SE5 Beta 1.74 Changelog

My most recent game was killed by something, hopefully #5 fixes it (since it wasn't the other problem from another beta log).

Yay for 6, I can finally use the klingon set without fear of being destroyed while fleeing.

Hopefully #8 helps balance fighters out a bit.

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A project a day keeps the deadline away.

I'm happy and confused about No 8. Is Aaron doing balancing work on the stock game or are we supposed to do that?

If he does then he has to fix a gazillion *known* things and problems in the stock game.
If he doesn't then why waste time on it?

?

Aaron will make balance changes if something is extremely out of whack, but he generally does not do much fine-tuning after the game is released.

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

Ha, RESPECT for what he's doing now! These are all very welcome fixes. Just a question regarding mods:

8. Changed - Decreased damage per level increase for smaller weapons.

I would hope this does not affect mods but just the stock game?

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See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

He is sleeping some time, isn't he? If not, good for us, too.

@ Shrike: It will not, as long as the mod has its one components.txt (which almost all will have).

no 8 may let me use ships more then fighters.
I hope I can get this update soon!

As Fyron said, Aaron focuses on major things, but if you can point out specific imbalances, and back up your argument as to how things are imbalanced, he's likely to take some time to correct it.

In the 1.30 era, I think I convinced him to do the first weapon rebalancing, which brought weapons much more inline with each other. I followed that up recently, by describing how different the damage density (dmg/kT) was between small and large weapons - for some things, it was up to 8x greater for the small weapons.

So if you can take the time to show the actual imbalances, and suggest a fix that's not too outrageous, it might get done.

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A project a day keeps the deadline away.

It seems to me that is no possible to bombard or capture a planet if you have flagged the rule "No bombard planet allowed" with any race!.

Example If I'm at war with the phong I can't capture any planet of them if I have a treat with Eris conf with "No Bombard planet".
I think If I'm at war with a race everything shuld be possible.

Do you?

I think you can capture a planets but not bombard planets if you have that "No bombard planet allowed" with any empire.

I'd like to know, is Long Range Engage Distance "fixed"? Or no more hit-and-run tactics for us? If this is the case, seekers probably should be rebalanced in most of the mods...

Anyone know when this patch might be released? I have a whole fleet of ships that I can't unmothball in the middle of my game. I don't really want to start over. Or alternately, is there some trick or save hack I can do to get them unmothballed?

You could try suscribing as a beta-tester...

The odds are good that this patch will probably break your current saved games. (based on the fact that most patches have broken the saved games)

If you have a treaty with ANY race that you agree NOT to do something (bombard, viral etc.) then you cannot use those tactics against ANY race, until you break that treaty.

Actually, most patches don't break saved games. So far, there's no changes in the beta that would effect saved games from v1.71 etc.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

So, no estimates on the patch release date? Anyway, to force my fleet to unmothball besides the command itself? Can I alter some data in the save game file?

you may unmothball your ships IF you can go back to 1.66, but I don't know if you can go back from 1.71.

Since the small weapons got changed (good thing IMO), I'd like to ask what is peoples opinion about mine warheads: IMO the problem is that the damage increase is too small compared to the cost increase (for standard mine warheads, special damages are different.) This added to the ease of sweeping mines makes the cheapest mines most effective (though the 100 mine limit is making mines quite useless in general).

To me, mines are like barbed wire, they're not there to win the war, or hold the border, but just another obsticle to deal with. I always in clude 2 to 3 dif type satelites in my mine fields just for the sweepers and a few fighters (if i can afford them) just for fun. I want the enemy to know...i know he's there and if i get a ship or 2 along the way....good, i hope it hurt, and think of what u have to look forward to when u meet my fleets. I honestly dont worry too much about mine size becuase i use them as warning bells mostly with a little kick to go with them. But with out some satellites to help protect the field, then to me, they're pretty uselessly swept away, and then what would be the point.

yeah sweepers need to be rebalanced. being able to safely annihilate the biggest most powerful minefields possible with one ship? barf!!!!!

I wasn't able to load my game in 1.66 so I just built a whole new fleet and scrapped the mothballed one for resources.

Firing arcs? What firing arcs? Did I miss something? O_o

All ship models have firing arcs for weapons animation purposes - ie beams don't cut through ships etc. Some custom sets did not have 360° coverage, so they wouldn't be able to fire weapons in some circumstances. The recent fix is to add a "central" firing point that can cover any direction as a backup.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Oh... so that is just a visual fix, sort of... what a shame, I thought that firing arcs were actually implemented in one of the latest beta patches... *sigh*

Ok, I'm going back lurking

BTW, where is the setting for maximum number of mines in a sector? I didn't find it in Settings.txt ...

Its in the vehicle unit types file.

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

I don't see what the big complaint is over maximum number of mines. It was the same in SEIV. This isn't a new thing, it was always intended, just never implemented.

Problem is that the limit is too low and artificialcompared to minesweepers efficiency. 3 high level minesweepers will clear 100 mines. It seems to me that the mine limit is a left over. We now have the "max units in space" limit we can change when we set up the game. I'd prefer the stock to have very high limits for individual unit types, and rely on the max unit number instead.

Also, can someone explain why mines, satellites and drones are limited to 100 pcs, and fighters to 100 000 pcs?

The problem is not the sector mine limit, it is in the sweepers.

2 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 5)

That's a bloody ridiculous formula for the mine sweepers... should be more like:

1 + ([%Level%] / 2)

But as we all know, the stock data set is filled with such insanities, and there isn't much that can be done about it at this point... gotta survive on a strict regimen of mods. BM's is pretty crazy at 5-10 per comp as well, but at least its not 42!

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

YEah... that makes mines almost a waste of time.

I've been complaining about #4 to whomever will listen since the beginning. Its about freaking time!

If 1.74 won't break save games then it will also be safe for PBW games in progress?

I have to take back what I said about long range being completely broken : It's not COMPLETELY broken, you just have to have a ship that has a longer range and faster than before - +1 speed and +20 range compared to the second ship is not enough anymore. Maybe it's a good thing for balance finally?

From the AI point of view humans always cheat shamelessly.

As for the 2008 election the black man and the woman are in the same party. Democrats as a whole like to appear progressive but are rarely serious about winning. When it comes down to the general election people will rather vote for the geezer in the other party. Democrats since FDR that won did it not because they were liked but because their opponent was disliked. Guess I'm a cynic. I could be wrong but when it comes to politics nobody is right all the time.

8. Changed - Decreased damage per level increase for smaller weapons.

this is good, but i prefer more powerful Emissive Armor.
I hope Small Rocket Pods demage was not changed.

I hope not. Small rocket pods was one of the worst ones. HALVED damage would still be good for it.

#9 - woohoo! (I sent that one in with saves about a month ago) Perhaps with the next release we can take our turns in monster PBW games over multiple sessions, instead of needing to block off 2-3 hours.

Actuall, I don't remember to have this problem. I did one of my latest turns in 6 times.

I once submitted a turn that was ignored and the AI took over for me. Perhaps #9 will fix this.

Is there a release date for this patch? Or somewhere i can track the progress?

The patch is out on steam first for a change it seems!

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Will it break save games?

Compatible with Balance Mod 1.14?

It's at http://www.malfador.com/

Yay!

I'm not sure if BM v1.14a works correctly with the v1.74 patch. I'll try and post a BM v1.14b later this evening.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Patch already realised download at malfador

And here's the link:
http://www.spaceempires5.com/files/se5patch_v174.exe

Unnamed runs fine.

at last)