SE IV: The Antarans of MOO2

[GeorgiaBoy]

...another post...

I am also thinking of putting together an SEIV version of the MOO2 Antarans as a monster race with only one level of research (Antaran Race Tech) and the various componants that the Antaran ship had. Looking for ideas for components with an eye toward making it difficult early on for stock (or TDM) races, but not having the Antarans blow everybody away in the first 30 turns (i.e. no true black hole generator--a potential game ender in stock SEIV)...

Ideas, opinions, rants...all are welcome.

GB

P.S. Looking VERY forward to Atrocities' AST 2.0 Mod. DN 4.27 is fabulous BTW.

[Ed Kolis]

The Antarans never had a black hole generator... in fact IIRC that was one of the best ways to defeat them

Components the Antarans did have:
Death Ray - kills crew and does lots of damage; basically massive version of Neutron Blaster. Impossible to emulate properly in SE4 (you can't have a Security Stations Only weapon also do normal damage) but it should be possible in SE5 at least.
Particle Beam - skips normal shields, does moderate amount of damage; pretty much equivalent to a PPB in SE4 I suppose.
Quantum Detonator - basically just SE4's Self Destruct Device, though in MOO2 when ships self-destructed they also damaged all nearby enemies (and allies) which can't be emulated in SE4.
Interphased Drive - actually a researchable tech, it let you move at warp 7, which I suppose would translate to slightly faster than quantum engines in SE4 terms.
Xentronium Armor - 10 times as strong as starting titanium armor, 25% stronger than the toughest researchable armor (adamantium), and also resists armor piercing weapons (an effect which can be emulated in SE5 but not SE4, unless you make it leaky).
Damper Field - THIS is the tech I always wanted to steal from the Antarans! While incompatible with shields, it quartered all damage applied to the armor and hull of a ship, so if you got hit with a 1600 HP stellar converter blast, it only did 400 HP worth of damage. Not sure how to model this in SE4 - for one thing, you can't restrict it from being used with shields (though if the Antarans are AI-only and the tech is racial it's no problem - just don't program them to install shields!), and for another thing, SE4 won't let you quarter damage; the best you could do is probably an emissive armor effect where it reduces all damage by a fixed amount (though maybe a leaky shield setup would be better?) SE5 should let you do this, however, as you can restrict components based on other components on a design, and I think you can reduce damage - ask Captain Kwok how he gets the crystalline hulls to reduce beam damage by 5% in Balance Mod!
Any techs I missed?

[Raapys]

You missed the deflector shield thingy, which was a rather nifty component, if not terribly useful.

There are some things missing from Space Empire's combat system that would be really great. Area effects for instance.

[GeorgiaBoy]

Hi Ed,

I have seen you quite a bit on the forums and thank you for your insights. Looking at your posts in the past (and you bet I looked at your Antares alpha mod), you are a bigger fan of MOO than even I am.

As for the techs, the Death Ray is a tough one for me, although I thought I saw Bearclaw had one in his DN Mod as an Ancient Unique Tech. The Quantum Detonator, Patticle Beam, Interphased Drive and Xentronium Armor are all reletively easy to duplicate. The Damper Field I would like to ask for CK's input on, I think. What about the Spacial Compressor?

A little off topic, but I also have roots in Cincinnati (namely friends/family in NKY). What is your favorite chili?

Lastly, I have been working on a quadrant mod (about 70% done) which converts each system into a sector, with 3-12 systems per sector (the planets are stacked one on top of another like BotF). Specials are edited in via the map editor .

GB

[Ed Kolis]

Ah yes, the Antares mod... hehe, the one that never got anywhere, the one that got attempted several times for both SE4 and SE5...

Hmm, spatial compressor... I forgot about that one... that's the one that damages all ships within 2 squares, right? Don't think you could really emulate that in either SE4 or SE5 (no AoE weapons), but you could always make it a point defense weapon which targets ships instead of seekers (though I think that doesn't quite work properly in SE4 - it refuses to fire in tactical combat or something)...

Chili? Well, I'm a vegetarian so I like bean chili

Hmm, a quadrant mod which turns systems into sectors? So you basically have in each SE4 system a bunch of stars, and in each sector with a star you have planets just like the moons are done in stock SE4? Sounds interesting, especially with the promise of super-huge systems that are possible in SE5! (Just don't forget to remove the star-destroyer weapons, or else you will blow up a whole BUNCH of stars at once! )

[GeorgiaBoy]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the info. It looks like I just will have to match some of the techs as close as possible. As for SE V, I bought it when it first came out (I pre-ordered it) and have been waiting for the patches. Although there have been many upgrades with SE V vis a vis SE IV, I do not like the componant placement on ship design (too much micromanagement--I know if you do not like micromanagement, then why SE? I like a balance). Like many other posters on the forum, I am waiting patiently. As for my Zerg post, I would have thought there would have been an AI (building carrier ships with fighters using ramming tactics)...


GB

[GeorgiaBoy]

Ed Kolis said:

Hmm, a quadrant mod which turns systems into sectors? So you basically have in each SE4 system a bunch of stars, and in each sector with a star you have planets just like the moons are done in stock SE4? Sounds interesting, especially with the promise of super-huge systems that are possible in SE5! (Just don't forget to remove the star-destroyer weapons, or else you will blow up a whole BUNCH of stars at once! )

Do you think the community would have an interest in this for SE IV? I would credit Geoschmo for the inspiration... I would not mess with the stock tech tree at all, but besides the star destroyer weapons, propulsion would need to be tweaked (as mentioned before) as well as anything resource generation related (ala Broussard Collector).

GB