Mind worm editing

[Timbtoo]

In the spirit of the movie Dune, I wanted to see if anyone had any pointers on editing the mind worms, thus allowing them to carry troops.
I have done this, and the carrying function worked well, while having the mind worms retain their Psi attack and defense capabilities. The problem is, that they lose their natural aggression. Thus mind worms "discovered" in the wild, basically just sit there until attacked or captured. You do still get the planet pearl, energy cells, but it kinda kills all of the fun of running into these beasties.

I've tried several differing defining categories in the Alpha.txt file
(Ya outta see the things move across a fungus bed when defined as a rover instead of infantry!).
Infantry with carrying ability, Rover with carrying ability, Convoy with carrying ability etc. None gave them back their aggressive tendancies.


Does anyone have any other suggestions? After all, the Isles of the Deep are defined as "Foils" yet are aggressive as hell! (btw... I tried to define them as a "foil" and they disapeared from the game, right after being released from a unity pod for example).

Thanks

Tim

[gwillybj]

Re: Mind worm editing

Originally posted by Timbtoo
I have done this, and the carrying function worked well, while having the mind worms retain their Psi attack and defense capabilities.

What changes did you make?
I'm curious how you kept Psi Attack, since it occupies the position needed by Transport:
Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 5, 0, CentEmp, 3, 000000000000000000000000
Mind Worms, Infantry, Transport, Psi, 1, 5, 0, CentEmp, 3, 000000000000000000000000

Some ideas I thought of while here, but have not tested:

Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 5, 0, CentEmp, 3, 000000000000000000000000
Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 5, #, CentEmp, 3, 000000000000000000000000
(where # is the carrying capacity desired)

Also, is this possible?
Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 5, 0, CentEmp, 3, 000000000000000000000000
Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 5, #, CentEmp, 3, 000001000000100000000000
(giving them Trance and Empath)

Changing the 10th zero to one would give them Trained, so you would encounter bigger boils earlier:
000001000100100000000000
(Trance, Trained, Empath)

[Cybergod]

If you look at the Isles of the Deep - those beasts of the sea that can also transport units, you will see no Transport in there, but both its weapon and its armour are Psi. Look:

Isle of the Deep, Foil, Psi, Psi, 7, 8, 4, CentMed, -1, 000000000000000000000000

But look at this in the section descripiton:

; Plan = Unit "plan" for AI purposes:
; -1 = Auto Calculate
; 0 = Offensive
; 1 = Combat
; 2 = Defensive
; 3 = Reconnaisance
; 4 = Air Superiority
; 5 = Planet Buster
; 6 = Naval Superiority
; 7 = Naval Transport
; 8 = Colonization
; 9 = Terraforming
; 10 = Supply Convoy
; 11 = Info Warfare
; 12 = Alien Artifact

In the Mindworm, this part is labelled with a 1, therefore making the AI use it as a combat unit. But the Isle of the Deep has the number 7 = Naval Transport. To make the mindworm capable of transporting units, I suggest you change the 1 in its line to a 7. This should make the AI turn the boil into both a combat (hence the PSi weaponry and armor) and a transport unit (the AI plan).

[Cybergod]

I once was messing about with this section and changed the 7 in the IOD line into 5 making it a moving Planet Buster! When an Isle of Deep attacked I had a meesage saying Aliens have launched a Planet Buster....



And everyone pronounced Vendetta on the "aliens"!

[Timbtoo]

First, thanks for all the quick replies, this one has been driving me banannas! LOL!!

Here's the "tweaks" I have tried.....


Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 5, 4 , CentEmp, 3, 000000000000000000000000

This allowed them to carry troops and increase the ability (as the Isle of the deep) to a max of four as a Demon Boil. I left their classification as 1 (Infantry), 5 (Cost), then of course 4 (for carrying ability). I didnt change their attack or defense mode (Psi, Psi).

The result: An excellent means of carrying troops or colony pods around the planet, especially for rapid movement through Fungus blooms. However, giving them carrying ability, makes the "wild" versions completely docile and non-agressive. Basically sitting ducks for whatever unit you want to throw their way to harvest their energy pearls or no threat at all to units such as colony pods or convoy harvesters. In other words, a boring SMAC experience!

Cybergod added:
In the Mindworm, this part is labelled with a 1, therefore making the AI use it as a combat unit. But the Isle of the Deep has the number 7 = Naval Transport. To make the mindworm capable of transporting units, I suggest you change the 1 in its line to a 7. This should make the AI turn the boil into both a combat (hence the PSi weaponry and armor) and a transport unit (the AI plan).

Thanks! I tried this very option, and what happens is, for example, I step on a unity pod which spawns a mindworm. It spawns correctly, informs me that the pod was infested, then the worm disapears. In my mind similar to what happen to a unity foil etc. when its too near land and a land unit step on a unity pod, causing an earthquake and "expansion" of land, overtop of where your ship used to be. I suppose my question is, how were they able to define this unit as a foil, yet have them still retain their natural aggression, since I tried defining the worms as a convoy unit (same concept) and they lost their aggression? (see below).
I also tweaked their combat classification to "Rover" as in below....

Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 3 , 5, 4 , CentEmp, 3, 000000000000000000000000

This makes them, DAMNED fast through fungus, and much more deadly because of their speed. However, adding the carrying ability again made them docile and non-agressive when encountering the "wild" varieties. I also, tried classifying them as (5) planet busters with carrying ability, with the same result, (0) offensive, with the same results, (-1) randomly determine with
the same results and (10) Convoy, with the same results. I even tweaked the convoy file allowing them to have Psi defense and attack ability but crashed the game.
I next thought that perhaps their classification was further defined in the ensuing binary table. Yet, they are all zero's, just like the Isles of the Deep. In fact, the only difference between the native creatures was the Locusts having the binary turned on for aerial unit, and of course their icon classification (ie. a 3= the mindworm icon).

[Capt Dizle]

Interesting. Maybe Googlie can help.

Cybergod, I flat think you made that up. Aliens launched a PB, oh please.

[Mongoose]

I was PB'd by Marr in a SP game. I'd been using gas to keep the part of his landmass which was within needlejet range of me uninhabited. Did't have infiltraton. His conventional missiles were annoying enough, then, out of the blue, he busted my capital with two SPs.

'Course, I eventually turned his continent into his very own version of the thousand lakes. Domai got bent out of shape by the 12 busters I used on Marr...I had to give him a taste too! Won that one with a LOT of ocean on the map.

[Cybergod]

Originally posted by jimmytrick
Cybergod, I flat think you made that up. Aliens launched a PB, oh please.

Oh, a doubtful Thomas I see? I dare you to try it out (set the Isles of Deep in the AI plan to be used as PBs)...

[Timbtoo]

One solution

I had to invent a "Dune" map, completely without water. The Isles of the deep worked fine, but in essence you had two different types of mindworms in the game. It was actually kind of fun, since if the Isle was carrying an ALien pod, the worms would attack the Isle with vigor. They also retained their moving abilities, which made them much faster than the standard worm. This was additionally boosted to "crusier" chassis. The suckers could flat out fly in a fungal field!!! The only downside was the actual crusiers and foils were converted to land vehicles. Which made it interesting, since they behaved as huge harvesters.
To offset the speed of the Isles I increased the speed of regular worms to hovertank chassis. They were to say the least very deadly.
However, I suppose it doesnt solve the problem of the standard mindworms. I reckon, that they simply can't be modified for use in this manner. Although, it still befuddles me how they go the Isles of the Deep in a standard planet game to become aggressive. (In my tweaks, the Isles were also rather docile, yet were also incredibly rare to run across "in the wild").
Thanks for any ideas, if you have more please send them along!

Tim