Small Ships Mod discussion
 

Well, since I've gone and made the bloody thing, might as well provide a place for folks to discuss it -- feedback, suggestions, and so on.

Meanwhile, I'll be compiling a list of the changes I made, to post here sometime today or tomorrow. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

But, one ground rule to start with ... no bringing the "TK can/cannot skip shields" discussion to this thread. Leave it where it started, please.

The mod itself is available at this link: Small Ships mod, v 1.0a, Beta 1.

[ July 28, 2003, 14:30: Message edited by: Pax ]

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, this thread is a more appropriate place for it then Slick's ankle-biter thread sicne it relates directly to your mod and not his original idea. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, this thread is a more appropriate place for it then Slick's ankle-biter thread [since] it relates directly to your mod and not his original idea. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, but if it's left there, I think my case has been 100% successfully made, so I can let it die. I'd rather not see it resurrected here, though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

Great job! I will definitely find time to check this one out.

edit: I am amazed at how fast you decided on parameters and pumped this mod out.

Slick.

[ July 28, 2003, 16:50: Message edited by: Slick ]

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

Pax, IMO you need to change the description of the TKP, as its description supports my interpretation and not yours. That will eliminate the possibility of any dispute, and is not hard to do. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I laid out an explicit ground rule int eh first post not to bring that discussion here. You disagree with me -- with an inexplicable degree of vehemence for such a minor topic -- but I believe I have already made my case with 100% success; if you choose to ignore the salient points, that is your business.

Leave that point out of this thread, please.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

I did not bring the discussion here, I just made a suggestion for the mod. Drastic changes to the fucntionality of a weapon require changes to their description. If you were to make PPBs skip all shields, then it would make sense to update their description. A simple "bypasses shielding" in the description of the TKP would suffice.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That was the easy part, actually. Pick a series of hull sizes, decide on some rules for how ECM is determined by hull, and just ... run the numbers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Having played SFB (tabletop, not computer), and owning supplements giving the details on the navies of no less than ... oh, I'd say, a dozen races at least ... gives me a great wealth of ideas to draw on for ship classes. The "Fast ___" ships were directly "yoinked" from SFB, in fact, where there are indeed fast couriers, fast cruisers, and fast carriers. I simply swapped "cruiser" for "Frigate".

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

[1] Bases (at least at level 1) don't seem to appear in the chassis choice menu.

[2] A.I. don't seem to know how to build colonizers.

Nice job with the other stuff, tho.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hrm, probably error on my part ... let me check ... aha, found it ... an editting error, the line between the end of the Spacedock entry and the start of the Outpost entry was missing; that'd do it.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm, apparently the AI is set up to ONLY use coloniser hulls for colony ships. I'll just have to reintroduce the Colony Ship hull, I guess.

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

I'll upload a corrected ZIP in just a little while ... now is as good a time as any to throw a readme together and include it in the ZIP. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ July 29, 2003, 06:37: Message edited by: Pax ]

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

Pax, you still there? You're not discouraged, are you?

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

No, not at all. Sorry I didn't get the readme done and a file uploaded ... but a friend JUST closed (a month early) on a new condominium, so I've been helping arrange for the place to be painted and planning some general improvements/repairs at the same time, for the past couple days.

I'll resume working on a good readme, and maybe some more additions/tweaks, tonight; I should be able to get a lot more work done on it this weekend, too.

Meanwhile, I'll go pop a quick-fix Version Online ASAP, with a corrected VehicleSizes.txt (including a Colony Ship hull).

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

Upload complete.

My next project is to write a readme, while going back through the components.txt data file to make sure I want to stick with the tweaks I'd done before (as well as rediscover wth they WERE so I can list 'em in the readme, lol).

[ August 01, 2003, 00:35: Message edited by: Pax ]

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No problem - helping your friend move is definitely more important. I'll check it out and see how it plays.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

I might be interested in joining this game, what are the basic changes made in the data files and to accomplish what?

...and yes, I'm sure I could dig this info up somewhere but I'm going to sleep now and hope to have an answer to read for breakfast. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This isn't a game, per se; it's a new mod, one that's a spinoff form the idea that spawned the "Attack of the Ankle-Biters" thread. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

The changes, so far, are mainly to limit ships to the smaller end of the scale, play with engines-per-move a bit (so that some later hulls are SMALLER, but in return inherently FASTER, than their predecessors), and try out osme of the less-radical changes for weapons which were discussed in the Stock Balance thread.

Not all changes to weapons are properly documented in the data files at present (I believe I forgot to STATE that the Graviton Hellbore skips armor, for example), and I am working on a new Beta 3 Version, complete with a readme documenting the changes (at least in summary format); I hope to have that Version ready for release by the end of this weekend.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

Regardless of what type of planet I start out on, the game keeps giving me Gas Giant Colonization Tech - do you think Aaron hardcoded something to look for Col Tech in Applied Sciences?

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm. That is odd (and thank you for trying lots of things out -- that one I'd've not found myself, for quite a while -- I almost always PLAY gas giant races).

I'll do some testing tomorrow (got to get some sleep soonish), and try and figure that one out.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

No. It gives you the technology necessary to be able to build the Last colony module appropriate to your race that is in the components file. If you place multi-type colony modules (such as Gas + Rock) after the normal ones, you will get those instead. But if they are placed before the normal ones, the AI will never be able to use them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm. THAT sucks; it means I'll have to choose between the multi-colony module and humans-only play. Damn.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

You could try adding some dummy abilities and have the AIs call for those instead of colony modules. There are plenty of them available.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm not rewriting the AI; I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

If you add these abilities (for example) to the Rock Colony Module:

Resource Generation - Minerals

Then open up the Design_Creation AI files and do a find-replace of

Colonize Planet - Rock

with

Resource Generation - Minerals

Sure, it is not a whole lot of fun, but you can get the AI to design the colony ships fine with this method. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Small Ships Mod discussion
 

ShipsizeChart.txt states the Bulk Transport is 600kt large. VehicleSize.txt has 200kt.