SEV 1.08, Balance Mod 0.91

[Devnullicus]

Turn 2403.5
Researched: Medium-Light Hulls 2, Repair 1, Armor 5, Applied Research 2, Medium Hulls 1, Applied Research 3



Things are heading towards war again. Above is the currently known galactic map. The Devs (me) started in Pawtril. The Amon'krie were in Wertreken. The Sithrak are in Dornot and Obotron (and probably beyond). The Youbut are in Cretirk.

Naturally, this is making Fwandrei a hotly contested system. So far, neither the Youbut or the Sithrak have tried to come into Fwandrei, but they both have large fleets near their sides of the wormholes. Fleets with good weaponry, lots of point defense, and good armor.

So far, my fleet is mostly composed of missile ships (Crystalline Torpedos), but in the few initial skirmishes I've had so far (including one where they attacked one of my planets in Cretirk with 8 frigates against 3 frigates + a satellite), it seems that my ships do well enough, but their point defense is quite good. So, I'm starting to tool up a different kind of ship that uses shard cannons as their primary weaponry. I don't have any near the front lines yet, so I don't know how they'll do, but we'll see. Currently, I'm just trying to hold on to my planet in Cretirk where the Youbut have a large fleet in orbit above it. I'm massing a fleet at the Cretirk wormhole to come rescue the planet (and for some reason, the Youbut aren't bombarding it!), but mostly, they're older missile ships and so I need a lot of them to overcome the Youbut fleet.

Yes, I still snicker at the Youbut's name, but it's more under my breath, along with a few choice imprecations about their ancestry.

So far, the Sithrak are staying quiety in Dornot and I have a larger fleet waiting at that wormhole. I'm hoping they'll stay on their side for a while and let me fight the Youbut without opening a 2-front war. Given their fleet size, however, I don't have a high degree of confidence in that outcome.

[tmcc]

Captain Kwok said:
I have the AI launching fighters in v0.92, which I'm trying to get finished for tonight. It will be save-game compatible and can hopefully rescue the other AIs somewhat before they hit the wall circa turn 50-75.

CK, be a little carefull. Fighters are super powerfull in ground combat. Make sure the AI holds some back otherwise we will devise some tactics to strip out a planet's fighters right before landing the invasion force.

[Devnullicus]

Turn 2404.0:
Researched: Nothing (working on some high-cost techs)

The Youbut are somewhat crippled at this point, but they've definitely been putting up a decent fight - here's one of the larger battles from 2403.7

before:


after:


Ouch. I glassed the planet, but it had about 10 weapons platforms that tried very hard to tear me a new one. If it had launched the 30+ fighters as well, I might not have won that combat.

One other thing I noticed in this combat is that even though I had (a few) direct-fire ships, they would not fire on the satellites. I'm not sure why - as far as I can tell, direct-fire weaponry should do just fine against satellites.

In 2403.9, I was attacked by 8 of these:

Note the level-3 anti-proton beam and the emissive armor. Their designs are interesting, but unfortunately somewhat light on weaponry.

The main problem I'm seeing in the battles is that half their ships usually start with 0 ordnance and have to run away. I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm guessing that they're having a hard time building resupply depots.

The Sithrak are still sitting quietly in their system and I've managed to build up a sizeable fleet to go in after them soon (now that the Youbut aren't a looming threat).

Otherwise, all quiet on the other fronts. Expansion continues unabated to the west, though it's defintiely slowed as I've stopped producing colonizers so that I could build up more warships.

Within a couple more months, I'll have rock colonization and the Sithrak and Youbut will be contained. At that point, I should about double (or more) my planetary holdings within the next year.

[Captain Kwok]

There is a bug with ordnance and fleets in 1.08, not to mention my ordnance values were probably a bit on the harsh side to start. It should be better in v0.92 though.

[Devnullicus]

So, I have a couple questions.

1) I noticed that the AI is building PD ships that have nothing but point-defense. Great idea! Unfortunately, as soon as they get in battle...they run away! Even with full supplies and ordnance. Is there a way to give them a different strategy or possibly have them take 1 normal weapon so they don't run away?

2) How do I upgrade my resupply depots in this mod?

3) How do I build remote miners so I can mine asteroid fields?

4) Are treaties broken? I haven't gotten an AI to accept one ... at all.

[Captain Kwok]

1 - I've already adjusted that in v0.92 so that PD Ships have at least one offensive weapon.

2 - Resupply Depots are available at odd tech levels of the Resupply Tech Area (ie 1, 3, 5, 7, etc)

3 - Remote miners are available at level 3+ in each resource extraction tech area

4 - It might have something to do with the changes I made with the AI and their anger level... I'll look into that...

Also there is a tech chart available for the Balance Mod:
http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

[Devnullicus]

Turn 2404.5
Researched: Rock Colonization 1, Crystalline Weapons 3, Contra-Terrene Engines 2, Crystalline Technology 2, Crystalline Technology 3

The Youbut Collective has become the butt of history's joke and have joined the Amon'krie in obscurity. That'll teach 'em to refuse my treaty offer.

I'm very surprised that the Sithrak or Xi'Chung have not come after me, honestly. Despite not having any treaties, they seem content to just stay in their systems. In fact, it does seem that the AI players have pretty much stopped growing.

For that reason and the fact that the game is no longer challenging, I'm going to declare it at an end. The next version of the mod sounds like it's going to improve a lot of these problems, so I'll wait for it.

In the meantime, I've gotten a lot of ideas for the mod I want to do, so I'll go work on it while waiting for Captain Kwok to finish 0.92.

Thanks Captain Kwok for all the hard work on this mod. It's far, far better than any game of SE5 I've played so far. I just find it depressing that it is taking so much effort to get the game to a point that it should have been in when it shipped. C'est la vie, I suppose.

[Yimboli]

Devnullicus said:
I just find it depressing that it is taking so much effort to get the game to a point that it should have been in when it shipped.

Me too :'(

God save the modders!!

[Mercury]

its gonna be worthwhile