My own mod thread !! PDFMod !! (design stage)

[PDF]

Hi,
Everyone serious here (and even not so ) seems to have his own Mod thread, so why shouldn't I ? Only because I never modded up to now and am a Frog is no legit reason, so here it is !
The PDFMod Project is launched !

(as for the name, uuh, PDF is my sig ... and my sig is from my initials, don't expect any Point Defense Fuzziness mod or stg like this... !)

So what will it have ?

Moving stars ! ! temporal paradoxes ! ! ! Universe creation ! ! ! Bruce Willis, Aimée Sweet and more ! ! ....

Uh, sorry, that was a teaser, but not yet...

So real :

* More varied ship hulls : the game really needs more/heavier hulls, at least up to 5000 kT. Here I just have to borrow Andrés Lescanos UltimateVehicles and sort ...However due to other mods big ships will be quite more expensive, and tradeoff between small and large ships will be more balanced than in standard (where everyone builds as big as possible...)

* MyQNP : standard QNP, with limited nr of engines/hull , PLUS tweaks : additional components (not categorized as « engines ») that would allow for faster movement, but will be quite heavier and costlier than normal engines.
So for example a Scout will have 6 engines max, 1 eng/move, and go to 6 for 60 kT of basic Ion engines. But you could add « Hi Speed engines » that will gives +1 move, but weight 30-40 kT each.
I could make use of the upcoming1.7 comp limitation facilities to make several Groups, each heavier than the former.

* Revised Weapons/armor interaction
This will be the most « modded » part.
I just hate the « damage soaking » armor model ...Armor is here to STOP damage, either it succeeds and the damage is minimal, or it fails and damage passes through. That's how it works IRL for AFVs and naval ships !
So I plan to rather have « massive » component (basically 1/ship) with a high « emissive » ability (and perhaps regen as well). Structure of these should be high as well, but I have to tinker more with the idea...
Damage soaking will be another matter, and I'll use « Structure reinforcement » components that will behave like ...uhh. SE4 armor , or perhaps like plain components like Proportions' « armor » comps.
So, we'll have big ships basically IMMUNE to low-level DUCs, CSMs et al...Bigger will be needed to beat biggies !
The « fighters combined attack » problem is still there though, but its effect will depend on the emissive level, and perhaps it's not bad to have big fighter Groups able to do damage to armored ships.
Obviously this requires change (up !) to tech reqs and costs (or lowering of damage) of armor-skipping weapons, that'll become VERY effective.
For missiles, I really want them to be in FINITE numbers in a ship (at least within a turn), so I'd plan to have 10 to 30-round reloads missiles, but with more components in ships (so you'd choose to either fire 30 missiles once in the battle or rather 3/round...). PD need tweaking, but not so much as before - emissive armor is here ! !

* Comps Enhancement
Here again I'm for more variety, and really massive mounts will be in order to pierce massive armor : UM and other mods have a good mix, I'll start from here, BUT :
- basically the size/cost multiplier will be LARGER than the damage multiplier, dut to the « treshold » effect of emissive armor
- « armored» (more structure) and « turret » comps (greater accuracy/lower reload time) will be available

* Mines
Ohh those ... I really don't find fun at all the SE4 mine model : they're WAY too effective ! Again, IRL, mines are/were used to provide cheap defense on areas so as to channel attackers, NOT as real killers !
One thing is that I plan to have possibly « visible » mines : instead of being level-5 cloaked right from the start they will start at level 1 and become higher level through tech research. So there'll be a real « arms race » between scanners and mines.
I haven't any good solution for preventing mine warp defense though I suppose than lighty damaging warp points won't work, as they do damage when warping, not sitting up in sector...
Another (untested) idea is to give them less than 100% chance of hitting by making their heads « direct fire » with a hefty negative modifier (say -60% at start, improving through research to -20%).

* Economics
Basically I'll use Proportions'ideas (HW more important, slower colony development, heavy population), but with another, simpler implementation : rather than having big facilities with big flat output (2K min/org/rad ...), HW/fully developped worlds will have expensive, MULTIPLIER facilities (« Cultural Centers »).
« My » CC will give say 300% output planet-wide, and even 150% system-wide (commercial network/facilities).
Here again a series of upgradable facilities (from town to metropolis, with increasing factors) will allow progressive development.
Perhaps more specialized Versions will be welcome (Intel, research...).
BTW, this will not ruin the standard AI « reasoning » as much as Proportions...

Other
« commercial », private run transport ships, with lower maintenance (paid by private corps !) but no fighting ability
Mercenaries/corsairs : build cost reduced, but more expensive maintenance - you have to pay them ! (and some combat penalties...)
...ideas to come ...

Well, that's a pretty heavy design document !

Currently I think I'd be able to do all of this, but will be glad to have help for :
* Permission to pillage other's ideas as in previous mods : PvK, SJ, Andrés Lescanos, just tell me ...
* Feedback ! ! ! ! New ideas ! ! ! And even « It sucks » replies ...
* All AI impacts...I don't really know how to change AI design files..
* Testing ... when I'd have done something !

(ed. typos...)

[ May 23, 2002, 20:10: Message edited by: PDF ]