Unique ruins techs

capnq · #1 June 11th, 2001, 08:33 PM

quote:
A good alternative may be a tech that enhances. Possibly one that boosts your existing cloak tech by 1 (then you could get to level 5 but not in 1 jump) or a 'conservation optimizer' that saves 20% on fuel and weapon consumption.

The "normal" ruins already do the former; they give you one level in 1-3 regular techs. If you don't have the tech, you get Level 1; otherwise, you get the next level of the tech.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

jc173 · #2 June 11th, 2001, 09:05 PM

I think I've seen some of the TDM races (I think it was EA?) have the massive shield depeleter as the primary weapon of choice for boarding ships. Granted this is a limited example and hard to confirm if it would be useful since the AI builds so few of them if any. The Darloks also seem to have space reserved for planetary shields on their colonies. Unfortunately from my experience with fighting the Rage, I've found that the massive planetary shields are useless against phased weapons.

rdouglass · #3 June 11th, 2001, 09:42 PM

quote:
Originally posted by capnq:
[BThe "normal" ruins already do the former; they give you one level in 1-3 regular techs. If you don't have the tech, you get Level 1; otherwise, you get the next level of the tech.[/b]

That wasn't quite what I meant. I didn't mean jumping your current level - I meant making a component available that would boost your current tech / components. For instance (using the Cloaking example), there is not a Cloak Level 5 device. If you found the ruin, you could put a Cloak Level 4 and the 'enhancing component' to get you to level 5. IOW, you could NOT get there by normal tech research, ONLY by getting the ruins. That's the way the MSD's and Planetary Shields are now....

Another ruin could possibly give you enhanced engines that use fewer supplies, etc.

DirectorTsaarx · #4 June 11th, 2001, 10:22 PM

I haven't noticed the AI using the massive engine-destroying weapon; of course, I haven't seen the AI using the "standard" engine destroying weapons either (one of the SE3 races used it quite a bit; THAT was a pain). Nor have I seen the AI use the weapon-destroying weapons.

As for shield depleters - I've seen one AI race actually use normal shield depleters; I don't know if they'd use the massive shield depleters or not. Personally, I don't use them very often because of the 30-turn reload time. I'm about to test the massive engine depleters, mainly because I finally found that tech for the first time; I've used the massive shield depleter in the past, but it was of limited use. I've NEVER bothered with the neural net component, and I've only built one or two of the planetary shield facilities.

Deathstalker · #5 June 11th, 2001, 10:26 PM

For the standard engine destroyers try the Pyrochette race (sp?) they use the engine destroyer as one of their main weapons combined with temporal weapons. Quite nasty.

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

PvK · #6 June 12th, 2001, 03:13 AM

Well, how about, for example, if the ruins gave a special tech which say, gave a basic low-level cloaking device that was slightly different from the existing one, and was also a prerequisite for level 5 cloak, in addition to level 4 cloak. In this way, the special tech would give a toy immediately, would not make physics and cloaking research obsolete, and would allow level 5 cloaking device, eventually.

PvK

quote:
Originally posted by rdouglass:
That wasn't quite what I meant. I didn't mean jumping your current level - I meant making a component available that would boost your current tech / components. For instance (using the Cloaking example), there is not a Cloak Level 5 device. If you found the ruin, you could put a Cloak Level 4 and the 'enhancing component' to get you to level 5. IOW, you could NOT get there by normal tech research, ONLY by getting the ruins. That's the way the MSD's and Planetary Shields are now....

Another ruin could possibly give you enhanced engines that use fewer supplies, etc.

Master Belisarius · #7 June 12th, 2001, 04:07 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Deathstalker:
For the standard engine destroyers try the Pyrochette race (sp?) they use the engine destroyer as one of their main weapons combined with temporal weapons. Quite nasty.

Yea Deathstalker... I have included the Engine Destroyer inside the Pyrochette ships. And was because I remembered my old races in SE3 with this cool weapon, and wanted to see it again in SE4!