Miniaturization Tech

[Lerchey]

There is another way to do it, which would be more work, but should be closer to what the original posted asked about...

Create a reasearch area of "miniaturization". You can either make it available to everyone, or make it based on having a certain level of physics/construction/whatever.

Make complete copies of the standard components for Miniaturization Level 1. They would have their normal requirements PLUS require one level of Miniaturization. If you have all of the requirements, you can use the smaller components.

One way to justify the duality (eg, a Meson BLaster III and a Reduced Size Meson BLaster III) would be to make the smaller ones more expensive to purchase.

Thus, (sorry, SE IV is on my work machine and I'm using my laptop, so I'm completely making up the numbers!), if a Meson BLaster III used 20KT of space, and cost 1K in minerals and 0.5K in radioactives, you could make the 1st level of miniaturization create a Mini Meson BLaster III that uses 15KT of space, but costs 1.5K in minerals and 0.75 in radioactives.

Of course, there would be Mini Meson BLasters I through X or whatever is normally available for that race type.

When you get a new level of Miniaturization, you'd have a whole second set of Micro components (of course, you'd need to create a set of prefixes for each level of miniaturization), and another set at Miniaturization III and so on.

I think that it could be a lot of fun, but it would also be a lot of editing.

Col. John

[Krsqk]

Be careful about making your components.txt file too big. I had problems keeping the game stable in my Basic Tech mod (still in progress) until I cut out several levels of research on several different components. I don't know what the limit was, and it may differ from system to system. Currently, my comp.txt is 660k; it was around 960k when it was giving me problems (and I wasn't even done with weapons yet). The standard comp.txt is 485k; doubling or tripling or quadrupling it may not work. Of course, your system might be able to handle it at 1.6 megs.

Just thought I'd make you aware of this. Hope it works, though; I'd like to have an even more infinite tech tree. ("More infinite"? How does that work?)

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"The Unpronounceable" Krsqk
Basic Tech Mod
--Basic Tech Mod v.75

[This message has been edited by Krsqk (edited 30 July 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Krsqk (edited 30 July 2001).]

[Lerchey]

Interesting. I wonder if the problem is really related to file size, or if it's caused by tripping over some max number of components.

Did you try asking Malfador about it?

Col. John

[Krsqk]

Well, now I'm not sure what it was. Maybe my system was unstable then. I tried copy/pasting the comp.txt file to double and then quadruple size, and no problems. IIRC, when I had the problem, ship animations were jerky, and the program didn't respond for some time, storing up my frantic keystrokes until it felt like moving. It could either have been a buggy component which got edited out in the process or a system on the fritz. A day or two later, my OS really did go nuts, forcing three reboots in 30 minutes. I love Bill Gates; it's just his programming staff that I hate.

Anyway, I may have been wrong in attributing it to cause and effect. Maybe it was just bad luck and effect.

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"The Unpronounceable" Krsqk
Basic Tech Mod
--Basic Tech Mod v.75