Secret of the 89 Movement point BaseShip

Drake · #1 March 15th, 2001, 06:27 AM

quote:
Originally posted by AJC:
Self repairing was just a thought - if the limit is 1 EP component per ship it would make sense.

Argh, don't say that! My point was that it never makes sense to make it self repairing. Even if the limit was 1, if you had it self repair, what would be the point of calling it an emergency propulsion component in the first place? It would serve the same function as the solar sail, by allowing more movement each turn. The only difference would be that it wouldn't carry over into combat, and you'd have to go through the annoying process of manually activating it each turn.

(mini-rant on) Manual activation under your suggestion would reward people who put them on every ship, and took the time for each ship to use the component, which would be restored for the next turn. Basically you're encouraging micromanagement, which I consider to be A Bad Thing. I seriously think a good strategy game should reduce pointless micromanagement as much as possible. Otherwise instead of a strategy game, you have a micromanagement game. Much as I liked Stars!, that's the kind of game it turned out to be for me after a while. I found myself able to compete well on a strategic level, but had to resort to brutal MM to optimize things, or risk losing to ppl who were willing to put more time in. SEIV is a little better in that regard, but not by that much. The TG contest drove home that point to me when the ministers proved woefully inefficient for what I needed to do to optimize my score. I eventually caved in at one point and settled for a less efficient execution of my plan in order to save what was left of my sanity.

(mini-rant off)

Anyway, I think it would make more sense to have the component completely destroyed and made unrepairable without retrofitting at a SY, IMO. Then maybe people would only use it in an emergency.

Since I would be surprised if the change could be made without other potential problems being introduced, either a component limit should be introduced, use of the components causes damage to the ship because of the stress on the hull, or it should be an all-or-none thing. I'd prefer one of the first two, as the all-or-none solution gives the possibility of wasted components. If someone won't ever get the benefit from 4 (actual number may vary) EPs because they have to use all 4 at once and there is a max movement for the ship, don't let them put 4 on the design in the first place. Limit it to 1/2 the number of engines or to 1 or something.

Suicide Junkie · #2 March 16th, 2001, 07:32 PM

Probably the best way to fix it is to make repairs cost supplies.

Ie. to repair a Emerg. supply pod (2000) requires 2500 supply.
to repair a Emerg. movement pod requires 500 supply.
A good guide to how much repairs should cost would be say 10% of the resource cost of the part.
Then you wouldn't be able to retrofit and repair unlimited numbers of components. You would need to add a bunch of dedicated supply generation ships that make a few thousand supplies per turn in order to keep your repair ships running.

Just add another line in the components.txt
---------------------------------
Supplies to repair :=
---------------------------------

Thus, a repair ship must carry a lot of supplies (spare parts) and will quickly run out after repairing a few ships.

If you have a quantum reactor, then using emergency power for engines every turn is OK.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 16 March 2001).]

geoschmo · #3 March 16th, 2001, 08:21 PM

It's a good idea, but it will take more than just adding a line to the txt file. You have to rewrite the code in the exe file to look for the data on that line, and to change the function of the reapair bay. That will take some work for MM. Otherwise all you end up with is a line in the txt file that doesn't do anything.

Geo

Nitram Draw · #4 March 16th, 2001, 09:18 PM

You shouldn't need to do much. Just edit the repair bay component to use supplies. It should cause supply usage to occur when components are repaired, at least it looks this simple.

LintMan · #5 March 16th, 2001, 10:40 PM

Reading ColdSteel's message, I gotta comment:
Conquered Kingdoms! I _LOVED_ that game! If someone wrote a modern updated Version, I'd buy it immediately. <sigh> I really miss QQP.

I'm really curious, though: what was the double wizard fireball tactic? I played the game for a long time and never heard of it.

ColdSteel · #6 March 17th, 2001, 01:30 AM

LintMan, I really miss QQP too. They were a great wargame company. All their great games (except for The Perfect General) were programmed by Thurston Searfoss III. They were just ready to publish his "The Lost Admiral II" title when QQP folded. Boy i was bitter. He also did Conquered Kingdoms and The Grandest Fleet (another great one).

The "Double Wizard Fireball" tactic? Each wizard could either teleport up to (I think it was) 15 hexes OR cast a fireball spell every 5 turns or so. One or the other but not both, as you may remember. When they teleported they carried with them all the units that surrounded them in adjacent hexes. The trick was to have several wizards available. With 3 wizards available one wizard could teleport 2 other wizards plus some dragons, archers and other units up to 15 hexes. Then the second wizard could teleport the rest another 15 hexes. When they got to their final destination, the Last wizard could then use his fireball to roast the clustered enemy troops. This was particularly effective on the very first turn because the AI was still clustered and had not had time to spread out yet. What carnage that was. God, I wish someone would redo that game with modern graphics. Remember putting 2 archers on boats to take out dragons? That game was so much fun.. I do really miss it (wipes away a fond tear).

geoschmo · #7 March 17th, 2001, 03:05 AM

quote:
You shouldn't need to do much. Just edit the repair bay component to use supplies. It should cause supply usage to occur when components are repaired, at least it looks this simple.

Nitram, we are getting a little over my head here, I am by no means a programmer, but I think that that would not work because repair components do their work automatically. You dont' really tell it what to do or when to do it.

Now I believe you could add a supply usage value to the repair component, but I believe the effect would be a constant supply usage, whether or not you were actually repairing anything, but even that may not work.

Geo