Space Monsters!!!

Fyron · #1 January 17th, 2002, 01:03 AM

quote:
I also think to offset the talisman maybe pyshic or some other racial trait could have a really great ECM device.

That would not help against ships with talismans. A ship with a talisman on it always hits, regardless of the ECM of the target.

Captain Kwok · #2 January 17th, 2002, 02:52 AM

Dudes,

Although I think space monsters would be fun, and I don't think they'll ever be included in SE IV in any official capacity. Let's hope they'll pop in SE V though!

Puke · #3 January 17th, 2002, 02:57 AM

maybe not officially in se4, but they can be modded very effectively. maybe if you gave their hulls the emissive armor ability with a threshold of about 150 points of damage. you would have to take them out with capital ships, and they would be almost unstopable in the early game. maybe as they tech up, their newer hulls would have higher thresholds so you would need 900+ damage to hurt them late in the game. you would have to use dreadnaughts with WMGs or PSPs or the like.

Puke · #4 January 17th, 2002, 03:51 AM

okay okay okay. there are alot of ideas for space monster races out here. i think we should make a SPACE MONSTER MOD that puts them all together into a MONSTER MASH scenario. make 4 or 5 monster races using the ideas described here. one could be the big nasty organic monsters, another could be the super stealthy undetectable monsters, another could be the ones with psychic abilities and boarding parties and shield depleters all built in. yet another could be crystaline space monsters..

throw them all together into a scenario and put it on team mode. if they dont expand past their one homeworld, the monsters should not fight each other (angry values should not increase, as there would be no contested systems). your goal would be to survive and eradicate the space monsters. difficulty could be ramped up for multiplayer games by optionally giving the space monsters cultures with things like +200% traits to make them that much harder. of course they would have to be non-treaty making xenophobes.

Suicide Junkie · #5 January 17th, 2002, 07:24 AM

quote:
maybe if you gave their hulls the emissive armor ability with a threshold of about 150 points of damage

You would not require large capital ships with WMGs, but rather a stack of fighters.

50 Fighters with DUC I's can do 1000 damage per shot, as far as emissive armor sees it.

In one game, I was using Very Heavily shielded large fighters, that could destroy an AI baseship in three shots, and lose only one or two fighters.
(I had organic & religious, so 100% to-hit, plus lightning rays did almost 1200-1500 damage using only 30-40 fighters)

Puke · #6 January 17th, 2002, 10:43 AM

well, religious fighters are not exactly standard.. and even so, having a super stack of fighters would require about as much effort as having a dreadnaught, and its plauseable that a fighter swarm would overwhelm a space monster where as ships would not. i think the idea is still worthwhile wither or not it takes a dreadnaught or 50-100 large fighters.

besides, maybe one of the breeds of monsters would have massive PD abilities. any takers? im up for helping out on building the tech tree for the mod, but i cant script AI for a darn.

Gryphin · #7 January 18th, 2002, 02:55 AM

When I played the miniature Version of Star Fleet Battles monsters were always a pleasant unknown factor. In one senario It was Federation, Lyran, Ferengi, and a large unknown black moddle I made from scraps and stuff. It was at least twice the size of the largest crusier. During the inevitable slugfest between the Feds and the Lyrans, the Ferengi manged to tow it away. The "monster" was just a huge empty hulk whose value was less than that of fule spent dragging it. Even though the "moster" was harmless, it gnerated uncertainty and caution in the minds of otherwise overly bold players. In short, a monster that did nothing but patrol a system would be interesting and frustrating surprise.
Other types of monsters might be ones with nothing but Point Defence Cannons, or masive Shields and a few Capital Ship Missles. The goal would not be to create a dangerous or hard to kill ship, but rather an unknown element. this uncertainty in the minds of players would be compounded by the knowledge that is "Could" be a "Planet Killer".

[ 17 January 2002: Message edited by: Gryphin ]