Proportions Mod Versions 2.5.2 and 2.5.3 available

[leo1434]

Hello:

So, I understand it better now they are complementary. Ok.

In that case, what percentage of a given hull size (say, 700 kT in example) would you use for armor (plating + armor components). In the balance of mobility, protection and firepower, I like to favour:
1) Mobility (you cannot be hit if you are not there) It is best used in Master of Orion 2 battles, I miss those weapon firing arcs!
2) Armor: If you can withstand the enemy fire one more turn, may be you will outLast him.
3) Well, and Last firepower...

I would really thank you for your opinion about ship protection.

Other topic: I was thinking about modeling a "light" Version of the armour platings (which will take less space) and keeping the "standard" ones, of course. So, suppose I make a plating wich takes half the space of the current ones, What would be a proportional protection value? Should structure tonnage and emisive ability be reduced to half, too? Or would you suggest another structure/tonnage/ability ratio?
(Is this question clear enough?)

Thank you very much to all for this and previous advice...

[PvK]

Thanks for the kind feedback, Talenn!

Gosh, heaps of questions to try to cover in everyone's Messages.

Torpedoes are a good weapon in Proportions, and yes one advantage is the relatively low research cost. I had originally thought to reduce their accuracy, but then I might make them a little more hard-hitting. The research cost may be sort of a bargain I suppose. Investing in other heavy anti-ship weapons can yield even more effective weapons, though, eventually. Remember too that torpedoes can't target fighters, drones, or satellites. But yeah, they are good weapons in Proportions. I think most weapons have gotten better, though.

The Emissive Armor discussion from patch 2's release is still correct in patch 3. Emissive armor effects never stack. The highest emissive rating on any undestroyed component on the ship subtracts from the damage done by each weapon hit that gets past shields, unless the damage type is one that skips armor. It does not matter which component is hit. It has been tested and confirmed.

kT in Proportions aren't meaningless, but they are abstract, and not to be taken literally. Of course, the have meaning in that they have game effects. They are almost never actual kiloTons (thousand tons). No fighter is 15-25,000 TONS, and the smallest scout ship is not going to be 100,000 TONS, or a small satellite 80,000 TONS - that's just silly. You could imagine each fighter unit were a squadron or more, and the mass included all the personnel, supplies, and equipment required to keep them operating in space. Mainly though Proportions sticks to the same base values for most things, except population size, cargo capacities, and colony ship size.

That satellites are larger than fighters I think does make sense, given what they do in the game. I have been thinking for a long time though that it would make sense to have dinky satellites, down to 1 kT, although they wouldn't do much, and the main use for them would be recon, and there's no way to mod away their built-in ability to give full system spotting info, so maybe it does make sense to have a minimum 80 kT, to get the minimum abilities. Smaller satellites would be possible, but also would be kind of beneath the scope of the game, sort of like the assumption of small invisible "civilian" ships.

My opinion on ship protection, is that there are many valid choices, which all can be effective. You can go for unmodded-style ships with little or no armor and shields, and they may succeed because they will have a lot more firepower and ability than ships with a signifigant portion of armor. However, they will also be a lot more expensive and may get destroyed or crippled by a hit or two from a powerful weapon. Armor can add a lot of staying power to a ship, and can also make opponents who use a high "damage until" or "target most damaged" tactic waste firepower while healthy ships bLast them. The tricky thing is, there are now many different types of armor, with different trade-offs, and a major one is expense. The best-protected ship may have a bunch of Ultra Armor Structure, redundant plating, and specialized armors, but it will cost as much as a whole squadron, and may have a lot less ability, except at taking damage, and taking lots of hits may not be your main purpose for building ships. It may be a good idea to deploy a variety of designs, too. I don't have a favorite formula, but I do have quite a few designs I like a lot. Usually it's hard for me to decide how much armor and shields to put on, and what types, versus abilties. I usually end up exploring several different designs in every empire.

A "light" armor plating at 50%... I'd probably give half structure compared to full plating, and half cost and size, but would probably not be more than half the emissive value of full plate, and not more than or +2 more than the emissive ability (or defense bonus) of the structure of the same tech level - whichever value is lower. Thinning plating tends to defeat the purpose, but for designs that don't have the tonnage to spare, could be better than all structure and no plating.

PvK

[Fyron]

kT in Proportions aren't meaningless, but they are abstract, and not to be taken literally.

The numbers themselves aren't meaningless, they determine how much you can place on the vehicle. But the kT unit itself is indeed meaningless.

[Aloofi]

Horrible! Terrible!
How can this happen?
Why I can't retrive fighters with 1.84 if they don't have full movement points?
Please somebody help me....I can't live with this, how can I fix this?
Its like:
-"Control tower, this is British Airways fly 408 to Heathrow Airport requesting permission to land"
-"Fly 408, you can't land until tomorrow when you have your full movement points. Sorry about that, but its company policy. Keep flying in circles until tomorrow, and have a great evening."

[oleg]

Originally posted by Aloofi:
Horrible! Terrible!
How can this happen?
Why I can't retrive fighters with 1.84 if they don't have full movement points?
Please somebody help me....I can't live with this, how can I fix this?
Its like:
-"Control tower, this is British Airways fly 408 to Heathrow Airport requesting permission to land"
-"Fly 408, you can't land until tomorrow when you have your full movement points. Sorry about that, but its company policy. Keep flying in circles until tomorrow, and have a great evening."

You will have to live with it. It is a good solution to "chain transport" abuse: you move one carrier, launch fighters to another carrier then move the second carrier. This way you can shuttle an escadron of fighters through 2 systems in one turn !

[Aloofi]

Where its the file about the ruins?
I'm trying to find it to understand how ruins work in Proportions but the only thing I saw its in the Abilities.txt ..........

[oleg]

Torpedos are very good weapon in Proportions but I think Meson BLaster is still better choice in early game.

Does anybody have an example of fighting against Soul Hunters? They use Torpedoes as a main weapon.

[oleg]

Originally posted by Aloofi:
Where its the file about the ruins?
I'm trying to find it to understand how ruins work in Proportions but the only thing I saw its in the Abilities.txt ..........

In StellarAbilities.txt I think.

[Aloofi]

Originally posted by oleg:
[QB You will have to live with it. It is a good solution to "chain transport" abuse: you move one carrier, launch fighters to another carrier then move the second carrier. This way you can shuttle an escadron of fighters through 2 systems in one turn ![/QB]

Noooo.......don't tell me that please....

*falls on the ground crying and starts pulling out his hair*

Somebody please bring me back my fighters....my precious....

It was so cool before. Fighters could fly to a planet, refuel and rearm, and then continue and intercep an evil alien fleet. They were real interceptors. And since I always play without protecting Warp points, interceptors were a must.
Now I can't even keep my own in-house rule of never having a fighter in space at the end of a turn. Now they have to stay in space more than one turn, and that its so unrealistic! The poor pilots have to be in space for over 30 days in a cockpit!
As long as I was able to use launch them and retrieve them in the same turn I could have argued that they only expended a couple days in an intercepting mission. But 30 days! This is nuts!
I want my SE4 back!

*starts crying and screaming loudly while the neigbours call 911 to accuse him of domestic violence*

[Aloofi]

Originally posted by oleg:
Torpedos are very good weapon in Proportions but I think Meson BLaster is still better choice in early game.

Does anybody have an example of fighting against Soul Hunters? They use Torpedoes as a main weapon.

I definitively agree. The best frigging weapon in Proportions pound by pound its the Meson BLaster VI. Match it up with a couple shield depleters and you don't need a Phased Polaron Beam. The Ripper beam also have a good Firepower/fire-rate/weight ratio. But forget about the famous Wave motion gun. Of course, to defeat a high level emisive armor a little more punch might be needed....