[MOD iP] New Dimensions [Alpha 4.2] (Update 06/09/10)

[Gavrushka]

Ah if it was a verbal message then the chances are I did miss it - I run the game in the background a fair bit.

It is no longer possible to have a ship on follow using this Mod due to the increased speeds (or the kind of ships I'd have) - I would imagine there is nothing that can be done about it though, or could it? - I'd just acquired a Cormorant and had a Manta on follow- It crashed within one sector - Would increasing steering proportionate to the increase in speed help this or not?

[lamoyja]

Does your game skip or pause frequently?

I've been noticing increased follow crashes when my game hiccups. Seems perfect up until I get a hiccup, and then BAM. Face meets ship

[Gavrushka]

I know crashes can be caused when the processor is under strain, but the game is running very smootlhly (and I don't use SETA) - Collision avoidance was always necessarily fairly primitive, and a marginal affair to avoid headbutting a large rock I guess would always be more likely when ship speeds are upped. - It was actually a good scavenge platform to my bank balance in the early hours of the game as many sectors had a splatted trader who hadn't taken his advanced piloting test for the faster ships in this Mod.

I guess I'll have to just adjust the way I play (I'd normally have a TM and TP on follow)

[Ketraar]

In A4 sectors will be bigger by 50% so the AI may have less issues with avoiding stuff then.

Its not something that can be "fixed" just like that, but we will have a closer look to it.

MFG

Ketraar

[Gavrushka]

I do appreciate that it is probably impossible to fix - It's not an issue so much as an observation. A Mod changes the way the game plays, so it follows to the way we play also must evolve.

I spend late yesterday flying one of the new 'class' of ships - a Cormorant - and I see this as the Hub of the way this plays... You hoover up food, minerals from the relevant sectors and then disgourge your contents to the various high tech factories either in the vicinity, or possibly at the far side of the map - It feels somehow just right - The way you would interact with the trading universe- One thing that is essential, and was mentioned earlier- Goods must be limited for sale (missiles, lasers and shields) at natural stockists as this does affect immersion otherwise.

I also think you should consider a new start when it is completed with this class of ship as the Player ship- The reason being is to many traders this ship is what it will all be about - and it COULD take many weeks of casual play to own one otherwise - I am sure some restrictions or difficultlies could be attached to having such a gift. (Zero cash and a hold full of some absolutely impossible to sell good to start trading with)

Did 'The Old One' get this Mod installed BTW?

[Demotruk]

Great mod, it's making the game more to my liking. I've started 3.5 and didn't get a message about co-ordinates, unless it was verbal and I missed it.

I'm wondering if making Jumpdrives 'ST' is the best solution to the 'size' of the Universe though. As it is in 3.5, there is no way of getting many classes of ship to or from Aldrin, as an example.

From a balance perspective, wouldn't you get the same job done if you multiplied the price and energy cost of a Jumpdrive by ten(or more)? This would make it 'possible' to use a JD with TS, TM, M6 etc. but not feasible for ordinary activity or trading.

You'd have to prevent script-obeying ships from automatically buying them, though, somehow.

[X2-Illuminatus]

From a balance perspective, wouldn't you get the same job done if you multiplied the price and energy cost of a Jumpdrive by ten(or more)?

Nope, it would have some similar effects but not the same. Not having a jumpdrive means that the player isn't able to jump anymore to it's ships and stations if there is a problem. If jumping is just expensive, the player would still jump to it's complexes and ships if they are under attack. Apart from that multiplying the jump costs would be just a difficulty at the beginning. Once he has enough money and maybe one or two profitable complexes the jump costs won't be high enough to stop the player from jumping through the whole universe.

[Ketraar]

I totally agree with X2 here, making stuff expensive will only be affecting the player for a limited time. Looking at the rate that one can make money in TC, this will be a rather short period. Guess one has to make sure the assets are protected before endeavour for exploration.

MFG

Ketraar

[Demotruk]

From a balance perspective, wouldn't you get the same job done if you multiplied the price and energy cost of a Jumpdrive by ten(or more)?

Nope, it would have some similar effects but not the same. Not having a jumpdrive means that the player isn't able to jump anymore to it's ships and stations if there is a problem. If jumping is just expensive, the player would still jump to it's complexes and ships if they are under attack. Apart from that multiplying the jump costs would be just a difficulty at the beginning. Once he has enough money and maybe one or two profitable complexes the jump costs won't be high enough to stop the player from jumping through the whole universe.

What I was thinking was that energy jumping would not just be expensive in terms of money, but by increasing the energy cost small ships would not be able to jump very far, or very often. Emergency jumps would still be possible, yes, but you've already replaced almost all gates with Trans-orbital accelerators, so unless players keep all their factories near the few gates, they won't be able to jump in to rescue them. As it is now, the possibility of jumping to save your station is perfectly viable for the stations around gates, as long as the ship that jumps is an Elephant or better.

[lamoyja]

Why it matters is beyond me this far. There are barely any jump gates to begin with, with this mod. Is it really even useful to have a jumpdrive at that point on smaller craft?


I'd say it feels just right, as a carrier with a bunch of fighters docked can still jump while carrying those fighters, to get them 'closer' to their destination.


I'm just glad they didn't make some sort of air supply timer on anything smaller than a TP.

[Demotruk]

It's not that important. It just means a number of things can't be done that the player might want to do under normal play especially with regard to Aldrin, for example you can't get the Springblossom out of Aldrin and you can't use the Vidar to complete the Terran plot.

I probably wouldn't have an issue with it at all if only there were capital ships that could dock TS's etc. but there aren't.

The mod-creators have given their perspective though, so I'll drop it.

[Gavrushka]

There is a collision issue in Elena's Fortune which may only be as pronounced on lower end machines (I had a fairly poor frame rate there) - Ship after ship crashed into an asteroid on the approach to the President's End TOB.

I found a couple of the abandoned ships in totally random locations - Do these change from game to game or are they pre-set?

I am 50 hours in to playing now, and this certainly has durability. - The economy is universally very strong with a few localised opportunities to exploit in the short term. I am going to try building a a few factories over the coming days - I'll try a couple without traders and see if they get used by the AI?

One question/suggestion, expanding on something I said earlier, - is it possible to have a script to allow Equipment Docks to buy none stocked products BUT at say 30% of their average price?

@Demotruk a TOB in Aldrin with a large linking unknown sector would solve the issue you suggest perhaps? - The whole flavour of this mod, to me at least, is based around not having the option to jump regardless of cargo space and cost - I think if you had the opportunity to play a fair few hours you'd understand the fairly strong negative responses, and I do hope you find those hours.

[Ketraar]

There is a collision issue in Elena's Fortune

Fixed it already, also those reported in Split Fire. As its a map change we will only include those fixes in A4 (restart required).

I found a couple of the abandoned ships in totally random locations - Do these change from game to game or are they pre-set?

Yes those are set randomly and yes different in every start

is it possible to have a script to allow Equipment Docks to buy none stocked products BUT at say 30% of their average price?

No. What we did was to increase the selling/buying opportunities to balance the lack of that cheat.

a TOB in Aldrin with a large linking unknown sector would solve the issue you suggest perhaps?

That's one of the possibilities, but only considered for the Aldrin Adventurer Start so far.

TBH having the SB confined to Aldrin is something that I actually like, but this is far from being solved, we'll have a look in near future.

MFG

Ketraar

[Demotruk]

@Demotruk a TOB in Aldrin with a large linking unknown sector would solve the issue you suggest perhaps? - The whole flavour of this mod, to me at least, is based around not having the option to jump regardless of cargo space and cost - I think if you had the opportunity to play a fair few hours you'd understand the fairly strong negative responses, and I do hope you find those hours.

Ok, I thought the idea was to have the Jumpdrive only feasible with bigships, and even then limited. Which is something I really like, it's very flavorful. In vanilla I play with a "no Jumpdrives" rule, but I make an exception for gateless sectors as otherwise I'd be losing big chunks of the plot in my game.

If I had the ability, I'd mod the game such that Jumpdrives used so much energy that it wasn't worth using much in anything but a carrier (it would be possible to jump TS, M6 etc., just not feasible for regular use), they could only be used when more than 150K from a gate, and can jump to any point in the universe that's further than 150K from a gate. Thus sort of implementing the idea of "gravity wells" in Sins of a Solar Empire where you can't jump in or out from the region of activity.

[Ghost-1-0-1]

exactly how does the new station placement work? read something like planet dependent?...well i tried building two wheat farms m-size....n connected them...but for some reason..it shows they dont produce any products......and looked at resources, it says "energy" which is normal...but how come product not there...plus ....


another concern ..after i built them and before i connected them...both factories had that little green symbol that you can interact with them, so i did..and this is what came up...

request comm with the person aboard
> Nil Claassen

so i did then asked what are you offering....and this came up

"im bringing the prices up now"

"1. Ich Bitte innen: 25,589 CR"
"2. Not Interested."



whats up with that....when i did click on number 1..i lost control of the factory? as in it transferred ownership to A.I

[Iifrit Tambuur-san]

If you are building a L1-factory (wheat farms, plankton, teladianium, bogas and so on) in an sector that is capable for it there products will be removed to make them useless. In case there is now the Build Mission symbol at this factory to get rid of this "new junk".

Capable farms for an sector are listed in the sector description of the Galaxy Map.

[Gavrushka]

Ok, I thought the idea was to have the Jumpdrive only feasible with bigships, and even then limited. Which is something I really like, it's very flavorful. In vanilla I play with a "no Jumpdrives" rule, but I make an exception for gateless sectors as otherwise I'd be losing big chunks of the plot in my game.

If I had the ability, I'd mod the game such that Jumpdrives used so much energy that it wasn't worth using much in anything but a carrier (it would be possible to jump TS, M6 etc., just not feasible for regular use), they could only be used when more than 150K from a gate, and can jump to any point in the universe that's further than 150K from a gate. Thus sort of implementing the idea of "gravity wells" in Sins of a Solar Empire where you can't jump in or out from the region of activity.

There are perhaps a dozen jumpable gates in entirity - including two sectors (I think) creating shortcuts - Big ships M8, M7, TL, M1 & M2 are jumpable but to make TS ships jumpable would remove the amazing feeeling of the game (however restricted the jumping is) and make the new Superfreighters marginalised - I've invested around 60 hours in this now and the immersive factor is far, far deeper than the standard game - I was suprised when looking at my Stats - I've only 5 mins of time saved by SETA in this 60 hours.

Everyone will have a specific flavour of TC that does it for them and I'm lucky I think in that this is fairly close to the way I'd have the game - There are one or two places where I'd see things different but as often as not that is down to the restrictions of the game itself, or where alterable it seems that most of the things I'd like are destined for future versions of this Mod.

[Gavrushka]

I set up my first L1 factories in Shareholders Fortune (two large linked flower farms) set the buying price for energy at 17 and then set off to get a few ECells from a SPP 20kms away - Well by the time I got back half a dozen traders had filled it - 50,000 energy cells in what, 5 minutes! - Great stuff. I couldn't get the AI traders to buy though even though (priced above average) they could have made huge profits locally- so I had to buy a TS to do that. Would the AI eventually have picked up on the opportunity to buy from me at above average price or will I always need to set up sellors?

[Ghost-1-0-1]

it shows on galaxy map that argon prime supports wheat farm?....but when i build them and connect them through complex c-kit......no product?

[Ghost-1-0-1]

thanks for the reply..but also wen u chose to remove this junk.i notice it sti there in the sector menu...does it dissapear after a while? maybe moving in and out of sector would make it vanish?