Star Wars Mod - II (Sci-Fi Xover Mod)

[Erax]

OK, I just finished reading the Imperial tech list, here's my comments+suggestions.

I agree with almost all of your interpretations, what follows are the exceptions and not the rule...

- We could make Imperial shipyards decrease happiness in the entire system (they were described as a huge drain to the economy), but this has to be tested so we don't paralyze the Empire in the early game.

- Your Version of the Imp. Garrison sounds like something I'd want to build on many worlds, but I wouldn't really need that many spaceports. Why not make Imperial Urban Pac Centers planet-wide only (with an expensive-to-research system-wide Version later in the tech tree), give them a little cargo capacity and call them Imperial Garrisons ? We could build troops and keep them "in" the garrisons.

- Don't worry about building the DSII in six months, that was the Emperor's personal project and he had Vader to hurry it along too. We won't be able to simulate that in SE IV any time soon (Mega-Emergency Build ?). We could still give the Imperials bigger shipyards so they can crank out ISD's, maybe they might have to research Ship Yards and Large Scale Construction to get them.

- I'm designing the Beta-class assault shuttle and the Zero-G Stormtrooper right now, I'll post them when I'm done.

- Please, please give us the Star Wing gunboat and the Missile boat !

- I think the AT-PT was a Republic era weapon. The sequence for Imperial troops could be : Naval Troopers, Stormtroopers, Speederbikes, then (under the Walkers tech tree) AT-PTs, AT-STs, AT-ATs. I'll post my stats for troops and troop weapons & we can go on from there.

- Careful with the mines, they're a major part of standard SE IV game balance. Laser-satellite 'mines' would get lumped together in combat and become ineffective.

- I'd leave out the solar panels, reactors already fill this role. Besides, as you said, TIEs are supposed to be short range craft.

- Imperial boarding parties could be called "Stormtrooper Boarding Squads" and have a little cargo capacity so you could actually carry troop units "in" them (I'll work on the numbers for this & for regular cargo bays, will post them later too).

Hope it helps.

[Andrés]

Updated the doc

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Erax:
- We could make Imperial shipyards decrease happiness in the entire system (they were described as a huge drain to the economy), but this has to be tested so we don't paralyze the Empire in the early game.

Negative values of happiness on facilities do not work. And happiness modifiers do not stack: the highest one in the entire system is used for all planets in the system.

[Andrés]

Copied from abilities.txt
Planet - Change Population Happiness
Value1 = Percentage the happiness of this planet's population is improved each turn.
Value2 =

Change Population Happiness - System
Value1 = Percentage change in population happiness for entire system (+/- percentage) each turn.
Value2 =

Didn't check if it actually works this way but this suggests you can give a happiness penalty to the entire system but not to a single planet.

I was planning to give most of the Imperial happiness penalties by making them use a special happiness type.
But this could be a good choice to balance their best shipyards: build faster or stick with the regular ones to avoid making the population even angrier.

[Erax]

I was planning to give most of the Imperial happiness penalties by making them use a special happiness type.
But this could be a good choice to balance their best shipyards: build faster or stick with the regular ones to avoid making the population even angrier.

We have to check if negative system happiness actually works and, if it does, what happens when you build a facility that increases happiness in the same system.

Moving on a bit, I promised to post a lot of stuff, so here goes the Assault Shuttle and 0-G Stormtrooper for the Imperials :

Name := Assault Shuttle
Short Name := Assault Shuttle
Description := Beta-class assault shuttle
Code := AS
Primary Bitmap Name := transportsmall
Alternate Bitmap Name := transportsmall
Vehicle Type := Ship
Tonnage := 74
Cost Minerals := 74
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 0
Engines Per Move := 1
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Imperial Ship Construction
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := Combat To Hit Defense Plus
Ability 1 Descr := Small size makes ship 50% harder to hit in combat.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 50
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Requirement Must Have Bridge := True
Requirement Can Have Aux Con := False
Requirement Min Life Support := 1
Requirement Min Crew Quarters := 0
Requirement Uses Engines := True
Requirement Max Engines := 4
Requirement Pct Fighter Bays := 0
Requirement Pct Colony Mods := 0
Requirement Pct Cargo := 0

Name := Zero-G Stormtrooper
Short Name := Spacetrooper
Description :=
Code := 0-G
Primary Bitmap Name := troopInfantry
Alternate Bitmap Name := troopInfantry
Vehicle Type := Fighter
Tonnage := 2
Cost Minerals := 12
Cost Organics := 15
Cost Radioactives := 0
Engines Per Move := 8
Number of Tech Req := 2
Tech Area Req 1 := Imperial Ship Construction
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Tech Area Req 2 := Troops
Tech Level Req 2 := 3
Number of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := Combat To Hit Defense Plus
Ability 1 Descr := Small size makes spacetrooper 120% harder to hit in combat.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 120
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Requirement Must Have Bridge := False
Requirement Can Have Aux Con := False
Requirement Min Life Support := 0
Requirement Min Crew Quarters := 0
Requirement Uses Engines := True
Requirement Max Engines := 1
Requirement Pct Fighter Bays := 0
Requirement Pct Colony Mods := 0
Requirement Pct Cargo := 0
Launched from Ship := True
Launched from Planet := False

Neither is playtested yet... I have to see if the 120% defense bonus for the spacetrooper is excessive.

[Fyron]

Negative happiness modifiers on facilities DO NOT work. I have tested it already.

If you have 2 facilities that modify happiness, then the one with the highest bonus is applied, and the others are ignored. Even if the negative value worked, building 1 facility with even a 1% bonus would cancel it out.

[ October 05, 2002, 02:08: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[jimbob]

I was planning to give most of the Imperial happiness penalties by making them use a special happiness type.

I agree, probably the easiest way to give the Imperials unhappyness problems would be to give their race a large unhappiness modifier (as part of the cost of choosing "Imperial" in the racial traits screen), and then let 'em try to climb the ladder of public opinion.

This then is how I'd see it play out: they would have to expend a lot of efforts to improve the happiness level of their citizens. It will constrain their tech research early on, as they'll need to get troops right away, and then build enough to pacify their populations. Later with some nifty facilities they can actually make them moderately happy, and much later in the game, they might even be able to have a few extatic planets.

This may be a bit of a hobble in the early game, but many of the races are weak in the early game only to come out on top in the late game... this will just force the player to be ultra-political in the beginning (just like Palpatine come to think of it!) just to survive, but then he can settle his scores in the late game as he ascends to power.

just some thoughts,

[ October 05, 2002, 03:35: Message edited by: jimbob ]