[MOD] Litcube's Missile Rebalance V1.1

[Litcube]

Litcube's Missile Rebalance V1.1

Yup, another rebalance modification for missiles, the poor little guys. Reason being, imo, missiles are useless in TC. Why launch a Firefly when your particle accelerator cannon will do more damage in one volley, fire faster, will not miss, cannot be shot down, and is free? Several missiles are obsolete by the same issue in TC. My goal is to remedy this situation with missiles. Make them worthwhile, and a varitable force again. They cost money, so they should be worth something.

Download
[ external image ]


Throw it in your mod folder, or extract and implement in your current mod file. Two folders, two files total. dds & types.

Mission Statement

Missiles in TC are useless, save for one or two. I did a lot of number crunching and testing to ensure that every missile has it's use now. You'll find that the damages are much higher, and speeds / costs, have changed with it.

Method Used to Arrive at Results

My values are not arbitrary, I applied a formula to ensure that numerically, all of the missiles are aligned with each other.

The formula is as follows:

Costs are spread from ~200 for a misquito all the way to 110,000 for a shadow. Costs are spread evenly in between. All stats must formulate by the following:

If dumbfire, d = 0.15
If firestorm, f = 0.7
If Swarm, s = 1.2
If auto-targeting (no lock required), a = 1.2
- Otherwise, d, f, s, a, = 1.0

(Cost * 0.004) * (Speed ^ 0.85) * d * f * s * a

All missiles are balanced in this way within ~100 +/- credits, save for the remote guided warhead, which is an anomoly. So yes, their power is based off their costs, but it's consistent, and there is a missile for every class of ship, with a targeting flavour for each.

Results

- All missiles rebalanced: Cost, Speed, Damage, Fire Rate, some flags
- Shadow is now a sane addition to the game
- Dumbfire are now worth firing
- Firestorm, Hammerhead, Shadow damage radius reduced by more than half.
- Removed player triggered detonation (i.e. Aurora, which is now a class red dumbfire)
- Player relval and NPC relval are now the same to offset advantages (still pretty good deal for the player)
- New missile icons that are more descriptive than a purple or green blob. Missile icons are colour coded to their respective damages (see spreadsheet below), with tiny icons indicating their targeting type, and special properties, which are consistent among all missiles. See the examples below for all icons showing these properties.

Evidence

Here's what the missile icons look like:

http://members.shaw.ca/Litcube/X3/LitQB ... ample1.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/Litcube/X3/LitQB ... ample2.jpg

Here's what the new stats of the missiles are in a spreadhseet shot:

http://members.shaw.ca/Litcube/X3/LitQB ... alance.jpg

Notes on the spreadsheet and icons:
- Total damage includes all warheads erupting from swarm missiles.
- NL: No Lock (Icon: The dotted X)
- SWM: Swarm (Icon: Shows three missiles)
- PRX: Proximity Fuse (Icon: Explosion)
- Targ: Targeting
- A: Auto (Icon: The dotted X)
- HS: Heatseak (Icon: Flame)
- IR: Image Recognition (Icon: Square with center dot)
- DB: Dumbfire (Icon: Forward Arrow)
- M: Manual (Radio wave icon, only one on the remote guided warhead)
- Colours in spreadsheet match icons colours in game for damage indication
- Ignore the SPC column .


Updates

V1.1: I suppose as people are downloading this after a year, I should put in a change I made some time ago. I've updated this so that the prices would closely match version 1, but with relvals that won't skew factory production to odd amounts. Unobservant individuals won't notice a difference.

[imperium3]

Hey, I have competition!

*goes back to make his own mod shinier*

[StarCrack]

realy like the new icons

[Tasolth]

Wow.... I can certainly say that missiles hurt a lot more with your mod than ever before.

You should include a link to the missile defense mod as well.
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=238799 Here

[HotSake]

Not sure how I found myself in this thread (maybe someone in a current thread linked to it), but I've always been curious what the Firestorm flag really does. Since you set a value on it, I'm assuming you understand it pretty well. Care to explain why you priced it that way?

[Moonrat]

How did I miss this...? What great ideas you have.

[Litcube]

Thanks, Moonrat.

HotSake. We meet again.

How Does It Work, with HotSake:

Firestorm turns the missile into a lumbering torpedo only suitable for hitting stationary or slow targets. Doesn't track well.

[joelR]

I have a question about compatability with mods that alter the same thing such as CMOD. For example I really like what you did here and want to try it out. Would adding this break other mods that change the same values in the sense that they would corrupt saves or break the whole thing or would this simply overwrite the changes and still be useable?

[Litcube]

I have a question about compatability with mods that alter the same thing such as CMOD. For example I really like what you did here and want to try it out. Would adding this break other mods that change the same values in the sense that they would corrupt saves or break the whole thing or would this simply overwrite the changes and still be useable?

I'm pretty sure you'd be safe with a save game. It will overwrite missiles, however.

[joelR]

I have a question about compatability with mods that alter the same thing such as CMOD. For example I really like what you did here and want to try it out. Would adding this break other mods that change the same values in the sense that they would corrupt saves or break the whole thing or would this simply overwrite the changes and still be useable?

I'm pretty sure you'd be safe with a save game. It will overwrite missiles, however.

Fantastic. Thanks.

[Litcube]

Update

V1.1: I suppose as people are downloading this after a year, I should put in a change I made some time ago. I've updated this so that the prices would closely match version 1, but with relvals that won't skew factory production to odd amounts. Unobservant individuals won't notice a difference.

[HotSake]

Note that CMOD includes the Missile Rebalance Mod changes, so check those out first if you just want something that's not vanilla. You may not need to install this.

Litcube: I remember how I got here; I saw the link in your sig. Anyway, this is lazy of me since I could test it without much difficulty, but maybe you can clarify Firestorm. It affects only the missile's turn radius? Not its tracking behavior, speed, etc. but only its ability to change course?

[Litcube]

Note that CMOD includes the Missile Rebalance Mod changes, so check those out first if you just want something that's not vanilla. You may not need to install this.

Yeah, joelR. You may not need to install this. Cripes, HotSake, I answer all your bloody questions like Mr. Wizard at a Scouts jamboree, and you pay me the favour by sitting here at the door of my humble shop with your off-tune guitar and make an effort to turn my customers away? I'm calling the police. And I'm not serving Earl Grey at our Under the Hood meetings any more. It's President's Choice herbal tea for you, buddy.

Anyway, this is lazy of me since I could test it without much difficulty, but maybe you can clarify Firestorm.

I don't remember all the details, to be honest. But I look forward to the answer when you totally test it and then totally post it here when you're done.

[imperium3]

@HotSake
Yes, the Missile Rebalance mod is included in CMOD, but unless paulwheeler's done anything funky I don't know about, this mod would smoothly overwrite it without problems. So it kinda depends whose approach you prefer - Litcube's taken a very methodical, mathematical approach that is probably much more comprehensive, whereas I just tweaked things that annoy me

Pass the President's Choice

As for the Firestorm flag, I'm not sure but IIRC it may be one of those that doesn't do anything at all - don't really remember though.