Addon Discussion (Full Version)

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WoodMan -> Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 3:28:16 PM)

Hi guys since it has been announced that there will be an addon for DW (very good news indeed, cheers Elliot/Matrix), I thought I'd start a thread to discuss what kind of things people would want included. I know there is already a wishlist and a modders wishlist in the forum, so I hope this is not overkill. However, the modders wishlist is serving its purpose just fine, and as far as I understand the modders patch will come before the addon, and the general wishlist I notice many things that when I read them I think "no chance, its too big for a patch, something like that would come in an addon".

Well a couple of things I would like to see:

New Ship classes: most noteably Fighters and Carriers to carry the fighters and launch them into battle, the fighters themselves should not be capable of using hyperdrives. Other suggestion would be a Minelayer, thats right lay minefields around wreckage sites!!! Science ships, some kind of ship that travels between your research stations and the Research Stations of anyone who has a Research Agreement (like a trade agreement) with you, giving small bonus in research everytime they dock.

New Tech Tree: Well this could work in two ways, I'd like a tech tree that has improvements that are not components, it could either be a seperate second tech tree or the components could all be incorporated into the new tech tree. Categories could be things such as Diplomacy, Trade, Industry, Subterfuge, Science & Research and Defence.

Super Techs: The super techs are in the tech tree (at the end), but greyed out, you can not research them. The only way you can get them is by finding an event (like at a ancient ruin or abandoned space station) which would activate that tech in the tech tree. You still have to research it yourself, and all the previous tech in that branch of the tree before you can research it. My suggestions for these techs are things like: Cloaking Device (invisible ships but uses energy while cloaked), Planetary Shield (immune to bombard or world destroyer, have to be invaded by troops), World Destroyer Weapon (like the Devastation Moon), Wormhole/Stargate technology (build two, and then you can travel instantly between them, but you still of course have to build them both first).

Random Events/Objects/Items/Locations etc: Just some ideas: Space Plague - plague breaks out at a colony somewhere in the galaxy which slowly reduces population, ships that dock at that planet or its spaceport can spread the plague to the next planet they dock at. Planets gradually become immune (perhaps depending on their development level) and 'cure' any ship that docks there slowly stoping the spread. Space Accident - A freighter driver got particularly sleepy and crashed his freighter while docking at your spaceport, the spaceport is now badly damaged. Outsiders Arrive - a fleet of refugee Ketarov(example) ships have arrived from outside the galaxy, they have begun a new Empire in the "blah blah system". Assassination - Some political activists have assassinated our leader, chaos ensues -happiness throughout your Empire for 1 year, lower taxes now to compensate! Asteroid Strike - An asteroid has struck our colony on "blah blah planet" wiping out all life and changing the planet to an uninhabitable Barren Rock planet. Breakthrough - A brilliant scientist has made a breakthrough at our research facility "blah blah research facility" giving us knowledge of a new component/tech. Space Probe - We have discovered an ancient probe launched by a pre-hyperdrive race thousands of years ago in the hope of discovering alien life, we have activated the probe and discovered the independant planet "blah blah at sector blah blah"/homeworld of the Attuk Council at planet "blah blah in sector blah blah". Cultural Hotspot - Our colony Sol 2 has been voted the galaxies greatest cultural hotspot, the planet will now gain the functions of a resort base for 4 years as well as acting as a normal colony.

You get the idea, there could be literally hundreds of possibilities here!



scotten_usa -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 3:44:15 PM)

What add-on?  Where's that posted?



Merker -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 4:17:22 PM)

What I would really like to see are:

- MORE DIPLOMACY OPTIONS: like propose small empires to join you(protectorate is useless), more options and maybe a better integration of subjugated dominions in your empire(they should count as your colonies, IMO, they did give up, didn't they?), ability to mediate relations between other empires(you don't want your allied empires to fight each other so you convince them to make peace), ability to propose research cooperation(common use of research bases) etc.

-MORE FLEXIBLE VICTORY CONDITIONS: cooperative victory, like if you and an allied empire meet the 50% territory/50% population/50% culture together you win; Trade victory-biggest income in the galaxy/a certain amount of money/largest foreign trade income/largest trader fleet/largest amount of resources traded.

- Possibly more weapon variety, like blaster weapons for example, or nuclear torpedo area weapons in space. -not that important

- Possibility to coordinate allied fleets together. Like an option to tell your ally to attack planet X while you attack planet Y in the diplomacy screen.

That's about it for now, I'll add them as they come.

Merker out.



WoodMan -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 4:22:25 PM)

quote:

What add-on?  Where's that posted?


quote:

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Distant Worlds has been met with critical and fan acclaim, even bringing home a few trophies. This update solidifies the position of Distant Worlds as one of the premier space-based 4X strategy games! We have great plans in store for fans of Distant Worlds, including more updates and an upcoming expansion, so this is a great time to jump on board if you’ve been on the fence!”


In the new patch thread, first post.



shinobu -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 4:36:39 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Merker

What I would really like to see are:

- MORE DIPLOMACY OPTIONS: like propose small empires to join you(protectorate is useless), more options and maybe a better integration of subjugated dominions in your empire(they should count as your colonies, IMO, they did give up, didn't they?), ability to mediate relations between other empires(you don't want your allied empires to fight each other so you convince them to make peace), ability to propose research cooperation(common use of research bases) etc.



I would like to see more flexibility in diplomacy myself. My specific wish is for the ability to ally with an AI player against ONE SPECIFIC star nation only- not a general alliance.



Brainsucker -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 5:00:18 PM)

I don't know about the other, but if you want to add Fighter, please make it like the Carrier in Starcraft and not like Space Empire game. It is easier to control Fighters that way. The fighter will get out of their mothership, swarming the enemy, then return again. If the fighter destroyed just consider it like broken component and player can repair it in space station.

Making it like Space Empire will only make everything complicated (even in the programming and micro management game)

But of course, let us able to design fighter, even if it has a little use to the gameplay.Just making the series of F-1 to F-99999 can give the player some room to expand their "imagination". Not only that, they could even change the Fighter graphic with mecha and... viola, a japanese anime type of mecha mod will able to be build with this game.






Bartje -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 5:01:55 PM)

I'd like to see Galactic Institutions & Diplomacy as well as Political Action Groups amongst things already mentioned.



Merker -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 7:01:41 PM)

Actually, a fighter could be quite easily designed. Just make it that when you designate a ship a 'fighter' you have size limit 50, only fighter weapons, no hyperdrive, and just minimum equipment. Might imply that there is a totally new research branch for fighters with fighter sized equipment. Also ships designated 'carrier' just need to have something called 'fighter bay component'. Now the fighters act just like a normal ship, but they can refuel at the carrier or starbase in the system. They would be cheap ships(like 500 cr each or something) and a ship should be able to carry like 5/fighter bay component or something like that. That way you simplify the fighter mechanic, rather than script in a whole new part of the game. Also, there should be a new command on the carrier like 'launch all fighters' or 'dock all fighters'. And the base designation would be just like for normal ships, except you can also designate ships with fighter bay. Launched fighters automatically have the order to escort the carrier, and are in their own fleet, with a name like 'Carrier_name fighter squadron'.

There might be a complication in coding this for AI use however...

That's just my 2 cents.

Merker out.



jalapen0 -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 7:19:14 PM)

I just want to note that you should also be able to base fighters at starbases.

I would also like to see point defense weapons to respond against fighters, missles, and torpedos.



Baleur -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 7:47:18 PM)

I want diplomacy to be basically ripped straight from Civ4, with all the options and such :)

I also want as you mentioned, super techs, but i want them to be researchable so an empire could focus all its efforts on discovering that elusive "wunderwaffen".
What kinds of supertech? Well, rip em straight from Space Empires! I want to blow up a solar system, i want to ignite a gas cloud into a new starsystem, i want to collapse a red giant into a black hole.
Think of the gameplay implications, all those redundant gas clouds in nebulae (there are SO many of them) could finally turn into something useful at the endgame.
Dont need that 54'th hydrogen cloud? Compress and ignite it with your super device to form a new star system, with random planets and goodies (lets use our long term imagination here, no reason to expect all races to operate on 24hr cycles :P)
And either collapse the red giant independent system near you to a black hole to make a research outpost, or just do it to your enemies homeworld just for lols, but beware the future as they will now have easy access to that 600% research bonus.. (possibly increase it even further for these new black holes, to incentivize investing in this mad hard to reach tech and give consequences for wiping out an enemy solar system. basically giving him huge tech bonuses)

Bottom line, i want god techs. The ultimate new tech line, call it Astro Engineering or something lol, have it suck points from High Tech, Industry, Energy and Weapons, making it progress very slowly.
The first few techs could be something like, compressing a gas cloud, just making it shrink in size (gameplaywise), later on requiring the "ignite" device.
This could all tie in with the planet destroyer "lore" =D


If the proper code for this went into the expansion (it can already be done by entering the galaxy editor, remove the gas cloud, add a new starsystem, etc, this could open up another type of galaxy for generation as well, "living" galaxy! A galaxy option that sets a random timer on all red giants, from too-long-to-ever-notice like 90 hours to something more imminent like 1 hour, where it collapses. And a possibly linked timer on some of the gas clouds, making it compress into a new starsystem as you lose the red giant, keeping the star system balance in the game so as to not have a blackout near endgame XD
Birthing and killing stars, thats what i've wanted since Spore had me hooked on their lie-hype.



scotten_usa -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/3/2010 7:56:33 PM)

Got it.  I want races to have a little more personality.  Mood music, animated faces, nasty insults, etc.  I like a little more character in my AI enemies.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/9/2010 2:27:40 PM)

Hi guys,

We will be posting some more info on the expansion when it's a bit further along. Work is already underway though and the feature list was chosen based on the feedback/wishlist on the original release and the designer's goals. While I can't share details yet, I can say based on what's coming that I believe most DW fans will be very happy.

Regards,

- Erik



b0mber -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/9/2010 3:03:20 PM)

Please add the option to remove certains aspects for the game like those ubber ruins that give you Large Ship Yard 600 or can upgrade a technology area like 150k. There are also too many broken ships out there and though the boost when retiring them have been reduced they are too many.

These things are ruining the game for me :(

I also don't like the parts of the history wich gives bonus to the happiness of certain races. I don't like Boskara but I don't want to gave them that handicap of hapiness.

I think the AI also exchange their tech between them too easly but is a difficult thing to confirm.

cya



WoodMan -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/9/2010 3:25:45 PM)

b0mber!  Is that the same b0mber who worked on the New Wave Reloaded with me? If so, welcome dude!



Gertjan -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/9/2010 6:13:38 PM)

I'm getting so curious. Erik when can you tell us more about the expansion?



ASHBERY76 -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/9/2010 7:01:48 PM)

I think the differentiation of the races and expanding the living world with events, internal politics,ect should be the focus.The game is never going to match MOO2 or SOTS for tactical battles or tech due to its nature.



Gertjan -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/9/2010 9:41:51 PM)

I fully agree Ashbery!



Baleur -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/10/2010 12:58:51 AM)

Yeah, build upon what already makes this game unique :)
Imo more living galaxy events, even more civilian contractors and ways they can influence the galaxy. Perhaps even some sort of Corporation mechanic, where a group of say, moon miner ships (or freighers or whatever) can band together and use part of their wealth to form a Corporation.
They could all have a little ticker in front of their name like [IC]Small Freighter, and could eventually buy and build their own mining stations and / or even colonize their own world (barren planets? to give a use for them?).
Maybe they are so obsessed about profitsssss (game trivia, where's that from?[:D]) that they dont mind living in domes on the barren planets, as long as there are valuable resources to mine and have their childrens mine [:D]



tornnight -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/10/2010 2:11:17 AM)

Well I'm still hoping Research gets totally worked over in an expansion.

I love multi-branched, complex tech trees.



Wade1000 -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/10/2010 5:47:24 AM)

Wish list:population centers beyond planetary(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture):Ships,Ring Orbitals,Sphere Orbitals,Ringworlds,Sphereworlds;ability to create & destroy planets,population centers,stars;AI competently using all advances & features.

Also, if an advance/technology can be found in the game then I believe that it should eventually be able to be researched, without first finding it.



Wade1000 -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/10/2010 6:09:37 AM)

Yeah, also "god techs" like he says.
quote:

ORIGINAL: Baleur

I want diplomacy to be basically ripped straight from Civ4, with all the options and such :)

I also want as you mentioned, super techs, but i want them to be researchable so an empire could focus all its efforts on discovering that elusive "wunderwaffen".
What kinds of supertech? Well, rip em straight from Space Empires! I want to blow up a solar system, i want to ignite a gas cloud into a new starsystem, i want to collapse a red giant into a black hole.
Think of the gameplay implications, all those redundant gas clouds in nebulae (there are SO many of them) could finally turn into something useful at the endgame.
Dont need that 54'th hydrogen cloud? Compress and ignite it with your super device to form a new star system, with random planets and goodies (lets use our long term imagination here, no reason to expect all races to operate on 24hr cycles :P)
And either collapse the red giant independent system near you to a black hole to make a research outpost, or just do it to your enemies homeworld just for lols, but beware the future as they will now have easy access to that 600% research bonus.. (possibly increase it even further for these new black holes, to incentivize investing in this mad hard to reach tech and give consequences for wiping out an enemy solar system. basically giving him huge tech bonuses)

Bottom line, i want god techs. The ultimate new tech line, call it Astro Engineering or something lol, have it suck points from High Tech, Industry, Energy and Weapons, making it progress very slowly.
The first few techs could be something like, compressing a gas cloud, just making it shrink in size (gameplaywise), later on requiring the "ignite" device.
This could all tie in with the planet destroyer "lore" =D


If the proper code for this went into the expansion (it can already be done by entering the galaxy editor, remove the gas cloud, add a new starsystem, etc, this could open up another type of galaxy for generation as well, "living" galaxy! A galaxy option that sets a random timer on all red giants, from too-long-to-ever-notice like 90 hours to something more imminent like 1 hour, where it collapses. And a possibly linked timer on some of the gas clouds, making it compress into a new starsystem as you lose the red giant, keeping the star system balance in the game so as to not have a blackout near endgame XD
Birthing and killing stars, thats what i've wanted since Spore had me hooked on their lie-hype.




b0mber -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/10/2010 2:20:07 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

b0mber! Is that the same b0mber who worked on the New Wave Reloaded with me? If so, welcome dude!


Hi WoodMan, yes I'm that guy.

I saw a post at bloodbowl forums talking about this game and the developers and I thought "If WoodMan like it it should be a good one" ^^



Baleur -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/10/2010 3:35:56 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Wade1000

Wish list:population centers beyond planetary(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture):Ships,Ring Orbitals,Sphere Orbitals,Ringworlds,Sphereworlds;ability to create & destroy planets,population centers,stars;AI competently using all advances & features.

Also, if an advance/technology can be found in the game then I believe that it should eventually be able to be researched, without first finding it.


Too many space games focus on the "cheap" aspects of space. A space station, a few ships, a planet here and there with a generic random-noise star background.
I desperatly agree, i so badly want another space game that realizes space and sci-fi for what it is, and depicts it as such.

Ringworlds, dyson spheres, aging stars, forming stars, neutron stars (i was surprised to see them included in this game), proper good sci-fi.



WoodMan -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/10/2010 4:32:37 PM)

I'm quite hesitant about these god techs!  I'm not against them, but can't decide if I'm for them either.  If they are implemented in a way that they are extremely hard to get, i.e. they cost a lot and take an age to research, I think they'll make a good addition to the game.  But, if ringworlds are as common as normal colonies, it would both ruin the immersion for me and the gameplay, making normal colonization pointless.  However, a Ringworld built in the system with Zentabian Fluid because you had no other way of colonizing anything in that system, that would be a pretty good addition to the game, as long as it is late game and not mid or early game.

As for forming stars, it takes hundreds of millions of years for a solar system to form, so unsure about that one tbh.



Gertjan -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/10/2010 6:04:58 PM)

I agree with woodman, not too easy god like techs, and also the option to turn them off.



tornnight -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/11/2010 2:08:00 AM)

Ring Worlds and Dyson Spheres are impractical silly sci-fi.

If you can create an ecosystem anywhere like that, why not teraform the numerous worlds out there.



Brainsucker -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/11/2010 3:00:51 AM)

First of all, please don't limit the weight of any ship type in the designer. I don't care about the others who create only a destroyer and make it a mega destroyer, but for me, the designation or type of starship is not about the weight or size, but more about the type of starship that I want to design. Unfortunately for DW, there are only two types. Fast Ship, and star fortress with a lot of weaponary.

What if my destroyer has bigger size than my capital ships? Who care? That's me, the player and the leader of the race of I play who decide it, not other people. So please don't limit the weight of any starship type. But make the techs that give the players more choice to implement their fantasies and ideas.

Add on Ideas :
- A race that capable to produce space monsters. Just want to play DW version of Zerg (maybe even able to design it )
- Privateer. A command to create your own pirate base in the enemy space. You know the function.
- Give the modder capability to create a race with special government at the start of the game
- escort command : Well, in battlefield, I want my destroyer to protect my other ships. Maybe it has been implemented but I don't know.
- better and more user friendly interface.



Wade1000 -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/11/2010 5:47:53 AM)

Todays tall buildings and other technologies would seem silly or impossible to many people of the far past. I think technology will continue to progress exponentially ionto our far future to advances that we can't even imagine. We can imagine alot right now.

In 'The Culture' series novels Orbitals(huge rings that orbit stars) are the most common habitat for The Culture. Ringworlds and Sphere worlds are spread here and there. Even planets are barely populated. Planets are treated as nature preserves with scientific study or backwoods type colonies with small populations.

The Culture passes on terraforming every little ball around because forming their own Orbital and Ringworlds and Sphereworlds is possible and provides HUGE amounts of custom tailored land. Maybe much like today we can choose to build upwards instead of spreading across flat land taking up all nature and agriculture.



Gertjan -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/11/2010 9:59:28 AM)

Interesting thoughts Wade.



2guncohen -> RE: Addon Discussion (8/11/2010 3:16:24 PM)

1.More moddability. [8D]



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