178 replies to this topic

[johnchm.10]

yeah, i figured that since they are important heroes, that they might need a bit more firepower 

well if its only that, then its not a big deal

the only mod if made to the campaign file was that the player can start off with more credits

[johnchm.10]

oh, could we change the Variant on unit line for heroes and still have those, here

so this

<Variant_Of_Existing_Type>R_Transport_YT_1300_Light_Freighter</Variant_Of_Existing_Type>

could become this

<Variant_Of_Existing_Type>R_Transport_YT_1300i_Light_Freighter</Variant_Of_Existing_Type>

 

while not changing this

<UniqueUnit Name="Raymus_Antilles_YT_1300_Light_Freighter">

[a.fake.name]

 

You got the wrong transport unit <Company_Transport_Unit>Raymus_Antilles_YT_1300_Light_Freighter</Company_Transport_Unit>

 

 

Just a thought, but what I was saying about changing the transports and stuff, for higher upgraded ground units why not change the transport unit line to call the Assault Transport, sentinal class landing craft, etc..
Also for the starting units, LAATs could be used some for the Empire easily enough for deploying boots onto the ground.
 

Edited by a.fake.name, 28 June 2013 - 02:15 AM.

[Chih]

oh, could we change the Variant on unit line for heroes and still have those, here
so this
<Variant_Of_Existing_Type>R_Transport_YT_1300_Light_Freighter</Variant_Of_Existing_Type>
could become this
<Variant_Of_Existing_Type>R_Transport_YT_1300i_Light_Freighter</Variant_Of_Existing_Type>
 
while not changing this
<UniqueUnit Name="Raymus_Antilles_YT_1300_Light_Freighter">

 
Yes.
 

Just a thought, but what I was saying about changing the transports and stuff, for higher upgraded ground units why not change the transport unit line to call the Assault Transport, sentinal class landing craft, etc..
Also for the starting units, LAATs could be used some for the Empire easily enough for deploying boots onto the ground.

Well, try changing it and see what happens

With more work every transport could be changed though, just like I made some Imperial units land with the Sentinel-class landing craft. But that was easy since just the landing animation was needed. Speaking of the sentinel transport, there's a bug currently with it that you cannot transport units using the sentinel without a fleet as I had forgotten to give it hyperspace capabilities. It is fixed in the next version.

[johnchm.10]

ok, so ive been playing around with some of the XML's and yesterday i got an idea which might work out pretty well.

ive been garrisoning Capital Ships for the XQ5 and Golans for the Alliance.

nothing too powerful, but i figured that a trading platform would have to have some customs craft in case of pirates or whatever, and a planet rich enough to afford a Golan would likely be rich enough to get some Capital Ships.

 

XQ-5's get 3 CR90s, G1's get 2 CR's as well as 2 MC30s and a Neb-B. G2's get 2 CR's, 2 MC30's, 2 Neb-B's, and an MC40, and the G3 gets all the previous, but with 2 MC40's and an Assault Frigate.

 

this also helps gameplay i feel, as now you dont need to spend time or resources on having a defensive fleet, 

i havent yet tested it out yet though.

 

as an aside, Imperial XQ5s could have a greater number of ships, albeit of lesser quality

 

and could i give the shipyards and Research Station hangers so they could provide additional support?

[Admiral_Lennox]

You can give the stations hangar bays. The shipyards should be able to use the vanilla Empire/Rebel starbase hangar hardpoints, but for the research station you'll need to make your own hardpoint. The best bones to use for that are TARGET_00 (at the top), ROOT (in the middle), or TARGET_01 (at the bottom). Also be sure to add SPAWN_SQUADRON into the stations' Space_Behavior list if it isn't there already. 

[Chih]

I wont give any of the playable factions free units though. For me it sort of ruins the gameplay. I like that you have to take care of your ships. Older ships also automatically get defense duties this way.

Also, garrison units don't upgrade as you make upgrades which is unfortunate.

[a.fake.name]

I like the improved automatic garrison, it also makes the cost of the upgrades make more sense.

 

Prehaps make garrison only versions of ships.

Take older model ships (IE: early model ISD/VSDs, some Venator IIs) for the imps, for example, give them newer fighter compliments (IE: the Venator should launch TIE fighters/bomber hoardes).

It makes each planet harder to take, as even 'undefended' planets would at least have a basic defense fleet.

[Chih]

O.O

How is it funny to fight the same kind of fleets in the same kind of stations though? For pirates this was a viable option as I could make a lot of variant stations that spawn different units. But for the player factions, it isn't viable.

[a.fake.name]

But it wouldn't be the same kind of fleets.

Instead, it'd provide (based on the stations built) a core base of ships for a defense, in addition to built units, which would make for more protracted space actions.

 

Oh also, after the first bit of playing (week 20ish now I think) on both imp and rebel playthrus, the submod starts lagging, and it's actually (on my low end system anywawy) often worse than PR.

PR sputters lag wise, but the submod will just randomly freeze for 10-30 or so seconds then play fine for a bit longer (moving any units in space makes this happen more often)

Edited by a.fake.name, 04 July 2013 - 11:47 PM.

[Chih]

But it wouldn't be the same kind of fleets.

Instead, it'd provide (based on the stations built) a core base of ships for a defense, in addition to built units, which would make for more protracted space actions.

1. It gets tiresome seeing the exact same ships usually take part in the defense. At best I will only add some IPV's and Corvettes. But I'd never add anything larger than corvettes.
2. Not all planets should should have long and large space battles.
3. I believe this kind of gameplay helps the player more than it helps the Ai.
 

Oh also, after the first bit of playing (week 20ish now I think) on both imp and rebel playthrus, the submod starts lagging, and it's actually (on my low end system anywawy) often worse than PR.

PR sputters lag wise, but the submod will just randomly freeze for 10-30 or so seconds then play fine for a bit longer (moving any units in space makes this happen more often)

Yeah, I both think and hope for that this has to do with moving of fleets, mostly done by Ai. Hence hyperspace lanes have been reworked for the next version. Currently I am wondering if the lag is better or worse the faster the fleets travel in hyperspace. In my test campaign there are no trade routes at all at the moment, simply no income and no speed bonus hyperspace lanes.

I have not had 10-30 second freezes yet though, for me the freeze is at most ~5 seconds. I had the exact same problem in stock PR too however, with freezes that happened late into the game on the GFFA campaign along with the constant lag (which should be almost gone in my changes). It is possible that the version uploaded here may have a slightly larger problem when it comes to this, due to the added hyperspace lanes in the outer rim.

If it isn't the moving of fleets, I have no idea what it is and I am quite sure it persists in stock PR as well. My changes have been mostly about cutting stuff out to make everything run better and faster. The only added thing to strategic view are some additional hyperspace lanes. Rest of the changes are almost all unit specific and should have nothing to do with the lag. As such it should not be logical for freezes to only happen in my sub mod.

Edited by Chih, 05 July 2013 - 03:22 AM.

[a.fake.name]

Yeah, I know, just that I remembered you mentioning working on lag reduction earlier and figured I'd mention it.

Plus my system is getting a bit old, to boot.

[Chih]

Running performance tests right now.

I'm at week 22 at the moment with the Empire in the work version of PRE. No 5-10 second freezes, but there are occasional stutters still from the Ai moving fleets around and as the Ai clutters the galaxy the performance does go down. I'm considering an eventual overhaul of the population system to atleast put a limit to how much units can be moving around at once in the galaxy. This would basically mean that every unit in the game gets a population cost depending on crew requirements. How I balance land units population I am not sure of yet though.

[johnchm.10]

regarding my garrisoned fleets thing, 2 questions

1: do i have to set it up like with fighters where i need a Starting Units Garrisoned or whatever it was line for every tech level? ive been busy so testing has not been an option as of yet

heres the line i have to spawn a pair of Ardent-C's from my G-3 stations

<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>

<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0> 

do i have to have it so i have those lines are repeated for each tech level, or should they spawn for all tech levels

 

related question.

could i have it so that instead of this

<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>

<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
i only need this

<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate, 2 </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>

or does each capital ship need its own line?

 

Question 2

how goes the next version?

Edited by johnchm.10, 09 July 2013 - 09:06 PM.

[Chih]

regarding my garrisoned fleets thing, 2 questions
1: do i have to set it up like with fighters where i need a Starting Units Garrisoned or whatever it was line for every tech level? ive been busy so testing has not been an option as of yet
heres the line i have to spawn a pair of Ardent-C's from my G-3 stations
<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0> 
do i have to have it so i have those lines are repeated for each tech level, or should they spawn for all tech levels

Yes. It's the same as fighters.

Tech_0 means they spawn on all tech levels, although I think that if there's units with Tech_1 those are spawned instead.

 

related question.
could i have it so that instead of this
<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>
i only need this
<Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>R_Ardent_class_MC30c_Frigate, 2 </Starting_Spawned_Units_Tech_0>


or does each capital ship need its own line?

Will work with just one line and a designated amount.
 
 

Question 2
how goes the next version?

I am wondering wether I should just wrap it up now and release within a week or so, or keep developing it until I am happy with it and then release.

[johnchm.10]

keep dev-ing it

 

it is your (Sub)Mod after all. and it gives the rest of us some more time to test out some of our changes

 

that being said, you figure that with the success of Counter-Strike, game developers would be a bit easier on modding insofar as having less-convoluted systems

 

in the mean-time, im going to experiment with what i feel the Rebels should have at the beginning of the GFFA campaign. a handful of Corvettes and Freighters i feel is too small even for a sector rebelling at the end of the Clone Wars.

 

probably gonna give a Dreadnought with a few supporting Frigates.

Edited by johnchm.10, 10 July 2013 - 02:26 AM.

[Chih]

Alright. Do you all agree that I should keep this in the works or do you want a new but very unfinished version to play around with?

When I say unfinished, I mean that there's much stuff that is not as I want yet and there's a possibility that some stuff seems weird or be slightly buggy. The submod should be fully playable though, some stuff has changed from the current version uploaded here and there's some bugfixes too.

If I release, I'd prefer to mostly get feedback about bugs and missed edits in the text file.

[P.O._210877]

Why would you stop now precisely?

[Chih]

Why would you stop now precisely?

Not stopping anything

I will either release one unfinished version within a week and continue working on the next or simply work on the next version until I am happy with it.

[P.O._210877]

Good to hear. I must admit I only took a cursory look at your work, I am a tester for PR after all so my gaming time mostly went that way; but from what I saw, I think you should carry this project as far as you can. They do say that variety is the spice of life.

Edited by P.O._210877, 11 July 2013 - 03:44 PM.