Suggestions fom noobs. anno 2010

[Commodore_Areyar (OP)]

- Add estimated chanced to hit at current range with assigned weapon+WCS for the assigned target in the combat assignments interface. (according to known targetspeed etc)
(Areyar)

- More variabiliy in racial tolerances. (maybe add extremoxenos)
(Sean Mirrsen)

+++++++


Fellow Academy students: feel free to post suggestions here that may be considered outrageous in the suggestions board.

-Areyar

[Commodore_Areyar (OP)]

After some discussion about tolerances on bay12 got me modeling several formulae on how gradiented gravity tolerances would look,
I came to a rather elegant one (for my math skilz at least).

This is not really a suggestion, I think it works fine as is, but still I'd like some feedback (as I did put quite a bit of work in it).

The current system is a binary YES/NO on gravity for suitability.
Many people don't like this discreet cutoff and would like a more gradual system as with atmosphere and temperature.

What I propose is making tolerance a factor with 1 as default value (100%), that through the difference from the ideal becomes a gradient.

Cg = ((Gi-Gp)^2)/Gt

The penalty grows as a function of the difference from the ideal, while halving the tolerance (Gt) doubles the penalty incurred over dG.
The function cuts off below zero, but might be set to do so at a higher value, to avoid asteroids being habitable. [if G <= o , colonycost = N/A]
Using default values (Gf=1, Gi=1), zerograv(and 2G) will have (1-0)^2/1=1 colonycost and at dG=2 the cost will rise quadratically to 4cc etc.

I don't really see gravity as a thing that can be helped by infrastructure though, unless anti-grav plates are canon,
so maybe instead of a straight colony penalty, pop.growth and worker efficiency should be affected instead.

Hope you like my effort.
-Areyar

(Moved from mechanics\tolerances, as I didnt feel it belonged there after all.)

[a1s]

The way I see it, antigrav is canon (if your remember high school physics, acceleration and gravity are all but the same thing, plus loading stuff onto ships from planets, a task that on Earth requires about 100 MegaJoules per kilogram, is done by the ton, without any use of fuel or other energy.), but heluva expensive.

[Father Tim]

- More variability in racial tolerances. (maybe add extremoxenos)
(Sean Mirrsen)

Uhh . . . Racial tolerances are infinitely variable.  Go to the (Ctrl-F2) 'Race Details' screen and (in SM mode) change them.  They are randomly determined based on homeworld (for every race except Humans in a game that starts on Earth).

[Micro102]

I think variation is the wrong word. More technology period. So much you'd have to play it at least 3 times to discover it all.

[a1s]

I have to ask, what in the blazes is an extremoxenos?

[Father Tim]

You know how Star Trek is full of human-looking aliens with bumpy foreheads or noses or ears?  Exactly the opposite of that.  Extreme xenospecies are as different from humans as you can imagine - amorphous blobs with electromagnetic projectors, or twelve-tentacled aquatic driftworms, or self-replicating nanobots, or highly-cybernetic plants a thousand feet long.

[Commodore_Areyar (OP)]

Actually I meant it as an amalgam of extremophile and xenospecies.  but that works too.
extremopiles are species that can survive in (to us) extreme environments.

I realize the tolerances are highly flexable.
No 1000atm pressure race will ever get created though, because all races need either oxygen or methane to live and planets with those atmospheres are generally smallish terrestrial planets, not gasgiants or venusoids (?).

A chlorophyl based lifeform wold require a CO2 atm* as well as pretty low albedo and liquid water.
*co2 is usually the restricting factor in plantgrowth, an active plant species will probably require quite a bit of sunlight as well as high Co2 concentration to function.
...I forget my point.

[Father Tim]

Once Steve gets around to addressing why Machine Races need Oxygen-Nitrogen worlds, all other things will become possible.  In the mean time, you can always use SM Mode to create 1000 atm aliens.  A sufficiently large tolerance for temperature and pressure will turn any gavitationally-acceptable system body into a Col Cost 2.0 world.

[sloanjh]

Once Steve gets around to addressing why Machine Races need Oxygen-Nitrogen worlds, all other things will become possible.  In the mean time, you can always use SM Mode to create 1000 atm aliens.  A sufficiently large tolerance for temperature and pressure will turn any gavitationally-acceptable system body into a Col Cost 2.0 world.

You need to be a bit cautious with this, however - Steve has said that making all the asteroids habitible would have a good chance of killing performance.

John

[Commodore_Areyar (OP)]

I tried that with a civ called the rockrats...it makes the galactic map habitability indicators a bit useless. (100+ semihabitable rocks etc)

suggestion:
Have the type of research topic for a new scientist depend to a greater degree on the research being performed at the time of his/her generation.
(I'm in a giant nebula and have half my scientist specialized in missiles and defence. The defence is handy in my situation, but the missile specialists led me to focus on missile tech and neglecting beamweapons.) (my own fault, that)
Anyhow it would be cool if  the type of research that has the greatest amount of RP invested* in it had a small but noticable effect on subject choice for academics.

* Not sure if this should be total RP invested from gamestart, representing the attractiveness of well-funded and developing field.
Or the focus of only the year of character generation, representing grants favoring academics that focus on the same topics that the government prioritizes. The latter can be gamed to some extent, but the unpredictability of when a scientist will be promoted limits the possability of abuse.

Areyaar

[UnLimiTeD]

Damn, if I had known of this thread, I could have posted the original post of this:
http://aurora.pentarch.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2331 here, or atleast a part of it.

@ commodore areyar:
Actually a nice idea, but sometimes you need it just the other way around.
Currently have a game where for 10 years I didn't have anyone with a bonus to construction, which led to my research being focused elsewhere for higher efficiencies and only the scientists with no or negligible bonuses where assigned to those longterm projects.

However, I would love scientists to focus more on the style of research, like, if I have a bunch of 40%+ bonus geniuses, with 5-10 labs each, I don't need anyone with an administrative rating of 6 and no bonus at all.

To the race creation:

I'd love to have races that can breath nothing, or something else than oxygen or methane.

Thinking about it, stuff like CO is only dangerous to us because we depend on oxygen, and thats rare.
Oxygen is an extremely aggressive gas and if an alien race will ever visit us they'll be surprised we not survive it, but have so much of it in our atmosphere we need a fireguard.

I'd consider oxygen a dangerous gas for any race that doesn't breath it or grows up with it, and I'd bet a lot if humanity ever encounters an alien race the chance they are breathing sulfur dust or plutonium or helium isotopes is way higher than oxygen.
If they breath at all.
..Theoretically it's also possible to have a race based on energy currents, that requires constant background voltage to survive, or light, or whatever.
Or organisms that feed on radiation.

[Commodore_Areyar (OP)]

some postulate the ultimate evolution of sentience from tool use is to a machine race... especially as aware spacetravel might prove impossible to anything but a machine.
(with life reduced to frozen embryos or even more basic constituents during travel)

life - mobile life - tool using - sentience - machine - information?.

--

Actually, the scenario you sketch: no Construction Specialists, would be less annoying with this suggestion (nr1, current RP) enabled, you only need to actively study construction with many of your labs in order to have an increased chance of a doctor in construction to appear.

[UnLimiTeD]

Which would mean I would waste half my resources on nothing, because researching defensive systems would get my 1040 RP/year, and construction only 400, and most construction things that are actually useful are extremely expensive.
I'm 20 years into the game and run nearly 60 Labs, I simply can't afford researching something with more than one lab if they have no bonus.
It's a strain on my economy already, I don't build any military ships to fuel my research.
Also, when I research a new armor with my 40+% guy, and put 20 Labs on it, for a year or 2, I really don't want more defensive specialists.

I guess in the end it comes down to personal preference, and probably it would be nice for Rp, so, switchable options I would fully support.

Aside from machine races, Transcendence is a viable option, too.
Genetics^^

[Commodore_Areyar (OP)]

Eventually you'll have to research the improved research tech though, no matter how much RP you waste in the process by having your energy weapon guy do it.
The annual lost RP only increases with the number of labs you have operating.

I only suggest a small additional chance though.
If you have a good DS guy and do a lot of Defence research, you would be more likely to get a def guy, but not by much. (a fixed amount)
Say, you have 60% of your RP generated in DS and the rest divided among the others, you'd get a single 10% increased chance for a DS guy.

I was not suggesting to calculate the relative percentages of RP generated on a per type basis and restricting the type of scientist based on that..... come to think of it, that might work too. Could use those percentages to weight the odds of a type, by adding to the chance.

It really depends on the code mechanism that is used in the officer/scientist generation though.


Another idea, but which would require more coding:
grants, that work like the investments made in the civvies.
Pay 1000$$ to increase the chance a specialist gets techX by 10%  (depending the exact mechanism by which the scentist promotions are selected).

I feel this is not as elegant, but does allow more direct influence on the type of scientists trained.