TDM mod and P&N mod

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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In short, it would make the AI playable, but since it wouldn't be using all the techs available to it (and to you) then it would be seriously disadvantaged against a human player. That kind of negates the whole point of using TDM, which is to get a better challenge from the AI.

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One thing to note is that 90% of then new techs are not strictly an advantage.
The two key problem points are:
- radioactives production is as important as minerals
- Phased-Polaron Beams REQUIRE Energy Stream Tech. (Races that research PPBs need to research some APBs at the same time!

A secondary concern is ARMOR, which AIs won't use.
+ Armor has more hitpoints
- Armor can't stop boarding parties(extra components or tactical care required)
+ Armor costs less rads, more minerals (AIs are heavy miners by default)
- Armor takes many turns to repair
Overall, armor seems to be balanced...

[Weson102]

What adjustments need to be made to use both the TDM and P&N mods together?

[Suicide Junkie]

In order for the game to be playable, the only thing you need to do is to run my AI Patcher on each of the races you add to P&N. ("Engine factor" setting must be 45 to prevent RCEs!)

The other prolem you will likely have is that the TDM races will not build enought rad extractors on their planets. They have been tweaked to the original game, which was quite mineral-intensive.
In P&N, Rads become more important as the game progresses, mainly in high level engines and shields.
From games I've played, I would estimate an even need for both resources.
If there are any AI modders out there who could suggest a straightforward way to do that, please speak up!

On the other hand, once the AIs are patched, you could change P&N to reduce rad costs instead of increasing AI rad production...
The largest rad costs are engines and phased shields. Reduce the rads by 75% or so, and add that difference to mineral cost.
This method may be easier, but you will be falling back to a one-resource game.

I may be able to make an AI patcher to properly diversify the AI's resource gathering, but I'll have to see what the AI guys say.

[dogscoff]

Hmm.... Normally mixing and matching mods is a very difficult task (you might as well just make a new mod) but in this case it may be slightly easier, since the TDM mod *only* affects the AI files, while P&N concentrates on the techs and propulsion- there's very little crossover.

In theory, all you'd have to do is copy the TDM AI files onto the P&N files (preferably a new copy of the P&N directory, in case it all goes wrong) and then tweak the AIs to be compatible with all the quasi-newtonian propulsion from P&N.

I believe S_J has made an AI patcher program available which ought to do the tweaking for you, so in theory, you could be up and running with very little effort at all.

All the patcher will do though, (I think) is to teach the AIs to design ships that work with the quasi-newtonian propulsion system. It certainly won't allow them to make full use of the new techs and possibilities introduced by P&N.

In short, it would make the AI playable, but since it wouldn't be using all the techs available to it (and to you) then it would be seriously disadvantaged against a human player. That kind of negates the whole point of using TDM, which is to get a better challenge from the AI.

Unless, of course, you patch the AIs and then mod them yourself to take advantage of P&N's new possibilities. Which is kinda like making a whole new TDM mod on your own...

Then again, someone may have done all this work already. Anyone?

[Skulky]

I was thinking that a comprehensive summary of each mod, a paragraph at least could be helpful as even i don't know exacly what each mod does (with PBW down i am getting to know them more intimatly). on a side note i saw my rank (corporal) but hten it disappeared.

[Suicide Junkie]

There's usually a "modinfo.txt" in mods, which is used by the modpicker.
Also, most mods will have a homepage or thread.

And the rank only seems to appear once there is a reply to your post: it dosen't appear in the latest post of a thread.