Lavo

Update: March 25h, 2011 Starbases have been added. Please refer to this thread for additional info and discussion.

Yeah, this is "supposed" happen. I put in in quotations as it's only a temporary solution. This began to occur after Nova's planets were added in. I believe Sins just fails to load everything when this happens, however, seeing as there are no (or very, very few) minidumps during games themselves, this isn't an issue. Yes, the NR leave some balancing to be desired. I'm working on this however, though at the moment my focus is getting in proper star bases. This is very appreciated, it's with posts like these that I can gather more info to make better changes. Dem Vong be OP. Once I get the NR somewhat balanced out (their capital ships already are), these guys are next. The big issue with the Vong is that they use unique weaponry, and a different shielding and armour scheme, than all the other factions. Due to having a bunch of unique weaponry, and due to initially having the CIS' tech, the unique weapons are purposely powerful, as there is no research that boosts them, unlike laser and missile weaponry.

Oh, I know it's not difficult at all. Just never saw a need for it personally, though I do like your idea/decision.

To be totally honest, I've never used Mantis. The few bugs I've found, before being able to upload fixes myself, I reported on the forums here. I'd be fine with either personally.

A little update, the Volley Fire ability for the Imps has been coded in, as is the station's upped and upgradable flak burst. Stations are almost ready for beta.

Nova, true that on tactical slots. With this... We won't need station models. Uniqueness is achieved by abilities, and possibly weapon loadout. You should dig an MC60 model out of him though.

This is true. Perhaps then the tactical slots, for plants that really have a damned lot, should be somewhat reduced? Then again, these planets are not supposed to be easy to capture or even bomb. They are called base or fortress worlds for a reason.

No Nova, all planets will have 4 star base slots. This is simply due to 1 SoGE platform =/= 1 vanilla star base (proportionally). And don't worry, I do these changes myself. I'm writing a Java program for my coding class, and might do a spin-off of it, which would allow me to easily change all the starbase tags (assuming it's not too hard to code). What makes each planet different is their tactical slots, which allow for vital support units such as Ion Cannons, Hangar Defenses, and even frees up space for Shield Generators. As for the Golan I, possibly, as that role is already successfully covered by the Hangar Defense, and the Golan platforms start off weaker, akin to a Golan I or II.

It's a space station! http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad33/Lavo_02/SoGE/SinsofaSolarEmpireEntrench2011-03-2120-05-15-69.png That's right, I've been secretly working on star bases for SoGE recently, with some help from Chimaera for ideas and such. Here's what's been thought up thus far: 1) Unlike in vanilla Sins, star bases will not be able to take out huge, capital ship led fleets, however, with upgrades they are comparable and superior to leveled up capital ships (like the current Golan III is). 2) As they are not as powerful as their vanilla counterparts, and taking into account SW canon, players will be able to build 4 Golan stations per planet, as planets typically have multiple platforms protecting them. However, until Nova releases his next planet upgrade, the limit will be 1 as I really don't have the time or patience to edit 160+ files only to have to do them again. Non-colonizables, like wormholes, plasma storms, and dead asteroids will only allow for 1 station to be build (think of it being an outpost of sorts). 3) The Golan III tactical platform will be removed, as it's role will be taken on by Golan platforms (star bases). 4) Factions' Golan platforms will very according to the weapons and abilities/upgrades that they have. The Alliance and CIS station will get a self-destruct ability (the former due to desperation and the latter due to underlings being expendable) which does 10000 and, with upgrade, 15000 damage, the Reps will get a Resupply ability which maxes out at 2.5 antimatter and 25 hull/second, and effects all friendly ships/bases/modules (with weapons) in the system's gravity well with a stacking limit of 4, and the Empire's will get a special Volley Fire. 5) The Vong will have a unique station (props to Eville for putting a model in for them already) which will lack special abilities like the other factions and be overall weaker than the other factions. However, it has one key advantage over the Golan platforms, which makes up for all it's shortcomings, that it can move within a planet's grav well, like the Vasari's station can. It also may get the Vasari's colony pods upgrade, as this makes sense for the Vong to have. 6) Considering replacing the Flakburst with an upgradable Fast Tracking Turrets. The stations' weapons, health, Trade Port, Hangar, and abilities (bar Volley Fire) have been done and are functioning as intended ingame. I, however, want feedback and ideas! So post here, and you may see your suggestion implemented. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As per March 25th, Golan platforms were added to SoGE. The Golan's constructor can be found under the Cruiser tab. As of now the Golan tactical platform has not been removed, as the star base limit per planet is still 1. The station requires Golan III research tech, and all upgrades are research-free, this is temporary, seeing as all platforms are beta and thus unfinished. Known Issues/Bugs: Strings are missing or have strange fillers. With ShowErrors set to TRUE, a few messages pop up for the Vong's station builder.

I don't, I personally do not recall which of their ships have an ECM-based ability. The only faction that I can assure you has no "useless" ability techs is the Vong, as I worked and made their tech tree personally.

For the Reps, an idea I thought for their unique ability is a modified Resupply from the TEC station. It would have a max of 2.5 antimatter and 25 hull/second, and would effect all friendly ships/bases/modules (with weapons) in the system's gravity well (I've successfully made and tested this), and have a stacking limit of 4 (aka. with maxed out stats and 4 star bases, 10 antimatter and 100 hull/sec). For the Empire, I believe adding in Volley Fire would do the trick. The Vong will get the Colony Pods ability from the Vasari.

Oh, you mean details. I won't lie, I'm too lazy to keep track of exact numbers. For which caps got changed specifically; Venators, Providence, MC90, Rejuvinator, Procurator, ISD Command, and Tector. For all but the NR, the change was +1. For the NR it was a reduction of 0.8 for the MC90, and 0.6 for the Rej, iirc.

That's what I do with each update, I say what I've changed/added.

Alright so, I've been tossing some ideas around on star bases with Chimaera, and I want some input on 'em from all of you. 1) Unlike in vanilla Sins, star bases will not be able to take out huge, capital ship led fleets, however, with upgrades they are comparable and superior to leveled up capital ships (like the current Golan III is). 2) As they are not as powerful as their vanilla counterparts, and taking into account SW canon, players will be able to build 4 (or 3, if 4 is too much) Golan stations per planet, as planets typically have multiple platforms protecting them. However, until Nova releases his next planet upgrade, the limit will be 1 as I really don't have the time or patience to edit 160+ files only to have to do them again. Non-colonizables, like wormholes, plasma storms, and dead asteroids will only allow for 1 station to be build (think of it being an outpost of sorts). 3) The Golan III tactical platform will be removed, as it's role will be taken on by Golan platforms (star bases). 4) Factions' Golan platforms will very according to the weapons and abilities/upgrades that they have. Other than giving the Alliance and CIS station the self-destruct ability (the former due to desperation and the latter due to underlings being expendable), I'm not sure what to do for other differences and the other factions. 5) The Vong will have a unique station (props to Eville for putting a model in for them already) which will lack special abilities like the other factions and be overall weaker than the other factions. However, it has one key advantage over the Golan platforms, which makes up for all it's shortcomings, that it can move within a planet's grav well, like the Vasari's station can. Thus far I've got a basic station running. That is to say that it's functioning ingame, has the Toughness (aka. health), weapons, Trade Port, Hangar, and Resupply upgrades are done and working as intended. The Resupply's ability needs some adjusting, but that's separate from the upgrade and is easily done.

Not really, I noticed that several capital ships had lower armour points than their respective cruiser variants, which in all honesty, made no sense at all. Well, except for the NR caps, which I lowered a bit. :v

For the CIS, it unlocks the false ship thing on the Providence and Munificent. Also unlocks the ECM thing the Muni has. For the Republic, it unlocks a bunch of stuff on the Procurator. I'm not sure how the other factions benefit, but ECM, like all the other "named"/ability techs in the Military tree, unlock abilities.

Update: March 18th, 2011 Adjusted capital ship armor points.

After dling some other mods that have functioning star bases, it seems that the file doesn't need to be in the mod folder for the ability to work... Which just raises more questions. Ah well, maybe I'll try to put in star bases one last time tomorrow or something. Edit: Turns out my problem was that I missed a line in the Player file, to say what station the faction has. Well then, SoGE now has star bases, even if just for testing and whatnot. http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad33/Lavo_02/SoGE/starbasesogeworks2.png

Update: March 17th, 2011 All Vong ships have had a weapons fix... Now they shouldn't be as utterly overwhelming. Need feedback on these changes, to see if they haven't been utterly nerfed.

Update: March 16th, 2011 SSD/Viscount have tractor beams, Viscount costs a bit more crystal. Ion Dispersal Cannon now hits multiple targets.

Wormholes can hold star bases iirc.

Nope. You just got lucky. Everything seems alright with the ship's coding, at max leveling, they should have the same regen. Maybe you were behind on your research and the AI wasn't?

Balancing isn't near perfect either. And ion cannons should be put in somehow.

I've tried that, for some reason this screws with the ship's weapons, as it fires less for some reason.

I'd love to see an MC60 model as much as you do, nothing I can do to make it happen though.