Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek's Mod Gold

[Tnarg]

As far as ideas go, what about:

1) One more round of troops. What are there so far? Infantry, mobile, small, and large? I really like the diversity of sizes in the fighter class, so maybe a little bit more diversity in the ground troops. Huge troops. (For those of us that like to build them anyhow.)

2) I read in some novel somewhere that an advanced alien race used "Organic Engines". The engines were basically a special species so evolved that it basically could manipulate time/space. In SEIVGold perspective they could be sort of an Organic branch solar sail, gravitic drive, or something.
2b) Utlimatley these organic engines folded space like the "Guild Steersman" from dune. Obvisouly creating warp points is a bit more complex, or is it? Perhaps one of the racial traits combined with the Stellar manipulation tech that allows warp point manipulation. Cheaper?, Farther Distance?

3) The Kaon torpedoes are great, as is the X-ray bomb pumped lasers (for picking off weapon platforms) Perhaps some more excotic weapons to expound on incorporting unconventional quantum physics, or any other new and theorized phields of physics.

4) Quantum Computer technology and facilities for defeating intelligence programs of other races.

5) I still would like to really see one of the gunboats to be able to load boarding parties. Yes I know that it is a coding issue. But darn it, would that be fun.

6) Some sort of component that would enable one to turn an asteroid belt into a drone or missle arsenal. Manipulation of asteroid trajectories to turn them into heavy bombardment missles, or in for praticallity drones with only planet warheads. Only works in the system that there is a targeted planet and asteroid.

7) More crystalline technology. For what one spends, there is so little to offer. Perhaps a few more tech levels, and the higher level weapons, really do heavy armor skipping damage.

8) Perhaps one or two more classes of ships. Really, really big, 5000kt or so, but really, really expensive. The pride of the fleet, the secret weapon, the one that decides all. The one that bankrupts your empire.

9) Is there any way to incorporate an area effect weapon. I have noticed a few AI grouping their ships in a tight formation. I think MOOII had a few area affect weapons to break up formations. Of course this is not MOOII, but you would know more than me as to if area effect weapons are possible in SEIVGold. I fear that this is a no, pehaps in SEV.

I have plenty more locked up in the ol brain, but I have an empire to run. If interested in any more let me know. Some of it is pretty off the wall bizzarre stuff though. Stuff that I don't think the current SEIV programing can do.

Thanks for spending the time to read this.

[Spoo]

8) Perhaps one or two more classes of ships. Really, really big, 5000kt or so, but really, really expensive. The pride of the fleet, the secret weapon, the one that decides all. The one that bankrupts your empire.

I second this one. Something Battlemoon/Worldship sized.

[Tnarg]

I have been playing around with DavidG's mod editor, trying to create new components. I think that the Organic Engine thing could work.

I set it up similar to a gravitational resonator?(warp point opener), changed a few things here a few there. Instead of being destroyed after use I just had it cost a whole heck of alot, and used tons of supplies, and was of course big. To avoid leaving open warp points all over the galaxy I suppose one could include a warp point closer on their ship too. Maybe it could somehow be included in the abilities of the actual engine. Opens a warp point and simultaneausly closes one. I'll play around with it some more.

Instead of being just an Organic tech, it would seem more logical to have it obtainable only with an Organic/Temporal Race, being that in theory the engine actual folds time/space, but it is an organic highly specialized and evolved bieng that mentally does this.

[mottlee]

Hmmm....I may have a prob, I doo a lot of R&D so this my be the prob, I find ruins but get no tech from them, any Idea?

[PvK]

There are two reasons (in Proportions, not sure about Derek's) for not getting tech from ruins.

One is that you already knew the tech you discovered.

In Proportions mod, there is the added chance that the ruins actually didn't have anything useful enough to give you a sudden tech boost. The Proportions planet types include a lot more ruins or things that look like ruins, but actually won't give you anything. This way, you have to explore to find out if you'll actually get something or not, which adds uncertainty and makes sense. I don't know if Derek kept this in his Version of the planets file, or not.

PvK

[Derek]

Yep, sure did

On a side note, because of unavoidable circumstances, I will be gone/out of touch for about 3 weeks. This means no updates. On the other hand, by the time I get back, the next patch for SE4 should be out, and I can incorporate those changes

Derek

[Shadowstar]

In my ongoing development of Starscape, I've included a much more detailed level of ground combat.

I've got 3 types of infantry: small, medium, and large, they don't require any kind of "bridge" and are very cheap. The research is also cheap, you research "Infantry" (there is no more "Troop" research field)

The other type of ground unit you can develop is Ground Vehicles, researchable as "Mechanized/Mechanical Combat". This field costs more to research and the units are more expensive (as well as much bigger), but have alot of advantages over infantry.

There are 4 types of ground vehicles: small, medium, large, and assault (real big). Most of these vehicles can mount some of the larger "small" weapons that normally appear on ships, whereas infantry can't. Additionally, I've added vehicle mounts that only the ground vehicles can use, ranging from small vehicle (which is larger than the "normal" mount - intended for infantry), medium vehicle, and large vehicle (real big).

Although ground combat isn't as detailed in the game as Space Combat, I figure that's no reason I can't make it more interesting... Obviously, vehicles are better to use than Infantry, but are more costly and require control centers. I also created a sort of aux. bridge for the vehicles. If the pilot is killed, a computer system can kick in and pilot the vehicle to safety. You have to research computers as well as mech combat to get it. Dunno if it will actually be of any use though.

Anyway, if Derek wanted to include something like this in his next update, it would be cool for me to see how these ideas would actually work, as Starscape is still a long way from completion. I've got a bunch of new ship types and I want to make new shipsets for the existing Starscape races. Right now, I'm just trying to put together a generic race set. I've also still got to work on AI and get it fixed up to work with the new features.

I'm thinking of borrowing (with permission) components from Derek's mod too. They would work well in Starscape with some of the new ideas I'm experimenting with.

So, how bout it? Can I borrow them?

[Suicide Junkie]

Note that damage to troops is not tracked at the component level. Either the entire troop fully operational, or it is completely destroyed.
Any "backup" components will never be used.

Also, be watch the damage per kt on the weapons.
A meson bLaster may do 20 damage using 20 kT, but a small meson bLaster does 5 damage using only 2 kT.

[Shadowstar]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Note that damage to troops is not tracked at the component level. Either the entire troop fully operational, or it is completely destroyed.
Any "backup" components will never be used.

Also, be watch the damage per kt on the weapons.
A meson bLaster may do 20 damage using 20 kT, but a small meson bLaster does 5 damage using only 2 kT.

Ok, so I can remove the emergency backup system for the vehicles.

I haven't actually changed any of the weapons around, aside from the ground cannon which I'm developing into more of an infantry-only weapon (renaming it combat kits I, II, and III - basically provides enough standard issue weapons/equipment for the entire unit.) Right now the only thing preventing a player from using combat kits on a vehicle is that the combat kits are pretty useless for anything but infantry.

It's still in development, but I'm thinking about creating a whole set of weapons designed specifically for infantry. They would be small enough so that infantry could carry them, but I would also like to prevent vehicles from mounting them in huge masses (I think it would look and work strangely). I suppose the best way to do that is by using damage per kt, and just give the troop weapons a worse ratio, and low building/maintenance costs so that they are ideal for infantry.

What effect (if any) does weapon range have on ground combat? Or is it all about the damage?

[Spoo]

What effect (if any) does weapon range have on ground combat? Or is it all about the damage?

As I understand it, range dosen't matter. Only damage.