Space Monsters and other villains |
We seem to have some pretty savvy people out there editing text and scripts. It surprises me that given the number of folks who desire some sort of "monsters" or "villains" that no one has continued on with the Pirate mod of earlier versions. I have my own thoughts on this. The concept is more than feasible and though it would take a little thought the tools are all there i.e. the code that is easy to modify. Planets for such stuff can be hidden...i.e. use the pic file for the stellar background or the asteroid field to disguise the source. The same would go for the empire flags that haunt yet provide ownership cues...use a transparent or opaque jpg so that you do not see it. This means you would have to thoroughly search nebulae and asteroid fields to actually find the source planet/point. If you enable them with some aggressive tendencies, eliminate research but grant them specific high level tech and components you have the making of a game where hunting is in fashion...if you don't get whacked first. Your thoughts?

BERSERKERS
If there are ancient ruins...
why not whatever destroyed them.
like the giant cornocopia in star trek?
ooooh scary!
I must have berserkers
and i hate to rip off a robotech idea, but if you play with ruins that should risk activating "sleeping" verserkers
everyone played homeworld, right?
that plotline/scheme waswell - explored i.m.o. there
so...
WHERE ARE MY BERSERKERS?
Anyone who wants power; by definition, cannot be trusted with it...[/b]

Monsters are built in... sort of
MM has some built-in support for monsters. If you've looked in Settings.txt at the visibility settings, there is a space monster field. However, this support was never finished. I'm sure if enough people request it, however.
*cough* *cough*
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Watch for my mod - codename: Dimensions - coming by Summer, 2007!

Pirates
at the very least, we can steal a page from other books..
could ships "out of supply" or command get a loyalty or morale check--
those that fail become pirates?
i mean, if the ships i've seen get scrapped due to maintenance had crews that chose to TAKE what they want...
i think quite a few things mighta changed
can we mod in "pirate" empire that crews switch to?
Anyone who wants power; by definition, cannot be trusted with it...

Re: Pirates
Books with the name GalCIv and MOO... When will we move away from those ideas and create our own for this very capable game? Instead of monsters how about just space based life forms (hostile or helpful). Mutinies on ships is always a possibility.
* Come on people this isn't Star Trek let's kick soome booty.....
Re: Space Monsters and other villains
I would love to see those monsters from that recent space sci-fi film that was adapted from a short run TV series (western sci-fi-ish) that I can't place the name of....
Javaslinger

Re: Space Monsters and other villains
The Reavers(sp) from Firefly/Serenity?
Re: Space Monsters and other villains
That's it!!!
Re: Space Monsters and other villains
I always enjoyed the Borg Cube space monster in Birth of the Federation - the cubes themselves would wander into the galaxy randomly and required a significant fleet or a coordinated multi-team effort to defeat.
The best part was though that you couldn't just sit around and wait to accumulate ships: the cube would start assimilating planets if left for too long and they'd begin spewing out more ships. So when one showed up, even if it was on the other side of the galaxy, it became a major priority to deal with it. If you just left it, then 20 turns down the line you'd have a much larger problem right on your borders.
Best space monster ever.
If things like this could be implemented in SEIV as a mod, it'd be great. I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea - some people dislike their well-made strategies being disrupted by a game-altering event. But I always lived for scenarios like these. The unexpected turns make awesome games. Even if it did sometimes show up too early - before you had the tech to properly oppose it. It was just awesome playing out those scenarios.
Re: Space Monsters and other villains
I honestly love random events. The more random and the more thought required to respond to them, the better! A fairly frequent random event ought to be meteorite strikes, both on planets and ships. Mutinies for ships that are low on supplies (and not within range of a resupply depo) can be a possibility. If the game added support for a "neutral" free wandering race (pirates and nomads!) we could even have those mutinied ships convert to the pirates, complete with space stations that mine minerals, produce supplies, and hide in asteroid belts. 
Re: Space Monsters and other villains
Well, it would certainly be interesting to encounter highly advanced ships from time to time.
Imagine the horror when you stumble on an "ancient" warship, equiped with weapons that far surpasses your own, and shields that can take huge ammounts of punishment. Agile like a frigate, but more space then a battleship. Equiped with the best sensors/ecm, hard to hit it and it hit's you with ease. A ship that would take a [b]warfleet[\b] to disable. I would love to encounter such thing, indeed 
I'm willing to sacrify my empire to encounter such one
Of course, when I capture it, nobody will stop me then 

Re: Pirates
I'm certain that a specialized AI could be made to behave like pirates. It would take a significant amount of work, however, and I'd say that getting a good normal AI is a more important goal for now. In fact, in a few minutes, I'm going to start on modding the AI now that a more effective base is available.
And I've had ships convert, too. Mine was on the other side of the galaxy and took about 5 years to bring home 
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Watch for my mod - codename: Dimensions - coming by Summer, 2007!

Re: Space Monsters and other villains
I sure hope the expansion pack adds some much needed atmosphere to the game.Pirates,monsters better events,etc.

We've all seen lone ships skulk through our systems...
i for one really like how this conversation is going...
[quote = Thy Reaper]I'm certain that a specialized AI could be made to behave like pirates. It would take a significant amount of work, however, and I'd say that getting a good normal AI is a more important goal for now. In fact, in a few minutes, I'm going to start on modding the AI now that a more effective base is available.
that's probably a good point, but even if all the "mutiny" ships did was pillage, i for one would be happy.
Even a it is, i occaisionally have ships - and often see the AI ships- totally cut off behind enenmy lines, with no way htey could get orders.
simply turning them into a minister-controlled "independent" would make sense- the AI need a tweak on that anyway, it will never amke use of ships that have snuck into the rear areas, and it could be - and should have been - devasating.
Maybe fixing this - adding a "raider"(privateer) routine to the ai - would easily allow pirates to work on that level, and since its needed anyway...
I've taken ships via intelligence, but so far as i know, i've never seen the loyalty of a ships crew be a factor or cause it to simply mutiny.
unfortunately.
And the things (berserkers) CherryMoon spoke of, yes, i'd love to see that.
perhaps as this develops, the arrival of nomadic ravagers -or peaceful nomads - into a quadrant will be a viable event.
like when the mongols show up in your total war campaign...





I think it was one of the
I think it was one of the MoO games that had this and I really liked that feature. I remember losing many a scout ship because of some gigantic flying worm or dragon