System wide abilities
 

I've got a game going where I've now got sytem Robotoid Factories in each system. I've just recently developed system Mineral scanners, eco-farms and rad colliders. When I add one of these to the build queue, I get a message saying that I've already got a facility with this abilitiy (or somesuch). Does that mean that System Scanners, Eco-Farms and Rad-Colliders won't do anything in a system that already has a System Robotoid Factory?

Re: System wide abilities
 

Yes. I don't know if it's intentional though. If you add a regular mineral scanner on a planet, you get both bonuses on that planet though...

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Captain Kwok = Captain Spoogy

"Reality is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there..."

Re: System wide abilities
 

Damn. Guess that means I've got some changes to make in my game.

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"You don't know the Power of the Dark Side. I must obey my Master"

Re: System wide abilities
 

which raises the question, are high levels of resourse extraction worth researching at all?

Re: System wide abilities
 

apparently not. I've wasted a lot of research into something I can't use. That sucks.

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"You don't know the Power of the Dark Side. I must obey my Master"

Re: System wide abilities
 

In the standard game, no they're not worth it. I never research beyond level 3 in the standard config. But... in my custom config I've removed the 'enhancers' and put a more logical type of facility in levels 3-6 of each resource. Value improvement plants, a seperate one for each resource! Renamed to something that sounds pseudo-technically capable of doing what it's doing, of course. Yes, I removed the "all three resources" improvement plant in the planetary improvement techs and left just the atmosphere facilities. How logical is it that ONE process/machine can improve all three resources on a planet? Not at all! So, now it's more logical. This way you can have to specially research the type that you need. Now I'll have to go edit all 20 of the AI research files to deal with this. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif Oh, well.

Re: System wide abilities
 

Baron Munchausen,

You've made some great suggestions, seem very knowledgeable, and have often made reference to the changes you've made in your custom mod... any chance of letting the rest of us have a little peek at it?

Re: System wide abilities
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CombatSquirrel:
Baron Munchausen,

You've made some great suggestions, seem very knowledgeable, and have often made reference to the changes you've made in your custom mod... any chance of letting the rest of us have a little peek at it?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I've been 'planning' to release a copy for a long time. Unfortunately, I'm having too much fun experimenting to make anything like a 'product' with balance and sense of completion. It's never 'finished' so it won't be like the other mods that you plug in and use, it'll be more like a comparing of notes with other modders. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif I've got to try to write something about why I made the changes that I did, at least the ones that I remember. Weapons, armor and shields, tech areas... The game is so huge that I don't think I could possibly remember all the changes I've made. I've been tinkering with the wording of component and facility descriptions since day one, for example. No way to catalog all of the changes I've made. Perhaps someone else could. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: System wide abilities
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Value improvement plants, a seperate one for each resource! Renamed to something that sounds pseudo-technically capable of doing what it's doing, of course. Yes, I removed the "all three resources" improvement plant in the planetary improvement techs and left just the atmosphere facilities<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

does that have a 1 per system limit or per planet limit? does it work with one of each type of facility, or will only one function at a time?

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

Re: System wide abilities
 

Another possibility to make the higher research levels of resource production interesting would be the increase of the effect of the specific facilities like mineral scanners above the effect of robotoid factories. As it is now each facility has 10%, 20%, 30% bonus for level I,II,III facility. If you increase this to 15%, 30% and 45% for the mineral scanners (both planetary and systemic), you will have to chose if you prefer the lower benefit of the robotoid factories, which are easier to research and increase all resource production, or if you favour the more extensive reasearch costs for the specific facilities like mineral scanners, which give you more benefit.

[This message has been edited by Q (edited 30 October 2001).]

Re: System wide abilities
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The game is so huge that I don't think I could possibly remember all the changes I've made.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>What I did when I needed to produce a history of changes, was to load up the earliest Version I'd archived. For each file, scroll down, and comment on each family of objects that have been altered. Commenting on a whole family of components at once keeps the time down, while scrolling though the files keeps it thorough.
A cut and paste adds the newer Version's changelist to that.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>does that have a 1 per system limit or per planet limit? does it work with one of each type of facility, or will only one function at a time?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Value improvement facilities stack fully.
Three V.I.1's = one V.I.3.

Re: System wide abilities
 

I believe the Value 2 field controls how many system wide abilities will work toghether. If set to 0 then none will work together, i.e., only 1, the greater of the values will work. During my testing, I believe that if I set the value 2 to 1 instead of 0, I can get 2 system facilities to work. I think a value 2 of 1 means the facility will work with 1 other system facility. Unfortunately, this also enables you to cheat by building 2 of the same system facility. I may be wrong, but early indications of testing show that value 2 controls how many system abilities of the same type will work together. Maybe other people could test to confirm or deny my guess.

Re: System wide abilities
 

My understanding was that no system ability could be 'stacked' like this. It was only certain component abilities that used the second number as an identifier (extra movement generation, for example). If this does in fact work it opens all sorts of possibilities for modders. We do need to verify if this works or not.

Re: System wide abilities
 

Just thought I'd mention that I did a test game and found out that the System resource facilites and the System Robotoid Factories are not infact, cumunitive as many people have said. That really sucks. That means I've wasted a lot of research and resources. Damn.

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"You don't know the Power of the Dark Side. I must obey my Master"

Re: System wide abilities
 

bearclaw: lots of us have made that same mistake; this situation is a good candidate for the beginner's FAQ that someone started in another thread...

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L++ GdY $ Fr&gt;Fr++ C++ SdS T-- Sf Tcp? A%% M- Mp! RTH!P Pw Fq--&gt;Fq+ Nd&gt;Nd+++++ Rp++ G+

Re: System wide abilities
 

I made an intial test two weeks ago in 1.41 with the replicant center and the medical lab on population growth. I thought I was able to get a combination of the two. In my Version (mod), both replicant center and medical lab have system wide population growth abilities (at least I thought they were system wide).

I have not done any testing in 1.49 and probably will not for at least a couple of weeks (busy at work, other committments, etc)
Additional testing is necessary, but it might be an avenue to explore. (using the "value 2" field of the ability to control how many system wide facilities will work together).

Just a thought

Re: System wide abilities
 

If you place two facilities with multiple conflicting, non-stackable abilities, you usually get the higher value for each ability pair.

You get the plague protection of the medical facility, and the growth rate from the replicant facility.