STM "Final v1.7.5" Discussion

[Sabin]

Perhaps the Guardian of Forever's planet can be pre-colonized by a "dummy" civilization. Also, I suppose the Guardian of Forever's inability to survive destruction can add to the game: Those who wish to possess it will have to be careful, or they may prompt their enemie to destroy it.

Also, no doubt you are wondering why I think the map should be improved. In my opinion, I think that if the map is well-designed, it can significantly enhance a game by having many special events and objects. Usually, when a map or something similar seems to be "alive" it increases the enjoyment of the players, and gives them something to concentrate on at various times.

[Tnarg]

Originally posted by Sabin:
I have some ideas for the Star Trek Map. Mind you, they may have been already implemented or are not very good.

1: Add the "Dyson's Sphere", which was featured in at least one book. It seemed to be similar to a Sphereworld. Adding it in may make the gameplay more varied.(everyone trying to take it, ect.)

2: Begin renaming the planets in each system to their regular titles.(Sol I to Earth, ect.) I would also think that making the descriptions for homeworld planets and other sigificant items more specific would be helpful.

3: Add the Guardian of Forever. Perhaps it can be a facility that can never be destroyed or built.(Thus keeping it to one planet) I am not sure what powers it may have specifically, but perhaps it can aid in research, intelligence, and so on.

4: Perhaps add in a damaging barrier that would be disabled after a number of turns.(It had much to do with The Original Series, since it limited space exploration and destroyed any ships that attempted to cross it, or subverted their crew.)

They probably can be nebulas, in that they can represent a number of abilities.

Sabin, A long time ago I was playing around with a map for the AST Mod. You can find it in the PBW map files under Trek Major Systems Map. I did try to make the map a little more interesting by doing some of the items you mentioned ie naming of major planets, making some homeworld larger or smaller, giving the Borg a ring world starting planet, and isolating various quadrants with black holes to keep the uber races in there own quad until later in the game. A number of other things too.

I abandoned the project as there was a lack of interest, but would be interested in trying to get it too work with this mod if there were enough interest. Mostly I just need to figure out how to get this map to be compatible with this mod, and then I would resume work. I have most of the races and nuetral races systems strategically located throughout the map and used a number of resources to find my information.

If you are interested let me know and I'll see what I can do to get this to work. In the mean time you can download it and check it out in a map editor.

[Fyron]

You can use abilities such as "Planet Point Generation Modifier - Research" as an ability on a planet. You could set it to, say, 100, and it would make all research on that planet doubled. This will not stack with the Central Computer Complex type facilities though, but that should not be a problem.

[Fyron]

I abandoned the project as there was a lack of interest, but would be interested in trying to get it too work with this mod if there were enough interest. Mostly I just need to figure out how to get this map to be compatible with this mod, and then I would resume work. I have most of the races and nuetral races systems strategically located throughout the map and used a number of resources to find my information

If the map was made with non-FQM Deluxe data files, I think that the only way to do that would be to load it up in the map editor with STM enabled, and then editing every single object in every system to have a correct picture. If the map was made with FQM Deluxe data files, it should work fine in STM.

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Tnarg:
Mostly I just need to figure out how to get this map to be compatible with this mod, and then I would resume work.

I did this with my trek map and it was a friggen nightmare. It involved making a temporary Sectype.txt file that had warp points located at the place in the file the same as the original sectype.txt and the FQM secytype file and then changing the image of all the warp points so that it would correspond to one in the FQM file.

They easy way would be to pack it with the Secttype.txt file you used to create it. Of course then those that use it would probably want to created a second install of the trek mod so they don't overwrite the secttype.txt included with it.

[TNZ]

It seem in Star Trek a ship phaser/energy weapons have a maximum range of 300,000km, Photon Torpedo have a maximum range of 3,000,000km and Quantum Torpedo have a maximum range of 4,050,000km. There is no size difference between Photon Torpedo and Quantum Torpedo. Federation ships just have less Quantum Torpedoes than Photon Torpedoes because of the complexities involved with the manufacturing of Quantum Torpedoes. But as always canon information should be taken in context with a view to game mechanics.

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

quote:

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I abandoned the project as there was a lack of interest, but would be interested in trying to get it too work with this mod if there were enough interest. Mostly I just need to figure out how to get this map to be compatible with this mod, and then I would resume work. I have most of the races and nuetral races systems strategically located throughout the map and used a number of resources to find my information

If the map was made with non-FQM Deluxe data files, I think that the only way to do that would be to load it up in the map editor with STM enabled, and then editing every single object in every system to have a correct picture. If the map was made with FQM Deluxe data files, it should work fine in STM.

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I seem to recall that if the map is made with the standard data files then you can't do this because the Map editor crashes when you select a warp point. (I think it was mostly just the warp points that looked wrong)

[Sabin]

I am interested in it, and the other patrons of the forum seem interested or at least wish to help. Truth be told, I don't know much about editing maps very well. My assistance would be somewhat limited.(I only created a single map, one heavily unbalanced to my favor, in an unmodded Version of the game.)

Perhaps I can come up with some ideas as to what can be placed into the map, if my knowledge about Star-Trek is workable and in a suffient amount.

[Tnarg]

Originally posted by Sabin:
I am interested in it, and the other patrons of the forum seem interested or at least wish to help. Truth be told, I don't know much about editing maps very well. My assistance would be somewhat limited.(I only created a single map, one heavily unbalanced to my favor, in an unmodded Version of the game.)

Perhaps I can come up with some ideas as to what can be placed into the map, if my knowledge about Star-Trek is workable and in a suffient amount.

Seeing that there is interest in this I think I am going to do two things. One is edit the old one and see how well that patches up. I loaded it into the one of my Star Trek Mod (pre 1.91 and STM Version 1.3.5?)folders and it seemed to work alright, some of the images where a bit off from the original. I'll try that first.

Second, I think that I am going to design a new one from stratch so that there should never be a problem with the STM mod. I have all of the information, just need to do the leg work.

Any information and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Also I am very weak when it comes to posting such things for everyone else to use, so any help there would be greatly appreciated as well.

Give me a couple of days and I should have some results.

In the mean time, you can download the old one from PBW map site. AST Trek Major Systems Map if you want to look at the rough copy.

[TNZ]

On the question of analyzing technology. In my Battlestar Galactica Mod, I designed the technology and components as below. The Colonials were able to gain level 2 Propulsion technology from analyzing a Cylon ship with level 3 Propulsion technology.

Ion Drive Engine I
Number of Tech Req := 2
Tech Area Req 1 := Propulsion (all races research this technology field)
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Tech Area Req 2 := Colonial Technology (the racial technology area is used to stop the component being used by another race)

I don’t know if this is of any use.