Gauging interest in various mods |
So I've got several ideas for mods that have been floating around in my head, and I was wondering which if any I should spend more time on. (I've done some mucking around with the data files on a few of these but I may have to scrap that once the patch comes out if there are too many radical changes to the stock files.)
Anyway, here are my ideas:
1. Antares Mod - A mod based on the Master of Orion universe, with the Sakkra, Meklars, Stellar Converters, Time Warp Facilitators, etc. Mainly based on MOO2 because that's my favorite of the series, but a few of the good elements of MOO3 (the Harvester and Etherean races come to mind 
) will be thrown in just for fun. It's surprising how many of the stock SE5 races can be mapped quite well to MOO races - the Sergetti in particular look almost identical to MOO3's version of the Trilarians! 8O
2. Crises Mod - A mod based on the Stars! universe, with wacky planet names and racial traits galore.
3. 21st Century Mod - An evolution of my SE4 Low Tech Mod for SE5, with antimatter technology being the ultimate weapon/propulsion system (though quite expensive) and systems representing planetary systems rather than solar systems. Races might include multiple human factions and factions from 2 or 3 alien races, and hopefully I'll be able to get all the factions of each race to start on separate sectors of the same planet if the player so desires. (Do sphereworlds let you colonize each sector separately? I kinda doubt it, but it would be neat... and work out perfectly for my mod - just replace sphereworld textures with planet textures and presto, multiple empires per planet! 
)
4. Jumpship Mod - An evolution of the SE4 Highliner Mod (forget who made it) for SE5, with huge ships being the only warp-capable ships.
Oops, gotta go to class!
Good ideas for mods!
I'd be especially keen on the Antares mod, though they all sound interesting. I keep telling my friends that Space Empires is the way MOO should have evolved. I'd love to play the Klackons here LOL.
Thanks Matryx for the
Thanks Matryx for the pagebreak advice! 
All right, looks like the Antares Mod is in the lead... hmm, did you say "random" research tree? I guess you might be able to do that since SE5 has a random number generator function so you could put that into the tech requirements - the only problem is I don't know how often it recalculates, so you might be able to get the lowest tech requirement by saving and reloading repeatedly!
MOO2 didn't have a random research tree (though I think MOO3 did have some variation in what levels thing were at from game to game); what I wanted to do with the research tree is basically emulate MOO2's "choose one and only one" philosophy. So once you research the technology "Temporal Physics" (or maybe I'll just make it a generic "level 13 of Physics"), you can choose between researching "Stellar Converter", "Time Warp Facilitator", or "Star Gate". Once you successfully research one, though, the other two will be closed off by means of NOT requirements in their prerequisites (unless you have the Creative racial trait ) - the only problem I can see is I don't know how the game handles it if you choose to research all 3 options and finish them simultaneously! 8O Well, also, I wonder what happens if you steal or analyze a tech from someone else that is NOT'd out... will it work? There might be some clever way around that, though, with more requirements for techs, I don't know...
I have a page on the SE wiki which outlines the races that would appear in the mod:
http://wiki.spaceempires.net/index.php/Antares_Mod
Couldn't get all of them matched up but I think I did a pretty good job
I also wonder if it would be possible to give gas giant races (Imsaeis and Eoladi) some sort of stealth for their colonies... not to hide the entire planet, just to hide the fact that they have a colony, since it's buried deep within the planet... remember the part of the MOO3 backstory which said they were nearly genocided by other races using their Artificial Planet Construction on the seemingly uninhabited gas giants?
Yeah, Baoghal, my idea for this mod is "What MOO3 should have been" Especially given the real-time combat in this game - it's not perfect but it's a VAST improvement over MOO3! Micro ships that come out of nowhere to hit you before you can react FTW! 8O
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Mr. Flibble says...
Game over, boys!
ekolis Mod interest
The "random" idea I had
The "random" idea I had would be to make lots of forms of "physics" for example, and have them all reasearch a "physics project" (all different tech areas, but the same name) - and use those as pre-requisites for the researched-tech areas...
Uncreative Racial Trait would be a pre-req for the rubbish ones, and it would disallow normal techs
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I think I just had an evilgasm.....
The (now official?) Space Empires 4 Mod Launcher V2.26
Tee hee! How evil! I don't
Tee hee! How evil!
I don't think you could have multiple techs with the same name and expect the game to distinguish between them, but you could have a bunch of projects with techno-mumbo-jumbo names related to the field, such as "Quantum Superstring Theory" and "Dissertation on Inverted Singularity Fields"
BTW, I had another idea for this mod: How to do the Antarans! Remember how in MOO2, the Antarans started at a ridiculously high tech level, but did not have *all* the techs (thank God they had no stellar converters! 8O) and did not research new techs as the game progressed? Well, with SE5, we can do that - change the "Ancient Race" trait so that in addition to what it does in stock, it will also give a few special techs like Quantum Detonators that could not be researched otherwise, a few normal techs like Interphased Drives from the start, and (here's where it gets fun) drastically reduces the empire's research capabilities! (I could set it at a -100% modifier, but I want to let the Antaran player have a LITTLE fun )
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Mr. Flibble says...
Game over, boys!
Just hope that players are
Just hope that players are kind enough not to pick that trait
Not that it wouldn't be interesting BOOM BOOM BOOM etc.
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I think I just had an evilgasm.....
The (now official?) Space Empires 4 Mod Launcher V2.26
I can always make the
I can always make the Ancient Race trait cost 2000 or 3000 points
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Mr. Flibble says...
Game over, boys!
Tech Areas
Tech Areas...
You're right about the tech-naming, which is a bit of a shame, but yes "dissertation on blah blah" junk names would work - in fact you could simulate old MOO2 research but adding a negative requirement to each of them for their siblings.
e.g. "Dissertation on Inverted Singularity Fields" has a requirement formula of Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Cultural Studies") Space Empires 4 Mod Launcher V2.26
Hmm, another mod idea which
Hmm, another mod idea which I neglected:
5. Star Control Mod!
Greetings Hunam! Welcome to our galaxy and please do not torture us! (Do what you want with the Umgah, we never liked them anyway!)
So basically you'd try to have as many of the SC races as possible. Since in SC, each race only got 1 ship hull and 2 weapons, it might be a bit difficult to balance, but perhaps each race could just *specialize* in something, a la the Masters Mod for SE4 or even just the stock racial techs. So if you're playing the Spathi you choose Small Ship Masters, Speed Masters, Torpedo Masters, and Minigun Masters, perhaps. Any race could then build any of a handful of "generic" items (maybe Destroyers, Ion Drives, Gauss Guns, and Stinger Missiles), but the "racial" ones would be better for some specific purpose - Eluders (frigates) would be really maneuverable, BUTT missiles would be speedy seeking weapons, etc. (Then along come the Earthlings with their PD lasers and slow, tough nuclear missiles... or the UrQuan with their wavemotion - erm, fusion beams and fighters... or the Syreen with their "allegiance subverter" )
There might not even be a problem with using SC2 race portraits, as there is an open source port of SC2. And if we go with only 1 ship hull per race (well maybe some units and bases too but those can be generic recolors if need be), it would be feasible to model the SC ships for the mod!
One idea I had for this mod is that the Umgah starbase should be a Death Star type thing, though - you know, "That's not a moon, that's a battlestation!" THAT would be one great joke to play on someone!
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Mr. Flibble says...
Game over, boys!
Blog snippets.
Hey Ed, you can use the very useful 'break' command to tell this forum/drupal/blog system where to end the snippet of your post for the blogs page.
E.g. try putting it straight after your first paragraph and see what it does to your snippet on the blog page.I found it helped to tidy up mine, where it would often break in the middle of a list of details, or something else unwanted.
As for your mod ideas, remember that variety is the spice of life! I like the first idea you posted - in fact I'm working on a way to get some sort of random research tree going (in my head of course). I'm unsure number 2 would work properly given the radical differences in the games. Number 3 is a great idea, as is number 4, but I'm unsure if I personally would play them.
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I think I just had an evilgasm.....
The (now official?) Space Empires 4 Mod Launcher V2.26