Unique Mod Idea: would you play it?

[dumbluck]

This sounds very, very interesting. I would definately want in on it. Oh, wait. Assuming I have the time, of coarse!

As to the ship tech question, In my opinion, the ships you currently have built would work, but any you have in your build queue would be lost, and you wouldn't be able to build more until the tech barometer rose above Battlecruiser again.

On second thought, that might be hard to implement. The only way I can see this working would be to have the techtree data file (or whatever it's called) changed along with the components.txt. (And the facilities.txt? Suddenly your research centers go from cranking out 913 research points to 100? Ouch! Shipyards construction rate crashes? Bigger ouch!!) But does anyone know what would happen when the tech tree changes and a tech you have researched no longer exists? Will the research level stay, but you can't use it's components/facilities; or will you have to research that tech level all over again when it comes back? Having to re-research would _SUCK_!

[Suicide Junkie]

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But does anyone know what would happen when the tech tree changes and a tech you have researched no longer exists?

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I would expect the savegame to fail to load.

I only plan to change the operation of the components& facilities, and, if possible, the research cost of the techs that are "too high-tech".

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Question, though: would there a circumstance arising where techs would become completely unavailable moving from a high-tech to a low-tech zone? I'm thinking specifically of ship construction, like if up to Battlecruisers are available, and I research and build Battelcruisers, and then suddenly only Destroyers are available, then what happens to my ships? Or is this a scenario that just wouldn't come up?

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No components/hulls/facilities can be removed. At worst, I'd have the maintenance cost of the superlarge ships go up. You'd have to get those ships mothballed until the tech rises again.
Perhaps something like 100% more maintenance for each step above the current tech limit.
In that case your battlecruiser would cost 4x normal maintenance.

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Will the research level stay, but you can't use it's components/facilities

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The research level will stay, and you CAN use the components & facilities. Weapons that are too high-tech will simply do zero damage, and the borderline objects will have reduced effectiveness in some way. Shields could be given a large negative regeneration ability as well as lower hitpoints. Engines per move on ships could increase.
The components will still be legal, and the same size, they just won't do much until the tech rises again.


Q: Would there be any point in considering PPB1 lower tech than PPB5? They'd still be very close, but there could be a situation where PPB 1 would work when the 5's dont.

[ 26 November 2001: Message edited by: suicide_junkie ]

[Mark Walton]

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Q: Would there be any point in considering PPB1 lower tech than PPB5? They'd still be very close, but there could be a situation where PPB 1 would work when the 5's dont.

[ 26 November 2001: Message edited by: suicide_junkie ][/QB]

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Depends partly on how many sets of files you want to have.
Personally I would have thought that if that type of tech no longer works, then it no longer works on any tech level.

[dogscoff]

LOL! What a great thread! I wish I'd started reading it earlier:

"And now for next week's physics report:
In the western part of the galaxy, we can expect the speed of light to remain constant, but there's a fast front moving slowly towards the East, so if you're planning any interstellar travel in that area, make sure you leave soon or you might arrive back home before you left. Remember that the ratio between mass and energy will also be affected, so if you're trying to lose weight, a trip to the east of the galaxy could prove beneficial.

The wavelengths of visible light will be fluctuating in northern regions this weekend, so make sure you have your sunblock on, and absolute zero is set to drop by about 30 degrees on Sunday, so watch out for any unusual meltings.

Finally, we're expecting a galaxy- wide alteration in the value of pi, so don't be surprised if your home planet or any other cirular objects suddenly change in size."

*dogscoff hides under his desk as people throw physics textbooks at him...

[Rollo]

dogscoff, ROTFLMAO

What a great idea. That would be a bLast to play .
I *think* it must be done under an older (1.41) Version of SE4, though. I changed something in the components.txt in a mod for testing purposes. After I did that I wanted to continue the game (sim move, btw) and I got a message that my data does not match the host (me) data, when the game was created. Seems to me that the "cheat prevent thingie" in 1.49 compares the data upon game creation, not the current data of the host.
Just wanted to let you know. Still a great idea .

Rollo

[geoschmo]

Ok, let me say that I think the idea in general is great. It could be very interesting to play.

It's also certainly feasable to do. There is no technical reason that we couldn't update your mod every week with whatever changes you want.

The only problem is the time factor. It's not "hard" to make changes to the PBW server, but it does take some time. Which we don't all have an abundance of.

What I would like to suggest, without being a wet blanket on the whole idea, is that you put the game on PBW to handle the turn receiving and distrobution, and set it to "No Automatic Turns", and then download and run the turn files off line on your own pc.

I can tell you from my own experience I ran a couple ver 1.35 games this way and it was not really difficult once I did a few turns and became comfortable with the process. And I also ran PBEM games the old fashioned way and PBW, even with processing the turns offline, is way easier.

You don't have to worry about lost files. If they don't get the game file they can just download it again. They get instant confirmation that there turn has been submitted. And you can have the turn timer will still send reminders if they are the getting close to the limit, or if they are one of the Last players to upload.

And this way you have no limit to the nubmer of changes to you mod. You could change it after every turn if you want.

And this even has one small advantage over regular PBW games. If someone submits the wrong turn or it gets garbled in transmission, the host will get an error and can notify the player and have them send a new turn.

And your friendly neigborhood PBW admin team doesn't get run so hard. (My favorite part. )

Geoschmo
PBW Admin Team