Alpha Centauri Mod Discussion Thread

Taera · #1 July 8th, 2003, 09:57 AM

hmm... images shouldnt be a problem.
As for tech tree - you do realize normal races can research Progenitor techs in SMACX do you? (which annoys me at the least). Perharps it could be a ruin tech?

pre-made ships, thats right...
for Nautilus (hate those guys and their ships...) - have you seen the Space Pirates ships?

Fyron · #2 July 8th, 2003, 10:04 AM

TNZ, you will not notice the weird results until you look at the AI empires and see that they are not acting like the correct race.

Taera · #3 July 8th, 2003, 10:06 AM

Progenitor techs are very well explained in SMACX as they're pretty simple - there are the energy fields existing everywhere (bio-energetic fields, as they're usually called) and the Progenitors are simply able to manipulate these fields to make physical affects.

At least thats how i see it.

Chronon · #4 July 8th, 2003, 04:36 PM

Thanks Fyron, for pointing out the 20 races glitch. Perhaps we can have some of the usual suspects from SEIV fill out the more exotic habitat niches (EEE, for example). The image mod sounds good, too. The less work we have to do, the more likely we are to actually finish this mod.

Taera - You're right that the humans could research some of the Progenitor tech in SMAC, but that doesn't mean we have to do it in our mod. I think we can be creative around the theme, rather than stay strictly within the confines of SMAC. I thought it would be more fun (and realistic?) if the Progenitors had their own tree. That way they would be very different from the other factions in play style. Perhaps a few of their techs could be in the ruins as well - that would be a nice mirror to the ruins on Planet. But, if you feel strongly that we should have one tree with all the techs in it, I can be convinced to do it that way.

Taera · #5 July 8th, 2003, 07:15 PM

no i dont feel like it, actually i dont like the fact you can research it in SMACX

mirror-techs would be very nice. What i mean is progenitor techs put into ruins. But what about progenitors themselves then?

Chronon · #6 July 8th, 2003, 07:45 PM

Yes, I think it would be fun to have one or two of the low level Progenitor techs in ruins for the humans to discover.

As far as the Progenitors themselves, they should have their own facilities and weapons in their tech tree. Some of them we can take directly from SMAC (the Manifolds, Borehole Cluster, Resonance Laser,and Resonance Armor), but we'll need to create much of this ourselves (shields, sensors, resource gathering, research, etc.). Again, I don't think this tree needs to be incredibly intricate, just different (and well balanced with the others).

The other thing I was thinking about was a separate tree for Psionics. Or should we leave it in the main shared tree? If it were a separate racial tech, the Cult, Gaians, and Progenitors would have access, and the others would not (although we might put some generic defense against Psionics - like the empath song - in the shared tree). I'm not sure about this idea. What do you think?

Chronon · #7 July 14th, 2003, 05:45 AM

Just checking in to let you know what I've been working on.

I've spent the Last week trying to figure out how to mod the race style AI for the Verdurans. I have to admit that it has been very difficult (and tedious), and I still don't really know what all the numbers mean in all the text files. Still, by experimentation (and blatant plagiarism), I have managed a generally functional, if not spectacular, AI. I am hoping that this experience will provide the basic foundation for making race styles in the AC Mod.

So, once I'm done with the Verdurans, I'll start getting into the data files for the AC Mod - probably the tech areas first.

PS. Hugh, we haven't heard from you in a while. Are you still interested in doing the tech trees?