Mod/Extension Posted

[Psitticine]

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Originally posted by Tampa_Gamer:
(2) new sound for point defense weapons (kind of sounded like someone spitting before)

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Killer loogies! Killer loogies! A-ptooie!

Sorry . . . it's been a stressful weekend.

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Originally posted by Tampa_Gamer:
(4) Added new applied science called "Planetary Defense" with five levels - each providing an increased level of planetary defense facilities:
- Planetary Shield (200 through 1000 shield points for planet)
- Defense Bunker Complex (+20% through +100% ground defense against troops and bombardment)
- Communications Network (+20% through +100% bonus to fleets defending the area)

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Am I misremembering or aren't there planetary shields already available high up in the Shields tech area?

The bunkers are a great idea!!

quote:

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Originally posted by Tampa_Gamer:
(8) Modified the "Happiness" file to make the neutral race have a few more "positive events" (I thought their population was entirely too hard to keep happy)
- Increase happiness if win battles
- Increase happiness slightly if have ships in area
- Increase happiness slightly if construct new ships/facilities
- Neutral effect if new colonies created

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True. And even if you are devotely neutral, knowing the military just won instead of lost really should be a Good Thing!

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Originally posted by Tampa_Gamer:
(14) Added an additional ability to Medical Bay Components so that they provide a small amount of research points at each level (on the theory that the vessel containing the component is serving as a research ship type concept - since they are providing medical assistance to different species around the galaxy)

(15) Added an additional ability to 5 types of sensors so that they provide a small amount of intelligence points at each level (on the theory that they are actually providing real-time intel) including: Tachyon, Hyper, Psychic, Temporal and Gravitic)

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Ooo, awesome ideas there! Very logical in concept and definitely expands the options! Very cool!

[Ebonyknight]

<One other suggestion I will make is to either 1) allow the smaller hulls (ES,FG,DS) to hold more engines or 2) to have later hulls up the tech tree be able to do so (same size as the ES,FG,DS, just less restrictive on engines). The problem with the latter is that it trips up the AI into building smaller ships again as they are higher tech.

I've gone with option one and increased the engine allowance on alot of these small hulls. Its given them far more longevity in the game. They are good for scouting and quick reaction/raiding forces. In battle, they can race ahead and pound with missiles or else be able to shoot and scoot with relative impunity. Its really caused me to rethink the idea that bigger is always better in the later stages of the game. >

I like this and it makes sense. Mind telling me where and how to change it? The AI apparently doesn't like cruisers. I likes the CLs. I guess I agree with it when cruisers only get 4 MPs...why is that? I had five engines. Anyway...

[Talenn]

Tampa_Gamer:

Ok, I've fired up a few games using non-default races to test out some of the new gadgets. It does work fine. Its good to see the AI using some of the new toys.

A few other questions/comments...

1) The defense ship concept is good, but it ties up the AI resources in ships that are otherwise useless if not fighting Missile/Fighter races. I tend to have the latter, but others I've watched play dont bother and thus a decent portion of the AI's fleets are essentially useless. I'm not sure what the solution is here as the AI has no 'response' routines, only a stock build queue.

2) The AI needs to research and deploy 'planetary weapons' to compensate for the new defenses and the change in damage to kill one pop. As it is now, it often bombards ineffectively with its stock ships. A human player builds the planet busters and is none the worse (although I like the effect), but the AI loses capability.

3) I'm not sure the Shield Generators produce enough to be worthwhile. They are taking up valuable space on your planets and dont really protect you all that much. I'd probably increase the base level of the shielding and have it increase at a flatter rate...just my suggestion.

4) I'm thinking about experimenting down this path and wanted to check and see if you had already done so and with what results: Adding additional design types to the defaults and then using these types to encourage the AI to build differing ship types. For example: Add 'Bombardment Ship' to the list, then add a 'design type' to the AI designs for the 'Bombardment Ship' and finally, insert it into the AI's build percentages. The same could also be done to encourage the AI to build 'Missile Support' Ships or to have some Torpedo ships and some Beam ships etc. This is similar in scope to your addition of 'defense ships' to the AI's routines.

5) You mentioned the possibility of making it so that it is impossible to land on a planet with Shields up. Personally, I like it the way it is now as it might encourage defensive troops. Also, it fits with some Sci-Fi concepts of dumping troops to knock out the Shield Generators etc.

Ok, I'll post more as I find out more about the workings of the AI. Please continue to do the same. I am VERY interested to see your revamped race personalities.

Thanx for your time and work,

Talenn

[Talenn]

Ebonyknight:

Sure, its fairly easy. Go into the 'Data' directory and open the 'VehicleSize.txt' file. Find the ships you want to change and change the 'Requirement Max Engines' line to 7 or 8 or whatever you want.

I'm actually expermenting a bit with adding a Tech Area for 'Hull Streamlining' which will make the faster ES/FG/DD/CL hulls available. That way it wont trip up the AI (it simply wont research them) and it holds no danger of upseting the early game balance between missiles and speed. I'll let you know how it works out if you are interested.

Talenn

[Tampa_Gamer]

Talenn:

Thanks for the feedback. Actually the defense ship concept is supposed to include a repair component or more when the AI gets big enough ships. This way they are not useless if there are no missile/fighters. Did you see any repair components? I may need to tweak this some more, but I wanted the AI fleets to contain "repairers" as most human opponents do.

On the AI attacking planets you are correct, I found the AI rocket pod fighters do fine, but if they use beam weapons against the planet, no dice. Again, this may need additional tweaking.

If a number of people are interested in creating MOO races, we should divide them up so that we are not duplicating our efforts (I have started on the Darloks). Then we can combine our files in the end to create a race extension.

[Talenn]

Tampa_Gamer:

Ok, well, I'd like to divy up the races so we dont duplicate effort, but at the moment, I'm not quite up to snuff on how to tweak the AI personalities yet. I'm still very much in the 'experimental' stage.

I'm actually looking forward to your Darloks so I could use that as a benchmark to learn. Are you going to include custom 'Speech', 'Anger', and 'Politics' etc files? It seems like ALOT of work, but I think that will really be the only way to get distinctive feeling races. Also, I'd assume you'd have to revamp the 'Colony Type' and whatnot files to encourage it to build more Intel Facilities. Also, are you going to use custom pictures as well? I know that is one particular aspect I'm helpless in. I cant draw 3d ships worth a darn. It would be neat to get the old MOO pictures for the Race Portraits etc though.

I'll pay more attention to whether or the not the AI is using the repair module. It was late Last night when I was messing with it and I honestly didnt check in the games I played.

Hope to see your Darlok mod soon. I'll continue to experiment as well and compare notes.

Talenn

[Ebonyknight]

Talenn,

What settings have you found that work for you smaller ship/faster speed idea? I was going to bump up the number of engines one each so that DD was 7 and ES was 9.

But you mentioned something about the missle speed. Does this make them faster than missles? Where can you edit missle speed to compensate for this? How does it all play out with the faster ships?

Let me know about your mods (both of you actually).