Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

If so I'll ask the PBW admins to set up the mod and we can get one started!

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I have been trying to squeeze out a new patch to fix a few problems and make a few additions and revisions. Therefore it might be best to put a hold on any PBW games. The new patch will most likely destroy saved games. If anyone is actually interested in starting a PBW game soon I can try to pick up the pace. If not I will continue my casual rate. If a PBW game is started I may join myself depending on my situation at the time. Would be interesting to see how Eclipse performs in simultaneous turns. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I'd be interested in trying a new mod, but where can I find it or what changes it has?

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Eclipse Mod changes a lot. Tech Areas, Components, and Facilities have been completely redesigned. There are also tons of Audio\Visual enhancements. It is designed for solo\hotseat sequencial turns but it should work in PBW. You can download it from SE.net's file repository.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I would like to as well.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

All right, let me know when you get that patch ready and we can get a game set up!

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Well, I started a SP game of Eclipse just to get a feel for the mod, and I have to say that the remote resource generation and ship-based research/organics generation is VERY powerful... was that intended? I don't think the AI is smart enough to hide a bunch of research outposts in a nebula, so once I do that I'll be virtually unstoppable... unless they attack me first! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

edit: oh yeah, and you might want to make a lot of the fighter weapons unmountable on troops... warheads do a LOT of damage!

edit: weapon mounts should not apply to missiles, they don't work properly

edit: aren't Docking Bays useless when you have Unit Launchers?

edit: why does the Assault Shuttle target all but seekers? shouldn't it target Ships?

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Thanks for the input. Many of the issues you mention are already being dealt with in the new patch.

The Docking Bays have a better built-in storage and launch rate than Unit Launchers but only work for fighters. The next patch reinforces this distinction by removing storage from the Unit Launchers completely. Remote mining was meant to be very useful but will deplete asteroids fairly quickly. The Hydroponics Dome however will have it's rates reduced.

Do the warheads not destroy the troops when they use them? If not I see a possible disaster.

Lots of stuff is being fixed and revised so dont hesistate to post any more suggestions. I may or may not have thought of it.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

No, they don't. True, they store 4 times as many fighters and launch 3 times as fast, but they're a whopping 5 times as bulky, which means you could fit 5 Unit Launchers in the space of one Docking Bay!

What about the Hydroponics Bay, Research Lab, and Covert Ops Installation (sorry if I got the name wrong)? Those also are quite powerful compared to their planetary counterparts...

I haven't personally tried it, but I'd expect them not to, since most other special weapon abilities like range, damage type, etc. are ignored... also, when I mentioned it to Fyron and SJ on IRC, Fyron seemed to think that the troops would survive... Don't worry, though - there's always the "Vechicle" list type override! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

BTW, you have some REALLY great planet graphics in your mod... ever considered submitting them to the imagemod? Also, you probably already know this, but the Star Trek AI's in your mod are completely nonfunctional http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif It might also help to provide a PBW/dialup/lite version of the mod which doesn't include any races, because the mod is absolutely HUGE due to all the included race sets, which may already be present on the player's hard drive anyway! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I am highly impressed by the mod overall. I tried to see everything by giving players 10 good planets with max tech and resources and the whole game froze while loading. I worry that the game will be impossible once we reach high levels. I have some questions however.
1. I looked at it at max tech and couldn't see any wormhole openers/closers. Are they not possible or did I miss them?.
2. Some of the new components say stuff like "Engines are repaired by engineering". Does this mean they are automatically reapired each turn?.

It should be a very interesting and expansive game if we start one.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

i agree, lets start one.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Yeah a lot of balancing has been going on.

1. I was considering reducing the fighter launching capabilities of the Unit Launchers further, but I decided to remove that function from them completely. This solves the problem clean and simple. Should have been this way for the start anyway.

2. I forgot to mention that the other ship\station resource components would be recieving a significant price increase but otherwise maintain their current effectiveness. They are supposed to be really nice, but you would not be able to build a lot of them until later. This also helps races that decide to completely ignore colonization. I tested it, and although difficult, it is possible to survive without any colonies. Perhaps even without your homeworld but I havent tested that just yet.

3. Please elaborate on this vehicle type list override. So far there is only one warhead components of each type that can be used on all designs. Perhaps making it 100kt but adding warhead mounts for various vehicles would make it easy to exclude the troops. Before I d any major changes I will test out the warheads as they are on troops. If they dont blow, I'll make some changes.

4. Basic Warp Point generation\closing is available from the start ona medium tech start. On low tech you need the Stellar Observation technology from the Astrophysics science.

5. Engineering components have the ability to repair one component per game turn an have a small regeneration capability during combat. All "primary" systems have a regenration rate of 1 damage point per turn which is nothing by itslef but when engineering is present it has a more noticable effect. All major damages to "secondary" systems like weapons, shields, armor, etc. cannot be repaired by the crew during combat but can be repaired 1 component per turn by engineering. This simulates the crew's ability to repair their own ship. Organic components ALL have a 1 point regeneration. They also have components called Regeneration Cores which do nothing but provide a large amount of damage regeneration. This greatly makes up for thier rather unreliable bioelectric field generators which are meant to protect mostly from weapons inneffective against shields like mass and laser based weaponry.

6. When it comes to those insane starting settings with 10 planets, High Tech and such, I never did that kind of thing so Im not sure what kind of glitches are going to result. I wil try those settings and look for problems. However, I have had some very large empires with no problems. We will just have to see what happens.

7. I will filter out all of the shipsets for a smaller download option soon. I have been too lazy to do so earlier. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Keep the responses coming! My feedback rate has been rather low up until now so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Sure! Just add these two lines below the Vehicle Type field in your warhead entries in Components.txt:

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
Vechicle List Type Override := Ship, Fighter, Mine, Drone
Vehicle List Type Description := Ship\Ftr\Mine\Drone
</pre><hr />

It's a new feature in 1.91 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

edit: remember to misspell Vehicle the first time but not the second http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Thanks, this is an invaluable feature. Makes my life so much easier. I still want to see if kamikaze troops are functional first before I change anything.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Yeah, you can also do it with target types, although you still can't make weapons target ships and bases separately... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

BTW, any reason the specialty mounts like Efficient and Ranged don't apply to bases? Just too lazy to duplicate them all again? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

The base mounts handle all the needs of bases so I saw no need for specialty mounts on bases.

Effecient Mount reduces supply usage. Bases have no supply. Ranged and Accurate Mount arent needed because base mounts already increase range and accuracy. Burst Mount reduces range and increases power. Not a good strategy for an immobile base. The sheer size of a base mount negates the need for Armored mountings. The reduced mounts are also unnecessary.

As a side note, the mounts for Satellites and Weapon Platforms have been changed so you will usually have only one strong weapon per platform\satellite. Maybe two or three on large ones. This way during tactical combat it takes less time for planets and satellites to finish firing weapons. I always hated waiting for a long time while sats and planets fire several hundred shots. Now its one per unit.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Oh yeah... what's with all those zero point racial traits? Haven't decided on values for them yet, or just unimpelemented?

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I did it on purpose. There are advantages and disadvantages to using many different technologies. More technologies mean more options and strategies. However, the amount of research required to advance a large number of sciences will slow down the overall progression of the race. Many advanced techs require a large "entry fee" of research points to even begin that area of study.

For example, a species researching both Crystaline Manufacturing and Mutation Control would require twice as much research time as a species devoted entirely to Solid Energy Studies. The pros and cons are notable for both sides.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

But there's no disadvantage to picking all the racial traits - shouldn't they at least cost something, if even just 100 points?

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

If they cost zero, you might as well remove the racial aspects and make them all available in the regular tech tree. Everyone is going to take all of them, resulting in over-flowing the empire descriptions and hiding other traits that might be different...

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I suppose someone could do that. But why would someone take all of them? I cant think of any race that would actually have the use of ALL of these technologies at once. It would make no sense for someone to select them all. It's absurd. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

To leave open the possibilities to counter any enemy strategy? To confuse the enemy so that he doesn't know what he's up against?

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Because there is absolutely no incentive not to take all of them. You lose nothing by selecting all traits. You have more strategic options available, as Ekolis said. You obscure any traits you have at the end of the list due to only showing 2 and a half rows of traits. It is not absurd at all when there is no possible bad effect from taking all of the 0 point racial tech traits. So what if you might not ever research most of the techs they allow? You don't research many of the techs in the tech tree anyways. The question you should be asking is: why would someone not take all of them?

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Well I guess it is because my friends and I usually roleplay in SE4. Therefore we take what the race is supposed to have and nothing else. If the temptation is too great for the average player to resist taking them all I guess I will have to add some sort of cost for them. I'll also have to go and rewrite all the AI general files and recreate the empire files to adjust for the added cost of technology. I REALLY didnt want to have to do all that, but oh well. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

so, how is it going.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I have been a little busy so things have not been progressing as fast as I would like, but progress is being made. Reworking all the Empire files and AI General files is going to take far more work and effort than I feel up to doing at this time so the racial traits will remain as they are for now. I am focusing on finishing all the rebalancing and error fixing right now. It shouldnt be too much longer before the patch will be ready and we can start a PBW game.

If anyone has any more suggestions or ideas please post them soon. This could possibly be the last patch for the SE4 Eclispe Mod. I intend to get started on preliminary work for the SE5 Eclipse Mod as soon as I get more free time.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I am almost done. However, my gramma is in the hostpital because of a tumor in her head. So far they say it is benign but her age and health condition make solving the problem more complicated. Because of this my schedule is chaotic. I can no longer give an accurate time frame for the patch. I'll try to keep you all posted as I get stuff done, but no promises. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Wish your grandma the best for me!

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Hope your grandma gets better.

Both of mine are dead. Fortunatly, they lived good, long lives, but I still miss them.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I found time to do some in-game testing. So far everything looks good. I only have a few more things to test and then it should be ready. Sorry for all the delays.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Okay, it is done. Go to my website in my sig to download it. I'll upload it to SE.net soon.

I dont want to host the PBW game so I just have a few suggestions about the game setup.

1 Huge Homeworld
High Starting Resource
High Racial Points
Low Tech Costs
Low Tech Start
Small Galaxy
Medium Event Severity and Rate

These settings should give Eclipse a good PBW trial run.

Oh and lets make an agreement not to take traits that our species does not have. A thing to remember is that even if you dont take any of the racial trait techs, there is still plenty of variety in the standard tech tree. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Yay! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
I'll volunteer to host the game, and I'll ask Geo or somebody to set it up at PBW ASAP! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Errrg. I just noticed a problem in the Tylmai AI general file. I went ahead and fixed up the install file. Ignore the quick fix if you downloaded it.

Another note about game setup, your Empire Score should NOT be factored into the victory conditions. A race thats starts out on a Gas Giant will have a very high score by default. The balance to that is that Gas colony components are twice as expensive as Rock or Ice. I may add other penalties to it so I'm open to suggestions. Perhaps a negative speed bonus?

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I'll poing Georgig to this thread next time I see him. He loves setting up mods on PBW. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

folks, please, upload somewhere version without pictures - i prefer not to download 80mb http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

georgig
pbw admin

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Im on dialup. No way i will download 80 mb...

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

There is the data-only version, guys... 3 MB small enough? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Though I wish someone would mirror the full file, as whenever I try to download it it comes though at near-dialup rates and inevitably I walk away and the download stops halfway through... stupid Firefox download manager doesn't have a resume feature like it's supposed to http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

[Post Deleted]

One must never post when stressed.
I apologise for my harsh words.

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

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I hope the deleted post wasnt meant against my "harsh" post ?

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

SEnet has Eclipse 1.0 mirrored currently. You could download it from there, then download the 1.01 Data Only file, which I think is sufficient as a patch.

Kevin, could you please place version numbers in the mod file names in the future? It makes it easier to keep track of things. Thanks.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I didnt put any version numbers cuz i think this will be the last patch. If I do decide to make another, I'll include a version number to the file. Sorry for any confusion.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Eclipse Mod v1.01 Full is now available for download from SEnet.

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Thank you Fyron. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

something's wrong with pbw - i'll install eclipse when geo kick the server

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Thanks eorg http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

(bump to remind eorg to set up the mod http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

it keeps disconnecting me 2nd day http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif i'll ask geo to install it locally when i see him or i'll do it when pbw server gets in shape

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

set http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif enjoy

p.s. if something is wrong bug me on #spaceempires @ freenode i don't check the forums

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

Thanks once again! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
edit: Game Setup! Name: "Ecliptic Plane" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Any interest in an Eclipse Mod game at PBW?
 

I'm gonna sign up to play, but where is the mod at. I don't see it in the list on PBW. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif