VERSION 2.0 RELEASED! Star Trek The Picard Era mod for DW:Universe

[ehsumrell1]

Hello maxo;

Thanks for your kind compliment!

Sorry to hear about your issue. This is the first time I've ever heard of this problem. From
what it seems though, you most probably have a corrupted install or update. For as far as the
Picard Era mods are concerned, both during testing, and until this day, I've many times had
my head handed to me by quite a few factions, especially the Borg.

My current suggestion is this, reinstall your Distant Worlds Universe game, update to the
latest Universe version 1.9.5.12, then start a new custom game as you described and let me
know what happens. The mod works as long as the game works. Unless you set the global
colonization slider to zero, the other races should colonize. I do note that you said you
set the expansion level to starting. If you set the tech to Prewarp then the expansion level
needs to be Prewarp as well so that the Warp Bubble Generator can be researched and built by
the AI so they can leave their system. As I dwell on it, this is most likely the reason the
AI doesn't expand. Post back if you can't decipher the issue.

[Twigster]

ehsumrell1!

Sorry I am so behind the times on this-I was unaware- but my condolences also and I hope things are getting on as well as they can.

Regards,

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: Twigster

ehsumrell1!

Sorry I am so behind the times on this-I was unaware- but my condolences also and I hope things are getting on as well as they can.

Regards,

Thanks Twigster, your words are greatly appreciated. Real life occurrences have set my
time scheduled back by quite a bit, but I'm striving on. Again, thanks!
[:)]

[MikePN]

Thank you ehsumrell for the proper link, there are some 'deadzones' in this matrix. [:D]

Very interesting mod and reads on where you pointed me to, thanks much.

I appreciate the work you and the team put in making this mod.

I have one last thing to say, honestly. This is that, The Star Trek team mods are modgods! [&o]

Without your mod, offered free, nothing even comes close to realistic Trek experience.

Have a happy thanksgiving to all those in lands and with a mindset to observe it.

EDIT: Somehow, despite being newb, I got my hands on the older version with 22 races, the Nausicaans make the newer one a must have, Defaulted my theme, and going now to download this version. I hope all goes smooth!

REEDIT: Went smooth, playing Federation on a random map. My explorers found a Cardassian Colony ship adrift, and we saved the Cardy's in stasis. Seems we'll be a Federation Cardassian Alliance people. [:D]
Pretty cool, got plebs for my desert worlds at least now..without the techs. We found and are moving back into Sol.

One dumb crew released the crystalline entity, then Benjamin Sisko rose up to lead the fleet against it.

[ehsumrell1]

Again, thanks for the kind words and compliments on our work MikePN. I'm
also glad you read and understand our position and reasoning of how and why
we developed the Picard Era mods the way we did.

I'm assured that you will appreciate the additional races in Version 2.0 and
the subtle changes and additions from Version 1.0. Have a ball!

I'm trying to make time to complete both Version 2.5 of the Picard Era mod and
finalize the work the Trek Team has done on the Kirk Era before we have to switch
over to full bore work on DW2 near years end. If things go well, those will be
enjoyable works as well!
[:)]

[MikePN]

DW2? [X(] Clearly I don't follow the latest and greatest in gaming, but I might stick with DW1 until all the initial bugs of 2 are remedied, most games release with some of those still in then fix them with updates. Keep us notified on your stellar work!

P.S. I could copy and paste a new mod of your mod in my files to strike out my hand at modding my personal game, yes? I would not post any thing I develop from it. Though who knows, maybe I'll just manage to make my dream mod, and if not your mod remains untouched and in tact. (Even though it won't be posted online anywhere, I do wish to seek your permission before even trying to mod the mod to something more my flare.)

[ehsumrell1]

Of course MikePN, you can do as you wish with the mod on your personal end. Be fully
aware though that due to the intricate interactions of the different files that you
may get corruption errors if you don't decipher and understand the data flow. Our
permissions of use and author credits given us apply only to the mod(s) we originally
published that were derived from these Matrix Forums.

As far as DW2, I'm certain that Elliot's new creation will be built with a new engine
and all of the previous additions, issues and concerns from DW1 will be addressed. So
don't be concerned. Elliot has a competent test team at his disposal that he will use
to the fullest. I'm anxious to see what he has drafted!

[MikePN]

The mods so great, and I so lack skills I went with merely bringing some of the extra ships to fam0 and moved extra fam0 ships back into extras folder. Took care to rename accordingly, and Intrepid Class destroyers aside the Galaxies and Sovereigns look .. well intrepid. Though they do perform rather weak(par on course for a destroyer). Hmm, pretty unique to have vector scouts as well. With the increased threat of the Borg and Dominion turning our needs to war, Starfleet has reequipped all shuttles with intent for bombing missions..

One question has come up though. It seems, the Federation entirely overlooks the Troop Transports in the game, a very viable and VITAL part of DW gameplay. It seems, the AI will upgrade appropriately, but I have to manually create that first 'prototype'. EVERY GAME. A few of the earlier start ups, they did that with Carriers and Resupply as well, but lately the AIs entirely handled both of those. In fact, since I changed the ship images around a bit, the AI's even acted better.

I would love to see what the AI would build on its first TTrans to see if my build idea on it matches up.. no-lt wpns, high counts of armor and shields, and, mainly, how many transport modules and accordingly so, life support and hab to support them all.

I may move galaxy into a resupply ship role or passenger xport (still highly armed mind you, a cruiser resupply or passenger ship), bump up intrepid and bring the excelsior design back into destroyer.. -shrug- Would dread to see anyone attack either of those thinking its easy prey, the resupply seems it would get more use. Would be nice to give the private sector some firepower to use though.
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Private Convoy: "Strike Force Three, we're moving this valuable cargo, but we see you're in quite the dogfight there. We're going to flank your opposition and waylay them!"

Strike Force Three: "With what? Suicide crashing of ships?"

Private Convoy: "No, you'll see, and so would they!"

Strike Force Three: "Okay? Umm, we'll draw their fire and seek to give you adequate cover."
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[ehsumrell1]

Hello MikePN;
Just FYI, I decided to leave out the Troop Transport design values for the Federation for
a couple of reasons. First, a majority of players we felt would initially be playing as
Humans/Federation. Thus, since the games logic considers any 'armed' ship as a combat vessel
during an invasion, any planetary defenses (i.e. Ion Cannon) and orbiting starbases or
defense bases will fire upon it. In our mods the Klingons, Borg, and a few other races, have
armed troop transports, which of course affects the strength and balance of those races in our mods. We've left the choice up to the play whether to arm or not by forcing the player
to create their own design accordingly.
[:)]

[MikePN]

Ahh, that's why every game I must design the "prototype" troop transport.

Of all the reasons someone could explain, tis the best.

In cannon, Feds use more science and exploration as it is lol (though as said, im not after total canon here either)

Not all that known for their soldiers like the Klingons, Dominion, Remans, Cardies, Hirogen and the others.
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Speaking of Hirogen, I got them down to one planet easy enough, but they just decimated a almost 2 to 1 troop advantage invasion in my favor.

Time to bring 5 transports to the existing blockade, need more than 2!

Not sure but I think that they're on a cycle that ramps up their aggression right now. xD This will be fun!

[MikePN]

I have tons of transport modules on my troop transports, so much so that the "emergency fuel" speed was 0 at a point. I managed to get it up to 1 by sacrificing some troop carry ability, any tip on increasing emergency fuel speed without dropping any more "efficiency" on bringing the troops to the battlezone?

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: MikePN

Speaking of Hirogen, I got them down to one planet easy enough, but they just decimated a almost 2 to 1 troop advantage invasion in my favor.

Time to bring 5 transports to the existing blockade, need more than 2!

Not sure but I think that they're on a cycle that ramps up their aggression right now. xD This will be fun!

You just probably tried to invade when they had just finished preparing for their "Annual Great Hunt".
If you remember, they're fearless! They one on one battle a Species 8472 soldier without a thought!

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: MikePN

I have tons of transport modules on my troop transports, so much so that the "emergency fuel" speed was 0 at a point. I managed to get it up to 1 by sacrificing some troop carry ability, any tip on increasing emergency fuel speed without dropping any more "efficiency" on bringing the troops to the battlezone?

Add more reactors to your Troop Transport design to bring the speed up.

[MikePN]

Thank you! My initial messages I was a total new player to DW.. I'm starting to get the idea of it now. Didn't realize that one yet. Reactors = Speed Okay, five more of those and then stack on more troop modules yet, try to manage a balance of 3 "emergency speed" which should triple the pace of the invasion side of the game. So far all else is going great, almost got a quarter of the map. This due to a quick colonization start that ramped up production throughout the Federation. Once I hit victory, will try the Klingons, then the Romulans, then the Cardies, then the Andors (who I originally didn't favor) then one of my other favs, the Remans.
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If I were to eventually use one of the none expanding empires, IE the Bynar.. I myself couldn't expand past where I start at? Which basically means in order to win I'd actually have to kill off everyone else with bombardment? (I do not use the race specific victory conditions.) Or would I be able to take over neutral colonies by invasion, then treat that as a "second home system" once I have a population there?

[ehsumrell1]

Yes MikePN, you can still invade and conquer. Also, you can discover those
occasional neutral colony ships found in stasis and colonize with them.
[:)]

[MikePN]

Thanks again for your help.

[MikePN]

So, I made it that I could use the ships in the original game. [;)]

Though soon, I realized I couldn't go back to DWU (almost) vanilla. Why? The characters.

I'm hook'd more than I had thought I believed myself to be. [&o]

[ehsumrell1]

Pleased to hear you're enjoying our work MikePN!

Now go kick some Borg butt!

[MikePN]

LOL, ironically, they were the big rival in my first game I never got to finish. Pausing to add a few new federation ships.. (I just love the nova and replacing one of the galaxies as an ambassador for more variance) then time for game 2!

Maybe i should leave victory conditions lower instead of jack it up to 80% lol.

[MikePN]

Hmm, Resupply ships have a 'deploy' mode (30 second set up if I read right) I just can not seem to grasp. Is it maybe some click option in the ship info panel when you have it selected? A keyboard 'shortcut' keystroke to get them into, and out of, 'basemode'? Refueling just outside, or even inside the solar system of a planet I'm about to invade would significantly encourage my seemingly skittish, but packed troop transports into the action somewhat quicker I believe.

Most military ships seem to adore visiting my enemies systems, were fuel is more scarce. They make do, but with the transports, it seems, they love to 'hug' and almost patrol my gas mining stations. It seems, a 'tactic' that a deployed resupply ship could possibly alleviate when close enough to a blockaded planet I want the transports to hit. Maybe even deploy 2-3 along a path leading to the planet and watch the transports leap from resupply-deploy to resupply-deploy before finally making planetfall..(hopefully)!

Before aborting that first game, there was like 80 troop carriers, 1/4th of them with 1300 soldiers full up and I sent all 20 to the Hirogen holdout planet. 5 years later (timed by espionage research steal missions of a years duration, as well as the Hirogen return to their normal message) only three ever showed up, and one of those tried to turn around and head home for a refuel! Frustrating! Yet still having fun with the mod overall. If I can figure these two things out, and it seems like one would answer the other, tis all 'silver'.

Only minor squabbles then! (I seek to make a more militant Federation by lightly arming scouts and giving constructors self defense platforms to let them hold out til the war fleets arrive.) Basically this means find a way that I do manual prototypes, yet the ships auto retrofit once I make the 'NX'.

Oh, and the silly names. I want my escorts, frigates, and destroyers named too! One simple solution would be to make everything a cruiser or capital ship design being mindful of ship size to keep the Akira's smallest, perhaps do a "duel destroyer prototype" and make the Prometheus about the same size as the Intrepid (sister ships?) then of course the general capital ship (Sovereign) and cruiser (Galaxy).

Got my Novas and Ambassadors and Mirandas repping right with a transparent background! Miranda makes for a beautiful passenger liner. To me the Galaxies might make a better resupply because they're just huge, and Ambassador is about the right size of a cruiser, though on a personal level, I rather see the Galaxies crumble defensive lines with support rended from those domineering Sovereigns!

Would you like to see my three ships in game screenshots? Mirandas saucer has a little hole in the middle (its center light was the same color as the original background, the prog i used made all that color transparent). As a passenger liner, it could be designed like that for the luxury of looking out the windows in a mid saucer cafe as the ship speeds along at high warp. Ambassadors initially had the same problem, but I salvaged the saucer by dumping green on the outside of the ship so it no longer was the same color as the center light, then made the green transparent. Nova? My pride and joy work went into her, I love the little vessels look so much but she gave me a greater deal of difficulty to get working right, I can't even explain the hardship but it was a labor of love.