icedude94 icedude94

Sins Enhancement Mod v1.7 3/23/08 UPDATED

Sins Enhancement Mod v1.7 3/23/08 UPDATED

Sins Enhancement mod V1.7 3/23/08


Download Link:
http://files.filefront.com/Sins+Enhancement+Mod+v17rar/;9876004;/fileinfo.html
Works with 1.03 Sins Plus not yet incorporated

Since you guys can't wait. Here's my mod for 1.03. You'll have to wait a little longer to get it with sins plus cuz I've been having some CTD issues after combining them.
INSTALLATION:
Extract the .rar into your mods folder

For Vista users it should be located at:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods

Changelog:

Diplomacy:
-You now get an hour to complete AI missions. Now it's easier to make AI allies.

-Mission rewards increased to make them more worthwhile.

AI Players:

-Increased priority on building defenses. AI should build a lot more defenses now!

-Adjusted Aggressiveness

Constants:

-Hitpoints of pirate ships increased.

-Jump Angle reduced from 45 to 20. Much easier to blockade gravity wells. You better send a scout before sending your fleet into enemy territory now...

-Pirate bases can support double the population of normal asteroids and can have up to 12

logistics slots as well as 3 extremely rich metal asteroids and 3 extremely rich crystal

asteroids. Now pirate bases are VERY worthwhile to conquer.(beware the gauss cannons)

-Research speed back to default

-Tax income slightly increased

-Half hour between pirate raids

-Increased number of trade ships produced by trade ports.

-Lowest allegiance can get through distance is 35%

-Phase jumps no longer cost anti-matter. It didn't make sense to me that ships with less than 100 anti-matter could still jump.

Fleet Logistics:

-Maximum capital command points: 24

-Maximum Fleet Supply: 5800

-Reduced maneuverability and speed of many ships.

All Ships:

-Auto-join fleet default to off

-Auto focus fire default to off(except for squadrons). Now each ship in a fleet will target the type they are best against. Ships will also no longer focus fire thousands of points of damage on a single frigate. Fleet to fleet combat just became a lot more epic!

-Costs and build times back to default.

-Siege Ships - Siege attack looks more devastating. Now they look like planetary invasions. more work to be done on them soon.(Check out TEC's siege frigate attack!)

Tactical Structures:

-Cost of orbital defenses adjusted for better balance.

-Gauss/missile/beam structures will have damage tripled. Take up no tactical slots.

-Hangar defenses will support 4 squadrons, use less tactical slots.

-Phased Jump Inhibitors will have increase jump time by 2500% and have 1/2 the range. Now you have to place them at the edge of the build range limit as close to the phase lane you want to block in order for them to do their job. Now enemy ships trying to jump to your other worlds will have a MUCH longer jump charge time. I recommend not using it around the phase lanes the AI will use to retreat or you'll find the game to be too easy. Against human players though...

-Repair platform: repair rate doubled



Capital Ships:Now they're the big bad behemoths of the fleet that they're supposed to be.
-Damage,hitpoints,shields tripled

-More squadrons for carriers, start with 6

-resource cost doubled

-Take 7 minutes to build.

-Require more experience to level up.

Cruisers:

-Carriers will carry 2 squadrons

-Repair bots repair rate doubled

Frigates:

-Scout frigates automatically explore after being built.

- Anti-fighter frigates given shorter reload time to deal with the increased number of

fighters.(without focus fire, those turrets can now track multiple targets)


Fighters:

-No longer fly together in squadrons. Should make big fleet battles more epic.


Planets:

-Tax income for planet population raised. Now you'll need those terran worlds if you want to make real money.

-More extractors possible on worlds.

-Extractors can only support one refinery. Each refinery though has a bigger impact on resource rates than vanilla.

For Version 2

-new icons for individual fighters and bombers.

-Adjusted speeds of ships and weapons (I hate seeing a light frigate being chased by a
thousand missiles across a gravity well)

-Balance changes, especially for capital ship abilities to better go along with their new stats.

-Bug Fixes

-Pirates Playable

-New/more reasonable AI quests.

-Ability to toggle focus fire.

I only had time to test it for a couple hours on a 10 player map so let me know of any problems, things I forgot to change that are on this list, suggestions, etc.



124,004 views 258 replies
Reply #76 Top
:SURPRISED:
Reply #77 Top
The file to extract to on XP is C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods

Yeah, short right.

And the free program, 7zip, will extract .rar files. It won't recognize them as an openable file (at least my installation on XP), but you can just right click the file and use the 7zip menu to "extract files.." or "extract here.."
Reply #78 Top
"-Auto focus fire default to off(except for squadrons). Now each ship in a fleet will target the type they are best against. Ships will also no longer focus fire thousands of points of damage on a single frigate. Fleet to fleet combat just became a lot more epic!"

Why doesnt it work then? :P My ships, in a fleet or not in a fleet, always attacks the same target, as in vanilla Sins.
Reply #79 Top
I've played a few games with this so far and here's what I've noticed:

-Trade ports and refineries are kinda ridiculous. The opening part of the game is really a rush for TPs and 2 or 3 planets, meaning TEC is even better than it is normally. Refineries are even more important, as having 2 or 3 can easily bump you into the 3-4 metal/crystal per tick zone. I find pre-TP I've got barely any resources, then I'm very cash heavy after getting TPs, and for the rest of the game if I'm limited by anything it's credits. After the first hour as long as I don't queue up 500 supply of ships at once I'm fine, and after the 2nd I have basically infinite cash. Unfortunately, the AI neglects both TPs and refineries, putting them severely behind.

-Advent refineries don't seem to work the same way as the other races, since their trade ports convert to refineries (as I understand it). As a result they don't get nearly the same bonuses. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong but advent refineries seemed borked.

-I really like the mega cap ships.
Reply #80 Top
Well, I would love to try this out... but the download link isn't working for me. Anywhere else I can download it from?
Reply #81 Top
Hmm, I like how you've boosted the stats for the Capital ships and I like how you've made them twice as expensive. However, I don't see how lowering the supply required to have capital ships is a good thing. It seems to me that this makes Frigates rather superfluous.
Reply #82 Top
After some feedback(thanks everybody!) and finally some time to play it myself. Here's my to-do list for tomorrow's release:

1. Max capital limit GREATLY lowered.

2. Capital ship supply cost triple vanilla.

3. Pirate ships made stronger.

4. Take a second look at advent asteroid refining.

5. Raise the AI's priority on building tactical structures even higher.

6. Shift taxes to being the big money maker, not trade.

So far from what I've seen is that the AI focuses most of its resources still to building support ships. However the increase in the number of capital ships they send at me has gone up significantly although it's probably because they're still researching the same way and the increased command increments are allowing them to build more. I actually had an AI fleet attack me with 12 capitals in it once.

When I first designed this mod, I really was thinking about players who liked to do single player against the AI however it's really hard on the large maps because the AI players always gang up on you(at least in my experience) and just overwhelm you making it almost impossible to win. I actually wanted frigates to be the main fighting force aka the cannon fodder with the capital ships being the "big players" in fleet battles, the only units you really have to micromanage. Then I wanted the cruisers to be like those special "fleets within fleets" that turn the tide at critical moments. The huge boost to the economy and fleet supply was supposed to facilitate the mass-production of the smaller ships. The bigger capital ship limit was to make it easier to play the huge maps like a Total War campaign. If it's possible, I'll try to see if increasing the capital ships you can have needs something like a gross population requirement for each level.

So what I need you guys to do to help me test the next release is to tell me what it's like playing now with a maximum of only 7 capital ships. See if the AI is building more defenses(I found the hard ai homeworld to have 12 beam platforms once).
Reply #83 Top
What files are modded cause I wanna combine this mod and Uzii's Extra Planetary Bonuses mod is there a way to tell what ones to use from both mods to get both effects.
Reply #84 Top
As I said before, I really want to try this and contribute feedback but the download link just won’t work! Any chance of an alternative download source please?

Thanks for the hard work!
Reply #85 Top
I would also like another download link please, as this sounds very good, but rapidshare won't let me download it.
Reply #86 Top
You know, I think this mod might benefit from a revision keeping in mind that changing something simply for the sake of changing it, and without an eye towards the effect which that change will have, is rarely wise, and will often fail to result in improved balance.
Reply #87 Top
Yo man..just wanna say two things..first..your mod rocks..second...somehow..whenever i use your mod..my game always does the mini dump...resource hog myb? well, i really troubles me..bcos i really wanted to play using ur mod...n this thing bothers me a lot...did u raise the bar to high on smthings? well, myb it's just my laptop...but it was in the beginning of the game...

when i used another mod...and been playing it for hours later...and there's so many ships i can't count..there's no mini dump...or crash...so..u might want to check it out...tx man...
Reply #88 Top
"2. Capital ship supply cost triple vanilla."

So you won't be able to get your first capital ship until after you've researched the first supply upgrade? 150 supply is huge.
Reply #89 Top
1.52 is up.

I lowered the trade port income value to more vanilla sins values. You can still make a good amount of money off them now if you have a long chain of trade ports throughout your empire.

The impact refineries have on extractor rates is back to vanilla values.

Pirate ships now have a lot more hitpoints making them much stronger.

You gotta research the first supply point upgrade in order to be able to support your capital ship.

The capital ship limit has been lowered to 9.

Standard extractor income rate greatly increased. Now the ai will also get a lot more resources.

Tax income for population has been increased. Taking planets and developing their infrastructure is now key to amassing credits. Now the ai is on the same level as the player.

AI priority for building tactical structures has been raised even higher.

And a new download host!
Reply #90 Top
I love the mod, but I was wondering if someone could tell me what to edit so that autojoin fleet is turned back on.
Reply #91 Top
I had an idea regarding the three factions and how they acquire money. The Vasari and Advent can do it through taxes like normal Sins. But I think the TEC should get their money from trade ports. I mean think about it, they were a massive trading empire, and even now are the 'TRADERS Emergancy Coalition'. So it stands to reason they'll get the most out of trading.

So basicly my idea is that, while still on par to the other factions (Or maybe alittle above since you can disrupt trade, you can't disrupt taxes.)the TEC gets far more money from trade ports when compared to taxes. Would also help for tactics against them, as you could do hit n runs on their trade lines and really mess them up. (Which is why I personally think they should get maybe like, .5 or 1 higher then the other factions for credits.)
Reply #93 Top
I havent tried the latest version, but in 1.51, i could not build structures or set up on mines on xtal metal asteroids from the pirate bases after i defeated them.

Is this fixed in the latest version?

Will test out the game this weekend.

Keep up the great work.
Reply #95 Top
pirate base resources are considered neutral from the planet asteroid. you have to use a colony frigate to separately capture them.
Reply #96 Top
I had an idea regarding the three factions and how they acquire money. The Vasari and Advent can do it through taxes like normal Sins. But I think the TEC should get their money from trade ports. I mean think about it, they were a massive trading empire, and even now are the 'TRADERS Emergancy Coalition'. So it stands to reason they'll get the most out of trading.

So basicly my idea is that, while still on par to the other factions (Or maybe alittle above since you can disrupt trade, you can't disrupt taxes.)the TEC gets far more money from trade ports when compared to taxes. Would also help for tactics against them, as you could do hit n runs on their trade lines and really mess them up. (Which is why I personally think they should get maybe like, .5 or 1 higher then the other factions for credits.)
End of quote


They do get more money from trade. Just look at their civics research tree. You can disrupt taxes through the use of culture or just by bombing their planets. The population tends to get killed off much faster than the planet's actual infrastructure. The TEC can even upgrade their siege frigates so that planets suffer a reduced population growth rate after a bombing.

I havent tried the latest version, but in 1.51, i could not build structures or set up on mines on xtal metal asteroids from the pirate bases after i defeated them.

Is this fixed in the latest version?

Will test out the game this weekend.

Keep up the great work.
End of quote


You have to capture each mine individually with a colony ship. I did this deliberately just to make it harder for people to do hit and runs on those mines.

Why only 9 capitals?
End of quote


They are very overpowered. This means you'll need supporting frigates and cruisers to take over the universe. Lots of players were saying that my high number of capitals made the game too easy and I agree with them.

I love the mod, but I was wondering if someone could tell me what to edit so that autojoin fleet is turned back on.
End of quote


Go into the GameInfo folder of my mod. You have to open up every ship file. Look for the line "autoJoinFleetDefault FALSE" Just change FALSE to TRUE. You could also always just right click the create fleet button with the ships selected in-game to turn it back on that way...
Reply #97 Top
Can you make a version of your mod that only includes the focus fire toggle button? Your mod looks great, but the only thing I would want is that toggle switch.
Reply #98 Top
nice job mate. this is the only thing keeping me from totally quitting soase. bored of the game already. haven't played it in about a 6 days till this new version of your mod showed up.
Reply #99 Top
Beautiful mod, I played all morning on a ~25 planet map as Vasari against 3 hard AIs.
I just love the improved capital ships, as well as the increased number of fighter squadrons.

One small problem though: I had way too many resources.
Not once in this game was I under any economic pressure; by the end of the game I had about 800k credits, and that's without ever building trade ports.

I tried to put this income to use in pirate raids, but even with 100k in bounty the pirates would be outmatched by planetary defenses + a few cruisers. How about adding a capital ship for the pirates when bounty exceeds 40-50k? It would vastly increase their threat.
Reply #100 Top
Beautiful mod, [...] One small problem though: I had way too many resources. Not once in this game was I under any economic pressure; by the end of the game I had about 800k credits, and that's without ever building trade ports. [...]
End of quote


I second this. Too much profit and no economic pressure.