Violent space "Weather"

from Sins Forums
Would it make sense/be possible to make some gravity wells suffer from very dangerous conditions? Like electrical storms/nebulas? I think this would offer some strategic significance if they would act as a natural cloak due to electrical interference.

One reason why I ask this is because of the fact that I love using asteroid fields as combat areas with the Akkan capital ship. With the increased targeting to my ships, enemy fleets get mopped up rather easily due to the increased chance to hit buff.

And besides, you have to admit giant ships floating around in space and barely being able to see eachother while going pewpew is pretty badass.

Note: So far I've only being playing small maps so I've only encountered asteroid fields. I do not know if this is already in the game, but I'm just asking anyways.
modding
14,729 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
there are magnetic storms and plasma storms and gas giants

Gas Giants: Extra damage done to ships closer to the giant

Plasma Storm: Strike Craft cant be launched

Magnetic Storm: No special abilities can be used
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
There are Plasma Storms and Magnetic Clouds. Have seen them in game, paid them no attention as they didn't seem to have any noticeable effect on fleets transiting their area.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
It would be cool if a meteor storm would bombard your planet once in a while, maybe like once ever 100 times you play the game. I remember somebody posted something about adding moons to the game, imagine destroying the moon and the debris bombards the planet or drift out in space and hit another planet.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
You could also put one, or up to four of these abilities around a planet. It would take a little looking into, put its definitely possibly. Adding the textures to the gravity well might be a little more complex, but still doable.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Conquest: Frontier Wars had something simular, one cloud would remove shields, another kept all ships from firing if they were in it, and another would slow them down or speed them up..
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
That kind of thing is pretty easy to mod, too. Yay for ability scripting :)
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
There are also various effects of asteroid belts.  Off the top of my head, one reduces weapons' targetting by 20% and I think slows down your movement speed.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Can you control the fog of war in the area? I don't think the game has fog of war in the sense though.. just a can i or can't i see a system?

I would really love to see this go to fog of war with esensors.. you can see icons and get different levels of details depending on your cap ship level etc.. Maybe a nebula would hide sensors completely so you can only see things close to you or something hehe.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Fog of War in that sense isn't in, and as far as I know can't be added through mods.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
It would be cool if a meteor storm would bombard your planet once in a while, maybe like once ever 100 times you play the game. I remember somebody posted something about adding moons to the game, imagine destroying the moon and the debris bombards the planet or drift out in space and hit another planet.
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That actually sounds like a great idea.

I need to look into this stuff. So far all the maps I've played haven't included anything very noticeable except an asteroid field or two.

I like the idea though of being able to give abilities to planets. I really need to look into this jazz. Would it be possible to add stuff like this to the random map generator?

Thanks for the replies guys. You've all been very helpful and have great attitudes!
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Solar flares?! Interferes with ships systems or outright damages ships in orbit and planet surface...I think it sounds cool...
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
I'm sure you could put in certain things to give the impression of sensors being messed up. Change to hit, weapons range, and maybe movement speed? One thing on its own doesn't have much of an impact, like all the special areas in the game (Asteroid belts, Plasma Storms etc), but combine a few and it could seriously mess you up.

I don't know if its doable; but could a research be incorporated to negate the effects of one or more of the storms etc? This won't give one player an advantage in these areas. At the moment everyone has the same disadvantage and so it cancels it out.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
That sounds kind of complex but I'm not so sure if it's not doable, I'm very inept when it comes to modding. I like the sound of multiple afflictions due to space anomolies though. The main reason why I'd like to figure out how to do this stuff is just so that it gives more purpose to stuff such as the utility capital ships and that sort of jazz.

Great ideas though.
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
Putting these abilities on/around a Planet is easy, if you want a walkthrough, just say so. However, they would be constantly on. I just had a quick browse and I think it could be possible to have them on and off after a certain amount of time, but I don't think that time could be randomised. Also, adding the visual effects is a bit out of my league, it might be simple (adding a couple of lines of text somewhere), or it could be complex (adding new meshes and textures).
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
It would be cool if a meteor storm would bombard your planet once in a while, maybe like once ever 100 times you play the game. I remember somebody posted something about adding moons to the game, imagine destroying the moon and the debris bombards the planet or drift out in space and hit another planet.
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Random elements in strategy games really suck.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Have you ever played GalCiv2 mtn man? Random events are fun and can jump start or derail your activity in the game.

It would be great to have random things happen. Perhaps create a civ tech that allows you to be warned of an impending event on a planet. Similar to enemy phase jump techs in the game.

Solar Flares, asteroids (NPC character that can be destroyed and acts like a siege unit), "space Worms", etc.
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top


Random elements in strategy games really suck.
End of quote

And 4X games without them really do, too.

Now, which one is Sins, again? ^_^

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
Maybe by making the gravity well bigger and then including certain random events/things might make the game more ship to ship tactical (by hiding in the asteroid field or using certain "weather" effects to your advantage).
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
Random elements in strategy games is fun...like many of you, i have played tons of strategy games. Whn i played medieval tw, i remeber how many times i forgot to check my governors and generals loyalty, than next turn, bang civil war..choose side.Annoying, irritating, yes...fun, yes.
Or any strategy game where you amass large force than weather desroys or delays your attacks. This happened i RL, in history many times...it is what makes it fun in the game.
Exept for my cousin who plays evry game on very easy, than says...you know its getting boring, I am owning always or if its hard, ooohhh so hard its boring to play...its not game issues, its the player.
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
i found myself "lol-ing" into this thread but he's totally right guys. the closer planets are to a star, spaceweather can be a factor. changing everything in close. from research to resources, to travel everything. GREAT FN IDEA!
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
Have you ever played GalCiv2 mtn man? Random events are fun and can jump start or derail your activity in the game.
End of quote

No, I've not played GalCiv 2 (though after playing Sins and seeing first-hand the quality of a Stardock product, it's definitely on my "to get" list!).

Anyway, my basic rule of thumb for good game design is that the player should never feel like it's the game's fault that he lost. If you have a carefully planned winning strategy and it's suddenly and unexpectedly undone by some freak, random occurrence, that can be intensely frustrating and can kill a game's fun-factor in a hurry.

As long as random events can be avoided or planned for and mitigated or at the very least are not game-unbalancing "make or break" events then I guess I really don't have a problem with them, and rereading the OP, I see that this is the sort of thing he's talking about, so I withdraw my earlier comment.