Proportions 2.1 available

[PvK]

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Originally posted by tnarg:
One Last question, does the AI handle the tri-polar wide, and what exactly is the difference between regualr tri-polar. Also should I use all warp points connected on not. The galaxy looks pretty segregated with no points connected. Does the AI handle this very well.

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Yes the AI should be fine with either Tri-Polar type, or Sideral types.

The difference between Tri-Polar and Tri-Polar-wide, is just the warp point pattern, which you can see by generating a few samples. The wide one has fewer, more widely spaced warp lines, and more strands of systems with only two warp points a piece. I guess in theory the wide one is riskier for the AI, because it could get stuck between black hole systems on a strand, or something. Depending on your tastes, though, that could actually be interesting.

I haven't tested the AI with lots of broken off (unconnected by warp points) systems, but it is supposed to be set up to research and build warp point creation ships. I would expect it to be a disadvantage to the AI, but I haven't tested it.

All warp points connected is recommended unless you are using one of the following types (which will have almost all connected anyway):

Sidereal
Atypical Sidereal
Rich Spiral Arm
Semi-Standard
Mid-Life
Galactic Edge
Spiral Arm
Grid
Ancient

For Rich Spiral Arm, I actually recommend going with All Warp Points Connected set to OFF - it will almost never have isolated systems, anyway, and is has a more interesting shape with it off. (Unless you WANT massive numbers of connections, in which case that's what you'll get with it on).

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I've also noticed that even with 250 as my systems setting, I will only get about 50-60 systems that actually have stars and planets. Should this be so?

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That depends on the quadrant type. In Tri-Polar and Sidereal types, most systems should have planets and stars. In Ancient and Atypical types, there will be more special systems without planets, which is what is hard for the current AI in 2.1.

PvK

[ 18 April 2002: Message edited by: PvK ]

[PsychoTechFreak]

This is not an urgent request, but could you provide a (very brief) description of your (new) quadrant types? I should take a closer look into quadrant types.txt, with almost every patch you add some new ones. I like your ideas to change some of the system abilities, e.g. organic infestation.
One question, I think I have seen this in one of your warp point changes, it was a one-way WP. Are one-way WPs now created by random? Wasn't it just possible with map editor?

[PvK]

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Originally posted by PsychoTechFreak:
This is not an urgent request, but could you provide a (very brief) description of your (new) quadrant types? I should take a closer look into quadrant types.txt, with almost every patch you add some new ones. I like your ideas to change some of the system abilities, e.g. organic infestation.?

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There are some extremely brief descriptions in the QuadrantTypes.txt file, that don't get shown in the game. I'll try to embellish these at some point. For now, I'll cut & paste:

Name := Tri-Polar
Description := Slightly different from sidereal, with a few more special systems.

Name := Sidereal
Description := A middle-aged sheet of systems with somewhat irregular connections.

Name := Atypical Sidereal
Description := A middle-aged sheet of systems with somewhat irregular connections and unpredictable contents.

Name := Sparse Edge
Description := The galactic edge where systems are spread evenly, and there are fewer warp point connections.

Name := Rich Spiral Arm
Description := A spiral arm quadrant with many warp point connections. Try without "all systems connected" - they will be anyway.

Name := Ancient Bi-Polar
Description := Old section of the galaxy dotted with nebulaes and black holes, where warp points tend to be at opposite sides of a system.

Name := Rich Cluster
Description := A globular cluster section of the galaxy with many warp points.

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One question, I think I have seen this in one of your warp point changes, it was a one-way WP. Are one-way WPs now created by random? Wasn't it just possible with map editor?

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Is it even possible in the map editor? I thought it was just an idea that has not (yet?) been implemented. I think I added it to see if it would work, and so that it would show up if/when MM implemented it.

BTW, a couple of other things in 2.2 will be:

* Corrected cosmetic typo in "Spatial Rupture 2".
* Fixed cosmetic duplicate Rad Storage III.

PvK

[ 18 April 2002: Message edited by: PvK ]

[adder_inf]

Why are the colony cultural centers any easier to build they seemed to have the same cost as a straight cultural center?

I downloaded the entire mod from your site.

I love the mod so far great stuff. Thanks for all the hard work

[PsychoTechFreak]

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Originally posted by PvK:


I think I added it to see if it would work, and so that it would show up if/when MM implemented it.

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What you have added would make up some tricky traps if it would work.
I got another WP idea, which I think would be bad for the AI, but could be nice for multiplayer. Really funky/unstable WPs with a random damage factor similar to black holes. But they should not be obviously recognized as unstable, I guess it could be even more interesting if every WP would show up with the same description, like "unknown WP, enter on your own risk".

[PvK]

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Originally posted by adder_inf:
Why are the colony cultural centers any easier to build they seemed to have the same cost as a straight cultural center?

I downloaded the entire mod from your site.

I love the mod so far great stuff. Thanks for all the hard work

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Thanks adder_inf!

Currently, there is no difference except the name and description between the Colony Cultural Center and the homeworld Cultural Center. I may be adding some intermediate levels later, but for now they're essentially nearly-impossible to build, on purpose.

The reasons that there are two kinds are cosmetic and historical. Originally, there was only one type, which included extra construction abilities, that were cumulative on the homeworld, but made it impossible (due to SE4 hard-coded limits) to try to build a CC on a colony with another CC on it, or one with a spaceyard on it. Worse though was the more realistic attempt to rebuild or add a CC to the homeworld itself, which would also be prevented by SE4. So I added Colony Cultural Centers, which were like CC's without the construction bonuses. Later I decided it was unfair that homeworlds got a construction bonus that colony worlds never could, and I noticed the more important/realistic problem that spaceyards could not be built on planets with "constructing-type" (homeworld) CC's on them, meaning high-tech shipyards would have no effect on a homeworld. I also decided the slower build times and the need to build orbital shipyards was an improvement over the abstract representation of built-in construction abilities on homeworlds, and changed them to the way they are now, identical except for description, with no construction bonuses.

PvK

[PvK]

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Originally posted by PsychoTechFreak:
What you have added would make up some tricky traps if it would work.
I got another WP idea, which I think would be bad for the AI, but could be nice for multiplayer. Really funky/unstable WPs with a random damage factor similar to black holes. But they should not be obviously recognized as unstable, I guess it could be even more interesting if every WP would show up with the same description, like "unknown WP, enter on your own risk".

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Yes, I like tricky traps, as long as they're uncommon enough. I currently have three classes of warp points with 35 different abilities. They do say what kind of effect they have, but the amount of the effect isn't clear, especially for the damaging ones. Some warp points vary from minescule damage to baseship-shredding damage (which is quite rare, though).

Your idea to add some where the effect type is undeterminable or even misleading is a nice one - I'll have to add that, though I'll keep it rare. Actually, I should probably make a really wicked quadrant option , but I should do the AI improvements first.

PvK