WildWeazel
Going Dutch
w00000t! There goes any chance of getting some sleep this week.... 
Space Armarda; Testing and Modmaking #1
- Thread starter Smoking mirror
- Start date
w00000t! There goes any chance of getting some sleep this week.... 
Smoking mirror
Ships Captain
If you want some Info on the various star systems try this link http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/nearstar.html
I want part of the fun to be investigating the systems, So I won't put in any info as to where the habitable planets are, but may well include some clues.
Good places to head for initialy are Procyon, Sirius, Eta Cassiopeiae (NE), Epsilon Eridani (SW), and 61 Cygni. The star lanes are wide enough for two ships to pass each other without engaging in combat (a big problem with my early smaller map).
I's questionable as to which systems would have planets, many scientists now belive that planets are very widespread, so only a few systems will be "asteroid farms" with a single red dwarf and no planets.
Each type of star has an associated terrain type surrounding it, which gives higher or lower food and trade depending on the magnitude of the star.
For instance, most red dwarves are surrounded by a small area of Plains (proximity space) which gives fairly good food allowance, not much trade for obvious reasons, while white or yellow suns have grassland (inner system space) surrounded by Tundra (outer system space). Some very hot stars even have an area of hazard space (desert) which gives huge food bonuses but also has a chance of inflicting disease (radiation).
I want part of the fun to be investigating the systems, So I won't put in any info as to where the habitable planets are, but may well include some clues.
Good places to head for initialy are Procyon, Sirius, Eta Cassiopeiae (NE), Epsilon Eridani (SW), and 61 Cygni. The star lanes are wide enough for two ships to pass each other without engaging in combat (a big problem with my early smaller map).
I's questionable as to which systems would have planets, many scientists now belive that planets are very widespread, so only a few systems will be "asteroid farms" with a single red dwarf and no planets.
Each type of star has an associated terrain type surrounding it, which gives higher or lower food and trade depending on the magnitude of the star.
For instance, most red dwarves are surrounded by a small area of Plains (proximity space) which gives fairly good food allowance, not much trade for obvious reasons, while white or yellow suns have grassland (inner system space) surrounded by Tundra (outer system space). Some very hot stars even have an area of hazard space (desert) which gives huge food bonuses but also has a chance of inflicting disease (radiation).
WildWeazel
Going Dutch
So how do these "star lanes" work, and how do you explain them? I know we discussed several options for interstellar travel, but I don't remember how you decided to do it.
vbraun
Raytracing
I can't wait!
Smoking mirror
Ships Captain
Weasel Op said:
Essentialy coastal squares are system space, with no movement penalty, a star ship can fly all around a systems periphery looking for somwhere to drop it's colonists in just a few turns.
Sea tiles are star lanes, they have a movement penalty of 2, they mainly just represent the time saved by heading in a straight line towards a star, rather than wondering around in space. Deep space will be represented by ocean squares which are impassable). I also want ships in general to move straight from one system to another, rather than wondering around trying to uncover the map in the deep space areas. This represents more the realistic movement of ships.
Smoking mirror
Ships Captain
The Mod Is going well, All the units have been added, as well as tech icons, and the tech tree has been renamed.
Need to finish some more graphics, and add all the planets and stars to the map. Also need to make some different changes to Governments etc...
I'm going to replace Chivaly with the "AutoSpy" which will allow an intelligence agency type building at the begining of the second age.
With the weakness of military units, and the widespread nature of the Star systems Espionage is going to be an important part of the Mod, so I'm going to make all spy jobs cheaper, and nearly all governments give out at least veteran spies.
I could do with some help doing the civlopedia entries for the techs, so If anyone has some free time over the next few days just write something up in civlopedia format (just check the civlopedia that comes with CivIII for information) and post it here.
Here are two pictures showing the advances to show which ones are needed, I've not changed the buildings at all yet;
first era techs
Second Era Techs
Need to finish some more graphics, and add all the planets and stars to the map. Also need to make some different changes to Governments etc...
I'm going to replace Chivaly with the "AutoSpy" which will allow an intelligence agency type building at the begining of the second age.
With the weakness of military units, and the widespread nature of the Star systems Espionage is going to be an important part of the Mod, so I'm going to make all spy jobs cheaper, and nearly all governments give out at least veteran spies.
I could do with some help doing the civlopedia entries for the techs, so If anyone has some free time over the next few days just write something up in civlopedia format (just check the civlopedia that comes with CivIII for information) and post it here.
Here are two pictures showing the advances to show which ones are needed, I've not changed the buildings at all yet;
first era techs
Second Era Techs
Smoking mirror
Ships Captain
Todays update;
Damn! I've put everything in the mod but I'm not very happy with it...
The AI just doesn't seem to want to expand at all, they just all stay cramed together on the home island untill one of them gets lucky and wipe the others out. I think it'd be easier in conquests becuase you could use spawning buildings to make ships, so the AI would be foreced to spread out, but the only obvious choice Ive got is to add a few starting ships and hope they use them.
I'm going to experiment with adding some generic resources, such as hydrogen3 to the gas giants, and uranium to the asteroid belts to see if that will lure them. also the screen is too cluttered at the moment, I'm going to thin out the asteroid belts, and reduce the bonus grasland a fair bit...
Other than that it's not too bad. Needs more colour in the system space, so you can tell it apart from the seas, needs more range of sea units... etc...
One Idea I have been thinking about is getting rid of the seas all together, just replacing them with tundra or something. It would be impassable to wheeled units. Lighthuggers and starships would be high movement un-wheeled settlers with high attack and defend scores. It's something to think about, but would require more work than I've got time for right now.
Good news though, so far the whole thing racks up only 15megs unziped.
Damn! I've put everything in the mod but I'm not very happy with it...
The AI just doesn't seem to want to expand at all, they just all stay cramed together on the home island untill one of them gets lucky and wipe the others out. I think it'd be easier in conquests becuase you could use spawning buildings to make ships, so the AI would be foreced to spread out, but the only obvious choice Ive got is to add a few starting ships and hope they use them.
I'm going to experiment with adding some generic resources, such as hydrogen3 to the gas giants, and uranium to the asteroid belts to see if that will lure them. also the screen is too cluttered at the moment, I'm going to thin out the asteroid belts, and reduce the bonus grasland a fair bit...
Other than that it's not too bad. Needs more colour in the system space, so you can tell it apart from the seas, needs more range of sea units... etc...
One Idea I have been thinking about is getting rid of the seas all together, just replacing them with tundra or something. It would be impassable to wheeled units. Lighthuggers and starships would be high movement un-wheeled settlers with high attack and defend scores. It's something to think about, but would require more work than I've got time for right now.
Good news though, so far the whole thing racks up only 15megs unziped.
WildWeazel
Going Dutch
Don't give settlers a defense value, the AI gets all confused. We tried it in LotM.
Bluemofia
F=ma
Add Helium 3 as a resource along with all the others.
Smoking mirror
Ships Captain
O.k. gave it another go, the adding of resources, and giving starships to each civ didn't work. I'm going to have to add some land that is impassable to wheeled units, and make two new sets of units;
#1 Star settlers; Fairly speedy, no defence or attack, not wheeled.
#2 starcruisers; fairly slow, lots of guns, good combat units, not wheeled.
I can use the current star based units as the star cruisers, but will need to make some new star settlers (not too much work thankfully).
This brings in whole new problems with inter system trading, (where to allow roads?) but I'm fairly happy with the idea that true trade between systems can't happen untill wormholes are available.
I've made the land terrain more individual and made some mini space stations to represent trade networks (AKA road) whcih do not give a movement bonus, but do give trade links. I'm toying with the idea of allowing a movement bonus, simply because if there is a refueling point at the other end of your journey you only have to carry half the fuel, and can thus travel twice as fast.
Some screen shots;
Any comments? It's difficult to tell what everything is to start with, especialy as the third shot features, roads, workers, cities, resources, radar towers, an outpost, an asteroid mine and plenty of units...
Overall does it look OK?
I've tried to go for a sort of gaming board or tactical overlay look to the game, rather than a very realistic, but even more confusing layout.
Don't you mean Hydrogen 3, it's used as a fuel for fusion reactors, I didn't know Helium could be used instead?
#1 Star settlers; Fairly speedy, no defence or attack, not wheeled.
#2 starcruisers; fairly slow, lots of guns, good combat units, not wheeled.
I can use the current star based units as the star cruisers, but will need to make some new star settlers (not too much work thankfully).
This brings in whole new problems with inter system trading, (where to allow roads?) but I'm fairly happy with the idea that true trade between systems can't happen untill wormholes are available.
I've made the land terrain more individual and made some mini space stations to represent trade networks (AKA road) whcih do not give a movement bonus, but do give trade links. I'm toying with the idea of allowing a movement bonus, simply because if there is a refueling point at the other end of your journey you only have to carry half the fuel, and can thus travel twice as fast.
Some screen shots;
Any comments? It's difficult to tell what everything is to start with, especialy as the third shot features, roads, workers, cities, resources, radar towers, an outpost, an asteroid mine and plenty of units...
Overall does it look OK?
I've tried to go for a sort of gaming board or tactical overlay look to the game, rather than a very realistic, but even more confusing layout.
Don't you mean Hydrogen 3, it's used as a fuel for fusion reactors, I didn't know Helium could be used instead?
WildWeazel
Going Dutch
I like the tactical look. What does "A-C" mean? Is that a resource?
vbraun
Raytracing
One solution for when you get Conquests might be to make an improvment that make a settler every so many turns or even make the Palace do that.
I can't wait to try this out!
I can't wait to try this out!
Smoking mirror
Ships Captain
A-C is Alpha Centuri, the system that is very close to our own (would only take about 40 years to reach, rather than 100). It's where you send the spaceships in CIV...
Testing is proceeding again, going to try out land bridges of "transit space" made from tundra on which roads, cities and improvements cannot be built and wheeled units cannot be moved across. I'm going to give settlers and star ships a move of two while all wheeled units whill be more powerfull in combat but only have a move of 1... Should work, just going off to test it now.
Testing is proceeding again, going to try out land bridges of "transit space" made from tundra on which roads, cities and improvements cannot be built and wheeled units cannot be moved across. I'm going to give settlers and star ships a move of two while all wheeled units whill be more powerfull in combat but only have a move of 1... Should work, just going off to test it now.
Bobisback
Emperor
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2003
- Messages
- 1,169
come on let us test it, please
I'm dying
btw maybe they are not building cities because they don't no that there is a place to build or because the planets are two far away. Just my two cents
Try to make the map reveled at the start, don't no if you can do this is PTW I have not played PTW in so long, or you can try to give them a scout at the start.
I'm dyingbtw maybe they are not building cities because they don't no that there is a place to build or because the planets are two far away. Just my two cents
Try to make the map reveled at the start, don't no if you can do this is PTW I have not played PTW in so long, or you can try to give them a scout at the start.
Smoking mirror
Ships Captain
OK, with the land bridges in place the AI seems to cope with it fairly well. Partly it is cos there was too much distance between the islands.
I'll try to post it tommorrow, I've got to add the rest of the starsystems and alocate resources and planets, make one more unit, modify one unit animation already in the game and do some city lists.
I want to clear away quite a bit of the unessecary land bridge space cos at the moment it makes it a bit ugly. Also the techs need to be more expensive. I've adjusted the tech cost by doubling the individual cost for each tech, but it's not realy worked to the extent I wanted, so I may just double them again.
Here's proof that it works, though the AI is a bit slow at expanding.
I'll try to post it tommorrow, I've got to add the rest of the starsystems and alocate resources and planets, make one more unit, modify one unit animation already in the game and do some city lists.
I want to clear away quite a bit of the unessecary land bridge space cos at the moment it makes it a bit ugly. Also the techs need to be more expensive. I've adjusted the tech cost by doubling the individual cost for each tech, but it's not realy worked to the extent I wanted, so I may just double them again.
Here's proof that it works, though the AI is a bit slow at expanding.
Attachments
vbraun
Raytracing
Is there a way to change the minimap colors?
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