Re: Expanding the Playable species mix
Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 6:18 pm
Yup, but if it's in the popup brief description you get on the start game page it'll be clearer.
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Please don't look for any significant adjustments from the AI team for new species for quite a while. Perhaps we should add an optional "ManualSelectionOnly" field to the species specification, so that any species designated as ManualSelectionOnly would be valid for manual selection in the galaxy setup window, but would not be used for random species selections for any players (whether human or AI)? I would much rather volunteer to code up the parsing and logic for that than take on trying to make the AI competent with a bunch of weird species right now.NB: I'd like to try to do this in part as we finish off the current release cycle, so no new species or mechanics that would need serious work from the AI team as they need space to catch up with other projects.
Fully aware, the phrasing should be "that doesn't need any work from the AI team", so no weird extra mechanics: I was slightly worried about the Abaddoni getting a free tech unlock but that's not a problem.Dilvish wrote:Please don't look for any significant adjustments from the AI team for new species for quite a while. Perhaps we should add an optional "ManualSelectionOnly" field to the species specification, so that any species designated as ManualSelectionOnly would be valid for manual selection in the galaxy setup window, but would not be used for random species selections for any players (whether human or AI)? I would much rather volunteer to code up the parsing and logic for that than take on trying to make the AI competent with a bunch of weird species right now.NB: I'd like to try to do this in part as we finish off the current release cycle, so no new species or mechanics that would need serious work from the AI team as they need space to catch up with other projects.
I think we've been making some good progress recently with AI movement and invasion logic, and Morlic just did a refactoring of our Military AI to help us more readily make further progress with invasion and general military logic, and I think we really need to keep focusing on that for a fair while.
Sounds like a good idea.Dilvish wrote:Perhaps we should add an optional "ManualSelectionOnly" field to the species specification, so that any species designated as ManualSelectionOnly would be valid for manual selection in the galaxy setup window, but would not be used for random species selections for any players (whether human or AI)?
Thanks for this suggestion, I've finally got back to this and put an edited version of your original text in the updated PR, it works quite well.Krikkitone wrote:For Radons... I have an old species idea that could fit with them
Replicons.... self-replicating robots (origin lost to history..killed off or forgotten by creators)
poor science, backward society (they do high tech stuff in a very low tech way)
high population growth.. high industry would fit with that too.
I do actually have a few reservations about this idea. Several of the player species are getting love that makes them more unique and distinctive, and I too would rather see them be more interesting. But I also like the idea of more options and wouldn't mind having the threshold in the number of enemy empires there are before the starting species repeat is raised. I have more misgivings about cannibalizing the current native species roister for them, without filling it up more first, as there have been some "gaps" for a while now in that area.alleryn wrote:Don't mean to grind anyone's gears, 'speciallly as i'm new around here, but i'd like to chime in on some points in this topic (mostly in opposition to moving in MatGB's proposed direction at this time).
1. Increasing the number of playable species.
I don't like this idea right now. I like what you said about increasing the number of interesting playstyles, but as you point out, the AI isn't really ready for that, so it may not be feasible right now, unless we manage to insert the proposed "manual-only" tag or something similar to avoid the AI getting stuck on a faction it doesn't have the logic to use.
The new added races don't add diversity to the current cast. The "Replicons" really are just that, a replicate of the George, just slightly inferior. There are already several species that feel this way. Multiple species are basically "+200% research" and a couple other indistinct traits. As mentioned, the Abaddoni are extremely underpowered. Large HW and a 24(?)-point tech, ntm the defensive troop malus, in exchange for George's +supply, telepathic and +150% industry?
I'd rather see a small cast of interestingly different species than a larger cast of what are essentially clones of one another.
My two cents on this:alleryn wrote:2. Environmnetal preference balance
I'd also like to disagree with the sentiment that the playable races should be equally spread across the spectrum of possible environmentlal preferences.
I think the assymetry provided by having more species fighting over, say, the terran-side of the wheel can add some advantage to the races with 'more unique' proclivities.
If you're the only species that like barren worlds, that could give you an inherent advantage in the colonisation race. This can create more of a distinction between the various planetary environments, instead of them all being basically the same, just some symmetric group rotation away.
The only thing that really separates them right now other than that is how useful Exobots are.
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Well, thanks for reading. That's my input for now.