Alpha Space Battles Version Soon to be Released

We are close to releasing the mod in its alpha space battles format to some of the larger modding sites out there.

There are still a few issues to be ironed out before then.
Check out the Empire and Rebel pages for more information on some of the units available.

Confederacy of Independent Systems

I just realized during testing that I had not done the Separatists yet and since I will need them for the 'Reconquest of the Rim' scenario I thought it would be good to quickly list the units I wanted to include:

Confederate Navy

• Lucrehulk-class Battleship (View Entry | Wookiepedia Page)
• Bulwark Mark I Battlecruiser (View Entry | Wookiepedia Entry)
• Providence-class Carrier / Destroyer (View Entry | Wookiepedia Page)
• Recusant-class Destroyer (View Entry | Wookiepedia Page)
• Munificent-class Star Frigate (View Entry | Wookiepedia Page)
• CR90 Covette (View Entry | Wookipedia Page)
• Z-95 Headhunter (View Entry | Wookiepedia Page)
• Hyena-class bomber (View Entry | Wookiepedia Page)

Separatist Droid Army

• Droideka Mark II (View Entry | Wookiepedia Entry)
• Droidekas (View Entry | Wookiepedia Entry)
• B2 Super Battle Droids (View Entry | Wookiepedia Entry)
• B1 Battle Droids (View Entry | Wookiepedia Entry)
• Mercenaries / Pirates

Overnight Playtest

Last night I finished up the starfighter dogfighting improvements so decided to run a long playtest... lots of fun but the biggest thing I found was that the shipbuilding and space station building times were WAY too long...

The times I were using are found in this post, I'm thinking they will need to be cut in half at the very least.

Right now a Death Star 2 takes 13-15 minutes which I'm ok with but the rest made the game lag too long and made testing a lot harder.

My next step is to go through all the build times again with [current value / 2] build times:

Class	Build Time
Space Station	210
Battle Station	180
Star Dreadnaught	150
Star Battlecruiser	120
Star Destroyer	90
Frigate	60
Corvette	30
Starfighter	15

Hopefully once I tweak to the above times it will make things run a lot smoother.

I may also make Level 1-2 space stations 180 seconds instead of 210 to make them go even faster.

I will do an update once I have launched the above changes.

Weekend Update

In my previous post I outlined how I was looking at starfighters in terms of optimizing their dogfighting capabilities.

I have to update that post, the columns that are there now are mainly defensive and I am adding in a 'laser' accuracy section to show the offensive capabilities of the ships in terms of dogfighting - starfighter to starfighter combat.

This weekend I started implementing the changes I outlined, I still have to go through some of the Rebel vessels but I am close to finishing them. Then I need to do the Hutt, Underworld, Neutral and Pirate starfighters -- but a lot of those ships are the lower end ships I've already done so it is just a matter of copying and pasting hopefully.

Then I need to do some playtesting, the numbers I gave in the post were based on my experience playing and the goals to make the Rebel starfighters superior to TIE fighters etc. So really right now it is just a hypothesis, I need to playtest it to make sure the results are there.

After that my next step is to optimize the hardpoints of the capital ships to be reflective of this post. Then I need to do a round of capital ship playtesting with the updated hardpoints and the compared to the updated starfighters.

After that, there is not much more to do before the Space Demo release.

Starfighter Dogfighting Capabilities

After I go through the weapons and hardpoints for accuracy I want to make sure that starfighters were balanced in terms of their dogfighting capabilties (ie. fighting against other starfighters in a space superiority role).

The following chart lists the average or baseline of each starfighter and how effective it is at evading enemy fire and moving around the battlefield (speed/acceleration/doding abilitiy). They are listed in order of their dogfighting ability.

Imperial Navy Starfighters

Starfighter	Dogfighting Capabilities
Ship Class	Maximum Speed	Accel eration	Max Thrust	Rate of Turn	Max Lift	Armour	Hull	Shields
Missile Boat	125	0.4	3.5	5.03	5	Heavy_Starfighter	20	120
TIE/D Defender	155	0.5	5.2	4.5	4	Medium_Starfighter	20	200
TIE/ad Starfighter	145	0.45	2.5	3.5	3	Medium_Starfighter	20	100
TIE Phantom	100	0.45	1	3	4	Light_Starfighter	14	40
TIE Advanced x1	105	0.35	1.5	3	3	Light_Starfighter	17	40
TIE/IN Interceptor	111	0.45	2	5	4	Light_Starfighter	16	0
I-7 Howlrunner	105	0.3	1.5	6	4	Medium_Starfighter	18	30
A-9 Vigilance Interceptor	120	0.55	1.5	2.5	3	Light_Starfighter	14	0
TIE/rpt Starfighter	100	0.45	2	5	4	Light_Starfighter	14	0
TIE/LN Fighter	100	0.45	1.5	3	4	Light_Starfighter	15	0
Alpha-class Xg-1 Star Wing	90	0.328	3	1.5	3	Monitor	50	100
GAT-12 Skipray Blastboat	80	0.128	1	2	3	Monitor	65	80
Scimitar Assault Bomber	80	0.35	1	1.5	3	Light_Starfighter	40	60
V-Wing Starfighter	75	0.25	0.1	3	1	Light_Starfighter	12	25
TIE/sr Scout	80	0.25	1	1.3	4	Light_Starfighter	15	30
ARC-170 Starfighter	60	0.25	1	1.3	3	Heavy_Starfighter	65	100
TIE/sa Bomber	60	0.25	1	1.3	3	Light_Starfighter	50	0
TIE/D Automated Starfighter	100	0.45	1	2	2	Light_Starfighter	12	0

Starfighter	Laser Accuracy Versus
Ship Class	Fighters	Bombers	Transports	Corvettes	Frigates	Capital	Super
Missile Boat	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
TIE/D Defender	20	20	15	20	20	20	20
TIE/ad Starfighter	30	30	15	20	20	20	20
TIE Phantom	25	25	10	20	20	20	20
TIE Advanced x1	35	35	20	20	20	25	25
TIE/IN Interceptor	40	40	20	25	25	25	25
I-7 Howlrunner	40	40	20	25	25	25	25
A-9 Vigilance Interceptor	50	50	25	35	35	35	35
TIE/rpt Starfighter	30	30	15	35	25	25	25
TIE/LN Fighter	30	30	15	35	25	25	25
Alpha-class Xg-1 Star Wing	30	30	20	25	20	20	20
GAT-12 Skipray Blastboat	40	40	25	35	35	30	30
Scimitar Assault Bomber	40	40	20	25	25	25	25
V-Wing Starfighter	50	50	25	40	30	30	30
TIE/sr Scout	30	30	15	35	25	25	25
ARC-170 Starfighter	35	35	20	25	20	20	20
TIE/sa Bomber	50	50	15	35	25	25	25
TIE/D Automated Starfighter	90	90	75	65	55	55	55

Rebel Alliance Starfighter Command Starfighters

Starfighter	Dogfighting Capabilities
Ship Class	Maximum Speed	Accel eration	Max Thrust	Rate of Turn	Max Lift	Armour	Hull	Shields
E-wing Escort Starfighter	120	0.45	2.5	4.9	4.4	Medium_Starfighter	40	50
T-65 X-wing Starfighter	100	0.4	2	3	4	Medium_Starfighter	65	50
RZ-1 A-wing Interceptor	120	0.55	3	4	4	Light_Starfighter	15	50
Eta-2 Actis-class Light Interceptor Squadron	125	0.65	4	4	6	Light_Starfighter	11	0
Delta-7 Aethersprite-class Light Interceptor	120	0.55	3	4	4	Light_Starfighter	16	0
BTL-S8 K-Wing Assault Starfighter	70	0.25	1	1.3	3	Heavy_Starfighter	65	75
B-wing Starfighter	91	0.25	1	3	3	Heavy_Starfighter	60	125
BTL Y-wing Starfighter	80	0.25	1	3	1.3	Medium_Starfighter	40	75
Z-95-AF4 Headhunter	80	0.35	1	2.5	4	Light_Starfighter	14	30
Z-95 Headhunter	75	0.3	1	2.5	4	Light_Starfighter	14	30
V-Wing Starfighter	75	0.25	0.1	3	1	Light_Starfighter	12	25
ARC-170 Starfighter	60	0.25	1	1.3	3	Heavy_Starfighter	65	100
BTL-A4 LP "Longprobe"	80	0.25	1	3	1.3	Medium_Starfighter	40	75

Starfighter	Laser Accuracy Versus
Ship Class	Fighters	Bombers	Transports	Corvettes	Frigates	Capital	Super
E-wing Escort Starfighter	30	30	20	30	25	25	25
T-65 X-wing Starfighter	20	20	25	25	25	25	25
RZ-1 A-wing Interceptor	40	40	20	25	25	25	25
Eta-2 Actis-class Light Interceptor Squadron	40	40	25	35	35	35	35
Delta-7 Aethersprite-class Light Interceptor	30	30	15	35	25	25	25
BTL-S8 K-Wing Assault Starfighter	50	50	25	35	35	35	35
B-wing Starfighter	40	40	20	25	25	25	25
BTL Y-wing Starfighter	45	45	25	30	30	30	30
Z-95-AF4 Headhunter	40	40	30	45	30	30	30
Z-95 Headhunter	40	40	25	45	35	35	35
V-Wing Starfighter	50	50	25	40	30	30	30
ARC-170 Starfighter	35	35	20	25	20	20	20
BTL-A4 LP "Longprobe"	45	45	25	30	30	30	30

Legend

The following lists defines what each of the items in the charts above mean and the in-universe unit of measure if provided:

• Ship Class: Name of ship type.
• Maximum Speed: Maximum speed in 'MGLT'
• Acceleration: Rate of increase of speed
• Max Thrust: Propulsive force, explosive moving power
• Rate of Turn: Turning
• Max Lift: Going up down
• Armour: Armour class - determines damage modifier for turbolasers etc.
• Hull: Hull strength in 'ru'
• Shields: Shields in 'SBD'

Note: Like everything else in this mod I try to keep everything canon if possible. If I don't have information, I try to extrapolate or guestimate the 'proper' values. If you see something that looks horribly wrong, let me know.

Does this look about right? How could I improve the baseline starfighter capabilities?

Space Weapon Accuracy by Class

As part of the balancing run before launching the space demo version of the mod I've been going through various aspects of the data to make sure everything is balanced and 'realistic'. Part of that is determining how accurate various types of weapons are against different ship classes.

The following chart lists the average or baseline of each weapon class and how effective it is against the different ship classes available. Quality of weapons and pilots/crew would affect the numbers for each individual ship or hardpoint, modifying the baseline values.

Weapon Class	Accuracy vs. Target
Weapon	Fighter	Bomber	Transport	Corvette	Frigate	Capital	Super
Light Laser	30	30	15	25	25	25	25
Medium Laser	40	40	20	25	25	25	25
Heavy Laser	50	50	25	35	35	35	35
Light Turbolaser	90	90	80	70	60	50	40
Medium Turbolaser	95	95	85	75	65	55	45
Heavy Turbolaser	Can't Target	Can't Target	90	80	70	60	50
Light Ion Cannon	95	95	85	75	65	55	45
Medium Ion Cannon	Can't Target	Can't Target	95	85	75	65	55
Heavy Ion Cannon	Can't Target	Can't Target	95	95	85	75	65

Note: With the numbers above, the lower the better. 1 seems to be always hit.

Does this look about right? How could I improve the baseline weapon accuracy?

Coming Closer to Space Demo Release

I have the base Imperial Navy done.

I will be doing a balance run once I have the Rebel Navy done, I need to finish the strong against/weak against icons for the Rebels first.

Pretty much every Imperial, Rebel, Pirate, Neutral and Hutt ship I want implemented is in there so it is just a matter of finishing the Rebel strong/weak icons and then doing a 'balance run' for things like laser/turbolaser accuracy, speed, manoeuvrability etc.

I also want to add about 6 planets including Hast, some from Sith Space, Rothana and Sluis Van. Then it will be ready to go with a simplified version of the Galaxy at War sandbox.

I need to also update the minor heroes for the Empire, I am getting rid of the generic Fleet/Field commanders and replacing them with Admiral/General, Captain/Major etc.

When I was doing a playthrough a while back it crashed unexpectedly, not sure what caused it, haven't had anything like that in a long time. So either there is a planet or unit that the AI was using / doing something too it didn't like or some other issue. Nothing showed up in the debug code so I hope it was just a fluke, if not I will have to find out what caused that to happen as well.

It's almost ready... I want to get the space demo out there to get feedback, then I can worry about the planets, land units and scenarios. The space is the easiest to do by itself, so I thought I would do that first. Being an Imperial Navy junkie may have prompted that position as well, not having access to popular ship vessels or not having them implemented the right way was always annoying in vanilla FOC.