Feedback and Suggestions: Alpha 2 Thread - Star Wars: Interregnum mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Everything is awesome so far. The mod plays as if it's a complete version and looks like a scene from the movies. Here's some props, as well as some suggestions to try to help you make your mod the best it could possibly be.

A.) Stuff I like:

As I said in the previous thread, there's too much great stuff to list it all the minor details so here's what comes to mind.

1. The Warlord faction. It's implementation is great, especially how you get to pick several different warlords with unique attributes. It gives it great replay value.

2. The addition of the Dreadnaught cruiser - classic ship that's existed in the EU for over 20 years.

3. The different Imperial Titans. In games like this, variation is the key for replay value or else the game will look the same each time you play.

4. Music is great, as before. The number of tracks keeps things interesting, and the KOTOR theme is a great addition.

5. I found Kuat in one of my games. I don't know if there are other planets like it, but it definitely adds to the exploration factor and gives you something to work towards. The SSD might be a bit over the top though.

B.) Suggestions and Ideas

1.) Switch the roles of the Dreadnaught Cruiser and Strike Cruiser. Here's why.
-The Strike Cruiser is described as a fast medium cruiser that could challenge large Rebellion ships with a "surprisingly heavy load of firepower, strong shields" but a relatively weak hull. It was built to help plug holes in the increasingly widespread Imperial fleet. Here however we have a Strike Cruiser that can barely outgun a Carrack Cruiser, used in a support role for larger ships.
-The Dreadnaught doesn't really appear to have a role. It has roughly the same hit points as the Strike Cruiser (hull+shield) with slightly more powerful weaponry. Both of it's abilities are pretty weak for a relatively high supply cost. The Dreadnaught is old, still combat effective but would likely be most effectively used in a fleet support role.
-What I suggest is this:
-Get rid of the bombardment special ability for the Dreadnaught, replace it with the Strike Cruisers Covering Fire ability to make the Dreadnaught a true fleet support ship.
-Remove Covering Fire from the Strike Cruiser. Keep the other upgrades, but make them researched upgrades rather than individual upgrades that you have to click every time you build a new Strike Cruiser. Give the Strike Cruiser a fourth special ability to replace Covering Fire, or don't and just have it be a damage dealing ship.
-Greatly increase the firepower of the Strike Cruiser to be more in line with the description.

2.) Is there any way you could give the Empire and Warlords a bit more variation? There are only a few (although really good) differences between the factions. Otherwise, the ships are virtually all the same. A few suggestions I thought of:

-2.1 Thrawn is a hero for both the Empire and the Warlords. He is also a warlord himself. I'd suggest giving him only to the Warlords as a hero. If you choose him as your Warlord, he is the leader of the faction. If you choose another such as Isard, you can just claim he decided to follow the new leader rather than splitting the Warlord faction even further. I'm not sure who you would replace Thrawn with on the Empire side, so I won't go any further than that since it's up to you anyway.

-2.2. Both Piett and Harrsk have an Allegiance class destroyer as their ship. Maybe switch it up with the Bellator for one of them? They have similar durability while the Bellator does have far greater firepower. Maybe give the Warlord Allegiance to Harrsk and give it some great fleet support abilities, and the Bellator to Piett since the Empire is supposed to be more powerful, with the morale effects and whatnot? Anyway, I know the Bellator might be overdoing it, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway just to make the two factions a bit more asymmetrical.

-2.3. While reading up on the Strike Cruiser I also read that the remnant gave it some hull improvements with the presence of capital ships less and less common. Maybe just slightly change the name and give it a few more hull points?

-2.4. If I remember correctly, the Empire has the morale mechanic because it's a bit more powerful than the rest. The Warlord faction doesn't suffer from morale loss, but the Warlords don't seem to be much less powerful than the Empire. I'd suggest giving the Warlords a few less capital ship and/or fleet supply points (whether in the rank system or research abilities) to compensate, due to the Warlords diminished resources.

3.) Isards voice really bothers me. She is supposed to be cold and evil (Iceheart). The voice of the Lusankya though sounds breathy, girly and a bit shrill. You may want to replace it with something a bit more authoritative and sinister, it's a bit hard to take her seriously right now.

4.) On the subject of Isard, I find the Krytos virus to be a bit useless. You aren't going to be getting a SSD until later in the game, and at that point the enemy has already built up defenses. At that point, I'm not going to risk jumping my valuable Star Dreadnought into a system just to drop the virus and leave - If I'm going into a system, I'm doing it with a somewhat capable fleet, and at that point I might as well just plow through the system anyway. I'd suggest one of two things:
1. Make the virus able to be used from one planet away. Isard isn't the type to enter a system then run away, she keeps things under wraps. An 8km long warship coming and going isn't exactly covert.
2. Remove the Krytos Virus special ability from the Lusankya. Put it on a special tactical structure instead, akin to a superweapon structure (but not). Make the structure only researchable by Isards faction at a high level, something like 8 or 9 research structures. Can only be used on planets that are revealed, long cooldown timer.
Also, if it's possible, I think it should be able to be used on ally's planets as well, without them immediately knowing. Ysanne Isard isn't known for being honorable.

5.) Something that's bothered me for a while now; the Jovan Station. From what I read, it's a unique structure to the Jovan system. Because of that, seeing it as the Imperial station in so many different places is a bit distracting. What I suggest is replacing it with a Golan III, and replacing the Golan III defense structure with the Golan II. There seems to be a severe lack of Imperial space stations in the lore.

6.) The ability to chose between four different leaders in the Warlord faction is unique and awesome. Would you be able to replicate it for the other factions?
For the Empire you could choose between Piett and Vader leading your fleet. (Of course Vader would still be the faction leader, but he may not necessarily be the fleet commander the whole time.) Vader is more about destruction and brute force - he may give you offensive bonuses such as damage increase, planet bombing increase, something like that, while Piett, being a naval officer, may give some sort of logistical bonuses, fleet defensive buffs, etc. Also for the rebellion you could have Ackbar, Skywalker, Dodanna...

7.) This may be sort of a strange suggestion, but I've thought of it often so I'll share it with you, take it or leave it.
I've always thought it was a bit silly that, in invading a planet, you bomb it into oblivion. You would think that if you want to occupy a planet you would send down an invasion force to take control of the planet instead of razing it like they did in KOTOR. What I suggest is this:
-Change the projectiles that you shoot at the planet to Sentinel-class landing craft. Remove the explosions on impact.
-Change the text "Planet Bombing Damage" to something along the lines of "Invasion Force Complement". It would represent the number of troops being sent to the ground per craft.
-Change "Planet Health" to "Planet Garrison". Population stays the same.
-Change "Emergency Facilities" (in the Develop Planet screen) to "Expand Garrison".
Now, instead of nuking planets you're about to develop a colony on, you send Stormtroopers and walkers to the surface to eradicate the populace. The size of the planetary garrison (health) decides how long the ground troops can hold off the assault until help arrives.
So anyway, there it is. I don't know a ton about modding this game but the way I see it, it just involves replacing a few effects and changing some text around. But like I said, I'm no modder.

That's it for now. I hope I'm able to help out a bit with some of these ideas. Sorry if I was a bit critical in some areas, but without trying to sound like I'm kissing ass I think you're doing amazing work and feel as though I'm doing an injustice if I don't share my thoughts.

Someone wrote: Switch the roles of the Dreadnaught Cruiser and Strike Cruiser.

The reason the Strike Cruiser is the support cruiser is because of the weak armor AND it is highly upgradeable, which means it can be easily configured for specific support missions (one was even turned into an Interdictor). Really no Empire ship besides the Interdictor Cruiser is fit to be a support cruiser but its the next best thing. It's firepower is a bit weaker than it should be (though I wouldn't say its exceptionally armed for its size, not sure where you read that), but because the original races are still in the game some compromises needed to be made, and in vanilla Sins support cruisers have almost no firepower at all. Regardless of whether the Dreadnaught or Strike Cruiser is the support cruiser, one of their armaments are going to get un-canonly nerfed.

The Dreadnaught is actually a heavy cruiser by role type, just even more focused on the tanking damage. They were given the spare parts ability because the Empire needed a healing ship (even if out of combat) and the Dreadnaught has ridiculous cargo capacity because it was originally designed to have over 16,000 crew (modern Empire Dreadnaughts use 2000). Their damage is a bit subpar because they are really old ships and I wanted to make it clear they were in no way going to replace the Vindicator/Enforcer as your main heavy cruiser. I might decrease their fleet supply usage a notch to make them more competitive, but I think you are really underestimating that spare parts ability.

Someone wrote: Thrawn is a hero for both the Empire and the Warlords. He is also a warlord himself. I'd suggest giving him only to the Warlords as a hero. If you choose him as your Warlord, he is the leader of the faction. If you choose another such as Isard, you can just claim he decided to follow the new leader rather than splitting the Warlord faction even further. I'm not sure who you would replace Thrawn with on the Empire side, so I won't go any further than that since it's up to you anyway.

The problem with that is Thrawn's Empire of the Hand already exists in the lore. He is more than willing to help other Warlords and may even join one if they reunite the Empire, but I can't just make it not exist. Besides, Thrawn is so popular I think people would want him regardless of which Empire faction they are.

I suppose its something I might do later (I guess Daala could take Thrawn's place or something), but its not a big priority right now. To be perfectly honest I didn't plan on giving the Warlords unique heroes at all, it just occurred to me both Piett and Rogriss were very loyal Imperial officers and lore wise it didn't make sense for them to fight for the Warlords.

Someone wrote: -2.2. Both Piett and Harrsk have an Allegiance class destroyer as their ship. Maybe switch it up with the Bellator for one of them? They have similar durability while the Bellator does have far greater firepower. Maybe give the Warlord Allegiance to Harrsk and give it some great fleet support abilities, and the Bellator to Piett since the Empire is supposed to be more powerful, with the morale effects and whatnot? Anyway, I know the Bellator might be overdoing it, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway just to make the two factions a bit more asymmetrical.

Yeah, the Bellator is over twice the size of the Allegiance in game, and in canon its even bigger. Hero units cannot have titan sized ships, unless they are the titan themselves like Darth Vader. I know the health of the Allegiance and Bellator seems close, but that's just another one of these silly Sins balance things as the Bellator needs to be scaled against a Vanilla titan. That said, the Bellator has much greater firepower and it gains much more health per level than capitalships or heroes, so it soon it even outclasses the Allegiance in durability as it should.

To be fair, for a time I did actually think about making the final Warlords hero Grand Admrial Zaarin in a Secutor Star Destroyer. However, Zaarin dies just before Endor so lore wise he can't be included. He was also a rival to Thrawn so it would make no sense for Thrawn to work with him, and there's no feasible way to give different heroes to different warlords. Harrsk really did command a Battlecruiser which I assume to be an Allegiance class, so I can't really change his ship. I suppose I could look into giving Piett a Praetor/Paetor Mrk II but they're even bigger than an Allegiance so they get that awkward scale problem.

Someone wrote: If I remember correctly, the Empire has the morale mechanic because it's a bit more powerful than the rest. The Warlord faction doesn't suffer from morale loss, but the Warlords don't seem to be much less powerful than the Empire. I'd suggest giving the Warlords a few less capital ship and/or fleet supply points (whether in the rank system or research abilities) to compensate, due to the Warlords diminished resources.

Um, that is exactly what the warlords have! Remember, most of the faction unique bonuses/penalties are in those two special techs that start out researched in the Diplomacy tree. While most factions only have bonuses, the Warlords have -15% Fleet Supply penalty at the start. The Galactic Empire is the only Star Wars faction that will not have penalties in their faction unique tech, but they have the Morale system instead.

Someone wrote: 3.) Isards voice really bothers me. She is supposed to be cold and evil (Iceheart). The voice of the Lusankya though sounds breathy, girly and a bit shrill. You may want to replace it with something a bit more authoritative and sinister, it's a bit hard to take her seriously right now.

If you give me a replacement set of voices, I will gladly use them. There are virtually no female Imperial voices in Star Wars games so I didn't have much to choose from.

Someone wrote: On the subject of Isard, I find the Krytos virus to be a bit useless

Well, it also damages the planet and reduces enemy ships hull restoration rates in the gravity well. Plus it is quite possible in any battle with a Super Star Destroyer the enemy will retreat, which combined with trade ships should give quite a few opportunities to spread the virus to enemy planets besides the one you use it at. Think of it as an ability that speeds up bombardment like raze planet while also weakening the enemy fleet and maybe even infecting other enemy planets. Finally, it isn't possible to target a specific planet one jump away from you unfortunately.

That said, your post prompted me to check the math and I realized it wasn't doing as much planet damage as I intended. It will do 50% more on the next update.

Someone wrote: Something that's bothered me for a while now; the Jovan Station. From what I read, it's a unique structure to the Jovan system. Because of that, seeing it as the Imperial station in so many different places is a bit distracting. What I suggest is replacing it with a Golan III, and replacing the Golan III defense structure with the Golan II. There seems to be a severe lack of Imperial space stations in the lore.

There's not enough space stations of any kind in Star Wars. And the vast majority of them are "unique" ones like the Jovan, the Golan and XQ platform series are the only real exceptions. Though unique is a bad word, really its "we only know one of them exists", I don't believe its ever explicitly said to be the only one of its kind.

The Jovan is also needed because personally I think the Golan-III seems a bit small compared to vanilla Sins starbases. Finally, the Golan-III is the only mesh I have, I couldn't replace it with another Golan station if I wanted to.

Someone wrote: 6.) The ability to chose between four different leaders in the Warlord faction is unique and awesome. Would you be able to replicate it for the other factions?

It's theoretically possible, but it has always been intended as the distinctive feature of the Warlords from day 1. The other factions don't have the split loyalty problems the Empire has, and if I did it for the other Star Wars factions I'd have to do it with the Vanilla factions too, which I don't want to do.

Someone wrote: I've always thought it was a bit silly that, in invading a planet, you bomb it into oblivion. You would think that if you want to occupy a planet you would send down an invasion force to take control of the planet instead of razing it like they did in KOTOR.

It is theoretically possible, but razing a planet is not exactly uncommon in the Star Wars universe (it has a standard code name, Base Delta Zero, for a reason). Also, some of those changes would have to be made to all factions, including the vanilla ones, and as far as we know they don't even have armies.

That said, I'm sure you're aware the Victory star destroyer has an ability that basically does what you suggest. Also, while I'm not sure if the AI will work with this change, I hope to give the Alliance/New Republic will have something similar. Instead of having a dedicated siege frigate, the Alliance will use their carriers to send Y-wings to the planet to carry out more precise bombing strikes.

Thanks for the feedback! And sorry if it seems like I'm dismissing some of these things, but several of them came about as compromises that I already had to think long and hard about, and what you see is what I concluded to be the least bad option.

Edited by: GoaFan77

The Empire has the morale system, and the Warlords have 4 subfactions from it's subfaction and 6 different titans. Any hints as to what's going to be unique about the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic?

And if by off-chance the Y-wings mechanic doesn't work out, you could always re-skin the planet-bombing attack to release Y-wings instead of bombs.

Edited by: Cheesy123

Cheesy123 wrote: The Empire has the morale system, and the Warlords have 4 subfactions from it's subfaction and 6 different titans. Any hints as to what's going to be unique about the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic?

And if by off-chance the Y-wings mechanic doesn't work out, you could always re-skin the planet-bombing attack to release Y-wings instead of bombs.

Oh I can do that no problem, its the having carriers act as the siege frigate that the AI might not like. At a minimum Alliance Capitalships and Titans can use the Y-wings, its just whether the AI is fine having Carrier/Siege hybrid frigates that is the problem.

The AI is frustrating to "teach" isn't it?

Someone wrote: The reason the Strike Cruiser is the support cruiser is because of the weak armor AND it is highly upgradeable, which means it can be easily configured for specific support missions (one was even turned into an Interdictor). Really no Empire ship besides the Interdictor Cruiser is fit to be a support cruiser but its the next best thing. It's firepower is a bit weaker than it should be (though I wouldn't say its exceptionally armed for its size, not sure where you read that), but because the original races are still in the game some compromises needed to be made, and in vanilla Sins support cruisers have almost no firepower at all. Regardless of whether the Dreadnaught or Strike Cruiser is the support cruiser, one of their armaments are going to get un-canonly nerfed.

This was my source: Starwars.wikia.com

I know that one of the armaments has to get nerfed. But like you said, the Interdictor is the only cruiser that really has the role of a support cruiser, so why not put the Strike in it's cannon role with nice firepower, and have the Dreadnaught be used as a support ship due to it's aging weaponry?

Someone wrote: If you give me a replacement set of voices, I will gladly use them.

Fair enough, I'll see what I can do. Do you know of any software I can use to make the kind of sound clips you would need?

Someone wrote: It's theoretically possible, but it has always been intended as the distinctive feature of the Warlords from day 1. The other factions don't have the split loyalty problems the Empire has, and if I did it for the other Star Wars factions I'd have to do it with the Vanilla factions too, which I don't want to do.

I meant it as more of a "choose your leader" type deal - One day Vader may be leading the fleet, the next day he may order Piett to command, with their own different command styles. Point taken though.

Someone wrote: It is theoretically possible, but razing a planet is not exactly uncommon in the Star Wars universe (it has a standard code name, Base Delta Zero, for a reason). Also, some of those changes would have to be made to all factions, including the vanilla ones, and as far as we know they don't even have armies.

Cheesy123 wrote: And if by off-chance the Y-wings mechanic doesn't work out, you could always re-skin the planet-bombing attack to release Y-wings instead of bombs.

This is exactly what I mean, just reskin the models to be Landing Craft rather than missiles.

You are right that razing a planet is not uncommon in Star Wars. The Empire popped Alderaan, and we saw Malaks fleet raze Taris in KOTOR. I'm sure there are other EU instances of Base Delta Zero, but these are the only ones I am aware of.
-When the Death Star destroyed Alderaan, it was to prove a point. And when Darth Malak razed Taris, it was to kill the jedi Bastila, because he did not think it was possible to find her in the massive city. Here, in Interregnum, (from my point of view, if I may) the Empire is crumbling and they are struggling to regain control of the galaxy. Massacring population after population doesn't seem to be the best way to do this - I think they would be more likely to send down invasion parties to regain control of the populace so that they could continue paying the Empire taxes.
Starwars.wikia.com
This page claims that BDZ was "regarded as one of the most devastating operations that the Imperial Military was capable of" and that "Due to its effects, BDZs were considered a last resort."

I am aware of the Victory class ability, maybe it could be switched so it has a Base Delta Zero ability that unleashes a volley of fire at the planet capable of inflicting heavy damage while the regular "bombing" method is missiles reskinned as landing shuttles.

But anyway, it's your mod, I'm just playing devils advocate, trying to give you some ideas Regardless of what you decide to do, it's going to come out great.

Cheesy123 wrote: The AI is frustrating to "teach" isn't it?

Yes, there is very little we can do to change the core AI behavior sadly.

Someone wrote: I know that one of the armaments has to get nerfed. But like you said, the Interdictor is the only cruiser that really has the role of a support cruiser, so why not put the Strike in it's cannon role with nice firepower, and have the Dreadnaught be used as a support ship due to it's aging weaponry?

Well, I suppose my impression of the Strike Cruiser's firepower is different from the person who wrote that article. In the X-wing series of games it didn't seem to be particularly well gunned. Funny side bit of information: Lavo of the SoGE mod and I have had arguments over whether the Vindicator or the Strike Cruiser would win in a fight, and while cosmetically I really like the Strike Cruiser (in fact if I had to have a cruiser for my personal Star Wars ship, I'd take the Strike Cruiser), I think the Vindicator wins in a fight hence why its the true heavy cruiser in this mod.

Unfortunately, while the sentence that states the Strike Cruiser had high firepower for its size does have a citation, its written in a way that makes it hard to tell if the source actually states that verbatim or that is the wiki writer's summary of the facts in that source. We do have the standard armaments, but I've found the number of weapons is often an unreliable indicator of how powerful a ship is. Some of my favorite examples include the Marauder Corvette, which despite being less than 200 meters long with no visible hangar bay supposedly can carry a dozen fighters, or the Liberator, which I believe is less than 1km in length yet has more turbolasers than a Star Destroyer and as many star fighters. In short, far too many ships seem to have had their stats made up without anyone bothering to check how they compare to similar sized vessels. Finally, even if the stats were accurate, we don't necessarily know if a turbolaser on ship A is always comparable to the turbolaser on ship B.

So I guess if anyone can show me an in universe or direct source book quote stating its "Impressive Firepower", I will gladly change my mind and swap them.

Someone wrote: Here, in Interregnum, (from my point of view, if I may) the Empire is crumbling and they are struggling to regain control of the galaxy. Massacring population after population doesn't seem to be the best way to do this - I think they would be more likely to send down invasion parties to regain control of the populace so that they could continue paying the Empire taxes.

I partly agree with you, and in fact that is sort of my in universe justification of why the Galaxy Gun doesn't destroy planets (except its the Empire caring about the planet's resources instead of the population). If it was possible for planets to keep their population when they change owners I would do it in a heart beat, but even if you "Capture" the planet instead of bombing it with the Orthodox titan, the planet upgrades ALWAYS get reset so the population always gets set to 0 (or 10, either way most of the people somehow magically die).

Someone wrote: But anyway, it's your mod, I'm just playing devils advocate, trying to give you some ideas Regardless of what you decide to do, it's going to come out great.

Thanks, and don't stop.

On the Strike Cruiser topic:
Everything states that the Strike Cruiser has a very weak hull. Would it be possible to increase the firepower while lowering the hull points to balance it?
Galacticempiredatabank.com
This page also speaks very highly of the Strike Cruiser. It just kills me to see it in a support role, which is why I personally think the Dreadnaught should be fully converted to a support role due to it's aging offensive technology, with the Strike Cruiser in a more offensive role.
I will definitely take your side in the Vindicator vs Strike Cruiser argument. However comparing the Strike Cruiser and Vindicator is like comparing a Victory SD to an Imperial SD - they aren't built to be the same caliber.
Also the name implies the role - "Strike" Cruiser. To me at least, the name suggests it's a fast attack ship.
By the way, I personally like the Vindicator where it is, I just think the Strike Cruiser should complement the fleet differently.

Someone wrote: I partly agree with you, and in fact that is sort of my in universe justification of why the Galaxy Gun doesn't destroy planets (except its the Empire caring about the planet's resources instead of the population). If it was possible for planets to keep their population when they change owners I would do it in a heart beat, but even if you "Capture" the planet instead of bombing it with the Orthodox titan, the planet upgrades ALWAYS get reset so the population always gets set to 0 (or 10, either way most of the people somehow magically die).

Respectfully, I think you may be missing my point. I am suggesting that NO game MECHANICS should be changed. What I'm saying is just to reskin the projectiles launched at the surface, when right clicking on the planet to attack it, to be landing craft, and change the associated text accordingly.
This was just a suggestion though, just to enhance the "Imperial" flavor with invasions rather than nuking. Maybe Rebel ships could launch Y-Wings, the Sins races could launch their bombers. Or something like that.

Also, I think others may have mentioned it before, but I'd just like to say that it's really hard to see the yellow status bar when building a ship. I like the white icons personally, maybe it would be easier to change the yellow status bar to blue or something. No big deal really, just bringing it up.

Edited by: Service_Disconnect

Someone wrote: This page also speaks very highly of the Strike Cruiser. It just kills me to see it in a support role, which is why I personally think the Dreadnaught should be fully converted to a support role due to it's aging offensive technology, with the Strike Cruiser in a more offensive role.

While that page is nice in that it does give page numbers for its sources, unfortunately I don't have those particular sources. And I would argue that a support role is more useful than a secondary heavy cruiser. I always have at least 1 Strike Cruiser per capitalship and titan for covering fire.

Someone wrote: Also the name implies the role - "Strike" Cruiser. To me at least, the name suggests it's a fast attack ship.

I don't know, my main memories of the Strike Cruiser are having to pop the things in the X-wing series video games in convoy raids, so I very well could be underestimating it. :p I don't recall it actually being in a fight with other combat cruisers unfortunately. The other thing to keep in mind about the Strike Cruiser is that its supposed to be cheap as well as flexible, which is what has stuck with me in my mind about the ship.

Someone wrote: Also, I think others may have mentioned it before, but I'd just like to say that it's really hard to see the yellow status bar when building a ship. I like the white icons personally, maybe it would be easier to change the yellow status bar to blue or something. No big deal really, just bringing it up.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how to change that. xD There is a good chance that the status bar might have to be the same for all factions though, so finding a color that works for Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, White and Orange might be difficult to say the least...

Someone wrote: Respectfully, I think you may be missing my point. I am suggesting that NO game MECHANICS should be changed. What I'm saying is just to reskin the projectiles launched at the surface, when right clicking on the planet to attack it, to be landing craft, and change the associated text accordingly.
This was just a suggestion though, just to enhance the "Imperial" flavor with invasions rather than nuking. Maybe Rebel ships could launch Y-Wings, the Sins races could launch their bombers. Or something like that.

I understand you. I guess I just didn't make it clear that for me personally, if all the population needs to get killed anyways, it makes more sense AND looks cooler for Star Destroyers to use turbolasers. :p I feel like one of the factions should blast the heck out of planets normally, and clearly that is going to be the Empire. It could be an interesting minimod though if you're feeling ambitious. The next release will see the first player made minimod, no reason there couldn't be two.

Someone wrote: I don't recall it actually being in a fight with other combat cruisers unfortunately. The other thing to keep in mind about the Strike Cruiser is that its supposed to be cheap as well as flexible, which is what has stuck with me in my mind about the ship.

Cheap and flexible yes, packing a solid punch but breaking in half if anything competent retaliates =p Fair enough though, just keep the Dreadnaught in mind for support if you decide to change it

Someone wrote: I don't know, my main memories of the Strike Cruiser are having to pop the things in the X-wing series video games in convoy raids, so I very well could be underestimating it

Well if you were attacking it in an starfighter and not an Assault Frigate, I can see why!

Someone wrote: It could be an interesting minimod though if you're feeling ambitious.

Ambitious, maybe, but I would have no idea where to start, and unfortunately don't have the time to get into modding more than a few entity files here and there.

About the Lusankya voices though. Do you know of any (free) software that I could use to record sounds and chop them up? I think I have something for you and would like to give you a sample.

Edited by: Service_Disconnect

redsox2cf wrote:
About the Lusankya voices though. Do you know of any (free) software that I could use to record sounds and chop them up? I think I have something for you and would like to give you a sample.

Audacity is what I use, and is probably the most used open source sound editor.

Here's another one for you - I find the Immobilizer cruiser pretty redundant once the Interdictor destroyer is unlocked. It has terrible firepower with - I believe - the same hyperdrive inhibiting ability. Just running this by you - give Captain Rogriss the Interdictor Star Destroyer and remove it from the captial ship tab. Just say that after the Battle of Endor Vader gave him an upgrade for his loyalty. Give the Immobilizer some of the Interdictor Star Destroyers upgrades or something, just to keep it useful.

Just a thought.

This is an excellent mod and it feels and plays great. I am very pleased about it. I have been playing the Imperial Warlords faction (which I very much enjoy.) However there are a couple of concerns or things I would like to point out about the new teams (Both Imperial) The Venator-class Star Destroyer is a fun ship. I personally build it just because of how it looks. (This was my original inclination to purchase the vessel.) After I gave it a bit of time I realized that it was extremely powerful. (This is not me complaining just stating what I found to be evident.) It is the SPHA-T beam that is of concern here. The amount of damage it does per second is high. (I know that the duration is only 4 seconds long. But if I am doing four hundred damage a second for four seconds I am still doing around (Not including mitigation and armor reduction as well as any other buffs that would reduce incoming damage.) sixteen hundred damage from that power alone. That is with a single Venator. Fleets of three or four of them vastly increasing the damage output. Simply put I am concerned that a Venator spam fleet may be an issue. It also has the highest Starfighter compliment of the Imperial ships. Making it a Carrier as well as a Battleship. (True this is the role that it played during the Clone wars and later as the Imperials phased them out in favor of the larger Victory and Imperial Star Destroyers.)
The Katana Fleet units are an excellent choice. I got extremely excited when I saw that they were a part of this mod. They are useful in most capacities. The exception being orbital bombardment. They are given an ability that allows them to bomb the planet. Ten damage, one population killed, and a cool down of five seconds. This would be well used in the game. However my fleet will never auto cast the ability. (Even with it enabled.) They could not all be given the same order at the same time so I had to cycle through a fleet of ten manually commanding them to bomb the planet. This was time intensive and irritating. Perhaps if it was changed from a single power to a "Shift to Siege Guns" give it all the same powers. (Making them wait five seconds between shots to the planet and have each shot still do the same amount of damage.) Allowing them to switch firing mods would make it easier for those like me who want to bomb a planet in good time. If they did auto cast the power then there would be no need to switch to siege cannons and I would be just as happy. The end result I desire is not having to tell each cruiser individually to use that power again on the planet.
A strange thing I also encountered was that every time I clicked on a Golan III Nova Gun it brought me straight to the Starfighter compliment. (Even if I had backed out to the main unit screen anyway.) This made it difficult as the Pentastar Alignment (Grand Moff Kaine) to call upon the Patrol Force to defend a planet. Key planets that had several Golan III platforms were difficult to mobilize a fleet in short time. After I have constructed Starfighters I rarely wish to go back to the squadron screen anyway. Being the Pentastar Alignment sub faction of the Warlords made this inconvenience more of a hazard. The other Warlords have no further use for the Golan III Nova Guns so it doesn't matter to me as much which screen it appears on.
As I said before I love this mod and will continue to follow it as I already have. My prior comments are not meant to discourage or attack the production of this mod. Rather it should be taken as an encouragement and merely a suggestion to keep the game balanced and easier for users.

redsox2cf wrote: Here's another one for you - I find the Immobilizer cruiser pretty redundant once the Interdictor destroyer is unlocked. It has terrible firepower with - I believe - the same hyperdrive inhibiting ability. Just running this by you - give Captain Rogriss the Interdictor Star Destroyer and remove it from the captial ship tab. Just say that after the Battle of Endor Vader gave him an upgrade for his loyalty. Give the Immobilizer some of the Interdictor Star Destroyers upgrades or something, just to keep it useful.

Just a thought.

The first hero unit of every faction needs to command a cruiser. That's just how they're all set up, and in fact a good part of the reason why Rogriss made it in; not many named Imperials ever commanded ships smaller than a Victory Star Destroyer. Yes, the Interdictor Star Destroyer is supposed to outclass the cruiser, but it is much more expensive and uses much more fleet supply, and while I love the Interdictor Star Destroyer's other abilities, other players may prefer to use the command point for an ISD instead and just use a cheaper Immobolizer for keeping the enemy from escaping. Finally, against human players you will likely need more than 1 Interdictor to successfully trap a fleet, so I think there is space for both models.

Power_is_Seven wrote: This is an excellent mod and it feels and plays great. I am very pleased about it. I have been playing the Imperial Warlords faction (which I very much enjoy.) However there are a couple of concerns or things I would like to point out about the new teams (Both Imperial) The Venator-class Star Destroyer is a fun ship. I personally build it just because of how it looks. (This was my original inclination to purchase the vessel.) After I gave it a bit of time I realized that it was extremely powerful. (This is not me complaining just stating what I found to be evident.) It is the SPHA-T beam that is of concern here. The amount of damage it does per second is high. (I know that the duration is only 4 seconds long. But if I am doing four hundred damage a second for four seconds I am still doing around (Not including mitigation and armor reduction as well as any other buffs that would reduce incoming damage.) sixteen hundred damage from that power alone. That is with a single Venator. Fleets of three or four of them vastly increasing the damage output. Simply put I am concerned that a Venator spam fleet may be an issue. It also has the highest Starfighter compliment of the Imperial ships. Making it a Carrier as well as a Battleship. (True this is the role that it played during the Clone wars and later as the Imperials phased them out in favor of the larger Victory and Imperial Star Destroyers.)
The Katana Fleet units are an excellent choice. I got extremely excited when I saw that they were a part of this mod. They are useful in most capacities. The exception being orbital bombardment. They are given an ability that allows them to bomb the planet. Ten damage, one population killed, and a cool down of five seconds. This would be well used in the game. However my fleet will never auto cast the ability. (Even with it enabled.) They could not all be given the same order at the same time so I had to cycle through a fleet of ten manually commanding them to bomb the planet. This was time intensive and irritating. Perhaps if it was changed from a single power to a "Shift to Siege Guns" give it all the same powers. (Making them wait five seconds between shots to the planet and have each shot still do the same amount of damage.) Allowing them to switch firing mods would make it easier for those like me who want to bomb a planet in good time. If they did auto cast the power then there would be no need to switch to siege cannons and I would be just as happy. The end result I desire is not having to tell each cruiser individually to use that power again on the planet.
A strange thing I also encountered was that every time I clicked on a Golan III Nova Gun it brought me straight to the Starfighter compliment. (Even if I had backed out to the main unit screen anyway.) This made it difficult as the Pentastar Alignment (Grand Moff Kaine) to call upon the Patrol Force to defend a planet. Key planets that had several Golan III platforms were difficult to mobilize a fleet in short time. After I have constructed Starfighters I rarely wish to go back to the squadron screen anyway. Being the Pentastar Alignment sub faction of the Warlords made this inconvenience more of a hazard. The other Warlords have no further use for the Golan III Nova Guns so it doesn't matter to me as much which screen it appears on.
As I said before I love this mod and will continue to follow it as I already have. My prior comments are not meant to discourage or attack the production of this mod. Rather it should be taken as an encouragement and merely a suggestion to keep the game balanced and easier for users.

The Venator is definitely not a battleship. It has the lowest durability and normal weapons damage of any Imperial capitalship by a noticeable margin. The SPHA-T beam is indeed fun to use, but I actually balanced its damage on the Kol's old Gauss Rail Gun damage (Before it bypassed shields). Assuming both a pre-patch Kol and a Venator could keep their abilities going ASAP, the Gauss Rail Gun would actually deliver more overall damage against shielded target, and this was widely considered to be one of the worst abilities in the game. SPHA-T beam may feel like it is more effective because it has a longer cooldown (GRG could be fired every 6 seconds), but it really needs that 50% bonus damage it gets from hitting an unshielded target to be competitive with other single target damage abilities. Also keep in mind all faction's carriers are very powerful early on while strikecraft are rare and fleets are small, but late game they get much weaker as there strikecraft don't stand out in a 100+ ship battle and single damage attacks like SPHA-T fade in comparison to fleet wide buffs/damage.

The Dreadnaught bombing thing was actually a last minute compromise to the AI. You see, the Dreadnaught is supposed to be a combat unit first that can bomb a planet if it wants to. However, if you give a frigate a normal bombing damage, it will either A. Never bomb a planet if it is not labeled a siege frigate OR B. Try to bomb the planet right away if it is labeled a siege unit. The only way to tell it to attack other things first THEN bomb the planet was to give it that ability. Short story, the Dreadnaught will not try to use its siege ability unless ALL enemy targets in the gravity well are destroyed, and yes sadly telling them to do it manually is a pain. I may increase the damage/cooldown in the next patch so its not quite so ineffective to do manually.

I'm honestly not sure what's up with the Golan's, having not really bothered to notice it myself, but I'm guessing that's because they are technically considered hangar defense structures. Still, the Pentastar Patrol Force should autocast automatically if the Golan itself comes under attack, so you shouldn't need to cast it manually yourself all that often. Also, there is no point in telling multiple Golan's at a single planet to use that ability; there is a limit to how often you can call in the Patrol Force reinforcements PER PLANET, not per Golan, so the first Golan at that planet will call in all the reinforcements you can get. Any other Golans at the planet that use that ability in the next 5 minutes won't spawn in any more ships. Really it should be a planet ability, but Sins doesn't really allow that unfortunately and the Golan was the only structure it made sense to attach it to.

Okay thank you for that. I have noticed that the Venator is a bit weaker than the others. I do apologize as I was speaking out of my lack of knowledge on that subject. Thank you for explaining why things are the way they are. The main reason I asked was to satisfy my curiosity. In other words I wanted to know how it was balanced. Is the "Call Reinforcements" power of the Starbase similar to the Golan platform ability to call in the patrol fleet? I have noticed that they will auto cast the power but every so often no ships come to the planet (or gravity well as Starbases I have noticed the issue with are also on Stars and asteroid belts.)
I also thank you for explaining why the Dreadnaughts are the way they are and answering back as quickly as you did.

Okay thank you for that. I have noticed that the Venator is a bit weaker than the others. I do apologize as I was speaking out of my lack of knowledge on that subject. Thank you for explaining why things are the way they are. The main reason I asked was to satisfy my curiosity. In other words I wanted to know how it was balanced. Is the "Call Reinforcements" power of the Starbase similar to the Golan platform ability to call in the patrol fleet? I have noticed that they will auto cast the power but every so often no ships come to the planet (or gravity well as Starbases I have noticed the issue with are also on Stars and asteroid belts.)
I also thank you for explaining why the Dreadnaughts are the way they are and answering back as quickly as you did.

Please, ask about whatever you like.

The Call for Reinforcements ability is not limited by the planet it is at like Pentastar Patrol Forces are; by the odd chance you get a planet that has a bonus that allows 2 Starbases, both can use Call for Reinforcements independently of the other. However, any of these "Spawn Unit" abilities will fail if you have negative fleet supply, even though the ships they spawn are temporary and use 0 fleet supply. I think they should work at asteroid belts, but it is quite possible it might not work on Stars. Stars are frustrating like that. :p

Thank you so very much! That explains it then. I had been using the Starbase's Ability to bulk up my defenses on stars I controlled. With four starbases on each I could assemble large defense fleets in no time. But with the assault shuttles of the Star Destroyer I was going into negative fleet supply from time to time which is why it wasn't working. Thank you for that. Keep it up I love this mod. I don't think I will go back to regular sins for a long time.

@Power_is_Seven: There is no going back to regular sins. I might go back to Maelstrom some time though.

GaoFan77: The Empire has a morale system, but really strong fleets and the Warlords have their own sub-factions located in it's sub-faction. Any hints as to what we can expect for the rebels?

Cheesy123 wrote:
GaoFan77: The Empire has a morale system, but really strong fleets and the Warlords have their own sub-factions located in it's sub-faction. Any hints as to what we can expect for the rebels?

You will learn soon enough. But rest assured they are fast, have good strikecraft, and have an economy based more on trade (smuggling) than taxation.

GoaFan77 wrote:

You will learn soon enough. But rest assured they are fast, have good strikecraft, and have an economy based more on trade (smuggling) than taxation.

Good news for me then because i'm great at trade routes. Does that mean they have upgrades that can protect their trade ships like the TEC and advent do?

Edited by: Cheesy123

Cheesy123 wrote:

GoaFan77 wrote:

You will learn soon enough. But rest assured they are fast, have good strikecraft, and have an economy based more on trade (smuggling) than taxation.

Good news for me then because i'm great at trade routes. Does that mean they have upgrades that can protect their trade ships like the TEC and advent do?

Not entirely sure yet, but their trade ships are YT-1300 Transports, so they are faster but have a bit less health than other trade ships. But chances are they'll have something else special about them.

Hey GaoFan77, i ran into something. The Katana fleet can still bomb your planets with their ability even if though their weapons are disabled due to the fact that it is an ability. I found this out the hard way when playing as the empire. Could you add an "Abilities Disabled" status to uncaptured katana dreadnoughts?

Cheesy123 wrote: Hey GaoFan77, i ran into something. The Katana fleet can still bomb your planets with their ability even if though their weapons are disabled due to the fact that it is an ability. I found this out the hard way when playing as the empire. Could you add an "Abilities Disabled" status to uncaptured katana dreadnoughts?

Will do. I forgot they can spawn on ship graveyards, and you can colonize them first. On uncolonizeable planets it doesn't matter.

Couple little things...

First, the Bellator vs the SSD. When I play, I've found that there's no real reason to build the Bellator at all. When I reach the point where I am able to build the Bellator, my economy is usually generating enough resources where I can afford to wait a few minutes until SSD research is available, and the SSD is so much more powerful that it's absolutely worth the credits.

Now I don't think two titans is the answer here, because that would be horribly unbalanced. I'd suggest a couple things.
1.) On the research tree, in the space between the SSD and Bellator researches, include a research topic where you can scuttle the Bellator and recieve almost all the resources back. I'm not really sure if this is possible.
2.) Increase the number of command points the SSD uses so that you can buy an extra Star Destroyer if you choose the Bellator. I think the SSD is still well worth 3 command.
3.) Increase the amount of research required for the SSD. Something like this: Bellator1=>Bellator2=>Bellator3=>Bellator Prototype=>SSD1=>SSD2=>SSD Prototype.

About the Skipray Blastboat. It seems a bit weak compared to the corvettes of other races, and I find myself not even researching it due to the effectiveness of the Carrack Cruiser. Now don't get me wrong, just because I'm an Empire guy doesn't mean I think they should have the absolute best of everything But it does have the lowest shields+hull AND lowest firepower. Maybe if the firepower got a bit of a boost the weak hull armor and shields would be a bit more balanced vs the other races.

Now I know you probably don't even want to hear any more of it, but I changed things around a bit with my game, putting the Dreadnaught in a support role and the Strike Cruiser in an actual fighting role.
I replaced the Planetary Bombardment ability with Covering Fire on the Dreadnaught, and replaced Covering Fire on the Strike Cruiser with Target Maximum Firepower.
-I made the Strike Cruiser 580 Hull/1915 Shields, with 13 Ion/35 Turbolaser.
-The Strike Cruiser and Dreadnaughts antimatter, AI roles, and formation location were switched.
After a few games, the result is this:
-The Vindicator is still the Strike Cruisers big brother by far, being more durable, having better special abilities, and roughly equal in firepower to the Strike Cruiser.
-The Dreadnaught actually has an effective use besides bombing planets and soaking up damage. I build roughly one Dreadnaught per capital ship, and they complement each other well, fighting side by side just as they are seen doing in games like XWA.
-The Strike Cruiser dies rather easily in prolonged fleet battles, as they should. The Strike Cruiser is quick strike ship, a glass cannon, not a ship of the line, and this fits canon pretty well.