The End of Galactic Civilization..... Mod!

[Kevin_Raven]

so kind of a cold war theme... intersting, has anyone ever tried making a mod like this before? It could be a lot of fun for roleplaying and those who like diplomacy/politics

[NullAshton]

Why not nuke your opponent before they can nuke you?

[Kevin_Raven]

you would have to mod some way of assuring mutually assured destruction... perhaps making star destroyers rather cheap and getting rid of system shield facilities. It would be interesting to have a greater emphasis on intelligence, too - could you disable offensive intelligence operations and have players focus more on actual info-gathering missions?

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Actually, I'm thinking about implementing leaky intel. I.E. Removing all defense projects, and having people run Intel sabotage projects whenever they suspect another empire is using intel on them. It's implemented in another mod too, though I can't remember which.

NA: Well, just take a look at the Cold War. And indeed, I'm going to make superweapons more affordable. Some are even capable of firing at other ships (like the Death Star's superlaser in EpVI), vaporizing smaller ships with a single shot. It might be a good tactic (and certainly a good roleplaying maneuver!) to build up rather large fleets of super-weapon-equipped ships spread out over many systems, and mothball them. Once the enemy knows you're doing that, he's more than likely to do the same thing. Arms race, anyone?

That way, especially if you remember to spread out the super-weapon ships over your entire empire, you've got a Cold War situation. As soon as the enemy launches even just one solar nuke at you, you can send in your own ones to blow up his systems, resulting in him sending his solar nukes etc. etc. etc. This way, a truly large-scale war will be a war of mutual annihilation. Sure, you can engage in small border conflicts between patrol gunboat groups whose courses intersect, but once the really big guns - i.e. the truly massive warships - arrive on the scene, it's bound to devolve into either a cold war-like arms race, or a massive war of solar nukes.

Oh, did I mention it will be a roleplaying mod?

[NullAshton]

Some stalemate-breakers might be nice. Cloaked 'nukes', speedy and well-armored planet killers...

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Uh-uh. Sure, I can add them (and I probably will, now that you mention it), but they won't be stalemate-breakers.

Say, you and your enemy have got a combined arsenal large enough to destroy the entire sector three times over. What then? You build fast, well-armored planetkillers instead of solar nukes. You send a few to the enemy. He then proceeds to build his own planetkillers, and builds a few more than you did. Then, you build even more planetkillers, which elicits a response from the enemy, which is building even more planetkillers etc. Repeat until you've got a combined planetkiller arsenal large enough to destroy the entire sector ten times over.

Wars are to be regulated. Certain rules must be drawn up at the start of a war, and both sides must agree. You can agree to fight only with your border patrols, or only with carrier strike groups.

Also, in PBW games, there could/should be a "game master" player, sitting in an isolated system in a corner of the map. He has a map of the entire sector (i.e. Ancient Race) - make sure you've got omnipresent view on - and he can regulate stuff like wars, treaties, aggressive expansion and so forth. All players answer to him, he's like a Galactic Council. Mostly, he just sits passively in his own little system, watching as Galactic events unfold, but when he sees fit he may intervene to give advice, steer a player away from certain actions, or even give direct orders to a player. Such a Game Master can start and end wars, regulate multilateral alliances, etc.

Oh, did I mention that it will be a roleplay mod?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Munchkining and role-playing in the same mod?

*Checks outside*

And not a single flying pig, either. Huh.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

"Munchkining"? Please, I know you want to explain what that is so deeply.....

Also, I'm changing resources. (Best way of putting it.)
Minerals are now Raw Materials.
Radioactives is now Energy.
And finally, Organics are now..... credits.
Raw Materials are necessary for pretty much anything, Energy is required for complex systems, reactors and such, and Credits..... well, that's a different story altogether.

Credits are Galactic currency. The only way to gain Credits is by building Cities (whose inhabitants pay taxes) and various forms of Banks.

At the moment, there are two types of bank:
-Interest Banks, with a very large bonus to Credit production and some Credit storage.
-Savings banks, with a smaller (but still large) bonus to Credit production and quite a lot more Credit storage.
There are also Vaults which only store Credits and do not provide any bonus. They store far more than both types of bank put together, but do not increase Credit income and therefore are not classified as Banks.

Credits are used to pay for certain things. Large, expensive projects require an ample amount of Credits. Mercenary ships (i.e. ships with a Mercenary Bridge) cost 5 kilocreds (5000 Credits) per turn. Credits can freely be exchanged between players in exchange for other items and resources, or with the Game Master for resources.

I'm going to work out exchange rates soon.

[NullAshton]

Why don't you use maintenence costs for the costs?

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I did that too. However, mercs need a base payment, thus covered by the 5 kilocred per turn cost.

There was this really good reason for changing the resources just like 15 minutes ago or so, but I forgot what it was.