[MOD] Miscellaneous IZ Combat Tweaks

[w.evans]

I think it uses the same "projectile" as the Targon cannons.

Got worried that my IHC tweaks were affecting Targon Tracers, so I checked.

They do indeed use the same physical bullet:

<component ref="turret_l_bullet" />

but the properties of that bullet are defined separately. Whew.

[NocturnalS1n]

Think I found a sweet spot for speed/lifespan. 3600m/s at 5 second bullet life.

Still has 18k range, while the round moves at a good visible speed, still fast enough for good accuracy, as well as good delivery time, but it's not so fast you blink and you miss it.

[w.evans]

Cool! I'll give it a try. Thanks for the tip!

[Conbadicus]

What is the range on the balor, Surely it must be longer than an Arawm? My balor is consistently jumping into range of its blue turrets.

[w.evans]

Vanilla Balors: 8,000m
with MOC_T_supp3: 24,000m

Is it targeting the Arawn? If it's targeting something else, it could inadvertently jump/boost/move within range of the Arawn while evading something else.

[Conbadicus]

Yeah i asked a single balor to take on the arawm and it jumped into 5k range. then when its shield got low it made anotehr jump ,to the other side of the arawm , stilll around 8km of the arawm

[w.evans]

I could take a look. Could you please upload your save file somewhere and send me a link? Preferably right before that attack order is given.

[w.evans]

24.Mar.2015 - MICT_supp3_v0.04 is up!

Forgot that jump paths are set in move.generic, not in move.jump, so 0.03 was set to refuel only when there is less fuel than is needed for one jump.

Fixed the fuel reserve to 500 fuel cells. This is the value set in vanilla, and should be enough fuel to get to a gas station regardless of where you are in the Universe as of X:R 3.52.

[oliverjanda]

I finally had time to give your mod some love (testing ).

1) I fought against a Sucellus with my Xenon I and all went well; It jumped into range and squashed it. (a huge improvement over vanilla)
2) Another Sucellus: My I jumped too far away and tried to fly the rest but that was so slow (it tried to turn somehow instead of flying the direct route; prob a vanilla issue) that another ship killed the Sucellus first.
3) Some groups of M class vessels: didn't work too well, the I is probably too slow.

I should mention that in all 3 fights I was that attacker while the enemies were occupied with other targets.

I will do some more tests (especially with me in a sucellus) and tell you the outcome later.

[Conbadicus]

Something must not be right with my game, the balors are at 9km and the missiles are blowing up before they get there...

[antoniut]

Tweak "lifetime" missile needed?

[w.evans]

Something must not be right with my game, the balors are at 9km and the missiles are blowing up before they get there...

Tweak "lifetime" missile needed?

To clarify: Two mods of mine affect Balor torpedoes:
Miscellaneous OOZ Combat Tweaks (which I usually refer to as MOC-T)
and Miscellaneous IZ Combat Tweaks (which I usually refer to as MICT)

Both mods have been deployed with a number of optional add-on files which I refer to as supplements. (For example: MICT_supp3 refers to supplement 3 of Miscellaneous IZ Combat Tweaks.)

........
Torpedo range is increased in MOC-T_supp3, and torpedo lifetime is also increased in that supplement.

Code: Select all

<replace sel="//missile/@lifetime">201</replace>
<replace sel="//missile/@range">24000</replace>

........
More extensive changes are done in MICT_supp1, namely:

• Torpedo maximum speed is increased,
• Torpedo acceleration is decreased,
• Torpedo turning/strafing is not changed,

Code: Select all

<replace sel="//acceleration/@forward">30</replace>
<replace sel="//speed/@forward">960</replace>

• More torpedoes are fired per volley,
• Four volleys are fired per reload cycle,
• Damage is reduced to 20,000 from 80,000,
• And reload time is increased to 160 seconds from 40 seconds.

Code: Select all

<!-- Increasing no. of volleys has no effect OOZ.  Increasing number of projectiles per volley via swarm acts as a multiplier-->
<replace sel="//ammunition/@value">4</replace>

<replace sel="//missile/@amount">4</replace>

<add sel="//missile" type="@swarm">1</add>
<add sel="//missile" type="@distribute">1</add>
<add sel="//missile" type="@retarget">1</add>

<!--balancing stuff: damage / 4, reload rate * 4.  Reduce missile lifetime?  Vanilla with the changed acceleration and speed, each missile carries enough fuel to travel 61,440 meters (156% over max range). It uses its extra delta-v to loop around and/or retarget.-->
<replace sel="//explosiondamage/@value">20000</replace>
<replace sel="//ammunition/@reload">160</replace>

........
So if you use the range increase, then lifetime is already increased. If you are not using the range increase, then it fires over the normal 8km range, and should be able to fire normally over that range. (Didn't actually take the time to calculate this, but without the torp tweaks, your Balors are firing vanilla torpedoes which I assume can fire over the range specified.)

........
tl;dr:

just MOC-T_supp3 = extremely long range, slow torpedoes.
just MICT_supp1 = lots of fast, relatively short-ranged, more inaccurate torpedoes per barrage; slower refire.

both MOC-T_supp3 and MICT_supp1 = lots of extremely long range, more inaccurate, fast torpedoes with slower refire rate.

........
@Conbadicus, one possibility is if you're using MICT_supp1, but not MOC-T_supp3. If so, it is possible that it will not be able to fire over 8km because of the decreased acceleration. If so, please let me know.

_____
@oliver, Thanks, man.

1) looks good.
2) It should jump to turret range (around 7km, if I remember correctly). Were the I's shields low? If so, it could have been trying to escape.
3) Against fighters, MICT capships should jump/boost/move to ~3,500 meters with some error due to captain skill:

Code: Select all

<set_value name="$MICT_MaxShortAimDist" exact="3500m * (2.0f - ((this.skill.navigation + this.skill.morale)f / 10.0f))"/>
<set_value name="$MICT_MinShortAimDist" exact="3500m * (0.25f * (1.0f + (2.0f * ((this.skill.navigation + this.skill.morale)f / 10.0f))))"/>

They'll try to stay away only if shields are low.

........
Jump is preferred if:

the ship has a working jump drive,
it's trying to move to a point at least 15,000m away,
and it's been at least 10 seconds since the last tactical jump.

........
If one of the conditions above is not fulfilled, a ship will boost if:

the ship has working boost engines,
and it's trying to move to a point more than 5,000m away.

........
Otherwise, it will use normal engines and try to crawl to where it's going. (Almost only used if a ship is station keeping and is already at its desired range.)

_____
Hope that helps clear some things up. If there's anything that is not clear, or if what I just posted made something more confusing, please let me know.

[oliverjanda]

2) I dont think so because the I killed the first succellus in no time.
But maybe i haven't seen it shoot bc i was on the bridge?!

I will do my next tests from the skunk, maybe i have a better look from there. Its so hard to find proper targets when you need them

[w.evans]

Its so hard to find proper targets when you need them

I like to go to Exavier724's Hiigaran Crossroads for that. Spawns PMC ships fairly often without the risk of pissing off friendly factions by hitting stations with stray torpedoes. Or Maelstrom with the Xenon 2.0 supplement if you want things to get really interesting.

[w.evans]

26.Mar.2015 - MICT_supp2_v0.04 is up!

Having better squadron combat, I naturally fielded more squadrons and noticed that it's a bit of a pain to get squadron members to maintain the same fuel reserves.

So squadron subordinates now refuel when their commanders do.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Heh, sounds like owning a Recharge Fac could be worth it again despite the additional NPC ones being added in 3.00 (?).

Random thought: Ships can in general pick different Facs depending on how busy each are so i guess this could nudge different ships to different sectors? Would be time-efficient but mentioning in case it causes issues if thry try to respond to aggression while refuelling.

[oliverjanda]

I did a little more testing with an enemy I yesterday (several repeats).

My ships seem to jump to the attack target properly.
In my opinion they flee too early because they get a lot of hits when they disengage. Why do they not flee with boosters?
They seem to have difficulties in keeping a constant distance to the target.
Once the shield is up again, they take a long time until they engange again.
So long that the enemy was at 100% again.
I lost one of my K in one test session. It neither disengaged nor did an AEJ.



In another fight my I attacked an enemy K properly but somehow disengaged without taking damage. Maybe a factory was in the way.



I will try the Succellus and the squad addon soon.

[Conbadicus]

Ah, I don't have any of the supplements. Woops thought they were included, where do I get the 3rd one that increases the balor range

[w.evans]

Ships can in general pick different Facs depending on how busy each are so i guess this could nudge different ships to different sectors? Would be time-efficient but mentioning in case it causes issues if thry try to respond to aggression while refuelling.

Unfortunately, they don't. Had my armada refuel last night to test: 4 commodores leading their squads with 22 ships total, and they all made a beeline to the nearest cell recharge fac. The L ships refueled pretty quickly, but the XL ships took a very long time, and it was rather chaotic right outside the gas station.

Why do they not flee with boosters?

They should, if they can't jump for some reason.

In my opinion they flee too early ...

Try getting Split captains. I've been testing with increased capship shields from Epic Capital Ship Shields, so it takes a while for their shields to go down. Might very well be too fast without increased shields.

I lost one of my K in one test session. It neither disengaged nor did an AEJ.

Did it have a Split captain? They don't retreat until their shields are completely depleted, and sometimes, that can be too late. Don't know why AEJ didn't kick in, though. Maybe it lost its jump drive? (Don't know if AEJ checks for a working jump drive.)

@Conbadicus, Mod description and download link for MOC-T here. The range increase is supplement 3 (MOC-T_supp3). If you have neither MICT_supp1 nor MOC-T_supp3, though, your Balors should be firing normal vanilla torpedoes: they should fire 4 torpedoes per volley at 8km, and the torpedoes should be able to fly the full 8km.

[w.evans]

26.Mar.2015 - MiscellaneousIZCombatTweaks_v0.09 and MICT_supp2_v0.05 are up!

MICT_v0.09:

Squadron subordinates will launch the MICT movement script if their crew fulfills the MICT crew requirements
OR if the crew of their commander's ship fulfill the crew requirements of MICT.

MICT_supp2_v0.05:

The MICT squad script was getting big, so before I get into too many blocking actions, decided to separate it from the vanilla scripts. MICT squad script moved to MICT.move.escort.capital, and is triggered from move.escort. This is to improve compatibility between MICT and other mods. (NB: Mods that use custom escort scripts still won't launch the MICT squad script.)
Squadron subordinates will stop attacking and move to their commander after a non-attack/patrol command is given to the commander. If they are engaged in combat, they will finish off their target before breaking off.
Squadrons will act according to MICT doctrine if the Squadron Commander is a MICT ship.

Note: Squadron subordinates who are refueling might get stuck. If they do not rejoin their commander after undocking from the Fuel Recharge Fac, please squad them under the Skunk, then reassign them to their squad. The mod Multiassignment by Phipsz is excellent for mass-assigning ships to squads.

aiscripts\move.escort.capital.xml is now blank, and was only included to overwrite the old file in your directory. The functions that used to be in that file are now in MICT.move.escort.capital.xml. Feel free to delete aiscripts\move.escort.capital.xml. To make sure that you're deleting the correct file, open it in a text editor, and it should say that it's safe to delete. If you are unsure, it is safe to just keep all of the files.

........
Together, this means that MICT officers will extend MICT behavior to their squadrons regardless of whether or not their squadron subordinates fulfill MICT crew requirements. Still, don't expect any miracles from non-MICT crews trying to fly according to MICT. (Lots of range and distance calculations depend on crew skill.)

_____
OT, AND I'm off to play Pillars of Eternity!