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[Chih]

Phoenix Rising Enhancements

This sub mod originally started as a personal mini mod for Phoenix Rising 1.2. I first only wanted to try to improve the performance of the Galaxy Far, Far Away conquest, but eventually ended up messing with a lot of things. The main priorities I've had when tweaking has been performance, Star Wars canon and an engaging campaign. If you're into fast paced campaigns with quick gameplay, my mod is not what you should be downloading. If however you like a slow game with a strong Star Wars feel to it, you probably might enjoy some of what I've done!
 
The mini mod still needs a lot of work, balancing and fixing. But it is in a playable and stable state. For now only the Galaxy Far, Far Away campaign has been touched, I have no idea how the other campaigns play out! 
 
 [ ETA on next public version: Some point in the autumn. It was going to be out earlier but I've been busy with real life and there's more changes than originally planned! (updated 29.7.2013) ]

 
 
The current version is 0.26
 
 
Download links:
 
https://mega.co.nz/#...vT3GLROimXE5Izk
 
Or
 
http://speedy.sh/Qm4...ments-v0.26.rar
 
Fixes:

Starbases with stronger autoresolve (overwrite the one in the XML folder with this)
http://speedy.sh/puexX/STARBASES.XML
 
Installation:
 
1) Install Phoenix Rising 1.2
 
2) Backup your Star Wars Empire At War Forces Of Corruption/Mods/Phoenix_Rising_1.2/Data folder (in case you wont like my tweaks, you can easily change back)
 
3) Extract the contents of the rar into Star Wars Empire At War Forces Of Corruption/Mods/Phoenix_Rising_1.2/Data
 
4) Play!
 
Changes from stock PR 1.2:
 
- Overhaul of research costs and times. [Ongoing]
- Overhaul of unit and building costs and build times. [Ongoing]
- Overhaul of some units to become more canonical or better serve their role.[Ongoing]
- Overhaul of ship complements. 
- The Core, Mid Rim and Outer Rim are better separated. 
- Turbolasers and turboions fire twice as far.
- Some new buildable units (AT-AP, LAAT, SPMA-T, MPTL) and unit variants (ISD I and VSD I with V-wings) [Not yet implemented into any research]
- For better performance all independent units have been turned into garrisons in buildings instead (Eg. Hutt Spice Refinery or Imperial Customs Station). 
- Some heroes are getting ships that previously did not have them. 
 
The Galaxy Far, Far Away campaign is set to start at 20 BBY as the Clone Wars is starting to draw to a close. The Empire starts with Byss, Coruscant, Despayre and The Maw and the Phoenix Rising Movement/Rebel Alliance start with Dantooine. The starting planets may change in future versions. And it would be nice to get more Clone Wars feel into the beginning, if I fail with this I might honestly just decide the campaign starts in 18 BBY instead as it would be more fitting
 
This thread is intended for feedback, discussion and problems about Phoenix Rising Enhancements. 
 
Thanks to Phoenix Rising and the rest of the team for your wonderful mod as the base of my tweaks!

Edited by Chih, 29 July 2013 - 02:43 AM.

[a.fake.name]

My thoughts on the timeline stuff:
-Imps should start with a full Grand Army of the Republic tech tree of ships they can build, and some of those items should start out with the first few upgrades already applied to represent the fact that those are ships that were just used in a major war and their being upgraded variants would make sense.
Nothing overpowering, just that for both sides clone war era or older ships should have the upgrade levels adjusted so the bottom few types get cut out.
-Try to tie EU stuff into what gets added as far as units and heroes, you could allow for building a limited number  of Republic Commando teams for example, also LAAT variants could be added, as well as LAATs being added to the standard build list.
-Neither faction should start out needing to research ships which were introduced in the previous era, if it's preexisting it should be buildable from the start.
 

[P.O._210877]

Well, if you want to stick to SW Canon, The Victory-I, Acclamator-I, Venator-I are out to begin with. Now comes the interesting part the Victory-II should be buildable but only until the Imperial-I becomes available to build; same goes for the Venators. Canonically the production lines for those models were stopped in favor of the New Order's signature ship. The Acclamators, Dreadnaughts and Carracks should go as well but there's not yet any replacements that would be more canonical so...

 

It does limit somewhat the choice of ships you have at your disposal but it's the way it went in a GFFA. To be able to enjoy the Vics and Vens III-IV the best way would be to make upgrading those lines less pricey than unlocking the ISD; In that scenario the ISD has to be worth (power, usefulness, etc.) more than any upgraded Vics and Vens by a head if not more.

 

That's an idea I wanted to implement in my changes but my modding time has dropped to zero since I've begun working on various projects related to the mod. But that's alright seeing you guys go at it makes me recapture a little of the feeling you get when modding a game you really like. Go guys and thank you Chih for your efforts both on your creation and for brining some life to the community.

[Chih]

My thoughts on the timeline stuff:
-Imps should start with a full Grand Army of the Republic tech tree of ships they can build, and some of those items should start out with the first few upgrades already applied to represent the fact that those are ships that were just used in a major war and their being upgraded variants would make sense.
Nothing overpowering, just that for both sides clone war era or older ships should have the upgrade levels adjusted so the bottom few types get cut out.
-Try to tie EU stuff into what gets added as far as units and heroes, you could allow for building a limited number  of Republic Commando teams for example, also LAAT variants could be added, as well as LAATs being added to the standard build list.
-Neither faction should start out needing to research ships which were introduced in the previous era, if it's preexisting it should be buildable from the start.
 

 

 

Yeah, I'm thinking of removing the Acclamator I in favour of the Acclamator II, and possibly making the early ISD and VSD variants starting units only. The Empire already starts out with the Venator II instead of I. If I do this though, it would make more sense to start the campaign in 18 BBY. This will depend on if players who use my sub mod want to have buildable ISD's and VSD's with a V-wing complement or not. 

 

Other than that, this is already what I've aimed for somewhat. Rebels start with mark II Recusants, Z-95t's, Y-wing A4's. The Empire just doesn't use as many old units as the rebels do so it's not as visible on their side. The first few research costs for some of the old models are rather low though.

 

LAAT is already in the standard build list, it is buildable from the speeder factory. At some point I might add upgrade tiers to it. 

 

And neither side starts out having to research ships that were introduced in the previous era. There might still be some fine tuning here but it is what I am aiming for. But the ISD/VSD variants come to mind again, at the moment the V-wing complement variants are buildable from the start, but not the TIE complement variants. I've had to keep balance in mind here too, for example the Z95 AF4 should be available at the start of the campaign, but the AF4 is rather advanced in PR and would be considerably better than any other Rebel fighter. Hence why I picked the very common Z95t as the standard starting model, as it was still used in the GCW. I could of course just nerf the AF4, but that would make the Z95 upgrade tree very weird. 

 

Well, if you want to stick to SW Canon, The Victory-I, Acclamator-I, Venator-I are out to begin with. Now comes the interesting part the Victory-II should be buildable but only until the Imperial-I becomes available to build; same goes for the Venators. Canonically the production lines for those models were stopped in favor of the New Order's signature ship. The Acclamators, Dreadnaughts and Carracks should go as well but there's not yet any replacements that would be more canonical so...

 

It does limit somewhat the choice of ships you have at your disposal but it's the way it went in a GFFA. To be able to enjoy the Vics and Vens III-IV the best way would be to make upgrading those lines less pricey than unlocking the ISD; In that scenario the ISD has to be worth (power, usefulness, etc.) more than any upgraded Vics and Vens by a head if not more.

 

That's an idea I wanted to implement in my changes but my modding time has dropped to zero since I've begun working on various projects related to the mod. But that's alright seeing you guys go at it makes me recapture a little of the feeling you get when modding a game you really like. Go guys and thank you Chih for your efforts both on your creation and for brining some life to the community.

 

Yeah, I want to stick to canon as much as possible. But I don't want to let the canon come in the way of fun. Which would be a bit of a problem if I modified the research tree to make all those units unbuildable after the Imperial I is available. The best way to go about here is in my opinion to let the player roleplay the change in Imperial doctrine. Another problem is that if I made the upgrade lines less pricey for the late model Vens and Vics, it would mean very strong ships for a cheap price unless I'd make them worse, which would again seem weird. 

 

So no, the Vics and Vens will remain buildable at all times. I might however test to make the change for the AI, so the Rebel player will have a more canonical experience. Similar changes might be done to the Rebel AI so the Imperial player gets a better experience. This is already implemented for the early ISD and VSD variants, which the AI cannot build at all (if you see any, it's units they have as starting units). 

 

edit:

 

And thanks! Hopefully if people like my changes, they'll come back to check more often for my releases (I will try my best to release a new version once per month). And that in turn will make more people follow 1.3 more closely and notice any news about it!

Edited by Chih, 29 May 2013 - 12:33 PM.

[Sûlherokhh]

Since i and possibly other modding fans might use your sub-mod as a base for their own private projects i would very much welcome not just a complete next version to download when it's ready (which is in and of itself already awesome, thx for providing the links) but also an update based on the previous version, which you should probably now start to number, to avoid confusion.

 

I am bound to privately overhaul you sub-mod massively with the stuff i already splattered PR1.2 with.

It would be awesome to only have to incorporate/adjust a couple of altered xml's when your next submod-version arrives, instead of checking every single file to avoid crashes and stuff.

 

This is by no means imparative, but i am sure every modder out there knows what i am talking about. I just hope you already took the opportunity to make comprehensive notes of your changes.

Makes updates easier...

 

Thx in advance, if you will go through the trouble. If not, nevermind. I am hardly in a position to make demands or be upset. On the contrary...

 

Keep it up...

[Chih]

Since i and possibly other modding fans might use your sub-mod as a base for their own private projects i would very much welcome not just a complete next version to download when it's ready (which is in and of itself already awesome, thx for providing the links) but also an update based on the previous version, which you should probably now start to number, to avoid confusion.

 

I am bound to privately overhaul you sub-mod massively with the stuff i already splattered PR1.2 with.

It would be awesome to only have to incorporate/adjust a couple of altered xml's when your next submod-version arrives, instead of checking every single file to avoid crashes and stuff.

 

This is by no means imparative, but i am sure every modder out there knows what i am talking about. I just hope you already took the opportunity to make comprehensive notes of your changes.

Makes updates easier...

 

Thx in advance, if you will go through the trouble. If not, nevermind. I am hardly in a position to make demands or be upset. On the contrary...

 

Keep it up...
 

 

Yes, I will try keep full notes of my changes from now on out and release them together with every release. 

 

I wont make a note for each minor change however as it's just too much detail, I'll just note what area has been changed. For example if we talk about what I've changed about land units in next release, I'll just write down that FOW, price and research costs have been tampered with. Since I already did a bit of pricing with the land units in the current version, every unit wont be touched in this area in the next version. But still you'll know to look for there. I hope this kind of detail will be enough

 

The next release will probably be a full release with all files included, and not just a patch though. When there's less areas that I change I'll release it as patches with just the modified files. 

 

If you get any problems with crashes due to your changes to my sub mod, we could of course always try to solve the problem together

[a.fake.name]

Yeah, I'm thinking of removing the Acclamator I in favour of the Acclamator II, and possibly making the early ISD and VSD variants starting units only. The Empire already starts out with the Venator II instead of I. If I do this though, it would make more sense to start the campaign in 18 BBY. This will depend on if players who use my sub mod want to have buildable ISD's and VSD's with a V-wing complement or not.

 

Just pick a date on which your campaign starts.

Then go to the standard sources on SW info, wookiepedia, etc, and see around when each unit was created.

If the unit pre-dates the start of the campaign, it should be buildable WITHOUT research, period.
If it post-dates the start of the campaign, it should always require research.

Quit trying to pander to us, and just make it fit star wars, and you'll do great.  (edit: this is what's wrong with star wars these days anyway, too much worry about 'will people like it'. Who gives a fuck. Just stay consistent with the timeline and if someone doesn't like THAT, tough shit, it's how it's supposed to be)

 

As for stuff like the compliments, is it possible to add a global upgrade that upgrades all ships compliments at once ?
Say, have the upgrade swap all ships for identical ones with better compliments.

 

 

 

edit: Oh the MC40 light cruiser, at later levels prehaps give it a few heavy turbo lasers/ions, ditto for the winged MC80, since it wouldn't make real sense for such ships to not have gotten heavier weapons over the years.

Edited by a.fake.name, 30 May 2013 - 08:18 AM.

[Chih]

Just pick a date on which your campaign starts.

 

Then go to the standard sources on SW info, wookiepedia, etc, and see around when each unit was created.

If the unit pre-dates the start of the campaign, it should be buildable WITHOUT research, period.
If it post-dates the start of the campaign, it should always require research.

Quit trying to pander to us, and just make it fit star wars, and you'll do great.  (edit: this is what's wrong with star wars these days anyway, too much worry about 'will people like it'. Who gives a fuck. Just stay consistent with the timeline and if someone doesn't like THAT, tough shit, it's how it's supposed to be)

 

As for stuff like the compliments, is it possible to add a global upgrade that upgrades all ships compliments at once ?
Say, have the upgrade swap all ships for identical ones with better compliments.

 

 

 

edit: Oh the MC40 light cruiser, at later levels prehaps give it a few heavy turbo lasers/ions, ditto for the winged MC80, since it wouldn't make real sense for such ships to not have gotten heavier weapons over the years.

 

As said, the picked date at the moment is 20 BBY, but it might get changed to 18 BBY.

 

If you look in detail at changes I have made, especially for the ships I have changed, you notice that Wookiepedia is the most extensive source used. 
 

Any particular unit you are thinking of that predates the starting date and should be available?

I think that research can't go 100% hand in hand with canon. I will stick true to canon as much as I can, and I will try to find work arounds on how to keep it as canonical as possible. But I don't want to make anything silly or unbalanced just to get canon right because I would not enjoy that kind of mod. That said, there will likely be changes coming to some units so they can fit better to play in the early game. Using the same Z-95 example I like using, I am considering to make the AF4 as weak as the Z-95t in nearly all stats, but let it keep it's concussion missile launchers. A change such as this will also make the starting rebel fighter roles more clear: Z-95 as the interceptor, R-41 as the multirole and Y-wing as the bomber. The RZ 1 A-wing obviously outclasses the Z-95 as an interceptor, and the T-65B X-wing would outclass the AF4 as a dogfighter with these changes, so canon would now feel exactly right in this particular example case

Also, I am very interested in the opinions of severalcommunity members on this forum. Many have a much more extensive knowledge of Star Wars than I do and I value their insight because of that. It doesn't mean I will design the sub mod exactly as others think, it simply means I use their knowledge to make a better judgement. Good feedback is highly valued! 

 

I don't think you can upgrade all the ships complements at once without upgrading the unit. And even if it could be done, it would require a lot more variants of units which would very severely hamper performance.

 

Heavy Turbolasers/Turboions are actually on my to do list for late model Mon Calamari ships! But it's not just the Mon Cal ships that get lucky. All ships will see some regular turbolasers/turboions swapped to heavier variants as well as cannons swapped to batteries on their very late upgrades. I agree fully that it simply makes sense for armament upgrades such as this to take place as the years run by. However, these changes are unfortunately not going to be in the next release, but maybe in the one after that

[a.fake.name]

Heavy Turbolasers/Turboions are actually on my to do list for late model Mon Calamari ships! But it's not just the Mon Cal ships that get lucky. All ships will see some regular turbolasers/turboions swapped to heavier variants as well as cannons swapped to batteries on their very late upgrades. I agree fully that it simply makes sense for armament upgrades such as this to take place as the years run by. However, these changes are unfortunately not going to be in the next release, but maybe in the one after that

 

 

 

Well that's good. As it stands, past a certain point it's usually most cost effective to get the cheap upgrades for ships then stop upgrading until you have lots of extra credits.
If more ships get heavy turbos, then more ships are worth upgrading early (to my playstyle at least). Plus it just makes more sense that way.

 

I think that research can't go 100% hand in hand with canon. I will stick true to canon as much as I can, and I will try to find work arounds on how to keep it as canonical as possible. But I don't want to make anything silly or unbalanced just to get canon right because I would not enjoy that kind of mod.

 

Well that actually wouldn't be that hard to do, getting stuff as right as possible as the engine allows.

The main change I'd that needs to be done is have the GE start out (in pre-ANH campaigns at least) with the full Grand Army of the Republic tech tree.
If you do 18 BBY. it'd be starting while the Empire is a year old.
If 20BBY, it'd be starting in the middle of the clone wars (which would add new issues and make this way too much work for you).

Basically all I propose is take what actually existed in the timeline at that period of time, and give it to the Empire.
For the Rebels, give them pre-war Republic tech within reason mixed with some sepritist tech, all buildible at the start of the campaign.

For the Imps, the republic gear would obviously phase out as you research new ships, and for the Rebels it'd phase out as they gain shipyards and the ability to construct vessels from scratch, rather than upgrading whatever they can get.
 

As for your Rebel fighter stuff, I actually like that plan and it makes sense too.

One big change from stock PR I'd have to recomend is removing rockets from the Y-Wings until prehaps their final upgrade, as the rocket payload actually makes the Y-Wing's supperior (I think at least) to the B-Wing until it's mostly upgraded, at least as far as a pure bomber role goes, due to Torpedoes penetrating sheilds.

If you can edit shield penetrating weapons in PR (Torps, missles, slugthrowers, and disruptors, etc.) to not penetrate shields, it would go a far ways towards resolving that particular issue (some of the PR staff have said a change is coming in that direction, if nothing else that'd be a way to test this out).

 

For ISD/VSD upgrades, also, I'd have to recomend that instead of simply upgrading between the four versions currently ingame you add intermediary upgrades.

As for the actual changes I recomend, as an example I'll start out with the ISD.
Note: ALL upgrades (or new ship research) that involves new ships in the compliment should (if possible in this engine) be set to not be researchable until you've researched (and upgraded) to all of the models the ship has in it's compliment.
 

 

ISD:

-Start it out as the Imperator class star destroyer, since that was the name for the ship in the Republic Navy. Wookiepedia lists it as introduced in 22 BBY, so no reason for the Empire to not start with these based on your starting dates, since it's a republic vessel.

Compliment: Republic era vessels. ARC-170's as bombers/attack ships. The early T.I.E. fighters from the starting units in stock PR as the mainstay fighter. LAATs as transports/shuttles.
-From there, the first upgrade should be to Imperial Star Destroyer, prehaps keep ARC-170's in the bomber role
-Imperial Star Destroyer Mk1 upgrade. Brings the ship up to Imperial I class specs and compliment. Possibly have several upgrades for the Mk1 ISD, renaming to ISD Ia, Ib, etc.
-Imperial Star Destroyer Mk2. Brings the production lines up to the basic ISD II standard. Compliment should be TIE fighters/Bombers at the start, with a MkIIa model having TIE Interceptors added. Wookiepedia lists the ISD II as debuting in 0ABY.

--Imperial Star Destroyer Mk3/4 upgrades: these should be (I think) just upgraded ISD I's and IIs with better stats and heavier compliment/broadside. Mk3/4's should also include better defensive weapons geared against snubcraft.

VSD:
Mostly, I'm going to have to just suggest splitting the VSD into TWO lines of ships.
The Mk1 VSD should be avalible to the Imps from the start, upgradable, and retain it's missile payload. Speed for a fully upgraded Ml1 VSD should be on par with a MC-40, 5-10 slower.
The Mk2 VSD and beyond should however be treated as a variant model with a payload that focuses on guns rather than missiles, with a mix of turbolasers/ions as it's loadout.

[P.O._210877]

and disruptors

 

They are meant to penetrate shields canonically.

 

 

Wookiepedia lists it as introduced in 22 BBY

 

Wook doesn't make sense on that issue. No way could the ISD be a producible line in the CW. There's just too much canon to ignore for a 22BBY introductory date.

[Chih]

Well that actually wouldn't be that hard to do, getting stuff as right as possible as the engine allows.

The main change I'd that needs to be done is have the GE start out (in pre-ANH campaigns at least) with the full Grand Army of the Republic tech tree.
If you do 18 BBY. it'd be starting while the Empire is a year old.
If 20BBY, it'd be starting in the middle of the clone wars (which would add new issues and make this way too much work for you).

Doesn't the GE already sort of have the full Grand Army of the Republic tech tree? Or anything you miss from it?

Thing is that I would love to start the mod at 20 BBY. But you're right, there's some issues then with how to portray the CIS, early Rebellion and all the ships of that time. Anyway, next version start date is changed to 18 BBY.

Basically all I propose is take what actually existed in the timeline at that period of time, and give it to the Empire.
For the Rebels, give them pre-war Republic tech within reason mixed with some sepritist tech, all buildible at the start of the campaign.

For the Imps, the republic gear would obviously phase out as you research new ships, and for the Rebels it'd phase out as they gain shipyards and the ability to construct vessels from scratch, rather than upgrading whatever they can get.

I will try to get everything buildable that existed at the time for the Empire and then have it phase out with upgrades. In my opinion, the rebel tech should be CR90's, Dreadnaughts and Recusant Mark II's as the early ships (as well as Z-95, R41's and Y-wings). Rest have to get researched. If I ever add completely new units, the Rebel cause will see more early units. One ship that would be nice to get into the mix would be the Providence-class.

One big change from stock PR I'd have to recomend is removing rockets from the Y-Wings until prehaps their final upgrade, as the rocket payload actually makes the Y-Wing's supperior (I think at least) to the B-Wing until it's mostly upgraded, at least as far as a pure bomber role goes, due to Torpedoes penetrating sheilds.

Remember that I could also just make the B-wing have heavy rockets in earlier upgrades. Due to how much B-wing upgrades cost it will still stay balanced

Thanks for bringing this up however! Any feedback like this really helps and saves me time in testing stuff myself!

If you can edit shield penetrating weapons in PR (Torps, missles, slugthrowers, and disruptors, etc.) to not penetrate shields, it would go a far ways towards resolving that particular issue (some of the PR staff have said a change is coming in that direction, if nothing else that'd be a way to test this out).

There are none or very little slugthrowers and disruptors in space combat in my sub mod. This might change at some point however. But as P.O._210877 said, it's canonical for them to penetrate shields.

Torpedoes and missiles is another issue. It is very unlikely that I will stop them from penetrating, but it is possible there will be changes to how strong some torpedoes/rockets are or changes to hull strength on some ships.
 

For ISD/VSD upgrades, also, I'd have to recomend that instead of simply upgrading between the four versions currently ingame you add intermediary upgrades.

As for the actual changes I recomend, as an example I'll start out with the ISD.
Note: ALL upgrades (or new ship research) that involves new ships in the compliment should (if possible in this engine) be set to not be researchable until you've researched (and upgraded) to all of the models the ship has in it's compliment.

 
ISD:
-Start it out as the Imperator class star destroyer, since that was the name for the ship in the Republic Navy. Wookiepedia lists it as introduced in 22 BBY, so no reason for the Empire to not start with these based on your starting dates, since it's a republic vessel.
Compliment: Republic era vessels. ARC-170's as bombers/attack ships. The early T.I.E. fighters from the starting units in stock PR as the mainstay fighter. LAATs as transports/shuttles.
-From there, the first upgrade should be to Imperial Star Destroyer, prehaps keep ARC-170's in the bomber role
-Imperial Star Destroyer Mk1 upgrade. Brings the ship up to Imperial I class specs and compliment. Possibly have several upgrades for the Mk1 ISD, renaming to ISD Ia, Ib, etc.
-Imperial Star Destroyer Mk2. Brings the production lines up to the basic ISD II standard. Compliment should be TIE fighters/Bombers at the start, with a MkIIa model having TIE Interceptors added. Wookiepedia lists the ISD II as debuting in 0ABY.
--Imperial Star Destroyer Mk3/4 upgrades: these should be (I think) just upgraded ISD I's and IIs with better stats and heavier compliment/broadside. Mk3/4's should also include better defensive weapons geared against snubcraft.

VSD:
Mostly, I'm going to have to just suggest splitting the VSD into TWO lines of ships.
The Mk1 VSD should be avalible to the Imps from the start, upgradable, and retain it's missile payload. Speed for a fully upgraded Ml1 VSD should be on par with a MC-40, 5-10 slower.
The Mk2 VSD and beyond should however be treated as a variant model with a payload that focuses on guns rather than missiles, with a mix of turbolasers/ions as it's loadout.

Yes, at some point I will set it as a requirement for ship research to have the fighters in the complement researched. This will be for all ships however. These changes I hope will make the campaign a more canonical experience as the AI has to go through ships in the right order instead of just ignoring some research/upgrades and focusing on other research, making it end up with late models of one ship and the first model of another ship.

VSD and ISD will both have 5 versions (as it is already). But the first version of these ships will be better implemented. I wont have the Imperator in the mod as a CW era ship, but rather an early ISD. The complement will remain V-wings with possibly 1 squadron of ARC-170's added to the mix and one V-wing squadron removed, the price of the early ISD will remain high to balance it.

I like your ideas for additional variants of ISD's though (these wont be as many as you listed, but maybe a couple at some point), I would very much want to portray the Empire starting to upgrade ship complements with TIE Interceptors instead of TIE Fighters. This would mean that there's two ISD I's, one with 5 TIE Fighter squadrons (and the rest of the usual ISD complement), and one ISD I with a few TIE Interceptor squadrons instead (similar to the current ISD II complement).

VSD's will remain as they are for canonical reasons, but with 5 variants instead of 4. I also want to make as little unit variant additions as possible, as it heavily impacts performance. So new production lines when not really needed from a gameplay/canonical perspective are unlikely to happen

Anyway, thanks for your extensive feedback!

[Sûlherokhh]

I checked the GFFA-Campaign and so far i am not thrilled. :( It's become a race to auto-resolve the most planets in the shortest period of time, since no planet has a meaningful defense. And since the AI doesn't really leave units for defense (except where they are collected before an attack), there also have not been any battles worth playing out with the main opponent.

 

Ergo i haven't had the chance to check, what the balance changes have wrought (i only played for a few hours).

 

Otherwise, i like the changes so far. Gonna try the Old GFFA with a couple of my own changes.

 

 

 

...testing...

[evilbobthebob]

Yeah I've had a similar issue with it. I think a better option might be to just give the major factions significantly more planets at the start and greatly increase the AI combat power of the new stations so that they can't just be autoresolved against without much larger fleets.

[Chih]

Yes, I noticed that the AI Combat Power is not enough on the current stations and in the next version it will be significantly higher. Same goes for autoresolve health. The AI is also on a rather equal footing with the player at the moment, something that is also bound to change in next few releases. I will probably bring new balance changes with each release.

There are plenty of planets with better defenses though, it's just that it is not visible when auto resolving at the moment.

And a campaign where both factions control more planets will probably be available at some point I hope

[evilbobthebob]

Also, I would recommend representing defensive strength with space colony level because otherwise it is very difficult for the player to work out how large a fleet to send if they actually want to fight the battle.

[Chih]

Also, I would recommend representing defensive strength with space colony level because otherwise it is very difficult for the player to work out how large a fleet to send if they actually want to fight the battle.

It should be that way already, but there's still some room for improvement and some space colonies that may indicate the wrong defensive strength.

[Chih]

Looks like there's going to be a bit of a problem with autoresolve. I tested by adding a million AI Combat power, and a million Autoresolve health to a Golan III, but one MC80 would still win in autoresolve. For now I recommend that you just play all space battles and avoid autoresolve.

I'm guessing that the AI combat power only means how the AI will judge the strength of the stations on the planet.

[evilbobthebob]

There's the <Damage> tag which controls offensive autoresolve power I think.

[Chih]

I tried changing the autoresolve health of a normal space colony, and now it worked. I lost each autoresolve. So yeah, something is up. Not sure if it is the damage tag either, as the space colonies have <Damage> of 0. At the moment it seems that the autoresolve stats from additional space buildings do not count in the overall autoresolve. Maybe a bug?

I'll have to experiment further

[Chih]

I uploaded a fix that makes autoresolve on starbases much stronger. As Starbase level is relative to the strength of the defending force it should make sense. Try it out and report back