Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

Maybe this has already been done....

Have a super powerful race (like the Borg, say, in the TNG TV-series era) where I would need a good-sized fleet to defeat just one of its dreadnoughts.

>>I’m thinking this wouldn’t be too difficult. Just give it extremely powerful unique components and facilities. Is it possible to create a wholly new unique racial trait? If not, I could just edit an existing one and make sure only the super race has it.

Try to make it so I would have time to develop my empire to a high level before having to take on this super race: Play in a huge map, where the super race and I start in opposite corners. Place some standard AIs in between for fun in the early part of the game.

>>Easy, with the map editor. (What I’d really like is to have this race just show up out of nowhere after the game has run for a while, but of course that isn’t possible.)

Develop an AI for this super race.

>>This, for me, is the most daunting part. I’ve never tried developing an AI. Maybe I could edit an existing one to use the super race’s unique facilities and components?

What do you folks think? What pitfalls am I facing?

Re: Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

I suggest taking one of the spacemonsters (devnull has some, IIRC) and tweaking them to talk like the borg and use a Borg shipset.

Then throw the organic armor regeneration ability into all of their components, just for kicks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

You may have a look at the Borg assimilation Mod I posted in Last May in the mod section of this forum (search for QMod). The mod is unfurtunately now obsolete due to the changes made in the Last patch about master computers and the crew conVersion ability. But it might give you an idea how you could do it.
In the mod I use myself I eliminated the master computer therefore I can continue to use this mod.

Re: Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

Well, according to Captain Kwok, the Borg are going to be pretty tough in the Star Trek mod...

Re: Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Quite possible.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not difficult... just involved.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Indeed it is possible.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You could try having them start in a small cutoff section of the galaxy with no warp points to the rest of the galaxy. When they develop warp point opening tech they will move out into the other unexplored systems. That could be used to simulate them just appearing.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Developing an AI from scratch can be quite a big job. I would only reccomend doing that if it is going to be big time different from anything existing out there. Otherwise you should take an existing well written AI and edit it in the key areas you need to be different.

Re: Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

I'd suggest putting the Borg-ish uber-race in their cut-off-from-the-rest-of-the-Universe home system in the middle of the Galaxy. That way, the centre of the Galaxy is cut off, making it harder for the surrounding players to meet everyone = more politics. And more importantly, then once your Uber-rece achieves warp-openning, it could potentially strike out at anyone, so it's not like one race is always gonna get it.

just some thoughts,
hope they help,
jimbob

Re: Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

plus, it would fit in with the borg um gate-thingys

Re: Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

This is an interesting idea. As you work on it, I hope you'll post more info in the forum. I think this would be fun to play-test and work on.

[ April 12, 2003, 04:17: Message edited by: raynor ]

Re: Mod idea: How hard would this be?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">ooh, Antarans... always liked those guys http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif