A pirates life for me...

[Skulky]

I noticed that the game includes a racial trait/technology called 'IS A CHEATER.' What is this and how does it work. In the techareas.txt file it said that it allowed scenario generation to take place. If so how do you do it. I set it as a racial trait and then tried to use it but nothing happened and the screen went black. SE4 still worked but I did not see how the tech would allow you do editing. I am greatly intereseted in making scenarios and would greatly appreciate any comments.

Also, i was wondering if you had any ideas about how to make drones work and how to make their ai work. I think that they could be a big addition to the SE4 game and P&N.

Finally, how do you effectivly play the pirates or the nomads. All the empires i come across are too strong for me. Any strategies?

Thanks so much, David

my email is [email protected]

[chewy027]

skulky as far as i know there is no way to make drones or there AI work yet. MM is hopefully working on that. I'll leave the rest of your questions to SJ

[Suicide Junkie]

Sorry for the delay; I missed a few days, and the topic got pushed down .

The is a cheater trait allowed the construction of "scenario resource ships", which had a hugely negative maintenance cost.

I used that to create my "Chess" scenario, using that hull as the king so when it is lost, the rest of your forces rapidly die from maintenance costs.

That was only used for that one situation, so the hull might not even be available.

As for playing a pirate or nomad race:
#1 priority: Get boarding parties!
#2 priority: Meet new races!
#3 priority: Capture their ships, or leech off them via a trade alliance.

The key to surviving as a pirate or nomad is to be a leech. Nomads can also make use of 99% less maintenance on their ships, but you must add the maintenance reducer component manually! Be aware that ships with a damaged maintenance reducer will cost full price, and should be repaired or destroyed immediately (since they cost 100x more now).

First build some exploration escorts with swashbucklers or boarding parties.
The key is to find another race before they develop shields, since then it is easy to capture technology and resources.
The first ships you capture should get you bigger hulls and weapons technology. You can then use that to defeat and capture larger ships, and shielded ships, and so on.
If you already have the tech, you can scrap the ships to fund your raiders, or retrofit them as new capture ships.

Tips:
- Explore and meet quickly: It is nearly impossible to capture ships with shields and self-destruct devices. You don't want to fall too far behind in technology.
- Make use of the "Budget" mount to save 20% on ship prices & maintenance.
- Stick with Ion engine III's for the early game: They are very fuel efficient, and have a low cost per movement point. You can always use numbers to overwhelm advanced tech, but solitary ships.
- Build outPosts. Even an escort can hold a pirate's spaceyard, use it to build cheap space stations in storms and nebulae. The base can then be used as a field repair/retrofit/scrap base, as well as providing supplies for ships when you fleet them with the base.
- Choose your battles: taking one ship at a time is a lot easier than attacking an entire fleet. If you capture an enemy ship, its friends will likely destroy it, leaving you with no profit.
- Troops are great! If you can take over a large mining world, you'll be rolling in money for years to come. Don't be afraid to sell out if the enemy fleets come .
- Capture colony ships as a priority. They provide population to boost your production, as well as new colonies.
- Be wary of your income. You get 1000 of each resource by default, but only if you aren't producing any of that resource yourself. Building your first SlaveLabour camp can crimp your budget, but with enough, you'll make profit. Be sure to save up lots of resources and have lots of facility slots ready before starting the project.

[dumbluck]

quote:

---

Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
- Be wary of your income. You get 1000 of each resource by default, but only if you aren't producing any of that resource yourself. Building your first SlaveLabour camp can crimp your budget, but with enough, you'll make profit. Be sure to save up lots of resources and have lots of facility slots ready before starting the project.

---

Do you lose the 1000 even if you don't have a spaceport in system (and therefore can't earn anything from the slave labor camps)?

[Suicide Junkie]

As far as SE4 v1.35, having no spaceport meant you got zero.
I have used this to my advantage sometimes, giving me time to build enough slave labour camps to be profitable before giving up my 1000 "charity" resources.

If you still get 25% without a spaceport in newer Versions, then you're gonna just have to slog through it using stored resources.
Try building one in a non-spaceport system, and see what happens.

If you get the 25%, then start with spaceports. Emergency Build SLCs on all of your planets, especially those in Bi- or Tri-nary starsystems (cause they get 2-3x the resource output). When they all complete on the same turn, you will have been collecting the "charity" during the build turns, and should now be making at least 1000 each resource.

[Rollo]

quote:

---

Originally posted by dumbluck:
Do you lose the 1000 even if you don't have a spaceport in system (and therefore can't earn anything from the slave labor camps)?

---

I guess that would make it even worse. Having no spaceport doesn't mean you lose all production in the system. You still get 25% without a sapceport.

Rollo

[dumbluck]

quote:

---

Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
As far as SE4 v1.35, having no spaceport meant you got zero.
I have used this to my advantage sometimes, giving me time to build enough slave labour camps to be profitable before giving up my 1000 "charity" resources.

---

The exact reason I asked. I could say that "great minds think alike", except that I know I'm not a great mind, which kinda leaves you out in the cold too, unfortunately. Of coarse, I don't think a mediocre mind could have come up with this awesome mod....

[Suicide Junkie]

LOL

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

---

How well does the AI handle defences that cancel the null-space ability of null-space weapons? Will it only use null-space "resistant" components when faceing an opponent using null-space weapons?

---

The AIs will not typically use the specialty defenses, however I have seen an AI put a 6-pack of BTG armor on its fighters once. Made them very tough to kill.

The BTG armor is not "armor" the way you normally think of it. The way it works is that the BTG is not armor, but a regular internal component.
When you add 50 of them to an LC, then perhaps 80% of the time, armor-skipping weapons will hit the BTG rather than critical components.
Given 200 BTG IIIs on a 50 component DN or BS, you get 7,000HP at roughly 80% absorption.

quote:

---

I wonder if SEIV's lack of "defense against every special damage" is because the AI currently can't handle it well. (I feel guilty about going around with nomal-shield ships and zapping all the nomal-shielded AI ships with PP weapons, and then zapping them all with something with a high raw damage as soon as the AI goes to P-shields.)

---

Well, I've designed it that the defenses are not too powerful; They are probably best used in a RP situation, or if your enemy is loading up on one type of specialty weapon.

You'll still find the AIs defending themselves with only P-shields and firepower, but the phased shields do become available at Tech Level 2.

quote:

---

Or I suppose it might not be an issue if the null-space resistance is built-in to something that ship designers would include anyway, or if the resistance is part of a very cheap, small component....

---

The resistance comes in the form of Zero KT, 35HP, $400 chunks. And it is not 100% guaranteed on each hit.

quote:

---

Oh, what the heck. This is off topic, but as long as I'm here: How challenging is the AI in P&N? Does it handle all the (very interesting) additions well? I play regularly against only 1 human foe, but I've got, uh, lets see.... 46 races going, so that's quite a bit of AI adjusting if I want to us P&N.

---

In general, the new components are not a large advantage. The AI will occasionally use some, but don't expect much difference in their strategies.
AFAIK, nobody has designed an AI for P&N, so they will use their original strategies.
I have tried to build the components around the AI, so that they do not have additional disadvantages.

The AI is probably slightly less challenging in P&N, assuming that you take the "Normal" trait.
Against humans, all is fair game, but against AIs, human players should probably choose "Pirate" of "Nomad".
Using one of the Title RaceTypes is how singleplayer should be played.

It is theoretically possible to win as a Pirate or Nomad, but not likely. You'll have your hands full trying to scrape together enough funds to support even 10 large warships, and you're guaranteed to be behind in tech.

Also, you can download my AIPatcher. A total of ~10 clicks per race, and they'll be playable in P&N.
Note: Be sure to use an engine factor of 45 or higher, otherwise the AIs will cause RCEs when they get Quantum engines and baseships.
Note 2: the patcher does not optimize the AIs. It just makes them so:
- They won't crash when being loaded.
- They will expand, and not act as a "one-planet-neutral"
- They will build ships with a reasonable number of engines.

------------------
The latest info on Pirates & Nomads (forum thread).
-<Download the Latest Version of P&N>- (just extract to your SE4 folder)
--<Download my HomeComing scenario>- (For P&N v2.3b)
--<P&N V2 AI patch>- (V2 only, for the AIs included in ZIPs from v2.0 to v2.3, prevents rare RCEs)
-<Download P&N Classic>- (The final release of P&N v1.x, just extract to your SE4 folder)
-<Download compatible EMPs for P&N v1.2 through v1.7>-
-<Download SJs latest AI Patcher>-
-<Download my FTL propulsion map>- (ships can travel FTL StarTrek/B5/StarWars style)
-<Download my LAN helper>- (Auto-searches for new turns on a filesharing-enabled LAN)
Visit My Homepage

Other Links:
-<Play By Web>-
-<Schlock Mercenary>- (great space-based webcartoon) -<First Strip>-
-<8-bit Theater>- (fun comic with the pixellated FF1 characters)

<SE4Code>
MpN R*-A RM(L) RP+ TCP- Fq++ FR!++ P? A+/- Sf+ Nd- L $ M++++ Pw!+
</SE4Code>

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 21 October 2001).]

[Tarquelne]

suicide_junkie:

Thanks for all the info!