FreeOrion

Here's a typical terran-like (Gyisache) list of environments in v0.3.15 (from the species.txt file):


I discovered by trial and error that colony ships can only colonize a Terran type planet, rated as Good. However, the parameters Adequate and Poor imply that terraforming is possible (to enable colonization), though I haven't yet found how to do this. Is it possible in the current version?

(Added) I just found Terraforming and Remote Terraforming under Research -> Growth, so I guess that's how to do it. Will Remote Terraforming enable colonization then?

If you research Habitation Domes, you will be able to make outposts on uninhabitable worlds, which will allow you to use Remote Terraforming. Other techs in the Growth category allow you to directly colonize less habitable planets.

_________________
Warning: Antarans in dimensional portal are closer than they appear.

Thanks Bigjoe5. Looks like I have a lot of researching to do.

I colonised a terran world when playing the Hhhoh (who like tundra).

I had habitation spheres technology and terraforming. In the production menu I could see terraforming as a building, but I couldn't build it. I tried selecting the terran planet, but no luck. I had built other buildings and ships in other systems. I can build a shipyard on the terran planet but not terraforming. Also the target population on the planet was 0.10, but the actual population was stable at 1.00.

'Buildings' such as terraforming are a strange idea. I think they should have a different name, such as 'projects'. If terraforming was built would it be a permanent change to the planet or would it be a building that needs maintaining? Maybe two technologies are possible here, with the permanent change being more advanced.

Oh yeah, I forgot all about that. I made the terraforming building when the only two species were Trith and Gyisache, with individual effects groups for each species so that the planet would be terraformed in the right direction. Since eleazar added more species, Terraforming won't work on the new species. The current effects system doesn't make it very easy to make terraforming work properly for lots of different species with different EPs.


The "building" actually disappears the turn after it is built and the planet stays at the new environment until something else changes it.

_________________
Warning: Antarans in dimensional portal are closer than they appear.

I agree that "building" often is a poorly fitting word. I tend to want to replace "building" with "project" in all instances, though "project" is sorta a vauge word.


Sorry about that. The endless cycle of building and breaking...

_________________
—• Read this First before posting Game Design Ideas!
—• Design Philosophy
—•— My Ideas, Organized —•— Get an Avatar —•— Acronyms —•—

Ok Bigjoe5, should I play Trith and Gyisache when testing the game or is it only terraforming which is affected?

I would like to see Ships, Buildings & Projects as three different areas - if that is possible.

Also the buildings which effect the way the empire does things rather than being a physical building shouldn't be a building on a planet - for many reasons (including that in combat how could you destroy that kind of thing)

There should be somewhere where things are recorded - like basic autolabs, exobots etc. and maybe agreements with other empires which makes it clear that you have these advantages, but they are not a building on one of your colonies.

Also, I just started another game with Humans, then changed my mind and started again with Trith. The systems I started in were identical - except my home planet is now radiated rather than terran. I was under the impression that the galaxy was random - I did leave all the settings the same, but I expected from reading about v0.1, v0.2 and v0.3 roadmap documents that the types of planets were generated in each slot by random 1-100 number genaerations.

Universe generation is "random" in the sense that practically unpredictable number sequences are used to decide what goes where, but the sequence of random numbers is always the same, so the same universe generation settings will always produce the same universe. This is intentional, as it makes testing much easier. If you want a different universe, add or remove a star.

An intangible, non-localized thing like that is already covered by researching a technology.


In addition to what Geoff said, your homeword will always be idea for your starting species.

_________________
—• Read this First before posting Game Design Ideas!
—• Design Philosophy
—•— My Ideas, Organized —•— Get an Avatar —•— Acronyms —•—

Currently (as of 3.16) Terraforming works for 1 species, the Trith.
(It also 'works' for the Gyisache but will result in Terran Worlds, not their EP, Swamp Worlds)
I intend to try to fix this but I would appreciate if someone could check my logic:

Species
EP (Terraform Logic)
--------------
SP_HUMAN
Terran (if [Desert Tundra Barren Radiated] +1, if [Swamp] > [Ocean], if [Ocean Toxic Inferno] -1)

SP_SCYLIOR
Ocean (if [Terran Desert Tundra Barren] +1, if [Swamp] > [Ocean], if [Toxic Inferno Radiated] -1)

SP_GYISACHE
Swamp (if [Terran Desert Tundra] +1, if [Ocean] > [Swamp], if [Barren Radiated Inferno Toxic] -1)

SP_CHATO
Toxic (if [Swamp Terran Desert] +1, if [Ocean] > [Swamp], if [Inferno Radiated Barren Tundra] -1)

SP_EGASSEM
Inferno (if [Toxic Swamp Terran] +1, if [Ocean] > [Swamp], if [Radiated Barren Tundra Desert] -1)

SP_TRITH
Radiated (if [Inferno Toxic Swamp] +1, if [Barren Tundra Desert Terran] -1, if [Ocean] > [Swamp]

SP_CRAY
Barren (if [Radiated Inferno Toxic Swamp] +1, if [Tundra Desert Terran Ocean] -1)

SP_HHHOH
Tundra (if [Barren Radiated Inferno Toxic] +1, if [Swamp] > [Ocean], if [Ocean Terran Desert] -1)

SP_EAXAW
Desert (if [Tundra Barren Radiated Inferno] +1, if [Swamp] > [Ocean], if [Terran Ocean Toxic] -1)

I'm not entirely sure the cut off for the world types is swamp/ocean or the direction it goes in, I tried to work it out from the existing terraform logic but might've got it wrong

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking.
The wheel looks like this:


And planet suitability is supposed to follow this pattern for all species. The difference being which planet "Good" falls on.


I don't know if it is possible at this point, but hopefully we can get something working that knows how to move towards a species EP without treating it as a unique problem for each species.

_________________
—• Read this First before posting Game Design Ideas!
—• Design Philosophy
—•— My Ideas, Organized —•— Get an Avatar —•— Acronyms —•—

A function could be written to return the next better environment given a species and a starting environment.

Issues with this might arise if there could be species for which the environment qualities don't follow the current standard pattern, as you might get a "local maximum" where moving one step would make things worse, but two or more steps would make things better.

Anyway, if that's acceptable or not an issue due to species design, then there could be an effect that changes a planet's environment one steps towards the (nearest?) most-preferred environment for a particular species.

We rotate this chart so the favoured planet is on top:

We number the planets like so:

Edit - This picture doesn't seem to display, but it is simply nine circles with numbers on - using the code section below you can work out the numbers.

The preferences section in species.txt for each species is written as below (for example, terran-prefering Gyisache):



When terraforming, the planetcode is looked up. e.g. a tundra planet returns 5
Two is added to this number. e.g. 5+2=7
The new number is looked up a the same list (where 9+ gives terran). e.g. 7 returns desert
The planet type is changed. e.g. changed to desert

The environmental preferences for all species can be(sorry I can't remember how to program):


If the second code section is adjusted there can be species which are more or less tolerant of environments different to their prefered. e.g if planetcode 1-8 sets environment to Hostile or even Uninhabitable then the species in question would only be able to live on their own prefered world type - but they could still terraform in the normal way.

I'm not at all a coder, but some thoughts:

* many/most species will probably have one of the 9 standard EPs.
* we may want flexibility to do other things on occasion.
* it would be nice if the planet types were less hard-coded, or at least avoiding making it more hard-coded

So perhaps define EP_STANDARD_TERRAN and so forth for each of the 9 standard EP in a separate file from the species. This would include information on which planets are "poor," "adequate", etc. and also which steps to take to terraform.

So unless we wanted to do something special and species specific, we could simply reference "EP_STANDARD_TERRAN" in the human species definition. Thus we get less duplication and fewer chanced for error.

_________________
—• Read this First before posting Game Design Ideas!
—• Design Philosophy
—•— My Ideas, Organized —•— Get an Avatar —•— Acronyms —•—

Having planet types, planet sizes, and star types defined in a text file instead of hard-coded is possible but would be a big job that I'm not keen on tackling in the short-term. I might get inspired to do it at some point, though.


The section of the species definition about environmental preferences is quite concise and self-contained; I don't think it's worth the effort to add a separate set of symbols and definitions just for that...