Adamant Mod Discussion Thread

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
[QB]

quote:

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Note that it is Deeply Religious, not Religious. I see nothing wrong with a race that is not Deeply Religious being able to make temples. They are not at all like Shrines, just happiness facilities. Religion played a more prominent role in the medieval ages of Europe than it does today in the US, and that is where the Magic races are sort of set. At least, the historical aspects.

Makes sense

Frigates were massive ships in the Age of Sail, unlike the modern usage of frigate. As the magic races are set around there somewhere, it made sense to use Frigate (as well as a lot of other medieval and later sail ships). I don't think it will be too confusing, but if it ends up confusing people, I have no idea what else to call the ships.

Yeah, guess they were, since in the Age of Sail they were only at level 2 of Ship Construction

Seriously though, want other archaic sounding names? How about trireme? Are triremes big ships? (Are they even military ships or are they merchantmen? Why are they called merchantMEN when ships are referred to as "she", anyway?) Hmm, I'm not too good on marine history

Yeah there is. It is available to Physical races, between the Escort and Light Frigate in size and tech req.

Must have missed it... kinda odd by the way to have some hulls saying "defense bonus from small size, maintenance penalty from large size" - I know size is relative, but it is a bit weird

I wasn't quite sure what to put in them, and I have loaned my Psionics Handbook (D&D) to a friend, so can't really fill them all up.

So you DO play D&D! And you try to seem like you're above that!

It makes it a little more likely that they will be selected to be damaged when the ship is hit, as most internals have 10 hit points. They have 11, and so are more likely to be hit than if they had only 10.

Hmmm, how devious... give them just enough hitpoints so they're hit more often, but not enough to really make a difference when it comes to being destroyed... Maybe Aaron was up to something when he gave engines 20 hitpoints; I always thought he just figured they were too vulnerable so he beefed them up, but maybe he was making them easier to hit...

[quote]

How about if the different crew quarters levels provided maintenance bonuses and penalties? You know, you're more likely to take care of the ship when you're taken care of yourself

Hmm... what bonuses would you suggest?

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Well, since you seemed to go with the idea that only the luxury crew quarters is without penalties (as opposed to the standard being +0 combat, the luxury being +x, and the basic being -x), how about a 2% maintenance penalty for the standard quarters and a 4% for the basic? Nothing big or anything... well at least if you don't have any stellar manipulation ships!

quote:

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How can the Religious Talisman be placed on satellites or drones?

It can't at present. If only we could just make our own list of vehicle sizes allowed and such.

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Sorry, I wasn't so clear with that question; what I meant is that satellites and drones are in the allowable vehicle types, when it really only makes sense for ships, bases, and weapons platforms. (How are you supposed to have fanatical priests doing their thing on an unmanned vehicle? ) The War and Death talismans only go on ships and bases... if it's an issue of there's no Ship\Base\WeapPlat designator, you could have 2 copies of the Talisman, one for ships\bases and the other for WP's; maybe make the WP one bulkier/more expensive since it has the power to affect an entire planet full of weapon platforms, not just one like the ship Version can...

They do have weaker armor. Their armors have 10% fewer hit points than equivalent levels of Physical race armor. You think I should make them even weaker?

Oh, I guess I didn't notice; I thought they were the same. Still, it seems kinda funny for them to even be in the same ballpark... wooden ships vs. what's the basic Physical armor? ROFL! Monitor vs. Merrimack anyone? Of course, then magical shields would have to be MUCH more powerful to balance magic races out...

They don't get built in cloaks. Look closely: the number of abilities is set to 0, so they have no built in abilities in-game. I just did not want to delete the ability lines in case I later decided to give them built-in cloaking again.

And the game actually loads those files, it doesn't choke on the extra lines?!

True. They were useful before I added boarding defense to a lot of comps to make them susceptible to Mental Shredders and such. I will remove the Neutron Cannon (BP).

Might as well remove the (SS) designation as well, since it does affect crew quarters and boarding parties...

[Fyron]

Yeah, guess they were, since in the Age of Sail they were only at level 2 of Ship Construction

Actually, if we were doing Age of Sail, the Frigate name would be used for a ship of about Ship Construction 8... it is not at all the same as the stock SE4 Frigate.

Seriously though, want other archaic sounding names? How about trireme? Are triremes big ships? (Are they even military ships or are they merchantmen? Why are they called merchantMEN when ships are referred to as "she", anyway?) Hmm, I'm not too good on marine history

Triremes were pretty much all warships. They were also smaller than most of the ships I have used, and oar-driven. All of the ships I used were capable of being driven by sails (and were), even Galleys.

Must have missed it... kinda odd by the way to have some hulls saying "defense bonus from small size, maintenance penalty from large size" - I know size is relative, but it is a bit weird

Those would be typoes.

So you DO play D&D! And you try to seem like you're above that!

I have said countless times that D&D is the primary inspiration of the Magic races... :P

Well, since you seemed to go with the idea that only the luxury crew quarters is without penalties (as opposed to the standard being +0 combat, the luxury being +x, and the basic being -x), how about a 2% maintenance penalty for the standard quarters and a 4% for the basic? Nothing big or anything... well at least if you don't have any stellar manipulation ships!

That was to prevent someone from adding just one Luxurious CQ and the rest Standard CQ to get the bonus, but without giving up all the space.

Sorry, I wasn't so clear with that question; what I meant is that satellites and drones are in the allowable vehicle types, when it really only makes sense for ships, bases, and weapons platforms. (How are you supposed to have fanatical priests doing their thing on an unmanned vehicle? ) The War and Death talismans only go on ships and bases... if it's an issue of there's no Ship\Base\WeapPlat designator, you could have 2 copies of the Talisman, one for ships\bases and the other for WP's; maybe make the WP one bulkier/more expensive since it has the power to affect an entire planet full of weapon platforms, not just one like the ship Version can...

Oh... the sats could be blessed or something.

Oh, I guess I didn't notice; I thought they were the same. Still, it seems kinda funny for them to even be in the same ballpark... wooden ships vs. what's the basic Physical armor? ROFL! Monitor vs. Merrimack anyone? Of course, then magical shields would have to be MUCH more powerful to balance magic races out...

The armor is magically enchanted, of course.

And the game actually loads those files, it doesn't choke on the extra lines?!

They are not extra lines, they are expected lines. So no, it does not choke.

Might as well remove the (SS) designation as well, since it does affect crew quarters and boarding parties...

Oh, I did that already.

More Sneak Peak Goodness

Version 0.12.02:
1. Added - Added Star - Unstable and Palace ability description tag to the following weapons mentioning that their armor skipping ability does not trigger the extra shields from damage ability of leaky shields: Null - Space Projector, Temporal Shifter, Shard Cannon, Graviton Hellbore.
2. Fixed - Tower of Protection technology is now in Racial Area 60.
3. Fixed - Phased - Shield Generators now use the correct picture instead of the normal Shield Generator picture.
4. Added - Advanced Storage Techniques Version of the Drone Launcher.
5. Fixed - Contagion tech area is now in Racial Area 60.
6. Fixed - Invisibility tech area is now in Racial Area 60.
7. Fixed - Renamed Radioactive Resource Warehouse to Mana Resource Warehouse.
8. Changed - Hunter-Killer Drones are now in Family 2026 instead of 2025.
9. Fixed - Magic race fighters (Astral Monsters) were missing.
10. Changed - Added the Depleted Uranium Cannon back into the mod.
11. Changed - Colony Modules can now only be placed on Ships.
12. Added - Readded hybrid colony modules.
13. Changed - Increased research cost of Advanced Military Theory from 15000 to 25000.
14. Added - Magic and Organic themed alternate Main.bmp button graphics, by General Woundwort.
15. Added - Physical themed alternate Main.bmp button graphics, by David E. Gervais.
16. Added - Fibroin Weave for Organic Races, which is the high level armor component with the Armor ability.
17. Fixed - Cellulose Shells tech area now requires Chitin Shells instead of Armor.
18. Fixed - Spelling error in description of Inherent Regeneration racial trait.
19. Removed - Neutron Cannon (BP) is now pointless, as the Neutron Cannon (SS) can already destroy Boarding Parties. So, it has been removed. Neutron Cannon (SS) is now just Neutron Cannon.
20. Fixed - Point Defense Cannons and Flak Cannons now list their bonuses to hit in their ability tags.
21. Changed - PDC bonuses to hit now range from 20 to 70 instead of 70 at all levels.
22. Changed - Flak Cannon bonuses to hit now range from 10 to 40 instead of 70 at all levels.

[ August 12, 2003, 06:03: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[FMMonty]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
FMMonty:
Any progress or ideas you want to run by me or anything?

Must say I decided not to worry about names until later in the process, until I hit a snag. I was cheerfully making up df weapons with no concept of what the rational behind why the weapon does the damage would be.

So, I am currently thinking of a number of seeking weapon types (think wasps), some very short range melee type attacks (claws, bite, tenticles).

The other things could be a spit type weapon, and maybe some spike shooter ideas.

I do wonder about making the ships primarily seeker armed with melee weapons, but that would require very careful balancing. Up to you, how do you see their weapon Groups progressing?

[Fyron]

Primarily missiles and short range (melee) weapons doesn't really fit with Organic races. It might if they were actually wasps or something, but they are not. More of a general organicy type race. They would definitely need some weapons like the Organic Manipulation tech tree weapons. They should have some powerful melee type weapons, but also some longer ranged ones too.

[Fyron]

I have decided to use a new Intro pic. You can get it here:

800x600 - 450 KB
1024x768 - 1.39 MB

They are self-extracing RAR archives (as ZIP sucks...), so you do not need any archive program to extract them.

Extract them into the Adamant\Pictures\Game\800x600 or the Adamant\Pictures\Game\1024x768 folder.

Edit:
Ok, SE4 is just stupid. On 1024x768 resolution, a 800x600 intro pic makes the text buttons have a white background. On 1280x1024, they have the normal black background.

This image comes from Birth of the Federation, copyright some time by Microprose.

[ August 25, 2003, 10:32: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Fyron]

Ok, I have decided to change the intro pic just a tad. You can get a preview here:

http://spaceempires.net/files/Intro.jpg

[Atrocities]

I need to get the newest Version of your AI defualt files to I can avoid the errors at the start of the game. The file you sent me Last night did not fix it.

[Fyron]

Version 0.13.00 has been released! Check out thie History file for the latest changes:

http://adamant.spaceempires.net/History.txt

[Fyron]

I have been adding descriptions to the various vehicle sizes in the mod. Here is my work so far: VehicleSizes.txt

If you view this file, comments/suggestions are REQUIRED.

[Fyron]

Don't make me bump this incessantly.