52 replies to this topic

[Darth Stalin]

I've played a bit with GFFA changes as suggested by Chih, though not on such a scale; however, I found very useful the idea of slightly relocating some heroes, especially those that do not have "fixed" starting positions. I like all those heroes the PR team has created and I like to both play MY heroes and AGAINST THEIR heroes. Thus, as I prefer to play Empire, i've allowed the Rebels to get their heroes easier and quicker, with no need to conquer lots of galaxy, when these heroes would be of little use; also for the Empire some heroes are easier available, though not "too easy".
Now I'm starting the GFFA campaign third time, after all these changes, and also considering some mistakes and misunderstandings I've made (for example, I've did'n t notice that Level 3 Shipyard produces mostly weak ships, like Dreadnoughts or Acclamators; and if I want to prepare for Victory and Imperial SDs to be developed, I have to build Level 4 shipyards. Etc.

Anyway, the mod is awesome!

[Phoenix Rising]

You'll have to ask Ghost about the yard placement. Unfortunately, he's doing double shifts at work through May, so you probably won't see him on here until June, at the earliest.

Hero placement is sometimes obscure to prevent the galaxy from flooding with them. It may not be an issue now, but we're also not done adding new ones.

[Chih]

Bit of an update again.

I took a break from working on the Empire in the campaign, and instead fixed the independent planets. Half of the Empire planets are done though, so if I keep myself busy tweaking the XML's and my girlfriend wont bother me I will be with finished with the Empire tomorrow. There's now 23 independent planets, 12 Rebel ones, and rest of the galaxy is under Imperial control. The independent planets are going to be a pain in the ass to conquer at the moment, especially the ones in Hutt Space. But as said earlier in the thread it will be a necessity for Empire players to put down some pirate insurrections and planet revolts if they want to stop the Rebel Alliance from taking all the Outer Rim for themselves.

I also tweaked complements so all Imperial and Alliance ships are now updated to the situation in 2 BBY! Another change I made to complements was removing the prototypes. Ships previously with prototype fighters now have a squadron of older fighters instead, and get the non-prototype version of the fighter an upgrade later. Ships with a lot of transports also had the transports cut in half, with the exception of the Executor-class and Sovereign-class which I just removed a third. As such ships should now launch less transports. Some ships had some squadrons added, some squadrons were changed for other fighters/bombers. Basically I did a lot of tweaking in the complements, so it might need some minor balancing. I stuck to vanilla PR and canon as much as possible though, and most of my changes should be sensible and motivated.

Left to do now is the rest of the Imperial planets and the trade lanes. Then I will play a few quick test campaigns with both the Empire and the Alliance and after that I'll upload

[Darth Stalin]

You'll have to ask Ghost about the yard placement. Unfortunately, he's doing double shifts at work through May, so you probably won't see him on here until June, at the earliest.

No problem - I've looked into "GFFA_campaign.XML" file and all was revealed that I wanted to know.

Hero placement is sometimes obscure to prevent the galaxy from flooding with them. It may not be an issue now, but we're also not done adding new ones.

Same applied to heroes - I'm not worried with "heroes' deluge", I rather prefer to see them all in the game, so both sides will have easier access to them. And IMHO even with a bag full of heroes the AI has no chances against at least moderate-minded player. Even with increased starting money the AI is no match for me... and I suppose that for most players also.
But I'd like to see in action the Vader's "Death Squadron" with all his "Black Squadron" pilots, fightings against the "Gold/Red/Green/Gray Squadrons" of Yavin and Endor...

And that's all... except that I've increased space battle cap from 80 to 100 pts.

[Chih]

Well, I'm pretty much done now and testing the campaign at the moment. I will probably still apply some minor tweaks though.

I've yet to optimize all trade routes, and that still lags the game somewhat when playing as the Rebel Alliance. It wouldn't normally, but the Empire has huge fleets at the start and the game slows down a bit when the AI moves them all around at once. The lag is usually the spike-type, so it ends and then all is running well again. Still, playing as the Rebels is really hard and fun now and requires more thinking on a strategical level. A lot of times it's just better to abandon a world than to fight to the death on it, and then just take it back when the Empire is busy elsewhere. Several times I evacuated my ground forces when I got the "Incoming enemy fleet" message. Then I'd fight the space battle in a skirmish fashion, blow up the interdictor and as opportunity dictated some other ships and then just hyperjump away to safety.

When the Alliance is player controlled, there's just no way the Alliance fleets can stand toe to toe with Imperial fleets containing capitals, instead the Alliance has to pull back and focus on using fighters. For example, I was attacked at Mon Calamari by 6 ISD I's, 2 Praetors I's, 5 Venator I's and 4 Venator II's as well as an Immobilizer 418 cruiser. I had 2 MC80's, several corvettes, 4 MC40's, 4 MC30c's, a Mark III recusant, a Nebulon-B, 14 Z-95t's and 16 Y-wings. The Imperials managed to blow up my star base with the Praetor since I had to pull back after almost losing both MC80's in the beginning of the battle. I won in the end, with minimal casualties to my frigates, destroyers and capitals, but I had devastating fighter and bomber losses. Some weeks pass, I reinforce Mon Calamari with a bunch of mark II dreadnaughts and Nebulon B's, as well as several heroes. Then I got attacked again at Mon Calamari by a similar force and suffered a crushing defeat. I couldn't bring down the Imperial ships fast enough without bombers, and the Imperial TIE bombers could roam free since I didn't have as much fighter support.

The R-22's, Z-95t's and A4 Y-wings are better dogfighters than the early TIE's and can hold their own unless swarmed. Sending them in as waves, and then retreating them to repair ships or tugs can work wonders. An Alliance fleet without fighters or carriers is a useless fleet early on, and can only be used succesfully in minor offensives on the Imperial outer rim worlds and light defensive roles. Trying to break into the mid rim with the starter Alliance fleets is insanely hard and I doubt it's even possible. The Empire also makes 10 times as much money as the Alliance, so taking control of the outer rim as quickly as possible is very important if one wants to ease the uphill battle. Anyway, if a player wants to stomp he should not play the Rebels in my campaign

The Empire is pretty much entirely lag free due to controlling most of the galaxy. I could even turn on the fast forward in galactic view and still scroll around with no lag.The only lag I noticed is when one selects a unit/planet in galactic view and then scroll around. No idea what causes it though, but same thing happens in other mods and stock PR if I recall right.

The Imperial campaign is easier than the Rebel campaign, but still very enjoyable. It gives a feeling of actually controlling the Empire, with 62 planets, 49 Imperial I-class Star Destroyers and 40 Victory I and II star destroyers at the start as well as a lot of garrions, support fleets and units. The Rebels wont be a pushover though, the only Rebel planet that can be attacked in the start is the heavily fortified and well garrisoned Mon Calamari. And to move all fleets from around Imperial space to Jabiim will take several weeks. On all other fronts, the Empire has to fight it's way through pirate insurrections and planet uprisings in order to reach Alliance controlled Outer Rim worlds.

Edited by Chih, 20 May 2012 - 01:04 AM.

[Phoenix Rising]

If the income disparity is that high, my unsolicited advice would be to increase build costs and/or times on Imperial infrastructure. That would do several things: slow their ability to expand, make raids more effective for the Rebellion, and force the Empire into a slightly more defensive posture.

[Chih]

If the income disparity is that high, my unsolicited advice would be to increase build costs and/or times on Imperial infrastructure. That would do several things: slow their ability to expand, make raids more effective for the Rebellion, and force the Empire into a slightly more defensive posture.

Yeah, you may be right. I'm kind of enjoying the overpowered Empire when playing as the Alliance though

Edit:

I'm thinking I could make 3 different folders of settings for the campaign though.

One lite version, where I cut into both incomes and further into fleet sizes that the Empire/Pirates have at the moment. While the campaign is already relatively smooth, I imagine it can be smoother.

One normal version, where I even out the difference in income between both factions.

And one hardcore version for the Alliance/easy mode for the Empire, where the Empire is extremely strong with huge fleets and 10 times the income.

Edited by Chih, 20 May 2012 - 09:03 AM.

[Chih]

Playing through with the Rebel Alliance now. I think I'm pretty much done with the Rebels after this. Then it is time for the Empire to get the final polish

Anyway, been rather busy rl and will be in the future. So progress will be a bit slow but hopefully steady. I've done a lot of other changes than just the campaign, complements, planets and trade routes. Minor tweaks include a hangar bay for the Reef Home-class MC80's with 2 squadrons early, 3 in later variants, as well as command ships for several Rebel heroes, eg. Bob Hudsol, Evram Lajaie, Jan Dodonna etc. The command ships are nothing overpowered, mostly hero variants of CR90's or EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigates. The Rebel Alliance also starts with Juno Eclipse in the Salvation. These are just a few of the smaller tweaks and changes

[Darth Stalin]

Well, I tried to do something "similar but different" - I'm not gonna to repeat whole post, rather link it here - please look at it and comment...
http://forums.revora...648#entry889648

[Madurai]

I have a custom campaign that I use for development that includes every planet with only a single base for space/ground.

I think the regular campaign could do with a lot more of this, really. As well as making shipyards and colonies much more expensive and slower to construct than forts/XQ5s/research stations. As it is, it's easier to build a guard fleet in place instead of shipping it out where it's needed.

[evilbobthebob]

That kind of play won't be so viable with the changes we're introducing in v1.3 (galactic mode fleet population for a start).

[Darth Stalin]

I wanted to include Corporate Sector Authority as a "fourth" faction in GFFA campaign and copied appropriate lines of code from Core Worlds campaign (the only one where the CSA is as a faction, though on-playable). But... the game crashed-to-desktop during initial start (even before the initial start screen).

So, can the reason be that there are other files related to CSA that are conected only with Core Worlds campaign and "adding" CSA into GFFA requires more work than jst placing "starting planet" etc?

[Ghostrider]

You can't play CSA as player anywhere...yet.
We'd like to have it setup this way. At the moment it's another neutral faction like the pirates.

And adding CSA as a faction to the campaigns is a bit more complex that just adding starting forces.

[Darth Stalin]

Okay, now understood. Thanks for reply.

[Hanti]

Playing through with the Rebel Alliance now. I think I'm pretty much done with the Rebels after this. Then it is time for the Empire to get the final polish

Anyway, been rather busy rl and will be in the future. So progress will be a bit slow but hopefully steady. I've done a lot of other changes than just the campaign, complements, planets and trade routes. Minor tweaks include a hangar bay for the Reef Home-class MC80's with 2 squadrons early, 3 in later variants, as well as command ships for several Rebel heroes, eg. Bob Hudsol, Evram Lajaie, Jan Dodonna etc. The command ships are nothing overpowered, mostly hero variants of CR90's or EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigates. The Rebel Alliance also starts with Juno Eclipse in the Salvation. These are just a few of the smaller tweaks and changes

Any chance you will be posting this modified files around here any time soon?
I will be glad to test a lag-less GFFA

[Darth Stalin]

Well, It seems that "my" version of GFFA (at least in Empire version...) is finished - I mean "Empire version" 'cause Ive set up forces for Empire player only, and cut out all the forces, including Pirates, (except heroes and a single base) from "Rebel" part of the GFFA XML file. The rebel part was done only due to need of seeing the "rebels" placement and interplanetary connections, including hyperlanes. The file is some 530 kB large, with 51 planets controlled by the Empire, 63 controlled by Rebels, 76 Pirate planets (i.e. true "pirates" and "independent" systems), 13 Pirate-CSA planets (to simulate sectors controlled by the CSA - there arfe just "pirate" units, but with more heavy and mostly legal) ships, like Imperial-I, Victory, Dreadnought and Invincible), as well as 6 "Hutt space" planets, with units suited to represent that part of Galaxy, ruled by crime-lords from Nal Hutta. There are also 7 empty planets, being either too wild and primitive or with too unimportant/weak planetary population and armed forces.
Total number of planets is 216, which includes all planets from original GFFA, as well as added planets from Core Worlds, Inner Rim, Outer Rim, Skyhook, Thrawn and Shadowhand campaigns - except Lwhekk - I had to cut it out to make space for additional two hyperlanes, but also decided to cut it out as that planet was too much "not from the story" - the Ssi-ruuvi were too strange and "alien" species for the whole Star Wars Galaxy universe (same as Yuuzhan Vong). The rebels also have ALL their heroes from the start, and most of them in their highest level - with greater number of planets this is to create a challenge for the player, which IMHO can be rather easily by overcome, as the AI has numbers and money, while the human player has his own brain and can capture those planets that are really important, earning time to develop his forces and heroes.
In fact I wanted to see rebel heroes in action,'cause the Imperials have much more heroes with Capital ships (including SSDs - Palpatine, vader, Pellaeon and Thrawn!), and they can be upgraded within short time, thus giving an Imperial player a powerful fist to crush any imaginable defiance... or succesfully defend against the "galactic uprising and rebellion".
If someone is interested, I can put it there, by pinning it to my next post.

[Hanti]

Well, It seems that "my" version of GFFA (at least in Empire version...) is finished - I mean "Empire version" 'cause Ive set up forces for Empire player only (...)
If someone is interested, I can put it there, by pinning it to my next post.

Yes, please do. I hope that this campaign plays without lags (after those cuts).


PS: Did you reposition planets to make some room between them? It's rather difficult to click on planet or fleet in standard PR map.

Edited by Hanti, 28 September 2012 - 06:09 PM.

[Darth Stalin]

Unfortunately, the campaign broke down after just few eeks - this means that I have to make more planets "empty" and drastically reduce the number of starting units for all factions, thus allowing Pirates (independents) to have less ships on their planets.
Instead of ships the factions will get more already-built shipyards, so the player and AI could have more ships just by producing them.
Also some Empire and Rebel planets will be made as "pirate" planets (first I went the Chich's way, of giving the Rebels and Empire all planets they ever had, even those from Shadow Hand or Thrawn campaigns... but it was not the good idea.
The starting planets will be those from "original" GFFA, Outer Rim, Inner Rim, Core and Skyhook, with addition of some "Thrawn" and "Shadow Hand" planets - yet only those that seem apparently "Imperial" or "Rebel" at least from "before-Yavin" times.
There will be a few more Imperial heroes already available, some of them with their ships at hand. Yet the player can expect a rapid eruption of Rebels streaming from the Outer Rim hideouts as well as strong resistance in Core and Inner Rim worlds.
Most Pirate planets will have their forces reduced greatly, with exception ofa few really "powerful military" worlds (like Rendili, Fondor etc.).

[Hanti]

(...)
There will be a few more Imperial heroes already available, some of them with their ships at hand. Yet the player can expect a rapid eruption of Rebels streaming from the Outer Rim hideouts as well as strong resistance in Core and Inner Rim worlds.
Most Pirate planets will have their forces reduced greatly, with exception ofa few really "powerful military" worlds (like Rendili, Fondor etc.).

So there will be means you're going to make it? I hope you will be able to set up some test version soon.
The campaign broke down after just few weeks - did you want to say that lag occured after some weeks?
Have you tried to change a map? Move planets a little away each other to make some empty space between them (to allow player CLICK on the fleets on orbits)?

[Darth Stalin]

I'm not sure what to do to increase distances between planets; maybe increasing the map scale could help.
The "breakdown" appeared when I wanted to save the game - communicate "failed to save. check available disk space". Also the lag was very significant.
And yes, the info "will be" means that I'm working on it... yet now I have a lot of work to do in Real Life (two complex works for my clients in my legal business plus an important judicial case plus a bunch of smaller works, but still important).
In fact I'm planning to cut the Empire/Rebel forces to some half (1/2) of their current size, with Pirates reduced to some 2/3 of their current power.
The Pirates are strengthened with addition of more shipyards/stations and ground facilities, with reduction of units, especially ground ones (I'm leaving mostly the heavy gear - tanks, artillery etc.; the infantry "turbolaserfodder" goes from increased number of structures. For example, the "Hutts' Paradise" on Da Soocha will have only a couple of illegal ships (Nebulon, Carrack, Marauder, maybe Dreadnought), 3 x Hutt Palace, Ground Shield and Proton Torpedo defences, with 2 x sail barges and 2 x Bantha skiffs. This will provide a pack of decent infantry (3 x Exterminator platoons, for example) with nice repulsorlift units (maybe I'll add an Illegal freerunner too... but I'm not sure).
And so on.

The more "militarized" and "lawful" planets will have Police command center, Police barracks, maybe also Soldier barracks, with some equipment factories and a handful of heavy gear (tanks, LAAT, etc.) This will be especially on Corporate sector planets - Espo barracks, Police command center and Police barracks, sometimes Soldier barracks, Crawler factory, Speeder factory (plus Cloud cars factory sometimes), if space allows also Ground Shield, Turbolaser or similar defenses... and this will force the player to carefully prepare his forces before attack. Rendili with half a dozen Dreadnoughts, same number of VSDs, plus some smaller ships, 3 x Golan III and 4-5 shipyards (level 4-5) will be a hard nut to crack.