rebalancing

[spiritplumber]

quick note -- for more WC-like flight feeling, try to increase space drag in physics.

[mat_yarrow]

I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but would making up a new hunter faction('hunters' as opposed to 'hunter', for example) in factions.xml (similar to the way miggs, garrovick, reismann, seelig are handled in factions.xml and campaigns.py) and using them in the Oxford privateer missions be a feasible way of making the Demons focus on the player first without concentrating only on the Drayman being escorted if the player has good relations with the 'hunter' faction?

I was thinking that the new faction('hunters'?) could be set to have negative relations with the 'privateer' faction in factions.xml, guaranteeing that it will attack the player on sight, and the player's relations with the main 'hunter' faction could be finely adjusted after the mission is over. However, I'm not too sure whether I understood the campaign/mission scripting correctly to guess if this is possible.

[Dire Wolf]

About that: lasers are overpowered, it seems. Did the info about its damage power come from official sources? I distinctively remember that upgrading from a laser to a mass driver was an improvement, and from a mass driver to a particle cannon, etc. etc... Every step was an improvement, one way or the other (that is, they weren't all the same).
But in PR, they're almost the same.

I haven't really checked in to lasers in PR or WCUniverse, but I know what the stats showed to be the best guns in the original.

The guns that could pump out the best damage per second were these:

1. Fusion Gun -best
2. Tachyon Cannon
3. Meson Blaster
4. Laser -4th best. quickest refire, and larger damage per second than mass driver, ion cannon, etc.

The laser of the original couldn't compete with the tachyon or meson. Tachyon, Fusion, and Meson also had the benefit of being the guns whose shot went fastest, besides the laser.

All the other guns were a waste of money. I think the plasma gun WOULD have been good in damage per second, despite its slow refire, IF the shots didn't move so slow.

Yes, but lasers were very fragile, meson blasters only a little better.

[Ge0rgy]

I have to state, that i never was a good fighter.
but really, these demons in that oxford-mission drive me crazy.
if they would attack me, no problem.
but they go on the drayman only, are not red on the radar but blue, and even if i shoot at them they ignore me.

I have to kill at least 2 or 3 of them until the remaining become hostile, and even then they keep on the drayman.

and even with autotrackers i fing it difficult to hold them in target.
they circle around that drayman that fast, make turns, screws and all that stuff...
hard to hit...and if they fly straight for 2 secs so i could hit them, its only because they directly approach the drayman, and so i have to take care only hitting them...and not helping them with destruction of the library-ship.

i never have that much problems with pirates or retros.
talons are fast, but can not cope with many shots
those demons are fast and somewhat robust.

well... perhaps i make it some day.
and corect, difficult misisons keep the game alive, but that is the difficulty-setting you have for, isn't it?
if you are new to the game or do not have much expierience and talent, you can stick to the more eays settings, and if you played through and seek a challenge you can pump the difficulty up. So you get your long-time challenge without too much frustration.

I played many games in that fashion... you often have no clue what is ahead of you before you start a mission.
If you played it one time more easy, you at least can halfway imagine what comes.

well,
A bit rebalancing would not be bad...
I mean, the enemies still have more numbers every time. so they would be able to compensate a little... disadvantage...

greetings,
Ge0rgy

[Draken Stark]

I don't know if anyone tried this or not but I've tried to attack New Constantanople and it became red like an enemy. So if this is posible what are the reasons?

[hellcatv]

the reasons are that a base doesn't like you firing at it

[Spaceman Spiff]

that poor chicken

[Ge0rgy]

*lol*

i think no one would laugh friendly at you while you shoot at him *lol*

[Draken Stark]

I mean gameplay-wise. Why, for whatever reasons, can a player become enemies with a base without any consequence? For instance why don't the confeds become enemies with you or have the base charge extra money to dock for a while. Currently it seems that New Constantanople will forever be enemies with me and does nothing about it.

[hellcatv]

he can launch fighters at you actually

[Draken Stark]

I only saw merchants come and dock and sometimes saw merchants come out of the base.

[Draken Stark]

While I was going through the campain I was cought with contraband. When I got to New Constantanople I witnessed ships coming from the station as I docked with it.

So if a station is an enemy with you why do they welcome you with out consequence?

[z30]

While I was going through the campain I was cought with contraband. When I got to New Constantanople I witnessed ships coming from the station as I docked with it.

So if a station is an enemy with you why do they welcome you with out consequence?

probably because the game doesn't have station guards coded in

any ship that has docked into a hostile space station would be impounded the minute the engines stopped running.

the easiest way to simulate this would be to deny the player access to anything, no mission computer, no commodity exchange, no guilds -- the only thing you could do would be to go to a bar and drink your sorrows away.

[TJ01]

Ugghhh, speaking of rebalancing I've just tried the mission at gamma. I didn't count the number of dralthis waiting for you as you jump in the system but it's just ridiculous. I don't remember having problems with this mission when I played version 1.0, maybe my skills have just eroded since then, but I don't recall fighting 10 at the same time either.

[drvoke]

I was able to dock with the pirate base that is part of one of the campaign's early missions before I ever knew about that particular mission. They traded with me normally, etc... I thought it was weird.. Since it had no ID, I thought it was just a regular base with.. no designation. As soon as I left, though.. I was pulverized by a posse of pissed off pirates.

[Admiral Patangana]

Demons and dralthi definitely should have at least 25% off of all their abilities. Rebalancing must enable easier play, now it is sometimes nearly impossible to win if one doesn't "hack" it.

[Admiral Patangana]

WRT rebalancing:
First the bugs should be removed. Like in the original game, Oxford mission 3, you being a stronger threat to the demons, the demons tried to deal with you first; wheras in the remake they ignore you.
Another bug: If you are friends with the hunters, they look blue in that mission. In the original, their relationship to you for a given mission would override your current status with them.
Bug 3: Random units should not appear in the theatre of scripted mission. Like kilrathis showing up and attacking the Drayman in addition to the demons?!?! Okay, they 'happened to spawn', let's say, but why attack the Drayman, and not the demons, instead?
And I'm not sure whether to call this a bug, but it's a fundamental change from the original: In the original game, if you faced 10 enemies, only one or two of them were actually shooting at you; the rest were decoration until it was their turn. So, a mission with 10 enemies took 10 times longer to complete and therefore was 10 times more difficult. But with the VS engine, all of them are shooting at you at once, and so fighting 10 dralthis is like 100 times more difficult than fighting 1. I'm not sure how I'd "solve" this problem. Probably I would reduce the numbers of enemies relative to the original game, like use square root as many, approximately.

I completely agree with this quote. It is like I wrote myself. VS/Privateer is already completely playable game, but since it is in development phase there should be some "interventions" to make it more attractive to the wider spectre of players. First of all Demons and Dralthi's are overpowered in any mean. Those who want to fight 10 dralthi's without autotracking and in the hard option, so let them do that. Rebalancing is priority for better fun playing VS/PR. Also pledge for stronger reactor and shields for my faithfull Centurion!

And, I finally complete the famous Oxford 3 mission. How, I dont know!
Now it seems not so hard, but, please enable more time for player before Demons vaporize the Drayman.

[Draken Stark]

WRT rebalancing:
First the bugs should be removed...

I completely agree with this quote...

I do as well.

[Spaceman Spiff]

WRT rebalancing:
First the bugs should be removed...

I completely agree with this quote...

I do as well.

Dito!

[Spaceman Spiff]

I completely agree with this quote...

I do as well.

Dito!

Hey, this might end up as the funny new "Quote in the Quote Game" LOL

[Starev91]

IMHO, I think demons are a bit overpowered. I managed to pick one up with my drayman and have been having WAY too much fun after giving it autotracking.... Maybe if you made all 4 light mounts instead of half light, half light/medium/heavy?

Or maybe if you made it a bit more heavy so that they cant handle like they wiegh nothing-its ubserd, I can dance rings around all other ships and the other demons cant get close enough to me as they arn't using tachion (sp) cannons, but a medium wep (cant tell if its particle or nuetron).

Also, if you made it so that mission enemies are an entiriely different group that isn't shown it would make life much easier-they show as confed, but it doesnt annoy the confed after you finish the mission (confed would attack you on the mission along with the mission enemies).


I managed to do Palan on my second try with a demon, made it through nearly unscathed. Went back, did the same with a drachi.


But yes, before anything is done bugs should be removed. Also, an added campaign with a bit more of a wingman factor would be nice-the admiral makes you a captain of a small force and you go to attack a certain area, etc. Or an ability to get perminant flightgroups-you sort of build up a flightgroup of people who fly with you (it does say "privateer squad" in the newsflashes about you ).


I also think that the drayman needs a bit more protection. Maybe giving it a turret or lots (like 4 turret mounts total) would make it better, but as it is unless you tractor in and spit back out ships, the drayman gets pulled apart every time you go near a system that has the slightest possiblity of having pirates in it.

[ijuin]

I modified the Drayman in my game to have one each of top, bottom, and rear mass driver turrets. This seems to be adequate for defending the ship without making it feel overpowered--it feels like a slower, heavier Galaxy.

Does anybody know where I modify the files to allow the Demon to be purchased earlier than the Palan missions?

[spiritplumber]

That's what I ended up using in WCU

[Malfious]

Why is there such a Drayman following? lol
All I would really change is some minor animations when people are speaking. Make Demons easier and make it so you can take fixer missions in addition to normal ones all the time, not just when you pick fixer missions first. I'm sure there are other things, the fact any ship can keep up with you almost for example, but they are pretty minor

[Privateer Ferrius]

The one thing that could use rebalancing is the capship/fighter disparity. Right now, Talons with small arms that do a striaght on run can strip the sheilds right off one section of a Paradigm. This should -not- happen. Cap ship sheilds have always been on the other side of the balance in WC - almost too strong. That's the entire point of Proton Torpedos in the WC games, they'll pierce right through sheilds and do the real damage.

Also, the Paradigms, Kamekhs, and starbases should have -much- bigger fighter escorts then they do.

As well, I've noticed that there seems to be no way to refit the turrets on the Paradigm with custom fittings. This could be changed. Same deal on the Kamekh. Correct me if I'm wrong ... but when I stripped them completely and then went to rebuild them, I could not add turrets, and the existing turrets would not function. Also, I could not readd hull or armor to these ships. Which would be fine, since they have 'built in' values, but once the built in armor is gone, you cannot replace it, and repairing does not appear to restore it.