Let's get all fifteen capital ships done and test it on the weekend!

I'm employed now (yay) so I won't be available during the weekdays anymore (boo), though I will drop by the forums at least once a day after work

The Weebly is brand new. I got tired of the forum booms trying to edit pages so I first started using a friends web space then moved to the weebly free hosting.

File sizes are up to 10mb I think.

I will try and keep up on mirroring for you and feel free to put the link in the main post.

Thanks myfist0!  I think I will implement your suggestion about the change log when there is a second version...I'm new to this so I really appreciate your help

I will be available most of this weekend...Saturday and Sunday afternoons/nights will be best, the things I have to do this weekend don't have to be done at fixed times so I'm pretty flexible...

I agree completely, but I'm thinking that they needed to be done first, as they definitely needed to be changed and may render other changes unnecessary....for example, lets say its established that "oh, phase missiles are soooo OP against caps"...well right now that may be very true, and maybe PMs need to be nerfed...or maybe if caps were more valuable, then PMs will suddenly be deemed perfectly acceptable...PMs don't have to be changed to balance the game, but the caps still do...just one example...

I've seen a lot of complaints about this as well...on one hand, it is usually only relevant to SP....but on the other hand, it is perfectly in the realm of possibilities, so why not improve it?  I have not looked at your mod yet but I agree with you that pirates do need to be changed...I downloaded your mod and when I have time will definitely try it out in SP...I don't know when pirates will be focused on, but they are definitely an element that needs to be fixed...

This is my understanding of armor...the expression 1/(1+.05*armor) is used as a multiplier against incoming damage...this approximates to 5% less damage per armor point for low armor values...however, each additional armor point provides less and less of a bonus, so 20 armor does not remove all damage but rather halves it...

A linear bonus of 1/2/3 armor would not provide a linear bonus in damage reduction, which I felt made abilities like energy absorption and Heavy SC weak at higher levels...2/4/6 isn't linear either but at least it provides more of a bonus...

I like this idea a lot...I want to test out animosity (just to see if it works) but I think its going to need a second buff...and I think your idea here is the best...I was originally in favor of a debuff effect on affected ships but shield regeneration is probably better...

I agree...unfortunately, the ability does add armor...the less changes on a conceptual level, the more likely this mod will become popular and accepted...some broken things like animosity are going to have to be changed, but if possible I think it's best to leave the concept unchanged and rework the numbers to balance it...

Now, if animosity does prove very viable (dependent on a second buff), then perhaps increasing the antimatter regeneration on energy absorption would be a better change than an armor increase...you are right, armor simply is not an Advent thing...

I tested the Kol change. It seems not too OP as I send it into a largely fortified terran, with like 10+ militia ships, and it did almost die

Thanks Darvin!  So that all 15 capital ships can be tested this weekend, I have updated all links to the latest version of the mod...this includes the first release and then additional suggestions made by Darvin...IF YOU HAVE NOT DOWNLOADED THE MOST RECENT VERSION PLEASE DO SO...below is the current change log:

Official Change Log of Project Equilibrium

v0.11 -- Released 7/10/2010

Capital Ship changes

-Marza

--Incendiary Shells
---Damage per second increased from 3/4.5/6 to 10/20/30

-Vulkoras

--Phase Missile Swarm
---Number of max targets increased from 3/5/7 to 24
---Damage changed from 200/400/600 to 100/175/250
---Range changed from 5000m to 3000/4000/5000

--Assault Specialization
---Damage bonuse against structures increased from 60/120/180 to 120/240/360

-Revelation

--Guidance
---Reduces antimatter costs of target's non-ultimate abilities by 40%
---Can be used on self

--clairvoyance
---Duration increased from 90/120/150 to 90/180/270

-Rapture

--Vertigo
---Antimatter cost reduced from 75 to 50

--Vengeance
---Antimatter cost reduced from 70 to 50
---Cooldown reduced from 30/35/40 to 25s

--Domination
---Antimatter Cost reduced from 150 to 100

-Dunov

--Shield Restore
---Can now target self
---Antimatter cost reduced from 65 to 45

--EMP
---Antimatter cost reduced from 100/90/80 to 80/70/60
---Cooldown reduced from 50/45/40 to 30/25/20

--Magnetize
---Antimatter cost reduced from 80 to 55
---Max number of targets increased from 8/12/16 to infinite

-Antorak

--Distort Gravity
---Cooldown decreased from 45s to 30s
---Antimatter cost decreased from 65 to 40

--Subversion
---Antimatter cost reduced from 100 to 50


v0.1 -- Released 7/8/2010

Capital Ship changes

-Skirantra

--Scramble Bombers
---Duration changed from 120s to 60s
---Cooldown changed from 35s to 24s
---Antimatter cost changed from 50 to 45/50/55

-Sova

--Heavy Strikecraft
---Armor increase changed from 2/3.5/5 to 2/4/6
---Phsyical damage increase changed from 12%/24%/36% to 15%/30%/45%

--Missile Batteries
---Cooldown changed from 35s to 35/30/25

-Jarrasul

--Colonize
---Temporarily adds 1/2/3 constructors to planet instead of reducing structure build time
---Duration changed from 240/480/720 to 720s

-Kol

--Adaptive Forcefield is now a passive ability

--Flak Burst
---Damage changed from 30/45/60 to 40/50/60
---Range changed from 2400/3000/3600 to 3600m
---Cooldown changed from 12/10/8 to 10s

--Gauss Rail Gun
---Damage changed from 325/650/975 to 300/450/600
---Target's max speed changed from -100% to -50%
---Target now has an increased weapon cooldown of 20%
---Antimatter cost changed from 75 to 25

-Radiance

--Energy Absorption
---Armor increase changed from 1/2/3 to 2/4/6

--Animosity
---This ability was significantly reworked to make it usable.  The file AbilityTaunt applies
the buff BuffTauntSelf to the Radiance.  BuffTauntSelf affects all ships in range with the
buff BuffTaunt.  Both of these buffs were changed from instant actions to periodic
actions.  BuffTauntSelf is reapplied ever 4s so that ships entering the area of affect
during the ability also are affected.  BuffTaunt is reapplied every .020s, making it
(hopefully) impossible for a human player to change the orders of ships that are
force attacking.  This ability has no max # of targets, and now affects strikecraft as well.

Five Things:

1) I strongly think that incendiary shells needs a secondary effect, since we have to balance it on the presumption it's being used early-game, meaning it won't scale at all into the late game without some additional factors.

2) The damage reduction I gave to phase missile swarm was predicated on the presumption that it was getting a damage buff from being made shield bypass.  The damage should probably be 200/350/500 if you aren't going to implement that.  I also forgot about its antimatter cost last time.... I think 70 is more appropriate than 90, but its long cooldown probably should remain as its limiting factor.

3) I felt antimatter regeneration was a better purpose for guidance; what you've done makes it too similar to flux field.  While it's true we do have some abilities like scramble and anima tempest, I feel we should avoid overlap where at all possible.  I also feel strongly it should not target self.  This is an ability that's about boosting another capital ship, and unless you sink money into having two Revelations (which is fair; twice the price), I personally do not want to see guidance fueled reverie.

4) I think the Dunov's shield restore needs to grant a secondary buff; again, because it doesn't not scale.  Additional damage reduction would be good if we can't modify mitigation.

5) DO NOT change the target count to infinite!  Remember this ability is instant-kill to all nearby strike craft, and the target takes 25 damage per SC killed.  Even a mere 10 squads would give you 90 strike craft.  That's about 2250 damage.  Late game, this could turn this ability into a nuke and true SC slaughtering ability.  I do not believe we can make this ability scale indefinitely, which is why we need to approach from an alternate angle.

PS - what times are you guys available today?  I'll be available to play in about an hour (about noon PST, which is 3:00 EST, and 8:00 GMT)

You going to join us this evening Cykur?  You'd be most welcome.

Reducing EMP Charge's AM costs and cooldown isn't going to help it too much, if at all. EMP is mainly useful for dealing shield damage, which means after one shot, most of the enemy's ships are going to have 0 or very low shields. This is similar to the AM removal; only one blast is necessary to cripple most frigates' shields and AM. What I recommend is instead adding additional debuffs to enemy ships within the blast radius- preferably a 4/8/12% shield migitation reduction or an increase of 15/30/45% weapon cooldown. Possibly both.  However, the duration of the debuffs would have to be short enough to be worth firing off another EMP charge; 5/8/10 seconds at most.

Also, GRG still seems far too weak. Either increase the damage far higher (And revert AM costs to 75), or drastically reducing cooldown would make the Kol far deadlier. For the latter, a cooldown decrease from 6 to 2 seconds would at least allow the Kol to deal some sort of damage. It still seems like a brick, and not much for much fleet support.

I'll see about downloading this patch and helping with it, if needed. I have very little time for SOASE nowadays, but I'd like to help if possible.

Fair enough; I suspected that was the case, I was just bringing up that these were major points.  I think most of these turned out well (though we didn't test the Revelation).  That said, I was pleasantly surprised by how powerful Phase Missile Swarm was.  If the Vulkoras wasn't so easy to kill, that ability would be totally devastating.

It's already the Dunov's strongest ability, so it didn't need much changing to begin with.  I thought these things did improve it, and I'm happy with the ability now.  I'd sooner turn my attention to the other two.  That said, I'm not against buffing it again if we table something reasonable.

Here's the problem; we tested that and I'll agree that level 1 and level 2 GRG were very weak and ineffective.  I then hit level 3 GRG and it was doing its job just fine (similar to the old flak burst).  Then I hit level 6 and the floodgates of pain opened and my Kol was simply spitting constant streams of damage in the enemy's general direction.  The new Kol still suffers from the old Kol's problem; it sucks at levels 1-4, starts to mature at level 5, and suddenly becomes a titan at level 6.

This ability definitely still needs work.  I found the cooldown was not an issue, and unless I had Finest Hour running or was in a solar gravity well that even the 25 antimatter cost of the new GRG would deplete me very quickly.  The ability still needs work, particularly at level 1 and 2, but I'm hesitant of passing it too many buffs that would increase its power at level 3.

It's a better brick, but I'll agree that it's still a brick.

Its supposed to be a Brick.  I actually think 25 antimatter is too low in its current implementation.  It only has to spend antimatter on Flak Burst or GRG.  Unless it is in strikecraft suppression mode, it can run GRG to its hearts content.  Finest Hour actually nets more antimatter than it costs, so once you have Finest Hour, it can run the GRG near continuously.

Don't know if this has been suggested before, but I suggest making Dunov's magnetize also able to target the owner's ships and structures.  I spent a fair amount of time quite a while back trying to make Dunov counter strikecraft - this was when Advent was totally OP and I had left Vasari because they sucked so hard.  I was trying anything I could to counter Halcyon rushes.  At any rate, to cut to the chase, the only way Dunov stands a chance at countering any strikecraft is if it can target it's own ships and structures.