Hi Peter1x9,

Thanks for the feedback.

You make some valid points and have some good suggestions.

My comments are as follows,

1. "I just read that making the Binary planet gravity well unbuildable was intentional but I saw the AI building there just fine."
Actually what I said or meant to say was that you can not manually place structures, i.e select their specific location, however you can automatically build structures by using 'autoplace'.

2. "I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure the Norlamin Inoson Flashover and Antigravity upgrades do the opposite of what they are supposed to."
Thanks for pointing that out, it was something at the back of my mind ... however it has been some time since I have looked at the main research modifiers. I can fix it for others for R4.

3. "I absolutely hate the dangerous asteroids.  They seem way too powerful and maneuverable...Currently, they act as if they are being intelligently controlled and have engines on them"
Conceptually these asteroids are attracted by the phase engine emissions of ships. Moreover it is not possible, within the limitations of the Sins AI, to make them maneuver more randomly. Notice that I include the dangerous asteroids in the Expansion version of Maelstrom, this is where I have placed additions that some people love/hate.

4. "I noticed that you were able to do this in pirate raids and get the pirates to colonize planets (very awesome!)."
In R4 pirates not only colonize but build structures and send out smaller raiding parties.

5. "The PlanetAncients is very annoying.  It takes ships forever and a day to navigate around them."
I know were you are coming from but consider - I notice that you don't mention Binary Planets, Habitable Gas Giants and Stars as navigational (tactical?) bottlenecks? I could change them but tactically they add a variation.

Hi digitaldeed,

I've been have some problems with SINs quirks on textures and particle effects but I am now doing final testing (on the 6 mods i.e Maelstrom O,E,D and Expansion O,E,D)

Here is what you will get with R4 ....

-----------------------------------------------------------

Graphics and Particle Effects
- Orbital Cannons muzzle and charge effects unique for new races
- Replicators 'Planet Production' ability for Cybernetics factory
- Norlamins Frigate and Capitalship factories build effects
- Bailknights explosions and weapons effects integrated for new races

Gameplay
- TA Anitmodule uses autocannon not plasma
- Norlamins Anitmodule uses laser not plasma

Balance
- AntiMatterRestoreRate for Norlamin Carrier increased x5 (0.375)
- AntiMatterRestoreRate for Replicator Carrier changed from 0 to 0.025000
- Tec Dreadnought no longer restores Hull points to itself via 'Resupply' ability, also extended range but longer expiry times

Research
- Mass reduction for Norlamins now correctly reduces mass of ship not increased mass.
- Replicators Cybernetics factory improvmenents now works

Bugfix
- Extractor on dyson sphere no longer 0 rate
- TargetCountPerBank settings match weapon points for all capitalships for all races
- Norlamins 'Cosmicray Collector' module abiltiy is stackable

Models
- added a number of 'mangled' body types to ship explosions (see Bailknights mod)
- reworked Ancient Planet mesh
- reworked Fortied Planet mesh (see Hyperion planet)
- added Planet Mining mesh
- added Ring World mesh
- added moon meshes
- added 'mangled body' meshes to various explosions
- etc

Optimization
- New particle effects textures are all .dds (as per TSOP)
- New particle files correctly reference mesh and textures files (as per TSOP)
- Planet textures

Planets
- reworked 'old' planet textures, removed pole pinch distortions
- new planets with unique bonuses, textures, abilties, effects, etc
- added 1-3 moons to most planets
- added Planet Aurora
- added Planet Chthonian
- added Planet Diasporian
- added Planet DysonSphere
- added Planet Enigma
- added Planet Frigian
- added Planet Hyperion
- added Planet Mining
- added Planet Neo Luna
- added Planet Terra Nova
- added Planet Paradise
- added Planet Ring World
- added Planet Tempest
- added Planet Toxic
- added Planet Utopian
- added Planet Ice Giant
- added Planet Rock Giant
- added Planet Terran Giant
- over 30 planets total and over 30 moons total

Stars
- reworked Dark star and White Star effects
- new stars added with unquie abilties and particle effecs.
- added star Magnetar
- added star Neutron
- added star Pulsar
- added star Volatile

Pirates
- 'Colonize and build' structures
- send out small scouting/raiding party's

Other
- Replicators 'Antimatter Charge' module has sound on select
- Orbital Cannon rotate and muzzle sounds unqiue for races
- new audio for explosions and weapon effects

-----------------------------------------------------------

I'll be posting some pictures on ModDB in the coming days ...

Two additional suggestions:

Would it be possible to make the orbitalcaptialshipfactory bigger, make the dreadnoughts buildable from there, and remove the orbitaldreadnoughtfactory?  Of course, the dreadnoughts would be way more expensive and take a larger slotcount than a cruiser.  Or (if possible) make the orbitaldreadnoughtfactory buildable and make dreadnoughts buildable from it (instead of being a castable ability).

As for the binary planet, couldn't you just make it buildable (without using autoplace) and do something like this in planetbinary?:

moveAreaRadius 60000.000000
hyperspaceExitRadius 50000.000000

path:TacticalModules
        stageCount 1
        stage
            price
                credits 0.000000
                metal 0.000000
                crystal 0.000000
            upgradeTime 0.000000
            maxModuleSlotCount:Tactical 0.000000
            maxModuleConstructorCount 1

Hi Peter1x9,

When it comes to the Dreadnoughts there are a number of complex issues as SINs was not designed to handle them.

So there is method to this madness.

Things to note:

1. The AI does not build that many Caps

2. There is no way to differentiate a Dreadnought from any other Cap

3. A Dreadnought has to be either a Battle, Support, Carrier, Colony or Siege Cap i.e there will be 2 caps defined as the same type.

Conclusion: the chances of you seeing a Dreadnought, built by an AI, is small. This was confirmed through testing.

Question: do you want Dreadnoughts in the game, other than your own?

Question: do you want more than one Dreadnought, per AI player, in a game?

My answer to the above questions is yes!

To implement the above every player gets an equal number. This can only be implemented via an ability that a structure has. So to keep balance you want a unique structure with this ability and you don't what that structure buildable. This is a summary of why the Dreadnought factory is in its current form.

By the way an early version of Maelstrom Expansion has Dreadnoughts that were true Caps, were buildable and the abilities required research (I think R1 for Original Sins the Expansion version, not sure about R2).

------------------------------------------------------

"As for the binary planet, couldn't you just make it buildable (without using autoplace) and do something like this in planetbinary?"

Yes, I am aware of this. But why?

I wanted the Binary Planet to be hard to defend.

That stinks about the AI and game engine limitations for dreadnoughts.  The current system is definitely the best way then. 

The reason I posted that code above: would the game engine allow you to give a planet 0 tactical slots with 0 upgrades?  If possible, I was thinking you could do that for planetbinary instead of having to rely on autoplace, using something like this code (note that there is only one stage count with 0 tactical slot counts):

path:TacticalModules
        stageCount 1
        stage
            price
                credits 0.000000
                metal 0.000000
                crystal 0.000000
            upgradeTime 0.000000
            maxModuleSlotCount:Tactical 0.000000
            maxModuleConstructorCount 1

However, I do remember there being some race bonuses that would still add tactical slots to all planets.  Maybe the game engine would accept a negative value for maxModuleSlotCount:Tactical?

just saw all your new stuff on moddb I'm not going to play sins till r4 comes out sir you made my jaw drop to the floor keep up the great work

I question: Where are the new Planets? (Map)

The pictures of the Planets and Stars on ModDB, dated from the 1st May are for R4 as detailed in the news release for R4.

R3 was released in January 16th.

I plan to release R4 this coming weekend.

YAY! 

Well I have to say those new populating and expanding pirates in R4 are a tough cookie. Also the ringworld could sustain you the whole game itself. Does the ai know that these planet types are a priority and try to get them and attack them?

P.S I played using 1.21 and it worked fine.

Maybe a bit over the top for the ringworld ... Unfortunately the AI is not aware of the unique nature of planets.

Interesting, will be getting to 1.21 soon.

I honed it down to that one specifically because whenever I'd jump it'd start over again.

My next issue is something I don't recall having an issue with in R3 but again the values all look the same. Replicator strikecraft, or perhaps just bombers, are ludicrously overpowered. Each one does about 30 damage for a total of 90 per squadron. Norlamin bombers do only 6 per attack, although that's beam so maybe there's a duration multiplier I'm not seeing. I looked at all 3 of the new races bomber entity files and saw they all had the same damage value in their front bank but clearly something else is acting on it. How do I bring their damage down to something slightly less than insane? Incidentally, if I recall correctly the TA also have this issue but I haven't played as/against them yet to confirm.