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

[d_ka]

It´s been a while, i´ve been eagerly waiting for the latest XRM version ( hey paul, how is it going? ) , but i was in the mood for a new fun game, and so i fired it up. Long story briefly told: wiped out the entire Zyaths Dominion sector from Xenon presense ( after couple of days without attention, it gets crowded a lot, and i mean a lot, like - several M2, up to a dozen of M7, dozenS of M6, and countless fighters from couple of carriers ). I´ve managed to do so with only 2 ships: my Heavy Dragon, and my Boreas, which i had to buy midfighs, since i couldn´t take it on enemy capitals with my M6.
The secret? Easy: lure them one by one to my Boreas armed with couple of Ion Cannons, and rest Plasma Beam Cannons ( rest is only relevant for missiles, and fighters ), the M6 and the fighters i took out personaly ( hit&run ).
Sure, turbo booster is installed, otherwise i couldn´t get away fast enough from a super massive salvos, but that´s the part with "run". The most funny thing was watching the Ion Cannons ( only 5 of them in the front main turret ), completly take any Xenon capital out of juice within seconds! Thats all you need.
Don´t know about you guys, but that "pacifistic" weapon seems to be the most danagerous one in the game

I should also say that i´m using Cronos´ adv. fight scripts, so it is actually possible that your M2 holds position while bombarding enemies, instead of turning around like a snake, ehm fighter.

P.S: Because of that last succesfull test of mine above i plaid for softening the Ion Cannon effect - it´s allmighty right now, IMO.

[BlackArchon]

Paul, can you give us a hint about the NPC MARS drone repair problem? My observations are as follows:

- If a ship of mine got its hull damaged and it's IS, the drones are working fine - they are swarming the damaged ship and are constantly repairing it.
- If a NPC ship got its hull damaged and it's IS, its drones are also swarming the ship and shooting it, but the hull hitpoints won't change.
- If I leave the sector (so that this damaged NPC ship is OOS) and return to it immediately, the hull hitpoints of the ship are increased! So at least OOS, the NPC's repair drones seems to be working.
- Changing the energy consumption of the repair laser from the default 5 per shot to 1 seems to have no effect.

What can I do to further debug this problem?

I have no idea - I've never had a report of the drones not working correctly before.

Are you using a hull pack? Remember the hull points are so much bigger than vanilla when using a hull pack so it will take a lot longer to repair.

I'm using the medium hull pack, but since I watch the NPC ship's info screen (which shows the exact numeric values for its hull), I'm able to see that there isn't a change while its drones are firing their lasers for minutes.

I assume the drones use the standard repair laser? If so the only difference to vanilla is that it actually uses less energy already.

Theoretically the drones should use the standard repair laser. The fact that repairing works OOS (for NPC ships) and IS/OOS for my own ships would imply that. But I can't scan their cargo ingame, so I'm unable to verify this.
These drones should have the ship ID "SS_SH_FIGHTDRONE" from TShips, is this correct?

As you state in the installation instructions, MARS repair drones are already integrated into XRM. I followed these instructions and didn't install MARS' drones cat/dat files. Is it still possible that MARS is interfering with the XRM-builtin drones and causing this problem?

[Master of the Blade]

Sorry to keep going on about this, but I managed to put TBCs into the up/down turrets of the Nemesis Sentinel. It's definitely not OP now, a single TBC isn't even as strong as the banks of 4x fighter class weapons of other sentinel corvettes in DPS it seems, it just has a range advantage. It also has trouble delivering all its damage as it goes off target while the ship manoeuvres.

The only problem with this is that it uses the fact that the Nemesis-S uses the P_UPDO_M7 turret for its top/bottom mounts, which is great in that it means only those turrets get the TBC when I change the compatibility. The downside is that the Agamemnon now has the TBC and PSG in nearly all its turrets, while the Ariadne M7C has them in its top/bottom turrets, both of which are terrifyingly OP.

This could be fixed by changing the Aggy's L/R/B turrets and the Ariadne's U/D to the P_REAR_M7 turrets instead of the UPDO ones, which have similar compatibilities in 'vanilla' XRM. When I tried this I predictably broke the turrets in question and I don't know how to get them to work. (kept a backup of course)

Again, apologies for cluttering up the thread with this stuff, but I percieve it as one of the few imbalances in an otherwise near-flawless balance.

[xenoncore123]

Can i just put the entire file into one zipped file and use cycrowsplugin manager ?

[gilboa]

It´s been a while, i´ve been eagerly waiting for the latest XRM version ( hey paul, how is it going? ) , but i was in the mood for a new fun game, and so i fired it up. Long story briefly told: wiped out the entire Zyaths Dominion sector from Xenon presense ( after couple of days without attention, it gets crowded a lot, and i mean a lot, like - several M2, up to a dozen of M7, dozenS of M6, and countless fighters from couple of carriers ). I´ve managed to do so with only 2 ships: my Heavy Dragon, and my Boreas, which i had to buy midfighs, since i couldn´t take it on enemy capitals with my M6.
The secret? Easy: lure them one by one to my Boreas armed with couple of Ion Cannons, and rest Plasma Beam Cannons ( rest is only relevant for missiles, and fighters ), the M6 and the fighters i took out personaly ( hit&run ).
Sure, turbo booster is installed, otherwise i couldn´t get away fast enough from a super massive salvos, but that´s the part with "run". The most funny thing was watching the Ion Cannons ( only 5 of them in the front main turret ), completly take any Xenon capital out of juice within seconds! Thats all you need.
Don´t know about you guys, but that "pacifistic" weapon seems to be the most danagerous one in the game

I should also say that i´m using Cronos´ adv. fight scripts, so it is actually possible that your M2 holds position while bombarding enemies, instead of turning around like a snake, ehm fighter.

P.S: Because of that last succesfull test of mine above i plaid for softening the Ion Cannon effect - it´s allmighty right now, IMO.

Which hull pack are you using?
At least in my case, w/ medium (or max, don't really remember) hull pack, the Boreas is nearly useless against anything above a single K or I.
As such, the first time I completely cleaned Zyaths Dominion, I use 3 Split Krait (PBP + PALC) in V formation (with me leading the pack).
As long as I could keep the AI pilots in formation, nothing, and that includes Khaak M2+, stood a chance.

BTW, do you experience any performance hit when using the Cronos´ advance fight scripts?

- Gilboa

[paulwheeler]

As you state in the installation instructions, MARS repair drones are already integrated into XRM. I followed these instructions and didn't install MARS' drones cat/dat files. Is it still possible that MARS is interfering with the XRM-builtin drones and causing this problem?

The XRM-integrated drones are simply the MARS drones entries copy and pasted to the end of the XRM TShips. I have never had a report of any problems with this before.

I think you're going to have to ask in the MARS thread for further help with this. I've never actually used MARS myself.

[paulwheeler]

Can i just put the entire file into one zipped file and use cycrowsplugin manager ?

If it were really that simple, do you not think I'd have done that myself?

I'm afraid the only way is to follow the installation instructions. It really isn't that hard.

[paulwheeler]

Sorry to keep going on about this, but I managed to put TBCs into the up/down turrets of the Nemesis Sentinel. It's definitely not OP now, a single TBC isn't even as strong as the banks of 4x fighter class weapons of other sentinel corvettes in DPS it seems, it just has a range advantage. It also has trouble delivering all its damage as it goes off target while the ship manoeuvres.

The only problem with this is that it uses the fact that the Nemesis-S uses the P_UPDO_M7 turret for its top/bottom mounts, which is great in that it means only those turrets get the TBC when I change the compatibility. The downside is that the Agamemnon now has the TBC and PSG in nearly all its turrets, while the Ariadne M7C has them in its top/bottom turrets, both of which are terrifyingly OP.

This could be fixed by changing the Aggy's L/R/B turrets and the Ariadne's U/D to the P_REAR_M7 turrets instead of the UPDO ones, which have similar compatibilities in 'vanilla' XRM. When I tried this I predictably broke the turrets in question and I don't know how to get them to work. (kept a backup of course)

Again, apologies for cluttering up the thread with this stuff, but I percieve it as one of the few imbalances in an otherwise near-flawless balance.

I will look at the Nemesis Sentinel's balance again - I've got no ETA for the next update at the moment though.

[d_ka]

@Gilboa:

I used to play with "high hulls", but switched to "medium" because of the Xenon caps beein way too durable, thus me having to refit and repair any of my heavy ships after each single fight - i got tired of that tbh ^^

The thing with Boreas, or any other heavy ship capable of holding of IC is that it can lame a single enemy capital ship, while taking moderate damage, and destroying within a reasonable timeframe ( the PBC are very usefull vs. the hull ). Of course, if needed i used to assist in my personal ship, using lots of missiles sometimes when the next enemy capital was getting too close. The Boreas was struggling with weapon recharge itself, but it was enough to fire salvo after salvo, while even a Xenon I could onle fire its guns from time to time. If Boreas was about to become significant shield damage, it used to start evasive manouvers ( like in vanilla ), thus missing the shots with beams, and getting in danger.

Concerning performance: i think there are some lags due to Cronos´ scripts in my games, but since it is heavily modified, and is beeing run on a i7 laptop ( 2.4 ghz - 2.8 turbo max. ) i can´t tell for sure when it´s his scripts, and when it´s something else, but as long as the battles are moderatlely large, it´s ok.

Greetings.

[Eidolan]

On the hull packs, I found the script in the editor, hit "L" I got options of <null> or select ship or station, as someone before told me to do I just hit enter (thus picking null) and nothing seemed to have happened. I looked at the hull values of both a TL and a M6 (they happened to be next to me) and the hull values seemed to stay the same. Unless the pack just added a few zeros to the end, I was only looking at the 1st 3 digits and they stayed the same.

So I am checking to make sure I "ran" the script correctly.

I went to advanced > Global > Script editor, then edit script, scrolled down the list till i found the hull pack script, hit "L" (for load) then clicked on <null>

[paulwheeler]

Did you start your game with the hull pack installed? In that case you don't need to run the script - the hulls are already correct. The script is only when adding or changing a hull pack in an existing game.

[BlackArchon]

Is there a way to improve my Goner reputation besides cheating? Killing Kha'ak in sector Lightseeker has no effect.

[d_ka]

@BlackArchon:

There should be missions offered by Goners in their sectors, unless you have that starting -3 negative rep, of course.
The only other thing that comes to my mind is installing "live", and doing those "on the fly" missions ( as far those incorporate Goner ships/race ).
Or you could just cheat it up to "0", and then start doing missons for them ( if it´s about immersion, just "save" some Goner "Preachers" from those evil Kaakh Corvettes that are roaming in unknown sectors, and imagine you got the gratitude of the sect )

[Eidolan]

Did you start your game with the hull pack installed? In that case you don't need to run the script - the hulls are already correct. The script is only when adding or changing a hull pack in an existing game.

Ah, maybe I just need to go to "high" packs then, seems like once the Shields drop every ship folds like a house of cards, ten min to bust shields, 30 seconds to blow it up lol.

And is it just me or does anyone else get BLINDED by Ka'ath weapons? I die all the time fighting them, not because they blow me up but because I can't see where I am flying and I slam into something lol.

[Arsozah]

I now only have one gripe with this mod, and that's the incredible framedrop when I hit SETA.

When I hit it, I see the exhausts from my engine IN FRONT of the ship. Is this a bug, or did I screw up loadorder of mods again?

[BlackArchon]

If you see your engine trails in front of your ship, this usually means that ypur CPU is too weak for this SETA level. Lower your SETA level until your CPU can handle it.

[Master of the Blade]

...And is it just me or does anyone else get BLINDED by Ka'ath weapons?...

Yeah, the Beta Kyon Emitter is the worst offender here IMO. A large part of the challenge in fighting Kha'ak M6 class ships is being blinded by the impact graphics of their turrets.

The Frigate does the same thing, but going anywhere near the frigate with anything smaller than your own M7 is asking for a swift death regardless of whether you can see or not...

[d_ka]

but going anywhere near the frigate with anything smaller than your own M7 is asking for a swift death regardless of whether you can see or not...

That made me
But, actually, you can aproach Kaakh Frigate with less fear when using fighter drones - LOTS of them, though ^^
That way i used to hack it, because even a Xenon I can´t take it´s punishement for as long as the hacking process goes without getting ripped apart.

[Arsozah]

If you see your engine trails in front of your ship, this usually means that ypur CPU is too weak for this SETA level. Lower your SETA level until your CPU can handle it.

so... the i5 2410m (2.3ghz turboed to 2.9ghz) cant handle it? Wow, SETA with that mod truly eats up processor power then

[BlackArchon]

@BlackArchon:

There should be missions offered by Goners in their sectors, unless you have that starting -3 negative rep, of course.
The only other thing that comes to my mind is installing "live", and doing those "on the fly" missions ( as far those incorporate Goner ships/race ).
Or you could just cheat it up to "0", and then start doing missons for them ( if it´s about immersion, just "save" some Goner "Preachers" from those evil Kaakh Corvettes that are roaming in unknown sectors, and imagine you got the gratitude of the sect )

Well, I... accidentally... borrowed... and Aran from them and now there don't seem to be a way to improve my relations to them.
Ok, without the Live script there isn't a way. Thanks for your reply.