Mount Mod for v1.78

[jimbob]

Some of the components that I cannot rationally see being miniturized ; a bridge, crew qtrs... ...and colony modules.

Perhaps these components would not get smaller due to miniaturization, but cryogenic freezing and suspended animation should decrease their masses. These could be mounts that you get when you research biology (which is horribly lacking in my opinion).

[AJC]

Originally posted by jimbob:
Perhaps these components would not get smaller due to miniaturization, but cryogenic freezing and suspended animation should decrease their masses.

I am not sure how would this reduce their mass? a million people takes up the same amount of space frozen or not.

I guess you dont have to feed them when they are frozen, however I always assumed this is what a colony module was all about anyway,
because the numbers of population being transported in the base game is beyond ridiculous and to actually transport that many people you would HAVE to put them into a cryogenic sleep or build a massive generation ship.

One of the things I didnt like in the DS mount mod was that a destroyer could become a colony ship because the colony module is miniturized.

In my mind Colonyships should be the biggest things flying in space...carrying whole populations , construction equipment and their native ecosystems on board.

[ September 04, 2002, 20:54: Message edited by: AJC ]

[jimbob]

Well, there are definitely numerous ways of looking at the problem of people transport in the SEIV world. With no cryogenics described verbatum I thought there would be some wiggle room to make things interesting. The mount wouldn't bring the component mass/volume to 25% or zero or anything drastic, because as you said:

In my mind Colonyships should be the biggest things flying in space...carrying whole populations , construction equipment and their native ecosystems on board.

So the colony start up equipment would still need to be pressent, including (potentially) a whole dome structure for planets with the wrong atmosphere. The mount would simply 'trim down' the tonnage. For example the ecosystems could also be on ice; the nutrient recycling systems, air scrubbers, all other things need to support actively metabolizing life forms could be significantly reduced if not eliminated. As a result you could perhaps reduce the tonnage by 10 to 20%. This is a subtle change, but that could be 4 to 8 extra engines, or perhaps more supply pods for improved range.

Likewise the crew quarters, if the crew is usually hybernating, then the life support requirements would be far more high output/short term mechanisms rather than long term/low output machines. So the mass could probably drop on both the crew quarters and life support system by perhaps 10 - 20%. But maybe the cost of these structures would increase a bit due to the specialized viving/reviving systems.

Anyway, just some thoughts, use 'em if they're helpful to you.

cheers
jimbob

[AJC]

interesting thoughts - Maybe reducing it enough to allow for additional resupply on a colony ship hull would work
I will have to ponder that thought for a few... and experiment....see what I can come up with...

Another possibility is a mount that doesnt neccessarily reduce size - but reduces the cost of the colony module.

[ September 05, 2002, 19:40: Message edited by: AJC ]

[capnq]

You might want to check out the Proportions mod; population in that has to be moved 1M at a time.

[jimbob]

Right on both points (capnQ and AJC). Perhaps the kT size could stay the same, but it can carry more people (I guess this could be far more significant in the Proportions mod)

[AJC]

well I added a colony mount -
its on the PBW or you can get it in the mod forum. (see original link in this thread).

I added the colony mount to the end of the mount list - so it wont mess up any games in progress.

The Ai uses all the mounts. This mod does not affect the base games tech tree and does not add any components to the base game.

v5
1. Fixed description of computer mounts to remove old antivirus description.
2. Added colony module. (Idea is that nanobots allow colonies to leave with less equipment and supplies which reduces the size and cost of the colony module).

[ September 09, 2002, 00:05: Message edited by: AJC ]

[AJC]

v5.1

I just uploaded a slightly adjusted mod - the intro screen adjusted to indicate that the mod is loading from the correct folder.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=50;t=000002