Comments - Lharrs

Glad to hear there is thought in this regard. Since I first heard and saw what Stellaris was my first thought was, "How good a Star Trek mod from The Armada 3 Team (at the time it was all of you) would be." I hope this is achieved in some form. I would offer my help in some capacity but I am only good at ideas and workarounds once I understand the process and as such have no real skill or experience with coding/programming and 3D graphics and the like aside from directing the flow of effort and coordinating the various parts into a cohesive whole. Thusly, I can only wish good luck to you all.

Not trying to just shuck off the other projects you folks intend on doing, but have you thought of doing supplementary mods for Stellaris? By this I mean creating small mods that add/modify content in Stellaris and/or add in small injections of Trek Tech/Ship/Weapons/etc. in small manageable chunks?

It would be interesting to see Trek inspired variants of ships or weapons and the like that would add to Stellairs but not actually unbalance the game or modify files. Creating whole new weapons classes for example (Phasors/Disruptors/Torpedeo Tech) then later add in Ship Tech for the various classes and the like.

With this stuff you would be able to take your time with each small mod and as time progresses, create mod packs. Yes it would not be a conversion but it would still allow for Trek related content to be add and it would be as part of an addition to the base game so hopefully, it would only add new things that do not cause as many conflicts and thus reduce time needed to update the mods for version use.

Just a thought, likely one you folks already had.

Indeed, I understand completely.

Howdy,

Though I know the general answer for most questions is essentially that the mod will be completed when it is completed, I was hoping we could at least get a generalized to-do list with a description (about the general time sink for completed items) posted so that we the fans can get a ballpark understanding of what has gone into the mod thus far and what is left. Is this possible or even probable?

The Spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised.

Thanks for the link, I will take a look at it.

Some what out of the blue, but what plans do you folks have in combating the issues regarding weapons Sizes, number of mounts per ship type, evasion, ship size class, and the NC (Naval Capacity) value per ship per class while also taking into consideration the overall Fleet power?

Example:
While attempting to avoid this being to extensive, the difference between say 10 cruisers with 40 NC versus 40 corvettes at 40 NC? In vanilla Stellaris, even if all the medium and large mounts were converted the equivalent number of smalls, the 40 NC fleet of corvettes would still out damage the Cruisers and as it is with the cruisers having medium and large mounts, they are unable to effectively target evasive ships like corvettes and as such if building ships in a utilitarian manner, these medium and large mounts would need missiles or equivalently accurate weapons to even come close to balancing the DPS output of the more numerous corvettes.

As such, even if the cruisers had a combined fleet power 2 or even 3 times that of the equivalently sized (NC) corvette fleet, the battle would still be insanely one sided in favor of the Corvettes. The player would likely see a 100% loss of the cruisers compared to a 30%-50% loss for the corvettes.

Whew, that is about as compact as I can make it. So again to restate the question, what is the current plan to balance out all the afore mentioned critical states to give the player a fun and fair experience?

Thanks for the reply. I do wish to point out that all the stuff I said was just something I noticed, I much prefer having a mod with the light show than no mod at all :D

On the initial look, I to was impressed as the look and feel of the mod is a bit more Trek than the current mod in alpha, New Horizons.

However, I found myself beginning to scrub through the battle on the demo video to find the close ups of ships, particularly the ones not being hit. I then asked myself why because it seemed very weird that I was scrubbing through a video that presented content I had been very excitedly waiting for.

The answer I came up with is that up close when not in combat, the ship detail is seen nicely. When in combat, that detail is easily overtaken by particles, bloom, etc. So then, in mid range, this is worsened a bit due to the fact that the battle is raging and beams, explosions, impacts, etc. are being seen on the screen as well and these draw the eye away from the ships.

At a pulled back zoom, due to the ship scale verse the scale of the beams and torps, the ships are muted an almost unseen which is compounded by the bloom and other effects. Thus, the combat is heavily dominated by vibrant Green and Red beams that overshadow the beauty of the ships themselves.

Since you brought up Abrams, I would like to point out that the ships in combat were not muted out by the effects of the weapons that were being by and on them, but they were enhanced by it. Also, the scenes dominated by say lens flares, normally saw these occur very quickly and during action/movement thus it was not as pronounced and in most case dismissed.

Conversely, given the beam duration used, the beam is very noticeable and given how combat unfolds in Stellaris and Trek, the ships are not moving in and out of action fast enough to lessen the affects. Thus, when looking at the presentation as a whole, a player (me in the case) would probably like the effects for a little bit, but honestly, after testing the game as much has some of you have, how many of you still love to just sit and watch the battles unfold? Compare this to say the Empire Ships mod for Stellaris pared with the Turbolaser weapons mod.

The weapons are almost unseen at a distance yet zoom in a bit closer to the actions and the entertainment begins. I am eagerly anticipating large scale battles.

I would highly recommend taking a look at the Star Wars Empire Ships Mod by Elratie and use his other mods plus the recommended mods (I didn't like the scaled down Ships one). Once a solid set of techs have been researched along with the turbolasers, the battles begin to be quite interesting.

At any rate, regardless of all of that, I eagerly await Star Trek Infinities, keep up the goo work :D

After looking at the various released pics and then watching the GP video posted as part of the summary, I noticed that the bloom affects of the beam weapons seems to dominated the field of vision during combat. While I understand that spectacle is nice and all, seeing a ship take fire and it being turned into a colored light bulb took me out of the immersion that was built up prior to combat.

Will it be possible to lower the effect of this when the game is released? I would be far more engaged if combat looked similar to the show. Aside from that little nit pick, love every minute of the presentation.

Cool beans, hope at the very least, you folks are able to come up wit ha work around :)

Also, while not a major issue, I noticed that during the video introducing a bit of gameplay, that the bloom (I think) effects cause the combat to become very, bright, for lack of a better term. At times, ship strikes are not even seen as the bloom (again, I think) causes the beams/strikes to block out the ship models and as a result takes away from the overall effect, though, this could just be me.

Hope the feedback helps, take care, good work so far and hope to see it continued.

Happy Holidays :)

This was brought up by LegionN7 on a picture but since i do not know how message notifications work for you all I just htought I would post this here.

Revan67 wrote that "Cloaking" is not allowed in the base game.

That being said, just trying to toss out ideas here.

Combat wise, a possible work around might be found in using one of the combat modules as a "cloaking combat system" module instead of a "Defensive Computer" or the like.

When the afore stated module is in use, the individual ship is un targetable for "X" seconds of combat (the fleet can still be engaged); Or the individual ship is granted a 100% evasion rating or some such for "X" seconds upon entering combat. These could have visual ques resulting in auras or an applied layer to the texture that contains an altered opacity level the ship model maybe. It could also just have the word "Cloaked" over head instead, maybe hard to read so it isn't too noticeable.

Another possibility, might be to switch out the models of cloaked/uncloaked ships perhaps.

At any rate, those are my initial ideas.

Have you all seen anything during your time modding for Stellaris that would allow ship roles to be tied to ship components? For example, Science ship survey ability tied to a component that could be added to a Destroyer or Cruiser class starship? Or have you found a way to make science vessels able to hold weapons?

Would be interesting to see the federation have numerous ships designed around exploration and actually able to do the task of say surveying worlds opposed to just being able to shoot things. Additionally, Science vessels like the Daedelus and Oberth would be still hold value as they are the only ones able to study the events and perform research assists.

Oooh, is it possible to allow the research assist to be performed at non-planet locations and/or change the value of the research?

For example, at non-planetary/population locations, if the location is not currently under any empire's control, they give access to the site and gain exp. for the captain. If the site is under the control of a friendly empire that is allowing open borders, that research is also added to the sci. vessel's player's research points. Finally, if the location is owned by the player and already has a research station there, a one time x2 to the site's output can be maintained by the presence of a science vessel in orbit. There are so many possibilities and of course things could be different for different empires, etc. So, if a site had a research station orbiting a +4 soc., phys., or eng., and a science vessel enter orbit, it become 8.

At any rate, back to the question at hand, is anything like this a possibility?

Cool Beans, thanks for the reply.

While I understand there is no information on a release date for the game, is there at least a information on a general timeframe?

Prior to Heinlein, the Demo was going to be release late 2016, I thought December was what was written. Post Heinlein, my understanding of the statement posted was that the mod itself would be the main release and that there would be no demo.

That being said, I understand that should mean no 2016 release, but what is the general thoughts you folks have, late 2017, 2018 sometime? I am just trying to get a sense progress that still needs to be made on the mod.

Just very excited to see what awesomeness you folks are putting together.

Keep up the good work,
Lharrs

I have to disagree with you there. Sins of a Solar Empire (Vanilla) was alright for an RTS game that wanted to bring in the 4X experience. The strategy in that game was essentially death ball a player and hope that no one else would attack your vulnerable spot (which was everywhere) while your were death balling another player. This is assuming the player's involved did not have the lessor victories like killing the homeworld activated. When the entire empire had to he be conquered, the game was truly boring. STA3 did much to change that but the game itself was severely limited in what could be done to make it an in-depth experience.

The Expansions to Sins allowed for a bit more depth and allowed to slow the advance of a death ball along with allowing players to not require a death-ball for victory between two evenly matched empires. Even so, the game was still limited in depth.

Stellaris on the other hand has been receiving flak because people think that the game is lacking and "is not" a good game. Stellaris is a fully functional title like any other game with on catch, a player can see that the game could be so very much more than what it is currently. This is not because the game itself is bad or lacks content, it is because the developers built a game with such a strong foundation that the possibilities are easily seen.

To many individuals out there mistake this title as unfinished or bad when it so clearly is not. Sure, there are bugs, like any other game out there but unfinished, broken, or bad, it is not.

Dang it, did it again.

All I know is that with the quality of work the team does, A Stellaris ST mod would be one of the few mods I would actually pay for.

Awe, my post didn't update when I logged in :(

At any rate, Stellaris would be perfect for a star trek mod.

Sorry I haven't replied sooner.

To Bane - Right after I made the post, I tried the zip again and this time it worked perfectly so the reason I was late in replying was due to the fact I was playing the mod expansion. It is great, gj on that.

To Ambarenya - When I downloaded the .exe, each time I would receive the file but it was showing only as a "file" and nothing else. I was never able to get the .exe downloaded and working as seen in the tutorial video posted by Gul Dukat. I have no idea as to the reason for this other than I would also always receive the message with it about the publisher not verified. That I doubt has anything to do with it as that message goes with the territory of mod titles but that is the only out of the ordinary thing that has occurred. Additionally, this had happened the first time I tried to download the zip file. Didn't happen this time around though.

Sorry I was unable to help with fixing this problem but I kept downloading and eventually everything worked.

Thanks for the time you all put into this.

Scratch that, the installer is just file with no way to activate it. Could it be an issue with having AVG on my computer?

I think you response did it, the file knew its time was short and if it didn't decide to work it would get deleted :)

The other times I did the install, I didn't get the files like I did this time. I guess Merry Christmas to me.

Hello all,

First off Happy Holidays and congratulations on the release.

Now for the issue, I have tried to download this mod 4 times and each time the download completes I get an error messages stating that the publisher could not be verified and that both the installer version and zip do not look like they should. I am prompted to then search the web for something to open the programs. I had thought I had 7zip but the installer should not need it and thus is my question.
What should I do next?

Thanks for your time with this issue.

Not sure why mines are such a problem for most peeps, they are more annoying than anything. When I have need of taking down a mine field I use this tactic and it works every time.

1) Assemble a fleet that has decent fire power (in my games, I have only played against AI so time is of no concern and as such I just use my primary battle fleet).

2) Either in the same fleet or in a secondary fleet, gather a good number of detectors, I normally use anywhere from about 12 to 40 depending on how much spare cap and res I have.

3) Engage opposition outside the range of mines within the targeted grav-well. Once you have won the engagement and are ready to take the system, bring the two fleet together or if in the same fleet, set close formation and set them to attack stance.

4) Attack move into a predetermined spot near the initial mines you wish destroyed then, set waypoints around the edge of the mine field forming an ever tighter spiral, until you reach the planet/inner most mines.

5) Clean up extra mines. that were missed on the first wave.

Never once had a problem with this tactic, hope it is useful to anyone in mine hell.

All I know is that of all the titans I used in game, I liked the Fed Titan best. Klings got a flying bomb, good but a one shot pop for the resources make it prohibitively expensive for the amount of time in use. Yes, a very good titan given the unleashed power but very situational and can not be used all the time.

Roms have essentially an over powered warbird, they are my favorite faction in lore but unfortunately in most games, they do not stand up well as they are a very strategic and cerebral race. Given that SINS is not a game that allows for this kind of race design, the Mod team here have done the Romulan race justice given the tools they have to work with.

The Borg are well the Borg, as of 1.0 (current as of this posting) it pretty much works like this. If you have the resources to build the Titan, you should have already won this game and are just trying out the Titan.

The Feds have the only titan that really serves a purpose in my mind. It is a Comm. Con. and tank. It sustains through an engagement plus serves to bolster the fleet. Given that the Federation Fleet is basically fleet oriented, i.e. designed around a mixed/balanced fleet dynamic, the Titan serves as fleet centerpiece and anchor. It further strengthens the cohesion of the rest of the fleet and bolsters the overall performance of said fleet effectively making a Federation fleet one fighting unit that means to withstand and outlast an opposing fleet rather that obliterate them through raw force.

My two cents anyway.

They're showing us how far they're willing to go.

Just make sure you scouts have their attack turned on. I believe the default scout stance is set to passive as in they do not fire.

Also, I tend to attack move my fleet with scouts in it toward the outer edge of the field then set waypoints ( I believe I w able to set attack move waypoints) around the fields circling inward.

Also, scouts have low firepower and as such, against rom mines specifically, they might not have the firepower to take down the mines before they reach them. Add a few ships with greater firepower to the mine fleet to make sure you have light losses.

As far as mines are concerned, just have your scouts in a separate fleet. Warp your main fleet in, wait for the enemy to attack them, then once engaged and you win. Warp your scouts in and way point them through the mine field.

Overall it is a tedious action that as of current implementation in 1.0 is just plain irritating as opposed to a fun threat to deal with. I think though the problem is that part of the issue is with the way Sins is set-up and trying to make the Star Trek universe fit into that mold.

More than likely, the Mod Devs are addressing the issue in the upcoming expansion.

Also, you could just waypoint your entire fleet through the minefield to clear it (assuming you have scouts with said fleet).

That being said, I understand what your getting at. I think overall it break immersion with the game. Warp in, time for some awesome battles. Dang it, mines. ok, wait for enemy kind of fight while maneuvering fleet away from the mines then spend time mine clearing.

indeed, the idea here is that voyager will be a fairly effective addition to the fleet regardless of opponent type, but if there is a Borg player, it will be a must have ship and as such devastating to the Borg as it will be the precursor to the refit research for the Intrepid class.

Janeway and Voyager itself will probably have the same fleet aura and the ablative armor from version 1.0 but the Transphasic torpedoes will be tied to the Borg and the Borg alone so as not to be both overpowered and wasteful at the same time. Additionally, it would force the Borg player to focus efforts and assimilating the Federation player(s) as they are a major threat to the survival of the Collective which brings it in line more with the series.

Is it a perfect idea, no, but it does add the immersion of the series a bit into the game. Currently when I play the Borg it doesn't matter with faction I target and it really should.

In effect, yes. The ablative armor is a universal ability that doesn't just affect Borg weapons, but all weapons. So this ability would be more along the lines of one of the all purpose abilities. The Transphasic torpedoes could be called the anti-Borg weapon. It would have to be toned down a bunch and cost a healthy amount of antimatter so as it cannot be spammed but one torp should be enough to heavily damage a cube and destroy non cap ships in one shot.