Gas Giant Mining

I can't make it ONLY target certain planets

But, (as a consilation prize)

I do know how to make a Buff version of an "AND" logic gate.

Sot that although you can target any planet, it only WORKS on the planet you specify.

However, my method will also require a passive ability on the planets in question. (minor point)

hit me up Tesla! PM the relevant code, and I bet I can make it work. As a bonus, Gas Giants already have a passive, though I don't think it would be the one that I would need.

On a side note, can a planet have weapons (as in weapon hardpoints)?

Well....I know that the Gas planet does damage. It MAY be possible to add a hardpoint and travel...

The code is VERY simple

You start out with a Buff on the inteanded target. this can be ANY buff. So the gas giant buff could probably be used.

I will call this BuffOnTarget

1. apply buff Number 1 to taget in question.

2. Buff one spawns Buff Two On Self

3. Buff two has a finish condition "LastSpawnerNoLongerHasBuff" where the buff to be had is BuffOnTarget

In this way, if the target doesn't have BuffOnTarget, then Buff Two just "sizels out" so to speak.

very nice. Though, I can see ONE problem. This ability, I want to be on a frigate. I want the frigate to be able to cast it on a Gas Giant planet, and then give the owner of the frigate an increase in crystal income.

Now, if you could help me to figure this out so that it still uses the setup you have described, but is initiated by the frigate, that would be PERFECT.

Easy

On the frigate, just use "Apply Buff To target"

Where the buff is Buff one.

Now, creating an ability to provide a boost to crystal is a bit difficult.

I would sugest to make a series of crystal mines around the Gas Giant.

Give them the normal Nuetral Extractor ability, but with the modification that the mines are NOT capturable. (So a normal scout/colonizer can't capture them)

Then, Buff Two (as stated in my above post) would apply a new, Buff Three on ALL Planet Modules in the Gravity Well.

This Buff Three, spawns buff four on itself.

Buff Four has the finish Condion "Last Spawner No longer Has BUff" Where the buff in question is the NEW Nuetral Capturable Extractor Buff.

Where Buff Four than turns the extractor to the first spawner's player Index.

I see two possible problems. One, your not really mining the grav well. So the Lore doesn't really fit.

Two: I don't know if you can make a new Capturabel Neutral Extractor ability that ONLY applies to certain extractors and not others.

Anouther idea, that doesn't use the extractors.

Is, start at BUff Three. Instead of Buff Three being aplied to a planet module, ONE buff is applied a player ship in the grav well. 

This new Buff three then Generates resources periodicly.

Problem with this, is that you always must have a ship in the gravity well.

Perhaps your frigate spawns a new frigate, without engines. A Gas Miner, that has this abiliy, and just sits there mining the gas planet.  

hmm, well, the plan for the ability is to have the frigate simply sit in orbit of the planet. Because an ability can 'earn' you resources (like the Pirate looting ability, or the Vas Drain Planet), you would be mining helium that would be used in fusion reactors to refine crystal.

However, I like that Gas Miner idea. The difference is though, instead of using the 'disable' engines boolmodifiers on it (making it stationary) or making movement null, simply applying the 'DisablePhaseJump' boolmodifier. Voila! An in-system only ship.

EDIT: also, could you check out the following post that I also made- Terraforming, Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, and Artificial Black Holes. If you could offer insights and/or help, that would be most appreciated.

Also, thoughts on 'stockpiling' resources? An idea would be to have a 'metal' and a 'crystal' storage silo that is spawned; since it is spawned, it can cost very little in terms of resources; it could provide a slight bonus to crystal/metal income, and also generate a HUGE amount of metal/crystal when scuttled. Thoughts on that?

Generates resources or provides a BOOST in resources?

Generate resources is easy, I don't know if thier is a Boost resources modifier.

well, the idea is that the 'helium mining' increases the amount of resources generated because more is able to be refined to a usable level.

Stockpiling would be giving resources after scuttling them. Very useful for getting resources into your economy when your nearly broke.

Well...

you could just have a passive that slowly generates resources over time.

Then have it generate one giant lump sum "On Owner Death"

hmm, well, the easiest idea I had for stockpiling would be for a frigate (or space mine) to be spawned. The ability would cost a small amount of credits (personnel to man the silo), metal (materials to build it), and crystal (for constructing power cores/electrical systems). The 'cost' given to the 'frigate' or the scuttle value of the mine would be set up so that it yields a HUGE amount of crystal or metal.

Now that I think about it, it would probably be best to have it set up as a space mine. The scuttle value for crystal (or metal) would be set VERY high.

Also, the reason I asked about actual weapon types on planets is because then I could use the constraint 'hasEnergyWeapons' or 'HasPhaseMissiles'.

Also, do you happen to know where the code for the neutral extractors is?

EDIT: also, please check out this post I made: Piggybacking Fighters

Nuetral extractor are hard.

From what I have figured out, the game simply takes TEC extractors, slaps on the CapturablyNuetralEct....Ability. And just Calls it a nuetral extractor.

well, I figured out the file for the neutral extractor- "BuffNeutralExctractor.entity". It specifies the following 3 bool modifiers- CannotBeDamaged, CanBeCaptured, and CannotBeScuttled.

Also, CanBeCaptured can be applied to a planet EASY. In fact, that's how I got my 'Gas Giant' mining ability to work.

Um...did you actully test the thing?

Keep in in mind CanBeCaptured doesn't DO anything!

All CanBeCaptured is, is a modifier for the scout. Things like planet planets and ship can be captured even if they DONT have the CanBeCaptured Modifier, it is just the CAN"T be captured by the SCOUT'S CREW EXTRACTOR unless they have the CANBECAPTURED modifier.

So yea, all that did is now a scout can capture your planet as well.

actually, I did test it (last night). And I just finished testing it to see if it actually DID earn me resources (which it did).

The 'CanBeCaptured' modifier on the planet doesn't actually make it able to be captured by the scouts/colony frigs. The target filter of those abilities must be modified to allow that.

The idea for the 'CanBeCaptured' modifier was just so that the gas giant mining ability (which I've titled 'Helium Mining') can only target gas giants. I could have used the 'CannotBeScuttled', 'CannotBeDamaged', 'IsIllusionShip', or any number of other modifiers on the ability, but I just picked the 'CanBeCaptured' modifier.

Well, as long as it works!

next up on the list- Space Junk Scavenging!

Well if remember this correctly, in the original version of the distant stars, there were planets in which you can capture ships from....