Research Mod: Help & Suggestions
 

I'd like to modify the game's research mechanics, as it's currently a bit too deterministic for my liking.

Specifically, I want to eliminate the "I've put 100 points toward research this month, thus I will get 100 research points" phenomenon.

Ideally, I'd like to have the total research allocation for a given magic path act as the input parameter for a Poisson random number generator (i.e. gamma, for you nerds out there). So, if you allocate 100 research points, you will actually receive a random number with mean=100 and stdev=10.

1) Can research be modded directly? I expect no, as it's probably hardcoded, but I've never tried to mod the game.

2) If not, could a "mandadory" random event be added that increases and/or decreases research each month by a random amount?

3) Would anyone even be interested in this? If so, what would you like to see changed & how?

Research is one of my main gripes with the game: in real life it's genuinely random, but in Dom3 you can know exactly which turn you'll have a spell available...nonsense. I think that randomizing it will take quite a bit of certainty out of the early game, and therefore make it much more interesting.

Re: Research Mod: Help & Suggestions
 

1) No.

2) No.

3) Yes http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Unfortunately, what you're proposing is completely beyond the scope of the mod-script, or of any foreseeable changes to the mod-script.

Re: Research Mod: Help & Suggestions
 

would be kind of cool though...

Re: Research Mod: Help & Suggestions
 

Well, if we remember master of orion, I could do a mod-script that randomly restricts each spell to three nations-in-play.

In a 6-nation game, you'd get a random 50% of the possible spells. Which might or might not [censored] you over completely http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

This would produce some variety but wouldn't address Cleveland's issue, which is fundamental to the mechanics.

Even in MOO, though, it was to your advantage to move research around in strange ways. An entirely different system, were you got random spells periodically, of various levels, depending on how much research you invested, would perhaps be "better", but is completely beyond the scope of the current binrary, let alone the existing mod commands.

Re: Research Mod: Help & Suggestions
 

In response to the random 50% possible spells, there was some discussion about tying certain spells/spell effects to various pretenders. Either new effects or divvying up the current, giving more strategic value to certain pretender chassis.

Could also be tied into pretender magic level (lvl 9 in a path gets 100% of spells, lvl 6 gets 66% of available spells of that path, etc)

Someone had also brought up the idea of a hero/summon that would spawn baby researchers. Give them a 2-5 month lifespan and spawn via domsummon and you'd get a random amount (although it would up micro slightly as you'd have to put them on research manually).

Have a transformation type spell, easy to cast, that would change to a new ID, with random research capability. Wouldn't solve the deterministic approach, but would add a random factor.

I do like the idea of limiting/randomizing the overall spell book by game, either by path, level or effect. Be kind of neat to bid on available paths/schools or to determine it via pretender creation.