Kwok's next Mod

[AgentZero]

Sounds like sweetness. If you need any component pictures done, I volunteer myself to do a few.

[MasterChiToes]

Suggestions:
1 have asteroids in the same sector add together for planet creators (small + tiny = medium, etc) [ugh, and the planet over planet flashes on my computer]
2 have atmospheric conversions at least partially randomize planetary conditions.
3 have two levels of colonizer research, level one only does the native atmospheric type, level two does domed.
4 split up value improvement plants into three categories, one for each resource.
5 consider having (higher level/long range) warp point creation only target another one of your warp capable ships, instead of the system... this would allow precise warp point placement and add some strategy to the pre-shielded-system game.
6 the last one would probably not be mod material... it would be nice to be able to lock a planet from population migrations... so I could freaking make/convert a sphere world to some other atmosphere (for a conquered species) without my own race spamming it with colonists.

[Thy_Reaper]

1. This would have to be done by MM, since stellar manip components are hard coded. Planet-over-planet also has to be fixed by MM by only drawing one of a given size of planets. (I wouldn't want only one object drawn - planets in asteroid fields look nice, IMO)
2. This can only be done by MM, also. Might be a really hacky way to do it during events, but I'm not sure.
3. Another thing that was hardcoded. One colonizer does it all. Can't mod that in.
5. Stellar Manip is all hard coded - can't change its destination like that.
6. Again, that can only be done by MM.

[MasterChiToes]

Thy_Reaper said:
1. This would have to be done by MM, since stellar manip components are hard coded. Planet-over-planet also has to be fixed by MM by only drawing one of a given size of planets. (I wouldn't want only one object drawn - planets in asteroid fields look nice, IMO)
2. This can only be done by MM, also. Might be a really hacky way to do it during events, but I'm not sure.
3. Another thing that was hardcoded. One colonizer does it all. Can't mod that in.
5. Stellar Manip is all hard coded - can't change its destination like that.
6. Again, that can only be done by MM.

lol, gives new meaning to highly moddable.
thanks, nice to know that info.

[GuyOfDoom]

If they allowed you to change everything then there wouldn't be a point in selling you the game in the first place...

[SothoTalKer]

Of course there would be.
You get a (great) gaming engine which you can adapt to your liking. The game was advertized with its high modability, the game basically lives from/for it.

So I think in the future those features might get rewritten so you can modify them, too.


(The reason I partially dislike scripting for a not open source program - you have to wait for the developers to implement what you need first. But of course scriptability itself is a very good thing.)

[Fyron]

GuyOfDoom said:
If they allowed you to change everything then there wouldn't be a point in selling you the game in the first place...

Really? Seems to work for Civ4 and its open sourced core game logic dll..

[AstralWanderer]

One of the initial changes will be the separation of supplies from engines. In the mod you'll need to add reactors to provide supplies for the engines and there will be a less rigid engine cap to allow for a wider range of ship speeds.

Sounds like a good idea. This could perhaps be taken further by adding higher speed engines which use far more supplies (e.g. using double the supplies for 1.5 times the speed). This would create an interesting design decision for scout ships - higher speed to reach new stars first, or better fuel economy to stay out longer?

Also would it be possible to have a component that improves maneuverability in combat?

Ship Construction will be amalgamated into a single long tech area, with hull upgrades completely intertwined.

This I'm less keen on - firstly since different construction scales should require different techniques (which separate Tech Area seems to address). Secondly it would probably make it harder to have AIs specialise in differing classes (having some preferring a few huge ships and others going for swarms of smaller, faster ones makes for greater variety). Thirdly it removes a strategic research decision that players otherwise have to make - should they spend research on opening/developing a larger ship tech or remain with their existing area, knowing that it will hit a dead end or cost more in the longer term?

Instead I would suggest expanding the levels for all construction types, allowing a major overlap between them (e.g. so a level 12 destroyer could end up with similar tonnage to a level 1 dreadnaught - this could be explained as resulting from better minaturisation of existing components rather than actual tonnage increases). The smaller ship techs would be available sooner but would require far more research to reach the same tonnage as the larger ones, though offering better defense/maneuverability.

I'm also expanding the early game weapons to include a bit more variety and the weapon tree in general.

Would it be possible to randomise the weapons slightly or perhaps include a race-specific adjustment for each weapon type? Giving races a "preferred weapons tech" (especially if players have to experiment to find out what it is) could also provide more variety mid-game.

I'm going to scrap armor slots (like SJ's GG mod) and bring in a directional damage system by using just the outer/inner slots. Armor will therefore be leaky and I'll be able to introduce different types of armors to mix and match for designs - think light/heavy armors from SE:IV leaky mods etc.

Sounds like a good addition - being able to research armour to counter specific weapon types would be a useful option for those finding themselves outclassed by a specific race.

I'm going to mix up racial traits a bit as well. Organic and Crystalline traits will provide only their types of ships from the start with and will treated more like the paradigms in Fyron's Adamant Mod. Other racial traits will become "technology traits" that are cheap and provide access to certain components/facilities/weapons.

The racial traits at the moment seem to be a case of "pay now, receive later" in terms of their benefits (coming into play more in the later stages of the game). Giving some early, distinct ones (e.g. better small ships for Crystalline races, quicker access to large ones for Organic) could be a useful addition as long as it isn't overdone.

I might introduce some sort of pollution concept if SE:V will be co-operative in that respect.

Doing this fully (e.g. including racial traits to worsen/ameliorate it, listing pollution values in all status reports and listings, having AI minsters deal with it semi-intelligently) would seem to require more work than it's worth. How about just modding industrial facilities to decrease happiness, with higher level facilities having less of an effect?

[Romulus68]

AstralWanderer said:
One of the initial changes will be the separation of supplies from engines. In the mod you'll need to add reactors to provide supplies for the engines and there will be a less rigid engine cap to allow for a wider range of ship speeds.

Sounds like a good idea. This could perhaps be taken further by adding higher speed engines which use far more supplies (e.g. using double the supplies for 1.5 times the speed). This would create an interesting design decision for scout ships - higher speed to reach new stars first, or better fuel economy to stay out longer?

Also would it be possible to have a component that improves maneuverability in combat?

Ship Construction will be amalgamated into a single long tech area, with hull upgrades completely intertwined.

This I'm less keen on - firstly since different construction scales should require different techniques (which separate Tech Area seems to address). Secondly it would probably make it harder to have AIs specialise in differing classes (having some preferring a few huge ships and others going for swarms of smaller, faster ones makes for greater variety). Thirdly it removes a strategic research decision that players otherwise have to make - should they spend research on opening/developing a larger ship tech or remain with their existing area, knowing that it will hit a dead end or cost more in the longer term?

Instead I would suggest expanding the levels for all construction types, allowing a major overlap between them (e.g. so a level 12 destroyer could end up with similar tonnage to a level 1 dreadnaught - this could be explained as resulting from better minaturisation of existing components rather than actual tonnage increases). The smaller ship techs would be available sooner but would require far more research to reach the same tonnage as the larger ones, though offering better defense/maneuverability.

I'm also expanding the early game weapons to include a bit more variety and the weapon tree in general.

Would it be possible to randomise the weapons slightly or perhaps include a race-specific adjustment for each weapon type? Giving races a "preferred weapons tech" (especially if players have to experiment to find out what it is) could also provide more variety mid-game.

I'm going to scrap armor slots (like SJ's GG mod) and bring in a directional damage system by using just the outer/inner slots. Armor will therefore be leaky and I'll be able to introduce different types of armors to mix and match for designs - think light/heavy armors from SE:IV leaky mods etc.

Sounds like a good addition - being able to research armour to counter specific weapon types would be a useful option for those finding themselves outclassed by a specific race.

I'm going to mix up racial traits a bit as well. Organic and Crystalline traits will provide only their types of ships from the start with and will treated more like the paradigms in Fyron's Adamant Mod. Other racial traits will become "technology traits" that are cheap and provide access to certain components/facilities/weapons.

The racial traits at the moment seem to be a case of "pay now, receive later" in terms of their benefits (coming into play more in the later stages of the game). Giving some early, distinct ones (e.g. better small ships for Crystalline races, quicker access to large ones for Organic) could be a useful addition as long as it isn't overdone.

I might introduce some sort of pollution concept if SE:V will be co-operative in that respect.

Doing this fully (e.g. including racial traits to worsen/ameliorate it, listing pollution values in all status reports and listings, having AI minsters deal with it semi-intelligently) would seem to require more work than it's worth. How about just modding industrial facilities to decrease happiness, with higher level facilities having less of an effect?

I really liked most of your suggestions and feel like they could work quite well in game.

Armor - I would like to see a broader range in armors as you mentioned. The armors could have varying degrees of effectiveness versus certain weapon types. Reflective armor is better against beam weapons, Composite armor versus ballistic weapons, etc. I'm we could come up with numerous names and types of armors.

Shields - These could vary in types as well. Solid shields (standard), Kinetic shields (best against ballistic), Flux shields (against energy), Phase shields (shots have chance to pass thru target), Holo shields (no protection but greater defense), Absorbing shields (blocks damage and adds to ships energy/supplies), Lightning shields (destroys/damages incoming missles, torps, fighters) Reflecting shields (sends part of attack back at the shooter), Cloaking shields (hides you), Void shields (stops anything coming in, but collaspes after a set number of HITS. ie a 6 point fighter hit is same as a 1000 point beam hit), Dampening shields (weapons always strike ship, but reduced damage on the weapons), etc. Shields would have to all be leaky EXCEPT for the Void shields.

[Captain Kwok]

I actually ended up splitting ship construction into light, medium, and heavy categories. Haven't made any decisions on what tech levels provide what yet.