Balance Mod Available for SE:V

[Arralen]

Originally Posted by Fyron

Yes, it is true that there will initially be more breathable gas giants than other types due to the lack of gas/none. It is also true, however, that it is entirely possible to start in a position on the map that is devoid of breathable planets, or saturated with them. Reducing the number of gas giants actually gets fairly complex, due to how the data files are generated.

So much I figured after a glance into SystemTypes.txt - quickly dropping the idea to fiddle with it. Guess it would take a thorough mathematical/statistical analyses that is way beyond my capabilities

Easier tweak to reduce the imbalances would be to simply make the small, domed colonies bigger ... what about that?

[Arralen]

Ok, here's my suggestion for tweaking the size of domed planets:

Make them size 2/4/6/8/10 instead of 1/2/3/4/5, that would reduce the gas dwellers average facility space advantage from 11% to 6%, and from 28% to 23% with "Advanced Storage Techniques".

Furthermore this will strengthen the AI, which cannot really cope with having e.g. only 1-3 tiny (size 1) planets in a system, and does not show sensible building behaviour there. With doubled the number of facility slots chances are better that it builds something it actually benefits from!

[Fyron]

That sort of change would be wildly inappropriate for FQM, at least. It represents a change to the actual game mechanics, rather than just fiddling around with which planets gets placed on the map.

==0==

The main problem with reducing the number of gas giants the mod scripts generate in each system in SystemTypes.txt file is that it would have to depend on the distribution of said systems in each class of quadrant in QuadrantTypes.txt. Right now, every quadrant type uses the same distribution of system type by planet number*, but the scripts are designed to be easy to modify to recreate FQM SE4-style "Sparse" and "Dense" quadrant types (which have skews towards systems with fewer or more planets in them). I can't just make each class of planet have a rock/gas/ice ratio like 5/4/5 (or whatever it needs to be to average out the breathability problem).


* The mod totals up the number of Standard systems with each base planet count. When the quadrants are generated, the total percent chance for Standard systems is the distributed amongst each group according to the following chart. Within each group, the available chance value is evenly divided into each system type.

Planets : percentage
5: 5%
6: 10%
7: 20%
8: 35%
9: 20%
10: 10%

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

A new patch is available for the Balance Mod. The v1.19a update corrects a few bugs and adds more improvements to the AI including better resource management, unit distribution, and some refinements to colony ship and fleet handling.

Please note you need to have v1.19 already installed before applying the patch!

It's savegame compatible. I'll be posting an update for the Small Systems add-on to bring it up to date with v1.19a changes later today.

You can find the patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

The changelog:

1.  Changed - Updated description for Self-Destruct Device
2.  Added   - Set percent chance for Self-Destruct to trigger when a ship is captured
3.  Changed - Reduced repair rate for Space Yard component
4.  Fixed   - Removed "diminishing returns" abilities from Research Center
5.  Changed - Reduced Fighter Bay/Drone Launcher component requirement for carriers from 30% to 20% of hull space
6.  Changed - Boosted the maintenance reduction effect of the Crystalline Restructuring Plant
7.  Changed - Increased the shield modifier amount of the Energy Transmission Lens facility
8.  Changed - Allowed all sensor components to be used on Weapon Platforms
9.  Changed - Shield Regenerators can be placed on Weapon Platforms
10. Changed - Revised damage modifiers for damage from ramming
11. Changed - Adjusted costs and damage amounts for all warheads
12. Changed - Revised the animations and increased differentiation in warp point appearance
13. Changed - Decreased distance between ships for all formations
14. Fixed   - AI wasn't using the right strategy for Kamikaze Attack Ships
15. Changed - Reduced AI's use of armor on some non-combat designs
16. Changed - Made improvements to AI's Scout Ship/Explorer Ship design type
17. Changed - Made improvements to the AI's ship distribution amongst their task forces
18. Changed - Boosted AI friendliness to non-MEE (Mega Evil Empire) players when the MEE status is triggered
19. Changed - The AI will be more efficient with colony ship target selection
20. Changed - AI players will make more of an effort to bring defensive units on Colony Ships for planets in dangerous areas
21. Fixed   - The AI won't try to convert the atmosphere of Gas Giants to None
22. Changed - Number of improvements to the AI's building and distribution of units amongst its colonies
23. Changed - AI will no longer recover launched mines above its colonies
24. Fixed   - Xi'Chung were sometimes using the wrong weapon on their Defense Ship designs
25. Fixed   - The AI would sometimes attack with a ship that had no ordnance when it needed ordnance for its weapons
26. Fixed   - The AI sometimes offered the wrong tariff element
27. Fixed   - Sometimes the AI entered a low resource state when it wasn't necessary
28. Changed - Improved the AI's criteria for identifying low resource conditions and when it should build storage facilities
29. Changed - Made imporvements to allow the AI to expand their maintenance expenditures when trade income is available
30. Changed - The Construction - Facilities minister when used by human players will adhere more strictly to colony type designations
31. Updated - AI Scripts

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

There's another quick update available for the Balance Mod. The v1.19b patch makes a couple of improvements on v1.19a for the AI's resource and facility management functions. There's also a couple of small changes to Drone functionality and a reduction in combat speeds for freighters.

The patch contains v1.19a already, so if you're still using v1.19 you can just download the v1.19b patch.

BM Small Systems users should remember to re-apply the add-on after updating to v1.19b!

You can download the v1.19b patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

Changes:

Version 1.19b (3 July 2009)
---------------------------

1.  Changed - Drones can now be recovered, self-destructed, and added to fleets
2.  Changed - Restricted Emissive Armor to 1 per Weapon Platform or Drone (Temporary Restriction)
3.  Changed - Reduced Freighter and Colony Ship combat speeds
4.  Fixed   - The AI would scrap and replace a facility with Monolith Facilities when it wasn't intended
5.  Changed - Made improvements to the AI's colony facility management
6.  Changed - Updated AI design creation to follow new emissive armor limits for Weapon Platforms and Drones
7.  Changed - Improved the criteria for AI empires to remove items from their queues due to low resources
8.  Updated - AI Scripts

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

The v1.19c patch has been posted. It has some more refinements to the AI's resource and facility management routines along with a few fixes for other things. I also added some flags you can use in ship names to give the ship naming minister more functionality for human players.

Next up is the big v1.20 update. I've already done most of the data file work already, but there's a lot of AI details to work on.

Find the v1.19c patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

Here's the list of changes:

1.  Changed - Restricted Emissive Armor to 1 per Satellite (Temporary Restriction)
2.  Fixed   - Sometimes the Construction - Facilities minister would skip facility construction in favor of units/ships when those ministers weren't activated
3.  Changed - AI players will update their resource status each time they make a decision involving resources
4.  Fixed   - The AI wasn't always identifying when it was in a disconnected state
5.  Fixed   - AI players were sometimes added Intel facilities in place of research facilities when intel is disabled
6.  Changed - Further improvements to the AI's facility management functions
7.  Fixed   - The AI wasn't checking for sector limits when launching units from planets
8.  Changed - Made improvements to the AI's scrapping and mothballing functions
9.  Fixed   - AI players were breaking their treaties in unison versus the mega evil player
10. Changed - The AI wasn't taking into account Shield Depleter usage in its enemy design analysis
11. Changed - Tweaked some of the AI's design type demand modifiers
12. Changed - Added new rules for the Ship (All) - Naming minister:
              - If the ship name contains *, the ship will not be renamed at all
              - If the ship name contains ^, the ship will retain any text before the ^ (ie Endor V ^ Yard I 0001 -> Endor V ^ Yard II 0001)
              - Note: Names should follow SE:V format "Ship Name ####"
13. Updated - AI Scripts

[NTJedi]

All great stuff Captain Kwok! As soon as the 1.20 update arrives my brothers and I will start a new game.

[Q]

Thank you again Kwok for your continuous work.
I like the way you solved the:
"9. Fixed - AI players were breaking their treaties in unison versus the mega evil player"
very much.
I tried the same by only letting the anger increase against the MEE, but for empires with huge fear this did't always work. Your solution should probably result in breaking all treaties within about 10 turns, which seems optimal IMO.

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings.

Just another quick patch to tie up a couple of loose ends. Most of the changes are self-explanatory from the change entry listed below. The migration rate change is only takes effect in new games.

You can get the patch here:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

1.  Changed - Reduced reproduction rate bonus of Medical Lab facility
2.  Changed - Reduced starting migration rate
3.  Fixed   - AI empires were sometimes adding multiple Robotoid Factory or Time Shrine facilities
4.  Fixed   - The AI was not constructing Ultra-Recycler facilities
5.  Changed - Weak AI empires were not able to declare war against much stronger empires
6.  Fixed   - Error in AI's demand for Missile Satellite design type
7.  Fixed   - Potential for Organic AI empires to not equip their ships with enough armor
8.  Fixed   - Sometimes AI players were scrapping ships when it was not required
9.  Changed - AI empires will react more angrily to negative events committed by human players than by other AI players
10. Fixed   - Sometimes AI empires were scrapping facilities when it really wasn't necessary
11. Fixed   - Sometimes a ship would have the wrong internal design type and would not be properly used by a minister acting for a human player
12. Updated - AI Scripts

[EJ]

Captain Kwok,
Where can I find your small systems mini mod? Can you post the link please? Thanks......