Small Mod Experiment - Page 2

Tnarg · #11 September 8th, 2007, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Raapys said:
Space Monsters!

Yes Space Monsters, both the roaming kind like we saw in SEIV, and stationary guardians like in MOOII

Different styles too:
1. Swarming insectoid types with hundreds of smaller units or fighter style critters or bots.
2. Massive Planetary sized roaming gas or energy balls that devour planets and the only way to defeat them is with incrediably high research points in a system. (a working implementation of ships with Research Labs and research point abilities) (Isn't Fyron working on some sort of system organic infestation in his mod - could this be worked with a bit to find a way to eliminate it, and come in different sizes: planetary, system wide, roaming, spreading like a plague)
3. Standard behemouths that wreck havoc on shipping lanes and require an entire fleet to take out.
4. Monsters that could actually be harnessed through the Pyshic trait or massive amounts of boarding parties.
5. Guardians of Gaia style planets.
6. Monsters that are unleashed by landing on a planet with ruins. (Could be a plague or a standard monster in the form of planetary troops that makes inhabiting the planet treacherous until troops are called in to take the critter out.

Baron Munchausen · #12 September 8th, 2007, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Tnarg said:

Yes Space Monsters, both the roaming kind like we saw in SEIV, and stationary guardians like in MOOII

Different styles too:
1. Swarming insectoid types with hundreds of smaller units or fighter style critters or bots.
2. Massive Planetary sized roaming gas or energy balls that devour planets and the only way to defeat them is with incrediably high research points in a system. (a working implementation of ships with Research Labs and research point abilities) (Isn't Fyron working on some sort of system organic infestation in his mod - could this be worked with a bit to find a way to eliminate it, and come in different sizes: planetary, system wide, roaming, spreading like a plague)
3. Standard behemouths that wreck havoc on shipping lanes and require an entire fleet to take out.
4. Monsters that could actually be harnessed through the Pyshic trait or massive amounts of boarding parties.
5. Guardians of Gaia style planets.
6. Monsters that are unleashed by landing on a planet with ruins. (Could be a plague or a standard monster in the form of planetary troops that makes inhabiting the planet treacherous until troops are called in to take the critter out.

We requested all of this and more. MM was just swamped with bugs and other problems, and had to abandon many planned new features like "heros" as well as Space Monsters. It sure looks to me like modders could implement a pretty good approximation of several of these types of Space Monsters with the advanced scripting abilities of SE V, though... maybe a random event or two could be setup to 'introduce' them, as well.

Raapys · #13 September 8th, 2007, 09:33 PM

I don't think anything like Space Monsters is actually possible at this time, though. The scripting abilities are powerful, but also limited to the relatively few functions available( none specifically made for this purpose, to my knowledge ).

As far as I can see, it would require a Neutral side/player that could exist without owning any planets or ships. It would also require the ability to create space objects for that Neutral player, preferably both at game creation and in turn processing( so we would have some monsters there from the start, others coming in while playing ).

Tnarg · #14 September 9th, 2007, 01:08 AM

Fyron, is it possible to make a race that has the Organic Racial trait immune to the effects of an Organic Infestion Systems (I think that is what it is called?). Possibly even have a race with the Organic Racial trait gain a bonus in organic construction in these systems. If it is possible, or could be if the right scripting possiblities were later implementd in a future patch, why stop there?

More unique system types:
1. Temporal Rift Systems, all ships of races except those that have the Temporal Racial ability suffer xxx amount of damage per turn. Races with Temporal Racial trait are immune to this damage and gains a system wide +1 movement speed due to the unique properties of the many temporal rifts in this system.

2. Religious Holy Land Systems, all ships and troops of those races except those that have the Religous Racial ablility suffer a -50% combat ability due to troop morale being so low because they beleive the system as a bad ommen or just unlucky. Races with the Racial abiltiy receive 25% combat bonus from an increase in morale because they beleive this system to be their holy lands and a system happiness increase.

3. Magnetar or Neutron Star Systems - all ships of those races except those that have the Pyschic Racial ability suffer random movement due to intense magnetic waves disrupting normal brain activity. Races with the Pyschic Racial ability actually benefit from this magnetic force and are able to focus their thoughts onto these magnetic pulses and gain a 25% combat and production and research efficiency bonus in this system (????)

4. Plagued System - all planets in this system suffer from an excotic system wide plague, only races that have the Mechanoid Racial trait may safely populate these planets.

Probably not feasable, but I thought I would throw it out there.

Fyron · #15 September 9th, 2007, 01:51 AM

As far as I can tell, the effects of stellar objects cannot be made dependent upon possession of techs, traits, or particular abilities on the ships themselves.

Ragnarok-X · #16 September 9th, 2007, 06:24 AM

How about something like the heavy foot of gouverment similar to MoO3. An increasing empire will need to get more and more buerocraty, decreasing your overall effience by a certain amount for each system occupied (i.e. - 0.5 % income for each system after the 6th or what). You can do researches or something to lower the malus.

MrToxin · #17 September 11th, 2007, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Ragnarok-X said:
How about something like the heavy foot of gouverment similar to MoO3. An increasing empire will need to get more and more buerocraty, decreasing your overall effience by a certain amount for each system occupied (i.e. - 0.5 % income for each system after the 6th or what). You can do researches or something to lower the malus.

That was one of the single most annoying aspects of MoO3. Sure, it never accounted for much of anything, but it got irritating enough to be noticeable. Then, you could just reset it by changing governments and changing back on your next turn. Yeah, that game was silly...

I think that would be possible by putting it into a variable on every building's maintenance equation. As in, call for the number of planets in the empire and alter the maintenance based on that. A really basic version...

Code:

(main maintenance formula) * 

(1+(get_empire_colonized_percent_of_map/100))

In that case, you would get a 1% increase in maintenance for every 1% of the map you controlled. This can be modified for extra flavor, such as adding a tech that reduces this problem.

Code:

(main maintenance formula) * 

(1+((get_empire_colonized_percent_of_map/100)*(100/(100-get_empire_tech_level("Steamlined Government"))))

With some mathematical magic, you can make it even more crazy. If you just change that 100, it goes from being a straight percent to more increase. If you make it 50, for example, you would end up doubling your maintenance when you controlled 50% of the map. You could also make it exponential or whatever if you so desired. That's a bit sadistic, but it WOULD prevent somebody from conquering the universe on turn 30.

As for a faster-increasing version...

researches or something to lower the malus.

[/quote]

That was one of the single most annoying aspects of MoO3. Sure, it never accounted for much of anything, but it got irritating enough to be noticeable. Then, you could just reset it by changing governments and changing back on your next turn. Yeah, that game was silly...

I think that would be possible by putting it into a variable on every building's maintenance equation. As in, call for the number of planets in the empire and alter the maintenance based on that. A really basic version...

Code:

(main maintenance formula) * (get_empire_colonized_percent_of_map/5)

Your maintenance would double at 5%, triple at 10%, and so far.

edit: line breaks added

Fyron · #18 September 11th, 2007, 12:25 AM

The maintenance functions are part of the game exe.

MrToxin · #19 September 11th, 2007, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Fyron said:
The maintenance functions are part of the game exe.

Er, I meant like...in a maintenance modification ability. This idea had me...well, over-zealous.

Actually, now that I think about it...if you put it in a government type as an ability there, you can change it depending on the government. Neat.

I think I'm on to something...

Fyron · #20 September 11th, 2007, 02:01 PM

Could you please add some line breaks in the code tags you used? They are breaking they page formatting. Thanks.

Sadly, I don't think there is a function to return the empire's government type available to facilities. I may be wrong, but I don't recall seeing anything in the past. There is an unused "Government Center" ability, but that's about it.