@Goblin Wizard:
That does explain why the game was choking on the backups if I left them in the same folder as the originals. Don't we need to edit any include scripts though? I'll try this when i get back, gotta go eat.

@StarShatter:
You mean changing the colours on the existing textures so they stand out better? Up to you, but I don't really have a problem with the existing ones.

It depends what you want to do. In most cases you put name of the function, you want to execute, in the original script file. The function itself is inside your own script file. Check my mod. There is "gw.script" where I keep all my functions. It easier because if something goes wrong you have to check only one file.

This is still bugging me.

It's true; a few good shots and a ship is pretty much toast. That doesn't quite feel right. I still stand by my earlier statement that lasers need to be toned down.

Shield refresh rate; is it helping? From what I can tell it barely does. Sure, you get that extra boost from a shield system, but the refresh rate usually means jack. I think the refresh rate needs to be boosted. After all, you're sacrificing a system slot to put it in.

Does anyone here use any of the one-time-use systems regularly? I've always felt that they were a waste of system slots, but that's just my impression. I guess it's useful for the AI since we don't really expect the enemy to live if we fight them so an emergency repair system will basically let them live just that bit longer to harass us. But since players expect to live forever (die = click load and try again...), I've never really seen the usefulness of these things. Comments?

Here's a crazy idea:
It would be awesome if damage had a %chance of destroying an item in a slot (guns, missiles, system). I'd totally apply that to missiles. Right now ships with even 1hp left can still fly and attack at full strength. It would be more interesting and dangerous if a huge chunk of damage could break something. I know it's not gonna be a popular idea but I'm tired of easy games :-P We could also flag certain items to not be affected if you don't want everything to be destructible.

Nah I mean SHINY, reflect more light, I've already tried to make the blues and white stand out more. And be a bit cleaner.

Also I keep may back ups in .rars... I have a 2.83gb back up of all the files now...

Definitely trying this when I get my save up to be able to test right. Would take a bit of pressure off modding original files.



Edit: In reference to all things about ships having low HP,

Yeah they kinda do. Shield Regen on a Dragon is only 3, even when boosted by perks it isn't much (I like those perks). For my Dragon T I dropped the shields to ~300 (just testing), but ramped up the regen to 10! Cant take much damage all @ once, but in a dog fight its a hell of an advantage, It's huge armour helps. Same for my Smilodon, lots of shields. Best way to increase HP is to have a healer on your team, it has a massive effect. Shields in this game work more to protect from initial damage before a dog fight, when there is a heavy damage exchange/missiles, when in the fight, their regen will protect you a little bit more on the next pass and such, but definitely not much. That's my just opinion though.

I think a big part of survivability in this game is to not get hit, speed and pilot skill modifiers on mobility being the key factors. Obviously with all the missiles you're playing with its like squatting flies. Homing makes it kinda makes pilot skill redundant (I like missiles).

For the Excalibur T I'm planning, I was going to make it just much more agile/quick in combat, have that what makes it superior (that and 2 extra light cannons, trying to play on the Templar myths, shoots twice as fast/makes unbelievable maneuvers, and based solely on superior equips).

Lasers are not as big as a problem as particle accelerators, you cant resist them for 80% :D. Imo lasers SHOULD be weaker than particle accelerators and plasma weapons by default :\.

Ship re-balance community patch? lol

Another Edit: Weapons increase in power faster than ships increase in HP? The battle with the Greys and all their Shinnings caught me so off guard. I usually just put missile defense and shields in system slots :\. Maybe Prototype X/Diamond if there is a spare one.

Wait, I thought someone mentioned somewhere that particle accelerators were considered to inflict laser damage and thus affected by the %laser resist? No? Crap, in that case they need to be toned down as well. My main problem with those is that they basically hit/miss upon firing; there's no projectile travel time. I'm fine with plasmas, you can see them miss (even expert gunner pilots miss fairly often). Kinetics are just about right, but I think their gimped range also helps. I agree, weapon power overall just increases too much compared to shields/armor.

Homing on missiles is a factor but I made sure most of my modded missiles have low antijam rating, you can see enemies use AMS against them with great effect. Right now I'm not too worried about them. And, same, i also prioritise antimissile defense & shields.

I'd prefer shields to prevent recurring damage more rather than just absorb the bulk of the initial attack. Sure, it'll make enemies more annoying, but look at it from their point of view: our handful of pilots basically shoot down hundreds of them by the end of the game.

Plus you can always harvest exp on those weak pirates (I pity them...), go cache hunting, or shoot up warehouses, lol.

Particle accelerators deliver LASER damage.

So it's true.

That said, more ships need to be equipped with antilasers. Even on hard mode my test fighter with Rage lasers is shredding everything apart, ugh.

Do you know how dispersion works? In the scripts (well at least in Rockets.xml) i see the values are normally quite low (0.5 - 1 average). I tried using wildly large values (10, 30) but didn't really notice any difference. The homing properties of the missiles may be throwing me off though.

I don't know the exact dispersion formula but afaik:1 - maximum dispersion, 0 - no dispersion. Probably all more than 1 is considered 1. E.g. function called by "Cannon Adjustment" perk.

This perk simply reduces dispersion by 99%. It doesn't improve accuracy when the target has significant angular velocity but bullets are not sprayed all over the sky.
Imo this perk has no sense to me. Pilot can improve his accuracy - ok. Pilot magically controlling gun parameters - no. It should be a system which does this or one time (for each gun) buyable improvement (gunsmith or something).

with all these opinions, you just want a bunch of rookie pirates in hammerheads to kick your ass..

everything that has dispersion higher than 0 CAN miss, depends on pilot. how do you want to miss with all those perks? 30% accuracy+10% damage from weapon specialization, up to 95% more accuracy from Gunner skill, + Ternie has even cannon adjustment, count critical hits to it and your pilot is deadly even with crappiest weapon in the end of the game.

LASER damage is so heavy and so accurate because you can mitigate up to 80% of it (which is very nice considering at least 2 of enemies you HAVE TO fight uses lasers - berserkers and aliens).
and, depending on storyline you choose, you can eventually end up ALONE agains all SAM's berserker hordes and several Chimeras, and that is hell of a massacre..

increasing HP/shield regen of fighters would be nice, but who would possibly want to do that? I mean there is some 150 of them (at least)

Dispersion and accuracy are two different parameters. Even 0 dispersion and 100% accuracy bonus is not guaranteed hit. There are some modifiers like:
- speed of the target
- maneuverability of the target
- number of the enemies - if your team has less pilots that enemy your pilot's chance to hit is reduced and enemy chance to hit is increased. Perks like Tactician and Wingman work with this parameter. They virtually increase number of your pilots when the perk is active. High level enemy leaders posses these perks too.