Changelog:
v2.1.4.0
- Made compatible with the Stellaris 4.0 patch.

Good Idea I say! I will give it a try, thanks!

I don't use ESC and I mostly mod for my own fun, so I'm not motivated to make patches for mods I don't use. But anyone who wants to make such a patch is welcome to do so. My mod is pretty simple and lightweight, integrating it into a bigger mod shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I really like this mod. It makes fighting each AI empire a lot more unique. Would it be possible to get a patch for Extra Ship Components in the future?

In principle it ought to work fine, but I plan to update over the weekend.

Has anyone tested this on 3.12 yet?

The mod doesn't change the weapons themselves, but it does make the Autocannons technology rare and a fair number of AI empires don't even get the option to research it.

Does this address the fact autocannons are absolutely doggoshitto tier and the AI consistently cripples itself by LOVING them? Or are ACs still bad and the AI still loves to slap them on everything, but now they can be rare?

This mod works by tweaking existing weapon technologies. If the other mod adds new technologies and the author wasn't stupid and put the new techs into vanilla files, then they should work fine together.

Are there any problems using this with "Star Wars Weapons and Ship Components 3.11"?

I would wager it wouldn't be a problem because the Star Wars mod adds completely new weapons and components and does not touch the vanilla weapons and components. Wondering if my feeling is right about that.

Ah, was hoping to learn something. ^.^ Thanks for the prompt response!

Just sloppiness and failing to keep up with script updates. Should be fixed now.

Lot of script errors in the log, on all the research_leader calls. Any reason you aren't updating to has_trait_in_council ones?

My educated guess is that it works with them just fine, but I haven't actually tested it.

Does this work with Technology Ascendant and Technology Diffusion?

Oh convenient, I just swapped to StarNet AI a few days ago actually, so that's nice to know, i really appreciate how much thought you've put into this mod, i'm even more excited to get into a war now, makes for more strategy than just bigger number wins

The mod does also make researching available weapons a high priority for empires, which was done for compatibility with StarNet AI. If I kept the priority at normal levels it might well happen that AI would never research weapons for people who use StarNet AI.

For players who do not use that mod this means that you can expect AI empires to have more highly developed weapon technology than is otherwise normal. Seeing how that's just effective play I decided this was the better option compared to not increasing weapon research priority.

To give a bit more info, empires that favor energy or kinetics will choose between plasma and autocannons because those two are either of the preferred type or combo effectively with the preferred type. And all empires already can research lasers, railguns, kinetic artillery, lances and cannons.

And empires who favor explosive weapons (missiles) or strike craft will choose between swarmers and disruptors because both of those weapons skip shields, just like the empire's favored weapon. The reason I didn't allow autocannons as an option for these empires is because that would make autocannons too common. The reason why I didn't limit empires who favor explosive weapons to just swarmers is because disruptors do allow you to research arc emitters down the line and I didn't want them to be too predictable.

The mod limits which technologies show up as options for the AI to research. For example, an empire that favors energy weapons can only get the research options to research Plasma Throwers (because they are an energy weapon) or Autocannons (because they combo effectively with lasers). It also only gets an option to research plasma weapons if it has access to Exotic Gases and it only gets an option to research autocannons if it has access to Volatile Motes. And then once it has researched one of the two available types it won't be given the option to research the other.

So the empire can only ever pick a signature weapon that is either of the preferred type or mixes well with the preferred type and it can also only ever pick a weapon that it has the strategic resources to use.

Is the Research option still available to them ? Or do they only have one random option ? Also appreciate the quick response

i'm mostly worried about the AI screwing up the "one weapon specialization" as the AI mods might give researchers another priority, or do none of the other specializations show up for them at all ? So they don't even have a chance to pick it

@cat
Yes, it should work well with any mod except other mods that directly modify weapon technologies. This mod doesn't actually touch the weapons themselves, it only affects the technologies that allow you to use the weapons. As such it has a very high level of compatibility with other mods. It works perfectly alongside my Smarter Ship Design mod.

@Starempire42
I don't use Gigastructural Engineering, so I can't answer the question 100%, but as long as the mod doesn't change the vanilla weapon techs the two will be compatible.

does this work with other ai mods ? aswell as the smarter ship design one ?

Just wondering Does this Work with Gigastructural engineering?

Yes, it works on older versions of the game too. I even set it to not display the wrong version warning for any version of Stellaris from 3.0 onward. The mod would technically even work for anything since 2.0, but works best for 3.6 and onward.

So yes, it's perfectly fine to use it with 3.9 version of Stellaris.

Does it work with 3.9(.3)? I know 3.10 just released, but that's a buggy mess right now and I'm still in 3.9.3.

The mod should work fine with the 3.8 patch for Stellaris. I'll still update it when I find the time.

this mod seems very cool! but i would like to see if this is compatible with the mod "Ultimate Technologies" :0

Yes, First Contact didn't change any game files relevant to the mod. Actually the mod should work fine with any version of the game from 3.3 onward.

I still updated the recommended version number to 3.7 to avoid any confusion on the matter.

Has anyone tested if this works ok with 3.7?

Cool, thanks!

The mods actually aren't editing the same files. Signature Weapons modifies the weapon technology files and ARB only modifies specific non-weapon technologies. The mods are fully compatible.

Can you please tell me if this mod will conflict with the mod "Additional Balanced Repeatables" by [Boo]?

Both mods say they edit some of the same files, but as I understand it, in recent versions of Stellaris, it is possible to create mods such that they make edits to a game data file but also allow other mods to make edits to the same file, something that wasn't possible... 1-1.5 years ago, I think it was.

v2.1 - part 2/2
- The Space Torpedoes technology now requires the Fusion Missiles technology.
- The Kinetic Battery technology now has the Railguns technology as a prerequisite instead of the Advanced Railguns technology.
- The Kinetic Artillery technology now has the Railguns technology as a prerequisite instead of the Gauss Cannons technology.
- The Proton Launchers technology now has the UV Lasers technology as a prerequisite instead of the X-Ray Lasers technology. AI empires should only research it if they favor energy weapons.
- The Neutron Launchers technology now has the X-Ray Lasers technology as an additional prerequisite.

v2.1 - part 1/2
- Fixed Giga Cannon, Tachyon Lances and Focused Arc Emitters technologies having the draw weight and cost of tier 4 technologies despite being tier 5 technologies.
- All weapon technologies except point defense weapons are now among the least common and most expensive technologies of their technology tier (subtier 3).
- Point defense weapons are now among the most common and least expensive technologies of their technology tier (subtier 1).
- Empires are no longer more likely to research weapons that match their preferred weapon type.
- AI empires will now research only one or two out of autocannons, disruptors, plasma and swarmers. The choice is influenced by the empire's preferred weapon type and available rare resources.

The biggest reason for the change is how previously you had to decide in advance which two weapon types to pursue and avoid researching any others. The new approach has similar functionality, but without penalizing you for researching the wrong weapon technology.

2.0
- Update for 3.6
- Changed how mod works. Now the first technology in a line of weapons is rare and upgrades are normal technologies. For example, Autocannons and Space Torpedoes are rare technologies, but Ripper Autocannons, Stormfire Autocannons, Armored Torpedoes and Devastator Torpedoes are all normal technologies.

Updated recommended game version to 3.5. No further changes.

It's sort of compatible. My mod only covers the weapon technologies of the unmodded game and doesn't directly interact with the new weapons from ESC. So the signature weapon effect will only apply to a point.

You should not get any errors though.

Hi, thanks for an awesome mod! Do you know how this mod will interact with Extra Ship Components? Will it just ignore those new weapon sets, or will something mess up?

Great tnx! Im in 2240 so i think theoretically it shouldn't be a problem then, as i only researched basic weapons.

All my mods can safely be added in the middle of a game, but if you've already researched too many different weapon technologies Signature Weapons won't have much of an effect.

All your ship and tech/ship mods are mid game compatible?

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION:

I released a strike craft mod that's meant to be used alongside Signature Weapons. Starfighters! increases the number of strike craft hangars to 22, divided into seven groups matching the two types of point-defense and five types of basic weapons. You unlock each type of SC by researching an appropriate tier of SC technology and a matching weapon. For example Plasma Throwers + Carrier Operations gives you Plasma Strike Craft while Guardian Point-Defense + Advanced Strike Craft gives you Guardian Starfighters.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2842935489

I made a new mod called Refined Weaponry that rebalances vanilla weapons to make the early ones still have some use even in the late game. https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2840205674

very cool mod

That's excellent news! Thanks Dragatus.

Actually, I think the two mods are compatible, as long as you load them in the correct order. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that if you have Signature Weapons below Balanced Space Warfare in the modlist you should get all benefits of both mods.

So pleased that this has been updated to 3.3!

Something which would be really cool with this would be compatibility with Balanced Space Warfare - or at least, a compatible fork/subversion.

Updated version number. Implemented Technocracy effect, no other changes.