Balance Mod Available for SE:V

[Makinus]

So your mod decreases turn processing time? Then you must change the description in your page, as it says there that the mod increases turn processing time...

I´ll definitely reinstall SEV this weekend and try your mod(s)! Thanks!

[Captain Kwok]

Oops!

The Small Systems mini-mod does decrease turn times and increases performance. :P

[Arralen]

Minister Oddity
Lately, I had 2 pop transport (small freighter hull) which simply sat there when turned to minister control: the pop transport minister simply didn't touch them.

When I switch the troop minister on, they started gathering troops!

And yes, I double-checked their type - said "population transport". I even did a new design with type "pop transport", and refitted one of them - no change.

Then it dawned to me - the 2 ships started out as troop transports, but where retrofitted to the pop transport class. Normally, I don't have any trouble with this, but the troop transport design got obsoleted and deleted from the designs list, and this may be causing the troubles.

I'm not sure if this only occures with the BM, guess this might happen with the vanilla game as well.
I wonder, though, if the AI (in BM, or in general) does this cross-retrofitting as well, making it's ship useless, and if something could be done 'bout it, if it does?

[Captain Kwok]

There's two design type designations attached to a ship. One is the external ('player') design type and the other is an internal ('AI') design type. Based on your observations, it appears when a ship is retrofit to another design type, it's internal design type doesn't get changed. Unfortunately I can't do anything about that for individual ships (only actual designs).

The AI occasionally cross-retofits, but only between the combat design types. For orders, those ships are lumped together so there wouldn't be any tangible effects as there would be specific design type orders like Troop Transports etc.

[Arralen]

Some more remarks from a 1.19/1.77 game:

AI Diplomacy

- AI asks for military help without having a corresponding treaty: 1st time it (can't remember which one) asked for ships in some system , while we had only 15% trade / non-aggr. in all systems/share mine codes / share medical; 2nd instance was the Xi'Chung, who had only a "neutrality pact" with non-aggr. in all systems - nevertheless they send "We immediatly request any and all military assistance ..."

- AI is (still) too eager to offer intersettling treaties, preferably as an update to an existing treaty after relations have become good.

- AI "updates" basic treaties (non-aggression etc.) without changing the treaty name. Having "non-interference treaties" which in fact are intersettling treaties is slightly confusing, IMHO.



AI shipbuilding
I checked several AI nations in my ongoing game (turn 142 with standard research), where everyone has shields, some emissive armor, ECM etc.:

- generally, the AI uses to few PD guns, sometimes even none at all, e.g. missile ships of the Sergetti (crys.), and therefore are easily killed with missiles on warppoints.

- mixing beam/missile weapons on attack ships generally doesn't really work out with "optimal range" in my experience: they either stay away too much, and never use the gun(s), or they get too close and fried by a bunch of fast-firing short range beam weapons. Yet the AI seems to be set up to do exactly that ... . So my suggestion: go with "shielded missile boats" based on FF/DD hulls, as those have too little tonnage anyway for armor/shielding, ECM, sensors etc., what you all would want for a beamer ship that goes toe-to-toe.

- AI is overly fond of armour, at the expense of PD, offensive weapons and -at least on smaller hulls- shields/rechargers. Having 1 gun, 1 PD, a single shield, but 3 heavy/ 2 light std. armours on a DD doesn't make much sense to me: 2 shields, 3 guns would win any time ?! Likewise, a medium transport mine-/satellite layer does not really need to carry 11(!) heavy armours, I guess.

- AI builds Kamikaze Ships with order "Optimal Range", what does not work. I saw such a ship wander right into a space station, but no ramming occured, and the warheads didn't go off. Results against ships wheren't any better.



component balance

- CSM damage seems to high, what is especially bad considering the low PD usage (suggestion: ~80%)

- Small Rocket Pods: are the ultimate fighter weapon; due to very high damage and long delay, the fighters swoop in to deliver tremendous damage, then retreat back to relativly safety at roughly max PD range. Fighters with "real guns" need not only more time to deliver the same amount of damage, but tend to stay in the PD envelope and get killed pretty fast. Compare to "Fighter Kamikaze Warhead" - it's the same size, similar damage, but the warhead fires only once, and the carrying fighter is destroyed as well. On ground troops, SRP are absolutly devastating too. My suggestion: damage down to 50-67%, and make them unable to target e.g. fighters.

- especially bad seems to be the "Small Ripper Beam", which is essentially useless, unless for some reason one manages to get his fighters un-hittable (maybe because the opponent does not use combat sensors), which is unlikely ..



Minister

- the "Renaming Minister" (or however you called him) does rename even ships after they've been given a "special name", without any retrofit involved. As not the complete name is overwritten, the result is somewhat ... remarkable, e.g. "SpecialTransportShip" turns into "Pop Trans IV 0009hip". Guess there ain't much what could be done 'bout this - or would it be possible to check if the first 3 letters of the ship name correspond with the type name, and only rename if that's true, so a "Pop Trans III 0009" would become a "Pop Trans IV 0009".
That would come in especially handy for Base Space Yards, which I tend to name after the planet they're orbiting ...


Happiness

- pop gets unhappy because of "ship losses" if you lose some troops conquering an enemy planet in the same system .. oh, wait, maybe that's realistic, must check the society settings

[Arralen]

Add.: Kamikaze Ships

- it seems it's only a handful AIs which designs kamikaze ships at all (Sergetti, Xi'Chung, etc), and all seem to use the type "Kamikaze Attack Ships" with "optimal range" order, which does not work.

- I tested a kamikaze ship - with "kamikaze attack" order, it even was able to successfully ram a fighter !

- but for the player, there's only "Kamikaze Fighter" design type, not "Kamikaze Attack Ship" available.

[Captain Kwok]

It seems I've left out the 'Kamikaze Attack Ship' design type in DesignTypes.txt and also missed it for giving it a proper default setting in the AI's design creation file.

[Arralen]

The first issue I think I could fix myself (can I, or are there any pitfalls?),
but I'm at a loss with the 2nd one ... .
Any hints ?

edit: ... !! Found it myself:
www.captainkwok.net/files/BalanceModScriptsv119.zip


... I added
"Kamikaze Attack Ship":
call Sys_Set_Vehicle_Design_Strategy(sys_long_Player_ID , design_id, "Kamikaze")
to the end of the "Set_Design_Type_Strategy" list, but Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt does not compile ... :

====================================================
Errors
====================================================
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #268): Invalid Variable Name - lst_AI_Design_Type_Name
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #268): 
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #268): Bad Set Declaration
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #272): Invalid Variable Name - lst_AI_Design_Type_Name
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #272): 
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #272): Bad Set Declaration
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #273): Invalid Variable Name - lst_AI_Design_Type_Vehicle_Size
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #273): 
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #273): Bad Set Declaration
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #286): Invalid Variable Name - lst_AI_Design_Type_Name
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #286): 
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #286): Bad Set Declaration
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #287): Invalid Variable Name - lst_AI_Design_Type_Vehicle_Size
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #287): 
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #287): Bad Set Declaration
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #300): Could not find ENDIF
Could not parse Script_AI_DesignCreation.txt (line #130): Unmatched Forward Function for set_ai_design_type_for_design

Btw., I did thank you for your excellent mod, did I ?

[Arralen]

Some more remarks:

- Why do you keep Kamikaze Ships from being resupplied and retrofitted? They are set to join fleets, therefore they would "drag down" all other ships if running low on supplies, and Kamikaze Ships with outdated engines will less likely be able to ram an enemy ship ...

- Is there a special cause for having beam guns on troop transports? This makes them close in with enemy ships if the fleet is attacked - something that is not really helpful ...

- likewise: recon sats have "don't get hurt", but they can't move .. "max / opt. range" ?

[Captain Kwok]

You should use the design type name 'Kamikaze Attack Ship' to match the AI's current usage.

You do not compile the file Script_AI_DesignCreation, please refer to the Wiki on which files actually get compiled and where they need to go:
http://wiki.spaceempires.net/index.p...t_Editing_(SEV)

(You may need to cut and paste link due to forum cutting off parenthesis)

In the end the one change you'll be making will only help out individual Kamikaze ships outside of fleets. The TF strategy will always overrule the design type strategy. For effective fleet usage of kamikaze ships, they need to be in a TF with the kamikaze strategy. I'll add this behavior in the next version of the mod.

AIs give Troop Transports a weapon to keep them together with the other warships when they are approaching a planet to capture it. It sometimes helps to avoid accidental glassings of the target or protect the troop transport.