[MOD] [TC/AP] X3 Rebalance Mod (XRM) - Total conversion - v1.30d (02.12.13)

[paulwheeler]

Do you hate the Paranid much?
Artemis is again barley usable in its primary mini-carrier role because of too small cargo bay to resupply its fighters. As is the Deimos...
Instead the Agamemnon has the cargo space a mini-carrier would need - which does not make much sense... so why no mini-carrier love for the Paranid?

The paranid have historically always small cargo bays in the xuniverse. This is their Achilles heel.

Even the Aggy has a small cargo bay compared to other ships in its class (heavy assault frigate - Cyclops, Thresher etc. ).

Paranid ships are generally the best in the class in most other areas.

[joelR]

Paul I just wanted to say nice work on the new bounty system. Just got a real taste of it and it really fits well.

[dizzysoul]

Sorry I should have mentioned it in the notes. The IC should not have been there in the first place. Beams are broken when fired manually by the player as they never stop firing. I've removed beams from all main guns.

Then I guess buying a Sturgeon with 12x Ion Cannons and manning the the front turret would be considered exploiting?

[A5PECT]

Sorry I should have mentioned it in the notes. The IC should not have been there in the first place. Beams are broken when fired manually by the player as they never stop firing. I've removed beams from all main guns.

Then I guess buying a Sturgeon with 12x Ion Cannons and manning the the front turret would be considered exploiting?

Not being able to pilot the ship while manning the turret can be considered a mitigating factor.

Especially for the Sturgeon, which has only one turret besides the frontal array. If you're firing the cannons you can't maneuver to dodge fire, and your ship doesn't have enough point defenses to put down a half-dead M3.

You can put the ship on autopilot and let the AI fly for you, but that means you have to put the ship on autopilot let the AI fly for you.

I'd point more towards the Astraeus if you're looking for unbalanced beam mechanics. It has beam cannons in the left and right turrets, plenty of other guns for point defense, decent shielding, and the AI can actually fly it sort of effectively.

All that said, it's a hell of a lot of fun to put your Astraeus on autopilot, jump in the left or right turret, and start melting fighters all around.

[nap_rz]

a food for thought, in reality, carriers are slower than destroyers, the game logic also support that because carriers serve as flagships escorted by destroyers and frigates; but destroyers are the slowest of them all... isn't that facepalm?

and how about giving carriers missile tubes like M7M or M8 too?

[Requiemfang]

missile tubes on m1's? HELL NO paul already removed missile tubes from some M2's that made them IWIN buttons.

I will agree with the concept that the speed thing should be switched around since the main focus of the carrier is to send in swarms of fighters, their main focus is that right there. They are mobile fighter bases with some guns for defense. Granted they can hold their own for a time in a fight... they are still considered squishy compared to a M2.

[dizzysoul]

Not being able to pilot the ship while manning the turret can be considered a mitigating factor.

Especially for the Sturgeon, which has only one turret besides the frontal array. If you're firing the cannons you can't maneuver to dodge fire, and your ship doesn't have enough point defenses to put down a half-dead M3

I just bought an Astraeus as well! Such a sexy ship and it can dock an M6 so I also use it to carry around my Hyperion.

I don't think manning the turret mitigates anything TBH because several Ion Cannons will completely disable any ship, even an M1/M2, and even Xenon ships. Once a ship is disabled it only takes one Ion Cannon to keep the ship disabled. That's why I found it so cheap in my Carrack, because I could completely shut down weapons/engines/internals on any capitol ship and then launch boarding pods for 100% easy capping.

The new changes make the initial costs of a uber-capping setup a little higher, but not more difficult. Now it requires two M7 class ships to get started, or one M7M and an Orca. I've decided to personally restrain myself from manning the Ion Cannons, however multiple ships with staggered Ion Cannon fire will have the same effect, and even a lone Sturgeon with 12x IC being fired by AI is a force to be reckoned with.

I don't think Ion Cannons should disable enemy weapons. That is what makes them really cheap.

[A5PECT]

Boarding and support applications happen to be the Ion Cannon's niches. If you actually have to blow something up then any other weapon is a better choice (exactly which weapon depends on what you're trying to kill.)

The Sturgeon's setup exaggerates the Ion Cannon's strengths and weaknesses. You can drop a target's shielding and weapon energy, but have you ever tried using it to kill something?

[Requiemfang]

IC doesn't have a good enough DPS rating to hull to actually kill a ship within a good amount of time... and this is assuming it's a LARGE ship, M7 and up.

Compared to other games ion type cannons, say Homeworld for example, ion cannons do considerable damage.

But X-series took the Starwars approach to the Ion Cannon by making it a electronic frying beam that kills ship systems and shields.

Why do you think you got different weapon tab set ups to begin with?

Weapon set up 1. Ion Cannons
Weapon set up 2. stuff that blows ships to smithereens weapons

of course you also have the use of other ships you brought with you to blow the hell out of the ship your energy neuting with those IC... heck missiles are even an option at that point because those ships can't shoot those down if they have no weapon energy.

[nap_rz]

speaking about disruptor weapons, the google doc list all beam weapons disrupts either engines or weapons, even PSG said to be disrupt engines, is that true?

is there any list on how powerful the disruption is?

[paulwheeler]

a food for thought, in reality, carriers are slower than destroyers, the game logic also support that because carriers serve as flagships escorted by destroyers and frigates; but destroyers are the slowest of them all... isn't that facepalm?

and how about giving carriers missile tubes like M7M or M8 too?

That's all very well if the ai were to keep carriers on the fringe of battles - but it doesn't.

It could be a possibility if we boosted carriers defences... Maybe only defensive weapons and more shielding, but that's a pretty large change and goes against established game mechanics.

[deca.death]

The new changes make the initial costs of a uber-capping setup a little higher, but not more difficult. Now it requires two M7 class ships to get started, or one M7M and an Orca.

Oh you mean something like this? ; )

[ external image ]

My orca and boreas are hunting boron orca. Nice discovery btw well done, hope that it won't be nerfed in the next patch ; )

[deca.death]

Not being able to pilot the ship while manning the turret can be considered a mitigating factor.

Nah. Not good enough. It's exploiting alright. Pure and simple. Though less so with U.Object which can juice his powerful beams forever anyway, but again less hits make target docile and non-angry while 12GJ of shields have been stripped down. So again, it's cheating.

Boarding and support applications happen to be the Ion Cannon's niches. If you actually have to blow something up then any other weapon is a better choice (exactly which weapon depends on what you're trying to kill.)

The Sturgeon's setup exaggerates the Ion Cannon's strengths and weaknesses. You can drop a target's shielding and weapon energy, but have you ever tried using it to kill something?

That's not necessary, but it can be a hell of a supporter. Would be that is if it could fire all of his weapons. I suspect it could feed only half (6) of those things. Better then nothing I suppose.

[Requiemfang]

still has enough power usually to strip the shields off a certain percentage compared to other races guns. Look at the stats of the IC and... of course assuming you take into account when the player isn't firing themselves how quick the shields on a ship go down with those 12 IC. Also need to take into account most of the time the beams don't stay on target if it's a moving object. Beam hits and then assuming where you hit it glances off. Say you hit the ship near the front if it's moving away, the beam stays on the target for most of the duration of the firing cycle.

Due to the game engine and the mechanic's involved because of said game engine you don't have smart turrets that are automated and auto-correct to keep following the target as it moves. So instead of the beam being constantly on target once it's fired it stays in place on the target, what happens is that the beam fires at a moving target and doesn't follow the point at which it was aimed at all. Rather it just hits/glances the target instead.

I think this is why people don't like beam weapons so much in the game is because of the way the game handles turreted guns. They aren't smart and don't follow the target when fired especially with beams. Beams last several seconds compared to the point and shoot kinds of guns like PPC. Beam weapons are precision weapons and computer automated to stay on target. But the way things are set up in game that doesn't happen, realistically it would but it doesn't in the game.

[paulwheeler]

Due to the game engine and the mechanic's involved because of said game engine you don't have smart turrets that are automated and auto-correct to keep following the target as it moves.

Thats not entirely true... The turrets do follow the target. The problem is that the beams are fake. They are just standard bullets that are very long and stationary rather than moving. Thus, once fired they are no longer attached to the turret and just hang in the air for the duration of the beam when the turret itself keeps moving and tracking the target.

Again, its a problem with adding something to an engine that was never designed to do it in the first place.

[LordGaara]

Beams are broken when fired manually by the player as they never stop firing. I've removed beams from all main guns.

Oh, how a few words can ruin a whole day... I have been trying to find a a decent ship with any kind main beams equipable and now I see the reason why that was so hard to accomplish (except for Khaak ofc). Problem with piloting a Khaak ship is I need missiles. And those are not easy to find. I read that it is possible to script missile blueprints for RE at PHQ. Is that doable? If not, can someone explain how to script them? Or at least can you fix the beam weapons, so that we can have them as main guns again, Paul? I really bZzzZTt like beams...

Cheers and thanks in advance.

[swatti]

Speaking of missiles, when do we see the fabs for missing missiles? I hate hunting some of them all over the galaxy.

[Teladidrone]

Speaking of missiles, when do we see the fabs for missing missiles? I hate hunting some of them all over the galaxy.

Already there. Look closer.

But I almost missed that myself, too.
Some of them factories are priced a little "unbalanced" yet - maybe thats the cause of the silent addition?

[deca.death]

still has enough power usually to strip the shields off a certain percentage compared to other races guns.

Basically you are right, but have you ever try using those turrets manually? Three shots. That's all you got. They are powerful but still it seems terribly scarce.

So instead of the beam being constantly on target once it's fired it stays in place on the target, what happens is that the beam fires at a moving target and doesn't follow the point at which it was aimed at all. Rather it just hits/glances the target instead.

Well yes, it's one of the feature of beam weapons. That's why faster ROF beam are better for smaller and more agile targets. Beams like PALC, laser tower beam and eve paranid tri beam to some degree. Other slow ROF beams are basically anti biggest ship guns, like destroyers. And yes, they tend to miss when target (or you) is in maneuver but they also instahit on maximum range, try that with PPC. So they have advantages and disadvantages, like all else.

[LordGaara]

Paul,

Just had a talk with apricotslice about the PHQ and blueprints for wares/weapons/stations. He came up with a modified script which adds a menu enabling these blueprints in the PHQ. Problem is, we dont know if the XRM hq.xml is modified, so that this can work with XRM. He says you could easily do it using your file and adding his script in it. Is that possible pretty please?

I would love to see the PHQ with addable blueprint wares or stations and I am sure many XRM users will appreciate it too.

Cheers