VRO - yes or no?

[THE_TrashMan]

Since X4 is a game that take up a lot of time, and there are plenty of mods you cannot simply turn on/off mid-game, I just want peoples general impression on VRO, to help me decide to use it or no.

As I understand, it adds new ships and drastically re-balances everything. But that also mean any mod that doesn't have a VRO patch wont fit. Sell me on it.

[Scoob]

Generally, it's just mods that add additional ships that need a VRO patch to work properly. VRO adds an "Internal shield" to all ships. Consider this the ship's "base" shield that mostly handles recharge speed. Regular shields just add shield health mostly and some recharge.

I bloody love VRO, the balance is much closer to my personal taste. Faster shot speeds being the No. 1 feature, improved shields without the vanilla recharge delay and buffed ships. Buffs include hull health, shields and ships are generally faster. Weapon ranges are also increased, with some of the heavier ones having ranges of 20km+ - really changes things.

In vanilla, it was easy for me, in whatever starting ship I had, to go out and force an M-Class vessel to bail almost right away - I'd usually choose the SCA Minotaur Raider as my first target. In VRO, your average Minotaur Raider will rip you apart in that starting ship with ease. The balance of power between the vessel classes is very different, in a good way as it makes moving up to better ships yourself feel like more positive progress.

The thing to note is that the early game may well seem a lot more difficult, depending on how you play. If, like me, you liked to start shooting stuff early, it perhaps won't go quite how you're used to.

[Vaedian]

The game feels very shallow without it. I don't like all aspects of VRO, but I can't play without it anymroe.

[magitsu]

Improved weapon range, more capital focused (them not being paper vs single player S/M) gameplay feels more plausible. Missiles also get an expanded role. Some ships are beasts like I. Even few M/N can be tricky (but single P is still quite trivial against player S).

One of the hardest things to go back is capital ship movement. It's far more fluid in VRO, whereas you wait for travel drive etc. in Vanilla. This is due to VRO's design to be intended to run without highways, so the ship movement was buffed.
Cargo sizes are upped, except dispensables store is drastically slashed (it didn't make sense to be able to hold 100 satellites etc.).

I'm not sure if the Xenon is in the right place with the current VRO version. It's probably not possible for a single player to make a reasonable assessment, probably have to wait whether many with different seeds report whether it feels they are truly weaker.

I suggest trying custom creative start with few sizes of ships and plop them down next to a Xenon gate. That should give some insight how the combat balance is.

[potaitoz]

The game feels very shallow without it. I don't like all aspects of VRO, but I can't play without it anymroe.

Same here

[Baconnaise]

VRO is okay primarily due to mods taking it into account. I've been doing just fine without it as other mod packs or mods accomplish similar things. I have trouble understanding why folks consider it mandatory since it seems like a superficial list of changes. Plenty of weapon engine shield mods out there. You can even edit all of this yourself reasonably easily with the tools afaik. I've used it and I like it but it isn't necessary. I wonder if someone can elaborate besides the compatibility why it's better than anything else.

[Scoob]

VRO is okay primarily due to mods taking it into account. I've been doing just fine without it as other mod packs or mods accomplish similar things. I have trouble understanding why folks consider it mandatory since it seems like a superficial list of changes. Plenty of weapon engine shield mods out there. You can even edit all of this yourself reasonably easily with the tools afaik. I've used it and I like it but it isn't necessary. I wonder if someone can elaborate besides the compatibility why it's better than anything else.

Are there other mods that rebalance weapons, shields and ships like VRO? I thought VRO was fairly unique in that regard. Unless I'm simply not aware of other mods that do similar. I don't use the Workshop as have the GoG version of the game.

No mods are necessary, base game is fine, but mods do enhance things a great deal. I personally find the exceptionally slow speed of many of the weapon projectiles in vanilla quite painful to play with. Also, things like shield recharge delay are annoying. If VRO didn't exist, I would certainly have learnt how to change bullet speeds and shield recharge, as well as tweaked ranges and damage on the former, and overall strength on the latter. I've done this in the past for X2 and the various X3 titles, until someone else's release mod did it better. Also, faster ships is really nice, as I do generally choose the "no highways" options when setting up a new game.

[Baconnaise]

VRO is okay primarily due to mods taking it into account. I've been doing just fine without it as other mod packs or mods accomplish similar things. I have trouble understanding why folks consider it mandatory since it seems like a superficial list of changes. Plenty of weapon engine shield mods out there. You can even edit all of this yourself reasonably easily with the tools afaik. I've used it and I like it but it isn't necessary. I wonder if someone can elaborate besides the compatibility why it's better than anything else.

Are there other mods that rebalance weapons, shields and ships like VRO? I thought VRO was fairly unique in that regard. Unless I'm simply not aware of other mods that do similar. I don't use the Workshop as have the GoG version of the game.

No mods are necessary, base game is fine, but mods do enhance things a great deal. I personally find the exceptionally slow speed of many of the weapon projectiles in vanilla quite painful to play with. Also, things like shield recharge delay are annoying. If VRO didn't exist, I would certainly have learnt how to change bullet speeds and shield recharge, as well as tweaked ranges and damage on the former, and overall strength on the latter. I've done this in the past for X2 and the various X3 titles, until someone else's release mod did it better. Also, faster ships is really nice, as I do generally choose the "no highways" options when setting up a new game.

I had the GOG version as well but decided to pay for it again on Steam so I understand the pain of having to deal with workshop onlys.

I've seen quite a few that rebalance weapons engines etc. Cheaty or otherwise. The tools available here also allow you to customize all these components tailored exactly however you prefer. I'm not trying to take a dump on the mod it's great and I've used it for hundreds of hours. I just don't get the hype. It never felt necessary as a quality of life update like some of the other mods in Rebirth or X4. A good example is the friendly fire tweak mod which is necessary or say the corporation mod since those are nonexistent here. I'm with you scoob on the whole removing highways option as I always end up choosing it.

[Scoob]

I had the GOG version as well but decided to pay for it again on Steam so I understand the pain of having to deal with workshop onlys.

I've seen quite a few that rebalance weapons engines etc. Cheaty or otherwise. The tools available here also allow you to customize all these components tailored exactly however you prefer. I'm not trying to take a dump on the mod it's great and I've used it for hundreds of hours. I just don't get the hype. It never felt necessary as a quality of life update like some of the other mods in Rebirth or X4. A good example is the friendly fire tweak mod which is necessary or say the corporation mod since those are nonexistent here. I'm with you scoob on the whole removing highways option as I always end up choosing it.

That's cool, we each have our own preferences. Speaking personally, I do not enjoy games without VRO anywhere near as much as with VRO. I'll partake in the Betas with a totally vanilla game, but I really don't like the standard ship and weapon balance choices. Adding more ships with that same vanilla balance also doesn't do it for me, so I'm very appreciative that the various ship mods have a VRO patch available - I'd not use them if they didn't.

[Baconnaise]

I had the GOG version as well but decided to pay for it again on Steam so I understand the pain of having to deal with workshop onlys.

I've seen quite a few that rebalance weapons engines etc. Cheaty or otherwise. The tools available here also allow you to customize all these components tailored exactly however you prefer. I'm not trying to take a dump on the mod it's great and I've used it for hundreds of hours. I just don't get the hype. It never felt necessary as a quality of life update like some of the other mods in Rebirth or X4. A good example is the friendly fire tweak mod which is necessary or say the corporation mod since those are nonexistent here. I'm with you scoob on the whole removing highways option as I always end up choosing it.

That's cool, we each have our own preferences. Speaking personally, I do not enjoy games without VRO anywhere near as much as with VRO. I'll partake in the Betas with a totally vanilla game, but I really don't like the standard ship and weapon balance choices. Adding more ships with that same vanilla balance also doesn't do it for me, so I'm very appreciative that the various ship mods have a VRO patch available - I'd not use them if they didn't.

No doubt I would use VRO or something similar. I've tried going without VRO or other modifications to components and just wasn't feeling it. I think this brings up some good points about the base game and how lackluster things are as they stand with EGO's decisions on that front. The aim for save game compatibility is a weak spot which has hurt the game more than helped IMO.

[THE_TrashMan]

My main concerns is that it seem like if you want to use VRO, you have to use it with ships/weapons that have a path. And some don't. So if I plan on using VRO I'll probably have to ditch a few other things I like.

Also, does VRO change just the base stats or does it change ship meshes/slots (more/different guns/engine)?

[snaplord]

VRO is okay primarily due to mods taking it into account. I've been doing just fine without it as other mod packs or mods accomplish similar things. I have trouble understanding why folks consider it mandatory since it seems like a superficial list of changes. Plenty of weapon engine shield mods out there. You can even edit all of this yourself reasonably easily with the tools afaik. I've used it and I like it but it isn't necessary. I wonder if someone can elaborate besides the compatibility why it's better than anything else.

Are there other mods that rebalance weapons, shields and ships like VRO? I thought VRO was fairly unique in that regard. Unless I'm simply not aware of other mods that do similar. I don't use the Workshop as have the GoG version of the game.

There's a few. One that has about the same scope as VRO, but does it very differently is Classic Mode on Steam. It aims to make the game feel more like X3, from ship performance to economy. Its ship changes are reminiscent of VRO wrt class disparities being more pronounced, but weapons are deadlier across the board making combat faster and more dangerous especially in S ships, but a skilled fighter pilot can make more of an impact than in VRO. I personally love that. Also larger ship classes have the best travel speeds, so carriers are a necessity. It's a woefully underappreciated mod imo. I was a VRO onlyist for a long time until I found Classic Mode. Now I won't go back.

[Scoob]

There's a few. One that has about the same scope as VRO, but does it very differently is Classic Mode on Steam. It aims to make the game feel more like X3, from ship performance to economy. Its ship changes are reminiscent of VRO wrt class disparities being more pronounced, but weapons are deadlier across the board making combat faster and more dangerous especially in S ships, but a skilled fighter pilot can make more of an impact than in VRO. I personally love that. Also larger ship classes have the best travel speeds, so carriers are a necessity. It's a woefully underappreciated mod imo. I was a VRO onlyist for a long time until I found Classic Mode. Now I won't go back.

Sounds interesting, is there a non-Steam Workshop version? Subscribing is no good - not sure I can not owning the game on Steam - and there's no regular download option on the Workshop. While I'd likely stick with VRO as various other mods I use have VRO patches which help, and I'm enjoying my current game. It would be interesting to check it out.

[snaplord]

There's a few. One that has about the same scope as VRO, but does it very differently is Classic Mode on Steam. It aims to make the game feel more like X3, from ship performance to economy. Its ship changes are reminiscent of VRO wrt class disparities being more pronounced, but weapons are deadlier across the board making combat faster and more dangerous especially in S ships, but a skilled fighter pilot can make more of an impact than in VRO. I personally love that. Also larger ship classes have the best travel speeds, so carriers are a necessity. It's a woefully underappreciated mod imo. I was a VRO onlyist for a long time until I found Classic Mode. Now I won't go back.

Sounds interesting, is there a non-Steam Workshop version? Subscribing is no good - not sure I can not owning the game on Steam - and there's no regular download option on the Workshop. While I'd likely stick with VRO as various other mods I use have VRO patches which help, and I'm enjoying my current game. It would be interesting to check it out.

Try this https://steamworkshopdownloader.io/

[Scoob]

Try this https://steamworkshopdownloader.io/

Thanks, will check it out.