Sea of Stars - Trial Run 001

[Drybreeze]

Time to test my mod for a complete game for as far as is practical, making notes on improvement as I go.

I've done a few trial runs now making improvements each time, but I thought it was time to involve you good folks in what you think might be good to improve in it.

So a bit of background information:
Sea of Stars Mod Development Thread
I have been modifying files of ehsumrell1's awesome Picard Era mod, with the intention to completely replace all files but use the Picard Era mod's files to replace bits that I haven't yet gotten to - things like facilities, races, etc.

... so that's why you'll see some things from that mod... for example I'm playing as my all-time-fave... teh Borg.

K so here goes:


I'm playing a 15x15 sector 1000 star game, with every available AI slot occupied with a random race.
I'm the Borg, and I have modified a couple of things with the race - specifically the ship and base component designs to better fit the components and resources that the Sea Of Stars mod has completed... for example reduced the Reactor number (since SoS reactors are far more powerful) and reduced Fuel Cell numbers (since Reactors use far less fuel, and so conserve initial fuel investment for fleet and base constructions to reduce shortages of Uranium in early game).

I have an initial starting fleet of 1x troop transport, 1x Escort, 1x Frigate, and 2x Destroyers.



I have started off with a lot of the common basics, and a supply of Uranium (which is the core fuel in SoS until Fusion Reactors are developed later, which burn Hydrogen).

I don't have any supplies of Diamond (which are required to manufacture lasers - the early game beam weapons), nor do I have supplies of Oxygen, Water, or Food Stuffs, all of which are high-demand resources for colony development. The last three are less commonly spawned than Diamond, and I have more than enough initial starting reserves of Diamond to manufacture a hefty fleet... and I know I'll find some very soon...

So my most critical objective at this start is to find Independant Colonies to take over (since only they can produce colony-manufactured resources, which make up the bulk of the resources and are generally far more financially valuable than raw resources, boosting an empire's Private and State coffers)... and of course colony-development resources like Oxygen, Water, Food Stuffs, and Biomass would help too since it's used in research laboratories and a bunch of other stuff (plus is also a colony-development booster).


Bonanza! One of the moons of the 9th planet of my home system has two of these key resources. I'll build a light-weight mining station on that immediately.

The light-weight mining is exactly what it sounds like. It has no defenses of any kind, and all the basic kit required to mine only. Resources are expensive in SoS, so it forces a player to be very strategic about how they're used to build with. Since this moon is in my home system my CORE DEFENSE fleet will quickly respond to threats to it, so I don't need to invest in shields, heavy armour, or anything other than enough to get those resources off that planet and shipped around my growing empire.


Time to explore and find my neighbours, and figure out who's going to be naughty and who's going to be nice.

[Drybreeze]

The second planet from the star of my home system also has Uranium. I'll snaffle that up fast since previous test plays have always resulted in a serious shortage of Uranium. I'm hoping I've addressed this with new ship designs, increasing the spawn rate of the resource, and also removing the Uranium resource cost of reactors.



Burning a bit of my initial stockpile of resources, I buff up my Core Defense fleet, which is set to have Genesis as home base, and defend all assets within a sector's range.



A planet in a the Synnax system (almost a sector due south of my home system) has Gems, which will be a useful resource in future tech... although not currently. For now I'll pretend that I need this resource for components (since I'm testing this mod with the end-result in mind) and snap up this resource. I build a basic mining station on the planet, as well as a small dedicated system-defending fleet to keep the mine safe. I could alternatively build a heavy-defense mining base design but fleets are more adaptable. I can always re-assign it if I need to. One of the other planets in this system also has water and food stuffs... both vital to colony growth... so it's a good system to control regardless.



To the north east are two systems that interest me, one containing more Uranium among other things, and the other containing more water and food stuffs.

Beyond them are gas clouds containing Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen. Oxygen in particular is critically important - colonies have a high demand for it, and many components require it for manufacture... especially components that have explosive aspects, such as missiles, countermeasures, and so on. So I want to control them fast... except there's a snivelling little pirate base in the region which will undoubtedly cause me problems.

I send construction ships to build mines, and escort them with small dedicated fleets comprising about 5 escorts, 3 frigates, and 1 destroyer each.



Resources such as Natural Magnets (used heavily in many components but especially the basic-level shield "Magnetic Shields") is running low, so my ability to easily build ships and bases will end soon unless I find a source for this resource... I need to be very careful with what ships I build, how I use them, and that I don't lose them in combat.

There's PLENTY of natural magnets available in the Galaxy, so it looks as though I've just been dealt a raw hand in this resource for now... I'm sure with some exploring a source or 10 will appear soon...

Having said that, I need to ensure this pirate presence does not destroy my mining bases or upset my economy either... they're going to have to go.

I begin drafting ships from my few various defensive fleets to form an offensive fleet to take out this pirate base and allow me a degree of safety in this area.

Meanwhile Genesis has begun to produce 3 new colony-manufactured resources in this time:



These resources are all used in advanced tech (I'm decades away from being able to use them) but are also highly valuable luxury items that are going to make my economy a mint trading them with other empires.



Meanwhile back in my home system a pirate raid by a lone escort has destroyed one of my local freighters, scattering the others like a cat among pidgeons. Core Defense fleet responded shortly afterwards (not fast enough to save the freight, OR stop the pirate escort vessel launching a troop assault on the planet) and made quick work of the lone escort pirate vessel. Shortly after that the colony defeated the troops that landed on the surface, and the scattered freighters returned to go about their business.

[Hattori Hanzo]

exciting start.. [8D]

[Drybreeze]

@Hattori Hanzo

Thx.



I played it a lot last night to a well developed empire - I'll continue more until I either win, lose, or hit a brick wall due to some issue with the mod that makes it unplayable... most likely the half-done research tree. So far the start of the game till now is functioning exactly as I want.



2151.03.01

Early on in the piece water and oxygen rapidly climb the "unfulfilled requests" column, indicating high demand in the colonies but low production. At this point I only have 1 source of water, and 0 sources of oxygen. Once I remove the pirate presence from the north east I will have a safe mining zone in those gas clouds which will give me some oxygen generation and help lower the "unfulfilled requests" for this resource.

So far that's exactly as I want it in the game... these resources are both maximum demand for colonies.



2152.03.24

My siphoned off "Assault Fleet 001" finally reached the Vile Bandits pirate base to the north east threatening the gas clouds in that region, and began hammering it. At which point two bandit frigates quickly arrived and I realised that my small fleet was vastly out-gunned. I focused on picking off the two frigates first, but by the time they were destroyed my fleet was in full retreat, including the admiral's ship limping home on impulse. I tried to transfer him out to another ship but he didn't make it in time before a third pirate frigate overtook him and destroyed the ship.

So the pirate base sat gloatingly near my gas fields while my now pathetic fleet dragged it's feet all the way home, tail between it's legs. I would need a LOT more ships to take out that base, especially now that a second one had been detected very close to it.



Other asset-defending fleets were in position by now, and many independant colonies had been detected in the local region. I decided to focus on getting magnets instead, and let the privateers profit from taking the risk of mining in the pirate-infested gas clouds to supply the growing empire with oxygen.



2152.07.15

After a lot of exploration I'm surrounded by pirates and independant colonies, but none of the 21 other empires have been in contact with any of my ships yet...



2154.04.24

As I bring a couple of independants to within my empire, my reborn Assault Fleet has become large enough to tackle nearby pirate bases confidently... so I begin picking them off so that I can have safer supply lines.



2155.06.19

I'm finding that attack postures works VERY rarely in sending fleets to actually attack the target. Sometimes they simply ignore me... for game years... until I give up and MANUALLY tell them to just bloody attack it. What is with that? Defense postures work well but when I put a fleet on attack and designate a target it almost always just sits there like a lump. WHY!? WHY!?!? [&:] omfg WHY.



2156.07.06



2158.09.15



2160.12.27

As usually happens at this point in the game, Uranium has climbed to the top of the "unfulfilled requests" column, and continues to rise. It's much lower than it has been, and began much later in the game than previous test runs. This is due to updated designs making my own single-reactor and single-fuel-cell designs obsolete. In particular with bases. Combined with a rapid increase in the numbers being built, this is soaking up my Uranium resources fast by filling each new ship and base with far more Uranium than it actually needs. I will address this next by altering the default ship designs rather than using in-game-edited ones.



2162.05.09

Now, mid-game, I have enough colonies of a sufficient size, as well as enough trade partners that I have access to every colony-manufactured resource in the game. My own empire produces all but about 10 of them. As a result I am able to build every component available to me in the research tree.

With further mod development I will have alternatives to every technology so that colony-manufactured resources make more advanced components (small, faster, more powerful, etc), but there are always raw-resource alternatives for empires that do not have access to the colony-manufactured ones. Because the icons for these components will be different for components that use raw-resources and manufactured-resources, a player will know while looking at the research-tree what path is wisest to head down when selecting research.

Also, techs will share a common and intuitive theme. For example biological techs will always use biological resources (most of which are manufactured), while lasers always use silver, diamond, and so on.

So far the mod is playing exactly as I want it to (gaping holes in research tree not withstanding)... now I just need to add things in like new techs, and especially facilities. I'd like to have a whole bunch of readily researched and affordable facilities that can make colonies develop in very particular ways. Information satellites that boost research, anti-orbital cannons that aid in defense, seed vaults that help repair damaged colonies, and so on.

[ehsumrell1]

Very good so far Drybreeze! Keep up the progress! [:)]

[Hattori Hanzo]

at which date you started this trial game ?

[Drybreeze]

ORIGINAL: ehsumrell1

Very good so far Drybreeze! Keep up the progress! [:)]

Thank you ehsumrell1. I'm beginning to understand how much work you put into your mod.

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

at which date you started this trial game ?

Hi Hattori. The start settings were as follows:













2163.06.03

I've finally explored the entire galaxy (I don't tend to invest in exploration vessels much).



2168.07.03

It didn't take long for some idiot I'd foolishly made a defense pact with to be wardec'd... dragging me into it. Oh goodie, look, two of THEIR allies wardec me in return. Great. I guess it's a good opportunity to test how the mod works under real combat situations.... even though it's mostly an economical thing at the moment and there's not much that battle changes.



2173.09.12

After waiting several years for my Assault Fleets to actually respond to the Attack Target posture directive and then giving up and manually telling those buggers to just fly there and attack already, they flew there and attacked already. And whumped. Wasn't long before ol purplie decided to become my subjugated peasant realm.



Mod-related things to note:
1) Uranium, hydrocarbons, and steel resources met some sky-rocketing "unfulfilled requests" demand. Interestingly so did a bunch of colony-manufactured resources that aren't being used in any components (currently). What's with that? Maybe I should make colony demand for these reduced somewhat.
2) Research tree needs to be made much more logical than it currently is, after I've edited parts of it.
3) The graviton beam weapons are both far too powerful and far too quick to research. They need to be nurfed majorly.
4) I should totally test this on smaller maps in future. [:'(]

[Hattori Hanzo]

Hi Hattori. The start settings were as follows:

my apologies, I meant: in wich year you started this game ?

[Retreat1970]

The graviton beam weapons are both far too powerful and far too quick to research. They need to be nurfed majorly.

Really? I find them to be the absolute worst weapon. Read my last post in Drushocka AAR for an example.

[Drybreeze]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo
my apologies, I meant: in wich year you started this game ?

2150

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970
Really? I find them to be the absolute worst weapon. Read my last post in Drushocka AAR for an example.

Sorry I should clarify - I've already edited them and made them far too strong. I am now going to map out the strengths, costs, and positions of all weapons in a spreadsheet to give a greater level of oversight into them all and how they relate to each other.

[Drybreeze]

I have played this game through to mid-to-late game, and from this point on it encounters the large gaps I have in the research tree for late technologies. Therefore this particular trial-run game is now at an end.

I have learned the following:

1) Resources are in a good balance of demand versus supply, except oddly for colony-manufactured resources which (especially towards the end of the game) seem to be oddly high in demand, causing spikes in "unfulfilled requests" for those items. In some case far above the galactic supply of the resource.

2) Weapons need adjusting to balance them.

3) Research tree needs to be worked on to ensure things are researched logically and lead to purposeful decisions about technology chains.

4) Default ship and base template designs need to be altered in the game folders to ensure appropriate use for the new component balances... now that they're so far off the components that the ship and base designs of the Picard Era Mod currently use.

5) Building on point #4, it is now time for me to create at least 1 race that is properly designed to use with this mod, and later diversify it into other races. This will provide a vehicle for proper ship and base designs among other things.

6) Further building on point #4, and #5, the current components #133 and #134 are Borg Cutting Beams and Borg Heavy Cutting Beams, which (with the removal of the Borg Race from the mod folder) will now become obsolete and pointless. Therefore I must either replace these or remove them from the game. I intend to add many new weapons and other components to the game, so I'll most likely isolate the components without altering them, by removing any reference to them in ship designs or research tree... and then come back to the component ID's later and change them to something useful and add them back into the mod.

I think that's about it for now... unless you have anything to add?