While we are awaiting the new weapons contents of the components file (and I cannot help with that as I have none of the B5 Wars books), I thought it might be useful to discuss the way in which the mod should address the “found techs.” These, right now, are:
20 - Cure for Nano-Plague
21 - Great Machine
22 - Ship Automation
23 - Stellar Balancer
24 - Ancient Neurotech
25 - Ancient Atmospheric Adjuster
26 - Unique Ship Class
27 - Universal Colonizer
20, 21, 23, 24, 25 and 27 have been implemented. I have never seen a use for 23, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. The rest seem to work as designed (once you correct the GM cannon to be a planetary vice ship weapon).
22, Ship Automation, COULD be implemented by allowing the discoverer to build Shadow-like CPUs, but this seems very much against the canon. Is there any way to have such a component count as two crew quarters and two life support? I haven’t been able to make that work.
24, Ancient Neurotech, can be implemented by creating a new series of facilities that have advantages over existing facilities. Since the description is “Allows your race to create a neural link to enhance research” I created “Neurotech Research Centers” in my mod of the mod to provide enhanced research capabilities. The downside to them in my Version is that you have to progress in both Neurotech and Research before you can upgrade a NRF... but that seems to work out as well.
26, Unique Ship Class, is a bit harder. It is described as “Allows your race to create more unique class of ship based on the wreckage” but the concept of “more unique” is a bit baffling!
I have tried two approaches:
1. Each class of ship now has an “advanced” Version of it, and a la the Whitestars and (possibly) the Warlocks, the “advanced” Version has limited self-repair (one component per turn up to BC, then 2 per turn up to SD, and then 3 for larger). Perhaps a speed bonus could go with it.
2. There is a “unique” hull for each basic ship type (subdestroyers, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, dreadnoughts, baseships, etc) that is built of advanced materials, or whatever, and so has an engine per ton ratio of 1 to 60 instead of 1 to 50.
The disadvantage of the first approach is that I cannot get the AI to use it. The disadvantage of the second approach it that it reduces the variation of ships produced once the tech is discovered.
I would also make two other changes to the unique techs:
1. Make Shadow tech and Vorlon tech (or maybe just the former) discoverable.
2. Make the actual discoverable tech “Cure for Nano-Plague Clues,” “Great Machine Clues,” etc, with the clues simply opening the tech area for research. This makes it the responsibility of the player to decide when to start research into these areas (the AI can be told to research them as a priority), and it also prevents the player from getting level 2 or 3 techs by finding the same tech multiple times.
I have also found that the Stellar Abilities file needs to be updated to allow all of the unique techs, but I will hold off on posting a proposed mod until we reach a consensus on what the unique techs should be.
Thoughts?