Balance Mod Available for SE:V - Page 19

Raapys · #**181** October 26th, 2006, 12:03 PM

I'd suggest a big increase in Satellite building and prevent planets from launching more than just a few; fighters are way better planetary defense than stationary satellites, while satellites are ideal for warp points. With 30'ish satellites at each border warp point, the AI can keep his territory very safe for just 1k'ish mainatenance cost per border.

I'll keep an eye out for 'invading AIs'. I suspect the whole 'land troops' action is beyond the reach of the current AI, though.

Captain Kwok · #**182** October 26th, 2006, 12:44 PM

I don't think so. I think if the same conditions are met as in SE:IV, the troop transport will land its troops. Now the bigger problem will be if the troop transport is unarmed will it run away first until the planet defenses have been destroyed first and then return? Is SE:V different in what it considers a "defenseless" planet and is there some bug like WPs not being damaged from space? If I give the transport a weapon will it follow the capture planet strategy and launch a drop pod? That'll we'll have to watch for.

Raapys · #**183** October 26th, 2006, 12:49 PM

Looking at the 'Capture Planet' strategy, it appears to be exactly like the Optimal Firing Range strategy just with the 'Capture planet' setting at TRUE. In other words, it's likely to behave just like the regular ships...? I'll try an invasion myself and see how it acts in combat.

Captain Kwok · #**184** October 26th, 2006, 12:56 PM

Although if the ship doesn't have offensive weapons than it will flee first and then return once the danger has been neutralized. I suppose I will have to make sure that fleets break their formation and follow their own strategies once combat begins - this plus a single weapon on the troop transport will probably be the most effective way for the AI to drop troops off.

Raapys · #**185** October 26th, 2006, 01:27 PM

Okay, here's the invasion report.

I created a Troop Transport ship, Large Freighter, no weapons, 1 space yard component and lots of cargo space. Capture planet strategy.

I then made an Invasion fleet, two task forces. In one task force was my 10 attack ships, in the other was the Troop Transport ship with 31'ish troops. Both task forces had the 'capture planet' strategy.

Sent them to the planet, watched while the computer did all the fighting. As soon as the fight started the troop ship went straight for the planet alongside my attack ships. The planet started firing back and my ships fired at the planet.

It appears that WPs do get damaged, but either they are *very* hard to hit, or they do not get damaged until nearly all of the facilities have been destroyed. In other words, WPs aren't killed until you've nearly wiped out the entire planet.

Anyway, my troop transport eventually reached the planet and flew 'above' it. I got a message saying my troops had been deployed and ground combat would start next turn. At that point all my ships stopped firing at the planet( the WPs were still firing at me) and started to retreat/ go out of firing range. Then the combat ended.

Pressed end turn, ground combat started after AI's were finished. What I noticed here was that my troops went straight for the enemy weapon platforms; even though there were enemy troops firing at me. Had there been a few more enemy troops all my troops would have been killed while spending minutes killing those WPs( which were harmless to my troops) if I hadn't done something.

Anyway, I killed the enemy troops, took out about 3 of 7 WPs, then ran out of ordinance O_O

Noticed that my troops had 'Optimal firing range' as strategy by default. I'm guessing that strategy prioritize WPs over troops? In that case, perhaps a new 'troop' strategy should be made and used as default by ground troops? One that makes them first target other troops, then WPs.

*Edit*

I noticed some variation in the space battle above the planet as I did it a few more times. 4 out of 5 times the whole thing will work out like it should. However, a few times the attacking ships from the other task force will *not* retreat after the troops have been deployed. However, they *will* stop firing, but the WPs do not. In other words, they just stand around the planet getting destroyed by the planet's WPs without returning fire or retreating, even after the troops have been deployed.

tmcc · #**186** October 26th, 2006, 05:53 PM

As I mentioned in a previous post WPs are one of the three units set to be active in ground combat, however none of the ground combat capable weapons can be mounted on WPs using the stock data files. Very easy fix though.

TNZ · #**187** October 27th, 2006, 12:28 AM

Just an idea but could the Planet Utilization tech-area be rearranged in this order:
Climate Control Facility, Atmospheric Modification Plant and then Value Improvement Plant?

Also can anything be done about fighters and drones losing all but one movement point after being launched from the system screen?
[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img]

Shadowstar · #**188** October 27th, 2006, 02:08 AM

I noticed that if you change the design names file, the autocomplete feature of the ship builder won't work properly (for instance, telling it to build a colonizer causes it to build a ship without a colony module). At least, I think its the design names file that's causing it. Do you suppose that could also affect how the AI builds ships?

Or am I the only one having this problem?

I also noticed loading a saved empire in new game causes the empire's tech levels to all be set to 0. You can set them in the empire edit, but everything starts at 0. Then, when the game starts, you get all the normal starting techs, in addition to the ones you chose in the empire editor, but because of the bug you can end up paying tech points for techs that are supposed to be starting techs. This won't happen if you create a new empire in the new game screen, only if you load an existing one. I don't know if that's stock SEV or balance mod, but I suspect its stock SEV.

I also noticed that I ended up starting with all of the plague bombs available, but I did not allocate any starting research into biological weapons, nor did I have levels in it when the game started (didnt even have the requisite for bio weapons). But I could build ships with the weapons. Not sure how much of that is Stock related either, and I have a suspicion it may be related to the above issue.

If all of these issues are not Balance-mod related, then sorry for posting here, but I wasn't sure, and I noticed them when using Balance mod. I'd test them out in stock to see for sure but won't have time for a few days, so I figured I'd post them while they were still fresh in my mind.

Kana · #**189** October 27th, 2006, 04:10 AM

Speaking of design names...there is no Satellite Layer on the list...might be helpful...Also does the AI use these design names to determine the type of ship to build, and what goes on the ship, from the AI ship design file?

Captain Kwok · #**190** October 27th, 2006, 07:35 AM

The AI has reciprocal entries for all the design type names in the Balance Mod and I guess even a few more for stellar manipulation and satellite layer (of which I should probably add so players can use autocomplete for it).

You need to pick a "valid" ship size or type for autocomplete to work properly really. For example, pick a fighter hull for a fighter design. For ships, the Balance Mod prefers the use of transports for most non-combat ships or colony ships for colonizers etc.

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The plague bomb issue is just being caused by a minor typo, it's been fixed in the upcoming version.

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The drop all levels to 0 for empire files is a known SE:V bug.

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I'm not sure if WPs should be functional in Ground Combat...

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Fighters and Drones only get 1 movement point after launch on the system screen because there are no limits to launch/recover of units during game turns. It would be unbalancing otherwise.