Modding questions

[President_Elect_Shang]

1) Is there any known way to get the Crew Quarters effect to stack? I.e. I place the Crew Quarters ability on one component and now it counts for meeting two Crew Quarters requirement.

2) Does �Reduced Maintenance Cost - System� ability stack? If so is there a way to restrict this?

[Suicide Junkie]

I'm sure only the best value in the system for that maintenance reduction works. Otherwise crystalline races would be clearly superior to anything else, with massively negative maintenance costs in their homesystems after a year.

There is no way as far as I know to double the ability amount.
However, you COULD make a mount which reduces the component to half size and half cost. That would serve much the same purpose.
Also, you can add the crew quarters ability to a custom bridge for -1 to CQ requirements.

Having combination LS/CQ components is also good, but it is tough for AIs to use.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Thought about the mount idea but that won�t work as both must be the same size and a combined LS/CQ is not in the game plan.

[Suicide Junkie]

Why exactly do CQ need to be the same size as LS?

Perhaps if you expanded on what you are trying to do in context, we could suggest completely new ideas, too.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Oh and one more modding question. Is there a way to let small craft transit warp points? I know there was not a method to do this before; however, �before� for me is version 1.7x.

As for CQ and LS being the same size I am not sure where that came from. The question was to make a component that could do double CQ duty. LS is a completely separate unit. Here is what I am trying to do though:

There is 1 type of LS which I have included and is size 10kt and cost 25; don�t worry about the economic unit but the integer price is relevant so I must list it for you.

There is 1 type of CQ which I the question revolves around (obviously it is not included yet) and is supposed to do double duty and is 10kt at cost 5.

Put them together and you have 1 LS and the equivalent of 2 CQ at 20kt and cost 30.

You also have 1 CQ/LS component at 10kt cost 15.

It may sound like you would always want to buy the combined cheaper unit that does both; however, as ships get larger the combined unit is not cost or space effective.

For example on a 22 hull space frigate you could use the combined unit for 10kt at cost 15. On something like a 130 hull space Dreadnaught you would need 5 combined units for 50kt at cost 75. The single unit LS and double duty CQ by comparison would be 1 LS and 3 CQ for 30kt at cost 35.

So a double duty CQ can support 50 hull spaces and 1 LS can support 5 double duty CQ�s. A combined LS/CQ can only support 25 hull spaces of crew.

Confused yet? See you in the morning�

[Suicide Junkie]

Ok, then.

The main idea is that lifesupport requirements are nearly flat-rate, and CQ goes up fast.

If you are focussed on the cost, and are not worried about taking damage and having the backup CQs work, then how about this:
Have two components. Crew Option A, and Crew Option B.
Use mounts to make these two options whatever size and cost is needed for each hull.
Players pick either A for your combo-LS/CQ, or B for the Divvied up LS/CQ

[President_Elect_Shang]

I am not following what you are saying SJ could you please go into a little more detail?

I would like the cost and size to stay constant (values are in the post below). And with this next line I am going to reverse what I just said; keep in mind the key word is �like�. An idea I have been toying with is adjusting one of the variables; meaning adjust the cost of the CQ/CQ and CQ/LS so the CQ/CQ becomes more attractive as hulls get bigger. This should be no problem because the CQ/CQ will take less space. That�s option one. Option two is to adjust the size of the CQ/LS and/or CQ/CQ. In either option the stand alone LS stays unchanged.

I have not thought this out to any sort of a conclusion, there are still many more components to add and that is where my focus is now.

How about the second question I added. As of version 1.78 Gold no small craft could transit a warp point. Has this been changed since then or is this restriction still in effect. If it is I know how to get around it; however, it will mean the craft I want to make will be counted as a ship and you can�t land a ship in a hanger bay.

[Ed Kolis]

You want to make fighters that warp, or ships that can go into cargo? That's not possible in SE4, but might be in SE5, if what Aaron promised us a while back about custom vehicle types still holds true...

[President_Elect_Shang]

I want to create a fighter that can warp. I didn�t think was possible but with all the patches that have come out since I last played I thought it was worth asking. I am glad to hear that it may be possible in SE5; that was one f the items I put on the wish list in the Tell Aaron what you want thread. I see that has become a sticky. Man it was nowhere near 155 pages when I was last here. Kind of scary if you ask me and that is also the reason why I have not tried to read through all of it yet.

[Suicide Junkie]

President_Elect_Shang said:
There is 1 type of LS which I have included and is size 10kt and cost 25; don�t worry about the economic unit but the integer price is relevant so I must list it for you.

There is 1 type of CQ which I the question revolves around (obviously it is not included yet) and is supposed to do double duty and is 10kt at cost 5.

Put them together and you have 1 LS and the equivalent of 2 CQ at 20kt and cost 30.

You also have 1 CQ/LS component at 10kt cost 15.

...

For example on a 22 hull space frigate you could use the combined unit for 10kt at cost 15. On something like a 130 hull space Dreadnaught you would need 5 combined units for 50kt at cost 75. The single unit LS and double duty CQ by comparison would be 1 LS and 3 CQ for 30kt at cost 35.

So a double duty CQ can support 50 hull spaces and 1 LS can support 5 double duty CQ�s. A combined LS/CQ can only support 25 hull spaces of crew.

Ok, the idea is to make a SEP component and a CMB component, both of which will include both lifesupport and crew quarter ability.

For the frigate, you make a mount, which changes the sizes and costs to:
CMB - 10size/15cost
SEP - 20size/30cost

On the dread:
CMB - 50size/75cost
SEP - 30size/35cost

Overall, it kind of begs the question of why you really need to bother with offering the choice. For any one hull, there will be an optimum choice.