My new mod concept.

Hum... Interesting, i guess i can call it that .

ekolis wrote:

Cool!

Comments on your points:

Sounds a bit like MOO2 - except in MOO2 there were 3 types of weapons: heavy, regular, and point-defense. Heavy weapons targeted ships and planets (don't remember if they could target fighters or not), were larger (either double or 50% more) and did lots of damage (either double or 50% more). Regular weapons targeted ships, planets, fighters, and missiles, but weren't really specialized at anything. Point-defense weapons were smaller and did half damage; they could target anything, like regular weapons, but had an accuracy bonus and fired automatically at "range zero" at fighters and missiles (though they could also be fired sooner if you took manual control of them). I know you can't have two sets of range calculations for PD weapons (one for manual fire, the other for autofire) in SE5, but I thought I'd mention it anyway... Oh, and there were bombs... bombs targeted only planets, UNLESS they were mounted on a medium or heavy fighter (light fighters were not big enough to carry them and could only carry non-autofiring versions of PD weapons); fighter-mounted bombs could target ships, and they did TONS of damage just like ship-mounted bombs

One reason why i created light weapons was to engage fighters and satellites. The change i made to weapons made units far to easy to kill with standard weapons, i needed something less powerful to attack them. Alternatively, the change to the armors made the PD weapons less effective against units, an heavy fighter with heavy armor can take a lot of PD fire. The light weapons just fill the gap.

Quote:

Hopefully not all accessbile by researching level 1 of Torpedoes like in stock

Yes, that's what i had in mind. You have to research torpedo technology first, then each type of torps have their own tech requirements (nuclear, fusion, plasma, anti-matter, quantum...). But each has their set of advantages and disadvantage. For exemple nukes are the least powerful, put cause radiation damage to planets as well as deadly to the crews of ships. Fusion and plasma are more damaging, but don't have secondary effects. Anti-matter is deadly as well as radiations heavy...

Well, there is a limit on how complicated i can make it. Now for anti-matter beams, you need energy stream technology and anti-matter technology, then leveling up in energy stream weapons level up your anti-proton beam. Technology tech are one level, expensive tech, but once researched, they unlock related devices. Some have several requirments to meet so it may take a while before they appear in ship design screen .

This mean ships internals can take some damage while there are still armor and shields, but only a fraction of what they would have taken if they were gone (this simulate fractures and holes in shields and armor plating as they get weaker). This increase the likelyness a ship survive the battle, but also make it easier to capture them if you are winning. Also weapons that deplete shields and armor are more useful since normal weapons are not that good at getting rid of them. I'm also considering structural upgrade component that would boost hit points of internal components (need to experiment with this first). Theses changes make special weapons more useful later in game, even with the damage weapons can do.

Notice though that low level weapons are already potent, a standard cannon does 80 kts of damage, it's light version about 30 and PD cannons around 15. Missiles are more damaging, a nuclear missile does about 160-180 kts (missiles are deadly, but they drain supply and ammos quite fast). In late game, each weapons will be about 6 times more powerful, some get higher fire rate or accuracy. But for ballance, the more powerful weapons have some drawbacks to them, like slower rate of fire, use more supplies and/or ammos, upgrade at a slower rate (it a given, higer tech devices take more research to level up) or easier to damage (mean they get destroyed more easily when the ship take damage, but still have to work on this).

I can also add that the Germans also found out that the larger flak cannons were also quite effective as anti-tank weapons. In fact they were more powerful than their dedicated anti-tank weapons. Needless to say, they soon converted flak guns into tank's cannons...

Once i'm done converting and adding weapons to the game, i plan to put some thoughts into the ground combat. For sure it's quite dull right now...

The mod is going well. I've found a way to increase structure hit points along with armor level (the device can be of any level, it doesn't matter). Of course i initally wanted to tie it with another component (like a structural upgrade component) but i did not find a way to make it work. But at least the structure of the ship will be on par with the armor level (of course, the structure of the ship is never as sturdy as the armor that protect it).

I'm almost done implementing all the weapons. Some effects were missing though, i had to add them. Not sure about the sound they have though, might want to change them (most likely in the next version, it is taking long enough already). Fighter and troop weapons are still to make, but they will be scalled down version of the ship ones. I don't think i will give them the special weapons, might make them way too deadly... Oh yeah, fighters and troops have their own set of weapons (same look, but different stats).

Most of the weapon code is done, just need to ballance it so more expensive weapons are actually more potent than the cheaper ones (i don't want expensive weapons no one would use). I like looking at my ships duking it out, and combat is just as fun even at level 100 . It's quite a sight looking at ship that shoot missiles and torps, only to see the target ships trying fanatically to shoot them all down (some still getting through) with big ships shooting their humongous guns at long range and smaller ships zipping around in between. Large battles are a sight to behold, with tons of crippled ships waiting either to be boarded of finished off.

I also upgraded bases, their missiles have longer range (they can mount their missiles) and their guns are more deadly and ranged than the ships ones. Space stations are very deadly, what they lack in mobility they more than make it in armor, shields and firepower, they are very difficult to kill. I expect assaulting fortified flanets to be a real pain .

I have a lot of stuff done, but i still have a lot to do, the next patch may come out before i'm done with a playable version. So far most of the weapons are up and running, but haven't touched the troop ones yet (still ballancing fighter weapons). I'm also cleaning the code, replacing many formulas with my own that require less calculations from my part when i change them (also found that they are friendlier to the game, they fix a lot of glitches and UI problems).

What's left to do is finish the weapons, finish the formulas upgrade and start fiddling with the AI. For the AI i will probably base my work of Maran's AI, he has a lot of ground work done and may speed up the process. I might also take a look at the ground combat mod to see if there is something that could work for my mod. I might also consider getting some helpers and testers, i don't think i can find all the bugs myself and some ideas and comments could help...

Cordas, you will have lot of fun assaulting planets once i'm done, a fully developped planet won't go down easily. I'm currently fixing how much damage the population can take, i want them to last at least as long as the planet defense and structure (both can take quite a beating) and make it so that population killing tools like neutron bombs and plagues are actually useful. I want planet siege to last more than a round if possible, making taking out an homeworld an epic battle .

I will work another day on the mod trying to get most features to work and get a basic AI running so you will have something to play with. Hopefully you will at least be able to simulations and see the big battles at work .

Adding missile mounts to SEV is real easy, just clone one of the entry then change "Direct Fire" to "Seeker". Every weapons that seek it's target will then be upgradeable.

As for new weapons, i have plenty of weapons ideas but i'm running out of component pictures for them (I'm already reusing many of them, all fighter weapons are mini-version of the ships ones). If there is any pictures out there i can use to add even more weapons, i would gladly add more of them. Of course this may make real long component list and even more stuff to test against each others to see if they have a fighting chance...

You are aware that that will mkae bomblets use the missle mount as well :)