Changes for v4.3

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

With no internet at my new house for the last few days, I have been a lot more productive

One other significant addition which I will cover in a separate post.

Steve

[mavikfelna]

With no random changes for ground combat related abilities, there needs to be a training option for ground forces as well as starships.

--Mav

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

With no random changes for ground combat related abilities, there needs to be a training option for ground forces as well as starships.

If you place divisions in a PDC with a HQ commanded by a decent leader, they will gradually improve morale, which improves their combat power.

Steve

[Father Tim]

With no random changes for ground combat related abilities, there needs to be a training option for ground forces as well as starships.

If you place divisions in a PDC with a HQ commanded by a decent leader, they will gradually improve morale, which improves their combat power.

Steve

Which will train the troops, but not their officers.  If you are unfortunate enough not to have a R3 or higher officer with GFTR, and you are unwilling to directy promote one, then you can't even train your troops.  It seems odd that the only way I can make better ground unit commanders is to invade my neighours.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

With no random changes for ground combat related abilities, there needs to be a training option for ground forces as well as starships.

If you place divisions in a PDC with a HQ commanded by a decent leader, they will gradually improve morale, which improves their combat power.

Steve

Which will train the troops, but not their officers.  If you are unfortunate enough not to have a R3 or higher officer with GFTR, and you are unwilling to directy promote one, then you can't even train your troops.  It seems odd that the only way I can make better ground unit commanders is to invade my neighours.

That is true, although that is the way that the spacecraft training works too. The crews get better rather than the officers. Perhaps the Fleet Training should also be the way to increase the crew training rating of the commanders and I should introduce a ground based equivalent

Steve

[backstab]

Steve,

Can you please include some way of setting pre game alliances and treaties.

[welchbloke]

That is true, although that is the way that the spacecraft training works too. The crews get better rather than the officers. Perhaps the Fleet Training should also be the way to increase the crew training rating of the commanders and I should introduce a ground based equivalent

Steve

This seems like a sensible idea.  Maybe a 10% chance of a 25 point increase after a month of training?  I think that is much less than you would get from combat (learning is rapid when someone is shooting at you). Of course this was a WAG I wouldn't call it a SWAG  

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Steve,

Can you please include some way of setting pre game alliances and treaties.

You should already be able to do that in v4.26. If you open the Diplomacy window in SM mode, there is a Change DR button that allows you to modify the Diplomatic Rating, which in turn will open up various treaty settings. I used that method to set up the alliances in my current campaign.

Steve

[backstab]

Steve,

I checked my version and it says its 4.25, so I downloaded the 4.26 patch and it still shows it as 4.25 and there is no Change DR in the Diplomacy window in SM Mode.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Steve,

I checked my version and it says its 4.25, so I downloaded the 4.26 patch and it still shows it as 4.25 and there is no Change DR in the Diplomacy window in SM Mode.

Oops! Sorry about that - I guess I must have added that button after v4.26 was released. It is in the next version though.

Steve

[backstab]

No problems .... how long to the next version ?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

No problems .... how long to the next version ?

About 2-4 weeks probably. I need to work my way through the bugs list for v4.26.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

During each tour end update (default is 2 years), after new assignments are made, any commander who has been unassigned for more than six years is released from service. In addition, any commander in any rank except the top three is checked for retirement. If he is over 60 and unassigned, he is retired. If he is currently assigned, there is a 5% chance for each year over 60 that he will be retired. These two changes will thin out the number of commanders quite a lot and the size of the officer corps should adjust to the number of assignments and the number of academies.

Because of these changes, I am considering changing the rank requirement for colony management to be based on a percentage of the officer corps rather than a fixed rank. For example, a particular colony may require officers from the top 5% of the officer corps. The program would work out which rank included the 95th percentile and use that as the required rank for the colony.

I know a constant problem is finding enough high level commanders for populations and this will only get worse with the additional retirements in v4.3. Therefore I have gone ahead and made the change I mentioned above where the rank requirement for larger populations will be based on a percentage of the officer corps rather than a set rank. The existing rank 6 populations will instead be the top 5% of commanders, the rank 5 populations will be the top 10% and the rank 4 pops will be the top 20%. The way this is calculated is to take the number of commanders in order of rank and seniority and move down the list to the lowest seniority commander within the appropriate percentage. Whatever his rank is, that will be the required rank for the population. As an example, if you had 100 commanders the required rank for what are currently rank 6 populations would be rank of the fifth most senior officer in the officer corps. If you had 160 commanders, it would be the rank of the eighth most senior commander.

There may be others of the same rank that are junior to the selected officer and they will also be eligible because they meet the rank requirement, which means the actual percentage of qualifying officers will generally be a little higher than the percentages might suggest. I hope this change will make it a little easier to find suitable commanders and that it will remove the current problems for early Empires or those with a small officer corps, while retaining the idea that large pops need one of the most senior officers available.

Steve

[welchbloke]

During each tour end update (default is 2 years), after new assignments are made, any commander who has been unassigned for more than six years is released from service. In addition, any commander in any rank except the top three is checked for retirement. If he is over 60 and unassigned, he is retired. If he is currently assigned, there is a 5% chance for each year over 60 that he will be retired. These two changes will thin out the number of commanders quite a lot and the size of the officer corps should adjust to the number of assignments and the number of academies.

Because of these changes, I am considering changing the rank requirement for colony management to be based on a percentage of the officer corps rather than a fixed rank. For example, a particular colony may require officers from the top 5% of the officer corps. The program would work out which rank included the 95th percentile and use that as the required rank for the colony.

I know a constant problem is finding enough high level commanders for populations and this will only get worse with the additional retirements in v4.3. Therefore I have gone ahead and made the change I mentioned above where the rank requirement for larger populations will be based on a percentage of the officer corps rather than a set rank. The existing rank 6 populations will instead be the top 5% of commanders, the rank 5 populations will be the top 10% and the rank 4 pops will be the top 20%. The way this is calculated is to take the number of commanders in order of rank and seniority and move down the list to the lowest seniority commander within the appropriate percentage. Whatever his rank is, that will be the required rank for the population. As an example, if you had 100 commanders the required rank for what are currently rank 6 populations would be rank of the fifth most senior officer in the officer corps. If you had 160 commanders, it would be the rank of the eighth most senior commander.

There may be others of the same rank that are junior to the selected officer and they will also be eligible because they meet the rank requirement, which means the actual percentage of qualifying officers will generally be a little higher than the percentages might suggest. I hope this change will make it a little easier to find suitable commanders and that it will remove the current problems for early Empires or those with a small officer corps, while retaining the idea that large pops need one of the most senior officers available.

Steve

Sounds sensible, Can't wait to give it a try  

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

A couple more minor changes for v4.3

1) I am now playing my new campaign with 12 starting races, which means a lot of new officers appearing in the event log. It's hard to spot the good ones, so the New Officer event has now been split into 4 events: 'New Officer' for those with a promotion score of up to 1000, 'Promising New Officer' for 1001-1500, 'Exceptional New Officer' for 1501-2000 and Outstanding New Officer for 2000+. All officer creation events also show the promotion score at the end of the stats.

2) On the production tab and the shipbuilding tab, any reference to mineral costs shows the current stockpile of the mineral in parantheses. For example, if you wanted to build an ordnance factory, the information in the mineral cost box would be shown as below (assuming stockpiles of 1133 Duranium and 2304 Tritanium):

Cost 120
Duranium 60  (1,133)
Tritanium 60  (2,304)

This mineral stockpile information is shown for ordnance production, fighter production, installation production, shipyard modification and shipbuilding. I just got tired of switching to the Mining tab

Steve