Alpha Centauri Mod Discussion Thread - Page 3

Chronon · #21 July 8th, 2003, 04:36 PM

Thanks Fyron, for pointing out the 20 races glitch. Perhaps we can have some of the usual suspects from SEIV fill out the more exotic habitat niches (EEE, for example). The image mod sounds good, too. The less work we have to do, the more likely we are to actually finish this mod.

Taera - You're right that the humans could research some of the Progenitor tech in SMAC, but that doesn't mean we have to do it in our mod. I think we can be creative around the theme, rather than stay strictly within the confines of SMAC. I thought it would be more fun (and realistic?) if the Progenitors had their own tree. That way they would be very different from the other factions in play style. Perhaps a few of their techs could be in the ruins as well - that would be a nice mirror to the ruins on Planet. But, if you feel strongly that we should have one tree with all the techs in it, I can be convinced to do it that way.

Taera · #22 July 8th, 2003, 07:15 PM

no i dont feel like it, actually i dont like the fact you can research it in SMACX

mirror-techs would be very nice. What i mean is progenitor techs put into ruins. But what about progenitors themselves then?

Chronon · #23 July 8th, 2003, 07:45 PM

Yes, I think it would be fun to have one or two of the low level Progenitor techs in ruins for the humans to discover.

As far as the Progenitors themselves, they should have their own facilities and weapons in their tech tree. Some of them we can take directly from SMAC (the Manifolds, Borehole Cluster, Resonance Laser,and Resonance Armor), but we'll need to create much of this ourselves (shields, sensors, resource gathering, research, etc.). Again, I don't think this tree needs to be incredibly intricate, just different (and well balanced with the others).

The other thing I was thinking about was a separate tree for Psionics. Or should we leave it in the main shared tree? If it were a separate racial tech, the Cult, Gaians, and Progenitors would have access, and the others would not (although we might put some generic defense against Psionics - like the empath song - in the shared tree). I'm not sure about this idea. What do you think?

Chronon · #24 July 14th, 2003, 05:45 AM

Just checking in to let you know what I've been working on.

I've spent the Last week trying to figure out how to mod the race style AI for the Verdurans. I have to admit that it has been very difficult (and tedious), and I still don't really know what all the numbers mean in all the text files. Still, by experimentation (and blatant plagiarism), I have managed a generally functional, if not spectacular, AI. I am hoping that this experience will provide the basic foundation for making race styles in the AC Mod.

So, once I'm done with the Verdurans, I'll start getting into the data files for the AC Mod - probably the tech areas first.

PS. Hugh, we haven't heard from you in a while. Are you still interested in doing the tech trees?

Taera · #25 July 14th, 2003, 09:38 PM

Ok everyone, here's an idea i had - do you remember that in AC the units work by "all or nothing" principle, meaning that a 10% unit is still fully functionable? well, we can implement that by having all components have like 1hp and armor be very strong - but once its beat down.. well... its beat down!

Loser · #26 July 14th, 2003, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Taera:
Ok everyone, here's an idea i had - do you remember that in AC the units work by "all or nothing" principle, meaning that a 10% unit is still fully functionable? well, we can implement that by having all components have like 1hp and armor be very strong - but once its beat down.. well... its beat down!

That would be exactly how Units work in SE IV. Of course, there is still the whole 'stacking' thing to work with. And all the stuff that doesn't work on Units. And the way they don't cost maintainance...

Taera · #27 July 15th, 2003, 03:00 AM

well, they do cost maintenance back in SMAC - and with -2 on support you do feel it

Chronon · #28 July 15th, 2003, 03:40 AM

That's a very interesting idea, Taera. I'm sure we could make it work just as you outlined (or using shields instead). If I remember correctly (is the correct acronym IIRC?), "Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournell had a system where the shields built up energy and if they were overloaded they collapsed, destroying the ship.

I wonder, though, do we really want to do it that way? I would like to use the AC theme as a general basis for the mod, but I would also like it to be a very fun Space Empires game as well. And one of the things that I don't find fun about SEIV is the all or nothing combat (two fleets enter, one fleet leaves almost entirely intact). I would much prefer to see something more evenly balanced. If you have a battle that's roughly equal (5 destroyers versus 5 destroyers) then the results should be pretty devastating on both sides (5 half-destroyed ships on each side, or 3 completely destroyed ships and 2 badly damaged ones). That's why I would prefer to have leaky shields and leaky armor, less potent training facilities (or none at all), and less potent ECM and Combat sensors (perhaps 1% or 2% per level instead of 10%). Of course, I am always willing to be persuaded otherwise...

PS. Another thing I don't like is mines (the AI can't deal with them, and human players easily overcome them), which I would like to eliminate entirely.

Taera · #29 July 15th, 2003, 06:57 AM

OK Chronon, i agree with you - its the theme thats important, not the game system. My bad, got confused for a moment

p.s here's a thought - how we gonna put abilities for units? i mean, ECM, Deep Radar, etc.

Hugh Manatee · #30 July 17th, 2003, 07:13 AM

Quote:

PS. Hugh, we haven't heard from you in a while. Are you still interested in doing the tech trees?

Yes. Just give me a little time to read some of the SE4 mod tutorials and such and finish a couple of other pet prodjects of mine and I'm all for it.