The Modder's Masterlist

[Shark7]

VERY IMPORTANT for the next update:

I just tried to add in a new race...keep getting an out of range exception when I try to add additional race pictures, as opposed to replacing. If we can add more than 22 races, we definately need the ability to add more than 22 race images.

[Kushan04]

Some things I'd like to see:

- Add/remove/modify components
- Add/remove/modify the tech tree.
- Set custom ship names for more then just the player's race
- Set racial friendliness on a per race basis. For example Humans always dislike the Quameno but always like the teekan.
- Add/remove/modify governments
- Edit government bonuses
- Modify the galactic history and add custom events and story elements

Kushan

[Igard]

Appended section 1c. Additional race stats.

Toughness: Currently we can only adjust troop strength by changing aggression and intelligence. This makes sense in human terms, but an alien race could have many different characteristics which would enhance it's fighting ability.

It may be brute strength, bloodlust, a durable physique or it may even mean that the race has innate strategic skills. The Zackdorn in Star Trek for example don't necessarily have great technology, but they have a penchant for strategy and logistics which make them formidable on the battlefield.

[Igard]

Added section 4d. Include a carrier image and ship role for each shipset.

Suggested by Setekh on the master wishlist.

[GeorgiaBoy]

Just bought the game and the expansion...First time poster, longtime lurker with some modding questions...

I was wondering if any/all of these features are planned for future patches/expansion(s). I will place them in the modder's wishlist format:

Leaders like MoO2/3.

1c: Additional race stats


Ability to fine tune your race with racial picks a la MoO2/MoO3 at the beginning of the game (and during the game with ruins findings or tech breakthroughs).

Modifiers to:

A flag if the race is organic or not. The can determine if the race eats and can be eaten...
Organics Production (Food)
Economy--Increases/Reduces corruption, increases tax efficientcy.
Industry--Increases/Decreases Production speed relative to the average race.
Atmosphere Type--Oxygen/Nitrogen, Methane, Carbon Dioxide, Acidic, Radiated, Hydrogen, Ammonia, Sulfur Dioxide, Reducing (greenhouse), etc. Maybe that is too detailed...

A racial pick to be a member of the Galactic Senate would be nice...picking from a menu of laws to bring up for consideration.


Starting Homeworld--More/Less minerals, larger/smaller size, good ruins found immediately on home planet.
Creative/Uncreative--Increases/Decreases chance research is completed early (or late for low creativity).
Subterranean--Doubles occupiable space on a given planet.
Charismatic/Repulsive--Effects only organic races. Better relations trade is easier, negociating treaties is easier.
Telepathic--Effects only organic races. Espionage, Diplomacy is easier. Pacification of conquered population is easier.
Omniscient--See the entire (or just 1/4 or 1/2) map at the beginning of the game.
Aquatic--Gets a large production bonus, and increases livable space on all ocean worlds. Aquatic races also get a bonus on ice worlds, but not as much as ocean worlds.
Tolerant--Gets a large bonus for production and additional living space for Desert and less so for volcanic worlds.
Anaerobic--Can subsist on any world, save gas giants.
Stealthy Ships--Starts out with level 1 stealth ships and has access (as a racial tech which cannot be stolen) to the highest researchable stealth tech in the game.
Serendipity--Able to make great technological strides when falling behind in a game.

1d: Options for multiracial colonization/conquering (additional species families):

vi) Parasitic-- A racial trait which a race eats other organic races to grow stronger and reproduce.
vii) Cybernetic--Not organic (a plus), but eats production as well as food.
viii) Gaseous-- Species exists only on gas giants. Low reproduction.
ix) Astral--Can exist in outer space. Cannot tolerate gravity, so cannot colonize planets. Reproduction verrrry slow.
x) Geodic--Rock colonies only--Atmosphere does not matter.
xi) Shapeshifter--Can change appearance to fool scanners into believing another race is there or nothing at all...does not gain the bonuses (bonii) of the impersonated race, though.
xii) Pure Energy--Achieved through research at the end of the tech tree (plus a ruins finding(s)--possible victory condition).

Expeditions--I liked the 'Antaran X' expeditions from MoO 3--finding X number of artifacts also allows you a victory. Of course, these artifacts of the Shakturi, the Ancients, and whatever other races would be just a little difficult to get. One of these artifacts could be Unification government, which would be the best government in the game!

An annoying thing I found with Space Empires IV was that one could exploit the building of facilities. Four modifiers which would allow one certain facility per planet or per system or per player or per game would be nice...In terms of the one per game, it would be like a Civilization achievement.

Ability to mod the tech tree to add an unlimited amount of tech with the corresponding facilities/components, while keeping the seven groups of tech in the editor. Race/Ruin specific tech/tech trees would be great..

In summary, the suggestions in the above posts are great! Making DW moddable to the degree of Space Empires IV/V (text files) and Masters of Orion III (more text files, but DW avoids the problems of MoO3 with its interface and automation) would, in my opinion, make for the ultimate 4X game!

Just my .02

GB

[Igard]

Welcom to the forums, GB. [;)]

Great suggestion, I've added them to the list. I removed a couple of things as they were on the list already. Some of the suggestions might belong on the master wishlist thread like the galactic senate idea. I think something like that has been suggested before though. Doesn't hurt to post it again mind you. [8D]

So, that's sections 1c and 1d appended.

[GeorgiaBoy]

ORIGINAL: Igard

Welcom to the forums, GB. [;)]

Great suggestion, I've added them to the list. I removed a couple of things as they were on the list already. Some of the suggestions might belong on the master wishlist thread like the galactic senate idea. I think something like that has been suggested before though. Doesn't hurt to post it again mind you. [8D]

So, that's sections 1c and 1d appended.

Thanks for the mighty quick append, Igard. I wonder how many patches/expansions it will take to get DW to the level of moddability of SE IV or MoO3? Just wondering out loud...

GB

[Andrew Brown]

I would like to see the following be able to be modded (repeated from some previous posts):

• Ship component data, such as effectiveness of weapons and, especially, cost. This should also include, or affect, maintenance costs.
• The size of the galactic map, being able to make it larger or smaller, even if the number of stars/planets is not altered accordingly. In fact it would be best to have the two as separately modifiable. This has been requested many times before I know - just adding another voice.
• The ability to slow down ship movement significantly
• In addition to these suggestions, the ability to start with a more "basic" or "primitive" empire, with very few or no ships and nothing existing outside of the home system.

I prefer a slow and more "epic" feel to games, which includes slow rates of expansion, slow rates of tech advance, and fewer, more expensive and more durable ships (also more expensive to maintain).

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Igard

Appended section 1c. Additional race stats.

Toughness: Currently we can only adjust troop strength by changing aggression and intelligence. This makes sense in human terms, but an alien race could have many different characteristics which would enhance it's fighting ability.

It may be brute strength, bloodlust, a durable physique or it may even mean that the race has innate strategic skills. The Zackdorn in Star Trek for example don't necessarily have great technology, but they have a penchant for strategy and logistics which make them formidable on the battlefield.

On the toughness. Think of an alien that grows its own armor plating...it would have a natural resistance to small arms fire. Or perhaps it has redundant vital organs, making it able to survive injuries that would kill a man. And Mechanoid races...they can be armored or shielded as well as being able to function with massive damage.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

I would like to see the following be able to be modded (repeated from some previous posts):

• Ship component data, such as effectiveness of weapons and, especially, cost. This should also include, or affect, maintenance costs.
• The size of the galactic map, being able to make it larger or smaller, even if the number of stars/planets is not altered accordingly. In fact it would be best to have the two as separately modifiable. This has been requested many times before I know - just adding another voice.
• The ability to slow down ship movement significantly
• In addition to these suggestions, the ability to start with a more "basic" or "primitive" empire, with very few or no ships and nothing existing outside of the home system.

I prefer a slow and more "epic" feel to games, which includes slow rates of expansion, slow rates of tech advance, and fewer, more expensive and more durable ships (also more expensive to maintain).

In this regard we are in full agreement. I like really slow progressing games.

Another thing we need to be able to mod is the cost of the colony tech to slow the expansion. As it is now, I can still have a dozen colonies by the first autosave.

Modders shoule be able to:

• Modify the cost of techs
• Modify the componant requirements of ships
• Make the base colony componant something that needs to be researched prior to being able to build a colony ship

[Igard]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

I prefer a slow and more "epic" feel to games, which includes slow rates of expansion, slow rates of tech advance, and fewer, more expensive and more durable ships (also more expensive to maintain).

Same here, that's one going to be one of the first things I do if we ever get the ability to mod components. Slow down hyperdrive speed and reduce fuel capacity. Increase cost of colonisation modules and so forth.

[BigWolfChris]

Personally I'd be happy with full moddability over components, techs and ai scripting (there is a fourth but I can't remember what it was now lol)

And what I mean is, is basically the ability to create your own versions from scratch (eg. look at some Space Empires mods)

[Igard]

Added section 15b. Save file for other empires list.

It would be useful to have a save file for the list of other empires screen so that we can load a specific list of empires including every field for each empire. We could then include this file with our mods.

[BigWolfChris]

Oh I remember the fourth now
Be able to create custom galaxies that you can load up with new games, rather than having to edit a savegame and load it up as a savegame

Simply put, an editor that doesn't require you to start a game first

[Igard]

Thanks BigWolf. Tech and component modding is on the list. AI scripting is something that I'm not sure about. It seems to me like all the races in DW use the same script, but with different variables. I could be wrong, the Shakturi and the Mechanoids seem to have some unique behaviour.

Added section 15c. An editor that doesn't require you to start a game first. I'm not sure what form you want this to take. I would say it would be best as a seperate app from the game. That way we can create a galaxy set up and include it in each mod. If it were an in-game editor, then it wouldn't really be for modding, it would just be a game feature (extra galaxy set up options).

Added section 15d. Menu graphics and UI. This was taken from a suggestion by HectorOfTroy from another thread. Good one this. I'd need to find some LCARS graphics for my ST mods!

[BigWolfChris]

ORIGINAL: Igard

Thanks BigWolf. Tech and component modding is on the list. AI scripting is something that I'm not sure about. It seems to me like all the races in DW use the same script, but with different variables. I could be wrong, the Shakturi and the Mechanoids seem to have some unique behaviour.

Alot of games with moddable AI scripting tend to have a default script (or master script) and then each race would then have it's own that would either completely overwrite the default/master or add too it

Added section 15c. An editor that doesn't require you to start a game first. I'm not sure what form you want this to take. I would say it would be best as a seperate app from the game. That way we can create a galaxy set up and include it in each mod. If it were an in-game editor, then it wouldn't really be for modding, it would just be a game feature (extra galaxy set up options).

External, internal, either will work
The main thing I would be after with it is to be able to load up custom made galaxies that aren't savegames
For example, using the editor to create a near realistic starmap of the Alpha/Beta Quads in Star Trek
Currently, you would need to create a separate download for each playable race if you wanted to share it
With the ability to load up just the starmap and then have the new game setup add everything else, you would then only need one download
If you also want to go really fancy, you can even put markers to say if a certain race is chosen as player/ai then it's placed at that specific spot if it's not be taken already by another player/ai with the same race

This would also lead up creating custom scenarios to share with the community, but the community still be able to choose what races they want involved (whereas atm, without editing the save yourself, you would be stuck with the creators choice)

[Igard]

Added section 1k. AI scripting.

Edited section 15c.

15c. A Galaxy editor that doesn't require you to start a game first. Be able to create custom galaxies that you can load up with new games, rather than having to edit a savegame and load it up as a savegame. This would allow us to create a custom galaxy save file that can be loaded at the galaxy set up screen. Including such a file with our mods would greatly increase the realism of the mod.

Good suggestions, BigWolf. [;)]

I wonder if I should do a top 10 modders wishes at the very top of the page? Would that be a good idea? If so what suggestions from the list are top priority?

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Igard

Added section 1k. AI scripting.

Edited section 15c.

15c. A Galaxy editor that doesn't require you to start a game first. Be able to create custom galaxies that you can load up with new games, rather than having to edit a savegame and load it up as a savegame. This would allow us to create a custom galaxy save file that can be loaded at the galaxy set up screen. Including such a file with our mods would greatly increase the realism of the mod.

Good suggestions, BigWolf. [;)]

I wonder if I should do a top 10 modders wishes at the very top of the page? Would that be a good idea? If so what suggestions from the list are top priority?

Top 10 would be good, at least it would let Elliot see what we want most as a group. I suspect you might need to run a few polls to see where people stand on the issues though.

[Igard]

Absolutely, I couldn't decide this myself. I've got no idea which one I want first now.

I don't think these forums support a poll feature do they? Should we just do the poll right here on this thread or start a new thread for it?

Either way, I'll start making a list of items for the poll.

[Shark7]

New thread, just have everyone read the front page that you have kept updated and let them rate their top 10 from 1 (most wanted) to 10 (wanted). Keeping up with the results will require a bit of writing or an excel spreadsheet, but could be done.