quote:
Originally posted by mac5732:
From reading the different ideas, i think we need to first decide.
1. should the pirates have a chance to win the game or just be a fun playing pain in the neck race. if they are to have chance to win, what amount or same as other races
2. Should they be allowed to colonize or just capture planets in order to have a chance in the game.
3. playability, maybe some ideas should be made options that way everyone could pick which way they want to set it up and would the AI be able to play the pirate race without to much tweaking of game?
4. What should their largest ship size be?
Definitly nothing larger then a BB or BC
5. what should they be allowed to research?
6. Racial traits. such as Berserker, violent, schemers, high intell, high cunning, and the percentages. Also should they start with hi intel or research it,
7. What type of bases, small, med, large,
and what type of cloaking should they have?
8. do they get special (their race only) research areas, weapons, clocking, etc)
9. Will they be allowed to use captured population to colonize other planets?
Maybe hojo and/or SJ could make up a list and have everyone vote or give ideas on these or others you can think of. This could give us a starting point. Just some idea's
10. I forgot, maintenance,
mac
sorry about the double post, i over clicked
[This message has been edited by mac5732 (edited 09 March 2001).]
Here's the Hojo 2 cents worth - and I think it's overpriced at that...
1) When a human plays any race that race will always have a chance to win the game - even playing a neutral or a limited pirate, a human will find a way to win.
I should state up front that I agree w/SJ in that I am not too confident that a Pirate race could be Modded to be a viable computer controlled race - too many problems, the AI's inability to perform ship capture comes to mind for one. I'm prefacing all my answers and commentary to the idea that the pirate race will be controlled by a human.
2) I think (and this is where me and SJ seem to disagree the most) that a pirate race should colonize, but at a very slow rate w/severe handicaps, such as colony ships that only hold 1M colonist, can only have 2 engines on the colony ship, can't have any cargo or supply containers (limits their range), should only be able to colonize Tiny Moons (maybe Small also but I'm waffling on that one), etc.
A pirate should NEVER use captured colony ships to colonize new planets - just don't seem right to me - to me, the proper pirate reaction to capturing a colony ship is jettison the pop and analyze the hull for tech or scrap it for resources.
3) the playability, meaning to me the initial setup of the race along w/any special components designed specifically for pirates, is the most important and probably critical point in playing a Pirate race. SJ has some good ideas and so does Mac about initial setup - to me, the Maint point is a very import'nt area cause as SJ points out a pirate race doesn't have the resource income to support an even small sized fleet. The other areas will have to be delved into as we go along. I've just started a game as a pirate w/50% Reas, 50% Ground combat (don't think pirates should be strong infantry type fighters - more a skirmer mentality than a full organized infantry ground combat thing), 100% intell, 50% Resources (the min), 91% Reprod (min also), 125% Attack & Defense, Nat Merchant, Prop expert & Psyc traits - I can't remember all settings right now but I did have something like 1875/5000 left. Started on bad homeworld in large system (150) w/18 total races all hand picked. So far around 60 turns into it, it is fairly slow and tough going. I'll post on it later this weekend hopefully.
4) Largest Ship size - agree w/SJ, it's easier to capture one than to build - basically I can't think of any reason to BUILD anything larger than a LC - esp w/the use of mine & SJ's smaller Pirate Ship Yard Component idea (I use one that is 200kt, and build at a rate of 500,750,1000 for it's 3 levels.)
5) they should have access to all the tech that a normal race has access to (along w/the special Pirate Tech I use to grant access to their special pirate components)
6) Racial traits go back to playability to me - we probably need a whole new thread just to discuss this point - I select nuetral for culture type instead of trying to fit it into beserker, worker, scientist, etc. As far as Happiness type and Demeanor I support Bloodthirsty and Violent...
7) Cloaking and BAses - access to all
8) I'm in favor a special racial trait for pirates granting em access to special tech (unfortunately I don't know how to mod that, so I simply created a special tech area and didn't include it in any of the other computer players research data files)
9) As I said earlier, I am strongly against letting a pirate race use a captured colony population to colonize a planet...
10) Maint - to me it needs more play testing to find out the effect it has on the pirate race as a playable and balanced race...
hope this hasn't run on too long but I felt I needed to throw in my opinions...
feedback as always is requested...
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