Space monsters

[thorfrog]

Is there any way to create space monsters in this game? Examples: giant space omeba, space dragon, Borg invasion, space hydra, ect. Like MOO2 and BOTF.

[geoschmo]

lol. This is a good idea atomannj!

Two ways you could do it. One would be as an event. You won't actually see the space monster attack, but you will get a log message at the beginning of your next turn...

"A hideous space monster attacked Ghedron V! 4 million colonists were eaten. The creature disappeared back into space and we were unable to follow it." or something like that.

Another way would be to treat it like a storm. You could actually make a picture of it then that would show up on the system display. Any ship entering that sector would receive damage or be destroyed depending on how you had it set up in the .txt file.

Onfortunetly neither way is going to allow for a creature that can move around and attack different places. Also there won't be any way to try and kill it in tactical. Although you could design a component that would allow you to destroy one if you went with the monster as a storm idea.

[rdouglass]

Check other older threads. It (space monsters) was supposed to be an included feature but was not implemented....

[Markavian]

Hey I jsut came up with an idea for a new component, maybe.

Its a storm generator, but it moves with the ship

The storm would have to be a sensor interfeering one, so unless you'd noticed the storm, you wouldn't notice it moving towards your homeworld. . .

Maybe you could have a 'monster' that was just a storm that moved from system to system.

Maybe you could have a 'monster' that made its own warp points, this would be great for earlier stages of the came with less tech, yuo could follow the monster around as it passed from system to system, (closing its path behind its self).


Which leads me to another idea.
Warp points which only stay open for 'x' number of turns when you open them. Ont he first turn its a strong WP, then it gets weaker, and weaker until it just disapears. . .

[eSnaffu]

A good idea. Perhaps this could be implemented by creating a 'Beast' race, with specific techs. and AI behavoirs, and only ships. (No planets or colonization tech.)
Advantages: You could include or not include that race depending on prefences, and it would closely coralate to the old space monsters from MOOII.
Disadvantage: I'm too new to even think about how this could really be done.

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eSnaffu

[thorfrog]

Hey I just heard back from Malfador. They told me that these features may be placed in a future patch. I heard back the same day. What a great company.

[Baron Munchausen]

Yes, space monsters were part of the original planned features for SE IV. It's just that the basic game has proven many times more difficult to program than expected. Those original plans were very ambitious! I hope they will implement space monsters at some time in the future.

It would be great to have a "ruins" world that is really a trap: You land and your colonists unleash a 'planet eater' like the Doomsday Machine in Star Trek! First thing is does is EAT the planet just colonized, of course. Then it goes around smashing planets into asteroids and digesting them. It should be baseship sized with unique techs that make it damn hard to destroy. 'Neutronium' armor should be immune to even shard cannons, for example.

There could also be a "guardian" type monster like the MOO Guardian of Orion to protect any 'artifact' ringworld or sphereworld so that whoever finds it can't colonize it immediately, for example. (Yeah, this needs the ability to have a ringworld or sphereworld as an 'artifact' in the game map... )

Lots of other 'random event' monsters are possible. They could be helpful in the same way that these and the Antareans were in MOO II. Even if you were "safely isolated" from other players and happily building up your empire you had better have some armed ships to deal with the occasional random attack. This helps 'level the playing field' and reduce the advantage of someone accidently getting put in a nicely isolated position while everyone else has to fight for space early on.

[Urendi Maleldil]

Heck; That way you could even add in space pirates.

[Suicide Junkie]

Then, you could have a 'robin hood' effect.

'Pirates have raided planet X, taking 10% of our mineral Stores!'

'One of our ships has apprehended some pirates with a surprising amound of minerals aboard. We have confiscated it for the empire'

The bigger empires lose more to pirates, which is then spread randomly to everybody.

[Possum]

S_J, hey cool idea!

One idea that occurred to me in a whimsical (i.e. heavily sedated) moment would take no changes to the game, just a house rule.

"Helvetians In Space" - One player would play the Space Swiss. The Swiss player would suffer the same limits as a Neutral, in that he could never leave his home system(s). In exchange, ALL human players would agree never to attack the Swiss player. The AI players would be the Swiss' own problem. This would allow the Swiss player to act as a broker, buying, selling, and trading any imaginable assets from resources to ships and/or technology.

But I like the Space Monsters idea better. Sigh, all those old Star Trek episodes, how would they translate to random events in SE4

"Your flagship has been given a new destination halfway across the flipping galaxy, because your first officer is in heat"

"Your flagship loses all movement for the turn and is detained in orbit around this planet, while the captain makes love to some sleazy green-skinned wench with pointy teeth"

And I cannot even *begin* to imagine how to translate "The Trouble with Tribbles"...