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Expanded Space Warfare II

The second iteration of Expanded Space Warfare is here. The mod has been completely revamped and reworked. If the previous version was mostly incompatible with the majority of mods on the workshop, this new version, should be around 99% compatible with everything.
Instead of directly touching vanilla files, the new mod will introduce new technologies that will play the same role as the previous one had.

old version: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2798635473

Bear in mind, the mod was made with the objective in mind to make wars, much longer and harsher to fight. Wars will now require a significant industrial base, perhaps even more resources than vanilla, however distributed on a longer timescale

planned update:
- ground warfare related technologies that will make planets much more defended over time and possibly a planetary decision that will allow the AI to make planet fortresses

Features that the mod introduces:

The cost of the ships has been reduced by -50% as a starting tech and the build speed increased by +50%. The upkeep has been untouched. Later in game you will be able to get access to 3 new technologies, Refit Standards II, III and IV that will allow you to reduce the upkeep of the ships. As fun and chaotic the previous version of the mod might have been I've decided to balance out a bit more this version. Still if you play with a lot of planets or bigger galaxies, the AI and yourself will still end up with lots and lots of fleets.
In this version I have not buffed space monsters, marauders or FEs. I play with an add-on of my mod that makes pop growth much slower and greatly decreases the immigration. (Not present in this version of the mod, as it supposed to be purely a military enhacement project) So buff them accordingly to your own needs.


I've added 12 new technologies to buff the starbases as a first step. The first 4 are for everyone, Advanced Fortifications, every empire can research. The other 8 can be ONLY unlocked by empires that had finished the Unyielding Tradition. It will unlock the tech Fortress Doctrine that buffs starbases further and Auxiliary Defences, a tech that buffs defense platforms.
Another problem with the starbases is their quantity, too few to have any significant impact. Now owned systems and pop will have a direct impact on the number of allowed starbases. In early game is well balanced and later allows to fortify entire sectors, creating fortified chains. I've noticed that the invading force can seriously take attrition damage just by taking the starbases, without any counterattacks from the enemy side.
I have planned more to do in future.


A total of 5 new technologies will boost further the naval capacity of empires. It was a compromise to allow tall empires to be able to be relevant. The tech called Doctrine: Advanced Logistics, adds 90, 120, 150, 180 and 210, for a total of 750 naval cap.
The original solution was to add naval based on pops. This feature still remains, for example, 100 pops give 25 naval cap. This makes fighting large empire extremely dangerous, also wars between large empires can be indeed wild.

The fleet command limit has been expanded with 3 new technologies. Each adds 40, 60 and 80. In such way 50 fleets can be reduced to a more modest 25-30. To avoid managing too many fleets and having bigger fleets fighting eachover looks cooler.


I've buffed the base health of the armies in defines by 3x times, invading planets takes longer. Orbital bombardment will kill easier and quicker the pops, as well as ground combat. In fact ground combat can completely destroy colonies if too few pops are present and battles take a long time. Max numbers of ships allowed to count as bombarding a planet has been updated to 9999, meaning bombardments by large fleets can be quick and devastating. Especialy with a slower pop growth mods, can result in serious depopulation. A good solution to late game pop lag, if nothing else. Planet health has been expanded, so devasted planets, will take longer to start rebuilding and the regen rate is slower.


As in the previous version, ships are slower and will engage each other over a minor distance. I would advise to play with many hyperlanes. The mod shines more in that specific scenario.


I've revamped even more the randomness of combat. Ships can get massive buffs and debuffs while engaging each other. Since we longer speak of 2 or 3 fleets fighting each otther but 20 to 30 fleets on each side of conflict and even more in case of allies involved, casualties are so much more random. Smaller fleets can defeat larger ones, larger ones can completely obliterate smaller ones, etc. This makes the combat more realistic in my opinion, as battle never go as planned.
I plan to make ground warfare as random as space battles but it's a more complicated issue unfortunately.

War exhaustion has been reworked again. Ships count less towards it, but lost armies more. Also I've added one additional tech to further reduce it. As usual the 24 month peace has been removed and upon reaching 100% WE you got severe debuffs that can and will hinder your empire. But if you can keep going on to fight, you have all the right to do so.


The mod should be compatible with almost everything. It does not touches vanilla, except the defines file (it was has its own file). Still you can overwrite some choice by loading other mods over it, such as AI mods. An issue could arise with mods that add more ship classes. In that case a compatibility patch that adds a starting tech that reduces the cost and build time is required, otherwise you will pay the vanilla price for the new classes of ships.


TO DO LIST
- improve espionage to cause revolutions, civil wars and collapses
- improve ground combat and make it random, bigger invading forces that can be defeated and even decades long sieges of planets
- add technologies, related to the military aspect for each tradition (added only for the unyielding tradition)
- add quality vs quantity decision for empires and the swarm tactic for certain devourer empires. Basically have unique fleets. For example less ships but very tough to kill and viceversa. Swarms will have basically unlimited fleet command limit, allowing them to doomstack because why not, they are swarms hiveminds. In nature it works, should in space too.
- war crimes broadcasting and pubblic outrage system
- planetary defences, ground cannons
- piracy revamp
- political decisions to provoke other empires into wars and joining wars mechanic
- mass mobilisation decision