New Features You Would Like to See That Would Have to Be Hard Coded

[Crazy_Dog]

New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 (1.30):

In the creation of galaxy:

random size and type

New tech:

Stabilize planet core
Restore Star nucleus
Expand Warp (remove problems that damage ships)
Universal colony
MineFactory (to place in a ship and make mines)
FighterFactory
SatelliteFactory

New Keys

All the windows must have a key to each option
example strategic/tactical (S/T)

In the tactical combat

if you start with fighters outside carriers they are reported, otherwise not ->fix

In the Empire options, add the directives for ministers:

minimum nº troops p/planet (ships don't remove above that number, and the minister try to build up to it)
type of ship priority to build (attack / colony / etc)
mines in all waypoints
satellites in all waypoints
create defense stations

In the Ship designs menu add:

Info about the maintenance of the design
Ship / unit can be build by minister
Maximun number in service of this design (the minister don't build more)

In the ships/units menu add:

Ships of class xxx

upgrade to class yyy
mothball
unmothball
scrap

All Ships AI controled (on/off)

If units, units of class xxx scrap

In the planets menu add:
change all planets type xxx to type yyy

Change the Ship Construction minister :

Generic Ship
Colony Ship
Units


If you have the flag 'Automatically use Individual Ministers for newly built vehicles',
it must include the ships captured or that join you (race surrender / crew insurrection)

If a race surrender to you and have techs that you can't (cristal) you can't research it but
can build the itens that they have discovered (if surrender to you, they give you the blueprints)
Also, the blueprints of units/ships they have designed must be acessible (surrender disigns window)

Add the system's Minister

Manage the creation of system's wide facilities (like urban pacification center)
If exist duplications of SWF in a system, remove redundant.
If a planet in the system is rioting / angry, call / build troops or UPC.

The troops minister must have the capability to send troops to rioting planets

When you are asked about enter in combat, show info about your/enemy forces for better call.

If you have one (or more) colonies whitout pop, send the pop transporters to drop in that colonies.

Don't send mov orders to construction ships that are building, this generate desnecessary error windows.

In the construction queue, add a check if you try to build more units than the planet can get.
Also add the line 'up to max cargo avaiable' (like the one 'one turn worth').
The minister responsible to build units must have a check control before trying to build more units in
a planet than is possible.

If i send order to 10 ships to retrofit on a planet and in that turn only can retrofit 3 the others forget the order.

The retrofit rotine, must take in consideration that exist ships with cargo and add the
capability of removing it temporary (if exist avaiable space in the sector)

Add the capability of the Ships that can close warp points to only do it to
warps with possibility to damage ships (else is too dangerous to asign a minister).

If you put a fighter bay in a ship (you can put it in all), it only have use if the ship is
of design type carrier, otherwise the ministers igore it.

If i put a cargo bay in a carrier (to add more fighters), the minister start to load generic
cargo. Is possible to stop this ?

If i build a ship that have minelayer capability / large cargo / shipyard , is possible to
add a flag for that shipyard only build mines ?

If i build a ship that have satlayer capability / large cargo / shipyard , is possible to
add a flag for that shipyard only build satellites ?

Is possible to add 'netmouse / scrollmouse' support ?

In some games, the minister insist in building small / older models of weapons platforms (even obsolet ones).

Add the capability for the AI to build Starbases at warppoints.

[capnq]

mac, in a program as complex as SE4, there are probably a couple hundred possibilities that can cause a range error. Anything that's been modded at all has the potential to break something else that you'd never expect. If you can get the error to occur consistently in the same situation, try to get save games from before it happens, and send them in with a bug report.


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Cap'n Q

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 11 March 2001).]

[ColdSteel]

I'd like to see drones implemented as "stand off" fire and forget planetary weapons (think cruise missiles) that target planets in other systems. This would be a new research area branch.

The drone is designed using the ship designer, is built in a planet weapons facility and, once completed, is targeted and fired from the planet surface. Targeting is done using the "attack" command button. The planet has to be in an system you have a map to and the drone cannot pass through unexplored systems to reach the target. In other words, the entire target path must be known in order to use the weapon. Once fired the drone cannot be controlled or recalled as it makes it's preprogrammed attack run.

At low tech levels:

- The drone would only be able to travel several systems to the target (lower supplies).

- The weapon would damage random facilities on the planet.

- Only one type of warhead and few components are available.

- Movement speed per turn starts at 8 and increases with each tech level, making them harder to intercept and destroy on the way in.

At higher levels:

- Increases in the targeting range (more supplies).

- At higher levels you could pick the target facility on the target planet. At even higher levels you could even target the troops on the planet or the population.

- Also at higher levels you could fit in more components (like scanners, ecm, targeting computers, cloaking and the like).


Maybe a counter, mirror technology that uses another type of drone as an intercept defensive weapon (think patriot missiles) could also be developed.

I've seen a lot of ideas floated for how to do drones in SE4. To me this idea would add quite a bit of fun and strategy to the game as well as introduce another interesting tech branch to research. You could even add in so other defensive measures and tech against these such as planetary shields. You could also scramble fighters to intercept if one is coming in (unless it is cloaked).

Part of the beauty of this idea is that the drone would be essentially just another hull design type and could use a lot of the existing game components. This could make it pretty easy to do.

I'm interested in some other people's thoughts on this idea.

[Crazy_Dog]

I liked your drone concept.
Can put biological warheads on it for example......
If they have jammer /cloaking, you don't know the race that is attacking you....

[Suicide Junkie]

The best defence against those drones would be mines. A few at a warp point, and even cloaking devices are useless.

What about:

Normal ships have vastly larger control areas. Ie. 50% of the ship is livable space, life support, crew quarters, etc.
Even a master computer would take up a good fraction of the ship.

Drones, on the other hand, would have their 10KT computer core, so almost the entire thing is engines & weapons & shields.

Drones would be much more powerful weapons, but would not be able to change orders.

Thus, if you have a target you want to attack, you use drones, but for patrols & complicated actions, only regular ships will do.

The difference between drones and MC ships, would be that the drone follows a simple, linear series of commands (move, move, turn, fire, ram, endProgram), whereas the MC is vastly more complex, and can make decisions and change orders and do tactical combat.

A drone's weapons would be programmed to fire 5 Weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 10 seconds from launch, and continue firing forever at the nearest target.

If a ship intercepted a drone that was not at it's target, the drone would be destroyed without a battle, and the sender could be identified. "We intercepted a drone from the Xi empire. Its orders were to plague our home planet!"

What do you think?

[chewy027]

It would be great if there was no limit to the number of races per game. That way if you want, say 40, in a galaxy of 255 systems there won't be 3 or 4 huge empires but many smaller ones. This would add to the games diplomacy and make for a much more delicate balance of power. Not to mention the fact that all those custom races we download could play at one time. This is a feature that I think everyone would like to see, to at least have the option to have more races.

Chewy027

[capnq]

IMO, you'd have to capture a drone to figure out its exact orders. Scanning its components would give you clues, but you'd have to tap the computer core to find out which system it was on its way to.

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Cap'n Q