^^Oky doky!

I think we should be friends on steam to communicate better. Please.

If you really want to catch someone's attention just shoot them a PM on here.  It's kind of hard to miss the red-bordered 'You have a new private message' box.

Although, kinda wish there was a buddy system here so that you don't have to keep entering captchas.

My inclination would be to make the shipyard give a civ-wide bonus to the Military Production ability.  But also, allow the tech to unlock an effective engine module.  That's something that we know the AI can use.

OMG yes to making the Logistics Centre and Shrinker GAs.

I think that the problem with the Hyperion Re-Supply Centre is that it's too late to have a noticeable effect.  It would be a nice thing to have in the early game, particularly on the larger maps.

I think that in the same vein as the shipyard, we could have the techs for DD Gen and Stellar Forge unlock some nice ship modules - so then no matter where the AI places the improvements, it's getting some use out of the techs.

I can't say I've ever built the SPC, but I'm inclined towards making it a GA simply to remove the farming potential.

As far as changing icons and query icons goes, I agree that there's a bit of confusion in some cases.  The alternatives you've picked out seem fine.  I just wish there were more stock icons to choose from for the others.

Maybe instead of having the DD Gen simply improve hitpoints (which like you said, doesn't make them that much more lethal) throw in a ship quality bonus and bring the hitpoint bonus down to about 10%.

I was kind of thinking of hitpoint modules, but I can't remember if there are some already kicking around.  It's been so long since I played Altarians or Arceans.

And yep, just stick with a military production bonus for the shipyard.  That's plenty.

So 10% HP and 50% ship quality? Or would that be too much?

The Arceans eventually get the Robut Hull Construction Option (terrible name, need to change that) in addition to the Hardened Hull Point, while the Altarians and Drath just get the standard Reinforced Hull Point. Overall, In think they should be fine on that front.

There are a few more things regarding the planetary improvements I'd like to hear some opinions:

1. I've kept the Power Plants in for now, because I'm not yet sure how to replace them. Going the starbase module-route isn't something I want to do with them, because that would be just a repeat of what we did with the Drengin/Korath, and it would give the other races a possibility to make their econ starbases even more powerful. Replacing the Power Plants with bonuses to the Social and Military Production abilities would be the easiest way to solve this, but would also reduce the manufacturing output of the factory-users due to the way it gets calculated.

2. The Temple of Krynn and the Order of Krynn are currently the only morale improvements available to the Krynn. This is pretty bad, because both improvements are independent 1pps. Granted, the Krynn have a pretty big racial Morale ability, so it shouldn't hurt them too much in the beginning. However, it will be pretty difficult to get the AI to build both improvements on its planets to keep its populace happy. I've considered removing the 1pp limitation, and making the Temple upgrade into the Order, but I'm not sure, if that fits the theme of the buildings.

3. I'm currently using a mixed approach for the maintenance costs. The maintenance for manufacturing and research improvements increase at a standard rate of 1bc per 2mp/rp, while all other improvements use a fixed value. However, I would like to use a fixed maintenance cost for all improvements, because I think it would help everyones economy.

4. I'd still like to hear some feedback regarding the buildcosts. I posted a link to my new spreadsheet yesterday. It has all the values for the planetary improvements.

The OFM no longer exists. This has been the case since either v2.01 or v2.02. Not sure which.

Well, it was v2.01

+ TWEAK:  Eliminated Orbital fleet manager

and v2.02

+ TWEAK: Completely removed Orbital Fleet Manager [English version]

So, I was right with both.

<DisplayName>Shield Defense Theory</DisplayName>   

<Description>Allows us to begin researching various types of shield defenses.</Description>   

<Details>Shields are theorized to counter lasers. However vast amounts of energy must be absorbed and displaced safely multiple times per battle, and recharge faster than it takes a laser to cool down. Regardless of the difficulties and dangers, our scientist believe a working model can be produced to adequately defend our ships in the near future.</Details>

<DisplayName>Planetary Defense</DisplayName>   

<Description>This technology moderately increases our Empires soldiering bonus, and allows construction of the planetary defense improvement.</Description>   

<Details>Now that we have the knowledge to invade other worlds, it is imperative to keep our worlds from being conquered. In this endeavor, our military researchers have created new training protocols for our soldiers. They have also discovered that coordination of orbital and sub-orbital defenses on the planet increases survivable by 25%.</Details>

<DisplayName>Adv. Planetary Defense</DisplayName>   

<Description>Provides advanced equipment to ground personal, further increasing our soldiers performance in battles.</Description>   

<Details>To attack or defend a planet requires not just logistics, but counter logistics. Winning a battle you should have lost can only be achieved if you manage your forces in relation to the enemy. To do this effectively we have developed a self sufficient miniature sensor that can detect and identify enemies units in the area, this device will be given to all our ground and air units. In addition to all this, we have added new paint and decals to our soldiers helmets, this has made them look and feel more lethal by and estimated 9%!</Details>

<DisplayName>Supreme Planetary Defense</DisplayName>   

<Description>Enables the Omega Defense System super project and bestows a soldiering bonus.</Description>   

<Details>Using sub-space fields to protect our ships was once thought to be impossible as they are normally far too weak to interact directly with matter, and there wasn't a way to generate the fields on a scale required. Recently however, a host of new technologies related to hyperdrive have made the amplification of sub-space fields from a planets gravity well not only possible but viable for defense. With this new technology we have devised plans for a new prototype building capable of distributing the fields to both orbiting ships and critical defense installations. This sub-space field generator is being called the “Omega Defense Center” as it is the ultimate way defend a planet from invasion. But we have also refined our soldiers training methods, for planets that don't have the defense system yet.</Details>

Ahh, I'm done? Sorry it took so long. I had divided attention today.

Credit to my buddy ParagonRenegade for helping me edit PD3.

DARCA

I want to cut the number of several techs down to three (Warp Drive, Lasers, Phasors, Disruptors, Stinger, Graviton Driver, Singularity Driver, and Deflectors), get rid of some other techs (Basic and Enhanced Rail Guns, Invulnerability I and II, and Duralthene Armor), and re-activate Anti-Matter Torpedoes. I may be able to cobble some fitting descriptions together by using the existing ones. However, consider this a heads-up, just in case I need help for those after all.

What I definitely need help with, however, is the name and the description for a new shield tech I want to add between Shields and Barriers (three techs in total). I also need some names for prototype-level point defense and shields components. Their respective Theory techs currently don't provide any benefits, and I want to change that.

The Particle Beams techs need some work, and maybe a new name. The very first weapon you unlock is called Particle Beam too, which can be quite confusing.

The Weather Control tech needs a slight re-write. It mentions that it provides a 10% PQ-bonus, but that isn't actually the case. I haven't decided yet whether to add the bonus and remove the Weather Control Zenith improvement, add the bonus and keep the improvement, or just keep it as it is now. I'm tending towards giving the Arceans both the bonus and the improvement, but want to hear other opinions first.
Just in case you need it for the description, the Weather Control Zenith gives a farming-bonus in addition to the PQ-bonus.

While on the subject of techs, I went through the tech trees of the Krynn, Arceans, and Torians again.

The Krynn tech tree is obviously based on the Torian one. Due to this, there are some parts of their tech tree which don't make much sense. For example, some of the descriptions mention that this race had been enslaved by the Drengin, which, as far as I know, never happened to the Krynn. I removed all of those entries, and also some cost-increases.

The Hull-techs for the Arceans are now a bit cheaper to research, while the ones for the Torians are now all a bit more expensive (instead of just a few). This should fit nicely for those races. The Arceans are experienced engineers, while the Torians are complete newbs.

I've also been thinking about the Iconians again. Researching better weapons is supposed to be harder for them. For this reason, they have to research the Advanced Weapons techs before they can get to Particle Beams, Harpoons, etc. However, researching those techs also makes their weapons better. That doesn't make sense to me. This is meant to be a downside for them (and it is), but it also acts as a benefit? Simply removing the Weapons bonus from the techs would put them into the "just there to unlock the next tech" category, which I don't like. So, I want to get rid of those techs altogether, and increase the cost of the basic weapons and defense techs instead (from Interstellar Warfare up to the Theory techs). Any opposing thoughts?

While speaking of techs with no benefit, I still haven't come up with a bonus for the Precursor History tech. I don't want to add another Luck bonus, because the Altarians and Drath already get +20% in total from other techs. A Research bonus might fit, but I want to hear your thoughts first.

Lastly, AIP 8 is finally researching better lab techs. I actually feel quite stupid for not realising the solution sooner, because it was so blindingly obvious. What does AIP 8 like the most? Industry techs! Just changing all the lab techs from Computing to Industry is enough to make AIP 8 go for them with no problem. The Thalan were already set up this way with their lab techs. Seriously, how come I didn't notice this in all these years?

I'm working on the values for the engines at the moment. Reducing their top speed, and changing their sizes. This is primarily to give the AI a better fighting-chance. I mean, how can it fight against the player, if he is able to run in circles around its ships?

My changes aren't very drastic (yet): Warp Drive tops out at 3pc/turn, HyperWarp at 4pc/turn, and Stellar Folder at 5pc/turn. All engines use the base size of the original Hyperdrive (9) and the size-modifiers of the first three engines (20%, 17%, 14%).

Here is a comparison of the size-requirement for HyperWarp III on all hull-sizes:

                 Tiny  Small  Medium  Cargo  Large  Huge
Old values   7     9        13          15      19       32

New values  11   12      15          17      20       30

What do you think? Too big of a change, or is it okay?

Peaceful? Depends on who you're asking. Anyhow, the tech Way of the Arnor already grants a bonus to Social Production, so I think that would be kinda redundant. The Influence bonus might work though.

Yes, though how exactly depends on what the tech will unlock. I still haven't decided yet, because I want to hear some opinions first.

Definitely the rewrite. As for the name-change, coming up with a better name for the prototype-weapon would probably be better, because it would mean less work (only one weapon needs to be renamed, instead of three weapons and three techs).

On second thought, that might not be necessary after all. I originally wanted to make all weapons and defences have the same amount of tiers, but it might not be necessary for the shields. Even if it looks a bit off.

Only names. Those theory techs don't unlock any components yet.

There are three techs, right after Lasers, that are also called Particle Beams.

Particle Beam, Space Cannon, Sparrow. The very first weapons you can unlock in all three categories.

Why didn't I think of those. I know the Maser Cannons all too well from the Godzilla-movies. Still, would you considers Masers more powerful than Lasers, or less?

Exactly.

<DisplayName>Weather Control</DisplayName>   

<Description>Allows us to modify the weather of a planet, increasing the planet quality and farming output.</Description>   

<Details>Weather manipulation has been common practice in Arcean culture of thousands of years. Reliably changing the weather of any type of planet without causing damage to the ecosystem however, has proved to be a far more challenging and illusive goal. Thankfully a new Atmospheric Adaptive Algorithm, or "AAA" has been developed. It adjusts the climate around any area of a planet by using a network of satellites equipped with artificially produced chemicals that alters the weather according to the "AAA".</Details>

<DisplayName>Particle Beams</DisplayName>   

<Description>High energy particles beams are found to have a higher penetration of shields and hulls.</Description>   

<Details>Particle beams are atoms fired in special high energy states. The state of the particles are placed in such a way where they immediately discharge all excess energy when coming into contact with matter for devastating results.</Details>

<DisplayName>Particle Beams II</DisplayName>   

<Description>Reengineering particle beams from the initial model has provided us with a more compact version.</Description>   

<Details>By upgrading our Particle Beams to use a single more efficient power regulator, we can remove all other regulators used by the weapon equating to a size reduction.</Details>

<DisplayName>Particle Beams III</DisplayName>   

<Description>Additional size reduction, attributed to a decrees in barrel length.</Description>   

<Details>When a particle beam is shoot, the particles must be magnetically guided out of the barrel by magnetic plates within it, with recent improvements to power regulators we no longer need as many plates. This size reduction has lead to a... size reduction.</Details>

I think a good name for a new PD might be; Target duplication software, Electrostatic scrambler, Core disrupters, Pulse field generators.

I like Core disruptors as they cause missiles to explode prematurely and I just like the name. PFG's are nice too, off course I support all my listed ideas though. Lol

A good name for a shield, I'm going to like this; Photo-magnetic polar attraction, Symmetric light refractors , Trans spectrum refractors, Transparent reflectors, Energy adaptors.

I imagine shields do a combination of reflecting, absorbing, and just letting light pass through fyi. You can pick or mix and match the words and names I don't care, but I hope you guys like one but I could think of more.

Did I forget something?

DARCA

The Decibel Gun! Fire rock music at your enemies!

And are the scenarios going to be fixed?