C# Aurora v0.x Suggestions

[MasonMac]

Possibly mentioned before, but how about enabling scripts to automate some button mashing. For instance, if I wanted to create the exact same Mars NPR each time, but with colonies and ships already generated. It wouldn't introduce true modability, and is more of a QOL thing. At minimum, it would let you do the same things you could do without a script.

[Steve Walmsley]

Could you include the ability for the NPR to do a Pearl Harbour style attack as well?  It just doesn't seem right if that mechanic is only an option for players.

You don't see the NPR view of you, although you could probably infer it from some of the messages. Even so, you don't know when they are about to attack.

I could add some unlikely drop in relations as a random event, that would trigger something similar. Or perhaps better would be a random over-reaction to a negative event.

[Steve Walmsley]

Possibly mentioned before, but how about enabling scripts to automate some button mashing. For instance, if I wanted to create the exact same Mars NPR each time, but with colonies and ships already generated. It wouldn't introduce true modability, and is more of a QOL thing. At minimum, it would let you do the same things you could do without a script.

You can do that outside of Aurora if you want to setup a macro.

[alaysian]

Or perhaps better would be a random over-reaction to a negative event.

I think that would be the better way, as at least it would be based on something.   I would also add the opposite for the sake of balance.   

[Garfunkel]

Yeah, random drop sounds terrible. Randomly overreacting to an event sounds more plausible. The idea that Pearl Harbour came from nowhere is false. It happened after years of growing hostility between Japan and the US and after a major embargo by the latter. The timing and the location were the surprises, not the act itself.

I certainly wouldn't want an allied NPR that I'm sharing trade and tech and survey data with, to suddenly attack me out of the blue. But performing a surprise attack in force, after several production cycles of worsening relations and having treaties broken - yeah that's cool and a great story element.

[Desdinova]

Hi Steve, it'd be really cool if Aurora could display a device on a ribbon for multiple awards of a medal.

This is a problem I just had to solve for my ribbon maker program. It took me quite a while to figure out how to draw a device over a ribbon correctly. I'm having a slow day at work so I wrote up this code sample just in case this is a feature you were interested in implementing later:

Code: [Select]

//Dependencies
using System.Drawing;

Bitmap ribbon; //base ribbon sans device
int num_awards; //number of times medal has been awarded
Bitmap device; //particular device for number of awards

//iterate over each medal awarded, loading the ribbon bitmap and calculating the number of awards
{
//Load device bitmap. In this example, the devices are loaded into a resource file
if (num_awards = 2) device = Properties.Resources.BronzeOakLeaf
if (num_awards = 3) device = Properties.Resources.SilverOakLeaf
if (num_awards >= 4) device = Properties.Resources.GoldOakLeaf
//etc etc.....

//this is required for alpha channel transparency to work
device.MakeTransparent();

//destination for drawing the device on top of the ribbon is a rectangle
//centered in the ribbon, with width and height equal to the device
Rectangle destRectangle = new Rectangle (
(ribbon.Width - device.Width) / 2,
(ribbon.Height - device.Height) / 2,
device.Width,
device.Height
);

//source for drawing is just the entire device
Rectangle sourceRectangle = new Rectangle (0, 0, device.Width, device.Height);

//Compose device on top of ribbon bitmap
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(Ribbon))
{
g.DrawImage(device, destRectangle, sourceRectangle, GraphicsUnit.Pixel);
}
}


[Steve Walmsley]

Hi Steve, it'd be really cool if Aurora could display a device on a ribbon for multiple awards of a medal.

This is a problem I just had to solve for my ribbon maker program. It took me quite a while to figure out how to draw a device over a ribbon correctly. I'm having a slow day at work so I wrote up this code sample just in case this is a feature you were interested in implementing later:

Code: [Select]

//Dependencies
using System.Drawing;

Bitmap ribbon; //base ribbon sans device
int num_awards; //number of times medal has been awarded
Bitmap device; //particular device for number of awards

//iterate over each medal awarded, loading the ribbon bitmap and calculating the number of awards
{
//Load device bitmap. In this example, the devices are loaded into a resource file
if (num_awards = 2) device = Properties.Resources.BronzeOakLeaf
if (num_awards = 3) device = Properties.Resources.SilverOakLeaf
if (num_awards >= 4) device = Properties.Resources.GoldOakLeaf
//etc etc.....

//this is required for alpha channel transparency to work
device.MakeTransparent();

//destination for drawing the device on top of the ribbon is a rectangle
//centered in the ribbon, with width and height equal to the device
Rectangle destRectangle = new Rectangle (
(ribbon.Width - device.Width) / 2,
(ribbon.Height - device.Height) / 2,
device.Width,
device.Height
);

//source for drawing is just the entire device
Rectangle sourceRectangle = new Rectangle (0, 0, device.Width, device.Height);

//Compose device on top of ribbon bitmap
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(Ribbon))
{
g.DrawImage(device, destRectangle, sourceRectangle, GraphicsUnit.Pixel);
}
}


Thanks. I probably won't do this for launch but I will look into it post-launch.

[Pounipop]

It will be cool if the genetics modification center can be use to create better soldier (like space marine). 

[Steve Walmsley]

It will be cool if the genetics modification center can be use to create better soldier (like space marine).

You can already do that through the new ground combat biology techs.

[papent]

Would it be possible to get plasma cannonades as turretable weapons?
 I would also suggest particle beams but I'm unsure how that would effect balance.

[Agraelgrimm]

Would it be possible to get plasma cannonades as turretable weapons?
 I would also suggest particle beams but I'm unsure how that would effect balance.

I dont know about that, but what i would really like to see is proper torpedo mechanics.  Could even be an energy weapon variant, like the photon torpedoes of Star Trek out something like this, in order to reuse the existing codes and mechanics for a minimal amount of code changes. 

[Father Tim]

I dont know about that, but what i would really like to see is proper torpedo mechanics.  Could even be an energy weapon variant, like the photon torpedoes of Star Trek out something like this, in order to reuse the existing codes and mechanics for a minimal amount of code changes.

Sure.  *Renames size-14 missile "Photon Torpedo"*

- - - - -

Okay, sorry to be facetious.

What do you mean by "proper torpedo mechanics"?  Are you looking for a light-speed weapon that breaks the 5 LS distance limit?  A tracking weapon that moves that fast would be completely un-balanced compared to regular missiles.

Do you want a different damage profile from 'regular missile'?  That can be done -- we once had x-ray laser warheads for missiles and supposedly will again -- though it is 'on the list' for C# Aurora 2.0, or maybe 3.0.

Do you want an entirely energy-based 'missile' so your ships (and empire, for that matter) never run out of ammuntion, don't need ordnance factories, and spend less (possibly no) minerals on torpedoes?  That sounds even more unbalanced.

Now, maybe a missile that needs to have it's warhead 'charged' from an on-board power plant and uses different minerals -- maybe even a non-Sorium fuel source -- could be reasonable.  Or maybe plasma carronades gain a sister-tech line that allows them to produce (relatively) slow-moving 'plasma torpedoes' that are ammunition-free pure energy seeking weapons.

Or maybe -- and best of all from my perspective -- we get armoured missiles back, and my empire can build slow-moving, short-ranged, size 14, or 21, or 24 (armoured) missiles with massive warheads that put huge holes in ships and my empire calls them Fourteen (or Twenty-One, or Twenty-Four) Inch Torpedoes.

[Tree]

IIRC you once shot down the idea of arranging systems like in the picture below because Aurora would have to generate all the systems at once at game start, and this would take a very long time. Now with C#'s faster generation, will it be possible in the future to have a map like this one rather than the more usual tree/arms structure with the occasional link to another? To be clear I'm talking about the way stars are linked to each others generally, and how from a star to another some distance away there are a thousand different paths rather than the one or two paths usually found with the tree structure; not talking about the galaxy shape which wouldn't make all that much sense in Aurora or the visuals.
Or maybe it'd be possible to shorten the time by generating only the star and jump points, and then the other bodies (and the possible NPR) only once a player or NPR explores the system, though I think you also once said system generation was a thing ran all at once that couldn't be cut into pieces.
I suppose having however many NPRs generated right from zero wouldn't make for good performances too, this would probably need an option for a hard cap on the number of NPRs.

[Father Tim]

IIRC you once shot down the idea of arranging systems like in the picture below. . .

If you set "Local System Generation Chance" to 100%, and "Local System Generation Spread" to 2 or 3, you'll get a map much like that one. . . Oh, and of course set "Real Stars" to OFF.

Well, you personally will still have to drag all those systems around one-by-one on the galactic map to duplicate the layout, but you'll have the interconnectedness.

[Tree]

If you set "Local System Generation Chance" to 100%, and "Local System Generation Spread" to 2 or 3, you'll get a map much like that one. . . Oh, and of course set "Real Stars" to OFF.

Well, you personally will still have to drag all those systems around one-by-one on the galactic map to duplicate the layout, but you'll have the interconnectedness.

Right but I was thinking real stars, I just so rarely play fake stars.
And there's also still problems with it:
Untitled2 is with 100%/3 (from Sol), Untitled3 with 90%/3 (from Kansazan, middle top) and Untitled4 (from Praxedis, top left) with 97%/3.
I think the problem with 2 is a bit obvious.
With Untitled3 the usual tree structure starts emerging already. Yes there would be the occasional link to another branch eventually, but that's an exception rather than a rule.
Untitled4 was starting to look like an Untitled2 that would go on forever, but the game there froze and crashed while generating Durer from Ludovica. I relaunched the game and explored the jump point again in Ludovica, and it led to Chassagne instead of Durer.

I just don't think the dense network from the Stellaris screenshot is currently attainable in Aurora with the generation rules as they are.

Untitled2


Untitled3


Untitled4