Captain Kwok's Space Empires Nova

Looks very interesting! Hope to play it soon.

Oooh, thats gonna be interesting.
Certainly looking forward to this.

I just read the page and pretty much wet myself at almost every feature you mentioned.

I liked the less rampant expansion. I love the SEIV Proportions mod. Colonizing three planets and then have your production triple in a couple turns seems so irreal and annoying to me. Maybe Proportions is too slow, but I think both Stock and Balance are on the other hand too fast. Reducing populational growth and setting appropriate populational modifiers to penalize 1-10M colonies and give a large bonus to 500M+ planets should do in my opinion. Raising population structure and tonnage to make pop management harder would make for a more interesting game too.

Cap'n Kwok, that mod looks mighty fine. I look forward to playing it!

Do you know if Aaron has plans for Rate of Fire ability on mounts?

Your lord and master (below Foamy) LordHavoc

Would like to see the AI development history as you build it. Interested in the AI myself and would like to see how you modify it to your will.

So essentially the Balance Mod evolves into the Nova Mod?

Love the look of the new mod... Hopefully the AI will give me more of a challenge too!!

Love the look of the new mod... Hopefully the AI will give me more of a challenge too!!

I'd like to see more robots. Berserkers even.

More diverse AI personalities perhaps?

Some AIs being friendly and cooperative; some completely expansionist and aggressive but not genocidal or something like that; some xenophobic that aren't really hostile but are difficult to get into the negotiation table; and of course the ultra aggressive, genocidal types that'll be at your throat right after first contact.

Just ideas, could be more. In most of my BM games right now many of the AIs are simply far too friendly. It doesn't always feel good that I have to start the war in order to get the game going. Easier said than done I know, just thought you might want to consider it. Cheers Captain!

I like a lot of your ideas Captain. Were you planning on using mounts for more than just weapons, as in bearclaw's SEIV Dark Nova mod?

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StarCraft 2, it's about damn time!

Sounds good, but I hope you're not planning on slowing down the pace too much. Singleplayer is one thing, but for PBW every mod I've ever played that slowed the pace turned multi into a pretty dreary experience.

But it's fun (for me) to spend a week setting yourself up to annihilate your frieds.

You could start with more planets if it's too slow.

This sounds promising
Groovy Baby Yeah!

I like the idea of mixing everything into one mod

But i would like to suggest some ideas on the mod

1. Even though ship size is smaller could you not take out the larger ships, i mean make it more expensive so less player will be able to afford such a ship in the middle of the game! Because they could act as flahships for fleets in late games which cam be decisive to victory.

2. Add in more different ship sizes like SEIV where they have Neo-standard ship sizes. Some examples are Escort (which is more cheaper than the Frigate), Destroyer Escort (More tough, space and cost than the Frigate), Supply Ship (specific ship to replensih fleet supplies or ordinance), Heavy Cruiser, etc

3. More components but not vary in size (because some races' ships could not use components with more space)

4. My suggestion: Construction-> Ramming technology reinforced aft section

This is because i want to see a new type of ship (Ramming ship) available in the game so as to make things different

I will post more if i think of any

5. Divise Fighter types into different roles:

Interceptors (good against bombers but weak against capital ships)
Bombers (good vs capital ships but weak against fighters)
Scouts (less good against both fighters, bombers and capital ships)
Gunships (good against fighters but less good against capital ships and weak against bombers)

6. Increase support component SE5

Add in repair ship, resupply ship (these could be ship class with different size of repair or resupply module to maintian ships in a fleet)

Is it possible to make fighter hulls that have inherrantly different characteristics for performance and function. I know you added new class distinctions in BM, but I'm thinking of fighters like ships. For example: at Fighter Level 1 you get 15kt fighters that has the same speed modifier as any other design. Whether I add Direct fire or Missles its' basically the same fighter under the hood.

What I want to see is at Level 1 you get the normal fighter at 15kt and say a Bomber at 25kt. The catch is that the bomber class has a reduced speed modifier in comparison to the 15kt fighter. Even if they both had the same number of engines the fighter class would be significantly faster than the bomber class IN COMBAT. The fighter class can also have a larger Defense bonus over the bomber class while they each maintain parity in attack. Oh, and the bomber class would have a nice advantage in structure points allowing for it to fulfill its roll as an attack bomber.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

Been to your site, read the info, then my brain popped!! Release Nova ASAP please, it sounds amazing!

Looks really interesting. One thing I have been playing with is the use of Bases that have abilities. Like an Orbital Smelters Gives a base +1% System wide resource boost( Stackable, caps out at 50%), and a +10% this sector only boost(non stackable), Orbital Forge same thing as smelters but for build speed and so on these bases would have only 500Kt or so space open as the Abilities are built into the hull it self.

I have seen the Balance mod, but i wanted to say is i want a different ship portrait and logo and model for the new specific ship hulls, i don't want to use a Destroyer as a Colony ship or a a Frigate as a supply ship. That to me is weird......

And a transport as a Space Yard....

Can you please add some more variation for weapon mounts?

Some mounts can give accuracy by increasing the weapon cost, some mounts can give more firepower in exchange for size / fire rate, some mounts can give a bonus +50% to range but will lower the damage... etc...

What I'd love to see..... is less of the billion weapons which all shoot a damage projectile of similar danger in a similar way.....
But every weapon having it's place and being different.
Make huge use of the special damages.
Things like shield draining weapons should have a longer range than most other weapons, otherwise by the time you get into range the shield has been battered down by everything else anyway.

Basically..... Diversity without duplication in the weapons tech.

Hey Kwok... what's up with this mod? Haven't heard anything about it in a while...
Also, how are you going to keep people from getting confused between Nova Mod and Bearclaw's Dark Nova Mod?

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

Keep us posted Kwok We are eagerly awaiting this mod

Groovy Baby Yeah!

Oooh, this one sounds tasty. In fact even includes some things I had just posted wanting to see in the Balance Mod.

Ah, I've been outdone by a master *bows*

Hello everyone:
I was wondering if there has been an update on the Nova mod? From what I've read it looks good.

This implies BM v1.12 has some unusually stubborn problems that are being ironed out at present? Or is it RL that's gotten busier?

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

I'd like to see some things on electronic warfare. Maybe special components for specialized ship designs for example. Like a frigate that can jam drones to lose its targets, even if only temporary, or even a wild weasle type fighter, mine etc. And of course counter measures for the above suggestions.

Detailed targeting, the ability to target a specific component on a ship or even a facility/wp on a planet. Maybe even specific sabotage against the same targets as above.

Perhaps even some Pirate type encounters from the A.I., or a wandering monster, lol.

Overloading weapons, with the possibility of component destruction, and success chances, etc.

Maybe more Ancient Tech descoveries from ruins, or even hibernating races from the past, as well as plagues, etc.

Just some off the wall idea's for consideration....

Singularity Cannon - Vicious high level weapon.

Rail Gun - Half the size, damage and range of a Meson, but triple the firing rate. Start with it or may be change the DUC to those stats? or its available at DUC level 3 or 5.

Transporter Gun - It transports pieces of the enemy ship into space or its cargo holds. Game terms its short range and does 100% damage to a single component and penetrates armor, but not shields.

Cloning Center - One per system to give a system wide boost to population growth.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

Singularity cannons? Oh yeah I'd probably make it skip shields completely, skip armor maybe 95%, and do massive damage... maybe also have some sort of temporary effect like the Black Hole Generator in MOO2 - I know you can't make a "destroys ship in 3 seconds unless resisted" type effect, but maybe the gravitic field could slow down the target? Of course this thing would be like 200kT unmounted, at least

Funny, I think of railguns as fairly powerful projectile weapons with a slow reload time, perhaps akin to a hunting rifle or even a grenade launcher if you were to scale it to a portable version, not weak rapid-fire "Nerf machine gun" type things...

Transporter gun? Hehehe... I don't think you can do damage based on component tonnage... I also think the name is a bit cheesy sounding... how about a Spatial Translocator which is similar to the Ripper Beam in terms of range, but somewhat bigger and significantly more powerful and with higher tech requirements? It could also do wildly randomized damage (1-100 at any range up to 40km for a 30 or 40kT component at level 1?) And maybe it could give a bonus to boarding parties on your ship... hmmm...

Cloning centers sound *exactly* like the organic races' Gestation Vats...

Hmm, now that I'm in "come up with fun techs mode", I'll come up with a few more

Hawking Catapult - Alternative name for the Singularity Cannon. I got it from Cosmic Enconter Alternatively, it could be a special power system that draws on black holes' "Hawking radiation" to generate bonus movement for a ship, akin to a solar sail... I don't think that's actually possible (in modding terms or in terms of the actual power output of a typical black hole!) but you might be able to write an event script which gives all ships with a Hawking Catapult extra *supplies* in black-hole systems instead, sort of like a solar collector... I know it seems useless (since there are so few black holes) but if you made it like 10,000 supplies per turn, it might be worthwhile... gives you an incentive to use those quantum black hole creation thingys instead of the cheaper versions of a star destroyer as well!

Speaking of stellar manipulation - I personally think SM tech in SE4 and SE5 is way too expensive to research and deploy - once you have it, you've probably already won, so what's the point? I know it's awfully powerful, but maybe if you reduced the costs a bit, or created a "SM barge" or "genesis torpedo" hull which required a SM component installed on it but reduced maintenance by 99%, then it might be more viable...

Also, how about sensors that give bonus research points into Astrophysics for being in a black-hole system, or into Biology for being in an organic infestation?

How about a really powerful weapon that can destroy virtually any ship in one shot - as long as its shields and armor are down; otherwise it has no effect? I wonder what to call such a weapon??? Maybe it could be a religious component, seeing as Religious has no weapons... call it Hammer of Fate or something, and give it a horrible to-hit penalty?

Or a Spatial Compressor which does more damage at longer range than at short ranges (maybe damage := [%Range%]), until it maxes out at some "pressure node" range?

How about some sort of point-defense version of the Weapons Disruptor, only make it an Energy Pulse or High Energy Discharge or even a Biological/Organic or Psionic weapon - it could be a blinding laser or a mind-control virus.....

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

I agree on the Rail Gun comment, it should be high range, high damage, armor peircing, and slow reload. You ever read up on them? They have to replace the rails each shot, the friction practically turns them into slag.

A friend of mine once had an idea on how to solve the slow reload problem:
Drop the rais out into a slag heap in the belly of the boat, where it gets smelted down and turned into new rails, while at the same time new rails drop in from above. A short term solution (depends on how many extra rails you have on stock and how fast you can make new out of the slag), but one that borders on genious.

I was watching Stargate Atlantis Marathon and some Andromeda episodes when I thought about these. I was thinking of what the Tau'ri use on their ships and the ones they deployed to defend Atlantis. They had a extreme rate of fire but damage was limited it appeared.

The Singularity Cannon went through the Andromeda like it was paper. It was like a cannon shot (solid and round), but just ripped everything apart.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

Weapon ideas? Try these two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8GefmzFCuA

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE

So...ones that cause planets to blow up?

well as long as we are wishing for weapons. i want the main cannon of the sdf-1.

How about the main weapon in Galaxy Quest? Upon activation time itself rolls back one turn!

(then again that's what save and reload does anyway.)

That reminds me of the old Lensmen books ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman_series ) - it's been a while but in essence they developed a very high power energy beam weapon but couldn't prevent a core component burning out at each firing. They tried and tried to perfect the design but to no avail. Eventually they just mass produced the core component into a cartridge that was re-loaded after each firing, just like a breech-loading cannon on a battleship.

I loved those books as a teen but trying to re-read them nearly thirty years later was a struggle.

Component Ideas:

Dark Matter Condenser - A stellar manipulation device that can create a tiny asteroid field with random damage potential (up to catastrophic) in a specified sector from empty stellar gases. Component is destroyed after use (but so is the ship!). One per system effective in systems without nebulae. In system that is a nebula, one can be created per sector. Useful for creating tiny bases (using the gravitational condenser) in empty systems, or new mining opportunities, or 1 sector asteroid traps (perhaps placed over a hot warp point).

Dark Matter Resonator - A stellar manipulation device that when activated, obliterates medium or larger asteroid fields into high-damage potential tiny or small asteroid fields accordingly in surrounding sectors. So instead of 1 small asteroid field, you now end up with 1 tiny asteroid field per sector in 7 sectors (target sector, and its six neighbors). Such a device is destructive, and will destroy anything in a single sector radius from the target sector (including planetary bases, but not the planet itself) upon activation. High damage potential disables most ships entering it. Perhaps a second level in the tech to allow it destroy a 2 sector radius at its highest level, while still only creating a 1 sector radius asteroid field. Useful for creating remote "asteroid traps" or to blow up passing ships several sectors away. Maybe even mineable so as to detonate automatically when nearby enemy ships pass by. Useful in slowing down enemy advances and disabling high numbers of enemy ships without using mines.

The counter to the Dark Matter Resonator would be the Dark Matter Resonator itself - in that it that actually wipes out tiny asteroid fields. Again it's destructive, but only in that sector. Component is 7 times cheaper than gravitational condenser which is considered the more peaceable way to deal with tiny nuisance asteroid fields... assuming the planet-creating ship survives entry into the sector.

Gravitational Shield Device - massive device that shields the ship and nearby ships in the same sector from stellar manipulations. No stellar manipulations in sector can take place when the shield is on. Higher levels protect ships in sector from system-wide stellar manipulations.

New Facility Type:

Colonial Self Destruct Center - Upon the turn that it is completed, a stellar manipulation useful in breaking planetary blockades... at the cost of the colony on it. Can be built by a beseiged colony... and when activated destroys all ships and bases in a 2 sector radius, leaving planetary bodies intact for re-colonization.

Counter: Gravitational Shield or device component (shields ships in sector from getting blown to smithereens by stellar manipulations!)

Space Empires Wiki

The Darkmater things:
I'm not sure they're possible, I believe there was a very large discusion on the fact that you can't create planets withouth an asteroid feild and can't create asteroid feilds without destroying a planet.

Component Idea:

Buoy - small 1k satellite component that is like a public message board for a sector or system. When clicked, can be viewed and read. I don't know if it's possible for it to also broadcast a message to the visiting player's log, but would be interesting if so. Has anyone ever thought of this? A 1024 character limit should suffice:

"Welcome to Nolaran Imperial Space. Enter at your own risk. Speed Limit: 9 sectors per turn or otherwise posted. Please register your craft with the nearest NIS Boarder Patrol ship or you will be fired upon. Prepare to be boarded for inspection. Do not attempt to hide Altarian ale. Declare it, and it will be confiscated without incident. Don't declare it, and you will be executed on the spot.

Capital offenses:
- Breaking the 9 sector per turn speed limit.
- Smuggling Altarian ale.
- Looking behind the green curtain.
- Breathing oxygen."

or:

"The Altarian System is claimed by the Yullado Consortium. Any colony ships detected will be fired upon. Any ship of any class without prior approval that approach within 10 sectors of the Yullado Wormhole will be considered hostile and targeted for annihilation by our superior Consortium forces. Please contact our government through normal channels to open up a trade agreement concerning our chief product, Altarian ale, as we hear some of our neighbors consider it to be a narcotic and require its regulation in the free market. Individual sale is prohibited, however no one really cares here anyways, so drink up and Free Tibet!"

Or spam:

"Down with the Nolaran emperor and his sober cronies."

Space Empires Wiki

That one would be fun.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

I think it'd be nice to spam a few of them into enemy territory:

"Mike wuz here. And you didn't even notice. Muhahah. I now pwn your star."

or perhaps even satellites that can be captured?

"This buoy once blabbed about Nolaran anti-Altarian ale import rules. What Emperor Nolar doesn't know, is that his border patrol officials are easily bribed, because once you try Altarian ale, you will not want to drink ANYTHING ELSE. So there. Go suck a cow. This buoy is now claimed by the Yullado Consortium. Any attempt to deface it will be met with a mix of Consortium cruisers and Altarian ale bottles."

Space Empires Wiki

Heh, for some reason that message reminds me of an old PC game called "Inner Space" where you flew a spaceship around your computer's filesystem (!) trying to capture the icons... 'cause in that game, all the space pirate ships seemed to be armed with beer bottle based weaponry!

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

I like the idea of expanding the weapon types (Plasma weapons). It would add a bit more diversity. Perhaps it's interesting to also divide the engine paths.

This would create seperate tech streams which are not all compatible. It creates a more alien atmosphere

~Myrath

This mod sounds great. Any idea when it will be available?

Capt Kwok Sir....just wanted to say THANK YOU for all your hard work!!

Sounds like just what I'd enjoy: BM AI with expanded techs. Eagerly awaiting a chance to try it out.

Out of curiosity, are you doing it all by hand (editing the TXTs) or are you using Devnull's editor?
____________________
I'll make one later.

Wow looks great

I would like to know how you define the difference between blasters and cannons.
The tech background ( or what have you been thinking, young man ) and ingame.

Will the major traits ( crystalline and organic ) also alter the ressource usage of facilities and components ?
Or why are the major anyways and the other stuff isn't

Remember : Pillage! then burn.
- Cpt. Kaff Tagon

Thumbs up!

my god. i think im going to cry this mod looks so amazing *cries tears of joy*

hhmm couldnt help but notice that pertty much all the damage is normal type, i.e beam and bolt, so no plasma type damage then?

are there going to be components that reduce damage from certain types of wepons and maybe armors that take more from some types, like organic?

ah but different damage types make things so much more fun in a rock paper scissors way... and stops people from just using one type of weapon all the time, i.e APBs