Space Opera Mod WIP

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

As some of you might recall, some time ago I started work on a mod then named "The End of Galactic Civilization Mod", as I was then planning to make superweapons cheap enough that wars could easily devolve into conflicts of mutual annihilation if they were not carefully managed (the idea behind this being that you (and everybody else) was once a great and powerful civilization, and that now you must fight to survive, but you still posess some of the technology of your ancestors - hence the cheap planet and sun nukes).

I had stopped working on it some time ago, but recently resumed it. Even when I was working at it initially I built in more and more "grand-scale" stuff, which has now reverberated through for so long that it has now become the main focus of the mod. It's still very much a WIP; right now, it is absolutely impossible to play, but still I thought I'd see if there was any interest in it. I'm also planning to port over some ideas of the Capship Mod, most notably the fighter and troop combat systems though they'll both be reworked.

Basically, this mod has become a Space Opera Mod with the work title still being The End of Galactic Civilization (EOGC). It does not focus (or rather plan to focus, but I digress) on anything in particular, but a few of the planned features are;
--Most (if not all) ships have a specific role.
Don't think this means everybody'll know instantly what purpose your ship serves, but rather every ship has its strengths and weaknesses. Militia ships (which come in different sizes) are dirt cheap ships with excessive maintenance cost. They're supposed to represent cobbled-together last-ditch defense ships, to be scrapped after use. Solar Sail Ships (which also come in different sizes) are slow ships with little room for components but which have a very long range, making the excellent early (and possibly mid and late) game explorers. There are many such specialized hulls, including specialized warship and capital warship hulls.
--Capship Mod-style fighter combat.
For anyone not familiar with my plans for the fighter combat in Capship, basically, it's this: Fighters fall into three (four) categories, namely Interceptors, Space Superiority Fighters (SSFs) and Bombers. (In EOGC, I'm also looking to add civilian shuttles.) Interceptors are tiny, mass-produced nuisances, they're terribly fast but they can't carry much weaponry, their main use is to overwhelm enemy fighter defenses; SSFs are slower, heavier anti-fighter fighters, carrying excellent anti-fighter strike capability, and Bombers are the superheavy strike craft, the only fighters capable of carrying anti-ship and anti-capital ship weapons. They are very powerful attackers and can decimate a small strike group, so be sure to take a Carrier or two with SSFs along with you if you decide to attack; Bombers can be really nasty if left unchecked. Also, ship anti-fighter capabilities have been (will be) nerfed; to counter fighters, you either need a dedicated anti-fighter warship, or fighters of your own. Civilian shuttles will perform support roles, if possible; right now, I'm looking for them to repair ships and to mine Metals (i.e. Minerals) from asteroid pockets, but I'm going to see if I can add more.
--Resource overhaul.
Minerals are basically the same; metal ores used for construction. They're plentiful, and you'll need them. You'll need them more than you'll need any of the other two resources, but don't underestimate the other two; neglect them and you will pay the price. Rads are now Energy; some facilities consume a set amount of Energy per turn, and many ship components (weapons, engines) require lots of Energy. Organics are now Credits; they're scarce and valuable. Advanced stuff and large-scale construction projects will require Credits, and some facilities will require a set amount of Credits each turn. Don't think you'll be wading in ca$h; Credits really are rare stuff, and they're really really important, especially for large, advanced empires. I've also changed the way resources are gathered; right now, I'm planning to split Metals up into several types of mining facilities, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, I haven't got much planned for Energy but Credits have been re-worked entirely. You build Cities of various sizes which not only house experts in several fields (resource gathering bonuses), but also pay taxes. You can boost this by building four types of banks; Planetary and System-level Savings and Interest banks. Both store Credits and both give Credit bonuses, but the Savings bank will store more Credits and give smaller income bonuses while the Interest banks will store less Credits but give you great bonuses. It's wise to stack up on Credits in the early game, when you can get by rather well with smaller amounts of them; if you do so, you'll have a rather nice supply of Credits when you need them.
--Provide a more role-playing, Space Opera-like feel.
There isn't really one single example of this; but just for starters, right now I have various kinds of Engine Rooms (giving maint. bonuses and minor repair) which do have a certain roleplay element, and to name another thing I'm working on a large family of planetary repair facilities, each one larger, more expensive and requiring more Credits per turn in maintenance and wages. The largest one can repair 40 components per turn, but is very expensive and costs a walloping 5000 Credits per turn (you'll laugh now, but just wait until you have one of these on every major planet and you're struggling just to keep your Credit rating balanced so you can keep building stuff without having to scrap most of your repair yards!). I'm thinking of having it cost even more per turn, so it really becomes an investment and an asset. You really have to keep track of these, and they might be an element in roleplay or an AAR.
--Make ground combat a grueling ordeal.
Not that I want to discourage people from taking planets, just that I want ground combat to be a long-lasting, grueling ordeal, with many casualties on both sides. Now there's only 1 Ground Combat turn per battle/game turn, and troops will have far more resistance than attack power. Militia will be few but powerful, and you can well expect ground combat against a human player to last years, with reinforcements coming in from either side. Landing troops does NOT mean taking the planet, not even in the end. Be prepared to fight.

This mod is still very much WIP and I do not expect a playable release in some time, but I just wanted to put this up here.

Final Note: I do NOT expect this mod to be AI-friendly in ANY WAY. Humans only. (And other sentient races of course.)

[narf poit chez BOOM]

As far as I can tell, the only problem is long ground combats tend to encourage a 'Nuke them' mentality - Which doesn't seem to be what you're aiming for.

I know that I already consider stock ground combat long and boring. Not so much the actual combat but commiting a whole system to building a large transport full of troops, waiting for the troops to accumulate, then remembering to always pick up the troops.

I dunno why I never suggested this, but if there was a switch where enemy planets just surendered the moment your fleet blows away their defences...

[Fyron]

Only if you allow nuking to be feasible. See Carrier Battles Mod for an excellent ground combat system that makes nuking hard. Troops have hit points on a much increased scale, so it takes a long, long time to glass planets, eating a ton of supplies and maintenance.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

There'll be anti-planet weapons, but they'll be expensive and huge. Population will have high amounts of hitpoints, so you may have obliterated every troop, weapons platform and facility on the planet, but it's going to take you quite some time to kill every last inhabitant of the planet. Ground combat is difficult and grueling, but nuking 'em is expensive and very time-consuming. With a dedicated fleet you'll be able to pull it off, but it'll be one hell of an expense.

By the way, why the focus on the ground combat part?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

The rest of it looked solid. Guess I didn't make that clear.

[Puke]

how are you going to make energy consumption a fixed ammount? mod planettypes.txt to make all planets 100% on radioactives?

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

You mean the Point Generation ability doesn't work on facilities? Bugger.

[Suicide Junkie]

No, it does.
And negative values work fine.

The main problem is that it dosen't show up on the income/expenses tallies. Still works though.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

GFIGGIN#%*#(Q@$*@$&@^*%%..... How are people going to manage wide, far-flung empires when the facility negative income costs aren't tallied in the budget window?!? Has anyone talked to Aaron about this?

[Puke]

its been a problem forever, back when people were using negative maintenance income and related stuff. its not worth delaying 5 to tweak 4.