Neutrals?

Ebonyknight · #1 November 29th, 2000, 03:04 PM

This will sound silly, but I have seen people talking about "neutral" races vs. AI races. What exactly are "neutral" races. Are these races where they are spacefaring races with no bonus/penalties (IE. Merchants vs. Xenophobes vs. berserkers, etc.) Or are these races in MOO2 that are "natives" that inhabit one world?

I haven't encountered the latter and I really haven't played around with the settings. I just let the computer pick the players.

Am I to assume that the the "neutral" ones are just stock AI races with no bonuses?

Taqwus · #2 November 29th, 2000, 04:29 PM

They're races that stick to their original system, and have all-average stats IIRC. You can expect them to (mildly) defend their system, but they generally don't explore.

Examples include the Nultoh Group, Zynarra Holdings, the Cluk-Ruks (sp?), and a few others.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

LintMan · #3 November 29th, 2000, 07:37 PM

I was just wondering myself - why bother having some races that don't go anywhere like that? In almost any decent-length game they are bound to be completely outpaced tech- and production-wise by the normally-playing races.

Are they just there to be conquered?

It might be pretty cool, though, if a neutral race started out with MUCH higher tech and a fully developed system, so that they wouldn't be pushovers.

Darwin · #4 November 29th, 2000, 07:46 PM

They could in SE2. It made the a real horror. You would be running about the galaxy with frigites and hop through a warppoint and it had 20-30 dreadnaughts on it.

Taqwus · #5 November 29th, 2000, 08:01 PM

Dreadnoughts? Hmmm.

If you sent over a dozen ships with boarding parties, and managed to escape with a DN or two, did they come after you? :-)

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

sapperland · #6 November 29th, 2000, 08:14 PM

Is there a way to have neutral races start out at a higher tech?

Jubala · #7 November 30th, 2000, 01:49 AM

Or at least give them huge research bonuses and ability to colonize all types of planets. Without that ability falling into a player hands when/if the neutral is conquered. Could be done like a special tech tree as someone suggested in another thread but then the neutrals would have to be edited to have that techtree. Or maybe give neutrals way high race bonus points and give them super bonuses in research and resource production that way. I'l have to fiddle around with the race files and see what can be done.

Baron Munchausen · #8 November 30th, 2000, 03:01 AM

You could invent a "racial advantage" that gives access to a special tech field. In this tech field is ONE item, a colonization module that has all three colonization types. Starting level of 1 would mean that races with this tech would start the game with it. Since it is a "racial" advantage, it will not be transfered to a conquering AI or player empire.

Unfortunately, you cannot make a race that breathes any atmosphere equally well (or rather, is indifferent to atmosphere) like the Silicoids of MOO. Too bad. That would be a cool racial advantage, to be able to treat any and all planets as breathable without having to build a converter and wait two years of game time. A race with this power would be immune to "conditions" too, and only have it's reproduction affected by happiness levels.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 30 November 2000).]