http://www.spaceempires.net/forums.html Latest 25 posts on the SpaceEmpires.net forums. en-us admin@spaceempires.net admin@spaceempires.net Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:23:24 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68086.html#68086 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68086.html#68086
When you think the next release will be?]]> Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:38:03 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68085.html#68085 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68085.html#68085
Mod development is currently planned for several stages.

Stage 1: add new main races.
Planned additions for next version:
Acamarians: I might go through with my idea of having them use the minor race shipset, might not
Andorians: Kwayne's Vux shipset
Bajorans: Sith shipset
Kazon: not sure here either.
Suliban: Needs to be something with a theme involving ships made from ovoid pods, but I'm not sure what set
Voth: Ancient shipset
Vulcans: Vulcan shipset
Xindi: I'm not sure but it needs to be something diverse, I might use the Wraith set though.

Step 2: rebalance races
a lot of the existing races are currently underpowered and I didn't do a very good job of balancing some of them.

step 3: AI support
mostly cloning entries for what techs to use, but... time consuming.

step 4: Scenarios
I might get to it. or I might just make a map of the alpha and beta quadrants.]]> Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:59:19 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68084.html#68084 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68084.html#68084
You could simulate this as the game stands by just putting more guns on the BC (versus the CA) while keeping the defenses the same. Personally I usually do it the other way around (same guns but more shields) but whatever floats your spaceship. :wink:]]> Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:26:37 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68083.html#68083 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68083.html#68083 Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:49:29 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68082.html#68082 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68082.html#68082 Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:23:13 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68081.html#68081 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68081.html#68081
That's the Tribble way :)

Movement over 30 is still useful in combat, even though you can only move once/day.]]> Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:20:44 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68080.html#68080 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68080.html#68080 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:37:19 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68079.html#68079 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68079.html#68079
If you build something that's moderately big, and put a decent mix of shields engines and guns on it, you've got a cruiser.
If you trade off half the shields for bigger guns then its a battlecruiser.
If you trade off some drives for the bigger guns, then its a battleship.
If you crank up the size and put the new space into guns and armor it becomes slower and is a dreadnought.

If you balance the bonuses and/or price vs size right, then everything is useful.

GritEcon, for example, had the price of a ship be proportional to the square of its size, but maintenance costs were about the same regardless of size.

If you need lots of cheap guns now, you build little things and throw them into the fight.
If you're at peace, you build great big ships that take 25x longer to construct but are 5x more cost effective in battle.
In times of uncertainty, you build medium sized stuff that you can get out the door in a reasonable time, but still has some cost effectiveness.

An interesting thought. One to add to this about battlecruisers are how I usually construct them. I usually add a solar sail to them to have them a bit faster but indeed it does trade off for armor.

Something they're immensely useful for if they're the fast guns are absolutely hunting down fleeing colony ships.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:40:39 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68078.html#68078 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68078.html#68078
If you build something that's moderately big, and put a decent mix of shields engines and guns on it, you've got a cruiser.
If you trade off half the shields for bigger guns then its a battlecruiser.
If you trade off some drives for the bigger guns, then its a battleship.
If you crank up the size and put the new space into guns and armor it becomes slower and is a dreadnought.

If you balance the bonuses and/or price vs size right, then everything is useful.

GritEcon, for example, had the price of a ship be proportional to the square of its size, but maintenance costs were about the same regardless of size.

If you need lots of cheap guns now, you build little things and throw them into the fight.
If you're at peace, you build great big ships that take 25x longer to construct but are 5x more cost effective in battle.
In times of uncertainty, you build medium sized stuff that you can get out the door in a reasonable time, but still has some cost effectiveness.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:41:48 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68077.html#68077 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68077.html#68077
By that I mean having stronger guns and using speed to it's advantage. A fleet I could understand, yes but historically, if you wanted to follow the sort of idea they had the big guns on early dreadnoughts.

Certainly this wasn't the case later on but the thought behind a would be a ship that cruises like a cruiser but blasted something like a battleship. A more menacing creature with the flaw of not having heavy armor to back itself up.

That's why I'm pondering the weapon mount idea, really. Either that or giving some kind of enhanced mount to engines or maybe make a speed boost intrinsic. I dunno.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:21:43 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68076.html#68076 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68076.html#68076
Huh, that's odd - I could have sworn you could bankrupt your empire with resource converters set on repeat... minerals for organics, organics for minerals, minerals for organics, HEY! Where'd all my resources go?! Or maybe just in SE4?


[quote:1d0ea3e807="marhawkman"]27: the ship can simply drop it's cloak to use manip. It can't manip while cloaked though.

Unfortunately "cloak" and "decloak" are not orders, per se -they take effect immediately, and cannot be queued, so you have to give the enemy one full turn of seeing your ship, THEN give it the stellar manipulation order - you can't just queue "move into system, decloak, blow up the sun" :(]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:11:09 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68075.html#68075 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68075.html#68075
All movement over 30 is ignored.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:06:57 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68074.html#68074 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68074.html#68074 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:41:10 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68073.html#68073 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68073.html#68073
25b: yeah

25c: it's hardcoded

26a: planets only seem to process 10 orders each turn. Why? it's an issue with their coding.

26b: ships seem to need to have a movement point left, but load/unload doesn't consume a point.

27: the ship can simply drop it's cloak to use manip. It can't manip while cloaked though.

28a: some things get destroyed, some moved.

28b: no, but a friendly empire could gift them to you.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:21:03 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68072.html#68072 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68072.html#68072 A few more questions now:

25) If destroying a planet in simultaneous games leaves no debris, what happens when a star is destroyed? as far as I know, in turn-based games all planets leave debris when their star is destroyed.

Also, I know that creating a black hole permanently destroys planets in any game type, but what about creating a nebula?

And is there some setting in the data files to make planets leave asteroids in simultaneous games?

26) How exactly is the limit of the maximum number of units able to be launched in 1 simultaneous turn calculated? As far as I know, in turn-based, no such limit exists, though in simultaneous, a planet or base spends several turns launching 100 fighters.

Also, sometimes loading/unloading cargo seems to take up a move or moves, other times it does not - how does this work?

27) Does cloaking prevent any forms of stellar manipulation?

28) What happens if I try to build a constructed planet and there are other ships or colonies nearby, mine or another empire's? Do they get destroyed, moved, or will the planet just not get built until everything not involved in the construction is moved away?

Also, is it possible to use another empire's gravity plating or cable ships to build my constructed planet if they are nearby and I have the placement generator?]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:53:08 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68071.html#68071 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68071.html#68071
Also check out the wiki.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:42:13 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68070.html#68070 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68070.html#68070
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Tholian
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Sheliak

Hmm... too bad the sheliak were seen so breifly... I'll probably work them in as a minor though.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:29:40 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68069.html#68069 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68069.html#68069
Yeah I looked at that but all the pdf has is a list of files

Description_Abilities.txt This file contains a list of the abilities used in the game. This file is not used by the game
it is merely for reference to modders.
Description_Actions.txt This file contains a list of the actions used in the game. This file is not used by the game
it is merely for reference to modders
Description_DataFileDetails.txt This file contains a list of the data files used in the game. This file is not used by the
game it is merely for reference to modders
Description_Formula.txt This file contains a list of the formulas used in the game. This file is not used by the
game it is merely for reference to modders
Description_ReplacementStrings.txt This file contains a list of the replacement strings used in the game. This file is not used
by the game it is merely for reference to modders
Description_Requirements.txt This file contains a list of the requirements used in the game. This file is not used by the
game it is merely for reference to modders

and I cannot locate any of these files in my installation.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:57:58 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68068.html#68068 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68068.html#68068 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:49:11 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68067.html#68067 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68067.html#68067 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:34:41 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68066.html#68066 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68066.html#68066 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:50:35 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68065.html#68065 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68065.html#68065
Also, I have some new questions:

20) when a simultaneous turn is processed, do all ships actually move one hex at once, then all move through the next hex, etc. until all are out of movement, or is there still some order of movement involved?

It works like Star Fleet Battles(if you have ever played that game); the movement is broken down to 30 mini-turns(days of the month); ships moving 15 move every other day, ships moving 10 every 3rd day. Faster moving ships will move more often, but not necessarily much more often than ships that move 1 or 2 slower than them.

21) When retrofitting ships, does the 50% limit apply to all resources cumulatively, or to each resource separately?
So if I want to upgrade a ship that costs (100000,5000,30000) to one that costs (140000,5000,50000), would I be able to?
(44.4% cumulative, (40%,0%,67%) separately))

The game uses the total resources. You can load a ship with organic weapons, build it at a balanced rate(balanced between min and org, at least), then retrofit it to be a normal, high min ship.

22) I was under the impression that destroying a planet would always leave behind an asteroid field equal in size to the destroyed planet's size. However, I tried creating a planet, and when I didn't like the atmosphere, I destroyed it, planning to create it again - but it did not leave any debris like I expected. Is this normal, or could it be a bug?

If you are playing turn-based, the planet becomes an asteroid field. If you destroy a planet in simultaneous move games, it will disappear. This is to prevent "cheating" in multi-player games, I suppose.

23) The stellar plasma sphere allows stars up to size 5 to be created, while the stellar nucleonic torpedo destroys stars of size 1. Does this mean the stellar nucleonic torpedo can only be used to destroy small stars, or is this just a typo?

AFAIK, star sizes do not function in SEV.

Hope that helps]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:22:49 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68064.html#68064 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68064.html#68064
Battleships are still the best, of course, since they move just as fast as battlecruisers in combat, while benefiting from much more efficient damage mounts. If anything, I'd recommend scrapping the mounts entirely and building something more interesting.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:37:05 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68063.html#68063 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68063.html#68063 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:49:06 GMT http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68062.html#68062 http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-68062.html#68062