You would need to create a custom race in XML (as a mod, as opposed to in-game) in order to the use the InternalName tag. I might try this over the weekend, because i already have a flavortext mod written, but until now unusable.
[quote who="mrblondini" reply="51" id="3609519"] Why spend time coding things so the Godlike level is incredibly brilliant when you're impressing 0.25% (say, I honestly don't know the numbers) of your customer base? Okay, that might be the noisiest (in forum posting terms) part of your base but in basic money terms, it's not where it's at. [/quote] Yes, there is some reason to try to appease the power players: They are also the flag-bearers for the game. They
[quote who="Frogboy" reply="42" id="3609289"] I'm pretty unhappy with Nas right now as I made clear in the other thread. [/quote] For what it's worth, Naselus has put a tremendous amount of modding work into the game. I don't always agree with him either, but since his knowledge of the internal guts is better than (apparently) even some of the dev team, his opinion carries much more weight than some drive-by Debbie Downer.
I'm also in support of the population system or "buildings are production" econ model. Much less gamey.
I'm perfectly happy with push-button planetary captures. Push-button ship combat, too.
Space itself should be a huge obstacle on large maps. It's "Insane" for a reason. Otherwise it would be called "Just like Tiny, but with lots more planets".
Based on my poor recollection, the basic way the file is laid out is this: Each diplomatic action has a set of flavor texts. Each flavor text entry can have a combination of situational qualifiers, such as "speaker more powerful", or "friendly with listener". Each situation-specific action can be further subdivided by identifying the speaker or listener in particular. So you can say, "when speaking with Drengin and the Drengin are more powerful, say this". However, thi
Same thought. It's effectively the same system as GC2, so it makes sense to use the same UI. Just click on the box you want to focus, click again to unfocus.
Update: It would appear that the 1.5 update adds support for modding the FlavorText.xml file. We can finally give our custom races some personality. * NOT TESTED YET * I would be interested in hearing from anyone how it works.
Also note that "flavor text" is exactly that. It carries no function. All flavor text must hang on existing diplomatic options. Adding additional diplomatic functionality must be done on the developer's end.
The flavor text file isn't currently moddable, as such. It does not support extending by adding additional files. This has been requested in the past but i don't think it has been added. The only way to change it is to overwrite the original file entirely. This could be done, but it can't support any custom races. When you do make a custom race, it falls back to "generic" flavor text. There is actually quite a bit of code in there to spice it up if you choose one o
I never liked wormholes anyway.
What if diplomacy was improved by simply doing diplomatic things? (trade, gifts, etc). Kind of like an experience system. This way, xenophobic knuckleheads lag behind, while gregarious hobnobbers gain more "experience" which they can leverage later in the game.
It's like ripping off a band-aid, guys. It needs to be done, there's going to be some pain involved, but 6 months from now no one will remember or care. If there had never been a wheel to begin with, nobody would be saying anything right now.
I see that as being completely unnecessary. The map size is the general indicator of game length - probably the one thing you need to know before going in. If that's truly "kept you back" from playing, try rolling dice as a substitute.
Basic on-the-fly AI ship design can't possibly be that difficult. When I build ships, i basically just do this: Add engines until it goes reasonably fast (mostly determined by galaxy size and shape). Add basic defenses on smaller ships, heavy defenses on larger ships Add life support until i have the range i need (short range for defense, long range if at war or hoping to become at war). Stack on my favorite weapon until i'm out of
"Sun" is generic term, but sometimes used as a proper noun. "Sol" is not a generic term however (At least not in English). You can call Betelgeuse "a sun" but not "a Sol" (again, in English). So i would lean towards "Sol" as being the name of our sun. That said, there is surprisingly no generally accepted proper name for the sun. The sun is the only major body left in our solar system without a proper name. There should be a naming contest like they did with Pluto.
#5 - There is a "reduced nebulae" mod available on the forums for dimmer or zero background nebulae. (also makes it easier for a variety of faction and ship colors to show on the map [like forest green])
[quote who="peter86262" reply="91" id="3586056"]it's an unsatisfying feeling concreting over wild grain tiles with your factories. [/quote] Stray thought: what if leaving tiles open gave some kind of morale boost (or filling them all up gave a penulty)?
Will the Scavenge ability by selectable in the non-DLC base game?
deleted - misread
Thanks for these. Small criticism: the use of textures can make them muddy looking when they are small on the screen. Similarly, having most of them inside of a circle shape makes them hard to differentiate if you have dozens of factions at once. The more distinctive shapes of the most recent set are much easier to distinguish.
[quote who="Yeller123" reply="49" id="3588080"] So far my hundred dollars has gotten me 152 hours of entertainment and I'm still enjoying the game. [/quote] That's how i look at it, too. People spend $20 for an IMAX movie which is over in 2 hours, then absolutely freak out over $5 DLC. If you bought the game at $50 like most people and got 5+ hours of enjoyment out of it, you're doing great (at IMAX movie rates, at least).
Ideally, the "die-off" mechanism should be proportional to the amount over popmax your current population is. If you land 100 pop in one turn, most of them should die on the next turn, then a few less the next turn, and so on. Something like "50% of the excessive population dies off each turn, minimum of 0.2" would help to get around the exploit.
[quote who="CEOMorgan" reply="10" id="3587360"] I also sort of imagine there could be a governors system, where you can just set a focus and the governor upgrades as it sees fit. An ecoomic starbase could prioritize factory improvements over research ones, for example. [/quote] Interestingly, GC2 already did that. You could set the base on auto-upgrade with a priority list. It just hasn't made it's way into the GC3 UI.