35 replies to this topic

[Invadious]

Yes, but after >170 weeks in GFFA (Lite) that isn't such a nice thing

EDIT: Because this is a new page I'll quote myself again:

To prove my point, I made a video about the problem with the Executor and targeting units (it should be uploaded soon enough). Another reason to make this video is something weird that occurred during the campaign, I can't select any units at all in battle! I think this also has to do with the amount of units in the GFFA (Lite) campaign. There has to be a solution for it, and it shouldn't have to be removing planets, it's one of the reasons why many people download your mod in the first place. 128 planets is fine for the engine, unless there are a lot of units in the campaign. There is of course the solution with each planet having a unique space station that spawn their own units, but that removes the option to spy on enemy forces. And it won't stop the AI with making over 300 Z-95 squadrons and 800 Freighters as you can see in this post, heck they may have more than that on other planets. Even my pc has problems with that, even on 3,8GHz with HT off (2 FPS and sometimes complete lock ups that last around a minute). So I still think there should be a unit cap, I'm sure Petroglyph also did it for that reason.

If the video is uploaded, you can see I try to select units without success. It also shows that the Executor doesn't do anything, while the CR-90 Corvette and the Venator do this automatically.

EDIT: You can watch the video here.

Edited by Invadious, 02 September 2009 - 01:27 PM.

[Ghostrider]

The planet I attacked was Tepasi on GFFA (Lite).

My Tepasi plan worked then.

You got hit by 16 Barloz Raider groups backed up with illegal missile corvettes, and 4! Pirate fleet carriers - so your SSD compliment takes a massive hammering, leaving the heavily gunned Barloz raiders to batter away at your shields.

Basically Tepasi is the home of the House of Tagge which owns TaggeCo and a fleet of 5000 heavily armed scoutships as well as a million soldiers. Admittedly many of these are scattered across TaggeCo's many facilities (think of TaggeCo like a combination of McDonalds, WalMart & the US Fleet) of the SW universe, but I guessed the HQ would be well defended.

Looks like I was right.

Edited by Ghostrider, 02 September 2009 - 04:27 PM.

[Invadious]

Ok so 16 Barloz Raider Groups are THAT strong then , even on easy. But that does not solve the other things I mentioned.

[Tropical Bob]

And it won't stop the AI with making over 300 Z-95 squadrons and 800 Freighters as you can see in this post, heck they may have more than that on other planets. Even my pc has problems with that, even on 3,8GHz with HT off (2 FPS and sometimes complete lock ups that last around a minute). So I still think there should be a unit cap, I'm sure Petroglyph also did it for that reason.

That problem is mainly an effect of the AI not having much access to more powerful ships. Since it can't build Space Colonies on new planets, or upgrade those on starting planets, it can't expand its unit line. So it's stuck with basically one planet each of level 2, 3, and 4 production.

My Tepasi plan worked then.

You got hit by 16 Barloz Raider groups backed up with illegal missile corvettes, and 4! Pirate fleet carriers - so your SSD compliment takes a massive hammering, leaving the heavily gunned Barloz raiders to batter away at your shields.

Basically Tepasi is the home of the House of Tagge which owns TaggeCo and a fleet of 5000 heavily armed scoutships as well as a million soldiers. Admittedly many of these are scattered across TaggeCo's many facilities (think of TaggeCo like a combination of McDonalds, WalMart & the US Fleet) of the SW universe, but I guessed the HQ would be well defended.

Looks like I was right.

You, sir, are one evil man. You should get a top hat and monocle.

Thanks for the warning of avoiding Tepasi by the way. Wal-Mart is bad enough, but armed? My God, what have you done...?

[Kitkun]

(think of TaggeCo like a combination of McDonalds, WalMart & the US Fleet)

What? No Starbucks?

[Phoenix Rising]

- Why do I have to target units before it will fire? It doesn't auto fire like every other ship.

As far as I can tell, just because it's so damn big. EaW starts smoking when it tries to calculate targeting... I'm pretty sure it has a bad motivator.

- Why does the Executor need to destroy other ships first sometimes before it will destroy the ship you want it to destroy?

I'm not sure on this one, but it's probably related to the previous question.

- I love the dead spot on the Executor (near the bridge), but this dead spot is a little bit too big now. I don't think the Empire made such a big ship only to find out that 1km from the front end to the center is already a save position for the enemy.

It probably could use some new rigging, sure. Most of the heavy stuff has to be on the sides though so it can bombard - that's given.

- Why did you removed the Executor II?

Design prerogative. With a true dreadnaught (the smaller ones should more properly be considered "battlecruisers"), there really should be no room in the schematics left for improvement. If it's still not good enough, you historically start over from scratch (Death Star I > Death Star II, Executor > Sovereign). The only exception that comes to mind is the Knight Hammer, which was hideously expensive. That should probably be thought of as a custom rather than representative of a standardized upgrade though.

- Why is the shield recharge time increased so much compared to 1.0?

I just capped it at 480 when I redid the refresh rates last time. Everyone complains about how long it takes to kill them.

- Why did you decide on removing the individual lasers and make them tied up? Maybe this is done for performance, but I think it actually decreases performance because it has to overlay 8 lasers every time which is GPU intensive.

GPU intensive ? No it's not... the octuples are just eight lasers arranged into one model, which should make it a wash. It greatly saves on CPU to have seven fewer projectiles (times 500 every three seconds) out there requiring collision checks though. Believe me, space battles across the board got noticeably more smooth as I reduced projectiles in play.

Oh, and, not to mention, this (read the stats block).

I think the fighters it spawns is more of a problem, it should have the same ability as the EAW Executor which lets you decide on your own on how many fighters you want to spawn (maybe all of them ).

I don't think that would solve anything. Spawn lag seems inherent to the engine; we've perhaps only exacerbated it by doing twelve-unit squadrons and having so many carriers.

A couple of Illegal Blastboats with Magnapulse Torpedoes (which can take down an ISD's shields in 1 hit) will play hell with even the Executor's shield generators.

Yeah... that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I can only assign fixed speed/shot reduction percentages and duration thereof on the particle, so it is what it is. It's just a tad unrealistic to think that no starship, especially a big one, has standard cap drains.

Another reason to make this video is something weird that occurred during the campaign, I can't select any units at all in battle!

I've gotten that before, albeit rarely. I believe it's a hardware performance issue.

You, sir, are one evil man. You should get a top hat and monocle.

I'm not convinced he doesn't already have one...

Thanks for the warning of avoiding Tepasi by the way. Wal-Mart is bad enough, but armed? My God, what have you done...?

Hah! That's not an unfair analogy ... Orman did effectively take over the Corporate Sector following the Clone Wars.

Edited by Phoenix Rising, 13 September 2009 - 02:50 PM.

[Invadious]

- Why do I have to target units before it will fire? It doesn't auto fire like every other ship.

As far as I can tell, just because it's so damn big. EaW starts smoking when it tries to calculate targeting... I'm pretty sure it has a bad motivator.

Weird, in my mod the Eclipse was also pretty damn big, but I never encountered this problem. Thanks for clearing up the rest though

EDIT: So the only reason you increased the shield recharge time is because people are complaining? Or is there some canonical truth in it? I'll just use the average of 1.0 and 1.1 in the mean time. And good luck with re-rigging the Executor. But you don't have to, I would've been happy with a larger firing arc lol.

Edited by Invadious, 13 September 2009 - 04:31 PM.

[Phoenix Rising]

Weird, in my mod the Eclipse was also pretty damn big, but I never encountered this problem.

I guess. It's nothing I did on purpose. Maybe it would help if the space maps were bigger.

EDIT: So the only reason you increased the shield recharge time is because people are complaining?

Well, I think I decreased the amount, as the time is the same for everything. If the Executor-class followed the rest of the mod (5% shields), the refresh rate would be 9600 . So it has to gradually decrease for dreadnaughts. How about this:

Praetor - 600
Bulwark - 640
Independence - 684
Executor - 960
Sovereign - 960
Eclipse - 1360 (hypothetical...)

That's what it'll be in v1.2 now.

[Invadious]

Weird, in my mod the Eclipse was also pretty damn big, but I never encountered this problem.

I guess. It's nothing I did on purpose. Maybe it would help if the space maps were bigger.

You know I pm'd you about this

[Casen]

Is it just me or is the Executor the only thing in game that strains my graphics card? It makes my frame rate drop enormously.

The Sovereign doesn't even strain it.

Edited by Kacen, 13 September 2009 - 07:29 PM.

[Invadious]

It's the amount of polygons, the Sovereign probably has less than a Nebuon-B Escort Frigate.

[Phoenix Rising]

I'm not sure for everyone's system, but I think the Executor lag is actually a result of the huge bounding box it creates for projectile collision - basically, you check against the bounds first, and if it's inside the bounds, then you check against the collision mesh for a hit, which obviously requires a lot more calculation than a box. Since the bounds are massive, there are usually a ton of enemy projectiles testing for collision, which makes it slow.

I don't know why it would be a graphics issue, because, to continue the Nebulon-B analogy, the Executor is made up of roughly as many tris as 2.5 of the escort frigates (11394 versus 4614). If I had to guess, the reason the Executor is much worse off than the Sovereign is because it also has a greater volume of fire that it's putting out on a system that's already taxed.

[Ghostrider]

FFS guys its not 144 squadrons its 144 fighters only double the 72 an ISD carried i remember clearly it sounds too small so i reread it and i couldnt find another answer

Nope. You're wrong. It's squadrons. In fact it's even nastier since the advent of the complement system:

  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_TIE_Fighter_x2_Squadron, 60</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_TIE_Interceptor_Squadron, 60</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_TIE_Bomber_Squadron, 24</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_TIE_Advanced_x2_Squadron, 3</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_TIE_Advanced_x7_Squadron, 3</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_Lambda_class_T_4b_Shuttle_Group, 15</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_Delta_class_DX_9a_Transport_Group, 15</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_Sentinel_class_Landing_Craft_Mark_II_Group, 12</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_Gamma_class_Assault_Shuttle_Group, 4</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
  <Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>E_Gamma_class_ATR_6_Assault_Transport_Group, 4</Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
 

That's 126 Fighter Squadrons; 24 Bomber Squadrons; 42 Combat Transport Groups and 8 Heavy Assault ships, deploying 9 squadrons or groups every 12 seconds.
In other words it can dump it's entire complement of 2000 fighters, bombers and transports into deep space in 4 minutes and 36 seconds.

My point stands.

Shoot/throttle the commander of that Executor-class.

[Madurai]

Datapoint: I had Razor's Kiss as the sole fire support asset covering an invasion. The orbital bombardment button was not displayed during the land battle. Is there perhaps a tag somewhere that says "CanDoBombardment" with a bit flipped?

I have not tried this with Vader's Executor or a generic one yet.

[evilbobthebob]

There is a field in GameConstants that determines if a ship can bombard the surface. I think there's a character limit on it that our large number of bombardment-capable ships has nearly filled, so unique vessels weren't added.