[MOD WIP] Player Path Mod

Working on Getting Agressive, Defensive, Economic and Research Paths for the Player

http://www.filefront.com/14803991/Player%20Path%20Mod.7z
from Sins Forums

Hi,

         I would like to ask some help in playtesting, and suggestions for a mod i am currently working on. Its main purpose is to give the player paths to follow, much like the AI now has options to go Aggressive, Defensive, Economic and Research. I have copied files for each of these and have begun modifying them to a standard 2x level, but have only gotten about a third done, but wanted to ask if those in the community would like to try it out and let me know what they think.

Basically there are now 5 versions of all the races, Normal, Aggressive, Defensive, Economic and Research

The Pirates normal is unchanged. The modified versions of the Pirates hasn't been put in yet, except i believe the Research branch which gives them the research ability of the Techs to use. Which means strikecraft and Capitals now.The Pirate base hasn't been touched yet, but will be upgraded. The other races have only the Aggressive and Defensive and parts of the Economic changes put in, so there is still alot of work to do. In addition i wanted to add my XL Planets, but may make that a second version of the mod, as purists may feel more comfortable in a mod that is changed as little as possible from the normal game.

My hope of course is that the "feel" of the game will change, allowing for different "paths" for the player to choose from depending of course on what kind of playstyle they prefer. Or for a chance at playing something different. I have included the new version of ManShooter's wonderful Volumetric and Damage Effects mod, which ManShooter has turned into something quite wonderful!!  I am hoping the battles will be more spectacular based on the changes and that the strategic side of playing will be enhanced given the chance to play Defensive and Economic and Research sides without over worrying about simply staying alive.

The base i am using equates to 2x damage for Aggressive, 2x Hull and Shields for Defensive and 1/2 cost for Economic and 2x benefit of research. In theory this should balance equally across all changes. But playing will tell if that is correct or a mis-assumption on my part. Anyway, the link is below, please let me know what you think, and how it plays and if there are any inconsistencies or problems. It is still in work and I will update it as i have time, hopefully into something interesting.

This idea originally came to me from watching the AI in all the different roles that were available, and i thought it would be cool to have it more pronounced in the game and so decided to try it in this mod. Kitkun had a wonderful example in an older game that i am unfamiliar with, but it sounded like fun the way she explained it. Thank you Kitkun!!!

Anyway, thats it, take care

-Teal

http://www.filefront.com/14803991/Player%20Path%20Mod.7z

 

modding
20,453 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

interesting... I'll check this out

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I wanted to try it but the faction I chose had not been finished (tec econ) as I think that the econ faction has a huge early game advantage in terms of getting ships and structures built and expanding -  greater advantage than either the Agg or Def choice as for the same cost they get twice the fleet points.  THIS equals approximately the combined benefit that both the Agg and Def would get, ignoring the Econs greater likely cost of fleet supply at any point up to mid/late game (which will incrementally weaken them as the game goes on but not to the point of equality since there start will be so much better).

Regarding the research factions.  Not sure how all research can be made to give twice the benefit (for example how do you double the benefit of unlocking ice and volcanic planets -- combining them in one?).  This faction would initially be at a disadvantage to all others as their benefit is contigent not on ships but on research which takes a lot of time and resources to start to kick in.  Any way the main point is is that these factions are somewhat stillborn as they are just like vanilla factions until they get some research in.  So maybe some extra stuff at the start (labs & ships).

You need to add the new factions to the Galdef file so that the factions start with structures instead of waiting for the first constructor, as this gives a decided time and resource benefit to the vanilla factions.

As well perhaps remove the vanilla factions as they won't be able to compete at all with the 'pathed' factions.

All in all this is a very nice conceptual mod.  I hope it goes well.

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Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting GenuineD, reply 2
I wanted to try it but the faction I chose had not been finished (tec econ) as I think that the econ faction has a huge early game advantage in terms of getting ships and structures built and expanding -  greater advantage than either the Agg or Def choice as for the same cost they get twice the fleet points.  THIS equals approximately the combined benefit that both the Agg and Def would get, ignoring the Econs greater likely cost of fleet supply at any point up to mid/late game (which will incrementally weaken them as the game goes on but not to the point of equality since there start will be so much better).

Regarding the research factions.  Not sure how all research can be made to give twice the benefit (for example how do you double the benefit of unlocking ice and volcanic planets -- combining them in one?).  This faction would initially be at a disadvantage to all others as their benefit is contigent not on ships but on research which takes a lot of time and resources to start to kick in.  Any way the main point is is that these factions are somewhat stillborn as they are just like vanilla factions until they get some research in.  So maybe some extra stuff at the start (labs & ships).

You need to add the new factions to the Galdef file so that the factions start with structures instead of waiting for the first constructor, as this gives a decided time and resource benefit to the vanilla factions.

As well perhaps remove the vanilla factions as they won't be able to compete at all with the 'pathed' factions.

All in all this is a very nice conceptual mod.  I hope it goes well.

 

I'm finishing up the major Aggressive/Defense/Economic/Research on the Caps for each of the races and hope to post it tomorrow or monday. I have worked especially on the Tec Econ as you mention that is the race you wanted to play.

With respect to your question about the Econ having the early game advantage, I am trying to prevent that by having the same tier structure as normal, so it still takes 1 or 2 or 3 or whatever tiers to reach the economic unlock in the research, for the ships it is immediate of course, but the supply is the same, and the build time is the same. My thought is it will take the Tech twice as long to build a fleet of comparable firepower, so they will have a cost advantage which should accumulate over time to give them a larger and larger edge.

But my feelings are, and i could be wrong here of course, playtesting will show for sure, that early game the Vasari and the Advent will dominate, due to the sheer firepower of the Aggressive ships. The Advent less so because their hulls are less than the Vasari, and with enough time, perhaps going into mid-game the Vasari will have anti-shield weapons up and running.

Mid-game I am thinking the Advent will have the edge as their abilities kick in either using aggressive or research. The research for all races i am cutting the tier requirement in half, so a typical tier 3 ability is available at tier 0, a tier 6 is available at tier 3. In this way research races will have access earlier than the other races, giving them advanced abilities or unlocking access earlier. As for planets, i haven't decided yet how to approach that, but i will try to think of something. perhaps planet unlocks can be available early as well, I know they are mostly tier two, so bringing them down to tier 0 is not far, but that may make it quicker for them to begin colonizing, and or avoiding the larger costs of having to get the extra labs that would normally be required.

As you mentioned, i will be adding the new races to the Galdef file to get them properly launched with builders and factories already built. You are right, the wait does give an advantage, not very much in my opinion, but still an advantage. Unless, that would be the benefit of keeping the Vanilla races, i am thinking here about alliances of say two or three Vanilla races against one or two "pathed" races. In that way the Vanilla races would almost be a single larger race banded together against the other two, who may be single races against each other and the joined Vanilla races. I will have to think about this, but what do you think?  I hate to lose the Vanilla races if they can be useful, and they are a good benchmark against how effective the "pathed" races actually are.

Thank you for the comments and interest, i appreciate it. As i said i will try to get this update out tomorrow or monday and hope it improves things and that you will find it interesting, we shall see.

Take care,

-Teal