[Puke]

Hey Rollo, I was going to write you an email with some thoughts on space monsters, but I think posting here will be better - more people to discuss things with.

I would like to see some more challenging space monsters. You did a really good job on them, and they are pretty tough as it is, but they could be harder. Maybe create a second monster race with the improvements, and leave the current one as-is. that way, people can choose which to play with.

Here is what I am thinking:

1 - Move the sector cloak ability to the monster facilities. I am pretty sure that it will work on them (tested it a few Versions back) and this will make sure that all monster planets have the cloak, even without bases. this is important if you are going to:

2 - allow the monsters to colonize. not to hard, just give them a generic colony component that can hit any colony type. give the colony component cloaking ability (regular cloak, no supply use, not sector cloak.) so that the colony ship cant be shot down or captured. I think the AI can handle cloaks on colony ships, and will uncloak before attempting to colonize. if not, give it a high enough sector cloak to avoid being seen, but a high enough sensor to see through its cloak and colonize target planets. (i ran into trouble trying to colonize with a sector cloak, because i could not see the planet i was trying to colonize).

3 - put spaceyards on those space stations! increase the monster production capacity!

a long time ago there was a discusion about this next idea. I dont remember who first came up with it, but its still a darn good idea:

4 - stick planetary and system shield abilities on the monster facilities. this makes them indestructable. now create a sensor component that can see through monster cloaks, and put it on a ship design that is possible (but difficult) to capture. you can either make the player used the captured ship as a sensor, or allow them to analyze it for the technology.

you can capture, analyze, and use racial technologies if it is setup right. if a component requires technology A, and technology A requires technology B, where tech B is racial and tech A is not, then anyone can analyze the component - if i remember correctly.