Re: A pirates life for me...
 

AFAIK, no AI has played as Pirates, and even MM would have one heck of a time trying to get them smart enough to capture even one ship from a human player.

(without heavy bonuses, AND Psychic tech (which is no longer considered a Piraty trait))

All non-pirate races would be normal.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 14 March 2001).]

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Do you think a neutral could play as a Pirate? The AI may not need to be as comprehensive for a neutral.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Well, I did some testing of the Pirate race trait and found some odd things.
First if I added a new trait to the SE4 directory then the game would not load. I kept getting an error message. Have no idea why this would happen.
If I added the trait to the mod pack it would work with some problems. I loaded the game about 8-10 times. Occasionally there was nothing in the main window or the small quadrant window. The planet window with the description, facilities etc. was there and all other items functioned.
Most of the time the game loaded fine. I couldn't add any existing race. I could add new players, add new players with saved empires and the computer would choose additional players so I think this has to do with the extra trait not being in the existing .emp file but I'm not positive. I was able to add techs, facilities, ships and components with no apparent problems, although I only played about 25 turns per game.
I have no clue why adding a trait would work in the mod pack directory and not in the SE4 directory. Anyone has any ideas?

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

SJ, I don't think Mac was asking if the AI can play as a pirate, he was asking if baseships (which, admittedly, don't seem to be used by the AI) caused any particular problems for pirates. Especially if said baseships were used for transport, colonizing, etc. roles.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Tks D. Tsaarx, and I apoligize to SJ if I didn't make my questions clear enough. SJ, I was just wondering, if you used baseships in your pirate mod, and if so did they create any problems for the pirates. Baseships are the largest and would have larger crews to overcome in a boarding operation. However, once captured, they could be used, due to their size as colonies, research or tech, etc. basically might or could be used as a mobile base. Did you have any problems with pirates capturing them if you are using them?
or any other problems? Do you think they should be incorporated into yours & WHoJO's mods as major componets or leave out of the game. Also Could you mod where 2 ships could board a victim at the same time, giving you more fighting power, if in fact baseships are used with the larger crews? mac

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

As for the crew size hindering boarding parties, yeah, that could be a problem, although I haven't seen any AIs build baseships. And I'm sure not gonna research them on my own http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

I've has trouble capturing colony ships & BCs, since I was only putting a single BP1 on each of my LCs, and two crew quaters fended off my boarding attempts. I ended up just shooting the BC until one of the CQs got blown up, and captured him with my third ship.

It would be nice if, when you used boarding parties, you could destroy some of the defending components before you died. Then, a series of capture attempts could eventually succeed.

As for trying to capture a baseship, I'd send a big fleet of captured LCs, which would run up and start pounding away with Large Antiproton Beams, or whatever my best tech was. With more than three times the tonnage in ships, I would expect to drop the baseships shields before taking 50% losses, and now short bursts of fire from each ship until there is only one Crewquarter left & no SDD. Then I can capture with a standard LC. If I was planning this operation for some time, I would also have a CR full of boarding parties (10 or so), and may have researched higher capture tech. Then I wouldn't have to do as much internal damage (only take out the SDD) to capture it.

The first capture always has to be analysed, the second one would be retrofitted to be, probably a support ship (repair/resupply and maybe a bunch of BPs for taking over the next Baseship)

Of course, if the AI dosen't build any baseships, the universe will never see one.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

This is getting off subject for a minute, but I sent MM and RA e-mail on AI not building or using baseships, RA stated that is does and MM said they would look into it. However, has anyone ever had game/s outside of mods, where AI has used and built baseship? Both several of my friends and I have played a good number of games from original up to v1.30 and none of us have seen AI use baseships. Also if you haven't could you send MM and RA a note of this. I think that if AI used baseships like it should it might improve game. ( how about in pirate mod, AI can build but human can't)
just idea, tks for help Mac

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by WhiteHojo:
Personally, I've never seen a valid use for the tractor beam or repulsor beam... if anyone else has used em let us know. To me, they'd just be wasted space.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I found the following strategy to be amusing against the computer: I fortified a warp point leading to the home systems of an AI I really didn't feel ready to fight with a couple of Battlestations armed with engine-killing weapons and massive mount repulsor beams... They'd send a couple of ships through the WP, and I'd lock down their movement and shove 'em out of range. When combat would end (generally rather uneventfully), the AI would have a fleet of useless ships draining his resources. If you could take out all the weapons on the ships as well, you could probably do the same to a human (unless they had SDDs)...

Yes, I know it's unfair to do this to the computer... But I felt justified in this particular case, as that filthy race had the nerve to be mechanoid, and hence invulnerable to my first contact plagueships...

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

In a pirate game, it already happens that a Human (pirate) race cannot build baseships.

A Human Pirate race already "cannot" build BCs.

Although it is technically possible to build a Baseship as a pirate race, at 50% build + limited resources, it will take around 75 turns to finish a baseship. Even LCs take over a year to build.

It will also require the scrapping of a LOT of LCs to fund the construction.

--------------------------------

About removing resource facilities for Pirates.
If we don't allow Pirates to build any resource extractor facilities, thier home planet will be filled up with research centers.

With 200 per turn + 50K starting, they could build an escort with a mineral miner quickly, and use it to start their economy. Alternatively, an escort with a (Pirate)SY could build a base with lots of mineral extractors over the nearby planets. By mothballing, you can avoid wasting minerals you can't store. Upon capturing ships, the pirate economy would shift over to the faster and sustainable (extractors deplete value) thieving economic system.

With all the research available, they could get ship capture tech quickly, as well as research repair & armor techs for better capture abilities.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Lots of good ideas being tossed around here lately... hope it keeps up but I'll be gone and off the Boards for about a week - business trip. Keep up the thoughts.

Hojo

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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.