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Silvermane’s Balancing Mod for Sins of a Solar Empire 1.03

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Silvermane’s Balancing Mod for Sins of a Solar Empire 1.03

Heavy Nova

from Sins Forums

Hello,

I just uploaded my mod, Heavy Nova, but it wouldn't take the description that goes along with it.  I guess it was too long.  Anyway, here it is, if there is any way to post this with the mod, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Silvermane

Hail Friends,

I’m proud to present HeavyNova, a balancing mod that doesn’t add or remove anything from the game.   It simply balances the existing game elements to provide an enjoyable single player campaign. 

Targeting & Damage

The chance for bigger ships weapons to hit smaller targets now goes down smoothly.  The damage ships do to targets of different size now varies smoothly.  This eliminates the effect of a capital ship and light frigate shooting each other for long time without doing much damage.  They can hurt each other now.  Each ship does 150% damage against its best target and 50% damage against its worst.  For example, and anti-fighter frigate does one and a half times the displayed damage against fighters but only half the listed damage against a capital ship because it’s weapons are designed for use against very light ships.  The opposite is true for capital ships.  Planetary defense modules are designed to repel any kind of invader.  Therefore, they do 100% damage against all targets. 

Pirates

 I increased the strength of the raids and changed the mix of ships, providing them with a more effective and balanced force.

Markets

I made the markets a little more sensitive to player purchases.

Artificial Intelligence

I reworked the artificial intelligence tables.  I don’t know how much of it is the 1.3 update and how much is the changes I made, but I’ve been playing on hard and they’re raising fleets, colonizing aggressively, developing their planets sensibly, and generally kicking my butt.  I’m going to actually have to make peace with one of my opponents just to survive.

Ships

I completely rebalanced all of the ships in the game.  Here are some things you should be aware of.  The costs and capabilities of a ship are based on and proportional to the slot count.  In general, a ship that takes twice as many slots will do twice as much damage.  Siege ships and carriers do 2/3 damage and colony ships do 1/2 damage due to their specialties.

Shields regenerate at twice the rate that hulls repair.  Tech ships have 100% hull and 50% shield.  Vasari ships have 125% hull and 25% shield.  Advent ships have 75% hull and 75% shield.  One cruiser for each faction gained the ability to bomb.  Light carriers now support two squadrons and have a weapon.  A weapon firing out of multiple banks does less damage.  1 = 100%, 2 = 75%, 3 = 66^, 4 = 50%.  Thus firing out of multiple banks is an advantage if the ship can maneuver to use both of them, but a disadvantage if only one has a target.  I try to move my battleships to the center of the fray so they can fire in all directions at once. 

Modules

The cost, slot count, range, and damage (where applicable) of all orbital modules has been rebalanced.  Modules require more metal, planet upgrades require more energy (crystals), research requires more money, and ships require equal amounts of all three.  All costs are divided into one, two, and three parts of the three different resources.

Planets

All planets have been rebalanced.  The asteroids, gravity wells, and costs, and slots have been redesigned.  There are six stages of development.  A given stage is the same across all planets.  The number of stages a planet can develop to depends on its type.

Terran – six stages of development, fewest asteroids.

Desert – five stages of development.

Ice – four stages of development, crystal asteroids only.

Volcanic – four stages of development, metal asteroids only.

Asteroid – three stages of development, most asteroids.

Dead Asteroid – two stages of development, no asteroids.

Pirate Base – special.

Research

Rebalanced the cost and time of research.  Changed the capital ship slots to two for each level of research instead of starting with one and finishing with three.

Miscellaneous Tweaks

Increased salvage refund percent.

Allegiance only goes down to 50% instead of 25%.

I’ve had some great games with this mod.  I hope you do too.

Regards,

Silvermane

 

modding
21,884 views 29 replies
Reply #26 from Sins Forums Top

I finally got some time with v2...

I always play me vs. 2 AI, usually as TEC, and the others as the other two,(no randoms). They are set on normal difficulty for this test. I tend to make up maps, or randomize maps, and always try for at least 20 planetary bodies or more. The test game had 25 I believe. It makes for some potent enemies and some ground to cover. I can usually wrap a game up in 4 or 5 hours.

Before getting to the actual Mod test stuff, I made a few "standardized" changes to the game info file that I have in my own mod. It helps me to evaluate from a fixed perspective, and helps my poor little mind keep things straight. I changed the base tax rate, from .025 to .030... a minor change that helps with the loss of market income and takes a little volatility out of the equation. A change to the base sell price, 1.0 from 0.8. Not much of a jump, but enough to keep me focused more on strategy with ships and planets than markets and money. Lastly, a change in the pirate raid times to 240 and 240. Pirates still come, they just aren't as annoying. As a side benefit, the extra time tends to get the AI players quite involved in bounties. Last game before this one I had the two of them at 2400 credits on each other. They then got ticked at me for staying out of it and both hit me at once. I had over 3600 credits on my head... During this test, they were a little more subdued, but I had over 1000 on any given player quite a bit, with me only placing a bounty one time. Anyways, on to some observations.

-I actually like alot of the structure, as odd as it looks at first, however: There is a definite "flow" issue. I like the idea that things cost, and not just dollars, but alot of the costs are just high enough that you have to stop, particularly in the beginning. Early techs, for example, can drain away resources at an alarming rate, causing alot of time spent waiting for coffers to refill. First you have to stop because you're short a resource, then you have to wait. Then you build a ship. No more resources. Then you pay for some research... no more resources. It's like getting stuck behind three heavy trucks on the road you can't pass on, instead of just one. Add in a pirate raid or an impending unfriendly BBQ at the local outer planet and it's a big case of "Hurry Up and Wait". I would really like to see a little cut back on the front end, maybe added to the back end... The early ships should be cheaper, the specialized ships more expensive. Consider WW2- The Russian T72 was a cheap, mass produced tank that ruled the lines, compared to the Tigers and Panzers that ruled the battlefield. It wasn't the fact the T72 was a better tank, there were just so dang many of them. The first frigate should be this way... dime a dozen, no real firepower. Easy to get going, easy on the wallet. But, want a Kol with that? Well, THAT'S going to cost you. There has to be a flow from one thing to the next, and the lag can't be for minutes at a time.

-Time and money and resources to build research suffer the same way, and when combined with the other issue, gets amplified way more than it should. Ideally, one would like to have them dance together and enable back and forth movement and flow. Choose and do research while ships are building, move the ships and take care of business while the research is going... one to the other. Currently, the dollars are doing the waltz and the research times are slow dancing at the prom. Me, I'm dad waiting for my two daughters to get home, and it's 11:59... And I have to get up and build ships in the morning. 20% or so off the front end early techs, but 20% ADDED to the back half complicated techs would work well. The early game would be a little quicker paced. Then when 70% of the techs are done and you're involved in alot of fleet maneuvers and big battles with the AI, that extra time to complete a tech wouldn't even be noticed.

-40 supply for a KOL, 34 Supply for a Dunov... 26 supply for a Kodiak? Huh? Why the H E Double Hockey Sticks would I ever build one? It has 14 average laser shots, but compared to all the special CS abilities who cares. I pair Kols and Dunovs together all the time. I can send those two ships against most pirate fleets and blow em to heck and back again, even when they have 5 or 6 Kodiaks and a host of frigates to support them. In this test, my tandem took out 22 pirate vessels, 5 of them Kodiaks. If I can wipe them up fairly quickly in that fashion, then they are pretty darn ineffective, and I'm sure as snot not going to waste 26 supply spots on them. THAT being said, IF the goal was to cut down on the number of these ships being used, then you aced it. Job well done.

-I really did like the battles. It would be nice to see more movement but that's a game flaw, not a mod item. I thought the damage was consistent, if not still a bit drawn out. My CS took alot more damage than I am accustomed to seeing, meaning the changes made are lethal both ways. It required me to bring alot more cannon fodder to some of the engagements, and made my traditional tactic of keeping my strikers docked until I can take out the AA ships a great deal hairier. I actually thought I was going to lose my first KOL... I had to turn the strikers loose early, and they got two ships before a Jarda decimated them. It saved the Kols bacon though. Well done here.

I think this will come down to a personal taste issue. Those used to turn based games may not mind the way this plays out. But the flow (or lack thereof) is really the issue for me. Of all the things plus and minus, it remains the thing that stands out the most in the experience. I didn't mind things being expensive, nor did I mind them taking awhile to develop. I DID mind having to wait the eternities in between... There was so much to do, so much to get to, but I had one engine tied behind my back. I felt as though I had one of those metal asteroids chained to my ankle.

Anything I can do, I'm here.

Tim
Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top
Hi Tim,

Thanks for the great feedback. It's going to take some time to consider all of that, but I can make a few comments off the cuff.

You should be able to use the game options for income rate and research time to tailor any mod to your tasts. Currently, the 'normal' speed is the speed I like with one faster setting and one slower one. If most players like the game faster than I do, then I'll assign my speed to slow and provide two faster choices for others.

One of my main goals is to make the cost of things match their value. Currently, capital ships have double the normal credits cost. It sounds like that is not enough to match their antimatter abilities. If I knew how many heavies it takes to kill a battleship, I could base their costs on that. I'll do some tests when I have a chance. I may also want to mod the antimatter abilities and give the curisers the ability to gain one level 'veteran status'.


Rather than reduce the cost of everything to the point where build time and fleet cap are the only limiting factors; I will try to increase the economy through research and modules. I can vary these to provide more or less resource in the early, mid, or late game. I'll work on that as I play some more.

While the slow pace was the biggest issue for you, the AI is the biggest thing preventing me from enjoying massive fleet battles. They tend to build mosquito fleets, especially the aggressive AI; and they don't build enough defense modules. I'll experiment with that this weekend.

Thanks again for the feedback,
Silvermane

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #28 from Sins Forums Top


I don't know why, but I have an odd aversion to changing game speeds... Actually I do know why, it's my head. In my ideal world, the tactics and strategy and ship movement and battles would happen on slow, while the research and resource collection and monies were all on fast... It's not a function of liking it that way, it's a function of assimilating information. My head precludes me from handling an overabundance of the stuff at time, and I have to have most of my attention on the ships to keep from getting wiped out. I also tend to build more ships than the average player, as it is not uncommon for me to have to "cover" for a fleet that decided somewhere else was the best place to be. I will play with the pace and see what happens...

I am completely understanding in things being worth their weight in whatever they are made from, and for the most part I think your correct in the assessments you have made, except as noted. It does strike me as odd, however, that you have a dissatisfaction with how the AI builds fleets, yet discourage them from building Cruisers by making them so costly. Would not lowering their cost encourage their use?
Is the AI capable of looking at a ship and determining a value, or do they build X number of A, X number of B and a CS irregardless? Is this the holy grail of unanswered fleet questions I have so blindly stumbled into or what... ;) As a size comparison, given 100 points to divide among one of each ship: The Frigate would be 10, The Cruiser 25 and the Capitol Ship 65. A carrier would be 75 or 80... and would carry a minimum of 10 squads, a max of 20. Cost wise would be the same ratio, just as percentages. Given a ceiling of 10,000 credits, the frigate would be 1000, the frigate 2500 and the CS 6500. (The carrier at 7500-8000) These are for the basic, all around models, specialties add to the price. An AWACS doesn't cost the same as an Osprey, and the carrier is king.

As for the economy, it isn't the amounts, it's when you get there. If the game speeds can be played with as you say, leave them alone, especially if you're happy with them. I can honestly say i wasn't put off a bit that I had to spend, It was the waiting to spend it that got me. I can also say the minor tweaks I put in my game helped out quite a bit, but seeing the difference they made it looks like you could unbalance the cart pretty quickly. A set of liner notes with "use a faster economy and resource setting if the game drags a little" should be sufficient.

I've seen some pretty immense AI fleets... but I believe the setup to be partly to blame for that. Every player has at least 5 or so planetary bodies to colonize before they run into someone else, and there are always just the three of us. It gives alot of resources to the AI to play with. That said, I can recall only one of those fleets with four CSs, a handful with 3. Usually 2 with alot of smaller vessels. I can understand why you call them mosquito fleets, and it does beg the question of whether the AI can look at a ships value, or if it just reacts to a weighted parameter in a code line somewhere. I would guess the latter from what I've seen of the same applied to research and such.

As for defense modules... they're worthless. I used to build massive defensive positions at choke points. 6 hangers, 2 repair stations, fill the rest in with gauss guns. (which I modified to twice range and twice firepower). A good fleet can run rough shod over any set up like this. I have much better results from a standby defense fleet. The amount of recourses dedicated to it is far less than all those stationary targets. IF however, defenses were to be made viable, I would like to use them... but I fear a VERY fine line between handling an invasion and overkill.

Just how much SHOULD a defensive position be able to hold before it's no match for a fleet? With all the changes I had made, a pirate fleet was wiped out fairly well, but a main battle group from an AI was too much for it and required ship support. Is that where you want to go?

PLEASE take my observations with a grain of salt substitute... and thanks for letting me type.

T
Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top
Hello Antracer,

I've tuned the resource costs and build times in order to provide a faster, smoother game. This may also help the AI build balanced fleets. In my last game, their fleet stomped mine, so they must be doing someting right. I'm playing on the slow settings now, so there are two faster settings.

The defense modules have always been lethal in Heavy Nova. Now, they are a little tougher too. The pirates are stronger though so it balances out. My intention is similar to the vanilla game. They should stop a pirate raid or minor attack, but not a major invasion. I usually split my forces 60%/40% with the smaller home fleet on defense. I usually build 4 hangers and 8 defense platforms evenly spaced around the planet. If the AI throws their entire wall of battle at me, I have no choice but to redirect my main fleet to respond. Having a well defended colony softens them up and buys precious time.

I posted a new zip on the webpage and updated the descriptions. If you have a chance to try it out, let me know how it goes.

Cheers,
Silvermane
http://letosilvermane.googlepages.com/home