Open-Ended Tech Levels?

[Eric Bamberg]

I don't know if this idea has been brought up before (for all I know it's a feature of practically every mod out there) but is it possible to have open-ended tech levels? For example, in the normal game there is a limited number of levels of cloaking (3?) with a slightly larger level of scanners. Would it be possible to create a set up where there is no maximum limit to the level of cloaking and scanners, where there could be a constant race between the two technologies? It seems that something like this could be interesting for cloaking, scanners, ship sizes, shield and weapon phasing levels, etc.

I've looked at the various text configuration files, but there doesn't seem to be any obvious way to do it. I suppose a similar effect could be achieved by manually adding in an incredibly large number of levels (I've seen the ultimate ship size mod -- very cool) but it would be nice if there was a way to just set up certain tech areas as being unlimited.

Or maybe my games just Last too long. One of the things I love about SEIV is how *big* it is, compared to other space 4X games. So many systems, planets, players, technologies, etc. I'd love to see a game that had infinite levels in all of those areas (subject to memory limitations). I suppose empires with thousands of planets would be impractical for multiplayer games, but they'd be fun for singleplayer ones.

Eric

[geoschmo]

Unfortunatly (or maybe fortunatly ) there is no way to leave a tech open ended as you suggest. What you said about adding additional levels of a component is the only way to do it. You would be only limited by the number of components that can fit in the compnents.txt file. Which is 64,000 compnents according to Malfador.

Geo

[Suicide Junkie]

The other way to approach it is to increase the research point cost of everything. Then, when/if your games Last longer than normal you'll still be plugging away at tech.

(I assume you are already using Research Cost set to High...)

Extending the shorter tech threads out to Level X instead of III or V would do wonders as well. At medium & high costs, the incremental cost of techs increases exponentially.

[Andrés]

At least in ship sizes I made a mod where they grow until they become too big to be practical.
You can't make it open ended, but it's possible to add say 50 more levels of cloaking.

[chewy027]

eric, what you just described (infinite tech levels) is something that i am working on in a game i am doing with a bunch of other people. Yes it is a 4X game and yes it is definitely *big*

[ 18 January 2002: Message edited by: chewy027 ]

[Andrés]

Actually I used a spreadsheet to make the ultimate vehicle size mod and then combined the values into a text file.
Something similar could be done with some components / facilities ect.

Yes this game is really huge but for some reason we want to make it much bigger!