Proportions Version 2.4 released

[Baron Munchausen]

Rollo, I crown you 'Space Empires Ultra-fanatic'!!!

[PvK]

There is no Proportions for 1.49. There are some important new features in Gold that allow some things that would not be possible in 1.49.

Mainly, MM implemented a couple of requests I had for population - in Gold, you can specify the mass and reproduction frequency of population units. You could rationalize that population represents only skilled specialists and abstract development, but it would have a major effect on gameplay (these two factors combined with the Proportions population effect curve make a world of difference in colonial development rate).

Also, the massive amount of work that I, John and Oleg have done to create AI's that can build ship classes with the right number of engines, and bunches of other AI adjustments, would mostly be lost and have to be redone for 1.49.

It would be so much work that it makes no sense compared to the price of Gold, and Gold is really worth the cost to upgrade!

PvK

[Rollo]

I am honered . It was not a big deal though really. Just a small galaxy. Build a fleet, capture AIs homeworld, done.

Rollo

[PvK]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
My gosh... even a fanatic can't have played a game on 2.3 before this update. This update rate is far faster than even the betas coming out of Malfador. Is it stable now? Can we play some games?

Rollo's an impressive fellow!

Yes, I think the AI in 2.4 should play Proportions better than the AI in the standard game plays the standard set... which both is and isn't saying much.

I recommend starting a game versus the AI and then finding a PBW game. Humans will always be more interesting, and IMO Proportions gives many more options for humans to be creative in empire design, unit/ship design, colonial development, and maneuver and deployment than the standard game.

I do have plans for two more layers of improvement, though. One is to provide an AI that has some cheats to compensate for its inherent weaknesses, and the other is to add some things taking advantage of the new mounts in the impending Gold patch. Both of those changes will require me to break backward compatibility, though. Still, I think 2.4 is pretty polished and should make for interesting games. I'm imagine some people will find bugs from playing it, though.

Oh, and there is one issue with Proportions AI and Gold 1.67 that I couldn't fix without breaking backwards compatibility: In Simultaneous Movement games, the AI won't build any colony ships for about four years (40 turns). It seems to be a hard-coded thing under investigation, hopefully to be fixed for the next Gold patch. It does fine in Turn-Based Movement mode. Meanwhile, work-arounds for simultaneous mode include running the first 40 turns without human control, or running the first 40 turns with humans obeying a house rule to not build colony ships, or just give the AI a Low bonus, which should more or less balance it out.

PvK

[Pax]

Originally posted by PvK:
There is no Proportions for 1.49. There are some important new features in Gold that allow some things that would not be possible in 1.49.

... and now, a brief visit from Oni no Snippage ...

It would be so much work that it makes no sense compared to the price of Gold, and Gold is really worth the cost to upgrade!

PvK

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait a month or two before being able to try out yoru mod then. LOL, at the rate you've been updatign it, by then ... you'll be up to Version 3.x or maybe even 4.x ... heh!

[ZeroAdunn]

All right, what am I doing wrong?

I downloaded the latest patch, installed it, didn't work.

Downloaded the latest full Version, installed it, didn't work.

I have tried everything, but it still doesn't work.

I keep getting this error: "Unknown value "Insert ship type" for entry ## type in record exploration, not connected etc...

Anybody else see this? Anybody know why this happens? Am I just an idiot?

[Sinapus]

There is a minor error in the Jraenar general file. The "Race Opt 3 Characteristic" 6 and 7 have 2 instead of 3 in it and it causes an error when reading that file.

Specifically, the part in question is:

Race Opt 3 Num Characteristics := 7
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 1 Type := Cunning
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 1 Amount := 120
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 2 Type := Defensiveness
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 2 Amount := 110
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 3 Type := Intelligence
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 3 Amount := 120
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 4 Type := Aggressiveness
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 4 Amount := 110
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 5 Type := Physical Strength
Race Opt 3 Characteristic 5 Amount := 120
Race Opt 2 Characteristic 6 Type := Political Savvy
Race Opt 2 Characteristic 6 Amount := 115
Race Opt 2 Characteristic 7 Type := Maintenance Aptitude
Race Opt 2 Characteristic 7 Amount := 110
Race Opt 3 Num Advanced Traits := 0

[ July 14, 2002, 04:00: Message edited by: Sinapus ]