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.

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?

Figuring Out Shipyards... and a Modding Lesson

I had a productive weekend modding so here is a quick update.

I spent most of the time cleaning up Imperial Navy / space structures including adding in a new shipbuilding system. There are some nice complex ones in other mods but I wanted to keep to something simple if possible while still making holding key planets of great strategic importance.

Please see the previous posts on the types of shipyards and a list of shipyards by planet / manufacturer.

I have implemented the light and medium shipyards and tonight I will finally finish the heavy shipyards then test the system with a mini run-through.

I ran into some serious engine bugs trying to get this to work the way I wanted but I eventually found a compromise.

Space structures and ships must have a <Space_Station_Minimum> value set to 1 or higher to show in the proper build area. If not they show in the ground buildables section, which is bizarre - hard coding ftw! I was able to work around that though without having to implement anything crazy, you need at least a lvl 1 space station to build them - the space station hold population (ie. the workers who will be building structures or ships)

For example:

1. To build a Vindicator-class Heavy Cruiser you need a SFS aligned planet + at least 1 Medium Shipyard.
2. To build an Imperial-class Star Destroyer you need a KDY aligned planet + at least 1 Heavy Shipyard.
3. To build a Tartan-class Patrol Cruiser (corvette) you  need a Damorian aligned planet like Esseles + at least 1 Light Shipyard.

I think that is a good compromise solution that works well. I will do some more testing after finishing the XML for the heavy shipyards tonight.

Making More Progress...

After a long hiatus I am back in modding mode and making really good progress.

Currently working on implementing space stations for both sides and finishing up the Rebel Fleet.

This morning I started implementing the Dauntless-class Heavy Cruiser, one of the Rebel's more capable larger vessels. Next on the list will be the Lucrehulk-class Battleship and the Bulwark-class Battlecruiser Mark 3. I need to resize the Dauntless, add in an icon and then get the hardpoints and squadron spawns working. Hope to do that tonight after work.

In terms of smaller vessels I still have to add the MC40a Light Cruiser and the Acclamator II-class Assault Ship. Then I have to fix a bug with the X-Wings that limits them to 6 per squadron - limiting their usefulness until they are bumped up to 12 per squadron.

I recently gave the Z95 Headhunters and the A-Wings multiple versions, default vanilla versions and enhanced versions with concussion missiles. (ie. the Z-95-AF4 Headhunter)

XQ and Golan Platforms have bugs where the models are showing as green, I've had that issue before and it is a pain to fix. I think right now the XQ6 and Golan 2 variants are the ones with the issues.

All in all good progress and I'm aiming to release the space-only demo in November sometime. Stay tuned!!

Wrestling With The Anaxes War College System

Now that the Essential Guide to Warfare has been released we have a much better idea of how to classify ships in the Star Wars universe - due to the Anaxes War College System.

Unfortunately this also means my personal ship classification system has been made redundant.

Here is the Anaxes War College System:

Starfighters

A starfighter was a small, maneuverable starship designed for military combat.

Snub Fighter

Snubfighters were starfighters that usually had one to two crew members, traveled in squadrons, and were considered expendable.

Space Superiority Fighter

Short range starfighters that stayed at bases or travelled aboard capital ships. They provided scouting and skirmish lines and protected capital ships from snubfighters.

Capital Ships

Capital ships = warships that are 100 metres or more.

Corvette: 100-200 metres

Corvettes were typically small, fast, maneuverable and relatively lightly-armed capital ships.  Corvettes filled a variety of roles that ranged from picket duty within large fleets to system defense and convoy escort.

Frigate: 200-400 metres

Frigates were meant to serve in a skirmishing role to protect larger ships, or more generally, a ship designed to serve in some sort of support role such as a convoy escort vessel.

Cruiser: 400-600 metres

Cruisers are some of the largest and most common warships in a given fleet, and fullfill a number of roles.

Heavy Cruiser: 600-1000 metres

Heavy cruisers were often the backbone of any fighting fleet as they fulfill many important roles. Such roles included planetary bombardment, troop transport and ship to ship combat.

Star Destroyer: 1000-2000 metres

Star Destroyers were large capital ships that were capable of destroying entire star systems with their heavy firepower.

Battlecruiser: 2000-5000 metres

Battlecruisers were among the largest and strongest warships in a fleet. At the smallest end of the Empire's battlecruisers were the Star Cruiser line.

Dreadnaught: 5000+ metres

Dreadnaughts were powerful battleships. In the Anaxes War College System it referred to any ship over 5,000 meters long.

Here is what I was using originally:

• Starfighters
• Fighter
• Bomber
• Monitor
• Gunship
• Corvette
• Light Frigate
• Medium Frigate
• Heavy Frigate
• Light Destroyer
• Medium Destroyer
• Heavy Destroyer
• Star Cruiser
• Star Battlecruiser
• Star Dreadnaught

Now I'm working on reclassifying existing ships to fit into their system. Behind the scenes work to make sure the mod is as 'cannon' as possible.

Determining Population Values for Space Units

1 Population Value Units

• Starfighter Squadron
• Corvettes
• Light Transports / Freighters

2 Population Value Units

• Frigates
• Light Cruisers

3 Population Value Units

• Medium Cruisers
• Heavy Cruisers
• Heavy Transports

4 Population Value Units

• Light Destroyers

5 Population Value Units

• Medium Destroyers
• Heavy Destroyers

8 Population Value Units

• Star Cruisers

10 Population Value Units

• Battlecruisers

15 Population Value Units

• Dreadnaughters

Star Forge Task Forces

What does the Star Forge create? I need to figure that out for the fanon galactic map 'Return of the Star Forge' for my mod, Galaxy at War.

Every week and during battle I need to know how many ships it can reasonably create.

Note - the following ships have special 'Star Forge Variants' that have have different starfighter complements than the default versions of the vessels.

Here is my first attempt:

1 Allegiance-class Battlecruiser
2 Imperial II-class Star Destroyers
2 Procursator-class Star Destroyers
1 Venator-class Star Destroyer (Starfighter Carrier)
6 Vindicator-class Heavy Cruisers
8 Strike-class Medium Cruisers
12 Carrack-class Light Cruisers (Anti-Starfighter Variant)

How does the above look?

Types of Shipyards

I had previously written about how shipyards are grouped throughout the galaxy by starship manufacturer.

Another important thing to consider that the Essential Guide to Warfare made perfectly clear is that only certain shipyards can build the larger vessels like Imperial-class Star Destroyers. So coming up with a classification system that handles that element is very important.

I am currently considering the following classification system:

• Light: Corvettes, Starfighter Squadrons, Light Transports (Imperial_Light_Shipyard, Rebel_Light_Shipyard)
• Medium: Frigates, Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Heavy Transports
• Heavy: Star Destroyers, Battlecruisers, Dreadnaughts, Battle Stations

If you check out the previous shipyards by manufacturer post you will noticed I am starting to group them based on this classification. Any suggestions or info (re: sources) on how to make that as realistic as possible would be welcome.

Each shipyard would give a cumulative 5% cost/speed improvement, so building ships at specialized shipyards would be the best thing to do.

Ship Building Limitations

Now shipbuilding is limited by manufacturer, planet and shipyard. So to build an Imperial-class Star Destroyer you need to have a KDY affiliated planet with a heavy shipyard.

This system makes taking and holding certain planets a high priority, they become strategically much more important. Without them your war machine grinds to a halt.

This was discussed in the original Thrawn trilogy, where someone mentioned after the attempt to steal Republic ships that the Imperial Remnant could no longer field a proper navy because they didn't hold a lot of shipyards anymore.

If you have any shipyard models I can use please let me know.

Sector Groupings

This info is from the Essential Guide to Warfare. This is as of the beginning of the Clone Wars. These oversectors would form the basis of the starting points for the Grand Moffs so I would like to include them in the mod.

1
Azure Hammer
(Anaxes)

2
Green Mantle
(Nubia)

3
Steel Blade
(Chandrila)

4
White Cuirass
(Alderaan)

5
Shadow Hand
(Odik)

6
Black Sword
(Praxlis)

7
Golden Nyss
(Bilbringi)

8
Bright Jewel
(Ord Mantell)

9
Brazen Petard
(Paarin Minor)

10
Crimson Dagger
(Taris)

11
Blazing Claw
(Korphir)

12
Cerulean Spear
(Lantilles)

13
Iron Lance
(Ord Paardon)

14
Red Tails
(Ryloth)

15
Hook Nebula
(Qeimet)

16
Ivory Fang
(Chardaan)

17
Chrome Shield
(Vogel)

18
Night Hammer
(Eriadu)

19
Dark Saber
(Javin)

20
Emerald Banner
(Tallaan)

Does anyone know what the status of these was by the Rise of the Empire or Galactic Civil War periods?

Capital Ship Speed Considerations

Since many vessels do not have speeds in MGLT listed I am forced to come up with a system that will (hopefully) represent ship speeds accurately.

Here is a my basic chart:

Starfighter 80 MGLT
Corvette 50 MGLT
Frigate 30 MGLT
Cruiser 40 MGLT
Star Destroyer 50 MGLT
Battlecruiser 20 MGLT
Dreadnaught 10 MGLT

So vessels within a class could have higher or lower speeds depending on their age and individual performace.

So within the Star Destroyer class your have ISDs at 60 MGLT since they are relatively fast, VSDs at a slow 20 MGLT and VSDIIs at 30 MGLT which are somewhat faster. You have Venator's at the standard 50 MGLT.

Does this make sense? Am I way off? What are your thoughts?

A Note on the Imperial Academy System

Thanks to the Essential Guide to Warfare, we now know about the following:

Army

• Raithal (Main)
• Carida (Advanced + Stormtrooper)

Navy

• Prefsbelt
• Corulag
• Anaxes
• Vensenor Flight Academy (Venator-class Star Destroyer)

(Could also use Coruscant, since the admiralty is stationed there.)

A Quick Note on Battlecruisers

I think I have nailed down the battlecruisers I need to create.

You can see them here.

What I need now is to come up with sizes and stats for the Imperial Communications Ship (Loronor Battleship? / model for the Pride of Tarlandia), Tagge-class Battlecruiser and Star Destroyer-class Battlecruiser (Rendili Battleship?) vessels.

They should be between 2.2km (Allegiance) and 4.8km (Praetor Mark II) ranges, the battlecruiser range is officially 2km to 5km with the Star Cruiser unofficial sub-class being in the lower range of the Allegiance.

Here is where I am leaning so far:

Imperial Communications Ship
5km
(I am tentatively calling these Loronor Corporation Communications-class Battlecruiser. I am basing the length based on Curtis Saxton's Technical Commentaries which guesses at it as a 6km vessel === we know battlecruisers only go to 5km though so I am capping it at that size.)
80 Medium Turbolasers, 30 Concussion Missile Tubes

Tagge-class Battlecruiser
4km
(The 4km make it 2.5X the size of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer.)

Star Destroyer-class Battlecruiser
3.2km
(This makes it 2X the size of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. These will be built by Rendili unless canon information is released saying otherwise. Wookiepedia also talks about Imperial Star Battlecruisers which may or may not be related but would be KDY, not Rendili.)

What do you think? Did I get the sizing - roles done properly? I would appreciate any feedback.

Putting Together the Pieces of the Puzzle

With more and more of the Imperial fleet being 'filled in', some decisions are taking shape.

Some examples:

1. The Shockwave. This originally sounded like another vessel but I believe it can be fit under the Allegiance-class Battlecruiser design.
2. Corellian-class Cruiser. These are basically faster ISDs that CEC produces for KDY.
3. Imperial Communications Ship from RotJ novel. This is probably a separate class, I believe this could fit under the 'Loronor Battleship' grouping.
4. Admiral Giel's weird cruiser. This is a KDY Praetor Mark II.
5. Captain Wermis. This is a Star Destroyer-class Battlecruiser. Hope a better name comes out. Based on the design could be the 'Rendili Battleship' that has never been designed before. Hopefully it is retconned that way.
6. Tagge-class. Separate battlecruiser than Captain Wermis' although they look the same. Built by TaggeCo. Could have borrowed design elements from Rendili.
7. Who makes the Assertor-class Star Dreadnaught? KDY? 
8. The Mandator-III and Bellator dreadnaughts are there, but we don't really know the stats for them...
9. So many dreadnaught classes with few being made. At least they provide some variety.

So if it is grouped like that the following could be said:

1. KDY does most of the heavy warships for the Imperial Navy.
2. SFS does starfighters and a few corvette/cruisers.
3. Loronor Corporation has their Torpedo Spheres, their battleships and the Strike-Class Medium cruiser. They are more of a specialist producer.
4. TaggeCo does mostly support vessels but their battlecruisers are their one real warship.
5. Rendili does older models and some space stations. They get 'redeemed' under this approach by the new battlecruiser they can field.
6. CEC handled corvettes, light frigates like the DP20 and their 'cruisers'. Other than that they focused on transports.
7. Damorian Manufacturing Corporation has the Carrack and the Tartan. Other than that they focused on civilian vessels.

Did I miss anything or get anything wrong?

At least with the new information in the past few months we are moving in the right direction.

A Note on Tech Levels in the Mod

Since this is a mod for SW: Forces of Corruption I thought I would lay out the general technology levels I am using.

Level 0 - Clone Wars
Level 1 - Rise of the Empire
Level 2 - Battle of Yavin
Level 3 - Battle of Hoth
Level 4 - Battle of Endor
Level 5 - Post Battle of Endor
(Thrawn Campaign - Mount Tantiss / Return of the Emperor / Return of the StarForge)