How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Well, would be nice if someone could tell me:

I want to make a MOD in which you colonize a planet, but not like in the normal gameplay
you just have the ressources on it you produce and store on it or bring to it with a transport.
There are no more any spaceports, each planet has to be managed on its very own.
To realize all this you will have lets say 10 times more space on planets and I would like to add "Livingspacefacilities", so you can have enough population to work in your facilities.
Now I need to know, how I can manage to kick out the spaceportsystem of SE4 completely. I already kicked out the spaceportfacility, but I did not yet manage to kick out the ressourcesharing in a system.
Perhaps I could create absolutely invisible ships of a non-interacting race, which orbit every planet and blockade it and then just kick out the blockaded-sign http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

So I would be glad if someone could help me with that. You then may also ask for some other additional changes http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

No way I know of changing the resource system.

You can change it to where space ports are obsolete...as in, everyone has the natural merchants trait...or whatever it is called.

But that won't allow for anything but an extra facility space per system.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Even when blockaded, planets still pull resources from the empire's storage. Blockading simply renders the local resource facilities useless.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Well, I will try to go deeper into the SE4 source code, first I will have to encrypt the files, of course,... a lot of work to do...
I think it is not possible to do such changes in the normal text files, as I did not find a trigger to regulate the economic connection between planets-systems-empire http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Rather than trying to get around the encryption and hack the game code, why not just make your own game and then you can set it up any way you want?

Geoschmo

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Well, I just got too far with encoding the se4.exe, I cannot stop now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Sure you can. You simply stop doing it.

But at any rate, you are not likely to get any assistance on this forum for hacking the game code. And your offer to make changes other people request is a bit concerning...
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't wish to turn this into another thread about whether hacking or not is bad. I know many people, obviously you are one of them, feel it is ok to hack into programs. Whether or not doing so for your own use is considered piracy, I can assure you that doing so and distributing the files to others is seriously frowned upon. If you persist in discussing it here things could get ugly.

Geoschmo
Space Empires IV Forum Moderator

[ November 05, 2002, 00:24: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Enough said, MAYBE?!?

You seem to be a pretty sharp programer. Why not put all that energy into your own programs? Make some money!

mlmbd http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Hmm, programming my own game would just cost me too much time which I just do not have, but I have alreday started to make a webbased se4-like game with some friends, although there are already many.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I never asked for it, did I ?
I asked whether it is possible with the normal moddable files to change the economic system in se4 completly. And as it does not seem so, I just tried to change it in the exe-file. If I wanted to hack it for public purpose I would have presented the source code of the game, which is a nice example for Delphi-programming at its best ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
At those who now feel to need to have the source code:

I will not give it to you !!!

Just for those who are interested:
it costed me several hours, but I finally could change what I wanted, even without any programm errors when starting the game.

But it is not at all what I wanted, because I wanted to make a legal mod , which can be played by everyone.

So I am back at the beginning of this post http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
and open for any advice how I could mod the game to have an planetonly-economy, which would lead to a greater importance of transporters and the resulting transport-routes.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

There is no way currently to do what you want unfortunatly without hardcode changes. Even by eliminating the spaceport component and taking out the merchant racial trait, all you will succeed in doing is eliminating resource production outside of the home system. Construction every where in the empire will still pull from the empire pool. There is no way to make production dependant on resources generated locally.

Geoschmo

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Well,then this would be a proposal for SE5:

For a far more complex strategic background in the game make the economy planetdependant !
You would be forced to move ressources to production specialized planets or planets with more people than they can nourish...
You would of course need to be abled to build several ships at one time in shipyards or more shipyards per planet and you shouldn't be abled to kill planets as easy as it is now, you should need to invade them, perhaps because there is a little bit of fallout in the athmosphere, if you just bLast em up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
Best would be, if SE5 becomes a mixture of the best ideas of all the web-based space strategy games out there http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Thane,
I personaly don't want to manage the economy.
I want to
Explore, Study, Design, Build, and Fight.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Uhm, Geo...
The homesystem needs to have a spaceport, just like all the others.

If you remove all spaceport abilities, all empires will get only the "minimum empire resource generation" as specified in the settings.txt.

By default, that is 200 of each resource each turn, IIRC.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Well, it's a little better than that in the later patch levels, SJ. You get a minimum percentage of the production of your home system even without a space port. It's in SETTINGS.TXT like so many other things. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Home System Percentage Value With No Spaceport := 50

[ November 05, 2002, 21:03: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

I think that is for score calculations BM, not actual production.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Nope it's actually for production. The default level is 25%. Quick start a game and scrap your homeworld space port, you will see that the empir generation does not drop to 200.

The resource production for the homesystem is severly crippled, but it's not eliminated as it is for other systems. The odd thing is that this property of the home system remains for the length of the game, even if your empire has to vacate the home system. You don't get this resource produciton without space ports anywhere else in the quadrant.

Geoschmo

[ November 06, 2002, 00:13: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

Hmm... whoever I heard that from must have been wrong then.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

on another thread i read that if a planet is blockaded then it does not contribute to the overall resources but the planet can still manufacture items. is this correct and would it be what thane of cawdor was looking to do?

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

No
I think Thane is looking to have each planet individually managed and not drawing on a "combined resource pool" as it currently does.
If blockaded, I think a planet can still draw resources even if it doesn't contribute them.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

to get rid of spaceport function make every other facility have the spaceport ability and remove SmartBomb (SP) from the game.

Re: How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, exactly, that is what I want to do ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That would just kill the spaceport facility I think, like it is in the Proportions MOD.
It would not stop ressources being drawn from a systems or the empire pool.