Okay, my foray into mod-modding is done and about to be tested. In addition to the above changes, I also bumped out strike craft range to 250 (since the L T5 missiles were sitting at 160), slightly increased range on PD weapons and damage on bombers, reduced firing cooldown on higher-tier autocannons and missiles (to bring them in line with other buffs, and to help alleviate the problem of DPS wasted on things that die while missiles are in flight-tier one missiles are the same as before for Beautiful Battles, while tier five missiles have the same cooldown as all lasers and railguns) and added art assets for all the extra rangefinder computers I made to account for longer weapon ranges. I also altered the behaviors of the computers because I
think I figured out what's causing the bug where Defensive computers cause ships to hover at a distance and do nothing.
The default attack_move behavior for Defensive (vanilla) and long range (Rangefinders) computers is "follow", but their preferred_attack range is set at "max",
and their return to formation distance is almost always markedly shorter than their maximum weapon range. So what I'm thinking is happening is that when that happens the ship just gets locked into conflicting orders-they're simultaneously trying to move to maximum weapon range, follow their target (or flee if the enemy is approaching), and return to the fleet.
So what I've done is ensure that there's a Rangefinder with a return to fleet distance 5 units farther out than the maximum range of every weapon, as well as changing the attack_move behavior to "orbit". I'm hoping that that means that ships with long-ranged weapons will successfully sit out at long range, orbiting the battle, and firing continuously, while also returning to the main action if they manage to wander too far away.
I also attempted to address the problem with the bugged Aggressive computer stats. As of right now it looks like these ship modifiers don't work, regardless of whether you attach them to components or ship_sizes: ship_weapon_range_mult; ship_weapon_damage; ship_fire_rate_mult. What I've done is set up the stat computers so that they all give utility bonuses. The default one gives +5% combat speed and +5 evasion; the Aggressive ones give +20% combat speed, +5% accuracy, and +5 evasion at tier one and double that at tier two; the Defensive ones give +10% HP, +10 evasion, and +2.5% shield regen at tier one and double that at tier two; the sentient combat computer gives +50% combat speed, +15 Evasion, +10% accuracy, and +5% shield health; the precog combat computer gives +20 evasion, +20% weapon accuracy, and 10% combat speed.
I don't doubt that the stat computers will need balancing, but that helps delineate roles and I want to be sure that everything works to begin with. It's a pretty straight progression from AggT1 to sentient; defensive forks off into favoring the big tanky brawlers (as cruisers and BBs already have buffed HP values); precog plays well with skirmishers and snipers. Unfortunately there's not much to benefit missile boats apart from the pure defensive ones since the DPS-related values don't work, but hopefully that'll change--and they've got enough of an advantage being able to eventually lob missiles from well beyond anything else's engagement range. The +40% combat speed on AggT2 and +50% on sentient is necessary, I think, so that people can set up hunter-killer Corvettes that will actually be able to catch missile boats and carriers, even ones that mount the same computer. You could also drop it on a destroyer mounting a particle lance or something to get better DPS. Maybe pair lance and artillery destroyer classes, or use torpedo corvettes.
Basically my overarching goal is both to comprehensively fix combat balance
and ensure that there's good reasons to diversify your weapon selection and fleet composition instead of just spamming the best couple things.
Off to test now.
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Ah well, there was going to be a blowout no matter what they did. Not that it matters, as someone will probably reupload the mod at a later date.
Yeah, I saw trouble brewing the moment I noticed that set of mods. I also knew shit would only be thrown over the yuro one.
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Topic: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE (Read 1668959 times)