V 1.5

Contents

Introduction 3

Installation: 4

Special Thanks 5

Single-Player Changes: 6

More Impressive Firefights. 6

Ship Changes. 7

Capital Ship Balance. 7

Cruiser Tweaks. 7

Frigate Tweaks. 7

Fighter/Bomber Tweaks. 7

Defensive Changes. 7

General Gameplay Changes. 9

Diplomacy Tweaks. 9

Pirate Tweaks. 9

Planet Changes. 10

Changelog 13

15

Introduction

When I first started playing Sins of a Solar Empire, I did what most of you probably did, started off on a smaller map and played one or two easy AI to introduce myself to the game. My second time around on the single player, however, follows a trend that I’ve had whenever I’ve played strategy and 4X games; I cranked out a “Huge Random” map, threw in 10 AI, and set everything at its slowest.

Before I continue, let me reassert that I love Sins of a Solar Empire. However, there were some aspects of the game that simply did not work for me, especially on larger maps. The beauty of Sins, however, is that it allows a very large amount of editing, and furthermore has easy access for those of us (such as myself) who are not as talented at programming/modeling/etc. So I began to tinker at various settings, and this is the product of my experimentation: The Mars Effect.

The Mars Effect aims to do five things:

I. Overhaul ship balance with a greater focus on capital ships, and to provide a greater emphasis on fighter/bomber squadrons, while simultaneously boosting the anti-fighter frigates’ power.

II. Change the diplomacy and pirate aspects of the game so that the penalties for not completing AI quests is lessened to various degrees, and the time between pirate raids is greatly increased, as is the maximum pirate raid strength.

III. Greatly reinforce planet defenses to the point where it requires an actual assault to take fortress worlds

IV. Overhaul the capital ship and logistic point system to allow for multiple fleets to better function on larger maps, while balancing it such that this mod will still function on smaller maps due to higher maintenance and research costs

V. Make minor modifications to ships without changing overall balance to both provide more visually stunning battles.

Installation:

Note: Until v1.3 of Sins of a Solar Empire comes out, the total size of this mod will be roughly 1.3GB, make sure you have that much space on your HDD before installing this mod!

Disclaimer: I am in no way, shape, or form responsible for any issue(s) that may arise from using this mod, and additionally anyone who has not read this readme will not receive any help from me, regardless of their issue. I will ignore any issues that have been covered in the readme.

1. Unzip using either 7-Zip or WinRAR into your Mods folder
1. For Vista users, it should be located at:
   C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods
2. For XP users, it should be located at:

C:\Documents and settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods

2. You should now have the folder “The Mars Effect” located within your “Mods” folder. Within “The Mars Effect”, you should have the following items:
1. “GameInfo” folder
2. “String” folder
3. “The Mars Effect Mesh” folder
4. “The Mars Effect Textures” folder
5. “Window” folder
6. The Mars Effect README.doc
3. VERY IMPORTANT! Navigate to your Sins of a Solar Empire installation directory, and copy the entire “Textures” and “Mesh” folder and paste it into the “The Mars Effect” folder within your “Mods” folder. Close the Sins of a Solar Empire installation directory window.

Your “The Mars Effect” folder should now contain:

1. “GameInfo” folder
2. “Mesh” folder
3. “String” folder
4. “The Mars Effect Mesh” folder
5. “The Mars Effect Textures” folder
6. “Textures” folder
7. “Window” folder
8. The Mars Effect README.doc
3. VERY IMPORTANT! Copy the entire contents of “The Mars Effect Textures” folder and paste them into the “Textures” folder; click “overwrite”/“replace” to all.
1. OPTIONAL. Delete “The Mars Effect Textures” folder.
4. VERY IMPORTANT! Copy the entire contents of “The Mars Effect Mesh” folder and paste them into the “Mesh” folder; click “overwrite”/“replace” to all.
1. OPTIONAL. Delete “The Mars Effect Mesh” folder
5. Start Sins of a Solar Empire.
6. Select and enable the mod through the Sins of a Solar Empire Options menu (Options à Mods)
7. Enjoy!
8. Feel free to report any bugs/feedback to me on the official Sins of a Solar Empire forums under the handle: xXAequitasXx

Special Thanks

Many thanks go out to Ironclad for making such a wonderful game, and to Stardock for not only going beyond what a publisher will normally contribute, but also to their lasting commitment of putting the customer first.

A gargantuan “Thank You” to - Uzii - on the official forums for helping me work through a couple of bugs as well as allowing me to incorporate Sins Plus into my mod.

Everyone on the forums for their willingness to be my guinea—erm…mod testers.

Finally, to end this Oscar acceptance, I of course have to thank my fiancée, both for her patience and her love.

Single-Player Changes:

More Impressive Firefights

·

· Done via burstcount and burstdelay, etc. Damage untouched.

· Some minor changes to weapon types (larger emphasis on cannons for TEC, more beams on Advent battleship, Vasari stays the same)

· Removed default to focus fire in attempt to liven up battles, with the idea being that each ship will now engage its proper target; hopefully will further liven up battles

Ship Changes

Capital Ship Balance

· 20% more HP to all capitals' starting HP, 20% increased HP per/level;

· Battleships gain an additional 0.1 armor increase per level as compared to their old armor increase level

· Carriers start off with an additional squadron, gain more squadrons per/level

· Colony ships gain additional command points per/level

· Siege capships have a 50% siege damage increase

· Support capships (including Vasari scout) have a 25% increased AM pool increase per level, and 10% increased AM regeneration rate increase per level

Cruiser Tweaks

· Carriers now have two squadrons, but 20% increased cost

Frigate Tweaks

· Illuminator tweaked to have 5000 range, 15% shorter cooldown

· Vasari assailant tweaked for longer (7000) range

· Anti-Fighter frigates now have increased damage [50%], increased range [10%], and decreased cooldown [20%] to better deal with greater numbers of fighters/bombers

Fighter/Bomber Tweaks

· Squadron size increased by one for Vasari, 2 for TEC, and 3 for Advent

· Build time decreased by 50%

· Individual damage decreased by 15% for Advent

· Fighter HP reduced by 30%, Bomber HP reduced by 50%

Defensive Changes

· “Point defense” (anti-strike craft) platforms for all races

o Does damage equal to three banks of anti-frigate batteries (alternatively, 75% of the frigates total damage if all four banks were firing simultaneously), but with a 50% decrease in cool down times

o Increased turrets’ turn rate

o Lower resource cost (300/100/50) as compared to the more expensive defense platforms (375/112/75) and quicker build time (60 vs. 75)

o Range of 3000

· Introduced new prerequisite techs for the point defense platforms

o TEC: “Rapid Fire Weaponry”

o Vasari: “Improved Vector Missiles”

o Advent: “Anti-Fighter Lasers”

o Research cost set to 400/0/25

· Phase Inhibitor overhauled

o Phase inhibitor now covers entire gravity well

o Phase inhibitor has 30X increased effectiveness

o Phase inhibitor has 50% increased HP

o Phase inhibitor has 10X increased build time

· Range on all defensive platforms increased, Damage increased by 25%, HP increased by 50%, resource cost increased by 50%, build time increased to 75

· Defensive Hangars now host one additional fighter/bomber squadron per/platform

· TEC Planetary Shields module HP increased by 50%

· Vasari Nano Weapon Inhibitor module HP increased by 50%

· Advent Anti-Matter recharger ability restore rate increased by 50%, Max AM increased to 500, AM regen to 1.0

General Gameplay Changes

• Logistics techs changed
• More capital ships allowed (max 30 now); +10%, + 15%, +20% increase in cost of research for the last 3 techs, resp.
• Logistics points scale to a higher end level (5000 max), but with a higher upkeep cost (90% at the highest; keeps it feasible to large empire only)
• 15%, +17.5%, +20% increased cost of research for the last three levels; Vasari costs increased by 15%, 20%, and 30% (due to tech advantages of larger fleet)
• Vasari Dark Fleet cooldown increased by factor of ten
• Anti-Fighter Frigate technology now requires the point defense platform technology to be researched first

Diplomacy Tweaks

· Increased time between quests to four minutes (v1.5)

· AI is more willing to negotiate cease-fires

· Increased amount of time granted to complete a quest (50%)

o Exception of tribute quests, which were not lengthened

· Decreased happiness penalties for failure to complete quest

o Quests with higher rewards reduced less, i.e. raid missions

o "Maintain relationship" quests left the same, i.e. +/- 10%

Pirate Tweaks

· Increased pirate maximum raid strength to 350 units (v1.5)

· Removed all other tweaks as of 1.5 in order to try and solve CTD issues

Planet Changes

• Four New Planets / Gas Giants Colonizable
• Oceanic
• Asteroids: 4 - 6 Crystal
• Max Pop: 70
• Max Health: 4,500
• Max Civilian Slots: 32
• Max Tactical Slots: 35
• Explorable: Yes
• Barren
• Asteroids: 4 - 6 Metal
• Max Pop: 40
• Max Health: 9,000
• Max Civilian Slots: 36
• Max Tactical Slots: 35
• Explorable: Yes

• Forest
• Asteroids: 1 - 2 Crystal | 1 - 2 Metal
• Max Pop: 140
• Max Health: 6,000
• Max Civilian Slots: 32
• Max Tactical Slots: 35
• Explorable: Yes
• Urban
• Asteroids: 1 Crystal | 1 Metal
• Max Pop: 1,000
• Max Health: 10,000
• Max Civilian Slots: 48
• Max Tactical Slots: 40
• Explorable: No
• Gas Giant
• Asteroids: 2 - 4 Crystal | 2 - 4 Metal
• Max Pop: 60
• Max Health: 1,500
• Max Civilian Slots: 48
• Max Tactical Slots: 40
• Explorable: No

• Three New Research Subjects
• Improved Tunneling (Level 4)
  Widespread tunneling with improved equipment increases the population on Barren and Urban planets, as well as Asteroids. (Barren, Urban, and Asteroid population max increase)
  Level 1: 20%
  Level 2: 40%
• Gas Giant Colonisation (Level 6)
  Allows colonisation of Gas Giants.
• Improved Anti-Grav (Level 7)
  Allows larger colony platforms above Gas Giants due to improved Anti-Grav technology. (Gas Giant population max increase)
  Level 1: 25%
  Level 2: 50%

• 45 New Planetary Bonuses

Detailed Capital Ship and Support Breakdown

Capital Ship Crew Research

Fleet Support Research

Changelog

V1.5 (Current Release)

- Sins Plus (by Uzii) is now merged with The Mars Effect as of 1.5 as is

- Removed all pirate changes except for maximum strength (now reduced to 350); hopefully will reduce/eliminate the pirate CTD issue

- Reduced time between quests to 4 minutes (game default: 3 minutes); quest durations remain unchanged from previous versions

- AI willing to negotiate cease-fires at 40% happiness rather than 50%

- PD Turret range reduced to 3000

- Nifty new game-screen logo

V1.0

- Introduced point defense (anti-strike craft) platforms for all races

· Does damage equal to three banks of anti-frigate batteries, with 50% reduced cool down times

· Increased turrets’ turn rate

· Lower resource cost (300/100/50) as compared to the more expensive defense platforms (375/112/75) and quicker build time (60 vs. 75)

- Introduced new prerequisite techs for the point defense platforms

· Techs: TEC’s is “Rapid Fire Weaponry”; Vasari’s is “Improved Vector Missiles”, and the Advent’s is now “Anti-Fighter Lasers”

· Research cost set at 400/0/25, consistent with other tier 1 research

- Anti-Fighter Frigate technology now requires the point defense platform technology to be researched first

- Phase Jump Inhibitor now 30X more effective than vanilla

- Further increased maximum pirate strength to 400 supply units

- Decreased raid warning time (i.e. the amount of time “playing” eBay); raids will be launched anywhere from 45 to 90 seconds after the warning is first announced.

- Removed focus fire in attempt to see if fleet battles are more epic and fluid

- FIXED Vasari Bomber squadron not having the correct number of bombers (thanks go to bloodhawk32 on the forums)

V0.9A

- All fighters now have 30% reduced HP

- All bombers now have 50% reduced HP

V0.9

- Original release