Ultimate Dominion Mod III - Beta Info

[Mentat]

Problem is though that my credits go into a huge minus if I have a large fleet and reach a tech level that allows starbases.

One other thing.
The 3d combat constantly crashes when using hardware acceleration (I have a laptop with 9600mGT gddr3)
Using Software mode solves the problem, but numerous battles are unplayable like that because whenever shields and directed energy weapons are unleased, the FPS goes to 0 and it takes ages to continue.

ad Starbases: You have a valid point there Deks, but rather then to make them too cheap, I would prefer to keep their maintenance costs at the actual level. The maintenance is calculated by a formula, that takes the structures/ships size, strenght, abilities and technology involved into account. Thunder has a given a good advice already though, try to keep those bases near the borders and in key sectors.

ad Graphic Card: What settings do you use in the stbof.ini?
As Thunder already hinted, try to change to 3D=SOFTWARE, since what you report happened to many others aswell.

[Deks]

I use 3D=SOFTWARE in stbof.ini
That solves the crash issue, but numerous battles are unplayable as a result.
And I don't like putting large fleet battles on automatic since the computer can often mess things up, and of course, the crew in the ships don't gain experience.

Will the hardware acceleration at some point in the future be patched to support new cards such as my own, or should we forget about it and muddle through with Software?

As for the Star-bases ... I definitely agree their maintenance should be decreased.
Thing is that initially one has to create large set of outposts in order to expand.
Yes, you can scrap them, but I like keeping them throughout my territory.

Canon evidence seems to suggest that SF does have a lot of outposts spread out through Federation territory.

[thunderchero]

@Deks,

There are 3 graphic options.

SOFTWARE (vanilla)
DIRECT3D (hades 1.1)
3DFX (hades 2.2)

Each option when multi main installer is installed uses different dll files.

If you want to test each possible option here they are. Good luck, These are the only options for this 10 year old game.

So I suggest, Backup the save that has your large battle for testing. (and any other saves you might want.)

uninstall all mods then uninstall 1.0.2 main installer.

install 1.0.2 with 3DFX option
install UDM copy save to UDM install path
load save and test.

next edit stbof.ini change 3DFX to DIRECT3D
load save and test.

next edit stbof.ini change DIRECT3D to SOFTWARE
load save and test.

uninstall all mods then uninstall 1.0.2 main installer.

install 1.0.2 with DIRECT3D option
install UDM copy save to UDM install path
load save and test.

next edit stbof.ini change DIRECT3D to SOFTWARE
load save and test.

uninstall all mods then uninstall 1.0.2 main installer.

install 1.0.2 with SOFTWARE option
install UDM copy save to UDM install path
load save and test.

use the best comb that works for you.

thunderchero

[OmegaX]

As for the Star-bases ... I definitely agree their maintenance should be decreased. Thing is that initially one has to create large set of outposts in order to expand. Yes, you can scrap them, but I like keeping them throughout my territory.

Canon evidence seems to suggest that SF does have a lot of outposts spread out through Federation territory.

Even so, basically the feel of UDM dev3 is that outposts and starbases are more for holding an area than expansion. They are a lot more powerful than vanilla, and take a lot longer to build. Personally, I've found it easier to expand by quickly buying the powerplants in a system needed to power a shipyard, and use outposts for securing an area near a hostile empire.

With the extra power they have, I think the maintenance costs are about correct.

[mickar]

You need outposts/starbases to expand in UDM, especially if you start at t1 as I do. At t1, your shipyard only gives you +1 range.

[Mentat]

Ermm Mickar, I could be mistaken, but last time I played a T1 game, outposts and shipyards gave the same range increase for ships.

Nevertheless, you can not always expand by building only shipyards. Sometimes you need to field an outpost in "void" space to reach the next colonizable systems.

@Deks: I am considering to slightly lower the starbase costs and raise the outpost costs to cover that gap. But for now, you are the only one who had trouble with that. Maybe a few others can add their thoughts about this.

I personally find it reasonable that the starbase, that is much bigger and stronger then an outpost is aswell more expensive. From my point, it would be the best, that outposts and starbases have to be upgraded with transports like in Vanilla. But this would leave the AI at a disadvantage, since it rarely upgrades to Starbases.

Edit: I should read my PMs before answering. As of now, Starbases have to be upgraded again, like in Vanilla. Thunder just informed me. Expect this in a patch or new Version.

[mickar]

Sometimes you need to field an outpost in "void" space to reach the next colonizable systems.

Exactly my point.

And thanks for pointing out that outposts and shipyards give the same range. After my thousands of games played I didn't know that.

[vergol]

Great work, thunderchero. The ship costs have been well-balanced since the last time I brought up the issue.

You've also added several new ships models, all of which look awesome.

I have, however, noticed a few minor inconsistencies within the federation fleet. Forgive me for nitpicking.

The order of the Miranda refits seems wrong to me. The Soyuz should be the first in line, not the second.

The Prometheus class is supposed to be the latest and fastest thing in the fleet, but lags behind the Intrepid. (Not a big deal, especially for balance purposes, so it's fine). But consider making them equal, speed-wise.

The Defiant class is way too fast. Vanilla suffered from this syndrome, where the Defiant represented some 'end-game galactic wonder'. It's range can be reduced a bit too.

One major issue is the Sovereign dreadnought. It has medium range and only a speed of 2. It sure packs a punch, but it's too slow. It's hard to believe it's equal in speed to Constitution and Constellation (two fossils). Even the Ambassador class leaves it in the interstellar dust.

I've just started playing the latest dev release, so I'll be on the lookout for more suggestions.

[Mentat]

Thank you for the feedback Vergol.

As for the Miranda, the order is pretty much canon, since the original Miranda was first issued into Federation service truly before the Soyuz. The second Miranda does represent the highly modernized version we see in TNG and DS9 and is not upgraded any further.

As for certain shipclasses(Prometheus, Sovereign etc.) warpspeed, Thunder and I do actually agree with you on the not perfectly canon stats, but as you already guessed, this is a matter of MP balance. In fact my original shipstats for the 5 major empires had fielded those two classes at maximum speed of 4, .... but after some testing I had to agree with our MP cracks, that this is not practicable gamewise. It also gives the other often lighter classes a certain value, speed/range etc.

While this feedback comes in a bit late, we are not totally in conclusion with those stats, and also had a few people arguing about too limited distinction of the empires. A possible way could be a more canon Sovereign class, with increased warpspeed but less offensiv punch. But somehow I fear this might ruin the MP chances for the Federation.

Edit: Maybe it would be prudent to swap the speedboni for the Federation from light to heavy ships, ... Intrepid and Defiant would loose 1 speed, while the Prometheus and the Sovereign gain 1. I would like to hear the comunities and MP thoughts about this. Mind that at this point aswell new canon issues will arise, since we know that e.g. the Scimitar caught up with the Sovereign with ease.

[thunderchero]

The Prometheus class is supposed to be the latest and fastest thing in the fleet, but lags behind the Intrepid. (Not a big deal, especially for balance purposes, so it's fine). But consider making them equal, speed-wise.

The Defiant class is way too fast. Vanilla suffered from this syndrome, where the Defiant represented some 'end-game galactic wonder'. It's range can be reduced a bit too.

One major issue is the Sovereign dreadnought. It has medium range and only a speed of 2. It sure packs a punch, but it's too slow. It's hard to believe it's equal in speed to Constitution and Constellation (two fossils). Even the Ambassador class leaves it in the interstellar dust.

With the limited options of speed and range the game has, many ships will have same speed and range there is no way around this.

After all..... this is a ten year old game with more modifications than the space shuttle

thunderchero

[vergol]

As for the Miranda, the order is pretty much canon, since the original Miranda was first issued into Federation service truly before the Soyuz. The second Miranda does represent the highly modernized version we see in TNG and DS9 and is not upgraded any further.

Agreed. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought Soyuz came first. I looked it up, and you're right.

While this feedback comes in a bit late, we are not totally in conclusion with those stats, and also had a few people arguing about too limited distinction of the empires.

Just a month or two ago many ship costs were very different and highly unbalanced. And that was also Dev3.

I assumed you guys are constantly working towards UDM4. Regardless of whether you adopt any proposed changes, the feedback can't really be "late".

Edit: Maybe it would be prudent to swap the speedboni for the Federation from light to heavy ships, ... Intrepid and Defiant would loose 1 speed, while the Prometheus and the Sovereign gain 1. I would like to hear the comunities and MP thoughts about this. Mind that at this point aswell new canon issues will arise, since we know that e.g. the Scimitar caught up with the Sovereign with ease.

Now you're talking!

[eddiaz79]

Great mod thunderchero. I've been playing for a while and it's great. But ever since I downloaded the 150% scale new trek.exe, my space combat crashes especially when the enemy attacks. it goes back to windows and states error with Trek. exe. Again I've been playing ultimate UDM dev 3 for a while without any problem. Can anyone help me? Thank you

[thunderchero]

Great mod thunderchero. I've been playing for a while and it's great. But ever since I downloaded the 150% scale new trek.exe, my space combat crashes especially when the enemy attacks. it goes back to windows and states error with Trek. exe. Again I've been playing ultimate UDM dev 3 for a while without any problem. Can anyone help me? Thank you

Not sure what type of problem you are having?

you might want to redownload new trek.exe's (had wrong ones uploaded for less than 5 min if you got replacements early)

You might want to backup any saves, and you might want and setup a save right before battle that crashes then uninstall mod and reinstall then test before replacing trek.exe and if no crash then redownload new trek.exe and test again. since noone else has reported this type of problem.

@vergol,

Mentat spoke too soon this would unbalance game way too much. A Dreadnought can not have that speed without increasing all other races.

only option would be decrease intreped only. but that would unbalance other races. So this would be best adjusted by user with UE. If this is what you want.

Just a month or two ago many ship costs were very different and highly unbalanced. And that was also Dev3.

dev 3 was released less than 1 month ago and has not been changed. you must be talking about prior release.

I assumed you guys are constantly working towards UDM4. Regardless of whether you adopt any proposed changes, the feedback can't really be "late".

for UDM3.0.1 yes, but If there is a UDMIV this will be min of 1 year before any work begins. And if advances continue as they are now, who knows what could be used.

thunderchero

[vergol]

dev 3 was released less than 1 month ago and has not been changed. you must be talking about prior release.

I was certain that outdated installer had a 'dev3' in its filename. Though certainly you would know better. I must have overstated how long ago that was.

this would unbalance game way too much. A Dreadnought can not have that speed without increasing all other races.

Federation ships tend to be the foundation for comparison with that of other species, as they have the ships the fans are most familiar with. (How many Romulan tech manuals have you read lately?).

If balance is an issue, it makes more sense (for me anyway) to start with the faction that we all know best (Feds) and tweak the other races accordingly.

[thunderchero]

Federation ships tend to be the foundation for comparison with that of other species, as they have the ships the fans are most familiar with. (How many Romulan tech manuals have you read lately?).

If balance is an issue, it makes more sense (for me anyway) to start with the faction that we all know best (Feds) and tweak the other races accordingly.

If this was done all ships would have speed of 4. What ship can not go warp 9?

thunderchero