[XRM] CPP - combat performance patch

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BlackArchon
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[XRM] CPP - combat performance patch

Post by BlackArchon » Sun, 18. Sep 16, 12:03

Download: CPP v2 for XRM 1.30d - You may have noticed that huge fleet battles have a bad effect on the game's performance. This patch changes the weapons of XRM to mitigate the performance penalty in huge battles.

Installation
XRM for TC: Copy the content of this ZIP file to your XRM directory into the \types directory.
XRM for AP: Copy the content of this ZIP file to your XRM directory into the \addon\types directory.

Uninstall
Simply delete both of the files.

Synopsis
  • You don't have to start a new game for this patch. In fact, you can enable or disable it any time you want by simply adding or removing the files from the directory and restarting the game.
  • The following lasers are unchanged: all beam weapons and the Mobile Drilling System
  • The following lasers have their fire rate (bullets per minute) reduced to 50%: all flak weapons (Flak Artillery Array, Electro-Magnetic Disruptor Array, Cluster Flak Array, Starburst Shockwave Cannon, Prototype Starburst Shockwave Cannon) as well as the Phased Array Laser Cannon, Plasma Burst Generator, and the Gauss Cannon
    Example: The fire rate of the EMDA is reduced from 120 to 60 rounds per minute.
  • The following lasers have their fire rate (bullets per minute) reduced to 33% and their bullet speed increased by 75%: all other weapons
    Example: The fire rate of the IRE is reduced from 400 to 133 rounds per minute, while the bullet speed is increased from 2000 to 3500 m/s.
  • Completely unchanged for all lasers is: range, shield DPS, hull DPS, energy consumption per second, special abilities, cargo size, ware class, bullet hitbox size, price - so all weapons are basically the same as before.
  • You can see the new weapon stats here: CPP v2 Weapon stats (english)
Changelog:
Reduced the fire rate penalty for flak weapons from -66% to -50%: flak weapons are now more... flak-y :P
Reduced the fire rate of the PBG and the GC

Old versions:
CPP v1
Last edited by BlackArchon on Fri, 18. May 18, 17:15, edited 1 time in total.

BlackArchon
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Post by BlackArchon » Thu, 17. May 18, 19:45

I linked the slightly tweaked version 2. After several dozens of hours in XRM games testing these changes I find them more suitable. :)
Flak weapons are now more like a flak weapon (faster firing rate), and the Phased Array Laser Cannon, Plasma Burst Generator, and the Gauss Cannon also got their fire rate reduced by 50%. Especially the PBG is a real performance hog.
Last edited by BlackArchon on Fri, 18. May 18, 17:15, edited 1 time in total.

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dizzy
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Post by dizzy » Thu, 17. May 18, 22:42

This is an interesting mod, thanks, may finally convince me to do a full XRM playthrough as I dread the inevitable slow FPS death of late X3 games.

You mention the changes but don't give any examples of performance improvements. Please include a description of a test case (ie number of ships in combat, etc) and FPS before and after (and your hardware config). Preferably multiple such tests.

The changelog mentions reducing the fire rate of some weapons but doesn't mention increasing their bullet speeds, most notably the flak guns, doesn't that mean that now they have a significantly reduced chance to hit agile targets? (ex. bombs and small fighters) This seems like a risky change, it reduces the effectiveness of those weapons, not just simply improve performance.
X3LU 1.5.2/1.7.0 Youtube series with: IEX 1.5b + LUVi, SIaF r7 (previously also used Phanon Plus 4.02, Revelation Plus 1.04, Diverse Game Starts - LU Edition)
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BlackArchon
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Joined: Wed, 4. Feb 04, 17:37
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Post by BlackArchon » Thu, 17. May 18, 23:04

That's correct, I didn't increase the bullet speed of flak weapons. This actually helps hitting targets in scenarios with low FPS numbers. A higher bullet speed means a higher chance of missing your target if the FPS are low because the hit detection will also happen less often with low fps.
You may have noticed this with X3:AP's Flak Artillery Array: When you use them in fights with lower FPS, they will often not hit the target despite their high bullet speed of over 7 km/s - these bullets should hit, but due to their high speed, the hit detection also has less time to actually trigger.

In addition, my game tests didn't show me a noticeable disadvantage of the current flak fire rate - instead I could suddenly hear the distinct sound effects of the weapons, which is a nice little feature for me.
With the high default fire rate of faster weapons in XRM, I couldn't hear their sound effects so clearly. Surely this is more of an aesthetic point, but I like it. :)

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