[Mayhem 3] Renegades Add-Ons v1.12.3 - 4 April 2026

[Betelgeuse97]

An expansion to Renegades, a mod expanding on Mayhem 3 Zero Hour and base Mayhem 3.

• Includes Renegades balance adjustments, milestone scaling refinements, and additional quality-of-life improvements.

Download Links

• Base Renegades Full Install - Download from Google Drive

• Download Add-Ons V1.12.3 zip

Each Add-Ons .zip is a full version of this expansion - you do not need to download a previous version of Add-Ons and then download the latest version of Add-Ons.


Related Links

• Egosoft Discord Server

• SWLU Discord Server (with a Mayhem 3 channel)

• Renegades Add-Ons GitHub

• ZMap Add-Ons GitHub

Fresh Installation
IMPORTANT – Follow steps 1-5 exactly as is. Do not reverse or change this order. Installing in the wrong sequence will cause errors.

If you're installing Renegades Add-Ons from scratch:

1. Prepare a clean game directory. Obtain a fresh copy of vanilla X3AP.
   • Copy this somewhere to a new location.
   • Rename it to something like: Mayhem_3_Renegades
     • This will be referred to as the Renegades directory.
   • DO NOT put your copy in your /Program Files or /Program Files (x86) folder.
   • Follow either step 2 or 3, depending on where you purchased your copy of X3AP from.
2. If you purchased X3AP from Steam:
   • Your game must be registered on the forums in order to download the no-Steam executable.
   • Download the no-Steam X3AP.exe here: https://www.egosoft.com/download/x3ap/bonus_en.php
   • Replace the X3AP.exe inside your Renegades directory with the no-Steam version.
   • Ensure that:
     • The game's language is set to English (check X3AP Steam properties).
     • The bonus package is disabled (not compatible with Mayhem 3).
   • See this FAQ article regarding registering your games from Steam.
   • Proceed to step 4.
3. If you purchased X3AP from GOG:
   • Your existing X3AP.exe is compatible. No changes required. Proceed to step 4.
4. Install Renegades Base
   • Download the Renegades Full Install from the main Renegades thread OR from Google Drive. (Both are identical. As of July 2025, Base Renegades is version 5.4.)
   • Extract all contents into your Renegades directory.
5. Install Add-Ons
   • Download the Add-Ons zip above.
   • Open the zip and double-click the folder inside. Verify that you see:
     • addon
     • mayhem_data
     • cleanup.bat (updated)
     • Other included files
   • Extract all contents to the Renegades directory.
   • Run cleanup.bat
6. Initialize the Galaxy System using the original galaxy generator
   • Note: this step initializes dependencies required for ZMap. You will no longer need the original Galaxy Generator after this step. Do NOT use the galaxy created from this step for gameplay.
   • Open Mayhem Galaxy Generator.exe (found in Renegades root folder).
   • Click the Default buttons to auto-set
     • Root path
     • Savegame path
   • Verify paths are correct.
   • Generate a galaxy.
   • Confirm that a galaxy appears in mayhem_galaxies.
7. Use ZMap (Actual Galaxy)
   • From the Renegades root folder, navigate to the ZMap folder.
   • Open X3_Mayhem_Galaxy_Generator.exe
   • Set:
     • Game folder path (Renegades root directory)
     • Savegame path
   • Generate your galaxy.
   • Save it and set it as active.
8. Optional Configuration
   • You may customize galaxy settings before generating.
   • In ZMap, you may use the Weapons and Ships Editor (third icon, top-left) to randomize ship and weapon stats.
   • You may edit configuration files:
     • /t/9972-L044.xml
     • /t/9973-L044.xml
9. Final Step
   • Run X3AP.exe from the Renegades directory.
   • On the main menu, verify that the active galaxy name appears in the bottom-right corner. If it appears, installation is complete.

Installation from existing Renegades 5.4 or patching Add-Ons
If you're installing from Renegades 5.4 or are patching Add-Ons:

1. Download the latest Add-Ons package and extract its contents into your game's root directory, allowing files to overwrite when prompted.
2. If ZMap is installed outside of the game's root directory, manually copy TShips.txt and TBullets.txt from the release into your existing ZMap folder.
   • This applies only to very old installations where ZMap was installed separately from Renegades.
   • If ZMap is included within Renegades (default setup), no additional action is required.

Upcoming features

1. I'm still open to suggestions, but since 1.4, the mod has been considered feature-complete. From here on, only bug fixes and QoL updates will be shipped.

[Betelgeuse97]

For any bug report, please provide the following items. These items help me determine whether the behavior is a bug, expected behavior, or caused by a specific game state.

• Reproduction steps (tell me what to do to reproduce the bug)

• Expected vs actual behavior

• Screenshots or video (preferred) showing the steps to reproduce the bug

• (Optional) Your savegame and galaxy
  • However, if a bug occurs during a specific game state (e.g., Xenon crisis or plot-related) or if I need more information, I may ask you to provide your savegame and galaxy.

Please see GitHub Releases for detailed release notes. Since 1.2, releases now contain a copy of the release notes in a .txt file.

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Changelog - last updated: April 11, 2026 (Patch 1.12.3)

Version 1.12 - The Emerging Powers Update Part 2
Emerging powers, better expansion! Part 2 reworks the Spitfyre, making it a versatile Private Corp fighter. That's right, it's back to being a neutral ship.

Other ships that have changed are the Proteus Raider and Blastclaw. They have been buffed to help with boarding as neither Paranid nor Yaki have boarding support unlike the other races which have other means (TP+ or specialized ships).

A new game is required due to reworking the Spitfyre and removing it from Argon fleets.
See v1.12.3 release and earlier 1.12 releases for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.12

• 1.12.3: Fixed player carriers forcing its followers into support role. Now, followers will be assigned as support ships only if they can dock at their carrier and are available.

• 1.12.2: Removed debris from new asteroids due to still causing FPS drops in-sector. Warlord ship type is also determined upon pirate base generation rather than upon base destruction.

• 1.12.1: Patched population manipulation exploit.

V1.11

Show

Version 1.11 - The Emerging Powers Update Part 1
Emerging powers, better expansion!

This update reworks Yaki and Phanon arrival, the latter for the OCV plot branch. It also updates NPC sector takeover on insane mode when the player conquers their first sector.

A new game is not required but recommended if you want more cohesive Yaki and Phanon empires in your game.
See v1.11a release for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.11

• 1.11a: Updated origin galaxy tutorial to state alternative black market unlock condition.

V1.10

Show

Version 1.10 - The Infrastructure Update Part 2
Back to foundations, part 2.

This version adds 3 new Outpost perks, updates tax mechanics, and fixes both Kha'ak ship cockpits and pirate behavior.

A new game is not required but recommended if you fly your own Kha'ak ships. The cockpit fix applies only to new ships or to new games.

See v1.10.1 release and earlier 1.10 releases for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.10

• 1.10.1: Changed marine level up mechanics, OCV plot (sector selection), and fixed OWP behavior while in-sector.

• 1.10a: Fixed missing Easter egg on insane mode.

V1.9

Show

Version 1.9 - The Rogue Update
Going rogue?

This version introduces the new Xenon Defect gamestart. It also updates Yaki fleet composition, reworks the Flail Barrage Missile, and balances M8s.

Due to these changes, a NEW GAME is required if you have an older game prior to 1.9. A NEW GALAXY is required if you wish to play the new Xenon Defect start!

See v1.9.6a release and earlier 1.9 releases for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.9

• 1.9.6: Changed stock exchange to trade all 4 types of food (previously traded 2 types). Added hint to player's first conquest message when playing on hard difficulty. Fixed Pirate reputation being non-negative.
  • 1.9.6a: Fixed pirate clues not reporting all ship classes. Was missing TM.

• 1.9.5: New Outpost perk: Industrial overdrive. Gain +50% construction speed but no more pops from growth and immigration. Machine ships made at that Outpost will cost population.
  • 1.9.5a: Added missing 9973 t-file due to updating OCV plot descriptions.
  • 1.9.5b: Xenon, OCV, and Phanon ships now cost crew. This is to address inconsistency with ship crew costs due to the new perk.
  • 1.9.5c: Fixed incorrect jump point clamping behavior on insane difficulty.
  • 1.9.5d: Fixed nation milestones on normal difficulty (player couldn't promote to nation).

• 1.9.4: Adjusted Renegade scaling. Previously, scaling was too aggressive that it was spawning too many ships for the player to handle.

• 1.9.3: Fixed nasty timing bugs and insurance policy perk on hard and insane.

• 1.9.2: Buffed Springblossom and raider variant cargo by 50% and reduced their supply costs by 25%.
  • Fixed parity issues: Hades/Claymore and their variants having mismatched cargo and OWP supply not being discounted when calculating fleet power and supply together.

• 1.9.1: Fixed miscalculation with jump point restriction on insane mode.

V1.8

Show

Version 1.8 - The Infrastructure Update
Can we build it? Yes we can!

Due to changes made to OWPs and Ore/Silicon Mine models, a NEW GAME is required.

See v1.8 release for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.8

• N/A

V1.7

Show

Version 1.7 - The Dynamic Update
Dynamics have changed! Due to introducing the new supply mechanic and reworking the renegades plot for a second time, the mod has been updated to 1.7 rather than to 1.6.1.

A NEW GAME is required.

See v1.7.5 release for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.7

• 1.7.5: Fixed debug messages being displayed (forgot to comment these out) and updated tug worker range. Starting with this version, each update will come with standalone patch notes, unlike before where it was one cumulative list of patch notes.

• 1.7.4: Color coded entries in the research station GUI are back (was previously removed in 1.3.5). Adjusted stats of all OCV M4s, Argon Phantom, Springblossom (and raider variant), and Ranger. Fixed bugs reported by the community.

• 1.7.3: Fixed potential FPS drop caused by debris being placed too close to newly created asteroids.

• 1.7.2: Fixed edge cases (null error and negative values) regarding pirate population multiplier. Fixed cleanup.bat not removing LU loading screens.

• 1.7.1: Fixed OCV scaling not speeding up when player exceeds supply. Fixed Renegade puzzle not ignoring formatting characters.

V1.6

Show

Version 1.6 - The Mission Update
Objective Updated! Due to mission and terraforming mechanics being updated, the mod has been updated to 1.6 rather than to 1.5.7.

A NEW GAME is required.

See v1.6 release for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.6

• N/A

V1.5

Show

Version 1.5 - The New Year 2026 Update
Happy new year! Due to potential save incompatibility, the mod has been updated to 1.5 rather than to 1.4.26.

A NEW GAME is required if your existing save from 1.4.X or earlier already contains existing Jump Stations. Saves without existing Jump Stations are safe to continue.

See v1.5.6 release for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.5

• 1.5.6: Updated and fixed Xenon boarding and OCV plot. Fixed a bug with docking restrictions cheat (variable 231).

• 1.5.5: Fixed edge cases regarding bait missions and boarding ships with insufficient cargo space.

• 1.5.4: Fixed null error when terraforming, fixed jump beacon warning message being displayed when you have pirate contract perk, and added debug statements to Ministry of War GUI.

• 1.5.3: Fixed repair target command not fixing stationary objects (OWP, lasertowers, satellites, jump beacons) and coalition statuses not being maintained.

• 1.5.2: Updated ship production GUI and changed Yaki ship infamy maintenance benefit. Instead of 25% less maintenance (stacks with the +35% foreign ship maintenance penalty), Yaki ships are now exempt from the foreign ship maintenance penalty if the player has infamy.

• 1.5.1: Fixed raider fleets considering other factions as enemies if reputation is -50k or lower. Now considers other factions as enemies if reputation is -10k or lower. This is consistent with rank -4 (-100k to -10k reputation) being considered an enemy.

V1.4

Show

Version 1.4 - The Community Update
The first update based on community feedback is now live. Some requested updates include updating empires to now factor empire strength before forming coalitions, adjusting superpower thresholds, and re-adding the ultimatum system to the game.

See v1.4.25 release for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.4

• 1.4.25: Fixed police and delivery missions getting softlocked.

• 1.4.24: Removed savescumming from crystals dropped by Renegade roamers. Fixed multiple bugs regarding OCV playthroughs and permanent wars.
  • 1.4.24a: Fixed unarmed abandoned ships fleeing when attacked.

• 1.4.23: Fixed Xenon spawning logic.

• 1.4.22: Fixed boarding bailed ships not preserving pandora tuning. Cleaned up code.

• 1.4.21: Fixed Renegade clue displaying incorrect ship count and class, Xenon not conquering sectors, and added mission updates to OCV plot.

• 1.4.20: Updated boarding: boarding now breaks truces. Improved Xenon post-boarding results.

• 1.4.19: Fixed free M6 generated at the start of the game being copied over upon boarding that M6. Added a safeguard for abandoned ships generated at the start of the game.
  • 1.4.19a: Updated tips.

• 1.4.18: Fixed rep loss for claiming capital ships in Xenon and Phanon sectors. Cleaned up code.
  • 1.4.18a: For OCV playthroughs, pirates can attack only player and Xenon beacons when they intend to attack a beacon. Normal playthroughs are unchanged.

• 1.4.17: Fixed big (M6, TM, M8) and capital ships having a second chance at bailing.

• 1.4.16: Removed infamy gain from boarding Pirate, Yaki, and Renegade ships. Improved wording regarding Terran memory tutorial message.

• 1.4.15: Fixed docked ship not being factored into research. Rolled back ultimatum change in 1.4 for insane mode where non-border regular sectors were eligible.

• 1.4.14: Adjusted Xenon ship post-boarding and added a new insane mode modifier for Phanon playthroughs.

• 1.4.13: For insane difficulty, added a hint telling the player how strong their set of blueprints will be just before joining the OCV.

• 1.4.12: TLs can now be boarded again. Fixed infamy gain when boarding Nomad Flagship and fixed Nomad Flagship notification playing more than once on insane mode.
  • 1.4.12a: Fixed NPC Outposts not spawning with pandora tuning and/or TE4 on insane difficulty.

• 1.4.11: More fixes to Renegades plot, OCV playthroughs, and terraforming.
  • 1.4.11a: Removed encyclopedia coloring from difficulty entry (wasn't coloring text). Fixed null being displayed for faction's fleet power and fixed formatting in Renegades plot completion message.

• 1.4.10: Pandora tunings are now retained when a ship is captured (does not apply to existing ships with pandora tuning if you continue your save game).
  • Fixed Renegades plot reporting no ships inside renegade sector. Fixed station recycling.

• 1.4.9: Adjusted insane mode tax income (now 1/3 as much as easier difficulties; was previously 70% as much) and maintenance. Also fixed another boarding bug.
  • 1.4.9a: Fixed boarding a marked ship (M7 ships with a *) not giving a favor point.

• 1.4.8: Fixed ultimatums again. This time they now work as expected - there was a bug where demanded sectors were ineligible for a claim. These sectors are considered claimable if an ultimatum is issued.

• 1.4.7: Fixed boarding: marines are now properly copied over after boarding manned ships. Fixed edge cases regarding boarding. Replaced Nomad TL's OCV Ozias with Private Corp. Ozias.

• 1.4.6: Jump beacons can now be captured, placed, and kept in unknown sectors.
  • The Renegade sector is an exception. Jump beacons cannot be placed in there until the Renegades plot is completed.

• 1.4.5: Fixed exploit regarding infinite crystal and silicon generation via recycling lasers and missiles from newly built ships. Recycling factor for most lasers and all missiles is now 1/6 of the original recycling factor.
  • 1.4.5a: Added OCV laser recycling to allow players to clean up OCV lasers stuck in their outposts. However, their recycling factor is 1/50 of the original recycling factor.
  • 1.4.5b: Changed OCV laser recycling factor to 1/100 of the original recycling factor. There was still a potential exploit when building #deca_fades at 60% abnormal signals and with max ship specialization.

• 1.4.4: Fixed minor bugs regarding ascension and bait missions.

• 1.4.3: Fixed bugs regarding favors and permanent war.

• 1.4.2: The Ministry of War now displays favor durations in fractional time, formatted as X.Y hours.

• 1.4.1: Fixed AFS not being removed from the stolen ship upon turning to player's control during a police mission.

V1.3

Show

Version 1.3 - The Insane Mode Update
Adds Insane Difficulty to the game. Want an even more challenging difficulty? This is for you!

See v1.3 release for detailed patch notes.

Changes and Fixes since 1.3

• 1.3.14: Renegade plot fixes:
  • Fixed boarded Renegade M6s not dropping clues.
  • Fixed Renegade lore having a '0' in the pilot name.

• 1.3.14: Fixed captured (bailed/boarded) ships having lasers sitting in the cargo hold.

• 1.3.14: Fixed marines' races not being copied over correctly upon boarding a ship.

• 1.3.13: (Addition) Truelight Seeker blueprint is now given upon completing the main story. This achieves parity with normal playthroughs that have the blueprint via normal means.

• 1.3.12: (Change) New NPC Outposts on hard and insane difficulties now have a chance to spawn with terraforming efficiency 4 (+10% base max specialization). The chance is 10% on hard and 40% on insane.

• 1.3.12: (Change) Updated ship tooltips in Outpost GUI.

• 1.3.11: Fixed unmodified OCV timer on insane difficulty (insane difficulty reduces OCV timer by 30%) being displayed in Outpost GUI.

• 1.3.10: Fixed copied ships (bailed/boarded ships or ships recreated due to friendly fire) not repairing docked ships if the copied ship has a hangar.

• 1.3.9: Fixed black market being accessible within first 12 hours in origin galaxies due to a null value.

• 1.3.8: Fixed NPC factions not going to war with each other on insane difficulty.
  • NPC factions do not go to war until the player has 3 sectors or if the galaxy is an origin galaxy. As insane difficulty features the 1 sector challenge, this grace period until the player has 3 sectors cannot apply as the player has to fight for their second sector.

• 1.3.8: Fixed Renegade roamers not spawning in.

• 1.3.7: Fixed Outpost GUI (ship production, station production, recycling) formatting one last time. Should be good now!

• 1.3.6: Fixed Phanon announcement in insane difficulty mentioning that the Xenon F blueprint has been unlocked.

• 1.3.5: Removed color-coding in research station GUI preventing ship variants from being researched. This feature from 1.2 has been rolled back.
  • Color-coding was removed from the research station GUI because researching a ship checks for a ship type. Color-coded entries change the entry from a ship type into a string.

• 1.3.4: Fixed player fleet power not being computed when player has no sectors. Added debug statements to Ministry of War and ZH.Core scripts.

• 1.3.3: Fixed typo (misspelling) and incorrect maintenance values in insane difficulty displayed in Maintenance GUI.

• 1.3.2: Fixed typo (missing parenthesis) in Ministry of War GUI.

• 1.3.1: Fixed 9972 t-file parameter (player ship fallbacks) being set to 1 instead of 0 by default.

V1.2

Show

Version 1.2 - Terraforming Rework Part 3
Adds phase 3 of the terraforming overhaul (adds terraforming milestone perks and revised rarity system). Formalizes Renegades plot into the mission journal.

Starting with 1.2, the full changelog and updated ship list used by Renegades are on GitHub. A copy of the release notes in a .txt file is now included in the release. See v1.2 release for detailed patch notes.

V1.1

Show

Version 1.1 - Terraforming Rework Part 2
Adds phase 2 of the terraforming overhaul (removes dependency on Phanon/Xenon).

Additions

• New terraforming perk: Terraforming Specialist. If the outpost's sector has 3 or more planets, that sector can support 2 additional local projects. Also doubles manpower when terraforming planets.

Changes

• Terraforming
  • Terraforming no longer requires an adjacent Phanon sector (Xenon sector if you've sided with the OCV).
  • Phanon (or Xenon if you've sided with the OCV) can now spawn while you're terraforming. Previously, terraforming projects blocked their spawns.
  • Terraforming progress updates every 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes.
  • Overhauled manpower mechanic. Each outpost has its own manpower for terraforming projects.
  • Local terraforming projects now limited to 1 per sector by default.
  • Global terraforming projects are now soft capped based on how many planets are within your empire. Your empire can support 1 project by default, but every 4 planets within your empire allows you to support 1 more project within your empire.
  • Revised production penalty during terraforming. There is now a global penalty applied to all your outposts and a local penalty applied only to the outpost that has a terraforming project underway. Penalties stack.
  • Outpost destruction now cancels any terraforming projects in progress.

• Other changes
  • Specialization now has diminishing returns for both material and time costs. To compensate, the specialization max cap has been removed from time costs.
  • Capital shipyard and Renegades plot reward (+10% ship specialization each) now contribute to time costs. Previously, these contributed only to material costs.
  • NPC factions now benefit from terraformed planets that give specialization bonus.
  • Cheaper Stations revamped: outpost now gains +20% station specialization (was -50% material cost but 4x time cost).
  • Recycling factor decreased to 50% (was 65%).
  • Player import and export thresholds changed to 20% and 10%.

Fixes

• (1.1.2) Cleaned up header and lines in outpost recycling GUI.

• (1.1.1) Added edge case detection where a TS/TP in a police mission might accidentally pick up Artefacts. While this will almost never happen in practice, ships can unintentionally pick up wares if those wares are in the way.

• Fixed Yaki and NPC relations returning to neutral after ending a truce. Relations now return to foe.

• Fixed specialization reducing the amount of materials returned from recycling. Specialization no longer factors into recycling.

• Fixed a typo when player-owned ships are recreated when destroyed by friendly fire.

• Fixed capital shipyard not counting toward adjacency perk bonus.

V1.0

Show

Version 1.0 - The Integration Update
Integrates proposed features that did not make it to Renegades 5.4 and bug fixes. See Add-Ons 1.0 Release Notes (in the archive) for details.

Future, detailed release notes will instead be included in GitHub releases rather than in a text document.

Additions

• Black market revamp. Ships bought from the black market spawn in unknown sectors or in random sectors if no unknown sectors exist. There is now a timer (4/3/2 hours on easy/medium/hard) before NPCs can claim those ships.

Changes

• Abandoned ships spawn in damaged.

• Bounties and ascension progression are now given to captured (bailed and boarded) ships.

• If you've sided with the OCV, NPCs can no longer build stations when you have your capships in their sectors.

• Pirate contract revamped: joining the OCV voids any protections that the pirate contract would've given. Additionally, joining the OCV wipes any outpost perks related to maintenance, insurance, food, diplomacy, and interorbital storage.

• NPCs now factor in the "faster research" and "extra support" perks when invading your sectors, if your outpost has those unlocked.

• Terran memory sectors now count properly as Terran dejures.

• Phanon and player relations are now set to friend when doing the Phanon plot.

Fixes

• Fixed recycling giving a flat amount of research rather than a percentage of the research project.

• Fixed typos in Renegade challenge questions.

• Fixed repair target command not repairing abandoned ships.

• Fixed Xenon and Pirate kill counters incrementing after ascension was completed.

• Fixed OCV virus timer not randomizing between -X to +X seconds.

[Joubarbe]

An add-on to an extension of an overhaul of a mod of a fork of an expansion of a game that got released 17 years ago.

You guys are awesome.

[alexalsp]

Thanks for the addition, I'll find the time and start translating the add-on.

Can you make an archive with just the add-on, not the whole game, if possible?

[Betelgeuse97]

Thanks for the addition, I'll find the time and start translating the add-on.

Can you make an archive with just the add-on, not the whole game, if possible?

Yup, I'll do that; should be ready in 1-2 hours from this post. In that case, the archive will include just the script files.

Edit: Done. I've moved the download to GitHub. Script files are available there as well; future updates to add-ons will be put in GitHub.

[alexalsp]

Thanks, are the only changes just scripts?

Not much, which is good, less work translating them, and that's if they contain text for the game )))

Great .....)))

[Betelgeuse97]

Thanks, are the only changes just scripts?

Not much, which is good, less work translating them, and that's if they contain text for the game )))

Great .....)))

Yep, scripts are the only changes featured in add-ons.

[Betelgeuse97]

Version 1.1 released.

I post regular status updates in the SWLU Discord server, specifically in the Mayhem 3 channel.

Next update:

• Update Renegades Plot into a proper mission (show in personal console).

• 1.1 showcases terraforming benefits. As OCV players don't get research, they're given these benefits as of this update.
  • The same benefits will be available behind research (tentatively) for non-OCV players but with one difference: terraforming manpower gained from research will be +20% instead of 2x.

Edit: Moving the benefits behind outpost perks. They can be unlocked when reaching a certain number of terraformed planets.

[Betelgeuse97]

Version 1.2 is expected to be released by end of this week. At this point, I am now playtesting 1.2.

I have finished all the additions, changes, and fixes planned for 1.2. It contains some features (albeit scaled down) that demonstrate some features on upcoming insane mode.

Changes include but are not limited to: formalizing the renegades plot into the mission journal, Phanon overhaul (they get more territory and have respawning jump beacons) during an OCV playthrough, new terraforming effects, and color-coding in research and terraforming GUIs.

[Betelgeuse97]

Version 1.2 released.

Next update:

• Insane mode
  • Adds more difficulty modifiers compared to hard. Some of the features in 1.2 hard difficulty contain scaled down versions of mechanics for insane mode.
  • These include but are not limited to: harder Phanon, harder Renegades, and fewer lasers retained upon ship bailing.

[Betelgeuse97]

Version 1.3 released.

I am open to any suggestions for future content updates.

At this point, bug fixes are on the to-do list. There are however a couple of bugs that are notoriously difficult to solve, mainly during the Xenon Crisis.

[VoidSoul]

Make TLs great again. Make them capable of hauling huge masses of cargo (instead of fleet of 20 TSs when you repurpose systems). This will require to boost cargo capacity and change station weight to compensate.

Another thing to address is laser balance. Currently lasers are balanced around energy efficiency which was removed at some point and heavier cap lasers are extremely lethal to fighters in any in-system battle. This would need to make heavy lasers fire and fly slower but carry more damage per shot.

Thank you for evolving the mod =)

[Dex_Bot]

Version 1.3 released.

I am open to any suggestions for future content updates.

At this point, bug fixes are on the to-do list. There are however a couple of bugs that are notoriously difficult to solve, mainly during the Xenon Crisis.

I got 3 suggestions:

1) Make the Coalition system account for battle value points: Most of my playthroughs ends with me easily being able to mass-produce M2+ with no hindrance via 3 super sectors. With the OCV and or Xenon being stopped by a fleet of 5 M2+ and the Commonwealth being easy picking with a policy of divide and conquer, the challenges instantly disappears late game. The Commonwealth races teaming up on the player during the initial player's BV snowball would add an addition challenge to the late game. (Assuming the player isn't just hiding in Xenon territory thanks to Phanon which is another can of worms)

2) Make Fleet Carrier/Support fighters Escort:Protect and not Attack: Couldn't tell you how many times I lost a whole carrier worth of fighters in OOS due to a single M7 jumping in through the gates taking out 5 M3s per battle tick. Making fighters reactive and not proactive would help this problem with the enemy ship focusing is attacks on something hopefully less squishy than a M4/M3, however, the M1 would lose its power projection via this change so some compromise would have to be thought of (I just can't think of one right now though)

3) Add a hostile Commonwealth response to the player giving unknown sectors to Phanon: I haven't tried Insane mode just yet it but does seem to address the whole Phanon problem with the Commonwealth eating up all unknown sectors after your first sector, however for any lower difficulties, Phanon survival (and previously terraforming) becomes trivial when they own 20% of the galaxy thanks to your single M5. Adding a similar penalty to boarding would definitely put the player at odds of either helping Phanon or retaining good relations with the Commonwealth (I mean you are essentially helping the Xenon in the eyes of the other races )

[Betelgeuse97]

Make TLs great again. Make them capable of hauling huge masses of cargo (instead of fleet of 20 TSs when you repurpose systems). This will require to boost cargo capacity and change station weight to compensate.

Another thing to address is laser balance. Currently lasers are balanced around energy efficiency which was removed at some point and heavier cap lasers are extremely lethal to fighters in any in-system battle. This would need to make heavy lasers fire and fly slower but carry more damage per shot.

Thank you for evolving the mod =)

1. I'm unsure about changing the station sizes. I don't know where to look but will ask around in the X3 modding channel in Egosoft's Discord about how to change station volumes.

Edit: I figured it out for docks but not yet for factories.

2. As for lasers, that's a tough one. Right now, newly built ships use the best lasers in terms of DPS that they can use, meaning most ships have 1 type of weapon that the entire ship uses. Most capital lasers, with the exception of the PSP having better accuracy and damage per shot, aren't as accurate against fighters. If I tailor lasers like so, then the question becomes how to give capitals an anti-fighter solution, as right now the capital lasers are cookie-cutter for everything else. The only unused capital laser at the moment is the IBL.

[Betelgeuse97]

Version 1.3 released.

I am open to any suggestions for future content updates.

At this point, bug fixes are on the to-do list. There are however a couple of bugs that are notoriously difficult to solve, mainly during the Xenon Crisis.

I got 3 suggestions:

1) Make the Coalition system account for battle value points: Most of my playthroughs ends with me easily being able to mass-produce M2+ with no hindrance via 3 super sectors. With the OCV and or Xenon being stopped by a fleet of 5 M2+ and the Commonwealth being easy picking with a policy of divide and conquer, the challenges instantly disappears late game. The Commonwealth races teaming up on the player during the initial player's BV snowball would add an addition challenge to the late game. (Assuming the player isn't just hiding in Xenon territory thanks to Phanon which is another can of worms)

2) Make Fleet Carrier/Support fighters Escort:Protect and not Attack: Couldn't tell you how many times I lost a whole carrier worth of fighters in OOS due to a single M7 jumping in through the gates taking out 5 M3s per battle tick. Making fighters reactive and not proactive would help this problem with the enemy ship focusing is attacks on something hopefully less squishy than a M4/M3, however, the M1 would lose its power projection via this change so some compromise would have to be thought of (I just can't think of one right now though)

3) Add a hostile Commonwealth response to the player giving unknown sectors to Phanon: I haven't tried Insane mode just yet it but does seem to address the whole Phanon problem with the Commonwealth eating up all unknown sectors after your first sector, however for any lower difficulties, Phanon survival (and previously terraforming) becomes trivial when they own 20% of the galaxy thanks to your single M5. Adding a similar penalty to boarding would definitely put the player at odds of either helping Phanon or retaining good relations with the Commonwealth (I mean you are essentially helping the Xenon in the eyes of the other races )

1) Agreed. Right now the coalition system checks how many sectors an empire has.
Edit: how much BV should be checked for a coalition? Right now I am thinking of making it relative, like so:
1. Get the BV of the faction wanting a coalition (faction A) and the BV of that faction's enemy (faction B).
2. If faction B has 150% or more BV over faction A, then faction A will want a coalition.
2a. If faction B is the player, then it is subjected by difficulty. The thresholds would be: easy, 200%; normal, 150% (same as if faction B were NPC); hard, 100%; insane, 50% of faction A's BV.

2) Will check the support fighters behavior again, but right now they default to protecting their mothership unless the mothership is attacking a target, in which case the fighters will attack the same target as the mothership.
Edit: Support fighters indeed defend their mothership first, but if the mothership is already attacking a target, then they attack the same target. They check again 1 minute later to see if the mothership is still attacking that target. Basically, their default behavior is already set to protect the mothership.

3) Yup, will do the same. Phanon is meant to be the player's vassal. In this case, the amount of rep loss is the same as if the player had conquered a sector for himself.

Update:
- Implemented #1 and #3. Will be part of version 1.4.

[VoidSoul]

Make TLs great again. Make them capable of hauling huge masses of cargo (instead of fleet of 20 TSs when you repurpose systems). This will require to boost cargo capacity and change station weight to compensate.

Another thing to address is laser balance. Currently lasers are balanced around energy efficiency which was removed at some point and heavier cap lasers are extremely lethal to fighters in any in-system battle. This would need to make heavy lasers fire and fly slower but carry more damage per shot.

Thank you for evolving the mod =)

I'm unsure about changing the station sizes. I don't know where to look but will ask around in the X3 modding channel in Egosoft's Discord about how to change station volumes. I figured it out for docks but not yet for factories.

As for lasers, that's a tough one. Right now, newly built ships use the best lasers in terms of DPS that they can use, meaning most ships have 1 type of weapon that the entire ship uses. Most capital lasers, with the exception of the PSP having better accuracy and damage per shot, aren't as accurate against fighters. If I tailor lasers like so, then the question becomes how to give capitals an anti-fighter solution, as right now the capital lasers are cookie-cutter for everything else. The only unused capital laser at the moment is the IBL.

The anti-fighter solution is escort. Another solution would be to tweak all lasers on all ships to have one of a kind per slot, giving flavour to ships. For example Tobasaku front\left\right PSP and top\down\back anti-fighter lasers. That is how i geared it in LU. May even go and give the heaviest weapons like psp only to tobasaku, forseti and valhala. And yes, i understand how ridiculously tough it would be to rebalance lasers =)

[Betelgeuse97]

Make TLs great again. Make them capable of hauling huge masses of cargo (instead of fleet of 20 TSs when you repurpose systems). This will require to boost cargo capacity and change station weight to compensate.

Another thing to address is laser balance. Currently lasers are balanced around energy efficiency which was removed at some point and heavier cap lasers are extremely lethal to fighters in any in-system battle. This would need to make heavy lasers fire and fly slower but carry more damage per shot.

Thank you for evolving the mod =)

I'm unsure about changing the station sizes. I don't know where to look but will ask around in the X3 modding channel in Egosoft's Discord about how to change station volumes. I figured it out for docks but not yet for factories.

As for lasers, that's a tough one. Right now, newly built ships use the best lasers in terms of DPS that they can use, meaning most ships have 1 type of weapon that the entire ship uses. Most capital lasers, with the exception of the PSP having better accuracy and damage per shot, aren't as accurate against fighters. If I tailor lasers like so, then the question becomes how to give capitals an anti-fighter solution, as right now the capital lasers are cookie-cutter for everything else. The only unused capital laser at the moment is the IBL.

The anti-fighter solution is escort. Another solution would be to tweak all lasers on all ships to have one of a kind per slot, giving flavour to ships. For example Tobasaku front\left\right PSP and top\down\back anti-fighter lasers. That is how i geared it in LU. May even go and give the heaviest weapons like psp only to tobasaku, forseti and valhala. And yes, i understand how ridiculously tough it would be to rebalance lasers =)

How would this work out for the lasers? Right now, I'm thinking that this goes back to the old style of giving the up/down/back turrets their anti-fighter role. I'm thinking of something like this:
- For commonwealth M2 (M1s use the same weapons as M7), their up/down/back turrets will use PPC instead of their faction-specific M2 weapons.
- For commonwealth M7, their anti-capital weapons will be IBLs and their anti-fighter weapons will be PPC.
- For Terran, Phanon, and Xenon M2, their up/down/back turrets will use FBC instead of PSPs.
- For Terran M7, their up/down/back turrets will use FBC instead of PAA.
- OCV unchanged since they lack variety and are meant to be dangerous - their capship weapons have already high burst damage but awful reload time.

If there's still not enough variety, I may have to tone down on the M6 weapons to fit in the new anti-fighter weapons. In that case, the M6s will use CIGs instead of their faction-specific M6-class weapons, with the M6-class weapons being the capships' anti-fighter weapons.

I will put the laser balancing into 1.4.

[VoidSoul]

How would this work out for the lasers? This goes back to the old style of giving the up/down/back turrets their anti-fighter role.
- For commonwealth M2 (M1s use the same weapons as M7), their up/down/back turrets will use PPC, same as M7.
- For Terran, Phanon, and Xenon M2, their up/down/back turrets will use FBC instead.
- OCV unchanged since they lack variety and are meant to be dangerous - their capship weapons have already high burst damage but awful reload time.
- If there's still not enough variety, I may have to tone down on the M6 weapons to fit in the new anti-fighter weapons. In that case, the M6s will use CIGs instead of their faction-specific M6-class weapons.

About Laser names, I am at a loss here. There are a lot and some could become faction specific.

I was also wondering about buffing speed of m5 tier side of lasers (not fire rate, projectile speed) to make M5s fire very hard to dodge.
M5 very fast, low damage but near 100% hit rate good at overwhelming M3s with numbers, M3 good at taking out M6, M6 are sturdy missile platforms (with greatly done missile rebalance) for swarming caps and tanking M4-5 with M5 lasers on turrets, M7 could fill role of cookie cutter being good at everything exept killing M2s. M2s are bane of M2s and stations. Reintroduction of fighter maneuvering against caps maybe? But there is also OOS side of story )

Sorry for being vague.

[Betelgeuse97]

How would this work out for the lasers? This goes back to the old style of giving the up/down/back turrets their anti-fighter role.
- For commonwealth M2 (M1s use the same weapons as M7), their up/down/back turrets will use PPC, same as M7.
- For Terran, Phanon, and Xenon M2, their up/down/back turrets will use FBC instead.
- OCV unchanged since they lack variety and are meant to be dangerous - their capship weapons have already high burst damage but awful reload time.
- If there's still not enough variety, I may have to tone down on the M6 weapons to fit in the new anti-fighter weapons. In that case, the M6s will use CIGs instead of their faction-specific M6-class weapons.

About Laser names, I am at a loss here. There are a lot and some could become faction specific.

I was also wondering about buffing speed of m5 tier side of lasers (not fire rate, projectile speed) to make M5s fire very hard to dodge.
M5 very fast, low damage but near 100% hit rate good at overwhelming M3s with numbers, M3 good at taking out M6, M6 are sturdy missile platforms (with greatly done missile rebalance) for swarming caps and tanking M4-5 with M5 lasers on turrets, M7 could fill role of cookie cutter being good at everything exept killing M2s. M2s are bane of M2s and stations. Reintroduction of fighter maneuvering against caps maybe? But there is also OOS side of story )

Sorry for being vague.

No problems. It's brainstorming at this stage, but looks like this is enough to work with.

I'm not sure about reintroducing fighter maneuvering against capital ships. There's two behaviors that ships use depending on their target - one against capital ships and stations, one against anything else. I don't think it's a good idea to touch existing mechanics unless there's an exploit, bug, or if it needs reworking.

I'll need some time to put laser rebalancing together for 1.4, but basically this was what I was thinking based on your feedback. What do you think of such?

• M5s revamped
  • Restore M5 costs so that they're cheaper than M4 and M3. M5 costs will be 1/3 of what they currently cost.

• Weapon rebalancing
  • M5/TS weapons: Mass driver is already at 2500m/s. Buff IRE, APC, Plasma Gun, and PAC speeds to 2600m/s, 2500m/s, 2000m/s, and 2200m/s respectively.
  • M4/M3 weapons: Keep as is.
  • M6: Keep main batteries as is such that they use their faction-specific M6 weapons, but replace turrets with low-end generic M6 weaponry (GRC/MAML). Paranid M6s and their weaponry (PSG) stay unchanged since Paranid M6s use CIGs for their main weapons. Xenon and Phanon M6 unchanged since their main batteries use MAML, but their turrets use SSC (Terran M6 weaponry) to compensate for lack of DPS. Terran M6 unchanged due to their price tag. See edit below.
  • M7/M1: Keep as is.
  • M2: Have up/down/back turrets use M7 weaponry. For commonwealth, that's PPC for those turrets. For Xenon/Phanon/Terran, that's PAA. See below.
  • M2+: Keep as is.

As for the TL buff, I'm thinking of doubling its cargo space so that it can carry about 8-10 normal TS worth of cargo until I can figure out how to tweak station volumes. At the moment, I'm pending a response regarding how to tweak station volumes when they're in the cargo bay.

Edit: Checked M6 turrets again. TMs, Argon Griffon, and Paranid Ariadne are some examples that use M6 weapons. TMs have them on turrets, so if I change M6 turret weaponry, then those ships get affected as well. M6 are also not very maneuverable against fighters, and they're countered by fighter swarms. This is a no imho to nerfing M6 weapons - they're okay as is in how inaccurate they already are and that fighters perform attack runs against M6s.

Edit 2: Attempted to change M2 turrets again. However, when I did such by swapping for M7 cockpits (the turret loadout is determined by cockpits in TCockpits), Xenon M2s ended up inheriting the M6-grade weapons on the M2 turrets (because Xenon M7s use SSCs on their non-frontal turrets). Also, their M2+ are either durable as M2+ but lack DPS (I) or are glass cannons (Z).

When I was working with Mordan on Renegades and I brought up ship and weapon rebalancing, he asked me not to touch weapons and ship stats unless I had a very compelling reason. This was because of the ripple effects across fleets, balancing, and race-vs-race matchups. I'm cautious about touching ship weaponry unless there's enough interest and the changes are small, isolated, and justified. It's easier to experiment with safe adjustments like projectile speed instead of full reworks. The main blocker is avoiding unintended effects, like how weapon compatibility changes affect multiple ships sharing the same cockpit entry.

Edit 3: Figured out how to tweak station volumes. I will make a copy of TFactories into 12.cat/dat and update that copy.

[Dex_Bot]

1) Agreed. Right now the coalition system checks how many sectors an empire has.
Edit: how much BV should be checked for a coalition? Right now I am thinking of making it relative, like so:
1. Get the BV of the faction wanting a coalition (faction A) and the BV of that faction's enemy (faction B).
2. If faction B has 150% or more BV over faction A, then faction A will want a coalition.
2a. If faction B is the player, then it is subjected by difficulty. The thresholds would be: easy, 200%; normal, 150% (same as if faction B were NPC); hard, 100%; insane, 50% of faction A's BV.

2) Will check the support fighters behavior again, but right now they default to protecting their mothership unless the mothership is attacking a target, in which case the fighters will attack the same target as the mothership.
Edit: Support fighters indeed defend their mothership first, but if the mothership is already attacking a target, then they attack the same target. They check again 1 minute later to see if the mothership is still attacking that target. Basically, their default behavior is already set to protect the mothership.

3) Yup, will do the same. Phanon is meant to be the player's vassal. In this case, the amount of rep loss is the same as if the player had conquered a sector for himself.

Update:
- Implemented #1 and #3. Will be part of version 1.4.

1) The BV check for #1 would be perfect with one change: Make the faction B on faction A check just 120%. I find the 20% of BV is already enough to let the ai steamroll itself to minor status for 3 ingame days if they are playing dumb.

2) Motherships fighters attacking the same target as the homebase is apart of the problem, especially if they are in a mixed fleet of other Huge ships with you either having to assign them to attack fighters or stations which makes them suffer majority with the Counter-attack against the ai's Huge Ships. (Still need to brainstorm a viable solution still)

3) That will suffice, just any negative repercussions would help fix the problem.

I also got an addition suggestion: Reduce the requirements for a superpower Ai. Out of the 21 galaxies I've played I haven't seen them ONCE even when I favored the galaxy to their creation.

But Thank You for listening back to my feedback for this Add-on for a mod, of a mod, for a overhaul of Version 3 of another mod, for a total conversion of an expansion, to a game released in 2011. It means a lot