StarFire Mod v-Beta 2

[clc19k30]

Sorry been occupied elsewhere. Black holes are a @#$ch to escape!!!!

[President_Elect_Shang]

So after a long week of busting my butt at school and home with the kids I finally get some down time. It goes without saying that I have spent that time to work on the Mod, so here is the status:

Component Enhancement File: 100%
Component File: 100% (One known issue, waiting on Dan K)
Tech Area File: 100%
Vehicle Size File: 100%
Facility File: 100%

Culture File: On Hold
Intelligence File: On Hold
All AI Files: On Hold

Edited In: Status Update as of 8-Feb-04.

That leaves Culture File and Facilities File, I will work on the facilities file next and maybe work on the culture file, but for that I will most likely have to task out for help (Dan K and Mr Floppy), the point is that it is no big deal to me for the beta testing. If I did not mention a file it is because I did not feel it needed any work right now. Speaking of Beta Testing here is the list of people that have contacted me, if your name is not on the list and you feel it should be than send me a private message or email me.

Dan K
Mike (Not a Forum Member)
Mr Floppy (should the “r” in mister be caps, do you have a preference?)
CLC

Taxes are done, more school reading and one assignment, I think Friday the 13th will be a good release day; anyhow I was never one for superstition (where the heck did I put that salt?).

[ February 09, 2004, 02:00: Message edited by: President Elect Shang ]

[President_Elect_Shang]

Wow, what a feeling it was to actually see this Mod start. There was the inevitable flaw or two that had to be corrected but it was truly great. It is actually ready for beta testing now, but I will hold on to it until the 13th anyway. This will give me a chance to knock out some of the bigger bugs. One that I found is in the Ic. I can not figure out a way to make the Ic work and keep the I. In light of this I will have to drop the Ic out. Sorry to say it, however I knew when I started this project that there was bound to be flaws that would require some give and take. Suggestions?

[Magnum357]

Hey Shang, could you tell us what specifically makes using the Ic impossible too do in the mod? Is it because the AI can't understand why too put it on Civilian ships compared too Military?

[President_Elect_Shang]

The (I) generates full power in combat but only about half system cruising speed, relative to its combat speed that is. The (Ic) generates a higher system cruising speed but provides no combat movement bonus. The problem I am having is in keeping the (Ic) from using the (I)’s combat bonus. If I put the combat bonus on the (I) than the larger ships do not get the correct combat movement so I have had to put it on the hull.

[Dan Kochheiser]

Originally posted by President Elect Shang:
Will the UTR include the rules from ISF? My ISF is copyrighted 1993 with credits going to David [Weber] himself! Needless to say it is an old and cherished “Artifact” in my collection; I even have a 2nd Edition (?) SF rule book with the same copy right info, I bought them both on the same day. Point is I need a replacement for the ISF book.

Yes. All the rules in one book.

Dan K

[Dan Kochheiser]

Originally posted by Magnum357:
Where is this "SDS" website? Can this new material be purchases Online? I have been out of the "Starfire" gaming loop for a loooooonnnng time now (since 96-97) and would like too know.

www.starfiredesign.com is thew SDS website mainpage. You can order from there and learn how to get on the mailing list and get errata. As well as links to SA program and such.

Dan K

[President_Elect_Shang]

Clc came over this morning to take a look at the Mod. In the process of checking it out we discovered a new bug. It seems that you can only have “x” amount of “items” attached to one tech area. Through the process of elimination I found that I could tie all component enhancements, vehicles, and facilities into having a “HTL” requirement for their development. But if I tried to tie any components (even one) into the “HTL” line it would not work. This apparently would not be a problem if you wanted to start out at HTL 1 and work your way up; in this case you can develop HTL2 etc just fine. But if you want to start at the “medium” or “high” technology at the start up screen than forget it, you start with HTL at level one instead of 18. I have contacted Malfador about this issue to see what Aaron has to say. I will keep you updated as I get word.

“Items” are anything from components to vehicles.

[President_Elect_Shang]

I could have deleted the below message but I do not like to hold back any info, I got it working and everything is back on track. It turns out that the colony component can not be tied into the HTL tech area line, once I dropped that out and made it a stand alone all started working again. I am having two new problems that I would like to shot down before the Beta goes out.

1) Sometimes the computer starts me on an “other-than-oxygen” world; I do not want that to happen.

2) No matter how I toy with the “combat movement” setting I can not seem to break speed 7.

[Fyron]

1) Sometimes the computer starts me on an “other-than-oxygen” world; I do not want that to happen.

Are there moons orbiting those starting planets? Sometimes SE4 will select an available moon as the HW. But if it does this, the HW gets transfered to the "planet" in that sector instead, but the planet does not get changed to the appropriate atmosphere and planet type. So, if you have medium moons and select an average planet start, it is possible that SE4 will select that medium moon as the HW and instead use the planet it is orbiting. The way to fix this is to make it so that systems with medium, small and large moons can not be used as starting systems. Or, if you have, for example, small moons everywhere, just make it clear that you should not take bad planet starts, as you will hit this bug. Such as in FQM.

2) No matter how I toy with the “combat movement” setting I can not seem to break speed 7.

This one is really hard to help without seeing the data files.

Colony techs are selected in a special process that ignores start and raise levels. SE4 finds either the first or Last component that has the colony ability in the components file that matches your HW type and that also can be available based on racial areas of the tech reqs, and then assigns its tech reqs to you. You do not get any other levels of those tech reqs to start with.

[ February 09, 2004, 18:43: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]