Author Topic: 3.1 Suggestions  (Read 10702 times)

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Offline sloanjh

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« Reply #30 on: May 24, 2008, 09:55:14 AM »
Quote from: "SteveAlt"
Quote from: "sloanjh"
Can we have a "show obsolete" checkbox on the Class Design (F5) screen?  If unchecked, classes with the "obsolete" box checked would be filtered out of the pulldown list.

I just switched all my designs to a new armor type - there are now twice as many classes to chose from in my pulldown (only 1/2 of which I care about) :-)
I have added a Hide Obsolete checkbox. The program will remember the state of this checkbox for each race so you won't need to check it every time.

Steve


Thanks!

John

PS - Happy Bank Holiday Weekend
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by sloanjh »
 

Offline SteveAlt

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« Reply #31 on: May 24, 2008, 09:55:46 AM »
Quote from: "Charlie Beeler"
Could we get a task group command for fighter squadrons to return to and land/recover on their assigned carrier/mothership?

I have added a Land on Mothership command for v3.1. Any task group containing one or more ships that have an assigned mothership but are not currently aboard a mothership will be eligible for the order when it selects another task group as a destination. No check will be made to see if the assigned mothership is in the destination fleet as the mothership may be en route to join that destination fleet before the parasites arrive, or the player may intend to change assignments en route.

Steve
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by SteveAlt »
 

Offline SteveAlt

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« Reply #32 on: May 24, 2008, 10:30:32 AM »
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
Quote from: "SteveAlt"
Or do you mean clear the whole list?
Clear the whole list

That's not so easy because any existing classes will be linked to the existing hull table and will throw an error every time you select them (including classes from other games in the same database) when they can't find their hull listing. In fact, depending on how I have set up the data links, you might even delete them. The only time you could really do this is with before any classes were created and no other games were set up. I wouldn't want to add a button with those restrictions because of the endless questions regarding errors from people who haven't read this mail :)

If you really wanted to do this, the best way would be to delete every line on the hull description table in the database, but again don't do it once you have classes set up.

Steve
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by SteveAlt »
 

Offline SteveAlt

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Re: 3.1 Suggestions
« Reply #33 on: May 25, 2008, 08:08:19 AM »
Quote from: "Doug Olchefske"
Could you predefine humans as a race for setup? Since I use humans all the time it would be nice to just click yes rather than set up the race each time.

I could setup some type of generic humans, although different players may want to give them different tolerances. What type of tolerances do you think would be reasonable for standard humans?

Steve
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by SteveAlt »
 

Offline SteveAlt

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« Reply #34 on: May 25, 2008, 08:41:15 AM »
Quote from: "Pete_Keller"
Logging -- dump the logs as part of the "new year" routine.  

for example it just turns year 202, dump the logs for year 200, this would allow people to look back on year 201 logs.

Dump it to a directory (new directory) called logs. create a subdirectory with the name of the game (e.g. Game_108).  then dump the logs as YYYY.log. where yyyy is the game year being dumped.

Whether or not  the person chooses not to log the data, the routine deletes the old data to keep the logs from overflowing.

I'll set something up along these lines, although it will give players the ability to look at past events for other races.

Steve
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by SteveAlt »
 

Offline Charlie Beeler

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« Reply #35 on: May 26, 2008, 02:16:18 PM »
Quote from: "SteveAlt"
Quote
In Class Design (f5) allow for selection of class name similar what you had in SA. Maybe a check box to toggle auto-assign.
Not sure what you mean here. There is a Name Type for classes in Aurora, just as with SA. Its on the information tab. Is that what you meant? As an aside, I have got SA and Aurora open at the same time while I look at this and its amazing how relatively primitive SA looks.

In Aurora it appears that class name is auto assigned when the class is created instead of offering a list of available names from the theme.  The same appears to be true of auto-rename.  

Quote from: "SteveAlt"
Quote
During race setup have the ability to restrict what tech trees are available.
Do you mean prevent a race from being able to research specific tech lines such as laser focal size or a whole research field such as Missiles/Kinetics

Research field.  This would allow for the creation of races that are not 'aware" of the full spectrum of technologies until the encounter new ones.  

Quote from: "SteveAlt"
Quote
The ability to create star systems for a new player race that is not initially connected an exist race.  This system should be able to generate at least 1 planet that meets parameters assigned to the new race so that the SM doesn?t have to cycle through random system generations or need to manually edit.  The ability for the SM to manually edit a newly generated system should be available though.
This is very difficult to accomplish. The main problem is that a species gets its tolerances from the planet on which it is created, so you can't create a species and then try to find a planet to fit. The system generation code is so complex (it took me almost a year to write), with so many factors going into each planet, that creating custom systems is almost impossible. I could ask questions at each step in the same way as SA did but there are a huge number of steps involved and most of the time you wouldn't know what the result would be of choosing a particular star type, planetary distance, density, albedo, atmospheric content, etc because of the formulas involved.

As an example, when a planet is created, the code selects the basic type based on the orbital distance and the star type, then it generates radius and density and from that gets mass, gravity and escape velocity. The year is based on star mass and orbital distance. Tidal forces are calculated using the same information and from that, combined with the system age, the chance of tidelocking is calculated. Solar Infall is calculated based on star luminosity and orbital distance, which in turn affects the base temperature. Other stars within the system also have an impact on Solar Infall as well. Day length is based on tidal forces and system age. Tectonics are calculated based on tidal forces and day length. Magnetic field is based on density, mass and system age. Hydrosphere is based on the "zone" in which the planet is located plus radius, atmospheric pressure, temperature, etc.

The possible atmosphere gases are based on base temperature, plus volcanic gases based on tectonics. Nobles and halogens mays also be added. Amospheric pressure is based on mass, gravity and radius then individual gas proportions are calculated. Some gases are frozen on the surface (the (F) you might see next to the gas name). Albedo is based on pressure, zone and hydrosphere. The Greenhouse factor is also calculated based on the pressure and which gases are present. Surface temperature is then calculated based on base temperature, greenhouse effects, albedo and pressure. Then a check is made for runaway greenhouse effects based on pressure and temperature, which itself may result in changes to atmospheric gases, albedo, pressure, etc and will result in a new surface temperature

Then a recalculation takes place because certain gases might no longer be frozen, which will then in turn cause a further recalculation due to the effect of the released gas on pressure, albedo, surface temperature, hydrosphere, etc. Then a check is made for possible pressure loss of tidelocked worlds that don't have a runaway greehouse effect, which again causes recalculations in albedo, greenhuse factors, temperature, etc.. Once all that is completed, I then check to see if the resulting conditions might support life and check for the possibility of NPRs.  

Of course, all that is only possible once the basic system layout is complete and working out valid orbital shells in multiple star systems, taking into account the gravitational effects of all the stars and other large bodies such as superjovians, is pretty complex in itself.

All of the above is done using the scientific formulas, not using made-up game tables such as in Starfire. So escape velocity is Escape Velocity = ((19600 * Gravity * Radius) ^ 0.5) / 11200, Gravity = Mass / ((Radius / 6380) ^ 2) and Year is ((OrbDistance ^ 3) / StarMass) ^ 0.5, etc. That is why knowing the effect of a particular planetary creation choice would be very difficult.

Which is all a very long way of saying, that coming up with a system with a planet to suit a particular set of tolerances would not be easy. On the plus side, it means that Aurora's star systems are fairly realistic and based on some reasonable scientific theory, although I have tweaked the numbers in places to increase the amount of habitable worlds and significantly increase the number of interesting stars. I am biaised but I think Aurora's system generation is the best of any sci-fi game :)

However, if as an SM you want to create a particular planetary environment then pick any terrestrial size world with reasonable gravity, create a colony and then open the Environmental tab of the pop window for that colony. Using the SM Set Atm button you can setup whatever atmosphere you want. By playing with the atmosphere you can radically alter the environmental conditions and should be able to create a suitable world on which to create a race. Don't forget that the race is based on the planet, so if you have a planet that is -40C, with 4 atm of pressure and only 0.05 atm of oxygen, the race you create will treat that planet as ideal and all other planets will be judged by that race based on how they compare to their homeworld

Steve


I can see that trying to taylor a system to an existing race is a problem and should have considered that with wording the request.

Perhaps the ability to create star systems that are not initially connnected.  I'm mainly thinking this being a function for starting a new game.  Maybe start with a question asking how many races to start the game and the build each in turn, then build the race to populate the best canidate from the system or reject the system a build a new one for approval.  Also determine whether they should be close to each other or potentially widely seperated.  (ie 3 races with starting system id's of 30 60 90 for a sparse population if the max systems are 100 or 10 20 30 if it should be considered a dense galaxy)
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Charlie Beeler »
Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics - paraphrase attributed to Gen Omar Bradley
 

Offline James Patten

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« Reply #36 on: May 26, 2008, 07:39:27 PM »
I wasn't paying attention and put my only mass driver from Earth on board a freighter, with 3 planets sending their mineral goodies Earth's way.  Imagine my surprise when I get the message that Earth is taking damage, I've lost population and mines/factories/etc.

Can a warning pop up if you try to remove a mass driver from a planet that has got incoming mineral packets?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by James Patten »
 

Offline Charlie Beeler

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« Reply #37 on: May 27, 2008, 09:38:54 AM »
Quote from: "James Patten"
I wasn't paying attention and put my only mass driver from Earth on board a freighter, with 3 planets sending their mineral goodies Earth's way.  Imagine my surprise when I get the message that Earth is taking damage, I've lost population and mines/factories/etc.

Can a warning pop up if you try to remove a mass driver from a planet that has got incoming mineral packets?


I don't know if this would be easier too implement or not, but...

Be able to set a level for each installation type (per planet maybe) before an override is needed.  (ie you got 10 mass drivers and wish to leave 5 on the that colony).  Additionally, be able to set drop only a set amount of them at other colonies.  (ie the task group is carrying 10 mass drivers and you wish to drop 2ea at 5 different locations).

Something along the lines of:  when task group load command is selected query whether too auto load all available into all available holds or you have total capacity for X number how many do you wish to load if available?  Reverse for unloading.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Charlie Beeler »
Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics - paraphrase attributed to Gen Omar Bradley
 

Offline MWadwell

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« Reply #38 on: May 29, 2008, 10:44:33 AM »
What about allowing unused population (i.e. population not assigned to a task) to have the same ability as a construction factory/mines.

E.g. for every 500k of unused population, you have the equivalent of an extra "free" CF and mine.

In this way, you have civilisations that have just discovered non-neutonian minerals can start mining and construction to build a non-neutonian economy (otherwise you have the catch-22 situation, where you need non-neutonian minerals to start getting/using non-neutonian minerals).

For races that already have the ability to get/use non-neutonian minerals, this will have only a small effect, as you are often in the situation where you:
a) only have small colonies (in which case you only get one or two "free" mines/CF anyway)
b) have an established colony, that already has mines/CF's (in which case the extra "free" mines/CF only add a few percentage increase to the amount mined/used)
c) have a homeworld with a huge free population, in which case the planet is almost always going to be mined out (and so the extra "free" mines aren't being used), and already has a large number of CF's (in which case the extra "free" CF's only add a relatively small increase to the construction ability of the planet).

Comments?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by MWadwell »
Later,
Matt
 

Offline Erik L

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« Reply #39 on: June 03, 2008, 02:32:07 PM »
I've been playing Mass Effect recently (cool game), and something in there brought out the idea of having customizable ground units.

Sort of on the lines of having a choice of weapons to equip the units with, like laser carbines or automatic rifles, or some sort of HVM. Of course, to maintain some sort of balance between the units, a Garrison equipped with HVM will not be as strong as an Assault unit with HVM, etc.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »
 

Offline Haegan2005

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« Reply #40 on: June 03, 2008, 09:29:07 PM »
majes sense and should be relatively easy  to do. However, the ind and mine tabs are jam packed with info already. Where to put them?

Quote from: "MWadwell"
What about allowing unused population (i.e. population not assigned to a task) to have the same ability as a construction factory/mines.

E.g. for every 500k of unused population, you have the equivalent of an extra "free" CF and mine.

In this way, you have civilisations that have just discovered non-neutonian minerals can start mining and construction to build a non-neutonian economy (otherwise you have the catch-22 situation, where you need non-neutonian minerals to start getting/using non-neutonian minerals).

For races that already have the ability to get/use non-neutonian minerals, this will have only a small effect, as you are often in the situation where you:
a) only have small colonies (in which case you only get one or two "free" mines/CF anyway)
b) have an established colony, that already has mines/CF's (in which case the extra "free" mines/CF only add a few percentage increase to the amount mined/used)
c) have a homeworld with a huge free population, in which case the planet is almost always going to be mined out (and so the extra "free" mines aren't being used), and already has a large number of CF's (in which case the extra "free" CF's only add a relatively small increase to the construction ability of the planet).

Comments?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Haegan2005 »
 

Offline Erik L

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« Reply #41 on: June 04, 2008, 01:43:58 PM »
A way during system creation to force a habitable planet to exist. Maybe a "Make Habitable" button that changes the atmo to an oxy/nitro mix.

And how is the introduction of the "alien" gasses going to affect the SM Race?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »
 

Offline Erik L

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« Reply #42 on: June 04, 2008, 05:07:55 PM »
On the Diplo screen, if the race is renamed/named via TacIntel (or left as Alien Race #49), the racename should show that instead of the real name until commo is established.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »
 

Offline Erik L

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« Reply #43 on: June 05, 2008, 12:20:00 PM »
Have the Event Updates maintain the "Use Racial Colors" status between loadings.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »
 

Offline Erik L

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« Reply #44 on: June 05, 2008, 12:47:31 PM »
An option to Update missile designs.

When you get new missile hardware (warhead strength, fuel/engine, etc), you can update missile designs to the new items with a single click from the missile creation window.

Not sure if you save the missile bits seperately or if you save the missile as a whole. If the first, then this is doable, if the second... oh well. :)
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »