Alpha Centauri Mod Discussion Thread

Taera · #1 July 15th, 2003, 03:00 AM

well, they do cost maintenance back in SMAC - and with -2 on support you do feel it

Chronon · #2 July 15th, 2003, 03:40 AM

That's a very interesting idea, Taera. I'm sure we could make it work just as you outlined (or using shields instead). If I remember correctly (is the correct acronym IIRC?), "Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournell had a system where the shields built up energy and if they were overloaded they collapsed, destroying the ship.

I wonder, though, do we really want to do it that way? I would like to use the AC theme as a general basis for the mod, but I would also like it to be a very fun Space Empires game as well. And one of the things that I don't find fun about SEIV is the all or nothing combat (two fleets enter, one fleet leaves almost entirely intact). I would much prefer to see something more evenly balanced. If you have a battle that's roughly equal (5 destroyers versus 5 destroyers) then the results should be pretty devastating on both sides (5 half-destroyed ships on each side, or 3 completely destroyed ships and 2 badly damaged ones). That's why I would prefer to have leaky shields and leaky armor, less potent training facilities (or none at all), and less potent ECM and Combat sensors (perhaps 1% or 2% per level instead of 10%). Of course, I am always willing to be persuaded otherwise...

PS. Another thing I don't like is mines (the AI can't deal with them, and human players easily overcome them), which I would like to eliminate entirely.

Taera · #3 July 15th, 2003, 06:57 AM

OK Chronon, i agree with you - its the theme thats important, not the game system. My bad, got confused for a moment

p.s here's a thought - how we gonna put abilities for units? i mean, ECM, Deep Radar, etc.

Hugh Manatee · #4 July 17th, 2003, 07:13 AM

Quote:

PS. Hugh, we haven't heard from you in a while. Are you still interested in doing the tech trees?

Yes. Just give me a little time to read some of the SE4 mod tutorials and such and finish a couple of other pet prodjects of mine and I'm all for it.

Fyron · #5 July 17th, 2003, 07:30 AM

Quote:

less potent ECM and Combat sensors (perhaps 1% or 2% per level instead of 10%).

1 or 2 percent is meaningless. All you are doing there is forcing a lot of pointless research on the players to get to something useful. 5% per level makes a difference in combat, but not a huge one. It is where the bonuses max out that is the bigger issue.

Hugh Manatee · #6 July 17th, 2003, 07:30 AM

I also have an Idea, to stay true to SMAC, I think we should make shields a highly advanced tech that comes along in late game. I think we should just have different kinds of armors and such that have different special abilities(like regenerating and partial regenerating shielding for "resonance" armor, ecm, that sort of thing)until then.

What do you think of having mindworms be troops, "spacelurks"(sealurks in space) be like battle cruisers , Ilse of the Deep be Carriers, and Locusts of Chiron be like drones(uncontrollable but deadly). Also we could make spore launches like satellites or weapons platforms and Fungal towers the same.

Chronon · #7 July 17th, 2003, 06:19 PM

Hugh: Great ideas! I agree that shields should be a more advanced tech, and I like your ideas about various special abilities on the armors and the abilities of the mindworms, etc. No problem about taking your time on the tech trees. I'm still working on the Verduran AI, and then I'll need to do a little re-texturing for the ships as well (Thanks again, Taera). So, it will probably be a couple of weeks before I can jump in to the AC Mod.

Fyron: I'm curious, how are you approaching the issue of combat sensors and ecm in the Adamant mod? I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to make the combat results less one-sided.

Taera: On the units, I'm pretty sure that we can mod things like ecm, soporific gas pods, etc, to be part of the regular tech tree, and make them "small." Just like shields and armor work in standard SEIV - there are ship-sized and unit-sized Versions.

On a related note, I was thinking some more about planet sizes, and I think we should make oxygen rock planets larger (perhaps double: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 facilities), give them all ice planet colonization at the beginning (they're just very cold rock planets - but I think the oxygen ones should be the same size as domed because it's very difficult to build a good-sized colony there) and not have gas giant colonization technology at all (I always thought this was a real stretch for humanoid life forms).

Since ALL of the factions will need an oxygen atmosphere (even the worms and Progenitors), this will create intense competition for oxygen rock worlds, with all the other rock and ice planets being domed, leaving the gas giants and asteroids for orbital facilities and resource extraction (using the space equivalent of crawlers - which should be much more useful than they are in SEIV). The larger size of the "homeworlds" will also make ground combat and weapons platforms much more important. I always thought it was unrealistic that one escort with a missle can wipe out an entire world (as it works in standard SEIV).

So, what do you think?

PS. I imagine we can create some new planet images (Capt. Kwok's Skool of Planet design, anyone?) to look more like Planet, with red land masses instead of green.

PPS. I also don't think we should have a stellar manipulation tech area. Destroying worlds, creating stars, etc., is way beyond AC technology. Solar panels could be part of the supply tree, and I think solar sails should be more of an emergency propulsion option for when the main engines are dead (they're really only good for in-system flight, and they're very, very slow).

[ July 17, 2003, 17:25: Message edited by: Chronon ]