Space Monsters!!!

Puke · #1 January 18th, 2002, 03:23 AM

without a planet, they go idle and dont fight. they will have a single cloaked planet (cloaking facility or starbase) and not be able to colonize beyond that.

Rollo, im up for it if you are. drop me an email (my address should be visible to the forum here) and we can get started on a preliminary draft of what we will be doing.

Egregius · #2 January 18th, 2002, 03:34 AM

Well since I was dieing for a monster-mod, I started building my own.

I took the only basis I could find: some components and shipsizes from the neomod. Excellent way of covering stuff, but I enhanced a lot of stuff.

The mod gives you 'space monster' as special ability, I made it number 7 as I gave borg borg-tech as racial too. 'Space monster' gives the holder space monster-tech, which starts at level 1 (which is currently also the max level).

Space monster tech gives 4 shipsizes: small, medium, large and gargantuan space monster, with various sizes (the big one is BIG). In the mod they indicated to special pictures, but I just used standard shipsizes to be compatible with TDM so I wouldnt get a range-check error. I also used the Cephalopeia shipset, but the Species 8472 set works brilliantly as well.

The special vehicle sizes have the special 100% maintenance reduction.

The components consists of organic-cost-only comps (all just one level techs):
Organic Armor - gives supplies per turn
Central Neural Complex - Acts as bridge, but I added 1000 defense turrets power and self-destruct power so space-monsters wont be boarded.
Internal Organs - Life support, added regenerative capabilities to this one, as first all components had it which we know is bugged if one type gets destroyed.
Connective Tissue - Crew Quarters
Organic Gravitational Core - Engine with big movement, only one allowed
Plasma Bolt, Lightning Ray, Enveloping Acid Globule - weapons
Reproductive Organs - Acts as spaceshipyard!
Senses - attack bonus and long range scanner
Chambers - Cargo
Planet Killer -

Supply Reservoirs - supply
Gravitational Warp Heart - Open and close warppoints
Harvester - Important ability: to harvest organics!

I loved these ideas from the author of the neomod. Had to tweak one another, but still. Made an AI that wont make treates, but will only get angrier (I hope).

What I still need is a speechfile with everything garbled (shouldnt be that hard), a way to make the AI not build anything except the monster vehicle sizes, so they dont build colony ships, and a way to make the AI use ONLY the monster tech, not anything else (thus any research they do should be moot). And to figure out how to get the ai to actively harvest organics from various places while spawning new vehicles from there.
And a way to get them to attack occasionally, but not all-out suicidal, with or without home-planet.

Maybe I'll make the space monster tech multi-levelled so they build up to bigger space-monsters as they progress (as long as they got their homeworld), and make their weapons evolve.

Oh and is there a way to add master computer capability to a component without confusing the AI (thus that the AI still uses internal organs and connective tissue).

[ 18 January 2002: Message edited by: Egregius ]

jimbob · #3 January 18th, 2002, 04:15 AM

Space monsters = Great!

Egregius, it would be good if the monster planet (pref. hidden) was capable of research. Then the monsters could get tougher and tougher as time goes on... a challenge even into the end game.
And to keep the monsters alive longer, give them very strong planet based shielding from the get-go... even if they are discovered, the most a player can do is intercept the enemy ships as they're manufactured... er, born.

For the resource gathering, I'd imagine that the monsters would also remote mine unoccupied planets and asteriod belts, but with very high efficiency. This would reduce the value of the planets as they went, which would make the game more challenging for human players... just imagine, giant space cows grazing the moons of Patueria IV!
[Edit] And the Great Vaccume-Elk Herd from the Jasperitis Nebula leaving random scatterings of explosive scat/poop (mines) throughout the Banffia system as they migrate to Kananasky XII [end Edit]

The mod(s) sound great, and I'm really looking forward to them,

Skol,
jimbob

[ 18 January 2002: Message edited by: jimbob ]

Fyron · #4 January 18th, 2002, 04:31 AM

Do you guys know how to make a cloaked planet? If not, then I can tell you.

geoschmo · #5 January 18th, 2002, 05:48 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Do you guys know how to make a cloaked planet? If not, then I can tell you.

You can put it in a nebulae with level 5 obscuring.

quote:
Originally posted by Egregius:What I still need is a speechfile with everything garbled (shouldnt be that hard),

Change the sppech file. Easy, as you said.

quote:
a way to make the AI not build anything except the monster vehicle sizes, so they dont build colony ships, and a way to make the AI use ONLY the monster tech, not anything else (thus any research they do should be moot).

This is also not too much of a problem. The colony ships part is easy. Simply remove any designs calling for colony components. The other stuff is nto as simple, but it can be done. You could do it through the ship designs as well, but it will take some trial and error to keep it from choosing standaard components in csome cases. You can also do the idea mentioned before where every non-monster has a special non-monster racial trait. That way the monsters wouldn't have any access to the non-monster components. That would be less trial and werror, but a lot more work, unless you use a patching program like SJ has.

quote:
And to figure out how to get the ai to actively harvest organics from various places while spawning new vehicles from there.
And a way to get them to attack occasionally, but not all-out suicidal, with or without home-planet.

These two I am not too sure about. I have heard that the AI won't do remote mining beacuse of a bug. Never tested it myself. Also the ai not doing anythign after there planets are destroyed may not have a solution outside of a patch.

Geoschmo

[ 18 January 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Suicide Junkie · #6 January 18th, 2002, 06:01 AM

quote:
And to keep the monsters alive longer, give them very strong planet based shielding from the get-go... even if they are discovered, the most a player can do is intercept the enemy ships as they're manufactured... er, born.

3 words: Null Space Projector

Egregius · #7 January 18th, 2002, 03:45 PM

"You can also do the idea mentioned before where every non-monster has a special non-monster racial trait. That way the monsters wouldn't have any access to the non-monster components. That would be less trial and werror, but a lot more work, unless you use a patching program like SJ has."

I'll stick to figuring out design creation =)

BTW can't you just add a cloaking device (level 4, so late game they can be found) to the homeworld, and put it in the standard space-monster tech and the standard homeworld construction?

[ 18 January 2002: Message edited by: Egregius ]