Devnull Mod is back!

geoschmo · #1 November 17th, 2001, 06:48 PM

The Devnull Mod is one of the early SEIV mods and developed quite a few fans, myself included. Unfortunatley we haven't heard much from Devnellicus lately, so I looked him up and got permission to re-release his mod and update it in time for the new CD. It's going to take some work, but hopefully I won't have to do it all myself. (hint, hint

)

I have posted Version 1.40 in the data mods section. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/For...ML/000018.html

All I have done with Version 1.40 is modify it so it's useable with Version 1.49, and Matryx's mod picker. I don't think it's quite ready to put on the CD yet though. The first priority is going to be playtesting and getting the AI up to speed on using the new techs that Devnull added with Version 1.31

Any suggestion's would be welcome.

Geoschmo

quote:
This mod is the brainchild of Devnellicus, and the result of many long hours of work by him and many others. Unfortunatly, real life has intruded upon Devnellicus to the point where he can no longer keep up with the work involved in revising this mod for current Versions of SEIV.

With his permission, I have taken up the task of updating it for the current Version, with the hope that it will be ready in time to be included with the new SEIV CD that Sharapnel is planning on releasing.

Changes will be kept to a minimum, and I will rely on the help of the original contributors as much as possible. It is not my intention to reinvent the Devnull Mod, only to update it to playability with the current Versions, and to perhaps make some minor changes that take advantage of new features in SEIV that would have been done had they been available before.

According to Devnellicus' notes for Version 1.31, there were significant changes to components in that Version and changes were not made in the Ai files to account for this. I have not yet made any such changes either. Because of this the Ai may not perform particularly well under Devnull Version 1.40.

Priority will be given to making the changes neccesary to optimize the AI for use with the current Version of Devnull Mod. Any assistance in this regard would be appreciated, escpecially by those individuals that were original contributors. All are welcome to assist however.

Geoschmo

dogscoff · #2 November 17th, 2001, 11:33 PM

Excellent! Having Devnullmod back is almost as good as having Devnullicus back! Well done Geo. For anyone not familiar with it, I highly recommend Devnullmod as an extremely well balanced and interesting mod, with a fantastic tech tree.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that the Space Vikings shipset was specifically designed for Devnullmod, with images for all the extra hull sizes. (which were inspired by Dave's mod, which in turn were derived from a thread on the eGroups board, back in the dark days of SE4 pre-history, trivia fans) Anyway, I'd be extremely pleased if the "new" Devnullmod were to call on these otherwise unused images. take a look at the "non-standard hull sizes" thread currently being discussed.

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SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M>M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Go to my meagre SEIV pages to generate your own code.

geoschmo · #3 November 18th, 2001, 12:50 AM

Dogscoff,

If you want I can include the Space Vikings in the mod. It can't hurt to add some unique races for variety, and if it is optimized for Devnull, so much the better.

There are a couple already in it that I need to get a hold of the authors and see if they want them left in.

Geo

Andr�s · #4 November 18th, 2001, 01:07 AM

Geoschmo,
would you agree to change the mod to make it compatible with the "Standard" we're trying to make.
Take a look at the Non standard hulls thread.

Matryx · #5 November 18th, 2001, 04:41 AM

quote:

Alternatly, you can use Matryx's Mod Picker utility to switch between Versions. This is the prefered method. It eliminates the need for dealing with the path.txt files at all.

Cheers for pimping my Mod Selector Geo

Also, thanks for reviving my favourite mod of them all.
Pirates and Nomads comes a close second, but DevNull was my all-time favourite.

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The Unofficial Space Empires 4 Mod Utility V2.0
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Download as a .ZIP <HERE>
Download as a .RAR <HERE>
Download as a .ACE <HERE>
Check a Screenshot of it<HERE>

Check an Alpha Shot of my Mod Editor (Unreleased) <HERE>

[This message has been edited by Matryx (edited 18 November 2001).]

Derek · #6 November 18th, 2001, 09:53 PM

As the author of Dave's Mod (sometimes known as Derek's mod), which originally included all the different ship sizes and such, you all are more than welcome to change pictures, titles, etc... to fit with the ship size standard as talked about on that thread.

In addition, anyone is more than welcome to pick and choose whatever parts of any my mods that you want to use, and modify them however you want. This includes any part of my mods that made their way into Devnull's mod. I'd prefer you gave me an him some credit, but if you don't, I won't stay up nights crying

The main reason behind the modding I did was to increase the enjoyment of the game for me and others.

One other thing, if you hadn't noticed: I took inspriation for a large number of the changes from David Weber's Starfire series of novels, which came from the Starfire wargame. If anyone is interested, there are many, many more things that can be taken from both the novels and the game and adapted to SE4.

Derek

geoschmo · #7 November 18th, 2001, 11:07 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Derek:
One other thing, if you hadn't noticed: I took inspriation for a large number of the changes from David Weber's Starfire series of novels, which came from the Starfire wargame. If anyone is interested, there are many, many more things that can be taken from both the novels and the game and adapted to SE4.

That's funny. Malfador credits Starfire as big part of the inspiration for the Space Empires series.

Geo

Derek · #8 November 19th, 2001, 07:50 AM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
That's funny. Malfador credits Starfire as big part of the inspiration for the Space Empires series.

Geo

I know.....however, there is a whole lot more to Starfire than what MM includes in SE4.

Derek

geoschmo · #9 November 19th, 2001, 09:14 PM

Support has been added to PBW to play games using v1.49 + Devnull Mod 1.40.

You can also download the mod ver 1.40 from the PBW file library if you prefer instead of the shrappnel mod section.

Geoschmo

[This message has been edited by geoschmo (edited 19 November 2001).]

Rollo · #10 November 21st, 2001, 04:21 PM

I am still pretty new to SE4, so I have never tried Devnull Mod. I think it is a great idea to bring it back

.

Geoschmo, I will make a Viking AI for Devnull Mod as soon as I can. Once I have finished that and got more comfortable with this Mod, I volunteer to help adapting any remaining AIs, if you want that help.

At first glance, here is couple of comments and suggestions:

- filler tech is not needed anymore, since the research works correctly now. OTOH it doesn't hurt either.

- please consider putting ripper beams, incinerator beams and WMGs in different weapon families. This way the AI can call for a certain weapon and rippers do not get upgraded unless wanted. (actually, I will also suggest that to Aaron for the stock Version. I could never understand why rippers would be changed to WMGs. Can anyone think of any weapons that are more different than these two?)

- torpedos need to be more useful, IMHO. Either more damage or getting a "to hit" bonus and some more range. Compared to the APB, which have the same research cost they are a lot weaker. I know you want to keep changes at a minimum and I agree with that. A few balance issues can't hurt to be discussed, though (at least IMHO).

Rollo

edit:typo

[This message has been edited by Rollo (edited 21 November 2001).]