"Unit construction only" Space Yards

geoschmo · #1 February 2nd, 2002, 06:15 AM

quote:
Originally posted by PvK:

Yes, although this would also prevent building bases in deep space, unless bases were able to move, or a different base-constructing shipyard component were added.

PvK

True. I think the original idea that I was basing this on was not to change the exsisting space yard component, but to be able to add construction ability to specialized "unit only" components, without allowing the construction of ships. So this would still allow you to get your deep space bases.

dmm · #2 February 5th, 2002, 07:00 PM

There is already a "unit construction only" facility. It is called a planet.

Sarcasm aside, though, this means that there is a flag somewhere in the code for "unit construction only." MM just needs to make it available to modders. But as you point out, the AI would need serious reworking to make proper use of this, which is probably why it has not been made available.

geoschmo · #3 February 5th, 2002, 07:13 PM

That thought did occur to me as well. As alwyas though I am simply trying to find ways of doing things without having to wait for/hope for a code change.

capnq · #4 February 5th, 2002, 08:09 PM

quote:
There is already a "unit construction only" facility. It is called a planet.
Sarcasm aside, though, this means that there is a flag somewhere in the code for "unit construction only."

No, it doesn't. It means there's a "can build ships" flag associated with the shipyard facilities and components. Planets can build facilities as well as units.

dmm · #5 February 5th, 2002, 09:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by capnq:
No, it doesn't. It means there's a "can build ships" flag associated with the shipyard facilities and components. Planets can build facilities as well as units.

Good point. So if the "can build ships" flag were accessible to modders, then they could make a kind of "unityard" that could build units but not ships. Even better would be if there were a "can build units" flag also, which would allow modders to require planets to build a "unityard" facility before building units. And modders could restrict shipyards to ships only. And modders could then add in a research area for a "general purpose yard" that could build both ships and units. But all of this would confuse the AI, big time!

rdouglass · #6 February 5th, 2002, 11:02 PM

As long as you don't get rid of the ability to put a base out in 'deep space', it sounds like a good feature - more detail and strategy is good IMO. But like I say, let's be able to build a base and ships anywhere. One of my favorite tactics is to build a base of operations deep in enemy territory hidden by a sensor-obscuring storm...

Baron Munchausen · #7 February 5th, 2002, 11:22 PM

I find it strange that a planet can build drones, which are physically larger than Escorts, but cannot build an Escort without a shipyard. How about a new setting for shipyards -- max vehicle size. Planetary abilities would be set by defaults in settings.txt of course, and then you could have 'small ship yards' that can build anything up to 50 tons for small units (troops and fighters), up to 150 or 200 tons for satellites and drones, and then actually have MORE levels of full-scale shipyards with increasing max tonnage ability for major ship construction.

A nice side effect of this would be that planets could build small ships, escorts and frigates, so you could do things like build scouts or errand-runner type ships (medical bay?

) without tying up your main shipyards. Actually, in my modded config the escort is 200 kt so you could have planets able to build only units by setting the default planet max build size to less than that. This could open the way to a new racial ability, too. Increased shipyard capacity that would let you build larger ships than the default for your shipyard type.

[ 05 February 2002: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]