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  • [Mod] Unleashed Extended I & II

    Ceci est un mod qui complète le mod Distant Worlds Extended :

    http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm...&key=&#3835904

    Follow this link for UE II:
    Unleashed Extended II!

    Retreat1970's Unleashed Extended II + AI research orders:
    Retreat1970's Unleashed Extended II Improved!

    ... or for the original version of Unleashed Extended I
    Original Unleashed Extended I

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Summary of UE I - Principle content:

    Distant Worlds Extended - Haree78
    AI Improvement 1.04 - Icemania's
    Research Unleashed - Osito

    Chrome & other visual & audio enhancements:

    Alien Immersion project - Blackstork
    No annoying ship symbols - fruitgnome
    Stuff & Bits - KEBW1144
    Das Chrome UI - Das123
    astradeus-graphics-mod - astradeus

    What started out as me playing with things others had been generous enough to publish for all of us ended up merging into a sort of "my favorites compilation album plus extensions & re-balance"

    Most of my original content is in the tech tree. I got into this wanting to do an extended tech tree / tech tree overhaul / weapons rebalance. But then I saw that Osito had already done 90% of what I wanted to do anyway, so I used that as a starting point.

    Balancing / Weapon numbers:

    DWWeapons.xlsx spreadsheets - Aeson?
    (I assume that you created this spreadsheet since you attached for me?! Plz let me know if I'm misattributing this!)
    - updated and enhancing for all of the new weapons / changes from Osito's Research Unleashed mod and my own additions / tweaks
    - I focused my balancing primarily on the DPS/Size information.
    - I generally left power usage characteristics alone.
    -- if it was a power-hungry weapon system before, it continues to be so.
    -- If it was an energy miser, it still is.
    - I primarily went with Osito's weapon-philosophy of making rail-guns not suck, added "missiles shouldn't suck" to that.
    - All weapons should generally give a clear path to end-game goodies.
    - They should serve a specific niche (not be pointless)
    - They should be competitive (no "one true path" - just lots of fun - "what about..." paths!)
    - No lineages should bog down strategy choices (I need missiles for point defense? NO)
    -- Generally: choosing what to research should be a straight-forward matter: I think spending my research efforts HERE vs. THERE is the best strategy. Not: and also build up this pointless list which will confuse the AI into refitting ships with obsolete weapon systems)

    Things I've actually added / created for this mod:
    - Added one new race: the Hiigaran (Humans, based very loosely on Homeworld, using astradeus' shipset & character images)
    - Expanded and further enhanced the tech tree (based on Osito's Research Unleashed)

    Some Details:

    Hyper-Warp:
    - Start out slower (As per Osito's Research Unleashed)
    - Much deeper tree
    - Slightly extended Osito's work and ensured all paths are 100% playable (without having to back-track on research). I also made the "efficient" line suck less, so that it is more competitive alternative to quick-jump and fast-move lines of engines.
    Also did things like link in race-specific hyper-warp to the final end-game hyper-warp techs so that playing one of these races allows you to also get the end-game goodies (without re-researching the entire normal-line of techs in addition to your racial specials!)
    - Rebalanced the two slower-engines to ensure that they were precisely 75% of the speed of the fast-version, so that there is a clear cost/benefit to each path. Faster engines, quick-jump, lower-energy (without then muddying the waters with additional pros/cons: you just pick amongst those primary factors).

    Direct-Fire Energy weapons (beams):
    - Extended several tech-lines
    - About 1/2 lead to the end-game goodies (from Osito's Research Unleashed)
    - Phasers buffed a little
    - Extended race-specific weapon-lines to have an additional tech level
    - Extended race-specific weapon-lines to lead to end-game goodies
    - Includes Osito's clever Tachyon beams, which increase damage with distance!

    Torpedoes:
    - Removed diamond-pattern research loops
    - Extended all torpedoes to level 8 technology
    -- Velocity Shard: Long range, fast-moving, low-yield
    -- Thunderbolt: Medium range, moderate-speed, medium-yield
    -- Shockwave: Short range, slow-moving, high-yield
    -- Added extra level to Shaktur FireStorm
    - All lead to end-game techs from Osito (Gravity Torpedo, Sub-Space Torpedo, and more!)

    Fighters:
    - Hangar Bays don't give you any fighters or bombers (you can choose what to research to put in them)
    - Missile bombers are 100% equal to Torpedo bombers.
    -- Different prerequisites only, but stage-for-stage, there is an equivalent bomber (not that their stats are identical, just nobody sucks, no clear "winner" between them).
    -- Damage output balanced between them: they're 6 & 1/2 doz the other. Play with what fits your fancy!
    -- Added end-game fighter & bomber (Osito had added one end-game "black edition" missile bomber - now there is one for every fighter / bomber type)

    Missiles:
    - Balanced DPS/Size to be competitive with other weapons systems
    - Longest range weapon in the game.
    - Lead to some fun end-game techs (via Osito)
    - Extended the race-specific Hammerhead line to also lead to end-game techs

    Rail Guns:
    - Balanced DPS/Size to be competitive with other weapons systems
    - Broke the needless diamond research pattern
    - Light rail guns & heavy rail guns are independent paths to pursue
    - Light rail guns leads to light mass drivers (new extended line of tech)
    - Heavy rail guns leads to heavy mass drivers (essentially unchanged)

    Governments:
    - Nerfed Republic & Democracy tech bonuses
    - Made Way of Ancients care a lot more about yours & others reputation
    - Reduced % for leadership change by 1/2 for every government type (so less likely to have elections / coup / etc.)

    Weapon-philosophy:

    I tried to keep the basic elements the same as in vanilla:
    - Beams are the highest DPS in the game (but they suffer the most limited range of any weapons systems)
    - Missiles are the lowest DPS, but they have the greatest range.
    - Torpedos are between those two, with good range and good DPS, but with some of the disadvantages of each.
    - Ballistics are a solid weapon choice, but shouldn't prove OP. Longer range than beams, but with vastly poorer accuracy, and still not quite the level of raw DPS.
    - Area / Gravity / Ion - basically unchanged.

    Tech-philosophy:

    Generally speaking, I abhor the diamond shaped inheritance patterns in vanilla tech tree. Back-tracking sucks, and leads the automation to constantly redesign ships in a most unfortunate manner: replacing higher performance torpedoes or missiles or engines with "the latest one!" I'm sure that this causes the AIs all to foolishly waste vast funds refitting their ships when they shouldn't be, and double-whammy making them worse in the process!

    I hate redoing research + the AI / automation suck at it => ugly diamond-patterns must go!

    Final Disclaimer & Caveats:

    I did not treat anyone else's mods as "sacred". I.e. I changed things as I saw fit. I did try to not-change-something-just-for-change's-sake. However, this was (originally) intended just for myself. The vast majority of content is as Haree78, Icemania, Osito, etc., all created it. However, If I found a race pic in vanilla to be more to my liking that Haree78's choice, then I reverted that to vanilla. If I found an icon I liked best in Stuf&Bits, I used that over DAS Chrome (and vice verse). I made a couple of new icons where I felt motivated. To be honest: I picked and chose what felt was best (to me!)

    The thing of modding is: You can start from here and make your own compilation mod - your own best-of-mod-mod-mod. I'm simply thinking I'd like to share what I made for myself because at the very least, it allows one to play with a hybrid Extended AI + Research Unleashed, which is a pretty awesome starting point!

    All mistakes, bugs, and omissions are my own. All excellent content is probably from one of the other moders. I'm just a messenger: please don't shoot!

    < Message edited by mordachai -- 4/21/2016 429 AM >
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