Add-On question

klausD · #1 June 4th, 2001, 04:02 PM

Hi folks,
As I said, I send an email to Aaron in which I asked 2 questions which are IMO important for SE4 future. Here are the questions and the answers of Aaron.

1) Add-On: a lot of people would like to pay for an Add-on (with some new features) etc. Do you intend to produce such an add-on, and if yes when?

2) Scenario editor? Does MM plan to bring out a scenario editor (to enable shorter scenarios which can be played by TCP/IP)? And if yes when?

MMs anwers:

1. Its still a possibility. Though its kind of iffy at this point.

2. TCP\IP is something that we're working on, but it may take some time.
For scenarios, you just need to use the Map editor to create a map, then
play to the point where the scenario would begin.

I hope the answers are helping a little bit.
bye
Klaus

Baron Munchausen · #2 June 4th, 2001, 05:42 PM

A 'map editor' is NOT a save game editor! And that's what is wanted when people say "scenario editor"... They want to be able to arbitrarily create and add ships, place them where they want, arbitrarily place facilities on each planet, etc. This is the only way to create a 'scenario'. Playing the game in the hopes that it will randomly fall into the state that you want is hopeless. Unfortunately, I think he's got too much to do with the game itself to worry about a savegame editor for quite a while yet.

Suicide Junkie · #3 June 4th, 2001, 06:25 PM

quote:
They want to be able to arbitrarily create and add ships, place them where they want, arbitrarily place facilities on each planet, etc. This is the only way to create a 'scenario'. Playing the game in the hopes that it will randomly fall into the state that you want is hopeless. Unfortunately, I think he's got too much to do with the game itself to worry about a savegame editor for quite a while yet.

I have to disagree with you there.

Use the Map Editor to create the universe you want. Easy enough.
Now, for ships/planets/races/stuff, you can use SE4.
1) Start a game with all the races you wish to have in it. Add one extra race with all of the racial tech trees available. Set all players to human control.
2) Build and send out colonizers to the planets you want in the scenario. Build the facilities and units you want. Research the techs to want each race to have, then allow your research to idle. Build the ships you want for each race, and use the extra race to add in "super ships", of any legal design, and gift them to the races you want to have them.
3) When all is ready, have the extra race scrap everything it owns and abandon its homeworld. The extra race will be destroyed, leaving only the races you want and the super ships they gained as gifts.
4) Play one more turn to clear the message logs, and have the races send each other Messages to explain the scanario's goals.
5) End turn then Save the game.

You now have a scenario!

Baron Munchausen · #4 June 4th, 2001, 06:30 PM

This is a terribly tedious way to get a situation. Not many people are going to have the patience to do this for a large game.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 04 June 2001).]

Nitram Draw · #5 June 4th, 2001, 06:36 PM

It definately would be much easier if you could place everything where you wanted it.
That way you could test and edit your scenario. Designing an interesting scenario in one pass is hard.

Baal · #6 June 4th, 2001, 10:56 PM

I started a game not with the specific goal to make a scenerio, but when one of the races had a rebellion I couldn't resist. I changed players and made some files for it so that has some background info, like story and such.

It's over in the mod section. It's called Cryslonite Twilight. You guys oughta check it out.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/For...ML/000020.html

Suicide Junkie · #7 June 4th, 2001, 11:27 PM

quote:
This is a terribly tedious way to get a situation. Not many people are going to have the patience to do this for a large game.

It's only slightly tedious the first time. With some intermediate saves, you can save a lot of time if you plan to use the same "universe", say for a series of Trek scenarios (borg invasion, neutral zone trouble etc.)

quote:
That way you could test and edit your scenario. Designing an interesting scenario in one pass is hard.

Editing the scenario is merely a question of loading up one of your intermediate saves, and giving new build orders. If the forces of some empire are too weak at one point, just give them orders to move, and have all others sit idle till the ships arrive. Save as a new scenario Version.
And everything is guaranteed to be legal.