SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Hugh Manatee]

I had an Idea about the colony dome thing Last night, What if you could just build more "domes" on a planet that is unbreathable? just put it in the construction que or have another colony modual land on the planet. Or perhaps a new type of modual, There are three types already, rock gas and ice, how about a 4th, "Domed", or make that a smaller thing you have to use in combination with the three colony components.

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Mephisto:
But the point is, that you can directly alter the way the AI does things in the game. At the moment, you can just adjust some values but cannot alter AI behaviour. For example, the AI will at the moment only scrap atmospheric converters after they have done the job. What Samurai is suggesting is, that if you don't like it, you write your own routines to teach the AI how to scrap different building and under what conditions. In effect it would allow you to write your own AI. I personally would love it and it has been suggested in the beta forums to Aaron. I hope he will implement it, even some simple if...then conditions would be of great help.

This is possible with text files, too. Yes, it would be nice if MM would give us control of more of the AI's decisions in the text files. I'd especially like to be able to select which planets to send colonizers to (size vs. resources vs. atmosphere) and which Intel projects to use. More complex chois ein existing controls woul dbe nice, too. You cannot teach the AI to use anything other than the default colony types which MM has created for it, for example. Why can't we have different scripts for 'large' and 'small' mineral mining worlds, or for worlds with a good level of several resources?

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Hugh Manatee:
I had an Idea about the colony dome thing Last night, What if you could just build more "domes" on a planet that is unbreathable? just put it in the construction que or have another colony modual land on the planet. Or perhaps a new type of modual, There are three types already, rock gas and ice, how about a 4th, "Domed", or make that a smaller thing you have to use in combination with the three colony components.

Or what if there was a facility to increase population capacity just like there is for cargo capacity. Another long-standing request.

I would like to see colonization changed, though. It should not be possible to live undomed on a non-native planet type. Gas giant planets aren't suddenly good environments for surface-dwelling creatures just because they have been altered to different gases. Gas-native races are 'flyers' or 'floaters' of various types, remember. So your colonies on non-native type worlds should be domed regardless of the atmosphere. Your race will always require special structures to live there.

[Fyron]

We all want SE3 like research!
(will this make AI research harder to mod?

Not by much. AI research modding would be identical to how it is in SE4. You would still specify the max number of techs to work on and the tech areas. You would have to decide whether to try to give different percantage rates in the different tech areas, or to use equal amounts. In SE3, the AIs researched technologies pretty well, so I guess it couldn't be too hard to mod what they do.

Actually, the only major difference is that you don't get extra points going into the next tech area, but into the next level of the same tech. But that isn't really a bad thing IMO.

[ February 23, 2003, 23:24: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
I would like to see colonization changed, though. It should not be possible to live undomed on a non-native planet type. Gas giant planets aren't suddenly good environments for surface-dwelling creatures just because they have been altered to different gases. Gas-native races are 'flyers' or 'floaters' of various types, remember. So your colonies on non-native type worlds should be domed regardless of the atmosphere. Your race will always require special structures to live there.

Of course, I can just as easily say that the SE4 universe represents a tech level similar to that of Star Wars, where colonizing a gas giant with a breathable atmosphere is no more difficult than building a standard repulsorlift platform. If you have the technology needed to build sphere/ringworlds, then atmosphere and planet types are non-issues to your race. You could easily cover then entire surface of a planet with a dome with those levels of construction abilities.

[Fyron]

SE4 is not at the tech level of Star Wars though. Not by far. It takes years to cross the galaxy with starting tech in SE4. SW ships take weeks.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
SE4 is not at the tech level of Star Wars though. Not by far. It takes years to cross the galaxy with starting tech in SE4. SW ships take weeks.

Their transportation is inferior, true, but their construction abilities are overwhelmingly superior. Building a ringworld or sphereworld is a task that makes building a Deathstar about as significant as me drawing a circle on a piece of paper.

[Nodachi]

Baron Munchausen pointed out:

I would like to see colonization changed, though. It should not be possible to live undomed on a non-native planet type. Gas giant planets aren't suddenly good environments for surface-dwelling creatures just because they have been altered to different gases. Gas-native races are 'flyers' or 'floaters' of various types, remember. So your colonies on non-native type worlds should be domed regardless of the atmosphere. Your race will always require special structures to live there.

With all due respect Baron, this is not completely accurate.

We'll assume a rock native population for this.

You have a domed colony on an ice world and your atmosphere converter just finished its job. You may now disassemble your dome, because you don't need it to hold in your atmosphere, and spread out. Of course your buildings must be heated but now you can put them anywhere you want.
Real World Example: Antarctica
Sci-Fi Example: Hoth

Now the fun one!
You have a domed colony on (should be in) a gas giant. How would this even be possible? Bubbles. A "domed" colony would be nothing more than an airtight bubble floating in the atmosphere. How does it float? Just like a ship in water. The higher atmospheric pressure of the planet would hold it up (we won't discuss keeping it in place ). Now your atmosphere converter has been working its little heart out and manages to convert the atmosphere. You can now build pylons on top of your bubbles tall enough to put platforms up where the pressure is more comfortable. With enough bubbles and platforms you get more usable space. If anything you should get more facility slots on a gas giant even if it's "domed" and tons more after the atmosphere has been converted. How many Earths would fit in Jupiter?
Real World Example: Yeah, right!
Sci-Fi Example: Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony

It all comes down to being able to use the space more efficiently. I'm not saying that all the physics involved are correct, but hey, this is science-fiction. I'm also not saying that the game should be changed to reflect these ideas, that would destroy game balance.

[raynfala]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mephisto:
But the point is, that you can directly alter the way the AI does things in the game. At the moment, you can just adjust some values but cannot alter AI behaviour. For example, the AI will at the moment only scrap atmospheric converters after they have done the job. What Samurai is suggesting is, that if you don't like it, you write your own routines to teach the AI how to scrap different building and under what conditions. In effect it would allow you to write your own AI. I personally would love it and it has been suggested in the beta forums to Aaron. I hope he will implement it, even some simple if...then conditions would be of great help.

This is possible with text files, too. Yes, it would be nice if MM would give us control of more of the AI's decisions in the text files. I'd especially like to be able to select which planets to send colonizers to (size vs. resources vs. atmosphere) and which Intel projects to use. More complex chois ein existing controls woul dbe nice, too. You cannot teach the AI to use anything other than the default colony types which MM has created for it, for example. Why can't we have different scripts for 'large' and 'small' mineral mining worlds, or for worlds with a good level of several resources?

---

Earlier I posted the suggestion that SE-V be architected using a client/server approach, where the game engine is the server, and the client(s) can be an AI program, the user interface, a third party's user interface, etc.

Same thing for ministers, too. I would love to be able to code my own ministers so that it would do exactly what I want it to do.

--Raynfala

[Aloofi]

Originally posted by Nodachi:
[QBYou have a domed colony on an ice world and your atmosphere converter just finished its job. You may now disassemble your dome, because you don't need it to hold in your atmosphere, and spread out. Of course your buildings must be heated but now you can put them anywhere you want.
Real World Example: Antarctica
Sci-Fi Example: Hoth

Now the fun one!
You have a domed colony on (should be in) a gas giant. How would this even be possible? Bubbles. A "domed" colony would be nothing more than an airtight bubble floating in the atmosphere. How does it float? Just like a ship in water. The higher atmospheric pressure of the planet would hold it up (we won't discuss keeping it in place ). Now your atmosphere converter has been working its little heart out and manages to convert the atmosphere. You can now build pylons on top of your bubbles tall enough to put platforms up where the pressure is more comfortable. With enough bubbles and platforms you get more usable space. If anything you should get more facility slots on a gas giant even if it's "domed" and tons more after the atmosphere has been converted. How many Earths would fit in Jupiter?
Real World Example: Yeah, right!
Sci-Fi Example: Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony

[/QB]

Nah....I don't agree. In an Ice planet, even with the right atmosphere type, you could never build as many buildings for the same price as in a rock planet. Ice planets would freeze anything. You would need far more heating power than in Antartica. And don't try to go out for a walk in the park. The other point is how many people would prefer to live in a freezing planet than in a cozy rock planet? Look at Alaska for a real life example.