[Deathstalker]

"Merc's for hire",

Basicly it is impossible to create a 'component' that is unique (to mimic the unique 'captains' of Moo2). So I borrowed some pictures from movies etc and made a few components that are 'one per vehicle', added a new tech area and created 'Mercinaries'. Like 'Ork boarding parties', 'Mechanics', etc (abilities like component repair, sensor level, mine sweeping, etc.) Generally these components are as good (or a little worse) than their counterparts (ork boarding parties are good at offense, but bad at defense, way more expensive than normal boarding parties but easier to develop).

This way with this tech people can hire merc's to do many jobs without having the actual tech (ie the minesweeper merc sweeps 4 mines, but with only one per ship and a high mineral cost makes them costly for one per ship).

The one problem (as always) is how the AI uses them. Give a component a defensive bonus and the AI thinks it is a ECM suite, give it an offensive bonus and it thinks it is a combat sensor. Give an engine 'armor regeneration' and watch the AI load up 8 or 9 engines for organic races, even with the 'one per vehicle', the AI ignores this. So basicly this tech is 'player only'. Adds some fun though (IMO).

Will probally have the newest Version of the modd up by the weekend (just some final tweaking remains, and a few more AI's to modd so that they actually use the new weapons).