So I just finished recording the second episode of my LP with this mod, and i noticed a bit of a problem with your cravers AI. They were going heavily in missile tech, so naturally I went heavy flak. They noticed this and countered by replacing their missiles with kinetics. Now, here's the problem. Their kinetics are still level 1, whilst their missiles were level 3 (I believe). I put in 1 deflector and they didn't change their design, but at the same time they don't seem to be researching any kinetic weapons. They were doing more damage with missiles against my flak than they currently are with their kinetics against my deflectors.

Also,this may be more to do with the balance mdo tha the AI, but did the xp gains get changed? Because my heroes seemed to get 4 levels from destroying a 7 CP fleet. This makes pilots VERY over-powered now, as they can get to harvestors and get more dust from killing 1 ship than my entire empire earns in a turn.

Gameslayer989 wrote:
So I just finished recording the second episode of my LP with this mod, and i noticed a bit of a problem with your cravers AI. They were going heavily in missile tech, so naturally I went heavy flak. They noticed this and countered by replacing their missiles with kinetics. Now, here's the problem. Their kinetics are still level 1, whilst their missiles were level 3 (I believe). I put in 1 deflector and they didn't change their design, but at the same time they don't seem to be researching any kinetic weapons. They were doing more damage with missiles against my flak than they currently are with their kinetics against my deflectors.

Also,this may be more to do with the balance mdo tha the AI, but did the xp gains get changed? Because my heroes seemed to get 4 levels from destroying a 7 CP fleet. This makes pilots VERY over-powered now, as they can get to harvestors and get more dust from killing 1 ship than my entire empire earns in a turn.

What version were you using? I didn't mess with the AI weapon choices, but at higher difficulty they are more reactive and will switch weapon types more often (not sure if it's a good thing, they waste more ressources switching back and forth than sticking with what they have). Normally they invest equally in all weapon types, they should have level 4 kinetics by the time they have level 3 missiles. Maybe they didn't switch but just brought out an older design they didn't bother to upgrade.



As for XP earning, i did change it in my last version, but i lowered the values, not increased them. I too find it ridiculous that Heroes get that much XP just entering battles (win or lose, they get a lot of it). It's supposed to be more balanced in v1.16 unless something isn't working as planned.

New version is coming along fine and it will have a few MAJOR features in it. First there will be Budget and Elite modules (ie normal vs expensive but powerful), but that's just the icing on the cake. I reworked approval system and now system disapproval hit only after 50% of the space in system is filled. I'm also working on changing expansion disapproval so it hit when you have too many outposts rather than too many fully owned system (that way, quick expander are hurt while slow and methodical ones suffer little to none of it). Then, i finally found how to change blockade effects; now it will hurt all fids production rather than just food and research, but none will be reduced to zero (Mass blockading won't be such a sure way to win now). Also, i changed rounds per phase in combat to 8 (from 4, doubled ship's health to compensate) to increase the usefulness of larger ships (ie if they have the firepower to one shot ships, they can kill 8 a turn and 24 in the whole battle). Fixed all issues with weapons balance (between each others and across levels).



All in all it's a huge impact version that is coming .

Reading what i wrote yesterday: 150% damage at 200% cost should be fine, i'm retarded. (It's 150% damage, and 150% industry-per-damage cost, which means roughly 225% cost-per-weight)



If you managed to deal with blockades, is there any way to make them work only on a function of MP of the invading fleet (Say, if it's enough to counterbalance the system strenght), so we don't get the ridicolous "engine-only scout blockading" thing?

(I'm asking since you managed to code I reduction, which wasn't in: And which, by the way, i think it's a bad idea)



On double-turn, double hp: I wouldn't do that until we know exactly how does Armor work.

The HUGE update is there. Like mentioned earlier, this version add new Elite modules, also change the rules for expansion/overpopulation disapproval, fixed lots of weapons/defenses imbalances, buff large ship's capability to swat large swarm of smaller ships (ie increased rounds per phase), blockades now reduce system's FIDS by 30% (still have research now)... Lots of stuff, and hopefully, it's the best update this mod had to date . Enjoy!



Next version will add other Elite modules (no invasion and repair implemented yet) and fix any reported problems with the current version.



Now, beat my AI, i dare you .

It was the one I was given 6 days ago, and you told me to play on normal :P

But the xp gains are definatly WAY higher than in the vanilla game. It feels like a 1000% increase before your nerf to it. Often I would never have a hero past level 15 by end game, yet in 6 battles i've already trained a hero to level 12, and this is without legendary heroes.

Gameslayer989 wrote:
It was the one I was given 6 days ago, and you told me to play on normal :P

But the xp gains are definatly WAY higher than in the vanilla game. It feels like a 1000% increase before your nerf to it. Often I would never have a hero past level 15 by end game, yet in 6 battles i've already trained a hero to level 12, and this is without legendary heroes.

I will check it out. I may have messed it up when i tweaked it. Grrr, i hate that kind of mess up.

Actually, i found a bug with my current build in regard to XP gains. Heroes and Ships don't get any XP from battle due to a mistake i made when modding XP gains. I'm fixing it right now and will post a fixed version of the mod once i'm sure it works properly.



Edit: Oh well, since nobody had downloaded it yet, i just re-uploaded the v 1.17. All clear now, should work well.

New version up (1.18). Basically a fix and minor tweak revision. Fixed an error with the effect of blockade and reworked influence effects. Enjoy!

Let me explain how the changes with expansion disapproval affect gameplay. First, to have the least possible disapproval, you need to colonize what is under your influence "umbrella", meaning that any outpost outside of it will raise a lot of disapproval (4 times what established worlds contribute). Having a bigger empire will always hurt, but so long you only colonize/invade what is in your territory you can keep it to a minimum and manage it with approval improvements (they provide less so beware, you will struggle if your disapproval skyrocket). Then there is the change that makes new colonies suffer from disapproval as well, just to a lesser extent (75% of the core worlds), so you can't game the system by abusing free disapproval outposts. Then, there is a further penalty for colonizing too far, systems outside the umbrella of you and your allies works only at around 90% fids output, they they develop slower and are easier to capture as well.



Blockades. Blockades used to only reduce food and cancel research (as well as removing access to trade and ressource of course). In FF they now reduce all fids by 35% , meaning that the system blockaded has reduced output but can still contribute to the Empire. No longer mass blockading can spell doom to the victim; it will hurt, but won't be as crippling because research isn't nullified anymore. It will be much harder to cripple the AI this way, and pirates raids will just be annoyances rather than a crippling blow.



Feel free to ask if some aspect of this isn't clear or you have further questions.

Started playing 118 version. What do you mean by "influence umbrella"? The coloured area around my starting colony? This means I'm not supposed to go colonize a new star system not under the influence of the starting colony?

Hister wrote:
Started playing 118 version. What do you mean by "influence umbrella"? The coloured area around my starting colony? This means I'm not supposed to go colonize a new star system not under the influence of the starting colony?

You don't have to worry about that before you get to your 3rd colonized system (the first 2 are free of it). After that you start getting disapproval, but the hit will only last until they turn full colonies (30 turns). If you can encase it into influence though (using the improvements for that) you can reduce the disapproval hit to 25%. To maximize the colonization without hurting your approval, go for the larger systems with lots of colonizable planets (approval hit is by system, not planets).



Edit: Hum, re-reading the files, having them under the umbrella reduce the penality a bit, but not entirely; new outposts will always have an expansion hit, just less if under influence.

OK, thank you for the explanation, sounds good.

some bugs in 118 version... second elite missile (unstable torpedos) is without resource requirements, pilot bonus to fleet movement is broken

Memnon wrote:
some bugs in 118 version... second elite missile (unstable torpedos) is without resource requirements, pilot bonus to fleet movement is broken

Will check that. Dunno what could be wrong with the pilot speed bonus though, i haven't changed how it works, just put it under the pilot rather than the Commander.

Hister wrote:
OK, thank you for the explanation, sounds good.

Explaining it to you also allowed me to find a small bug in it, will soon update it with the fix. Might throw in the remaining Elite modules, they are already declared in the mod, just need to add the code.

Do outposts suffer from expansion disapproval in FF?

Aureon wrote:
Do outposts suffer from expansion disapproval in FF?

Yes, but to a lesser extent than fully owned systems (that also contribute to not over colonize). But my current version has a few quirks, i will post an update soon that fix them.

Hope it's save game compatible?

Oh well, soon is now. New version is up (1.19). Mostly fixes and tweaks, no need to start new games to use. One major improvement though is i added a condition for the AI to pick it's heroes skills. It's untested, but if it works the AI won't pick useless skills for their heroes they they will be much more useful (ie no more System assigned hero picking fleet's skills and vice versa). Other than that i refined the disapproval system i implanted, should work as advertised now, quick and careless expansion will wreak your empire, slow and steady rise will be much more efficient.