Hi Everyone!

                      Since about week 1 or 2 (its now week 6 or 7 i think) i have been playing around with the entity files changing things to see what happened.   And as I have said in the past i am no coder so, much of this was done with help from Annatar11 and others on the forum who wrote about their experiences and what they did to try a certain change. I just followed their advice and made mistakes and went back and tried again, until i got it stable. Most of these changes are little, sometimes very little, haha, so I hesitate to even really call it a mod, its just little tweaks and changes here and there, such as: I wanted to have the beam defense for the advent to be mobile, and with Annatar11's help was able to get a frigate with beam defense specs to show up in the cruiser window area, I set it at no cost, but there will probably be people that will want a truer game experience by having this researchable to access, or having a minimal cost for each mobile defense unit. In addition, there was no engine animation, that really looked right, and the 'creation' smoke/ray/beam from the module constructors looked odd when i left it in. So i made up an explanation that says these use grav wave engines that don't use fuel.   

Basically you have a frigate that looks like a beam defense, is mobile in the gravity well and helps protect the planet. It doubles as a module constructor, because that is the type i used to get it to show up in the frigate window (sorry, see I told you I'm not a coder, I don't even know what to call these things, haha )

Anyway, there is my mobile defense, so i am happy.

There was also tweaks to the restore values on the advent ships (since the advent are the race I play most, I have recently started playing the tec and they are interesting in a different way, and I like the different kinds of ships. But anyway, the restore rate change allowed me to stay alive in a heavy fight without continually losing, which i was also very very happy with, but for true enthusiasts, it will probably be too much of an unfair advantage for the advent to really give them a balanced game where their skill deteremines the outcome, and not the tweaks I put in to stay alive, so gamers may not like my changes.

In addition, I wanted to move the abilities of the capital ships over to the frigates, so there wasn't such a cost hit, and a count limit on them, so again with Annatar11'a advice and Uzii and many of the other modders posts in the mod forum I was able to get it to work, but for a while it was very unstable and I couldn't figure out why, but I think I may have changed the ability files too much, which messed them up. With clean ability files the abilities work fine, and are stable.

I also threw in some tweaks for the Home planet, like 10 asteroids, haha, just so I could afford to pay for all the research before the Pirates hit me, haha. And the extraction rate is a little upped, not tons, just a point and a half, haha, I could have made it a hundred or so and not have to worry about the costs again, but I wanted it a little difficult, instead of too easy, or a lot difficult, which for me it was, I was always getting hit by pirates half way into building my fleet. Maybe I should have just tried doing things in steps instead of all at once, but well, I like it when the game lets you change things to fit your own style, this game is unrivaled when it comes to that. I have never seen a game that will let you do so much, or have the game you want to play your own way so much supported by the devs, and for that I really give praise and credit to Ironclad and Stardock, they have really really made a user freindly game to mod, and gone much farther than any company i know of in recent memory. I think they really care about us, and that is a wonderful thing, when there are lots of companies that don't.  Anyway thank you Stardock and company, but back to the pirates... I removed some costs, for planet expenses and fleet build up, just to stay alive, and they really are not so much mods as cheats, in that if something now costs 0 credits, and takes 1 second to build, then it really isn't made to make the game more realistic, or engrossing, or more anything other than just cheating to stay alive against the bad guys

I also added some more ships from the tec and the vasari, in the advent frigate area windows, only 4 extra ships, but they are also 0 credits and are mostly there when you get overwhelmed and need a fast way to stay alive, you can build up twenty or thirty or a hundred if you need them quick and cheap! 

I also increased the number of module constructors ( my first run at getting the beam defense mobile i couldnt figure out how to get it into the frigate window, so used the opening build window in the player.psi file) and made planetary costs 0, so you can stay alive long enough to fight the bad guys!!    Haha, well, I'm trying to think what else...

Oh... I wanted to tell the people that worked on 7 Deadly Sins!!  It is awesome!!  I really reallly really like what you all have done!  The artwork and planets of Uzi and BailKnight and the skyboxes and new paint jobs on the ships and ship tweaks, and of course the new ships (The Atlantians!!)  and the story mode!... well, I call it the story mode, you know where you find the derelict ships in the old asteroid field? It's marvelous thinking and wonderful to have in the game!! I enjoy getting the old ships and making a squadron and ahhh.... now i have another idea... to see if I can take those dead ships and have a race of ghosts!! haha, silly i know, but it is wonderful to get these ideas and to try them, and my little changes aren't really a mod, now 7 Sins... that is a Mod!! artwork, new ships, gameplay mechanics, new planets and skyboxes and wonderful paint jobs on the ships!! It is wonderful!!  I have seen Mars Effect but havent had a chance to download and try it, or some ot the others, but my small contribution, is really small compared to theirs, but I hope some one will like having a mobile beam defense   and think of me when they do   Anyway now I have it, but don't know where or how to put it someplace so people can get at it. Maybe ModDb i have seen mentioned in the forums. But please understand, i am not a professional modder or coder, just a gamer that likes to tweak things here and there and gets these weird ideas, like a Ghost race, haha, but anyway, it is great and i'm having a great time doing it, and everyone is very kind and helpful. What more can a gamer ask for?   

Take care and keep modding!

-Teal