Antera wrote:


The problem here is that its possible, depending on some of these other elements, for fighter damage to be high enough to make it an effective anti-ship weapon. Which would reduce early bombers to invasion only role.

Where is the download link to the mod?

Antera wrote:
This is my second mod and more of a side project. Depending on how well it works out I might include it into my next project.

Carrier Mod

Current version: 1.1.17.0

Goal: The carrier mod is intended to make fighter/bomber/PD/carrier aspect of the game more prominent than in the stock game.



What the mod does: The mod modifies many aspect of the gameplay relating to fighter/bomber action. The most prominent changes include:

[LIST=1]

• Medium 2 chassis of each race has been changed into a specialized carrier chassis.
• Progression of fighter/bomber/PD stats has been greatly altered to increase their viability.
• Fighter/bomber/PD are also rebalanced scale more like regular weapon and defense modules do.
• Fighter/bomber/PD modules are no longer limited by special slot count, they are still limited by tonnage.
• Fighter/bomber can now make one attack on the first phase if the opponent does not flee.
  
  

[/LIST]

Design Principles



The way I balanced fighter/bomber/PD is based on the following principles:



[LIST=1]

• Anti-ship bomber should be strong enough to be a viable primary weapon in battle; the damage of bombers are set by gauging their effectiveness compared to other weapon types
• At low level, the role of fighter is anti-bomber with a bit of anti-ship; they can make a difference in anti-ship combat but not nearly as much as bomber
• At high level, fighter becomes hybrid fighter-bomber so that they can carry out anti-bomber and anti-ship duty; this is done by setting fighter damage, fighter anti-ship dmaage malus, and fighter anti-bomber accuracy bonus
• At high level, fighter are fairly close in combat efficiency against small ship chassis but still inferior against large ship compared to bomber; this is done by setting fighters to have a higher accuracy and evade than bomber (small ships have high evade that is effective against bomber)
• Fighter versus fighter battle can last 4-5 rounds if both side are similar in number, this allow the bombers to sneak through and do damage while the fighter duke it out; this is set by adjusting fighter HP
• Point Defense should mimic simlar level defense module by shooting down enough fighter/bomber to provide ships better survivability; point defense provide superior defense against bomber than fighter on a per-ton basis
• Anti-planet bomber are strictly for invasion only, though they do provide about 1/3 of the combat power as anti-ship bomber in a pinch
  
  

[/LIST]



As a result of these design principles, a number of ship design strategies will naturally arise. I won't spill the beans yet and let you guys figure it out for yourself.





Changes to the Game



Here are the details of what the mod changes:



[1] Carrier



Medium 2 chassis of each race has been changed into a specialized carrier chassis. My original intention was to simply add a seventh chassis but the ship design window currently cannot accomodate more than 6 chassis. I'll change it if that changes.



Carrier chassis has the following general stats:



Cost: 400

HP: 2000

Tonnage: 300

SpecSlot: 3 (for troops)

CP: 3

Evade: 0.23

HullWeakness: 150

Bonus: -25% fighter/bomber tonnage



The bonus varies slightly for some race. For instance, Hissho carrier has -33% fighter/bomber tonnage while Harmony carrier has -40% fighter/bomber tonnage. The original bonus of Medium 2 has either been merged into Medium 1 or removed depending on what it is and what made sense to me. For instance, Harmony small 2 chassis now has the bonus of Harmony medium 2 since medium 2 has taken over the role of the carrier.



[2] Fighter



[LIST=1]

• Fighter modules no longer take up special slots
• Fighter has only one variant: battle; this was done simplify the role of fighters
• Fighter modules takes a fixed 50 ton for all tech level; stats scaled appropriately
• Fighter stats re-balanced to give a more logical progression and scales in stats with tech level roughly the same way weapons do
• Fighter modules have military power that reflects that space combat capabilities
• Low-level fighters have large damage malus when attacking ships, this is overcome as you go to higher level fighters
• Fighter now reach the enemy in two rounds and can make one strike against the opponent on the first phase if they did not flee
• Fighter now have improved accuracy when hunting bombers, allowing them to make a difference in anti-bomber action
  
  

[/LIST]



[3] Bomber



[LIST=1]

• Bomber modules no longer take up special slots
• Bomber has two variant: anti-ship and anti-planet
• Bomber modules takes a fixed 50 ton for all tech level; stats scaled appropriately
• Bomber modules now provide 2 bombers each, this was done in part to balance fighter vs bomber action
• Bomber stats re-balanced to give a more logical progression and scales in stats with tech level roughly the same way weapons do
• Lv 3 bomber still has higher evade and lower HP than otherwise for its tech level; this was done on purpose
• Bomber modules have military power that reflects that space combat capabilities
• Bomber now reach the enemy in two rounds and can make one strike against the opponent on the first phase if they did not flee
  
  

[/LIST]



[4] Point Defense (PD)



[LIST=1]

• PD modules no longer take up special slots
• PD modules cost reduced to a level in line with other defenses
• PD modules now does fixed damage and is much more effective than before in order to counter the rise of fighter/bomber as threats
• PD modules have military power similar to comparable tech level defense modules
  
  

[/LIST]



[5] Technology



[LIST=1]

• Two new technologies have been added to Science branch that adds passive module regeneration: Strikecraft Repair Droid under Neural Robotices (TL2) and Auto-Mending Strikecraft Hull under Tectonic Engineering (TL5)
  
  

[/LIST]



[6] Known Issues as of v1.1.17.0



[LIST=1]

• This mod can be graphically intensive. My comp can handle about 100 strikecrafts without stutter, and about 200 with only lag during weapon fire, so I've set the stats in such a way that you will get 200 ish fighters at the very end of the game while equipping minimal defenses. With a more typical ship design, the end-game number will be closer to 150. Nevertheless, your computer may not like it. Well, I would dial the numbers down more, but then it wouldn't be as epic.
• AI does not currently take advantage of the rule change. I'll probably work on this later. Ideas are much appreciated.
  
  

[/LIST]



[7] Things I am considering



[LIST=1]

• Soliciting feedback on fighter/bomber/PD balance
• Soliciting feedback on how the chassis effect of medium 2 has been moved
• Rename faction-specific fighter/bomber to match their respective faction naming scheme
• Adding a second tier PD to counter Lv 3 and 4 fighter/bombers
• Fighter/bomber battle cards?
• Fighter/bomber hero abilities?
  
  

[/LIST]





Installation Instructions



Mod files are attached to this post.



Install:

1) If not already existing, create a new folder called "Modding" in "My Documents\Endless Space\Disharmony\"

1a) If you don't know where "My Documents" is, navigate to "[DriveLetter]:\Users[AccountName]\My Documents\"

2) Unzip the zip file’s content to "My Documents\Endless Space\Disharmony\Modding", this should create a folder called "CarrierMod"



Running the mod:

1) Start the game, go to Mods on the title screen.

2) Select mod and load.



Starting the game with the mod loaded:

1) [Steamusers] Go to the "Game Library" in Steam

2) Right click Endless Space and select "Properties"

3) Click "Set Launch Options"

4) Type "+mod CarrierMod" without the quotation marks into the blank

5) Start the game



Uninstall:

1) Clear the "Set Launch Options" if you had them set

2) Navigate to the "Modding" folder

3) Delete the "CarrierMod" folder

Maybe I'm just stupid... but I don't see a hyperlink anywhere in the post. How do I download this mod?

assafb wrote:
Just came across this Mod, looks extremely useful, to the extent that I hope that some of the decisions will be adopted to future patches, I'll surely try it the next time I come around to starting a new game. Thanks for your work.

Cypherseven wrote:
Would you be able to combine your mods?

thuvian wrote:
I had seen this a few days ago and was surprised that more people weren't embracing this. This is a great work (and parallels many of my own thoughts about bombers/fighters). I'd suggest you add in the rest of the fixes for the 1.1.14 beta as well (hullweakness and some way of dealing with the defense passives). While I'm biased in thinking my approach to the matter is the right way, any of the possible solutions would be reasonable.



I would make the following suggestions

• Fix your list syntax in the bomber section of your original post
• Make bombers as fighter modules weigh the same.
• Limit end game fleets to ~100 spacecrafts by increasing the weight of the modules to 100 or even 200.
• Harmony bonus is -75% to spacecraft module size. That's a big fleet of fighters and bombers.
• Scale damage to reflect their current size
• Remove the malus to ship damage from the fighters, they already do less than bombers versus ships.
• Increase the repair rate of spacecraft to 25-50% per turn or so? As it stands you can just refit them and have them instantly repaired. I'm not sure how siegecraft are balanced, so that may matter.
  
  

• Fix your list syntax in the bomber section of your original post
• Make bombers as fighter modules weigh the same.
• Limit end game fleets to ~100 spacecrafts by increasing the weight of the modules to 100 or even 200.
• Harmony bonus is -75% to spacecraft module size. That's a big fleet of fighters and bombers.
• Scale damage to reflect their current size
• Remove the malus to ship damage from the fighters, they already do less than bombers versus ships.
• Increase the repair rate of spacecraft to 25-50% per turn or so? As it stands you can just refit them and have them instantly repaired. I'm not sure how siegecraft are balanced, so that may matter.