This is a work in progress and to be precise it entered the final planning phase just now, the finished product will take quite some time to be developed.



Population Mod



This mod will be about population size in relation to planet size, as well as some balancing for that area in general.



For more information please take a look at my old suggestion thread: [Suggestions/Feedback] Population size / Planet size. Note: the linked proposal was thoroughly rejected, no use in bothering the Devs to put it into the actual main release.



MOD Development



Since this seems to be quite a lot of work and I assume I won't be able to do this on my own, I'm asking for some help from members, here's what I could need some help with:



Pre-Mod Development



It is especially important before the actual modding starts to not only refine current ideas but to develop further ways of achieving the design goals. Because of this fact, I would like to ask the Endless Space community, especially those here in the modding forums, to help my team to do this for our project.







Mod Development



Since this seems to be quite a lot of work to mod and I assume that I won't be able to do this on my own, I'm asking for some help from members. Right now I'm the only one working on this so take a look if you can help if you want to.



The one thing everyone can help with are some more ideas or wishes as to what this mod could change.



Team Needed:





Below are the proposed team positions, along with information on what positions need to be filled:

[*=1]Creative Director(KNC)

[INDENT=2]Keeping track of all ideas, creating a possible concept and planning a way to get there.

[/INDENT]

[*=1]Organizer (KNC)

[INDENT=2]Keeping track of all applied changes, necessary future changes and making sure the mod stays in a clean state (where everything can be understood in a matter of a few sentences).

[/INDENT]

[*=1]Head Game Mechanics Programmer (KNC)

[INDENT=2]Developing and programming the changed game mechanics.

[/INDENT]

[*=1]Head AI Programmer (???)

[INDENT=2]It would be great to have someone who has a clue about AI modding and who might be able to teach the AI to use the new system properly, this is the most important spot to fill.

[/INDENT]

[*=1]Programming Support #2 (Multiple?)

PS: Some critique on the shape and language in this post would be useful as well, if you don't understand something or think I should adjust my use of words somehow just let me know.



* Endothermic Structures would mean buildings which can harvest energy from heat absorbed from the environment. Hence those structures could completely replace power plants on a lava planet, yet would be nearly genuinely useful on barren or arctic planets. However, In the game their effect is determined by the size of a planet, which is absolutely unrelated to absorbed environmental energy.

Id like to see you include more orbital improvements, ones that can be applied any-ware for any system, but take lots of time to set up.



Giving a sort of entrenched feel for systems that can afford it.

Igncom1 wrote:
Id like to see you include more orbital improvements, ones that can be applied any-ware for any system, but take lots of time to set up.



Giving a sort of entrenched feel for systems that can afford it.

I don't see much of that area fit into this mod but you sparked some ideas, like making some dedicated orbital improvements for gas giants. If you could explain your ideas in a little more detail I might get a better idea of what you're talking about exactly though.





And Nycidian, that was a post with really nice constructive critic, really useful! Thanks a lot for taking the time to point out those changes, I used most of your ideas and tried to patch it together to still fit my own style, feel free to take another look if you have the time

(This forum really needs a spoiler function... Now that I used your input, could you please somehow shorten that post a little? It looks weird to have nearly the smae as the front post a few posts later.)

@ KNC, you can retrieve all of nycidian's text and put it into your OP. "Reply" to his and all the text and formatting will appear within the quote block. Cut this into notepad. Then "cancel" the reply and "Edit" your OP. Paste. Once that is done, if it matters, then nycidian can "edit" his post to remove the text or just delete the post.

KNC wrote:
I don't see much of that area fit into this mod but you sparked some ideas, like making some dedicated orbital improvements for gas giants. If you could explain your ideas in a little more detail I might get a better idea of what you're talking about exactly though.

/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12800-orbital-entrenchment-upgrades.



Sort of like that.

davea wrote:
@ KNC, you can retrieve all of nycidian's text and put it into your OP. "Reply" to his and all the text and formatting will appear within the quote block. Cut this into notepad. Then "cancel" the reply and "Edit" your OP. Paste. Once that is done, if it matters, then nycidian can "edit" his post to remove the text or just delete the post.

Thanks for the tip, but that's already what I did.

Igncom1 wrote:
/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12800-orbital-entrenchment-upgrades.



Sort of like that.

Cool, I'll take a look tomorrow or whenever I find the time.

Not to put a damper on things, but some of the stuff you need to do isn't viable without Amplitude opening up the source, and this might take a fair while.



Of course it can be done earlier, but the lead devs don't really like the idea. Trust me on this, I went through the whole she-bang already.



But limiting ourselves to throwing ideas around, I'd like to see racial and faction separation of population, which would allow for more varied, colourful gameplay.



Take for example Horatio, which you imagined would have the population reset to 1 on conquest. What if the population would grow at a normal rate, but only for Horatio pop, with other races' populations slowly decreasing to simulate forced sterilization. Or Sowers pop that would require for example 1 food and 1 industry support per pop point, instead of their current affinity.



Then we come to the system rebelion aspect, which would mesh nicely with the populations and allow taking over systems via influence.

Maybe u can put this mod in the Sticky german "MOD Datenbank" /#/endless-space/forum/40-francais/thread/16713-mod-datenbank



just as the english thread "Shopping Mall" /#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/16327-mod-shopping-mall

Sorry for the late reply, but my internets...



Anyway, thanks again Nycidian, I used your post now.



@Ciehoo: Yeah but once I come across these limitations I might just turn around and face another problem at that moment, until I randomly come with a solution or the devs change the modding for it to work. So far I notice thoug I'm getting a lot of ideas which don't fit into the balancing aspect of the mod I plan to make. I might make 2 sides of the population mod, one for the actual improvements of the overall system and the other for new features and stuff like that.



@mJrA: I'll surely post it there sometime, but I want to have a little more decisions on where the mod is going exactly before I post it anywhere else. But thanks for the links, now I know the right places already.