What should I mod: answering the questions » Forum Post by nomacroforyou

I'm playing my first game on a random 2vs2 map as TEC against the Advent on Easy. General observations after 5 hours of play:

* Crystal mining takes a long time, but using the black market helps get through times of scarcity.

* During hour four my home planet went neutral due to the Advent culture extending through the phase lanes and me not building any broadcast centers (whoops, didn't know that would happen). I freed up a logistic slot on a nearby planet, built the broadcast center, and managed to take back my starting world. Had to upgrade everything again as a price for my ignorance.

* Autocast is always spent from my capitals once I get to them. I have to wonder if I need to turn off autocast altogether and just rely on microing cap ship abilities.

* Enemy ships always run from my large fleet. I only have four caps and the rest mixed support, mostly light frigates, LRMS, all heavies except command cruiser, around...100 ships?

* Pirate raids seem too frequent. I read various posts about how to deal with pirates so I know how to handle them, but annoying nonetheless.

Questions I have so far:

* Does it make sense to mod the economy, such as make crystal output higher per second, or does the black market pretty much allow a player to rebalance the resources needed?

* The game seems to take a long time to play, though I understand that aspect is part of its charm. Is the better way to speed up gameplay by making resources easier to acquire or by making ship weapons more powerful than they are, or does some other change work better without breaking gameplay? Perhaps I should reduce the shield strength somewhat, either shield mitigation or regeneration?

Not that I mind a long game, as I would play typical 4X games for up to 8 hours a day. But I would like to play in a much larger galaxy but can't see myself playing a SP session that would last weeks for one game.

* Culture: Can a warning event be modded in to let a player know that planet is falling dangerously low in terms of influence due to enemy culture? I see Ron Lugge mentioned the need for a culture warning feature in one of his Beta Feedback threads from last July. Or is there a warning and I just missed it?

* To keep enemy ships from jumping around so much should I increase jump antimatter costs? I realize I want a faster game so slowing down ships may not make sense, but if I make ships be more vulnerable to damage then slower jumps shouldn't slow down overall gameplay to much.

* As a corollary, if I slow down the AI's ability to jump, will this break the AI in that, as the AI commands it's ships to move and while waiting to recharge, their ships won't attack? I don't want to mess with slower antimatter replenishment if the feature will break the AI.

* Does it make sense to slow down pirate attacks up to 30 minutes, or eliminate them altogether? I would rather focus on the enemy races than the pirates, despite the experience benefits.

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The game seems to take a long time to play, though I understand that aspect is part of its charm. Is the better way to speed up gameplay by making resources easier to acquire or by making ship weapons more powerful than they are, or does some other change work better without breaking gameplay? Perhaps I should reduce the shield strength somewhat, either shield mitigation or regeneration?

The + and - keys adjust time acceleration, anywhere from 1x to 8x I believe. That may help you.

Can a warning event be modded in to let a player know that planet is falling dangerously low in terms of influence due to enemy culture?

I think there's one at 25% allegiance, but I'm not completely sure.

To keep enemy ships from jumping around so much should I increase jump antimatter costs?

Low antimatter doesn't prevent ships from jumping, just from using abilities, they can still jump with say 15 AM, it just drains it all.

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* Does it make sense to mod the economy, such as make crystal output higher per second, or does the black market pretty much allow a player to rebalance the resources needed?

It depends greatly on the map. I have played several games now. Sometimes I have tons of metal and not much crystal, other times it has been the opposite. And sometimes I have lots of resources and but very little money. I would be concerned that speeding up the economy would turn the game into more of a typical fastest-clicker-wins RTS. Maybe this is more your thing, but I really don't like most RTS's because of this.

* The game seems to take a long time to play, though I understand that aspect is part of its charm. Is the better way to speed up gameplay by making resources easier to acquire or by making ship weapons more powerful than they are, or does some other change work better without breaking gameplay? Perhaps I should reduce the shield strength somewhat, either shield mitigation or regeneration?Not that I mind a long game, as I would play typical 4X games for up to 8 hours a day. But I would like to play in a much larger galaxy but can't see myself playing a SP session that would last weeks for one game.

Try one of the larger "small" maps. Game shouldn't take more than an hour or 2. I haven't tried a medium map yet, but all of my games have been very short. A little too short actually.

* As a corollary, if I slow down the AI's ability to jump, will this break the AI in that, as the AI commands it's ships to move and while waiting to recharge, their ships won't attack? I don't want to mess with slower antimatter replenishment if the feature will break the AI.

I haven't tried it, but yes, I believe the AI will attempt to jump and sit there helpless while waiting for it. So I would be careful about changing this much. Maybe make just phase jump inhibitors cover the whole gravity well.

* Does it make sense to slow down pirate attacks up to 30 minutes, or eliminate them altogether? I would rather focus on the enemy races than the pirates, despite the experience benefits.

Not every map has pirates. If you slow it to 30 mins, you might as well just get rid of them IMO.

I like the pirates. It gives a nation that has had its fleets destroyed an opportunity to counterattack.

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Not having enough antimatter never prevents a ship from jumping, it simply depletes whatever is there in such a case. You can make the AM cost of jumping 300, and that would just mean pretty much every ship will arrive at the destination with 0, but even if a ship has 1/300, it'll still be able to jump.

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Not that I mind a long game, as I would play typical 4X games for up to 8 hours a day. But I would like to play in a much larger galaxy but can't see myself playing a SP session that would last weeks for one game.

I've had some medium maps last 8-10 hours, and large/huge take considerably longer. I think a large variable to this is how well populated the randomly generated map is. If you get mostly planets in your area and your opponent is left with asteriods and gas giants, you're going to trounce them much faster. Try soem of the premade maps and take on medium or hard AI's, and you'll find the game takes a lot longer on even a small map.

Also the type of AI you choose can alter the game time drastically, the economy or researching AI is pretty weak on the O and D, while the Agressor and Fortificator is much better at getting out there and taking planets/making themselves a problem to your empire.

* Does it make sense to slow down pirate attacks up to 30 minutes, or eliminate them altogether? I would rather focus on the enemy races than the pirates, despite the experience benefits.

I've slowed them down to 30 mintues in one of my mods, (and the slow pirates mod makes them about 20-25 minutes apart) and found they were more of a minor pest instead of the semi threatening annoyance they are normally.

If you do slow them down (default is 10 mintues I believe) then increase by 50% (or double) their power/# of ships etc.. for every 10 minutes you slow them down by. (2-3x as powerful every 30 mintues still makes them a danger but not the "every 5 mintues pain in the ass annoyance" they are now)

* The game seems to take a long time to play, though I understand that aspect is part of its charm. Is the better way to speed up gameplay by making resources easier to acquire or by making ship weapons more powerful than they are, or does some other change work better without breaking gameplay? Perhaps I should reduce the shield strength somewhat, either shield mitigation or regeneration

I found a better change is to reduce the cost (in mineral and metal not credit) for the research requirements that pull in the crystal and metal so that you can boost a sagging economy easier. (after all if you're poor on crystal, trying to pull in the 100+ crystal to upgrade crystal harvesting is going to be a pain in the ass) Also adding 2-3 more levels (that cost considerably more each time) to the crystal/mining research helps a player with poor crystal/metal resources compensate for the loss. (especially on random maps with random resources)

But like falloutboy said, this can turn make things faster paced, although with this method the time it takes you to research the tech helps alleviate this somewhat, and the extra resource income helps in late game on bigger maps when most of your economy is tied up in fleet maintainence.

I never really bothered with the black market, since in single player the AI seems to ignore it entirely, so you wind up paying through the nose for the needed crystal/minerals over time. (400-500cr+ per 100 crystal/metal? Oucha!)

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I haven't tried it, but yes, I believe the AI will attempt to jump and sit there helpless while waiting for it. So I would be careful about changing this much. Maybe make just phase jump inhibitors cover the whole gravity well.

What if I mod in phase jump inhibitors into all planets and asteroids, even neutral ones, that are automatically activated and effect all players and AI. Then any place on the map connected by phase lanes will take longer for any ship to jump through.

I'm not sure if the inhibitor would still be active after the planet/asteroid is taken. Also would have to see what would happen if a phase-jump inhibitor ability is researched or built. The research and phase-jump inhibitor planetary module would no longer be required.

But what would the impact be on the AI. With current phase-jump inhibitors, if the AI encounters one do they flee and not attack while waiting to jump or do they put up a fight during the wait?

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