Devnullmod

[Stockman]

Want to take the time to thank you for this great mod. Was really hopeing to see it everyday when I would come home from work,Now you got me excited about how you might add some more stuff. Thanks.
I suggest anyone to try this mod as I feel it really belongs in the game,try it and you will love this mod

[chewy027]

Stockman I to play with this mod and like the additions. Especially the external mt. missiles http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif

BTY Stockman have you voted for the civil war idea yet. We would really like to know what you think. If you need info on the feature check out the overview in the intergalactic civil war thread.

Thanks for your time http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Devnullicus]

Thanks =)

I like it too, actually. I've been playtesting some new stuff for it recently. I'm playtesting it as a "compatible" mod with TDM-ModPack 1.70. I'm hoping that sometime next week, I'll have Version 1.3 out which will be compatible as an add-on for TDM-ModPack as well as adding a few new mods (I'm heavily playtesting DeathStalker's Light Missile Mounts for balance as well -- so far they REALLY make the AI much deadlier).

I've also put in Lucas' Intel fix for AI.

Any other suggestions for things to add?

[Deathstalker]

Thanks (for testing the mounts), I find with the MiniMissile the AI can hold its own with all the PDC the TDM-Modpack uses. Also makes races like the Zorian which usually only have one launcher per ship harder. My personal fave to use these with is either a whole wack of crystal torp or plasma missiles (as plasma is cheap compared to capital.).

------------------
"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Nitram Draw]

I looked at the text description of the mod and it looks interesting. Does the whole mod need to be installed or can just pieces be used?
Also, I noticed a lot of added missile benefits. How come there are no improvements to PD? Have you thought about trying a close in point defense component, 1-2 range, low damage, 2-5kt in size? Seems like those small missiles cannot be countered.

[Devnullicus]

Pretty much the whole mod needs to be installed. Almost all of the files in the data directory are modified. I'm working on making it compatible with TDM-ModPack 1.70 so you would install that first and then DevnullMod. It will probably overwrite a couple files (data/formations.txt and AI/Default_AI_PlanetTypes.txt), but they'll have all of TDM-ModPacks changes in there.

Well, the problem really is that PD is too powerful already. A couple PD V's on a few ships in a fleet can basically make you immune to missiles. Fighters are somewhat tougher, but still PD will ruin their day.

The reason I like the light missile mod as well as the fast seeking speed of the sprint missiles, etc is that they can overwhelm or get by PD. It really helps balance things. With the new mods, ships in a fleet with *JUST* PD on them are now useful, if not necessary.

So while more PD is certainly an option, before I add more PD, I'll probably just tone down the new missile mods a bit.

[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 12 April 2001).]

[Nitram Draw]

The small missiles look great and fill a needed area. Its hard to make a good small missile ship due to the cost, size and reload rate of the standard missile component.
You are right about PD being powerful, I load up 2-3 LC with them and nothing gets through. It would be nicer if you could make a component that would affect the missile and PD accuracy to make both of them less of a sure thing.
Looking forward to trying it.

[chewy027]

There is a mod in hyperionbase where the stellar manipulations are split up into different techs why don't you include that one?

[Devnullicus]

umm, sounds interesting. I don't include it because I don't know about it =) Do you have a URL?

[tictoc]

Nice to be using the mod again, i'm in my next 1k turn game using this mod and am glad the missiles were sorted out (got really frustrating in the first mod). Kudo's for sorting it out and regards to all who contibuted to it. Many thanks.

tic

[chewy027]

Devnullicus the website is www.hyperionbase.com\ (http://www.hyperionbase.com\) It's in the mod section . It splits each different stellar manipulation into a different tech area. Ex. one for warp open/close, one for planet creation etc.

[Devnullicus]

I checked that site, but when I try to actually download the mod I get a page not found error...

[Devnullicus]

OK, well, things are going well for Version 1.3 of devnullmod. There's so many changes it's amazing. And all of them good =)

Anyway, I'm on the Last part of it now, tweaking the races to use the new technology, etc. Should be ready in a couple more days. A BIG HUGE thanks to Zeno for his wonderful mod tools. They've been a HUGE help. And I would encourage anyone who's going to do mods to check out the diffexam tool. The most incredible diff'ing tool I've ever used (and I've used a lot of them =) ).

Here is a list of the changes so far in Version 1.3 of devnullmod:

-updated data files for SE4 Version 1.35

-Modified Light Weapon Mounts slightly as they were a bit overpowered. Reduced range by one.
-Made all missiles half size, +25% cost.
-Split up point-defense weapons into two Groups -- one for seekers and the other for seekers/fighters/satellites.
-significantly raised seeker damage resistance for heavy bombardment missiles to make them worthwhile
-slightly increased sprint missile damage
-reduced sprint missile seeker damage resistance
-raised supplies used by missiles significantly
-since missiles are so much more deadly, races now start with point-defense I. Military Science will still
have to be researched to get Point-Defense 2+, Anti-Fighter Missiles, and Mini Point-Defense.
-made supply storage 10 tons instead of 20 to help make it fit better and be more useful. Halved the supplies
stored with each component.
-increased supplies stored by higher-level engines
-added mini point-defense cannons for very short-range point defense.
-increased anti-fighter missiles range and damage in order to make them viable.
-added Reactive Armor to Psychic Technology Tech tree. As regular armor with a 1-shot super Point-defense
built-in
-Created a new technology: Monolithic Construction - prereq Construction. Monolith Facilities now
need this tech instead of Stellar Manipulation. Ring/Sphere World Placement Pods and Cables/Plating now need
this tech as well as Stellar Manipulation.
-Revamped costs of many components in an effort to make the game not quite so skewed toward just minerals. Raised
the amount of radioactives used on many things, reduced the amount of minerals on many things, and raised the
amount of organics on some things. This changes the balance of the game somewhat, but I believe it's a good
change overall. I will be continuing to tweak these values as I play in order to balance them more.
-significantly reduced cost of a number of small weapons to make the costs consistent with their damage output.
-Gave new components good pictures and switched a few old component pictures.
-re-ordered components.txt file to streamline ship design
-modified description of satellite engines and barge engine that they don't currently work because MM has
hard-coded that satellites cannot do combat movement and bases cannot do regular movement.
-BUGFIX: re-ordered new enhancements in CompEnhancement.txt because apparently the order that they're listed in
the file is meaningful.
-BUGFIX: made family unique for all new seeking parasite missiles so that AI upgrades work
correctly (really, I actually did this time...honestly)
-BUGFIX: fixed typo for vehicle type with satellite engines that was causing them to not show up for use
-BUGFIX: made the families and roman numerals for
plasma charge -> hyper plasma charge,
electric ray -> lightning ray
acid globule -> enveloping acid globule
be consistent to help the AI upgrade correctly.


Selected mods from Pirates & Nomads v1.4 by Suicide_Junkie:
-made emissive armor soak 80/90/100 to make it worthwhile (esp. since emissive armor seems to be broken
in general (only the first hit gets 'emissed', and even then if the damage is > the emissive value, it all
gets through).
-"normal" shield generators provide the amount of hitpoints that "phased" shields used to. Normal shields are
now only on odd tech levels, 1/3/5/7/9. Phased shields are available on even tech levels, and provide
slightly more hitpoints than the previous normal (at techs 2/4/6/8/10). Normal and phased Shield generators
I/II/III/IV/V provide 1/2/3/4/5 points of shield regeneration.
-Shield Regenerators - Available on even tech levels. Provide bonus shield points equivalent to one turn of
regeneration.
-Split up Small Armor into Small Armor I/II/III
-Split up Small Emissive Armor into Small Emissive Armor I/II and upgraded it's armor value
-Split up Small Organic Armor into Small Organic Armor I/II/III
-Interspersed Small Shields and Small Phased Shields and gave them slight regeneration
(NOTE: Unit shield regeneration is not currently working in SE4)
-Improved Range of higher-level Wave Motion Guns (range now 8/10/12)
-Kamikaze warhead I/II/III do 60/120/180 damage.
-Added Ablative Armor I/II/III/IV/V
-Tachyon Dampener. 30Kt, 100 hitpoints. Will absorb a fraction of weapon-destroying attacks.
-Reduced Shield Generator I/II/III. 10kT, provides 25/50/75 shield points, regenerates 2/4/6 points/turn.
Provides 30/40/50 armor points. Requires shield tech level 3/6/9. Requires Armor tech 3/5/7.
-Reduced Shield Regenerator I/II/III. 5kT, regenerates 2/3/4 points per turn.
Requires shield tech level 5/7/10.
-Heavy Shield Generator I/II/III. 200kT. generates 1500/2000/2500 shield points.
Regenerates 50/75/100 points per turn. Requires shield tech level 11/12/13.
-increased max armor tech to 11
-increased max shield tech to 13


Emissive Armor Classic by Suicide_junkie:
-Added Emissive Armor Classic. Not working yet because emissive armor in general is screwed up. But when
emissive armor gets fixed, it should negate the first X points of damage every hit, taking that X off of the
damage that gets through (currently, if the damage is greater than the emissive ability of the armor, the full
damage goes through).


Mount Mods by DeathStalker:
-Mounts for weapons have been added to give each of the different ship sizes different roles in combat instead
of 'bigger ship, bigger guns' that exists now.
-Destroyers have extended range weapons (+50% size/cost, 90% damage, +2 Range, -10 to hit)
-Cruisers have Pulsed Weapons (+25% to hit, +25% damage, +1 rng, +50% cost/size)
-High Energy Focus Mount has been added for Baseships (5x cost/tonnage, 8x damage/Supplies, -1 Range, +10 to hit)


Point-Defense Mount by Daynarr:
-Added Daynarr's Point-Defense mount mods for Weapons Platforms and Bases. Increases range of Point-Defense Weapons
for these units when these mounts are used.


Intel_Fix 1.1 mod by Lucas:
This modification is designed to make the AI players' use of Intelligence more effective. To help the AI,
I have restricted them from using less effective Intelligence projects, or projects
(like "Force Concentrations") which they aren't clever enough to use effectively.

To gain access to all of the Intelligence projects, be sure to research "Human Intel".

If you don't research "Human Intel", then the only Intelligence projects you will have access to will be the ones I have restricted the computer to using, which are:

Ship Bomb
Crew Insurrection
Cargo Bomb
Anarchy Groups
Puppet Political Parties
Technological Espionage
Technological Sabotage
Intelligence Sabotage
Counter - Intelligence Level 1
Counter - Intelligence Level 2
Counter - Intelligence Level 3


[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 25 April 2001).]

[Deathstalker]

Thanks! It's nice to be included! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

------------------
"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Suicide Junkie]

I had no idea you were using some of my stuff.

While I don't really mind, it would be nice to be told directly.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-Reduced Shield Generator I/II/III. 10kT, provides 25/50/75 shield points, regenerates 2/4/6 points/turn.
Provides 30/40/50 armor points. Requires shield tech level 3/6/9. Requires Armor tech 3/5/7.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
This needs to be renamed. Its quite inaccurate right now, since its half armor, not mostly shields.
"Hardened Mini-Shield Generator" would be good.

The shield-armors should already be phased.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 25 April 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

Suicide:
Sorry, you're right -- I should have told you directly. Ah, well, consider yourself told =)

Let me know what you do with the reduced shield stuff and I'll incorporate it also -- I really like what you've done with shields in general.

Nitram Draw:
Yes, the main reason the mod isn't out yet is because I'm working on the AI of the races to utilize the new technology.



[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 25 April 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-increased max armor tech to 11
-increased max shield tech to 13<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I noticed you didn't include the "Large Planetary Shield" facilities in your list.
The Last 3 techs are just for the LPSG facils, so you may have a few useless tech levels there.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-made supply storage 10 tons instead of 20 to help make it fit better and be more useful. Halved the supplies stored with each component.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
My beef with the original way was that the supply bay gives the same storage as an engine. Without the acutal engine to take up space we should be able to store more supplies per KT. Your change has really done nothing to improve usefulness.
eg. to get 500 supplies you now need 2, costing you 10kT, same space and storage as an engine, but missing the propulsion ability.

--------------
Oh, the 10kT shield-armors and the shield regenerators, the ability description should say "provides X bonus shield points"

--------------
How do you plan to update changes I make? Perhaps I could make a separate file with just my components in it, not the regular ones.


[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 25 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 25 April 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-significantly raised seeker damage resistance for heavy bombardment missiles to make them worthwhile<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Mind if I use that name for my nuke missiles?

[Devnullicus]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
-increased max armor tech to 11
-increased max shield tech to 13
I noticed you didn't include the "Large Planetary Shield" facilities in your list.
The Last 3 techs are just for the LPSG facils, so you may have a few useless tech levels there.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I decided not to include the planetary shield stuff at this time because I feel it makes the tech gained from ruins far less valuable. If I were to include that, the shield tech would max out at 16. As it is, it goes to 13 instead of 10 because of the large shields, which I DO like =)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-made supply storage 10 tons instead of 20 to help make it fit better and be more useful. Halved the supplies stored with each component.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>My beef with the original way was that the supply bay gives the same storage as an engine. Without the acutal engine to take up space we should be able to store more supplies per KT. Your change has really done nothing to improve usefulness.
eg. to get 500 supplies you now need 2, costing you 10kT, same space and storage as an engine, but missing the propulsion ability.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I understand your logic. I chose not to use that mod, however, because of game balance. The way you have it, supply storage is so cheap and plentiful that ships rarely have to worry about running out of supplies -- which is a major part of the game.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>--------------
Oh, the 10kT shield-armors and the shield regenerators, the ability description should say "provides X bonus shield points"
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

OK, I'll update the descriptions.

--------------
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>How do you plan to update changes I make? Perhaps I could make a separate file with just my components in it, not the regular ones.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Up to you. To be honest, however, I'm pretty good at diff'ing various files. So as long as you keep a list of changes that you make (which you have in your thread), I'll find the change and isolate it as needed. A separate file would obviously be nice, but seems like a lot of extra work for you to go through, especially since the order of things in Components.txt is somewhat important (as I've found to my chagrin lately).

As to how I plan to keep up with your future changes, there's no guarantee that I will =) I do this in my spare time and it's unknowable when I'll ever have enough to keep up with this mod. If in the future, I log in to this forum and see more changes in your mod that I think will fit into this one, then I'll isolate them and add them. Otherwise, you, or anyone else for that matter, is free to mod my mod and add/change what they wish. The only thing I ask is that if you do that, release it under a different name to avoid confusion and give credit to original mod authors where it's due. I try to be very careful about including credit to original authors because I think it's important. If you feel like using various bits and pieces of this mod (including names of various components), feel free. All mods, as far as I can tell or am concerned, are in the public domain. If you feel like being courteous, look through the readme for the mod and track down the original author to give them credit. (Heavy Bombardment Missiles were originally done by Derek, FYI, I believe)



[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 25 April 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>If I were to include that, the shield tech would max out at 16<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Sorry, I didn't notice that one digit diff, since it was formatted exactly the same as my update post, I just didn't look closely enough. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Those large shields were originally supposed to be 400Kt, and provide double the shielding (3k,4k,5k), but the AIs had problems trying to use them exclusively, and ended up with no shields on some ships (eg. LCs), they just filled up on Ablative armor http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif
I really like the new pictures for stuff, like the Ablative armor, heavy shields, small shield-armor.
I would suggest you also include the "small Null-space cannon" for units. Everything else has a small Version, and there's even a picture for it in SE4.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 25 April 2001).]

[Nitram Draw]

Wow, thats a lot of stuff!
Is anyone working on the AI to allow it to use any of this? It definately looks like a great mod for my hotseat games, how about solo?

[Stockman]

I want it please,oh how I want this.Many thanks for sharing when you get done.

[Devnullicus]

Sorry it's taking so long...I really do need to update the races. I'm finding that all of their tech queues REALLY suck badly so I'm redoing them all using zeno's wonderful tool and GodEmporer's great FillerTech mod. Using the Ukratal as a test case, I have them with Organic Weapons 5 by turn 40 or so. They're pretty deadly now =) I really wanted to make them more efficient in the way they build their facilities and choose planet types, but ran into some hard-coded things that don't make sense (IMO). Ah well. Re-doing the tech trees will help a lot anyway.

But I'm also suddenly under a crunch at work and so find myself with little time to work on modding. Ah well, the life of a techie, I guess. Anyway, I'll have it out soon, I hope. In the meantime, I'd love to have people help me beta-test it. If you want to get what I have now (i.e. the AI not using the new tech and having crappy research queues, let me know and I'll gladly send you a copy of what I have now for beta-testing). My email is devnull@devnullsoftware.com



[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 27 April 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

Ack! It appears that my email is being flaky and I've had several instances where people have not been getting through. Not sure why (I run my own domain/email server, so I can't just call up my provider and b*tch at them .. *sigh* ), but at any rate, if you've emailed me and I haven't responded, it's because I haven't gotten your email. Please reply here and/or re-mail me and I'll get in contact with you.

[Devnullicus]

BTW, a quick update:

I've added some more things to the mod, but mainly I'm working on races and AI currently. I've got a few races done already including UkraTal, Abbidon, Amonkrie, Cryslonite, and Drushocka. Things ARE moving along, it's just taking a while. Now that I have a few new standardized research queues that I can modify for each race depending on their favorite weaponry and racial tech, things should move faster. Thanks for being patient.

[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 01 May 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

Here is a patch for the P&N "hardened mini-shields"

I just went through and re-balanced the components.
They now provide roughly 10% to 20% more hipoints (shield&armor combined) than shields at the same tech level (but you need armor tech, too).

Before it was "off the top of my head", but now I went through and did the math, tweaking it.

Just replace the HMSs with the ones in the file here.

[Devnullicus]

Coolness. Thanks -- I'll incorporate the changes immediately.

I assume that the Tonnage Structure := 10 for type III is a typo and should be 50?

Is the name and the amount of armor (Tonnage Structure) the only changes?


[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 01 May 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

Here's a teaser and also a call for comments. I've modified the AI research queue for a number of races now. I'm posting several research queues here and would appreciate any comments on them. These files tend to make weapon research a high priority and significantly alter the queues from the original race. They also use the "Filler Tech" mod from GodEmporer (WONDERFUL idea, btw). I use Xeno's AI_Tech_Mod tool as well and it makes modifying these files extremely fast compared to the old text-file editing.

Anyway, enjoy the sneak preview -- and please comment on these if you wish.

[Suicide Junkie]

I changed the structure points, and the shield points on ALL three components, and I might have changed the tech requirements slightly.

That's why I just included the three components, so you can just copy & paste over top of the old ones.

[Devnullicus]

Hmm, not sure what happened then, because the old components and the new ones both had the same tech requirements and shield points. I guess I already changed them =)

[Suicide Junkie]

Check the components for:
HMSG III: generates 65 shields, not 75
HMSG I: 20 pts armor, not 30.

If these things are correct, the rest probably is. (But there are more changes than just this - see the file attached below)

[Devnullicus]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
Check the components for:
HMSG III: generates 65 shields, not 75
HMSG I: 20 pts armor, not 30.

If these things are correct, the rest probably is. (But there are more changes than just this - see the file attached below)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The file you posted below has
HMSG III: 75 shields
HMSG I: 30 armor

unless of course you've changed it recently...

[Nitram Draw]

You mod is already quite extensive and there are a lot of new techs/components. Are you going to set these up so some can be used and others not?

[Devnullicus]

Not sure how I would do that, actually. I suppose that you can make some tech unusable by not allowing that tech tree to be used at game creation, but other than that, I'm not sure how you would accomplish what you are asking.

[Nitram Draw]

You know how techs can removed from a game in the set up screens. I guess it would mean using the line "can be removed=true" in the tech area. That way if my buddies don't want to use the whole mod in our hotseat games I can still convince them to try part of it, until they come around http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Devnullicus]

Ah, ok, yes, I don't think I've added very many new tech areas, but those I have added will be removable. Monolithic tech might be a bit problematic though since you can no longer get Monolith Facilities from Stellar Manipulation, so if you removed Monolithic Tech, you wouldn't be able to get Monolith Facilities. *shrug*

[Nitram Draw]

That's cool. Some of the more exotic or radical changes would be hard to sell with my group, we're old and kind of set in our ways.

[mottlee]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
Here is a patch for the P&N "hardened mini-shields"

I just went through and re-balanced the components.
They now provide roughly 10% to 20% more hipoints (shield&armor combined) than shields at the same tech level (but you need armor tech, too).


Before it was "off the top of my head", but now I went through and did the math, tweaking it.

Just replace the HMSs with the ones in the file here.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Just where will I need to put this to make it work? (mottlee the incompetent)


------------------
mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

[This message has been edited by mottlee (edited 05 May 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

You won't need to. I need to =) You just install my mod when it comes out and you'll be set. I'll worry about the modding (assuming you don't want to =) )

Speaking of which, I am FINALLY done with all the modding I want to do for this Version. At this point, I'm just testing it. I've already found some things that don't work and had to take them out. *sigh* Heavy Shields for example, as the AI does not handle them at all well.

Anyway, now that I'm in the testing phase, I'll hopefully be releasing early next week. We'll see =)

[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 05 May 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

Ok, try this file. I must have copied the components from an old Version Last time. Sorry.

[Devnullicus]

Status update:

I have sent the file to the people who did TDM-ModPack for testing. I am also testing the release-candidate right now. Hopefully, I'll have the new mod for posting here in a few days =) Note that any changes for races in TDM-ModPack are pending approval and may be taken out before the release of this mod.

Current Changes for DevnullMod 1.3
==================================

Mods By Devnullicus:
-updated data files for SE4 Version 1.35
-updated mod to reside in it's own directory instead of overwriting SE4 files
-Modified Light Weapon Mounts slightly as they were a bit overpowered. Reduced range by one.
-Made all missiles half size, +25% cost.
-significantly raised seeker damage resistance for heavy bombardment missiles to make them worthwhile
-slightly increased sprint missile damage
-reduced sprint missile seeker damage resistance
-raised supplies used by missiles significantly
-since missiles are so much more deadly, races now start with point-defense I. Military Science will still
have to be researched to get Point-Defense 2+, Anti-Fighter Missiles, and Mini Point-Defense.
-made supply storage 10 tons instead of 20 to help make it fit better and be more useful. Halved the supplies
stored with each component.
-increased supplies stored by higher-level engines
-Split up point-defense weapons into two Groups -- one for seekers and the other for seekers/fighters/satellites.
-added mini point-defense cannons for very short-range point defense.
-increased anti-fighter missiles range, damage, and hit mods in order to make them viable.
-added Reactive Armor to Psychic Technology Tech tree. As regular armor with a 1-shot super Point-defense
built-in
-added Splinter Armor to Crystalline Technology Tree -- low cost, easy-to-research (relatively) ablative armor
with the properties of crystalline armor as well.
-Added Small Crystalline Armor I/II/III
-Created a new technology: Monolithic Construction - prereq Construction. Monolith Facilities now
need this tech instead of Stellar Manipulation. Ring/Sphere World Placement Pods and Cables/Plating now need
this tech as well as Stellar Manipulation.
-Revamped costs of many components in an effort to make the game not quite so skewed toward just minerals. Raised
the amount of radioactives used on many things, reduced the amount of minerals on many things, and raised the
amount of organics on some things. This changes the balance of the game somewhat, but I believe it's a good
change overall. I will be continuing to tweak these values as I play in order to balance them more.
-significantly reduced cost of a number of small weapons to make the costs consistent with their damage output.
-Gave new components good pictures and switched a few old component pictures.
-re-ordered components.txt file to streamline ship design
-modified description of satellite engines and barge engine that they don't currently work because MM has
hard-coded that satellites cannot do combat movement and bases cannot do regular movement.
-Modified Plasma Missiles making them more damaging, longer range, and faster reload. Also increased their
tech level by 1. This was to make them worthwhile compared to Capital Ship Missiles.
-Modified races to use new technology and completely rebuilt their research queue and vehicle construction files.
-Abbidon
-Amonkrie
-Cryslonite
-Drushocka
-Eee
-Fazrah
-Jraenar
-Krill
-Sallega
-Terran
-Toltayan
-UkraTal
-Xiati
-Modified Q's races to use new tech (re-did research queue)
-CueCappa
-Phong
-Modified TDM-ModPack Races to use new technology
-Colonial
-Darlok
-EarthAlliance (also fixed it with FillerTech so it would mostly research in the order I think the author intended)
-Klingon (completely replaced Research Queue -- the one in there already looked like a standard MM queue)
-NarnRegime (and fixed it with FillerTech and slightly rearranged things so research would happen in approx the order the author intended)
-Norak
-Piundon
-Romulan (completely replaced Research Queue -- the one in there already looked like a standard MM queue)
-Sergetti
-Toron
-XiChung
-Added a little utility program (getcomp.pl) that will analyze Components.txt and create two files
(Families.txt and WeaponFamilies.txt) so that we can keep our families in order =) getcomp.pl is REALLY badly
written, but hey, it works and it only took me 20 minutes =) Also, it's currently set up for unix since I've
never done Perl programming in Windows. If anyone wants to convert this to a Windows Perl executable, that would
be cool, otherwise, I'll eventually get around to writing it in C++ and making it an executable that can be run
in Windows.
-Changed cost of Applied Research to 50000 (from 100000). It was too high of a cost for too small of a benefit.
-Changed cost of Mineral/Organic/Radiation Extraction to 25000 (from 50000). Again, too high cost for too small
of a benefit.
-Made higher-level Base Ship Yards back to 400kT because AI will not build larger bases than space station (for
some unknown reason), so they would never use the higher-level base shipyards. When they got the tech, the AI
would build SpaceYard bases (space stations) and not put any yards on them because they were too big. *sigh*
Stupid AI.
-BUGFIX: re-ordered new enhancements in CompEnhancement.txt because apparently the order that they're listed in
the file is meaningful.
-BUGFIX: made family unique for all new seeking parasite missiles so that AI upgrades work
correctly (really, I actually did this time...honestly)
-BUGFIX: fixed typo for vehicle type with satellite engines that was causing them to not show up for use
-BUGFIX: made the families and roman numerals for
plasma charge -&gt; hyper plasma charge,
electric ray -&gt; lightning ray
acid globule -&gt; enveloping acid globule
be consistent to help the AI upgrade correctly.
-BUGFIX: Fixed Neutral races to take out racial trait - rock colonization (etc)
-BUGFIX: Made Anti-Fighter Missiles actually act as Point-Defense Weapons. Apparently, even though you set a
weapon as having point-defense ability, you STILL have to set it's weapon-type to "Point-Defense".
So, no seeking Point-Defense Weapons. Ah, well.


New Race AI, construction, etc files by Q:
-for CueCappa and Phong.


New Events by Dracus (from EyeCandy v1.02)
-added approx 20 new events, many of them good to balance all the bad events.


FillerTech by GodEmporer:
-added FillerTech 1,2,3 to allow for AI races to make better research queues


Selected mods from Pirates & Nomads v1.5 by Suicide_Junkie:
-made emissive armor soak 80/90/100 to make it worthwhile (esp. since emissive armor seems to be broken
in general (only the first hit gets 'emissed', and even then if the damage is &gt; the emissive value, it all
gets through).
-"normal" shield generators provide the amount of hitpoints that "phased" shields used to. Normal shields are
now only on odd tech levels, 1/3/5/7/9. Phased shields are available on even tech levels, and provide
slightly more hitpoints than the previous normal (at techs 2/4/6/8/10). Normal and phased Shield generators
I/II/III/IV/V provide 1/2/3/4/5 points of shield regeneration.
-Shield Regenerators - Available on even tech levels. Provide bonus shield points equivalent to one turn of
regeneration.
-Split up Small Armor into Small Armor I/II/III
-Split up Small Emissive Armor into Small Emissive Armor I/II and upgraded it's armor value
-Split up Small Organic Armor into Small Organic Armor I/II/III
-Interspersed Small Shields and Small Phased Shields and gave them slight regeneration
(NOTE: Unit shield regeneration is not currently working in SE4)
-Improved Range of higher-level Wave Motion Guns (range now 8/10/12)
-Kamikaze warhead I/II/III do 60/120/180 damage.
-Added Ablative Armor I/II/III/IV/V (AI will not seem to use this armor -- no idea why not)
-Tachyon Dampener. 30Kt, 100 hitpoints. Will absorb a fraction of weapon-destroying attacks.
-Hardened Mini-Shield Generator I/II/III. 10kT, provides 25/45/65 shield points, regenerates 2/4/6 points/turn.
Provides 20/30/40 armor points. Requires shield tech level 3/6/9. Requires Armor tech 3/5/7.
-Mini-Shield Regenerator I/II/III. 5kT, regenerates 2/3/4 points per turn. Requires shield tech level 5/7/10.
-increased max armor tech to 11
-Added new combo-tech components
-Telepathic Armor I/II/III
-BioCrystal Armor I/II/III
-Bio-Engineered Fanatic (Troop Cockpit)
-Psychic Stun Crystals I/II/III
-Accelerated Psychic Sensors I/II/III
-Harmonic Shielding I/II/III
-Spirit Crew Quarters


Emissive Armor Classic by Suicide_junkie:
-Added Emissive Armor Classic. Not working yet because emissive armor in general is screwed up. But when
emissive armor gets fixed, it should negate the first X points of damage every hit, taking that X off of the
damage that gets through (currently if the damage is greater than the emissive ability of the armor, the full
damage goes through).


Mount Mods by DeathStalker:
-Mounts for weapons have been added to give each of the different ship sizes different roles in combat instead
of 'bigger ship, bigger guns' that exists now.
-Destroyers have extended range weapons (+25% cost, +2 Range, -10 to hit)
-Cruisers have Pulsed Weapons (+25% to hit, +25% damage, +1 rng, +100% cost)
-High Energy Focus Mount has been added for Baseships (5x cost/tonnage, 8x damage/Supplies, -1 Range, +10 to hit)


Point-Defense Mount by Daynarr:
-Added Daynarr's Point-Defense mount mods for Weapons Platforms and Bases. Increases range of Point-Defense Weapons
for these units when these mounts are used.


Intel_Fix 1.1 mod by Lucas:
This modification is designed to make the AI players' use of Intelligence more effective. To help the AI,
I have restricted them from using less effective Intelligence projects, or projects
(like "Force Concentrations") which they aren't clever enough to use effectively.

To gain access to all of the Intelligence projects, be sure to research "Human Intel".

If you don't research "Human Intel", then the only Intelligence projects you will have access to will be the ones I have restricted the computer to using, which are:

Ship Bomb
Crew Insurrection
Cargo Bomb
Anarchy Groups
Puppet Political Parties
Technological Espionage
Technological Sabotage
Intelligence Sabotage
Counter - Intelligence Level 1
Counter - Intelligence Level 2
Counter - Intelligence Level 3


TDM-ModPack Version 1.72:
-Added mods from TDM-ModPack 1.72
-(1) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Earth Alliance" - Version 2.01 (with shipset by Randy Stuce and other artists and AI/speech files by K126 Mephisto).
-(2) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Narn Regime" - Version 2.01 (with shipset by Randy Stuce and other artists and AI/speech files by K126 Mephisto).
-(3) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Toron Confederation" - Version 2.01 (with shipset by Klaus Lehtonen and AI/speech files by K126 Mephisto).
-(4) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Darlok" - Version 1.65 (with shipset by Don Phillips a/k/a Voidhawk, AI files by Tampa_Gamer and speech file by John Zamarra).
-(5) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Sergetti" - Version 1.71 (with default shipset from Malfador Machinations, AI files by Daynarr).
-(6) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Xi'Chung" - Version 1.32 (with default shipset from Malfador Machinations, AI files by Daynarr).
-(7) Revised default AI_Planet_Types file to tweak planet selection for AI (by Daynarr).
-(8) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Piundon - Version 1.10 (with default shipset from Malfador Machinations, AI files by Tampa_Gamer, speech file by John Zamarra)
-(9) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Rage Collective" - Version 2.0 (with shipset and AI files by Alpha Kodiak)
-(10) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Battle Star Galactica - Colonials" - Version 1.10 (with shipset by Dracus and AI files by Tampa_Gamer)
-(11) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Norak" - Version 1.11 (with default shipset from Malfador Machinations, AI files by Daynarr).
-(12) New formations.txt file that includes 8 new formations (made by Tampa_Gamer and Daynarr)
-(13) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Pyrochette" - Version 1.2 (with shipset by Grand Mausic Yith Saulkar and AI files by Master Belisarius).
-(14) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Klingon" - Version 1.35c (with shipset by Atrocities and others, AI files by God Emperor and speech file by Dracus).
-(15) Complete AI Race files and Shipset for "Romulan" - Version 1.35c (with shipset by Atrocities and others and AI files by God Emperor).

[Daynarr]

I am d/l your mod as I type, so I should have it testing very soon.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Devnullicus:
-Added Ablative Armor I/II/III/IV/V (AI will not seem to use this armor -- no idea why not)
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Just to explain this.
AI doesn't care for the KT of the armor. When AI decides which armor gives better protection it just looks at damage resistance. I know it sucks but that is how it is.

[Devnullicus]

That's the reason I took out the Heavy Shield Generators -- they WERE being used...to the exclusion of everything else because they were so d*mn big.

*sigh*....my new mantra lately "Stupid AI"

[Trachmyr]

To get the AI to use abaltive armor, simply create a few tech trees... each one with a diffrent armor type, or if you put them all into one tree... give them a 2nd prerequisite that is diffrent between each armor... then make sure the AI has only researched the Armor-type that you want it to use. I've had to to this with a few things to get the AI to only use specific componets (Sensors, Stealth, Armor, PD, and others).

As for the shields... it can be a problem, you could create a few AI's that only use heavy shield generators once available by doing the same as above, but you'd have to calculate space on the designs carefully. OR you can give the smaller shield a ability tag like for something you've removed from the game (For instance, I've removed "Emergency Supplies", thus that "ability is freed up), then require the ship design to have a few of that ability (Just set the ability bonus to 0)... so your smaller ships wouldn't have any "shields" but a few "emergency supplies"... which ofcourse means the smaller shields! ...but that means that you have to remove an exisiting ability... your choice!

[This message has been edited by Trachmyr (edited 05 May 2001).]

[mottlee]

Dev, I got your mod to work again, how ever the Sat jets are not there in the build window it is in the comps file but I can not use them??


------------------
mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

[Devnullicus]

That's a bug I fixed in Version 1.3 of my mod. However, they don't work in any case due to some hard-coding, so don't worry about it =)

[Stockman]

Behold!! Our new gaming god Sir: Devnullicus.
What he has added and gave us I think top gaming companies take a couple of years to give us.
I stand back with awe and thank you for giving us this added treat to a great game.

[javaslinger]

Sorry, for the perhaps dumb question...

I understand the Dev mod and the TDM mod are two seperate.

Are there efforts to combine these into one 'ultimate' mod? OR will they be forever two seperate though perhaps somehow confusingly combined mods?

Please! I vote combine them! Work together!

KEn

[Suicide Junkie]

I believe Dev is trying to incorporate as much of TDM as possible, and adjusting the AIs a bit so they research up to the new max tech levels.

BTW: I just discovered a wee little but with the Crossover techs I supplied.

Bio-Crystal Armor: Num tech requirements should be 2. Right now it is ignoring the crystalline requirement.
Psychic Armor: Num tech requirements should be two also. Same reason, but Psychic.

SE4 didn't give me an error about having more requirements than I said I had, it just ignored the rest.

You may want to add more to the organic and mineral costs of the psychic and biocrystal armors, respectively.

Beware the bio-crystal! The crystalline shield regen keeps you from taking too much damage while the armor heals http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif.
I may upgrade the Psychic armor to get a weak, range 1 psychic attack, for balance.

[Devnullicus]

SJ: already fixed the tech level error =)
And I changed the costs.
So, way ahead of ya =)

Javaslinger: Yes, I am trying to integrate the mods. We'll see how it goes. See the thread "TDM/Dev" for more details.

[Devnullicus]

So, once I get 1.3 tested and put out, anyone interested in doing a PBEM game with this mod? I'd sure like to play against some humans at this point =)

[Deathstalker]

DEFINITLY! Would love to play this mod by email.


http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

------------------
"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Devnullicus]

OK, it's posted. Use this thread to discuss errors, new features for 1.4, etc.

Download at http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000018.html

[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 10 May 2001).]

[Matryx]

Just noticed that changing the Point Defense Mounting only increases the range at no extra cost http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif

Also, you have always listed 150kt for the size requirement on small mountings when you really have changed it for satellites and the like =)

looking good though http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon10.gif

Cant get enough.

------------------
DM Matryx
Author of Dominatio Cosmicum (http://dominatio.gamersuplink.com)

[dogscoff]

Yow... HUGE mod. I'm very impressed. I think I might have to install this one.

If you ever do combine this with TDM I think we should lobby MM to make it part of an official patch.

------------------
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I think so, Brain, but if they called them sad meals, kids wouldn't buy them.
"

[Bluecher]

Very nice Devnullicus,

I´ve played your Mod for four and a half hours straight. Awesome work.

Give this man a virtual beer ...

[geoschmo]

Pesonally I don't get why you are trying to get the Devnull and TDM mods put together. The TDMer's have always stated their goal is not to change the basic structure and tech trees of SEIV, just to tweak the ai to play smarter and to add some races not present in the basic game to give more variety and challange.

Devnull mod has a lot to offer, but it seems to me to have a different goal. From the begining he has been adding techs and lots of things that really change the way the game is played in some cases. This isn't bad at all, but it doesn't seem to me to be compatible with the TDM mod in principle.

Dev, if you are hoping that being part of the TDM mod will validate your work, I don't think you need that. Your work has many fans in the forums in its own right. It stands on its own as a wonderful piece of work with much to offer.

In my mind if, you put them together you will have the Devnull mod with TDM races and ai scripts. I'm not saying thats a bad thing, but it does eliminate what I thing is the TDM mods greatest asset.

I do hope that if the decision is made to incorporate the two together, the TDMer's will still maintain a seperate basic tech mod for those of us that want to have the option.

Geoschmo

[nerfman]

I have really enjoyed playtesting devnullmod over the Last two weeks but agree that TDM and devnullmod should not be lumped together. I do feel strongly that devnull mod should be made compatable with the TDM modpack which is I think the current emphasis.

[Nitram Draw]

The only pain I found with having more than one mod was switching between them. Someone has posted a program in the mod section to allow you to choose which mod you will use. I haven't tried it, I'm still at work, but if it works as advertised my problem is solved http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Devnullicus]

I do not want or intend to become a part of the TDM-ModPack. That is a separate mod and should remain so as their goals are much different than mine. I simply want to incorporate their good ideas into my mod for more enjoyable play.

There are three reasons I want to combine TDM-ModPack with DevnullMod, one of which is now invalid.

1) I really like what they've done with their AI for the standard races. It puts what I've done to shame, simply because their work is more well-rounded. I've mainly concentrated on tech, while they've modified every aspect of their races to be better. I admire their work and want my mod to be the best it can be, so therefore would like to have their standard racial AI in my mod so that it's better than what I currently have.

2) DevnullMod is, in many ways, an amalgamation of mods (including my own). When I see someone else's mod that I like the ideas, I want to include it. Partly though, this is because I'm trying to save myself some work -- if someone else has already done a good mod in an area, why should I redo their work? Since I put out DevnullMod 1.3 without TDM-ModPack, this reason is now invalid as I went ahead and re-did the files for the 4 standard races in TDM anyway.

3) I like the new races in TDM-ModPack and think it adds a lot to the game. Again, since DevnullMod is an amalgamation of many mods, I want to include other peoples' excellent work, and I think the new races are excellent work.

I do not feel like I need "validation" for my mod. The reason I do this mod at all is because I enjoy the process of creation. I don't even really &gt;PLAY&lt; SE4 all that much, really. I just like modding it =) I began this mod in the first place as a way to make the game more enjoyable for myself, but mainly to make the AI tough enough to be a little challenge. I think in this Version of the mod, I'm much closer to that than I was. In my current game, I'm actually seeing some really interesting things.

On turn 21, for example, I had the Cryslonites come at me with a fleet of 2 destroyers armed with ER Shard Cannon II's and Crystal Torpedoes. Pretty impressive for turn 21 for the AI, really. I still trounced them, but that's not the point -- the game is much harder than it was, and so I'm happier.

I'm going to continue tweaking the mod and for the next Version, I'm already planning some interesting new things -- new racial traits (I really like what Zippy has done with his Energy Race trait), new races that take advantage of combo-tech, and more combo-tech as well. I'll never really run out of ideas.

What I'm hoping is that this mod becomes accepted enough that I can get about 10 or so people to play via email with me =) But sine that hasn't happened yet, I'm working on the AI so that I can play solo and enjoy it.

[Devnullicus]

BTW, I forgot to mention in the Readme for the mod Nerfman's invaluable help in testing this mod. He is the reason behind a number of the changes in mounts, etc this mod as well as the reason it has fewer bugs than it otherwise would have. I am rectifying my oversight now in the readme, but that doesn't fix the one that people already have. So I'm publicly thanking him for his help thus far and I hope that he'll continue to help me test new Versions in the future =)

[Devnullicus]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Matryx:
Just noticed that changing the Point Defense Mounting only increases the range at no extra cost http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, good thing it only works on bases and immovable things, eh? Would make ship PD a whole lot more deadly if it was allowed on ships. A great idea by Daynarr, actually. Helps defense bases a lot.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Matryx:
Also, you have always listed 150kt for the size requirement on small mountings when you really have changed it for satellites and the like =)
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oops, you're right. I just fixed it, though, so the descriptions should be good for next Version.

[nerfman]

Thanks Lee, but I haven't done much, yet. I am toying around w/ some more ideas to send you. I will get them out to you later tonight.

[Devnullicus]

BTW, Nerfman, my email has been real flaky lately =(. Did you get my reply to your list of questions? I re-sent it again, but never heard from you as to if you got it the second time around.

[nerfman]

I got it both times, but the first time it wasn't complete. It was flaky alright, but all is cool now.

[Bluecher]

Q : I´ve build some fast couriers with eight quantumengines II and a solarsailII. The ship will not move more than seven fields instead sumthing above ten.

Is this ok ?

Very nice mod with some very interesting tech, btw. Highly recommended.

[Marty Ward]

Excellent Mod, well worth the wait.
Your idea of combining PD and minesweeping got me thinking (a dangerous situation http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif). Combining items in this manner really helps the AI.
There seems to be some other ways to help the AI in this way. Adding solar supply generation to the solar sail seems to be a natural combo. So does supply storage and cargo capacity.
I would like to test these ideas with your mod but I don't know a lot about how the AI Design Creation file works.
Does anyone know how the game works when a Misc. Ability is called for in a ship design if there are two components with that ability, in addition to other abilities, which would the game choose?

[This message has been edited by Marty Ward (edited 12 May 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

Bluecher: not sure what's going on with that. The Last time I tried something like that, it worked fine and added the engine speed, engine bonus, and solar sail speeds together just like it should. But that was a while ago I tried that. I'll try it again as soon as I have a chance and try to fix it if I can.

Marty: The only advice I can give is to change the files and experiment =) The way I learned was to look at other people's changes to the files and I experimented a lot. If you do end up making some of those changes you talked about, though, I'd love it if you posted them so I could consider rolling them into the next Version of the mod. Your ideas sound interesting and I'd be interested to see how they balance.

[Bluecher]

Ok, I checked it again . In the design screen my fast courier has eight Q1 engines and one solarsail 2. Should move 13 , moves in reality 7 .

Ive attached the savegame, if you want to look into this. ( sno02.gam )

[Marty Ward]

Dev,
I was checking out what the AI builds and noticed a few oddities that I thought I should mention. All occured with High Tech start.
HE mount weapons show no damage on certain type weapons. Must have to do with the reduced range of the HE mount and a normally short ranged weapon.
!!!! Shipyard ships/bases are being designed and built with two yard components and getting the benefit of both!!! How is this possible and why can't I do it with a planet???
Have seen an number of designs with tremendous amounts of shields/hardened shield generators and few (1-2) weapons. Don't know if this is done on purpose or not.
Have seen mines with armor (Cue Cappa).
The Taera and Serageti only build up to cruisers and space stations, nothing larger.
The Phong only build up to space station.
This appears to only effect their initial designs. After 40+ turns they seem to build the larger ships.
Love the mod. Will post any other things that seem odd here.



[This message has been edited by Marty Ward (edited 14 May 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Marty Ward (edited 14 May 2001).]



[This message has been edited by Marty Ward (edited 14 May 2001).]

[mottlee]

Dev, have you come out with one for 1.35 yet? I also run into my 1st range error I have no idea what turn for I hade to start it over and was a long time between saves. Keep up the great work http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Never mind I found it http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif

------------------
mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

[This message has been edited by mottlee (edited 14 May 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

Marty: Thanks for the feedback! I'll look into these and let you know what I find. It's quite likely some of those are due to typos on my part (armor on MINES?? sheesh Bad Devnullicus, no biscuit). If I can fix them with minor typo fixes, I'll put out a minor Version update with the fixes. I don't usually test with high tech, so it's not surprising I miss some things like that.

Mottlee: Devnullmod 1.3 is for Version 1.35 of se4 =). If you get range check errors, see if you can post your save game to here, it's possible I can track down what file the error is in.

Bluecher: Not sure what is going on with your game. In my game, I've created a fast escort with quant engines, solar sail III and it moves 14, just like it should. I'll keep digging though, maybe it's specifically a problem with quantum II engines...


[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 14 May 2001).]

[DirectorTsaarx]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Marty Ward:
The Taera and Serageti only build up to cruisers and space stations, nothing larger.
The Phong only build up to space station.
This appears to only effect their initial designs. After 40+ turns they seem to build the larger ships.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is a feature of original SE4 AI, not a bug. The idea is that the larger ships & bases are too expensive/time consuming to build in early stages of the game, so most of the AI have a line "max tonnage" or something like that. I think there's a total of 3 of these lines in each AI, the first two Lasting 20-40 turns each, and the Last one being the ultimate limit for that race.

[Nitram Draw]

I wonder if that feature could be used to give a variety of ship designs to the AI? Could the turns between the switch be lengthened or could more lines be added for example.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Well, these are the appropriate lines from "*_AI_Settings.txt":

Max Ship Size Tonnage From Start 1 Amount := 510
Max Ship Size Tonnage From Start 1 Num Turns := 20
Max Ship Size Tonnage From Start 2 Amount := 610
Max Ship Size Tonnage From Start 2 Num Turns := 40
Max Ship Size Tonnage From Start 3 Amount := 0
Max Ship Size Tonnage From Start 3 Num Turns := 0

I assume the "0" entries in the "Start 3" lines mean unlimited (a standard established in other text files for SEIV).

I don't think you can change the number of start points, but it looks like you can change the turn limits and tonnage sizes...

[Nitram Draw]

Cool! Thanks for explaining what those lines mean.

[Devnullicus]

Marty Ward wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Have seen an number of designs with tremendous amounts of shields/hardened shield generators and few (1-2) weapons. Don't know if this is done on purpose or not.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Can you provide a specific race that was/is doing this? It will help me track it down. So far I haven't seen this (though I have seen the AI putting way too much PD on designs).

BTW, I'm working on an update to fix a lot of these kinds of bugs. Will hopefully be out in the next day or so.

[nerfman]

One idea would be to give each race starting armor, kind ok like what you did w/ PD. I think the largest issue w/ the AI and PD is that they are trying to use the mini mounts as armor. Add another level of armor and give everyone armor I (make it like 30kT damage per space so that researching chemistry is still worth your while). Make armor II like 60kT or so [I hope these numbers are right - guessing off the top of my head from the office at lunch]. That way the computer will have crappy, but at least partially effective armor to use if it hasn't discovered Chem/Armor yet.

[Stockman]

Want you to know Dev, that the cu cappa have used steller on me and it was cool.
They first came over to one of my good planets and destroyed it into an astroid field,excellant. Then a few turns later the announcement came that the cucappa had built a planet. Congradulations on a fine mod as this little baby is awesome.

[Marty Ward]

Having a great time with this mod, a real challenge and loads of fun!
My mistake on the heavy shield/low weapon ship, it was the Cue Cappa attack repair ship. Thought it was a normal attack ship.
The HE mount range modifier in the ComponentEnhancement file is -4 and the description reads -1. I assume the modifier should be -1.
You may want to check out the Super dreadnaught boarding ships, all races. They have about 20 boarding parties on them. Is that how they are supposed to be?
I still don't understand how the AI is putting two spaceyard components on their ships. I would love to be able to figure that one out.


[This message has been edited by Marty Ward (edited 16 May 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Marty Ward:
Having a great time with this mod, a real challenge and loads of fun!
My mistake on the heavy shield/low weapon ship, it was the Cue Cappa attack repair ship. Thought it was a normal attack ship.
The HE mount range modifier in the ComponentEnhancement file is -4 and the description reads -1. I assume the modifier should be -1.
You may want to check out the Super dreadnaught boarding ships, all races. They have about 20 boarding parties on them. Is that how they are supposed to be?
I still don't understand how the AI is putting two spaceyard components on their ships. I would love to be able to figure that one out.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Glad you're having fun! So am I. I'm hard at work fixing all the balance problems though, especially with fighters =) The next mod should be out in a day or two and has totally reworked small weapons and how they interact with large ships. Fighters are now useful but not godlike..as they should be.

This next Version will mainly be a maintenance/bugfix Version intended to fix bugs and balance things. There's a few new things (new mounts), but mainly things are the same, just less buggy =)

BTW, the High Energy Focus Mount description is wrong. It should be -4 range. and 1250kT (not 1500 as the description says). oops.

I haven't seen any Superdreadnought boarding ships with 20 boarding parties. Sounds scary =) But it also sounds like a good challenge that the AI should be doing. Think about it this way. As a human player building a boarding ship, woulnd't YOU build a ship that had as many boarding parties as would fit? I would =) Efficient.

There is a definite bug in SE4, I've noticed where AI designs ignore the "One Per Vehicle" restriction. This is why AI ark ships still have 2 colony components (*SIGH*). Nonetheless, I forgot to put that restriction on shipyards in DevnullMod 1.3. This is fixed in Devnullmod 1.4. However, the AI will still ignore it until SE4 is fixed.

[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 16 May 2001).]

[Nitram Draw]

If you leave the HE modifier at -4 then some weapons will do no damage with the HE mount, their normal range is less than 4, Temporal Shifter for example. Some AI's use the HE Version of this as their main weapon, leaving the ship very under gunned.
Also I don't think a human player could even create a ship with two yard components on it, somehow you have overcome this restriction. I think that is great, just wish I knew how it happened!

[This message has been edited by Nitram Draw (edited 16 May 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Nitram Draw (edited 16 May 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bluecher:
Ok, I checked it again . In the design screen my fast courier has eight Q1 engines and one solarsail 2. Should move 13 , moves in reality 7 .

Ive attached the savegame, if you want to look into this. ( sno02.gam )<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Geeez, that's REALLY bizarre. Looking at your save game, you're totally correct -- they only move 7. They have 8 engines (quant I) and a solar sail II. The design says it moves 13, but when built, it only moves 7.

I've looked at the data in the files (Components.txt) and it looks fine. I tried building this same design in my own game and it works fine (move 13). [Edit: ok, I put crew quarters on -- I'm used to that =) ]. I'm completely stumped. =( Looks like an se4 bug, maybe?? No idea.



[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 16 May 2001).]

[Devnullicus]

Ah, ok, problem solved. Sort of.

Apparently, the problem is the lack of crew quarters. Not sure why, but without crew quarters, the movement seems to be limited in fast couriers. I am looking into ways around this, but if I can't fix this, I guess I'll just have to require them to have crew quarters like all the other ships. Ah well. A good idea that SE4 shot down.

[Suicide Junkie]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I haven't seen any Superdreadnought boarding ships with 20 boarding parties. Sounds scary =) But it also sounds like a good challenge that the AI should be doing. Think about it this way. As a human player building a boarding ship, woulnd't YOU build a ship that had as many boarding parties as would fit? I would =) Efficient.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
That's not efficient, thats a waste of space.
ALL your boarding parties die after one attack, so you just have more components to repair later.
A much better idea would be to replace half of those BPs with shield regenerators.

Then, you can capture a ship, and your shields jump back up before you can get hurt, then you escape.

The only reason to have that many BPs is if some enemy ship had an equivalent number of security stations, but you can always blow up security stations with your main guns.

[Devnullicus]

Ah, ok. Interesting. Having never used or been attacked by boarding parties, not sure how they work. I Will obviously have to playtest this. If this is a bad design, then expect to see it fixed at some point. If anyone has ideas on how to fix it, feel free to post them here.

[Devnullicus]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nitram Draw:
If you leave the HE modifier at -4 then some weapons will do no damage with the HE mount, their normal range is less than 4, Temporal Shifter for example. Some AI's use the HE Version of this as their main weapon, leaving the ship very under gunned.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm, that is a definite problem. I think the way to solve that one is to change the design for races that use that weapon to have a special design for SD's that don't use that as their main weapon. I'll cogitate on that one for a bit and come up with a reasonable solution. I definitely like the short-range/high damage mount, though and want to keep it in the game.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Also I don't think a human player could even create a ship with two yard components on it, somehow you have overcome this restriction. I think that is great, just wish I knew how it happened!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I did not do anything different that I know of in this area than in the regular SE4 files. I suspect that regular SE4 games have this same problem (bases with more than 1 shipyard), I just haven't tested it. The "One Per Vehicle" restriction definitely DOES work for humans and so we cannot design such ships. The AI designs, however, ignore this restriction, so far as I can tell =(

[Devnullicus]

Version 1.31 is here!

Note: There's some pretty significant changes to components this Version, but I do not have time to update the AI
to use these changes. I will be updating the AI for these changes in Version 1.4 (as well as all the planned
new changes =) ). This Version is mainly intended for human vs. human play. Nonetheless, except for some
missile changes, the AI &gt;SHOULD&lt; need very little tweaking to do ok. Use these changes with the AI's at
your own risk, but the risk should be small. (How's that for slippery? =) )

Mods By Devnullicus:
-Reworked Small Weapons to do more reasonable damage. Fighters should not overwhelm ships in 1 hit any more.
Zeno42's Component Modder with the new feature of range/size/damage ration is an invaluable tool! Thanks Zeno!
-Reworked small weapons to be more equivalent to their large counterparts in number of weapons and tech levels
required.
-Decreased mini-point defense cannon damage to be more balanced with other PD weapons
-Put all missile types (external mount/heavy/sprint in their own weapon families so that AI could differentiate
between them and make better designs)
-Reorganized Components.txt a little more (I missed some weapons at the end Last time)
-Took off top two levels of armor/ablative armor. Too powerful.
-Changed cost of Pulsed mount to only be 150% instead of 200%
-Added some new mounts to Satellites, bases, and Weapon Platforms (ER, Pulsed, and High Energy Focus)
-BUGFIX: fixed description for High Energy Focus mount
-BUGFIX: Fixed description for Pulsed mount
-BUGFIX: Fixed descriptions for light mounts on satellites, weapon platforms, and bases so that they don't talk
about being only allowed on escorts or larger =)
-BUGFIX: Removed Armor "ability" from Mini Point-Defense Cannons as it was causing AI to make screwy designs
with way too much PD.
-BUGFIX: Ablative armor should only be available for larger ships (ship/sat/base)
-BUGFIX: Fixed Space Yards Components (Base and Ship) to have the restriction "One Per Vehicle". The AI
ignores this in it's designs (due to a bug in SE4, I think), but nonetheless, the restriction should
be there for when the bug gets fixed.
-BUGFIX: Fast Courier movement was limited if there were no crew quarters, so I made crew quarters a required component
of the vehicle. Raised the hull size to 210 kT to compensate.
-BUGFIX: Made Temporal Shipyards the Same Facility Family as Regular Shipyards and gave them higher roman numerals
so now space yards upgrade correctly when you research temporal shipyards.
-BUGFIX: CueCappa DesignCreation file was putting armor and shields on mines (?!)

[Suicide Junkie]

May I ask why you see the ablative armor as too powerful?

It is quite tough in terms of hitpoints, up to 60% stronger than shields per KT, but they cost a lot, and take ages to repair.

Eg. Take a 4 shield BB/DN (160kt defence). gives 1400 shields. 1400 hp. of ablative armor takes up 100kT.
Looks good, BUT:
-armor can't regenerate during battle
-1400 hp armor takes 13 turns to repair with a repair bay III!
-armor dosen't come back between fights during the same turn!
-Costs 4x the price per KT!
-shields cost 0.47 minerals per hitpoint, while ablative armor V costs 5.7 minerals per hitpoint (12x the price of shields)

Also, the Ablative III's have roughly the same costs as the V's, but the provide fewer hitpoints.

The ablative armor is "one-shot survivability, at a price."

Ships with only ablative armor will not survive a second battle.
Ships with only shields might not survive the first battle.

[end rant]

[Devnullicus]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
May I ask why you see the ablative armor as too powerful?

It is quite tough in terms of hitpoints, up to 60% stronger than shields per KT, but they cost a lot, and take ages to repair.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, I vaguely remember changing the costs of the armor in my mod. I don't remember if I made it cheaper, but doing my own analysis (which I admit is basically off the top of my head and is mostly an intuitive grokking of the entire component list working together as a whole), the Ablative Armor seemed slightly too powerful at the upper levels. Besides which, it was the only armor that had 5 levels instead of 3.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Eg. Take a 4 shield BB/DN (160kt defence). gives 1400 shields. 1400 hp. of ablative armor takes up 100kT.
Looks good, BUT:
-armor can't regenerate during battle
-1400 hp armor takes 13 turns to repair with a repair bay III!
-armor dosen't come back between fights during the same turn!
-Costs 4x the price per KT!
-shields cost 0.47 minerals per hitpoint, while ablative armor V costs 5.7 minerals per hitpoint (12x the price of shields)

Also, the Ablative III's have roughly the same costs as the V's, but the provide fewer hitpoints.

The ablative armor is "one-shot survivability, at a price."

Ships with only ablative armor will not survive a second battle.
Ships with only shields might not survive the first battle.

[end rant]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

All of what you say I agree with. However, I still stand by my assessment that levels 4 and 5 were tougher than I wanted to put into my mod. *shrug* I'm sorry you don't like the change. It really isn't a personal attack on you so there's no reason to "rant" on me =) IMO, it's a very minor change.

------------------
How's my Programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL


[This message has been edited by Devnullicus (edited 17 May 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

1...8...0...0...3..3..8..6..8..5..5!
*oh hold*
*answering machine*

Hi, I just wanted to call back and say everythings fine. If the ablative armor is weakened, you may consider merging two components to get 2kT, 24hitpoint segments, so the repair situation isn't quite so bad.
On the other hand, if you still see the armor as too tough, leave 'em 1kT each.

Keep on moddin' http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

*click*

[Devnullicus]

Good news! I just heard back from the TDM-ModPack guys and they approved my mods for their races (with a few understandable caveats). So I'll be making up another update soon with the TDM-ModPack races included. Woo hoo! =)

[Nitram Draw]

Cool!

[Stockman]

Thank you and the ModPack guys VERY much

[jc173]

Have you thought about modding the resource extraction facilities to store resources? The idea came up in a thread a few months ago. The suggestion was to allow extraction faciltiies, resupply depots, space ports, and space yards store resources. I've tried that in the Last few games I've played and it seems to help out the AI quite a bit. They don't run out of stored resources anywhere near as fast as they used which comes in handy when they run into upgrade cycles for their facilities.

[Happy_Dau]

What's the disadvantage of External Mt Missiles? They're quite powerful that small and not very expensive to research.

I don't know how armour actually works, but how about making the external missiles armour (hit first since they're OUTSIDE) and give them a negative damage resistance. I don't know if latter would work but it would simulate the explosion if the NUCLEAR WARHEADS would be hit.

Just my 2 cents, great Mod.

[Marty Ward]

I think external missiles have a reload rate of 30. This means they can only fire one time per combat.

[Devnullicus]

Glad you like the mod.

The disadvantage of ext mt missiles is that they can only fire once in a combat. Once they shoot, they're gone...and you're out of weapons (if that's all you armed with).

As for making them armor (along with other things as armor), I tried this for a while, but it turns out that this really screws up the AI designs. What happens is that it considers these things as "armor" when it designs ships and so you end up with designs that have no actual armor, but lots of wierd components like ext mt missiles or other things that weren't meant to be used like that. So I made them non-armor again and the AI is again designing good ships.

I actually really like that idea of resource storage combined with resource generation. I'll have to test it a bit and see how it works out balance wise. Maybe you'll see it in the next Version of my mod. Thanks for the idea!

------------------
How's my Programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL

[nerfman]

If you are playing against the computer and always resolve combat tactically, try this weapon systems out.

1st - Design a Small Satellite that is simply the computer plus 7 external mount missiles.

2nd - Load Each ship with at least a sat launcher and some cargo. Each pair (launcher plus cargo) costs 50 kT and can hold 2 sats and launch 1 a turn.

In combat, fly at the enemy and then discharge a satellite every turn. The end result is that in the space ot would take to launch 5 ext. mt. missiles you can now launch 14 missiles (7 missiles for two turns). Also, you can make up other POD type satellites. Make a few "Planet Buster" sats for extra help glassing worlds, or whatever. The only real drawback is the lack of movement of the pods. That is why one shot only weapons work good. You can launch the sat and then attack w/ it all in 1 turn.

Also, if you have to retreat for repairs, just drop off the POD satellites on a warppoint to hold the line while the fleet pulls back.

BTW another drawback w/ ext mt. missiles is the cost. A major planet w/ a shipyard can only make one of those PODs a turn while it mike make 6 or so of my regular satellites.

[Devnullicus]

Sorry to be taking so long on the next patch, but my life has taken another 90 degree turn as I got promoted at work and our project was released and now we're suddenly busy again, so my gaming/modding time is about nil =) Anyway, at some point, I will continue modding. The good news, by the next time I put out a mod, it will be compatible with the next SE4 patch (which should be out) =)

------------------
How's my Programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL

[Matryx]

Take your time http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif
Your mod is the one I play with most at the moment, although I think I have about 4 games on the run because of all the different mods http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon10.gif

Matryx

[SunDevil]

Devnullicus,

Wished you would have given me credit when you decided to use the ai_anger and ai_politics files that I revised in your mod. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Devnullicus]

huh? I DID give you credit...It's right there in the readme...

Race AI Update 1.02 by SunDevil
-Updated AI/Aggressive, AI/Defensive, and AI/Neutral Politics,Anger,Settings Files
-Updated Politics, Anger, and Settings files for all standard races
1. Increased overall Intelligence and Research production.
2. Made the more peaceful races more forgiving and easier to give out and keep treaties.
3. Made the more aggressive races less forgiving and less likely to keep treaties.
4. Updated all ai_anger files with minor corrections.

Is this not what you're referring to? If there's some other mod I included of yours and didn't give you credit for, believe me, it was unintentional. I try hard to give credit where it's due...

------------------
How's my Programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL

[SunDevil]

I didn't find a readme file in the zipped Version of your mod. Went back to the download section and saw it. I would of liked an email or post on the board at least telling me my mod would be included, and at the most asking if it was cool to include my mod in yours. No harm done, and at least my mod was included in a quality add-on.

[Devnullicus]

*sigh*

I can't win.

I apologize, SunDevil.

------------------
How's my Programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL

[SunDevil]

No need to apologize, just get your mod's next Version out to the waiting public. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Cyrus]

I seem to be having a problem with High Yield missles. When using the missle it only uses the regular damage instead of the increased damage. The ComponentEnhancements.txt has the right values in it, and I tested it in the simulator.

One other question I had is about the external mount missles. I was doing some calculations with them and I noticed something. Take, for example, a ship loaded with 5 External Missle Vs. It can fire once for 600 points of damage. Take another ship loaded with 2 Capital Ship Missle Vs, same tonnage. In order to do the same amount of damage that the External missles do it only has to fire 3 times. What is seems to me is that External missles are only good for swamping the point defenses of a ship. Is this the intention behind them? If it isn't, then would it be a good idea to either increase the tonnage on normal missles back to what it was originally or make the Externals take up half as much tonnage? (Thereby requiring 5 shots with normal missles to equal one volley of External Missles)

[Puke]

Hey, just wondering when 1.40 is scheduled to be out. I was about to send the latest Version of the mod over to the SEIV.PBW.CC and beg that it be supported, but I will wait if the new Version is on its way soon. Any chance that DevNull will combine with any of the stuff in SJ's Pirates and Nomads mod? huh? come on, satiate me, im a rabid fan.

[zen.]

Cyrus: I had the same problem once...I tried to play a savegame with the new CompEnhancements file (this was back in v1.31 or something). Apparently, SEIV doesn't like adding in extra compenhancements in mid-game. I haven't checked with my new 'from scratch' game, though. It seems to be working, but then again, the AI packs on like 10 launchers per dreadnought, so it's hard to tell. I should go check it for the current Version.

zen

[Devnullicus]

Sorry to disappoint people, but due to lots and lots of issues in life, I have had NO time to work on modding lately. And to be honest, it's looking likely that this will continue for a while. Mainly, I'm just busy at work -- we're on deadline to put out the next beta Version of our product. Anyway, if someone else wants to take a crack at updating the mod for Version 1.41 of SE4, they're welcome to. At some point, I will be back in the modding business - I have lots and lots of ideas floating around in my head for new races, components, mods, etc. Thanks for everyone's support and I've appreciated everyone's usage of the mod!

------------------
How's my Programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL

[mottlee]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Devnullicus:
Sorry to disappoint people, but due to lots and lots of issues in life, I have had NO time to work on modding lately. And to be honest, it's looking likely that this will continue for a while. Mainly, I'm just busy at work -- we're on deadline to put out the next beta Version of our product. Anyway, if someone else wants to take a crack at updating the mod for Version 1.41 of SE4, they're welcome to. At some point, I will be back in the modding business - I have lots and lots of ideas floating around in my head for new races, components, mods, etc. Thanks for everyone's support and I've appreciated everyone's usage of the mod!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No Prob keep up the good work on it. Lookin' fwd to the next one any new tech?



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mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"