Okay everyone.  Due to load issues with the previous mod thread I have created this one and set the other for deletion.  I have read all replies in the previous thread, so please just continue within this one as if it is just another page.  Thanks everyone.

Ordian

works for me, once a thread gets to full it tends to lag lots and lots

Great the old thread was getting laggy on my computer a lot

Can't wait for "the pirate update"

unofficial name

Ordian, once again great job on makin a solid mod w/o any bugs. I Really dig all the newly added strikecraft and the increased reasearch. The new bombers n interceptors really put some life back into some certain cap ships that seemed a waste of fleet supply, but if i might add a suggestion. Im guessing that many sins players believe that the carrier caps should have more squads. Through much tinkering, how about setting the max strikecraft squads (for a lvl 10 carrier cap) to 10 squads. Something like:

CommandPoints
    StartValue 4.000000
    ValueIncreasePerLevel 0.670000

Since carrier caps lack the firepower to remain force later in a game, this could really give the carrier caps the needed boost to stay "on par" with other caps, ie. kol, marza, kortul etc. Just a idea.

Agree with Heinekus. Would and does make carreir cap more useful.

Thanks for Starting new forum. The new forum format really screwed the forums for me. Any forum with a ton of editing like yours killed my comp

Why do what distant star is doing for the pirates, increase the number of pirate compositions, include captial ships for the raids and in the base. In the base have like hangers and repair modules as well as the defualt cannons.

tag for later

Hey Ordian

I said it before - great mod. Getting better by the day. Love the research layout and numbers which work well on a small map with few AI players but not so well on a large map with many AI players. On a large map the high research values tend to slow the game until it becomes almost stationery as players build star bases to defend their terretory whilst waiting for resources to continue research. I feel the increase in research values perhaps needs to be modified downward.

While waiting I discovered what I believe must be a bug. When left clicking on building a (say) Capital Ship Factory and then immediately right clicking on it again to cancel this build, the resources are not just restored to their previous level but restored double the original cost. Doing this a few times will raise your resource level out of all proportion. This applies to all the buids as far as I can tell.

Other than that, I had a lot of fun - keep up the good work.

It does NOT happen with vanilla.

Ok, got the hang of small maps and managed a win after a couple tries.  It was back and forth (as it should be) until I finally managed to lock down a key planet which really helped me focus my defenses in a few places rather than chasing fleets all over the place. 

Early-mid game seems on target to me now but I'm curious what y'all envision for late game.  Once I got starbases in the mix, I was really able to lock down the pirate threat which freed me up to mop up the TEC.  Do you think a starbase should be significant enough investment to protect a system from pirates?  Once I had one up in the systems neigbhoring the pirate base, I was able to forget about pirate threats.  However, this didn't come early considering the new economy.  I really didn't have it locked down until after the pirates had escalated to severe.

At least for Vasari, the early-mid economy really makes you choose wisely.  Once I finally was able to break out trade ports and refineries, my economy started flowing nicely.  Even though I had the TEC bottled up eventually, they had some impressive defenses that took me a few charges to finally break through.

All in all, I ended up at about 4-5 levels of research but this may be normal on small, aggressive maps where the whole tech tree isn't intended to play out.

Really nice.  I'll keep messing around a bit and see what else I can check out.

I checked into this further as I had 20 saves to examin. In the beginning it works correctly but as the game progresses the gain gets larger and larger. After 5 saves maybe 25% increase, after 10 saves 50% ... ater 20 it was 100%. These are my saves not auto-saves. I would guess I was about halfway through the campaign at that stage.

Heinekus:  I think I might go ahead and do that, but I do not think I will increase the starting number of squadrons. Will however change the ValueIncreasPerLevel to .89 as that will provide the same effect for a high level carrier cap.

Mooster:  Well, the reason I am taking the pirates slowly is because with the current financial changes it take time to determine where an empire should stand strength wise at a given time compared to the vanilla version.  That I believe is key into making the pirates balanced, as knowing that you can better avoid making them over or under powered.  If I add vessels to the pirate raids I run the risk of overpowering players with large numbers that show up too early. I do plan on working in cap ships, but what I am currently working on is a way to get the pirate ships to themselves improve as the game moves on, so the reaper at the end of the game will be much stronger then the one at the beginning.  For me it would be easier doing it that way.

@ wolfcat9: I have not had time to test this in RL as work has been busy, but one quick question.  Are you comparing the current cost of the vessel at the time you do that, or the orginal cost? In the private beta the cost of vessels and structures goes up as the game progresses, so I am wondering if that might be what you are looking at.  If it is a comparision with the current cost of the vessel, then I'm not really sure what could be causing it.  The only thing the game will allow you to mod is how much a vessel will cost, not how much you get back when you cancel a build order.

As for lowering the cost of research, I will need to run some more tests as well as get some more feedback from the other lab rats on it.  I personally like the fact that there is now always drive to obtain more resources and you can not really just sit back and be content with the income you currently have.

Dzhel:  Well, I am currently looking to improve pirate ships as the game moves on, much like if they were also conducting research, so the reaper at the end game is much stronger then the reaper at the beginning.  I am currently working on different methods on how to go about this.

Ordian,

I am currently playing on a medium random map with a planet that gives 20% to trade and another that gives 25%.  Even with both those gravity wells maxed out with trade structures, I still have to decide what I would rather have.  As you get a bigger and bigger fleet, it becomes even more crucial.  So what I guess I am saying is I love it so far! 

My only complaint, if you want to call it that, is pirates vs starbase.  The pirates need a much bigger punch here, a starbase with all 3 weapons arrays will destroy an entire pirate fleet well before I can get back up there from only 1 link away most times.  If my fleet is farther I just ignore the pirates and continue on. 

Ok but the piratesis just to annoy you rather than pack a punch so hard that it kills starbases but I for one don't mind a much more stronger pirate attack