Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

This mod is an idea a buddy and I came up with a while back, it is based on a bunch of races from boardwars he and I took part in and their seperate tech trees.

Okay here is a list of races their creators and the guys that made their models:

Terrenesi
Creator: Starhawk
Modeller: Starhawk
Desc: The Terrenesi are a humanoid race divided into four castes, Warrior, Civilian, Ambassadorial and Rulership. Each is a unique "subspecies" and has a unqiue role in the Terrenesi Federated Empire.
They are aggressive and expansionistic but also honorable in their own way and they see it as their duty to bring order to an otherwise chaotic universe and to protect the weak from the strong via making them a protectorite of the Empire (which often requires the conquest of said race).

Positive Traits:
Largest ships in the game
Phased Weaponry, Shields and Armor
Natural Warriors (all space based combat ships are manned by warrior caste)

Negative Traits:
NO Devoted Carriers
Ships take a LONG time to build
Expensive tech

Icaran Star Empire
Creator: Starhawk
Modeller: Starhawk
Desc: The Icaran Star Empire is a human empire that left earth several hundred years ago and colonized their homeworld of Icara.
The Icarans follow their leaders or "Praetor Saints" in their holy mission to establish Human rule over all the worlds they can lay claim to, they are interested in the greater good and peace and wherever possible they will absorb new races into their Empire through peaceful means however if that fails the Praetor may declare a "Crusade" where the military might of the Empire is swung into action against a holdout race to bring it into the fold against it's will.

Positive Traits:
Relatively Cheap ships and tech
Long Ranged Weapons
Heavy Armor

Negative Traits:
Limited Shield tech
No Fighters (gunship only)
No disabler weapons

Rebel Icarans:
Creator: Starhawk
Modeller: Starhawk
Desc: Unlike their Imperial counterparts the rebel Icarans simply desire to be left alone, they beleive in the "divinity of man" and as such think that allowing other races into any Icaran world defiles that divinity.
The rebel Icarans are xenophobic to the extreme and lay claim to any world they can, whether it is inhabited or not and will "steralize" any world occupied by "Xenos" without warning and establish their "freeholds" on the burnt ashes of alien cities.

Positive Traits:
Long Ranged weapons
Heavy Armor
Relatively cheap ships and tech

Negative Traits:
No fighters (gunship only)
Limited shield tech
No disabler weapons

Swarners
Creator: Yoshi
Modeller: either Yoshi or Kerensky (depending on who I can grab)
Desc: The swarmers are a mechanical race created by an unknown alien race thousands of years ago to conquer their masters enemies however they turned on their creators and have begun destroying all organics they come across seeing them as inferior and unworthy of existence.

Positive Traits:
Deadly fighters
Largest Carriers in game
Advanced fighter weapons

Negative Traits:
Largest ship to ship combat vessel is destroyer
Weak capital ship armor
No point Defense guns (for fighter killing)

Hunters:
Creator: The General
Modeller: Starhawk
Desc: The hunters are a mechanical race created by the enemies of the creators of the Swarmers, they too turned on their masters as the war against the swarmers continued and the "central net" decided their organic masters were more a hinderance then a help.
Unlike swarmers who rely on massed fighter formations the Hunters rely on ship capturing technology and disabling their enemies, their warships are not capable of overwhelming firepower but instead defeat their enemies by crippling enemy vessels and neutralizing the crews before installing an artifitial intelligence core onboard.

Positive Traits:
Advanced ship disabling weapons
Advanced cloaking technology (including planetary)
Central AIs spread experience throughout a fleet (neural net)

Negative Traits:
Largest ship is a battleship
No Energy weapons (beyond disabler tech)
Small carriers

Corim Empire
Creator: Kerensky
Modeller: Kerensky
Desc: The Corim Empire was once vast and galaxy spanning however after a devestating civil war most of the Corim are now extinct and the few that remain try to survive as best they can by estalbishing alliances with more powerful empires and by "borrowing" ships from other races (basically they are pirates in order to survive) and taking their resources.

Positive Traits:
Advanced Weapons
Superior Speed
Good boarding parties

Negative Traits:
Expensive ships
Medium Ranged weapons
Inferior Fighter tech

Hra-Thrall
Creator: Mephesto Odium
Modeller: n/a (either me or Meph if I can grab him)
Desc: The Hra-Thrall are an ancient Aquatic race with a relatively peaceful nature and the desire to preserve their worlds with as little bloodshed as possible.
They are however quite willing to defend themselves and as such have developed powerful ships and weapons to preserve their worlds and they will not back down when it comes to defending themselves from all who would threaten them.

Positive Traits:
Excellent Shields
Slipstream/Shard Weapons
Good engines

Negative Traits:
Short Ranged weapons
Low ROF with slipstream/shard weapons
Fragile subsystems

Yucra Hive:
Creator: Siber
Modeller: Siber
Desc: The Yucra hive is made up of billions of tiny ant like creatures with one goal in their hive mind, the goal to expand the hive!
At first glance the Yucra seem to be no threat as they are so tiny but like any insect creature their real danger is when they are in swarms and only a fool would walk into a swarm of Yucra, and only a lucky fool would come out alive.

Positive Traits:
Rapid reproduction
The Entire planetary populace is turned into milita upon invasion (if I can impliment this)
Mass produced ships

Negative traits:
Ships are tiny (a cruiser is only about 8ft long)
Weapons are weak
Low fuel storage

United Shipping Corporation
Creator: Frish
Modeller: LOL Starhawk again
Desc: The USC is a multispecies corporation who's goal is to expand to as many worlds as possible and gather as many valuable resources as possible and all in the name of Profit.
Their "Corporate Security forces" are merely converted cargo and freight ships that are fitted out with moderate strength weapons and armor, their sole advantage is mass production abilities and the fact that their crews are clones so they are completely expendable.

Positive Traits:
Natural Merchants
Advanced Production Faclities
Bonuses to Intelligence projects
Advanced Asteroid mining

Negative Traits:
Weak At space Combat
Low population Growth
No "quantum reactor" style tech

Goals of the Mod
1. To create a unique playing experience for each race and make a player feel immerssed in the race they are playing.

2. To create a more "strategic" game where there will be star KILLING weapons but no star building weapons. (basically your going to really have to think before just nuking a sun)

3. I am trying to make more "tactical" options for the player as playing a race like the Terrenesi will make you want to be careful with the loss of even a single Dreadnought as it is a large investment of time and money (though it will outclass just about every other race's dreadnoughts) but at the same time if your playing a race like the Icarans your not going to want to try and take on a Terrenesi warship one on one as it will blow you to dust.

4. Different tech tree's for different races.

5. TDM style AI (basicaly smarter and harder).

6. I am going to try and make it so that the smaller ships are still useful even into the late game.

What I need
1. People who know how to make seperate tech trees for seperate races

2. People who can help me write challenging AIs

3. Play testers for Alpha and Beta stages

4. Maybe texturers if I can't get some of the shipsets looking good with Wings "material" painting.

5. People who can tell me how to make certain weapons types restricted to certain sizes of vessel (I don't want Heavy Pulse cannons on a frigate basically) without making them so heavy that you simply can't put them on a small ship.

6. Patient people who are willing to lend even moral support to the mod.

Please keep in mind that this is just a basic layout and I'm going to need some support to make these idea's possible so chime in with your oppinions and help me out.

ALSO if you have an idea for a race feel free to run it by me, though I would ask that you be prepared to provide your own models and weapons ideas.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Ah man, this has nothing to do with that classic space opera game Ascendancy... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif Oh well.

Take a look at Adamant Mod to see how to make separate tech trees for different races.

http://adamant.spaceempires.net/

While looking at Adamant Mod, examine how Colony Modules are restricted to only Colony Ship hulls via the Colony Mount.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

My suggestion? Divide it up into portions. Make one or two empires at a time. If you try to take it all on, you run the risk of being overwhelmed.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Quasi-Newtonian propulsion (same % of hull space devoted to engines to move at speed X for all ship hulls; eg: A 200 kT ship requires 50 kT devoted to engines to move 5. A 400 kT ship requires 100 kT for the same speed), Leaky Armor (armor components have no armor ability, so are not a magic wall of protection, and they have lots, and lots, and lots of hit points), and Leaky Shields (shields generate low shield levels, but use the crystalline armor ability to simulate partial protection from each shot, instead of magic wall protection as in stock SE4) can help in this regard. Not to mention the vast improvements to tactics and strategy they provide... Some other common methods to make small ships more useful is to give larger ships increasing combat penalties, and possibly increasing maintenance costs. Removing the absurd stock game scale weapon mounts would be a good idea as well. There is nothing wrong with a mount that makes a weapon 3x the size and do 3x the damage (well not much wrong anyways). But a weapon that makes it 2x the size and 3x the damage is bad, and is one of the biggest culprits in making small ships useless once the larger, heavier ships are available.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

How do I make ship sizes "race specific"? Because I know I've seen that in the Startrek mod but I can't figure out how he did it.
Can anyone help me out there?

And does anyone here know how to write challenging AIs?

Oh and Narf the Alpha will only have the Terrenesi, Icaran Empire/Rebels and possibly the Corim. The beta will add another one or two races.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

It involves adding racial tech traits (like Organic Manipulation, Temporal Technology, etc.), technologies that require those traits, and making those techs required by the ship hulls.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

To make race-specific ship sizes, give them a tech prerequisite that has its Racial Area set to one of your defined racial areas in RacialTraites.txt. Just like you do for a component http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
But remember, if one or more of an item's prerequisites (direct prerequisites only - not prerequisites of prerequisites) is non-racial, then the technology can be traded or stolen by other races! (That's how some of the special techs in the Star Trek Mod are stealable http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)
E.g. if Gelf Frigate has prerequisite Gelf Technology which is racial, Gelf Frigate will only be buildable by Gelfs, even if Gelf Technology has prerequisite Physical Paradigm or something... but if Gelf Frigate has prerequisite Gelf Technology and Ship Construction which is NOT racial, then Gelf Frigates can only be built by Gelfs UNTIL they trade the tech away or someone steals it, either by espionage or ship capture.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

So to make a race specific ship basiaclly put something like

Requires: Gelf Technology

Then how do I make it buildable of I can't put what level of ship construction it needs?

Or is it possible to put something like

Requires: Gelf Ship construction lvl2?

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Entirely. As long as Gelf Ship Construction is in the TechArea.txt

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Okay this may sound Incredibly stupid but would you guys mind typing up an example?

I.E. type up a weapon that is size and race specific

And type up a ship size that is racial trait specific

Just so I can get it in my head, I have a cold right now so thought process are going slow for me.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Heh wow I guess it did sound incredibly stupid.....

Oh and an example of the Terrenesi ship construction thing:

Name ;= Terrenesi Ship Construction
Group ;= Terrenesi Tech
Description ;= The Construction of Terrenesi ships and their components
Maximum Level ;= 8
Level Cost ;= 15000
Start Level ;= 0
Raise Level ;= 0
Racial Area ;= 1
Unique Area ;= 0
Can Be Removed ;= False
Number of Tech Req ;= 0

Tell me if this would work please http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Will work as long as racial area 1 is the racial trait given by choosing "Terrenesi Race" racial trait during the game setup.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

To be a bit more specific, you'll need to create a racial trait in racialtraits.txt called "Terrenesi" or whatever that gives technology area 1, to go with your entry below.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Yup did that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif so I'll just need to work on some stuff to get myself a "pre alpha" going http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Okay all here is a list of some of the stuff you can find per race (at least at the moment)

The only four races in the Alpha are going to be Terrenesi, Swarmer, Icaran Imperial and Rebel.

Terrenesi Weapons
Light Pulse Cannon: The standard Terrenesi ship mounted weapon on ships Light Cruiser and below, this weapon is especially accurate do to it's rapid rate of fire (I'll give combat bonuses to the ship carrying it to simulate this)
Restricted to: Light Cruiser and Below
Special: Breaches normal shields

Pulse cannon: Standard Terrenesi ship mounted weapon for ships Cruiser size and better, less accurate then a Light Pulse Cannon but also more damaging.
Restricted: Cruiser up
Special: Breaches normal shields

Heavy Pulse Cannons: The most damaging Terrenesi pulse cannon, this powerful weapon is only mounted on Dreadnoughts and Super Dreadnoughts as the power consumption is enormous.
Restriced: Dreadnought, Super Dreadnought
Special: Breachse ALL shields fires once every 3 turns

Quantum Discharge Cannon: The most powerful singlular weapon in the game the QDC is an expensive and huge weapon that can only be mounted on Super Dreadnoughts, though very short ranged it can easily kill an enemy capital ship in a single shot.
Restircted: Super Dreadnought
Special: Skips all Shields does 2000 damage, fires once every 30 turns.

Icaran Weapons (the only difference between Rebel and Imperial is color

Pulse Laser: The Pulse laser is a small weapon mounted on various Icaran Warships it is a rather low power weapon but it is highly accurate and rather long range for a weapon of it's size.
Restricted: None
Special: Lightweight, Very Accurate

Laser Cannon: The Icaran Laser cannon is the general run of the mill ship to ship energy weapon deployed by Icaran Capital ships, they are long ranged weapons with moderate hitting power and medium accuracy.
Restricted: none

Particle Laser Cannon: The PLC is the longest ranged non-seeker weapon in game but loses 60% power at maximum range.
This weapon is heavy and only mounted by the largest ships in the Icaran fleets.
Restricted: Battleship-Flagship
Special: Longest ranged non-seeker in game, moderately accurate for a weapon of it's size and heavier hitting power then the Laser. Fires once every 2 turns

More to come:
I'm hoping to get these weapons into my pre-alpha Version of the game and play test them.
The Icarans have plasma guns but I still havn't figured out the exact specs of those yet.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Bad idea. That would allow putting just one of these on a ship to increase accuracy of all the other weapons. Luckily, there's the "Weapon Modifier" field which gives a to-hit bonus just to that weapon.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Oooh your right thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif that saved my butt there eh hehe.

Well though that wouldn't have been much of a big deal since the only ships that can mount Light Pulse Cannons can't mount heavier Versions.
But again your right about the accuracy problem though, thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Make certain to add a dummy ability (such as Star - Unstable) to _all_ weapons with a combat modifier, with a description mentioning the bonus/penalty to hit. The combat modifier does not appear in descriptions of the component in-game, unfortunately. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Could you write a sample of what you mean, like I said my though processes are a little slow because of this damn cold. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Sure. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Take a look in the Data files of Adamant Mod, and search for the Wave - Motion Gun. Note that it has a new ability.

Adamant Mod Data Files - (562 KB)

Note that I figure it would be easier to refer you to Adamant for many of these things, as some 90% of your modding questions so far have examples in Adamant...

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif that'll help me with a few of my new weapons.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

For the fire rate of the Light Pulse Cannon, have you considered just upping the load time of the larger weapons? In other words, instead of the base load time for all weapons being 1, make it 2 or 3... then you wouldn't even have to mess with the accuracy bonus, you'd just set the LPC's load time to something smaller... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

edit: this would also help ships survive longer in combat, making such things as shield regenerators and boarding parties (not to mention just plain maneuvering) more useful!

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Nah I like the changing accuracy idea because that will also help me keep small ships useful for the Terrenesi.

Especially because I am going to add possibly add a new weapon or two to the weapons list of the Terrenesi small ships inventory so that they will be more useful.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Okay here is a quick view of my TechArea file so far please tell me if this is going to work.


================================================== =====================================
*BEGIN*
================================================== =====================================

Name := Rock Planet Colonization
Group := Applied Science
Description := Creation of colonies which can survive on rock based planets.
Maximum Level := 1
Level Cost := 500000
Start Level := 0
Raise Level := 0
Racial Area := 0
Unique Area := 0
Can Be Removed := False
Number of Tech Req := 0

Name := Ice Planet Colonization
Group := Applied Science
Description := Creation of colonies which can survive on ice based planets.
Maximum Level := 1
Level Cost := 500000
Start Level := 0
Raise Level := 0
Racial Area := 0
Unique Area := 0
Can Be Removed := False
Number of Tech Req := 0

Name := Gas Giant Colonization
Group := Applied Science
Description := Creation of colonies which can survive within gas giant planets.
Maximum Level := 1
Level Cost := 500000
Start Level := 0
Raise Level := 0
Racial Area := 0
Unique Area := 0
Can Be Removed := False
Number of Tech Req := 0

Name ;= Terrenesi Ship Construction
Group ;= Terrenesi Tech
Description ;= The Construction of Terrenesi ships and their components
Maximum Level ;= 8
Level Cost ;= 15000
Start Level ;= 0
Raise Level ;= 0
Racial Area ;= 1
Unique Area ;= 0
Can Be Removed ;= False
Number of Tech Req ;= 0

Name ;= Terrenesi Base Construction
Group ;= Terrenesi Tech
Description ;= The construction of Terrenesi Bases and their components
Maximum Level ;= 3
Level Cost ;= 105000
Start Level ;= 0
Raise Level ;= 0
Racial Area ;= 1
Unique Area ;= 0
Can be removed ;= False
Number of Tech Req ;= 0

Name ;= Terrenesi Fighter Construction
Group ;= Terrenesi Tech
Description ;= The construction of Terrenesi Fighters and their Components
Maximum Level ;= 2
Level Cost ;= 100000
Start Level ;= 0
Raise Level ;= 0
Racial Area ;= 1
Unique Area ;= 0
Can be removed ;= False
Number of Tech Req ;= 1

Name := Terrenesi Light Pulse Canons
Group := Weapon Technology
Description := Weapons which fire bursts of intense energy at enemy ships.
Maximum Level := 2
Level Cost := 10000
Start Level := 0
Raise Level := 2
Racial Area := 1
Unique Area := 0
Can Be Removed := True
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Physics
Tech Level Req 1 := 1

Name := Terrenesi Pulse Canons
Group := Weapon Technology
Description := Weapons which fire bursts of intense energy at enemy ships.
Maximum Level := 3
Level Cost := 10000
Start Level := 0
Raise Level := 2
Racial Area := 1
Unique Area := 0
Can Be Removed := True
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Physics
Tech Level Req 1 := 1


Name := Terrenesi Heavy Pulse Canons
Group := Weapon Technology
Description := Weapons which fire bursts of intense energy at enemy ships.
Maximum Level := 2
Level Cost := 10000
Start Level := 0
Raise Level := 2
Racial Area := 1
Unique Area := 0
Can Be Removed := True
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Terrenesi Tech
Tech Level Req 1 := 1

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

In the future, it might be best to attach such things as text files, especially when they get to be rather long... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Wooops sorry http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Anyhooo I still need volunteers to resize my shipset pics when they are finished because the only thing I have to resize it makes them so blurry that it's not even worthwhile after it's done.

Also I need AI writers if they know how to make a nice and challenging one.

If you are interested in volunteering e-mail me at starhawk11@gmail.com I'd be really grateful.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Have you tried IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/)? It is not the best, but it is not bad... also, there is an image resizer that comes with the Windows XP Power Toys (somewhere on microsoft.com, just use the search feature). It integrates into Explorer. It does not do as high quality of resizings as, say, Adobe Photoshop, but it is pretty good.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Well that solves that problem for the most part http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm just going to have to figure out the best angle screenie to take that it still looks good shrunk http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I still need AI folks though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

If you can find AI folk, I commend you. Nobody seems to want to make AIs for mods these days...

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

How about you Fyron? You interested? I mean you MADE the Adamant mod so that alone goes to your credit http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Oh and not to mention I may need help figuring out some of the finer points of some of the modding.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Adamant still has a long way to go. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif And I don't do AI very well...

Post your questions here and they shall be answered. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

An update (although small)

I tested Terrenesi Tech tree using Pulse cannons only and it worked flawlessly http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I am glad to say I now have a better idea of how to incorporate new tech trees into the game.

Also update on things you can expect in the completed mod:

1. "Stellar Manipulation" science area will be removed completely, the planet killing and star killing weapons will now be researched under "Planet Killer" and "Star Killer" science trees depending on race.
This means:
No sphereworlds/ringworlds/artificial moons, warp tech etc

The reason for this is because me and the other person attempting to make this mod are trying to make a completely new gaming experience that makes you think before you act and plan up to years ahead for your empire and many of the stellar manip techs remove the real nitty gritty visceral feel of sending your navy to war because you just open a warp point drop in on the enemy blow him to hell and move out.
The reason the "worlds" are being removed is mainly because the AI never builds them so players have an uber resource advantage......well that and it just doesn't fit the "fluff" of the Ascendancy universe.

NOW interesting thing about the Planet and Star killing weapons is that different races will have different ways of doing this.

For example the Terrenesi will use "terraformer" torpedoes (basically just a weapon like the tectonic torp except instead of blowing a planet apart it only targets the population and kills them all)

While the "Swarmers" being a mechanical race don't care much about inhabiting a world so instead their planet killer is a "Necroton Bomb" which cracks the planets crust and leaves a nice asteroid belt to be strip mined by "harvester" craft.

As for Star killers generally the way that is going to work is also unique to the race for some examples:

Terrenesi Nova Bomb: Pretty much just a renamed thrasher torpedo

Icaran Void Missile: Turns a system into a blackhole (oooh pretty)

Swarmer "nullifier": Makes a lovely nebulae from the star's debris.

Goal 2: A complete list of sciences and tech trees for each race therebye removing ALL vanilla science fields and tech creating a totally new experience for a player everytime they select a new race.

Goal 3: MASSIVE galaxies that make the SE default galaxies look small and if Imperator Fyron will give me permission I will incorporate his Quadrant mod's systems and the like into the mod.

Goal 4: To make battles matter more but also be less "crushing" overall.
What I mean by this is I am going to try and make it so that Capital ships (Real cap ships not USC and Yucra capital ships) are more important then they are in Vanilla as many of the true capitals are going to be too expensive to just crank out 300 dreadnoughts ever few turns but in turn the capital ships will also be more powerful then their vanilla counterparts:

Example of the shiplist for Icara:
Escort: 200kt (40% harder to hit)
Frigate: 250kt (30% harder to hit)
Destroyer: 350kt (30% harder to hit+10% accuracy against larger ships (if I can implement it)
Light Cruiser: 450kt (20% harder to hit+ 10% accuracy bonus against larger ships)
Heavy Cruiser (Cruiser): 600kt
Armored Cruiser (BC): 750kt (20% easier to hit do to size)
Battleship: 900kt (25% easier to hit+ 4 engine limit)
Dreadnought:1100kt (30% easier to hit+ 4 engine limit)
Flagship: 3000kt (40% easier to hit+ 3 engine limit)

While to contrast you have the Terrenesi:
Frigate (escort): 230kt (30% harder to hit)
Destroyer (frigate): 280kt (25% harder to hit)
Heavy Destroyer (LC): 400kt (10% harder to hit)
Light Cruiser (cruiser): 520kt (10% easier to hit)
Combat Cruiser (BC): 900 kt (20% easier to hit)
Ship of the Line (BB): 1400kt (35% easier to hit+ 4 engine restriction)
Dreadnought (DD): 3000kt (40% easier to hit+ 4 engine limit)
Super Dreadnought (BS): 8000kt (YEAH EIGHT THOUSAND) (60% easier to hit+ 2 engine limit + 10% fighter bay requirement)

As you can see these two races will have different play styles by ship size alone and not just their radiaclly different tech trees. For example a Terrenesi player would feel a greater sting at losing one of his dreadnoughts then an Icaran player not only because of the size but because of the tech involved (Terrenesi are more expensive but are worth the price as they easil outclass one or even two Icaran ships of the same size). However the Terrenesi player due to certain techs in their tree would still want smaller ships around to act as screens for their precious capital ships while the Icarans would want smaller ships in their fleet to act as fast attackers or torpedo boats while the cap ships stay at a distance using their long range.

NOW what i mean by making battles more important yet less crushing is that you are likely to have smaller fleets depending on your race (as shown above) So losing a battlegroup will probobly cost you your space superiority in a particular sector or system BUT unlike in the vanilla Version where if that happened all was lost in this mod Defense platforms and stations are going to have certain bonuses that make busting them harder and more fun (there will also likely be fewer defense stations due to their bonuses (again depending on race)). So losing space superiority can obviously lead to you losing a system BUT you will also have more reliable defenses in your core systems then you had in the vanilla Version (I say core systems because the serious defenses are going to cost a lot of resources compared to your ships (no matter what race).

Goal 5: REDUCE the number of weapons platforms on a planet!

Okay no we've all gone into battle against a world with 200 dreadnoughts and lost all of them against a cheezed up world with 40+ Weapons platforms with uber range and uber power weapons. SO in this mod you'll still have those heavy hitting long range guns on a weapons platform but it's going to cost you A LOT of resources to fund these platforms so no more cheezified 40+ defense platforms on every friggin world.

In the mod if all goes well you'll rely more on the less cheezified Station mounted defenses around your worlds and or warp points though some races will have large heavily fortified "space fortresses" to defend their worlds but these are seriously gonna cost yah and you may want them to double as shipyards trust me lol.

Goal 6: New system names based on fluff from boardwars Kerensky and I have taken part in (this is probobly going to be one of the Last things brought in as it's not all that important)

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

This sound good to you guys?

Afterall the community is what I'm trying to reach with this mod http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Oh and please folks I know LOTS of you guys must be reading this because of the number of Views please chime in and let me know what you think.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Sounds good.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Are my Posts in that stupid political thread causing you folks no to reply to this?

As I said I'm sorry for the level of hostility I took but please don't let that carry over into my mod...:(

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

You only mildly annoyed me. And accusing you of sticking your head in the sand wasn't polite either.

But really, if you don't want me to ever talk to you again, you're going to have to do better than that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Mods don't get many replies. Those big lists of Posts in the other mods were built up over months. For the bab5 mod, years.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

What do you want people to say? You have a good plan? Maybe there will be more response when people can actually start playing it.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

I suppose so http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I am hoping to post up some nice big pics of the newly colored Terrenesi warfleet sometime within the week and have at least a partial tech tree for them by the end of the month.

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Is there any way to make both a Fighter and Bomber tech or is that not possible? I'd like to know before I start trying to type it up if it doesn't work http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

You could make all weapons too large to fit on fighters and bombers, then add scale mounts to make the appropriate "fighter" weapons useable on fighters, and the appropriate "bomber" weapons useable on bombers. They would all be fighter vehicles, but you could restrict the weapons in this manner if you so choose... Take a look at those Adamant data files and the colony modules. They are massive, and you must use a Colony Mount to put one on a colony ship (which is the only ship that can ever carry a colony module, other than the Large Colony Ship http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif).

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Cool I think I can figure out how to do that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Okay Last question for awhile I hope, is it possible to make weapons target subsystems (I.e. control center kill) weapons like a bridge destroyer or something? Or is it only possible to disable weapons and engines?

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Look in the file header in Components.txt. There are various "only X" damage types, but there is no way to arbitrarily define a weapon that damages a specific type. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif You could add an "only security stations" damaging weapon, then give all components with crew (CQ, Bridge, etc.) a security station ability of 1. It would simulate what you want reasonably well, and it would also aide in boarding attempts, due to removing some of those pesky security stations. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Sounds perfect for Corim and Hunter tactics.....oooh drools with anticipation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

This forum typically doesn't take things posted here personally, even in a heated thread like that. We've survived numerous exchanges on topics covering life, the universe, and everything (and even occasionally all the fish), but very few people have ever left for any period of time because they were offended by an individual. The few trolls who have stopped by haven't found too much troll food, so they typically just go back to the Angband Usenet group. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Overall, the level of maturity and acceptance on this forum is far above the norm for most web communities. Just remember not to try to play semantics with Fyron--he never gets tired of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

EDIT: Oh, and as for the mod, it sounds good so far. I agree that we'll have a better idea of exactly how it works when we have a copy to try. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif That's the problem with making such a massive mod--it's hard to keep track of how all the changes add up until you playtest that first alpha. That's where all the work is. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

I can attest to that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Look who's talking. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Besides, I haven't done such things in over a year at least... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Glad to hear it because I like your guys feedback.

Well as promised a "teaser" of the Terrenesi fleet:

My pride and joy the Terrenesi Sentient Super Dreadnought

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk1...8front%29.html

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk1...%28top%29.html

I hope you like it (especailly because painting it took about an hour and a half) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

[quote]
Krsqk said:
Angband? I play Angband, I take offense at that! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif HIKAGE-RYU STRIKE!!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif Errm, what were you saying? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Hey I may need someone's help in resizing my pics to make them game size and still looking good, because though I am loath to admit it my skill with ms Paint is not what it should be and I am having trouble figuring out how to make ships look their proper proportions while still making their pictures small.

Anyone who would help me I would very much appreciate it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Get The GIMP, which is free, and you can do professional quality image resizing yourself.

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

Re: Ascendancy Mod Idea (need some help)
 

Oooh thanks I'll download it and give it a shot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I'm really glad you guys have done this before lol.