Balance & Flavor submod for Imperial Civil War 2.1

[Vulcanus]

Balance & Flavor submod for Imperial Civil War 2.1

New 3.1 patch released!


https://mega.nz/#!whMRwJBI!W3FEmlU_w0hlpdli3BxFgERYkqkJRCmWlsLO-jKU1h0


Compatible with ICW 2.15.

Installation instructions included in the readme file.

Full list of features included in the mod file.


This patch fixes the most pressing issues with the 3.0 release.

- Pentastar hero recruitment fixed. Victor Strang and his Storm Commando Saboteurs are now available.

- Improved Greater Maldrood ground combat.

- Pentastar Assassin corvettes removed.

- Added 5 Crimson Vic IIs for the Greater Maldrood's Zsinj Campaign.

- Fixed population cost and fighter complement for the Vengeance-class and NR Lusankya.


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20.9. v.3 New update for Balance & Flavor released

New release features:

Post-Zsinj Campaign GC.

The Greater Maldrood as a new playable faction.

Expanded Pentastar space unit recruitment based on astrography, doctrine and galactic institutions. Comes with an updated ICW manual map with planetary requirements highlighted.

Five new buildable Pentastar Alignment heroes. Onyx Squadron and Michael Unther represent the mainstream Empire and can be built from certain Core worlds. Storm Squadron and Victor Strang represent the more unconventional parts of the Imperial military and can be recruited from certain Outer Rim worlds. Strang can also recruit Storm Commando Saboteurs. And Shea Hublin is there, because I like fighter heroes and he was personally invited by Kaine to join the Alignment in-universe (though he declined and got killed in service of Delvardus. Well, maybe he faked his death just to join the Alignment).

Some balance changes to existing GCs and new star wars intro text crawls for all submod GCs.

Numerous balance changes, experiments, bug fixes and tweaks to units and hardpoints. Major changes to SSD pop cost and fighter complement. Major changes to IPVs, Lancers and Marauders.



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31.5.
NEW VERSION FOR BALANCE & FLAVOR RELEASED!

New release features:

Orinda Campaign GC.

Infinities: Fel Empire GC.

Adapted build cost balance and new units for skirmish and survival.

New heroes: Dark Side Elite, Kir Kanos, Reaper-Pellaeon.

New space units: Munificent missile frigate and Skipray 24r for PA, Sullustan Preybirds for NR.

+ Multiple game balance and bug fixes.

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This is an unofficial submod for Imperial Civil War that aims to improve Galactic Conquest game balance with rebalanced space unit stats and build costs.
It also features more than 20 new space units and heroes for GC campaigns.
FULL LIST OF FEATURES AND INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED IN DOWNLOADABLE MOD FILE!

List of new space units and heroes:
181st TIE Interceptors (buildable)
Admiral Nammo
Assassin-class corvette
Buccaneer-class corvette
Emancipator/Liberator Imperial Star Destroyers
EotH Battlecruiser
Horton Salm - Guardian Squadron
Interceptor Frigate
Knight Hammer SSD (buildable)
MC30
MC80 Wingless Cruiser
Pash Cracken - Ace Squadron
Providence-class carrier
Republic-class Star Destroyer
Star Galleon
Tartan Patrol Cruiser
TIE Defender/m (alternate TIE Defenders)
Tomax Bren - Scimitar Assault Wing
Vengeance SSD (buildable)
Wraith Squadron
XJ X-Wing
Z-95 ML

Suggestions and feedback appreciated!

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This mod is a custom modification and was neither created nor is it supported by the Thrawn's Revenge team. The Thrawn's Revenge team is not responsible for any negative effects from installing these files nor can they be held responsible for fixing any issues which arise from them.
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[Corey]

I have a few questions about some of the changes you've made. First, you say you increased the Y-Wing squad size from 7 to 12, but the Y-Wing always had 12, and there's not even any difference in coding between our version and yours, besides that you deleted the container. This would potentially change the formation spacing, but the squadrons never actually lacked those ships as far as I was aware.

I'm also curious as to what you actually mean when you say you fixed "BAD" hardpoints (ie Corellian Corvette and Venator).

[Mat8876]

The y-wing was only 7 fighters, Vulcanus is correct on that along with the TIE Defender.

[Corey]

It had all 12 and always has, it's just the container made the formation spacing kind of screwy, so most of the time several would display on top of each other, but all 12 were still there. That's why the one in the middle of the squadron always seemed so much brighter, both with selection ring and engine glows, and why one fighter can apparently blow up 6 times.

[Mat8876]

I'd like to start my message with what a great mod this is I really do enjoy it and putting some of the old units back in is nice as well.

But a few questions 1. Will the patch for 2.1 (when it comes out) work with the minimod with it?
2. Can you put some of the new units into/back into skirmish? (which I did a skirmish and I haven't found any bugs)
3. Is this it or are you going to continue with this mod?

[Lord Xizer]

I will wait to test this one until the patch comes out. If it is compatible then I will partake.

[Vulcanus]

I will update this to be compatible with the new patch for ICW when it comes out, so no worries.

Didn't realize ICW Y-Wing squadrons had 12 fighters already. Still, I like seeing them in nice tidy formations.

As for the so-called BAD hardpoints, the problem for Corellian Gunship hardpoints was mainly their horrible Fire Cone Width/Height which doesn't make sense for such a small and agile ship with guns positioned all around the ship. New Gunship forward missile hardpoint has a width of 270 instead of 90 and aft laser/turbo hardpoints also have width of 270 instead of 45.

With Corellian Corvette, the problem with ICW hardpoints is that they dont pay attention to where on the ship the hardpoints are located(fire bones run from muzzleA_00 to muzzleA_05). Yet muzzles 00, 01, 03 and 04 are the only forward batteries and muzzles 02, 05, 06 and 07 are the side batteries and original ICW hardpoint fire cone widths are inconsistent with their actual placement on the ship.

For Venator: Portside (or starboard) weapon bones point backward instead of forward, so the ship can never target another ship with its full firepower. As a solution I concentrated of Venator's firepower to its main battery and proton torpedoes.

Calling them BAD was too harsh, but I'm a such a stickler for details that those simply had to be changed.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

[Corey]

Ah. When you said bad, I thought you meant there was something malfunctioning (Which would be true in the case of the Venator, since that model is godawful and hasn't been touched since like 2008), as opposed to it being personal preference, as it is with the CR90. It's not that they don't pay attention to the orientation, they were specifically picked for the orientation. If you have the front-facing ones with such a high rotation cone, you're far more likely to have the situation where a battle starts with a fighter screen flying directly into it with everything getting instantly annihilated, so the CR90 gets to do its job with absolutely no risk, and the AI doesn't really have a way to deal with that. We did a similar thing with the Asdroni and Lancer, although to a lesser degree because the CR90 tends to get to shoot at fighters that are essentially cardboard anyways.

[Vulcanus]

That's understandable for corvettes. E-Wing is another model with funky laser weapon bones. Doesn't hurt them in dogfights but if they get caught in the initial exchange without proton torpedoes ready, they are dead meat with their sideways-firing lasers 

Updated first post with short mod information.

[Avarice1987]

Are you working on new version of this submod?

Can you add the Titan and Allegiance Star Destroyers?

Where is the Praetor One class in ICW?

[tlmiller]

Are you working on new version of this submod?

Can you add the Titan and Allegiance Star Destroyers?

Where is the Praetor One class in ICW?

Praetor mk1 shouldn't be in it.  Praetor mk1 was a KDF ship that was made with only short range hyperspace engines.  It was not capable of long range hyperspace.  This was done on purpose as it was with many of their Republic era Battlecruisers and Dreadnoughts.

[Vulcanus]

Now that the new patch is out, I will post an updated version of Balance & Flavor once I've made sure everything is compatible with the new patch.

New release will include two new Galactic Conquest campaigns.
First of these will be a 12-17 ABY Orinda Campaign that is largely based on Essential Atlas's map of NR-Imperial campaigns between Crimson Empire and Caamas Crisis.
It will have 34 planets and in addition to NR and IR will have two unaligned planets: Adumar and Soullex. On Adumar the player will have a chance to relive Battle of Adumar (the final battle in Starfighters of Adumar), as the opposing fleet will be exactly same (without heroes) as it was in the book.
The second unaligned planet is Soullex, the final refuge of warlord Drommel and his Executor-class SSD Guardian. If you capture Soullex, you'll also capture Guardian.
IR will start with Reaper-Pellaeon, Phennir, Stele, Bren, Rogriss and Kir Kanos as heroes, NR will have to do without Han Solo and several other familiar names as they weren't involved in this conflict.

The second campaign will be a 64-planet Era 3 Infinities campaign.

Other features:
Adapted for skirmish and survival.

- Added a couple of new space units.

- New imperial stealth/elite fighter squadron/dark jedi hero unit.

- Fixed  number of issues with the original release.

There will be no new units that require new models, this will remain primarily a text-based mod, as all "new" space unit models are simply recycled EaW models or unused ICW models (thanks for ICW mod team for leaving those in the mod files).

[tlmiller]

I look forward to trying out the Orinda Campaign

[Lord Xizer]

Now that the new patch is out, I will post an updated version of Balance & Flavor once I've made sure everything is compatible with the new patch.

New release will include two new Galactic Conquest campaigns.
First of these will be a 12-17 ABY Orinda Campaign that is largely based on Essential Atlas's map of NR-Imperial campaigns between Crimson Empire and Caamas Crisis.
It will have 34 planets and in addition to NR and IR will have two unaligned planets: Adumar and Soullex. On Adumar the player will have a chance to relive Battle of Adumar (the final battle in Starfighters of Adumar), as the opposing fleet will be exactly same (without heroes) as it was in the book.
The second unaligned planet is Soullex, the final refuge of warlord Drommel and his Executor-class SSD Guardian. If you capture Soullex, you'll also capture Guardian.
IR will start with Reaper-Pellaeon, Phennir, Stele, Bren, Rogriss and Kir Kanos as heroes, NR will have to do without Han Solo and several other familiar names as they weren't involved in this conflict.

The second campaign will be a 64-planet Era 3 Infinities campaign.

Other features:
Adapted for skirmish and survival.

- Added a couple of new space units.

- New imperial stealth/elite fighter squadron/dark jedi hero unit.

- Fixed  number of issues with the original release.

There will be no new units that require new models, this will remain primarily a text-based mod, as all "new" space unit models are simply recycled EaW models or unused ICW models (thanks for ICW mod team for leaving those in the mod files).

This interests me very greatly

[Revanchist]

Any way you could give us JUST the Orinda Campaign, separate from the rest of the  submod??

[Vulcanus]

Right now, the Orinda Campaign is not compatible with standard ICW, because it has several Campaign-specific new units (Reaper-Pelly, Kir Kanos, Guardian), both factions start with several space  units that are not included in ICW (RepublicSD, NR-aligned ImpStars, 181st squadrons), it has multiple new trade routes and Soullex as a new planet. Also, I would like to see Lusankya's red turbolasers from the submod be included since SSD duels were obviously the most iconic part of in-universe Orinda Campaign.

Just finished test-runs with both IR and NR on admiral difficulty.
IR: 10 turns in, lost Pellaeon, Phennir and one of my two Praetors (Praetors will represent Dominion and Megador) at Orinda when Wedge invaded with Lusankya and 14 destroyers + Rogues.
AI NR spawns multiple Turbolaser structures at Orinda for some reason at game start, but no other noticeable issues.

NR: 20 turns in, been on the defensive the whole time, AI IR seems to like building Tector/Venator/Lancer fleets that decimate my bombers before Tectors grind my weaker SDs to fine powder. Made a desperate dash for Soullex, defeated Drommel and his ground garrison, captured the Guardian (script works!), cornered Pellaeon and destroyed the Reaper, but also lost Lusankya.

In short, no game breaking issues detected, so I should have a public version finished soon.

[Lord Xizer]

This sounds like a hell of a good addition, iI've wanted the Orinda campaign for a while. Oh VO auditions are open. If interested send sound files to lordxizer@yahoo.com
Need the following
Leia, lando, mothma,han,corran,dark jedi, navett,marek stele, ssd, wedge, pellaeon, illor and kanos.

[Vulcanus]

The second GC campaign to be released will be called Fel Empire.
It is an Infinities campaign where Isard's machinations to disgrace or kill Soontir Fel in the Battle of Brentaal fail. Instead Fel is never captured by New Republic and subsequently Imperial Navy overthrows Isard/Pestage and crowns Fel as the new emperor, forcing Isard to flee Coruscant on Lusankya (such a scenario was suggested in Essential Guide to Warfare).

This achieves several things:
1) Fel is widely respected in the Imperial military and thus has the authority to keep potential minor warlords like Krennel in check and keep Imperial Navy largely united.
2) He would start reforms to end Imperial anti-alien policies, which would weaken New Republic politically.
3) As a result NR never captures Coruscant.
4) Thrawn Campaign doesn't happen.

In short, the galaxy more or less retains status quo for six years until reborn Palpatine emerges from Byss, setting up a Thrawn-Shadow Hand mash-up campaign.

In-game:

Imperial Remnant (Palpatine's Empire) starts with Deep Core, Pentastar Alignment and Eriadu Authority holdings. IR starts with three SSDs (Isard, Kaine and Palpatine), Teradoc's Crimson Command and can build the Night Hammer (late addition thanks to the Favorite SSD-thread, requires Delvardus).

IR will also have a new hero, the Dark Side Elite, which will also be available in Shadow Hand GC. These are Emperor Palpatine's dark side adepts seen in Dark Empire comics and audio drama. They are a stealth unit in galactic mode, fly Howlrunners in space battles (they fly Howlrunners in comics and are identifiedas Dark Side Squadron in the audio drama). In ground battles they are similar to Dark Jedi, but have Force Push instead of Heal/Sprint abilities.

Grand Admiral Thrawn returns from the Unknown Regions to side with Fel rather than reborn Palpatine.

EotH will function as Fel Empire in this campaign and has a unique tech setting that allows them to build imperial units. EotH space and ground units can only be built from Nirauan. Fel Empire's unit list focuses on fleet modernization: no older model ImpStars or Vics.

New Republic will have to play the spoiler role in this campaign. Aside from a couple of fortress worlds in the Core, most of their starting planets are on the Outer Rim. Then again, perhaps that is a good thing as they are far removed from Palpatine's SSD early on in the game.

Finally, this GC campaign is designed differently from most GC campaigns in ICW. It is essentially the anti-FTGU, as all three factions start with well developed military forces, but very limited credits.

[Vulcanus]

---This mod is a custom modification and was neither created nor is it supported by the Thrawn's Revenge team. The Thrawn's Revenge team is not responsible for any negative effects from installing these files nor can they be held responsible for fixing any issues which arise from them.---

NEW VERSION FOR BALANCE & FLAVOR RELEASED!

https://mega.co.nz/#!11sEzDYS!pi0PRD23HOTe2Nnh4fuHCuZtWt49_tFBuRMkI-mVgkM

Compatible with the new 2.15 patch.

Installation instructions included in readme file.
Full list of features included in mod file.

New release features:

Orinda Campaign GC.

Infinities: Fel Empire GC.

Adapted build cost balance and new units for skirmish and survival.

New heroes: Dark Side Elite, Kir Kanos, Reaper-Pellaeon.

New space units: Munificent missile frigate and Skipray 24r for PA, Sullustan Preybirds for NR.

+ Multiple game balance and bug fixes.

[Singularity]

I'm just wondering, how exactly do you give specific units different audio or pictures?