Hyper-Drive

We would only notice warp points in our system if somebody used them (and didn't have any cloaking).

I like the Idea you are talking about.
You could make a warp point, use it and close the other side after you went through. (With or with the ship/base that did the opening/closing).
Not quite what we're after, but close enough for most purposes. I want bug fixes more than almost any other part.

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What? They ain't dead yet!
What's the hold up? It's already turn 23.

Dysons spheres aren't realistic...

Anti-matter engines aren't realistic...

Warp points, or even FTL, aren't realistic...

In short, shut up about realistic. This entire game throws the rulebook out.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

First, you can already disable warp points. After about 70 levels of Stellar Manipulation you get a component that creates wormholes, the only way you advance beyond your initial star system(though through some bug I was once given a colony ship from a civilization across the quadrant while I had yet to visit a neighboring system).

Personally, I find the abhorrent prospect that there are more wormholes in a tiny sector of a galaxy than there is E Coli on a Taco Bell product, I never use them. This game is more realistic than most space 4X games, and the idea that one could reach the point where they could create wormholes as the only method of FTL travel ideal.

However, I found the system lacking. For one, wormholes are completely stable. There should be the risk that it could collapse after each use, and a chance that one could lose the units travelling through it.

Second, there's no possibility of sublight travel to other systems, through generation ships or the like. A powerful engine could even get the ship there within a decade. This also begs another question, why can't we detect nearby stars? For such a realistic tech tree, there's no astronomy. Light is light, so nearby stars should be detectable, just with no detectable paths or discernable features(exoplanets maybe, but nothing specific unless it is researched intensively, into the ridiculously high Stellar Manipulation-like levels).

*edit*
I don't know what textbooks you're reading, Rilbur, but everything you listed is possible. Theoretically. Though they probably wouldn't be within the realm of possibility for 2400AD, at least not for Humans.

Were it possible, adding various cloak levels to Warp Points might mix things up a bit.

As for direct system to system travel; This isn't MOO =P. Warp Points and Space Empires are kind of tied together - and frankly, I think I'd miss the little blue bottlenecks.

Possible, yes, realistic, no.

And I meant ringworld, not sphereworld, actually.

Ringworlds aren't realistic because the tensile strength required is on the order of the strong nuclear force (or is it weak, I can't remember off hand).

Anti-Matter engines aren't likely because anti-matter is virtually impossible to produce, and will almost always be that way.

FTL, as any physics teacher will tell you, violates physics by its very nature (though I will admit, there are some clever ideas out there on how to get around this). Wormholes large enough to pass through do the same thing in more ways than one... but again, could happen.

So they're all POSSIBLE; they're just not realistic.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Thats assuming we know everything there is to know about physics/quantum-physics... Which we most certainly do not.

You can't accelerate to or past c, but wormholes don't actually do that. Wormholes have little to no movement by themselves.

As for sublight travel, it does seem unlikely. Since there's no wormhole connecting the systems, there's no possibility for communication. They'd branch off into their own civilization unless a wormhole is created to open up a link between the systems. So, in gameplay terms, they'd disappear and form their own emergent faction that the player will later encounter if they reach the system that ship reached.

And Rilbur, keep in mind that this isn't just human civilization. Some of these civilizations could have been around for billions and billions of years(not literally), who is to say they never developped a viable means of mass producing antimatter(keep in mind that even 500 micrograms is enough to get a shuttle or Saturn V into Earth orbit and keep it there for a long, long time, and ships only consume fuel when they make course corrections), or to learn how to manipulate strings or the gravitational constant itself? Just because our Type 0 civilization only encounters antimatter in PET scans and the Casimir effect doesn't mean a Type 2 or 3 civilization cannot produce it.

Science Fiction.

We are playing a game that is based on Science Fiction, so lets forget about "realistic" as it has no relevance, a better term to use would be plausible or believable.

As Rilbur states non of these things are yet possible at the start of the 21st century. Yes there is a lot of maths that suggests these things might be possible in the future, but and its a big but we have yet to prove the maths is right. As it is we don't even understand a lot of what we already know particularly when it comes to quantum mechanics, and what we do know about QM breaks most of the physics rules we have.

Personally I still ain't sold on the whole idea that you can't travel as fast or faster than light (well apart from the inability to see where you are going). I just remember reading an old old science book that stated there was absolutly no way we could travel faster than sound.... I have also read of scientists who thought that if a human body traveled over 28 mph on a train that their insides would turn to jelly and they would die, even though people where already traveling faster than that by other means suck as skying, horse riding and sprinting.

Getting back to the original point, warp points is the way that Aaron has decided he wants to make inter system travel work. Its an intergral part of the game and it ain't going to change. If you can think of adaptions of the current system then fine, ask Aaron nicely and he might be able to find a way to change the code so that it allows you to mod things the way you want, but then again he might not. The simplest idea might be for you just to create your own game.

It's a pity tho, hyperdrive would allow battletech and bab5 mods which can't really be done right now, sadly.

A

Let me clarify... the OP complained about warp points because they were "not realistic"; this upset me, so I pointed out the entire GAME isn't realistic. Sure, a lot of whats in here is "possible", but its hardly realistic compared to how we understand physics these days.

I've always figured that the "star map" we see is based off of a 5 dimensional "warp-point-space" geometry and had no relationship whatsoever to "normal space" geometry. Just like in Starfire, which this game is partially based off of, where warp point "lanes" have to be considered independently of their actual physical location because the physical locations don't have any bearing on how likely they are to have a warp point to eachother.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Actually, anti-matter engines ARE realistic. The human race has been able to generate minute quantaties of anti-matter since the 1950's. Over the intervening years we have discovered how to first generate anti-electrons, then to store anti-matter long term, then to generate anti-protons, and lately how to combine these into anti-hydrogen. As of today, NASA has blueprints (but currently lacks the materials technology and the research resources) to build interplanetary ships which utilize anti-matter/matter reactions to drive them. Just as NASA has plans for a viable X-Plane, but had to shelve them due to a lack of current materials technology. Also, as of today, the US Air Force is developing anti-matter based weaponry (no joke) basically because everyone and their uncle now has or is aquiring nuclear technology, and so nukes just don't have as much of an intimidation factor as they used to.

I do, however, see your point. Discussions involving "realism" have no place in any space sci-fi game. The only words which apply would be "logical" (the game "feels" right) and "flavor" (the game "feels" a certain way). As for the original poster citing that we have not detected any warp points in the real world...assuming they DO exist (wild and baseless assumption at that) just HOW would you detect them? What would they look like? Would they produce a signature that conforms even to known quantum physics? Heck, in that light, your closet might have a warp point in it, and you would never know. Of course, this theory WOULD explain why we occasionally lose one sock from a pair...it's got to be going SOMEWHERE...

Science fiction is not an oblique thing. There are subgenres, one of them being hard scifi. You're also posting in the Modding forum, to hell with the original game, this isn't that game's forum. Who cares what the developers want, this forum is about what the players want. If some people want hard sci-fi and you don't, what's stopping you from not playing their mod?

There's no need to be hostile because they're changing the game in a way you don't like. If you don't want to play it, don't download the mod.

Verisimilitude, or "realism" as you call it, can have every place in science fiction as it can have any place in any form of narrative. Look at the new Battlestar Galactica, Robinson's Mars Trilogy, almost any book by Heinlein. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it can't be done.

And Gideon, anti-electrons are positrons. The medical community uses them daily in PET scans, and they're rather easy to create(in relative terms, of course).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_scan

No, what I don't like is using realism as a reason to change a core game mechanic that isn't going to be changed anyway no matter how much people ask for it.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

That is kind of the rub, isn't it? I would like having these types of devices in the stock game, at a high level of research. Call them Space Fold, Jump Drives, Teleporters, Hamster Engines...whatever, I do think these would be a nice option for a high tech empire. Since they would take up additional space on a starship (it is a component) I don't think it would be TOO unbalancing. I also thing that it fits the feel of Space Empires. Personally, I think it would be worth changing a core mechanic for them. This is SE 5, and much has changed already. The potential I've seen buried in this version's data and AI files is enormous.

Pity that no such device was included.

Yeah, but I didn't know how many people would recognize the term if I just whipped it out.

SEV is a game which is designed to be Modded extensively but there are certain core mechanics which are not Modable and are very unlikely to be in this version of SE. One of these is the existence of warp points which has been core to the game since SEII. it is possible to work round this to an extent but its not easy and the AI is not up to doing it so it would truly only work in a all human players game.

It is I think to consider that Mods are adaptations of the game not complete rewrites. The use of another game as an exemplar is spurious as they are not compatible and the Mods described do not change the games core mechanics. They do change a lot of things but nothing I believe in its core workings.

A few things...

A) I'm sick today, so I'm not tracking well. A large number of my posts probably aren't 100% what I meant them to be... please forgive this, call me out when I'm out of line, and except my apoligies 'cause they probably weren't meant to be out of line (AKA: if I've been rude and harsh, I don't mean to be... sorry)

B) The post of mine that seems "most at fault" was intended simply to say: Don't try and change the game to make things "realistic", its not goign to happen because its not a realistic game.

C) Warp points are a core mechanic of the game; its already been stated and confirmed that they are never going away, and spending time asking for it is a waste. I'm not trying to bash the people that want it, I'm just trying to tell them that its been confirmed as never going to happen.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

and not start a lame war.

Warp Points are an integral part of how this game works, to radicaly change them you might as well ask for it become a RTS or even FPS game.

If you want a game that deals with intersystem travel in a different way then go and play Gal Civ2, or any of the other space sims, or do what Aaron has done and write your own game.

No one here is trying to quash people from expressing views and wanting their own ideas considered and maybe adapted, if you read the posts of Rilbur, Evilginger and myself amongst others you will see that we post with probably to much zeal about ways to change and adapt the game to make it better, its just we (royal perogative) get a bit narked by people asking to change one of the fundementals of the game that ain't going to be changed in any real way.

Chuck in "realisitc" and its like waving a red rag to a bull. We are passionate about this game and the excellent work that is being done by modders and code writers / tinkerers, and are either doing this ourselves or helping others who are and fequently both.

He pretty much made my point for me there guys... thats what I've been trying (clumsily) to say.

And let me apologize -- again -- for any inapropriate behaviour on my part. I've been sick all day, and that tends to not only make me irritable, but screw up my already screwed up communication skills.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Right now in the game I spend the majority of my time research-grinding Applied Research and Stellar Manipulation until I unlock wormhole creation, which ends up taking a thousand or so turns after I run out of things to do in my own system(begging another question, why isn't there an intra-empire game, an internal politics system, or rebellions to quell or something). High-level research, outside of the fun things you gain in Stellar Manipulation, doesn't turn out to be much more than stat boosts after level 5 or 10, which I can get in a single term by the time I get into the upper levels of Stellar Manipulation.

Hell, the only two things in the game you need to research are Stellar Manipulation, Applied Research, and Astrophysics. Once you can destroy planets(lvl 20) and stars(lvl 45), you're more or less unchallenged. You just need large ships that can take a beating and more fast enough to form a black hole in a single turn. I already have fleets of Battleships that can colonize anything within a single turn after jump and carry a billion or so people along with it.

Well, while you're waiting for stellar manip tech there are other things youc an spend your time on... use the existing WP's to launch invasion fleets against your neighbors, for example.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

As I've said before, I dislike the idea that supermassive black holes, the bodies which some galaxies rotate about, can exist mere light-hours from stars and leave them all intact. There's an option to turn them off. It's not like there's nothing to do, especially if you allow multiple factions to exist in a single system, but it mostly revolves around research.

mis-post.

Most of you have been saying that warp points are a main part of the game and it'll never change...
But we're talking about a bloody mod, for god's sake!!
We wouldn't ask Aaron to completely delete WPs, but to simply add an option for modders to change it if they want. I would be interested in a BSG-like jump drive, or why not a single system with thousands of hex in width and height with multiple stars and planet? That would be more feasible(but maybe long to load)

There is a line between Moding and rewriting a large elements of the games core mechanics. I have no doubt that it would be possible to include that option if you did a major rewrite of elements of the core game. however whilst that might happen no one thinks it likely and at present its beyond the scope of changes which it possible to make by Moving( don’t forget that all a Mod is a modification of existing game elements and it has limits, some elements are hard coded and that cant be worked round)

We're not rewriting the core mechanics, everything is already there! Look through the files and see for yourself!

A. Players have a variety of warp point options in the Game Setup, including the option to remove them.
B. Stellar Manipulation contains the code to both create and destroy warp points.

Therefore, a single component can be created that will allow a warp point to be created, transport the ship through the warp point, and close it in a single action. Simply don't include the code that disables the component after use.

Has no one really explored the Advanced Options of this game enough to realize this?

Yes, the mechanics exist to allow parts of what you want. But Aaron isn't going to re-code them together in the manner you want, because thats not the game he wants to write.

Its as simple as that, unfortunatly.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

That wouldn't work. The game automatically destroys any component after it's used in Stellar Manipulation, even if the "Component - Destroyed On Use" ability is removed.

Although I have to agree; I think alternate forms of movement(Such as JumpDrives) would be awesome. I just don't think they'll be added. I think the closest we might ever get is a Macro which opens a Warp Point, moves the ship through it, and then closes it behind it.

And even if it is destroyed on use, it can be reused after repair. The technology would be recently developed and still experimental ingame, such a thing could be compensated for with a bit of narrative.

If you want a game that deals with inter-system travel in a signicantly different manner to what SEV does then go and play GalCiv, or a n other tbs space based sim, OR write your own.

Yes Aaron could make a different system availble to you, but it would ential him writting a different game, and that ain't going to happen no matter how much people whine and beg.

We aren't trying to rain on your parade, we are just trying to point out that the sun rises each morning in the east and sets in the west.

I think this has been put to Aaron by on of the Beta team and the apparent resistance here is due to his reply to them. I suggest PM'ing Captain Kwock re this as I believe he knows what was asked and what was said.

Moding Based on stellar manipulation does work sort off but it’s not possible to mod a warp point opener so it doesn’t get destroyed in use as that’s hard coded into the game. There have been attempts to write a macro which closes all warp points but it’s not been successful. Finally the AI is not up to using stellar manipulation technology yet and this may be beyond the current boundaries of what is possible with Moding

I specifically recall that Stellar Manipulation components have a 'destroy this component on use' ability. It isn't hard coded into the game, and can be easily removed.

It is possible (almost) to close all warp points. By altering the events script, you could have it go through and close all warp points. The only problem is that Aaron hasn't hooked up the Stellar Manipulation code into the engine yet. The calls are there, they just don't do anything.

The AI can be modded relatively easily to use Stellar Manipulation, and I believe the Tarsus AI is already capable of it to some degree, although the amount of research required prevents it from reaching that point in many cases.

Also, there are various engine calls to affect space objects, such as move them. This could be used to move ships around similarly to a hyper-drive. The only problem right now is that there is no way to script an ability. I suggested this to Aaron, and maybe the rest of you that want to be able to do this could ask nicely for it too.

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Give me atmoshperic manipulation cannons, or give me death!

I think that taking the 'destroy this component on use' ability off has been tried but even with the 'destroy this component on use' removed the component apparently is still destroyed. I have not confirmed this myself yet.

Marians Tarsus AI will develop the tech given time but I have not seen it use it once and I regularly run this AI. I Hope it would be possible to upgrade the AI to this point but I remain a sceptic. Since even the Balance Mod and Marans AI’s still have issues with more complex tech's

Its been pointed out before in this thread, but here it is again:
This DOES NOT WORK. "Destroyed on use" currently does not do anything; even if you remove it the components are still destroyed when you use them. Bug, most likely..

As I said before, this sideeffect can be written into the backstory. When the component is destroyed, you can reuse it after you repair the ship. Since these drives would logically be highly experimental and unstable when your civilization puts them into use, this could be expected of them.

If you want to, all you have to do is go into the Components file and change the number of Gravitational Condenser abilities from 2 to 1. That'll disregard the "Destroyed on Use" ability and yet still destroy it. Even if you remove the ability completely(which I tried, thinking it might've still been affecting it), it does the same thing.

Aye. As far as I can tell, any component which performs a Stellar Manipulation function gets destroyed, regardless of whether the "Destroy on Use" ability is added. I haven't yet seen if the "Destroyed on Use" ability works by itself, by attaching it to something else.

The only problem with this isn't the narrative, but the fact that you'd need two components. Even if you put "Open Warp" and "Close Warp" abilities onto a single component, and wrote a Macro to Open Warp -> Move Through -> Close Warp, it couldn't finish, due to the component being destroyed after Open Warp.

The only way to manage that would be to make two separate components. Which would basically be what you're doing now, except with a Macro attached.

I'm not against the idea, by any means; I'd love for more 4X Space games to give you a choice in how to move ships around on the map, or even set the standard movement type for the entire game. If they did that with SEV, I might very well blow more of my life on it then I did on SEIV and Morrowind combined. I just don't see it being added in to the stock game, and don't see many ways for modding it in, either.

There were many words and I was short on time, so I didn't read through all the posts. I'd say that's a bug then. Sort of like Space Yards being limited to 1 per planet. I'd like to see any of these simple hard-coded things instead handled by abilities.

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Give me atmoshperic manipulation cannons, or give me death!

The limit of 1 space yard per planet isn't a bug its a designed part of the game, to stop people from having huge planets that can turn out 20+ battleships per turn, as this would just make the game unplayable.

GENREAL NOTE

The way that Warp Points are handled is also currently a designed part of the game, if you can find a way to mod this using the current code to do what you want to do then great.

If you can't do what you want as a modder, then its because this IS THE WAY THE GAME HAS BEEN DESIGNED!!! You can ask Aaron politely if he will change his code to allow you to do what you want IN HIS GAME, if its regarding warp points then it seems HIS ANSWER will be NO. As its his game and his baby then he has the right to say no and MEAN IT.

Aaron as the designer and writer of this game has the choice to do whatever he feels like, if this means saying no to something that you think he could easily do then tough. So stop whinging and whining about it and go and write your own game.

note regarding the subject field, this game is the way it is because its the way it is, somethings can and will be changed and others won't.

..you're being a little heated for no reason here. Check the change log for SEIV sometime; there are a LOT of modding features that got patched in after the fact. If Aaron makes WPs optional, fine. If not- also fine. No need to get worked up about it.

(same with the Space Yard ability by the way. We got around that limit in SEIV and it ISN'T game breaking)

i would like the best of both worlds, you get a limited number of warp points(meaning you dont start in a system with more then 1 or 2 warp points. and the rest you have to hyper drive too.

i would put limits on the components though for example a tonnage limit of what the drive can push besides the ship it self the low range component might be able to push maybe 2 small ships worth(plus the ship with the drive on it) while more advanced ones can push more with it.

this way you still got warp points as the most effective way of fleet movement but you got hyper drive for small expeditionary forces(exploration or "smash and grab" operations)

You can already do that by selecting not all systems connected in the game set up. Though knowing my luck I would end up in a system without warp points at all, and bust out into an already colonised galaxy and take it on with the resources of one system.

I still feel that we are their though having had a play with the map generator and saving the quadrants. The result of the map generator can be a bit random and you have to run it a few times to get the result you want. Assuming this is mostly a map with only a couple of warp points in it and lots of dead ends rather than everything all connected.

A map editor would give you a better result, but there isn’t one yet.

Only a little heated as the game has only been out for a couple of months and this discussion has been had about 15 different times.

As I said don't carry on here, send Aaron an email and see what he says, he might choose to relent and change his point of view on warp points, but he hasn't yet in 4 games..... despite lots of people asking for it.

If anything changing it would involve him routing the warp point system from the hardcoding into a script file that others can mod. He wouldn't be building a new highway, just putting in a bypass. I'm not necessarily advocating this, though, so don't burn me for heresy just yet.

Why would this need to involve the warp point system at all? Really, all we are talking about is assigning a ship a new location. Somewhere in the game, it is recorded that ship abc is at location xx:yy in system def. Change that, and the ship "jumps" to a new location. Can't imagine that the code to move a ship from one place to another can't be made scriptable (if it isn't already). After that, you would need a way to trigger it, which I imagine would be the more difficult part.

Is it possible to make a one time use warp point?

We could simply use a component that makes a one time use warp point to simulate a hyperspace jump. The component being broken after use could be explained away as needing time to recharge or time to update navigation charts. The component could be given low structure points and ships a very minor self repair ability to allow for jumps every turn or other turn.

It probably would also make sense to make this temporary warp point a one way deal.

From reading this forum, I get the impression that Aaron doesn't like any tampering with the games warp point system. I hope he doesn't have anything against one time use warp points.

Besides, I think the game would draw many more modders if there was some choice in the matter of inter-system propulsion systems.

You can build a ship capable of opening a warp point going through it and closing it behind you. I have done it, you can even make it reusable by fitting a repair bay though the ships involved are not small as we are talking about 350mt of components for that . Over all this ship would be capable of a jump every other turn.(create, move trough, close repair) You could even mod the tech tree to create all the components without the millions of research points and scores of stellar manipulation tl's it requires at the moment. however the real problem is not using the ship but scripting an AI and that includes a minister to do it automatically. It would work as a multiplayer only Mod and would fit the B5 type universe where there are static warp points (jump gates) and Big ships with jump drives.

The limiting step is scripting as ever

Did I say the limit is a bug? I was refering to something else, but it's been too long and I can't remember exactly what, but I wasn't talking about the Space Yard limits. I know that's intentional and I don't disagree, but I suggested handling the limit via an ability, rather than relying on hard coded things.

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Give me atmoshperic manipulation cannons, or give me death!

Hi Evilginger, thanks for answering my post. I just am not clear on the part where you say you can make a ship capable of opening a warp point, going through it and then closing behind you. Do you mean that you can make a component that makes an unstable warp point that automatically collapses once any ship/fleet goes through it? Or, do you mean you can make a scripted component that makes a warp point, sends the ship through and then the same component closes the warp point once you go through it?

Also, I see your point about it being a difficult trick to teach the AI. Happily, this is hyper drive mod concept is fully intended for multi player experience. This game has huge potential, and I for one am looking forward to it.

Thanks guys and Happy New Year!

ATM, neither is possible Nath. What you CAN do is design a ship that can open a WP... pass through it... then close it. Three seperate commands from the player.

edit:

They may be *possible*, but no one has come up with a (working) way to do them. ATM the scripts won't support the attempt, people have tried.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

I've had "anomolys" grab one of my ships and drop it into an unexplored sector. The ship is out of communication, and cannot report its sensor results or take orders. My point is, the game code to take ship "A" at place "Y" and instantly transport it to place "X" exists. I don't think that there is any way for a mod component to initiate this behaviour yet. As someone else said, a code bypass would be needed.

Don't forget, said event doesn't give you any control.
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There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

that the events as implemented don't give you any control. However, if MM could be pursuaded to install some hooks into the code to trigger such an event, you would have, in effect, an Instantanous Galactic Transposition Drive. What was the name of the drive in "Hitchhiker"? It would be neat to see your ship flip between turnip and racehorse before settling down.

The big problem there is the UI. Looking at the script it appears you can drop the ship wherever you want (I have a drive that will, on occasion, backfire and dump the ship into the nearest star..) but there's no UI for the player to control it.

The ship has three core components a warp point opener at 100mt (actually will both close and open a warp point but as using it destroys it you need another way of closing it if you have used it to open the point) a warp point closer 100mt and a repair bay at 150mt.

This creates a large stable warp point which remains open until you close it

Send your request and suggestion for the Hyperspace/Warp Jump drive to . Try to be concise and keep your suggestion within the game systems capabilities.

Fingers Crossed.

*reads three or four posts*...*bangs head on desk*

OMG its a GAME you play it, its fun its not a chapter in your physics book...Are you the people who look at the original star wars and say "there is no sound in space, this sucks" and say "why do they have such big engines? they dont need them at all dont you know what an ion engine is geesh"...3 words for all yall...GET A LIFE

oh and I know you wont...so I will let you know someone is making a battle star mod and he almost had it done, his ftl system wasnt working cause there was a bug in the game and he was asking them about fixing it..he had a component that opend a warp point and then closed it when the ship went through and then was damaged and would repair itself before it could be used again or some such...this was a while ago it might be working by now idk

*bangs head on desk* when people suddenly reply to threads that are over a year old!

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Yes, Necromancy is bad people!

Ok so the thread is dead, but now that it's been resurected by Dr. Frankenstien, I just have to ask, to achive the desired effect would it work if you made said warp point opener/closer component, took out the component destroyed on use ability, AND changed the component type to engine..... just a thought.

I'd test this myself but quite frankly, between work/college/ and my own mod I've got enough on my plate.

"Trying to teach me to be politically correct is like trying to teach a dead dog to play fetch.... futile."

Ouch! That must be hard on those eye stalks!

So I had some extra time between classes and my curiosity was peeked. My idea didn't work, the problem lies in the ability Warp point - open distance. I belive the destroy component is hard coded into that ability type. I tried changing the ability type as well but then you can't issue any stellar manipulation orders. Oh well, if anybody else want's to tinker with it this is the code I came up with.Name := Hyper Drive Description := Drive system allowing FTL travel between systems, requires time to recharge between uses.
Picture Number := 70
Maximum Level := 1
Tonnage Space Taken Formula := 150
Tonnage Structure Formula := 150
Cost Minerals Formula := 60000
Cost Organics Formula := 0
Cost Radioactives Formula := 30000
Supply Amount Used Formula := 500
Ordnance Amount Used Formula := 0
Can Be Placed On Vehicle Types := Ship
Can Be Placed In Ship Sections := Inner Hull, Outer Hull
Component Type List := Technological
General Group := Engines
Custom Group := 0
Number Of Requirements := 1
Requirements Evaluation Availability := AND
Requirements Evaluation Allows Placement := TRUE
Requirements Evaluation Allows Usage := TRUE
Requirement 1 Description := Empire must have at least tech level 10 in Stellar Manipulation.
Requirement 1 Formula := Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Stellar Manipulation") >= 10
Number Of Abilities := 3
Ability 1 Type := Warp Point - Close
Ability 1 Description := Can close any size warp point.
Ability 1 Scope := Space Object
Ability 1 Range Formula := 0
Ability 1 Amount 1 Formula := 100
Ability 1 Amount 2 Formula := 0
Ability 2 Type := Warp Point - Open Distance
Ability 2 Description := Can open a warp point out to a system [%Amount1%] light years away.
Ability 2 Scope := Space Object
Ability 2 Range Formula := 0
Ability 2 Amount 1 Formula := 15 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 10)
Ability 2 Amount 2 Formula := 0
Ability 3 Type := Tonnage Repair Ship
Ability 3 Description := Repair Bays repair [%Amount1%]kT of ship tonnage per turn.
Ability 3 Scope := Space Object
Ability 3 Range Formula := 0
Ability 3 Amount 1 Formula := 150
Ability 3 Amount 2 Formula := 0
Weapon Type := None

"Trying to teach me to be politically correct is like trying to teach a dead dog to play fetch.... futile."

If you want to see a working mod type that uses this concept download the current BSG Mod. It has an FTL drive that opens a warp point to any star system thats in its range (tech advances allow further distances). At the end of turn a script closes all WPs. The FTL drive has a regeneration ability so it will be ready next turn.

My only trouble was getting the AI to use the component in a no WP game, so far there is no function call to check light year distance to determine an Empire's FTL range and hence doesn't leave its starting solar system. Aaron has told me he will be adding such a function in the future patch.

For further interest look at the FTL drive thread here on the forums.

GAH my bad my bad I got egg on my face...