Re: Pointer Mod
I guess there's a lot of little things I've done in this mod, but only two main things:
1. The Tech Tree
It's totally redesigned. Whatever combinations of techs an empire researches better affects the way that empire will play the game.
Physics gives bigger guns, faster engines. Construction gives you your ship hulls and will eventually yield Megascale engineering (for orbital towers, ringworlds, space habs, and that kind of stuff). Economics research gives greater production capacity, but is a greater drain on your empire's economy if managed poorly. Psychology/Sociology and Biology/Chemistry allow you to manage population better and help you secure your empire. (Unless you're a Psychic or Organic race. Then you'll find all your cool technologies there)
Some research is almost indispensable. Every race will probably want to research Construction till they get at least cruisers and Physics till they get Nukes. You can go without these techs, but you'll have a slower time expanding
and a hard time defending against an enemiy's fully-loaded Nuclear Missile Cruiser.
I've incorporated things from books, movies and tv shows that I would like to have seen in the game and plugged them into the tech tree where they would work the best. The most famous are probably the Phasers and the Superlasers, but I'm particularly fond of the Psychohistory facilities.
2. Ship Design
Propulsion:
I originally just wanted something better than the QNP propulsion system. I liked the mQNP idea, but it had limitations too. So I decided to combine them into a hybrid system.
I wanted ship designs to devote a large percentage of their tonnage to vital systems. As it stands now ships using Construction Level 1 mounts will give a little over 50% of their hull space to engines, bridge, CQ, Life Support and supply components. Miniaturization is included in the mounts as a race researches up the construction tree.
Engines per Move = (Ship kT * 2 / 1000) > 0
Engine mount reduction = (Ship Kt / 10) - Miniaturization Level
Using this system means that capital ships (Cruisers, Dreads, Battleships) have much more useable space than smaller ships and can pack more of a punch in battle.
This also makes Stations and Satellites more valuable because they don't have to use up that 50% and can devote 100% to weapons or whatever.
The system isn't perfect *yet*. Right now a 200kT Frigate has about 10kT less useable space than a 150kT Escort. A minor adjustment, but everything else is fine.
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As for the little things, they're too numerous to count.
I increased the value of electronics by making them really small. (as they should be)
Military Science gives you some interesting tactical weapons like the Seeker Decoy and Chaff and also opens up new weapon types.
As I've built the mod new things keep appearing automatically. For example there appear to be four distinct types of direct-fire weapons:
* Heavy weapons: MAC gun, Superlaser, Reflex Cannon, Grav Lance, Ion Cannon, Disintegrator, Graviton Hellbore
* Medium Weapons: Phaser, Disruptor, Turbolaser, Antiproton Cannon, Fusion Beam Cannon, Plasma Cannon
* Light Weapons: Laser, Railgun, Meson Cannon, Graser Cannon, Plasma BLaster
* Torpedo Weapons: Plasma, Gravimetric, Antimatter, Subspace, Quantum
They're all good at different things. I didn't plan them that way, they just came out that way. It's like I'm not the only one working on this mod. Weird.
It's a long summary I know, but I was on a roll. I hope this answers some of your questions.
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