Balance Mod Available for SE:V

[Captain Kwok]

Here's a sneak peak at the current change log for v1.10:

Version 1.10:

XX. Fixed - Error in ShipExperience.txt was preventing combat bonuses due to experience from being applied
XX. Changed - Increased the maintenance cost for ships and units to stock values
XX. Changed - Armor reduced to 5kT size
XX. Changed - Pictures for 5kT Supply Storage and 5kT Ordnance Storage components
XX. Changed - Reduced Intel defense modifier
XX. Changed - Increased Supply and Ordnance storage on planets
XX. Changed - Reduced the ordnance supplied by Emergency Reordnance Pods
XX. Changed - Drone Launchers count towards Carrier requirements
XX. Changed - Small Rocket Pods can now be placed on troops
XX. Fixed - Medical Ship design type could not be choosen by players
XX. Changed - Removed Green Stars
XX. Changed - Increased storage amounts for resource storage facilities
XX. Changed - Reduced Storage tech area to 11 levels and increased its cost
XX. Changed - Reduced Medical Treatment tech area to 5 levels and increased its cost
XX. Changed - Reduced Medical Lab facility to 5 levels
XX. Changed - Lots of little changes to facility costs and structure amounts
XX. Changed - Genetic Recoding Labs now has a ground combat modifier ability
XX. Changed - Reduced Temporal Vacation Service facility to 5 levels
XX. Changed - Reduced Urban Pacification Center facility to 5 levels
XX. Changed - Reduced Psychic Scanner to 11 levels
XX. Changed - Reduced Fate Shrine to 5 levels
XX. Changed - Reduced Nature Shrine to 5 levels
XX. Changed - Reduced Time Shrine to 5 levels
XX. Changed - Re-organized Religious Technology facility availability
XX. Changed - Interspersed Climate Modification Plant and Value Improvement Plant in Planet Utilization tech area
XX. Changed - Seeker weapons can now be placed on Inner hull slots
XX. Fixed - Various typos in component and facility data files
XX. Fixed - Sergetti ships were sometimes designed without weapons
XX. Fixed - Norak fighters and troops were sometimes designed without weapons
XX. Fixed - Druschoka Attack Ships were sometimes designed without weapons*
XX. Fixed - AIs were no longer immediately hostile to human players in AI team mode
XX. Fixed - AI ships and fleets were not resupplying as often as required*
XX. Fixed - Error in Medical Ship minister
XX. Fixed - Ships weren't always choosing the most appropriate fleet to join
XX. Fixed - Error in AI selection of systems to attack
XX. Fixed - The AI was never giving up, never surrending*
XX. Added - AI will use SY Ships to construct remote defense bases
XX. Added - AI will break their treaties with the Mega Evil player
XX. Changed - AI will now use Carriers for Drone Carrier design type
XX. Changed - Made the AI's selection of facilities more dynamic
XX. Changed - Made the AI's vehicle purchase selection more efficient
XX. Changed - Improved the AI's handling of resources
XX. Fixed - AI wasn't using Fighter and Drone Groups effectively
XX. Updated - AI Scripts

* Item added in AI Patch for v1.09

[Ed Kolis]

Very nice changelist!

Captain Kwok said:
XX. Changed - Armor reduced to 5kT size

Wasn't it that way in stock? Didn't you increase it to 10kT to make adding armor to ships less repetitive and reduce slot wastage?

XX. Changed - Drone Launchers count towards Carrier requirements

Yay! Surprise drone carrier attacks FTW!

XX. Fixed - AIs were no longer immediately hostile to human players in AI team mode

They were immediately hostile and you fixed it so they're not, or vice versa?

XX. Fixed - The AI was never giving up, never surrending*

Hehe, nice Galaxy Quest reference

XX. Added - AI will use SY Ships to construct remote defense bases

Ooh, like in SE2 how they put defense bases on warp points... Should make Neutrals a LOT more interesting

[Captain Kwok]

Actually when I first started the mod, armor was 10kT in stock as well. I didn't change it to 5kT after stock at the time primarily due to concern about the number of armor slots - but it turns out it wasn't really an issue. I might be do a 5kT and 10kT Light and Heavy armor (same hitpoint/kT ratio) for user preference.

The galaxy quest reference was first used by RogerN when he reported the no surrender issue and so I threw in the changelog.

I wanted the AI to get somewhat ornery about human players, but not necessarily declare war right away. However, they were being too friendly, which meant they were less aggressive.

The remote Defense Bases scheme is still being tested... often before the SY Ship gets to a WP it gets an order to build another ship instead.

[javaslinger]

Any ETA?

Thanks,

Javaslinger

[Captain Kwok]

I'm aiming for next Friday (Aug 31) before I go away for the Labour Day weekend.

[DrewBlack]

Hi Kwok

Are you still looking for testers before you release??
If so im up for it.

Drew

[Captain Kwok]

Hopefully I'll have something ready to go for the testers. I had hope to debug the new AI facility scheme and send out the update - but this weekend got consumed by softball playoffs and painting!

[ElectricEel]

Captain Kwok said:
Here's a sneak peak at the current change log for v1.10:

Looks good.

I just noticed that normal baseships have no defense modifier. I assume they should have a -60% modifier, since that is the defense modifier organic baseships have.

Also, starbases have only a -20% defense modifier, while space stations have a -30% modifier.

[Dan_]

Is it possible to put the obscuration level in the description for storm, asteroids, warp points etc. so we know what sensors are needed to see the sector?

Also, I had a problem where 25 fighters with rocket pods using max range strategy could not hit a frigate moving away from them. It seemed they stayed just out of range so the rockets never hit (and were all destroyed by this crappy little ship which was very annoying). Is there anything that can be tweaked to correct this?

I looked to see if I could change the strategy so they stayed at range 40 (rockets have range 50), but there are only three options, close, medium and long range which I saw defined in settings as 50, 100 and 150. Do you know any way I can use these fighters without having them fire at point blank or out of range?

The requirements for torpedo weapons is incorrect in the tech chart for 1.09. I think there were other inconsistencies, but I don't remember exactly what now.

One other thing - the increase in cost and effectiveness of the shields seemed a bit unbalanced to me - I almost regretted researching level 2.

[Captain Kwok]

I'll add descriptions in for warp points and storms with obscuration effects. I might not put in the implicit level, but will indicate if it's beyond low level sensors etc.

The max range strategy is sort of a problem with SE:5, which may or may not be fixed in the v1.50-ish patch. With a short range of 50, optimal range will more or less work the same as max range but without the "target leading bug".

I fixed most of the tech chart typos for v1.10.

The defense modifiers were typos in the formulas but have been fixed.