Unique ruins techs

[Master Belisarius]

Talking about the standard SE4 files, I never use the special tech for the same reasons that Jubala wrote, then, in my view is ok if the AI doesn't use the special tech...

[capnq]

quote:

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A good alternative may be a tech that enhances. Possibly one that boosts your existing cloak tech by 1 (then you could get to level 5 but not in 1 jump) or a 'conservation optimizer' that saves 20% on fuel and weapon consumption.

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The "normal" ruins already do the former; they give you one level in 1-3 regular techs. If you don't have the tech, you get Level 1; otherwise, you get the next level of the tech.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[jc173]

I think I've seen some of the TDM races (I think it was EA?) have the massive shield depeleter as the primary weapon of choice for boarding ships. Granted this is a limited example and hard to confirm if it would be useful since the AI builds so few of them if any. The Darloks also seem to have space reserved for planetary shields on their colonies. Unfortunately from my experience with fighting the Rage, I've found that the massive planetary shields are useless against phased weapons.

[rdouglass]

quote:

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Originally posted by capnq:
[BThe "normal" ruins already do the former; they give you one level in 1-3 regular techs. If you don't have the tech, you get Level 1; otherwise, you get the next level of the tech.[/b]

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That wasn't quite what I meant. I didn't mean jumping your current level - I meant making a component available that would boost your current tech / components. For instance (using the Cloaking example), there is not a Cloak Level 5 device. If you found the ruin, you could put a Cloak Level 4 and the 'enhancing component' to get you to level 5. IOW, you could NOT get there by normal tech research, ONLY by getting the ruins. That's the way the MSD's and Planetary Shields are now....

Another ruin could possibly give you enhanced engines that use fewer supplies, etc.

[DirectorTsaarx]

I haven't noticed the AI using the massive engine-destroying weapon; of course, I haven't seen the AI using the "standard" engine destroying weapons either (one of the SE3 races used it quite a bit; THAT was a pain). Nor have I seen the AI use the weapon-destroying weapons.

As for shield depleters - I've seen one AI race actually use normal shield depleters; I don't know if they'd use the massive shield depleters or not. Personally, I don't use them very often because of the 30-turn reload time. I'm about to test the massive engine depleters, mainly because I finally found that tech for the first time; I've used the massive shield depleter in the past, but it was of limited use. I've NEVER bothered with the neural net component, and I've only built one or two of the planetary shield facilities.

[Deathstalker]

For the standard engine destroyers try the Pyrochette race (sp?) they use the engine destroyer as one of their main weapons combined with temporal weapons. Quite nasty.

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[PvK]

Well, how about, for example, if the ruins gave a special tech which say, gave a basic low-level cloaking device that was slightly different from the existing one, and was also a prerequisite for level 5 cloak, in addition to level 4 cloak. In this way, the special tech would give a toy immediately, would not make physics and cloaking research obsolete, and would allow level 5 cloaking device, eventually.

PvK

quote:

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Originally posted by rdouglass:
That wasn't quite what I meant. I didn't mean jumping your current level - I meant making a component available that would boost your current tech / components. For instance (using the Cloaking example), there is not a Cloak Level 5 device. If you found the ruin, you could put a Cloak Level 4 and the 'enhancing component' to get you to level 5. IOW, you could NOT get there by normal tech research, ONLY by getting the ruins. That's the way the MSD's and Planetary Shields are now....

Another ruin could possibly give you enhanced engines that use fewer supplies, etc.

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[Master Belisarius]

quote:

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Originally posted by Deathstalker:
For the standard engine destroyers try the Pyrochette race (sp?) they use the engine destroyer as one of their main weapons combined with temporal weapons. Quite nasty.

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Yea Deathstalker... I have included the Engine Destroyer inside the Pyrochette ships. And was because I remembered my old races in SE3 with this cool weapon, and wanted to see it again in SE4!

[Mark Walton]

A possible solution to Ruins Tech:

Make them the "seed" for a new tech tree. This allows them to be improved upon.

My mod (in testing) allows weapons with a better rate of fire, and a few other options. examples:

Name := Ultra-Tech Shield Depleters
Group := Weapon Technology
Description := Weapons designed to deplete all of a target's shields.
Maximum Level := 3
Level Cost := 50000
Start Level := 0
Raise Level := 0
Racial Area := 0
Unique Area := 0
Can Be Removed := True
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Massive Shield Depleting Weapons
Tech Level Req 1 := 1

Name := Ultratech Shield Depleter I
Description := Massive gamma radiation beam which saps all of a target's shields but does no other damage.
Pic Num := 198
Tonnage Space Taken := 100
Tonnage Structure := 100
Cost Minerals := 2000
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 1000
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat
Supply Amount Used := 100
Restrictions := None
General Group := Weapons
Family := 2043
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Ultra-Tech Shield Depleters
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 0
Weapon Type := Direct Fire
Weapon Target := Ships\Planets\Ftr\Sat
Weapon Damage At Rng := 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Weapon Damage Type := Shields Only
Weapon Reload Rate := 15
Weapon Display Type := Beam
Weapon Display := 16
Weapon Modifier := 0
Weapon Sound := shlddepl.wav
Weapon Family := 37

Name := Ultratech Shield Depleter II
Description := Massive gamma radiation beam which saps all of a target's shields but does no other damage.
Pic Num := 198
Tonnage Space Taken := 100
Tonnage Structure := 100
Cost Minerals := 2000
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 1500
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat
Supply Amount Used := 100
Restrictions := None
General Group := Weapons
Family := 2043
Roman Numeral := 2
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Ultra-Tech Shield Depleters
Tech Level Req 1 := 2
Number of Abilities := 0
Weapon Type := Direct Fire
Weapon Target := Ships\Planets\Ftr\Sat
Weapon Damage At Rng := 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Weapon Damage Type := Shields Only
Weapon Reload Rate := 10
Weapon Display Type := Beam
Weapon Display := 16
Weapon Modifier := 0
Weapon Sound := shlddepl.wav
Weapon Family := 37

Name := Ultratech Shield Depleter III
Description := Massive gamma radiation beam which saps all of a target's shields but does no other damage.
Pic Num := 198
Tonnage Space Taken := 100
Tonnage Structure := 100
Cost Minerals := 2000
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 2000
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat
Supply Amount Used := 100
Restrictions := None
General Group := Weapons
Family := 2043
Roman Numeral := 3
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Ultra-Tech Shield Depleters
Tech Level Req 1 := 2
Number of Abilities := 0
Weapon Type := Direct Fire
Weapon Target := Ships\Planets\Ftr\Sat
Weapon Damage At Rng := 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Weapon Damage Type := Shields Only
Weapon Reload Rate := 5
Weapon Display Type := Beam
Weapon Display := 16
Weapon Modifier := 0
Weapon Sound := shlddepl.wav
Weapon Family := 37

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Name := Ultra-Tech Shields
Group := Applied Science
Description := Massive shield generators which can protect an entire planet, or offer unrivalled protection for a vessel.
Maximum Level := 3
Level Cost := 50000
Start Level := 0
Raise Level := 0
Racial Area := 0
Unique Area := 0
Can Be Removed := True
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Massive Planetary Shielding
Tech Level Req 1 := 1

Name := Ultratech Shield Generator I
Description := Generator which creates an energy field around a starship preventing damage.
Pic Num := 31
Tonnage Space Taken := 30
Tonnage Structure := 30
Cost Minerals := 1000
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 1000
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Shields
Family := 11
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 2
Tech Area Req 1 := Shields
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Tech Area Req 2 := Ultra-Tech Shields
Tech Level Req 2 := 1
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Shield Generation
Ability 1 Descr := Generates 100 shield points.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 100
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 1 Type := Shield Regeneration
Ability 1 Descr := Regenerates 50 shield points per turn.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 50
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

Name := Ultratech Phased Shield Generator I
Description := Generator which creates an energy field around a starship preventing damage.
Pic Num := 31
Tonnage Space Taken := 30
Tonnage Structure := 30
Cost Minerals := 1000
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 1000
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Shields
Family := 11
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 2
Tech Area Req 1 := Shields
Tech Level Req 1 := 6
Tech Area Req 2 := Ultra-Tech Shields
Tech Level Req 2 := 1
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Phased Shield Generation
Ability 1 Descr := Generates 100 shield points.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 100
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 1 Type := Shield Regeneration
Ability 1 Descr := Regenerates 50 shield points per turn.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 50
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None


.... and so on.

I think this works with the ideas about cloaking - add Massive Cloak tech, but the tech items require both the ruins tech AND regular cloaking tech.

I will be thinking soon about new ruins techs, with the goal of creating mega-rare crossover ultra-techs. (facilities and components which require 2 ruins techs to create...!) I certainly want to create ultra-tech which helps counter or replicate racial unique abilities... more ideas liek the super-cloak, which only have any function when used in conjucntion with regular tech.. and more.

UNTESTED : Haven't tried transferring the ultratechs to another race : logically they would not be able to understand them though.

[Suicide Junkie]

Actually, since the ultra-tech area in not a racial or ruins tech, and since it has a runis tech prerequisite;
Other races will be able to trade/steal it, but not research it.