Travler

[Puke]

the Last time i tried to put a negative value in the comonents.txt, it crashed the game. i have not tried it in that perticular field, so it might be worth a shot.

[Jmenschenfresser]

Ah, frickin' hah!

Spent the Last 30 mins combining my idea with Geo's about the unstable WPs and I think I have the system working satisfatorily...

Findings:
-I think no events happen during the first 20 turns, no matter what. However, I have only the WP close event in the file, so others might happen before the 20 turn mark. Inconclusive.
-I am still not sure how often events can happen per turn. I think only once per game turn (not player turn), but I could be wrong.

I am running a test game now between two empires with a no warp point start. So far, I create WPs and in no longer than 2 turns are they closed. Some close as soon as you hit end turn of that empire.

I am building more openers and will report back once I see if the system can handle a mass of openings and still retain the same flavor.

If such a system were used, yes, your WP might stay open for a few turns depending on how many other WPs are out there, but it wouldn't indefinitely, so you would still have to carry your ships around in with a Jump ship. I actually like it better this way. Unpredictability in the system is few and far between in SE4.

[Jmenschenfresser]

Tested in same game:
-2 empires
-Each with 4 Jump ships
-Opened 8 WPs in one game turn.

Results by Empire:
Empire 1:
WP A - Soon as I close this turn.
WP B - 2
WP C - 4
WP D - 9 turns

Empire 2:
WP A - 1
WP B - 5
WP C - 13
WP D - 20+ It eventually closed but I lost count.

Think it will work? I think so, if you couple it with expensive jump ships. That you can't afford a horde of jump ships, and WPs won't be open en masse every turn. Perhaps in lulls, the system will catch up and close everything.

Unless you cart your fleets around with more than one jump ship, you can't open more than one per turn.

I won't say my test is an average, but even if it is close, if 5 or 6 are opened in one turn, they will all close in one year.

Dunno...maybe it's useful.

[Puke]

cool. what were the lines you used in settings and events.txt to make it happen?

[Jmenschenfresser]

Couple new findings:

Has to do with Simultaneous games.

Seems that stellar manipulation happens before events. When I opened two WPs at once...least half of the time, one of them closed the same turn, thus negating the possibility of someone using their WP whatsoever. However, I could not get the system to close one WP on the same turn when one only was created.

Odd

[Jmenschenfresser]

Let me see if I can get it all:

Events.txt
-Took out all other events except WP close.
-Added several dozen repetitions of this event(not sure if this helps, but hey...)
-Made some of there multiples have "medium", "high", and "catastrophic" tags. (again, not sure if this helps)

Racial Traits.txt
-Made an Unlucky trait, with the value set to a high positive number. Not sure it matters over 100, but I think I set it to 10,000,000 just to make sure.

SectType.txt
-Changed all Warp Point entries to have the following line.
Unusual := TRUE

SystemTypes.txt
-Changed all system types to have:
WP Stellar Abil Type := Unstable Warp Point

Settings.txt
-Changed the following lines to:
Event Percent Chance Low := 1000000
Event Percent Chance Medium := 1000000
Event Percent Chance High := 1000000

I think that is it.

I added two races in a small galaxy, no warp points, and view all systems. I gave each race the unlucky trait. Set events to high frequency and set the max type to catastrophic.

If you can't get this to work, I'll zip what I have and send it wherever you want.

Mensch

[geoschmo]

Two things regarding warp points closing in the same turn you open them.

One, if you give the order to open a warp point, and give your fleet orders to move to and click in the destination system your fleet will move through the warp point as soon as you open it. You don't have to wait for the next turn. Works even if you have never been to the system you are warping into.

Secondly, can't you give the event a time till completion of 1 so it will never close the same turn the event hits?

And just so I am clear, you say no points close before the first 20 turns?

EDIT: Also, does changing the Effect Amount have any effect? Can you get each event to close more than one warp point this way?

Good work.

Geoschmo

[ August 28, 2002, 00:52: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Jmenschenfresser]

The Effect Amount doesn't seem to matter on the close event. Least I can't see a difference.

Also, I don't think a timed event will much matter, because the timing is just until it happens...not the lenght of its existence.

Also, I can't seem to get the warp through you mention. In a simultaneous game I click create WP to a specific system, and then I click, move to, somewhere in that system. Next turn, whether the WP has closed or not, the ship didn't move into the other system. Dunno.

And no, I ran a bunch of games with WPs from the beginning, and none disappeared before 20. Most games they started disappearing on turn 21 or 22. So I think the first 20 turns are eventless.

Of course this doesn't matter in a game this mod is for. To build a frigate with an opener takes 19 turns. But that is with stock components.

[Jmenschenfresser]

Oh, and one other little side discovery:

The line in setting.txt for minimum resource production of each type.

You only get that as resource income if you have no facilities of that kind producing. I set it to 200,000 to fund the openers from the start, but I didn't realize I had to scrap all the min, org, and rad facilities to get that income.

Kinda stupid.

I wonder if there would be any uses for this...taking out all resource facilities and giving everyone a baseline of resources.

[Puke]

yeah, SJ uses it in the pirates and nomads mod. its sort of a wellfare stippend until you build or conquer a colony with resource production.

and you are not supposed to set up any colonies until you are darn sure they will more than off-set your free stippend.