Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

I'm in the process of finishing up my Dark Nova 4 Mod. For those of you who have played DN3 or eariler, I'm looking for suggestions and/improvements to be made.

For those of you who haven't played it, the origianl work was a compilation project to create a mod where diversity became paramount. By the EndGame, not everyone is running around with huge fleets of DN's armed with APB XII's. Instead, this mod combines aspects found in many other mods that increases diversity.
Some Highlights include
-Many many mounts
-30 shipsizes
-12 fighter sizes
-13 unique techs
edit- currently, the unique techs are up to 29 techs. Each one has at least 3 levels of research to them.
-re-vamped cloak/sensor system
-increased facility techs
-planetary shields
-more planet sizes.
-re-vamped Intel projects.
-specialized ships
-seperate tech tree for each hull type

and many more!

Dark Nova 3 mod is avalible on PBW and has most, but not all, of the above mentioned features.

Dark Nova 4 Mod is also on PBW, but has only standard AI (which will work but doesn't quite take full advantage of the mod). DN4 is still a work in progress as I expect some stuff will change before a PBW game is started with it, which I do plan before too long.

Please, if any of you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

[ July 16, 2004, 03:11: Message edited by: bearclaw ]

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

You will have to upgrade for SE5

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

yeah, my plan is to have this pretty much where it should be and DN5 will be to match SE5.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

Where do I find the other DN mods?

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

DN2 and DN3 are both avaliable from PBW. DN2 is much closer to stock SE4 except for a whole lot more vehicle/unit sizes (65 standard shipsizes alone). Also, DN2 has many Mounts.

DN3 has the same shipsizes but they are each hull type has it's own research tree (carriers, standard, colony, transports) and also adds a Tugboat shipsize.

Also, you'll find that in DN2 the research cost for ships is normal so it ends up costing more to develope destroyers than it takes to develope warp openers http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif Hence the changes to DN3.

If you are looking for Dark Nova 1, you won't find it. There isn't one. The original Dark Nova game was a stock SE4 game. It was the colletive work of the players in that game that started the mod.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

Oh, and if anyone is willing to take a look at the AI to make it suitable for this mod, that would be great. Or at the very least, let me know how they could be made to work with the mod. I tried some changes but they made the AI even whimpier than usual.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

Well i find the best AI are ones that are strong in the following

Raised research, mining, ship building abilities
Have access to 2x psychic and temporal

This is just the way to make em play hard lol.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

This is great news. The mod is awsome.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

Paul, the task is not to make best AI ever, but to make adequately working AI.

I think it's definetely possible to make default scripts for DN4 AI, since it doesn't change weapons and components much.

bearclaw, I guess, that stuff from unreleased DN3 patch went to DN4?

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">My attempts at changing the AI (which are in the DN4 Mod, by the way) was to try to get them to make use of the larger ship sizes, but the never did...

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's correct. The full Version todate of DN4 is on PBW. The only significant changes are reduced costs for some techs, increased levels of resource/research/Intel facilites and a new Ship Hull research tree- Specialized Hulls. Unless I'm mistaken, these changes don't really have much effect on AI right?

What I'm working on now are more unique tech levels, combo colony modules, moving Mine Sweepers to PD and 2 new mounts for Scout and Escort shipsizes.

I was also concidering some new traits and culture types, but the existing ones will all remain so those shouldn't have an effect on AI. Still not sure if those will get implemented.

[ July 14, 2004, 15:57: Message edited by: bearclaw ]

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's correct. The full Version todate of DN4 is on PBW. The only significant changes are reduced costs for some techs, increased levels of resource/research/Intel facilites and a new Ship Hull research tree- Specialized Hulls. Unless I'm mistaken, these changes don't really have much effect on AI right?

What I'm working on now are more unique tech levels, combo colony modules, moving Mine Sweepers to PD and 2 new mounts for Scout and Escort shipsizes. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Unless it's a very specialized designs (such as those present in some TDM AI scripts) - no, it's not very significant. Small recalculations will compensate possible problems. Although, where are a bunch of new mounts in the mod, and they require an intent look, because they affect component sizes and thus will alter designs a lot.

To avoid instant rewrite of AI, I think that script's adaptation can be started only
after you'll implement all the major features in the mod. Ex.: moving minesweeping to PD will alter AI in some ways.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

for those who are interested in another game with this mod, is there any sort of demand for it to be Neo-standard compliant? I've been holding off doing that already because there are many more shipsizes in this mod. Someone let me know if this would be welcome or not.

Currently, there are 2 shipsets out there (both on PBW) that were created to work with this mod. The first is a Galactic Empire (SW) shipset I did
http://seiv.pbw.cc/Download/filelib/441/Empire.zip
and the other is called LNAW for DN2 which was done (and posted) by Dead Meat, but it does have some errors.
http://seiv.pbw.cc/Download/filelib/495/LNAW.zip

As it stands, the shipsizes and their bitmaps are:
ShipName / Primary bitmap / Secondary Bitmap
Light Scout / ScoutLight / Escort
Scout / Scout / Escort
Heavy Scout / ScoutHeavy / Escort
Light Escort / EscortLight / Escort
Escort / Escort / Escort
Heavy Escort / EscortHeavy / Escort
Corvette / Corvette / Frigate
Light Frigate / FrigateLight / Frigate
Frigate / Frigate / Frigate
Heavy Frigate / FrigateHeavy / Frigate
Light Destroyer / DestroyerLight / Destroyer
Destroyer / Destroyer / Destroyer
Heavy Destroyer / DestroyerHeavy / Destroyer
Light Cruiser / LightCruiser / LightCruiser
Cruiser / Cruiser / Cruiser
Heavy Cruiser / CruiserHeavy / Cruiser
BattleCruiser / BattleCruiser / BattleCruiser
Light Battleship / BattleShipLight / Battleship
Battleship / Battleship / Battleship
Heavy Battlehsip / BattleshipHeavy / Battleship
Light Dreadnought / Dreadnoughtlight/ Dreadnought
Dreadnought / Dreadnought / Dreadnought
Heavy Dreadnought / DreadnoughtHeavy/ Dreadnought
War Dreadnought / DreadnoughtWar / Dreadnought
Light Baseship / BaseshipLight / Starbase
Baseship / Baseship / Starbase
Heavy Baseship / BaseshipHeavy / Starbase
Tiny Worldship / Worldship / Worldship
Small Worldship / Worldship / Worldship
Worldship / Worldship / Worldship
Large Worldship / Worldship / Worldship
Huge Worldship / Worldship / Worldship
Massive Worldship / Worldship / Worldship

[ July 15, 2004, 03:17: Message edited by: bearclaw ]

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

Dark Nova 4 Mod is finally complete after nearly 6 months of (near) constant work!!

Get it here
http://seiv.pbw.cc/Download/filelib/1025/DN4.zip

It doesn't have AI specially configured for this mod yet, but standard AI does work. They just don't fully utilize some of the larger shipsizes. Haven't tried yet, but I belive TDM AI's will also work.

Now, who's up for a game? I'm going to start a PBW game with this mod so now's the time to hop on board!!

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

A mod with more ship sizes but no cheesy "Worldship-21's"? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif Count me in! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

Not Found (404)
Original request: /Download/filelib/1025/DN4.zip

Not found request: /Download/filelib/1025/DN4.zip

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

DN 4 readme.txt
=======================
Andreas Lescano - UltimateVehicle Mod. which was heavily drawn upon, and in some cases down right cannabalized.
DeathStalker - Deathstalker's Mount Mod was another source of matierial, few slight alterations to work with the shipsizes we employed.
Aikin - AI files.
========================

Waitaminute, do you mean ... it's me? Ohh..umm...but where are no finished AI files yet.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The file's been reuploaded. It should work now.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oops. That was suppose to be entered into my to-do list. With a question mark. Sorry, I guess I jumped the gun on that one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

2 bearclaw: PM sent.

Oh, and I want to join DN4 pbw game too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Can you dalay the DN4 start until the DN3 will be finished (Regulus is kicking my *** badly and I guess everything will be over soon)?

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I don't think that will be a problem. Getting a new game started usually takes a bit anyway. Looks like I'll be out of DN3 in about 2 more turns myself.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

First errors:

Mass Displacer I-VIII: description is too long, so you can't see the abilities descriptions.
------------------------------------------------
2nd: Escort Shield Mount
Long Name := Escort Shield Mount
...
Weapon Type Requirement := Direct Fire
it should be: Weapon Type Requirement := None
Comp Family Requirement := 11

-----------------------------------------------

Further notes: Homeworld resource extraction facilities will be a big problem for AI: it will attempt to biuld them everywhere and fall into stagnation (because of high cost of these facilities).
Implementation of Cultural Center-like facilties for HW requires using dummy abilities or AI Tags.

[ July 16, 2004, 17:34: Message edited by: aiken ]

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not Found (404)
Original request: /Download/filelib/1025/DN4.zip

Not found request: /Download/filelib/1025/DN4.zip

I also tried variations of the address. Is this a "must be logged in to get files" thing?

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

Yes, Gandalf, you must be logged to gain access to pbw file library.

If you're interested with DN4 events file I can send it to you via e-mail.

Reply me to PM if you do need it.

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Alright. Easy enough to fix that. Thanks.

-----------------------------------------------
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, I wanted to make some sort of change to these anyway so that they don't display with the regular facilites. What will be easiest to impliment for AI? Would it be better to have AI tags on the normal facilities, or on the Homeworld facilites?

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, I wanted to make some sort of change to these anyway so that they don't display with the regular facilites. What will be easiest to impliment for AI? Would it be better to have AI tags on the normal facilities, or on the Homeworld facilites? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Give AI tags to common resource extraction and research facilities. It will require 4 AI tags. Then you can use Resource Generation - Min/Org/Rad ability for Homeworld facilities and AI Tags for common facilities in AI_Construction_Facilities.

Also, DN4 introduces different from vanilla game scheme for cloaking and sensors. But AI is completely unaware how to use it. It only uses Sensor Level and Cloak Level abilities and it doesn't care if they are Temporal, Psychic or whatever. If you leave it as is, it will lead to cheezy AI exploits: developed AI will stick with Gravitic Sensors, and if player will use Temporal Cloaking he will be invisible to AI. *Always*
Right?

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

More complains http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Hyper Optics comp breaks whole cloaking idea in you mod. It allows lvl 2 EM Passive scans on lvl 1 comp. But where is no cloacking device which prevent EM Passive scans further than lvl 1. So Hyper Optics I will decloack any cloacking device.

Edit: the Last part of my previous post was not entirely correct, I'll test this out and report about results later.

[ July 16, 2004, 23:10: Message edited by: aiken ]

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

sure there is. Refraction Armor. Not to be confused with Stealth Armor. Refraction armor gives higher levels of cloak at different levels of research.

[ July 16, 2004, 23:19: Message edited by: bearclaw ]

Re: Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!
 

Well, what can I say... I was completely wrong in my latest post too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif
Sorry.

[ July 16, 2004, 23:48: Message edited by: aiken ]