I like all the changes in R4.  I saw your post on moddb about windows corrupting the mod.  That stinks, but it still ran pretty good on my end.  The only things I noticed are that it kept throwing lots of errors during loading (I have ShowErrors set to true in diplomacy.user) and the loading screen after the intros was blank. At first I thought things locked up, but I clicked the mouse and went to the main menu.

The dangerous asteroids have also grown on me, now I just think that they are quite a bit overpowered.  I would suggest keeping their ability the same, just reduce their hitpoints from 4000 to something more reasonable.  Otherwise, you (at least the AI) are stuck on your homeworld for quite a while.

FYI--I love the dreadnaught scheme in Maelstrom.  It really changes the feel and pace of the game and makes it very interesting.  When all is lost, your dreadnaught may save the day.

Its random ... propaganda, and research centers (combat, non-combat).

Will be fine-tuning as I go along.

Thanks for verifying.

I noticed the errors after I uploaded ... most are syntax (last line of a number of entity files are missing, the values are all zero so it doesn't impact on game play).

If you turn the error display off the mod loads quickly ...

You have the Dreadnoughts to compensate ...

Or dreadnaught's ...

Thanks.

Been busy trying to trace corruptions in Maelstrom Original R4. When I get a chance will look into it.

I noticed a couple of minor bugs (or features?) just now: 

The trade alliance shield generator ability still has "String not found" when you mouse over the building's ability icon.

The Chthonian planet is completely invulnerable to bombing (and asteroid bombardment from starbases).  I had to culture it to death in my game.  I'm not sure if planet drain works on it (haven't tested).  Since asteroid bombardment doesn't damage these planets, I'll also assume that raze planet also doesn't damage them.  Is this a bug or feature?

The Frigian planet 500% crystal extraction rate seems a little excessive.  Maybe drop it down to 200%? 

The ringworld and dyson sphere worlds have such a large population that I could see them easily unbalancing maps with random planet spawns.  But for maps that have them intentionally (and evenly) placed they could become a very important target to capture (and something worth fighting to the death over).

Hi Peter1x9,

Thanks for the feedback. Will do some re-balancing on the next spin.

Is it me or does this shield mitigation seem a bit high? (any level 10 replicator capital ship during extended combat [edit: the dreadnought shield mitigation caps at 76% but all the others reach 89%]):

Notice anything unusual about this skylark?  He took down two of my dreadnoughts without breaking a sweat lol.

"Notice anything unusual about this skylark?  He took down two of my dreadnoughts without breaking a sweat lol."

Thanks, yes  digdug83 has pointed it out to me also.

Try the following ... in the file BuffEnergyWeaponBoost_Norlamins.entity (line 5), change stackingLimit from -1 to 1

Balancing is an ongoing issue ... eventually I will create a better balance between the new and old races. It will require a lot of testing and hence time. Will get there ...

The story with the replicator strike craft is what you might say is a non-linear hard to predict one. Strike craft take antimatter to create, the Replicator carrier has a very slow antimatter regeneration rate except in battle (if the are attacked) and the antimatter-converter has been researched. So the carriers might lose all their aircraft and not be able to create new ones. Hence the reason they are overpowered.

Playing R4 for Diplomacy, great mod, I'm very impressed with the amount of time and effort you've put into.

Couple things I've noticed so far in play:

1)Is there a way to reduce the dangerous asteroids' hit points? I like them as a concept, but they tend to take a rather frustrating amount of time to burn down in the early game.

2)The Replicators's dreadnought's weapon enhancement ability shows a negative (red) number for 'chance to hit'. I don't know if this a typo, a bug, or if it instead effects the enemy.

3)The Pirates hit way too strong, way too fast. When they attack, it's overwhelming unless you have starbase, and then they sometimes just fly past.

4)The Replicator cybernetics factory ability isnt showing up as boosting my planets resource harvest rate. It does boost population growth and reduce planet improvement costs though.

Hi CKayote,

Glad your having fun with the mod and thanks for the feedback.

My response

1. dangerous asteroids are meant to slow everyone down, especially on high value planets.

2. I'll look into it. Thanks.

3. The expansion series includes a number of things people don't like i.e dangerous asteroids, expanded pirates and Dreadnoughts. The non-expansion series is your typical 'classic' Sins.

Personally I find the pirates weak, with the proviso that I can't ignore them and if I have been targeted for a raid (early in the game) I have to divert a relatively large fleet to take them on.

4. If you place your mouse over the cybernetics factory they do produce resources. However, the cybernetics factory resources are not displayed in the planet summary or your empire summary. Can't do anything about that as it is 'hardcoded' in the game.

Will this mod (R4 version)work for Dip 1.2 ?

Though I have targeted Dip v1.011, feedback from some (see Reply #845) indicates that it will work with Dip 1.2x. I haven't personally tested it though.

Will get around to releasing a version for the latest Dip patch soon.

So does this mod also include the bailknight effects for weapons and such?

R4 includes bailknight effects for weapons and explosions (the sound effects for weapons and explosions have been updated also) for the new races. The original races have the original weapons and explosions.

I have it working in 1.2/1.21.

Also--is that release 3 or 4 in your downloads right now?  I have 3.

Got 2 issues with the game, not sure if they were already reported or not.

- First off: There is this 1 planet or cap ship type (replicator colony ship, it didn't use any ability, had autocast off) that caused the enemy default protection frigates and cruisers to get a -100+% shielding. At one point a heavy cruiser had a red minus number for shielding of -540 and they died awfully fast. The same thing didn't occur on any other planet I conquered. This is the planet, doesn't give any battle/shield perks or anything. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/weirdbonusses.jpg/

- Second: My colony ship (replicators faction) is stuck at a star. Its this 2 star thingy with 1 blasting the other (black hole). It's like the ship is being sucked in or something and its trying with all its might to get out. For the first minute it was fun but after 10 mins it was still in and its starting to piss me off, also just noticed it's losing hp and shields, great.  http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/9/stuckinthedamnstarwell.jpg

I'm using entrenchment 1.051 and R4 expansion

Thanks for letting me know.

You can get R4 (E & D) at ModDB. Will update links here in the next day or so when I release R4 (O).

The Aurora Planet is soaked with intense Cosmic Rays that effect enemy ships. -20/s restore rate on shields and a drop in shield mitigation of 30%. I can do something about the shields going negative.

Black holes have intense gravity that should suck ships into an event horizon. Once they hit the event horizon they are destroyed. There is also intense neutron and gamma radiation around the black hole that effects ship hull and shields.

First of all, thank you for your mod!

You have done a great job. The models are designed very well.

I particularly like the Galactica very much. Great battleship! 

Only that ship is worth playing your mod!

I always do play sins with my mate in Multiplayer.

We tried your mod last week. We haven’t had any problems to play your mod with patch 1.2 (Diplomacy).

Your mod is impressive, too. But there is one thing we could not enjoy.

In our opinion there are too many planets which cause imbalances on random-maps in Multiplayer-Games.

My mate for example had a planet with 1.500 inhabitants. He could collect as much money as Bill Gates in his best time.

I haven't had great planets and I was a poor devil.

Is there are a way to play your mod with standard-planets or can I edit it by myself easily?

 I found planet-files which I can edit with notepad …

I know, most players like as many different planets as possible !