8 replies to this topic

[NPC]

Alright, thought I would throw my hat in the ring, to the hopefully still living mod, and voice my ideas. Love the mod so far and I really appreciate the amount of canon units represented correctly in the game.

 

1. If a planet has a surface to space weapon it could prevent space ship from getting close enough to conduct orbital bombardments. Don't know how hard the coding would be but I thought it would make building surface to space weapons move valuable then just parking another star destroyer over the planet. Perhaps it only kicks in if there are two guns built on the planet to make it more balanced. Note I said orbital bombardments and nothing about bombing runs.

 

2. Space station destruction. Again likely a huge pain to code in but I thought it would be worth mentioning that a way to get rid of unwanted space stations would be quite helpful. Especially, considering the UI limitations of the engine. 

 

3. Spoils of war, this comes right out of Thrawn's Revenge. When you conquer a planet from independent forces perhaps you should get a bonus that isn't just pure credits. Say your forces seize a factory or mining complex. Perhaps you enforce conscription and get a few units of SecForce Troopers/Army Troopers or mix it up with Auxiliary Soldiers levied from the conquered. How about some of those campaign starting forces like LAATs, Pod Walkers, and artillery everyone likes to play around with. Even a corvette or fighter squadron from a boneyard. Basically play to the mods strengths and encourage unit diversity even after all the starting forces are used up.  

 

4. A minimum lag GC map. I noticed some posters have already made something like this but it might be a good idea to make an official one. Basically create a GC with the minimum of fighters, transports, and freighters in starting units for all sides. Maybe disable some of the heroes too. Perhaps cut down on independent forces as a whole would help. 

 

5. Hire mercenaries from Hunter Guild Houses and Cantinas. Not hire in galactic mode where the unit is persistent but just in tactical battles. For instance pay 200 credits and get access to a unit of mercenaries by clicking on the structure, say Cantina, and waiting for the negotiations, build time, to finish. Yes I realize that 200 credits would be expensive when you could build a unit of soldiers for cheaper but you're paying to have them there asap rather then having the time to train your own soldiers. Like in RaW where there was an upgrade to add additional fighters and bombers to a space station's garrison. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

By the way, on page four of the manual the picture cuts of a line of text and on page sixth four the Clone Trooper has the wrong picture. The Defiler from base is used but in game they have stormtrooper models. Since it's not a bug in the mod I didn't think it belonged in the bugs subforum but I thought I would mention it.

[Aizen Teppa]

1. I'm fairly confident that it won't happen. Interesting but project is behind schedule as it is. And even for 1.4 *cough* 2025 *cough*.

2. Already posted few times. Selling/destroying unwanted stations was possible even in vanilla so it's just a matter of putting this back. 

3. Yes I like that feature of TR/ICW too. I'm certain that it can be done also in PR.

4. Ah yes lag issue again. Mini lag is possible without too much effort. All you need txt/xml editor (with backup function if you make error somewhere). Take scenario files and just remove all that garbage. As for limiting fighter buildup same way just with separate files for each craft and increase pop cap. "AI" always build shit load of fighters and if you deprive it of that, it will switch to corvettes and frigates (like Nebulons/CCs/Lancers/Carracks). Like I said many months earlier. Its easier to deal with 400 Nebulons than 100x4 ATRs or 100x8 K-Wings. And bigger ships are not so lag intensive since you can't deploy 1000s of them while fighters just swarm the screen with thousands of objects and engine cannot handle it.

5. Not a fan of it, but then land battles are weakest link of whole EaW/Foc family.

 

I wouldn't be too concerned about manual. 1.3 will bring significant changes to the game play as whole. And its normal there are some mixed things here and there. It's massive project, probably biggest of all Foc mods.

[Invadious]

while fighters just swarm the screen with thousands of objects and engine cannot handle it.

 

Sorry if I'm derailing this thread so I apologize in advance and you can ignore me if that is the case, but I'm curious about this statement. Could it also just be the lack of CPU processing power? I've had and currently run a Core i7 and the game is still in a perpetual slowdown even with the "Core Worlds" campaign of v1.2. I'm not trying to doubt you, but merely curious as buying a higher-clocked i7 for better single threaded performance is on my agenda, but if it indeed is the game's engine that is the bottleneck that would save me a heap of money.

 

I once tried--with my old i7-920 D0 mind you--to disable hyperthreading and disabling two cores to increase the clockspeeds even higher than my already standard overclock and did not experience any speed increase. I wouldn't actually know of any way to confirm whether the engine is at fault or modern CPU's limits. Well, at least not if you're a regular consumer that hasn't got access to liquid nitrogen overclocking. Someone who does should look into this by comparing the FPS in-game at stock speeds vs. a massive overclock with most cores disabled to determine if there's any noteworthy performance increase. In terms of fighters swarming the field, I've found that the GPU is usually the primary bottleneck in the system. Once you move the screen away from all the action the game speeds up a bit. But this is only with so many fighters which are impossible to properly command anyway.

 

Regards.

[Aizen Teppa]

I'm happy to debate performance issues wherever post is located. Even if stealing thread is the outcome. Well it's not a secret that EaW/FoC is basically CPU bound game. More powerful CPU is always more beneficial vs more powerful VGA (it has marginal importance except very high resolutions and/or with Zann Cons mustard fart cloud on Galactic Map). I can testify to that as I play PR since earliest released version. P4 - C2 E6600 - i7 920 - and now 5930K. Each step brought massive improvement. Biggest jump in performance was with 920. Recently jumped to the X99 and I can most definitively assure you there is noticeable performance gain. What would easily choke 920 to death here only generates slight/medium stutter. I do not say that you should get 2011-3 just to play PR, not at all. It's my main workstation, but first thing I've tested after switch was PR! Nothing better than hammer CPU with some PR GFFA. lol Anyway... Game engine is known to have many limitations. One is 2GB memory limit. Workaround for 4GB+ works, but game cannot address more than 2GB of RAM (tried to patch it for 2GB+ but exe won't work after that). Often it crashes with too much stuff on the map, with some silly exceptions. Main problem with game as a whole it loves XP and everything after that is quirky - vary from system to system. And AI logic files cannot exceed certain size, otherwise game is idiotically unstable (every bigger mod ran into this and PR in particular with extensive AI coding). Ahh... dang it. Must leave somewhere for longer period. Final thought: browse support/bug pages. You will see what king of problems I and others encountered which speaks volumes about limitations of the game. Cheerio.

[Invadious]

So I'm not the only one experiencing random freezes. I wonder if this problem can be fixed.

 

Thanks for the info on performance. Will take this into consideration when buying a new computer.

 

Regards.

[Aizen Teppa]

Just as a small update. Despite all good things about more raw power of 2011-3 it still can't overcome same problem PR always had - hang/freeze after game is loaded from save with fairly advanced campaign. 

 

I can't wait for 1.3 as 1.2 is fun as long you don't need to load saved game. Virtually anything 100+ weeks is hopeless case. :( *And I play heavily trimmed scenarios where AI/nor I/ cannot spam millions of units because of pop limitations.

Edited by Aizen Teppa, 28 August 2015 - 02:24 PM.

[Invadious]

Another incentive to create smaller campaigns with just a few planets. A freezing game (which I've also experienced consistently on every campaign beyond a certain amount of weeks) is not a playable one.

 

I would like to play this mod badly without having to worry about a constant slowdown and an inevitable crash.

 

Maybe if the Skirmish mode can be expanded upon allowing to build certain base elements / defenses / stations / research stations (like I made an attempt at implementing with my add-on a long time ago) and incorporating the async-Tech Tree which is where most of the fun of this mod stems from. But I know that would be very difficult seeing as how the AI would need to be adjusted accordingly.

[Hanti]

(...)

 

4. A minimum lag GC map. I noticed some posters have already made something like this but it might be a good idea to make an official one. Basically create a GC with the minimum of fighters, transports, and freighters in starting units for all sides. Maybe disable some of the heroes too. Perhaps cut down on independent forces as a whole would help. 

 

(...)

 

Thoughts?

 

I tried PR 1.0 version. And it has minimum lag. The best (lag wise) version of that mod.
I got it with Zarkis AI for PR and DalMP_pack_for_PR_v0.3b.
Plus I made my own adjustments (planets sizes in galaxy map, pace of game, etc).

Really refreshing entertainment!

 

[Ghostrider]

Alright, thought I would throw my hat in the ring, to the hopefully still living mod, and voice my ideas. Love the mod so far and I really appreciate the amount of canon units represented correctly in the game.

 

1. If a planet has a surface to space weapon it could prevent space ship from getting close enough to conduct orbital bombardments. Don't know how hard the coding would be but I thought it would make building surface to space weapons move valuable then just parking another star destroyer over the planet. Perhaps it only kicks in if there are two guns built on the planet to make it more balanced. Note I said orbital bombardments and nothing about bombing runs.

 

2. Space station destruction. Again likely a huge pain to code in but I thought it would be worth mentioning that a way to get rid of unwanted space stations would be quite helpful. Especially, considering the UI limitations of the engine. 

 

3. Spoils of war, this comes right out of Thrawn's Revenge. When you conquer a planet from independent forces perhaps you should get a bonus that isn't just pure credits. Say your forces seize a factory or mining complex. Perhaps you enforce conscription and get a few units of SecForce Troopers/Army Troopers or mix it up with Auxiliary Soldiers levied from the conquered. How about some of those campaign starting forces like LAATs, Pod Walkers, and artillery everyone likes to play around with. Even a corvette or fighter squadron from a boneyard. Basically play to the mods strengths and encourage unit diversity even after all the starting forces are used up.  

 

4. A minimum lag GC map. I noticed some posters have already made something like this but it might be a good idea to make an official one. Basically create a GC with the minimum of fighters, transports, and freighters in starting units for all sides. Maybe disable some of the heroes too. Perhaps cut down on independent forces as a whole would help. 

 

5. Hire mercenaries from Hunter Guild Houses and Cantinas. Not hire in galactic mode where the unit is persistent but just in tactical battles. For instance pay 200 credits and get access to a unit of mercenaries by clicking on the structure, say Cantina, and waiting for the negotiations, build time, to finish. Yes I realize that 200 credits would be expensive when you could build a unit of soldiers for cheaper but you're paying to have them there asap rather then having the time to train your own soldiers. Like in RaW where there was an upgrade to add additional fighters and bombers to a space station's garrison. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

By the way, on page four of the manual the picture cuts of a line of text and on page sixth four the Clone Trooper has the wrong picture. The Defiler from base is used but in game they have stormtrooper models. Since it's not a bug in the mod I didn't think it belonged in the bugs subforum but I thought I would mention it.

 

1. Not possible I'm afraid. Ground to space based weaponry only affects space combat.

2. We have looked into this and this is probably unlikely to be acheivable.

3. If you read one of our earlier posts (lol), they you would find that our mod is positively crammed with advantages. Each time you take a planet you get tactical or strategic bonuses. These range from land or space stealth to combat bonuses for all types of units, ranging from corporation bonuses, range, damage, HP, shields, speed, manoeuver, recharge. There are also research and prodction bonuses as well as bonuses to structures. Finally, since we have added population, each planet has an agricultural base. Planets can range from zero or even negative population for remote unpopulated planets with no resources, to mega argriworlds such as Ukio, with 400+ population points, or enough to support 8-10 IMperial-class Star destroyers.

Univerities, research centres, Naval Academies and Tourist destinations all add bonuses, as do mineral resources and underworld.

4. Done. Will report in news later.

5. Land combat is unchaged in this release.