Posted by: Erik L
« on: October 13, 2007, 12:57:39 PM »Quote from: "Kurt"
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"Quote from: "Shinanygnz"Have you put any thought in to this yet? I suspect it would be fairly involved to code, what with the variability of tech systems in Aurora, but some base line stuff shouldn't be too hard and would reduce the work load on generating a new race.This is a lot more complex than the automated designs in Starfire Assistant because I have to design all the components before even looking at desiging the ship. However, it is something I plan to get around to eventually. I have looked at it in the past and even written some basic code to design the best possible laser, as a prototype for other similar functions. It will be a huge task though so it may be a while before I attempt it.
I'm thinking an SM popup that would let you set a race's ship size guidelines, ship speeds, favoured weapons, shielding/armour preference, etc., etc., then the program could look at the auto-researched tech, create some tech systems and knock up some initial designs that the SM can review and tweak.
Start with the easy stuff and give new races freighter, survey colony ship, etc designs, then expand on to creating their warships.
You could maybe create the warship designs on a fighting style, e.g. light, fast missile ships or big fast, armoured laser ships, etc.
Steve
Instead of automated designs, how about random design strategies for NPR's? Ratio of engines/defense/offense, types of weapons, size ships, and so on. The player would still have to design the ships, but this would give them a guideline.
Kurt
Have the lock design button check against the NPR design philosophy too?