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Old-Spider
Old-Spider
Join Date 04/2006
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Problems with PromethionBornAbility (Onyx Hive)

March 19, 2023 5:32:11 PM from Galactic Civilizations IV ForumsGalactic Civilizations IV Forums

The PromethionBornAbility gives ships double the normal hit points but they don’t heal normally.

Part of the problem is that the tech tree still has techs that claim to provide ship components and ships that heal ships.

The Onyx Hive could build Caretaker ships, but they didn’t do any healing. I mentioned this problem with Caretaker ships long ago, and that was “fixed” by removing Caretaker ships from FactionShipStyleSetDefs.xml for Onyx Hive.

There are still problems:

  1. The Caretaker ship fix is for the Onyx Hive, not the PromethionBornAbility.
  2. A race with the PromethionBornAbility that isn’t Onyx Hive can build Caretaker ships, but they don’t heal anything.
  3. The Repair Bay from the Orbital Repair tech is available in the shipyard, but it doesn’t work.
  4. The Repair Drone Bay from the Construction Drones tech is available in the shipyard, and it works when it shouldn’t.
  5. There are other components that appear in the shipyard that claim to heal ships. Some work and some don’t. I’m not sure what causes ships that use them to appear. I didn’t put much work into understanding these because I thought I found a way to “fix” the problem.


I made a mod that does this:

  1. Replaces Orbital Repair tech with a tech that increases hit points.


  2. Replaces Construction Drones tech with a tech that increases logistics.


  3. Adds a preclusion to all healing components in ShipComponentDefs.xml so that races with PromethionBornAbility can’t get them.
  4. Component_Regen is no longer available due to #3, so ships larger than medium are no longer automatically available in the shipyard.  To remedy this, I added new ship blueprints that don’t have Component_Regen as a required component.
  5. Change ShipClassDefs.xml so that Onyx Hive ships use the new blueprints.

The number values I used for nit points and logistics in the two techs I added have not been balanced. I just used values that were convenient.

If anyone wants to see what I did in my mod, it is available here.  All my changes have a comment with MOD: in them, so search for mod: to find them.

Perhaps the devs could come up with a better way of “fixing” the problems with the PrometionBorn Ability.

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Old-Spider
Publius of NV
Join Date 08/2002
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Reply #1 March 19, 2023 7:03:24 PM
from Galactic Civilizations IV ForumsGalactic Civilizations IV Forums

I've not yet played as a race with the PromethionBorn ability. What is "don't heal normally" supposed to mean? Not heal at all? Not heal unless parked at a starbase or planet? If it's just that they don't heal by themselves, why shouldn't caretaker ships heal them?

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Old-Spider
Old-Spider
Join Date 04/2006
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Reply #2 March 20, 2023 12:06:00 AM
from Galactic Civilizations IV ForumsGalactic Civilizations IV Forums

They can only be healed by their commander ships, which have an ability that uses promethion to heal all ships in a fleet. This lack of healing isn't as bad as it seems since all their ships have twice the hit points compared to ships of other races. This means they can survive longer than other ships.

The Onyx Hive are silicon based, so their growth rate depends on the amount of promethion they have. This means a decision has to made on whether to use the promethion to repair ships or keep growth rate high enough to get more Onyx Hive in a reasonable amount of time. I find them interesting to play.  They require different planning and choices.

Things to consider for custom races are:
1.  Use promethion born ability or not.
2.  Use silicon-based race or not.
3.  Use Onyx Hive ship set or not.  This determines if commander ships can heal other ships or not.  Only Onyx HIve commander ships in the Onyx Hive ship set have the ability to heal ships in my mod.

I haven't tested all of these, but the wrong combination can cripple a custom race.  The promethion ability without the Onyx Hive ship set means there is no way to heal ships with my mod.  Without my mod, some items are available in the shipyard to put on a ship.  I'm not sure if the game will automatically design ships with those items so the player and AI can have ships that heal or heal other ships without making a special design.  I'm also not sure if the healing actually works.

I don't know what the original intention of the develops was when it comes to how the promethion born ability, the silicon-based biology and others things were supposed to work together.  Maybe I'm wrong to remove some things in my mod.  Without my mod, some ships might be able to heal themselves or other ships, which I think goes against what the ships aren't supposed to be able to do.

 

As a final note, there is an artifact called Mnemonic Nanites that sometimes can be found on a planet. It can be used to fully repair a ship or fleet. It works on promethion born ships, which I think is acceptable. The artifact is rare and special, so I think its ability to repair promethion born ships should stay for an occasional bonus.

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Old-Spider
Publius of NV
Join Date 08/2002
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Reply #3 March 20, 2023 12:50:15 AM
from Galactic Civilizations IV ForumsGalactic Civilizations IV Forums

Thanks, that explains a lot. Maybe I'll give the Onyx a chance next game.

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