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

[BlackArchon]

While I can't add much to your possible problem with some scripts, I can say that the singlethread performance of AMD's FX processors is only about a half to two thirds of Intel's current generation CPUs. So this is really a rather great disadvantage.

[Rutka]

Thx Paul for your answer and great Mod.

[Eidolan]

While I can't add much to your possible problem with some scripts, I can say that the singlethread performance of AMD's FX processors is only about a half to two thirds of Intel's current generation CPUs. So this is really a rather great disadvantage.

I played to late game XRM/TC with little problems, only when I went to AP did lag become an issue. Is AP a ton more demanding then TC? (as of right now I have hot war turned off via Improved races so no epic Argon / Terran wars being fought)

[paulwheeler]

If somehow my normal XRM job file got replaced by an other mod (I'd guess LIFE mod) can I just override it with the file inside the XRM Cat files? Or will doing this mid game explode my universe?

No - all the addon scripts do not use jobs to spawn ships. The jobs system is what base X3 uses to populate the universe with ships. Only mods will change this file. Scripts add their ships on top of what jobs is already doing.

I played to late game XRM/TC with little problems, only when I went to AP did lag become an issue. Is AP a ton more demanding then TC? (as of right now I have hot war turned off via Improved races so no epic Argon / Terran wars being fought)

AP gives much better performance that TC.

Try starting a new game in AP with no scripts installed - just the XRM. If performance is fine, then I expect your lag is being caused by a script going crazy - this would also explain the huge numbers of ships you are seeing.

[Eidolan]

I did start a new game, just XRM, TC in AP and Mars. Script task count seems to be holding steady around 15,000 tasks, tens of thousands less then my old game. I am keeping an eye on the count as I progress in the game. So far FPS is good, but it was good early game my last go around as well, Guess I will just have to wait and see.

[RayF]

Deimos - what a piece of metal-waste-crap it has become!

[BlackArchon]

Deimos - what a piece of metal-waste-crap it has become!

Yeah, and there are even more useless frigates - look at the Split Tiger for example. M7s without capital ship class weapons are rather useless. However, if you want a strong Deimos, have a look at the Yaki Kariudo. It uses nearly the same 3D model as the Deimos, but it can mount 8 IBL and 4 PSG. I really like this M7.

[Master of the Blade]

Yeah, the 'first gen' frigates in general do need a bit of help. Shrike isn't too bad since it has main IBLs and Fusion Bomb Launcher turrets, but Deimos and Tiger are both really bad, with less firepower than some corvettes and no long range options. The Yokohama is also terrible.

If they weren't all almost as expensive as their race's carrier/antifighter frigates, and instead were around the 30MCr mark they might be worth it. Alternatively, they could gain capital class weapons in side turrets which would give them some real firepower without encroaching on the territory of cruisers.

[Taro8]

Just dropping by to say I did some of my own modding to XRM. The biggest change was reducing manoeuvrability to everything above M3 by 2/3 (pitch, roll, yaw, acceleration, angular acceleration). Combined with High Hull option from XRM makes capitals more majestic (and most likely nightmare to pilot). However the effect is great: the bigger ships move a bit more like ships in Homeworld, while fighters zip around like they used to.

I will see how this will pan out in the long run.

[d_ka]

In case of cap ships there i´ve no problems for them to be slow, and bulky; and with Cronos Adv. Fight scripts they even perform some "player" style moves ( staying in place and firing from a distance in case of weapon range advantage; or trying to get behind enemy ship to avoid his front turrets ).
But how are Frigates supposed to hit anything having "main guns" instead of turrets? IMO, that was a terrible idea by EGO to allow players some crazy stearing to survive enormous numbers of enemies while fighting on your own. Flying Frigate, or even Corvette ( with some exceptions, though ), should not feel like flying an uber large fighter ).
But for me so called "main guns" are for Gunships only - be it a Frigate, or a Corvette. If, say, Tiger had 8 turreted ISRs in front it would hit enemies much more often, and wouldn´t have to turn around like a wounded fox ( though, the range of ISR is quite short, so it would stay kind of anti-fighter, anti-corvette frig, and we already have Wolf in that department - so given the PBP in it´s not so numerous side turrets ( which were 2 or 3 each, iirc ) and it would, again, make some decent ship, IMHO ).
Also, as mentioned above, ships should be seen from both perspectives: player AND the AI. By giving main guns to large ships, one simply cripples their ability to act properly, unless, as stated above, those are ment to be kind of gunn ships, which still could have front turrets instead of main guns to be more valueable, imo.

Last, but not least: Gaus Cannons is a super cheat weapon. Not only is it too good to use it as a player weaposn, but it also makes Teladi ships much more deadly then they should be, i think. And pirate ships are way to strong using them, too ( and i don´t mind having strong opponents, actually ). GC should keep it´s range OR speed, but not both. Using it in even a Galleon, i can take out any Xenon ship 1on1 without support, kiting it for a while - superb tactics, but doesn´t feel right after a while, somehow...

[BlackArchon]

In my last XRM game, I was mainly using a Pirate Brigantine for exactly this reason. Gauss cannons are a bit too strong when used by the player, I could easily destroy every other ship except Kha'ak M2s.

What do you think about restoring their characteristics from X3:AP, making them more of a anti hull weapon? Currently a GC does 7220 dps on shields and 1240 dps on hulls. What about reducing the shield damage by 33% and increasing hull damage by 50%? I could also imagine to increase the energy usage of GCs. When I increase this by a third from 300/s to 400/s, the weak weapon energy reactor from Teladi and most Pirate ships (*cough* but not the Pirate Titan *cough*) will be more painful for the player.

What's your opinion on this?

[Taro8]

You could also bring back the ammo requirement for gauss. I must say I like the idea of less shield damage and more damage to the hull.

EDIT: It also seems that Gauss has speed reduction flag in XRM. Now I dont know if I checked it by mistake before or its how it was.

X Editor 2 allows for lots of messing around with ships, adding different weapons to the turrets and such. I will have to check out if you can add more turrets there or will it require model editing.

Note that I didnt say I made capital's slow, the max speed remains the same as it was, I nerfed only manoeuvrability stats. TBH I did this as I once simply "flailed" around in nimble cap ship in order to swat some figthers using my hull. It just didnt look natural for me.

[d_ka]

Well, more energy drain for a GC sounds better, but even if implemented, if fighting myself, i rarely see a really prolonged fight among NPCs, unless there is no real killing power on one side ( or the Boron capitals are stunning Xenons to death with their IC lol ).
Making GC more hull oriented would give enormos advantage. Especially to those using MARS etc. to switch the guns; but even if not, like me, only manual switching if really nessesary, one would take out enemy capitals within seconds once their shields are down, wich then would counter the whole idea of higher hull values. Well, if the hull damage is increased by 10-15% perhaps, not more, and range or speed are reduced, it coulld be used as kind of finisher, or simply more effecctive weapon vs. those behemots.
And before i forget: ISR in split capitals main/side turrets almost leads to their inability to fight at a distance, and bounce, when used, prevents too close manouvering.

[BlackArchon]

...
EDIT: It also seems that Gauss has speed reduction flag in XRM. Now I dont know if I checked it by mistake before or its how it was.
...

GCs have -30% speed for 4 seconds.

[Taro8]

Well, more energy drain for a GC sounds better, but even if implemented, if fighting myself, i rarely see a really prolonged fight among NPCs, unless there is no real killing power on one side ( or the Boron capitals are stunning Xenons to death with their IC lol ).

Are you using any hull mod? Personally I use the highest multiplayer, with those getting the shields down is the easy part, actually killing the target requires much more firepower. I like that setup.

[d_ka]

I used high_hulls before for a long time, then changed ´em to "medium" cause i got tired of repairing my ships after any small encounter with Xenons ( it´s the software that drow me crazy ^^ ).
Also Mass Driver is utterly useless at high_high hulls ( for NPC, cause i have no patience using it, and it´s range is way too short ).
But high_hulls give you a reason to build a tommahawk/hammers plex, and use bombers for those stubborn b´ches

Are you using any hull mod? Personally I use the highest multiplayer, with those getting the shields down is the easy part, actually killing the target requires much more firepower. I like that setup.

Actually, i think that´s the problem - it´s too easy to bring shields down. Wether it´s because the weapons make too much shield damage in general, or maybe because the firerate frequency is too high for some capital class weapons, or perhaps some ships have way too frew shield slots ( the Split ships are supposed to be some of the fastest/agile ships in the game, and though their fighters are quite good, but not what i´d like them to be, their capitals do not profit from that agility while having weaker shields/generators then others simply because ther is no way to "outmanouver" enemy capital ship as an NPC - esp. against Xenons, esp when the hull gets hit, the speed goes down, and that´s it ).
On one hand, i loved that feeling of danger, beeing thrilled by the fact that my hull already screams for mercy, while finishing the enemies off, just like in those war movies - emersion poor! And, oh, my capitals had much more chances to survive since the emergency jumping could take a while, and a thick hull was always welcome, but as i said: repairs, reinstallations, frankly - even more work. Well, it can be fun, if you focus just on the fighting aspect, and that´s what i mostly do, esp. at the end of the game, but i never build kind of economy plexes that make me money, and so i have to rely on bounty only to "feed" my crews, and also to repair all the damage... but i digress

[Taro8]

Well think of the repairs as a "money sink". Its a game mechanic(s) that are designed to drain your money so you dont end up with billions with nothing to use them for. Saints Row 3 did it really really well, your character skill learning skill was done by buying those skills once you get the required level. This left me actually working my ass off to get more money and made the cash actually useful aside from buying weapons and clothes.

As for shields giving out too fast, I think of them as a way to prevent small time enemies from damaging your hull. A kind of investment to cut the repair costs.

As for MD, I edited mine to give it 10km range + 30 more hull damage.

[Master of the Blade]

I run with medium hulls and IMO it's about right. Doesn't take forever to kill stuff, but neither does it pop too quickly. That said, it is VERY difficult to turn a profit from bounty hunting if you don't cheese it - losing a single fighter can erase the money you get for killing off your average M2, and a few percent hull damage on an M2+ will wash away profits from clearing an entire sector.

Since capitals have such thick hulls (a good thing) it's very difficult to avoid taking damage to your own capitals when they're engaging enemy caps, particularly Xenon with their absurdly OP Dark Matter Beam Cannon. While it's entirely possible, the awful AI makes winning without hull damage far more difficult than it needs to be.

Refitting lost modules after a fight is very obnoxious, since the HQ stations can't replace software or jumpdrives.

In all, while using AI fleets to fight is pretty fun, it's extremely difficult to do without excessive worry about losses and damage. Regardless, it's way more rewarding in XRM than in vanilla thanks to bounties, and there's not much that can be done, since a lone player with an M7 and some time can clear out a Xenon sector with no damage, meaning increased bounties are out of the question...

[BlackArchon]

To the guys who complain about high repair costs: have you ever tried using OTAS Maintenance Pods? This is a fast and cheap way to repair capital ships.

[Master of the Blade]

have you ever tried using OTAS Maintenance Pods?

Yes, but they're unbelievably cheesy IMO. Even the HQ stations have a significant repair cost, but the maintenance pod is absurdly efficient compared to every other option. I stopped using them when I realised just how much money they could generate out of almost nothing, especially combined with hacking.