tymestar

Thanks for the kind words everyone... and I should admit up front on my end: I'm just taking it one step at a time. I have no modding experience, and I'm very appreciative of all the advice from vets. It's really the engine that's moving my thinking forward. I don't know how far I'll get, but it's a fascinating process, and what would please me most is to have this exploration generally be a useful contribution to the community. I really like Carbon016's

Thanks! Exactly what I needed.

I've through tentative dynamics a little more. Basically, summarizing what I'm looking at for a weaponry/armor adjustment: 1. Weapon Anti-Armor Capability vs. Armor Weight DPS Multipliers These are used to simulate the effects of Hard Armor. A (proto) matrix of them: ANTI-VL / ANTI-L / </span

Go into the gameplay.underpants.constants file. You can do this with a temporary buff. Keep an eye on string length.

Sorry, I wasn't clear: The data I posted wasn't altered. It was a straight copy out of the Forge Tools gameinfo gameplay.constants file. I meant to imply "if you open up gameplay.constants in any version/mod, you should be able to find a series of constants like this. My best guess is that altering these constants acts as a multiplier on supply points available, letting you change the fleet supply."

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I'm still parsing it all out. I'll post a more coherent game balance plan / etc. once I get a satisfactory one together, cross-referenced to feasibility. I see what you mean, Carbon. The very tough pill I currently have with Sins is counter-damage modifiers; if I turned around, said "weapon types intuitively matter," and then built another complexly weighted system... chaos would ensue. Naming, scheme, maybe thi

Could you tie low health to an autocast long-term phase-out? I.E., if ship health gets very low, phase-out kicks in, and it "leaves the battle". This gives you the option to return it to friendly space & a repair bay, to get repaired. If you lost it, you'd lose it permanently - but losing it would be much harder.

I'm at concept-work stage on a mod to create asymetric racial fleets and rejigger weapons, and would appreciate critical feedback and advice. Currently educating myself about modding while working out the overall mod dynamics. I am, truly, a modding noob. The project I'm outlining: 1. Asymnetric Fleets. Currently, different racial fleets are - to a large extent - "mirrors t; of one another, with de

"Switching Ammo" question for Major Stress (and possibly an idea for Ruppetus): For an unrelated mod project idea, a solution I have on the drawing board (but have not tried) is to have "Abilities" with low A.M. cost and long or infinite duration, similar to the Javelinis cluster bombs on the back end. EX: "Multi-Role Coilgun" cannon for Tech Ship, as a weapon, equivalent to a naval cannon. Default operation is the "standard shell", Anti-Medium. Ability 1: "Fla

I see two possibilities, right now (looking still at the gameplay.constants file GeoFan77 referred me to). 1. There are a variety of pirate throttles, which affect both raid strength and timing. You could probably throttle strengths way down, while shortening timing. They'd still depart the pirate base. 2. I also see a variety of settings for "rebellion" there. What I don't yet see is a way to set rebellion so it can be toggled into effect for all pl

For others looking to mod the AI, this is what I found in gameplay.constants relating to AI: Resource priorities for the different AI "personalities", but not logic, heuristics, etc. Some diplomatic settings/triggers. Nothing related to ship AI, battlefield tactics, or strategy. For reference, I've pasted the relevent text from the file: playerAISharedDef </p

Are you changing the scalars in gameplay.constants? I'm looking at this in the file, currently: fleetSupplyData-Small fleetSupplyScalar 0.75 fleetSupplyData-Normal <span style="color: #00f

Good reply... I didn't even see it coming. LOL

Thanks GeoFan. I was hoping to alter the logic strings (i.e., how it chooses targets, how it allocates resources, battlefield tactics choices that ships make), etc. You're right, though: if it was feasible, it probably would've been done extensively. Looking through gameplay.constants now; good stuff... yet it doesn't look like we can really change "how the AI thinks" from here. If anyone knows how to mod the executable, I'd also like a space pony [e digicons]:

Anyone know where the files containing the AI logic live?

Fantastic, thank you. Edit: Akk! Ran perfect first two times... now getting a persistent error where I hit "convert" and windows says it's stopped working; error window reappers infinitely when I click to close it; must restart computer. Hmmm... trying to find what I'm doing funny.

[Deleted; question was answer by re-reading thread]

Cool thoughts all. DesConnor: I like this... LRFs become more like the funtional equivalent of self-propelled artillery: battery ships which are vulnerable to highly mobile, fast raiders because they devote their mass to heavy anti-armor weaponry. What I'm really intrigued by is your escort-craft mention. Looking for contemporary analagues, I was struck by the similarity to Naval Battle Groups. Would you advocate for a function

I'm curious how experienced players might change/enhance way fleets work, to create different dynamics. I.E., are there new ship classes and counters you'd introduce? Ones you'd eliminate?

What if it's diplomacy pirates riding space ponies? *shiver* We are doomed, I tell you... doomed, doomed, and the outlook is not good!

Negatory, Houston! All good guesses but they are running from: The Diplomacy Pirates.

The economics of this are important; although "supply and demand" has been mentioned a couple times, it's more complicated. 1. RELATIVE COST of DEVELOPMENT . PC games are substantially more costly to develop to a given grade. The proliferation of array of PC configurations means financial resources must be dedicated to accomodating more configs, and testing cost skyrockets. 2. ABSOLUTE COST of DEVELOPMENT. Big game budgets

The scourge of the Vasari - the destroyer of worlds, the unknown deathbringer, the mysterious and long-fanged wolf that lopes in the void, has been identified. It is... The Diplomacy Pirates.

duplicate reply deleted

Restlessmind's suggestion brings up the same interesting gameplay implication that I think hit locations & ship substructure does: the elimination of focus-fire as the be all / end all of combat. With incremental ship disability, distributed fire gets a new lease on life.