X3 AP BADASS Mod 2.0 Released

[LT411]

Balanced Advanced Designs for Argon Space Ships

From a boring sandbox to an epic fight for survival.

Demonstration Video: http://1drv.ms/1msjiZ6


Improved Galaxy Map
=================

All stations have been arranged differently for each race. Argon - grid, Boron - ring, Teladi - staggered, Paranid - X, Split - random, Terran - inner gates.

Rescaled the sectors to reduce travel time and make the jump gates visible.

The Khaak have taken over several sectors. The Xenon sectors have more stations in them now.

Large orbital weapons platforms have been equipped with fighters and deployed near gates to hostile sectors.

Medium orbital weapons platforms are deployed over key facilities: headquarters, shipyards, military outposts, and stock exchanges.

Small orbital weapons platforms are deployed near pirate and other gates to act as a tripwire.

All Argon sectors have been optimized and the stations in them redeployed.

The Argon shipyards are specialized. Each shipyard sector has an EQ dock with corresponding equipment.

The Argon trade stations, military outposts, and headquarters have different products than they used to.

Excessive debris has been removed from Argon sectors to improve navigation and performance.


Improved Galactic Transport Network
=============================

Stations are staggered vertically to separate traffic flows and reduce collisions.

Asteroids have been towed out of the flow of traffic in most sectors.

Large capacity freighters are used to transport bulk commodities while smaller, faster freighters transport finished products.

Freighters now specialize in only a few items so none are neglected.
This allows the name of the freighter to reflect what it is transporting.

Generic goods are usually traded in a limited range with the same race to keep the freighters near the sectors they serve.

Exports are bidded out to the corporations giving them a presence throughout the galaxy. They tend to deploy combat freighters.


Balanced Ships, Weapons, and Equipment
=================================

Balanced all Argon and Xenon ships. Doubled space suit energy reserve.

Increased missile fire chance to 25%. All ships are now equipped with Mosquito Missile Defense.

Halved the rate of fire for Mosquito, Flail Barrage, Hammer Heavy Torpedo, and Tomahawk missiles.

Increased all missile speeds 25%. Increased all missiles to at least 300 m/s so they separate from the ship that fired them.

Balanced all lasers range, damage, rate of fire, and energy consumption.

Only pirates, Yaki, and the player can use Plasma Burst Generators.

Balanced ship equipment price and reputation requirements.

The Humble Merchant now starts with $250,000 to afford essential upgrades reducing the grind at the start of the game.

Added Throttle Up and Throttle Down hotkeys to solve the problem of collect wares circling ware endlessly.


Improved Defenders
================

All sectors have a Police corvette and two Customs fighters to maintain order and catch smugglers.

Shipyard large transports now have a wing of fighter escorts assigned to protect them.

Each military base provides a Station Protection force led by an M7 frigate which patrols local sectors.

Headquarters sectors are now defended by a corporate military force led by a carrier.

Threatened sectors are defended by a Border Control force led by an M2 frigate.

All factions now project power throughout space.
* Races deploy Privateers in M7M missile frigates.
* Corporations deploy Bounty Hunters in M7M missile frigates.
* Pirates deploy Mercenaries in M6 corvettes.
* The Yaki deploy assassins in M6 corvettes.

The Rapid Response Forces have been reduced to a few M2 frigates.


Improved Attackers
===============

Strengthened the pirates and Yaki.

The aggression, morale, and flight skill of AI pilots have been configured to make them more interesting.

All military ships originate in an owned sector. Some require a shipyard while others require a station.

Destroying the shipyard and all stations in a sector prevent any more ships from that sector. This makes all factions defeatable instead of endless spawns.

All attacks are jumps from an owned sector to a nearby sector. Attackers always enter the sector from the gate instead of magically spawning in the middle of the sector.

Conquering a sector reduces all subsequent attacks by that faction. They don't just spawn someplace else.

The Xenon invasions will become more intense as the game progresses eventually wiping out all life in the galaxy unless stopped.

Please refer to the thread on Steam for the design document and latest download so I don't have to maintain them in two places:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/201310/di ... 267529072/

[shameless creature]

These sound like some very interesting enhancements of the overall game play, thank you. A couple of questions regarding your list of features:

- Did you only rebalance Argon and Xenon ships, or did you also increase the speed of other races' ships?

- Can you elaborate a bit on wiping out other races, or having them wiped out by the Xenon? I assume that if you destroy a single shipyard, it will still respawn after a certain period of time? And if so, how quickly would you have to destroy all other stations to prevent the respawn?

[LT411]

I only rebalanced the Argon and Xenon ships. The others remain unchanged. There are several reasons for that. First, it's a lot of work rebalancing all a races ships. Second, I only buy Argon ships and the Xenon are the primary enemy. Third, players who don't like what I've done to the Argon ships still have all the other races to choose from. Fourth, each races ships should be distinctive. I didn't want to make them all follow a similar pattern.

This mod makes it so that destroying the shipyard prevents some ships from spawning while destroying all the stations in a sector prevents any ships from spawning in that sector. Almost all ships now spawn in a sector with owners stations and some then jump from there. So wiping out all of a races stations prevents any more ships from that race. Wiping out a sector eliminates attacks to the surrounding area from that sector. Geography matters now.

The respawning of stations is not affected. I don't know how long it would take a race to recover from being wiped out if they ever could?

As for the Xenon eliminating races:

The Xenon will launch three invasions at some point in the future. Each invasion is more powerful than the previous one. They are cumulative.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[LT411]

After playtesting on Friday, I decided to make another round of changes before starting my campaign.


Galactic Transport Network
==========================

I noticed that the energy transports were having trouble keeping up with demand. Since I don't want to create more than one energy freighter per sector I spread out the solar power plants for all races.

I reduced the number of commodities traders to create more trading opportunities for the player.

I increased the number of export traders and increased their range to ensure exports are distributed efficiently.


Galaxy Map
==========

I redeployed all the orbital defense platforms according to a new strategy. I put the large platforms in the sectors adjacent to Xenon and other hostiles where they are needed most. I also docked fighters at all of them.

I put one medium orbital defense platform over each headquarters, military base, and shipyard to protect these strategic assets.

I put one small orbital defense platform in front of any gate that is two sectors away from the Xenon or other hostiles to act as a tripwire.

I docked a corvette at one station in each Pirate and Yaki sector since they don't have police.

I aligned all the gates in Argon sectors with the plane of the ecliptic.

I moved all orbital defense platforms at least 4 squares from the gate so invaders don't park at the gate blocking other ships that want to jump in.


Scripts
=======

Instead of giving all combat ships 25 mosquito missiles, they now get between 20 and 100 depending on hull size.

Instead of giving all combat ships triplex scanners, fighters now get duplex scanners and capitals get triplex.

Plasma Burst Generators will only be used by Pirate and Yaki (and player) ships because these weapons are overpowered, the Pirates and Yaki are generally overmatched by the defenders, and I don't like to see all the fighters blasting flamethrowers in a space battle.


Delayed jobs can now specify a start time in addition to a start day to allow spawns to be staggered throughout the day.

The scripts now check if they have already done their work and exit quickly to save CPU time.


Fleets
======

I reduced the number of fighters overall to reduce CPU load.

I reduced the total number of ships by assigning the most powerfull ships to the most dangerous patrols.

I replaced the Xenon invasion with a more generalized progressive difficulty.

The ship respawn rates are based on prime numbers to minimize overlap. The progressive spawn times are distributed throughout the 24 hour day so they don't all happen at once.

All AI controlled ships will now have a large variety of weapons available to them.

I implemented a new pattern for the aggression, morale, and flight skill of AI controlled ships that will make their behavior more interesting, distinctive, and sensible.

Previously, the difficulty of the enemy sectors was fixed. Now, the sectors become more difficult no matter what order the player conquers them in.

Pirate sectors now have civilian ships.

[Larxyz]

this loooks GOOOOOD!
now i just goto have time time to try it, meh.
thanks for making something so awesome!
will prob need a seperate install for this tho

[LT411]

Hi Larxyz,

Thanks for the encouragement. It's getting a lot better. Check out the thread on Steam for the latest:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/201310/di ... 267529072/

I just published a video of the improved weapons in action.

http://1drv.ms/1mbOMm9

Cheers,
Silvermane

[stealthhammer]

Hows everything going on this? I like how it is a progressive strength of the Xenon and such.

[LT411]

I played the campaign to day 3 and ran into some game breaking bugs. After a couple days of testing and debugging, I have everything squared away and have just started a new game.

I've made a lot of improvements in the meantime like hotkeys to switch between Guns Anti-Fighter and Guns Anti-Capital, balancing bomber and M7M missiles, refining the hostile spawn times and respawn rates, etc.

Thanks for the interest. Let me know if you give it a try.

P.S. The thread on Steam is more up to date.

[stealthhammer]

Thanks, I downloaded the version you have posted and am playing a non campaign game with the BSG mod...I have no idea if there compatable but am giving it a try. (Tired of the SSDD concept and started a new game.)

Anyhow I'm going to fire it back up in the next few days if I can get some time.