[MOD] Marine Rebalance

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w.evans
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[MOD] Marine Rebalance

Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 18:07

What's New:

The biggest development in v0.44.x, in my opinion, is the translation to different languages. (Thanks, alexalsp, for suggesting this.) So far, alexalsp, Fazer, and Sindrali have generously contributed translations to русского языка, Deutsch, and Francais, and their help is greatly appreciated. If anyone would like to contribute further translations, please let me know.

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17.February 2018 - Marine Rebalance updated to v0.57

Fixed getting very powerful veteran and elite marines in Hard and Very Hard difficulty.

Thank you very much to lyonheart for reporting the issue.

Only the version available on Steam was affected.

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8.December 2017 - Marine Rebalance updated to v0.56

Compatibility update with XR 4.3

Thank you very much to alexalsp for reporting the new error.

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29.July 2017 - Marine Rebalance updated to v0.55

Compatibility update with XR 4.1

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2.April 2016 - Marine Rebalance updated to v0.54

Compatibility fix with Boarding Options to enable attempt to launch boarding pods anyway even if the target ship is moving too fast.

Many thanks to FunkDooBiesT for pointing out that this does not work with Marine Rebalance installed.

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29.Feb.2016 - Marine Rebalance updated to v0.53

- Fixed attrition. Many thanks to pref for spotting the waldo!

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13.Feb.2016 - Marine Rebalance updated to v0.52

- Suppresses notifications added in X:R 4.0 Beta 5.
- Removed sound of boarding notifications.

Marine Rebalance is now fully compatible with X Rebirth 4.0

Happy 13th, everyone!

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22.Nov.2015 - Marine Rebalance is updated to v0.51

The number of scan points for PreScan in Normal difficulty was reduced to 1-3 points for some testing, and I forgot to put them back up. This has been fixed. When doing PreScan in Normal difficulty, you will now have to scan between 2 and 10 points to successfully scan a ship in preparation for boarding.

Marvin Martian is doing something really cool with his Fleet Supported Boarding mod. I'll let him announce it when it's released. Some things were changed in this mod upon his recommendation to prepare compatibility with this upcoming really cool thing. Thanks to Marvin, as usual, for thinking about compatibility.

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7.Nov.2015 - Marine Rebalance is updated to v0.50

Compatibility update with the Fleet Supported Boarding mod by Marvin Martian

Thanks to Marvin for thinking about compatibility.

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12.Aug.2015 - Marine Rebalance is updated to v0.49

Quick fix to make sure that the engineer.ai tweak lands correctly.
Credit to Sindrali for the French t-file was already typed, but not saved before the last upload! Apologies. Fixed.

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8.Aug.2015 - Nexus and Steam Workshop versions of this mod are now updated to v0.48

Games set to display text in the French language should now display text from this mod in French as well.

Many thanks to Sindrali for this excellent translation!

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known issue: if PreScan is launched, you get in a Beholder drone, then go back to the Skunk for whatever reason without accomplishing the scanning mission, your targeting reticle gets stuck to that of the Beholder. Don't know how to fix it yet, but am deciding to keep it because I think that there's very little chance of anyone doing this, and the only other choice would be to cut the whole PreScan function out completely. Only fix that I've found is to go in a Beholder again. This appears to reset your targeting reticle.

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A detailed discussion of the changes in the script were posted a while back here.

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The latest stable build of MarineRebalance can be downloaded here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =369253932

The NZ-Wanderer version, with difficulty settings a bit higher than those in the Steam version, can be downloaded here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/xrebirth/mods/427/?

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Mod Details:

I realized that some of the descriptions below are rather cryptic, and I thought that it might be a good idea to clarify some of the changes made by this mod for those who haven't followed the mod's development.

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Situational Yisha tweak applied. - During a boarding operation, your co-pilot, Yisha, suggests objectives to help support your marines fight the defenders in a capital ship. In vanilla, failure to do so is always penalized by incurring 15-25% losses.

In the mod, this is made situational -- meaning that the number of losses you incur depends on how badly your marines need to be supported. When your marines are weaker than the defenses they encounter, they badly need your support, and incur more losses than in vanilla. If your marines are evenly matched with the opposition that they face, they could use your support, but it isn't nearly as urgent; so losses due to failure to support the boarding operation are much reduced. If your marines are stronger than the opposition, then they don't need your support at all.


Yisha stops giving orders when target is outmatched. - This is a further development of the tweak above. If you are experienced enough with the boarding operation to prepare the target before you send your marines to board, then Yisha recognizes your expertise by not suggesting any objectives to support the boarding operation.


Losses due to attrition tweaked. - In vanilla, three levels are set based on relative force strength:

If your force is more powerful than that of the opposition, then you incur no losses due to attrition.
If your opposition is more powerful than your marines, than you incur heavy losses due to attrition.
If your marines are evenly matched with the opposing force, than you stand a chance to incur losses due to attrition.

In the mod, this is tweaked so:

Heavy losses per turn due to facing more powerful opposition is lessened, but there are more combat turns. Maximum heavy losses are roughly the same as with vanilla, but having more turns in which that can occur can (hopefully) make the boarding operation more dynamic by giving you more chances to lower the target ship's defence strength and thereby affect your marines' chances of winning. Defence strength can also change during a fight as a ship's engineer repairs systems you had destroyed, so the possible change goes both ways.


Fight outcome rescaled. - This is a development of the change outlined above. This makes the range in which light losses can occur broader, and increases the chance to incur losses due to attrition. There is, however, less chance to incur losses at all the more powerful your marines are relative to the opposition that they face.


Marines blitz when target is severely outmatched. - If your marines are much more powerful than the opposition they face, the boarding operation goes extremely fast.


The attack strengths of veteran and elite marines are increased. - This was done to make the feeling, that your marine contingent is getting more powerful as they get trained up, more tangible . Also makes losing the few elite marines that you get more painful, as they make up a larger portion of your attack strength. Recruit attack strengths were not modified.

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These changes were made to make the experience of boarding a capital ship more interesting, but also to make the mechanics more convincing. I believe that gameplay mechanics are important to make a game, or a part of it, fun; but I find that those mechanics also have to make sense. Otherwise, it makes it difficult for us to suspend our disbelief, and it turns into either a disjuncted bundle of mechanical procedures, or an overly simplistic grind -- both of which detract from the fun that you can otherwise get out of it.

That said, balancing mechanics is always fiddly, and I seriously doubt that any one set of mechanics is going to be fun for everyone who plays a game.

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Please let me know if anything is not clear, or if things can be made clearer. I also welcome questions as to why the changes were made the way they are, and suggestions as to how the boarding operation can be made more interesting and convincing.

Also, feedback or criticism is, as always, greatly appreciated.


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Which file should I use?! There are 60 files up over there!

Subscribe to the mod in the Steam Workshop, or download any 1 file from "main files" or "old files" at the Nexus. If downloading from the Nexus, simply unzip to your extensions folder, and set to overwrite older files.


Marine Rebalance v0.40 effects the following changes:
  • Situational Yisha tweak applied.
    Yisha stops giving orders when target is outmatched.
    The attack strengths of veteran and elite marines at Normal and Easy game difficulty are increased. (I think that elite marines should kick some serious ass even if their officer sucks. Especially now that we have to train them up.)
    Losses due to attrition tweaked.
    Fight outcome rescaled.
    Default number of combat rounds increased.
    Marines blitz when target is severely outmatched.
    Possibility to scan a ship before launching pods as a part of the boarding operation.
    Successful scan reduces combat rounds.
    Marines will attempt to retreat when situation is FUBAR.
    Your marine attack strength is entered into your in-game logbook after every successful engagement.
These are described in more detail in the "Mod Details" section above.

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As of v0.36x, maintaining the various variants has been rendered obsolete by tying three balance points to the three difficulty levels which you can set in-game. The three difficulty levels correspond to balance points as follows:

Game difficulty = Hard gives you the vanilla X:R balance.
Game difficulty = Normal gives you the default variant.
Game difficulty = Easy gives you the op variant.

(HARD: min attackstrength=5.25, mid=75.75, max=252.5)
(MEDIUM: min attackstrength=30, mid=300, max=1000)
(EASY: min attackstrength=525, mid=15150, max=50500)

min attackstrength is with a 1/1/1 Marine Officer and 50 recruits.
mid attackstrength is with a 5/5/5 Marine Officer and 50 veterans.
max attackstrength is with a 5/5/5 Marine Officer and 50 elite marines.

Please note that you will probably never have 50 elite marines.

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Formerly, the various variants differed as follows:

The v0.33 rebalance gives a consistent boost to the influence the Marine Officer has on attack strength ranging from 20% to 100%. (min attackstrength=30, mid=150, max=500)*

The v0.33_lubatomy variant uses lubatomy's algorithm, and adjusts the attack strength ranging from a 10% reduction (with a rookie marine officer) to a 70% boost (with a 5/5/5 marine officer). (min attackstrength=22.5, mid=127.5, max=425)

v0.33_hardcore uses Egosoft's default v3.0 algorithm for Marine Officers. (Only a truly brilliant officer can inspire the troops to go above and beyond their potential!) (min attackstrength=5.25, mid=75.75, max=252.5)

The v0.331x rebalance variants each use the corresponding v0.3x MO algorithm, but further boost veteran and elite attack strengths. (I think that elite marines should kick ass even if their officer sucks. Especially now that we have to train them up.) Variants using the default rebalance, lubatomy, and hardcore Marine Officer algorithms are available. (for v0.331: mid=300, max=1000; for v0.331l: mid=255, max=850; for v0.331h: mid=151.5, max=505)

NZ-Wanderer's personal variant, designated v0.xx1_NZ-Wanderer, has the added benefit of greatly extending the time allotted to accomplish boarding support objectives. It is otherwise identical to the v0.xx1 lubatomy variant. (mid attackstrength = 255, max = 850)

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v0.2_OP is truly overpowered, and uses the vanilla pre-v3.0 algorithm. With it, 10 recruits with a rookie Marine Officer can successfully board a Balor. 50 recruits can capture anything up to a Taranis. Significantly diminishes from the game, and is most useful to verify that the mod is working at all. Flat Yisha nerf applied. This file is still up, but was moved to old files to slightly mitigate clutter. (min attackstrength=525, mid=7575, max=25250)

All files designated v0.22x (in old files) use a much lower value for support casualties. With this Yisha nerf, attacking a target with defence strength of up to 100 above your defence strength will result in a win with losses, even if you do not do any of Yisha's support missions. The Yisha nerf is scaled, and if your attack strength is at least 11 more than your target's defence strength, you incur no support casualties.

All files designated v0.20x (in old files) use a flat Yisha nerf. Support casualties when target is stronger than you are are lower than in newer versions, but you stand the chance to incur the same support casualties when you are stronger than your target.

All files designated v0.1x (in old files) do not have the Yisha nerf. If you prefer playing without the reduction to support casualties, please use that set, and I would appreciate it if you would let me know.

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And a supplementary file, designated MR_supplement_engineer, was added to the optional files at the Nexus. At the moment, it modifies a single line in engineer.ai.xml which should compel the engineers to prioritize the Drone Launch Bay in addition to the Engines and Jump Drives for repair. Simply extract into your extensions folder. (NB: This will be integrated into the stable branch as of v0.38x)

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Note: A while back, I uploaded a file called "MR_supplement_engineer" to the optional files for Marine Rebalance in the Nexus. This file should cause the engineer AI to prioritize the Drone Launch Bay for repair, assigning the same priority as the engines and the jump drive. If anyone would like to install just this file, without the rest of the mod, please:

Download one of the Rebalance variants.
Download MR_supplement_engineer.
Extract your Rebalance variant into your "extensions" folder.
Extract the supplement into your "extensions" folder.
Delete the "md" folder from the "\extensions\MarineRebalance" folder.

NB: It should still appear in your in-game "Extensions" menu as "Marine Rebalance."

All credit for this goes to lubatomy. He just PMed me one time, told me how to do it, told me what it does, and left it to me; so here it is.

Enjoy!


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Development Journal:

5.Jul.2015 - Nexus and Steam Workshop versions of this mod are now updated to v0.47

Compatibility update - Should now be compatible with Linux and Mac versions of X Rebirth.

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8.Feb.2015 - v0.45.1 is up at the Nexus and at the Steam Workshop!

Updated German translation. (Thanks, Fazer!)
There was a problem with the option to board not coming up when the player has drones, but no Beholder URV. - FIXED

Thanks to Inquisitor for reporting this issue.

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3.Feb.2015 - v0.45 is up at the Steam Workshop!

identical to v0.44.5nzw at the Nexus, except uses the steam variant balance points. (Easy uses the op "trainer wheels" balance point which gives you seriously-non-fun extremely high attack strength, and Normal is balanced between the NZ-Wanderer variant's Easy and Normal. Both variants use the vanilla numbers for Hard.)

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1.Feb.2015 - v0.44.5nzw is up at the Nexus!

Just a bit more spit and polish, mostly from suggestions by Rubini. (Thanks!)
And changed the t-files to merge rather than diff patches as per alexalsp's suggestion. (Thanks!)

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31.Jan.2015 - v0.44.4 is up!

PreScanDone should now, finally, only trigger when all scanning points are successfully scanned.

updated both the default variant at the Steam Workshop and the nzw variant at the Nexus.

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31.Jan.2015 - v0.44.3 is up!

Bugfix - Menu was not firing when player did not have any drones. - FIXED (Thank you, alexalsp for reporting this bug.)
PreScan reward was triggering when drone is launched, regardless of success - FIXED (?)

Since v0.44.3 fixes a serious bug, new variants uploaded to both the Nexus and the Steam Workshop.

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31.Jan.2015 - v0.44.2nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
Fixed a couple of bugs with logbook entries and initial PDA output.
Translations to German and Russian included. (Thank you to Fazer and alexalsp for your excellent (I'm assuming) translations!)

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30.Jan.2015 - v0.44.1nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
All text exported to t-files.
Otherwise identical to v0.44

The mod uses page id 97523 for all of the text.

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30.Jan.2015 - v0.44 is up at the Steam Workshop!

Specified priority for all information displayed on PDA.
Casualty calculations displayed are now correct.
Added option to abort boarding op. (credit to camus for this. Thanks!)
Added a lot of per round information via the PDA.
More information displayed after boarding op. (Thanks to Pimpace for the idea. Thanks, Rubini for reminding me to actually implement the idea.)
Correctly displays the attack strength after retreat, whether or not the Marine Officer survives. (Credit to Rubini for this. Thanks!)
Correctly checks if PreScan was successful. No more workarounds.
Completely removes usage of $skipscannerdrone.
Marine Officers get rather depressed and insecure (lose morale) when they retreat.
They gain confidence (gain morale) when they win.
They also gain less experience when they survive a retreat. (Full credit for all three ideas go to Rubini. Thanks!)
Improved compatibility with Boarding Options -- "Launch Pods" was triggering PreScan rather than skipping it. Works as intended now.
Cleaned up feedback when using with Boarding Options.
Marine Officer has a slim chance of successfully retreating. (Thanks to Rubini for both of these changes.)
Cleaned up dialogue options, and made notifications immediate and more persistent.
Just a bit of polishing: cleaned up dialogue options (Thanks, Rubini)
Made notifications immediate and more persistent.

There is now a lot of information displayed in the PDA. Possibly too much to be useful. Feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

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30.Jan.2015 - v0.43.8nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
Casualty calculations displayed are now correct.
Added option to abort boarding op. (credit to camus for this. Thanks!)
Added a lot of per round information via the PDA.

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29.Jan.2015 - v0.43.7nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
Some minor bugfixes. (Thanks, Rubini)
More information displayed after boarding op. (Thanks to Pimpace for the idea. Thanks, Rubini for reminding me to actually implement the idea.)

There is now a lot of information displayed post-op. Possibly too much to be useful. Feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

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28.Jan.2015 - v0.43.6nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
Correctly displays the attack strength after retreat, whether or not the Marine Officer survives. (Credit to Rubini for this. Thanks!)
Correctly checks if PreScan was successful. No more workarounds.
Completely removes usage of $skipscannerdrone.

Feedback on whether or not all of the changes in v0.43.x work, and if any changes are wished for, are greatly appreciated. Once I get the all-clear from you, this will be uploaded to the Workshop as v0.44

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27.Jan.2015 - v0.43.5nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
Marine Officers get rather depressed and insecure (lose morale) when they retreat.
They gain confidence (gain morale) when they win.
They also gain less experience when they survive a retreat.
Full credit for all three ideas go to Rubini. (Thanks!)

Removed attack strength output upon successful retreat. (Wasn't working.)
Improved compatibility with Boarding Options -- "Launch Pods" was triggering PreScan rather than skipping it. Works as intended now.

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27.Jan.2015 - v0.43.4nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
Bugfix on v0.43.3nzw, and made compatible with X:R 3.10 again.

Sorry everyone! Goofed with v0.43.3nzw. The altered marine strengths on Easy and Normal difficulties weren't being read properly. Going back to pre-v0.43.3nzw method, which still works, until I learn how to change parameters that are set by parameters.xml onto the script in the script itself.

Compatible with both X:R 3.10 and 3.20 RC2.

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27.Jan.2015 - v0.43.3nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
Some structural changes using the new parameters to make the mod slightly less intrusive.
New attack strength displayed if your Marine Officer successfully retreats.
Otherwise identical to v0.43.2nzw

v0.43.3nzw is NOT COMPATIBLE WITH X:R v3.10

If you're not running the beta, please use v0.43.2nzw in the Nexus, or the mod uploaded to the Steam Workshop.

If you are running the beta, any of the versions of this mod uploaded at the Nexus or at the Steam Workshop will work.

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27.Jan.2015 - v0.43.2nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental.
Cleaned up feedback when using with Boarding Options.
Marine Officer has a slim chance of successfully retreating. (Thanks to Rubini for both of these changes.)
Cleaned up dialogue options, and made notifications immediate and more persistent.

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26.Jan.2015 - v0.43.1nzw is up at the Nexus!

experimental. Just a bit of polishing: cleaned up dialogue options (Thanks, Rubini), and made notifications immediate and more persistent. Otherwise identical to v0.43nzw

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25.Jan.2015 - v0.43 is up at the Steam Workshop!

Fixed a dumb bug that could cause a freeze. #@%$! Syntax. Sorry about that.
Added a little more information to the data output when boarding operation is concluded. (Thanks, Pimpace)

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v0.43nzw is up at the Nexus!

Identical to v0.43 which is uploaded to the Steam Workshop, but Easy and Normal difficulties are scaled up.

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21.Jan.2015 - v0.42 is up!

This version is available in both the Nexus and the Steam Workshop because there was a nasty bug fixed here, and both uploads had to be fixed.

Bug with PreScan reward being given due to having scanner drone regardless of whether or not PreScan was actually done. -- fixed (heh)

Bug with possibility to exit from dialogue options causing the script to freeze. -- fixed

Improved compatibility with camus' Boarding Options -- pods will not launch until PreScan state is confirmed, so you can use Boarding Options to guide the disarming of the target ship before triggering PreScan, for example,

Number of scanning points generated depends on difficulty and target ship class. (Thanks, lubatomy! Feedback and suggestions on the implementation of this feature in particular would be appreciated.)

Feedback output is now output to the cockpit PDA. (Thanks, euclid! Thanks, UniTrader!)

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v0.42nzw is up!

identical to v0.42, except it's harder.

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21.Jan.2015 - v0.41.2 is up at the Nexus!

experimental. Identical to v0.41.1, except:

number of scanning points generated is dependent on difficulty and target ship class. (Thanks, lubatomy! Feedback and suggestions on the implementation of this feature in particular would be appreciated.)

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20.Jan.2015 - v0.41.1 is up at the Nexus!

experimental. Identical to v0.41, except:

a harmless but hairy bug was quashed. Was squishy. (keeping this secret for now because it was a bit cheaty),

improved compatibility with camus' Boarding Options -- pods will not launch until PreScan state is confirmed, so you can use Boarding Options to guide the disarming of the target ship before triggering PreScan, for example,

and generates random number of scanning points. (Trying to think of a use for this. Was thinking of tying it to relative force strength, but why?! Completely random over a very wide range for now. Feedback and suggestions on the implementation of this feature in particular would be appreciated.) (NB: This is NOT working as intended in v0.41.1)

and slightly, hardly noticeably better coding in general. (learned a few tricks while digging in the extremely ancient threads from when times were dire and everything was impossible at the scripts and modding forum)

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20.Jan.2015 - Workshop variant updated to v0.41

Accidentally switched the marine strengths for Hard and not Hard in the display calculation. Fixed. This only affected the display as output to the in-game logbook. Actual boarding strengths were not affected.

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17.Jan.2015 - updated to v0.40 in the Steam Workshop
  • PreScan now triggered via dialogue option. (Thanks, Rubini!)
    Fixed a problem when boarding without a Beholder URV.
    Quashed a bug caused by a variable that was undefined if no casualties are incurred.
    Hard difficulty now uses vanilla marine strengths and Marine Officer influence.

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v0.40nzw is in the Nexus

identical to v0.40, except:
  • Easy and Normal game difficulties are harder,
    and PreScan only requires you to scan half the scanning points that it normally would.

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13.Jan.2015 - Uploaded v0.381.1 to the Nexus

  • experimental.
    PreScan triggered by dialogue option.
    Former Normal difficulty set as Easy. Normal is now harder.
    Otherwise identical to v0.381


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12.Jan.2015 - updated to v0.381*
  • Retreat function is working again.
    Marines who survived a retreat now have a chance to get promoted.
    Disabled misleading dialogue. (Thanks, Swiftpaw!)
    Randomizes hacking points for the hacking support mission. (Thanks, Pimpace!)
    PreScan will no longer trigger when attempting to capture a Balor. (The Balor's novadrones were unavoidably destroying the Skunk while Otani is occupied with the Beholder. Thanks, Rubini!)
    Added a PreScan variable that was missing in the vanilla script causing harmless but irritating spew in the debuglog.
    Message saying that you lost [#] marines now outputs a whole number. No more missing marine body parts! (Thanks, Rubini and lubatomy!)
    Engineer prioritizes repair of drone bays with the same priority as jump drives and engines. (Thanks, lubatomy!)
    More time allotted for support missions.
    Cleaned up the code a bit to make it more human-readable, and added more in-code documentation.

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*Only in the Steam Workshop. The Steam Workshop will now be used exclusively for stable releases of the mod.

Note that lubatomy's engineer tweak, formerly packaged as the MR_supplement_engineer will now be packed with the stable release by default. Am keeping the supplement up at the Nexus, however, in case anyone wants just the tweak without the rest of the mod.

The tweak allotting more time to accomplish support missions, formerly exclusive to the NZ-Wanderer variant, is now integrated into the stable release.

The Nexus will now only be used for experimental builds and additional variants, if any.

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11.Jan.2015 - Just uploaded v0.371.7

Can someone please test it to see if PreScan still fires when against Balors and the Sucellus? Shouldn't anymore, but I couldn't find any in my game to play with.

Also disabled a couple of conversations:

The marine officer should no longer say that you didn't scan when you actually did,
And Yisha should no longer say that everyone died, when some marines in fact successfully retreated, and are safely in the Skunk.

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v0.371.6 is up.

Promotion tweak is commented out.
"Mission Complete" message upon marine retreat fixed. They now consider running from the enemy a failure.
Cleaned up the code a bit to make it more human-readable.
Engineer prioritizes repair of drone bays with the same priority as jump drives and engines. (Thanks, lubatomy!)

Otherwise identical to v0.371.5

If no objections, this will be uploaded as v0.38

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10.Jan.2015 - v0.371.5 is up.

Pimpace pointed out that when two or more consecutive hacking missions are given, the same points are generated thus making it possible to just sit in one spot and hack the same spot over and over again. Made it so that single random hacking points are generated instead. Should make the hacking support missions more interesting, but (and?) also possibly more dangerous.

Thanks, Pimpace, for this idea.

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aaaand Retreat is working again! But I'm keeping it in the experimental variant line for now.

v0.371.4 is up!

And there was a bonus added by having to rework the Retreat code. Surviving marines now earn experience, and get a chance to be promoted -- makes sense, I think. You earn experience not just by winning, but by experiencing and surviving! (As I learned just now.) The Marine Officer still gets shot in the knee though.

Actually got it working such that the Marine Officer survives, but felt like it's better if the Marine Officer were to fall in the field of battle as a price of Otani's miscalculation.

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v0.37x is up

Shalloa from the Steam forums spotted a bug (Thanks) where retreat was triggering, but marines were not returning to the Skunk. Was fixed in 0.37x by completely disabling the retreat function.

It turns out that the cue returning the marines to the Skunk hasn't been written in the vanilla script yet as of X Rebirth v3.10. Still my fault, because I should have checked. I am very sorry for this. Please, everyone, update to v0.37x ASAP.

Experimental code with stuff from v0.3611 and v0.3612 are now in v0.371.1. Leaving the descriptions of the experimental code up for now because it's still relevant, but it now applies to v0.371.1

edit: Everything in "Old Files" is non-toxic again.

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9.Jan.2015 - 9.Jan.2015 - experimental v0.3612 is up at the nexus.

Upon the request of Rubini, have been working on making PreScan triggering more selective. Quick and dirty work-around for now: PreScan will not trigger at all if the target is armed.

If Boarding Options is not installed, triggering "Board" while there are any turrets left on the ship will bypass PreScan.
If Boarding Options is installed, anything triggering launching of pods while there are any turrets left on the ship will bypass PreScan.

Otherwise identical to v0.361

NB: Have not managed to test this with a Balor or a Sucellus, so I don't know if it will correctly detect those ships' integrated weapons as weapons. Feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

edit: doesn't work with integrated weapons. Thanks for verifying, Rubini.

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experimental v0.3611 is up at the nexus.

Promotion rate for veterans to elite is slightly increased from 2% to 5%. Increased time to accomplish support missions from the NZ-Wanderer variant is also active. Otherwise identical to v0.361 (Thanks for the suggestion and the feedback, Pimpace)

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7.Jan.2015 - v0.36 is out!

Boarding difficulty is now directly dependent upon game difficulty. (Thanks, euclid!)

Game difficulty = Hard gives you the hardcore variant.
Game difficulty = Normal gives you the default variant.
Game difficulty = Easy gives you the op variant.*

Note that I had to choose between the default and the lubatomy variants for Normal, and opted for default simply because consistently more people have been downloading it at the Nexus. If anyone strongly prefers the lubatomy variant, please let me know, and make your case.

Easy uses the op algorithm which is the pre-v3.0 Egosoft algorithm (which was op.)**

Only updated the version of the mod up in the Steam Workshop because you can choose which variant you want if you're downloading from the Nexus, and so that you retain the option of having boarding difficulty be distinct from game difficulty. Other than this change, and the v0.34 notification changes, the actual balancing is still identical to that in v0.331x.

*If anyone reading this is new to the mod, and doesn't know what the hell I'm talking about, please scroll down to the section immediately below this one with the header "Which file should I use?! ..."

**Note: If anyone is playing on Easy difficulty for whatever reason, but doesn't want an overpoweringly boring-but-easy boarding experience, please let me know. (PM is fine too. I won't tell. :) )

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6.Jan.2015 - updated to v0.35x

Just spotted and quashed a dumb bug that was introduced in v0.34x. Forgot that ' ends a line.

........
v0.34x is up!

Added on-screen notifications after every combat round. Ugly at the moment, but it works. Should give you a better idea of what's happening every round.

These messages will not show if you're using camus' Boarding Options mod, but then you shouldn't need them if you're using the Boarding Options mod, so it's all good.

I only updated the workshop version because I'm assuming that most of the people getting it at the Nexus are using camus' Boarding Options mod. If anyone wants the Nexus files updated to v0.34x, please do let me know.

_____
4.Jan.2015 - v0.33x set is up!

Your attack strength is now written into the in-game log after every engagement. Thanks to Clownmug for permission to adapt code from his Boarding Options mod!

Increased chance to incur losses due to attrition.

(did i miss any colors? Is there a list of these somewhere? Ah! Didn't notice that the color bar is functional.)

_____
3.Jan.2015 - Marine Rebalance v0.32x set is up! Fixed attrition.

When you are more powerful than your target ship by less than 100 points, there is a chance to incur light losses per round. The chance to incur losses decreases in relation to the difference in force strength.

_____
1.Jan.2015 - v0.31x set is up! Bug slipped past in v0.30x. Sorry about that! Quashed in v0.31x. Also tweaked retreat conditions to more directly reflect relative force strength. Marines will now only retreat if they absolutely have to. (And will sometimes fail.)

........
v0.30x is up! PreScan and Retreat functions formerly in the various versions of the v0.261x experimental variant are now integrated into all of the variants. Please see v0.261x descriptions below to see what they do.

Happy New Year, everyone!

_____
31.Dec.2014 - Experimental MarineRebalance_v0.2613_PreScan_Retreat is up. When faced with overwhelming opposition, marines will attempt to retreat. The Marine Officer will be lost holding the retreat. Otherwise identical to v0.2612_PreScan.

It now makes sense to board without knowing your attack strength, nor having to deal with the numbers at all!

(and should be MUCH better than "destroy all surface elements and reduce hull to n%.")

........
v0.2612_PreScan is up. Number of scanning targets increased compared to v0.2611, and number of boarding rounds without PreScan increased to 10 from 5.

........
Bug found in v0.261_PreScan. PreScan reward was active regardless of PreScan state. Work-around applied in v0.2611_Prescan. Should be working now.

........
The experimental v0.261_PreScan build is up.

Egosoft planned a PreScan support mission, but it isn't completely implemented yet. Luckily for us, they left it in the code! (Thanks, Egosoft!) This adds a Yisha mission to use a Beholder drone to scan a target ship before boarding -- normally, after hitting the engines and jump drive, and before pods are launched.

The PreScan support mission coded by Egosoft is enabled in v0.261_PreScan (and ONLY in this variant. Plan is to incorporate it into the next rebalance set, if everything proves to be working). Successfully accomplishing the PreScan objective should increase attack strength by 10%, and should reduce combat rounds from 5 to 4.

.......
24.Dec.2014 - v0.26x out

Re-applied modified Egosoft algorithm to have number of casualties due to attrition result from relative force strengths when [def - att > 10].

Nerfed elite marine strength for v0.2x1. Felt that it was getting too powerful too soon. Still boosted relative to vanilla though.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

.......
In v0.25x, boarding operations go MUCH faster when your marines overpoweringly outmatch a target's defenses. (def - att < -100)

Remembered an old request by NZ-Wanderer a very long time (about a week) ago, and made the nzw variant in which much more time is given for support missions. Yisha nerf is also applied in the nzw variant, so there should be less casualties due to failure to obey her orders. Note that these two changes were only applied to the nzw variant. (at present, MarineRebalance_v0.251_NZ_Wanderer)

The best balanced variant at the moment, in my opinion, is the v0.251_hardcore because the difference between the beginning of the game, where you're just starting out with recruits, and the middle of the game, where you have lots of elite marines at your beck and call, is much more striking. Also gives a smoother progression from lowly and wretched to all-powerful megalomaniac.

Also found a bug in v0.24x, and quashed it. The bug didn't actually do anything bad, but made an irritating line in the debuglog. (because bugs do that)

.......
In v0.24x, got Yisha to stop giving orders once she's convinced that we know what we're doing. Yisha stops giving support missions if our attack strength is at least 11 greater than the target's defence strength.

Balance is otherwise like in v0.23x. (So leaving v0.23x description right under this one for now.)

Cleaned up the code a bit. Still a bit of unnecessary redundancy there though.

.......
In v0.23x, casualties resulting from failure to support boarding operation are greatly increased, but only in certain situations.


If your opponent is much stronger than your boarding party (def - att > 100), than you incur extremely heavy casualties regardless of how well you support them.

If your opponent is stronger than your boarding party (def - att > 10), then your marines very urgently need your support, and you have a chance to incur very heavy casualties if you do not support them (worst case, all hands lost; best case, win with 1 survivor). Light casualties (29-39 survivors) if supported.

If you and your opponent are more or less evenly matched (def - att = {-10 to 10}), then your boarding party can win without your support, but will lose roughly half of their attack strength (best case, 23 survivors, worst case, 17). Helping them will make a huge difference, and you can then expect to incur light casualties.

If you overpower your opponent (def - att < -10), you incur no casualties from failing to support. Light casualties.

If you overwhelmingly overpower your opponent (def - att < -100), your marines can win without your support, and you win with absolutely no casualties.


Let me know how it plays out.

.......
Was trying to think of a rational scenario where failing Yisha's missions have consequences that are as dire as they have become. Figured that it is possible that she is in direct constant communication with the boarding team, and that she has information that is not available to the Player, and so she would know where exactly to hit the target ship to help the boarding team the most.

For this to be immersive and convincing however, this should not always hold true.

In situations where the boarding party has overwhelming strength, for example, they should be able to take the ship without any support from the player. And in situations where attackers and defenders are closely-matched, support should help; but failure to support should not be as punishing as in vanilla.

lubatomy figured out a way to tie the casualties caused by disobedience to Yisha's utterances to the relative force strength. This allowed us to set five levels to differentiate boarding difficulty rather than just three.

The levels we set them at are:

lt -100 no losses (Overwhelming Victory)
lt -10 light losses (5-10%, no support losses)
-10 to 10 close (5-10% plus chance moderate support losses)
gt 10 chance for heavy losses (5-10% plus chance heavy support losses)
gt 100 heavy losses (Overwhelming Loss)

*gt = greater than, lt = less than. computed as [defence strength - attack strength]. Losses are per round.

And so we present the v0.22x set of rebalance points for your righteous pirating pleasure.

Please do keep in mind that, at this point, we are still very much in the coarse adjustment stage. As such, feedback, even completely subjective feedback, would be greatly appreciated.



_____
Missing Information:

defence strength: how it's computed, and how we can get at it. (presently assumed to be hard-coded)

$commander.combinedskill: how precisely it's computed (lubatomy figured this out), and how we can get at it. (We're presently assuming that it's hard-coded, but it's possible that we just haven't found it yet.)

Any news on these two bits of information, or corrections of mistakes we may have made in interpreting the code very welcome.


_____
Compatibility:

Compatible with everything out there at the moment. Modifies only the Boarding.xml file in [/md], and should only have potential incompatibilities with anything that changes that particular file. Only mod that I know of that does that is Clownmug's Boarding Options mod, and Marine Rebalance is fully compatible with Boarding Options.

However, please do keep in mind that the Boarding Options mod will not give you the correct attack strength information before your marines land when using this mod. It uses the vanilla algorithms for the calculations used to calculate the display. It does, however, display the correct attack strength right after the last marine lands, and fight outcome is not affected.

This mod is current as of X:R 4.00
Compatible with X:R 3.61

Compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac versions of X Rebirth.

Makes no alterations to saved games whatsoever.


_____
THE TEAM SO FAR

lubatomy - researcher, coder, and code diver extraordinaire
Rubini - coder and tester
alexalsp - translator
Fazer - translator
Sindrali - translator
pref - waldo spotter
antoniut - tester
NZ-Wanderer - fun tester
Pimpace - tester
w.evans - finger twiddler and occasional mediocre number tweaker

_____
Ideas, confirmations/corrections of the assumptions and interpretation of code above, suggestions, comments, votes, or simply "hell, yeah!" or "NOOOO!" or "you have to learn basic arithmetic, man." would be greatly appreciated.

_____
Lots of thanks to lubatomy, without whom I will still be stuck with a half-baked concept, and code that does nothing.

Special thanks to ty_cho for straightening out my data at the very beginning.

Thanks to antoniut, CMDR Sweeper, DaveDee, Inquisitor, Malthol, Pimpace, Rubini, Sabre6, Scoob, Shalloa, Swiftpaw, toepick, and NZ-Wanderer for providing feedback.

Thanks to alexalsp, Fazer, and Sindrali for the excellent translation work.

Thanks to euclid and UniTrader for being the fonts of coding wisdom they generally are.

Thanks to Clownmug for permission to adapt code from his Boarding Options mod.

Thanks to cicero111 for scipting help, and collegial support.

And credit for most of the code goes to Egosoft. Code redirects, number tweaks, and copy-paste jobs were applied, but very little actual new code was written for this mod.

_____
The latest stable build of MarineRebalance can be downloaded here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =369253932

Experimental builds can be downloaded here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/xrebirth/mods/427/?

_____
Need more data! Please let us know how it goes!


NB: Need to seriously think about cutting down this wall of text.

_____
12.Jan.2015 - v0.381 (workshop only)
11.Jan.2015 - v0.371.6, v0.371.7
10.Jan.2015 - v0.37x, v0.371.1, v0.371.4, v0.371.5 - Retreat is working again!
9.Jan.2015 - v0.3611 up in the nexus, v0.3612
7.Jan.2015 - v0.36 up in the workshop
6.Jan.2015 - v0.341h up in the workshop, v0.351h
4.Jan.2015 - uploaded v0.33x set
3.Jan.2015 - uploaded v0.32x set
1.Jan.2015 - uploaded v0.30x set, v0.31x set
31.Dec.2014 - got Retreat working! v0.2613psr
30.Dec.2014 - v0.2611ps up
28.Dec.2014 - got PreScan working! uploaded v0.261ps
24.Dec.2014 - uploaded v0.26x set
22.Dec.2014 - uploaded v0.25x set, new nzw variant
22.Dec.2014 - uploaded v0.24x set
21.Dec.2014 - uploaded v0.23x set
19.Dec.2014 - uploaded v0.22x set
17.Dec.2014 - hardcore set uploaded
16.Dec.2014 - New version set out: v0.2 and variants
14.Dec.2014 - Project start


_____
Check out my other mods for X Rebirth:
BetterAutoAim,
SmalltalkHack,
Epic Capital Ship Shields,
Station Engineers,
Engineer Drone Fix,
Slightly More Useful Plot Station,
DockAllDrones,
Miscellaneous OOZ Combat Tweaks,
Miscellaneous IZ Combat Tweaks,
DifficultyHack
Last edited by w.evans on Sat, 17. Feb 18, 14:39, edited 326 times in total.

ty_cho
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Post by ty_cho » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 18:28

The boarding options mod now displays the BR of the ship and your attack strength. Not sure if they are using the same formulas as you, but I can tell you that with a 5/5/5 officer and 50 recruits, my attack strength was 25.25

As long as I get the target ships BR below my attack strength, I have not lost 1 marine. I now have about 23 vets from recruits leveling up and my attack strength is 54.54.

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 18:37

Hm. That throws it way off.

Thanks, I'll go crunch some numbers.

edit: Aha! That's the 25 base multiplied by 1+0.01!

So assuming that $commander.combinedskill scales linearly, a 1/1/1 MO should provide a multipilier of 0.002. I'll rescale the tables accordingly.
Last edited by w.evans on Sun, 14. Dec 14, 18:48, edited 1 time in total.

UniTrader
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Moderator (Script&Mod)
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Post by UniTrader » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 18:40

ty_cho wrote:The boarding options mod now displays the BR of the ship and your attack strength. Not sure if they are using the same formulas as you, but I can tell you that with a 5/5/5 officer and 50 recruits, my attack strength was 25.25

As long as I get the target ships BR below my attack strength, I have not lost 1 marine. I now have about 23 vets from recruits leveling up and my attack strength is 54.54.
it would be really interesting to know it these numbers in the UI can be changed for a re-balancing, otherwise it would be inconsistent (didnt look into 3.0 final yet, so not sure if they can be changed...)
if not stated otherwise everything i post is licensed under WTFPL

Ich mache keine S&M-Auftragsarbeiten, aber wenn es fragen gibt wie man etwas umsetzen kann helfe ich gerne weiter ;)

I wont do Script&Mod Request work, but if there are questions how to do something i will GLaDly help ;)

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 19:05

I'm hoping that the numbers invoked are the actual numbers in game. So far consistent with in-game numbers * 100. I am not looking forward to touching the UI.

ty_cho
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Post by ty_cho » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 19:14

Ok so I just checked again to get exact numbers.

I have 16 recruits and 34 vets, and my attack strength is 59.59

This is what the boarding options mod tells you, it puts up a little info window in the top left of the screen when you start a boarding op (it gives you the option to abort boarding, so its handy to check your strength vs your targets resistance before deciding to board or not).

As I said, so far, as long as i keep the BR below that number, I have not lost 1 marine, and i've captured 5 ships so far.

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 19:21

@ty_cho Yup. That's:

((16 * 0.5) + (34 * 1.5)) * (1 + 0.01) = 59.59

50 recruits would be:

(50 * 0.5) * (1 + 0.01) = 25.25

in both cases, the "0.01" is the benefit provided by the 5/5/5 Marine Officer.

The algorithm provided in the script specifies a further division by 100. I suspect that this number is then multiplied by 100 to display in game. Unless I interpreted the "/100" wrong, in which case, all of the tables above * 100 should be the correct numbers.

And thanks for the further confirmation!

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 19:27

ty_cho wrote:as long as i keep the BR below that number, I have not lost 1 marine, and i've captured 5 ships so far.
Sorry, missed that part. In that case, in the Fight Outcome tables above, anything below 0 would be a win per round (no casualties).

Code specifies a range between -10 and 10 (so -0.1 and 0.1), where below -10 is a win with no casualties, above 10 is an automatic loss of all hands, and anything between computes casualties depending on relative force strength. Could have been deprecated, though.

ty_cho
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Post by ty_cho » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 19:31

You may want to double check that it is not the boarding options mod that is affecting the survival rate, as i tend to remove all surface elements, then use the "hacking only" option. I hope all this means is the mod lets you hack only and everything else works the same, but I dont know...

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 19:40

Doesn't look like it. Nothing in there affects boarding outcome directly. It does load the correct numbers for display, and assigns missions based on player choices though.

lubatomy
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Post by lubatomy » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 19:57

Just so you know, the this.combinedskill returns a value between 0 and 100 based on the weighted values of the officers skills.

easiest way to check is to use an engineer. Engineering is the only skill that matters on an engineer last i checked and if you have a debug line or something that outputs the value of "this.combinedskill" on the engineer you will get 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100 as the output for 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 star respectively.

that 100 in the formula should be bringing it to a percentage out of 100 to give a bonus effect.

Personally i think they got the formula a little off by mistake because it seems like hurts your boarding strength more than helps.

as I posted elsewhere on this subject, lets assume you have 25 recruits and 25 vets. that gives you an attack strength of 50 for just the marines.

now assume that you have an exactly average marine officer so his "this.combinedskill" function returns 50.

plug those into the formula from the boarding.xml file and your final attack strength is 25.5. that means that your marine office reduces the effectiveness of your marines by almost 50% (from 50 down to 25.5)

Before this change the boarding officer always boosted the marine strength by some amount equal to the combined skill value as a percent. In this example the marines would have been 50% more effective and should have had a boarding strength of 75 not 25.5

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 20:22

Could you please test the numbers with the output from the Boarding Options mod? By my calculation (with extrapolation from this new data from you, thanks!) a boarding party with 25 recruits, 25 veterans, and a 50 combined skill MO should produce an attack strength of 50.25.

((25*0.5)+(25*1.5))*(1+0.005)

So a Marine Officer, regardless of skill, would have a ridiculously low effect on the outcome of a boarding action, but shouldn't make it worse (unless I'm missing something).

Still confused by where the /100 comes in though.

lubatomy
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Post by lubatomy » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 20:41

Code: Select all

<set_value name="$attackstrength" exact="($attackstrength * ($commander.combinedskill + 1)) / 100" />
just plug in numbers to that. again ill use the 50 marine strength (which is represented by attack strength prior to this line and 50 for combined skill.

attackstrength value gets replaced with:

(50 * (50 + 1)) / 100

note operator precedence so you get the following chain:

(50 * (51)) / 100

(2550) / 100

25.5 -> final answer

I do not know the exact weight given in the combined skill calculation but we should be able to guess sort of from other posts in the thread:

ty_cho first listing 5/5/5 BO with 50 recruits

50 * .5 = 25

(25 * (100 + 1)) / 100

(25 * 101) / 100

2525 / 100 = 25.25 (exact value he quoted)

Using the second set:

16 recruits + 34 vets

(16 * .5) + (34 * 1.5) = 8 + 51 = 59

(59 * 101) / 100

5959 / 100 = 59.59 (again a perfect match)

again the "/100" at the end is because the combined skill returns a value between 0 and 100. to get that to a precentage bonus then you have to divide by that 100. there is no what they will let the boarding officer increase the power of your marines 100 fold. if so they would have to make the boarding resistance 100 fold increased as well or balance would be so far out there that a few vets would win just about any boarding without damaging the ship. Again i think they got the formula messed up slightly because without that 5/5/5 boarding officer, you are pretty much assured that the marines get a strength penalty instead of a strength bonus.

I have sent a pm to ask for clarification but no clue when it will be answered as the original thread i posted in was moved from bug reports to general discussion and merged with something that seems more like a rant thread.

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 20:51

Right, that does make sense. My mistake. Thought I recognized the formula and jumped to the wrong conclusion.

That's even worse than I thought though. Means that a 5/5/5 Marine Officer will only give a 1% increase, and anything less than a 99 average MO will make it worse.

Although, come to think of it, that might work if Ego simply wanted to scale the boarding down.

ty_cho
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Post by ty_cho » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 21:03

Wow that's just.... Why? With the inflated BR from drones and the MO actually reducing your strength unless he's perfect... that makes no sense....

lubatomy
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Post by lubatomy » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 21:06

it might, but i dont think they necessarily intended that.

To be honest at this point I do not see any reason to use a boarding officer that is not 5/5/5. anything less than that (as i am sure that none of the three important skills is rated small enough to give you a 99 combined skill value) means that your marines would be better off fighting without the officer commanding them.

now i could see a poor officer giving some bad orders and making the marines less than effective, but to get that effect from anything but the most perfect marine officer does not make the slightest bit of sense.

if I was to give a formula I would say that any boarding officer with a combined skill of say 20 to 30 should be in the area were it hurts the marines level. for that i would change that one line of code to the following and call it done:

Code: Select all

<set_value name="$attackstrength" exact="$attackstrength * (.7 + ($commander.combinedskill / 100.0))" />
in that a combinedskill value of 30 would leave the attack strength the same while a 5/5/5 boarding officer would increase the attack strength by 70%. in the fictional example from before with the 50 attack strength (25 rookies and 25 vets) the marine officer would in the end make the attack strength between 35 and 85.

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 21:06

@ty_cho Probably because the change came in RC1, possibly later, but I'm pretty sure it was in RC1. It would make sense to shift all the helluva a way down, before slowly cranking it back up. They simply haven't had time to rebalance. Erm, I hope.

edit: was directed at ty_cho's comment.

w.evans
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Post by w.evans » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 21:12

@lubatomy It's a gamey change. If you stop and think about it, yeah, it doesn't make sense, but game-wise, you can't board without a marine officer, so seems like an effective way to quickly drive the difficulty all the way up in a way that would be relatively easy to balance back. I don't like it because, now that I know how it works, it's just not convincing.

Sounds like a good test case. You want to publish it, lubatomy? I'll help test. Would only be fair since it's your breakthrough.
Last edited by w.evans on Sun, 14. Dec 14, 21:12, edited 1 time in total.

ty_cho
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Post by ty_cho » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 21:12

Yea i guess so, they made the inital boarding change on like Monday or Tuesday, and released 3.0 on Friday, not alot of time for testing.

lubatomy
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Post by lubatomy » Sun, 14. Dec 14, 21:55

you can do it w.evans I am in general not real good at generating the diff file that really should be used for this.

That said I do have a PM in to see if the formula is what they intended but no clue when it will get answered. Im good at file diving and figuring out how basic things work (nothing hard coded like the combinedskill value).

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