Ascendancy Mod

[quarque]

The problem with the 1.6 was, that the common laser weapons had a range 30 and the super guns a 40 - so the common guns had no actual use, and the initial AI attack was without any possible match. Why should the AI use these common guns anyway, while I WANT IT to use the brutal stuff first and only. So, I designed the common guns as cheap high range option for the Human Player, a niche the AI wont use - but could rescue the Human Player. Cheaper, higher range, the Star Missile! Plus, you wont lose it versus CI DisRaptor, while the usage of Invader modul is smooth and great - but high cost, low range, high risk.

I still think that Star Missiles and Barrage Guns need to be better weapons than invasion modules. For a number of reasons:

* The AI is still building those weapons, even though you made them suboptimal.
* The range (30 vs 40) doesn't make much of a difference, because neither is enough to outrange a planet and in a ship-vs-ship battle you can't stay in perfect range for longer than 1 round
* A human player is forced to build lots of invasion modules in any case, unless you play as Minions. Yes you risk DisRaptor attacks, but you can't avoid it anyway, because you often lose several invasion modules when taking a single planet (sometimes more than 10). And since you are forced to build so many invasion modules, building weapons that perform worse than they do is a waste of ship space.

 

[Tehulotl]

Hi! I added newest version rar in the last post. Accutron and Replenisher far later.

I actually like these Invader Moduls too much. Yes, I play with Minions, I often thought: Wow. Easy to capture planets with 5 Surface Shields ontop. That the Invader Moduls shoot was a major break through in getting the AI to a far better opponent, plus, I love that too much plus that CI DisRaptor, that is a huge spice. There are so many weapons now, since all of the specials actually shoot that I had a tough time to get the common weapons to worthy function - cause I want the AI to use hard weapons only. Mass Barrage Gun and Star Missiles, uffz, early weapons. I would never reduce that 6 1 of the Invader Modul, I really like these values. Perhaps I could give Mass Barrage a 4 2, that is a nice idea so that that weapon stays valuable longer - or, becomes valuable. Perhaps I could do that with Mass Barrage 4 2 AND Star Missiles 6 2, cause all other weapons I made sure are a one hit wonder. The common weapons are basically all a 12 1 with changing ranges and energy consume. Yes. 4 2 for Mass and 6 2 for Star would mean that they stay worthy for a long time, kind of. BUT. With a range 40 over the AI weapons range 30 you get first shots! And that is important.

Mass^Barrage^Gun
0 3 40 4 3 50 0 0 4 0 1 2 3 255

Star^Missiles
0 6 40 6 2 100 0 0 12 0 1 2 3 255

Colonizer
0 9 30 4 1 300 0 0 5 1 2 3 255

Invader
0 9 30 6 1 300 0 0 13 0 1 2 3 255

could it be. satisfied?

I currently experiment with the specials like Tractor Beam, Damage Absorber, Engine Burst, Energetron, Hyper Fuel, Cannibalizer, Remote Repair, to get them to good shape. Saw why I changed many special names, cause I have the 1995 Vanilla Weapons and Buildings lists plus the 2013 Mod lists as txt documents for comparison, and these old names dont support the recognition value AT ALL. So, names are far better, values shall be perfect today.

Found out, the first time in my life, that the Mass Inductor could probably have absolutely no use nor effect??? So, to not waste that slot I could re-use that useless gimmick for another weapon (sic), or another drive or whatever.

Oh, yes >>> if you want your own values cause you find my reasoning lacking, , I made SURE that you have plenty of space to change stuff in Ascend00.cob by adding much space for Notepad++. I changed in near all lists in that cob the tab stops to space stops and tried to give any value position double-digit, and within these space stops you can tweak near anything - make sure that the end of the line doesnt change position, within that line, you can exchange near anything, I made sure. Gfx Sfx head of the cob, pos 2100 down weapons list, pos 7500 down buildings list and down under tec tree, I made sure that there is enough space stops for one or double digit within the lines.

I currently experiment just by changing the cob via Notepad++ cause I have enough space. I will finalize that at the END of the value changings via COBExtractor, but for now I can do anything via Notepad++ directly. In that current stage I could even do it just via Notepad++ and spare COBExtractor, BUT, since I wrote batch files COBExtractor is just a double clic for me and I want my basic raw txt up to date, so COBExtractor is the boss here, just to hold my basic raw txts up to date for any future changes.

I like the fact that I thought: Wow, that AI built planet looks like Antagonizer built. In Vanilla you just needed 10.000 clics and five seconds and any planet was full. Now, that the buildings are expensive in time, the AI builds slowly, just a basic colony and a full orbit, like I do too, and all other places will be filled later on with newer stuff, that works quite perfect. Yes, sure, old buildings ontop still, BUT. I build three industries, then 2 yards, then orbit rockets and shields, then another yard, then hopefully a dock, then over time some surface shields and a hyper plant, thats it - the rest is a self managed planet via type M. In fact, once, the orbit is to my liking, either 2 yards and rest weapons and shields, or, a dock planet with more docks, the self managed planet does surface shields and hyper plant for me, I usually dont do micro managing AT ALL. I totally LOVE that you can spare micro managing.

A basic planet looks like a small colony with a full orbit, and when you abandon from time to time old planetary buildings, the self managed planet does its job quite nicely. So, planetary buildings work for the AI near perfect, and for self managed planets > too! One AI industry boost, five surface shields, all of the stuff is built.

 

[quarque]

Ok, thanks for the change to early weapons - I will try the new version tonight.

That's a bit disappointing about the Mass Inductor. I never looked closely enough to check what it did.

One detail I noticed, by the way: the AI still builds a tonne of tunnels on black squares, at least early on, when they could build agriplots instead. Will check in my next game if the AI is smart enough to actually build buildings on black squares instead, in the long run.

 

[Tehulotl]

I tried to take tunnels out of the game completely, but then AI is often stuck to build nothing when a colony building is surrounded by just black - it seems that black and tunnel are a hardcode use and AI doesnt do any more, at least at the start of the colony.

But I dont care actually, cause in this case I like the idea of dirty industry buildings on black squares for the Human Player, like Tractor Beam or Surface Shield - I want to prevent micro management like Terraforming for buildings not requiring good land for dirty work. So, I like to build three industry, then 2 shipyards, orbit rockets and shields, more shipyards, then self management and the planet can build what it wants, dont care anymore unless it is a relevant yards or docks planet. The AI now builds up nice planets, caused by the expensive buildings, cause, if the AI is able to spam build planets early game, that will be early structures, but if the AI just builds the same like the Human Player - the core colony, then necessary orbital structures, and afterwards Surface Shields, Hyper Plant, etc, and AFTER THAT, in between of ship building, modern structures, middle and late game, that is quite good! Works for me, even if the AI wouldnt build on black squares.

But lets check that. Hahaha! Sometimes it just works amazingly good. The FIRST checked planet, the Swaparaman homeworld, and the FIRST checked structures like Agriplots, Surface Shields, AI Industry, all on black. So, the first use of isolated colony buildings seems to be tunnels, if... I checked that, all four buildings of Factory, Laboratory, Agriplot and tunnels have 255 prerequisites, that means, buildable from the start WITHOUT prerequisites - but isolated colony buildings need tunnels or they are stuck and do nothing. But after that it seems the AI does quite a nice job.

Usually, there would be the "house rules", not to research the AI tec, not to build AI Industry or AI energy module, and after conquering an AI planet to abandon AI Industry immediately - I have to admit I dont do the last rule. That is ONE AI Industry you NEED to establish defenses and dock planets - or you are screwed. But once you conquered these planets you could just establish all necessary stuff, abandon some older stuff, and let self manage the stupid thing and it goes quite nicely! You COULD micro manage planets by yourself - but you dont need to, anymore. Since the AI is fully capable of building great planets, really great, even docks, you can easily let self manage and it goes smooooth.

I always thought, intuitive, that the Mass Inductor kind of supports the energy use but I tried and failed - both ships wasted same amount of energy while travelling with absolutely no difference, no matter the Inductor values, nothing. I just changed that thing to a zero energy need drive engine. I think you will find the new early weapons and Colonizer and Invader values appealing. Have fun!

Feel free to propose whatever flaws you might find!

Oh, yes, Swaparaman Prime, as I told, Agriplots, Surface Shields, AI Industry, all on black, a great built planet, that one square they might spare for the future Hyper Plant:

EDIT 2.8.2022: Since in my second testgame with the Frutmaka, that the Chamachies stood no chance vs me caused by Tractor Beam within their ships causing too much time to build - I decided that I have to re-do the Tec Tree caused by my values overhaul to shift tecs and gimmicks around to make it functional for both, AI and Human Player - I HATE to do the Tec Tree, that were some knots on a SH**T pile driving me totally crazy. I HATE to do the Tec Tree, but I know, that a perfected Tec Tree would improve the game by lightyears. So, now, knots out of business, and I can smoothen that beast up, grrrrr.

For now, there is no Delyxe with all specials included and then Heavy Delyxe with some special deleted version anymore. After saving Molecular Tie Down, Brutal Burst and Tractor Beam, I just saved ALL. That is now just one version with 4 different difficulties - if that works, that stays that way. Hopefully BY FAR better Tec Tree now, Accutron the OP thing far later, Tractor Beam far later, smoother AI build of early ships and middle planets hopefully.

EDIT 4.8.2022: I think that I got my kickstarting by @quarque, thank you very much! I could achieve victory by finishing up my Ascendelyxe 2.0 version I always wanted to do since freakin 2013 and the 1.6 version! Stuff like a modified Tec Tree with super costly tecs, the better planet squares, the better planetary buildings balance, the even better weapons and ship stuff balance, and now, the finally finally finally better diplomacy balance, did the job.

Once, I was glad enough that I just had figured out how I get the AI to actually make more war to create better and huger AI empires and I just let roll ALL of the species hardcore mode total war like. I didnt really get how the creators of that game and numbers wanted me to tweak it, so I just let roll my total war solution, glad enough that at least that worked.

Now, I dont know if that is good actually, the badass species still are hardcore mode total war like, like the Frutmaka, Shevar, Minions, Nimbuloids, and partly the Snovemdomas - I found out that actually quite the half of all species seems to be "friendly", and I tried to tweak on the badass side "hardcore badass mode", on the more friendly side "always ready to rock mode", hopefully that rocks now. But I think a 2.0 is done finally, wow! That was a constant accusation in my brain that I got never the balls to finish that up - for nine years now!

I will probably provide tomorrow my 4 difficulty level Ascend00.cobs, my 1996 Ascend.exe, my 2013 Ascend01.cob, a smart batch to load all stuff, some README HTMLs, and perhaps COBExtractor and SHPEditor, then it might be done!

EDIT 6.8.2022: From last Wednesday to today, Saturday, over a week, but I think the 2.0 is done now! Absolute beautiful Tec Tree, balanced planetary squares, balanced planetary buildings, balanced ship stuff, plus hopefully finally balanced diplomacy with some NASTY species and some REALLY NICE species to have actual diplomacy and not just fullout total war. There is a good chance that I got the maximum out of that 1995 old Dos Box legendary malfunctional game.

 

[Tehulotl]

ASCENDELYXE 2.0

This is an AI built planet, the hardest fortress in a system of four defended AI planets.
If you want to play Ascendancy the best possible way, download this 2.0 Mod and enjoy!

> A most beautiful Mona Lisa of a Tec Tree
> Sweet balanced planet squares for all planet types
> Hard balanced planetary buildings
> Hard balanced ship stuff
> Diplomacy with BAD guys and GOOD guys, kind of

I did the best I could to fulfill my desperate dreams of a child to get that to a better stage.

A worthy link to a related but SLOW site with some Antag2.exe and Modder Tool links:
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?s=15383bad1fd074fd120296c6b73560c5&t=817&page=62

 

[quarque]

Hi, sorry for the slow response! A woman insisted on dating me and took up a lot of my time, so I have had less opportunity to do useful things like playing Ascendancy.

I will download the new version, curious what you changed. Diplo with good guys / bad guys sounds interesting, is it similar to the way diplomacy worked in the original game?

 

[Tehulotl]

Oh, no sorry needed! Women could be some useful things from time to time.
(If they lack less than Ascendancy kchchchchch)

Once I desperately tried to use Antag.exe - but Antag Neutral and Hostile dont make war AI vs AI hardcode, and Antag Peaceful crashes for me, and I tried AGAIN these days. So Antag.exe unfortunately is no usage for me at all. grrr. But in my 2013 version I was able to bias the diplomacy all vs all, to make more war, or, just all out total war, nothing else, for anybody, human player and AI factions. Reason is, that "no war=no empire", no modernized ships, no growing vast empires > I was glad enough to get an all out total war running and huge opponents, BUT. Just war is kind of lacking and boring, so, I let factions like Shevar, Frutmaka, Minions, and some others in all out war, and other species I made kind of more peaceful again, cause I currently experiment with diplomacy to make it more smooth running, more... creative, flexible, volatile, playful > while Shevar, Frutmaka, Minions, stay just brute warmongers nearly without any grace for peace. To improve diplomacy to a weird volatile mixture is possible.

So, it is not similar to Vanilla. Vanilla was too peaceful in general, far too slow reactions, far too slow empire building wars for the AI and vs Human Player in my opinion. My 2013 1.6 version was just total war only. This is a mixture, where you actually have partly total war, and partly the chance to even alliances, and I currently try to understand how these values could be even MORE volatile and extreme - and better.

EDIT 22.8.: NOW would be a sorry needed!

Pushing me to get a new version done - then leaving for good. I could say "typical human", demanding like gods, failing like farts - but thats such a common obvious mass thing on earth, that I could spare my breath.

 

[Tehulotl]

I am actually thankful for this quarque input to force me to finish up a 2.0!

Played it. WOW. Thought. WOW. I play Ascendancy on Windows 10 and on a 4K 55 inch screen in 2023 and still it lacked the good old AI, but my game Ascendancy was really cool. Satisfying, that it really worked and was actually FUN!

One thing I didnt like AT ALL, was Xenoarcheology. I slowed down the Tec Tree A LOT, to stretch out a heavy play of small expensive ships and the necessity of dockyards/supply/slow upgrades to further expand or defend hard - and then you get just a far future tec and it kind of ruins the straight play. I think about removing it completely, OR, make it later, OR, make it far more expensive, that last thing I implemented already into my personal .COB.

 

[Blake00]

Sounds awesome!
Jeez 640x480 (which I think was the game's original resolution) blown up and stretched across a 55 inch screen would be quite big and blury haha.

 

[Tehulotl]

I use my 4k 55 inch as my one and only screen. PC via HDMI inside, Satellite cable not in use anymore cause no need for channel search free TV - even one hour for that crap would be a waste of my time. Smart TV function also not in use cause that is not smart to use Youtube and all other stuff with unnecessary adds. I lie on my bed couch in two metres distance, this huge 140x200 mouse pad bed has incontinence sheets on it, so that I can eat and drink without huger risk to kill bed by coke or soup. I basically lie there, eat, drink, watch, read, write, mod, game, anything. To play Ascendancy is NOT blury!!!!!!!!!! It is just one huge pixel changing the color. Yes, but, once I played Ascendancy on a Single Core and 14 inch cathode ray tube crap, and yesterday it finally sunk into me, how comfortable it is to play Ascendancy my 2.0 way. My fullout 2.0 way. Like, kehehehehehehehehehe, it works.

I am that lazy even, that I dont even use the Dosbox like normal people would do. I have a batch file which mounts Dosbox automatically via double click. I am far too arrogant and lazy to ever and ever again actually WRITE into Dosbox always the same commands to mount Dosgames. I write a batchfile which mounts the individual Dosconfig, in which I perfected the required parametres for the game like emmmm, Mixermaster, lets see,

mixer master 10
cycles=30000

mount c: d:/
c:
cd ascend
ASCEND.EXE

and so, Ascendancy is always just a double click effort for me. Yesterday it sunk into me how unbelievably cool that is.

While all of these new born fag babies play refurbished 1995 Warcraft 2 pay to win games on their smartphones getting ripped of by the real prize for green gems. idk. Are 55 inches bigger than 6 ? Well, that sunk into me yesterday.

The prize for Xenoarcheology was 7200, like Internet 7200, that was my maximum for all stuff. The Tec slots have a maximum which cannot be increased sadly, I thought gimmick stuff could have a maximum too and cut that smooth. For comparison, a common Industry, AgriPlot or Laboratory is 100. 7200 is an insane prize already for the hugest mightiest buildings. I then had Xenoarcheological Dig on triple, 21600, currently I doubled that on 43200, I will put it to sevenfold, 7 x 7200 > 50400, that is a nice round number. If the Human Player wants to get Xenoarcheological Dig, he/she has to put some efforts into this to build up the surrounding planet FIRST, with an Industry 50 "just" 1000 years are required. No, actually 10 x 7200 > 72000 is perfect. With my industry management Industry 100 is easy possible so that would mean 720 years. Still possible to dig, but difficult, good!

10 x 7200 broke it down to cheap again, so, maximum possible is 9 x 7200 > 64800.

I HATE that the Human Player always outsmarts AI. We actually do stuff in our favor, actually on purpose. So, Xeno Dig is vastly used by Human Player, once the Human Player spread out, he/she will use planets with Xeno on them, and so, all available Xeno Digs, and that will blow up the tec balance into game over. So Xeno still is a great thing, but an unbelievably expensive to do thing - with the difference that the AI wont need it, and the Human Player can handle it.

 

[Tehulotl]

I slightly tweaked the buildings again to get a slightly harder/better performance, but that was basically super fun anyway to build up planets. The planetary building was great already. Xeno Dig is now hilariously expensive, but I HATE when the Human Player just gets 15 Xeno Digs in a row - that is basically a most boring game over cheese. I didnt delete Xeno Dig completely out of game cause it has some value and fun, but it is now a fortune to deal with.

Ascendancy is a marble of human failure. In my opinion it is 50:50 genious:complete utter amateur failure. If it would not be for the 50 percent genious, it would be complete malfunctional trash. A dream would be to implement Lua function into the Ascend.exe to be capable of bending these 50 percent failure to its other half. Could be fairly easy.

One thing Ascendancy Vanilla never got was real war. You had a good chance that there was just NEVER war. That I managed to get my 1.6 to allout total war was a great breakthrough but boring. No diplomacy. Just war. With my 2.0 I got warmongers and some other options with more peaceful species. With this 2.2 I really tried hard to get some most volatile aspects into BOTH, the warmongers AND peaceful species to make them kind of crazy and unpredictable. I wanted to implement some slight chances into all directions to fix diplomacy into something fun. Cause that is 00.COB possible.

That absolute warmongers like Minions, Shevar, Frutmaka, should attack allout always is good and clear, but that there could be a slight chance to peace or even alliance after a while. That niceguys should defend themselves, and that there could be a slight chance of a sudden attack or even an alliance break. So I made all species with absolute low acceptance for foreign ships in own systems, with short bio periods of new decision making and a volatile range of positive and negative decision making to drive diplomacy more wild and unpredictable hopefully.

Once, the Dubtaks and other SHTs were talkers, all the time another attempt to make blah blah. I gave all species a 200 turns pause in blah blah, so that they will contact, for peace, for alliance, for war, but NO TALKERS. Ascendancy lacks much things, but it might be possible to at least kick the diplomacy to an interesting working thing!!

I would be fairly grateful if more Ascendancy fans out there would know about this mod to at least get a better experience once in their life to actually play that game. Plus, to get feedback would be welcome. Have fun.

Version 2.2 in the making, hopefully soon ready

 

[Ascendancer]

Hey @Tehulotl

I. Just. Found. THIS.

Awesome. Thank you so much.

I just tried my first medium run, and I am on a loosing path right out of the gate.

I played vanilla Ascendancy occasionally since it came out. Even with antag i usually gave the AI 300 free turns before placing my first tile to keep it a bit interesting. Sometime they eat me within a short time or I am still too powerful. Sometimes, and only sometimes it became a somewhat interesting game, but there was always the tipping point, where I could tell, I basicly won, because im on par with the strongest AI.

NO MORE!

I have to get used to the new Tech Tree, and other changes, and I have to throw my old strategies out of the window and develop new ones. But that is not bad, just a change that is much apprechiated, and I can see your intentions by how it plays and what was written here.

Long, long ago I chose my general internet pseudonym based on this game which I love so much. So if I can use my channels (which are completley unrelated to gaming btw) to draw some attention to this project I will. Also, if you, in any way have any questions or want feedback on this mod from a veteran gamer of almost 30 years in this game, just write me up.

Once more, thanks!

 

[Tehulotl]

Oh, hi! Nice to hear!

Yes, my "solution" to give the AI an edge was to build up just ONE research planet, so that on no other planet research buildings would be allowed. The fun is, that you still will raid more Xeno Archeology, and, after a while in Ascendancy your research planet looks turbo dope - and STILL, whats the point when you are done with research after turn 1600, the "tipping point" never happened, and the enemy ships are still dull manoeuvring idiots not using special weapons at all, what SUCKS.

These Logic Factory creators of that game were just bloody amateurs and fools. If you know - their latest release was an iOS only Ascendancy version, for iPad and iPhone, 2013. So, they STILL HAD the source code, they STILL HAD the rights to develop -and that is a bloody miracle, usually these both things are long lost-, and they STILL HAD absolutely no intention to fix a tiny SHT of a thing - and then they released an iOS ONLY version for iPad and iPhone ONLY - how dumb can humans be, FFS. A german buddy called Franky found out, that you just have to change special weapons to common weapons and the AI uses them, builds them in, uses them, in the order of weapon strength - I really tried hard to pimp that beloved genious/fools game to the max!

Kind of a shame that it is still the 2.0 version cause I was too lazy to finish the 2.2 - too much trouble within these Corona and Ukraine War years for a German like me, I chose to party and basically give a F. Fun fact: Did you know that after a two years long orgy the brain cannot handle dopamine and serotonine anymore?!? WTF!

Everyone is free here to post critics and comments! And call me an axehole for not finishing the 2.2 still, cause, the 2.0 is really good, the 2.2 is even slightly better, cause the energy/shields/weapon fix is good.

Yes. My tec tree is great, well balanced, hands over stuff pretty great, and, I stretched the needed time to stretch the game and its tec development. Plus, the 2.0 diplomacy should already be the twisted one!

 

[Abandomgamer]

Hi Tehulotl,
I tried your 2.0 mod and I must say the tech tree is clean and I like that but I can't get used to years to build a "simple" orbital docks and similar structures that were build fast in vanilla. I played on "hard mode" and it all boiled down to AI using CI module all the time. Sure I did lost a few ships but since there are too many bugs (or features) in ascendancy once you discover enormous ship it is basically game over for AI. I "cooked" my version using cobextractor, but I can't find range and dmg settings for orbital weapons and shields. I like your implementation in mod that a module can have multiple stats, but balancing that is a nightmare I guess.
All in all I like the ascendancy but with bugs / features in it - it kills the thrill and make you invincible. You need just one ship to unleash havoc and win. So my list of bugs / features that probably every body till now know and are thrill killer for me in vanilla are:
1. wave scatter shield does not require energy to operate (this is stupid OP)
2. enormous hull can hold more above shields than the most powerful weapon can make damage (this can be balanced I guess)
3. Energy of regular shields can be "regenerated" - meaning for example you have a shield that can fully shield an attack on first move but drains your ships energy completely. You get hit on the second move if you do nothing BUT if you cycle the shield(s) off and then on again before clicking next move (the 1st button with space shuttle on it) voila you can dodge another attack and so on. So this is a bug in my books but hey what do I know

So to wrap up can /could you nerf down ships a bit or perhaps empower planetary defense because there is no real defense against Minions in any version of the game - mods included.
The time in your mod is an "overstrech" for some common structures IMHO.
Also dich the "free energy" stuff. Engine that uses no power gets you no where.....same with shields and weapons.
Ships weapons range should be significantly lower so that an attacker gets hit by the planet first.
Planetary weapons should be "stronger" in range and effect.

I hope this makes at least some sense to you to consider mod 2.2 with planetary defense variation in mind

Thank you for good work and best regards!

 

[Tehulotl]

lol. And you find it realistic to build up Orbital Structures during 10 days?

In Ascendancy, like in all games, these buildings, if orbital or planetary, are placeholders for whole industries OR, whole Orbital Structures. That great mega projects need time, and even years, or decades, or, even, centuries, if you think about Interstellar Empires building up, out of the nowhere, whole planetary facilities, is realistic. I WANT that to be strategic buildups, needing time and resources, and even, are built too late for incoming invasions. And, most important, I WANT to spare myself micromanaging planets, so, usually, I build up basic planetary and orbital structures, these need time, are from strategic importance, but bring manufacturing powers, then I switch to auto build. So, you boost via much time and resources the initial buildup of whole planets, I want that exactly that way.

~~~

Hm, regarding orbital weapons and shields, attack power, range, shield strength, were nowhere to be found, and believe me, I tried. All other stuff I tried already to "range in", or, to tweak to a maximum of fair performance. If it doesnt fit your needs - use Cobextractor OR, easier, Notepad++, to tweak my values.

 

[Abandomgamer]

Well time units are pretty irrelevant for me as long as scale makes some sense; still your mod wins over the original. I just might tweak some numbers in ship weapon range, shield capacity in a way that it is (almost) impossible to conquer a planet in a medium hull. Actually I might try with settings so that a planet is OP up to large hulls. Do you know if an item marked as special does any damage to planetary stuff?

 

[Tehulotl]

I did it as good I can, to tweak all of that. If you think to know better - COBextractor or easier, Notepad++ will help. I did my cob with COBextractor to leave enough space to actually tweak it without changing the "end of line", which will result in an instant game crash. You can Notepad++ tweak within the line, not changing the "end of line".

All weaponry getting an actual weapon value are able to damage the target which is given within the line as a special number for ships or planets. Specials will just be used as proper weapons by AI, being in the weapons slot, NOT in the specials slot, and will be built by AI and used by AI in the order of weapon value strength, or, range.

So, you can give ALL specials and all weapons a weapon value for damage, and a possible target - just dont use specials, which have the ability to move targets in space, versus planets - since a planet is static > game crash.

Good luck! And have fun!

 

[Abandomgamer]

Hm, interesting. In original ascendancy a weapon Myrmidonic^Carbonizer has these stats: 5 4 40 20 1 70 20 0 39 0 1 2 3 255
But it does 0 dmg to planet shields and surface although it has a 0 1 2 3 attributes ( GZ_TARGETSHIP =0; GZ_TARGETLANE=1; GZ_TARGETORBIT=2; GZ_TARGETSURFACE=3). So I thought that the category of the gizmo 5-special is the one defining actual usability against the target. I mean you can target star lane but you can not destroy it. I might be wrong so I'll have to try and see.

Thanks!