To the I-War community - Helpers needed!

Greetings to the I-War Community. I am young, but enthusiastic newbie with the ambition to improve the gameplay feeling of Edge of Chaos.

A bit about myself first: Though I came upon I-War only very recently, I am no stranger to space simulations. Eight years ago, back when I was a kid, I started playing Wing Commander Prophecy. A demo for the first I-War was also available, but the complexity had me so baffled, I never got to really play it.

Now times have changed. I've played many space simulation games, and my recent call for sophistication has been answered by I-War 2. I fondly remember spending the first few hours browsing the in-game encyclopedia and learning everything about the I-War universe, from history to ships, weapons and technology. And I love it, chiefly because I-War is one of the 'hardest', i.e. closest to realistic, sci-fi settings I've ever seen.

Onto the important issue: As you may already have discovered, the weapon balancing in Vanilla Edge of Chaos is a bit troublesome, to say the least. While it is great fun to discover that an Advanced PatCom with four linked Gatling Cannons can tear an enemy corvette to shreds with the first salvo, flying an overpowered ship with an overpowered loadout is only fun for so long. So, to add longevity to an otherwise wonderful game, I propse to change that issue with a mod.

I am aware that some others have taken to the issue of weapon/ship balancing and already released prosperous projects such as the Elite mod or EXPERT or MightyMidget's weapon tweaks. They have the right idea, and I am planning to use those as the basis for a comprehensive overhaul that will make combat more fair and balanced. My current proposed changes include making heavier types of PBCs more effective as medium-to-long range weapons, greatly increasing hull strength while making subsystems damage more significant (as already proposed by the Elite mod) and equipping ships with loadout appropriate for their owners - something between vanilla I-War 2 and Elite's over the top every-single-ragtag-ship-has-the-rarest-stuff loadouts. My grand goal is to finish what several modders started.

To complete this project, I require your assistance as veteran I-War players and as critics. Although I will play-test my own project, they say that four eyes see more than two. Therefore, I would appreciate the aid of anyone who would play with my mod and deliver feedback regarding changes in gameplay experience. Anyone who is enthusiastic about I-War is welcome, though if possible, I ask for comprehensive testing, that is, using as many changed weapons as possible, fighting as many changed ships as possible, and to observe the impact on storyline missions - will three Marauder corvettes still be beatable after I tripled their hull? Advise from players regarding what I-War is about and what kind of experience would be most desirable is valuable and requested as well. To everyone interested, please inform me via PM. I will give you an announcement as to when an alpha version is ready, but rest assured, I shall not have you wait for long.

Anyone willing to contribute to my project, whether in suggestions, feedback or modding advice, as well as every modder who has delivered a foundation for my project, will receive proper gratitude in the credits.

Hope to speak to you soon,
-aceattacker.


In between life and death, there is only one dream to care for.

Sounds like fun, and a worthy goal. I spent a lot of time working on the balance for Torn Stars, and have a pretty good idea how a lot of things play out. If you have any questions, feel free to throw them my way. I will be a bit busy for testing however, as Torn Stars demands all my time.

Good to see a reply. The project is still active and I'm working on making a release-grade version as fast as possible.
I've also found a name for my modification: "Realistic Equipment, Armor and Loadout", or "REAL" for short.

I'm giving credit to MightyMidget, Indie, Hotfoot Jet for making mods I'm basing mine on and cambragol for modmaking and testing. But I need to know whom to thank for the ships and weapons rebalancing work on Torn Stars, which is also a major source of inspiration.
Edit: I think I know now, thanks.

In between life and death, there is only one dream to care for.

Actually, all that work was mine I think. Even more so on Unstable Space. I can't recall making that many changes on TS, but US is a whole different matter. Checkout this link at torn-stars.com

www.torn-stars.com/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=42

as I recently posted an article outlining the changes that went on between TS and Unstable Space. A lot of them it seems.

Alright, looks good. I'll be sure to thank you, and have already amended the credits. I've already read that changelog and it's highly interesting. I won't be trying to compete against you, I'd rather make a project good enough to hold out for Torn Stars while keeping the interest high.

Just to be certain - bullet weapons means Gatling/Assault Cannons, or all types of PBCs?

In between life and death, there is only one dream to care for.

Bullet weapons refers to the Gatling/Assault Cannons, whereas PBC are bolt weapons. Bullet weapons require ammo, as opposed to Bolt weapons which just use energy.

One thing I should warn you about, is that the non-player AI does not take advantage of weapons in the same way as the pc's AI. In particular NPC ships will not fire beam weapons. We solved that by making all ships in Torn Stars equivalent to the PC ship. They are all modelled equally by the engine. This may have taxed the engine too much back when EoC was released, but for todays processors, it doesn't seem to even cause a hiccup.