smart targeting computers, my tuchus.

[Aggrav8d]

I have two PVCs and a MML in my team and expensive targeting computers. When combat begins they are firing away, cutting through bad guys very nicely. I'm down to one enemy ship that is closing on my vessels and for the life of me I can't understand why they aren't making a strategic withdrawl to stay out of range of my enemy's medium and short range weapons. Long story short my ships are destroyed trying to get/stay out of range.

Am I being too *****y or does this sound like something that should be fixed?

[Aggrav8d]

Also, here are some modding ideas

1. Dyson spheres/ring worlds:

For those of you who don't know, a dyson sphere is a sphere build all the way around a sun and a ringworld is...well, i think you get the idea.
It's both a ship and a planet. It could very well be armed.
There's no sun visible on the map with a dyson sphere.
There can be spheres inside spheres and vice rings inside rings.

2. Flotillas

Finding a relic around a sun is one thing. Finding a ship full of frozen people in the middle of nowhere is another. Find a whole *planet's worth* of people is yet another.

I guess that's all I have for now. Happy modding!

[TaoLibra]

Neither a Dyson Sphere nor a Ringworld is scientifically plausible. The volume of raw material necessary to build even a small Ringworld (let alone a Dyson Sphere) would require that the builders plunder the complete mass of hundreds, possibly thousands of whole star systems � and then transport all of that mass to the building location, too. Even if that were physically possible, they'd obviously want to take that mass from the nearest star systems to where they were building it � so when they were done, there wouldn't be a single moon, planet, or even another star for thousands of light years in every direction. That Dyson Sphere or Ringworld would be the only object on the entire map.

The only other (ahem) "plausible" way to acquire the necessary mass would be if the builders had direct energy-to-matter conversion � but if they were that powerful, they wouldn't need to build such a thing.

Of course, plausibility doesn't necessarily matter in a game any more than it does in Science Fiction novels; but neither a Dyson Sphere nor a Ringworld could be portrayed correctly in the game anyway, because of the monstrous scale of such objects. It would have to enclose its star, not orbit it, which simply cannot be done in the game.

[Higgsboson]

I just can't let this one pass by...

If you are operating on a sufficiently advanced technological level (i.e. like Weird Worlds), then building a dyson sphere or ringworld is completely possible. It is still a massive undertaking, but the benefits are similarly massive. Consider a standard dyson sphere that uses some standard super-tensile sci-fi metal to get away with a 1-meter thick shell. The sphere would have only 280 times the mass of Earth. If you assume 1-1 elemental material conversion (again, a not-unreasonable assumption for any culture considering actually building one), then you could build the whole thing using just Jupiter and still have ~37 earth-masses of material left over. While you're at it you could filter out all of Jupiter's He-3 and use it to power the entire conversion process.

Of course, dyson spheres are really impractical. For one, your useable surface area on the inside is a small fraction of the actual area. A 1 Au radius sphere would have the internal surface area of 553 million earths, but most of it is uninhabitable. A ringworld is a better option. A ringworld with 1AU radius , a width of 10000km and a thickness of 100 meters has about the same mass as Venus. Even better, since Venus is solid you don't need any fancy atomic conversion stuff. Just send over a few Von Neumann nanobots and le them do their thing for a couple centuries. When it's done you'd still have 18440 times the surface area of Earth.

Some of the above calculations I borrowed from Zubrin's text Entering Space, which is a truly excellent book if this kind of thing interests you at all. Something Zubrin does not consider, however, is the idea of a small ringworld that doesn't enclose its host star. Like the rings from Bank's Cultureverse, these would simply orbit the sun. if you assume the axis of rotation for such a ring is nominally pointed directly at the sun, then inducing a slight axial tilt would allow for day/night cycles without having to add any kind of sunlight interruption mechanism (like on Niven's ringworld). They aren't quite as efficient as a real ringworld, but they are easier to build and you can use the first while building the second, etc. These could also be easily implemented in the game: just replace the planet graphic with a ringworld graphic and the appropriate description.

Regarding the "need" to build such a structure: No matter what kind of power plant is running your fridge, you still need a place to keep it. Having direct energy to matter conversion does no excuse a society from this necessity. Besides, A sufficient;y advanced society might build one because they want one, or just to see if they could do it. Maybe they would want one as a tourist destination, or to impress the less advanced species.
An alternative for modders who just want an impressive planet in-game to place cool tech on is to have a planet with several space elevators linked in geosync orbit. It still looks cool, requires advanced tech to build, and can easily be handled by the game engine.

[TaoLibra]

First of all: Regardless of construction materials (or where you get them), a Dyson Sphere would be useless because GRAVITY is impossible on the inner surface of a Dyson Sphere. {See the Dyson Sphere FAQ, or even the Wikipedia entry on Dyson Spheres.}

Secondly: Building either a Dyson Sphere or a Ringworld requires the ability to disassemble whole planets, the ability to convert matter into energy (and vice versa), and the ability to rebuild matter on an atomic level. So when you allude to "benefits" from building such a thing, you're talking about "benefits" that simply do not exist for anyone capable of building it. Think about it: What exactly are those "benefits?"

Capturing a larger percentage of the energy output of a star? Why would you need it? If you have such godlike technology that you can convert matter into energy, then you already have an endless supply of energy.

18440 times the surface area of Earth? Again, why do you need it? If you can disassemble whole planets, and can control matter with the ease necessary to fabricate your hypothetical (and impossibly dense) Dyson Sphere & Ringworld building material, then why would you waste it building anything that's tethered to the gravity well of a star? You could far more easily build mobile planets orbited by their very own artificial micro-stars.

I repeat: Nobody who could build one would need to build one. It's just irrational.

[Graeme Dice]

TaoLibra said:
First of all: Regardless of construction materials (or where you get them), a Dyson Sphere would be useless because GRAVITY is impossible on the inner surface of a Dyson Sphere.

Unless of course, gravity manipulation is part of having sufficiently advanced technology.

If you have such godlike technology that you can convert matter into energy, then you already have an endless supply of energy.

It's not completely endless. The stars are still converting large amounts of matter into energy, and you will eventually run out of matter to convert.

If you can disassemble whole planets, and can control matter with the ease necessary to fabricate your hypothetical (and impossibly dense) Dyson Sphere & Ringworld building material, then why would you waste it building anything that's tethered to the gravity well of a star?

Because you can?

[nihilix]

What were the enemies? I'm a little unclear on the setup. They aren't supposed to retreat for you, that's for sure (but that's not what I think you were having a problem with...)

[Phoenix-D]

The computers don't do anything *but* target. If you want movement you have to order it yourself..

[Aggrav8d]

The enemies were the buzzing robot guys (red variation).

I didn't want them to retreat, I just wanted them to maintain a constant distance.

[nihilix]

The Tan Ru Decimator - the ones with PVCs, right?

They're pretty fast... to maintain distance from them you need to have thrusters that are fast enough... depending on your ship type. If you had the Terran Frigate, I'd think you'd need Ion Impulser thrusters.

This is an example of why you put a fighter out front. If you have your fastest ship in the front when you start, and then they lock onto that, you can distract them. Fly that in one direction, the rest of your fleet in another.

But they have good targeting abilities, and if one of your own ships with the PVC is close enough to fire on them, they'll fire on you. The Multimissile has the range to plink away at them, but that does take some time.

If you don't have a ship to distract them, you'll need to pretty much run away, then turn to fire, then run away again. (like - not 'run away = retreat', but fly away from them)

But that's not the targeting computer. That's range and ship speed issues.

The Sardion Optimizer does increase your firing speed - the other does not. Targeting computers help out beam weapons the most, aside from the rate of fire increase.

Dual PVCs are huge fun, though!