Proportions mod: So confusing!

[dogscoff]

I'm a keen proportions player, and I would say that although Mylon's suggestions in the previous post are well thought out, I would vote against all of them except the increased range of cities. Sorry Mylon I like the economics as they are now. The new range of cities would be an utter nightmare to implement and upgrade, but would be cool. Maybe you should try to get a more flexible upgrade system into the next patch before attempting to implement them.

One thing I will suggest though is a set of combination bonus facilities - ie fleet+ship training, citizen databank+computer complex etc. Have it so you can upgrade to them from the singular Versions.

[DocShane]

Originally posted by Mylon:
[QB]It seems that a huge amount of the facilities are redundant, if not plain useless.

Settlements cannot be upgraded into cities, and seem in themselves pretty useless. Cultural Centers and Colony World Cultural Centers are duplicates of each other. Many of the buildings are replaced by higher tech Versions before they're even constructed (Ship training). There also seems to be parallel development of the same basic structures (Mineral miner facility, mineral miner complex, ect). The sheer number of facilities already promises to make finding the right one among the list a little bothersome, given how the mod tries to focus on upgrading facilities rather than building higher level ones.
QB]

This sounds like the real world, which is what I think PvK is trying to mirror with the proportions mod. After all, I bet your local post office is not a brand new building with the latest and greatest sorting technology. Heck, my post office in a town of 300 is nothing more than a shed with a space heater for the winter, quite literally. In the town nearby there is a larger brick postal building, a UPS agent, 2 internet providers, and a courier service. How many different ways do you need to send a message? They are redundant, but each has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. I use all of them at different times for different reasons. Proportions mimics this by giving you choices. Sometimes they are confusing choices, and sometimes you will make bad choices, but this real world.

Thanks PvK. I want to encourage you to continue making the mod more complex and more confusing. For a newby to the SEIV universe, the standard game has plenty of complexity. But for those of us more experienced with SEIV, the standard game is good, but has lost it's "Fog of War" appeal. IMHO a good wargame recreates the uncertainty of conflict and the ability to make bad choices. Standard SEIV has done a very good job of this for a wargame, but the proportions mod takes it even a step further.

[dogscoff]

IMHO a good wargame recreates the uncertainty of conflict and the ability to make bad choices. Standard SEIV has done a very good job of this for a wargame, but the proportions mod takes it even a step further.

Agreed. I would put it another way and say that Proportions takes SEIV and pushes it even further from being simply a wargame into the territory of "empire simulator".

[Puke]

Originally posted by PvK:
The phased shield ability of cultural centers isn't perfect. Ideally, I would just give the facilities large amounts of hit points, but that is not possible.

sorry that im dumb, but why not?

[capnq]

Ideally, I would just give the facilities large amounts of hit points, but that is not possible.

sorry that im dumb, but why not?

Facilities don't have "hit points"; they're destroyed collaterally with the planet's population.

[Puke]

hmm, thats right. why do smartbombs do 200 points of damage, then? does that need to be changed if the damage to kill a population unit is increased?

[Sinapus]

Originally posted by Puke:
hmm, thats right. why do smartbombs do 200 points of damage, then? does that need to be changed if the damage to kill a population unit is increased?

IIRC, it doesn't. It also looks like one hit, regardless of damage, will kill at least one population unit. Though that was Last tested over a year ago, pre-Gold. Dunno if it's been changed or not.

Also, I think damage for neutron bombs is something the game reads to figure out how many people it kills per hit. Haven't really tested that, though.

[ September 10, 2002, 20:42: Message edited by: Sinapus ]