Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

Those of you who were around for that fiasco know I started a mod where each item was 10% more effective than the Last and had which had my own engine mount QNP. This resulted in 160-180 types of ships and engine mounts. Suprisingly, I managed to avoid burnout long enough to get a sorta-playable mini way-before-alpha Version out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Well, a few days before Starhawk posted his Ascendancy mod, I came up with something along the same lines as his. So, I'm posting this idea file to avoid overlap and accusations of copying. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I looked through his adea post again and it doesn't look like we've got any collisions, so http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I will, however, cheerfully steal his idea for how to post the data. Unless he objects or something. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I call it the 'Race Styles mod', because I'm not good at coming up with names. Races have three designators for how high there tech goes in something, bad: level 7, average: level 8, specialty: level 10.

There will be no intelligence projects. I don't like seiv's intelligence projects, so I'm dropping them.

These are all the race styles that come to mind. I may add more, suggestions are always welcome.

Nomads: All their tech is 0.7 of normal in cost. Half-done.
Ships: Small, cheap, fast. Level 7
Engines: Two types, strategic and tactical. Tactical engines provide combat bonus movement at a high supply cost. Level 10 tactical engine ships will probably require a dedicated supply ship for each tactical ship. Level 10
Missiles: Long-ranged, low-powered, ok spread of types. Level 7
Beams: A couple of short-ranged, high-powered beams. One for ripping shields, one for blowing apart armor and ships(Quad to shields and Quarter to shields). And I do mean short-ranged; range 2 to start. Level 7
Cargo and Supply: Level 10, best in the mod.
Resources: Not very high production, 70% to production and cost. Level 7
Research: Low-powered, 58.3_% to production and 70% to cost. Level 7
Planetary Improvement Tech: Expensive, not very effective.

Pirates: Maybe.

Marauders: Mini-monsters, basically. Especially short-term.
Ships, armor and beams: Small, cheap, not very good. Level 7
Resources: Massive production, but each facility lowers planetary value by 1%. Also, each resource facility has a lot of storage. Level 7
Planetary Improvement Tech: Expensive, only 1 level of each facility, facilities drain resources.
Research: Bad.

Imperialists: Starts out as a basic 'warring faction'.
Ships, shields, armor and beams: Well-rounded, able to fight at any distance and anything effectively, not very many or no special weapons. Level 10.
Resources: Suck. About 50% of normal. With some very, very expensive system-wide facilities thats the equivalent of putting a 'kick me' sign on the planet, it can go up to about 80-85% of normal. Basically, the idea is that the facilities, at least in that sector, transform your warring faction into a real government that takes your citizens needs at least somewhat into account. Level 7
Research: Bad. About 70%. Level 7
Planetary Improvement Tech: Expensive, average effectiveness.

Industrialists: Basically, the opposite of imperialists.
Ships, armor, missiles and beams: High-power, tough, low-range. Level 7
Resources: Best in the mod. 150%. Level 10
Research: Not very good, 80%. Level 7

Merchants: More for role-playing than conquering the galaxy, merchants have a wide range of average stuff. All merchant tech goes to level 8. I'm going to do this one Last.

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

How about just having some data-gathering projects? It is very useful to be able to gather some covert data. Set it up so that you can't very easily do 12 a turn or anything, of course.

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

Possible. It's just, they don't really seem like intelligence projects to me, more like a lottery.

One thing I may do is design covert stealth ships with various abilities and weaponry, so if you want to know what is in a system, you have to sneak a covert ship past there detection covert ships. These ships would have a large defence bonus, so if you want to destroy a depot on a planet, you have a chance of getting a covert ship in close enough. Such an idea would have problems, though, and the'd have to be worked out first.

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

Too bad you can't scan planets...

You can target your projects against specific planets. This would work well in conjunction with the stealth ship idea. Send the stealth ship into enemy space, and use intel to gather data on the objects there.

My suggestion was assuming that counter-intel was removed still...

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

There's a possibility. And now, I really should sleep.

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

Got an idea for a faction for you. The MicroStar (or MS) Empire. Have the biggest ships in the game. Their ships are also the slowest, and filled with components that don't actually seem to do anything and the components that do seem to serve a purpose don't seem to do it very well. MS Ships are also very heavily armored, yet against actuall weapons the armor doesn't seem to do much. The armor is usefull though, because MS Ships have extremely poor sensors, and thus tend to crash a lot. The only advantage the MS Empire has is that they have a lot of money, so any time another empire builds a better ship, the MSE buys it off them and suppresses the design. :-D
Obviously I'm not serious...

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

How about removing counter-intel, and instead make "intel sabotage" really cheap?

That's "destroy the other guy's attack project before it gets completed" kind of intel sabotage...

The other guy can make 11 fake projects to reduce your chances of killing the correct one, and you have to pick the person you want to defend against.

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

And there was much hammer wackeging of AgentZero.

SJ, I want to reduce the randomness of Intell if I do put it in there. Make it feel more like you are engaging in a real project with a real process to it. Otherwise, I might as well call it 'The Intell Slot Machine'.

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

Well SJ's suggestion will make it less random - you will be able to specify which empire's intel projects you want to defend against.

Re: Making a (Much smaller than the Last one) mod
 

Hmm...That would make alliances much more important...