Cosmoteer Plus v0.27.5
ok wierd its the mod its self i have no mods on and im getting this https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gO779okcEXrNqpgg2uE709NlRQrrFoSWoYb0YCqjE4Y/edit?usp=sharing
jfjohnny5 If you start a thread in ship design I'll submit some stuff.
Also, a lot of things were fixed, but aux control rooms are still buggy in mirror mode. The diagonal armor block has a diagonal axis of symmetry and mirrors properly so the Tac Center should be able to be configured to behave but doesn't, but the Weapons Control has no axis of symmetry. To behave properly in symmetry mode it needs a mirror version, the addition of a door to make its doors symmetrical about some axis, or the removal of a door to the same effect.
If the power storage fix prevents the frigate bridge from losing crew all the time you should apply the same fix to the extended sensor array and possibly the stock sensor array. Both suffer the same problem, which is why I thought it was a problem related to rooms requiring multiple crewmembers.
The new Plasma reactor is too good. Its explosion radius is lower for components, which means it can be safely spaced 2 tiles apart without intervening armor given adequate fire suppression, and it produces more energy. It either needs its RadiusVsOperational increased to 6 to match stock or it needs some other drawback. I'd suggest making it only store 4800 power (matching its GFX). This will make it worse at feeding things with consumption spikes (ie. shields) which are where its smaller explosive radius would be most beneficial.
The Main Engineering is now pointless. Three plasma reactors produce more power in the same space and are easier to place (4x3 with the symmetry going through the 3 side is quite hard to place in most ships and should have benefits), don't consume crew beyond hauling jobs, and have taken its place as the tech building for Plasma Projectors.
The Warp Core isn't completely pointless only because it includes an FTL, but concentrating so much power production in one place is generally bad for pathing and as it's no longer a tech building its value is dubious.
I'm unsure that the UV Laser has any purpose when the Ion Blaster exists. The range advantage is slight, the Ion Blaster does far better against layered shields, and any desired balance of shield and armor/component damage can be achieved by mixing laser and ion blasters.
Laser PD still fails to stop missiles.
Light armor is indistinguishable from normal armor in blueprint and difficult to distinguish in the internal vies. I'm not sure if it's ever worth using. You can get a similar effect from using armor wedges and nobody does that except for contouring. Either you want no armor on something that needs to be very fast or as much armor as you can fit in a reasonable space.
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Atarlost Thanks as usual for the feedback.
One thing I will say is that some of these parts are there for the aesthetics, and in hopes of Walt eventually adding new functionality that I can use as a tie-in. One example: I really want engineering rooms to increase engine output, but alas, that ability doesn't exist (yet). Regardless, I'm going to try balance them to be inline with vanilla components for now. I'd also like the two tactical stations to increase weapon rate of fire or something similar. There's just no way to do that at the moment.
The plasma reactor was a really quick experiment to see if I liked an "upgraded" reactor as an unlock node in the tech tree. I do, so balancing is the next step. Good feedback there.
I hear you on both engineering rooms. I love the way they look, so I desperately want them to be viable options for good ship design. Again, since there aren't a lot of "global variables" that I can have them access, I'm a bit stuck on what to do with them. I was originally balancing their output to be more space and cost efficient than standard reactors. On my next balancing pass I'll rework them to be a good option instead of plasma reactors.
Regarding engineering rooms' "dubious" nature due to pathing, in my mind, the "drawback" of having the increase in space and cost efficiency is the fact that it's a choke point for pathing. You can't have your cake, and eat it too. I don't want too many of my parts to be straight upgrades. There should be a balancing factor to consider. You get X, but lose Y. Those kinds of quandaries make for fun strategic gameplay, imo.
Ha, I am really struggling to find the niche for the UV Laser. Every time I put it on a design, I'm underwhelmed. I'm open to any thoughts anyone has.
Laser PD isn't stopping missiles for you? Even after the adjustments I made? I find it to be insanely effective. The range and targeting boost over standard PD means that layering the two of them makes for two level of PD. Well placed I find it to be a very good defense against missile spam.
Yeah, light armor was a super quick addition. Basically, I wanted something to fill interior spaces where I didn't want corridors, but I also wanted a roof (which structure doesn't add) for coloring and decal placement. It's literally just a recolor of standard armor. If you look really, really close, you can see I just toned down the effect of the armor pattern. Coming up with a unique design is on the to do list.
Just wanted to give you a good response. You've put a lot of effort into your feedback and testing (of which I'm incredibly grateful), so I want to mirror that effort.
Hey! I've been experimenting with your mod and I've been combining it with other mods, namely Archon's plasma one (https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/3163-archon-plasma-mod-v0-9-2-new-railgun-turret-and-v13-support) and Stargate one (https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/1095-weapon-variants-stargate-mod-now-with-ships-in-bounty-mode) and I've been integrating their weapons with your tech tree system, as well as updating their locale for the strings to show appropriately, and I had to reduce/augment/tweak the range of pretty much all weapons for it to work appropriately, though, but once done it really gives a nice sense of progress.
There's thrusters linked to the main eng., so having one does increase the engine output, since you get access to nice plasma thrusters, and the Warp core I linked to more advanced types of engines, etc.
Point is, your mod is pretty amazing, and with more props/weapons/etc. linked to your tech system, it makes Cosmoteer a damn cool experience.
P.S: I find lasers to be pretty effective too!
P.S.S: If you want me to link what I've done, I'd love to do that.
P.S.S.S: A combined mod with your tech system and other weapon mods would be amazing.
Mendelssohn Well, if I'm interested in what you did, connect 3 mods and make them one, with a "tech tree" is interesting.
This looks very promising. congrat for the sprites, it must have taken you alot of time to make them. what software did you use to make them?
Atarlost I looked into the symmetry issues you mentioned with the Tac Center. What I discovered from looking at both the 1x1 and 1x2 armor wedges is that the mirror mode isn't actually mirroring sprites at all. Walt has a predefined rotation matrix for the 1x1 wedge that simply rotates the part as appropriate when mirroring is on. The 1x2 wedge, which appears to be mirroring, is actually just using part substitution. When you place a 1x2 L in mirror mode, it substitutes a 1x2 R on the other side.
As there doesn't appear to be support for true mirroring at this time, it's not a change I can make. For the parts I have with asymmetrical door placement, like the Tac Center, I'm just going to leave them as-is. I consider it a design challenge in-game to make asymmetrical parts work with your ship layout. It encourages more interesting design. FWIW, there's no reason you'd need more than one Tac Center anyway, so the issue is somewhat moot.
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Jared http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
I feel the need to point out that Photoshop itself isn't a magic silver bullet. I've been using Photoshop for something like 18 years, so I've learned a lot. You can accomplish the same results as I have with free software like Gimp. It's just not what I use.