itll be worth it

It's not the size that matters...

Currently the size estimate for Episode I actually is somewhere between 300 and 500 megabytes. Can't help it, its all the gorgeous textures and stuff.

Oh, but they can beat them for utility. Hegemony will have very structured fleets, tailored for a thinking admiral, requiring careful mixing and matching of units to achieve performance greater than both the Xin and Remnant. With Xin you can always go for either smash-through tactics or hunker down behind formidable defenses. With Remnant, you've got to be quick and can easily outmaneuver your enemy or overwhelm their weak points. With the Hegemony you will have to employ mixed unit tactics in order to prevail.

Also, the new gravity wells are so large that it actually can take several minutes for a ship to cross it, so you can have real flanking maneuvers, position your vital structures way back out of the way of phase lanes etc. - star gravity wells are huge now, you can trap entire fleets right there with some judicious use of tractor beams, phase disruption abilities and deployable starbases.

Is this mod out yet?

oh, and by the way, the whole z axis. it was deactivated in the 0.5 patch, and it would add a huge amount of strategy if it were re-added

I think Star/Clad remoed it because the AI sucks and rather than fix it they decided to screw over the human players.  I'm guessing that being able to do vertical attacks and let the player get free shots at the tops and bottoms of ships would add too many tactical elements to the game.

And since Star/Clad removed it, I think they are the only ones who can add it back in.

Really?  Wow.  Just as soon as DANMAN finishes updating 7 DS for 1.096.

Well, I think 1.1 is going to be released sooner than Episode I, so 3D maneuvering is going to be in, of course. Nothing I can do about it with the AI unfortunately.

Speaking of maneuvering, a few words on the invisible part of mod making, the awesome art of stat juggling!  There have been a few major changes in how the game plays, for example you can lose your capital ships quite easily to static defenses now, if you're not careful, and maneuvering your fleet is going to be a must. For example, and this is especially useful for multiplayer, a valid tactic is now to hunker down inside the firing radii (which have been drastically increased) of your static turrets and thus maximize the firepower you can bear. Consequently, the build time of static defenses was increased, as well as their overall cost, to prevent unlimited spammage.

Oh, and you can forget about rushing in with LRF's... they have a lower range that static defenses, and those defenses can tear them to shreds. Strike craft now have a far bigger role in gameplay, as the static defenses are very vulnerable to them. Of course, no turret wall is complete without some anti-fighter frigs... that's where you use your assault frigates, which I find can generally swoop in and kill off enemy anti-fighter ships while the majority of your fleet positions itself outside of the kill zone... alternatively, each faction will have one capital ship capable of projecting fire at extreme ranges, sort of a space version of a trebuchet, so simply hunkering down inside your little fort is not going to do you any good if those come out to play... anyway, a little bit of stat rearranging can go a long way in making the game more tactical in nature.

The goal is to eliminate "planet-hopping" and actually require players to *think* when sieging a planet, not just to blow up colonies and rebuild them, again and again. Also a major goal is to design the mod in such a way that you have to use mixed unit tactics in order to perform well. Spamming a single unit type or having one "uber-strategy" is not fun. If at all possible this should be minimized.

Wait.  So the Clans Remnant can't spam fireships?

I think I want them even more than the Xin from what little you have said.  Spamming weak, easily destroyed ships with lots of powerful missiles.  Nukes and more.  Damn it ManSh00ter stop making me wait!

Fireships are still in as far as I am concerned, but they will have, like all other units, their place and purpose. Being essentially just a bunch of bombs and fuel tanks strapped together with scrap metal, they are going to be very cheap but also quite easy to destroy. One use for them would be to take out powerful, well armored targets (like starbases), sine their relative speed would allow for mass attacks and static defenses simply can't take them out fast enough. But, if the enemy has fast attack ships positioned properly, then you probably wouldn't make it.

Remember, it now takes a couple of minutes to cross a gravity well. Positioning *prior* to engagement is also important. If your attack frigs are on the wrong end of the gravity well, by the time you get them in range, those fireships could very well reach their target. One other possible use is to use your regular fleet to lure the enemy ships out to the edge of the gravwell and then surprise attack with a fireship group waiting on the edge of the adjacent gravwell, taking out, for example, their big capitals before the enemy has a chance to react. I'll *try* to put in a repulsion effect so that the explosion also scatters the ships about, both enemy and friendly, adding that much more havoc to the melee.

In any case, I'll strive to make each faction unique, with unique strengths and weaknesses, requiring different approaches but not boxing the player in with them. So you can still fortify your positions with the Remnant and attack agressively with the Xin, you just won't have as many tools for the job as the side which revolves around that theme.

Hey since v r tlkin bout out manuvering... wudnt b great to hav a fast hit and run frigate in one of the factions?? light on armour but fast and has damgeing port weapons.. so it fly around the enemy firing at them.. they take on less damage coz of their speed.. best to use anti strike fighter weapons... bigger weapons hav a high rate of missing..

Another idea to use against AI wud b to hav colony ship or a planet bombardment ship jump in to atract the fire and then hav the fire ships to do their stuff []

tht wud b the easiest way, sure u might loose a few important ships but it can break the back bone of a fleet in one move...

Hey i heard bout spamming alot.. but i dont know wat it is?? can someone explain it to me??

Thnks for explaining spaming.. i really think tht increaseing build time on structure may not b a good thing... coz the more u slow things down(huge gravity wells, build times, etc) will surely put value on their structures and make ppl fight harder but then a game can bcme one sided if someone makes a mistake.. there wont b tht amazing rebound tht makes a strategy game so awesome... If u make defence to hard then once a couple of forward bases r broken trough thenit will b almost impossible for a player too counter attack effectively, most of his time will b spent on sealing up his frountier planets... but lets see, how it plays out.. i cud b wrong..

i wud love to b a beta playtester im askin every1 actually...