Balance Mod Available for SE:V

[Raapys]

Perhaps the AI could be scripted to send a message when you're angering them? Since there are several actions that increases their anger, each one could have a relevant message giving the player some idea of 'what he did wrong'. Some way to avoid spamming the player would have to be found, of course.

[Captain Kwok]

The AI already does this. It tells you to remove your colonies, ships, stop being allies with their enemies, stop military or intelligence attacks etc.

Do you have treaties with other races that are your allies' enemies or vice versa?

The Sergetti are xenophobic, so they tend to anger faster than others. Still working on how to prevent them from getting involved in too many conflicts at once - which is particularly a problem in crowded quadrants.

I'm re-doing the anger system for v1.15, so I'll be making a number of related changes that will help elucidate the reasons for their moods and anger.

[AstralWanderer]

Thanks for the update Kwok! I'd like to report on three oddities though:

• Hardy Industrialist trait description "Planetary Space yards produce at 20% of their normal rate" hardly sounds like an advantage! Fortunately it doesn't work as described...stock specifies +20%.
• Advanced Storage Techniques provides no increase in planetary facility capacity. Is this deliberate? (even a reduced percentage would be better than nerfing it completely, and increased cargo capacity on its own is hardly worth 1,000 racial points).
• Encountered a Cue-Cappa Colony ship with no weapons (fair enough) but with ordinance storage (plus armour and supply storage). Presumably this was just to make up the tonnage, but it is unnecessary expense nonetheless. Can't the AI "build short" in cases like this to get cheaper ships?

[Captain Kwok]

I'll fix up the hardy industrialists description.

Originally, stock didn't have the increased facility space either. It added it in after - I'm still not sure if I'm going to put it in. The AST trait does apply to all cargo abilities though, so carriers can carry more fighters or mine layers can carry more mines etc. Depending on your mode of play, it can be quite useful. However, If I do add the facility space modifier, the cost will probably jump up to 2000 points at the least. If I don't I might drop it down to 500 racial points.

Colony Ships add extra supply and ordnance intentionally. They get transfered to the colony when it's founded, which can provide some supplies or ordnance right away to nearby ships that are nearby and low on supplies/ordnance.

The armor is for two purposes: protection versus damaging warp points and to help a bit with ramming. Most of the AI races will kamikaze their colony ships if they are attacked.

[Baron Munchausen]

Yeah, that was a major surprise when I discovered that the AI races in this mod would try to RAM with their colony ships. But once you know it's going to happen, it simplifies the problem of chasing down colony ships...

The Sergetti are now at war with every other race in the game, even the neutrals. They've suffered some losses but not very much yet. They are gonna be in very deep trouble in a few more turns when my shiny new light cruisers go charging into the adjacent lightly defended system, and that will put me right next to their home system. I am thinking about a 'strategic' strike directly into the home system and then going back for the small planets in the intervening system. If it works, it'd be a major gain for me and a major loss for them.

[AstralWanderer]

Captain Kwok said:
However, If I do add the facility space modifier, the cost will probably jump up to 2000 points at the least. If I don't I might drop it down to 500 racial points.

Stock adds 10% to planet facility capacity - that means just 2 more facilities on a homeworld (I do remember it being 20% in a previous version - or was that SE4?) so it shouldn't be a major advantage as-is.

Captain Kwok said:
Colony Ships add extra supply and ordnance intentionally. They get transfered to the colony when it's founded, which can provide some supplies or ordnance right away to nearby ships that are nearby and low on supplies/ordnance.

Would it not be better to skip this functionality on colony ships and leave it to freighters instead? It isn't needed in the early stages of the game and does slow down construction - I was able to build a minimal CS (with just 2 cargo holds plus colony module and essentials) in 0.1 years while adding armour, etc pushed it to 0.2 (with shipyard build bonuses - skipping the cargo holds and even dropping an engine should provide a 0.1 year build without). That makes a bigger difference at the start when colonising in-system.

An ordinance/supply freighter would not only do the job better but it can be reused. The issue then is giving the AI enough smarts to know when to use them (e.g. building a colony in a contested system, building a colony on a border system - or even for all colonies built after first contact). Currently AIs send colony ships unescorted even into hostile space.

Captain Kwok said:
The armor is for two purposes: protection versus damaging warp points and to help a bit with ramming. Most of the AI races will kamikaze their colony ships if they are attacked.

Warp points that can affect a 350Kt colony ship seem pretty rare and ramming doesn't work in practice (colony ships being slower than the average frigate). I'd suggest the tradeoff in longer build times is not a good one.

[Suicide Junkie]

What's the big deal with a slightly longer build time?

So you get 19 colony ships out in the first 20 turns instead of 21... but you give those colonies a jump start.
Most of the time is going to be spent in transit anyways.


That said, supplies and ordnance are not as useful as you might think.
The wandering ships won't get supplies while passing through the sector unless there is a resupply depot pushing supplies. Unless a load cargo (supplies) order is given, the ships won't get any.

Slapping an anti-planet weapon on them can help. When faced with the inevitable competition for worlds, glass the enemy colony and then land yourself.
Cargo for extra population is probably the best, and if you can squeeze on a couple fighters or a platform to defend the new colony, that's great.

[AstralWanderer]

Turning out colony ships quickly is important in the beginning stages for establishing in-system colonies and grabbing neighbouring systems. Even a 1-2 turn lead can become significant if it allows you to claim systems before the AI does - so having the AI do a similar thing levels the playing field.

As for supplies/ordinance, I believe the Captain was considering Weapons Platforms with seekers, which would require both to function. In this case, providing them to a colony makes sense but it is better done by freighter, which can carry the platforms also.

[Ed Kolis]

Platforms don't actually use supply or ordnance in space combat, and I believe the only platform-mountable weapons that can even target anything in ground combat AND use supplies or ordnance are the Bomblet Missiles, which are not exactly an early game tech!

[Captain Kwok]

A ship will take any supplies/ordnance that it needs from a planet regardless if a Resupply Depot is present, assuming it's in the sector during end turn processing.

As I mentioned earlier, the extra supply/ordnance is for resupplying the odd ship that needs it before a resupply depot is constructed. If you give the AI a low bonus, the few extra components make no difference in construction times.

AI colony ships do on occasion pick up Weapon Platforms, depending on their destination and if a WP is easily available.

Damaging warp points can do 100-200 damage to a ship. Without a few armor components, a colony ship could lose most of its components (particularly engines) quite easily, leaving it to limp along to its target.

Colony ships are not ordered to dangerous systems, but occasionally they end up in one because it's on the way to a non-hostile system. There's no way right now for the scripts to know what systems a ship has to go through to get to its destination, so you can't always stop a non-combat ship from entering a hostile system. I've requested a script function to provide a list of systems that a ship has to travel through, which will allow a check against hostile systems etc.