Let me look at this ability... There's a couple things I could do to make it work better.

I just copied the whole sins folder, do i need to copy anything else located elsewhere, like where your savegames are located or anyplace else? I think i have autouppdate turned off, but you never know, better safe than sorry.

Yeah me too, i just dont want unpleasant surprises so figured id ask incase you knew something i didnt on this. Got an ETA on next version by the way?

Also have you ever considered enlarging the grav wells like some mods have done?

With the pending 1.3 release here's my current plan.

I will release one more version for Diplomacy 1.21. This will include many of the fixes already for the released races.

I will not release Hypercorps as they aren't near finished. I'd like to feel they were atleast in the 80%+ range for a first release.

I'm going to work this weekend to get the Release 2 patch completed and ready to go by next Monday or Tuesday which means I'm won't be releasing anything this weekend.

After the patch to Release 2 is done and no major issues are found I'll start back up with the Hypercorp race and Moon Bases for Diplomacy 1.3 in addition to fixing any issues with the patch.

Tentatively, I'd like to get a new private playtestable release for Hypercorp and Moon bases ready by the 29th which I think is doable. Just bear in mind dates are very elastic and can sometimes be broken

I also want to see if there are any new toys with the Diplomacy 1.3 release.

Thanks for your guy's help again. It's much appreciated.

I have not really considered this. What advantage does an enlarged gravity well have?

Does 'Raid Ports' on the Green Arcadia function?  It doesn't give a good description of what it is proposing to do, and no details as to the material benefits in terms of resources gained or even whether I just gain control of the enemy structure.

Pirates probably wouldn't relinquish a structure in that manner anyway. It makes more sense to me that pirates would loot the structure and they activate the self-destruct, so as to further thumb their nose at it's original owners. What you could do instead is exchange control, but also have the ability confer an effect onto the structure which causes it to be destroyed after a certain period of time.  A dot effect of something like...200 damage every couple seconds with a duration set at something like a couple minutes, which would usually ensure that the structure will eventually die off unless repaired.  The best solution is to transfer ownership and have a countdown at the end of which the structure receives some ridiculous amount of damage, so as to ensure it dies off, like taking 10k in damage.

Hmm i have not really thought it through, i just took a long hard look at the planet and the action that went on around it and thought "damm this sure is a small space, with these 2 fleets nuking it out here it dont seem to be much room left" and then i looked out the window and up into the sky and thought abouth how vast space really is and even if a battle took place around a planet it would hardly be crowded even with hundreds of ships having a go at it. I dont really have any arguments beyond that it felt crowded lol.

Logically i think larger grav wells would be better for larger planets, not asteroid'ish planets. Imagine a fleet orbiting our earth and then imagine one orbiting our moon, huge diff there, and as such the place around the moon would be alot more crowded. Hehe.

But as you pointed out there are negatives too it aswell so meh, i dont know. I just dont think the tiny grav wells do much justice to space as it really is. But hey then no game can be totally realistic.

By the way: maybe one race should have attack satelites as their orbitol weaponry. Similiar to satelites we use today just more sci'fied up. I dont know it just suddenly struck me as a nice orbital weaponry with a little charm. <shrugs>

Now a second thought struck me, what if a race could plant attack satelites in places now owned by them, i know some ships have that sorta allready but what if they could actually deploy it there, like setting up a blockade of weaponiced satelites around an enemy planet, blockading them, or cutting off a trade lane. It would need to be done by a ship abbility i reckon and that abbility would need to cost, more than normal prob. or maybe it could be built beforehand and then jjust released from a vessel and into orbit. Just a crazy idea, would make for a cool change though. Or hell it could even be a ship. Like a tiny starbase with no number cap. you build the "satelite" its initially eqipped with a engine to get it to its location or something and then you just build it when it reaces its destination, now it would need to have a cap in some way so either it uses your fleet cap or it uses the planets cap regardless of ownership. or, i dont know, just a crazy idea that came to me when i was writing this heh.

Also you know of the structure in distant stars that let your planet fire missiles at enemy ships, its like a controller that does targeting etc, would it be possibly to make a new planet build part that would be offensive in nature, it could say be linked to the planets population, and do less damage as the number went down. So if someone dont like beeing shot at from the planet, they had better start bombing it into oblivion, and say they get the planets health to 10%, well then the damage coming from the planet wil be tiny, simulating that the orbital weapon systems have taken losses from the bombardment, similiar to the population in itself, and similiar to the poulation growing back up, the weapons get rebuilt. Hmm hmm. In my oppinion this would help the stance that sins have taken where the planet is just a big dumb rock that just sits there, no launching figthers or missiles or lasers or whatnot from earth, no no, if we dont have any junk floating up there we are just totally helpless, no just ignore the hundreds of nuclear silos we ahve that are capable of sending a missile up there. Hehe. People should fear a planet! Not just use it as a toilet for their bombardment. Best would be if it could be different from planettype to planettype aswell. I picture more weaponry on certain planets vs others.

I think the best way to produce what i choose to call "attack satelites" would be to let a ship build them, they would cost fleet cap and would be stationary once built OR let them fly around on their own without weapons and beeing fragile until they set up and build up like a starbase, although they would need to cost cap still  ofc. Both these ways should work fine, its a matter of flavour only.

Aslong as they cost fleet cap it is pretty much the same as building a ship. only difference is a ship has engines and can move around. This means that the "satelite" for lack of better words would need to be somewhat better than a ship ofc, seeing you sacrifice movement for something, firepower, hull, shields whatnot. So yeah you could use this to turtle around a planet, but so can you by having a fleet there. Only difference is that with a fleet you have a mobile strikeforce that can go on the offence aswell as beeing defensive while with the "satelites" you have a stronger  force but without the ability to move.

In any case, just another idea. This could fit with alot of factions aswell. I originally thought of it as either hypercorp or archailect.

Well it would have to be balanced so to make it usefull offcource, in cost and power. Its only redundant if you dont achieve this balance. Could also let them use their engines to relocate to a new position, but make them move somewhat slow, or maybe not letting them move beyond a grav well after their initial set up, to simulate small thrusters or something that lets them steer around the planet (just like real sats, just better) Lots of options. They dont need to take up fleet cap but they do need to be balanced in some way, cost is not enough alone. Just using the idea on normal stationary orbital weaponry is feasible, but need to be toned down to not make it overpowered. You cant have gaus turrets that moves like ships within a grav well, cause they would make for a hellishly effective defensive fleet. Good luck taking those out when bolstered by a descent fleet and some caps. Would need to as i said add some balancing stuff like not beeing able to fire while moving/moving slow etc.

Mines are allready mobile -to a degree, they lock onto ships in close proximity and fly at them, i assume the easy part of making them "moving" would simply be to increase the radius where they could lock on. Or it would be more like small suicide ships, i allready suggested that for the rogues, as in taken from the old concept of a fire ship, but it could easaily be implemented for any race just wrapped in different clothes. I thought that Suicide ships with no weapons just used to ram and explode the enemy would make for a fine special feature for some race.

Mobile mines with turrets? <cough cough>

I dont think we should overdo the "more makes better" for archailect either, its okay that they get a research boost when they get say more planets but to take that to also go for ships and stationary defences, hmm. Just seem to me to be beating the poor hen to death repetedly.

Tactical structures that boost allied stats i have no problem with, but that should go for everyone or maybe a special fation that were heavy into diplomacy and cooperation. Or just come up with a good explanation for the faction in question. I must say i dont exactly see archailact as the great benevolent sharer of benefits.

Faster does not mean smarter. More processing power do not neccesarily mean you will come to a better conclusion, this is often a mistake made today by people who think IQ actually means a shit, well it does in a indirectly sort of way, just not the way they think it does. Now dont get me wrong i am not saying you are like this, i just had to say it as it is one of my pet peeves. Hehe. Everyone want allies though aslong as those allies contribute in a positive way and to their benefit -not detriment. I just dont see why Archailect stand out from any of the other factions in such a way. I would think that TEC for instance with their great love of trade would be more suited for this, or hypercorp maybe. Archailect actually have a horn in the side to what they see as their oppressors so they will probably be wary of anyone not like them, because that were the kind that bound them in earthly shells. Also Archailect are distinctly different from other factions, and lets face it, differences do not make for great alliances -common ground do. Also i seem to remember you wanting them to go "Exterminate Exterminate" and here you want them to be the friendliest of friendly.

Zombie has been very vague on purpose as he has repeatedly stated that then people can make up their own mind as to what they picture a faction will be like.

I agree with the possibly rebellion factions, that would fit in nice if zombie decides to go along with seed or not seed.

I think you see them as some sort of skynet super AI, bound by the same rules as an AI, and i cannot speak for Zombie but i think this way of seeing them is rather booring and i would rather they be something else. Zombie allready has the TITANS for that role. But hey if Zombie want them to be AI's then thats what they will be.

I do not think that theyr processing capacity should be that much controlled by the hardware availible to them, if so then they loose all "digitalized person" character and simply becomes a standard AI. And that would be kinda blah in my humble oppinion. Just my personal meaning offcource, its totally subjective.

I am also awaiting Zombies response to what kind of ships they will have, i do believe he has said something abouth smaller ships possibly beeing built by the capital ships. I say go for a unique approach and drop out smaller ships, if anything let them deploy satelites or platforms or something like that.

Yeah true enough, the AI would never be able to use it properly. Too bad it could make for some fun possibilities.

I hardly ever use mines as they clutter up my screen with lot of useless blips, and its annoying having to redo them after every assault, but i can see the charm in a minefield i just dont think its that fun in sins the way its currently implemented. Your ideas wasnt bad though.

I like what you lined out there for the Archailects, its pretty near what i was visualising aswell, so im happy.

I like the seed AI concept too.

What did you think abouth implementing the Archailects stationary defences to be slowly movable within the grav well they are built in, same principle as the vasari starbase, in a sense they would be like slow moving ships unable the leave the grav well, i thought it was kinda a interesting proposal, and it would def go over well with the AI, seeing as right now he pretty much just throws up some turrets here and there for a ramshackle defence, with this type he would move them like ships whenever anyone entered the grav well, so in theory should be a harder nut to crack. But maybe it dont fit with the concept or would be hard to implement.

Do you have any known crash bugs in this mod?

I downloaded your latest version (V.3) last night and sorted out the complete version as per your instructions, but afetr a couple of hours playing as the Rogue Trader transhumans, the game suddenly crashed out of sins...it just stopped working, no error message or anything.

I have the latest version o diplomacy (1.21 i think).

The crash aside, i really love the look of the Rogue Trader ships and at how quick they build things.

I think i may have the settings too high, having read a few other bits here on the forums.

There was an autosave, but how do you load from an autosave?

Lasty, does the latest version of your mod work with the latest version of Distant Stars?

Thanks.