I get asked a lot about the content or the mechanics of the Balance Mod... so I put together some FAQs with some answers. The FAQ is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Balance Mod FAQs - General Gameplay

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Q: What's the purpose of the Balance Mod?
The original idea for the Balance Mod was to become the standard game's data set prior to SE:V's release. However, being too late for the release, the mod became an alternative to the standard game which was considered by many players to be under developed and unbalanced. Currently, the Balance Mod provides a set of relatively balanced data files and a more developed AI to help players enjoy their SE:V experience.

Q: Why are there fewer tech levels in the Balance Mod?
There are a number of reasons why the Balance Mod reduced the overall number of tech levels. The reasons included balancing requirements, gameplay benefits, increasing play-style variety and AI development.

Trying to keep facilities and components in scale with each other over 100 tech levels is quite difficult. For example, a Depleted Uranium Cannon (DUC) in the standard game does 20 damage at level 1 and 515 damage at level 100 - a 25x increase. However, other game elements like component / facility / population structure does not follow a similar increase and the effect of the DUC becomes imbalanced to other game elements. The general rule of thumb when revising the tech tree for the Balance Mod was for items to approximately double in their output/ability from their lowest to highest tech level. This helps keeps various game elements in balance with each other.

In the standard data files, most tech areas have very low base costs and small increases per level. Most of the time, a single level gain in a tech area is not a worthwhile upgrade - so most players will wait a few levels before deciding to upgrade a design or facility. In the Balance mod, tech levels are grouped up and a more significant improvement in output is added so that each improvement justifies a new design or facility upgrade.

One complaint with the standard data files was a lack of variety in weapon usage. Each weapon had a lot of tech levels and finished with about the same value, so once players had committed to a weapon branch it didn't make much sense to switch back to another weapon since you had already committed millions of research points. The Balance Mod rearranges the weapons tech tree into layers, progressing from lower tech weapons to higher tech weapons. This allows players to diversify their weapon usage throughout the game and opens up more playstyles.

For the AI, having many tech levels at a low cost causes a number of issues. Unlike their human counterparts, the AIs doesn't have much analytical capability and cannot decide when to make a worthwhile upgrade to their designs. In short, they end up making many new designs and have to restrict their retrofitting. It also makes it more difficult to develop a dynamic AI research pathway.

Lastly, even though there are fewer overall levels in the mod, there is still plenty of research to be done. When all factors are considered, such as research output and tech costs, the "research time" length of the Balance Mod tech tree is very close to that of the standard game.

Q: What are some of the other technology tree changes? Updated!
Discounting the changes to the number of tech levels, the requirements and shape of the tech tree are generally the same as the standard game. A few notable changes include the addition of the Vehicle Systems tech area, which is a requirement for improvements to Life Support and Crew Quarters; the earlier availability of Fighters, Space Yard and Remote Mining components; and the "branching" points for engine and vehicle hulls.

Compare the Balance Mod's tech tree with the Standard Game's tech tree:
Current Balance Mod v1.17/v1.18 Tech Chart
Standard Game Tech Chart

Q: How does the propulsion system work?
The Balance Mod requires larger ships to use more engines than smaller ships to go the same speed. This is often referred to as QNP (Quasi-Newtonian Propulsion) in the Space Empires modding community. Essentially, each engine in the mod adds a fixed number of movement points. The ship's resulting in-game movement is the total number of movement points divided by the vehicle's movement point requirement to generate 1 movement. For example, if your Frigate has 5 level 1 Ion Engines supplying 100 movement points each and your Frigate requires 40 movement points to make 1 speed, it will have a maximum speed of 500/40 = 12. The result is always rounded down. Lastly, movement bonuses from racial traits or solar sails are added on to this value to generate a ship's maximum speed. Some bonuses of this system are that you can mix and match engine types and it helps to equalize the value of small and large ships.

For combat, a ship's speed with be it's movement points in km/s. For example, if a Frigate has a maximum speed of 12, it will move at 12 km/s in combat. The only exception is Fighters. They will have travel 1.5x faster in combat than through a star system. For example, a Fighter that has a maximum speed of 10, will travel at 15 km/s in combat.

Q: What are the Components that can be counted towards Cargo Requirements?
In the mod, many additional components can be counted towards cargo requirements on freighters. The purpose of this change was to encourage the use of freighters. Valid cargo components in the mod are: Rock/Ice/Gas Colony Modules, Supply Storage, Ordnance Storage, Ordnance Vat, Space Yard, Repair Bay, Cargo Bay, Fighter Bay, Satellite Bay, Drone Launcher, Mine Layer, Mine Sweeper, and Remote Mining components.

Q: How does the Intelligence System work?
In the standard game, a project could only be successful if the selected intel project's cost was greater than the defending player's intel defense points - an all or nothing approach. All unused points under the standard system would accumulate.

In contrast, the Balance Mod uses a "leaky" intel system. A success percentage is calculated based on the number of attack points a player has, the project cost, and the number of defense points the target player has. The result is that even a weaker player may enjoy some intel success against a stronger player and makes it more difficult to overwhelm an opponent with intel alone. Defensive intel points do not accumulate between turns as it is assumed they are actively being used to deter intel operations by other players.

The success percentage of an intel project is determined as follows:
Success % = Attack Points / (Attack Points + Defense Points * 5 + Project Cost) * 100

Q: Does the Balance Mod use Fyron's Quadrant Mod?
The Balance Mod incorporates the majority of FQM's changes to SE:V except for the revised planet textures. At this time, I would prefer to keep the Balance Mod self-contained and not require additional downloads - particularly hefty graphic downloads.

If you'd like to integrate the Balance Mod with the complete version of FQM, some instructions can be found here:
Fyron's Quadrant Mod Help Page

Balance Mod FAQs - AI

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Q: What Are Some Recommended Settings for Solo Player Games? Updated!
I usually recommend the following settings for solo games:

• Auto-generated AI opponents - Allows them to use their race-specific AI instead of default ones
• High Computer Difficulty
• Low Computer Bonus - Helps provide the AI with a slight numerical advantage
• At least 2,000 Racial Points - Allows AIs to pick specific racial traits that they are setup to use
• 500,000 Starting Tech Points - Allows AIs to grab a few of their preferred technologies early on, improving their diversity
• Quadrant that has about 8-12 systems per player - Helps improve turn times and provides space for the AIs to spread out and establish themselves
• Avoid Neutral Empires - If you're prone to manipulating the AI to gain advantages, you'll want to avoid the temptation of neutral AI empires

To make things a bit more challenging, you can always refuse your starting tech points as a way to give the AI a bit of boost, particularly if you like to micromanage more.

Q: What are the AI's ministers doing anyway?
Learn more about the Balance Mod's AI ministers here:
Balance Mod Minister FAQs

Q: What are the AI's states?
The AI can be in 1 of 5 states listed below with a brief description:

• Explore and Expand - No other empires known
• Infrastructure - The default state when all other states are false
• Defense - Enemies are in the AI's territory
• Attack - Enemy targets are vulnerable to attack
• Not Connected - The AI is isolated from the rest of the map (For example, a "Warp Points Not Connected" type game)

The AI's state will influence a number of AI choices, including some diplomatic, research, and construction choices. The AI's state is determined each turn.

Q: How does the AI make diplomatic decisions?
AIs in the Balance Mod respond to other players politically based on two factors - one is anger and the other is fear. The AI's category (Peaceful, Neutral, Aggressive, Xenophobic) also comes into play as a modifier for the AI's anger and fear values. The AI's anger level is generated primarily by events that affect the AI Empire negatively, such as combat or sabotage. Each event has an anger level and severity, which are stored in the AI's memory. More serious events can contribute to the AI's anger level for many tuns. Other contributors to anger include political status (treaty, no treaty, war) and sometimes from enemy ships or planets that are nearby. The AI's fear level is based on the score difference between the AI and another player. If the AI is stronger, the fear value is positive and indicates confidence. If negative, fear indicates true fear against that player. Anger and fear together are used to determine diplomatic responses, such as accepting a treaty, responding to a demand, or declaring war.

Q: How does the AI make or accept treaties? Updated!
When receiving a treaty proposal, the AI looks at each treaty element. Every treaty element has a base anger level to accept and a concession value. If all elements are acceptable to the AI Empire, it will accept the treaty. If a few elements exceed the AI's anger level towards the proposing player, it might offer a counter treaty with revised elements. For some elements, even though they met the AI's basic requirements, they might be considered useless or not applicable and they will be removed and a counter-proposal made. A weaker AI will accept more concessions than a stronger AI due to its fear value. When an AI offers a treaty, it uses it's anger level to determine what type of treaty to offer, such as a Trade agreement or a Non-Aggression pact. Each treaty type has certain conditions that are always added, while others get choosen if certain conditions are met. The specific element values added to the proposal will depend on the AI's anger and fear levels. A stronger AI will seek more concessions, while a weaker AI might offer some concessions.

Q: How does the AI handle surrendering? New!
A strong AI empire will considering demanding for a weaker empire to surrender when they're at war with them and it considers itself to much more powerful. When an AI empire is asked to surrender, it first checks to see if its basic surrender conditions are met. This is a threshold fear level of the stronger player. Then there's a bunch of other factors the AI will consider - is it at peace with the requester? Is it being asked too frequently to surrender? Does the AI's personality suggest it should try and fight to the bitter end? Does it want to spite the powerful empire and surrender to one of the stronger player's rivals? If the answers to those questions are no, then it's likely the AI empire will give up.

Q: How does the AI research?
The AI divides it's research based on the 4 classifications of technology: Cultural, Theoretical, Applied, and Weapons. From there it typically follows a list of tech areas to add to its research queue. The research points spent in each area will depend on the AI's current state and the amount of research points it has. Every tech area for the AI also carries a priority value that's attached to it. Depending on its circumstances, an AI may rush more critical areas of research. With respect to weapons or racial tech areas, each empire-specific AI has extra instructions to research a particular group of weapons or components.

Check back for new FAQs on a regular basis!