Proportions Mod Versions 2.5.2 and 2.5.3 available

[klausD]

many thanks for your prompt reply.
klausD

[QuarianRex]

Originally posted by Aloofi:
Also, this uber-missile benefits mostly the AI, cause we humans know that pound by pound missiles are not worth the effort. They weight too much and reload too slow. Even the lowly Meson BLaster is a better weapon.

Do you really think so? I have always found the stackable damage of missiles to be quite painful against things like leaky shields, since you tend to have a lot more damage hollowing out the hull before the shields have a chance to compensate.

[PvK]

Edit:

LOL! I was doing a search to dig up the old PvK Balance Mod thread when I noticed Talenn's post from a year ago and thought it was recent. I think I'd already replied. Rather than delete what I just typed, I'll just leave it.

PvK

...

Hi Talenn,

I just noticed your message here.

Originally posted by Talenn:

...
Has anyone else noticed Torps as a good buy or is everyone just used to them being useless in the basic tech set and not really bothered with them?

It's been noted before that I made torpedoes a good weapon in Proportions. They were dreadful in unmodded, but yes they are a good early choice. I actually like the low-tech ones pretty well because they do some damage and are dirt cheap. There are several techs that are made good in Proportion by their cheapness, which is more of a concern in Proportions than in unmodded, because you don't have runaway production, and small cheap ships can end up being cost-effective. See for example Armored Structure I, Efficient Engines, the cheap advanced sensors/ECM, small hulls, Basic Life Support, etc.

I don't know that torpedoes need to be toned down any, but lowering the to-hit is an appropriate change for the effect you have in mind - sounds good.

Many weapon stats have been adjusted, extended, and rebalanced in various ways. Pretty much all of the slow-reload weapons have more power than in unmodded. There are other heavy weapons that are more powerful higher on the tech tree, but they take more research to get to.

The various armors available also shift the weapon balance in a few ways.

Is there some updated listing of how emissive armor works now? I remember threads on it ages ago, but I'm sure they are outdated with the newer patches. Do emissive effects stack or is it only the highest...ie, if I have 2 Armored Hulls (11 Emissive each), do I have 22 total? Does it stack from different component (ie, 1 Armored Structure giving 1 + the Hull giving 11 = 12?)? I also wasnt aware that Emissive effects were 'global'. I was under the impression that the Emissive component had to be 'hit' for the damage reduction to apply. Has this been thoroughly tested and confirmed?
...

It is confirmed that Emissive Armor on ships and bases is always applied to each hit, unless the hit is with an armor-piercing weapon. The highest EA value of any component on the ship is used, regardless of which component is being hit. EA effect never stacks in 1.84 or 1.91.

Regards,

PvK

[ February 26, 2004, 06:05: Message edited by: PvK ]

[Siegebreaker]

Can I use proportions with the new patch?

[PvK]

Yes, Proportions shouldn't have any problems with the new patch. The AI will behave a bit differently with colonizers - should hopefully be better with them now, and with its economy.

If anyone notices any issues, please let me know.

PvK

[Siegebreaker]

I'm using an slightly modified Version of Proportions 2.5.3, and I'm worried that installing the new patch may erase my changes.

Do I have to reinstall proportions and/or SE4 to install the new patch?

[PvK]

No, the patch doesn't touch Proportions. Proportions files aren't affected, and when using the mod, the mod's data files are used instead of the game's patched data files.

Meanwhile, all the hard-coded changes (AI, interface, bug fixes, etc.) work fine, and I don't know of anything but improvement when using Proportions.

Sometimes you do need to make a fresh install of SE4 before the finicky installer will run. Other times, you don't. If you do, you can then copy your old Proportions files into the new SE4 install, and it'll work fine (assuming the copy goes right).

The main issue with mods and the new patch is that mods don't get changed by the patch, and a few of the mod changes are in the data files which mods need to include. This is why I made a new Version of PvK Balance mod - because it doesn't change the data, so if you use Version 1.0 of PvK Balance with SE4 1.91, a few of the the SE4 1.91 changes get set back to 1.84 status - like the population curve, and component and facility tweaks.

PvK

[oleg]

I played few proportions games with new patch and is quite impressed. AI use pop. transports MUCH more efficient now. However I suspect Aaron simply changed max. population to send transport from 500 to 50. I might be mistaken here but that is my impression. It would be much better if that value is determined in settings.txt than hardcoded

[Siegebreaker]

How can I mod in more than one militia unit per pop unit?
I modified my proportions settings.txt to get one per one, but I haven't found how to get more than one.

The point its, that infantry weights 1kt, and since a million pop weights 1000 kt, that means that one infantry have 1000 soldiers, right?

So if one million pop gives me one militia unit, that would mean 1000 soldiers out of one million, which seems to me completely unrealistic in the case of an alien invasion who undoubtely would unite all possible factions in any given colony against them.
I'll say that one million pop should give 10 000 militias, or maybe even 100 000, if we assume that the local authorities would draft all abled male for planetary defense.

If its not possible to have 10 or 100 militia units out of every pop unit, then I guess the only way would be to scale the single militia unit to represent 100 000 soldiers, keeping in mind that 1000 milita soldiers should be weaker than 1000 infantry.

Can anyone help me to enter the right values on the settings.txt to make militias like this, keeping that value within Proportion's combat values?
I fear I may overpower the militias.

[oleg]

Originally posted by SB:
...
The point its, that infantry weights 1kt, and since a million pop weights 1000 kt, that means that one infantry have 1000 soldiers, right?

...

Hmm, according to you, 1000 soldiers weight 1000 tons or 1 soldier weits 1T

Just build more infantry and do not rely on militia.

And with your changes, how do you plan to ever take over a HW with its 2B people if each one recruit one militia