Author Topic: Cool ideas thread  (Read 4789 times)

Offline BadgerBadger

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Cool ideas thread
« on: May 18, 2017, 12:21:22 pm »
I'd like to have a list of Cool programming-oriented things to try creating once the game is further along. Anyone else can feel free to post ideas as well, so aspiring modders will have a place to look for ideas. And Keith, if you can see your way to including enough features to make these sorts of things possible, it would not go amiss ;-)

https://forums.arcengames.com/ai-war-ii/making-cool-things-with-the-tutorial-engine/ is one set of ideas that I had.
It's at least a bit related to https://bugtracker.arcengames.com/view.php?id=9936 (AI Plague).

I am going to continue adding to this list as I think of things.

Offline swizzlewizzle

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2017, 02:52:40 am »
From your thread there, it seems that having multiple AIs that consider eachother an enemy will be possible then? If so, that is very good to hear. :)

Offline BadgerBadger

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2017, 08:34:50 am »
I have no idea what will be possible, but I am hopeful and think it would be cool. Since the Dyson Sphere will be in the game we know that it will be possible to have units that attack everything, so that might be a way to achieve this in a modded game version.

Offline WolfWhiteFire

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2017, 04:05:51 pm »
In a different thread, I had an idea as a potential solution to the problem of Arks being too mobile that after thinking about it I decided would probably be pretty cool whether not it is used as a solution to that, so I will copy and paste my comment, any possible follow-up comments I may have forgotten about, and though some of it wouldn't really apply here, the rest might work.

I haven't gotten the alpha access, so I don't know exactly how things are now, but I am not fond of the idea of a punishment for moving your Ark, especially since you have to move it for hacking and the such, and I like the idea of being able to use it as a powerful unit for attacking, but with a high risk and losing out somewhere else. Maybe a solution could be something like having it provide a lot of resources, and if you move it off a planet it "disconnects" from the grid, and makes no resources until you have it on a planet for so long until you can reconnect it. Alternatively, maybe have something where it is too big too fit into wormholes, or has extremely advanced weaponry and shields and the such that unfortunately don't mix well with the wormhole, so you have to build a special structure on the planet it is on and any planet you want to move it to (and a way to build one on hostile planets), allowing it to get from one place to the other, and if you move it somewhere vulnerable, the AI may try destroying the structure in order to cut off any retreat until you can rebuild it. The structures could also work as something needed for stuff such as golems as well. Maybe have an alternative option to be able to disable all functions besides movement to get rid of the interference, allowing it to move to other planets, but with all the systems taking a while to get back online, possibly including a sort of cloaking device that only protects from scanners, so unless the AI is on a planet with it they won't know where it is, but if you choose that option to move it rather than building the structure it pretty much tells the AI "Hey, big juicy Ark here for you, if you think you can destroy it here." That could also possibly be further complicated by having various systems and the such doing different tasks, such as resource production, manufacturing, shields, engines, weaponry, and the protection from scanners, and if you go through a wormhole without using the special structure you have to choose some to disable, and possibly have it where you can increase power to each system normally at the cost of decreasing the power in another, for example, if you are fighting you could redirect all power going to scanner protection (since the AI already knows where it is) and resource production, so you can increase power in your weapons and shields, or when you think you are safe, you can do the opposite, though of course it wouldn't be instant.
 
and

Actually, even if not as a solution to too much mobility for your ark, I think having different systems and the such you could adjust the amount of power going to in order to specialize the Ark for a specific purpose at the moment would really be a pretty cool addition, to prevent using that kind of stuff as part of balancing mobility from causing issues in the early game, since you are supposed to be able to choose a planet to take over as your homeworld that you have to fight for, maybe you could have it where until you take that first planet the AI won't realize the Ark is a threat or at all important and won't care too much about it besides having ships on the planet attack it, or maybe have how much priority the AI puts on it as a target be dependent on your AIP, when it is low, the AI doesn't consider the Ark or us puny remnants of human resistance a threat or anything worth paying attention to, but as it goes up, they care more and also notice more and more how often you use the Ark, and at first suspect and later be certain that it is key to your battle against them, and therefore an extremely high priority target.

There a few different things I think would be cool mods in there, the structures needed for Ark and golems and the such, the different power systems in the Ark and maybe the system I thought of to have that work, and the thing where the AI only realizes the Ark is a threat or that it is important as your AIP goes up and they have the chance to see it in action and see what it does.

Offline BadgerBadger

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2017, 04:37:00 pm »
Edit: This basically became the Macrophage

I like this idea: https://bugtracker.arcengames.com/view.php?id=3745. The basic notion is of a mini-Devourer Golem that can make copies of itself. So if you don't deal with them, they can start to take over the galaxy.

I can think of a couple ways to play this.

Method 1: is to have each Golem track how many units it has killed. Once that number gets high enough, it will make a copy of itself. Difficulties: I'm not sure how to track how many units another unit has killed.
Method 2: After "some time" wandering the galaxy, make a copy of itself. Difficulties: not sure how to track elapsed time since unit spawn.

One other fun tweak might be to have the "reproduce" step done similarly to the Mining Golem from AIWC; it will pick a planet not owned by the humans and spend some time there quiescent. Once that time has elapsed, destroy all resources on the planet, and then spawn a copy. This would encourage players to eliminate them rapidly.

One final mischevious idea: Give it Anti-Everything Zombifying guns
« Last Edit: May 18, 2018, 03:43:14 pm by BadgerBadger »

Offline BadgerBadger

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2017, 05:33:20 pm »
What if every so often (say ever hour, or on AI increase, it spawns a unit that will lurk in the background and cause problems. Examples might be "This unit spawns ever-increasing exo waves every few minutes", "This unit makes waves/CPAs come faster", "This unit is a dyson antagonizer", "This unit will spawn a never-ending wave of nasty units (like a dyson antagonizer, but from a different location)". I also think depending on the difficulty level, maybe killing one of these would reduce the AIP a bit.


This basically allows pleasantly randomized mini-quests in game.

Edit: The above is done as the AI Instigators

Edit: another cool thing would be a beacon-type unit that causes the Devourer to chase your Ark until it is destroyed
« Last Edit: August 07, 2018, 12:21:54 pm by BadgerBadger »

Offline BadgerBadger

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2017, 10:14:14 pm »
Someone with graphics skills should mod a planet background that is the Discworld; a large, disc shaped world held by four great elephants, perched on the back of a giant star turtle

Offline BadgerBadger

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #7 on: August 21, 2017, 12:05:18 pm »

Offline BadgerBadger

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2018, 07:49:22 pm »
Have some mechanism by which the Player can reprogram the Devourer and send the Devourer after the AI Master Controller.

Offline Ovalcircle

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Re: Cool ideas thread
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2018, 09:15:59 pm »
A faction that, for once, doesn't try to kill you and is on your side.
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