Bastard Sword of the Stars

• Bastard Sword of the Stars
  • Major Rules Changes
    • The technology tree
    • Weapon changes
    • CnC
    • Ships
    • Armor
    • Shields
    • Cloaking
    • General
    • Orbital bombardment
    • Planetary Invasion
    • Orbital Stations
    • World Growth \& Colonization
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Drones
    • Flag Ships
    • Trade
    • Racial Affinity
  • Configuration Options
  • Credits

Major Rules Changes

The technology tree

Is completely reorganized to make it more interesting and add new technologies and options to the game.

• Pace of technology acquisition in the middle and late game is slowed compared to vanilla.
• Racial technologies are always researchable by that race (e.g. Tarkas always have access to Living Steel.)
• Fusion, and even more so Antimatter ages, are much more expensive tiers, forcing players and AIs to explore more options in the current age rather than trying to "rush antimatter."
• There are many finishing touches added to the tech tree to make it more self-explanatory and easy to learn.
• There is a full tech-tree map included with this mod in the root folder so you can see what techs are where, and what prerequisites they each require, and which techs are core, and which are random.

Weapon changes

• There are a wider variety of weapons: Missiles, lasers, phasers, energy cannons, disruptor bolts, emitters, etc.
• Weapons generally have longer ranges than in vanilla SOTS. So battles begin further out and can take on a more epic feeling to them (hundreds of missiles swarming accross the empty expanse towards your fleet even before you've noticed your opponents ships).
• Most weapons have comparable firepower to vanilla. However, there are exceptions.
• Most weapons technologies are NO LONGER core. They're random. Each race is guaranteed to get at least one major weapons technology line. Everything else is random, or salvageable.
• Using smaller weapons in larger mounts offers NO additional barrels.
  1. e.g. a pulsed laser cannon in a medium mount supplies exactly one small pulsed laser cannon.
• There are explicit techs to unlock turrets with multiple barrels for various weapons systems.
• This effectively DOUBLES the firepower of a given mount (you must redesign your ship to take advantage of this technology).

CnC

Is completely revamped.

• Each CnC tier is available for any sized ship.
• So you can control the same number of ships with basic CnC destroyer as basic CnC cruiser.

Ships

Are tougher.

• It takes longer to build them, and will tie up your worlds with construction duties longer.
• This will reduce your income, as well as force you to have to build up your fleets proactively, instead of reactively.
• With intelligent management and judicious use of retreat, you should be able to keep your ships alive much longer.
• Repair is available in fission age, and there is a destroyer version of the repair ship.
• Ship Yards (formerly Repair Stations) offer a +25% ship construction rate bonus.

Armor

• Two levels of deflectives - which are good against ballistics.
• Two levels of reflectives - which are good against pulsed lasers and beamers.
• Fusion age opens up two levels of hull reinforcements - which simply make your hulls stronger but do not offer any special defenses against lasers or ballistics, and is not considered armor, so can be combined with either of the above true armors.

Shields

There are two lines of shields plus the hemispherical shields:

• Two levels of "quick-recharging" shields, which offer fast shield cycles but a quarter of the protection of heavy shields.
• Two levels of "heavy" shields, which offer slow regeneration cycles but four times the stopping power of the lighter version of shields.

Cloaking

• is available relatively early. You have been warned!

General

• You start with standard civilian / support ship construction, and can add "Combat Construction" and "Large Construction" and "Huge Construction".
• You don't have to get large or huge construction for improved or advanced CnC (due to new CnC rules).
• Huge construction require fusion technology to unlock, but does not require "Combat Construction" nor "Large Construction."
• Many of the specialized sections for standard, large, and huge combat ships are technologies that must be researched before they can be used.

Orbital bombardment

Is majorly nerfed.

• You can still do it, but it's pretty ineffectual in the early game.
• Towards Antimatter it's more effective, but you'll risk destroying the worlds in the process.

Planetary Invasion

Plays a more core role in conquest due to the nerfed bombardment, essentially, invasion is more efficient in many cases.

Orbital Stations

Are somewhat cheaper, require less maintenance, and are available earlier in the game.

• Depending on the conditions of the games you set up, you should be able to build up your core worlds more extensively into fast-ship production centers or trade hubs.
• They require 250k Imperial plus 1k civilian population so you can build them sooner on a developing world compared to vanilla.
• You are still limited to 4 stations per world, maximum, subject to total population at each world.
• Deep-space constructors appear early in the industrial tree.
• There are destroyer construction ships you can design and build which are slower at building compared to their larger cruiser sized cousins, but are available much earlier in the game.

World Growth & Colonization

• Homeworlds are no longer unique - they just start at a full 200 infrastructure.
• All worlds can grow to 200 infrastructure if they are unmolested long enough.
• However, it takes 1 year (game turn) per point beyond 100. So after an additional 100 years, any given world can grow to become a "Trantor" or "Earth".
• Zuul do not get this feature - they must expand rapidly or they will be dealing with enemies who are extremely well established (although conquering such worlds will aid them as any other).
• Population growth factors are slower than in vanilla. This will also slow world-growth, and give a longer period of time in which they are vulnerable for most races (Zuul, and to a lesser extent, Hiver, will see little change due their natural high reproduction rates).
• DE colonizers are slightly better than in vanilla in order to reduce micro-management a bit.

Artificial Intelligence

• Is wickedly more expensive.
• This increases the time you will be forced to spend researching it, and thus increases significantly your risks of getting an AI rebellion.
• They are organized in such a way that you can research whichever one becomes available to you directly, without having to be forced to always start with AI Research (which vanilla refers to as "AI") - hence if you unlock AI Fire Control first, then you can start there.
• There is no guarantee of any particular AI techs opening up. All are random, but there are multiple avenues to each one.

Drones

There are two additional types of drones:

• Torpedo Drones
• Mine Layer Drones

Flag Ships

You can build multiple flag ships once you've research Flag Command

• They are bank-breaking expensive, however, so you're not guaranteed to be able to afford even one.

Trade

• There aren't any mega-freighters - meaning you only need to set up your trade routes ONCE per game.
• Each trade route requires 1 freighter to operate it. So 1 route = 1 freighter (either Q or standard).
• Trade sectors are 50% larger - so there are fewer of them. i. This means you'll have to control more space to setup your trade. ii. They'll be easier for enemies to disrupt. iii. You will need to manage fewer of them.
• Trade Stations provide one maintainance-free trade route each.
• Trade Stations boost trade income +15%.
• Overall, trade will offer a smaller % of your income compred to vanilla. i. This is to help balance out the other changes that will boost your overall income.

Racial Affinity

• Hiver: mines, drones, COL, missiles (esp. standard and small), ballistics (esp. bursters), armor, stealth, plasma torpedoes
• Humans: lasers, missiles, emitters, drones, photon torpedoes, heavy beams
• Liir: lasers, plasma cannons, emitters, quick shields, energy torpedoes
• Morrigi: drones, COL, beamers, heavy beams, plasma cannons, disruptor torpedoes, disruptor & deflector shields, cloaking
• Tarkas: ballistics, missiles (esp. corrosive & nanite), armor, heavy shields, gluonic torpedoes
• Zuul: beamers, combat beams, missiles (esp. corrosive & nanite), disruptor torpedoes, disruptor & deflector shields

Configuration Options

I have included a couple of alternate game options (these are under TechTree folder):

1. MasterTechList.tech (also in MasterMasterTechList.tech)
   • This is the standard tech tree starting in the fission age.
2. MasterTechList (100% Chances).tech
   • This is the same tech tree, but every race can research all possible technologies (as if you rolled every possible tech you could).
   • Cost is normal, so you still start in the fission age as normal.
3. MasterTechList (All Tech).tech
   • This is really for debugging purposes: you start with every tech already researched.
4. MasterTechList (End Game).tech
   • Similar to all tech - it's as if you researched all tech available to you (but normal chances for any given tech).
5. MasterTechList (Fusion Age).tech
   • This gets you started as if you'd just researched Fusion power.
   • You start with any fission age technology that you rolled (normal chances).
   • This is a great "get the game rolling faster" option if you give everyone say 5 worlds to start with and maybe 2-5m cash.
6. In order to use an alternate tech file - you just need to backup your current one, and then copy the contents of the one you want into MasterTechList.tech
7. To restore to the standard BSOTS tech tree, either use your backup, or copy the contents of "MasterMasterTechList.tech" to "MasterTechList.tech"

Warn:

Do not change your tech file during a game.

Make sure you stick with the same one for the duration of a game.

If you really want to switch around, make sure you have the correct file installed as "MasterTechList.tech" when you load and play any specific game (same one you used to create the game with). If you switch them up, your game will become very odd, and you may crash the game.

Credits

Mordachai - The core design, coordination, and bulk of data file changes (aka Alpha Centauri). Warcat - 3D modelling of tech tree, ship sections, and some turrets; plus ideas and help & feedback throughout this process! Foraven (Rayp) - FRB Mod - Inspiration, balance, ideas, and AI generated ship-names. R2dical - Hi-res Planets, Skybox, and Nebula effects; plus his AI thread in forums on AI modding. BlueInstinct - Combined Mod - GUI face lift ideas & art (might integrate more later!) Okim - ACM Mod - Some 3D turret models, artwork, and general ideas & proof of concept. Eleahen - Custom maps I love to play on! pRev - Ultimate Starnames collection. Valerian - Non-flashing note indicators. Drages - Icon art & ideas.