Would anyone be interested in more planet development?

[Spyder]

Personally, I LIKE lots of things to build & research. I didn't mind the tons of building & management in MOO2 & Civ. However, if there were a tool that would allow you to build a certain item on selected planets, all planets, etc, then this would be greatly simplified. But, overall, the more stuff, the better

I also thought that Civ's research tree, with each new discovery attributable to two or more previous discoveries, was much more fun than SEIV's research tree, and made your research strategy more difficult to plan out (and, of course, essentially, puzzle solving is what we're doing here...right?).

I also wish that their strategic combat system was a little less difficult to use...one thing that bugs me is having to click on the mini-map just to re-center the big map somewhere else...the ship's auto-pathing is poor also...

By the way...I am working on a complete research tree document and will publish it here when I'm done. It'll be in PowerPoint because I'm not an artist, I'm a computer geek Any artists out there can feel welcome to take the finished product and put it into some nice graphical form

Paul E. Mason
Senior VMS Systems Admistrator

[Tenryu]

Ealbright,

I do agree with your concerns and those of the others here regarding some limits. Isn't that true of everything?

In any case, not being a programmer myself nor having access to the mind of Aaron Hall, I have no idea how difficult it would be to code. I like to remember that in programming, like a magic show, you don't really have to do what your audience thinks you are doing. It just has to LOOK like you did it.

I can imagine, however, that this ability might be better implemented as a Vehicle only type.

For example:

Ability 1 type := Facility Space
Ability 1 Desc := BLAH-Blah-blah
Ability 1 Val 1 := { the facility family # goes here so that we can specify which facility family }
Ability 1 Val 2 := { the maximum number of facilities goes here }

I know there are a whole bunch of other issues, like most stuff, but, oh well, I am given to strange imaginings at times.


[This message has been edited by Tenryu (edited 08 February 2001).]

[dmm]

quote:

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Originally posted by Spyder:
Personally, I LIKE lots of things to build & research. I didn't mind the tons of building & management in MOO2 & Civ.

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I agree. I like micromanagement. I'd even like to be able to design cities like in SimCity! (SimSEIV? OK, that's extreme to the point of wierd, I know.) And I'd like to control space and land battles in fine detail.
BUUUUT, I also have to agree with the macro people here, that once your empire gets big the micro can get pretty tiresome. (Can anyone say "carpal tunnel syndrome?") That's where good AI ministers come in.

quote:

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Originally posted by Spyder:

However, if there were a tool that would allow you to build a certain item on selected planets, all planets, etc, then this would be greatly simplified. But, overall, the more stuff, the better

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Yes and yes.

quote:

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Originally posted by Spyder:

I also thought that Civ's research tree, with each new discovery attributable to two or more previous discoveries, was much more fun than SEIV's research tree, and made your research strategy more difficult to plan out ...

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Never played Civ, but played SMAC, which is similar. I disagree with Spyder here. I found the Civ/SMAC research "net" idea restrictive -- at least the way it was implemented. I was forced to research almost everything in order to get the stuff I really wanted. So trading of research wasn't worthwhile, because everyone had most of the same stuff. And it was the same every time.
What I wouldn't mind, and which I think would add some fun complexity, would be the choice to have the research lines either all independent (as they are now), or to have them be interdependent (like in Civ/SMAC). But for interdependent I would want two additional options. First, I'd want the interdependence to be different each time. Or, even better, different for each empire. (Oh man, that would rock! Just think how that would affect trading! And how about a special racial ability that can ignore research prereqs?!) Second, I'd want to be able to set the granularity, meaning that I could set the number of interconnections anywhere from few to many.

quote:

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Originally posted by Spyder:

By the way...I am working on a complete research tree document and will publish it here when I'm done.

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Nice. Looking forward to it.

[E. Albright]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tenryu:
I can imagine, however, that this ability might be better implemented as a Vehicle only type.

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...and then we could have orbital city Bases, as well as obscenely massive Baseships (where the name isn't a misnomer)...

[Taqwus]

I could see strip-mining facilities (harvest resources quickly at low cost, but also damages *both* value and conditions quickly, as well) being useful -- particularly for nomadic races ala the ID4 aliens.

Possibly, a planetary shield facility which protects friendly ships in that sector as well, although it would take a goodly bit of coding perhaps.

Maybe there should be a psychic facility which attacks the minds of attackers (giving significant attack penalties to 'em out of fear), perhaps with additional effects on invading ground troops (*large* attack penalties, possibly partial or even full conVersion upon arrival). Only works on that sector, 'natch.

Ship component idea: a battle technology analyzer, which may give a small RP boost if higher technology levels are observed.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Baron Munchausen]

Yes, there ought to be options to modify planets more extensiely and build more interesting things. If planet ENVIRONMENT was more than a single factor we could have more interesting techs related to terraforming. Rather than this vague "conditions" thing there ought to be GRAVITY, TEMPERATURE, and RADIATION. Then, you'd need seperate techs to deal with each of these. The current "Conditions Improvement" plants probably deal with temperature. Some mild penalties, maybe 10-20 percent production for incompatible gravity or radiation levels would make the other types of terraforming useful. It doesn't have to be some catastrophic difference. As high-tech spacefaring races the major players have the machinery necessary to survive in these environments, it's just expensive to use it and so the net return on a colony is reduced. We're talking about actually CHANGING the environment with the terraforming techs so the compensating machinery is not needed and the 'tax' on various activites is removed.

As for planet 'development', how about orbital elevators? The theory is that with strong enough materials you could build a 'tower' on the equator of a world that goes straight into orbit. Put a high-speed elevator in it and you've got direct access to near orbit without rockets or other messy propulsion systems. Then, you could build a continuous orbital structure around it -- a "ringworld" around a planet rather than around a star. In practical game terms this sounds like a great way to justify extending the facility space of a planet, and you could make a cool graphic of an orbital ring appear on the planet once it was built.

I'd also like to see some simpler additions, too, like an "Arcology" facility that boost the population capacity of a planet by a few hundred million. This could be very useful when a planet suddenly becomes 'unstable' and you have to evacuate the population before it breaks up.

[dmm]

quote:

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Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
If planet ENVIRONMENT was more than a single factor we could have more interesting techs related to terraforming. Rather than this vague "conditions" thing there ought to be GRAVITY, TEMPERATURE, and RADIATION. Then, you'd need seperate techs to deal with each of these.

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How about making the number of conditions something that is modable? So those who mainly want to fight wars on a grand strategic scale can keep things simple, but those who like the colonization aspect can make it as complex as they like. (What other conditions might people think of? How about atmospheric pressure, for instance?) Also, you could allow/disallow various forms of terraforming. Like, some people might think that changing gravity is going too far, but others wouldn't. And maybe you could allow some types of terraforming for some races but not for others.