Thanks for your feedback everybody. Sorry for the late replies. Still working on the mod. And focus remains on the AI, but progress is very slow at the moment.
HEMAN,
1) actually checking out the D-Mod for more stuff is already in my to-do-list
. I do however have to be careful what to add in order not to destroy the balance and/or screw up the AI. I like the mercenary commanders a lot, hopefully I can find a way to implement them to some degree. Torps already have a to hit bonus in DNM and also armor-shield skipping torps added at the end of the research.
2) yes, more ruins. I'd also like that. A converter facility is a good idea. I think, however, that it should not be better than the standard facility and also more expensive. A lot of the ancient tech works that way. It either has a unique ability or it is not as effective as the component that can be researched.
3) I think Puke had a good idea about visible homeworlds. Check below...
4) I agree. The AI uses the open warp ship kinda wierd
. Nothing I can do about that really. If you find that too annoying, you can remove the open warp ship from the monster build queue.
Puke,
great idea!
I think that is possible to do. How about adding a tech area of 'Monster Lore' or something like that. Whenever you analyse a monster you get one level of that. First levels would only include hints about the monsters and some background info. Once you get more levels, you get some useful components and ultimately the sensor to see their homeworld. (come to think of it, this would also be a good way to include some wacky tech without screwing up other AI. Also it would the make the monsters great prices for hunting down, since you can get certain tech by those means only).
Miles,
very interesting. Monsters vs. GP sounds fun
. I would very much like to check that out. Can you post the files? It never ocurred to me that planet cloaks work on weapon platforms.
DirectorTsaarx,
I think in your example it works like this. If you don't have the racial trait,
Tech A cannot be be gained by any means
Tech B can be gained through analysis, but cannot be researched
Tech C can be researched, once Tech B is known
So back to the idea of tech gained though capture/analyze monsters. If 'Monster Lore' was a type B tech, you would need to capture X monsters to get level X of that tech. Sounds like an interesting thing (if it works...).
Cheers,
Rollo
[ January 22, 2003, 17:43: Message edited by: Rollo ]