Debris Fields with wrecked ships

Update on this idea, its starting to take definite shape: I can now assign ability types to the debris field to allow certain functions to work. Mainly allow discovery of technology.

Haven't worked out the mining portion yet since its based on a storm object. Will most likely have to be a special component that the gets compared to position and debris field values, then award minerals/resources/units? at end of turn.

Still more to play with....

Right now I use a component tag (general ability type X call it) that if the ship is in the debris field at end of turn a comparison check is made between the two empires involved to see if tech is different. Depending on the disparity a chance is allocated to generate a tech granted to the scavenging ship.

Working to see if I can get the resources, units and supplies to do the same. Units are going to be the hardest I think, can't just make them appear out of no where...

I have the event script check the message text to see if any combats took place, count the ships involved, tech and such and determine a debris field size to place at the location of the battle. I date timer is stamped on the debris field so after so many turns or neglect it dissipates to a smaller field then eventually to nothing (This way I don't clutter the game map with battlefields, although that might be cool).

I'll try to set it up to be usable by any mod, or at least adaptable. The problem is with the empire check and the associated ship debris field. I'm doing one for each empire, lots of models and bitmaps.

I suppose I could do a general debris field for the stand alone mod add on.

I'm pretty confident I can get this to work as intended, I have the graphics almost done and I can call up that particular storm anywhere in the game. I just need to link it to an event message of a ship or ships being destroyed (and not by black holes and such).

In my opinion the game is as much if not more to mod than to play. I really enjoy playing my own mod. I never finish a game because I come up with another idea I want to try and it usually breaks the safe game

Still, its all fun...

If you could get guys like Captain Kwok, Fyron, SuicideJunkie, Atrocities, ekolis, and a few others who's screen names I can't remeber the spelling, you would have yourself a really good mod team!

There is some really amazing talent out there!

Sorry, some double post problems....

I'm thinking of trying to script in a component linked probability of salvage option so one could conceptually salvage a ship/unit from the debris field. I have the debris field displayed correctly (using storms !! too) and the script can make and delete one when I want, just need to script in some type of marker search for the script to look for while the ship is in the debris field.

This was easier than I thought it was going to be, of course I only did it for one ship set and even that its only the battleship and dreadnought models. Many more to go....

I forgot about the self destruct device, will take that into account by making it more dangerous for salvage operations (potential damage to salavage ships) and also less frequent that a wreck field will have any resources to salvage. I'm not sure I can get it so you can fire on the wrecks, that takes a menu editing that you can't do in SEV without hacking the exe file.

I have the graphics set for this event, both for system and sector view. The sector view was a little harder graphically since I had to use storm type to display it. I have a screenie over on SpaceEmpire.net if anyone is interested.

I know have the script working where after a battle the debris field(s) appears (if your ship is there or not, haven't tried planet sector yet, that could prove interesting).

I haven't been able to find a way to determine the ship type destroyed so I can use a particular debris field (and amount either!).
The only way I know of will take some memory and make a save game really big and turn processing even slower (take all ships in game before turn and compare to after turn, determine ship loss and number and then set debris field...lots of computing..)

Anyway, its working in a general way, at least there IS a debris field to scavenge through!!!

I have finally got this beast of an idea to work. I have debris fields by types and I have salvage teams able to recover resources and possible tech!!

Its a pretty hefty code job and supporting files (data and x.file 3d models) so I'm not sure how I would port this to a stand alone mod. I am trying to set it up for stand alone with generic battle debris (which isn't as nifty as specific debris since your tech and resources are dependent on that fact).

I should have my BSG mod out and at 95%, that includes AI that can use FTL and salvage components!!

Besides, its more likely you' will get research points instead of tech anyway since a large tech difference is needed to get a tech outright.

Preying on another empire is just another tactic, could work or could backfire depending on circumstances. I don't see it as a problem. Debris fields just become another resource to fight over

I am working on a monster and pirate mod event for BSG and stand alone. Still working the spawning event process to get the AI to build and deploy ships without much of an empire structure. Kinda like pirate nest or monster den inside storm clouds or something.

The salvage and battle debris event script is finished and included in the BSG mod. See the forum here and the main forum site at SpaceEmpire.net