Ancient Ruins dud!
 

Has anyone else colonized a planet with ruins and it said you found ancient technology but listed nothing below it. I loaded the save game from the turn before and tried again and still I recieved nothing.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

I think the game specifies what kind of research item you will get when the game starts. So you might of already researched it.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

Happened once to me. Didn't help AI, though. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

The ancient ruins that give you the unique items can sometimes do this. If it is one of the types that randomly gives you levels in "normal" technology this will not happen (except if all tech is already researched).
It will only happen if you have already gotten the unique technology that that world had to offer.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

Happened to me also, landed on planet, no new tech, reloaded and tried again, same result - nada tech.

maybe it is like sundevil says

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tomgs:
The ancient ruins that give you the unique items can sometimes do this. If it is one of the types that randomly gives you levels in "normal" technology this will not happen (except if all tech is already researched).
It will only happen if you have already gotten the unique technology that that world had to offer.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

When that happened to me, I had no special techology. I am 100% positive on this.
Also, another time, I managed to get all the special technology without this 'duds'.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Emperor Zodd:
Has anyone else colonized a planet with ruins and it said you found ancient technology but listed nothing below it. I loaded the save game from the turn before and tried again and still I recieved nothing.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, one of the ruins sets in the configuration files gives 0 techs. So, it's not a bug. I forget which file it's in and my copy is at home. I can check a bit later.



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--
"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough
to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a
pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors
come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless
eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your
associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

As near as can be told the ruins do not generate a random tech, thier tech is set at the time of galaxy creation. If you already have what they would give you, then you get nothing.

I haven't experimented with this myself, but I mentioned the problem on the SE4 mailing list and a few people who had messed with it report this to me.

I do know that I have never had more than one special tech in any given game, and that I never yet have gotten anything at all out of the fourth and later ruins I explore.

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Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at www.twingalaxies.com.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

I think occasional duds are on purpose. Makes going for those planets a bit of a gamble.

FWIW, I've gotten several special techs in one game, on rare occasions.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

In my current game, I have three of the unique techs (Massive Shield Damaging Weapons, Massive Planetary Shielding, and the Neural Net tech). The only one I've really used so far is the shield damaging weapon (one shot per combat, but it does 1000 points of shield damage!). I had a planetary shield facility on one planet for a while because an "ally" colonized the planet's moon. I got rid of the facility after destroying the "ally" (never break a treaty with the Moebius Consortium! like certain other organizations, the only way to leave is in a body bag (figuratively speaking)).

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

My understanding of the ruins issue is that if you have researched the technology the ruin would have given you, you get nothing upon finding the ruin. Sounds simple, and I believe that is the way it works.

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"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Patric Stewart as Captain Picard
UCP/TCO Ship Yards

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

Argh. I got home, opened up the right text file "StellarAbility Types.txt" and found the ruins ability. There isn't a 0 value in number of techs. All the unique worlds have the same description text, so maybe the one where you don't get any tech is when you pick up a unique.

By saving the game and reloading, I -have- managed to get different techs on the worlds where you get a group of techs. It tends to repeat a bit, though.

Though, of course, doing that outside of experimentation is cheating. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif


------------------
--
"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough
to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a
pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors
come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless
eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your
associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

The only planets that I know you have a chance to not get a tech level on are the ones that state "we have detected advanced technology present on this planet". Those are the "unique" technology planets where you get the technologies you can't research. The other planets will give you 1, 2, or 3 levels of researchable technology. I have never had them not give me an advance but I suppose it is possible in the late game if everything is researched. I don't know if there is a percent chance that if one field is completely researched that you will get nothing on these other worlds but it has never happened to me yet. The "unique tech" wolds give me nothing quite often though after getting at least one tech from them. This happens every game.

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 12 January 2001).]

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>By saving the game and reloading, I -have- managed to get different techs on the worlds where you get a group of techs. It tends to repeat a bit, though.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm, this is interesting. I was told people had tried this and always got the exact same thing, hence the assumption that the contents were determined at galaxy creation. Thanks for the data though.

[quoe]I have never had them not give me an advance but I suppose it is possible in the late game if everything is researched. [/quote]

It happens to me even if barely any techs are researched. 've never had the fifth or later ruins give me anything, and rarely does the fourth. I get three bonuses, sometimes a fouth, and then no more ever again. However, I will say that I am famous for experiencing bugs that no one else ever does.

------------------
Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at www.twingalaxies.com.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

Question: I have 12 Unique tech in my games. We will say they are all set at chance = 5. Then lets say there is a game with only 4 Unique techs set at chance = 5. Will the game with 12 UT (Unique techs) have a better chance (maybe give out more due to more UT in the game) of giving out unique techs then the one with five?

Also, I played one game and had four Unique tech planets in my sector that I could populate. I populated them all and I recieved four different Unique techs: Massive Resource Extraction, Massive Planetary Shielding, Massive Space Yard, and Massive Fuel Converter. I was shocked at what I received. Albeit it took almost 30 turns to just build one of these, but I was practicaly invincible. I played for a couple of turns then deleted the game.
I modified how Unique techs work. When you get a Unique tech you usually automatically get the facility or component right then. Well I increased the level of all unique techs by 1 (one). Then increased all unique facilities and components required tech level by 1. What this does is when someone gets a unique tech they do not automatically get it. They get the ability to research it which is usually not cheap in research points. Then you have to build it which is not cheap either. I am not too sure how this affects the AI. Will have to do some tests to find out.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Question: I have 12 Unique tech in my games. We will say they are all set at chance = 5. Then lets say there is a game with only 4 Unique techs set at chance = 5. Will the game with 12 UT (Unique techs) have a better chance (maybe give out more due to more UT in the game) of giving out unique techs then the one with five?<hr></blockquote>

Yes. If you put more ruins in the data files, then there will be a greater chance of ruins being generated. Unique techs will become more common.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Wizarc:
I modified how Unique techs work. When you get a Unique tech you usually automatically get the facility or component right then. Well I increased the level of all unique techs by 1 (one). Then increased all unique facilities and components required tech level by 1. What this does is when someone gets a unique tech they do not automatically get it. They get the ability to research it which is usually not cheap in research points. Then you have to build it which is not cheap either. I am not too sure how this affects the AI. Will have to do some tests to find out.<hr></blockquote>

I see one problem with your modification: The AI will not research the unique technologies unless you modify all research files to include these research areas.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

"I see one problem with your modification: The AI will not research the unique technologies unless you modify all research files to include these research areas."

Well, yes, but I've never seen an SE4 AI use unique techs anyway, so you'd have to make changes just to get them using the existing system.

Phoenix-D

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

Then probably IF you'd incorporate say 'shield depleting weapons' in the AI designcreation file, they have a chance of using massive shield depleters, as long as they belong to the same group as normal shield depleters (would seem odd if they didn't).

Massive planetary shield would have to be incorporated into the build lines for various planet types for each AI. Then they'd be built, *eventually* *IF* the AI gets the tech.

Neural net...is that included in the group combat modifiers? Then they would be used automatically right?

It's possible I've once seen an AI use them but I'm extremely unsure about that.

Re: Ancient Ruins dud!
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Well, yes, but I've never seen an SE4 AI use unique techs anyway, so you'd have to make changes just to get them using the existing system.<hr></blockquote>

I have seen the AI use the planetary shields, but you are right you must include these items in the construction facilities and vehicle design files.