I would like to ask everybody in the community for feedback on the modding plans presented here.



Originally, I had wanted to simply try create a mod that would make the Sowers independent of Food as a resource and instead allow them to construct population. However, in the time it took me to figure out a potential solution to the problem of letting the Sowers construct population rather than growing naturally, more and more ideas for small or large changes piled up. By now, all of them taken together have grown into a rather extensive modding project, and I do not feel i am experienced enough to judge all these ideas myself, and may very well be stuck thinking in the wrong direction already. So I have compiled a basic overview of the areas I wish to mod, to present them all to your critical eyes.

01. Goals



The goal of CACHE is to create a more defined flavor for factions, heroes, and combat by applying small bonuses (or in a few cases, radical game mechanic shifts) in various places that create a more distinct impression of the various game elements without upsetting the overall feeling and gameplay of Endless Space.

Originally intended only to give Sowers the ability to construct population instead of relying on food, the ambitions for this project have long since grown past that. However, as there are many players with more experience and greater knowledge of the background story of the ES universe, I want to take into account community feedback.

02. Factions



Further emphasize the factions’ themes through various bonuses:

- changes to a few affinities to emphasize background of factions (most notably Sowers)

- special bonus/ability applied to all ships of each faction (in addition to re-evaluated individual hull bonuses)

-”Palace” building automatically constructed on home system that provides a small Empire-wide bonus; capturable

- Possible changes to Expansion Disapproval, Overpopulation Disapproval, Planet (and anomaly?) disapproval values to reflect the factions’ backgrounds and motivations



02.01. Examples:

Cravers

Affinity: Higher bonus, more crippling penalty, and lower Locust threshold

Ship Bonus: small additive bonus to Troops Efficiency to allow more invasions (even without troops module. They’re 10 foot tall monstrosities, after all.), increased collateral damage against population

Palace Bonus: +1 attack per turn for all fleets

Approval: No change



Horatio

Affinity: no change (cloning’s already powerful and thematic)

Ship Bonus: (Pride of Horatio): damage or defense bonus based on percentage of galaxy colonized?

Palace Bonus: (Endless Cloning Facility) -10% healing cost on Empire?

Approval: Lower expansion disapproval, much higher overpopulation disapproval; replace with additional money penalty on expansion?



Sowers

Affinity: Consume no food, but have 0 growth rate. Colony ships cost no population to allow for growth (may require empire-wide cost modifier to balance growth rate; possibly fixed turn instead of industry cost); How to integrate terraforming lore?

Ship Bonus: Weight used added to HP?

Palace Bonus: +5 Industry on System throughout Empire?

Approval: No changes

03. Combat



- attempt to clarify combat mechanics for easier understanding

- Set all Hull Weakness to 100, so that +1 Defense = +1% eHP

- possibly remove “Evasion Disorientation”; if not, find way to clarify

- possibly divide each phase into 8 (12 or 16) rounds

- attempt to reduce the impact of the “early kill” advantage of long-range weapons

- either replace all basic combat cards with Maneuver cards (Keep Distance: -20% accuracy on both fleets, etc) or set fixed distance and rename range categories appropriately (works well with combat cinematic)

04. Ships and Ship Design



- each ship class should receive a benefit shared across factions (possibly a unique bonus rather than a weight reduction on modules), e.g. % speed bonus on Corvettes, Repair bonus on Cruisers

- each faction should receive a unique bonus for all their ships. E.g. extending automaton repair to all classes instead of dreadnoughts only.

- if necessary, module weight bonuses for each individual hull to further define roles within each faction (May simply retain most current bonuses)

- create additional Civilian modules to make Transport hull more useful, e.g. Salvage Ship granting Dust per destroyed enemy CP

- implement at least 5 stages each of weapons, defenses, armor, and power modules, with weight being constant (or lower) at higher levels

- place faction-specific fighters, bombers, and weapons in the lower or middle part of the technology tree so they will see more use; also set faction specific techs apart a little more clearly (possibly by simply explaining differences in the tooltip)

- possibly attach out of combat bonuses to weapons or defenses to encourage diversity, e.g. Siege Power for lasers, Land Invasion Power for missiles so they can deliver bombs

05. Heroes



- each hero should receive a powerful, but not game-breaking, special ability according to their background; may (initially) be based on hero factions, as otherwise a separate hero class is necessary for each hero

- rebalance most hero abilities to increase with hero stats

- remove class-based experience penalty based on assignment. Getting an admin/pilot is bad enough when you want a hero only for your systems without the game putting you behind on XP gain.

- give all classes some limited abilities outside their main area of expertise, to make non-synergistic class combos more useful

- rebalance some hero stats to eliminate perfect duplicates

- 3 Battle Actions each for Pilot and Commander, 2 for Adventurer, and 1 each for Administrator and Corporate

06. Planets, Improvements, Wonders, and others



- possibly add 3 new planet types to fill the “gaps” (Tier II Science, Tier III Industry, Tier IV Dust) and update exploitations and improvements accordingly (Depends largely on managing to create the necessary textures)

- possibly integrate modified version of LogicSequence’s AGED mod (slight adjustments to FIDS values and tech placement may be needed)

- adjust improvements to make systems with few planets more useful: Upkeep costs adjusted by planet number, possibly bonuses for small systems

- rebalance Wonders so that Natural Wonders have local effects, restored Endless Wonders empire-wide effects

- possibly small FIDS bonus by star type

- Possible balancing pass on Traits, if necessary

More detailed information on the different areas will be added later. A more frequently updated version of this Mod Design Document can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11jvUPlwbi3r8jTQdbF20NEAClrkCtP3qR5CeVbWzSpQ/edit?usp=sharing

Apologies for the double-post and necroing, but tying to edit my original post just eats that wall of text, and I'm not confident clicking submit then.



Here are a few potential component prototypes for this mod:

• CACHE Combat Rebalance
• Construct Additional Sowers
• Social Engineering Constructions
  
  

Well, one thing of feedback I would give is that if you aren't experienced enough for one mega-mod, break it down in to a dozen mini-mods. I changed/am changing a lot in my Warhammer mod. However, changing things sometimes introduces problems. If you have 4594587 changes all going at the same time, you have no idea what caused the issue (Learned that the hard way). If you focus on specific points, however, it's much easier. Change the Sower affinity and check. Everything good? Then continue. Change one of the combat mechanics. Everything good? Continue. Change a different mechanic, and now the game is throwing codes or the AI is being silly? Now you know what caused that issue.



As for your changes with the Sowers, I'm trying the same with the Necrons in my own mod, so if I find some things that help, I'll forward them along to you. =)

That's basically what I'm trying to do, really. The Social Engineering Constructions work fine (as it, I haven't noticed any errors), as do the Sowers, though I'm still not pleased other factions no longer use population to build Colony ships.

I suspect the reason the AI locks up in the Combat mod is that I overlooked some small technology or module it now looks for, or it gets stuck designing ships or picking tech because my parameters don't work out right.

I love your constructible population for Sowers, it fits so well!



I got a feature request. What about super racist factions when it comes to hero pools. Like if Im playing a Human faction in the middle of a bitter war with Hissho or Cravers I highly doubt my population would allow a Hissho or Craver hero to lead them into battle or govern a homeworld. Maybe theres a way to limit the population pool to only heros that match your current faction. I personally will either never hire a hero of a different faction or fire them instantly if our two factions aren't on the best of terms, because I roleplay all my games. Yes I know it doesnt really matter to the game though.



Love all your proposed ideas.

Glad to hear you're enjoying my changes to the Sowers. Knowing that at least one other player enjoys them makes the effort feel much more worth it.

I've been wondering how to deal with Food for them without completely reworking the Technology Tree as they had to do for the harmony, and I've been kicking around the idea of adding 25% of Food Production to Dust and Science, because of the ways the Sowers would exploit the paradise they are creating for their masters. That may be a little too powerful, though, or not feel quite right to most players.

I may end up completely reworking their tech tree after all, but I'd really rather avoid that, so that they can still trade those technologies.





As for the racist faction: Implementing the racial abilities for each hero will require a hidden "race class" anyway, so I may be able to adapt the headhunter traits to do just that. I'd love to be able to change that on the fly during a game, as part of the potential social engineering I might implement, but I don't think I can.