Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Both because of real life, and because the Boards were down, the next Version is delayed till Tuesday afternoon, California time.

I promise it will be out then.

One thing going in will be some changes to monsters; it is rather embarrassing to be the creator of a mod, and have part of your mod killing you consistently. My excuse is that Rollo actually made the space monsters, I merely included them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, monsters are pretty tough aren't they. In Devnull Mod missiles work well against them, but you toned them down in your mod http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif (no offense, just banter).
I agree that monsters need some modifications and the new Version is almost ready (next weekend, I suppose).

Rollo

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Here's the latest changes:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I would be posting v 1.04 today, but, no uploads on the board. When the uploads are working, I'll post it.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

I'm trying to use a downloaded ship set. Do I just extract the image files into the pictures folder of Derek's Mod, or everyhting or what? I have never quite been able to use other ship sets in other peoples mod. I need someone to write "Modding for Dummies" Thanks.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

You want the shipset's files to end up in the following place:

c:\...\se4\"modname"\pictures\races\"coolshipset"\ "coolshipset"_cruiser_portrait.bmp

Where the items in quotes should be changed appropraitely for the shipset and mod.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Suicide Junkie, um, I don't know how I really did it, but it seems to work. I extracted the ship set, SWemp1 into only Derek's Mod folder. I didn't do anything other than that.

I loaded up a game to see if they were there and they were. Might I be expecting some crashes in the future because I extracted this way? Thanks.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Oops, one Last thing, Derek mentioned that the mod update is done, just not available for uploading on this formum. Is it available to upload somewhere else. Thanks

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Well, here you go. The latest Version, v1.04 is up.

Located here

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Derek:

Just FYI, I dont believe the Missile mounts are functioning properly. I did some tests with your mod and one of my own using Missile mounts that did increased damage and the extra damage doesnt appear to be added.

This was something I recall from the initial release of SE4 and it doesnt appear to have been implemented.

You can run some tests yourself (it works best if you REALLY increase the damage so that you can easily see if they are getting it or not) and if there is something I'm missing, please let me know.

Thanx,
Talenn

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Just because:

I think I have Star Wars fever, and therefor am starting a campaingn of conquest of a new galaxy utilizing the Star Wars Empire ship set which conviently contains extra ship styles to accomadate the Derek's Mod extra ship classes nicely. I like variety. Unfortunately, there are only three troop types. Derek, What are the odds that you might add a few more, ie: infantry (a bunch of pee shooter bearing grunts that serve as track pads) and huge troops (those majestic ironclad behemoths that instill mortal fear in those common folk that don't know any better -without firing a shot) so that I may utilize some of those cool stormtroopers and AT-AT's. I really like your fighter concept, and it adds nicely to creating specialized units, I would like to extend that to the ground pounders.

Maybe like in PvK's proportions, you could manipulate those track pads into cannon fodder masses(cheap, but sure can hold their ground - defense bonus) and specialized infantry with some to hit and defense bonuses, but really expensive(something that could be greatly utilized in cargo holds of a gunship sized fighter and dropped covertly past enemy planetary defenses.)

Breakdown:
Infantry *TL I (Pea Shooters)
Small Troops *TL II (Light and Heavy Weapons)
Medium Troops *TL III (LW and HW, armor and other gizmos, ex: IFV's)
Large Troops *TL IV (tanks and artillery)
Specialized Infantry *TL IV (special forces, rangers, recon)
Huge or Behemoth Troops *TL V (Toys R Us on the go)

Also, I don't know if I requested this before; but, what about adding boarding party components to be utilized on gunship sized fighters, perhaps the ability to land troops on planets too(see above example of special forces). I don't know if this would be hard to mod in, it sure would be cool though.

Did I mention that this is an excellent mod. Bravo. So what do you think about those troops. Thanks.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

As for the ground troops, ground combat has never been a big thing for me in SEIV, so that wasn't high on my priority list. I will be getting to it, perhaps in the next release Version.

Boarding partys on gunbaots worry me, since I'm not sure how the AI will handle it. Could be interesting. I will look into that. What will most likely happen is that the boarding party component will be so large, it will render the gunboat useless for most other things, in order to prevent the boarding parties from being put onto the smaller fighters.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I remember that, back in the days of the original Derek's mod. I'll check it out, and let you know.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Thouroughly depressing. The HE missile mounts decrease the range of the missiles, as I wanted them to, but it didn't increase the damage. I'll have to come up with another scheme.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Having a HE mount doing double damage for only -2 to range without additional space/cost needed seems somewhat unbalanced IMHO...
(edited, I streamlined the idea http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ) :
Why not trying rather to have mounts change only ranges (considering that bugs prevent damage modifier from working) ?
Create :
* a short range mount : 75-80% size/cost, range -2
* and a Long Range mount : 120-140% size/cost, range +3 or +4 (call this one Long Lance !)
(you can even make more variations...)

We'll basically have a smaller and a bigger missile with same explosive charge and varying amount of fuel.. Neat ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ May 15, 2002, 07:06 AM: Message edited by: PDF ]

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

I thought range didn't do anything with missile mounts, either, no?

In essence, you can't change the missile itself with a mount - only the launcher. So you've only got a few things to play with using missile mounts:

size
structure
cost
rate of fire

At least, that's what I thought.

PvK

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Well, thouroughly depressingly, it appears you all were correct. You can not affect range, or damage with mounts for missiles. Well, you can actually reduce range, but not increase it. If you increase it, the game will let you fire at the increased range, but the missile will dissappear once it is outside it's normal range. If you decrease the range, the game won't let you fire outside the decreased range.

Anyways, I took out the missile mounts.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Is it possible to set an upper hull level for mounts ?

If yes, then you can turn all arond : normal missile will have a long range, but only a "small" mount will be available for small hulls that gives a penalty to the range. Large hulls will have larger mounts with smaller penalty till they reach "normal" missile.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

No, unfortunately not. However, the AI will use the highest mount it is allowed to use for a certain hull size, so you won't see AI ships with lesser mounts. If two mounts have the same hull requirement, the AI will use whichever one comes Last in the compenhancement.txt file.

As modifiable as the game is, there are some limitations. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

I'm curious on how the luck trait applies to Derek's Mod. Yes, half the chance for bad events; but, half the chance for good events too, or double? On that note what are the frequency rates for medium or high catastrophy frequencies. 1 out of 20 for high and something like 1 out of 50 for medium? I have only once encountered a catastrophic event, and I was playing at a medium rate for the most part.

Then on to technology research rate. Am I going to be looking at impossibly long periods of research ie, 10-20 years the further I advanced, or would you recomend just playing with average tech cost.

I have been reading some of the previous Posts, and it looks like mounted missles are no good to use. Am I correct on that assumption? Thanks

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, you are correct. In the next release there won't be any special missile mounts, because they just don't work.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, I've been playing as much as I can, both for fun, and to figure out the bugs, and while I never get the huge amount of research points that you get in regular SEIV, I still slowly push it up to around 100k research points. This shouldn't take too long to research anything at that rate, except some of the highest levels of ship construction, and a few other techs.

The key is to research computers until you get Central Computer Complex III and then scrap one of the facilites on your homeworld and replace it with a CCC III. This will really help your research.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

So do you play the game with the technology tech cost set to medium or high?

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">So you however could let choice between :
- "LR" mount with max missile range (having upped the missiles range themselves), mount size 125%
- "Normal" mount with somewhat reduced range (-2), size 100%
- "Small" mount with more range reduction (say -5), size 80%

Any ship could carry any mount, but you can tradeoff between say 3 LR mounts/4 normal/5 short.

Is it possible to have a "fast mount" with reduced reload time (to 2) ? How ?

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Medium

PDF: Thats not a bad idea. I might look into that. There are no changes to reload rate allowed in the missile mounts, however.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Addendum: You can make all new components that launch faster, and thats one of the thoughts I have for Derek's Mod; missile launchers that have a faster rate of fire, at a cost of extra supplies, less damage, more cost, etc...

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Remember what I said earlier about how some things are unchangeable? Well, it appears that fighter type craft cannot be used to capture other ships, even if they mount boarding parties. It appears to be a hard code issue. If anyone knows more about this, let me know.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

A note about future Versions of the mod:

It requires the image mod; all the images in the imagemod are from a variety of sources, including Proportions, Devnull, P&N, and many others. The point of the image mod is to download one set of images to be used for all mods, and put the imagemod files into your main SEIV pictures directory, thus decreasing the d/l size of the various mods out there, instead of having each mod come with its own images.

So, having said that, you can go to the main Imagemod page HERE

If you have trouble installing it, after reading the readme files, let me know, and I will do what I can to help, or refer you to someone who can. This will also be posted on the message when I upload the next Version of Derek's Mod Gold, sometime next week, most likely.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

If you really want to do this, you could try using the allegiance subverter ability, although I think that might not be resisted by security stations.

PvK

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Remember what I said earlier about how some things are unchangeable? Well, it appears that fighter type craft cannot be used to capture other ships, even if they mount boarding parties. It appears to be a hard code issue. If anyone knows more about this, let me know.

Derek</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, I think you are right about that. It's too bad that the Master computer's ability to resist the subverter and it's ability to replace ship control functions aren't seperate abilities. Then you could mod something like this in I think and just give the security station the resists subverter ability.

Geo

[ May 16, 2002, 20:14: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Derek,
I tried clicking on your imagemod here to download and I got a "sight temporarily down". Any where else that I can download this, or is this just a temporary thing? Thanks.

Oh yeah;If you don't mind my prying, but what do you have in store for us on the next round? Again, thanks.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, it's not my image mod; IIRC, Suicide Junkie is the one who compiled all the images together, and made all the files match. Many people had input into it, but SJ is the final coordinator.

The site goes up and down; you should eventually be able to get the imagemod from there.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here is the latest couple of changes from the readme file:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

"Imported, basically intact, the ground combat troops and components from PvK's Proportions Mod. Basically, there are two types of troops:
Infantry, with a weight of 1kT and Infantry Small Arms and Heavy Weapons which weigh 1kT, so those infantry units can use them, and regular small/medium/large 'troops' (which I will probably rename to something else) which can mount the normal troop components. Also, I made the changes PvK did, so that fighters can only mount fighter weapons, and troops only troop weapons."

- I would also recommend, if you haven't already, getting the AFV shields, AFV armor, and the relevant settings.txt entries (militia strength, number of ground combat turns, ground combat damage multiplier), or at least looking at what's in Proportions and adjusting from there. Note too that some of the tech requirements were changed in Proportions, to stretch them out beyond the puny 3-level tree for ground weapons in the standard set - you might need to make sure all the AFV equipment is reachable with your TechAreas.txt file's maximum research levels.

PvK

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

You can download the Image Mod from one of the mirrors. Mine is located at:
http://galileo.spaceports.com/~kazha...imagepack.html

[ May 18, 2002, 20:06: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Already on it. Thanks for the heads up, however, I might have missed it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Derek, is it ready for PBW?

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Good question.

Answer: I have no idea. I have never done the PBW, so I don't know what needs to be done to get it ready for PBW. If you know, or can point me in the direction of a set of guidelines, I would be more than happy to do what I can.

One caveat: it will be sometime this week that I release a new Version, incorporating some changes, including the changes pertinent from Rollo's Devnull Version 1.61.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Basically, being ready for PBW means that there are no crippling bug or play-balance issues.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Then the answer is yes, with one caveat: playing as a space monster would be a crippling play-balance issue.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Hmmm, I didn't know 1.04 was NOT save-compatible with 1.00 ... My ships have fancy comps now, I just have to start over http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif !
Any ETA for next Version ? (so I can wait before starting a new game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

[ May 22, 2002, 22:13: Message edited by: PDF ]

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Later today, or early tomorrow. I promise!

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Oh, and sorry about the save imcompatibility. I made a conscious decision not to expend effort worrying about save compatibility. I should have said that.

Once again, sorry about that.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Latest Version (v1.08) posted. This should be the Last one for a while that messes with the components file, so you can avoid worrying about save incompatibility.

Here's the list of changes:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here is the thread from which you can download the mod.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Probably just a typo, but how does decreasing the research generation speed up research? By the way, great job on this mod!

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

I think he upped them from an even *lower* amount, and was comparing the new amount to unmodded SE4.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Probably just a typo, but how does decreasing the research generation speed up research? By the way, great job on this mod!</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, in the previous Versions, the research centers were straight from PvK's Proportions Mod, which had them at 100/120/140 So, 150/200/250 is a big jump, but it still maintains somewhat of the sense of the Proportions, which is what I wanted. By the way, the point behind Proportions mod, as PvK has said, is that your homeworld, of which you have only one, is the most important planet. There can be colonies that are almost as good as it, but never as good as.

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Does anyone know if the lucky trait in Derek's Mod has any effect on getting those good events.

Yeah, half the chance for bad events, but is it also half the chance for good events too? Or does it really work to the advantage of a lucky race and good times just happen around every corner.

Thanks,

Derek, thanks for putting in the extra troops. One fellow ground pounder to another. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Another question. I noticed in the new mod 1.08 that the external mount missles were supposed to be taken out. However, I noticed that I can still research them. Should this be so? Or am I thinking that something completely different was taken out.

Also when I researched Missles II and the icon for Rapid Fire Missles came up as an orange laser looking cannon. No fears though; in the ship component screen, red triple mount missles appear.

One Last thing, what exactly does the telepathic armor and stunning troops do? Hows' that work in the game?

Thanks.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Ok, I promise this should be it for a while. I noticed that the heavy bombardment missle doesn't show up in the little component box, but for the main description it is there. I tested to see if they work, and they do, it's just an aeshtetic issue i guess(blank box), and one can't tell what the percentage to hit is in combat. Is there any easy way fix this?

I have downloaded all of the image mod too. Other than that my game is coming along beautifully. The AI actually has me contained, not for long though. Arrghh.

Thanks

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Help!

I've installed the mod and run it for a while and its great but Im having some trouble with it.

It seems to be missing some images. I installed the image mod files but Im still missing a bunch.

I can't view some of the facilities descriptions/modifiers screens because it cant find the image files it needs. I looked at my pictures/facilities folder and I see the problem.

The pictures I seem to be missing are Facil_072.bmp all the way through Facil_100.bmp. I have 101 through 241, which were installed by the image mod.

These images aren't in the mod and they aren't in the image mod, so where do I get them? Someone help me out here!

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Umm... missiles don't have a chance to hit. They either hit the target, or run out of "fuel" and die.

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

This weekend is incredibly busy, but as soon as it's over, I'll look into the image problems people seem to be having.

Sorry about the lack of a quick fix!!!

Derek

Re: Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek\'s Mod Gold
 

Derek,
A little quirk in my games : the AI fills all his "transport" designs with Colony modules...
I suppose this is due to the fact that the Cargo cap of a Colony module is superior to a 20kT cargo...
Simple solution IMHO is to make like in Proportions a much bigger Colony Module and a bigger Colony ship so that modules don't fit in transport hulls http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
This thread needed a *bump* also http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif