eXperience: the 5h X

[mac5732]

I read Capnq's post in history thread, Random factor is a hardcode change. So.. have to come up with something else, how about if it is possible to have a computer player be set to enter the game upon a specific game turn or after a specific event happens, etc, or would this to fall into the random factor? this would take something away from the idea but maybe its something to be looked at and worked off of. Something like AI player X enters on game turn 500 or player x enters after 70% of planets or certqain types of planets are populated??????

just some ideas mac

just some ideas mac

[mac5732]

Ship size would be possible I would think under current system. We alread have a base-ship, which in non-modded original Version the Ai never uses. How about if we just upgrade the current basehip to where that particular AI player starts with it, lower the cost for building, maintenance, increase capacity, defense, etc. They could start with both DN's and Upgraded base ships, probably some of the other smaller types and ftrs as well, as for weapons, couldn't we take some of the current ones and increase their ranges, damage,

Basically, what I mean is, couldn't we just take what we have and modify, (ships, weapons, etc) for only that particular race? We could even give them new names etc, This would be the only race that would have these capabilities, therefore, we could still use current weapons, tech against them, but they would be bigger, stronger and do more damage when they hit or attack but not undefeatable.

If this is all possible, then they hardest part would be as to how this race would enter into the game. Random factors as long as it needs to be hard coded is out, therefore......??

just some ideas mac

[Spyder]

I thought we were talking about the evolution of the game to include the 5th X. I am specifically targetting Space Empires V ideas

The idea is to provide some extra spice to the game at the point where it seems to lag. In the case of SEIV, it lags when you reach MEE. So, MEE status is an event that can be used to trigger something that adds spice to a game that has begun to lag. In addition, the event needs variety or it can be defended against. For instance, in the Civil War Event, the player would know that inside the next xxx turns, half of his empire would secede, he could adjust production, storage, etc so that he would be able to choose an optimum set of planets to retain. If the player knew that Barbarian Hordes were imminent, he could stockpile partially built ships and release them when the Hordes landed. However, if he knew one of those were going to hit, but not when or which...then, it'd be much more difficult prepare for.

The idea is that its a random calamity that is potentially disasterous and that is targetted at the MEE Empire. This could actually save the PLAYER if one of the AI's got way ahead of him.

The Barbarian Hordes is a particularly good idea because: 1) It will eventually run out of ships and end the disaster...usually before wiping anyone out; 2) While it starts in the middle of the MEE Empire, it doesn't necessarily have to stay there; 3) It is not unsurpassable technologically and therefore can be beaten back.

The Civil War idea could be a bad idea unless you gave him a chance to prevent it from happening. Perhaps you could send a message to him saying "You have reached MEE status. Your Empire is in unrest. You must quell the unrest or suffer a Civil War." Quelling the unrest would require ships in every system....say a number equal to the number of colonized planets & mooons. You would have a time period to achieve this and if you failed, then you would lose half of the systems (you'd get to choose which ones you get to keep) that did not have the appropriate number of ships in orbit. If you DID achieve the goal, then you'd have to maintain this navy in each system you occupied, or go into a flux state where you have so many turns to cover the unrest.

[Phoenix-D]

If you're willing to do pre-game set up, there is a way to make "disasters", races entering via newly opened WPs, and such.

Take one race, create a new racial tech. Give this tech extremely overpowered, cheap components, and impenitrable cloaking. Give it a 1 MP engine.

Now, you set things up by creating the game and "idling" all the other empires while the dummy empire's ships are moved in position. What you need to do is decided when you want your "even" to occur; the event can be anything a standard empire can accomplish. Move the dummy ships that number of spaces away from the target, and give them orders.

Once everything is in place, nuke the dummy's colonies. The ships will contiue on their merry way and fire your events. This works best with exploding stars..

Phoenix-D

[jimbob]

Cool,

Spyder, it's good to see someone else has played Civ (the board game). The barbarian hordes idea is a great one, I'd love to see that happen as a MEE random event.
Is it possible to have "first place player has XX times more points than second place player" as a trigger for the release of the hordes? Is it possible to set up the hordes so that they only attack the first place player (regardless of who it ends up being?)

The civil war ideas are good. While a warning may be good to give the player a chance to get ships back to his home systems, I think that he/she should lose _all_ planets that they didn't get ships back to in time. It reminds me of the Babalonian seige of Jerusalem, which lifted suddenly because the army had to return home to quell rebellions. If memory serves, I don't think they got back in time either!

[ 30 November 2001: Message edited by: jimbob ]

[Phoenix-D]

"Is it possible to have "first place player has XX times more points than second place player" as a trigger for the release of the hordes? Is it possible to set up the hordes so that they only attack the first place player (regardless of who it ends up being?)"

no, and no. The civil war idea is also impossible.

Not without hard-code changes, that is.

Phoenix-D

[jimbob]

It seems to me that when empires get really big, and super powerful, they tend to crumble from within. The citizens get used to being top of the heap, and just start to assume they will be forever (Assyrians, Babalonians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, British...). The result is a growing decadence within the citizenry, and the whole system becomes less productive and far more wasteful.

i.e.
As a part of the 5th X, I'd love to see a realistic lazy-factor for the most powerful empire. When my empire hits a score of say 5x more than the 2nd place empire, I'd get a message that the citizenry would rather play game boy than work (productivity and build rate drops 5%, maint. increases 50%). When I hit say 10x more than the 2nd place empire, everyone would rather go to holo-vid theatres than work (prod./build rates drop 10%, maint. increases 100%)plus the citizens on my home world would rather not pay taxes anymore so they rebel, etc.

And _then_ the barbarian hordes/space pirates hit! Oh sure, I've got the ships to kick his one-eyed, peg-legged, parrot lovin' butt across the galaxy... except every time I pull ships away from my planets they revolt! Now it's a challenge