New questions

1. Probably early next week
2. No, by default v1.09 won't be compatible. But I'll have v1.10 ready to go then.
3. No and a) Likely
4. No
5. No, the captured population will retain it's characteristics

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

3a - The AI will have to scripted to use the components, if MM does the scripting then yes. If it becomes a requirement setting for the ship size file then it automatically becomes used (if scripted correctly) during the design portion.

4 - Warp Points are the ONLY way to travel between systems. You can have warp point creator/destroyer component on your ship (stellar manipulation requirements in the AI script is required for AI empires to use, some is already scripted to do just that).

The Balance Mod is in Captain Kwoks capable hands, if there required changes to the mod that the update patch has caused, he is usually very prompt about an update for BM. On the other hand he is looking at starting his new mod which will be just as good as BM but with more of his flavor. Just don't think he will work both mods considering the time required to take care of just one.

I thought I was fast to the reply ...

Trying to make a Star Trek mod are you? Cool, I'd play that

Note that the stellar manipulations are as of v1.55 usable via event scripts. Thus you could set up a script which runs every turn and deletes all the warp points in the game, and give all the ship hulls (or warp drive components or whatever) warp point creation abilities, effectively adding FTL travel to the game!

IIRC, this FTL method (or something similar) will be used in the BSG (edit: not b5! dumb ed!) mod once the new patch is released

Though I wonder - will this method work in simultaneous games? I've never opened a warp point in simul games of SE5, but don't you need to actually have a warp point present for the warp order to even be issued? And if the warp points are deleted every turn, there will never be any warp points (which is what we wanted - but...) and so it will be impossible to issue a warp order... Perhaps a moveto order would work, though... those are computed "on the fly" during turn processing and can be issued even if there is no path to the target...

Another issue with this method is "warp slipstreams" - that is, one ship opens a warp point, and another (non-warp-capable) ship enters the warp point the same turn, before the script can close it. There might be a way to script warp points to be destroyed once they are used, but I don't know much about scripting so that's just a guess... Warp slipstreams might actually make sense for some mods (didn't the Borg use them to track Federation ships or vice versa in "First Contact"? Or was that another dumb Voyager episode? And B5 FTL actually works by opening a wormhole or something, right?) but not for others though (Star Wars hyperdrives?)...

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

There a few stellar abilities not yet activated (unless in the 1.55 patch!!!!) that could handle the problem of slip streaming in behind an FTL capable ship. One is a component required check by the warp point, another is an auto close of warp point after going through and you could also just make every ship have an FTL drive by setting restrictions in the shipsize data file for creation requirements. I didn't like that one though.

This would also allow for system ships to be made to specialize in just a particular system, much like MOO3 (one of a few good things about the game).

You never know though - I haven't read the scripting docs; there might just be some sort of callback function for "when any ship moves, do this"... I kind of doubt it but maybe Captain Kwok or some other AI/event modder could enlighten us?

edit: I scanned through the scripting docs and couldn't see anything of the sort

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

From the looks of it simulated FTL will be possible with those scripts that Isopsyco is playing around with and the new patch. The main problem I see so far is with the AI more then the mechanics of the possible methods themselves. I wonder if there is any possible way to teach the AI to use FTL anywhere near as effectively as a player. For instance could the AI learn to send ships from systems in range to defend a colony that is under attack? Could the AI learn to pick systems to attack and organise fleets in multiple friendly systems to commence the invasion?

As it stands now it looks like simulated FTL is possible but maybe only in a multiplayer only mod.

There is no way to tie scripts into arbitrary game actions. The AI scripts are used for AI processing. The Event script is called once at the beginning of each turn. The Intel script is used only when called by a successful intel operation.

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

Technically speaking, the Events script is run during end turn processing, along with the intel script, which still fires during every end turn processing phase as well. Either file could be used to run functions that would affect every player or to close all warp points made during the turn etc.

What is not possible is to have script functions fire during the AI's movement phase.

You could teach the AI a system like Isopsyco is proposing for BSG, but you'd have to create a series of functions just for handling move to orders between systems.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

End of turn, beginning of turn, doesn't change the fact that this isn't possible:

You never know though - I haven't read the scripting docs; there might just be some sort of callback function for "when any ship moves, do this"..

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

Say, if it runs during end turn processing, rather than begin turn processing, that might explain why when I've been hit with the "ships lose movement" intel attack, the ships can still move... after all, if the ships lose movement after they've already moved, then they're already at zero and have nothing left to lose!

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The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious

Hey, there were lots of good things about that game . . . it's just that there were about as many bad things as there were good, and most of the bad things were ones that had been good in earlier MoO games.

Aside from neither having the best AI, I think that most of the things I loved in MoO3 are areas where I see SEV fall short, and most of the areas where MoO3 fell short, SEV excells. . . . Just about anything to do with combat, SEV completely blows MoO3 away, just about anything to do with economy, MoO3 completely blows SEV away. Other stuff is more mixed, but if one could take the best from both, you'd end up with the perfect game. Luckily, SEV is so modible that you can adapt some of it to try and stimulate a few things. . . .

I'm pretty sure system ships could be modded in, for example, even without having to use a component that's require to transit warp points. I've actually been meaning to look into it myself, so if I find a good way, I'll let you know.

Well if you really wanted system ships you could probably make a special unit type. It'd be a little wierd (fitting in storage and such) but it wouldn't be able to warp. Ideally you'd probably want to make them act similar to drones and not be recoverable.

If they're large enough, then it would take a whole lot of cargo to carry them . . . but it could be done, so that one could take them to a newly colonized system that needs defenses, for example.

Hmm. I'm getting ideas for a mod I want to do here. . . .

Actually, I was thinking about it, and the answer to question #3 is actually 'yes.' Well, technically, it's 'no,' but you can stimulate it easily. You know how ships require a bridge and crew quarters and such, and how many they require varries depending upon the clas? Not sure if the only way to make the required number varriable is based upon class or if one could do it based upon size as well, but . . . you could easily add a new component that any ship or unit that can go through a warp point is required to have in order for it to be a valid design. Larger ship classes could be required to have more than one. The component itself has no actual effect at all, but since anything that can go through a warp point is required to have them, the effect is the same (unless you want to make it so that if they get damaged in combat, the ship can't use warp points -- no way to do that, sadly). Then, make units (has to be a unit if you want it to be able to move but not use warp points, I'm afraid) that are completely identical in every way to all the existing ship classes, with the exception of not requireing the new component, and not being able to use warp points.

Presto! You effectively can make versions of ships that can use warp points and versions that can't. The downside is that these system ships can be constucted as units on planets that don't have shipyards, but construction would be slow, so it might not matter as much.