I’ve been talking about this a lot lately in other threads, so I’m going to release this early so that people can get an idea of what the heck I’m talking about.
This was originally called the “Enhanced Armor Mod”, and its purpose was to make armor useful by making it last longer in combat. The drawback to armor is that it can be peeled off even by non-penetrating weapons and that they are usually heavy. Contrast this to shields that provide total immunity to non-penetrating weapons and regenerate over time if they take damage. However, shields are quickly taken out with penetrating weapons. With this mod, armor has been enhanced to last much longer, even against penetrating weapons (and exponentially longer against non-penetrating fighter weapons).
While I was adjusting armor values, I made a few other minor tweaks and corrections (as listed below) that warranted a name change. I now call this my “Augmented Defenses Mod”, and I imagine any future mods I make will also make use of this. Unfortunately, because it modifies almost every module in the game, it does not work with DLC content or other mods. I guess that’s called “total conversion”, although it doesn’t feel converted because not much has changed from the original gameplay – just tweaks that I hope will enhance the normal gameplay experience.
Features & quirks of this mod:
Armor lasts 5 times longer!
The damage absorbable ratings of cruiser and frigate armors have been increased by 500%. This makes armor lasts 5 times longer in combat, rather than getting shredded instantly, making armor a vital consideration in defense.
The armor penetration ratings of all frigate and cruiser weapons (and the fighter torpedo) have also been increased by 500% to compensate, so all weapons retain the same ability to penetrate armor that they had before. It just takes 5 times as many shots in most cases.
Fighters, on the other hand, only have double the penetration ratings (except the fighter torpedo), meaning that it can take a lot longer to peel away armor. The more armor a cruiser or frigate has, the more proportional this gap gets - it can take 5-10 times as long to peel away armor with fighters alone.
Since fighter armor penetration is not 500% more effective, neither is fighter armor. Their armor is only 200% higher to match the fighter weapons, meaning that all frigate and cruiser weapons & defenses are VERY efficient at penetrating through fighter armor, assuming they can hit in the first place.
Fighters now work best to take down ships that have lost their defenses. Their ability to go underneath shields and take out cruisers is severely hindered if that cruiser has any armor at all. It can still be done, but will take a lot longer. Once the shields and armor are gone, fighters can take out what’s left just as efficiently as they’ve always been able to.
Shield Ratings are re-scaled!
I hated that some weapons had a shield penetration rating of 30, while others had 50 or 55. Since there are no shields with a resistance that high, all these weapons had the same ability to penetrate shields – which is to say, they could penetrate them all. So the rating itself seemed kind of pointless. To take another example, what’s the difference between the 3.8 shield penetration of the fighter pulse laser and the 5 shield penetration of the frigate laser? Neither one is capable of penetrating even the smallest superlight shields, so they were just as effective as the anti-fighter missiles that had a shield penetration of 0.
I have re-scaled the shield ratings based on thresholds by the resistance ratings of the actual shields of the game. The smallest shields (frigate Light & Superlight Shields) have a Resistance Rating of 1. The highest-resistance shields (the cruiser Reflective Shields) have a Resistance Rating of 5.
All the shield penetration ratings have been adjusted to this scale, based on what type of shields they were actually capable of penetrating. Weapons that could penetrate through any and all shields have a Shield Penetration Rating of 6. Weapons not capable of penetrating any frigate and cruiser shields have a rating of 0.
Turbo Shields have been redesigned.
The new frigate Turbo Shields have the relative strength of an advanced frigate shield, but the resistance of basic Cruiser Shields. They are the most resistant frigate shields of all, but they are costly and do not regenerate as quickly as the “Frigate Shield II”.
New Power Generator
Ever just needed 1 more Power for your fighter? I’ve run into this situation a lot and found that all the fighter generators are too large and weigh your fighter down for power you don’t need. Introducing the “Fighter Micro Power Generator!”
New Fighter Shield
The Empire has a new toy to play with. I tend to think of the Empire as the “shield race”, and so I’ve designed a new miniaturized shield for them to protect their fighters. I haven’t tried this out very much yet, but I’m including it in the mod anyway. It’s a “Fighter Shield” for the Empire. Its got no resistance against any weapons, but it’s capable of regeneration like all shields. The Empire’s ability to actually field these is a little questionable, however, since their fighter hulls don’t have many slots.
ECM Defense More Effective
I haven’t tried this at all, but there’s been some talk on the forums that the ECM Shield does not actually protect against ECM weapons. (I believe someone said it only had about 48% efficiency…?) In an attempt to help with this, I increased the strength rating of the ECM Shield by 50%. Hopefully they should protect against ECM weapons more often than not now.
Better Point Defense
The firing rate of all point defense guns have been doubled. They should fire much more rapidly now, though not fast enough to take out all the decoys. Still, you might get lucky.
Reduced Scrambler Effectiveness
Even with this mod, the scrambler is still the ideal missile defense. However, I reduced the range by 50% to make it more likely that the scrambler will only be used to protect missiles directed at the ship its on (or those directly behind). If you want to create an anti-missile screen to protect a larger area of space, you may have to rely on point defense guns. Hopefully, this will give the two types of defense more distinct roles.
edit: Apparently, it needs to be said: I claim no ownership of any material presented herein. You are free to distribute these files, and encouraged to make any modifications you see fit, include it in your own mods, make it into a major movie screenplay, or anything else you find useful so long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of Positech Games. Positech Games owns everything, and I thank them for allowing me to make and distribute this mod.
Augmented Defenses Mod.zip (79.8 KB)