Re: A pirates life for me...
 

"When/if I can find a safe way to convert bases into immovable ships,"

Well..make them into ships, don't allow any engines. That part is easy enough, and for players would work right. The problem is getting the AI to figure out WTF these things are, and more to the point using them as intended.

Phoenix-D

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>I'm going to try to balance things against the other weapons and shields of P&N.. the shield power seems to climb pretty high in the later game<hr></blockquote>Don't worry about the defenses, just balance with the weapons.
Eg: the heavy shield generators at the top of shield tech are not phased, so anyone who goes for the big hitpoint boost takes a big risk as well.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Well..make them into ships, don't allow any engines. That part is easy enough, and for players would work right. The problem is getting the AI to figure out WTF these things are, and more to the point using them as intended.<hr></blockquote>The other problem is with emergency movement. I don't want bases wandering around http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

As for the AI problems, once I get enough ideas, I'll split off a new, "humans-only" branch of P&N. It'll include stuff like "no unlimited supply generation", where even resupply depots are out. Every drop of supply will have to be gathered like a resource.

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Possible grav tech idea

Gravimetric Drive: an efficient engine (uses fewer supplies, or possible has more movement points?)

edit:
(irreverently stolen from another mod I can't remember the name of offhand)

Intuitive Warp Point Knowledge: Short range warp point opener. (Possible a WP closer as well?)

[ 01 December 2001: Message edited by: dumbluck ]</p>

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Intuitive Warp Point Knowledge: Short range warp point opener. (Possible a WP closer as well?)<hr></blockquote>How about making it a series of 1000 KT WP openers, so they fit on baseships, and having all the normal tech WP manipulators be 1500KT starbase-only components?

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Gravimetric Drive: an efficient engine (uses fewer supplies, or possible has more movement points?)<hr></blockquote>Rather than either of those (P&N covers a LOT of range in those categories), make it smaller than the normal engines, say 7KT.
Just make four levels of grav-drive, corresponding to Ion/CT/JP/Quantum. Supply use of 6 (compared to 10,8,6), thrust of 5 (compared to 3,4,5,6).
That gives a speed/KT of 0.72 vs Quantum's 0.6, and you pay a bit more in fuel (since you need more engines)
If you follow the pattern of "1 less thrust than normal tech", the Grav drives beat all except ion engines. However, they do still save on fuel when you're at Ion I's or II's.

Notes:
- Propulsion tech 1, 4, 7, 10 should be required along with the grav tech to get the grav engine. That way, other players can get engine tech when they capture, and research costs are reasonable.
- Don't forget to make Armored Versions of the engine ($5 per hitpoint, 20 additional HP for normal engines)
- There is an unused engine image already in place, are you going to use that?

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Hey, it's your mod, do whatever you think fits. I was just throwing some ideas out because jimbob mentioned the tech area looked a little sparse. I personally like your ideas about the grav engine. However, I don't think that limiting normal WP tech to base sized vessels. It limits normal SM stategies too much, IMHO. Or was that the point? "you wanna have moving WP techs? Spend racial points on the tech!"

But then, I think a lot of people would take the grav racial just for the WP abilities.... that's not what you want, is it? Personally, I think that a smaller, shorter range WP opener available early in the tech tree would be best. I think that a WP closer shouldn't be available till midgame.

[ 02 December 2001: Message edited by: dumbluck ]</p>

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

I don't, but people claim to, play the not connected game feature. If a warp point opener was available earlier on in the grav tech taht could add some new life to what appears to be a boring mode of play, could also add some excitement eraly on as people closeoff systems and warp others together (open up dead end systems), this soundslike a great idea.

edit: I also thought that it would be cool to be able to create systems (hardcode obviously) but hten people couild actually add systems to the game, the pinnacle of stellar manipulation (might require multiple racial techs (grav, temporal, organic?) would be expensive ot build, might be base only component? would have to have asteroid creation or towing too to put planets in sucha system. (asteroid creation/towing now thats a thought, i know SJ already talked about towing or moving ships and asteroids). MM needs to hardcode the towing ability. could also destabilize a warp point by moving an asteroid through it (towing, not carrying in cargo like you are supposed to do for asteroid movement). that was all random but whatever.

[ 03 December 2001: Message edited by: Skulky ]</p>

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

I've also thought about how cool it would be to use some kind of towing ability. Also, the ability to hold an enemy vehicle immobile by tractor beam could be really awesome for some strategies... things perhaps for the Grand Future.

S-J,
Looking through the Components.txt file for P&N, I have another couple of questions.
1)You have assigned a 1 point supply cost for your solar sails. Is this just to keep them from giving free movement when out of supplies?
2)Solar Sail I grants 1 Standard Movement, Solar Sail II grants 2 Extra Movement, and Solar Sail III grants 3 Standard Movement. This one still has me baffled.

CombatSquirrel

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>2)Solar Sail I grants 1 Standard Movement, Solar Sail II grants 2 Extra Movement, and Solar Sail III grants 3 Standard Movement. This one still has me baffled.<hr></blockquote>Damn. That's one heck of an exploitable bug. Thanks for pointing it out.

I'll have a fix for you in a sec.
I'm gonna have to update PBW, too...

EDIT: Sig's updated to the new file now.
EDIT2: Unfortunately, the new file upload system dosen't allow for an automatically updated "Latest Version" link, as I've had in the past http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif (this edit is to update the sig)

[ 03 December 2001: Message edited by: suicide_junkie ]</p>

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

Here's another tech idea for you, SJ. At the very top of the missle tree (and maybe dependant on another tech?), place a component that decreases reload rate by 1 for all seekers. (or maybe it would fit better into the Temporal Tech tree?) Would that be possible? I vaguely recall a comp (in the psychic tree?) that INCREASES reload time, could this be given a negative affect to achieve this? It would be cool for us missle loving fools....

Re: A pirates life for me...
 

This thread is the oldest thread I've ever seen http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I was one of the original posters back in March...wow http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif