13-4-2003

- Reverse Weapons Concept Mod for Cataclysm
(Version 2)


-Installation:
To install extract the RWCmodCata.zip into your Cataclysm directory (usually C:\Sierra\Cataclysm). It will create the following files and folders:
race_beast (folder with Beast ships)
race_sect (folder with Somtaaw ships)
tweak.script
researchdepend.script
english.script


-Introduction:
(This is a mod for Homeworld: Cataclysm. Select word wrap to read this text.)

The basic idea of this mod is to keep the original ships but change their weaponry in accordance with the following strategic philoshophy:
In weapon (and ship) design and placing there must be a compromise. Speed for Power. The stronger a weapon is the slower its bullet should be and vice-versa. So in game terms beam weapons are fast so their power should be less and projectile weapons should be more powerful. This sets the role of beam weapons as anti-strike craft weak weapons and projectile weapons as powerful capital ship killers.

This idea arose from the multy-beam frigate for obvious reasons. A few altereations in the game-tech stories and justifications is needed. The Ion-beams were manly capital ship killers and required huge space. Now beam weapons are mounted on every small fighter. In game-tech story terms this is justified by saying beam weapons are small Lasers and Ion cannons do not exist any more. Also energy cannons no longer exist because they are in essence guided projectiles and go against the dogma of beam weapons as anti-strike craft weak weapons and projectile weapons as powerful capital ship killers. Missiles still exist though and make a nice compromise of power and accuracy (at low speed), more so since their speed, maneuverability and accuracy were increased. Projectile weapons were intended to start as Mass-drivers, and later to be upgraded to Plasma Bombs but unfortunately the game refused to conduct the upgrade. Because of this problem all weapons now start as Plasma Bombs. In game-tech story terms it is reasoned that medium Plasma Bombs already exist at the start of the game and it is their miniaturisation or enlargement which is researched. Miniaturisation for the Attack Bomber and the Heavy Corvette, enlargement for the (previously Ion) Plasma Bomb Array Frigate and the Somtaaw Destroyer.


-Version History:

Version 0.9 BETA:
(This version only changed the ships' attributes. The english text and more importantly the research dependencies were not altered so while playable it was unbalanced and a bit messy. Still it was uploaded and ready for download by anyone interested in the project)

Beam weapons replace projectiles in sentinels and all strike-craft except Attack Bombers and Heavy Corvettes which are armed with small Plasma Bombs.
Beam weapons replace projectiles in Processors, Carriers and the Motherships. (note: Mothership's guns made to fire continuously, at least when they are healthy. Remember that beam duration shortens as ship health is lowered. They resemble tracer fire or Second World-War searchlights piercing the night sky for enemy aircrafts. This idea came to me from an episode of Babylon 5 with Earth advanced Destroyers which incorporated Shadow tech/vessels into their hull. They were destroyed by the White Star fleet at high cost of lives. If you have seen this episode you'll know what I'm talking about. This is completely irrelevant to the game but I couldn't leave this bit of trivia about the greatest Sci-Fi series of all times go unmentioned!)
Ion Array Frigate now sports a very large Plasma Bomb launcher which makes a wonderful big blue explosion on impact.
Hive frigate projectile guns replaced with medium Plasma Bombs but swarmers remain the only unit with projectiles in the game. The game-tech story reasoning is that they have short range machine guns or autocannons.
Heavy Cruiser's 4 beam weapons in its nose replaced with medium Plasma Bomb Launchers. The 6 side projectile turrets replaced with beam weapons for anti-strike craft coverage.
Destroyer projectile turrets replaced with beam weapons. The two large Ion guns were replaced with very large Plasma Bomb Launchers for capital ship killing much like the Beast Array Frigate.
Dreadnought projectile turrets replaced with beam weapons. The two large Ion gun remain unchanged as beam weapon because frankly their placement made more sense as anti-strike craft than capital ship killers. Still with their power unchanged they remain a threat to capital ships and are now the strongest beam weapons in the game. More on this subject to follow.


Version 1:

Research dependencies (and times) changed (finally).
Read each individual research description to see what ships it is required for. Especially beast players should not trust their research manager to provide correct information in the selection window to the left. The correct data is in the info window to the right. The Heavy Corvette for example requires Small Plasma Bomb research but that fact is not evident.
English.script slightly altered to accomodate changes.

Beam weapons for strike craft changed. They were previously set to very short duration and very quick firetime to apear like rapid fire beam weapons movies (like the Minbari small fighter's guns in Babylon 5) but it used to much CPU power (I think) and it just didn't look good, maybe because the beam were too 'fat' for the small ships. I wanted thinner beams like the laser beam of the Defense Fighter of the old Homeworld. So I increased the firetime and the duration to more reasonable levels.
Minor changes in various ships, mainly weapon balancing.
Missile speed increased from 1250 to 1500. Accuracy increased from 50%/70%/90% in evasive/neutral/aggressive to 70%/80%/90%.


Version 2:

Sentinel (both Beast and Somtaaw) now requires 2 SUs instead of 3 (the Beast Sentinel actually did require only 2 SUs in the original Cataclysm although the build manager text said 3, one of the many small errors of the Barking Dog team).
Support units altered slightly (The total is now 500 SUs for either race):
Beast Mothership now provides 120 SUs, up from 65.
Beast Mothership's Support Modules still provide 15 SUs, but their maxhealth is now 10000, up from 7000.
Beast Carrier now provides 100 SUs, up from 96. Their maxhealth is now 45000, up from 40000. Cost is increased to 4000 from 3500.
Somtaaw Mothership now provides 100 SUs, up from 70.
Somtaaw Mothership's Hangar Module now provides 40 SUs, up from 30.
Somtaaw Mothership's Support Modules still provide 10 SUs, but their maxhealth is now 5000, down from 7000.
Somtaaw Carrier now provides 60 SUs, up from 40. Their maxhealth is now 40000, down from 42000. Cost is decreased to 3000 from 3400.
Somtaaw Carrier's Support Modules now provide 10 SUs, down from 12. Their maxhealth is now 5000, down from 6000.

Research dependencies and time changes completed (Check them out in the file researchdepend.script) according to the new usefullness of each tech.
English text greatly altered to accomodate changes and fix errors. Also the build manager now displays the correct information.

Barking Dog made a few obvious errors in the ship files which I tried to correct. For example the Somtaaw ACV (sacv.shp) has a thruststrength[TRANS_LEFT] 550 while the right one is 250. The correct attribute is 250 after comparisons with the beast version, etc.
Plasma Bomb Array Frigate range increased to almost 14km from about 7km to resemble a catapult like unit. FOW (fog of war) radius increased to 14km from 12km to compensate. Passive Retaliate Zone also changed to 14km from 7km. The damned cloaking is always canceled because the frigates decide to attack everything in sight even at neutral tactics so maybe I will set the retaliate zone to 0.
Hive Frigate Plasma Bomb range increased to 9600 from 5600.
Destroyer Plasma Bomb range increased to 9500 from 7500.
Missile maneuverability increased. rotational acceleration increased to 160 from 60 and turnspeed increased to 3.5 from 1.8. Forward thrust/acceleration increased to 1000 from 800 but breaking or back thrust decreased to 200 from 400 to better simulate the missile's makeup.
Minor changes to a few ships like increasing both Sentinels' speed to match their respective Carrier, etc.
Multi-beam Frigate upgraded a bit. It only requires frigate drive research now that beam weapons are commonplace. Also its weapons now enjoy an 80 degrees arc each, which used to be only 60. 
Major changes to Beast Worker. Maximum resource unit (RU) capacity was decreased from 500 to 470 in the first (and only!) official patch. I have further reduced it to 450 BUT the mobility of the Worker was improved (though it remains lower than its Somtaaw counterparts). The Somtaaw Worker was not only faster and more maneuverable it also collected RUs 50% faster, harvesting asteroids for 3 RU's every frame while the Beast Worker's rate was 2 RU's per frame. Now the Beast Worker harvesting rate was increased to equal the Somtaaw. Also the Beast Workers speed was increased to 395 from 365 so it is no longer slower than Beast frigates. Acceleration in all directions was increased to 300(m/s^2) from 200. The Somtaaw Worker retains its 400(m/s^2) and remains a better and cheaper ship, but not by much. With decreased capacity and increased harvesting rate the Beast Worker is bound to make even more trips home, and its increased mobility suits it well. This change also suits the Beast player because they can build a processor right from the start of the game to handle all those return trips and avoid traffic jams. Expert players may still have to manualy dock a few workers in the beginning!


-Future Versions:
(Here future changes are discussed)

The Dreadnought is now a heavy missile cruiser with 'air-defense' turrets. The two large beam weapons were not changed from the original Dreadnought and remain useful in capital ship combat. The bottom-back Beam turret can't fire forward well, a difficulty which is further amplified by the Dreadnought repulsor cannon which sometimes gets hit. One idea is to change these two weapons to anti-strike craft trrets like the rest and maybe make the missiles heavier for better performance against enemy capital ship. However the missile attributes are universal and only the damage multiplier can be changed for the Dreadnought specifically without affecting other missile bearing ships. Another idea is to change the two large Beam weapons to plasma bombs for increased efficiency against enemy capital ships. Maybe the other 4 medium beams should be changed to plasma bombs too. That would relegate all the anti-strike craft work to the missiles. A fresh idea is to use the previously extinct energy cannons since the energy cannons research is now the Dreadnought systems research and is only useful for its construction. Maybe the 4 medium turrets could hold energy cannons and the two large should remain beams or plasma bombs or maybe all 6 turrets should 'carry' energy cannons. Ofcourse I would rename them to something more catchy like anti-matter torpedos!
Also I would like to include more information in the in-game texts. Especially the time required to research or build each item. The ship info in the build manager was corrected but more info could be added there too, like a ship's maxhealth instead of useless armor values. And maybe a correct calculation of firepower too!
