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Behold! A new Version of Pirates & Nomads arises from the deep, dragging with it this ancient thread from the beginning of time!

Pirates&Nomadsv3.1.zip!
This is for GOLD v1.78 or higher.

If you find any bugs, please report them. I can't fix what I don't know is broken, but anything broken can be fixed quickly

Pirates&Nomads V3.1:
Quick List: [*]Pirates, Nomads and Normals - Pirates and Nomads are intended for single player vs AIs, but can be successful if played carefully as a supporting race (arms dealer, etc) in a multiplayer game. [*]New racial traits - Try them out in single player before you play. [*]Maintenance reduction - Big change, +10% reduction = 90% of normal costs [*]Quality Mounts - When using armor, be sure to pay extra and recieve the "Premium" armor plating. In matters of life and death, every little bit helps. For non-military ships, such as population transports, "budget" mounts may be appropriate to reduce costs. [*]Weapons - Some balancing, New additions, Phased weapons heavily altered [*]Defenses - Phased shields are mixed in with normal shields, Armor can be as strong as shields, though harder to repair. Special defenses to stop "only weapons" and other special damage types. [*]Quasi-Newtonian Propulsion - Big ships need Big engines, or they go slow. Simple as that. Except instead of bigger, you just use lots of little ones for now. [*]Battlemoons - The ultimate vehicle size, these are limited to 1MP on the map, and carry 10,000 KT of equipment. The default picture is from the "planets" directory. [*]Unit Mounts - Units use mounted Versions of your standard ship weapons. Just research Troop weapons or smaller weapons to get the mounts. [*]Resources - The build costs of all objects are roughly balanced. Since homeworlds start with about 10 mineral miners and only one farm and one radioactives extractor, you will need to supplement orgs and rads production quickly. Scrapping a homeworld's miner for a farm or rads extractor is usually a good idea. [*]Stellar Manipulation - All SM techs are vastly increased in size. Some of the major components can only be mounted on a Baseship or even a Battlemoon.

Full List:

Racial Traits: [*]Pirates, Nomads, and Normals

Selecting Zero will prevent you from building anything of value.
Selecting more than one will be cheating unless the game specifically is set up with this in mind.
Players with more than one trait will be obvious upon first contact: Click Report, and the Race tab to see their trait choices.

[*]There is a sixth major racial trait: Advanced Gravitic Manipulation. [*]This trait mainly gives advanced propulsion technology, faster missiles, and advanced gravity weapons (including a Point-Defense Repulsor beam) [*]All of the 6 main racial Technology Traits (Psychic, Organic, Temporal, Crystalline, Religious, and Gravitic Manipulation) have crossover techs. [*]Most of the listed components are half of normal size, the lifesupport provides 1 repair per turn instead. [*]Tiny Race - All C&C components (bridge/Lifesupport/Crewquarters) are 70% of normal size. [*]Expanded Automation - All ships require one fewer Lifesupport and CrewQuarters compared to normal vessels [*]Pack Rats - Crew Quarters add to your cargo capacity [*]Think Big - All units are 25% bigger than normal
Racial Penalties[*]Naturalists - Planets store only 60% of normal cargo, population and facilities. Cost: -3000 Racial points. [*]Endemic Wastefulness - Supply Usage by all vehicles is doubled. Cost: -2000 Racial points
Racial Characteristics: This is mainly the same as normal, so that AIs will still work. Most areas have expanded limits, so you can go higher or lower than normal. [*]Environmental Resisitance is locked at 100% Since this has exactly the same effect as Reproduction, it has been removed from play. [*]Reproduction reduction - A significant bonus is given to players who take very low reproduction rates. Reducing yourself to a ZERO-reproduction race will net you 1600 racial points to spend elsewhere. [*]Farming and Refining skills are important in P&N due to balanced component costs, so don't neglect them. [*]Maintenance Aptitude has been fixed from normal SE4. The base maintenance rate is 25% of the ship's cost per month. In most mods, and unmodded SE4, taking 10% to maintenance reduction leaves you paying 25-10= 15% of the ship's cost per month. In P&N, 10% maintenance reduction leaves you with 25 - (10% of 25) = 22.5% of the ship's cost per month. The limit for maintenance reduction has been increased to 50%.
Weapons and Defenses: Weapons have been altered from normal SE4 to improve balance. Some major examples are below. [*]Troops and Fighters no longer have their own special weapons. Instead, they have "Micro", "Mini", and "Small" mounts for ship sized weapons. Yes, you can put a wave motion gun on a fighter, if you can find the space for it (WMGs on Large fighters are possible, but the fighter will be slow, and have no shielding). [*]Antiproton beams have been weakened slightly. [*]Missiles come in more flavours. There is a Heavy Bombardment missile that does quad damage to shields and has 4x the hitpoints (vs PD) of a normal missile and weighs twice as much. [*]Wave Motion Guns are called "Helix Cannons" (you'll see why when they fire http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ) and have extended range to be more of an artillery weapon. HEM beams (crystalline tech) are similarily extended in range. [*]Phased weapons are no longer just Polaron Beams. Phased Energy Weapons technology will modify your APBs, Torpedoes and Missiles to carry shield-skipping warheads. [*]Ramming has a 200% modifier to the damage inflicted on both sides.
Defense options have been multiplied. From useful armor, to specialty weapon defeaters, to shields. [*]Troops and Fighters no longer have their own shield technologies. Instead "Small shield mounts" are used to add ship-class shields. Units of varying size get different shield strength out of the same shield generator. [*]Normal shields and Phased shields are developed simultaneously during shield research. The normal shields have more hitpoints per kt space than the phased. [*]At the top levels of shield technology, "Heavy shield generators" are available (200kt, 2000+ shields generated). Beyond that, you can gain Planetary shield technology on your own. [*]Aside from special-effects armor, the standard defensive plating comes in "ablative" and "plasma projection" varieties, each smaller, but stronger than the Last. Using a mount, armor hitpoints can be even higher than shields. However, the best armor comes in 1kt pieces, and trying to repair 200 broken armor components takes quite a while. [*]BuckyTube Gel armor - Not quite armor, but more like "decoy internals" This stuff WILL be hit by null-space weapons, not 100%, but it does sap some of the weapon's strength. [*]Tachyon Diffuser - is a high-hitpoint decoy weapon that will absorb some hits from weapon-destroying weapons. Not 100%, but it will absorb some hits. [*]Armored engines, and shield-armor hybrid technology resist their respective "only x" weapons better than normal.

Movement and propulsion:
P&N uses a Quasi-Newtonian Propulsion system. Bigger ships need more engines, and burn more fuel while moving. The number of engines on any ship is unlimited. [*]On the largest hulls, you may reach a hardcode limit. In v1.67 this would cause a Range Check Error which could be cleared, and allow you to remove the offending engine. In the latest patch it seems that SE4 will simply reduce your ship's speed to zero and start over. Again, remove the offending engine, and your ship will be at maximum speed. [*]It requires one thrust point to move 50kt of ship 1 square per turn. Ion engines provide 3 thrust each, increasing with technology to quantum engines which provide 6 thrust each. Thus 3 ion engines on an escort will move it at speed 3, while 3 quantum engines on that escort will move it speed 6. On a destroyer (300kt) 3 quantum engines will move the ship at only speed 3. [*]Because there is no limit on the number of engines for most ships, you can get ships that move upwards of 20 sectors per turn. However, the fastest ships will be unable to carry weapons or shields. A balance must be struck between engines, weapons and defenses, and exactly where that point is, is totally up to your empire.

Other: [*]Resource producing facilities will store small amounts of resources as well as performing their main function. [*]Quantum reactors are not available in Pirates & Nomads. Dedicated supply ships must be used instead. [*]Supply tanks count as cargo components. Therefore, you may use Transport hulls as a fuel tanker. [*]Ground combat only proceeds one turn per month. Since most ground combats Last at least 5 turns, and major battles can Last 20+ turns, Capturing planets will take time. This gives time for reinforcements to be added to both sides of the conflict, affording room for troop-vs-troop action, and allowing many smaller transports to fight against a large defending force together. [*]"Quality Mounts" Regular, non-weapon components can be built using anything from a "budget" mount to a "Premium" mount. Budget components cost only 80% of normal, but have half the hitpoints. Premium components have 40% more hitpoints and twice the price. Armor should almost always be premium mounted. [*]Planetary Core mount. Available for the Battlemoon, this tremendous mount multiplies the damage delivered by a weapon by 50 times! When viewing weapons that are core-mounted, the damage displayed will often be rounded to the nearest thousand points. Do not worry, the actual damage during combat is the full 50x the unmounted damage. [*]Planetary shields. These require basic shield technology to use. As you research further in shields, you will recieve upgraded planetary shields, from 20k shield points to 50k shield points, to 75k PHASED shield points.

[ August 21, 2002, 17:28: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]