[WIP] FRBs, Foraven's Stellaris rebalance mod

[Shoobs]

I made some progress with my pirates, but there are still a few quirks i struggle to get fixed. Not sure how long it will take to finally get rid of the problems. Everything works but fleet orders are temperamental, they work when they want to. Timed fleet flags are unreliable but i need them to make things work, but so far i haven't been able to figure out what is wrong.

It might be time to let us take a look at some of the code.

 

[Foraven]

It might be time to let us take a look at some of the code.

Well, feel free to look at the new version i sent to the steam workshop. I managed to make things work almost perfect; broke the "return home" code again when i moved the fleet orders to fleet events (at least they get back to their original system, but not the base itself). Everything else is much better though. The new code allow to make changes that always work with savegames, unlike the old.

 

[Foraven]

New version is out :

Version 2.5.0

-Revamp of pirate fleet orders (ie how they behave and queue their orders).
-Pirates have max numbers of ships per fleets
-Pirates have max numbers of fleets (scaled to empire size).
-Tweaked ship behaviors.
-Pirates no longer raid fallen empires.
-Pirates no longer spawn anywhere near or inside Fallen Empires.
-Added timer to star systems so multiple pirate fleets can't be all sent at the same target.
-Added many constraints to where pirate bases can spawn, should get a lot less of them over time.
-Cleared pirate systems will remain so for at least 10 years.
-Galaxy Generator : fixed binaries spawning too close of each others.

Note: Pirate gets more ships from their home system. Unfortunately, i can't make them to do so from their base, they will spawn new ships around a random planet.

 

[Foraven]

If anyone can help with my pirate-return-home problem, look at this thread :
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...nt-owned-with-a-pirate-station-nearby.958007/

 

[Foraven]

It is fixed ! After weeks of struggling with it, it's now done for good. As far as i can tell, the pirate factions works as intended, all that is left to do is tweak a few parameters like spawn rates and limit how many pirates can actually spawn on the map. Meanwhile, the changes :

Version 2.5.1

-Fixed pirate fleet "go back to base" order ; they now fly back to their base after their missions for repairs.
-Added randomness to pirate flags : will be much more varied (vanilla has 10 unused flags).

 

[Foraven]

What is left now is balancing "The horde". While all the bugs are fixed, the problem of them getting too numerous over time is still there. On my many test i could see that while the AI does kill some of the pirate fleets, most of those fleets still get back home, grow stronger and attack again. Empire fleets don't keep up with how fast pirates gets more powerful and to make things worst, more pirate factions appears. I have not seen empires mount an assault on pirates bases, not sure if it's because they don't have enough ships for it or it's too low of a priority. Will have to figure things out in the next few days once i have the time.

 

[Foraven]

Pirate spam is finally fixed. The solution : pirates can only spawn in owned space or near it, not anywhere in an arbitrary range. That means small empires have little space for them to spawn, but larger ones can host many, especially if they have lots of empty systems winthin their borders or nearby. Pirates can't spawn next to a colonized system or one already occupied by pirates so this greatly limit where they can settle. The other plus is by being closer to their host empires, AI run empires understand how to deal with them and will destroy pirate bases.

Version 2.5.2

-Fixed pirate spam : pirate factions can only spawn inside or nearby their "host" empire space.

 

[Foraven]

Currently working on new shipclasses for FRB. Learning from my previous mistakes, i will make it an add-on rather than include this in the main file so if players don't want it or it's buggy as hell, it can be turned of without removing the base mod. Only thing left to do is define what technology unlock each new ship classes.

What i have so far :

Light corvette : A cheaper, weaker but faster and quicker to build alternative to normal corvette.
Heavy corvette : A more expensive corvette better at soaking damage.
Recon : A cheap, quick to build and disposable ship to explore the universe with. Speedier both in normal space and FTL. Weakly armed.
Gunship : A destroyer variant that only use medium and large mount with bonuses to armor and shields. A pocket battleship.
Escort : A destroyer variant that specialize in defending the fleet against missiles and strike crafts.
Battlecruiser : Faster and more powerful than cruisers but with weaker hull. No light mount or strike crafts.
Heavycruiser : A thougher cruiser with better defense than normal cruiser. Slower and less agile. No strike crafts.
Carrier : A cruiser variant with double strike crafts capacity but lighter armament.
Dreadnaught : A variant of the battleship, faster and harder hitting but without auras or strike crafts. Also mostly use large mount weapons with very few medium or small mounts.

The idea is to add some specialized ship classes that provide some roles without making base ship classes obsolete. So no variant that are better in every ways to what already exist.

 

[ifail]

would it be better to combine recon and light corvette?? I for one would probly not use them after the escort destroyer is unlock then il spam the escort version instead of light/heavy corvette then spam the big ships

 

[Foraven]

would it be better to combine recon and light corvette?? I for one would probly not use them after the escort destroyer is unlock then il spam the escort version instead of light/heavy corvette then spam the big ships

Posted the mod today : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=730190659

I gave different bonuses to the recon and light corvette, and they use different corvette hulls. Both are spammable but only the light corvette has firepower. You can spam whatever you prefer, only time will tell if it's a good strategy. For sure i tried to balance the new ships so they never totally replace the stock ones.

 

[Foraven]

Seem that my ship class addon has some success, new subscribers every day and the main mod is growing as well. I guess new ships and technologies are things many players want so i will probably add more of those in the near future. I'm currently working on the addon to make each new ship class unlock with their own technologies and also added 3 new ship classes as well.

 

[Foraven]

New mod version. Rebalanced shields and armor, health buff of armor made shields completely useless by the end-game so i adjusted the scaling. Ship hull also give a bonus to shields hp so larger hull have some use for shields.

 

[Foraven]

Currently working on a fix to the "AI forget it's fleet all over the place" vanilla problem. One thing they seem to have in common is they got into a fight with monsters, got some damage then just park where ever they ended up. I'm trying to make an event that order those fleets back home (since the AI doesn't on it's own), but filtering fleets with damaged ships seem a lot more complicated than it should be. At least i can't find any way to do it without using ship flags as there is no real way to do it from fleet scope...

 

[omnipotentatus]

Do the pirates ever stop spawning? Like if you destroy all their bases, will they then stop spawning all the time? In my current game it's rather annoying having to deal with increasingly powerful stacks of pirate fleets, destroying my mining and research stations.

 

[Foraven]

Do the pirates ever stop spawning? Like if you destroy all their bases, will they then stop spawning all the time? In my current game it's rather annoying having to deal with increasingly powerful stacks of pirate fleets, destroying my mining and research stations.

I did not put a hard limit on their respawn, but i did put some limits.

-Once a pirate spawn in a system, no new ones can appear there for at least 10 years.
-They can't spawn in or around a colonized system.
-Pirates harrassing your empire can't spawn very far from your borders.
-Pirates don't send their fleet farther than a low tier wormhole station could (ie same range regardless of FTL type).
-Pirate fleets remain small and are much weaker than same number of regular ships.

Limits on their targets :

-They don't attack homeworlds.
-They don't attack systems with spaceport station
-They don't attack systems with medium or large military stations

Another limit :

-Pirates fight each others, they do destroy rival pirate stations from time to time.

Tips :

Build military stations in all your systems, that should keep them away.

-------------------------------------------

I admit there might be some other things i could do to balance them, but i need some more feedback.

 

[Foraven]

Hum. I have been playing a lenghty game, testing out my mods and found out pirates are a bit difficult but not impossible to beat. Once you have descent space stations you can build traps for them and kill them off without losing a ship. However you are in a difficult spot if you don't have any defense stations to build or they lack defenses and weapons. I noticed though my pirates like to blow up outposts, no idea why since it's not the way intended it. Fortunately they aren't as expensive as they used to be so it's not a big deal and pirates don't destroy stations that are cut off from your empire (that would be mean ).

I'm looking for ways to improve the pirates so they are pesky but not overwhelming. I might code some abort and retreat code though i don't really know how to make the pirate assess military power like the AI does. Pirates should not fight to the last man nor suicide themselves against impregnable defenses.

 

[PaxHadrian]

You asked for additional feedback so this was my experience:

I attacked a pirate base showing no ships (my strength 2,000 firepower, including 12 corvettes and 8 destroyers). The pirate station showed a firepower of about 350. When I got close enough to engage it, it started spawning pirate taskforces. I fought and killed more than 6 taskforces before I had to conduct a fighting retreat, running from at least 8 additional pirate taskforces with combat power ranging from abot 150 - 400. I had lost every corvette and watched my primary fleet drop to about 1,000 combat power.

I like the pirate mechanic but for me, this seemed like too much, particularly when pirate bases started spawning in multiple systems across my empire, all considered high intelligence areas, with no warning at all. This happened after I had attached the first pirate base outside my borders. Each of these also spawned 6-8 pirate taskforces with combat power varying from about 150 - 400.

I was playing a hyperlane only game so that there would be strategic choke points that I could defend if needed but the pirate spawning mechanic ignored those by spawning within multiple systems of my empire, all with mining bases (no colonies or military outposts). 1 base spawned next to a mining outpost, then proceeded to destroy it with weapons fire - again, no construction ship or warning.

If there was a way to spawn in low or no intelligence areas in/near an empire, that would make more sense and it would allow for defenses built to stop other empires at the borders of an empire to actually do the same to pirates.

 

[Foraven]

You asked for additional feedback so this was my experience:

I attacked a pirate base showing no ships (my strength 2,000 firepower, including 12 corvettes and 8 destroyers). The pirate station showed a firepower of about 350. When I got close enough to engage it, it started spawning pirate taskforces. I fought and killed more than 6 taskforces before I had to conduct a fighting retreat, running from at least 8 additional pirate taskforces with combat power ranging from abot 150 - 400. I had lost every corvette and watched my primary fleet drop to about 1,000 combat power.

I like the pirate mechanic but for me, this seemed like too much, particularly when pirate bases started spawning in multiple systems across my empire, all considered high intelligence areas, with no warning at all. This happened after I had attached the first pirate base outside my borders. Each of these also spawned 6-8 pirate taskforces with combat power varying from about 150 - 400.

I was playing a hyperlane only game so that there would be strategic choke points that I could defend if needed but the pirate spawning mechanic ignored those by spawning within multiple systems of my empire, all with mining bases (no colonies or military outposts). 1 base spawned next to a mining outpost, then proceeded to destroy it with weapons fire - again, no construction ship or warning.

If there was a way to spawn in low or no intelligence areas in/near an empire, that would make more sense and it would allow for defenses built to stop other empires at the borders of an empire to actually do the same to pirates.

Hum, what you describe is a bug that was in an older version of my mod. Pirates would suddendly build tons of ships and would send them non-stop. Same thing for their stations. Current version don't have that, there are multiple checks to avoid "chain spawning". As for stations spawning without anyone building them, that's normal as they are an event rather than a on going nation building stuff. I may eventually make them spawn in a different manner once i understand how to.

Edit: If you downloaded the mod from steam, the mod should be updating itself automatically. But in case it didn't, removing the mod and re-downloading it might fix the problem.

 

[Foraven]

Update:

Version 2.7.1

-Added support for the plantoids ships.
-fixed scaling mismatches in several shipsets.

 

[Dalinski]

I'm pretty impressed with what you are trying to do here. A couple of notes I wanted to get off my chest.

I personally prefer the ranges extending out to 90ish at least.....am I alone?
I think someone can do A LOT with "Alpha Aliens Galactic Ambitions" ship profiles. I think this could REALLY shake things up. I don't agree with that mods particular bonuses.

I would lean towards:

Destroyers bonus to small weapons especially accuracy to counter corvettes
Cruisers bonus to medium weapons
Battleships bonus to large weapons, bonus to range, penalty to evasion

Seems it would be easier to make other ship classes?
Battlecruiser (Battleship) bonus to speed and evasion, penalty to hull points.....
Escort Cruiser (Cruiser) bonus to pirates...?

People with more flare than me could really make this profile system work I think.....perhaps worth discussin at least?