Terraform Exobot colonies

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EricF
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Terraform Exobot colonies

#1 Post by EricF »

FreeOrion_2016-08-02.0cab326_Test_Win32_Setup.exe

Another feature I would like to see is the ability to Terraform planets with Exobot colonies so that I could build a colony there with a different species. Once the new colony is built the Exobot population could be sent to another Exobot colony or turned into Infrastructure if no other Exobot colony exists.

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MatGB
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#2 Post by MatGB »

You can terraform a colony with exobots, but it'll move the environment type towards an exobot preferred type.

At some point I'd like to come up with some form of remote terraforming but that was removed from the game before as it didn't work properly. But it's a lower priority at the moment.
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EricF
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#3 Post by EricF »

Sorry I wasn't clear. What I would like is to colonize a Hostile planet with Exobots(would be adequate for them) and then have the Exobots Terraform it towards a planet type that is not Hostile to my species. I could then Evacuate the planet of the Exobots(or they die off) and then build a normal colony there. So instead of having a large Exobot population the Exobots just prep the planet for colonization with another species.

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MatGB
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#4 Post by MatGB »

This is actually a relatively good idea, not sure how it can be scripted or how it would be best scripted but it would actually work.

Needs some working through but would be a cool mechanic and the current Evacuation mechanic could be combined with it once done. Think you'd need to create new specialist exobot species for it to work with the current mechanics, but different buildings could be created to work with it.

Any scripters fancy taking this on and expanding it into something workable?
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AndrewW
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#5 Post by AndrewW »

Alternately the ability to terraform an outpost into whatever planet type you desire.

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Vezzra
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#6 Post by Vezzra »

It's actually quite simple: the current terraforming buildings determine the target environment by the current species of the colony. If you want to "manually" determine the target environment, we need to script different buildings, one for each possible environment (and name them accordingly, a "Terraformer" would be the building that changed the environment to "terran", for "ocean" it would be the "Oceanformer", "inferno" could be "Infernator" etcpepe ;)).

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MatGB
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#7 Post by MatGB »

Vezzra wrote:It's actually quite simple: the current terraforming buildings determine the target environment by the current species of the colony. If you want to "manually" determine the target environment, we need to script different buildings, one for each possible environment (and name them accordingly, a "Terraformer" would be the building that changed the environment to "terran", for "ocean" it would be the "Oceanformer", "inferno" could be "Infernator" etcpepe ;)).
All true, then we could completely dump the "remote" idea and allow them to be built on outposts. They'd still need the current cost modifiers though.
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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#8 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Vezzra wrote:...a "Terraformer" would be the building that changed the environment to "terran", for "ocean" it would be the "Oceanformer", "inferno" could be "Infernator" etcpepe ;)
It should also be possible to script buildings that terraform "clockwise" and "counter clockwise".

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Bromstarzan
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#9 Post by Bromstarzan »

This thought occurred to me as well. In fact, I was not sure if it could be done or not with the current state of FO. This answers my question.
It would indeed be an interesting feature. I was also experimenting with the thought of having colonies of combined species utilizing the sum of talent they make (too complex to handle the mechanics, I guess). In order to combine 2 (or more) species one must research certain diplomatic/cultural levels :mrgreen:
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Sloth
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#10 Post by Sloth »

Geoff the Medio wrote:It should also be possible to script buildings that terraform "clockwise" and "counter clockwise".
That would be the solution with the least clutter. As for the images...
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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#11 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Bromstarzan wrote:I was also experimenting with the thought of having colonies of combined species [...] In order to combine 2 (or more) species one must research certain diplomatic/cultural levels :mrgreen:
Having only one species per planet was a basic / very early design decision, to avoid a lot of potential complexity with relatively little strategic gameplay benefit, based on experiences playing MoO3.

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#12 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Sloth wrote:
Geoff the Medio wrote:It should also be possible to script buildings that terraform "clockwise" and "counter clockwise".
That would be the solution with the least clutter. As for the images...
Suitably detailed tooltip descriptions and pedia descriptions would be needed.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#13 Post by Bromstarzan »

Geoff the Medio wrote:Having only one species per planet was a basic / very early design decision, to avoid a lot of potential complexity with relatively little strategic gameplay benefit, based on experiences playing MoO3.
I understand this comletely. Seems like a wise decision.
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Vezzra
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#14 Post by Vezzra »

Sloth wrote:
Geoff the Medio wrote:It should also be possible to script buildings that terraform "clockwise" and "counter clockwise".
That would be the solution with the least clutter.
I'm a bit torn. True, you'd need less buildings, but the required explanation about how those buildings work and are supposed to be used, and reasonable fluff/lore explanations that don't sound too silly will probably be more difficult than when we just have one building for each environment. Another issue with the clockwise/counter-clockwise terraformers will be when do they stop? Either we stick with the current approach that each building just performs one step and then removes itself, so that the player has to queue one building for each step (a bit clunky IMO). Or the building has to generate a proper sitrep each time the planet gets terraformed one step, so the player can go in and scrap the terraformer once the planet reaches the desired environment.

Issues we can avoid at the cost of having just a few more buildings (I mean, it's not that we have dozens of environments). Which is not that much clutter IMO, so I'm not so sure if the clockwise/counter-clockwise terraformers approach is the better one. The explanation how to use the terraformers and the lore/fluff texts will be simpler/clearer/more straightforward, and to terraform a planet the player just has to select the building for the desired target environment, done. Building cost and time can be made dependent on distance to the current environment, so the current mechanic (that the "farther away" a planets environment is from the desired one, the longer it takes and the more expensive the terraforming will be) will be preserved.

Of course that's probably also a matter of personal taste/preference, at least to a certain degree.

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MatGB
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Re: Terraform Exobot colonies

#15 Post by MatGB »

In terms of production queue clutter (which, pending a way to sort/filter it better can be a problem), you could do it with two buildings, say a "enviroforming project" which does the main bulk of the work and then a terraform/waterform/enswampifyer series of buildings that can only be built if the is a project built or enqueued. Using the enqueue requirements for shipyards has worked rather well, expanding the use is fine, and if each building complements the other it would be an easy UI.
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