Re: Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion
 

The blacked out systems have nothing to do with adding the Imperials as a race. At least I have never seen such a thing.

Much more likely this is due a change you did to the /data files.

As for the new Devnull Mod Gold version? Soon =).

Re: Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion
 

Allright, just to clear it up... mb there is a glaring error that I made, but here's the scoop.

I put the devnull folder into the main directory. I changed the pathway txt to devnull171 so the launcher loads devnull171 when started or when using the standard exe. Its gonna load devnull171 regardless.

I dropped the emp's into the devnull empire folder, told that wouldnt work anywya.

I dropped atrocities shipset imperial folder into devnulls picture/races folder.

I dropped the imperial txt names file into devnulls dsgname folder.

When I initially tried atrocities shipset, the emp's ouldnt work. Was told to create a new race using the shipset and then choose the txt names i wanted.

When I started the game, i got a black system screen.

Only when I totally replaced and renamed all the imperial txt files with the devnuklls vikings did i get system info.

After that, I started changing some components around. Not before.

So, what did I do wrong and what is wrong with what I did?

Re: Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion
 

Did you replace the images too, or just text files?

Try opening and saving all of the Imperial text files in wordpad or so.

Re: Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion
 

Just the txt files. And my notepad works for editing the txt files just fine. But I didnt do any editing prior to the game not giving me a system screen...

Re: Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion
 

Don't see anything wrong with what you did.

Was this the unmodded DevnullMod171, or something you have modded? As said earlier, adding a race won't cause the systems to be blank. Only changes to the mod itself, IIRC.

I would suggest starting over with the fresh version 1.71 and adding the Imperials then. See how that goes.

Re: Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion
 

Ok... did you try what I suggested?

Re: Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion
 

Ill try wordpad tomorrow. But i mean, it works now, but the damned things given me no shipnames.

Re: Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion
 

Well, good news. I have made fine progress. Here are the latest changes:

* removed small emissive armor
* removed abilities from small organic and crytalline armors, since they aren't working for units anyways. Reduced their sizes to 1 to make better fit on units
* reduced cost for small shield generators
* restricted Solar Sails to one per vehicle
* added Balanced System Mod as another selection for different quadrant styles
* removed Master Computer I and II, made Master Computer III a ruins tech (#10)
* increased cost and size for Allegiance Subverter by 100 and reduced range by 2
* added Psychic Weapon Mount that brings back Allegiance Subverter back to its original size and cost, effectively making AS an unmountable weapon, except for its own mount
* reduced minerals cost for Allegiance Subverter but increased rad cost and largely increased its organic cost. reasoning: it needs manpower (psychics) to operate. for the same reason AS can no longer be placed on satellites or drones.
* added boarding defense to Allegiance Subverter and Boarding Parties
* added Death Ray (ancient ruins tech) that kills boarding defense only (can be used against Allegiance Subverter, Boarding Parties, Security Stations, Telepathic Armor, and Monster Immune System)
* added Death Ray as requirement for the Sci-Fi Cannon
* made Monitors (baseships) and Starbases immune to crew conversion
* added Master Computer tech area. MC has to be researched after finding it in a ruin and getting to Computers level 3.
* added Advanced Master Computer that combines a MC with a neural combat net, if both ruins were found and MC tech researched
* revised a lot of the CueCappa/Abbidon construction, research and designs
* revised some of the Sonne research and designs
* added the Quadrant Style Selector.exe that allows a player to switch between different quadrant mods, Classic, FQM, and Balanced mod
* added /data/Classic Systems, /Data/FQM Systems and /data/Balanced Systems folders and appropriate files. These folders act as source for the Quadrant Mod Selector
* updated /Data/FQM Systems with the FQM v1.23 files
* cut away unneeded images for component and planet minis and moved/renumbered some planets to make file smaller (components are still image mod compliant)
* revised (generally increased) fleet sizes for all AI races
* added Ancient Technology tech group and moved/reordered all ruin tech areas
* reduced costs for seekers (for some of them greatly reduced costs)
* increased damage resistance for ionic pulse missile and tweaked damage, range and speed a bit
* tweaked fighter offense and defense bonus
* set to-hit bonus for AFM to 70 for all sizes
* raised to-hit bonus for PDC to 90
* raised to-hit bonus for mini-PDC to 80
* raised Seeker Combat Defense Modifier to 110
* reduced Planet Combat Offense Modifier to 10
* reduced bonus for Accelerated Psychic Sensors to 10/20/30
* added Equal Systems from Balance Mod to Classic Quadrant SystemTypes.txt
* added Asteroid Belt with Planets to Classic Quadrant SystemTypes.txt
* added AI Friendly Quadrant to Classic Quadrant QuadrantTypes.txt (no hazard systems, some equal systems, no storms or 'useless' systems, asteroid belts have one planet of each type, systems have few warp points and quadrant layout is string-like)
__________________________________________________ _________

Apart from cleaning up some stuff, my todo list is done. I am going to test the mod a bit now and see if made any big and easy to catch mistakes.

So ETA has moved from 'soon' to 'very soon' http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

New version: 1.80
 

Ta-daaa!
And here it is, no teaser or April fool's joke this time. This is the real thing:

DevnullMod Gold version 1.80

very short summary of changes and new features:
* New AIs: Xiati and Sallega, and updates to all other races.
* New graphics: Asteroids, Taera shipset, monster drone, new buttons and intro screen.
* Quadrant Style Selector: allows easy switching between different quadrant mods
* many more revisions, features and fixes: better weapon balance, new ruins techs, revised mounts and to hit chances, Master Computer is now a ruins tech, single satellite tube, Puke's infamous Sci-Fi Canon Cannon and much much more... please refer to readme for more details.

Have fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif,
Rollo

Re: New version: 1.80
 

*pushes download button*

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hey, Henk!
good to see you are still around =).

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Yes, I still lurk here occasionally while waiting for the release of SeV http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. Good to see you still around as well, I guess we are the only people here that actually link to dungeon odyssey related stuff in their sigs..

Anyhow, Judging by the lists of changes a lot of work was put into this version, I probably won't have time to play the new version of Devnull until somewhere next week but I'll try and give some more usefull comments when I do.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

have the normal shield and phased shields been fixed so the normal sheilds don't upgrade to the phased?

and can you add a phased shield regen?
AFAIK the normal one doesn not work on phased shields.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

There is only one shield regeneration ability. AFAIK it works on both types of shields...

Re: New version: 1.80
 

That's cool Henk, no hurry, but I am always looking for feedback, of course.

se5a, what exactly do you think needs fixing with shields? Can you be a bit more specific?

And yeah, as Ed already said, shield regen works for either shield.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

I finally got around to playing a game and so far it's great, one note so far, it seems that the AI's in my game are not investing as much in research as they should. I'm only 6th by total score but my research output is 5 times higher than any of the other races, in fact they are all still very close to the amount of research they started out with, and none of them seem to have build any research stations in the last 4 years (it's 2408 now). They keep up quite well when looking at the amount of tech levels they have researched because of their AI bonus, but they could do much better.

Here's a screenshot of the scores, it's a high tech cost, no intel game, I changed the monster's flag in my game because it looked a lot like the neutrals (I forgot to switch them off at the game start) I'm player 1 (the taera shipset)
http://img479.imageshack.us/img479/4...cescore3mk.gif

The problem is probably made worse by the galaxy settings, (small, sparse galaxy) at this point most of the planets have been colonized and there's not much room to expand or build additional research facilities. Anyhow it couldn't hurt if one or two of the AI's were designed to build more research stations.

Anyhow, even though I'm doing well on the research front I'm having a lot of trouble keeping my empire together:), I did manage to conquer the Jraenar empire early on, but now the Cue Cappa attack me from behind. They use a lot of seekers (which are far more difficult to defend against in Devnull) and because of AI-bonus they can support huge fleets. (i'm having trouble with my upkeep at only 26 ships) My ships don't stand a chance against their fleets out in open space, but well designed weapon platforms with lots of pd at the planets bordering their empire can just stop them for now. I however still lost two far away systems to large Cue-Cappan fleets over the last year. Also the space monsters have picked me as their favourite victim http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm getting monster attacks almost every turn. Looks like I'm really going to need the research advantage I have build up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Never mind that last post, I just started a new game and the AI is building huge amounts of research facilities. I'm playing on a slightly larger map this time, but otherwise the settings are the same.

Why did I start a new game you ask? Well because the AI humiliated me in the last one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. I might have been ahead in technology but that did not save me from the Cue-Cappan fleet of 59 ships with missiles and fighters that suddenly entered my homesystem.

Anyhow, geat mod. the techtree (or what I've seen of it) is mostly the same as stock, but weapons and components have been tweaked a lot, and interesting new ones have been added. It seems far better balanced compared to stock and the AI does a very good job at using the new options it has. I'm looking forward to new versions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: New version: 1.80
 

I'm here lurking too,.. <waves to everyone> Hi people.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Thanks for the great and informative feedback, Henk.

Glad the AI is researching better in the 2nd game. Honestly, I hadn't really known how to reply to the first report. But yeah, small Galaxy and monsters could easily throw the AI off-balance I assume. Killing fledgling research worlds very fast, and not letting the AI get a foot on the ground. And also glad the Cue Cappa managed to give you some troubles http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif. Looking at your scores it did seem to me you invested a bit too much into research and not enough resources to maintain a large enough standing fleet. Serves you right =P.

Keep us posted how the 2nd game goes, if you feel like it.
That applies for everyone, of course. There have been some extensive changes to to-hit chances, seekers and fighters. So looking for feedback and insights on that, but anything else as well really.

As for new versions... well, let's just say I hope it doesn't take over 2 years again. But I wouldn't expect anything for the next couple of months either. Apart from small typos, fixes, or any glaring mod breaking errors that have not been found yet.

and David! I knew you'd be lurking around somewhere... but I had no clue you were hiding in THIS thread http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif. I hope everything is well on your end. And thanks again for the pixel work tutelage. You will find some of your artwork that you sent to me oh so long ago in this new version.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

/me waves back.

How's your mother doing? I remember you saying you were busy taking care of her.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hi David, good to see you around too, are you still working on art for Malfador?

Well in that case it might be usefull to tell a bit more about the dramatic downfall of the Jitwick Empire in my last game:

The war with the Cue Cappa had raged for years, only a few remembered how it all started. The treacherous Cue Cappa, once close allies, had attacked the Jitwick by suprise, and there had been no answer to their huge fleets of ships and missile technology, and many, many innocent lives had been lost.

The Jitwick however had learned from these early encounters: Their superior technology would not help against the cue cappa, they destroyed our fleets from long range with their more primitive, yet effective missile technology before we could use our state of the art weapons. We needed to build a large fleet with strong point defense to counter the threat. We would also need a more resource based economy. Work on the project started immediately.

And it worked! Captain Twurckle still fondly remembered how they defeated, a year ago, a huge Cue Cappan fleet of around 60 ships. Our fleet of 30 ships had been outnumbered but had had backup of point-defense weapon platforms from the planet below them. We suffered no losses. There was other news, the second Jitwick fleet was in Cue cappan teritory and was destroying their smaller colonies, it lacked the firepower to destroy their main worlds, but it was a start, the Jirwick were winning the war. The Cue Cappa were not about to give up: scouting forces warned of a 59 ship fleet that was approaching the homesystem, and reports from some small skirmishes elsewhere said that the cue cappa had acquired new technology: fighters. The large fleet had 5 carriers.

Captain Twurckle took immediate action. conventional point defense weapons (in Devnull) would not help against fighters, so he quickly produced and retrofitted several ships to use anti-fighter pd missiles. He parked his 27 ship fleet on top of a nearby world that had lots of conventional point defense (but not much offensive weapons) a quick calculation showed that they had more point defense than they needed.
The Cue Cappa fell for the trap, they thought the small Jitwick fleet would be easy prey, and they entered the sector. Captain Jirwick laughed his maniacal laughter when he saw the wall of fighters and misilles approach and nearly spilled his coffee.

He actually did spill his coffee when he saw things did not go as planned. The anti-fighter-pd missiles, which had longer range than the conventional pd, suddenly started firing on the incoming missiles. All of the anti-fighter pd was depleted when the conventional pd kicked in. The enemy missiles were easily destroyed but there was no means left to kill the fighters. The fighters came in at high speed dodged some panicked shots of directed fire weapons and started tearing apart the large Antares class pd ships that defended against the Cue cappan missiles. Captain Twurckle called for retreat, but with the Antares class ships gone he had no chance to outrun the cue cappan missiles.

After this the cue cappan quickly took out my most important worlds and I had no change to rebuild (losing important worlds can be painfull on a small map). I would probably have won the battle if I had used fighters myself, instead of anti-fighter pd, which is a usefull thing to remember for the future. Anyhow the point is that the anti fighter PD seems quite useless against fighters if the enemy also uses missiles, maybe their range should be reduced so they fire after conventional point defense, or they should no longer target seekers.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Narf, Mom is doing as well as can be expected, thanks for asking.

Henk, yes I'm still doing Artwork for Malfador..

thread hijack over,..

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Well, if that means she's getting better, that's good. But that's probably private, so I'll but out now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: New version: 1.80
 

After a long distraction by normal life I want to start
playing SEIV again.
I never tried latest Devnull. One think I don't like
in unmoded sEIv is fast pace of research.
I often play with "high cost" and also reduced output
of research centers by 1/2.
I wonder what effect would it have on Devnull mod ?
Will it make game too slow ??
I'm planning to play large galaxy ~200 system with
~15 AI on low or medium bonus.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Devnull Mod Gold plays at the same pace as stock SE4. So lowering the research output will have the same effects.
I can not think of any mod specific reasons that speak against it.

Will it make the game too slow? Yes, IMHO it will. But to each his own. If you like slower research, go for it.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Rollo, in the devnull mod Im doing, the Sonne race freaked out somehow and went on a mad rampage... Their research and resources are 5x that of any other empire cept mine... and I'm consistently ranking half they are in everything else... despite me capturing several early enemy race's HW's. Only thing I'm leading in is population.

What the hell happened? They are going nuts... You do anything special with their AI scripts or did they just get lucky this game? I'm especially impressed with their research and tech levels. Super impressive. When I got word they created a planet... I felt like a third world country at the advent of the atomic age...

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hey Dizzy, nope there isn't anything special about their script. But yes, the Sonne do have the potential to be a formidable opponent.
Just a mix of solid research and designs, and of course a portion of luck. Have fun with your battle against them.
Glad to hear the script works out to give you a challenge and even impress you.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

BTW, it might be usefull to update the download link in
the sticky "newbees" thread. It is still to 1.71
I started a game and played for a while bedore noticing 1.8 patch.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Ya, only mod I play. I do want to try SJ's CBmod.

At this point in my campaign... Im thinking of a sneak attack against the Sonne. I dont know what AI are capable of when they get that nasty Stellar Manipulation Tech... but I'm kinda afraid to find out. If the Sonne created a planet... wont be long before they destroy one... and then start opening up warp gates into my backfield...

Course... its gonna be tough biting the hand that feeds me. My TR alliance with them is a HUGE chunk of change. Dunno what to do... Only thing I've managed to do is gift older outdated war machines to the United Flora Empire so the Sonne war with them lasts a while and keeps them occupied.

I'm edging toward a Japanese style Pearl Harbor attack... Course look how that went for the Japs...

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hey Rollo

I was wondering... it was you that did the AI in CBMod, yes? I remember a long time ago playing devnull mod when devnullicus did it.. did you do the AI in the current devnull mod? Is it possible to compare the devnull AI to the CBMod AI? I don't PBW so mods with strong AI have immense appeal to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Thanks!

Re: New version: 1.80
 

The AI in both mods is strong. Devnull is kind of like an enhanced and balanced stock version of SE:IV with some bonus features like Monsters. I think that most of the AIs are based on TDM ones.

CBmod is also reported to have strong AI. However, the mod itself is vastly different from stock or Devnull. I'd recommend that you check out some of SJ's support documention (ie school of ship design) for the mod when you first start...

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hello Yimboli, yes I did the AI for CB Mod and most of the AI for Devnull Mod Gold as well. Not all of the AI for DNM Gold have been updated yet and the Amonkrie and Fazrah were done by Geoschmo.

The races that I did update (they are listed in the readme and are the only ones that have .emp files) have pretty good AI, but unlike CB Mod they probably need a bit of a bonus (high difficulty, low or medium bonus).
If you like a mod with strong AI, I feel confident enough about them to recommend DNM Gold.

Comparing the AI is rather difficult, as the mods are very different. Pretty much as Kwok has already said.
Devnull Mod Gold AI is not based on TDM, though. Well, actually it partly is, since it IS based on the AI that I wrote for TDM (Vikings, CueCappa, United Flora). But DNM Gold calls for many tweaks in the AI files that you can say they are their own thing. And all the other races have been done completely from scratch or partly based on previous work. But I digress.

There are some similarities between CB Mod and DNM Gold AI, though. All races use combined weapon strategies, fighters, and use troops to capture planets.
But the differences are much larger: DNM Gold AI is aimed to be diverse. I tried a lot of different concepts to make the races use different gameplans and overall strategy. Some of these concepts work better than others, and some are very effective. Most of the scripts took very long to make, test, and fine-tune in order to make them cope with DNM Gold.

OTOH, CB Mod AI is pretty much a hack job. Not polished or optimized yet, but surprisingly strong. This is due to the superb way that CB Mod is set up. If I were to put numbers to it, I'd say the reason CB Mod AI is good is 70% because of the mod itself, 20% dumb luck, and 10% experience in doing AI on my part.

Hope that answers your question.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Haha, props to SJ then for making a robust mod. Thanks!

Cheers

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Hey Rollo,

I've been waiting (im)patiently for SEV to come out lately and I decided I would see if anyone still used devnullmod. I figured it would be lost in the mists of time.

But you've done an awesome job in keeping the mod, and more importantly, the spirit and intent of the mod alive and well. Thank you for keeping the mod alive - it was a lot of fun to create in the first place.

Heh, maybe I'll dig out my SEIV again to try and play with the newest version. It sounds like a great mod now!

But..probably not. Life is busy for me these days. I'm now working as a game developer at EA (working on the Sims). We're getting ready to ship Sims 2 Pets, but about the time I'll have some slack time, SE 5 will ship.

I'm REALLY looking forward to playing SE 5 and possibly even putting together another mod for it. Time will tell. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Again, thanks for all the hard work Rollo (and others!)

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Devnullicus? Unfreakingbelievable, I can personally thank YOU for the origin of this mod.
Sims 2, when do you plan to release the first compilation of EA's awesome cash cow? I am waiting eagerly for something like this, but it looks like it will not happen within this year.

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Heh, I can't comment on that one actually, but I will say you might be pleasantly surprised http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Yeah, I thought as much that you have to keep it a secret. But "pleasantly surprised" sounds good enough. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

CU more often when SE5 has been released, deal? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: New version: 1.80
 

Thanks Devnullicus, it is good to hear that.

If you do find the time, go ahead and give the last version of Devnull Mod Gold a spin =).