The Deathstalker Mod has been posted
 

I have just posted my 'D-Mod' into the se4 data/graphics folder in the modd section. Please take a look and tell me what you think http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

"Here it is, my very first FULL game modd.

There are lots of goodies inside. The goal of this modd was to add new components/abilities that seem 'fair' and are AI 'friendly'. ANY normal se4 AI can be used (including the many fan Favorites), just move the race's folder into the 'Pictures/Races' folder in the D-Mod. A few races have been included (base se4 + the EEEvil and the Red Gauntlets.)

Some of the goodies:

Totally re-done missile system:
Normal missiles (Rate of Fire 2)
Tachyon Missiles (weapon destroyers)
Fighter mounted missiles
Armor Piercing Missiles
Short Range Missiles (Rate of Fire 1)
External Mounted Missiles
(New) Plasma Missiles (skip normal shields)
Chaos Missiles (more damage further away)

Anti-Personel weapons (kills Boarding Parties and Security Stations only)

Living Ships (both Crystal and Organic that the AI will auto use)

To Hit bonus's for different weapons (example, Anti-Matter torps are +15% to hit, Quantum are +20% and Chaos Torps are +25% to hit).

New Religious components including weapons.

New ship sizes from 120kt to 5000kt, includes Prospector and Scout ships (scout has 8 engine capacity).

ASTEROID SLING weapon ( ), and expanded weapon tree for APB's, Meason BLasters and DUC's.

New armor, shields, BattleBridge, Flagship class, Defender Computer and Tonnes more. (oh yes, there are Transporters as well...sort of...)

This is a work in progress and suggestions are MORE than welcome (as is good natured chiding , some things still need to be balanced right).

Any suggestions please post or email me, I_8_BAD_GRAPES@hotmail.com

Re: The Deathstalker Mod has been posted
 

You might want to make your external mount missiles count as armor so they will be damaged first in combat. At least it seems to fit the description.

Re: The Deathstalker Mod has been posted
 

"You might want to make your external mount missiles count as armor so they will be damaged first in combat. At least it seems to fit the description"

The only problem with this is that the se4 ship builder AI does some wacky things. If you tag the missile as armor and a ship design calls for armor it will put on missiles instead sometimes, the Devnull mod had a few minor problems with this ISTR (PDC was also minesweeping, I think that was one of the problems.). I am encountering some wackyness myself right now. A crystalline race will add the crystalline engines as normal but if the ship design calls for 'Solar Generation' it will add an 7th and sometimes 8th engine to generate solar power since they fit the ability description, even though the ship can only have 6 engines max. My other problem of wackyness is the crystalline bridge which generates 15 shield points, some designes are having 5 bridges which is normally impossible! UGH!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif So much for being AI friendly, I really didn't want to create new racial traits and have to 'patch' AI's for specific games, way to much bother. Anyone know a way around this problem and being able to keep the neat abilities of said components??

That and the AI will sometimes design a base with an organic engine (they armor regeneration of 10 points/turn, probally how they can fit the engine on which does not work as an engine by the way..) or it will fill the ship with 5 organic engines of the best kind and then fit an inferior normal engine on there......why?!?!?!?

Can we make components that are limited to ONE only?? or is that a reserved ability?

Re: The Deathstalker Mod has been posted
 

First off, components can be restricted to one per ship. HOWEVER, that only applies to human players! The AI ignores all restrictions.

"Anyone know a way around this problem and being able to keep the neat abilities of said components??"

The external missle problem comes from the AI adding on the largest armor component it can find; unavoidable I think.

If it's a generating component (like the solar power) you can ussually get the AI to take the dedicated solar power component if the dedicated one provides more power than the non-dedicated.

Phoenix-D