Tryptic's Mod Version 4

posted on February 11th, 2023, 3:13 pm

Thanks for the continuous update!
Is it possible to add race 8472? it contained little modding and I think it is an exciting specied

Version 4.2.0 is out, with the following changes:

4.2.0
Borg Faction simplified down to 45 Uplink-built ships (Previous TM had 90, original Fleet Operations has 141)
Scoutcube: 3 variants (Intercept,Beam, EM)
Dodecahedron: 3 variants (Intercept, Vinculum, Relay)
Adaptor: 3 variants (Torpedo, EM, Holding Beam)
Assimilator: 6 variants (3 Assimilate only)
Sphere: 7 variants (3 Optimize only)
Pyramid: 4 variants (2 Assimilate only)
Cube: 14 variants
Diamond: 4 variants
Tactical Cube: 1 variant

The Cube (and Large Vinculum) now requires only the Adaption Matrix to build. The Tactical Cube is now a separate option on the Uplink.

other changes:
-changed Borg Regeneration hotkey to either R or Shift-R
-updated T-15 so its pulses fire from the wings
-fixed Defiant Officer passive tooltips
-fixed Miranda II Defense being too high at Rank 1
-slightly increased Serkas range to offset its center-targeting

posted on February 14th, 2023, 11:35 am

Of course, that would be really good if additional races (Cardassians, 8472, ...) were included in the future - but before that Tryptic will surely want to fix the existing races first - especially how the AI acts, so that the AI with all races actually uses the given possibilities.

(The biggest problem is currently still with the Klingons, who only build smaller units and virtually do not develop further)

Will test the new version as soon as possible, thanks for the changelog.

posted on February 14th, 2023, 10:19 pm

Haha thanks for the motivation; I'll give the AI another pass. Usually the feedback I get ignores the AI.

As for adding 8472...that's a very, VERY big project which I won't be looking at, except maybe a Borg special ability to summon an 8472 ship someday. If I ever do add a 6th race, it would be the Cardassians.

With that said, this last year I put a lot of work into the Community Mod project: basically, you can create and add any ship to the mod, and I'll put it in the official version. You just enable Community Mod in the game settings and it turns them on (currently there is only one ship added, the Prometheus). The last few versions of TM have all included the Modding Tools folder and detailed instructions for how to do this...so if you want to add something, feel free to try doing it yourself

posted on February 16th, 2023, 10:12 am

Pro tip: if the tech tree and AI build list are fine but the AI still gets stuck it might be a problem with spacing. When making the Roots mod I had to reduce the "footprint buffer" around some stations because otherwise the AI couldn't fit all buildings it wanted to build within the area it considers its base. Especially on some cramped maps.

posted on February 16th, 2023, 11:20 am

Pro tip: if the tech tree and AI build list are fine but the AI still gets stuck it might be a problem with spacing. When making the Roots mod I had to reduce the "footprint buffer" around some stations because otherwise the AI couldn't fit all buildings it wanted to build within the area it considers its base. Especially on some cramped maps.

Yeah, thanks for the heads up! I just recently figured out that this was the problem, and I've got the Borg AI working much more smoothly now. It just needed to build a few things at location 1 and 2 instead of putting everything at 0.

On a separate note, I need an opinion from you guys. Do you want Transporter Assault on the Assimilator and Pyramid?

Transporter Assault is a "special ability" which has the ship fire at the target until its shields go down, and then immediately start boarding it. I added it to all Borg ships a while ago since I figured it was just a convenience thing.

The other effect of Transporter Assault is that a ship set to high Special Weapons Autonomy will use it, meaning your ships will start boarding enemies on their own. I had several players report that they use high autonomy most of the time as the Borg and did not want their ships to do this, which is why I removed it from most of the ships.

Now, with that in mind, do you guys still want it? I think because it's a hardcoded ability, I can't stop the AI from using it. It remains convenient and helpful for boarding ships, but it does make special weapon autonomy a poor choice for ships that have it.

posted on February 16th, 2023, 11:26 am

I think that these Assault Transporter abilities should be manual, i.e. only "targeted". This also applies to the Dominion ships with the corresponding ability.

posted on February 16th, 2023, 12:46 pm

Pro tip: if the tech tree and AI build list are fine but the AI still gets stuck it might be a problem with spacing. When making the Roots mod I had to reduce the "footprint buffer" around some stations because otherwise the AI couldn't fit all buildings it wanted to build within the area it considers its base. Especially on some cramped maps.

Yeah, thanks for the heads up! I just recently figured out that this was the problem, and I've got the Borg AI working much more smoothly now. It just needed to build a few things at location 1 and 2 instead of putting everything at 0.

Be careful with that though: on some maps locations 1 and 2 can be very close to location 0 and on other maps it could cause a never endding stream of construction ships trekking across the map and getting blown up by the enemy halfway, stalling the AI just the same, and if it's an assymetric map this can give an unfair advantage to certain starting locations.

EDIT: on the assult transporter ability... What I did for some ships with multiple special weapons in the Roots mod was create a "Cycle Weapons Loadout" special weapon so the player can choose which special weapon will be used by special weapon autonomy. But this cycling is a ultimately just a replacement weapon, so implementing it for vanilla Fleet Ops with its infinite number of already existing variants and levels per variant would be a bug-prone nightmare, I imagine. But if assault transporter is the only special weapon of a ship anyway then people should just turn off special weapon autonomy for those ships, it's not that hard since you can literally just double click to select all ships of the same class.

posted on February 25th, 2023, 2:10 am

Version 4.2.1 is live with a large number of tiny bug fixes, including two rare crashes. Starting from this version, I'm doing my development and testing with Drayzon's graphics updates. As a result, some graphics may be changed when using TM with regular Fleet Ops.

I am also working on normalizing the volume levels of various sound effects so that they don't drown each other out. As a result, using TM with Drayzon's graphics will have base Fleet Ops sounds. However, these aren't included in the multiplayer check so if you prefer Drayzon's sound effects, you can delete the Data/sounds/effects folder and still play with people.

4.2.1
Fixes
-fixed missing Admiral's Log images for Probe, Tac Cube, Remore
-fixed Borg ships being able to use repair yards if you tricked them into it
-fixed missing image for Tactical Cube in multi-select
-fixed a crash when saving/loading repeatedly with a Dominion AI player
-fixed a crash when getting a Veteran Ktinga with the bonus for killing something after Dispatch
-fixed manual targeting icon
-fixed Vutpa' Call to Arms hotkey not working
-fixed missing Romulan advanced mining lasers mini image
-fixed Staryard not getting Supply Depot bonus for Generix Singularity Refit
-fixed tavara refit hotkeys not working

AI/Misc
-added 2 new Borg AI builds: Adaptor/Sphere and Assimilator Start
-fixed Borg AI freezing production at random
-added 2 new Klingon AI builds: Standard Vorcha and No Field Yard
-fixed Klingon AI freezing production before Imperial Yard
-increased Sang size (again)

Balance: due to Borg "rank-ups" resetting weapon cooldowns, many Borg cooldowns needed to be reduced. They are still limited by energy.
-removed cooldowns for Axial Assault and Neural Transceiver
-reduced cooldown for Sensor Relay 10->5 seconds
-reduced cooldown for Slicer and Devastating Attack 15->7 seconds
-Moqbara Trial by Combat Supply gain rebalanced. Previously it cost 25 Supply and granted 50 Supply: now it costs none and grants 30 Supply (when all 4 ships have died)

As always the link is https://www.mediafire.com/folder/5mz9ma ... ic%27s_Mod

posted on February 25th, 2023, 10:48 am

Ooh, is there a seaparate download for Drayzon's graphics changes? Google didn't return any results .

posted on February 25th, 2023, 2:51 pm

Here it is. If you run this version of Fleet Operations you get Drayzon's graphics and sound changes with 3.2.7 balance.

in the Mods folder, you can put Tryptic's Mod to get my balance with his graphics (mostly). TM has the most drastic changes such as Command and the Borg overhaul.

There is also Admiral's Edition in the Mods folder, which has fewer changes than TM. It has extra Mixed tech ships, Borg Mixed tech specials, mining upgrades, and buffs to a few weak ships such as Warbirds and Tactical Cubes. It also has expanded AI, and is the most played online right now.

Finally there's Fleet Ops Remastered, which is Admiral's Edition with a few additional tweaks by Drayzon. I believe it's mainly a few Cardassian ships added to the Dominion faction, replacing existing ships.

AE is currently on version 1.1.8 while Fleetops Remastered is on version 0.4, so the versions included in this download are slightly out of date. You can find the newest versions on the Discord.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aC-VjS ... LF871/view

posted on February 28th, 2023, 3:00 pm

Yes, the graphics are broken during firefights - this is particularly noticeable when a unit/building is about to be destroyed.

Attachments

Screenshot 2023-02-28 155733.jpg (88.76 KiB) Viewed 455 times

posted on March 8th, 2023, 4:29 pm

Here it is. If you run this version of Fleet Operations you get Drayzon's graphics and sound changes with 3.2.7 balance.

in the Mods folder, you can put Tryptic's Mod to get my balance with his graphics (mostly). TM has the most drastic changes such as Command and the Borg overhaul.

There is also Admiral's Edition in the Mods folder, which has fewer changes than TM. It has extra Mixed tech ships, Borg Mixed tech specials, mining upgrades, and buffs to a few weak ships such as Warbirds and Tactical Cubes. It also has expanded AI, and is the most played online right now.

Finally there's Fleet Ops Remastered, which is Admiral's Edition with a few additional tweaks by Drayzon. I believe it's mainly a few Cardassian ships added to the Dominion faction, replacing existing ships.

AE is currently on version 1.1.8 while Fleetops Remastered is on version 0.4, so the versions included in this download are slightly out of date. You can find the newest versions on the Discord.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aC-VjS ... LF871/view

Thanks! There are some nice textures in there, those are the final cherry on top of the cake that is my Roots Mod, and I saw they took some textures from the Roots Mod in turn (which I'm fine with).

posted on April 5th, 2023, 2:39 am

Here it is, the big one: Version 4.3.0.

With this version, I'm changing the name of the mod to Tactical Maneuvers. Naturally, this way I can keep calling it "TM".

Tactical Maneuvers Version 4.3 includes a rework of Borg ships, simplifying their construction and modules. You now build all Borg ships directly from the Uplink, and choose their modules after completion. The Cube and Tactical Cube are not yet affected: they will be modified in the next version.

Also included is an update of all ship/station tooltips. Rather than showing ++ and --, they now have all the percentage values to tell you exactlywhat the ship has going on. I hope this will be useful for players to get a good sense of the game's balance.

Version 4.3.0 includes several fixes to rare bugs, in an attempt to make it more and more stable. I've also fixed it so that it will work both with Drayzon's graphics and without them. No alteration is necessary either way.

Finally, this version includes a new Borg AI (Assimilate Pyramids) and a new Federation AI (Mayson Monsoon/Intrepid Start) as well as refinements to the Risner Saber start. There are now 21 AI builds completed, out of the eventual 25. (5 Borg, 5 Dominion, 2 Federation, 4 Klingon, and 5 Romulan are finished)

4.3.0
Fixes
-fixed C-11 Energy Beacon not working
-fixed EM Blast not killing fighters
-fixed Officer Breen Cruiser missing shield recharge rate bonus
-fixed veteran T-15 icons overlapping
-fixed stations being able to fire on Venture during Prog Scan
-fixed Borg Rhienn/Phase Plate Rhienn not dealing bonus damage to targets with no weapons

Balance
-removed Borg Boarding special completely
-removed Tractor Beam from Diamond
-reduced energy cost of Sphere Regeneration level 1 160>120 per second
-added tactical superiority to bug alpha refit

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/5mz9ma ... ic%27s_Mod

EDIT:

...as is tradition, immediately after uploading a new version, I discovered several additional bugs. I have removed the first version and re-uploaded a new 4.3.0.

With that said, I found the mystery crash bug! Several Borg tech pods could be killed by drain weapons, which caused a crash when Field of Fire was used on the Conduction Matrix. It has now been fixed, bringing TM one step closer to having no crashes.

4.3.0 additional:
-fixed a crash when using Field of Fire against certain Borg stations
-fixed torpedoes not having a chance to miss Breen Cruiser
-fixed Martok Battle Yard costing 320 Tri instead of 360
-fixed Shuvak Heavy Miner mining Tritanium slower than intended

posted on April 5th, 2023, 5:16 pm

Here it is, the big one: Version 4.3.0.


Finally, this version includes a new Borg AI (Assimilate Pyramids) and a new Federation AI (Mayson Monsoon/Intrepid Start) as well as refinements to the Risner Saber start. There are now 21 AI builds completed, out of the eventual 25. (5 Borg, 5 Dominion, 2 Federation, 4 Klingon, and 5 Romulan are finished)

Do you find the random buildlists make a noticeable difference to the skirmish experience? I'm not sure if I should include something like this in the Roots Mod... It sounds like fun in principle, but does it really make a difference (can the AI actually use the different buildlists to effectively play differently), and if so, would it make sense with the 50% lower number of ship classes and generally more steamroller-y AI of the Roots Mod?

I'm genuinely curious because these random buildlists are a fascinating recent invention and it would be fun to have a more unpredictable AI, but then again, everyone thought it was a good idea to have the AI send out construction ships to build refineries across the map too while that just leads to those construction ships getting slaughtered halfway and the AI staying stuck in the buildlist and ruining gameplay IMO.

posted on April 5th, 2023, 8:02 pm

I can't speak to other peoples' experiences, but I find that the randomized AI makes a HUGE, overwhelming difference. I have way more fun against it.

With a single AI design, it feels like there's pressure to have it build every ship, so the players get to see everything the game has to offer. But as a result, there is no real counter system in place: no matter what ship the player builds, they will counter some enemies and be countered by some enemies. There's no reason to play different builds.

When facing the random AI, I can scout them and see "Oh, this Romulan AI is going to build a ton of Leahvals, I should counter Short range" so there is an actual motivation to change my build depending on the enemy. Of course I have an unfair advantage since I made all the AIs and have them memorized, but since I first started, I've been gradually putting LESS variety in each build order and making them more spammy and predictable. Hopefully this way players should be able to quickly learn what the AI is doing and counter it effectively.

And, although the individual builds are predictable, when there are multiple AIs you still get a wide variety and you still have to scout each one to figure out what it's building.

I don't know if it would make sense in the Roots mod, where counters are much simpler and there's the 10 Battleship limit. But even 2-3 build lists would be interesting: you could have one focus on Berserkers and another on Cruisers, etc. Some of my build lists are a bit more tech-rushy, like a Dominion lists that goes straight to B-5s without building small ships. I had to build in some deliberate delays into that one so it doesn't get to them too quickly, but you could do something similar: a Roots AI build that doesn't get anything early but gets Battleships relatively quickly. That's something the player could scout and respond to.