Quibbles
 

A few quibbles that may or may not have been brought up already.

1) The Culture modifiers don't seem balanced, IMO. Some have all positive modifiers (Scientists, Workers), while others have more negatives than positives (Xenophobes, Merchants). Granted, your selection will still depend on your style of play than raw plusses and minuses, but I'm wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this.

2) Maybe the "Neutral" happiness type should be renamed "Isolationist", and make a new "Neutral" type that combines happiness elements from both Peaceful and Bloodthirsty (though will lesser effects). So, Neutrals would get marginally happy from treaties, battle victories, etc.

3) The Last time I saw a log entry for an empire being destroyed, it said something like "the Rage Collective empire has been destroyed." Methinks the "empire" is redundant and should be changed to read "the Rage Collective has been destroyed". I just can't remember which file to modify to change this.... (Is this even still like this?)

4) Maybe I'm just color-blind, but the Toltoyan race description specifically says they have "crystal green" eyes, yet in their portrait, their eyes are sky blue! Would someone with some artistic skills mind rectifying this (since mine are negligible)?

Like I said, quibbles, but I wanted to get some discussion on 'em before I sned something to MM.

Quikngruvn

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"That which does not kill you will make you stronger." -- Nietzsche

Re: Quibbles
 

As for the culture modifiers;

cultures such as artisans get only plusses, but happiness isn't really important.

for Merchants, they do have a lot of negatives, but the 5% maintenance reduction has a huge effect on the game.
eg. if you have 15% reduction already, the merchants culture will double the number of active warships you can support!

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Re: Quibbles
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Quikngruvn:

4) Maybe I'm just color-blind, but the Toltoyan race description specifically says they have "crystal green" eyes, yet in their portrait, their eyes are sky blue! Would someone with some artistic skills mind rectifying this (since mine are negligible)?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What's so artistic about changing the word "green" to "blue"?
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I think so Brain but, if you replace the P with an O, my name would be Oinky, wouldn't it?"

Re: Quibbles
 

A small change like that just needs patience and a steady hand on the mouse. Open the race portrait in Paint, bump the magnification up to 6x, tweak the pixels to the color you want.

I've made portraits for my Tiktsin and Rrurrr with just that plus cut & paste and skew.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Re: Quibbles
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
cultures such as artisans get only plusses, but happiness isn't really important.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I disagree that Happiness isn't important, since it can affect resource production, research, and intel. But, I've yet to pick Artisans since I can get a better mix of modifiers from other cultures and bump up happiness under characteristcs (more efficient IMHO).

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dogscoff:
What's so artistic about changing the word "green" to "blue"?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You've obviously never seen my handwriting! It's been alternately described as "chicken scratch," "hieroglyphics," and "what the hell does this say?"

Quikngruvn

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Ponder this: Scientists already knew that matter is 98% empty space. After they figured out the structure of protons, they determined the remaining 2% is mostly made up of... well, nothing. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

[This message has been edited by Quikngruvn (edited 27 July 2001).]

Re: Quibbles
 

The biggest problem I have with the culture modifiers is that too many of them allow you to get something for nothing. I think each one should have more negative effect than positive effect. That way if you really want the bonus in a certain area you have to pay for it.

Re: Quibbles
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I disagree that Happiness isn't important, since it can affect resource production, research, and intel.
But, I've yet to pick Artisans since I can get a better mix of modifiers from other cultures and bump up happiness under characteristcs (more efficient IMHO).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Happiness the in-game population statistic is very important, but in the race setup it means litte to nothing.
Unless you're choosing "neutral" happiness type, you can make any population Jubilant with the application of 100k research and 6k minerals per planet. Unarmed "Police" troops are great, though if I have the resources, I'll build "Wobbly Bob" warmechs with ground cannon and plasma armor instead.

By setting happiness to 50%, I can get some nifty bonuses in other areas. I enjoy having every racial tech available, and stealing the levelups from everybody else http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif. Temporal yards, crystalline armor, organic weapons, psychic training, nature shrines. And the crossover techs are cool too.

------------------
The latest info on Pirates & Nomads (forum thread).
-&lt;Download V2.1&gt;- (Now with extra scenario support!)
-&lt;Download V1.7&gt;- (With default AIs patched)
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[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 27 July 2001).]

Re: Quibbles
 

ND: Exactly, though I'd be satisifed if the cultures gave, at best, a +0 net racial point bonus equivalent. So, for example, Artisans could keep their +10% happiness but would also suffer -5% production and research together, or just -5% aggressiveness. (Wait, that wouldn't work for aggressiveness, since it and defensiveness are combined into Space Combat for cultures.)

SJ: Interesting tactic. And now I see the point of your original 'happiness isn't important' comment.

(Omigod! With that tactic, you could have ships with allegiance subverters and religious talismans! That is diabolical....)

Quikngruvn, shuddering at the thought

------------------
Ponder this: Scientists already knew that matter is 98% empty space. After they figured out the structure of protons, they determined the remaining 2% is mostly made up of... well, nothing. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

Re: Quibbles
 

Subverters, Talisman, and Organic armor!
With temporal shipyards to build them with, and crystalline maintenance reduction facilities...

Instant, vast fleets, of hard-to-kill, perfect accuracy, all-defense skipping, capture destroyers.


Though, I prefer the Bio-crystal armor, Harmonic shielding, 100% accuracy, heavy-HEM-armed, psychic-trained dreadnaughts, with 6,000 hitpoints worth of internal "armor".
They'll only cost 100,000 minerals, and take 3 years to build, but they'll never die.

------------------
The latest info on Pirates & Nomads (forum thread).
-&lt;Download V2.1&gt;- (Now with extra scenario support!)
-&lt;Download V1.7&gt;- (With default AIs patched)
-&lt;Download compatible EMPs for P&N v1.2 through v1.7&gt;-
-&lt;Download SJs latest AI Patcher&gt;-
Visit My Homepage

Other Links:
-&lt;Play By Web&gt;-
-&lt;Schlock Mercenary&gt;- (great space-based webcartoon)
-&lt;8-bit Theater&gt;- (fun comic with the pixellated FF1 characters)

Re: Quibbles
 

As I've recently found for myself, Neutral is a PAIN. Do anything, and they get pissed. Literally- the only things that make them happy are none, non-agression treaties and the passage of time. Not even troops.

Speaking of troops, perhaps the happyness bonus for them should be reduced a bit?

Phonix-D