For the Next Patch

[deanej]

Next Version: probably 3.0. Will post a thread(s) for that later; when 3.0 is out I plan to use this thread again for patch stuff.

 

[TC01]

Based on your comments in the Final Frontier modding threat in the main C&C forum- how you wanted to have both wormholes appear at the end of Millennium, perhaps you could take advantage of the "multiple feature types", like is done in Forests and Asteroids? That way, if the feature "cap" problem can't be gotten around, both wormholes can still appear.

FFH does this with Ancient Forests, New Forests, and Forests all being the same Forest, I think.

It's not a needed change, just an idea.

 

[Imrahiel]

I like the Idea of earth based maps like Eugenic Wars and 3 World War. So i would like to give you the Idea of adding some unique units to it( i think there are a lot models for it).
Also i think there should be some more models for main mod( when i have engouh time i perhaps going to convert some from Brigde Commander)

Here a list of models that could be nice to be add a day( if you got the help of modler):

Dominion Heavy Battleship ( from DS9 "Valiant" )
Scimatar
Intrepid-Typ ( from ENT)
Warp Delta Class ( from ENT)
K'Vort
Danube
Steamrunner
Sabre
Orbital Weapons Platform ( from DS9 )

 

[deanej]

My main reason for posting this thread was to select which option(s) to fix the exploit in Eugenics Wars; I haven't gotten a response in the unofficial patch thread, so I'm assuming that I'm going to have to work around it.

I've added a note about the breen/alliance building requirement bug. Do we really care about having to build buildings that require a specific building on the same planet as that building? It might be easier to remove it than to make the code compensate for UBs (which requires me opening up a thread for help, as I have no idea of how to do this).

 

[apenpaap]

Don't remove the Geological power plant! A better idea might be to give the Breen and Alliance a second unique building , which replaces the plant, but has a Breen Labour Camp as prerequisite instead of a factory.

 

[deanej]

I don't mean removing the power plant. There is a piece of code from Final Frontier that makes it so that a building that requires another building needs to be built on the same planet as that other building. Problem: while the XML/SDK handle stuff like this with BUILDINGCLASS_FACTORY, the code in question essentially uses BUILDING_FACTORY. UBs are handled as a separate building with the same buildingclass as the building they replace. All of the Final Frontier code relating to buildings in incompatable with UBs because they work at the building, not buildingclass, level. For most of it this can be fixed by adding a duplicate entry for the UB. This is one case where it can't. Here's the code in question, for anyone interested:

		# Prereqs are required for the Planet
		if (eBuilding > -1):
			pBuildingInfo = gc.getBuildingInfo(eBuilding)
			for iNeededBuildingLoop in range(gc.getNumBuildingInfos()):
				if (pBuildingInfo.isBuildingClassNeededInCity(iNeededBuildingLoop)):
					if (not pPlanet.isHasBuilding(iNeededBuildingLoop)):
						return True

My idea is to remove this requirement, allowing a building to be built on any planet in a system where the required building is present.

I should mention that this bug exists for the Fusion Reactor as well (if I found the cause correctly).

EDIT: And I think I just figured out the exploit in Eugenics Wars: prevent transporer sequences from entering foreign cities via python and limit to max of 3

 

[Jaydn]

Work has slowed down by 1% so I think I can resume some extra-curricular modeling again, have the goals changed in the last few months with regard to models needed?

 

[deanej]

Not really, though adding K'vort (I think this is just the BOP with the arms up), scimitar, and dominion heavy battle ship (I'm assuming we don't have this already; not too familiar with dominion ships outside of the Jem'Hadar fighter) could be easily added in without adding more units. I have had a request for adding the yellow stuff to the terran NX class (and changing the USS to ISS for the terran ships would be nice if it isn't too much work; I don't remember what we settled on). I'll also add a mention for the Millennium units for completeness since the Grigari use the Alien Vessel, the Opaka is the Intrepid, and the Augustus is the Sovereign.

I think adding the Orbital Weapons Platform would make an interesting late-game defensive unit (for 3.0).

 

[TC01]

I think (for Aegis), that if you prevent them from entering foreign cities, why limit them to 3? If they can't enter cities, they are essentially only transports again- sure, fast ones that can carry 5 units, rather than city-conquerors.

 

[apenpaap]

The Dominion battleship is already in. I have a few more suggestions: the Bajoran solarsailing ship from Explorers and Accesion (For the Bajoran Warp 5 and 7 ships), the Narada (For the Romulan Construction ships), the Hirogen hologram fighting station (for the Hirogen starbase).

 

[Jaydn]

I'll start as soon as possible, I just noticed that my Civ4 cd isn't where it should be so I can't update to 3.19 until i find it... too much junk

 

[deanej]

I think (for Aegis), that if you prevent them from entering foreign cities, why limit them to 3? If they can't enter cities, they are essentially only transports again- sure, fast ones that can carry 5 units, rather than city-conquerors.

You're right; trying to take over a civ by unloading units next to the cities (instead of on them) would still require multiple stacks with many units. Having flat movement costs also makes it so they have less movement (as they no longer use road/rails).

Yes, I though the Dominion battleship might be in already. The solar sail for early Bajoran ships and the Narada for romulan construction ship is also a good idea, just one quick note on the Narada:

Spoiler Star Trek: Countdown :

The Narada as it appears in the movie is Borg technology enhanced. As a mining vessel it is seen in the early issues (first half of the trade paperback).

 

[TC01]

Is there any way to fix the "lack of ending" for the opening movie?

The python exception I receive (because I have exceptions on) tells me that the IntroMovie screen lacks an attribute "Z_EXIT"... is there no way to fix this?

As for modelling, the Borg sensor station could use an overhaul, even if only Borgish green lights and things were added to it. Likewise, their construction ship... perhaps the "Cylinder" model from SFC3 could be used? It may have been modded into Bridge Commander but I don't remember. I know someone modded it into Armada 2.

 

[deanej]

That's another change I implemented for the next patch; it no longer requires a click to exit (I converted to the FFH code for implementing it).

 

[Imrahiel]

Deanej: To the Aegis Expoit, i would make more unique units and a new balancing.
Some factions should have i hightec units for example the USA other like China should have more a big, but cheap and army with no-modern units.
If you want i would add more unique units to it and graphics( I know a fine mod for modern unit-graphics), just tell it me and i will do it in the next 2-3 weeks.

 

[Agent327]

Any other needed changes
I'm assuming that the lack of feedback is because you're all busy playing. That's OK, it gives me a chance to actually play civ for a change.

Sounds like a good idea.

BTW, for the Galaxy scenario I'd really like a Custom Game option. Reason: excluding a number of civs might improve game turn lag, possibly. (Also, Warp 5 ships with strength and move 1 don't really speed up gameplay either; if Warp 5 ships have speed 1, the scouting vessels must have warpspeed 10 or something...) That said, I really like it. It's massive!

 

[Trajan7]

I agree with Jeelen, because the turn lag would only get worse as you expand and research new technologies, to were it would take like 5 to 10 minutes.

 

[TC01]

Something that might make some scenarios better would be to add more custom victory conditions, like in Millennium. For instance, in ST 1.20, I was playing a Klingon Civil War game as Gowron, and was on the verge of defeating Lursa and B'Etor when I was backstabbed by Captain Picard of the Federation.. Yes, he declared war on me, took three lightly defended systems (that were defended by useless K't'ingas because I assumed the UFP wouldn't declare war), and won a domination victory. If there was only, say, a Klingon Unification Victory or something, this kind of thing might be preventable.

Also, some really minor spelling nitpicks I noticed, all in ST Enterprise (and ST Galaxy):

1. In ST Enterprise and ST Galaxy, the Andorian leader is "Sharan" instead of Shran.

2. Likewise, in ST Enterprise, Colonel Grat is named "Colonial Grat".

3. In the Romulan War scenario for that game, the Orion homeworld is named "Orian".

 

[deanej]

I don't plan any more major development on the scenarios added in 1.x, but I do still plan to do bug/text fixes (so those text fixes will get done in the patch). That said, even if I was, Klingon Civil War and Yesterday's Enterprise both run from the same mod, so I'm not exactly sure how I would implement that anyways (should have thought of it in the first place!). The AI is unaware of these extra victory conditions, so it wouldn't change behavior. I had intended for the Federation/Romulans to be able to enter the war for that scenario, but not like that.

I will consider allowing custom game for The Galaxy; it would require loading up the ST Galaxy mod directly (as I'm not sure how to make it work for one scenario), and I would have to see how it behaves and possibly make tweaks to the mod (I took some shortcuts in development that I would have to fix so strange stuff doesn't happen, such as Gral leading United Earth (because he's really just Pressman with a new name and graphic), so I would have to delete some leader links to civs in the XML (as well as civs, as some not used are still in). Nothing I can't do, just stuff I haven't and probably should anyways. I have decided to include a no independant cities version of the map. And yes, it is massive (one size above huge; this is why I haven't disabled going between the quadrants normally, as it takes a long time to get there until the late game). I am thinking of giving the Borg Subspace Corridors in that scenario as well. As for unit movement, I can scale it down for that map (though I plan to leave Borg unaffected as they should be able to move between places quickly; I'm even thinking of increasing it!), but I doubt I can get it to match up to warp speed properly as it's tile based (warp 7 ship will be double movement or same movement as warp 5). Probes have gone quite far in the Star Trek universe so I don't consider that a huge problem (there is more incentive to build advanced probes in this map).

EDIT: do Hunyadi and Morrison go to war with anyone right now? If not, I'm thinking that it may be a good idea to introduce random DOWs from the genetically engineered civs on other civs if they aren't at war.

 

[apenpaap]

Warp 10 is not twice as fast as warp 5. In the ENT/TOS warp factor system, warp 10 is 8 times as fast as warp 5. This is because each warp faactor is the third-power root of the speed in lightspeeds in that system. So
warp 1 is 1^3=1 times the speed of light
warp 2 is 2^3=8 times the speed of light
warp 3 is 3^3=27 times the speed of light
warp 5 is 5^3=125 times the speed of light
warp 10 is 10^3=1000 times the speed of light

(In TNG the warp system is redone so that it goes asymptotic at warp 10, meaning warp 10 is infinite there)

This means that if 1 move a turn= warp 5, then

2 moves= warp 6.3
3 moves= warp 7.2
4 moves= warp 8
5 moves= warp 8.5
6 moves= warp 9.1
7 moves= warp 9.6
8 moves= warp 10
etc.

I think the Vulcans, Andorians and tellarites should have the constitution as UU and starbase as UB in the Galaxy scenario too. They became part of the federation, after all.