Requesting feedback on 'Expansion Pack'

[jimbob55]

If someone collated all this info into a comprehensive and detailed document with headers we'd have the design doc for SE5 .....

[Marty Ward]

Maybe MM can use all the things suggested in this forum to create SE4.5, a stepping stone to SE5

[CheshireKatt]

I'm baaaaaaack...

This time with thoughts on how Space Monsters could be implemented.

Have a file for storing monster designs (Monsters.txt?). This file would contain ship designs for monsters (hull tech#, # of components, component tech#'s, name, description), as well as several important features:

Ship-specific AI -- not all monsters act in the same way.

Monster Severity -- if the game determines a monster is supposed to show up, this lets it know which ones are meaner than others, to compare with how mean a monster it wants. Maybe it could pick more than one monster, so there's an entire fleet (wing?) of Space Dragons roaming around the galaxy being mean to people.

A flag to indicate that the monster can ONLY come from a planetary event (you reach a planet that has a Monster event on it and a severity event, and maybe a monster name on it -- it first looks for monsters with the specified NAME, and if it doesn't find one (or finds duplicates), consults the severity and takes the one closest to the severity listed on the planet. If there's a tie, or no severity is specified, it just makes a random pick. Planet monsters will NEVER leave orbit of the planet they're guarding.

(Can anyone tell I _REALLY_ want an Orion in my game, complete with massively powerful Guardian, and Ancient Artifacts where I can SPECIFY what Techs it has, and another list that it chooses 3-5 randomly from?)

A flag setting whether or not the monster is boardable -- it doesn't necessarily make sense to board and take control of a Space Amoeba, for example, but maybe the Guardian of Orion might be capturable?

Monsters would be a perfect place to have "special" techs, that leave stuff in battle hexes, hit multiple hexes, shove ships around, that kind of thing.

Then, it's easy to put in abilities for 'em:

Add new monster techs to the tech tree, easy enough (just don't let anyone get 'em as part of a normal research progression).

Add new graphics to the components dir for the monster components.

Add ship pictures to either Pictures\Races\Monsters, or just Pictures\Monsters for the monsters.

--Chesh really has too much time on his hands.

[CheshireKatt]

Idea on monster components (I just don't quit...)

Space Dragon

Dragon Breath (directfire torpedo weapon), picture of a dragon head, mouth open

Dragon Heart (component repair, shielding, other stuff) picture of a heart

Aetheric Wings (engines) picture of a wing

Dragon Scales (armor, regenerative), picture of overlapping scales

etc.

Just more thoughts. Plus, it'd look cool on the component screen if you scan a dragon.

Similar components could be done for other monster types (different organs for amoebas, crystalline bits and shard cannons for crystalline beasties, different kinds of space insects for conglomerate monsters), and so on.

Maybe I need to relax on this monster topic. <GRIN>

Anyone like / hate my ideas this far?

--Chesh

[DirectorTsaarx]

I like the idea of space monsters... especially if it includes technological beasties (aka "ghost ships" - interstellar Version of the Flying Dutchman, for instance).

[Suicide Junkie]

Hey, for a ghost ship, you should have it use only the most basic tech: DUCs, shield 1s, ion engines, armor 1, etc.
But, give it a "ghost hull" shipsize, that gets an inherent 1000% defence bonus, so everybody has a real tough time hitting it.
For missiles, put a PDC on it with zero reload and 1 range, called ghostly aura. Any missile or fighter will be killed instantly as soon as they approach.

The only way to kill this ship would be with a talisman, or to ram it and suffer damage.

[CheshireKatt]

NICE ghostship idea. I like!

Maybe make the REALLY dangerous ghost ship have boarding parties / allegiance subverters, so it can expand its fleet of the dead?

--Chesh

[Nitram Draw]

Give the ghost ship hull cloaking too! What if you captured one?

[CheshireKatt]

That's why we'd need a setting to specify which monsters are capturable and which aren't. You shouldn't be able to capture the ghost ship, just destroy it (which'd be tough, to say the least).

--Chesh

[jc173]

I kind of miss the Space Monster event from MOO. I especially like the ghost ship idea. I think that monsters definately need to have a setting for whether or not they can be boarded, doesn't make sense to try and board a giant amoeba.