Vasari Loyalist Mobile Empire and the Kostura cannon

It's in Gameplay.constants , I think it's the string "cannonGravityWellRatioDenominator 4" . Change that to 1 and everyone will be able to build a cannon for every planet he owns.

If you want only the Vasari Loyalist to have this possibility, you can change a VL tech or add a new one, you should be able to copy from "Novalith Deregulation" the strings you want:

researchModifier
    modifierType "OrbitalCannonMaxAdjustment"
    baseValue 0.000000
    perLevelValue 1.000000

I think this is the part where the research modifies the max amount of cannons, Maybe since it enables the TEC to field one cannon every two planet, if you change the perLevelValue to 2 you'll be able to build one per planet, but I have no idea how that works exactly

Oh awesome!  I'll try it.  I'm not so concerned about it being a special VL tech....  I don't care if the other races can have one super weapon per planet... I've never seen the AI build one in every gravity well... that would eat too many resources and tactical points.... every game I've played against the AI I've only seen it build one or maybe two super weapons per race....  and I can live with that.

You haven't?  I had to quit my last game because every 5 minutes I was hearing "An energy blast of great magnitude has been detected" then half my planets went dark...

-Twi | Hates Novaliths and Kosturas...when they are aimed at him.  Deliverance Engine?  Meh...

Hmmmm.... they most have really hated you....  I've played a couple games where they seemed to be popping off a lot... but it was the AI shooting at another AI player.... I haven't been ganged up on yet.... 

Maybe this should be a special tech for just the VL????.... attach it to the Kostera tech or something.....

Personally, I would have preffered it if they were kosturas.  Novas scare me now.  I did another one later with the capitol victory on, on the fastest settings, and had 3 blasts nail my capitol within around 30 minutes.  Not fun.

-Twi

You can just put a starbase with Ausiliary Government/Enforced Loyalty/I don't know what's called for Advent to prevent planet loss

You still have the half hour long population and trade penalties.

TEC Loyalist are based on Economical warfare, and their biggest weapon is the Novalith. If an upgrade negates every effect they'd be useless. At least you can prevent instant loss if you have Capital Victory

That was more of a comment on the AI building lots of Super-weapons.  Before Rebellion, I never had a problem like this, and therefore never needed the enforced loyalty style abilities.  Thus, they were not on my prioritized upgrades list.  Usually, the AI wants to wipe out my SB before the planet.  (With the exception of their planet killer frigates.)

-Twi

So I guess if your gonna play as the VL and want to have one superweapon per planet, you may seriously pay for it in the end.... hehehe. 

But again, if one is playing in VL "death fleet" mode and doesn't own any planets, or only one or two at any given time, this kinda defeats the super weapon being able to target you..... or at least can make it very difficult to find you if your always on the move..... In theory, if it's an FFA game, the AI might be so busy shooting at each other, a VL player could move in after and pick at the remains...

OK, the map I made in galaxy forge last night is designed for a Vicious 6 player FFA "death fleet" game.....  basically 5 big systems for the other races, and a little one to get my fleet started.  I gave myself something 25,000 credits and 10,000 resources (each) to get a fast start.... but I didn't cheat, I gave the other players the same amount... so everyone can get going. 

The idea is to set all the other races to Vicious, then see if I can make a true roaming Death-Fleet really work.  Once I get moving, to only own one planet at a time to replenish my fleet, then strip it to the core and move on, and see if I can survive.

So as long as I'm making it a real nasty FFA, for now I might as well set the cannons back to one per planet and really up the stakes.... bwaahahahaha

The only weapon that seems like a real threat to the VL while they are going full mobile is the Kostura, since i believe it actually hurts ships.

-Twi

No, it only hurts and disables structures, and allows your fleet to jump to that planet because of Phase Stabilizer Node

I must be thinking waaaay back then...

-Twi

As you can tell from all of these thread Twilight you've missed A LOT.

AIs using Superweapons was actually added in the final patch of Diplomacy. It just got worse with Rebellion as the TEC Loyalists can get Novaliths with 6 labs and no prereqs, hence their experiments with limiting the number of superweapons.

The Kostura used to hurt ships, but this was changed, again sometime in Diplomacy.

The other thing about the mobile fleet is I believe to use a super weapon on a planet, it must be owned b an enemy.... and also have been scouted.  If the VL is constantly on the move, this become much harder for the opposing player.  Unless they are constantly keeping track, the VL might just dissappear into the "Fog of war" so to speak.  And if you don't know where they are, you can't target them with a superweapon....

It also occurs to me the Advent could have a big advantage keeping track of the VL fleet using the Clairvoyance ability.

OK, I just ran a quick test.... I was a little concerned how setting "cannonGravityWellRatioDenominator 4" back to 1 might effect the TL if they also researched "Novalith Deregulation".... but I just did both and nothing mini-dumped. 

The downside is if you set "cannonGravityWellRatioDenominator " back to 1, then researching "Novalith Deregulation" apparently gives the TL the option of building two cannons per gravity well... if it has over 30 free tactical points.  Seems a little foolish to me, because it leaves almost nothing left for defenses.... but it can if it wants to.

  If it's deep enough into their territory, it may net be such a bad idea.  As long as it's not every core world.  Yeah, Vas can jump in and rape that planet, but they have to get far enough in to scout and see there's just 2 novas there.

And it seems I have missed a lot...think I'll replay the other factions and get a feel for how they work now.

-Twi

True, you can't attack it if you haven't found it yet....

One good thing about Vas scouts is they have the phasic cloaking ability...that's real handy for getting deep into an enemy system to have a look around... at least before the scouts antimatter runs out. 

Does that ability let them move while phased now?

Dang it...So many changes I haven't kept up with...

-Twi

I'm not sure... I think so, let me check.....

I'll be damned... you're right, they can't move while cloaked...  that sucks!  I must have been thinking of the Star Trek SO2A mod's cloaking ability..... 

I'm thinking I may have to change this.....  I would keep the jump engines offline while cloaked, but the sub-light engines should still be able to work....  just sitting there seems kinda usless..... 

Just checked, they can't.  But it only lasts like 3-5 seconds...it's good to get ships to find a new target I guess...

-Twi

Edit:  yeah, that sounds good.  I've always wanted them to be able to move while phased......

Last time I checked they weren't able to move while cloaked

Yeah, I just played around with them.... funny thing is I removed the 2 lines that disable the engines out of the BuffPhaseCloak file, but it still stops dead in it's tracks..... odd.....  No big deal, I'm not gonna screw around with it.... 

One thing, mine lasted longer than 5 seconds if you turn off the auto-cast.....  for some reason mine kept autocasting itself on and then back off... but with the autocast off it just seems to depend on how much antimatter the scout has.  This is cool, because like you said, they may not be able to move, but 5 or 10 seconds cloaked might be enough for the attacking ships to go after someone else and let the scout slip on by. 

Didn't think to turn off autocast, thanks.

-Twi