Modder brainstorming session

[Devnullicus]

Yeah, there's the rub, actually. There needs to be a hard limit of how much damage can be deflected. The restriction of One Per Vehicle would actually be appropriate for these. The higher the component level, the more damage it would be able to block, but you would only be able to have one per ship. Otherwise, you'd just be able to make a ship invincible.

[Suicide Junkie]

well, not really invincible.

If you had 500kT of ablative deflectors (1 shield, 1hp each), then:
-16 meson bLasters @ 30 damage reduces shields to 20.
-one meson bLaster cuts down shields, destroys 10 ablatives. Shields rise to 30.
-one meson bLaster cuts down shields
-one meson bLaster kills 30 ablativs, shield rises to 30.
-one meson bLaster cuts down shields.
-etc.

As long as that one bug has been fixed, so the damage getting through the shields must be greater than zero for the crystalline effect to work.


I would still suggest making the deflectors the size of normal shields, so you can add multiple gens, but you can't abuse the ability.
One-per-ship restrictions are good too.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 17 May 2001).]

quote:

---

Reduce the amount of population that can be carried in a cargo bay.

---

Is there a setting in settings.txt for that? I can't remember.

quote:

---

Advanced Stellar manipulation components Smaller, cheaper and maybe self repair. This could Allow individual warships the capability to open and close warp points etc..

---

B5 jump drive anybody Actually, for that kind of thing, I took the map editor, and added a "hyperspace" system. for big maps, I link nine or so systems into a square, and the small sector squares of hyperspace map directly to the systems squares on the galaxy map! Add fifty wormholes to connect all the systems to their respective locations in hyperspace, and you've got a B5 universe! Add black hole effects to hyperspace, make it a level 5 nebula, and you get ships drifting off course in hyperspace, getting lost and dying, and no combat allowed.

quote:

---

Add levels to existing tech to allow for miniturization of components.

---

I like it. I'll have to write a program to read the file, duplicate every component, and reduce the price of the copy while increasing the tech requirements. It'll work great!

quote:

---

Get aaron to allow towing of ships with tractor beams on the strategic map and tactical combat.....

---

Ohh! ohh!
Idea! set tractor beams to allow targetting of friendlies. you can then catapult capture ships into the enemy force, or yank a crippled ship out of the way of enemy fire! (just like the defiant was saved in one episode)

BUT, even better, make a friendly-targeting only weapon that does negative damage to shields only!. You can boost an allied ship's shields, at the expense of your own supplies.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 17 May 2001).]

[Marty Ward]

How about in addition to normal engines, tactical engines that give extra combat moves but less strategic moves and vice versa.

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

---

How about in addition to normal engines, tactical engines that give extra combat moves but less strategic moves and vice versa.

---

Use the afterburner ability! yes! and perhaps we could give an engine a "-1" afterburner, so it gives 2 movement in strategic, but gives a total of zero in tactical!

[Puke]

quote:

---

Originally posted by suicide_junkie:

How about in addition to normal engines, tactical engines that give extra combat moves but less strategic moves and vice versa.

---

Use the afterburner ability! yes! and perhaps we could give an engine a "-1" afterburner, so it gives 2 movement in strategic, but gives a total of zero in tactical!

wow, that would totally change the game. non-combat ships would be MUCH cheaper comparatively, as they would not need tac engines. so scouts and colony ships and transports would be able to be made for a much lower comparative price, but they would be dead in the water if intercepted. it would also mean that ships would have less capacity for weapons and such, unless the size of engines were reduced or capacity was increased

also, if tac engines and strategic engines both counted against the hull's engine limit, the limit would probably have to be raised. that means ships could either go for a balance, or have an incredible tac movement or an incredible strategic movement. this would be another big game changer, as people would build defensive interceptors to protect planets and long range high speed scouts to scout through systems.... Just like when we thought the U2 and later the SR71 were too high and fast to catch, but they got their clocks cleaned by super-sonic short-range mig interceptors!

I think this change is an excellent idea, and it would make things much harder to take, as local defenses would have higher powered ships than could be sent quickly over long distances.

ofcourse, if i remember, afterburners are a 1-component-per-ship-is-effective, and the ability may not even work on ships. just kicking some ideas about though.

[Nitram Draw]

You would definately have to make choices. Since the bonus moves on the standard engines require you to use all of the same type of engines the choices could get hard.
I think it will need a lot of tuning though or else we could have ships with 15 tactical moves or 25 strategic moves.
Now if MM would only expand on the AI ship building routine to allow specific types of ships to be built and add the Fleet composition file someone suggested we could have a really deadly AI!

[dogscoff]

Space is big,
Space is dark,
It's hard to find,
A place to park.

While the above statement is undeniably true,
The universe currently simulated by Space Empires is very small and crowded. Within a few dozen turns, most systems have been colonised and explored, and all the empires are sitting in each others' laps.

How about a mod which creates a more "empty" universe? A universe where meeting another empire does not mean you will be squabbling over one another's home systems within a year. I'm thinking more Alien than Star Wars, more Red Dwarf than Trek, more Dark Star than Bab5.

Here's an idea of how to go about it:

First, the map generator files would have to be modded to make colonisable planets/ systems rarer and farther apart. This would increase their value and force players to look beyond their home systems.
Huge maps with fewer empires would also help.

Now, make colony ships and components far bigger and more expensive. I'm thinking maybe 800-1000 kt, with a 700-900 kt colony component and harsh combat modifiers.

Cargo components for smaller ships should be of limited use, forcing players to use large ships for any serious cargo movment. Adjust supply usage/ storage so that long range travel is really expensive for large ships. Different engines for different ship sizes maybe. (This could fit in nicely with that combat/game movement suggestion a few Posts down.)

Setting up a new colony would now be a *major* investment (and hence a *major* risk)- especially in another system.

New colonies would also be much more vulnerable. This is good, after all it's a long way home. Facilities should take longer to build, so that a new colony does not establish itself and become independent of external defence/ support too quickly.
Each player might only have a few dozen colonies throughout the entire game.

The supply restrictions on bigger ships and cargo restrictions on smaller ones would limit the expansion of infrastructure, so
military domination would then revolve around the strategic placement of fleets, mines, sats, space stations and colonies rather than simply racing to develop the bigger production base and throw ships at the enemy.

Fleets of small ships would be able to roam from system to system and rule over frontier space. However they would be more or less powerless against the defences of established systems. Attacking an enemy system would be an enormous projct.


Remote mining would play a greater role, as would moons, storms and nebulae. Physical warfare would become the Last resort when diplomacy and intel fail, although having good defences around your home systems would be more important than ever.

Some of S_J's mods (ie hardened bulkheads, cheap/ quality mounts) would make good additions since they make ships more individual. Phoenix-D's primitives (still in development, I believe) would also be good here, since their isolation would give them more bargaining power and more effective defences.

It would make for a much slower and more deliberate game, since ships and planets would no longer be "throwaway" items. Combat would be rarer but when it happened it would be truly epic, with loads of allied empires in gigantic battles.

I don't know how the AI would cope with all this but it would be cool for human players - a whole new game with a whole new feel.

Thoughts?

------------------
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career ... oooh, it's all too much for me. "