Tkins

Ideas for A Complete Conversion Mod

Ideas for A Complete Conversion Mod

Questions regarding different ideas for a new mod.

The topic has changed considerably from the original post so I'm giving a little update (I've left the original post below for anyone interested in how the discussion arose).

This thread discusses different ideas and possibilities for an upcoming mod I'd like to create. As time goes by I'll update it with more details but here is the main overview:

 

The Plot

The first three are the New Earth Order, The First Republic of Earth and the Liberatis. All three factions are fighting over Earth. The Republic was the original global government that set out to colonize worlds as a united race. Recently a Civil war broke out between the ex general, now self proclaimed Empress and the Republic. Since the Republic had lived in relative peace, the sudden attacks by the Empress were quite successful in overwhelming the remanants fo the Republic. Due to a coincidence of events, The Empress fell near fatally ill and the Republic managed to sign a peace agreement.

The Liberatis are a rebels faction who disagreed with this peace agreement and continued to fight in order to free earth from it's imperial masters and even the Republic when they get in the way.

After nearly 5 years of sickness, the Empress is healed; However, this time the Republic has managed to build a fleet to fight back. The three factions continue to strugle over Earth.

Far before the civil war over earth, one of the Republic's expeditions deep into the Milky Way galaxy encountered a sentient Silicon based species (name pending). They would appear as robots to us but are actually considered a life forms with emotions and individual thought. They in a losing battle to their distant cousins though, another silicon race that lives with a hive mentality. They are of one mind and have set out to conquer all the stars.

Against orders from Earth, the expedition fleet managed to help the Silicons in driving the Hive from their home solar system. Enraged by their loss, the Hive attacked the Republic killing millions of people across Human settled planets. To stop the invasion, the Republic withdrew it's support for the Silicons and the expedition fleet. Eventually the Silicons and this fleet would encounter many races under siege by the Hive and help to unite them into one Federation.

 

In this mod I'm hoping to develop a number of changes beyond just the different races. Each race will have a unique style of play based on their story based situation ie. the Rebels will have ships, bases and abilities based on hit and run guerilla warfare. ALso to note, there will be 4 ship sizes, in order of size S->L: Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships. The cruisers now in sins will be more like the Destroyers in this mod. Cruisers will then be used as a solo war ship to attack behind enemy lines, usually taking on dual roles (sniper/raider, interdictor/tackler, anti ship/building. Battleships will then take on a fleet support role having abilities like the Akkan range bonus. Almost all of their abilities will be area of effect ie. increased damage, fleet heal, weapons jamming etc.

The New Earth Order (N.E.O.)

Fleets will be based on raw force. They will be slow moving heavy hitting ships, mostly battleships, cruisers and some destroyers. Their frigates will be reserved for spreading culture, colonizing and scouting. They will have a strong economy built on slow but strong progression.

Liberatis

Fleets will be be based on speed one hit abilities. They will have fast frigates and destroyers, some cruisers and few battleships. Example of their tactics: cap killing destroyers, these are destroyers that have only one large laser that can only hit capital ships. They will also have an ability that does heavy damage, but with a long recharge time, meaning they will have to jump into a grav well, use their abilities on a capital ship and jump out. Their economy will be based mostly on using non colonizable resources and stealing resources from other races.

The First Republic of Earth

Fleets will be more midranged. They will excel at using cruisers and strike craft (light, medium and heavy carriers). They will have a very strong economy and excel at rapid development of their empire to sustain their fleets.

Federation

A well rounded race using technologies fom all different races. Their main asset will be adaptability due to their wide range of available ships and technologies. Aesthetics, they will be comprised of all different looking ships, except a captial ship fleet that has been designed specifically for the new federation. They will have a strong economy that can change quickly from production to trade.

The Hive

Their fleets will consist of mainley mother ships. They will have no frigate factory and will be completely dependent on their mother ships to generate frigates and destroyers. This race is all about spamming as many ships as possible and overwhelming their foes with numbers. Their economy will excel at producing metal and crystal but will lack the diplomatic capabilities for trade and will have a penalty to credit generation (credits, for canon reason, will be man hours).

Page 5 for more details: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/329761/page/5/#replies

 

Combat Mechanic

Battleships: These will be the heavy hitters that support their fleets through passive ability buffs or area of effect modifiers. ie. an attack battleship might improve damage and rate of fire. A support battleship might improve shield regeneration and mitigation. A electronic warfare battleship might reduce chance to hit on enemy ships and lower their shield mitigation. 

Battleships will do a lot more damage for their costs compared to frigates and destroyers, but have a low chance of hitting them. ie 80 avg dmg (on each side, F,L,R) but 20% chance to hit frigates and destroyers. They will have higher chances of hitting cruisers and battleships ie 80% (cruisers will be built out of capital ship factories to make this work). I'm thinking they may need one gun each that does damage and chance to hit equal to a frigate*

Cruisers: will do have high damage with high chance to hit. ie. 50-60% chance to hit frigates at 50 avg dmg 80% chance to hit battleships and cruisers. They will be faster than battleships but much weaker in structure. Their abilities will be more self centred (gause gun, ion bolt, planet bombardment, shield regen). These ships will be good at raiding behind enemy lines in solo attacks, or hunting down enemy frigates/destroyers in a fleet.

Destroyers: these ships will be support vessels to the battleships. They will be good at killing strikecraft, repairing, hosting small squadrons, They will do low damage but have high chance to hit for their cost ie 5-10 dmg 80% CTH. They will be fairly fast and well armoured/shielded.

Frigates: Frigates will excel at either killing other frigates/destroyers, or infiltrating enemy lines. ie they will have the speed to get into the middle of an enemy fleet and drop an EMP bomb that stops enemy ships from using abilities for x amount of time.. Their damage will be low against battleships and cruisers although with high success of hitting. ie 5-10 dmg 80% CTH.

 

My hope is to create a fleet structure where Battleships are great at killing other battleships and cruisers while being the main support for entire fleets but lacking accuracy enough to kill the smaller ships. Cruisers will be weak to battleship attacks due to their low HP, but excel at killing enemy frigates/destroyers because their guns will be small enough to hit them. Frigates and destroyers will then hopefully do low enough DPS that they won't be able to focus fire kill battleships in an efficient manor but serve their role by killing one another and supporting battleships directly and distrupting enemy fleet abilities.

*This would be to avoid having a battle where battleships can not defend themselves at all versus smaller ships resulting in a complete stale mate. Hopefully having one gun that can hit will make those battles possible but not all that efficient.

 

I'd really like any and all feed back. If you have any ideas that might fit this please share them here.


Cheers!

 

EDIT

These are some links that Relate the topic and discussion below.

Another link for future use

Moving Battles:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/317641/#1941610

Ships Creating other ships:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/330426

Modelling (XSI) and Particle Effects:
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/311916/page/2/#replies

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/305381/page/3/#replies

 Link to Teal's Mod and Research Ideas

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/331735/#1961737

Justin's Mine mod

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/331698

Rescaling in XSI

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/331790

Making Battles more about Fleets rather than a Fleet

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/332389

Modding Pirates

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/332236

Modding Research

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/328126/#1970149

Galaxy Forge stuff

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/174739

Combat Mechanics

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/305565

 StarGates

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/334176

ConvertData

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/320363

         TXT files for Entrenchment

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/334188/#1990795

 

*following is the original post*

 

Hey All, I'm just looking for some feedback from some informed Sins players so that I can then start a modding post and hopefully change the "focus fire" syndrome I experience in most games.

 As I understand now, Shield mitigation climbs the more damage is being delt. After the shield mitigation caps out, all further damage is in essence unrestricted. So if you have 10 ships causing damage and you add another 20, there is no penalty beyond the already maxed shield mitigation. Also, since ships regenerate, any low level damage being dealt to ships is negated.

 What I'm wondering is, if shield and armour regeneration was turned off, would this make spread fire more useful? 

To help direct this thread a bit to the final purpose, modification, I'm gonig to ask this: Is it possible to:

 

A) Turn off ship self regeneration so that repair ships and repair stations can still repair, but ships no longer regenerate. (this is the easiest solution I can think of)

 

B ) Make ships only regenerate when not being attacked.

 

C ) Make ships do less damage when under fire. i.e. if under attack ships damage output is -10%

167,549 views 165 replies
Reply #76 Top

*coughs* No :P

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Reply #77 Top

HAHA no to all of the questions?

 

Even the neutral nodes?

 

Wait, one of the questions wasn't even a yes no! HAHAH

 

Annatar, you're like a giant database where I can ask endless questions about Sins and you have all the answers (well close to). It's pretty cool. Thanks man.

Reply #78 Top

When I posted the only question there was about movable planets :P

Neutral nodes probably can't be changed much, certainly not anything like population tweaking.

And no to grav well shapes. You can change the radius, but not shape.

Annatar, you're like a giant database where I can ask endless questions about Sins and you have all the answers (well close to). It's pretty cool. Thanks man.

Wait 'till you see the bill!

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Reply #79 Top

Yeah I did some editing.. my bad.

 

So what is a neutral considered?  Could we make capturable trade ports for example?  What about a derelict base that we could capture and it produces pirate ships for credits or something.


Could we make a repair node? A capturable node that repairs nearby ships.


What entity is a neutral? Is it like a mix between a building and a planet? 

Reply #80 Top

Tkins is bustling with structure ideas! EXTREMELY INTERESTING..people mostly care about ships and races, support facilities are soo left out!

I bow to Tkins and to our own personal online database Annatar ;)!

Reply #81 Top

Any thoughts on my last questions about neutrals?

Reply #82 Top

Unfortunately I cannot answer that one! I can however answer any question about ship and ability codding!! :grin:

Reply #83 Top

Hmm...

 

Would you know if we could put neutral catpurable nodes in Planet gravity wells?

Everyone wants moons right? Well what if we took a node, turned the mesh into a moon and put it in the grav well? Depending on the coding we could make it have guns, repair bays, population? (doubtful :( ) trade/credit income. could be used in both colonizable and non colonizable grav wells.

To make it more cannon, make a new invasion ship that has the capture node ability but isn't as week as a colony frig. Or just boost colony frigs to be stronger, faster and better antimatter.

It would be cool to put a few of these around a gas giant and see peolpe fight over them. Kinda like a mini capture the flag ala battlefield.

Reply #84 Top

Sounds good!!!

But stop using the node word..it confuses me..if your just talking about neutral entities..then YES I think It shouldnt be that hard to add... (looks around anxiously for Annatar and his corrective powers)! Just look at 7DS they managed!!

Now 7DS added the moon with bonuses only..we'd have to see what the entty can offer us! I managed mines..how hard can this be..LOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooool:D   

Reply #85 Top

Yeah Annatar's got the day off from this thread or something hahaah Burnt him out with too many questions.

 

So I was thinking, since we can make abilities cost resources now, could we make two capture neutral abilities. One for capturing mines in astroid belts that uses antimatter, the other for capturing moons or derelict space stations that costs resources.

I guess i'm wondering how the neutrals work. Like if they have an ability to be captured or what...

Reply #86 Top

A picture is worth a thousand words and thus....TADAM

This is the dead asteroid entity file....now if we go down a bit (took the liberty of deleting all rest that we dont need!


 planetResourceSetupInfo   <----------------------------------------- Where you decide everything that has to do with ressources!
 asteroidSpawnAngleVariance 3.141593
 totalMaxResourceAsteroids 0
 metalResourceAsteroidSetup <--How many metal asteroid you want, their extration rate and refinery count
  minCount 0
  maxCount 0
  extractionRate 0.000000
  refineryRate 0.000000
  maxRefineryCount 0
 crystalResourceAsteroidSetup  <--How many crystal asteroid you want, their extration rate and refinery count
  minCount 0
  maxCount 0
  extractionRate 0.000000
  refineryRate 0.000000
  maxRefineryCount 0
 neutralMetalResourceAsteroidSetup <---Same as above metal but NEUTRAL (ie.capturable, what you're looking for!!!!)
  minCount 0
  maxCount 0
  extractionRate 0.000000
  refineryRate 0.000000
  maxRefineryCount 0
 neutralCrystalResourceAsteroidSetup <---Same as above crystal but NEUTRAL (ie.capturable, what you're looking for!!!!)
  minCount 0
  maxCount 0
  extractionRate 0.000000
  refineryRate 0.000000
  maxRefineryCount 0
isAsteroid TRUE
healthRegenRate 6.000000
planetUpgradeDef   <----------Starting here its all about how much research you want your planet to have so I deleted them all

Now for vessels, to give them the colonize/capture ability! Its real simple...just add "CaptureExtractor" in one of its ability slots (though thatw ill only get extractor..) if you want to capture space station for example..you'll need to copy-paste that entity, give it a new name (in this example..lets call it, CaptureDerelictStation) and changing its filtering condition to "Frigate" (since for simplicity reason I would tell you to create your space station as being a frigate). 

Any ship entity file
ability:0 ""  <--------Add the AbilityCaptureSpaceStation here
ability:1 ""
ability:2 ""
ability:3 ""

Now when you create your  space station as a frigate...well not much to say about this..well you create as a ship! But since its a station just cut ALL its speeds to 0! (well linear speed but leave all the rest or it drifts down and down and down). As station it will also allow you to give it some passive abilities thaty will give bonuses to nearby ships,etc...maybe create a derelict spaceship yard that has the createship ability!!!

Now, you'll take one of your ships..(your preferance) and give it the CaptureExtractor ability so it can take extractors and give him the DOMINATION ability in order to permanently capture the SpaceStation! (all enemies will have to do in order mto get it back is use their own variant of Domination and voila!

THE SPACE STATION WARS HAVE BEGUN!

Hope you didnt fall asleep half way through the post ;)!

Justin S.

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Reply #87 Top

Genius!!!

 

So the neutrals don't look like they are all that changeable, eh? Do they have their own entity file?

 

This "domination" ability, it will only work on specific targets? So it won't ecompass all frigates right? Just those frigates we list as capturable by domination?  This way we'd be able to have different types of "space stations" that are capturable but that ability won't work on a cobalt or something.  Correct?

 

Good work!

Reply #88 Top

As a matter of fact..thinking about it, domination will probably encompass the entire lot of ships but I'm 99.9% sure we can either tweak it to our liking (which has become my specialty during the past 2 weeks)...or simply create a new ability which would only target your structure (also 99.9% sure I can pull it off..might take a while though..I sense like 20-30 minidumps running in joy towards me!). BUT IT IS FEASABLE

As for neutrals, that was on first glance through their respective planet files...if I go into each and everyone one of them...I might find a way to change everything! (BTW..yes neutrals have their own entity files..well at least the extractors ;) and planets have a "is capturable" line.

 

BTW what about making your space station a planet?? which would be orbited by moons..or something? It would make its colonisation be a lot simpler!

 

Tell me what you think!

Justin S.

Reply #89 Top

Well, The starbases are more just an example of what we could do. I'm more interested in looking at the possible changes we could make to Neutrals.


Right now, fights are mainly around planets, but with this we could expand that to things like neutral astroid belts. These could be powerful starbases, trade ports, repair facilities, mercenary ports. We could even create capturable artifacts, like a wonder.

 

Imagine a neutral that produces free pirate ships every 10 minutes or something. Wouldn't that add a cool level of strategy to the game?

 

Or imagine a neutral node that was a phase telescope which allowed us to spy on all the systems in the game or something. If it's considered a building, we could really add in a lot of strategic play by adding these capture points.

Reply #90 Top

Lovely ideas...as for your idea of starbases... I already have mine ;) Codded and all..just needs its model :D

But I fully agree that combat should be more neutral territory oriented than planetary!

In the line of somehting to spawn pirate ships..we would need to add a new planetary body which would be like a "asteroid collision course" meaning every ship in that gravity well would periodically get hit by various size asteroids (various abilities for various damage ;)

Just some more ideas :)

Reply #91 Top

Yeah, I saw what Teal and you did. that will work quite well for my Rebel faction. I'm thinking of having them drop starbases in astroids that will have a few abilities. Maybe even have a couple starbases (secret facilities). one that boosts the production of nearby neutrals, produces credits and colony ships. Another starbase would be for protection, it would produce frigates and have large armaments.Stuff like that

This idea is mainly to allow the rebels to hide in astroids and only need 1 planet captured to survive.

 

yeah that's a really cool idea. A colonizable astroid field that actually damages ships. I only wish we could change the shape of a gravity well. I'd love to have a really long narrow grav well that was an astroid field or something. Then it would be really important as to what side of the well you warped into. If you came in on the left side but the resources were on the right, you might get blown up before you get there!   ahh.. to dream....

How much do you know about modelling?  From what I can tell, 5 factions would be about 100 ships. How long do you think that would take for an average moddler? Then I'd need to look at all the new structures as well....

Reply #92 Top

Depends on the quality of the models you want! I personnaly take over 20 hours on one ship and am not satisfied so I scratch it (I aim for perfection in games..even though I know DAMN WELL.. I don't have the skills) so for 100 ships..do the math ;)!

Kiedjor on the other hand takes about 1-2 hours each by just combining existing meshes into new forms! GIVES INCREDIBLE RESULTS! test it out and youll see!!!!

But when you do mod..dont worry about every little detail on the ship! The texture makes it all look beautiful even if your ship has 20 thousand bumps and all!!!

Hope I helped!!

Justin S.

Reply #93 Top

Yeah that sounds about right. I'll ask other people as well and see what they say.

 

So, on a more detailed level...

 

You might need to read a bit of the original post I edited in order to understand this completely.. but maybe not.

 

 

For the Hive race. My plan is to make them use all mother ships. They're frigates will be built by capital ship abilities. The only problem is that the AI won't be smart enought to figure out the abilities. My plan then is to make the ships quite generic and very simple so that I can just put the create frigate ability to "auto" and making the ability cooldown the right amount so that the AI will build the correct amount of ships without knowing it.. lol.

 

There could be some issues, like it won't replace the lost ships properly but maybe with testing we can figure out what ships die the fastest and just make them more easily built.


I know that the comp needs a scout to function properly. So I'm not sure if I need to have a frigate factory to build that scout, or if the AI uses any random frigate. So if the comp builds a capital ship first, then starts spawning frigs, will it just use one of those to scout?

Other issues, would the computer run out of resources if it's just pumping frig after frig, or is this how it typically functions anyways, and on hard and unfair it gets enough resource boosts that it should be ok?

Last one I can think of, how does the computer calculate when to build capital ships? If it has the resources and no other options, will it build a capital ship?  Will it continue to build capital ships or does it stop at like 5 or something?

I'm hoping with the right balance, the computer will simply build a capital ship and start spamming the abilities so it produces frigates. Once it's built it's economy enough, it will then produce a capital ship which will start spamming more firagates. So it's like the spam will auto regulate itself. If it has max pop and can't produce anything, it will gain enough resources that when it does get pop it will produce a capital ship.

 

Thougths?

 

Oh last one, if an ability produces a ship that uses fleet cap, can you use that ability when your cap is full?

Reply #94 Top

For your last question..YES!!! Even with full cap slots spawning abilities are and remain 100% functionnal.

Also, the Ai functions with a set of rules...Ie. in 2sec you will build this and set it there...then 10 secs later you will build this, give it this ability and go attack what you discovered 20 secs ago..etc! So cash doesnt really matter for as long as he gets what he needs to sustain himself..hes good to last forever!

As for computer spamming some ships..I have do it myself and still use it! Unless you put a pretty long cooldown, the computer will LITTERALY SPAMMMMMMMMMMMM the spawning ability and therefore in a minor battle vs 2 separatists when you try to capture your first asteroid, he'll spawn more then 100 if not 200 if no cooldown is added!

Well as for scout, just create an ability that spawns them!!! Or give the EXPLORE ability to any of your fat ass ships ;) and youll be all right..

 

So I think I answered everything! dont hesitate to reask if I missed somehting! I like this thread a lot :)

Reply #95 Top

Don't forget what 1.1 allows.  Abilities can cost resources now.  So if he ends up spamming ships, it will cost him dearly.

 

Also, now you can make uber-abilities and balance it via resource costs too.  So ordinarily, you would spam massive AoE damage nuclear missiles.  If each nuke costs 2000c, 150m, and 100c, I doubt you will spam it.

Reply #96 Top

Well I figure cost is better for players antimatter for comp!! that way both play balanced and reasonably fair!!

So SpardaSon..you have any questions to ask??? LOL :D

In need of giving help...too many ability codding and minidumps is getting to my head..must unwind ;) LOL

Reply #97 Top

So as long as I can get that to work, the AI should be fine with the Hive? They will build a bunch of cap ships as long as they have the resources?

 

So the other three are pretty standard. The only big difference in game play will be the larger battlecruiser ships. How does the AI decide to build new ships? Does it just go by the description?

 

The hardest one will be the Rebels though. I'm trying to design them to hide in astroids, based on hit and run tactics. How can I make using an ability only possible in non colonizable grav wells?

 

 

Reply #98 Top

Normally yes, AI should respond quite positively...and as for how AI decides it, a list as simple as tht

do this, do that! the only thing random is the cap ship chosen at start of game :D !

 

Ability could be made to have a constraint that says "Capturable", and a target filter that says "Planet" only...I guess..of the top of my head.

Reply #99 Top

That would work for Non-colonizable grav wells?

 

I'm thinking of making a colony ship that can create one of those star bases i was talking about earlier. I don't want the AI to drop those everywhere though, only in astroid belts, plasma and magnetic and gas giants.

 

Know what I'm saying?

Reply #100 Top

Now thats getting too precise for AI but they might be a chance he can execute it! Youll have to change the role type and usetime and condition of the ability that spawns the vessel and test in game to see the AI reaction!

As for only being able to colonise in uncolonisable places! I never touched that area of the game but it is surely possible!! If I can do mines, I can do uncolonisable colonisation to spawn youre starbase ;) (hum word dilemma LOL). Well why do I say I....YOU can do it! I can help you along the way no problem but I got more off Entrenchements features to strip and adapt to my sauce!!!

 

Deep Space constructors HERE I COME!!! I got ability down..just need to find the file that will alter what I want it to be build...)!

But yeah give it a shot...should work right!

 

Justin S.