Re: A pirates life for me...
 

how do you ressuply ships in P&N??? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

It depends on what Version you play... in the more recent Versions you need to build a base of some sort and place a solar panel on it (300 kT if memory serves). This of course is a huge component, and will not fit on ships until you've got some really large ships.

Then you need to fleet your ships with this base so that they will share the supplies with one another.

Alternatively, you can persue the stellar manipulation research field and get lots of smaller components. But that'll take some time, and refueling in the early game is dependent upon the presence of those bases.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Only the "PBW" Versions have limited supplies. The non-PBW recent Versions have a normal supply scheme.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

...playing pbw...

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

IIRC, the only two ways to generate supplies are:
a) Solar panels on ships and/or bases
b) Constructing a brand new ship with supply tanks. (Ships start out with full supplies)
c) ...Capture an alien ship full of supplies...

Solar power plants... Build a base with a reactor or two, and lots of supply tanks.
You'll need enough supply tanks to the maximum capacity of your base is at least twice the maximum capacity of the ships it will be refueling.

Constructing new ships... Expensive, but if you build a ship with bridge, crew quaters, lifesupport, and make the rest one giant fuel tank, you can heave quite a lot of emergency supplies into orbit. (Ships start fully supplied)

Aside from generation, you also have conservation available.
- The supply use reducing racial trait. (Advanced Power Conservation?)
- Research level 3 engines... Each level up in engine technology reduces supply use by 2 points. Gravitic engine tech gets really efficient, too.
- Remove excess engines. The slower your ship, the less supplies you burn to move each sector. Engines which do not increase the ship's speed (due to QNP rounding) can also be removed to save fuel.
- Use energy-based weapons. If you have enough radioactives to pay for them, energy-based weapons are very inexpensive supply-wise. Lasers, HEM, Psychic, and light particle beams.

[ May 23, 2003, 16:20: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Would it work to retrofit the ship? That is to say, does retrofitting count as "new construction"? If so, you could retrofit new supply bays onto a ship, and they should be full. you'd need to have maybe two levels of supply bay, or maybe switch back and forth between small supply and large supply components (so you'd need to do some research) but it could be do-able!

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Retrofitted components start with 0 supplies
I learned it hard way when I retrofitted ship engines
away from a supply depot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, supply capacity + generation for one turn, should be double the ship's capacity. Remember, it'll have to syat fleet-ed for a turn, to shift supplies.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And in general, supply tankers can help give you a lot more endurance anyway; send a few with any fleets that use supplies in excess of their self-generation.

Heck, a ship with a Solar Generator is very useful for extending range ...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">- Use Solar Sail engines. No supply usage at all, though, not very fast and a bit on the large side (suitable for nonmilitary uses at least).

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

I'm pretty sure the generated supplies from solar panels have to go through the ship they're mounted on before they get passed around in the fleet.

If you had a ship with 1000 supply capacity (currently empty) and a base with 1000 capacity + 1000 regen, then on turn 1, you would get:

action-> ship / fuelbase
fleet-> 0/1000
share-> 500/500
recharge-> 500/1000
turn 2
share-> 750/750
recharge->750/1000

etc.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

New player to P&N, and I'm wondering if the AI's have been modified to fit the new options. I'd like to combine FQM, TDM and P&N but I just don't think TDM and P&N like each other. Am I going to have to go for FQM+TDM and FQM+P&N? I'm thinking the AI's need to be specially modified to work with P&N.

[ May 25, 2003, 17:10: Message edited by: Antra ]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

I think I may have found the problem. I downloaded what I thought was the latest P&N with AI files, but apparently the errors I'm getting are indicative of there being *no* AI files. Which is uh, odd, to say the least. So I look and sure enough. Weird, eh? I think I may have received the latest PBW build. Any clues as to where I can get the latest P&N with AI support? I've tried in the New Scenarios area and on the various threads here, but they all give me the same error.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

http://www.geocities.com/hohoho611ca/pirates.html
Download v3.1b from here if you don't have it already, and add this littleDataupdate.zip

There are no EMP files, if that is what you are referring to. The AIs are there, however.
Just start a game with randomly picked AIs.

In order to add TDM, just copy the pictures\_racename_ folder into P&N, and then apply the AI patcher, also found at http://www.geocities.com/hohoho611ca/pirates.html

The easiest thing to do for adding FQM is to just generate a map in FQM, save it, and then load it when starting a new P&N game.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

If all you want is FQM Standard then making a map with it and loading in P&N is sufficient. But if you want FQM Deluxe, you can follow the directions in it's help folder for combining it with other mods. TDM is used as an example.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Ahh. Thank you both! I guess it's hard for me to tell just what files are actually part of the mod, and what files are required for the game not to freak out by their absence. Some mods list them, some don't; I for one wish the specific files used were listed more often http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif .

But thank you, I shall now endeavor to combine them all :-D. I'd like to toss FQM in there, but I think I'll settle for making a map with FQM separately. It *is* possible to carry over everything special, such as the gazillions of storms AND THEIR EFFECTS, right?

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

The AI Patcher should be set to P&N 3.0? I don't have any idea what the other options are for.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

It also appears that the Settings.txt file from FQM may contain vital info to make FQM work properly (does it?), but I'm loathe to replace a 1.0mb file http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif . Thoughts?

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

FQM indirectly lists the modified files. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

FQM Deluxe has a modded pop bonus curve to better reflect the drastically increased levels of population on planets (raised levels for most bonuses). For use with P&N, I suggest you just use the P&N settings file, and change the max systems to 255 (the FQM setting), or whatever you want (no more than 255 of course).

You might want to consider bringing the population levels of the planets back down to normal SE4 levels though, unless you don't mind HWs getting 200% the bonus they normally would. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

If you make a map with FQM Standard and use it in another mod, all stellar objects will retain the abilities that they were given when the map was generated. StellarAbilities.txt (and a bunch of others, all the modded ones in FQM Standard) is only accessed when the map is created, and then never again.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You can not use a map generated with FQM Deluxe in any other mod (unless ofc it has had FQM Deluxe mixed with it). Only FQM Standard maps can be used in other mods (or normal game). They are much less interesting though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ May 26, 2003, 10:41: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Fyron: So if I use FQM Standard rather than Deluxe, the effects will be there but not the graphics. If I want the graphics, I need to mix 'em up. Sound right? Regarding population, I can restore the original values for the standard planets, but what about the added ones? Small and medium ringworlds, ringed planets, machine worlds, what should they be changed to? It doesn't look like there's a hard and fast rule here, and I don't want you to go through a bunch of trouble just because I want to combine three good mods and then never worry about single player games again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . I'll tweak with things and post my results later today.

SJ: Danke. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I've found that sometimes the program will detect if an AI's patched, and sometimes it won't. Meep.

[ May 26, 2003, 18:11: Message edited by: Antra ]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

So after I go through all that hard work (ok it wasn't hard, my brain's just in neutral this weekend! heheh), I find out that P&N doesn't use the SE4 standard PlanetSize.txt! Grar http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif . Turns out that SJ just doubled the standard cargo size and halved this new capacity for domes. Works for me! So I included both, below.

Alright, here's what I've come up with. On the deduction that the following facts hold true:

</font>

• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Small Ringworlds are the equivalent of 2.5 Large planets, but since that doesn't quite jive with the full Ringworld, let's call it 50% of a Ringworld.</font>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Medium Ringworlds are the equivalent of 3.75 Large planets. Say, 75% of a full Ringworld.</font>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Irradiated planets are just messed up, so I'm going with the exact values Fyron has in FQM-D already http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif </font>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And yes, I did have to guess somewhat because the cargo space didn't always proportionally mesh as neatly as the other figures (notably for the Ringworlds). But based on the above assumptions, here's the PlanetSize.txt I end up with. (Psst Fyron, how hard would it be to add other-sized ringed and machine worlds? Would it throw balance off?)
I'm not sure what the etiquette is for posting files, so I'm just going to link to my own site.

FQM planet types re-proportioned for SE4 Gold 1.84
FQM planet types re-proportioned for P&N latest non-PWB/SE4 Gold 1.84

I'd like to "generalize" the FQM files to make them easier to integrate into say, P&N, but I don't want to clutter up this thread anymore. Where should I continue posting or should I not worry about it as we're up to 52 pages? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[ May 26, 2003, 22:20: Message edited by: Antra ]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes. The AI patcher will then create an "AI_general.txt.patched" file and an "AI_designcreation.txt.patched" file.

If you check the "automatically replace" option, it will then copy those files overtop of the plain .txt files for you.
Just be sure to only run the AI patcher once on each AI... and naturally, the AIs that come with P&N are already patched.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Is there a problem with P & N? Started a game, turned on view all techs, went to the tech tree, and I got a lot of access violation errors?

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Are you using the correct Version of SE4 with the correct Version of P&N?

Wow, never even saw the Last few Posts by Antra... oopsie!

Antra, I never said you should change the cargo values back to normal, just the pop levels. Increased cargo and increased pop are two entirely separate issues. Increased cargo only makes the game better as planets can be better defended with more cargo space.

[ June 30, 2003, 01:56: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

P&N Version 2's are for SE4 classic.
P&N Version 3's are for SE4 gold.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I seem to have Version 3.1c, is this legit?

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

There is a Version 3.1c PBW...

If it has the PBW tag on it, its humans-only because the AIs simply can't handle the features of the mod.

You'll probably want the 3.1b not-PBW.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Nope, I double-checked and made sure that I wasn't making a mistake.

I'm running 1.84. I re-downloaded 3.1b. Started the game with "View All Techs" on, went to the Tech Tree, scrolled down the list and got all sorts of access violations.

Also, if I start the game with High tech, I find that some of the higher-tech components are missing graphics.

I even tried downloaded the data patch thingy and over-writing all the files in the data folder. That produced even worse errors.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Oh!

Sounds like you haven't got the imagemod files.
They're used in lots of mods, so they're a separate download.
Hmm... it seems there isn't a note about that on the download page... I'll add one.

http://geocities.com/hohoho611ca/imagepack.html

You'll also need this:
comp_286.bmp
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newup...1053742248.bmp
The mini came on the CD, but for some reason there was no protrait to go with it, and nobody noticed until lately.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mmm, doesn't look like PBW on the inside; I'll snag a 'b' copy just to be on the safe side. Thanks for the heads up.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Okay, it works now with the Image Mod. Thanks.

One thing: after installing the Data Patch, I found that SystemTypes.txt is missing a couple of lines, though those are easily added back in.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Some lines (esp. the ones towards the end) are optional in Settings.txt. If they are missing, SE4 will use the default value for them.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Ok, I just got finished reading this entire thread. All 52 pages of it (although I admit I skimmed most of SJ's 'update' Posts).

Now for the obligatory questions : http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

- Does it make a difference what directory I use to launch the AI patcher ? If so, where should I place it ?

- Why not include prepackaged .emp files for the stock races ?

- Why not include Trooper's Space Pirate shipset in P&N ? He also has some nice Space Pirate full-screen images, I'm sure he'd let you use one of them as the 'official' P&N intro screen !

Keep up the great work SJ !

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

The AI patcher can be run from anywhere.

.EMPs were getting invalidated too often, and I just never bothered. Randomly generated AIs can be saved to create .EMP files if you really want them.

There hasn't really been a recent Version, but the next one should definitely have the shipset.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

I'd already created my own EMPs.
Regarding Space Pirates, think about the intro screen suggestion too, I personally think those images are great !
Thanks for the quick response !

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Feel free to post those EMPs here, they'd be useful for quite a few people.

And I will consider the intro.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

OK, I'll do it when I get home (~21:00 Forum time). I have 3k EMPs, I could generate 2k and 5k too if there's enough interest.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Surely people would be more interested in all 3 types of empire files and not just 3k. Not everyone plays 3k.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Atrocities, I refuse to argue with you. I will answer with a (mis)quote from Brazilian history :

"Se é para o bem de todos e felicidade geral da nação, diga ao povo que faço."

IOW, I'll do it.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

OK, here goes :

EMP files for P&N v3.1

I did 2k, 3k and 5k EMP files for all 20 stock races, plus Trooper's Space Pirates.

Enjoy ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

BTW Erax, I never did the pips for your avatar, but IMHO your avatar looks great without them.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">?
It's that Last part I'm not sure about.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

"If it's for the good of all and general happiness of the nation, tell the people I'll do it."

I'd say the Fish did a good job with that one.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Hey hey!

What happened to turn 18? I must have missed it, but it's really screwed up my game. I'm pretty steamed about it, because the AI (which I'm absolutely certain I turned off) wiped out my production [i]again[i] (I mean I was 1 frickin' turn away from completing very critical projects, using emergency build, and the damn computer told the ships to pack up and head for home!!!! Now, 8 turns later it all happens again!?!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif !??!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif !!?!?!? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif !? I'm pretty prepared to quit, cause basically I've played three "successful" turns out of 19 at this point).

I'm really ticked off, and I'm asking if other players would be willing to take back turn 19 and let me complete turn 18. See my message in PBW for more ranting, raving, general foaming at the mouth, choice words and threats of suicide.

jimbob

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Are you perhaps looking for the Horrible Doom thread, Jimbob?

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...3;t=007651;p=1

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Grr... yes I am...

...Grr....

[exits angry but embarassed as hell]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

wow - read all 53 pages of this thing - damn boys, you have done one hell of a good thing with the little bitty starting idea way back in '01.

SJ you are a genius.

now, i've gotten back into the game, bought SE4 Gold and installed the latest P&N mod but I haven't played it yet.

so my question is what do I need to do to play P&N?

there are numerous references to other files/tweeks that I'm not sure are in the newest (3.1b per spaceempires.net) mod such as dataupdate.zip, a shipset designed by Trooper (very nice looking btw) and a SJ Industry Patch among other things. Do I need to install any of these to play the P&N mod or is it ready to go out of the box so to speak in 3.1b?

also, do I need to do anything to get the TDM races to work in this mod or can I just copy/paste them into the P&N Mod Directory?

again, thanks to SJ(1st and foremost) and all the others who made that little idea way back when into what seems a great mod.

I'm gonna try it out tonite (assuming I can get it to work)

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

You should be fine just with 3.1b. Extra shipsets are nice addons, but not necessary. The industry patch is optional, and I would recommend you play without it until you become more familiar with the mod.

Well, you probably need to download and install all of the latest Versions of the 4 packs of the Image Mod other than Events Pack (though I recommend you install all of them anyways, as other mods use them). Make sure to install these to the stock Pictures folders.

http://imagemod.spaceempires.net/

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes. You need to use SJ's AI Patcher utility to make them compatible with P&N. *AI Patcher download link*

[ June 21, 2004, 20:37: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

ahhh that appears to be information I needed also. Thank you.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Fyron is most helpful. He should have the special title of Uber Helper or something. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Alien Agent would suffice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

WH, good to see you back after all this time, welcome back to the forum...