New Mod: The Art of War Mod

[dumbluck]

Kwok: That sounds like a lot of work! It will most likely go at the bottom of the priority list, if it even makes it on to the list at all!

[Suicide Junkie]

The components by default have pretty good hitpoint values for a leaky armor mod.

All you really have to do is alter the armor.
Make armor 1 be 1kt, 20 hitpoints, armor 2 be 3kt 50 hitpoints, and armor 3 be 7kt 100 hitpoints.
And of course, remove the armor ability.

That'll give you a pretty good start. If you do the division, you will see that the higher level armors have fewer hitpoints, but during combat they will leak less often, and overall will be better.

For shields, try dividing their output by 10, their size by 4, and adding a crystalline ability with the same amount as their new shield generation amount. 20-30 physical hitpoints would be good for the leaky armor effect.

As for getting the % numbers, 50% = 1 shot hits the shields, 1 shot hits the armor, boosting shields back to their original strength. Overall every other shot hits, averaging 50%.
If the weapon does quarter to shields, you need to hit it 4 times to drop the shields that you created when you hit the hull. Five shots per cycle, 4 of which are blocked by the shields. 4/5 = 80%

[dumbluck]

Dormant, but not forgotten.

[mlmbd]

So, how is the Mod coming? Gatta know!

mlmbd

[dumbluck]

Originally posted by dumbluck:
Dormant, but not forgotten.

Doesn't that say it all? I've been too busy to touch it lately... And I'm actually (tentatively) planning on scaling back some of my planned changes, to keep with the intentions of the mod. Maybe someday I'll use this mod as the genesis for a mod that is distinctly my own, and add all those big ideas to it. Of coarse, by then SE5 will probably be out...

[mlmbd]

Guess so. I was just asking so if there was anything new I could report it. You know where.

mlmbd

[dumbluck]

Sure, here's my latest history file and to-do lists. I've been working on the "Weapons or Butter" decision balancing lately.

History:
to do: v0.81
X-Reduced the Robotoid Factory bonuss by 1/2.
X-Move individual resourse bonus facilities to their own trees.
X-Balanced facility costs for individual Resource bonus facilities (mineral scanner, etc.)
---Balance Robotoid Factory facility costs.
---Balance facilty costs for Resource Extractors.
X-adjust Crew Areas maint. reduction.
---extend resource extractors down to 10 levels (9 researchable)
---change monolith research to be dependant on resource extraction research. (ala P & N)
---Adjust Research Center and Intel Center points generation.
---Adjust Citizen Database and CCC bonus %s.

v0.80
-Added 9 levels of Space Yard(facility) and SY(component), researched thru Ship Construction and Space Yards(tech), along with Temporal counterparts.
-Added Armor Regeneration ability to all hull sizes. (excluding units)
-Cosmetic bug fix on abilities displays for hull sizes.

v0.71
-Ship Sizes changed in preparation for mQNP addition.
-NoAI mod files added.
-TDM Modpack formations.txt file added.
-Added Maint reducing components & ship specific mounts.
-Added P&Nv3.1b Maintenance settings.
-Adjusted ship hull costs to $1.2/kt.
-Rebalanced the number of Crew Quarters and Lifesupport with vessel size.

To Do list:
--Cut out some of the more extreme changes. Stick to the basics for this mod---
-- playtest v.81 ---

+++Maintenance+++
X-P&N maintenance settings.
X-Maint reducing components & ship specific mounts;
X-Adjust maint. reduction of Crew Areas to 8%.
X-Rebalanced # of Lifesupport and Crewquarters with shipsize.
---Adjust ship hull costs to 2.0$/kt.

+++Miscellaneous+++
X-Add no-AI mod files.
X-Add TDM Formations
---Add some P&N mounts.
---Balance the Cultural Modifiers.

+++Damage Allocation+++
---Small racial armors.
X-Add OA ability to all hull sizes. (excluding units)
---Various weapons balancing issues.

+++Ground Combat+++
---Ground combat down to 3 turns.
---Increase "damage to kill 1m population" setting.
---Increase damage rating of the Neutron Bomb.

+++Space Combat+++
---Change space combat to 20 turns.
---Rebalance the tohit%/ecm% (increase costs of characteristics, ala P & N)
---Add Manuevering thrusters.
---Ship/Fleet Training components (NOT facilities)ala P&N
--- ??? Change tohit size bonuses to 12% per 100kt.
---Correct tohit% size bonuses on non-standard hull sizes.

+++"Weapons or Butter"+++
X-9 levels of SY, researched thru ship construction, along with Temporal counterparts.
X-extend resource extractors down to 10 levels (9 researchable)
---Adjust Research Center and Intel Center points generation.
---Adjust Citizen Database and CCC bonus %s.
---change monolith research to be dependant on resource extraction research. (ala P&N)
X-Reduce Robotoid Factory bonuses by 1/2.
X-Move individual resourse bonus facilities to their own trees.
X-Balanced facility costs for individual Resource bonus facilities (mineral scanner, etc.)
---Balance facilty costs for Resource Extractors.
---Balance Robotoid Factory facility costs.

+++Engines+++
---Supply usage decreases with engine tech level ala P&N, Exodus
---Double combat movement rates for fighters, missles.
-??Smaller vessels can mount more engines than
larger ones (ala dreadnaught and
baseship).
OR
Add combat movement bonuses to smaller
hulls
OR
Make size-specific mounts for
manuevering thrusters; they add the
combat movement bonus.
---Extend tech tree (ala Exodus mod)

Note: mQNP is out, for the time being. One of the reasons is that I've got too many other things I want to experiment with (heck, I'm still coming up with ideas!). Another is that it might restrict the number of players interested in the mod. Once I get most of the basics worked out, I'll add it in (or perhaps make 2 Versions of the mod, on with mQNP, and one without). Of coarse, if there is a large public outcry, I could probably be persuaded to put it back on the to do list... ;P