Players wanted for PBW PvK Proportions Game #1

[PsychoTechFreak]

Originally posted by PvK:

Enlightened Plague: Central, more or less at peace, used to be strong, but I hear that some people have been pillaging parts of it during several game-years of AI control. I'm not sure if it's still strong, or if it should be re-named the "Unenlightened Carcass" at this point.

"Carcass"? ... once grown up next to the Vikings with a profitable partnership. But it just needs one turn by the AI (if the human player misses one) to change from a partnership to a nightmare...

[PvK]

PTF, I don't really know what their shape is now, but two other players mentioned pilfering Plague possessions after you left. I never actually saw any attacks on the colonies I could see. Looks like a couple might have actually caught the plague though, since they have no population. The AI seems to be trying to do something, though, as I see a new colony being built. Apparently in the latest patch the AI may have learned how to move fighters, too (if not how to launch or resupply them), as I see some fighters actually moving around in-system.

PvK

[PvK]

Alneyan, I'd be quite pleased if you took over the Slu'vek.

PvK

[AMF]

PvK,

Love the mod. It's exactly what I always wanted. It does seem that it takes a while to "get going" but I find that acceptable. I started a solitaire game again - first one in a year - with it, and it's definitely got that realistic and epic feel.

I have one question: there are a number of facilities that don't seem to be used in the PBW game. For example, in my solitaire game, it seems perfectly reasonable to me to build agro settlements, then agro colonies, eventaully minor cities on colony worlds. But in the PBW game, there are colonies with research centers and that's it. I guess this makes sense, as you could have the distant Ceti Alpha VI research outpost, a bunch of isolated scientists...and the same goes for mining facilties without communities to provide infrastructure...but then is there any reason to build agro settlements/communities/etc...aside from RP purposes?

thanks...still trying to figure it all out! Love the mod...

Alarik

Ps: I thought I read somewhere that in Proportions, fighters could not move strategically, but that's not the case, right?

[AMF]

PvK,

I am curious regarding one more aspect of the Proportions mod. You have a number of interesting and perhaps unique quadrant map types in the mod. While I don't pretend to understand how they work, I'm wondering whether they are needed for Proportions. I mean, why have new map types, the old map types would work fine, right? Is there a play-balance issue? Other issues?

Just curious,

Thanks,

Alarik

[PvK]

Thanks Alarik - I'm glad you're enjoying the mod!

Originally posted by alarikf:
... but then is there any reason to build agro settlements/communities/etc...aside from RP purposes?

There are some reasons to do so, if you're so inclined. You can get by without them, of course, but some reasons that come immediately to mind include:

1) An organic race, which of course has more use for more organics.
2) A planet with high organic value but low other value. Even if you don't need more orgs at the moment, you can convert or sometimes trade them.
3) Developed systems where you want to maximize colony slot use because there are system bonuses, protection, and/or because one less organic facility means room for one more facility of another type.
4) Unlike Mineral and Rad production facilities, organic facs do not have any of the large "complex" or "megacomplex" Versions which are available by industrial research. However, the larger agricultural developments can provide higher yields.
5) IIRC, agricultural communities can be faster to build than conventional communities, and have equal or similar planet- and system-wide bonuses, so it can help to have at least one of the larger facility types in a system for that purpose.

Mainly there are some investment options there, which can be ignored or explored as players wish.

Ps: I thought I read somewhere that in Proportions, fighters could not move strategically, but that's not the case, right?

Nope. It was probably referring to AIC mod, which has many similarities and borrows many things from Proportions, but concentrates on making the single-player vs. AI game challenging, and also does some interesting developments and changes to fighters, mines, and some other stuff.

PvK

[PvK]

Originally posted by alarikf:
... I am curious regarding one more aspect of the Proportions mod. You have a number of interesting and perhaps unique quadrant map types in the mod. While I don't pretend to understand how they work, I'm wondering whether they are needed for Proportions. I mean, why have new map types, the old map types would work fine, right? Is there a play-balance issue? Other issues?
...

The old map types work fairly well... except if you are playing against the AI, then it might be good to use the default "Low-Gravity Tri-Polar" one - the Low Gravity refers to the reduction in things like Black Holes, which the AI doesn't know to avoid with its low-tech speed-2 colony ships (And it doesn't learn: oh nooooooo... ... oh noooooooo.... ... oh noooooooo...).

The "Rich" ones can also be good for Proportions from a certain perspective, in that they provide many warp connections so there are fewer bottlenecks and more access for slower ships.

I think the others are mainly there for variation. Proportions plays with the planets and systems in a few ways, adding bogus ruins and more abilities (and more varied and less predictable values) to some of the objects and warp points.

You can pretty much play Proportions games in systems generated by the unmodded game or by FQM or whatever. Though the high-asteroid Versions of (some Versions of?) FQM can run amok with the economy by provinding huge (essentially unlimited) amounts of mining income.

PvK

[PsychoTechFreak]

Bogus ruins are those with the ruin text bullet but without identifier, right? In which txt file can I find that?

[PvK]

I saw Fryon's description of that bug, but it's not something I've witnessed myself in Proportions mod. I just tried to find such in a test game with omnipresent view of all systems, and I sure don't see any difference. They all have both an icon and a bullet description.

The file in question is StellarAbilityTypes.txt.

I think perhaps Fryon has seen it without the symbol if you specify ZERO for Val 1 of Ancient Ruins Unique. He said you actually had to create bogus unique tech areas for each planet ability type, and I didn't do that in Proportions. However, what I did do, was give each ability type a unique tech area NUMBER, even though there is no actual tech area for them.

As far as I can tell, this works just fine in Proportions. If not, I'd like to see an example screenshot pair, and/or turn file.

PvK

[oleg]

It is the AIC issue, not Proportions
Latest Version of AIC that utilises FQM has this unfortunate feature.