Primitive cultures

Nitram Draw · #1 May 3rd, 2001, 02:46 PM

Me? Glass poor defenseless people? What kind of despot do you think I am?

rdouglass · #2 May 3rd, 2001, 06:14 PM

I like it...especially if you consider it a 'Population Ruins' kinda' thing. It could give you the aditional atmosphere 'ability' at a low cost (when compared to 'non-primative' AI). ...a Cache of 'slave resources' if you like...

DISCLAIMER: As long as you can get the AI to use it also....

dogscoff · #3 May 3rd, 2001, 06:42 PM

Well, it would depend on the AI. Most computer players go for complete extermination, but some of them seem happy to accept surrenders. They do tend to attack homeworlds on first contact though, so I'm thinking a "primitive" AI would hope to encounter a human player before a computer one.

It would be interesting to see how people treated the primitives. For example if I encountered one in my space and I didn't need the population/ planet too badly I would probably get a treaty with them and let them live out their lives independently in the shelter of my empire. (assuming the win conditions allowed it). After all, they're not hurting anyone...

Sometimes I think I'm too nice to be an megalomaniacal interstellar dictator.

***Something else just occurred to me - Once the hard work of creating a "primitives" mod was done, creating primitive races would be easy - no shipsets, no ship design files... just a race portrait, an army graphic and some work on the diplomacy files.

I might have a go at this mod - S_J, do you mind if I use Pirates and Nomads as a template? I'm new to this modding lark

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so Brain, but how are we gonna teach a goat to dance with flippers on? "

rdouglass · #4 May 5th, 2001, 01:51 AM

quote:
Originally posted by dogscoff:
It would be interesting to see how people treated the primitives. For example if I encountered one in my space and I didn't need the population/ planet too badly I would probably get a treaty with them and let them live out their lives independently in the shelter of my empire. (assuming the win conditions allowed it). After all, they're not hurting anyone...

Yes, but wouldn't you at least subjugate (sp?) them to have them pay for all the peace and tranquility your empire has so graciously given them?

dogscoff · #5 May 4th, 2001, 02:03 PM

I was right. I _am_ too nice. The mineral / organic output from a primitive world would only be a few thousand at most - hardly sems worth the effort of subjugating them. I'd rather settle for that warm glowing feeling you get from obeying the prime directive=-)

I quite like the idea of their output being so low as well - you can see on the treay grid who's desperate for resources because they have a trade alliance with the pre-industrials.

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so Brain, but how are we gonna teach a goat to dance with flippers on? "

chewy027 · #6 May 4th, 2001, 04:18 PM

Having promitives would be cool and add more diversity to the universe. Maybe something like 5 primitives in a small map, 10 in a medium, etc. Hey the more races in a game the better. This would also add a new class to the game. You got your main empires then the neutrals and finally the primitives. If you could have racial traits carry over, then you could really make some of the primitive races worthwhile. Imagine a spacialized primitive race of commandoes or miners. That would be pretty cool.

Thoughts?

dogscoff · #7 May 4th, 2001, 04:49 PM

Exactly. Thanks Chewy. The only problem with having 5- 10 of them (which would be great) is that they take up an empire each, and I think you can only have around 20 per game max. Ideally you'd have 5-10 native races and *still* have room for all your favourite spacefaring empires=-) Until they are hard- coded I think we'll just have to put up with it.

As for the racial traits... I would *love* to have each species retain it's traits/ characteristics no matter which empire they work for - for example, if I take over a planet load of Phong, they suddenly become better at combat. Does that make sense?

If populations reatined their abilities, I would have to make a choice when colonising a methane intel compound, for example - methane breathers or the ones with +18% intel gathering? Or maybe a mixture of the two?

I would really like to see population handling developed in this game. Read the "expansion pack" thread (and numerous older threads) for my other ideas on this subject.

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so Brain, but how are we gonna teach a goat to dance with flippers on? "