Some MORE random SE:V questions

[Slick]

1) Where are the settings that control how many mines/sats are launched from a planet or kept in reserve?

2) With respect to Migration with another breathing race:
- will migration eventually undome those planets with that kind of atmosphere (i.e. or will the game keep 1M of my race on that planet)?
- if so, is there a log message that will inform me of this so I can build more facilities?

3) Why can't I get my population transports to work with the associated minister? I turned on the global minister for Pop Transports and the individual minister on that ship. The Pop Transport is of the Pop Transport design type with the default strategy of DGH.

4) I think I know there is no way to do this, but is there a way to save treaty configs so as to not have to redo them each time?

[President_Elect_Shang]

1. Are you talking about the AI and how many it keeps or are you talking about the rate of launch, or the total allowed in game per player?

2. It should keep the dome. The only way I know of to un-dome the population is to *cough* forcibly *hack-cough* the population which needs the dome. Ya sure there is. The log message telling you, you have just spaced the bas--er--population. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

3. Why do you need a population transport? populations migrate on their own. I know there are still some Minster bugs so maybe you have found one. Or maybe the minister just doesn't want to do what the population will do on its own.

4. Nope...

[Slick]

1) I'm investigating the use of ministers. I'm talking about using the planet ministers for launching mines and sats. As an example, in SE:IV, there was a setting that determined the % of mines to keep in planet cargo. In SE:V, I did a quick check of some of the .txt files and didn't find an equivalent. It appears that the mine launching minister will (default) launch 50% of the mines over the planet.

2) How unfun.

3) I dunno. Why is there a Pop Transport design type? I guess to move population faster than migration.

4) This game is still pissing me off over these little things. Again, very unfun.

[President_Elect_Shang]

1. Ah... well I can't say for certain than. I thought it was in the script for the AI but haven't tackled those files yet. So I may be wrong.

2. I don't know, I always find venting populations to be a very relaxing hobby. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

3. In SE4 it made sense. In SE5 I am finding less use for them. In both I have wondered why have a troop and population transport. In SE3 I can't recall what I did?

4. ya, you should see the problems that are keeping my mod down. You want to talk about getting pissed off!

[Baron Grazic]

1. For AIs this option is in the Empires Scripts, I think in the %EmpName%_Main_Script.txt file.
set lng_Percent_Of_Satellites_To_Keep_On_Planet := 50
set lng_Percent_Of_Mines_To_Keep_On_Planet := 50

[Slick]

*smooch* Thanks. I missed that. Don't take it personally. I wonder if that can be changed mid-game?

[brainsucker1]

Hmm, pop moves its own. I missed that. maybe that is why I have been unable to load pop as cargo in a MP game? (I tried 3 times and just turned on the Pop minister, which I just learned apparently doesn't work...)

[Kana]

Even with the migration thing, we should still be able to manually load population. Its automatically loaded when you give a colonize command with a colony ship over a planet...

[Phoenix-D]

You can move population, its just the load commands are a little bit wonky in simultaneous games.

use Load Cargo Remotely and it'll work fine. You don't get to pick the population you want to load, though.

[Slick]

You don't get to pick the population you want to load, though.




http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Atrocities]

Has any one made a tool or utility yet that allows you change the game files without having to hunt through them? A tool or utility program that allows you to make changes to important settings in a generally easy to use UI?

[Phoenix-D]

Slick: Yeah, I know. A bit of a pain. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif This was with 1.17, so hopefully MM fixes the Load Cargo method some time.

Once it works it'll be far more flexible than SEIV's system..

[Kana]

Atrocities said:
Has any one made a tool or utility yet that allows you change the game files without having to hunt through them? A tool or utility program that allows you to make changes to important settings in a generally easy to use UI?



You mean the data files? If so you can use Devnulls Editor...

http://www.devnullsoftware.com/se5/

Of course you can't mean that...you love to use Notepad....

[Slick]

5) Do alliances stack with treaties?

6)Is it possible to have planets & moons in the same sector? If so, do we not see them simply because the way the data files are written?

7) How exactly does ship/fleet experience affect things?

8) Can planets without a spaceyard in the sector repair damage to their facilities?

9) Can someone explain the way "loyalty" works in detail? It seems that there are several similarities to "happiness" but there are far fewer ways that you can improve it. The only ways I've found are a couple of cultural achievements that improve it. Are there any other ways to improve loyalty?

[Phoenix-D]

5. No. They're intended to replace treaties, and the alliance is suppose to act as a single "empire" for diplomatic purposes as far as I can tell.

6. Yes and yes. See the Balance Mod for an example of how to do this. The display is a bit buggy though (the plants clip in and out of each other)

7. There's a text file that determines it. In stock, pretty much like it did in SEIV.

8. No. Go figure.

9. No idea.

[Slick]

Thanks, PD. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

The default fleet experience effects are much smaller in SE5.
No more +50% legendary.
It maxxes out at +10% in stock SE5

But you can, in theory, throw any ability you like in there, not just to-hit modifiers.

[Slick]

Hmmm. Checked out that text file; experience only improves ability to hit.

[President_Elect_Shang]

You should take a look at the SFTC (or SFTC-Lite they are the same file) if you are looking for a few ideas.

[Slick]

10) This is just silly, but how do you get a ship with a Beta Displacement Pulser (storm killer) to move into a sector with a damaging storm? I turned off all the "don't move into xxx" options I could find but it seems my ship won't go into that storm no matter what I do.

[Suicide Junkie]

What about attack move?

[Slick]

Suicide Junkie said:
What about attack move?



Nope, tried that too.

[Slick]

11) Are there any effects of using a captured ship with respect to the crew being of a different race?

12) Is it possible to change the crew to a different race, assuming I have different races in my empire?

[Phoenix-D]

#2: retrofit above a planet of that race. That -should- do it..

[Slick]

That's not what I meant. Are there in-game effects of having different races crew your ships? And if so, is there a way to change out the crews to the most desireable race, even if it isn't my native population?

[President_Elect_Shang]

I believe that once you absorb those species into your empire they lose their native bonuses and take on your empires bonuses. As for their being differences yes. Kwok's Berserker's in the Balance Mod are a prime example. Now we are back to square one. How do you get those populations which are not absorbed and have a bonus to crew your ship so you can gain their benefit? You can't, as long as you control the ship it will have your species bonuses.

[Slick]

What are the in-game effects, exactly?

[President_Elect_Shang]

Edited: Original posted deleted by me. I got two separate topics confused.

Now back on topic. I don't understand what you are asking? What are the exact effects of what? The bonuses for the crews depends on what the bonuses for the species are which in turns depends on what mod you are playing. Sorry but you are asking for "exact" and being vague in the process. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

In stock, is using colony ships to explore still efficient?

[Slick]

I think so.

[aegisx]

Do you guys include population on your colony ships? Ive been noticing allot of 0 population colonies if they are not in the primary system.

[Captain Kwok]

Be careful when using the Move To order with colony ships as it will not load population automatically as the Colonize order does. In stock there is also a 1M auto-colonization amount, but this is not in the Balance Mod or some other mods.

[aegisx]

That is probably the issue. I tell the colony ship to 'warp ' at the warp point since it exploring too.

[Slick]

- When an empire surrenders to me, its ships keep their orders; even the silly ones like retrofitting to a design that I don't have. Is there any way to have a surrendered empire clear all its orders automatically?

- Has anyone got the Transport Minister to work yet? Details, please, for getting him to work.

- Is there a formation creator/editor out there? or is there a formation mod that adds lots of them?

- Is there another beta history.txt file around for anything beyond 1.45?

- Is the 1.45 fleet transfer screen any better? I understand that you are now supposed to be able to see/select TF leaders, but what about the other clunkiness?

- (edit) oh yeah, one more: does anyone know how to get the "Join Fleet" order to work? It seems to work for the AI. Stock hotkey is CTRL-V.

[BlueTemplar]

1.46 has some good fixes on ringed planets combat, experience and retreat.
1.47 fixes 1.46.
I think Kwok will post the full list as soon as SEV.com is working again.

[Fyron]

Version 1.45:
1. Fixed - Having more than 20 fleets would sometimes cause an access violation.
2. Fixed - An Access violation would occur occassionally after combat with a fleet.
3. Fixed - The game would report that "data files had been modified" when starting a
Simultaneous Turn game.
4. Fixed - The Space Combat Simulator would crash if a design from an Alliance was present.
5. Fixed - The log event for "facility not upgraded" had no picture.
6. Fixed - You can no longer login with a password if your empire's password is blank.
7. Fixed - Ground combat was always getting the maximum number of militia.
8. Fixed - Mines were not cloaked.
9. Added - Task Force Leader is now displayed on the Fleet Report.
10. Added - "Set TF Leader" button to the Fleet Transfer window.
11. Changed - On the Set Construction Queue window, the Available Items list will now show "Sys/Exist" and "Sys/Queue"
for Facilities, Ships, and Units. "Sys/Exist" displays the number of items of this type in existence in
this solar system out of the total in your empire. "Sys/Queue" displays the number of items of this type
queued up in this solar system out of the total queued in your entire empire.

Version 1.46:
1. Fixed - Bolt weapons were sometimes not firing on ringed planets.
2. Fixed - Ships were not auto-moving to the correct position for firing on ringed planets.
3. Fixed - Ship Experience was not always being applied.
4. Fixed - Fleet Experience was not always being applied.
5. Fixed - Experience effects were not showing in the abilities list.
6. Fixed - For Ship and Fleet Experience abilities such as "Combat To Hit Offense" and "Combat Morale",
your vehicle gets the higher value of the ship or the fleet experience.
7. Fixed - You can now Fire On And Destroy unit groups.
8. Fixed - Some cheat codes could still be used when the "Cheat Codes Allowed" was off.
9. Fixed - Filling a construction queue from a saved queue could clear emergency settings.
10. Added - When order files are loaded by the game, if there are any errors they will be displayed in a list to the host.
11. Fixed - Ships with a strategy of Never Retreat would not move away from danger in combat.
12. Fixed - Carriers that have launched units in combat should not retreat unless compelled to.

[Slick]

I take it the other questions don't have a player-friendly answer.

- Is having a spaceyard the only way to repair facility damage? If so, this is just silly.

[BlueTemplar]

No, check the repair bays description, I think they can repair facilities too...

For now you have to edit formations manually.

I'd like to know too about Join Fleet.

[Slick]

Lovely. So planets can construct facilities from scratch, many of them in one turn, with no special abilities. But planets can't repair facilites at all without something in the sector with the "repair facilities" ability. I bet it takes longer than 1 turn to repair too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Fyron]

So mod it in. SE4 stock was filled with just as many stupid things as SE5.

[Slick]

You are missing the whole point. It shouldn't have to be modded in.

[Captain Kwok]

I've requested several times that fields for default repair rates for planets be added into settings.txt... but a few more e-mails from other players might help get it added faster.

[Slick]

Thanks, and you're right. It is just so frustrating because I have sent numerous emails about fundamental things and there is no evidence that the emails are even read, much less considered.

[Fyron]

Slick said:
"You are missing the whole point. It shouldn't have to be modded in."

See, the problem is that one will never be satisfied with the stock data set, because there are always more stupidities to uncover.

[Slick]

Imperator Fyron said:
Slick said:
"You are missing the whole point. It shouldn't have to be modded in."

See, the problem is that one will never be satisfied with the stock data set, because there are always more stupidities to uncover.




Yes. So, SEV was released 10 months ago; where are all the mods? SEV is the most moddable game I have ever seen and there were numerous people, myself not included, that screamed to have MM make every aspect of the game moddable. So where are the AI mods? Where is TDM? Where is Devnull? Where is Pirates & Nomads? The MM SEV mod website is empty, but promises "Coming Soon". 10 months go by and the most significant mod, Balance Mod, exists mostly to balance the game the way it should have been in the first place. I'm deeply sorry if this offends anyone and I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but it appears to me that making the game so moddable, at the expense of making the game better has yielded only a handful of mods, most of which only change a handful of moddable things. I'm not slamming mods or modders, but it seems to be a waste of effort to me. For each moddable parameter, the game engine has to be able to handle a wide range of different things, there has to be error checking, etc. It seems that this effort would have been better spent on MM just deciding how the game should be and tweaking it to make it work well. After 4 previous versions of SE, MM is surely able to choose wisely.

Yes, since nobody is satisfied with the stock set because of stupidities, where are all the mods to address these? Are we to suddenly expect a mod explosion in the next 10 months? I hopefully await.

For the record, I was happy with the SEIV stock data set with the exception of the crappy AI, which TDM solved.

p.s. Thanks, Kwok for making BM. It sure makes SEV better.

[Fyron]

Stock SE4 is pretty terrible in terms of balance, creativity and general sense-making (balance naturally being the greatest concern). It was pretty much a bad conversion of SE3's data, with some new items added here and there.

The MM mod site will probably always be empty. I'd rather keep the Wiki (http://wiki.spaceempires.net/index.php/Mods_(SEV)) up to date, personally.

For the most part, the mods are posted and discussed on the se5.com site, rather than here. A few of the old guard try to keep Shrapnel in the loop, but all of the new people are over there. There is a stock game AI mod. There are a few mods of the "Devnull" tweak stock and add a few things variety, etc. There is a BSG mod in development, and some talk of a SW mod (though I don't think any real progress has been made on that front). P&N would be pretty boring to reimplement, which is why I suspect noone has really done it yet for SE5. The amount of mods available seems to dwarf what was around 10 months after the release of SE4 (largely due to a much larger initial install base, but still).

Honestly, I doubt Aaron would have given more care to the stock data set if the game wasn't made so moddable. Its not like it takes any extra effort to mathematically balance weapons et all from the get-go. I think he would have just spent more time on the graphics engine.

[Mephisto]

Slick, you very much have a point. SE4 was an enjoyable game for me right from the start but with an AI that needed some work. So I set down and worked on the AI.
I don't enjoy SE5 however and therefore I don't invest my rare spare time to improve the AI which is now possible on a deeper level. If I would enjoy SE5 as a game you would have seen TDM for SE5 month ago. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[BlueTemplar]

Maybe you're too accustomed with SE4?
SE4 had several features I couldn't stand right from the start, like watching 50 ships fire and move one after another, or no construction spillover to the next turn (while in the early game, the most critical part, you're limited by construction rate, not ressources!). I didn't try any mods, but it's not like they could have solved those problems...

On the other hand, I didn't have any of those show-stopping problems with SEV. It might not be enjoyable right from the start (in singleplayer) now (due to the brain-dead AI) , but I wouldn't bet on that it still won't be by version 1.95!

I also find there's plenty of mods for SEV (more than I have the time to try anyway), even if it's a shame that the progress has slowed down in the past few months for some of them.

[Slick]

I really don't need to make my point any clearer, but I will. See the "wish list" thread for all the modding requests:

Tell Aaron what's on your wish list (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=111400&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1)

Then show us all where these are all being used in mods.

[Fyron]

The features that were actually implemented from that thread are in use. I'm not going to waste my time trying to point out exactly where; the mods speak for themselves.

The stock data set should have been better, yes. But we could only prod Aaron to do it so much during the development of the game...

[Slick]

Then thank you for your input and let me keep this thread for my questions.

[Fyron]

Slick said:
- When an empire surrenders to me, its ships keep their orders; even the silly ones like retrofitting to a design that I don't have. Is there any way to have a surrendered empire clear all its orders automatically?


The changelog lists this for 1.42:

8. Fixed - When one player surrenders to another, all objects that change ownership will have their orders cleared.

Is it still happening in the 1.44 release version?

[Slick]

yup. under 1.44 with BM 1.09 + 1.09 patch.

[Fyron]

Send a savegame to malfador then.

[Slick]

No evidence that he cares or reads emails. Besides, I'm sure that one is already reported. I did just report another bug, for what it's worth:

under v1.44 you can add mines to a fleet. In fact they show up under the left column and will be added to the fleet if you "add all to fleet"

[BlueTemplar]

He responded to my e-mails about bugs, and afaik he did it for several other players too...

[Renegade 13]

It seems very hit or miss whether or not he responds. Sometimes he'll respond to 4 or 5 emails in a row, then not to any for a long time. Doesn't seem to be any discernable pattern, just random.

[Captain Kwok]

I'll find if more information is needed with my bug report I'll get a reply, but otherwise I don't usually get one.

[Mephisto]

I usually don't get a response (and I'm a beta tester...).

[capnq]

Slick said:
No evidence that he cares or reads emails.


The frequent and extensive changelogs seem like plenty of evidence to me. It wouldn't hurt for Aaron to set up some kind of autoresponder to acknowledge that he has received your e-mail, but otherwise I'd rather see someone work on code rather than compose personal replies to every bug report.

[Q]

I have the impression that you get a reply from MM if he needs more information about the bug you reported. So no reply might not be a bad sign! At least many bug reports I sent him and got no reply were fixed in the next patch.

[Slick]

Is there an online bug database somewhere that is kept up to date so that we can see if bugs are already reported? It would be useful to set up bug severity/priority. It seems MM just knee-jerks on emails, some emails and not others.

[Fyron]

There is one on se5.com, but Malfador doesn't go through and mark things as reported/fixed.

http://spaceempires5.com/en-US/project/issues/SE5

[BlueTemplar]

In fact he only answered my first e-mail, but for practically all of them, I could see the changes in the changelog soon after.

[Slick]

Don't the beta testers maintain a database of bugs/features?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Some questions: How many SEV players are there? How many send him bug reports? How much time does he have to read and compose replies?

I could easily see him getting at least fifty e-mails a day in just bug reports. Not just because SEV is buggy, but because even a niche game has a lot of players.

So. Which do you want him to do, fix bugs, *Which he is doing* or answer e-mails?

Far as I'm concerned, service beats out nearly every other company.

[Slick]

So. Which do you want him to do, fix bugs, *Which he is doing* or answer e-mails?



It's not an either/or issue and yes, I do know he is fixing bugs. I never said I wanted him to answer emails, though somehow that's what everyone thinks I meant by "evidence that he ... reads emails". He must be keeping some kind of list (at least) of bugs and feature requests and has prioritized them for fixing. Inevitably, some "bug" reports either aren't going to be fixed or aren't really bugs. Similarly, there are a huge number of feature requests that, I'm thinking mostly won't be incorporated due to practical reasons. These all could be addressed in a simple remark. Making this viewable somewhere with periodic updates would do several things:

- allow players to see the list so that they won't further clog his email with bug reports or feature requests for things that already have been sent in. Periodically posting the list somewhere is much faster than viewing numerous emails so this would save his time.

- makes people aware of the existing bugs to possibly avoid them in game play for those that are avoidable. He could even keep those *secret* bugs off the list for those that might lead to multiplayer cheating. Though this really just gives the advantage to a cheater who knows about the bugs.

- allow modders to address any issues that can be addressed via data files.

[Fyron]

Aaron's the one to convince, not us. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Aaron has never been particularly good at community relations. Posting his lists online might work, but I fear he would only keep it up to date for so long before letting it wallow in the realm of un-updated web content.

For reference, he turned down the idea of making primary use of the bug/issue tracker on SE5.com due to it being "too late in the process" to change gears.

[capnq]

Also, the number of different people reporting the same bug factors into how much priority fixing that bug gets.

[Q]

capnq said:
Also, the number of different people reporting the same bug factors into how much priority fixing that bug gets.



Sorry but here I have to disagree completely.
There hard to find bugs, that will therefore be only reported late and from one person and yet this may be a game killing bug if it happens.

[Slick]

Yes, that's the problem. Knee jerking on emails shows no organization.

I still can't see why the beta testers don't maintain such a thing for him.

[Captain Kwok]

It's not quite as described.

MM maintains a list of reported bugs. Factors considered are reproducibility, save-game, severity, frequency, etc. Earlier in the beta, Tampa_Gamer maintained an extensive list of bugs/issues.

E-mail frequency (popularity) is associated more with getting a requested feature or change added sooner rather than later.

[Slick]

"getting a requested feature or change added sooner rather than later" seems to me like knee jerking to emails. It does not seem like a systematic approach to fixing bugs in order of severity and, possibly, adding feature requests if practical as desired.

[Fyron]

If you ignore the ranked listing of bugs by severity et all that Kwok mentioned, then certainly. Bugs are treated differently than feature requests; you don't need a ton of emails about a bug to get it fixed. Aaron does have organization, he just doesn't make it public.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Slick, that wasn't aimed at you. That was a comment for everybody who complained about not get an e-mail back.

[Fyron]

Some good news on the Join Fleet order:

Version 1.48:
1. Fixed - Ship Experience and Fleet Experience "Combat To Hit Offense" was not always being applied.
2. Fixed - Only Fighter groups can be added to fleets.
3. Fixed - Join Fleet order button was not enabling properly.
4. Fixed - Join Fleet order was not joining the fleet on the same turn it moved into the sector.
5. Fixed - In a Simultaneous game, if you are a player and save your game before
ending your turn, the internal multiplayer game name will not be changed. The game
used to change the internal muliplayer game name on any save, so when the player
ended their turn, the .plr file would have the same name as the filename they saved
with mid-turn.
6. Fixed - In a Simultaneous game, if a player saved their game before ending their turn,
designs created previous to the save would not be added by the host.
7. Fixed - Speed up for big list windows with large numbers of items.
8. Fixed - The unique tech areas "Power Leech" and "Shield Implosion" were not being placed on planets.
9. Fixed - Adjusted AI research priorities.
10. Fixed - Improved accuracy of FPS counter.
11. Fixed - Improved timer resolution.
12. Fixed - When starting a game as a Host or a Player, no empires can be defined in the Game Setup window.
13. Fixed - Order files were sometimes lost if the host received them while taking his turn.

[Kamog]

Thanks, Fyron, these are some nice fixes.

I like fix #7 which speeds up the list windows. In a 255-system game, I find that the colonies button for example has a long pause before the screen comes up. Eventually, it got annoying and I tried to use those buttons as little as possible. I'd move the mouse over to the button, about to click it, and I stop myself because I don't want to wait so long.

[Slick]

Thanks Fyron. Is there a history.txt for 1.47?

[BlueTemplar]

It only fixes one bug introduced in 1.46.