Starting Facilities?

[ToxicSlurpee]

I've been working on a mod of my own, and before I start work on facilities, could somebody tell me exactly how the game decides what facilities to start you with? I have an idea from playing the game, but I'm not 100% sure how it would take some peculiar modding, or even the exact way it decides on that sort of thing.

[Alneyan]

Welcome on the Boards! The following facilities are chosen by the AI:

- A facility with the Spaceport ability. I am not sure which one is chosen when there are several of these; I think it might be from the first family in the facilities file, but don't quote me on that.
- A facility with the Resupply ability.
- A facility with the Spaceyard ability. The AI should pick the one with the highest construction values here.
- One facility producing Organics, and one producing Radioactives. The highest values are chosen here.
- Half the remaining slots (rounded up) are used for facilities producing Minerals, and the rest goes for Research facilities.

[douglas]

From the Modding Tutorial:

The facilities on the homeworld will be added as follows (all must be available with starting technology):
1) The Last facility with the Spaceport ability in the file.
2) The Last facility with the Space Yard ability in the file.
3) The Last facility with the Resupply ability in the file.
4) One facility that has the highest level of the Resource Generation - Organics ability.
5) One facility that has the highest level of the Resource Generation - Radioactives ability.
6) One facility that has the highest level of the Resource Generation - Minerals ability.
7) One facility that has the highest level of the Point Generation - Research ability.
8) Repeat 6 & 7 until the planet is filled.

Position in the file is irrelevant for the resource/research facilities. Technically, the Mineral facilites are added before the Organics and Radioactives ones (at least the first one is). But, they are presented in this order for ease of reading. There is 0 difference for in-game effects (unless you mod the planet used as a homeworld to only have 4 facility slots, of course).

[spoon]

Here's an example of a facility designed to give a starting empire a boost in organics and rads on his starting homeworld.

-----
Name := Capitol City Resources
Description := Starting Cities generate better income.
Facility Group := Starting City Facilities
Facility Family := 100
Roman Numeral := 1
Restrictions := None
Pic Num := 21
Cost Minerals := 50000
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Recruitment and Construction
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 3
Ability 1 Type := Resource Generation - Minerals
Ability 1 Descr := Nets 600 minerals, 500 orgs and 500 rads each turn.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 600
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Resource Generation - Organics
Ability 2 Descr :=
Ability 2 Val 1 := 500
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Ability 3 Type := Resource Generation - Radioactives
Ability 3 Descr :=
Ability 3 Val 1 := 500
Ability 3 Val 2 := 0

-----
A starting homeworld on an average planet (15 facility slots available) would start with a spaceport, spaceyard, resupply depot, 1 rads extractor, 1 organics extractor, 5 research facilities, and 5 of these Capitol City facilities. (Note that this assumes that the lowest-tech Mineral Extraction facility generates less than 600 minerals and that the basic Organics Extractors and Rads Extractors generate more than 500 resources.

Also note that the cost of the facility should be high, but not too high, since the player can then scrap the facility for a significant boost in resources (unless, of course, you want the players to be able to do something like that...)

[Alneyan]

This is not quite on topic, but... Spoon, Geo reported that scrapping a facility does *not* work in simultaneous games, unless you abandon the planet as well. While the resources do appear in your storage, they are removed at the end of the turn, so that would solve your problem with homeworld facilities.

The thread in question can be found here .

[spoon]

Alneyan said:
scrapping a facility does *not* work in simultaneous games, unless you abandon the planet as well. While the resources do appear in your storage, they are removed at the end of the turn

Yipes! Thanks for letting me know...

[Puke]

douglas said:Position in the file is irrelevant for the resource/research facilities.

no its not. it picks in order of resource generation, then in order of file. it might actually pick in order of tech level, rather than resource generation - im not sure.

I was playing with it in a custom Version of porportions where i wanted to give homeworlds "Agrarian Cultural Centers" and "Rad Extraction Mega-Complexes" (or whatever they were called) for their starting facility slots.

Position in file definitly made a difference for which facility it would select, as did tech level.

[Fyron]

For resource facilities, position only matters if there is a tie. If all of the facilities produce different amounts of resources, the one that produces the most of the relevant resource will always be used, regardless of position. The Last facility in the file will be used in the case of a tie.

Tech req levels are completely irrelevant though (as long as you are only looking at facilities that are available to build). With two identical facilities, the Last in the file is always used, even when the first has 10 tech levels of requirements and the second has 1.

[Atrocities]

In the STM we use differant facilities for general race to standard race and these facilities are chosen by the amount of resources they produce. So the races start with THIER own facilities.

[ToxicSlurpee]

Wow. This has all been quite helpful. Thanks a heap!

Anyhoo...I figured that it was only one of the radiation and organic, but I wasn't 100% sure on the rest, or exactly how it went through the different levels of available things.

Now that those questions are answered, I'll reveal my evil plot: I'm toying with the idea of having the Resupply Depot be more like the capital of the colony than just a place to resupply things. A basic RD is dirt cheap and can be built for 200 minerals, but really doesn't give you much (mind you, I'm also using the Quasi-Newtonian Propulsion idea that I've seen and taken quite a liking to, and making supply matter more, somewhat limiting the range of ships). The upgrades are progressively expensive and are (mostly) available from the beginning of the game. The biggest one initially available I figure on having produce less resources than the big extraction facilities you start with and being able to resupply. Basically, it would represent development to the colony as a whole.

I'm also considering the bigger ones giving you a population bonus, bonuses to production, and so forth, but not to the level that the facilities that actually do these things do. That way, the capital has a level of influence that generic facilities don't have, while the actual bonus facilities would drastically increase this (as the add further development to the planet). This are still a bit up in the air at the moment, as I'm not anywhere near finished, but that's the basic idea so far.