FQM Stellar Object Ability Descriptions

[Fyron]

To my knowledge, it is not possible to mod hidden WPs. As soon as a ship is in range, the WP appears. You can make a WP cloak stuff in the sector like a storm, but there is hard-code in place that overrides anything else trying to cloak a WP (like a system scope sight obscuration ability).

In the data files, we have no control over how far apart the game will connect systems with WPs, or any way to tell it to make WPs that skip past a bunch of intermediate systems. The closest we can come would be a cluster type map. With a custom map generator hooking into the map compiler utility, it would be possible.

I don't currently have any more plans. If you have any suggestions or requests besides the WPs though...

[Tnarg]

Fyron said:
I don't currently have any more plans. If you have any suggestions or requests besides the WPs though...

Any way to give planets special abilities like:

Dangerous species running rampant on planet surface, planet suffers a 1M population per month loss. Treat it like a plague or something, just name it differently, and instead of medical facility bringing down the plague level(rampant dangerous species), call it a Galactic Dangerous Game Hunting Center or something that brings in tourists to hunt the critters keeping their population in check. Could maybe even give a slight bonus to organics. I think the facility would need to be modded in someone elses mod, I don't beleive you do that with your mod?

Would there be a way to also flavor planets to add some sort of ability description that plays off the radiation or gravity that is listed for a planet but does nothing. Example:

The immense gravity of this planet hinders all production by 20%.

Strong gamma, beta, x-ray (what ever kind messes with reproduction?) radiation on this planet will affect population growth by 50% do to many occupants becoming sterile.

A unique radiation found only on this planet has been known to increase fertiliy resulting in an explosive 10% population growth per year.

The low gravity of this planet is conducive to many research project resulting in a 15% research increase.

The temperature of this planet is considered an optimal range for vacationing species of your race. Planetary happiness is increased every year?

This water world is abundant with a species of highly reproductive fish that increases organic production by 20%.

A unique radioactive mineral found only on this planet is continually replenished due to the strong magnetic tides churning its core resulting in a 15% boost to radiative production.

Of course these types of planets would be rare but at least out there and either a boon or a bust to exploration and expansion.

[Tnarg]

Fyron, I don't know if this has been mentioned before but could tiny planets with out atmospheres be modeled to represent derilict ships with the ruins ability. A research colony could be established to get the tech and you could either abandon the ship (tiny-no atmosphere planet because you would only get one facility on it, it would be pretty much useless. Could set up a research facility I suppose for continuing research on the vessel.

So I guess in a nut shell a few random tiny planets that are modeled as derelict ships floating about the solar system as moons near a Gas Giant or in some of those asteroid belt systems that have a few tiny planets in them. Send a colony ship to the derelict ship (tiny planet, no atmosphere), set up a research colony to get the tech from the ruins ability. And there you have it derelict ships in the game. Would this work?

[MisterBenn]

Hello Fyron,

So I've put in some time with PR4 and I like it a lot! The planet textures and atmosphere colours are really helpful now in their current form!

I have no major feedback; it's been a stable release for me. I have noticed that some of the storm properties (now in groups of 4 properties per storm) have a tendency to saturate the System Properties list in the top left of the System Display. Do those storms / asteroids have to have System Wide properties or can they be sector properties only to get them out of that list? As it stands you get a block of 4 messages (for just one storm) and the others are not reported. It's a tiny bit inconsistent.

And a question: is the "Occlusion" property of asteroids / storms linked to the actual required sensor level? I don't recall and am away from my SE5 at the moment. Since only 1 in 10 asteroids help hide ships now, the others should have an Occlusion of None - and Occlusion could be "Slight" for required sensor level 1-5, "Medium" for 6-10, etc etc. It would help human players assess the terrain of a system with just single-clicks rather than getting up a set of sector reports one at a time.

Those are of course just minor points / ideas. I really do enjoy the FQM quadrants and consider the mod to be essential. After work today I will waste no time in getting a new Balance 1.11 + PR4 game underway!!!

[Fyron]

Glad you are enjoying the mod.

With the exception of Stars, all stellar objects have abilities with a sector scope. SE5 erroneously lists such sector abilities in the System abilities report, sometimes. This happens in stock too, IIRC. Note that Stars have some abilities that do affect the entire system. Erratic solar emissions and violent eruptions are much fun.

The Sight Obscuration ability is equivalent to Cloaking Device/Stealth Armor cloaking ability (presumably the only difference being that Sight Obscuration is always on, and Cloak Level can be de/activated). Note that Cloaking Device 9 has an ability value of 10. Thus, obscuring storms/asteroids with ability amount 10 are equivalent to CD 9. IIRC, equivalent levels of Tachyon Sensors beat Cloaking Devices. Tachyon Sensor 9 should be sufficient to detect hidden ships. If my memory fails, Tachyon Sensor 10 will definitely do the trick, since it has ability amount 11.

I'm not sure what would happen if I add multiple Sight Obscuration ability chances for storms/asteroids, with varying ability levels. Which would take precedence, the lowest or the highest? Someone needs to test it. :shiftyeyes:

[MisterBenn]

Hi again,

So I had some trouble last night getting PR4 to work with Balance Mod 1.11. I was able to get Beta 11 installed OK, but at the point of adding the PR4 files I get a SE5 error during game creation, before even choosing races and the like. The error was reporting an inability to load a star glow image file of some kind, I don't recall right now. I tried reinstalling SE5 without further success.

Here was my sequence of events.

1) Install SE5 into clean directory
2) Add 1.58 Official Patch
3) Install Balance Mod 1.11 (into "Gametypes\Balance Mod 1.10+" directory)
4) Installed the multimedia pack files Stellar2.rar and Effects3.rar to the SE5 Pictures directory.
5) Extract FQM5.00Beta11.rar, producing an "Gametypes\FQM" directory
6) Extract FQM5.00Beta12PR4.rar, producing an "Gametypes\FQM PR" directory
7) Move "FQM" files into Balance Mod 1.10+ directory.
8) Move "FQM PR" files into Balance Mod 1.10+ directory.

Even after point 7) I can create a game successfully making use of FQM Beta 11 on the Balance Mod 1.11 with the Multimedia pack files. Just the final upgrade to PR4 makes the problem arise. Is my order of events to patch to PR4 correct? I believe I'm doing the right thing and suspect that Balance Mod 1.11 and PR4 just need some convincing to be compatible in some way. Have I done anything wrong during installation? If you need the specific error I encountered I can retrieve it this evening.

And finally, are you closing in on a final build of Beta 12? I am planning a PBW game with friends in the coming week or two and would love to get a "Balance 1.11 + Latest FQM" mod uploaded so we can make use of it, with your permission.

(Edit: Added the multimedia pack install step above)

[Fyron]

You don't want to copy the Beta 11 files in before the Beta 12PR4 files. I'm not sure if that's the issue, but it probably doesn't help.