Space Food Empires!

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

Lots of stuff going on in regards to the mod. First of all is the the new website: http://sfe.captainkwok.net/home.html, which is currently up to date. I've neglected to update the space yards part with the proper info, but I figured working on the mod itself is a priority at the moment.

I've finished off the components.txt file as much as is possible before mass testing and I'm fairly happy with it. I ended getting a lot more done with the file than I anticipated for the initial release. It's just under 1.5Mb!

The facility.txt file is the file I'm working on right now entering data for various empire-specific facilities. Those should be entered by Tue March 15. These are mainly the facilities listed on the technology pages at the website as "data pending" for notes.

Then I have to update the AI Design, Research, and Facility files to match the recent changes I've made to the mod. It shouldn't take long because they just need to be updated and not re-written. This should allow for some basic AI with some degree of functionality for testing.

Lastly I need to make empire files for the main empires (a cut and paste job) and decide on some initial trait values in line with their strengths and weaknesses. Oh yeah, make some combat images for Meat thru Vegetable races (it's always alphabetical for me) so that means about 40 little pics to do.

Note the mod will not require the imageMod at this time. All images used are stock ones, and the combat pics come with the mod.

I really want to get it out by next Sat March 19.

[Renegade 13]

Captain Kwok said:

I really want to get it out by next Sat March 19.

Yay!

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings!

I have roughly 90 facility entries to do now, plus a few touch ups. That's about 3hrs of concentrated effort to get those in order.

Components are more or less done for now, even went ahead and added all the boarding party components which I was going to do for a first "patch" - hence why I didn't finish those facilities off.

That leaves some combat images and a night of quick testing (Friday) so I should still be on target for Sat 19 March!

I've been updating the Empire technology pages as I've gone along. A number of them are now complete with no "data pending" fields. You can visit the Space Food Empires site, http://sfe.captainkwok.net/home.html to get an idea of what to expect if you haven't done so recently - lots of changes over the last year of fiddling around. And read those empire info pages, even it's just to see how it's possible to describe the mating habits of 10 different foods!

[Ragnarok-X]

[Caduceus]

Impressive website Captain Kwok. I would love to see some more of the ship and facility pics!

[Captain Kwok]

Well, that's the plan! I've neglected the graphics part of the mod for some time now so that's why there hasn't been much in terms of new ships or planets, as I want to design them with SE:V requirements in mind.

Now that I'll be getting the data portion of the mod circulated and out of the way, I can turn my focus primarily to adding graphics and other enhancements. It works out quite well with the upcoming SE:V release because any graphics I make for the SE:V version can be easily patched into the SE:IV version to finish it off.

[Captain Kwok]

I'm calling it a night - but just a few more facilities (15 entries!) to go plus some a few obvious balance corrections to make. It's become somewhat apparent that the facilities are not at the same level as components or weapons, but I'll be sure to fix that in the next few weeks with some feedback.

Not much else to report, but I figured I'd be somewhat more accoutable if I posted frequent progress updates.

[Renegade 13]

We appreciate the updates

[Captain Kwok]

Another update:

I've finished off and debugged the Facility.txt file as well as set up some basic empire files for each race. Still need to make some combat images, update a few of the important AI files, and do some play-testing to fix any glaring problems so Saturday afternoon still looks good!

I'm not thrilled with the quality of the facilities thus far, but oh well, I can fix them up over time.

You can view the fully updated technology section that will represent the first release at the Space Food Empires website.

[Captain Kwok]

So I go set up a 10-player game with all the empires controlled by me and what's the first thing I notice? I completely forgot to assign 5 of the empire files a colony tech! After spending like 30 minutes on the first 5 empires' turns designing ships etc.