not true, new stuff IS added, gameplay.constant is chaned and galaxyscenarion aswell and some new lines in some researches aswell

New stuff being added doesn't necessarily make mods unplayable, total conversions in particular. What it does for sure is make the dev exe spew out errors like no tomorrow, as mentioned previously. I like to think I know what I'm talking about as I run a mod that's both been updated for 1.5 and takes advantage of it's new content.

For the last month or so I had been playing with Steam offline. I reconnected today thinking that the 1.5 Rebellion update would only update after purchasing the DLC. Oops. Should have payed more attention to the last page of this thread.

The good: As far as it relates to SOA. Game plays stable for me no issues. Planet types for the most part look better. The distinct brown on continents on M Class planets look more realistic. Asteroids look fine. H-Class planets look good. Most of the structures in the red-brown tint look fine. Something like the Romulan starbase is less green and more of a dull green but still look acceptable.

The bad: Some of the structures and ships don't look good in the red-brown tint. Federation ships look bad from what I saw as well as some Romulan ships and Klingon ships. Did not play with the Borg. All my opinion of course.

Is the red tint something that can be altered or is it now permanently part of the engine after the patch?

I guess I will finally have to turn on Reb instead of just dumping file changes to psy  

From what I seen so far before the patch, the shadow effect looks like crap and I turn that shit off.

does the red change if you change skyboxes?

Yep. That changed it. After playing with the two skybox options some of the M Class planets continents were the brownish tint while other parts of the same planet were are as they were colored before. Maybe it was just something that changed when I updated and it reset all of the options? I can't remember if I had those boxes checked from before. I hadn't really done a comparison with those options previously.

I have been playing as the Dominion on 1.5 and the gray colors on the Dominion ships do look more natural than the red-brown tint.

Haha.....I should probably start playing with the effects options to give more valuable input. It does look like some of the slightly altered planet options is to give the impression of lights on the planet FWIW. At least on some of the H and M class planets.

Some of the enhancements to the planet models in 1.5 do look good though.

Hi,

is it possible to activate the manual attack against allies? (Of course, at the expense of the diplomatic relationship). Always avoid the need to declare war is stupid. Or is it hardcoded?

JB

diplomatic changes you can find in gameplay.constans

Not without modding, and we will not do that.

Why would you want to attack your allies? Regardless. As far as i know if you don't have an allied victory condition set. Then once all enemy's are defeated then your allies will turn on you anyways.

Because the AI just stole a planet you just cleared from right under you.

This is why you have a colonizing frigate 1 jump away or a colonizing capital in your fleet when you clear a planet.

Ill generally make an Ally so I can focus my war effort on one specific enemy, then once the effort is near-complete I take about 70% of the remaining fleet and begin another with some reserves from the defense fleet in order to start another.

Mr. stress

     I know you're busy man and working on this  has taken its toll for the past  four years,  but I would like to say and  should I say for everyone thank you  for the time you put in.  Your efforts are appreciated from every  Star Trek fan who calls himself  a strategist in the world  of strategy games.  Again thank you.  

SSgt Hendry

If someone wants to try a different SOA2 playing here it is.

I made alot of changes to keep balance between races and as I wrote above to have a realistic move of starships.

This is how I like to play SOA2.

http://www.gepardpage.com/SOA2%20mod.rar

extract these files to SOA2 folder if you want to give it a try.

I often have two or more allied at war with each other. And now and then one would like to help the one without first having to start a war with the other.

When the Federation (in the movie / series) only every time would start a war with the Klingons or Romulans, just because you are helping another race, I would think no one want to see and believe.

JB

SSgt I am not working on anything right now. My role in this project has been pretty much adviser, and yay, or nay sayer. Free time is just not there.

Geopard that link you posted isnt working for me. If fisto, or psychoak look at it see if its worthy of being an add on.

Way to busy with the patch to look at anything now. Thought I would be done this weekend and will try for next weekend.

I recommend using this as an add-on stacked on top of SOA2 if it even works with new patch, I have not tested it as all my files are being changed for the patch.

http://www.gepardpage.com/SOA2%20mod.rar

For me it works now. You can also copy the links and paste to your browser.

I made alot changes to make a better balance.

For example:

- Borg longrangeship was making alot of dmg. 2700. No any elite ship and other longrangeships can make such dmg. When borg were coming with these ships they could crash any enemy. You are loosing your eliteships one by one. They are also focusing a target that you didn' t have any change. I put this to 800. It is still the best longrangeship in compare to other races.

- eliteengenieers ability is too hard. It repairs 10 hull dmg per time. Your ships can get full points in just several seconds. This power I gave colony ship and made level changes. 5 1 lvl, 7.5 2nd lvl and 10 3rd lvl. This power had galaxy class. At least one ship which can make less dmg could have it.

- I put Borg antiasssimilation to federation. Borg was really too hard. You couldn't fight them with any frigate cause they assimilate them very fast. You could fight against borg only with eliteships. I put elitesupport borgcounterassimilation and defiant immunity to assimiliation. But defiant doesn't have immunity to tractor assimilation. It can be still assimilated. This gives also a good balance when you fight against borg.

You made an borgantiassimilation buff. But it doesn't work. You have to remove borgantiassimilation not borgantiassimilationsuccess. Then it works.

Borg is still with their assimilation power the most dangerous enemy.

Alot of other changes you should give a try. But I am not ready yet. I cannot work on it this week. I also have a problem that the game crashes when I try to take a map made with galaxy forge. But only when it makes quickstart. I am analyzing the mdmp files to find the reason for this.

But wait a little with next release. I think they are still things you can make better and have a better balance in game.

I will have more time next week. It is really hard work and I would like to take a look again.

Sorry, none of those changes will make it in. If you can't beat Borg, learn diplomacy and get allies fast or wait until you can beat all other races easily on at least unfair.

All I will look at is your movement.

Diplomacy you can always use.

But I don't understand the reason why borg longrangeship should make the most damage in all galaxy even better then all eliteships.

Sorry it doesn't make any sense for me.

This longrangeship ist making 2700 dmg. You can take a look to all weapons. Usually they are making 1000 even with eliteships even less. It is 3 times more then any weapon.

When you play borg you only have to take 1 eliteship as tank and build alot of longrangeships. It is easier to build them anyway and doesn't cost much. Then you can go and kill all your enemies one by one. You don't need any diplomacy.For me it doesn't make any fun.

I trust Fist0, and Psychoak's judgement. If they say no. Then the answer is NO. We appreciate the effort, but we will not incorporate the changes into the mod itself. However there is nothing stopping you, or anyone else from using your changes for their own personal use.

We have been doing this since 2008, and the way we have been doing it has worked very well for us the last 5 years. You may think it is not fun for you, and that is fine. It is your opinion, but thousands of others DO like SoA 2 the way it is, and probably will get very pissed if we change anything.

A Borg "frigate" is supposed to be just as, or more powerful than an Elite of any other faction. That is intentional. We dont want weak ass Voyager Borg that instapop from a few hits in here. It should be the other way around. You should instapop if the Borg hit you. This is why you need diplomacy, and allies to defeat them. That is the thing that we WILL NOT change in SoA 2. That is the core of our vision for this mod.

How many times do i have to say this... The Borg are NOT meant to be played by humans. They are OP by design, and meant to be played by the AI. The only reason they are playable is because that is the only way we could make them work right in game. If we had our way you wouldn't be able to play as the Borg at all. Only against them.

I don't understand this point of view.  But I accept it of course. It is your decision and will not try to change it.

If you want to make Borg OP there are thousand of possible ways for this. They are OP anyway even with my changes.I never played Borg till now. Just a quick answer to this.

I also don't like any diplomacy cause you can beat every NPC with this.

As I wrote above it is how I like to play SoA2. Everyone can decide what he wants. It is free anyway and if someone doesn't like it, you can easily overwrite the files with the orginal one.

But you can take the moves if you want.

I do have to say I hate the Borg, but that's because in order to beat them I have to make a dramatic shift in my strategy to beat them. These aren't the Neutered Borg from VOY these are the Kick-Ass Borg from TNG....as Ive seen, anyway.