HereandThere wrote:

CyRob wrote:

I think the faction should not be able to diplomatically capture (annex) minor factions but use the Vodyani's diplomatic capture system where you don't control the system but get most of its benefits (also stops other factions from capturing it diplomatically)

Actually, others can steal suzerianship and assimiliate the minor faction. Happened to me on several occasions.

Not suzerainship but rather the Vodyani's brainwash function. I have not had any other factions assimilate a minor faction after I’ve brainwashed them and I have never been able to take one that has been brainwashed.

1) Could be achieved by making the population similar to guardians where they are locked unable to be moved and give a +1 population slot for each one on a planet (killing 2 birds with one stone) but that only would work if it does not stop pop growth.

2) A Unique Planet is quite doable (all factions have them) but I don't think unique system would be (I think home system generation is handled by the assemblies).

3) This could be done with the special production system by the capital building (an issue might be that if the system is captured the special production system will still be used, if that is an issue and not what that is)

4) Can be done like the Lumeris.

I think the faction should not be able to diplomatically capture (annex) minor factions but use the Vodyani's diplomatic capture system where you don't control the system but get most of its benefits (also stops other factions from capturing it diplomatically)

I just had a few thoughts reading through this again.

1) This faction should not be able to expand it's population type to other planets/systems. 

2) This faction should likely have a unique planet/system

3) Any planets that this faction captures should use the standard system for Production

4) This faction should not have any colonizer ships

Using these design constraints, you only then have to worry about balance for the home system. In a lot of ways, this more resembles the Riftborn, but with the idea that their population is constrained to their home system, where their 'tear in space' is located.

3D model, huh? I would have thought it would just be two image layers, the top one moving over the rear one. Whatever the case, hope it all goes well. That idea of limiting the subsequent colonies to one pop is a great idea. Maybe make it use the arks and be unable to build leechers to severely restrict the rate of expansion.

HereandThere wrote: 

If I do put together an outline for the faction, I suppose I should take the time to calculate scaling and such.

It's a good idea, like make sure they are viable on huge galaxies yet not overpowered on tiny ones. (for that you could do something like have the large pop cap on the capital but only 1 pop per planet on all other systems for example).

I was wondering about the project you are working on, CyRob. It all seems pretty nifty. Do you intend to create animated portraits eventually? Seems like it might not work very well.

I don't know, to make an animated portrait (if the modding system ever supports it) I would have to create half a 3d mesh (you only need the side "facing" the screen) for each hero and then skin it which would most likely require me to recreate it all myself. So I would need a lot of time, a good reason (as this will take longer than amplitude spent on the current heroes (as there is less of them 48 V 82 )) and more artistic skill than I currently have. So I might but I will need a lot of help.

But currently what I'm doing is looking at the feasibility of implementing the ES1 Hero skill tree system, it's going well but has its difficulties.

HereandThere wrote:

I am way in over my head. It is useless for to dive into this without the basic knowledge of programming. 

You don't need to know programming, you just have to spend some time looking at the files to understand the whole system, but it’s all in XML which is easy to understand once you get the hang of it.

And even if you don't, if you fully create a design idea of the faction (in a implementable way) Me (or Knyghtefall possibly?) could give a try at coding it (or parts of it)

Currently, I have my hands full with my ES1 Heroes mod (which is mostly design work) and a few secret projects. But if you spend some time putting together a full comprehensive design I will happily evaluate it (for its feasibility) and when my hands aren’t full I’ll even have a go at coding it.

I am way in over my head. It is useless for to dive into this without the basic knowledge of programming. At least I sparked a cool idea. Even if it is possible to scale production off of manpower, the balancing might be difficult to remain consistant or compettitve throughout the game. I used the scion of the endless mod last night to make a super powerful faction and tested if it was reasonable to play with one system. I dominated even on endless difficulty. I'm going to redistribute some traits and try to find a better balance tonight. Some of those traits are interesting in that you can scale production off of industry.

I don't know all the details off the top of my head, but the way that Production interacts with Population is at the System and Planet level. The properties and values used are generally in files that start with "SimulationDescriptors". The ones I would start with are:

\Public\Simulation\

SimulationDescriptors[ColonizedStarSystem].xml 

-- The specific property here is NetSystemProduction; there are a lot of ways this is being manipulated in this file

SimulationDescriptors[Planet].xml 

-- PlanetInitialIndustry describes how much Industry/Production a planet has a baseline

SimulationDescriptors[Population].xml 

-- This file lists the bonuses given to each race. For example, Riftborn (listed as TimeLords) have the following:

    <SimulationDescriptor Name="ClassPopulationAssimilatedEmpireAffinityTimeLords" Type="ClassPopulationAssimilated">
        <Modifier        TargetProperty="PopulationsAssimilated"            Operation="Addition"        Value="1"    Path="../ClassEmpire" TooltipHidden="true"/>
    </SimulationDescriptor>
    <SimulationDescriptor Name="ClassPopulationAssimilatedPlanetIDS" Type="ClassPopulationAssimilated">
        <Modifier       TargetProperty="BonusPopulationIndustry"  Operation="Addition"    Value="3"      />
        <Modifier       TargetProperty="BonusPopulationDust"      Operation="Addition"    Value="3"      />
        <Modifier       TargetProperty="BonusPopulationScience"   Operation="Addition"    Value="3"      />
    </SimulationDescriptor>

Meaning, for example, they get a bonus of +3 Industry, Dust and Science per population. 

Further on down in the same file, there's this:

    <!-- Time Lords -->
    <SimulationDescriptor Name="ClassPopulationStarSystemAffinityTimeLords" Type="ClassPopulationStarSystem">
        <Modifier         TargetProperty="CannotMigrate"                     Operation="Force"    Value="1" TooltipHidden="true"/>
        <Modifier         TargetProperty="ShouldPopulationGrow"           Operation="Force"    Value="-1" TooltipHidden="true"/>        
        <Modifier         TargetProperty="MaximumSystemProductionStock"   Operation="Force"    Value="$(MaximumSystemGrowthStock)"  Path="../ClassColonizedStarSystem,ColonizedStarSystemStateOutpost" SearchValueFromPath="true" Priority="1" TooltipHidden="true"/>
        <Modifier       TargetProperty="PopulationWithGrowth"       Operation="Subtraction" Value="$(PopulationCount)"                      Path="./ClassStarSystem" TooltipHidden="true"/>
    </SimulationDescriptor>

There's two interesting lines here:

        <Modifier  TargetProperty="ShouldPopulationGrow" Operation="Force"    Value="-1" TooltipHidden="true"/>        

        <Modifier  TargetProperty="PopulationWithGrowth"  Operation="Subtraction" Value="$(PopulationCount)"  Path="./ClassStarSystem" TooltipHidden="true"/>

What they mean is that the population of the Riftborn does not grow according to the 'normal' rules. These lines force the game to stop the Riftborn from growing their population by 'normal' growth and, in fact, subtract the "PopulationWithGrowth" value by the "PopulationCount" to keep that "PopulationWithGrowth" at zero.

I'm pointing this out because you'll likely need to so something similar if you want to switch from using the "normal" method of Population modifying Production to using Manpower to modify Production.

I, like a few other players, am a huge fan of the Cultist faction from Endless Legend. Upon the announcement of Endless Space 2, I was excited to learn of the fate of the Cultists. Now that it is out, I am not quite satisfied with the Vodyani as the space Cultists. What I want is a faction that sits in one system and never makes any colonies.  As I was lying in bed last night, my mind kept mulling over the idea it acquired during the course of a conversation earlier in the night.

Basically, I am wondering if it would be feasible to mod this game to the extent that I have in mind.

Reading through these files, I cannot identify the pertinent ones. They all just seem to be references. Files to direct the program to access the correct information. Any clue as to which one to check out would be helpful. All I hae is a layman's knowledge of this sort of thing; usung logic to suss out the meanings behind the jargon used in the files.

I'm not 100% sure, but it'd be fun to try (scaling industry off of manpower)! 

The majority of the files you'll want to investigate are at:

\Steam\steamapps\common\Endless Space 2\Public\Simulation\

Wow, I had no idea manpower could be a way to scale for something. Would you be able to make food, dust, science, and influence scale off of population while industry scaled off of manpower?

Would you happen to know where in the game files I can find the gaming affinities so I can look them over? I have never really modded much, so I am quite curious.

Thanks so much, Knyghtefall.

You just have to design the faction around the limitations, 

I'm sure you will be able think of a way to implement similar things. 

I.E. instead of having unlimited population cap have their capital building convert excesses food when pop is full into dust, influence, industry and science.

I had a feeling those things would be impossible. It really is a shame I did not know about the custom faction contest until it was too late. 

Perhaps a faction that only colonises the dyson sphere stars and disregards the planets...

I am too ambitious for my own good.

In Endless Legend, the Cultists stay in one region and build up one city for the entire game. They cannot make colonizers, and raze other cities when they conquer them. For population units and resources, they convert minor civilization villages to their side, sort of like brainwashing in Endless Space 2. My idea is to have one inhabited system with no pop limit. All the systems within the sphere of influence gives the home system a portion of the planets' FIDS. Maybe the systems beyond the sphere could be exploited with outposts.

I haven't yet played Endless Legend, so can you be specific about what you're looking for?