Venators FTW!!!!

This is pretty awesome. Played about 75-90 minutes on Point Blank, normal random CIS AI vs. me w/ Republic. So far early game the AI doesn't know how to prioritize. And with 3 Venator "cruiser" versions on a roid that had no other defenses, I was able to hold off a whole bunch of pirate attacks.

AI also (like always it appears) doesn't know what cap for what situation. That is an AI thing though I bet. Overall- 8.5-9/10. Very good, some things a *little* buggy (research that does nothing? or at least looks that way for Rep tree), some *String not Found* errors (nothing major though). Didn't get to build a Golan-III station yet, as the game was a somewhat fast one.

Excellent work Eville&Co.

Below hard AI does not handle unusual builds very well.  Normal handicaps itself too much and ends up getting out the gate too late.  The lack of a free flagship at the start takes it from passable at the early game, to horrible.  Hard cheats just enough to make up for sucking out on those early world conquests.  If you watch a team game, it becomes quite apparent that the inability to manage individual units is a major handicap up against a player with enough brain power to do simple things like send a heavily shielded unit into the well before the rest.  They often get their early units killed off before they manage to take a planet.  They don't usually lose much to roids, but the others occasionally cost them even the first capital.

They suck at defense too.  Might could jack up the priority levels on the AI definitions, it might hose their progress though.  I've added that to my list of things to mess with, but it takes a lot of play time so it will be a while before I do something stupid like suggest changing it.

Wow guys very Impressive. This mod was well worth the wait I must say... Very complete... you need a nice intro movie .... Only played it for a few hours so far but the only bug I noticed is sometimes none cap ships show that they need a squardron to be made on the icon but if you click the master fleet icon it shows all bays filled( This bug has popped up in other mods) ... Is the Large Trade Federation ship with the Ion cannon completely skinned? it almost looked naked at times. Oh also they Ion Cannon Defense platforms show 2 abilities one static one dynamic.. the static ability says *line dead* or something like that when you scroll your mouse over it...

Speaking of skins they are terriffic btw... the drone control ships look very good. Some suggested improvements some Jubba lines for the pirates.. making them pirates was a nice touch ... All and all I can't really bitch... The mod also didn't mini dump from my game play so far which I am thankful for. Are you planning on bring in the space stations?

Great Job guys I can't wait to show my star wars loving friends... Now since I am not a super fan could some nicely explain the difference fluff wish between the Republic and Empire? I thought the Republic was what the Empire took over and then the colonies that broke off formed the Alliance and then most of the Remaining worlds fromed the Trade Federation... So yeah who can take a moment to explain to pieces I am missing please.

Thanks

A Major Trekkie that also has an Affinity for the Wars

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away was the Republic.  This Republic was peaceful, until a group of thugs known by names as the Inter-Galactic Banking Clan, Trade Federation, and the TechnoUnion decided to found the Confederacy of Independent Systems and break away from the Republic.  This led to the Clone Wars.  After the Clone Wars, the Chancellor of the Republic, Palpatine, decided to re-establish the Republic as the Galactic Empire because he was a power-hungry Sith bastard.  Because the Empire was a repressive tyrranical regime, a Rebel Alliance soon grew up to overthrow it and restore a galactic republic to power.

SpardaSon21:
I certainly hope your plot summary doesn't mean that you missed how Palpatine orchestrated the CIS/Trade Federation breakaway from the Republic from the very beginning.  (Although, what never made much sense to me is how exactly he knew that Anakin was going to come into the picture.)

Moguta, he didnt know originally. He did plan all of the clone wars and such, but when he found out about Anakin and how powerful he was with the force, he couldnt pass up the opportunity to taint him with the ways of the dark side. It was pretty much luck i think.

Want to make an intro movie? I'm sure Eville will let you use his models. Just needs a decent voiceover narrator

The missing textures on some of the ships are a known issue. Others, please report them on Mantis

No, I got that part very much.  I just couldn't figure out a way to work it in my summary without it being a tangent.

Any chance for releasing Galactic Forge? I'm sure fans will be happy to make Starwars maps.

First off I'd like to say that this is an excellent mod and clearly demosntrates untold hours of hard work on the part of those involved, so a big congrats to eville and others!

I played with the Empire a bit last night vs 3 locked team unfair AI's and have a few comment's regarding balance.

- Ion cannon tech is a bit overpowered. I liked the fact that you guys made lower level Ion cannons debuff to increase cool downs/decrease movement, but giving spammable heavy cruisers, ie ISD II's a spammable full stun is very unbalanced. With a bit of micro I was able to take out a large AI fleet by keeping their caps permenantly out of the fight. I think the original game was smart to give spammable stuns to only a very few cap ships.

-Perhaps give full stuns only to cap ships and make lower level stuns debuff at varying percentages?

- I know you mentioned this already,but strike craft are still very OP. Interceptors just massacre bombers way too quickly and gunboats do too much dmg to ships. Throwing up just one hanger in a gravity well with interceptors effectively negates an entire fleet worth of bombers. I think eville you might have upped dmg of Interceptors as a band aid fix to deal w/ bomber OPness? (cuz tie fighters comparatively really do suck vs bombers, and unless interceptors are around, bombers are very powerful)

- Missile Defense turrets. Massive range, high damage, and only cost 1 logistics slot. These are pretty much better than turbolaser batteries in every way, making those kinda useless really. Plop ~10 of these, a few hangers and repair bays in a gravity well and it's effectively untakeable.I think all defenses really needs to either have their dmg toned down, or logistical slot cost increased as it's currently very easy to defend. (well unless someone roll sin a SSD)

- Escort carriers and actually all cruisers outside the ISD's are kinda useless. Ex, an ISD is ~1.5x the cost of a escort carrier and have 2 squadrons and neglible weapons and no abilities. ISD's have 3 squads, do massive dmg and have abilities including a stun. Perhaps make more of a price difference btwn these ships to make the other cruisers actually worth buying.

-Executor class ships =D I love these things but they really are a game changer. I have a level 4 one take out an AI fleet of ~50 ships including ~15 heavy cruiser mon cal cruisers, and 2 level 5/9 cap ships. The worst part is that the AI fleet barely got through it's shields >.<

I think the shield strength ~8x a ISD is fine, but the hull, I got up to ~144,000 HP, which was frankly rediculous.

Left one is a gravity well where it took out a golan and AI fleet there all while being chain stunned, so it'd get of like ~2 seconds of fire btwn stuns. It won simply because of it's insane HP count and just slowly wittled everything down in btwn stuns.

So perhaps follow the ISD idea of shields being ~4x hull strength. So ~80,000 shields and 20,000 HP for the SSD?

On the damage front, I love how many lasers the thing shoots out, it looks awesome and exactly as I'd imagine it^^ Problem is that it's just too much dmg lol. Throw in the AOE dmg/mass stun ability at lvl 5 and a SSD with full complement of Interceptors to deal w/ bombers is effectively unstoppable. Reminds me of the Avatar class ships in 7DS mod. That thing is OP cuz it can take out an entire fleet in one shot. With a SSD any fleet is still doomed, just takes a little longer, but  is no less inevitable =D

I'd say keep the number of weapons, but cut their dmg in half. With this and the hp changes, they should still be very powerful, but not invincible. With it's current specs the executor by itself could have won the battle of Endor, no matter how incompetent their officers were^^

Currently, while they may cost the as much as ~10x ISD caps in terms of minerals and crystal, and 4x the credits, they're capable of taking on double that many ships (provided they don't have ion cannons =D).

I'll play with another race tonight and see how balance wise they feel and get back to you guys.

I know I made a lot of comments, but please don't take offense. They're merely balance suggestions and in no way am I critisizing the hard work you guys undoutebly put into this.

Thanks again for making this mod!

Amazing mod, playing a 6 hour game the other day with 2 teams, 2 on the allaince and 2 on the Empire on a random medium sized map.

I dont know if its been said or if its just my copy of the mod, but the y-wing squads I saw the computer build were actually B-wings.

The cruiser variants of the ion weapons are not full disables.  The volley uses the same effect file, but it fires half the shots, at six targets instead of eight.  That's the level 1 version of the capital ability, not further upgrades.  Neither volley is a full disable, and the effects against capital ships are significantly reduced.  The blast is a partial disable only.  The capital version is a full disable of everything but normal engines, and cripples those as well while applying random movement.  I'm sure they need tweaking though, balance testing against the AI is horrible.  You'll never see it exploit anything, or defend against an exploit.

All sides have some method of disabling ships, so that Executor is if anything, dangerously easy to kill.  The ion weapons also stack, even the light versions can turn an Executor into a nerf toy if you target it with enough of them.  The AI sucketh though, so I don't expect it to do much.  Vanilla sins suffers the same problem really, a well designed Advent fleet consists of several flat invincible capital ships that need their supporting fleet completely exterminated before the AI has a shot at wiping them out, a process that requires a fleet multiple times your size, and a battle duration long enough to run them out of antimatter.  The Executor drops to quite a bit less, but in a fleet it's absolutely horrific.  I'm pretty sure the Executor could win the battle all by itself in the movie btw.  They weren't expecting to win a battle, they were hoping to blow up a Death Star and run like hell.   What do you think of All Out Attack?

Broadsides are a siege platform and cruiser killer, missile salvo does 4800 damage over four seconds time to a single target.  They're very much useful.  The escort carrier I'm a little more in agreement with you, but full squadrons on a cruiser is bloody nice.  They're exceptionally dangerous when defending gravity wells with shipyards.  It's less cheesy on the offense of course, but having rapidly repenished strike craft still makes them the best carrier by far.  The ISD's are rather all purpose though.  Then again, how often do you see other ships in the movies?  They do kinda build fleets of star destroyers, I think it's intentional that you can ignore the rest of the lineup for the most part.

The defense and strike craft balance definitely need work.  The defense being so tough is really nice, but the AI flat wont use it.  I'm trying to get the AI to cooperate there, but it's stubborn.

I can't wait to hear your commentary on the other super capitals, they're less obscene, but the Executor doesn't look that scary after you stack it against them either.

 Okay, I will post this here because this is not a bug. Venator's SPHAT power is far too short ranged. Weapon ranges are quite long in this mod, and Venator have  to move very far to use that ability, which means it have to come very closer to enemy fleet while seperating itself from its own. I think this ability is suicidal!

Many abilities have ranges more than 6~7000...and this ability has like, 700. I know this is a powerful ability, but I think commanders will refuse to use this because of the tactical danger lol

Plus, the CIS providence's Torp vaolley simply annihilates frigates even in level 1, and it does not require any upgrades or level limitations initially. I love this because I like CIS, but is this balanced?

The volley abilities are not like missile barrage in vanilla, it has an 8 unit cap at level 1, so while powerful, it's not the titanic dooms day weapon missile barrage on the Marza is.

The SPHTA cannon is a collumn effect, so it's 2000 shield bypassing damage to the target and everything between it and you.  It's probably the most powerful damage effect outside of the super capitals.

Assuming you didn't know that, do they still seem problematic?

for the imp cruisers I'd definately say check out the broadsides as well as dreadnaughts once they have the slave ability researched, they will stack each others bonuses.

Interdictors in general need some work and the gladiator is just a cheap colonizer (since the imperials do not have a frigate colonizer)

missile defenses work well vs stationary targets, but can't hit moving targets. the seige/turret mix needs to be looked at but this is intentional

Interceptors/bombers got tweaked last minute I'm sure we need to look at them again.

part of the fun of the Ex is preventing the enemy from building it, it takes a long time to push one out and you can prevent them from building just by making sure you kill their research facilities.