Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion

[parabolize]

Swarm said:
Please do - It would be a real shame for this mod to stagnate.

Could you also correct the repair rates of temporal spaceyards? ( the figures are correct in the descriptions, but wrong in the Ability Val field)

Done, though I am a bit wary of what this might do to high tech games.

Unco said:
Hey Parabolize,

I'm glad Devnull isn't dying.

I kind of like your Anti-Fighter Missile changes. After playing a bunch of Devnull games, it always felt like fighters were powerful in the early game but lost value in the middle to late game. I like that you reduce the damage and range on the early components, but is there a reason why you increase damage and slightly reduce range on the later components?

Thanks again!

PS - A year or two ago, Spoon and I had some other change ideas for Devnull. I'll try and dig them up and post them here.

The range on level 4 did make them powerful but half the time they would be shooting something off screen. So I lowered the range and made up for it in damage.

I am thinking about updating devnull's SystemTypes.txt, StellarAbilityTypes.txt and QuadrantTypes.txt. Rollo made parts of these text files stock other parts FQM 1.13. The FQM parts really need a upgrade to 1.22 but editing around Rollo's files is a pain. Considering FQM has stock-like maps in it (with some extra abilities) would anyone mind if I flat-out replaced the text files with FQM 1.22?

[Grandpa Kim]

I think the changes still leave the anti-fighter missile much too powerful. The range is still far too great. To me, point defense implies shooting down threats right on top of you. An in-your-face, short range defense. The current AFM and the proposed still allow a fighter to be shot at twice before it even gets close enough to loose its own guns.

[Spoo]

parabolize said:
I am thinking about updating devnull's SystemTypes.txt, StellarAbilityTypes.txt and QuadrantTypes.txt. Rollo made parts of these text files stock other parts FQM 1.13. The FQM parts really need a upgrade to 1.22 but editing around Rollo's files is a pain. Considering FQM has stock-like maps in it (with some extra abilities) would anyone mind if I flat-out replaced the text files with FQM 1.22?

Sounds good to me.

[spoon]

For the planets, you'd have to make extra effort to make sure the Extra Huge planets and Stellar Moons remain in the game. I'm not sure if this would mean modifying the FQM files or not.

[Ragnarok-X]

Yeah, spoon is right, i almost forgot. Hopefully Fyron can tell us, im out of modding since months.

[Fyron]

As long as the FQM STD secttype.txt and planetsize.txt files, which are just the stock files, are not copied over, those should be fine. Artificial planets are constructed via items in components.txt and the extra huge planet is still a "huge" sized planet as far as SystemTypes.txt is concerned.

[Fyron]

An addendum about the stellar moons:

I see that they are an ancient ruins tech. That ability needs to be added as a possibility to stellarabilitytypes.txt. But the actual tech, components, and planet entries should be fine.

[parabolize]

Grandpa Kim said:
I think the changes still leave the anti-fighter missile much too powerful. The range is still far too great. To me, point defense implies shooting down threats right on top of you. An in-your-face, short range defense. The current AFM and the proposed still allow a fighter to be shot at twice before it even gets close enough to loose its own guns.

Anyone second that?

The Extra Huge planets work. Here is whats done so far:
Version 1.71
19.05.2005:
* Changed - Added in Imperator Fyron's smoothed population modifiers.
* Fixed - The Create and Destroy Storm components are now destroyed on use.
* Fixed - Added more slots to all of the formations to keep ships together better in combat. New formations thanks to Imperator Fyron.
* Changed - Anti-Fighter Missile range/damage and chance to hit.
* Fixed - Temporal Space Yard Facility Component Repair.
* Changed - SystemTypes.txt, StellarAbilityTypes.txt and QuadrantTypes.txt to FQM Standard 1.22
* added - ruins tech: artificial stellar moon to the new StellarAbilityTypes.txt

[Unco]

For the Anti-Missile change, I think the changes should be a little more even and reduce their power across all components. Below is a table of what you are proposing to change. I've also added a row that would be what I would propose.

AF I
Old: Range 6, Damage 50, Weapon Modifier 80
New: Range 4 (-33%), Damage 40 (-20%), Weapon Modifier 60 (-26%)
Unco: Range 4 (-33%), Damage 37 (-26%), Weapon Modifer 60 (-25%)

AF II
Old: Range 8, Damage 65, Weapon Modifier 90
New: Range 5 (-38%), Damage 50 (-23%), Weapon Modifier 70 (-22%)
Unco: Range 5 (-38%), Damage 49 (-25%), Weapon Modifer 67 (-26%)

AF III
Old: Range 10, Damage 80, Weapon Modifier 100
New: Range 7 (-30%), Damage 100 (+20%), Weapon Modifier 60 (-25%)
Unco: Range 6 (-40%), Damage 60 (-25%), Weapon Modifer 75 (-25%)

AF IV
Old: Range 12, Damage 100, Weapon Modifier 110
New: Range 10 (-17%), Damage 125 (+25%), Weapon Modifier 90 (-18%)
Unco: Range 8 (-33%), Damage 75 (-25%), Weapon Modifer 83 (-25%)

Grandpa Kim said:
* Changed - SystemTypes.txt, StellarAbilityTypes.txt and QuadrantTypes.txt to FQM Standard 1.22
* added - ruins tech: artificial stellar moon to the new StellarAbilityTypes.txt

In regards to the system, stellar and quadrant changes, what exactly does this do? I'm not familar with the FQM mod.

Thanks!

Unco

[Fyron]

If you use the "classic" quadrants, the only difference will be some extra ability possibilities on stellar objects and added abilities to the Gold system types that were nothing but pictures in stock SE4 (such as organic infestaions, which cause random movement and damage to your ships). If you use a FQM quadrant, there will be more moons and actual belts of asteroids (unless you select a "No AST" quadrant type). FQM adds many new options for quadrant types, including various relative levels of warp points and planet densities across systems. I'd recommend loading up FQM (standard) and checking out a few maps.

The version of FQM included in Devnull is/was in dire need of updating.