Proportions + Devnull + special ingredients = Derek's Mod Gold

Derek · #1 May 8th, 2002, 03:37 AM

Long ago, I wrote a mod or two variously known as Derek's Mod/Dave's Mod. Devnull took that and used it to form the base of the original Devnull mod. Many of the ideas I had were based off the Starfire universe as written by David Weber. Geoschmo and Rollo took over the Devnull Mod, eventually ending up with Devnull Gold, including Space Monsters and such by Rollo.
In a completely seperate course, PvK wrote the Proportions mod, which drastically altered the economic and facility model, and also changed some other things, though none as drastic as the economic.

I took the Proportions and Devnull mods, combined them together, added QNP, along with some of my own things, and ended up with Derek's Mod Gold v1.00 Here it is for anyones enjoyment. If you have any questions feel free to ask on the Boards, or via email (listed in my profile)

Attached is the basic readme for Derek's Mod

quote:

Summary of Changes

V 1.00 05/07/2002

Initial release as a beta testable mod. If you encounter problems or suggestions, let me know.

Added the Events file from the EyeCandy Mod on the Gold CD, authored by Richard Bradley (Dracus).
The events data file increases the number of events from 17 to 55. There are about 10 positive
events included. The ratio insures that the lucky trait is not degraded.

Added the facilities of Proportions Mod, along with the economic model and some other minor
things from proportions.

Added most of Devnull Mod by Devnull (originally), modified by Geoschmo and Rollo.

Space Monsters courtesy of Rollo.

Added Heavy Sheild Generators from Suicide Junkie.

Added in quasi-Newtonian Propulsion, courtesy of many.

Changed Missiles to 40kT. They were 25kT in Devnull; I thought this was too little.

Changed all the ship sizes; see the attached spreadsheet for a list of the ship sizes and
abilities

Most of the ship sizes now include a good amount of radioactives for production, re-emphasizing
rads.

Added fighter mountable missiles to help absorb some of the point defense that fighters hate.

Weapon mounts are changed so that increasing classes of ships (scout class, destroyer class,
cruiser class, ship of the line, and Monitor) have increasing weapon mounts available to them

Changed many, many other things which I haven't typed up in a readme.

Enjoy!

Derek

Devin D.Bass · #2 May 8th, 2002, 04:24 PM

Wow! This looks like a great MOD. In fact it might be the ultimate MOD. However, I do have a question...I was looking in the component enhancement and I didn't see large mounts, heavy mounts, or massive mounts that were with devnull or standard SEIV. Did you remove them? And if so what was your rationale? Also, I see that you increased the cost of missles, did you think that it was unbalanced in devnull? I thought it made it extremely challenging, forcing you to pay atttenion to point defense. Finally, I have never used the proportions MOD before what economic changes were made and how will they make a difference in game play. Thanks for the great mod!!!

adder_inf · #3 May 8th, 2002, 04:36 PM

Where are you hiding the mod?

thanks

Derek · #4 May 8th, 2002, 04:42 PM

quote:
Originally posted by adder_inf:
Where are you hiding the mod?

thanks

That would be in the mods section, located here

Derek

oleg · #5 May 8th, 2002, 04:43 PM

quote:
Originally posted by adder_inf:
Where are you hiding the mod?

thanks

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newup...1020821557.zip

oleg · #6 May 8th, 2002, 04:47 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Devin D.Bass:
Wow! This looks like a great MOD. In fact it might be the ultimate MOD. However, I do have a question...I was looking in the component enhancement and I didn't see large mounts, heavy mounts, or massive mounts that were with devnull or standard SEIV. Did you remove them? And if so what was your rationale? Also, I see that you increased the cost of missles, did you think that it was unbalanced in devnull? I thought it made it extremely challenging, forcing you to pay atttenion to point defense. Finally, I have never used the proportions MOD before what economic changes were made and how will they make a difference in game play. Thanks for the great mod!!!

From Proportion' ReadMe.txt:
Mod Description:
================

Proportions makes large changes to the proportions of economy and development
in Space Empires IV. The scale of several aspects of play have been made more
realistic, along with various other changes.

The most important changes are that homeworlds now begin stocked with
"Cultural Center" facilities which represent the developed cultural homelands
of an empire. These would take a very long time to reproduce on an alien
world, and they are much more productive and capable compared to facilities
which can be quickly constructed on colony worlds. As a result, homeworlds
begin the game quite powerful, whereas colonies are less productive and would
likely take longer than an entire game to develop to the same level as a
homeworld. Colony worlds can be developed to fairly impressive levels with
enough time and population. More achievable than full cultural centers are
city facilities of various sizes, for example.

Contributing to this effect are the changes to populations, which now grow at
a more realistic rate (about 1/10th the normal SE4 rate) and which also
require a more realistic amount of effort to transport to planet to planet,
since they now weigh a more realistic 1000 kT, and cargo capacities mean a
large ship is required to move even one of these. A colony with a small
population also builds at a much slower rate than a world with billions on it.

All of this means that developing a colony infrastructure is still very
important but is also more challenging, and will not so quickly alter the
balance of power or research.
========================================

Derek · #7 May 8th, 2002, 04:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Devin D.Bass:
Wow! This looks like a great MOD. In fact it might be the ultimate MOD. However, I do have a question...I was looking in the component enhancement and I didn't see large mounts, heavy mounts, or massive mounts that were with devnull or standard SEIV. Did you remove them? And if so what was your rationale?

Yes; I decided to go with a limited number of mounts, based on ship class. While there are a large number of ship sizes, thy fall into the following five classes: Escort, Destroyer, Cruiser, Ship of the line, Monitor. Each class allows a new type of mount to be available, from light, to normal, to beam and pulse, to spinal to high energy.

Beyond that, I made a conscious decision to limit the number of mounts.

quote:

Also, I see that you increased the cost of missles, did you think that it was unbalanced in devnull? I thought it made it extremely challenging, forcing you to pay atttenion to point defense.

Yes. I felt that 25kT was too small for missiles. On the other hand, I felt 50 Kt was too large. So I settled on 40 kT. In addition to the basic missiles, however, you have the one shot per combat external mounts at 10kT, and you can mount external mount missiles on fighters. Combined, this should be enough to give any point defense problems. I was hoping to emphasize combined arms.

quote:

Finally, I have never used the proportions MOD before what economic changes were made and how will they make a difference in game play.

Big question. Proportions basically de-emphasized the colonies, and emphasized your homeworld. It takes a lot longer to build up a colony to produce near as much as a homeworld; the reproduction is lowered to 10% in Proportions. I changed that to 20%, but still, it is large. Also, for low popualtions, the production and construction rate is extermely low. Finally, 1million pop now weighs 1000kT, and you can fit one on a small transport, 2 on a medium, and 3 on a large, along with 1 on a Colony ship and 2 on an Ark ship (large colony ship)

It changes the game quite a bit; I would recommend reading the Proportions mod threads to get some more info on it.

I will get a good read me for my mod, but it might take another couple of days.

quote:

Thanks for the great mod!!!

You're welcome! Thanks should also go to PvK for Proportions, and Rollo, Geoschmo and Devnull for Devnull

Derek

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: Derek ]

Captain Kwok · #8 May 8th, 2002, 05:13 PM

quote:
1 million pop now weighs 1000kT

Are the colonists storing fat to survive the long haul to their new homes?

1 000 kT = 1 000 000 T / 1 000 000 colonists = 1 T/colonist or 1 000 Kg/colonist...

wr8th · #9 May 8th, 2002, 05:15 PM

It's the cryo-chambers. Those things weigh a ton (literally)

geoschmo · #10 May 8th, 2002, 05:27 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Devin D.Bass:
Wow! This looks like a great MOD. In fact it might be the ultimate MOD....

Mr. Devin D. Bass,

You must immediatley cease and desist from using the term "Ultimate" in referance to the "Derek's Mod Gold". The term "Ultimate" is intellectual property of a Hadrian Aventine and SpaceEmpires.org and is pending copyright proceedings. No use of the term in referance to "Derek's Mod Gold" or any other Space Empires IV mod other than the official "Ultimate Mod" or "Ultimate Mod 2" is permitted.

Sincerly,
I. M. Kidding, esquire
Dewy, Cheatum, and Howe
Attornies at Law

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]