Ahh, i somehow had the strange idea that it would keep trying to build it like all the time meh. How abouth this: Have a short cooldown on actually building the dread (like 10-60 sec) but let the antimatter go up really slowly so the antimatter in effect controls how long it takes. And dont let any antimatter abbilities affect the building if thats possibly, so one cant use whatever special abbilities to make it get antimatter faster. If possibly that is. If this works it wont matter much if the AI has full cap cause it will keep trying to build em pretty much all the time. The time can be whatever you fancy ofc and is most appropriate.

edit: or that simply sounded too simple lol, do the antimatter get lost even if it is not built perhaps?

You might as well just have a short cooldown ... so the problem is that the player would get several dreadnoughts (cooldown triggering is very basic for abilities) and nothing else (or a small number of other ships) as the fleet logistic slots are filled.

This still does not address your major concern regarding Dreads ... " with the dread factory, i can just turtle and build up more and higher level dreads and then steam roll the map...  i dont uppgrade either my fleet cap or my cap ship cap and i can still roam around with 20 dreadnaughts. pretty overpowered.. " firstly that's a 10 hour+ game you are playing (Dreads are produced every 30mins), I'm surprised the AI's didn't come visiting with its Dreads and capitals.

Now based on your comment ... "Hmm, i dont know abouth slower build, the ai generally just uses them as stronger capitols, they really only shine when you get them to lvl 6+ and can transform them. So unless you could let the Ai get them at lvl 10 i think the current build rate need to stay because they die real fast at lvl 1-4." Maybe the thing to do is back-off the Super-Dreadnought  enhancements.

By the way did you notice the problem you described before, that is with the pirates, playing diplomacy 1.21?

Humh, just removing the lvl 6 abbility would make them no longer a super capitol though, just a slightly more powerfull capitol with only 3 abbilities to boot. What abouth removing the lvl 6 ability, and beefing up the dreads stats across the board. That way the AI when he comes calling will be just as powerfull as the player. Case right now is that you have 1-x number of high level super dreads and he comes along with a few meazly dreads and gets whooped. The difference between a lvl 6 dread with the upgrade and one without is really big.

That pluss letting em take up 50-100 fleet cap should maybe do the trick.

You were right on that the super-dread enhancement is the culprit i think. But please just dont remove it, becuase then the ship will feel very gimpy for its size and class.

Problem i described before hmm, ehrr. Last i said abouth pirates was that they were legion? Last time i played they acted the same way i described in my last post. Dont know what else to say.

Hi Malanthor,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I'll give it a try!

What I'm trying to determine is the version of Maelstrom that you noticed the problem. I think there is a problem with the Diplomacy 1.21 version. Moving from 1.011 to 1.21 broke a critical ability for the pirates i.e explore.

In R4 I've tried to change the behavior of the pirates to emulate a typical AI player. They can colonize and build 'orbital structures'. Also there is a new class of pirate frigates ... raiders. The raiders go out in small groups to terrorize and raid neighboring planets. The 'stay at home' pirates get into squabbles and are constantly fighting each other when they have no other enemy to attack. This has been implemented via abilities, were one ability is dependent on another, and as such the balance is quite difficult and if one ability is 'shot' then the balance crumbs. I have seen this (pirate 'legion') once in a 1.21 game, I have not seen it with any other patch of Maelstrom ... or at least not as seriously.

The mod mini dump( dip 1.21)  on me when i try to boot it up. I also notice that it only 618mb rather then the 620mb u have posted.

Oh yeah, i am playing your latest mod 1.21  That was where what i described took place, they had lots of orbital structures, ship factories etc when i jumped in, i didnt see any infighting however. I think ive only seen the problem in 1.21. I remember the pirates coming with huge fleets in earlier versions but thats only good fun. Hehe.

 Hi Strikestorm49,

Can I suggest that you change your graphics effect settings to the Sins defaults before you enable the mod. Let me know how you go.

I only give an approximate size (i.e less than 1%)

Malanthor,

What is happening is that the raider pirates are not going raiding (explore does not seem to work for the pirates in patch 1.21) so they accumulate at home. The normal pirates, who should be whittling each other down now have too many targets to keep their numbers in check.

The planetary structures generate different types of pirates i.e normal defenders and raiders. Also the constructors 'generate' the planetary structures. I've include a lot of randomness in the type of structures produced and how many, the number and type of raider produced and was relatively happy with the results for 1.191, 1.051 and 1.011.

If you look at some of their ships you will see that they are damaged. Fighting only occurs when they are not in battle - just drop a sensor or use clairvoyance  and you will see them exchanging missile.

You have Sins Diplomacy patched to 1.21? Is it the standard series or the expansion series of Diplomacy you downloaded?

What was the source of the mod download?

1. The links above  2. Maelstrom website  3. ModDB  4. Strategy Informer

Links above .  I played your previous versions and yes it is updated. I have no issue with the other 1.21mod that are out there .. Just yours . 

Hi Strikestorm49,

Just downloaded Diplomacy R4 1.21 (specifically the file called Maelstrom_Diplomacy_1.21_4.zip), from the link above.

Was able to enable and run a huge random single game, which I stopped 30 minutes into game.

My enabled checksum was 229340771, the name of the enabled mod was Maelstrom R4.

Ahh i understand Soase. Thanks for informing me how it works. Always good to learn something. Let me know if you need me to run some tests on the issue or something.

Thanks, I'll let you know when I get to it ... busy with updating the fleet models.

i can't stand the replicator voices, especially the ones that are edited vasari sounds. other than that it's very good so far

I've recently discovered that planets with a buffOverTimeActionType "RestoreShields" and a negative shieldRestoreRate cause very strange things to happen.  The planet buffs that have this are BuffAuroraCosmicRaysTarget and BuffRockGiantDebrisTarget.  I've seen ships end up with very high negative shield values (-20000 or more) that die in one hit (had massively negative shields and full hitpoints).  Another wierd side-effect is that ship pathing completely breaks down in these gravity wells.  I've had entire fleets just stop moving for no reason in a RockGiantHabitable and an Aurora gravity well.  They eventually moved when I manually and repeatedly ordered them to move to the other side of the gravity well.  On one map (1v1), I couldn't find any of the AI fleet.  When I finally found it, the entire AI fleet was stalled out in an Aurora planet's gravity well.

The only 'edited' Vasari voices are for the Vasari Dreadnought.

Hi Peter1x9,

I can do something about shields going negative ... thanks I'll look into it.

I also found it on the IceGiant planet.  So the three buffs that have this problem are BuffAuroraCosmicRaysTarget, BuffRockGiantDebrisTarget, and BuffIceGiantIceParticlesTarget.

Btw, any plans on applying Bailknight's weapon graphics to the original three races? 

Edit: I found more shield mitigation problems, this time with the trade alliance. Darn invincible ships lol

Sweet Thanks for your hard work.

EDIT1: Man what a great job you guys did. I have to say its one of my favorite mods out there!

The pleasure is all ours.

Maelstrom Diplomacy updated to 1.31 patch.

Hotfixes for 1.31 version
1. Pirate balance adjusted
2. Ability problems on some planets fixed, i.e shields on enemy craft don't go less than 0.
3. Shield mitigation on Replicator Capital ships reduced and also TradeAlliance support Capital
4. Visual bug with the TradeAlliance bomber

yes finaly I have been waiting for this as I was playing it before the update to diplomacy was kindof bummed that I could not play it but now I can get into the fight once again yeay dyson sphers and ringworlds hre I come

Nice job Soase.

Maybe you could implement whatever lets you show more pictures later on, as in 6 sets of pictures, and you need a main screen of your own imo. Hehe, just some silly visual suggestions for an allready top mod.

edit: the pathfinder vessel  of the replicators got 5000 hp, 5000 shield, and its damage is listed as 5000 laser damage..

Also the Kraken battlecruiser is named krarken.