[Mod] Shields and Weapons balance overhaul 1.74

[evilmike]

Hi,

can you make the shield regen boster part a buyable or craftable ship software (possibly with MK1 MK2 MK3 versions)?

Best Regards,
Mike

[lavak9]

Been using this since I found it version 1.15 ago, I like what you've done and continue to do. Thanks for your work!

[Requiemfang]

For now i have changed Ion cannons completely, for better or for worse. They are like a light plasma cannon, half as much damage and range compared to plasma cannon, but has no energy drain.

I also updated the mod to 1.40, i worked a lot on weapon balancing. I did so many changes to weapons that I am sure I have some holes or errors, any feedback is welcome.

no energy drain but does it have a heat up mechanic?

[Baldamundo]

In the description you say

Made MK1 weapons anti fighter, MK2 for against bigger ships

But in the detailed weapon changes above, it looks like all the MK1 weapons are longer ranged, slower projectiles, and higher damage - i.e. better againt bigger ships, not fighters. Which is it? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Also, why the change with the ion weapons? Didn't they already have their niche?

Btw do you know how savegame/patch compatibility will be? Like the sound of the mod, but not sure about using it when the game's update schedule is so fast currently. Would enabling/disabling the mod partway through a save cause problems?

[AngEviL]

In the description you say

Made MK1 weapons anti fighter, MK2 for against bigger ships

But in the detailed weapon changes above, it looks like all the MK1 weapons are longer ranged, slower projectiles, and higher damage - i.e. better againt bigger ships, not fighters. Which is it? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Also, why the change with the ion weapons? Didn't they already have their niche?

Btw do you know how savegame/patch compatibility will be? Like the sound of the mod, but not sure about using it when the game's update schedule is so fast currently. Would enabling/disabling the mod partway through a save cause problems?

I didn't like their balancing, and that they use exactly the same projectiles are plasma weapons, so i made them plasma-like for now, lower damage, but without heat usage.

The mod works with all savegames, and this applies to almost all mods. It doesn't alter the structure of the code inside, just edits the relevant variables through a simple command. If egosoft change the same value that the mod uses, then the mod one would override it. Of course if Egosoft did some balance changes, i would pay attention to them and make changes to my mod if necessary.

Regarding Mk1 and Mk2 weapon displayed damage, that is completely bogus, i gave info to weapon damage in my main post. Except plasma and beam, and maybe one other, the displayed values regarding weapon damage and energy drain have NOTHING to do with reality. This also includes Mk1 and Mk2 variations of the same weapon. The distance is also wrong to some extent, as for example if a weapon has 1.9 km range, the displayed text rounds it down to 1km.
This also makes moding hard because if you let's say reduce the fire cooldown in half for such a weapon, it will NOT fire 2 times faster, it's firing rate may change with as little as 20%, because of some built-in animation fire order. Of course encyclopieda would list it as having double the damage as before.

Other than bullet speed, and distance with a good error margin, everything is wrong, up to a factor of 20. This may be because half of the weapons have built in animations that fire burst of bullets, unlike X3, so for example the weapon can fire 10 bullets in this animation but the game encyclopedia counts that as a single bullet. Only plasma is like a weapon in X3 and is 100% accurate in its info.

[FlutterRAGE]

"Bolt MK1/MK2: 8.0/4.0 km range, 2.88/5.76 km/s speed, ~390/310 dps,"

I think what he meant is that in your main post, MK2 is actually MK1 and vice versa.

Since what you put in the post is that MK1(anti fighter): 8km range, 2.88km/s, 390 dps; and MK2(anti-large ship): 4km range(shorter), 5.76km/s(faster) and 310 dps (less dps)


While it is nice for the player to have a choice, but does the AI know that? If they don't, how is it going to screw with AI combat?

[Nephaatu]

Hey there m8,

Amaizing work, thx 4 that.

Now, i have 2 questions:
-Did you forgot to mod the Ion blaster weapon.
-Do this modifications aply to all npcs too?

Tnx and continue with your good work!
Cheers!!! o7

[Guest242]

Very cool mod and thank you for your work! I use it together with the "Foundations of Conquest and War"-Mod Link to get xenon invasions like the screenshot below. The problem is that the xenon always loose the battle. In my opinion the shield recharge is too strong or the the xenon (and khaak) weapons are too weak. Because of this mod I think they use different weapons: Nexus.

- It's a idea/suggestion to balance the "enemy" weapons too and to make them more fear.


https://i.ibb.co/z5w7PPP/1.jpg


{Images posted directly to the forums should not be greater than 640x480 or 100kb, oversize image now linked - Terre}

[AngEviL]

Regarding the previous posers, the Mk1/Mk2 difference, I mixed them in the mod description, however they were good ingame. The modification affects the AI ships, and so far the game is harder, and the AI is more dangerous because the weapons they had were underpowered lasers, I made lasers much better, and the change affects them. I modified Ion weapons too, they are similar to Plasma cannon, have lower damage, but no heat drain.

Very cool mod and thank you for your work! I use it together with the "Foundations of Conquest and War"-Mod Link to get xenon invasions like the screenshot below. The problem is that the xenon always loose the battle. In my opinion the shield recharge is too strong or the the xenon (and khaak) weapons are too weak. Because of this mod I think they use different weapons: Nexus.

- It's a idea/suggestion to balance the "enemy" weapons too and to make them more fear.

I improved K manuevrability by a high margin, it was very weak, and P a bit. I also improved Khaak and Xen weapons. Xen are not better than what the player has, but if Xen continue to be underpowered I will buff their ships and weapons.

Version 1.50 released ! I am happy that i fixed the weapon stats displayed in encyclopedia, and when choosing weapons on your ships, should be 100% accurate. You can finally brainstorm regarding your preferred loadout ! I went through each weapon in detail again and changed values so they all have a purpose and are balanced.

[Requiemfang]

I was wondering this about the mod but how are the turrets performing with this mod? are they still unable to keep up with targets and have trouble hitting their targets when the ship they're mounted on moves a around constantly?

[Reaper507]

Different weapon types do different damage to shields and armor? Is a bolt repeater the best choice for armor destruction? Or there is only one value behind the scene - Weapon Output?

[AngEviL]

I was wondering this about the mod but how are the turrets performing with this mod? are they still unable to keep up with targets and have trouble hitting their targets when the ship they're mounted on moves a around constantly?

The turrets have been buffed, i attached a few screenshots on the main page, in one case on paper according to encyclopedia, the damage has been increased 5 times, and projectile speed 3 times, haha. They are as agile as they could be, have pretty fast bullets. They probably still feel weak though, that is up to egosoft to improve target tracking in the next patches.

And regarding damage, yeah, all wapons deal a standard damage, that has to go through shield and get to hull, but I think that there is plenty of choice now. I made all weapons quite different from each other, there are no longer weak weapons, so the player has real choice depending on their playstile.
Really, try the Mk1 weapons now, you will be surprised !

[Requiemfang]

So you didn't buff the rotation speed for turrets I take? What sounds good on paper at lot of times isn't very good to run in a simulation. If the rotation speed of the turrets are unchanged then it doesn't matter if the turrets bullets are faster they still will have trouble hitting the target at least when it comes to fighters. Granted I have noticed the turrets are able to keep up with me when I took a mission to kill someone and they were in a transporter/cargo ship with turrets. Hmmm I guess it just needs more testing to be sure.

[AngEviL]

So you didn't buff the rotation speed for turrets I take? What sounds good on paper at lot of times isn't very good to run in a simulation. If the rotation speed of the turrets are unchanged then it doesn't matter if the turrets bullets are faster they still will have trouble hitting the target at least when it comes to fighters. Granted I have noticed the turrets are able to keep up with me when I took a mission to kill someone and they were in a transporter/cargo ship with turrets. Hmmm I guess it just needs more testing to be sure.

The rotation speed is buffed as well since a few days ago, I wrote that in a bunch of places. They are as fast as they can be now. It is up to the devs to improve their tracking futher, which i think they will do in a few patches.

[Guest242]

Regarding the previous posers, the Mk1/Mk2 difference, I mixed them in the mod description, however they were good ingame. The modification affects the AI ships, and so far the game is harder, and the AI is more dangerous because the weapons they had were underpowered lasers, I made lasers much better, and the change affects them. I modified Ion weapons too, they are similar to Plasma cannon, have lower damage, but no heat drain.

Very cool mod and thank you for your work! I use it together with the "Foundations of Conquest and War"-Mod Link to get xenon invasions like the screenshot below. The problem is that the xenon always loose the battle. In my opinion the shield recharge is too strong or the the xenon (and khaak) weapons are too weak. Because of this mod I think they use different weapons: Nexus.

- It's a idea/suggestion to balance the "enemy" weapons too and to make them more fear.

I improved K manuevrability by a high margin, it was very weak, and P a bit. I also improved Khaak and Xen weapons. Xen are not better than what the player has, but if Xen continue to be underpowered I will buff their ships and weapons.

Version 1.50 released ! I am happy that i fixed the weapon stats displayed in encyclopedia, and when choosing weapons on your ships, should be 100% accurate. You can finally brainstorm regarding your preferred loadout ! I went through each weapon in detail again and changed values so they all have a purpose and are balanced.

Thank you for the fast reaction I will test the balance and see if a xenon invasion is a really threat for the galaxy now.

Your mod was listed here as a Weapon and Shield mod (Link). But your mod is also change the xenon ships (manuevrability). Please don't forget, that one day it could be compatibility issues with other mods (except your goal is to create a X4 overhaul).

[Guest242]

With this autosave (game version 1.31, it's not beta anymore) you can test the balance fast : Dropbox
In screenshot 1 you see the situation, when you load the save. After about 5 minutes it looks like screenshot 2. You need of course your own mod and the X4 Foundations of Conquest and War Mod. Maybe it helps you and the other mod users to test new stuff ^^


Screenshot 1:

https://i.ibb.co/Wp1yc3J/1.jpg



Screenshot 2:

https://i.ibb.co/GRZYL10/3.jpg


{Images posted directly to the forums should not be greater than 640x480 or 100kb, oversize image now linked - Terre}

[Requiemfang]

So you didn't buff the rotation speed for turrets I take? What sounds good on paper at lot of times isn't very good to run in a simulation. If the rotation speed of the turrets are unchanged then it doesn't matter if the turrets bullets are faster they still will have trouble hitting the target at least when it comes to fighters. Granted I have noticed the turrets are able to keep up with me when I took a mission to kill someone and they were in a transporter/cargo ship with turrets. Hmmm I guess it just needs more testing to be sure.

The rotation speed is buffed as well since a few days ago, I wrote that in a bunch of places. They are as fast as they can be now. It is up to the devs to improve their tracking futher, which i think they will do in a few patches.

alright then I just hadn't noticed really is all. I tend to not engage any enemy craft that's larger than S class atm since I'm still getting the feel for the game. Also... kyon beams are freaking insane. Khaak ships are again to be feared, I have a mk 3 Teladi shields on my personal Falcon Sentinel and only a few shots from the beam put me into critical shield levels. The damage levels of those beams are on par to what I was expecting when I went up against a Khaak ship back in X3:TC for the first time. Did not end well for me. It's too bad the devs removed the Khaak's cluster break off feature where smaller ships would break off from a larger looking geometrical shaped ship, so instead of having to deal with 1 ship you now had to deal with a dozen or more of the buggers.

[Vlyxnol]

Have you thought about balancing missiles as well? Some of them are really out of whack atm. The light heatseeker missile does 3k damage which 1 shots most fighters and since its hitbox is so tiny, missile defense turrets really struggle to destroy them.

[AngEviL]

Thank you for the help Guest242 for the help. I want to avoid buffing Xenon (i know, i kept calling them Xen because that's what the xml files abbreviates them to) ships and weapons over what the player has, like i imagine if i could get xenon ships, lasers, or ships to use for myself. I did find after analyzing values that Xenon ships were too weak compared to others.

Yeah Requiemfang, Khaak are a joke in vanilla, i wanted to make them again snipers of death ! If you encounter a Khaak M ship with a 12k range instant hit beam you'll be hurtin'. The Khaak clusters in X3 were fun.

Vlyxnol, your wish is my command, updated 1.54 released !
I nerfed the damage of all missiles by a third, their were op against capitals, op against small fighters, made battles end too quickly, and the fighters were getting killed too fast. Also in my mod the shield values for fighters are higher than in vanilla; the missiles are still a challenge for them, but manageable.

In this update in buffed Xenon K, P, M, N ships more in hp and manuevrability, should be on par with the other races, i'll see if they need more buffs. I changed many ship hulls, mostly regarding buffing Argon S ships, buffing Vanguard ships and nerfing Sentinel ones.

[ApoxNM]

Just tried the mod, while I really like the general feel of the weapons and fire rates, they feel much weeker now, battles take way longer. By myself in a Falcon I have no change against 3 xen ships. Is this intended?