[MOD] Planetary Sensors

from GalCiv3 Forums

So this is my first published mod. It is quite simple, and I'm open to suggestions or ideas for expanding it.

You can download the .zip folder here.

Basically, this mod adds a planetary improvement that increases a planet's sensor range.

I've been watching the heated debate about sensors go by, and my impression of the discussion is too many people have made this issue too personal. I don't want that brought into this thread. This is a mod. If you want to discuss the mod, I'd be happy to do so.

Whatever the devs decide to do to sensor components on ships (and again, I don't want this to become another thread arguing over ship sensors), either way, I think sensors on planets and starbases should be improved. This is my first step in that direction.

The improvement is colony unique and can be upgraded twice.

The first improvement is a Planetary Array. It adds 2 to a planet's sensor range. The tech requirement is Interstellar Survey.

The upgraded improvement is an Advanced Planetary Array (groundbreaking name, I know). It adds 2 more to a planet's sensor range and requires Energy Field Sensors.

The final improvement is a Planetary Sensor Hub, which adds 3 more to a planet's sensor range and a global bonus of 5% to sensors. This upgrade requires Subspace Sensors.

This works with all the base factions, and it will work with custom tech trees if you haven't changed the generic names of the three techs listed above.

Also, I don't know how the AI will treat these improvements. They will gain access based on their tech tree, which is driven by the defined AI category weights, but the improvement is classified as special and doesn't provide any adjacency bonuses, so I'm not certain if they will even build this... any insights here would be appreciated.

Enjoy!

29,522 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Nice idea. It's now in my mods folders. Hope the AI does play with it.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Good idea.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thanky ou very much for sharing. My first Mod downloaded and installed...haven't regret it since then...:D

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Im not sure i see the point. Im a bit of a min maxer so im going to avoid placing an improvement on a tile if i can get the same results another way 

for example your mod adds 2/2/3 to sensor range on top of a planets base which i believe is 5 or so ( im at work and cant check atm) so we have a total of 12 

now with the range extension on strbases i can place an econ base 9 tiles away from the planet its base view range is i believe 3 so again we have 12 total but the base can be improved with several levels of sensor's as well to increase its range above what your mod supplies without using a tile. 

Unfortunately i dont even do that because of sensor stacking

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thanks for the feedback.

Androshalforc--I totally hear what your saying, and I actually agree with you. As I said in my OP, this is a first step. I'll take a closer look at the cost and maintenance of sensor ships (as they are now) and sensors for starbases and try to balance this out a bit. I also think I'll add some adjacency bonuses--as I've been thinking about it, such a facility could theoretically be of benefit to military, tourism, etc.

And I think I'm going to see if I can't make the improvement grant a bonus to sensors of everything within a faction's ZOC... I don't want to unbalance this, but I do think there is a benefit to having planetary sensors instead of a ship with sensors--and I think there are disadvantages too (namely, that they are immobile).

I love feedback, and don't mind criticism at all.

I hope to post an update soon.

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Glad to hear that you took this as i intendid it and not as me being an ass 

that being said your last post got me thinking and im not sre if its possible but if a planet had an area of effect much like a starbase then have your mod rather then give a bons to planetary sensor range give a % bonus to all ships or starbases inside the planets area of controll rather than faction wide 

the upgrades could then increase the range 5 base and 2/2 by upgrade with larger bonus's as well

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'll play with that idea and see if I can do that and/or use ZOC. The trick is making it useful but not OP compared to regular sensors...

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

So I tried playing with adding range to a planet and haven't quite figured that out (I'm not sure it is possible)... the only range I see is StarbaseRange, and I applied it to a planet through an improvement, but it didn't do anything.

Also, ZOC effects seem to not be working correctly right now. The only place such effects are currently used are in the ideology tree, but the traits with these effects seem to be doing nothing. I posted a bug report here but I should probably submit a ticket too... I'll test it out with the 1.02 opt-in first.

In any case, I just thought I'd mention that in case someone else knows a way to limit the effects of a stat modification to only work within a certain range of planets or within your ZOC.