New Mod: The Art of War Mod

[dumbluck]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
I also wanted experience to be more of a determining factor, because that's something I can't really control since it's hardcoded. But I weakened the training facilities so you have to earn the experience the hard way.

Geoschmo

I wish I had more time, I'd like to check out the beta. So when I make suggestions, keep in mind that it's kind of like the blind leading the blind. But anyway, have you looked at SJ's P&N for inspiration here? The way he handles it (numbers are rough estimates, I haven't used his training facilities for a while) is that level one goes up to 15%, with 3% gained per turn (maxed in 5 turns). Level 2 goes up to 20% but with only 2% gained per turn (maxxed in 10 turns). Level 3 goes up to 25%, with only 1% gained per turn (max in 25 turns!). So to get the higher % takes much more time. I thought that was a pretty cool idea. Maybe you could plagerize, or at least use it as inspiration? Or not, I don't know. Hell, maybe you already have!

[Phoenix-D]

"I haven't used his training facilities for a while) is that level one goes up to 15%, with 3% gained per turn (maxed in 5 turns). Level 2 goes up to 20% but with only 2% gained per turn (maxxed in 10 turns). Level 3 goes up to 25%, with only 1% gained per turn (max in 25 turns!). So to get the higher % takes much more time. I thought that was a pretty cool idea."

Or if you build all three it's maxed in 23 turns, total.

Phoenix-D

[dumbluck]

Hey, quick question: Do those facilities stack? If not, how does it choose which facility is "active"? (does it pick most increase per turn, or highest max?)

Edit: sorry for taking this thread OT. It won't happen again, I swear!!!

[ May 20, 2002, 08:09: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

[Phoenix-D]

even if they don't, just put them on nearby planets.. I haven't tested it.

[geoschmo]

I am not aware that these facilities stack. According to the description they do not. Phoenix appears to be saying they do however. There may be a bug. I haven't tested it.

P&N is a nice way to do it, however it wasn't what I was looking for. In AoW I made five levels of each instaed of three. In all five levels they rate of experience is 1% one per turn. The lower levels can only gain 6% percent max, the highest levels only 10%. I wanted to limit the amount of experience you cold accquire "artificaially" an make the ships earn it the hard way through combat.

One thing I did change to help in this area though is I made the Combat Neural Net a researchable component, instead of making you find ruins to get it.

Geoschmo

[Batman]

Hello,

A couple of things I thought about while reading this thread:

1) Change the ship construction costs so that smaller craft are much much cheaper compared to the larger. Also, give larger ships an inherent bonus to damage resistence. I've always been a little annoyed when I compare Se4 navies to modern navies. Take WW2 naval distributions: battleships took forever to build/repair, but were very tough to knock out (and even tougher to destroy outright). By comparision, destroyers etc were pumped out 'en masse'. In the game, maybe a single shipyard could construct more than one small ship per turn. Captial (Cruiser and up) ships should take a really really long time.

If the modifications suggested below to increase the late-game usefulness of the smaller hulls were included then Se4 fleets would start to resemble real life fleets, with a capital ship never being put to sea/space without attendent destroyers to use as scouts/screens.

(Sorry that rambled on a bit)

2) Ancient ruins. I think it would be interesting if ancient ruins not only supplied a new tech level, but perhaps opened access to an entire tech tree; imagine scientists finding a piece of technology that is initally useless, but allows access to whole new concepts/branches (Think of the broken arm and chip found in Terminator 2)

[capnq]

Ancient ruins. I think it would be interesting if ancient ruins not only supplied a new tech level, but perhaps opened access to an entire tech tree; imagine scientists finding a piece of technology that is initally useless, but allows access to whole new concepts/branches

This can already happen in SE IV on a small scale, when you find one or more of the normal techs rather than a Unique tech. (For example, in one of my games, I recently found Military Science on a Ruins world, which opens three other tech areas for research, but gives no immediate components.)