Mod/Extension Posted

[Talenn]

Wow!

Alot of this looks great. I dont know if I'll incorporate all of it into my own custom set but I'll certainly pick and choose some of to add. Alot of good stuff in here.

Some of it, I've already done myself as well. I felt that Seekers should have the 'heavy mounts' as well and made the 'Capital Ship Mount' that can fit on Cruiser+ hulls.

One other suggestion I will make is to either 1) allow the smaller hulls (ES,FG,DS) to hold more engines or 2) to have later hulls up the tech tree be able to do so (same size as the ES,FG,DS, just less restrictive on engines). The problem with the latter is that it trips up the AI into building smaller ships again as they are higher tech.

I've gone with option one and increased the engine allowance on alot of these small hulls. Its given them far more longevity in the game. They are good for scouting and quick reaction/raiding forces. In battle, they can race ahead and pound with missiles or else be able to shoot and scoot with relative impunity. Its really caused me to rethink the idea that bigger is always better in the later stages of the game.

I find that I usually keep a few DD's around even late in the game for the purposes I mentioned above whereas previous, the small ships all went the way of the dinosaur as soon as the bigger ones were built.

Another tweak I have added (which I know wont be popular with some) is to increase the 'hull cost' of the larger ships. In my mind, Capital Ships should be expensive to build and maintain, thus allowing the more cost-effective cruisers to comprise the bulk of the fleet.

Suggestion to MM: Would it be possible to have the first ship of a given class cost a bit more (ie the prototype). This might encourage players to pick a design and standardize a bit rather than constantly updating the ships turn after turn as soon as a new gadget is researched. I think the Starfire series gave a discount for every ship after the first of the class. For purposes of SE4, I think a small premium paid on the first ship of every class would be more practical. It wouldnt have to be huge (20-25%?) but at least it would be incentive to standardize a bit.

Thanx for making all your mods available. Even the parts I dont use will help me to see ideas for adding other tweaks in the future.

Talenn

[Jubala]

Interesting. Looks like you put alot of work into this. Have you playtested this to check if the AI actually does build (and use) minesweepers?

Your bunkers are nice. I was planning something similar but more on the line of safe hidingplaces for troops so they couldn't be bombarded away before an invasion but I couldn't figure out how to do it so...

[Talenn]

Tampa_Gamer:

Ok, I just downloaded the file and am pouring through the contents. I've noticed a few things that I want to ask ya.

Have you actually seen the 'Stock' Races in the game research and build some of this stuff? It appears that you modified the DEFAULT research file, but I think each of the included races has their own file for this. I think the default file is only used it a racial specific one is not found in the directory.

I suppose that it would be possible to go through each races' AI files and make the necessary adjustments though. For me, I grow more hesitant to continue to diverge for the defaults as it greatly increases the workload when patches are released.

Great work though. Your stuff is very well done and I'll be adding quite a bit of it to my existing set after all.

[Tampa_Gamer]

Actually no, I have not modified the individual races yet. Since this is Version 1.00 I really wanted to make sure the AI changes had a thorough testing before I started tweaking them. I have some extensive plans for the specialty races to make them more like the races in MOO (I believe somebody had a discussion item about this). Some of my fondest memories of MOO were had b/c the races had so much personalty (i.e. you are exploring and expanding, perhaps trading with the humans, when all of a sudden you have first contact with the Darloks!! You knew that you had to boost your intel stats fast otherwise they would get all your tech in a few years and put you at war with the humans by blaming you for their spy actions.

But to answer your specific question, yes I did play test this with a number of neutral races involved and they seemed to use the beefed-up files much more.

[thorfrog]

Is this compatible with patch 1.11? Will it over write what this fix corrects? Other wise excellent mod.

[Tampa_Gamer]

Yes, this mod was created using the "fixed" files contained in the Version 1.11 patch. In the readme.txt file contained in the zip, there is a full explanation (step-by-step) of the additions/changes made.

[thorfrog]

Yep, it says this right in the begining of your readme.txt. Great mod. I like the bunker idea's the best.