Proportions Version 2.4 released

[Pax]

Originally posted by PvK:
That's an interesting idea. Seems like you should be able to mod it if you give the atmospheric converter facility the same family as some other facility that gets built early on. Following several other facilities in Proportions, it could be a combination facility, such as Resupply Depot with Atmospheric Converter, or something. If it shares a family number with a common facility, and has a higher Roman numeral than others, the AI should upgrade to it once it gets the tech. The problem there, however, is it won't be smart enough to realize that it does not need the component, so it will upgrade to them even on correct-atmosphere planets.

Another idea is like what you suggest, but combined with a racial tech area so that only the AI can use them, and then yes, give them a high time period before they take effect.

It could probably be advantageous for the AI, but I also wonder at the idea of having all AI converting all their colonies' atmospheres... hmm.

PvK

For a combination facility, what about a "Terraformer Complex" thatc ombines Climate improvement, Value improvement,a nd Atmosphere conVersion all at once? Possibly generate a small amount of research too, such a facility would probably be heavy on the eggheads. 8)

I don't know why you're worried about AIs converting all their atmospheres. I know, given the chance and resources and time, as a human I would do so ... no hesitation! Getting a 400% increase in local facilities ... worth it, IMO.

Mind in proportions, it might be less of an issue. But still; if humans would convert atmospheres left and right, why not the AI, too?

[PvK]

Originally posted by Pax:
...
I don't know why you're worried about AIs converting all their atmospheres. I know, given the chance and resources and time, as a human I would do so ... no hesitation! Getting a 400% increase in local facilities ... worth it, IMO.

Mind in proportions, it might be less of an issue. But still; if humans would convert atmospheres left and right, why not the AI, too?

No argument that it could be effective and that the AI should be allowed to use a technique that humans can.

As I expect you realize, it could also be good to balance the AI against humans, because a weakness of the AI is its lack of skill at matching colonists to atmospheres. It can also be harder to do in Proportions because it is so much more difficult to actually transplant an entire population.

In Proportions, I think this would be a powerful technique (as it is in the standard game), both because of the added facility slots, and because of the huge increase in planetary capacity on non-domed colonies in Proportions. Non-domed colonies can be made into major fortresses and staging areas in Proportions, given enough time, resources, and/or transports. The economic effects will be relatively less than in the standard game, because each planet only has one queue tied heavily to population, but it could still be important in the long term.

What I'm hmm-ing about is that I think I should double-check the research, deployment, and effect times and costs in Proportions. I think it makes sense as a long-term, high-tech, fairly expensive project. I just want to make sure the time and costs are significant enough to make it a strategic decision rather than something easy and powerful enough that anyone who doesn't do it as a high priority will be at a major disadvantage.

I think it would be most interesting if there were usually a long period in the early game where this is not ubiquitous, because if it is fairly easy to do, then other interesting game elements will lose importance and interest, such as the added value of naturally-own-atmosphere worlds, and the value of obtaining alien colonists native to other atmosphere types, and the possible decision to build cargo facilities on domed colonies to provide more deployment space for defenses.

It may very well actually be fine as is, but I'll want to test and consider.

PvK

[Puke]

out of curiosity, why are rock/ice/gas colony centers seperate tech areas? they dont do anything unique, as far as i can tell. why not just leave them as one type?

and, is there any plans on including space-yard expansions into future Versions of the mod? perhaps adding spaceyard abilities to higher level cities. maybe they could be part of the arcology, and the arcology could be upgraded to via a foundation facility.

Lastly, i presume i can use pieces of this mod in other mods, for my personal enjoyment. if i wanted to upload one of those mods to PBW for multiplayer support, and i credited PvK/Porportions for the parts i stole, would that be kosher? or do you want to keep the unique features in porportions exclusive to your mod?

[PvK]

The settlement and colonies are in different tech areas mainly because I wanted to use those graphics for them, and there were different graphics available, so they seemed appropriate. I also thought to maybe make them a little bit different (more mins on rock, more orgs on ice, more rads and almost no mins on gas), but I didn't make up my mind to do that yet.

Originally the cultural centers had shipyard abilities, which was interesting (and is the reason why there are colony world cultural centers even though they have identical stats now to the homeworld ones). However, the hard-coded limits against adding shipyard facilities to planets which already have them, seemed to outweigh the benefit. Also I enjoyed the effect of reducing build speeds for major items, as well as the requirement to pay some maintenance and so on for orbital shipyards.

However, I do think I may adjust shipyards a bit, but what I was thinking of was to add a number of intermediate levels and then reduce the base research cost, so the scale would be about the same, but research into it could pay off faster.

Adding shipyard/city combination facilities would make sense, but would be a bit of work and doesn't add all that much, since you can just build them separately.

As for making your own variants and playing them on PBW, please do. I only ask that you give an acknowledgement that you are borrowing elements from Proportions, and I hope you'll let me know how it goes.

People have already borrowed stuff from Proportions for Derek's mod, Babylon 5 mod, and the new quadrant types mod.

PvK

[Growltigga]

This sounds a completely stupid question (OK it is a stupid question) but what does the proportions mod do?

[mottlee]

Originally posted by Growltigga:
This sounds a completely stupid question (OK it is a stupid question) but what does the proportions mod do?

Cool Mod, it changes the rates that you 1 build 2 grow and move people IF you have not done it give it a go Dek's mod uses this also (others also) great mod I play it the most.

[Puke]

GT, you should try this mod if you have not already. there are many small changes, but to me the biggest one is this:

there are now several levels of 'city' type facilities. these take considerably longer to build than other facilities, and provide greater benefits to boot. a homeworld starts covered in cities, and is therefore very powerful. it makes colony development a longer and more involved process.

when i play it, i have the feeling that i am running a real colonial power with a central powerbase, rather than a vast distributed empire where every measly colony world is just as powerfull as my capitol.