quote:
Originally posted by Trachmyr:
I'm working on a mod that uses the "Engines per Move" field, requiring ships to use the same % of their weight in engines to achieve the same speed. However, the entries for "Desired Speed" and "Min. Speed" in the AI_Design_creation.txt actually refers to ENGINES not speed. The only way I see to get arround this problem, is to make seperate templates for every size of ship for every race! That's a lot of work!
Here's my question(s): Is there a better/easier way to do this, and if I do this, will it cause problems with the AI?
Any answers greatly appreciated!
(P.S. I wrote MM about this and asked him to change it so that Speed refers to SPEED not engines (but before any bonous movement is added))
Since there is a hard limit on the NUMBER of engines a ship can carry there doesn't seem any reasonable way for the AI to design its ships by any other rule than numbers of engines. I've been playing a game using a mod that give engines more than ONE standard movement and then gives ships different 'engines per move' to scale the number of engines more gradually by ship size, though it's not as exact as you seem to want to do. Escorts and Frigates only need 5 engines, destroyers 6, light cruiers 8, cruisers and battlecruisers 10, and battleships and dreadnoughts 12. This is a 'reasonable' scale of increasing movement cost to my mind. We are only dealing in approximations in this game.
I should point out, though, that the max speed of larger ships goes DOWN as the engine count goes up, so the scale is a bit steeper than it may look. Escorts move 7 for their 5 engines, frigates and destroyers 6, all cruisers move 5, BB and DN move 4. So, there is a reason to still build destroyers or maybe even escorts in the later game. They are faster and can make 'torpedo runs' at larger ships.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 06 April 2001).]