[MOD] Faction War/Economy Enhancer v5.5

[Mysterial]

Early game wars are getting nerfed (again). Update will be tonight or tomorrow. Need to finish up some things.

[Ramokthan]

I love the action and the threat the xenon bring into the game actually. But when they kill the factions before even a experienced player can pull off some effective countermeasures, well.

Not that i am whining about factions being wiped but it feels like you have to pull off a own working self sufficient factory network before the xenon reach you. And there is no other way to play the game anymore.

[Mysterial]

In my defence, every Egosoft patch since 2.0 has made changes that effectively buff the Xenon relative to other factions. Hopefully 3.0 will finally involve them doing some counterbalancing with economy changes...

[Mysterial]

New version is live. Feedback would be appreciated.

[Motionblurr]

New version is live. Feedback would be appreciated.

Loading up a new game now. Ill let you know how it works with the DeadAirGate Overhaul

[Scoob]

New version is live. Feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks for the update

Scoob.

[Zaidman]

There is a huge freeze that happens every 10 minutes or so and lasts in total for 15+ seconds. The game starts lagging for two seconds, then freezes for ~8, then unfreezes for a second and freezes for ~8 seconds again, then unfreezes and lags for a couple of seconds and then everything works perfectly for 10 minutes till another freeze session.
I managed to save right before the freezes to find out where was the problem.
When all mods are removed the game just lags for 2-3 seconds and that's it. So the lag is almost unnoticeable and can be mistaken as a texture load or smth.
I had to spend some time to find out which mod causes the problem. It is your faction_fix_pack_econ_ai.

[Buzz2005]

There is a huge freeze that happens every 10 minutes or so and lasts in total for 15+ seconds. The game starts lagging for two seconds, then freezes for ~8, then unfreezes for a second and freezes for ~8 seconds again, then unfreezes and lags for a couple of seconds and then everything works perfectly for 10 minutes till another freeze session.
I managed to save right before the freezes to find out where was the problem.
When all mods are removed the game just lags for 2-3 seconds and that's it. So the lag is almost unnoticeable and can be mistaken as a texture load or smth.
I had to spend some time to find out which mod causes the problem. It is your faction_fix_pack_econ_ai.

I can confirm this and did suspect this mod, started a new game without it and for an hour no freezing, but started a new game with the mod freezes as reported

[Mysterial]

Please upload a savegame somewhere.

Also, narrowing down which module causes your issue would help.

[steve_v]

I don't get "huge" freezes, but I do see clusters of 0.5-2s stalls periodically during play (5 or so in a row every 10-15 minutes), and only with this mod installed. I haven't raised this before because they're not particularly bothersome, but I suspect there's a good chance that they are related to those posted above.

I can upload a save if it helps, but I am running quite a few other mods and I'm not getting hit particularly hard by this anyway, so I'm not sure how useful it would be.
I'll have a play with disabling one module at a time tomorrow, and see if I can isolate the culprit.


On another note, is there any chance we can do something about the squishiness of the teladi WRT xenon invasion? I'm just over a day into this game and they have already lost 4 sectors, I am in no position to repel a pair of I's and a bunch of K's myself, and the locals are putting up exactly zero resistance. The paranid are actually doing a better job of defending teladi sectors than the teladi are.
The argon and paranid are doing just fine without player-intervention, but the teladi seem to be completely helpless. I haven't seen them destroy a single enemy defence platform in their own sectors or make a move to take any new territory.
I get that teladi are commerce-minded pacifists, but at this rate they're going to be extinct in a few more hours.

[Zaidman]

https://gofile.io/?c=3qCeKU
You can remove all mods and just leave faction_fix_pack_econ_ai.
Lags start 10 seconds into the save. More noticeable if you get into the ship, fly into space and start turning around.
They get longer as the game progresses. I had to restart the game a several times, because later in game they get way way worse.
I guess it is a script that goes through all stations/ships and adjusts something. You added the script and made it more complicated, so the original minor lag turned into a huge freeze.

[Mysterial]

On another note, is there any chance we can do something about the squishiness of the teladi WRT xenon invasion? I'm just over a day into this game and they have already lost 4 sectors, I am in no position to repel a pair of I's and a bunch of K's myself, and the locals are putting up exactly zero resistance. The paranid are actually doing a better job of defending teladi sectors than the teladi are.
The argon and paranid are doing just fine without player-intervention, but the teladi seem to be completely helpless. I haven't seen them destroy a single enemy defence platform in their own sectors or make a move to take any new territory.
I get that teladi are commerce-minded pacifists, but at this rate they're going to be extinct in a few more hours.

What you're reporting is the exact opposite of what people usually complain about. Usually when people complain it's about the Argon getting nuked because of the messed up Hatikvah's Choice I situation. The Teladi can usually recover better than that, but it's probably the damn overpowered Xenon I. The AI doesn't really have anything to deal with that since you basically need a fleet and the fleet rebuilding is so broken even I haven't been able to fully fix it. So they're probably sending whatever resources they have in small groups to get obliterated. I put some stuff in to keep the Xenon I from being deployed early but I guess it's not enough sometimes. I'll have to try some more stuff. It doesn't help that the AI patrol script has the same "feature" that annoys players all the time where it'll actually aggro any enemy it sees regardless if it's actually in the patrol zone or not. So even when the faction AI tells the ships they're done with the invasion and go back to defence the patrol script goes around killing everything anyway.

[Mysterial]

https://gofile.io/?c=3qCeKU
You can remove all mods and just leave faction_fix_pack_econ_ai.
Lags start 10 seconds into the save. More noticeable if you get into the ship, fly into space and start turning around.
They get longer as the game progresses. I had to restart the game a several times, because later in game they get way way worse.
I guess it is a script that goes through all stations/ships and adjusts something. You added the script and made it more complicated, so the original minor lag turned into a huge freeze.

Thank you.

I tested the savegame and a substantial part of the hitching happens in vanilla. However, my mod is certainly making it worse. I'll make adjustments to minimize the effect, but I'm not going to try to fix vanilla's problem. Based on the number of times "Medical Supplies" appears in the logs, I'm guessing it's related to whatever is causing the factory spam that some people have reported with 2.5.

[steve_v]

What you're reporting is the exact opposite of what people usually complain about. Usually when people complain it's about the Argon getting nuked because of the messed up Hatikvah's Choice I situation.

Interesting. This admittedly only my second game, but I've not seen the xenon make any progress into Hatikvah's Choice I in either. Guess the RNG decided the teladi get the I's both times.

it's probably the damn overpowered Xenon I. The AI doesn't really have anything to deal with that since you basically need a fleet and the fleet rebuilding is so broken even I haven't been able to fully fix it.

I'd say that's exactly the problem. There are two I's in Bright Promise right now, and nothing can even slow them down.
The AI is so ridiculous that it is trying to build production stations right next to a xenon invasion fleet, with zero combat support.

I put some stuff in to keep the Xenon I from being deployed early but I guess it's not enough sometimes.

I don't know what you consider early, but from what I can see it doesn't really matter when they get deployed, the AI simply can't deal with them at all. For a game series that sells itself on the universe not being centred around the player it sure seems like the player is the only hope against the xenon.

It doesn't help that the AI patrol script has the same "feature" that annoys players all the time where it'll actually aggro any enemy it sees regardless if it's actually in the patrol zone or not.

That is indeed a problem, as is the inability of a fleet to actually fly in formation.
In every fleet engagement I have seen ships just get picked off a few at a time based on their travel speed. Nobody has destroyers that can go up against an I without escorts, and the escorts don't actually escort the capitals. It's a shambles.

[Scoob]

Hey all,

Just wanted to say that I'm impressed by how quickly the Xenon respond to threats - i.e. ME!

I'm trying to take out a Xenon Defence Platform and whatever I send in generates a larger and larger response. I had to run away in my Odysseus + fighter escort from a large groups of Xenon fighters and P's. I return with an even larger fleet - added a load of Corvettes and a Frigate - and they're now sending a pair of K's at me! Time to run away again lol.

Note that I'm also using VRO, which enhances the combat side of things drastically.

Scoob.

[Mr.Freud]

PLEEEEASE update for 2.6 beta! it seems to bring a lot of fixes and performance improvements!

[Mysterial]

Here is a 2.6 compatible version. DO NOT USE WITH 2.5

Download

[Mr.Freud]

Thank you!!

[ObsidianOne]

Here is a 2.6 compatible version. DO NOT USE WITH 2.5

Download

Thanks a lot , you should add to the OP as well.

[Wonsz]

Thanks for the update

I have one question related to the mod - in my game there are lots of unowned sectors. Something big invades, before I notice it and react, defence station is destroyed and sector becomes no man's land. Hours are passing, sector is perfectly safe (guarded by my fleet) and noone claims it. Is this how it's supposed to work? At the moment I'm trying to repopulate the universe with base building mission - but I'm not sure if "build defence station" mission will transfer sector ownership to the faction that gave me the mission.