Dark Nova Mod READY to Play!!

bearclaw · #1 July 14th, 2004, 01:54 AM

I'm in the process of finishing up my Dark Nova 4 Mod. For those of you who have played DN3 or eariler, I'm looking for suggestions and/improvements to be made.

For those of you who haven't played it, the origianl work was a compilation project to create a mod where diversity became paramount. By the EndGame, not everyone is running around with huge fleets of DN's armed with APB XII's. Instead, this mod combines aspects found in many other mods that increases diversity.
Some Highlights include
-Many many mounts
-30 shipsizes
-12 fighter sizes
-13 unique techs
edit- currently, the unique techs are up to 29 techs. Each one has at least 3 levels of research to them.
-re-vamped cloak/sensor system
-increased facility techs
-planetary shields
-more planet sizes.
-re-vamped Intel projects.
-specialized ships
-seperate tech tree for each hull type

and many more!

Dark Nova 3 mod is avalible on PBW and has most, but not all, of the above mentioned features.

Dark Nova 4 Mod is also on PBW, but has only standard AI (which will work but doesn't quite take full advantage of the mod). DN4 is still a work in progress as I expect some stuff will change before a PBW game is started with it, which I do plan before too long.

Please, if any of you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

[ July 16, 2004, 03:11: Message edited by: bearclaw ]

Paul1980au · #2 July 14th, 2004, 02:00 AM

You will have to upgrade for SE5

bearclaw · #3 July 14th, 2004, 02:27 AM

yeah, my plan is to have this pretty much where it should be and DN5 will be to match SE5.

Starhawk · #4 July 14th, 2004, 05:20 AM

Where do I find the other DN mods?

bearclaw · #5 July 14th, 2004, 06:12 AM

DN2 and DN3 are both avaliable from PBW. DN2 is much closer to stock SE4 except for a whole lot more vehicle/unit sizes (65 standard shipsizes alone). Also, DN2 has many Mounts.

DN3 has the same shipsizes but they are each hull type has it's own research tree (carriers, standard, colony, transports) and also adds a Tugboat shipsize.

Also, you'll find that in DN2 the research cost for ships is normal so it ends up costing more to develope destroyers than it takes to develope warp openers

Hence the changes to DN3.

If you are looking for Dark Nova 1, you won't find it. There isn't one. The original Dark Nova game was a stock SE4 game. It was the colletive work of the players in that game that started the mod.

bearclaw · #6 July 14th, 2004, 06:14 AM

Oh, and if anyone is willing to take a look at the AI to make it suitable for this mod, that would be great. Or at the very least, let me know how they could be made to work with the mod. I tried some changes but they made the AI even whimpier than usual.

Paul1980au · #7 July 14th, 2004, 07:05 AM

Well i find the best AI are ones that are strong in the following

Raised research, mining, ship building abilities
Have access to 2x psychic and temporal

This is just the way to make em play hard lol.

Atrocities · #8 July 14th, 2004, 07:21 AM

This is great news. The mod is awsome.

Aiken · #9 July 14th, 2004, 10:12 AM

Paul, the task is not to make best AI ever, but to make adequately working AI.

I think it's definetely possible to make default scripts for DN4 AI, since it doesn't change weapons and components much.

bearclaw, I guess, that stuff from unreleased DN3 patch went to DN4?

bearclaw · #10 July 14th, 2004, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by aiken:
Paul, the task is not to make best AI ever, but to make adequately working AI.

My attempts at changing the AI (which are in the DN4 Mod, by the way) was to try to get them to make use of the larger ship sizes, but the never did...

Quote:

Originally posted by aiken:
bearclaw, I guess, that stuff from unreleased DN3 patch went to DN4?

That's correct. The full Version todate of DN4 is on PBW. The only significant changes are reduced costs for some techs, increased levels of resource/research/Intel facilites and a new Ship Hull research tree- Specialized Hulls. Unless I'm mistaken, these changes don't really have much effect on AI right?

What I'm working on now are more unique tech levels, combo colony modules, moving Mine Sweepers to PD and 2 new mounts for Scout and Escort shipsizes.

I was also concidering some new traits and culture types, but the existing ones will all remain so those shouldn't have an effect on AI. Still not sure if those will get implemented.

[ July 14, 2004, 15:57: Message edited by: bearclaw ]