New tech mod plan

[Suicide Junkie]

Take a peek at the other ruins techs, and copy them.

Within the TechArea.txt,
"Unique Area := 4"
is the key, and must be set to a value greater than one.

[Phoenix-D]

I did that, and it still shows up.

EDIT: DOH! Minor typo. I has 0 instead of 1 in thr required tech.

Phoenix-D

[This message has been edited by Phoenix-D (edited 02 September 2001).]

[Phoenix-D]

Few other bug fixes, but I've got a fairly major AI problem.

The mod has upgraded Versions of some ships. The AI wil research them fine, but then it won't use them! Even when, say, Cruiser IV is available, it still uses cruiser I.

EDIT: OK, found a fix. Not the best way for it to work, but it will have to do. Adding 10k to each size as it's upgraded does the job. That won't work for fighters and sats though..

Phoenix-D

[This message has been edited by Phoenix-D (edited 03 September 2001).]

[Phoenix-D]

Beta 4.5 time! Rollo pointed out a few problems.. fixed. Fighter cost increased, Missile Rack and Launcher adjusted, AI adjusted.

This is mostly because of Rollo being willing to stay up til 1 AM to do a fast test game with me Bug fixes, changes to allow the AI to use the bigger ship sizes, AI changes for better early-game performance.

I kinda forgot about the "don't build ships above this size for so many turns" setting in the AI_settings file. So I had to go back and tell the AI to research some of the smaller ships to keep itself in the running until the big boys come on-line.

Phoenix-D

[This message has been edited by Phoenix-D (edited 04 September 2001).]

[Phoenix-D]

Just finished up a single player test game.

Scores as of my elimination: (2402.4)
Amrorki: 155.7
Toltayan: 154.3
Krill: 149.2
Jarenar: 147.9
Terrans: 142.5
Drushoka: 138.1
Ukra-Tal: 133.7
Xi'Chung: 128
CueCappa: 119.5

I was immediately swamped by AIs, and in the need to defend myself, only got one colony out. I got a peace treaty with the Terrans, and neutralized the Xi'Chung via a repeat-order minefield. I went for the Warp cannons as weapons.

The Krill were to my south, and gave my serious problems. The warp point into their space was too far for me to mine it continuously, and they broke through. One turn, they got to my homeworld. The next, I was down to two homeworlds and a colony in the system to the north.

With a minefield blocking the Krill, I counterattacked with two destroyers. They met and were destroyed by a pair of Krill ships, inflicting only minimal damage. I couldn't replay that fight for some reason, SE4 spit out an error when I tried.

That turn, I decided I needed help. Earlier, I had secured non-agression treaties from every race but the Xi-Chung and Krill. I tried to get trade relations with them now. The terrans rebuffed me, everyone else accepted. I tried buttering up the Terrans, who has been sending attack fleets through my systems to hit the Xi'Cung.

BAD idea. Next turn, the terrans break their treaty- without declaring war- and blockade my remaining worlds. Wham, bam, that's the game for me..

Phoenix-D

[Phoenix-D]

Beta 4.6- fixed the Mass Driver, it only had one tech level needed instead of two. Fixed the mounts so the lower tech ships can use them too.

Phoenix-D

[Phoenix-D]

Still going. Right now, I'm trying to find a better way of upgrading ships..the chassis screen just gets too messy.

Phoenix-D

[Phoenix-D]

Update: Beta 5 is almost finished. Just need a few permissions, and the AI. Major changes- I've dropped III, IV extra ship sizes; couldn't get them to balance right, to say nothing of the clutter. Added the P&N 2.x style movement, as well.

Phoenix-D

[jimbob]

While I have yet to *try* your mod, it sounds great to me, and I look forward to putting it on my machine at home.

Just wondering if you'd like some more ideas on new technologies. If so, please read on, if not... well I'll never know if you read this will I

1) Reflective Shields
- reflect incoming 'beam weapon' damage back at the attacker. Sort of ablative armor with some punch.
- excess incoming damage is then applied to the defenders' normal shields, armor, etc.
- It seems a good idea to limit the power of these shields a little.. only 50% of the energy is reflected back? a lower to-hit chance? Make the component expensive? 1 weapon blocked/reflective shield generator?
* General Tech Tree? Crystal Tech Tree?

2) Reciprocal Capacitors
- component holds a certain level of energy in specialized capacitors (200 - 300 pts)
- when an attacker's (direct fire) weapon successfully hits the defender, the capacitors energy travels back down the attacker's beam to do reciprocal damage.
- chance to hit should be 100% regardless of any/all modifiers because the capacitor is using the incoming shot as a tracer... sort of like lightning from the sky following the tracer from the ground.
- firing rate could be dependent upon the number of engines on board (ie fire rate = 30/# of engines) This would encourage the use of smaller ships like the cruiser which can carry more engines than the mega ships like the dreadnought.
* General Tech Tree? Energy Manipulation Tech Tree?

3) Chlorophyll Shields
- a shielding that converts a certain amount of (beam) damage into extra combat movement and/or supplies. Excess damage is then applied to normal shields, etc.
* Biological Manipulation Tech Tree

4) Spore Pods
- crew safety pods. Crew held in suspended animation in spore pods when their ship explodes in combat.
- The crew gains experience from their ordeal.
- When the crew is rescued, their experience points are shared between the remaining ships due to their re-assignment.
- due to their very small size, the spores cannot be shot by enemies? Only destroyed by pt.def. weapons? Act as mines/satelites - that is, they stay in space until rescued or destroyed.
* Bio Tech Tree. There could be Crystal or Temporal equivalents


Anyone can feel free to run with these ideas, modify or change 'em. Don't bother crediting me, that's not necessary.


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-Jimbob

[Suicide Junkie]

Could you give any hint as to how you plan to implement these without hardcode changes?

The only part I can see happening reasonably well is the "negating some damage" part, using crystalline ability, or the V1.42+ fixed emissive armor ability.