SE5 progress

[Baron Munchausen]

You still haven't corrected 'Ordinance' I see... The word for ammunition is 'Ordnance' without the 'i' in it. Both words are from the same root, but 'ordinance' is used to designate laws or customs (civil or religious) while 'ordnance' is used to designate military supplies.

Can the 'cost per level' entries take negative numbers so we can have decreasing costs as technology advances? Can tonnage also take negative numbers so size be reduced as tech levels advance?

And btw, just a sudden thought, could we have 'intermittent' beams as well as continuous? It would be cool if you could figure out how to make something 'pulsed' rather like the phasers in Star Trek II. Those had a really satisfyingly believable sense of 'particle beam' about them.

[Suicide Junkie]

Weapon Min Damage At Range := ...
...
Weapon Min Damage Modifier Formula := [%ListedAmount%] + (([%Level%]-1) * 0.5)

Would it not be simpler to just add:
[%range%]

And then use:
Weapon Min Damage := 15 - ([%range%]/2) + (([%level%]-1) * 0.5)
Produces:
15 @ range 0-1
14 @ range 2-3
13 @ range 4-5
...

Then you don't need to specify all the "damage at range"s.
If you want a step function you could have a round-to-integer function:

Weapon Min Damage := 15 - 5*round([%range%]/10) + (([%level%]-1) * 0.5)
Produces:
15 @ range 0 to 9
10 @ range 10 to 19
5 @ range 20 to 29


PS:
You will definitely want to only parse the formulae once each if possible.

Having a separate formula.txt with named equations to use with parameters given by the particular components could make this simpler.

Most stock components use very similar formulae, and reusing them would probably help.

[ June 14, 2004, 18:49: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Puke]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
And btw, just a sudden thought, could we have 'intermittent' beams as well as continuous? It would be cool if you could figure out how to make something 'pulsed' rather like the phasers in Star Trek II. Those had a really satisfyingly believable sense of 'particle beam' about them.

of course you can. you can either edit the beam graphics to make it look pulsed (just like now) or you can create a Version of the weapon that does less damage but fires faster. notice the reload time in turns is replaced by reload time in miliseconds, so you could have a 1/4 power beam that fires twice a second instead of a full power beam that fires every other second.

Can the 'cost per level' entries take negative numbers so we can have decreasing costs as technology advances? Can tonnage also take negative numbers so size be reduced as tech levels advance?

that would be cool, but it would have to be formulaic so that it could not reduce past a given number. should be exponential (as mentioned) so that cost could either raise or lower approaching but not passing some number.

[ June 14, 2004, 18:59: Message edited by: Puke ]

[dogscoff]

Supply Amount Used := 5
Ordinance Amount Used := 0

Supply and ammo counted seperately?
*dogscoff does an arcane little dance of glee.

Fantastic! Of course a little help with the resulting micromanagement would be nice...

[clark]

Maybe this will catch an eye... or two. (or not, then please, please, ignore me, but for the love of god, don't tell me, I don't think I can take it!)

Diplomacy. Nothing too fancy, just a bit more control.

Imagine a list of options for the type of "treaty". User defined treaties.

The list would contain check boxes that would allow, or limit what could and could not be done.

Standard treaties would assume that certain boxes are already checked... but, for instance, in the case of a Non-Agression Pact, you can't attack one another, but you could uncheck a box that would allow for free movement and colonuization within your systems. Violation would result in the cancellation of the treaty.

In the case of a Trade Treaty, you could uncheck boxes corresonding to Rad, Minerals, or Organics for the ones you do want to trade, or the ones you don't. Research and Intel treaties could be handled the same way. Military ones might be sharing information, but not Resupply bases, etc.

Assign point values (with refrence's to point scores of the players involved) to all of this and that way the AI can evaluate whether or not the trade or treaty is worthwhile.

One more thing (sorry if I have unleasehed the flood gates) Research (ever play spaceward ho! ?), it might be cool to have a "Random Tech" research option where the player can invest some research points into the development of a big advance in technology (kind of like finding a ruin where it gives you a special tech, or multiple techs at once). The catch is you never know when it will pay off...

[ June 14, 2004, 20:32: Message edited by: clark ]

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by clark:One more thing (sorry if I have unleasehed the flood gates) Research (ever play spaceward ho! ?), it might be cool to have a "Random Tech" research option where the player can invest some research points into the development of a big advance in technology (kind of like finding a ruin where it gives you a special tech, or multiple techs at once). The catch is you never know when it will pay off... [/QB]

That would be much more realistic a research system!

Come to think of it, perhaps there should be a field in a tech entry that says "Can Be Found In Ruins" (or perhaps "Ruins Value" where a single tech can count for multiple "normal ruins techs" on planets which would give multiple techs), so you can prevent the really powerful ones (like colony techs) from being found too easily?

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by Malfador Machinations:
Hi All,

No, I haven't forgotten about you guys! Its just that some questions came up in the Yahoo list and I thought I'd answer them. Since I'm finalizing the data file structure, seemed a good time to get some feedback on the layout from modders.

This looks great to me. It is very neat to see how you set this up. Thanks for posting it.

Edit, Looks like SJ suggested a simular idea to mine that looks better than mine.

[ June 14, 2004, 21:58: Message edited by: Atrocities ]