New Mod: The Art of War Mod

[dumbluck]

A few questions from my to do list (Man, it just keeps getting longer and longer...)

---Make planet glassing with normal weapons next to impossible.

Can anyone point me to some threads/mods that demonstrate how this is done? I vaguely recall that it involved increasing the damage to kill 1m population and increasing the damage of planetary weapons. But I'm looking for specific explanations/examples to study.

---Balance the Cultural Modifiers.

I remember that someone did this, once upon a time. Would that person mind if I incorperate their work? Oh, and I'd need a pointer to that mod...

edit: One Last question: Anyone care to share their impressions of v0.80?

To Do list:

playtest v.80 !!!

+++Maintenance+++
X-P&N maintenance settings.
X-Maint reducing components & ship specific mounts;
---Adjust maint. reduction of Crew Areas.
X-Rebalanced # of Lifesupport and Crewquarters with shipsize.
X-Adjust ship hull costs to 1.2$/kt.

+++Miscellaneous+++
X-Add no-AI mod files.
X-Add TDM Formations
---Add some P&N mounts.
---Balance the Cultural Modifiers.
---Add empty Racial Traits slots for future expansion.

+++Damage Allocation+++
---Small racial armors.
X-Add OA ability to all hull sizes. (excluding units)
---Base shields and armor on P&N style.
---Various weapons balancing issues.

+++Ground Combat+++
X-Ground combat down to 3 turns.
---Make planet glassing with normal weapons next to impossible.

+++Space Combat+++
---Change space combat to 50 turns.
---Rebalance the tohit%/ecm% (increase costs of characteristics, ala P&N)
---Add Manuevering thrusters.
---Ship/Fleet Training components ala P&N

+++"Weapons or Butter"+++
X-9 levels of SY, researched thru ship construction, along with Temporal counterparts.
---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)
---Adjust Robotoid Factory bonus %s.

+++Engines+++
---Smaller vessels can mount more engines than larger ones (ala dreadnaught and baseship).
---Supply usage decreases with engine tech level ala P&N, Exodus
---Reduce Capital Ship combat movement rates by 1/2. (missles, fighters, and drones(?) remain normal). Strategic movement rates remain normal.
---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

[ November 22, 2002, 12:47: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

[dumbluck]

Geo: Correct. Thanx.

SJ: Ummm... so what do you put the CA ability ON? The hull itself? Armor? Shield generators (that would have to have the armor tag as well, right?)? All of the above?

[Captain Kwok]

SJ never really explains how he comes up with those darn numbers.

Dumbluck:

You would give the ability to only the shield generators for leaky shields.

Leaky armor is created by getting rid of the armor's damaged first ability and reducing regular components structure size. That way, the armor is still most likely hit first, but not always.

[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

[mlmbd]

dumbluck, lots of really great things there! From now on I will keep very close tabs on your progress. Shoot if I post about what a great mod this is going to be. Maybe some outside stimulus will arrive! Nothing like that, for inspiration! Like you actually need any.

mlmbd