In my journey to transform this mod into one that focuses much more on quality of gameplay over unnecessarily amounts of content, I've been making a number of changes. Some of these are big but a lot are small. My hope is that all of these small changes will add up to make for a better gameplay experience that requires more thought and strategy. Some changes are discussed below. There are a lot of other changes to be revealed later too.
A major change is that ships will now carry their proper, canon fighter complements. This will definitely cause you to rethink how you approach the enemy, because canonically most ships in the mod do not carry any bombers, only interceptors. For example, the Scythe and ShaShore only carry CF9 Crossfires and aren't supposed to have BB-2 Starfire Bombers. In the same way, the Pellaeon and Ardent are not supposed to carry Neutralizer-class Bombers. You will now have to either buy bomber
squadrons separately, or invest in carriers (a new addition to be discussed later). Shuttles will be carried by their respective frigates and capital ships as well (also remember that they are now the only craft capable of capturing build pads in space skirmish). A revised list of each unit’s fighter and
shuttle complement will come soon.
Going in a different direction now—a couple months ago I released a lengthy list of removed content. I will reveal some new things for you, with the purpose of adding more strategic choices and making
for more in-depth gameplay. There are several new structures that will be present in Galactic Conquest mode, each with unique purpose and benefits. Below are some of the new structures:
-Commercial Trade-Port
-Gas Extractor
-Orbital Hydroponics Facility
-Mercenary Starbase
-Supplementary Drydock
-Asteroid Mine
-Orbital Garrison
(a couple of these are already in the mod but will be changed)
The goal of these new structures is fairly straightforward: specialize each planet in a certain field. Some worlds will become major economic hubs; others will be massive military support centers; and some will be starship producers. Of course, certain elements from each option can be combined if the planet allows construction of multiple facility types. Every world is unique and I want to try to capture that as much as I can with this game and the resources I have.
Something I mentioned earlier in this post is that building carriers is one way to obtain bombers, now that ships will have their canon fighter complements, yet currently there are no carriers in the mod (aside from the Emancipator). As you’ve probably figured out, this means I am adding carrier units. The Krayt Empire and Galactic Alliance will each have one new carrier. Additionally, they will each have a repair ship. These new vessels will all be revealed soon. The Confederation Revenant on the other hand, well I don’t know what I’m doing with them. Time will tell—anyway, I digress.
These two new kinds of units (carrier and repair ships) will give you more choices in how you
build your fleet. Each class is important. Will you aim for a balanced fleet capable of handling most threats? Or will you focus on carriers, hoping that your swarms of fighters will overload your enemy? You may try to create a diverse force of nimble, smaller warships. Whatever strategy you choose is up to you. Each class of starship has it strengths and weaknesses. You have to find out what works. Each ship matters, don’t forget that.
Be on the lookout as I post new media showing some of the new content that is coming up, and don’t forget to check in often to see how progress is going. I will have a more detailed article up soon; hopefully by early December. Until then, may the force be with you.
And remember kids, don't ask for a release date. You ain't gettin one.
Good to hear that you've been making progress, your plan seems pretty good, so good luck with that, hope you get it working :).
I think that you already know about this ships but just in case...
Adamkop.deviantart.com
Adamkop.deviantart.com
Adamkop.deviantart.com
Adamkop.deviantart.com
Handofmanos.deviantart.com
Images3.wikia.nocookie.net
Yes, these are very nice ships that would be awesome to include
Well good luck to you with college man! And I'm glad you're adding repair units, although in vanilla FoC, the repair stations act...odd: they don't repair hardpoints on big ships unless their almost destroyed or have already lost some. Is this fixable or something in the game's code that can't be worked around?
to be honest I can't really remember how they acted in vanilla FoC, but they should be acting normally in the mod
All around informative update. Can't wait for a final release.
P.S. Great line at the end there.
I would like to know the status of heroes. I'm new to this mod (I started tracking two days ago) so I don't know what you intend on doing with that aspect of the game. I do believe however that the mod in it's current is close to unplayable with the lack of heroes and the absolutely absurd price of higher tier ships. Addressing the former no heroes in a strategy game is like a cardinal sin; especially in a Star Wars game where with no Jedi, Sith and lightsabers it just glorified Star Trek.The latter however I'll admit I haven't had much time with the mod but at just glance the prices are outrageous if the base game economy is used. The most expansive unit in the base game is the second Death Star that cost 30,000 that was a lot for a one time unit so if those are units you can make fleets with then 50,000 is just too much for one ship. So those are my only concerns with the mod, I hope you'll take my points into consideration.
Economics and such are, and will be, considerably different in the mod compared to vanilla FoC. The most powerful ships are massive and realistically cost many times more than standard ships, so they cost a great deal more in the mod than other units do. They are a major investment, but won't be unreachable in the mod.
Heroes are coming too, but are secondary to other features at this point.
Great selection of juicy tidbits, cheesecake645!
It sounds like everything is going well; good luck in your academics!
Great upcoming goals you have. Approved :)
Cant wait to see what A Chasemaster frigate looks like.......
Fricken awesome, cannot wait! Huge Legacy Era fan, really interested to see where this goes from here. Thanks for all your hard work Cheesecake! we appreciate it!