onefish11

The modifierTypeFloat is titled 'AllegianceFromCultureMaxPerc'. It affects the maximum allegiance a planet can have in culture, think back to the Advent research that increases this by 10%, or the Starbase upgrade that also increases it by 10%-20%. In other words, with a -5% modifier on this, your home planet would have a max allegiance of 95%, the next planet would also be decreased by 5%, and so on. Don't you guys have a cap for planets a certain amount of jumps away? I thought 50% was about as low as you could go unless your planet is being overrun by hostile culture. But I may be mistaken. If that is the case, it would simply drop it by 5%, to 45%. This was the intention actually Any bad effects would be very minor. -5% here, maybe a -10% depending on the modifier. And because there would be 24 of these 'tier' technologies spread across the three trees, it wouldn't be that difficult to have things balance out at the end. Each faction is already getting a +10% max allegiance bonus by the end of researching, so -5% would just make it slightly less of a bonus. Thanks, it means a lot to hear my efforts weren't in vain I think that some of the values could be tweaked a bit, there is certainly a lot I don't know about how this mod differs from vanilla sins, and there's a lot I don't know about how certain elements affect gameplay (like how you mentioned the thing about higher shields making ships better in combat). I know that you can make prerequisites across sections and trees, in fact my first test-runs in making new research trees featured plenty of this. I'm kind of vain though, I really like the arrows that point to the paths research take. The arrows don't extend across the little sections, even if they are adjacent to each other. Which I is why I was leaning toward merging the three separate sections into one. The upside is that there will be more arrows, helping people see what requirements are needed for some of the researches. The downside is that you have to go and change it. So... its really just a preference thing I think. But really its just about the arrows. It's by no means an important thing. At first I thought about putting the ships in the historical order they were developed in, but then the Mandator would be able to be built pretty much right away. Which isn't a very good idea. So I think it's a good idea to just stick to having the ships unlocked in the traditional order, with the most powerful super-capitals at the end, and the frigates at the start.

Well... I don't think decreasing the Max Allegiance by 5% would kill off a faction.. would it?

I mentioned earlier that I was making a chart to organize the research before it's actually coded and placed into the tech-trees. I transferred it to a Google Doc, and I tweaked it around a bit. Most of the values I just decided off the top of my head, so they may not be perfectly balanced (though that isn't to say that no thought was put into them). As I mentioned, certain factions are more adept at some technologies than others. Where each faction has an advantage, I put a description of why I decided they had an advantage there. Just hover your mouse over the box to see the description. Also, as I mentioned, each faction has a couple technologies that they are even more adept in. You will see what I mean when you look at the charts. And here it is. Now this chart is just the basic research. Nothing too creative or unique there. My next idea for the research is loosely inspired by one of the mods I played a long time ago (I can't remember which one), and makes very good use of the ability to set prerequisite technologies. First of all, you know how the Combat tree is split into three sections? I plan on merging it into one single section. Same with the Civilian technology tree. And I will increase the size of the Defense tree to be as big as the other two. I'm going to do my best to explain the organization of trees. 1. The first tree, 'Combat', will consist of weaponry. All researches relating to laser, missile, bombing damage, antimatter, and ability unlocks will go in this tree. 2. The second tree, 'Defense', will consist of technology. All researches relating to hyperdrives, shields, hull, armor, ship and tactical module unlocks, and starbase upgrades will go in this tree. 3. The third tree, 'Logistics', will consist of... logistics. All researches relating to culture, trade, planet development, population, resources, etc. will go on this tree. Here's where it gets interesting. 1. The 'Combat' tree will have a series of eight technologies going up the very middle row, each one dependent on the last, which reflect important 'Events' in the Faction's history. These researches will have small positive and negative modifiers that somewhat reflect the 'age' the faction is. For example, an Imperial 'Event' might be the destruction of the first Death Star. This would be around the middle tier of research, and could possibly have modifiers decreasing allegiance (people losing faith in the power of the Empire) and increasing laser rate of fire (the Navy's fury at its embarrassing loss). They would be small, relatively insignificant effects that would end up being balanced out by the time a lot of techs are researched, but they would still somewhat simulate Galactic events. This middle line of 'Events' on the 'Combat' tree would be prerequisites for the other technologies on its tier. In other words, the tier five 'Event' would have to be researched before you could research the tier five laser damage upgrade. 2. In the same fashion, the 'Defense' tree would have a center line of researches that are key technological breakthroughs, weapons designs, discoveries, or just faction bonuses that are key to a faction's success. The CIS would have Geonosian droid foundries, the Empire would have The Death Star and the Kuat Drive Yards, the Republic would have the Jedi Temple, etc. These would also be prerequisite to other techs on the same tier, and they would have small modifiers relating to their impacts on the faction they are with. 3. Again, in the same fashion, the 'Logistics' tree would have a center row of researches that reflect important figures/leaders in the factions' history. Mon Mothma, the Emperor, Leia Organa, Yoda, Grand Admiral Thrawn, etc. These would have small modifiers to reflect the effects these important figures had on their factions. The other 'Logistics' technologies would also stem from this spine of key researches, if you will. I hope I explained all that effectively. I am going to make a flow chart model soon to demonstrate the shape and organization of the research trees to better show what I mean. Also, I have no idea how the AI would handle a research system where each tier in each tree has to be unlocked by a single research. I'm not sure if it makes a difference.

I figured this would be the case My reasoning behind this was that the New Republic era is decades after the Clone Wars. One would assume that in that space of time, technology had improved somewhat, thus making the ships of the New Republic era much more powerful than those of the clone wars. For example, the Imperial-class Star Destroyer was built to decimate obsolete ships such as the Providence and the Lukrehulk (sp?). The Nebulas and other NR era Star Destroyer designs made the Imperial class even obsolete. BUT, I can see that with this mod, all the ships are relatively equal. So I can see how this idea isn't really feasible I think you are right. 16 Imperial-I Star Destroyer capital ships isn't too much of an issue, but 16 Praetors can be a little much. The chart I am referring to is a simple Excel (well the open office version) document where all of the modifiers are listed, grouped by category (weapons, hull/armor/shield, culture, planet development, trade, etc.), and I've picked out which factions would be more proficient in which areas than others. As with the Republic and shields thing (you're right about that one), I may have incorrectly assigned factions to bonuses they have no business being more advanced in, but if you really want to see it I could clean it up and email it or something To be honest, I just saw that there are three main values (shields armor and hull) and six factions, so I just gave each value to two groups so that no one was left out when it came to combat durability. But that was probably lazy of me, and there's no reason why the Republic couldn't also have armor, or even just not have extra research in a defensive area. As for the Republic and mass-production, in my chart I assigned both the Republic and the CIS extra ship build speed research (due to cloning and droid factories). Yes I meant the armor value itself. Sorry, I had completely forgotten that there also different types of armor in Sins. I just learned about that this week I think I've done a poor job at explaining my idea about the research tree. Each faction will have a base amount of research they can do in a specific area. For example, every faction (with the exception of maybe Vong, I have no idea what their weapons are classified as) will be able to research up to +40% laser damage. The factions that I have designated to specialize in laser technology, Alliance and Empire, will be able to research up to +60% laser damage. This is the same in almost every other case. For example, every faction will be able to upgrade shields to +50% shield points/regen. The Alliance and Republic (will be changed) however, can research to the maximum of +75% shield points/regen. This goes for hull, armor, laser range, culture, trade income, pretty much everything. I also added another area of specialization though. Each faction has one area they excel in over all the other factions. They go to a third tier in research in these areas. The Alliance can research up to +100% shield power for instance. The Empire can research up to +80% laser damage. The NR can research twice as much armor points as almost any other faction. Now, I know that the Alliance inherently has more shield points and the Vong more hull points, so this idea may result in unbalancing the game. If it were my personal mod, and this was an issue, I would lower the starting values of some of the ships to be more even, and let the research take care of providing the shield advantage to the Alliance rather than them starting out with that advantage. But that's also more work So anyways. That's kind of how I've been planning the research trees.

I hope you don't mind, I've been playing around with your mod's files for the past couple of weeks. Specifically the research stuff. The thing about the Vanilla research tree is that although it's sparse and unimaginative, it's also pretty well balanced. I made a few different tester research trees for the Empire and promptly scrapped them because they were horrendously unbalanced. I have some good ideas though, so I'm going to keep playing around with it One of my ideas is for each Faction to have certain areas of specialization. The research trees of each faction will be very similar (for balance), but there will be a few advantages that certain factions have over others. When it comes to combat, for example, the Empire and NR would have superior armor (due to being the most technologically advanced), the Alliance and the Republic would have superior shields, and the CIS and Vong would have superior hull/regeneration (CIS due to droids that repair damage, and Vong because their ships are alive). This way no one race is ultra-powered, but also there is some differentiation between the strategies of each faction. (I hope all that made sense) I actually made a chart listing almost every value that research can affect, for each faction. The research will reflect the technology of choice for each faction. The Empire specializes in areas like laser damage, armor, and bombing damage. The New Republic specializes in armor, laser rate of fire, and antimatter. The Alliance specializes in laser damage, mass reduction, and shield strength/restore rate. I also had an idea about Capital Ship slots and Supply. Republic and CIS: 2500 max supply; 20 max capital ships. (Their ships are generally weaker, and they have cloning and droid factories to bolster their numbers) Empire and Alliance: 2000 max supply; 15 max capital ships. (Their ships are more powerful than predecessors, but they must recruit their forces) NR and Vong: 1500 max supply; 10 max capital ships. (Their ships are top-of-the-line. The NR is smaller than previous Galactic governments, and the Vong are just a scouting force) Obviously if the CIS were pitted against the Vong, the CIS would have nearly double the potential fleet-size. The balance would be in the fact that the Vong have vastly superior ships. The CIS could win by swarming the Vong with 20 capital ships, but the Vong could also win by tanking with a few more-powerful capital ships. This idea may be ridiculous, and it's definitely more complicated than usual set-up, but I think it could allow for more varied gameplay. More weaker ships vs. fewer stronger ships. I'm really just spouting out ideas and suggestions. Feel free to correct me if some of these would disrupt the balance of play

Thanks for the information, I was actually able to figure it out pretty easily by fiddling around with it. After spending a few hours playing with the research, I'm finding out that the biggest issue is going to be balance. Keeping it so that one race doesn't become super weak or super strong, and also keeping it so that players who don't research everything aren't at a complete disadvantage. I can see why you guys have been focusing on the other stuff, this is going to be headache! Especially with six unique races.

I personally really like those ideas. They are certainly better than the vanilla Sins artifacts, and they make a lot of sense. The negative artifact is a nice twist. I think it would be interesting if the Artifacts boosted one thing at the cost of another. For example, the Ancient Sith Ghost. Having that as your ruler would drop your loyalty throughout the galaxy, but wouldn't there be some sort of benefit to that as well? And in the same respect, the Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy. It would boost your trade income, but wouldn't having a huge den of criminals have some adverse effects too? Just a thought

I just looked and you are right, the Golan Platforms aren't much bigger than an ISD. I suppose it just seemed small next to the vanilla Sins starbases that would fill up a gravity well. What I don't know how to do right now is arrange the individual research techs on the different tech trees, with the arrows and whatnot. I think I remember seeing a modding wiki on the SOASE Modding Forum, so I will play around with that this weekend. Those are pretty good ideas. Personally I think that the artifacts could either have more effects, or the effects they do have should have slightly more umph

Actually I think that Admiral Daala had these weapons affixed to her Maw Irregular Fleet. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Maw_Irregular_Fleet This was in the Legacy of the Force book series (the one where Jacen Solo goes all dark lord of the sith).

A few disclaimers: This is the first forum I have ever been a part of, so if I say/do/post something wrong, I apologize! I also did not really know where to put my feedback, so I just made a new topic. I have now been playing with this mod for about a month now, and I have to say. I am quite obsessed. Normally I play with mods for a day or two and then get hopelessly bored with them, but with SOGE that hasn't been the case. So good job peoples! I still want to go through and play this even more, so I can give you guys much more detailed feedback. But these are my initial reactions. 1. The planets are great. I see that you guys used the Novus Universum planets, which is my personal favorite set of planets. The textures are breathtaking, the variety is staggering, and I would say that nothing needs to be done in this department. I looked through the .entity's of each planet, and I think that the ratio of resource asteroids and the levels of planet upgrades are spot-on. I don't think much needs to be done in this department. 2. The models for the ships are also great. Most my time spent on this mod has been trying out the ships of all the various races, and building fleets and seeing how they act together. As a whole, the visual aspect of the ships in this mod are very nicely done. I could stare at that Viscount for hours... I have no complaints about the visual aspect of the ships at all. Sort of related, the particles are also perfect in my opinion. I really like the size of the lasers, some mods make them much too big and fat in comparison to the ships that are firing them. There seems to be the perfect balance of size, shape, luminosity, and amount of projectiles. Those first two things are definitely my favorite about this mod; the planets and the ships. (sidenote: I got very excited when I saw that Warb_Null is helping out with this mod. I played EAW for years before I played Sins, and I always loved the work Warb_Null did. I modded pretty much everything he released into that game while I was still playing it. /hugefan) 3. Bugs. I personally did not see one bug. I had a grand total of zero MiniDumps, and I did not find any "String not found" things. This mod is very smooth and well-built. 4. The completeness of the icons add a streamlined feel to this mod. It's a bit of a pet-peeve of mine when mods have custom ships and structures, but vanilla thumbnails and icons. It makes me want to blow up a few death stars. If I am building a Star Destroyer, why why why does the thumbnail show a Kol Battleship? Long story short, I'm glad I don't see any of that here. 5. The stats on the ships and structures seem slightly unbalanced to me. I need to go in and take a closer look at each of the ships stats, but the feeling I got from playing was that some ships had disproportionately high shields, or others had too low weapon power. I have no clue what your guys' plan is when it comes to the balance between races and their stats, so it could be that in the end it all balances out. But I think that it could be made a bit smoother. I am going to study this a bit more and get back to you with a much more detailed explanation. 6. Random thing, not a huge deal, but something tells me the Golan platform should be a bit... more. It starts with barely more firepower than a cruiser, and it is very tiny. I could be sounding very ignorant right now, as I don't really know how big and powerful the Golans are supposed to be. But something tells me that they could be more balanced. Those were most of my criticisms/praises, at least off the top of my head. ___________________________________________________________________________ As a huge Sins and Star Wars nerd, I have a few suggestions for this mod. (Don't worry, I'm not going to ask for Death Stars and Eclipses ) 1. First off, I want to talk about the research. I know that you guys haven't really done anything with that yet, which is why this isn't a critique. Research is a tool in Sins that allows a great depth of customization to gameplay, if used effectively. I have seen research used in all kinds of ways in the multitude of mods I have played in the past few years. Vanilla Sins barely touched on the customization abilities that research has to offer. When every race has the same exact classes of ships, with almost identical stats, research is really the biggest way to gain an edge over the opponent. It also helps accentuate the strengths and weaknesses of a particular race. Some mods just have every race's research almost identical, with barely any specialization. Other mods just double every stat by the time everything is researched. You rarely have to do much more than spam-click the research tree at some point in the game until you have everything queued. Very few mods have an intuitive system of research that makes the game interesting. My suggestion, and I offer my services in this department, is that a kick-ass research system is introduced in this mod. I know, easier said than done. I think that the research trees are a very simple way to make this mod from a simple unit replacement mod, into a complete overhaul. Even just adding more types of research, and more stages, and increasing the price and time would be a big step. But having a completely unique tech-tree for each Race that is tailored to its individual strengths, weaknesses, and strategies would go very far in making this amazing modification even more amazing. As far as the work goes, most of it would be actually planning it out. Choosing which stats to raise or lower, thinking of a name and description for each technology, and so on. The coding itself is simple, albeit time-consuming. I'm starting to rant here, so I'll stop If you want more of my opinion on this, I would be glad to elaborate. 2. The pacts and artifacts are along the same lines as the research. They are really cool parts of Sins that could be made even cooler. Artifacts are rare pieces of advanced technology that are supposed to make you excited to find them. In Vanilla Sins, artifacts are hardly a game-maker or breaker. Wow, I travel a tiny bit faster in between planets. Not much of a help in the long run. Artifacts should encourage exploration and expansion to find them, and you should want to heavily defend planets that have them. With the gargantuan amount of Star Wars lore, we could have some really creative artifacts to find in SOGE. They should also have a significant effect beyond a 12% damage increase. That's helpful, but it doesn't quite make me jump for joy when I get that. The pacts could also be made into a really creative system in this mod. Again, because of the depth of the Star Wars storyline, each race could have some very cool pacts to work with. The Vanilla pacts that the races have right now are so bland and general. They have nothing to do with the actual cultures and governments they represent. Pacts should make you WANT to be allies with the Galactic Empire. They should also be a bit harder to obtain, either through extensive and expensive research to unlock, or altering the way you gain favor. The system that is in place now allows me to get every pact almost painlessly and effortlessly, and all I need is four or five envoys that I forget about as soon as I send them off. These are another thing that would take very little effort to change, but would dramatically shift the way your mod is played. EDIT: I just realized that I ranted about pacts when you guys are still on Entrenchment. I only brought these up because I assume that at some point you guys will switch over to Diplomacy 3. Research, pacts, and artifacts would also be improved by a tenfold with the addition of custom images for them, but they aren't really necessary. 4. The system for upgrading Star Bases was a nice addition added by Entrenchment that allows you to completely customize a huge installation. One star base could be a center of trade and culture for your area of the galaxy, another could be a rock-solid weapon, and still another could have baffling abilities that give it the edge in combat. Even if you guys stick to just having the Golan III as your only star base, I would personally like to see this system exploited more than it has been before. I have some ideas on this if you would like to hear them. 5. Some of the abilities that capital ships and other ships have in this mod are very smooth and well-integrated, while others feel as if they were placed there haphazardly. The tractor beams, for example, don't seem to have much effect. The best examples of well-placed abilities are the gravity-well generators, and the various Battle Meditation/Fleet Coordinating abilities spread across command ships. Those change the tide in battle, and a well placed interdictor can mean the death of a fleet. More ships could have abilities like this, that give you a reason to build them other than their shield-strength and laser damage. I think I will stop ranting now. You can see that I have a lot to say about this mod, and I am very excited about where it is heading. I would love to help in any capacity I can, although as of now coding is really all I can do. So far I have successfully merged planets and units into Sins, altered the strings, and changed around the coding of research, artifacts, star-bases, and pacts. When it comes to things like textures, meshes, icons, thumbnails, and visual stuff like that, I am pretty much useless. But like I said, I would love to help with any of the other stuff Thank you for taking the time to read my feedback! -Raynn_Falu

I would love to be added to the beta testing. I'm kind of obsessed with this mod, so I will definitely be giving feedback Mantis: onefish11