Ultimate Dominion Mod III - Beta Info

[JeanLucPicard1]

please - change the new view (ship size) into the old! i mean, the camera is to far from the ship(s) and makes the battle slow and confusing...

I am going to agree with this statement. It is very reminiscent of the Klingon Starbase bug which make tactical combat a nightmare due to ships being so far away. Seems to me like the agility of ships was increased to compensate for this. Moreoever, the agility and defense settings are quite frankly ridiculous, especially so for the destroyers. They look more like a swarm of insects surrounding a bug light than ships in combat.

So then you have two options...
1. Learn to edit all ship scales to the way you want.

I am assuming you mean this can be done in UE. If this is not the case, what program should be used to adjust the ship scale?

I think the vanilla settings were balanced well for the most part and should only have minor tweaks to bring them up to snuff. Each empire should retain there original advantages i.e. Feds have strong shields, Cardassians strong hull, Klings high defense. Here's how I have a few of mine setup.

Galaxy Class Stock w/BOTF
Original: Command Cruiser II
Shields: 660
Hull: 222
Phasers: 11x40
Torpedoes: 8x68
Phaser Accuracy: 160
Torpedo Accuracy: 140
Defense: 60
Agility: 100
Shield Recharge: 40 I think
Maintenance Cost: 115

New: Heavy Battleship II
Shields: 964
Hull: 322
Phasers: 12x60
Torpedoes: 10x100
Phaser Accuracy: 185
Torpedo Accuracy: 165
Defense: 115
Agility: 115
Shield Recharge: 100
Maintenance Cost: 120

Excelsior Class New Ship
My Name: Heavy Explorer II
Shields: 575
Hull: 225
Phasers: 10x55
Torpedoes: 6x92
Phaser Accuracy: 170
Torpedo Accuracy: 155
Defense: 90
Agility: 100
Shield Recharge: 80
Maintenance Cost: 75

Vor'Cha Class
Original: Attack Cruiser II
Shields: 560
Hull: 195
Disruptors: 28x60
Torpedoes: 10x100
Phaser Accuracy: 235
Torpedo Accuracy: 162?
Defense: 147
Agility: 100
Shield Recharge: ?

New: Attack Cruiser II
Shields: 635
Hull: 235
Disruptors: 28x60
Torpedoes: 10x100
Phaser Accuracy: 205 (I felt was too high)
Torpedo Accuracy: 165
Defense: 147
Agility: 105
Shield Recharge: 75

Keldon Class
Originally a Strike Cruiser, now a Battleship
New: Battleship II
Shields: 650
Hull: 450
Phasers: 12x62
Torpedoes: 10x100
Phaser Accuracy: 185
Torpedo Accuracy: 165
Defense: 90
Agility: 100
Shield Recharge: 75

As you can see, I balanced out ships like the Galaxy, and fit the Excelsior in between. I gave the Vor'Cha a boost in shields and hull but kept mostly everything else mostly the same as far as weapons are concerned. I gave the Keldon a large shield boost but slight hull reduction since it's now a command vessel but below the Hutet.

[mickar]

Each empire should retain there original advantages .

I agree totally.

[ClayHefner]

I don't have anything constructive to say, but...
I hadn't played this game for a long time, not experienced the new ships and map sizes, building minors and everything
and now have finally tried out UDM III.

And all I can say is: I am stunned. Such a marvellous piece of work.

Thank you very much for making this possible!
I think I'm gonna play this till my PC goes up in smoke.

[Mentat]

Each empire should retain there original advantages .

I agree totally.

Ermm sorry guys, I can't fully agree on that. If someone prefers the Vanilla setting, he can play it anytime.

All the major races still have their destinct advantages in UDM, and for the Cardassians, Federation, Klingons and Romulans those have not changed much. For the Dominion, frankly, anything alike the Ferengi setting would have been rediculous.

Anyhow, I see no problem for anybody changing the shiplist into what he prefers. But please understand, that Thunderchero and I have spent a lot of time already to make the respective shipsets as canonical and MP playable as possible. In this process we also followed the advice of experienced MP gamers, and incorperated that. Balancing those shipstats was a lot of work, and I dearly hope we did a good job there.

Moreoever, the agility and defense settings are quite frankly ridiculous, especially so for the destroyers.

Well if any of these settings are rediculous, then you have either never looked into the UDM shiplist, or you must find the Vanilla settings rediculous aswell. The smaller ships agility and defense values are well within vanilla parameters. The real difference in UDM is that larger vessels are less agile, but have more defense then in vanilla botf.

[mickar]

Original advantages doesn't mean vanilla settings.

I wasn't thinking just about ships. I was thinking about the race advantages. ie fed has a research advantage, card the intel advantage etc etc.

I wasn't criticizing udm as I play this mod almost exclusively. It's a really good single player mod. I just like having fed, for example, being able to count on the research advantage as well as the ability to member minors quicker.

[JeanLucPicard1]

Ermm sorry guys, I can't fully agree on that. If someone prefers the Vanilla setting, he can play it anytime.

That's b/c you're missing the point. The point is, some people may want to play with the UDM ships using the vanilla standards.

Well if any of these settings are rediculous, then you have either never looked into the UDM shiplist, or you must find the Vanilla settings rediculous aswell. The smaller ships agility and defense values are well within vanilla parameters.

I've never looked at the UDM shiplist or Vanilla shiplist? Then how could I get the numbers I posted or edit the values? Don't be foolish. Moreover, you have the Galaxy's defense at about 171 and defense at about 120. That's no where near vanilla values!

I know you spent a lot of time on the mod and maybe using the word ridiculous was a bad choice of words.

I just want you to understand that ramping up shield and hull values over 1000+ doesn't make the game balanced or better. Just take the Vanilla values and tweak them for ships like the Miranda that was pure canon fodder. Ships like the Warbird and Vor'cha were fine. As for the Maurader, can you say, "IAMOPED?"

The main concern I am addressing is the ship combat distance.

[Mentat]

"The one who reads, is clearly at an advantage."

@JeanLucPicard1:

I didn't miss any point, I just felt there was none. If you read through my last answer, you will find that if one has the urge to play UDM with Vanilla-like Shipstats, he can do so for his personal joy at any time. For such things UE is an outstanding tool.

Regarding agility and defense, I made aswell a clear point about the destroyers that you mentioned, who are definitely within Vanilla parameters. IIRC I also added that the real change in UDM in this matter are increased defense and less agility for bigger ships. Now please fit in the Galaxy, and don't tell me its a destroyer.

While some might agree with you in regards of more shielding and hullpoints, others won't and that for a few good reasons.
a.) Combats last longer with such settings and are not concluded after the first combat turn like in Vanilla. Thats something quite a few have been missing out in Vanilla botf, making those combat maneuvers more important.
b.) The cloaking advantage is reduced by those settings aswell, and allows in return slightly better defense values for cloaked ships (overal more canonical vaules)
c.) In many regards, vanilla shipsettings and shiproles were not very canonical. UDM adresses some of those issues. e.g.: In vanilla the Negh'Var has the role of a strike cruiser, being inferior to the Vor'cha.
d.) Vanilla Botf was never balanced for 1on1 MP games.

[thunderchero]

The main concern I am addressing is the ship combat distance.

If so than your comments should go here.

viewtopic.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=989

thunderchero

[Capt_Rae]

where and how does one download this mod the links dont work that i have found

[thunderchero]

here is official full release

viewtopic.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewd ... &title=Mod

here is latest test version out.

> Dev 3<

both require multi main installer this replaces cd install complete and no patches or cd is needed.

viewtopic.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewd ... ls&lid=143

thunderchero

[thunderchero]

Hi everyone,

Here are some replacement trek.exe for only dev 3

150% scale

this will move ships closer when battle starts.

Unzip "150%scale.zip" first
backup both trek.exe from both install paths "UDM" and "UDML"
copy trek.exe in normal folder to "UDM"
copy trek.exe in large folder to "UDML" if you did not install using exended view.
copy trek.exe in large_extended folder to "UDML" if you did install using exended view.

This has not effected any of my saved games.

thunderchero

[OmegaX]

battles look even better now with that fix. thanks for all the wonderful work, thunderchero!

[JeanLucPicard1]

a.) Combats last longer with such settings and are not concluded after the first combat turn like in Vanilla. Thats something quite a few have been missing out in Vanilla botf, making those combat maneuvers more important.

Yes, I know. That's why I said increase values of those ships who were in need of an overhaul from Vanilla i.e. Miranda, Galaxy, Ambassador.

I don't like combat to end in one turn, but by the same token I don't want it to last 50 turns either.

b.) The cloaking advantage is reduced by those settings aswell, and allows in return slightly better defense values for cloaked ships (overal more canonical vaules)

Cloaking advantage should remain the same since its always been a distinct advantage of the Romulans. The other empires advantages already balanced out the cloaking advantage except not all Klingon ships could cloak. Romulan ships also had a suitable defense factor.

c.) In many regards, vanilla shipsettings and shiproles were not very canonical. UDM adresses some of those issues. e.g.: In vanilla the Negh'Var has the role of a strike cruiser, being inferior to the Vor'cha.

I'm not disagreeing with you there. I also have the Negh'Var as a battleship. For the same reason, ships like the Constellation should remain as a cruiser.

d.) Vanilla Botf was never balanced for 1on1 MP games.

No, it wasn't, but I feel like the settings are too generalized now.

@Chero

Thank you for addressing the combat distance with trek.exe

[Deks]

I'm playing the dev3 version and it's good.

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.

Will there be any kind of a potential fix to include newer generations of gpu's?
Gaining crew experience is better in combat, plus the automatic setup can kill a large fleet when faced with odds that can turn in your favour.

[thunderchero]

I'm playing the dev3 version and it's good.

thanks

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.

Just wondering how many starbases are useful? Scrap the rest....

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.

Many graphic cards require software this is most commonly used.
How many ships in battle are you talking about?

Will there be any kind of a potential fix to include newer generations of gpu's?

This is very doubtful, I would even go as far as say no.

thunderchero