd have just accepted my treaty offer, they might still be alive". Well, ok, probably not. If they hadn't been in the next system over from my homeworld past the ONLY warp point...yeah. But since they were, one of us was doomed from the start.

On 2402.5, I met my second neighbor, the Youbut Collective. In between snickers at their name, I immediately sent them a treaty message. Interestingly, they sent me one on the same turn. One of the more reasonable treaties I've received from the AI...except that there was nothing in it about non-agression. We'll see if they like the amended treaty.

Since they're a rock/oxygen race, they will hopefully allow colonization in the same systems. But then again, my aging fleet is sitting idle and could use something to do...

[Devnullicus]

Turn 2403.0
Researched: Ion Engines 3, Light Hulls 3, Contra-Terrene Engines 1, Resupply 2, Medium-Light Hulls 1, Intelligence 1, Smaller Weapons 1, Armor 4

The Youbut Collective responded to my generous treaty offer with a lame excuse, "Now is not the time for treaties". Well, maybe they're right. I began retro-fitting my aging fleet and moving it toward the border with the Youbuts. Still can't stop snickering at their name.

As a little emphasis on their reply, the Youbuts also decided to attack my poor little scout in their system...with about 10 frigates. Eek. Some of the frigates had anti-proton beams and emissive armor! Double eek. Needless to say, my poor scout didn't last long even though half their fleet started the battle with 0 ordnance and had to run away.

The massive wave of colonizers continues to expand from my home system and many of the colonized systems are starting to become self-supporting. The first non-homeworld spaceyards were finally built. Research is coming along as well and I'm starting to feel like I can make some ships that will stand up for themselves individually instead of just as a swarm.

I also met the Sithrak Dominion (Rock/Oxygen), and the Xi'chung Hive (Rock/Methane). Luckily, they're much farther away than the Youbuts and the colonizer wave hasn't reached them yet. Gives me time to deal with the Youbut. I didn't even bother sending the Sithrak or Xi'Chung treaty proposals..and they didn't bother either.

[Devnullicus]

Turn 2403.5
Researched: Medium-Light Hulls 2, Repair 1, Armor 5, Applied Research 2, Medium Hulls 1, Applied Research 3



Things are heading towards war again. Above is the currently known galactic map. The Devs (me) started in Pawtril. The Amon'krie were in Wertreken. The Sithrak are in Dornot and Obotron (and probably beyond). The Youbut are in Cretirk.

Naturally, this is making Fwandrei a hotly contested system. So far, neither the Youbut or the Sithrak have tried to come into Fwandrei, but they both have large fleets near their sides of the wormholes. Fleets with good weaponry, lots of point defense, and good armor.

So far, my fleet is mostly composed of missile ships (Crystalline Torpedos), but in the few initial skirmishes I've had so far (including one where they attacked one of my planets in Cretirk with 8 frigates against 3 frigates + a satellite), it seems that my ships do well enough, but their point defense is quite good. So, I'm starting to tool up a different kind of ship that uses shard cannons as their primary weaponry. I don't have any near the front lines yet, so I don't know how they'll do, but we'll see. Currently, I'm just trying to hold on to my planet in Cretirk where the Youbut have a large fleet in orbit above it. I'm massing a fleet at the Cretirk wormhole to come rescue the planet (and for some reason, the Youbut aren't bombarding it!), but mostly, they're older missile ships and so I need a lot of them to overcome the Youbut fleet.

Yes, I still snicker at the Youbut's name, but it's more under my breath, along with a few choice imprecations about their ancestry.

So far, the Sithrak are staying quiety in Dornot and I have a larger fleet waiting at that wormhole. I'm hoping they'll stay on their side for a while and let me fight the Youbut without opening a 2-front war. Given their fleet size, however, I don't have a high degree of confidence in that outcome.

[tmcc]

Captain Kwok said:
I have the AI launching fighters in v0.92, which I'm trying to get finished for tonight. It will be save-game compatible and can hopefully rescue the other AIs somewhat before they hit the wall circa turn 50-75.

CK, be a little carefull. Fighters are super powerfull in ground combat. Make sure the AI holds some back otherwise we will devise some tactics to strip out a planet's fighters right before landing the invasion force.

[Devnullicus]

Turn 2404.0:
Researched: Nothing (working on some high-cost techs)

The Youbut are somewhat crippled at this point, but they've definitely been putting up a decent fight - here's one of the larger battles from 2403.7

before:


after:


Ouch. I glassed the planet, but it had about 10 weapons platforms that tried very hard to tear me a new one. If it had launched the 30+ fighters as well, I might not have won that combat.

One other thing I noticed in this combat is that even though I had (a few) direct-fire ships, they would not fire on the satellites. I'm not sure why - as far as I can tell, direct-fire weaponry should do just fine against satellites.

In 2403.9, I was attacked by 8 of these:

Note the level-3 anti-proton beam and the emissive armor. Their designs are interesting, but unfortunately somewhat light on weaponry.

The main problem I'm seeing in the battles is that half their ships usually start with 0 ordnance and have to run away. I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm guessing that they're having a hard time building resupply depots.

The Sithrak are still sitting quietly in their system and I've managed to build up a sizeable fleet to go in after them soon (now that the Youbut aren't a looming threat).

Otherwise, all quiet on the other fronts. Expansion continues unabated to the west, though it's defintiely slowed as I've stopped producing colonizers so that I could build up more warships.

Within a couple more months, I'll have rock colonization and the Sithrak and Youbut will be contained. At that point, I should about double (or more) my planetary holdings within the next year.

[Captain Kwok]

There is a bug with ordnance and fleets in 1.08, not to mention my ordnance values were probably a bit on the harsh side to start. It should be better in v0.92 though.

[Devnullicus]

So, I have a couple questions.

1) I noticed that the AI is building PD ships that have nothing but point-defense. Great idea! Unfortunately, as soon as they get in battle...they run away! Even with full supplies and ordnance. Is there a way to give them a different strategy or possibly have them take 1 normal weapon so they don't run away?

2) How do I upgrade my resupply depots in this mod?

3) How do I build remote miners so I can mine asteroid fields?

4) Are treaties broken? I haven't gotten an AI to accept one ... at all.

[Captain Kwok]

1 - I've already adjusted that in v0.92 so that PD Ships have at least one offensive weapon.

2 - Resupply Depots are available at odd tech levels of the Resupply Tech Area (ie 1, 3, 5, 7, etc)

3 - Remote miners are available at level 3+ in each resource extraction tech area

4 - It might have something to do with the changes I made with the AI and their anger level... I'll look into that...

Also there is a tech chart available for the Balance Mod:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php