ANNOUNCING: General Pant's Invasion Tactics

Operation Overkill

One of the frustrations of invasions is that you have few tactical options. Worse, those options are not very flexible with respect to circumstances, specifically how much money you can throw at the problem, and how much collateral damage you are willing to accept.

This mod adds seven new, carefully balanced invasion tactics, for a total of fourteen. These tactics fill out the spectrum a little more evenly, and hopefully add some additional flavor to invasions. Most of these tactics are either very cheap or very expensive. Naturally, there is a tradeoff in effectiveness and collateral damage in each case.

NOTE: One additional (very powerful) invasion tactic I designed can be found in my forthcoming "Super Techs" mod.


INCLUDED TACTICS:

ATTACK BONUS:
Orbital Bombardment (free, somewhat effective, very messy)
Steel Rain (cheap, ineffective, not too messy)
Orbital Siege Platforms (expensive, very effective, messy)
Mercenaries (very expensive, very effective, clean)

DEFENCE PENALTY:
Enhanced Radiation Attack (moderately-priced, somewhat effective, clean)
Rods from God (expensive, very effective, clean)

DEFECTION:
Insurrection (very expensive, moderately effective, clean)


These tactics were balanced based on statistical analysis of the parameters of the existing tactics, as well as game experience; there should be no game-breakers here. All tactics available are now listed in groups on the invasion dialogue screen, with those that affect the attacker's advantage factor first, then those affecting the defender's factor, then those that cause troops to change sides. Within each group, options are ordered by cost.

Enjoy! Please do send along any comments you might have, especially if you notice balance issues.

WWW Link to Mod
2,729 views 3 replies
Reply #1 Top
[singing]
It's bump, it's bump, its bump, it might be lame...
Reply #2 Top
Very slick stuff Pants. This will definetly be seeing playtime in my next game. Your upcoming mod, Super-Techs sounds interesting. I look foward to hearing more about it. Anything that gives me new, balanced, options to play with is a huge plus in my book.
Reply #3 Top
Thanks for the encouragement Aggie (Oil Aggie... TAMU?). Let me know how the balance works out... the statistics were based on the premise that the built-in tactics are appropriately balanced.

Super Techs will take a while... work is getting busy, the mod is taking a LOT of development time, and it will also be a terror to balance. The idea is to give you something to do with your research infrastructure in the endgame other than have an "office party" and wreck it, or research a tech victory. Each tech tree branch has a new sub-branche of very expensive techs, consisting of a "keystone" tech that opens up five new options. The options are thematic, so they may not make sense in the context of the main tech branch; e.g., the "super computing" branch is based on memory engram implantation (uh... what?), and includes super soldiering and super population growth. Some of the techs will be attainable earlier, but will basically be a short-cuts (e.g., maximum life support, maximum sensors).

I'm trying not to just make more-of-the-same; there are "super weapons," but they are more like the Nazi V-weapons (powerful but clumsy) rather than just having a better space/ damage ratio. The super life support and super sensors (those aren't the names, BTW) don't add new components, they max out your racial ability so you don't have to put any of the relevant components on your ship.


If you like balanced mods that add a variety of play options but don't significantly change game dynamics, I'll probably finish my political parties (32 of them, carefully balanced) first. Also upcoming, a rebalance of small ships in two mods: a "small components" mod, with half-components ("small" weapons are slightly more efficient on smaller hulls), and a capital ship weapons mod (how can bigger weapons help smaller ships, you ask?).