[The Finn]

Have no idea if the following will work or not - really not sure about modding since I'm still stuck with the demo.. and the demo doesn't have refit rules that I'm aware of.

Ok, assume you are using the 'not a pirate' rules for colony ships so pirates can't have standard colony ships...

Add the rule the the colony ship HULL and then create a new pirate colony ship HULL (same size, etc as the standard one) that's much more expensive than the normal one.. that would slow down the production of the pirate's colony ships (make it take approx. a year (or two?) say to build one). Thus the pirate could still build colony ships but very slowly and at great expense. Not something to be done frivilously.

Then, add the SDD function to the standard colony components (that way the AI ship design doesn't have to be changed)...

Here's my questions - you destroy the colony component (and therefore the SDD) and capture an AI colonizer. Can you then REPAIR it(which would pretty much defeat the purpose of the SDD)? AND, could you take the damaged hull back and retrofit it into a pirate colony ship?

My hope would be that this would allow the pirate to make relatively cheaper Versions of "his" colony ship - since the expense is in the hull not the component. You capture an enemy hull.. pay a small amount to refit it with your colony component as opposed to paying a large sum for a colony ship built from scratch. All the while keeping the number of colony ships the pirate has to a minimum.

[This message has been edited by The Finn (edited 06 April 2001).]