vanillacold / spore-solarspore Goto Github PK

In order to make the mod more maintainable (in the case that I might stop modding development of the mod and someone else forks it), comments should be added to the mod's C++ projects.

This likely will take place after the code is restructured, see #5.

0.6a is adding new tools for each archetype. These tools are unlocked by colonizing 30 possibly 60 systems.

However, not every archetype has a fully-functional custom tool yet. The full list is as follows:

• Wanderer - Wandering Portal and Intergalactic Drive. (WP teleports you to a random nearby star, ID lets you teleport to any star.)
• Diplomat - Detente (ends a war between the player and an NPC empire, though said NPC empire still dislikes you for declaring war.)
• Knight - Regal Shield (reduces damage taken by 75%, reserves 50% of energy)
• Warrior - Berserker Rage (increases damage dealt to 300%, reserves 25% of energy)
• Scientist - AC Generator (reduces energy losses by 50%, reserves 30% of health)
• Ecologist - Life Burst (sets terrascore to T3 instantly (creatures and plants need to be added separately), cancels effects of Staff of Death)
• Trader - Purple Spice Dye (changes the spice of the current planet to purple spice)
• Zealot - Starkiller (destroys a solar system, along with all of its planets. Couldn't think of anything better or more OP than Fanatical Frenzy.)
• Shaman - Return Portal (teleports you to your nearest colony)
• Bard - Unknown (actually forgot that these dudes existed)

If anyone has any ideas for Diplomats and Zealots, please tell me - I honestly don't know what to do for their tools.

It doesn't change the species used in the outfitter, and it also doesn't change the actual "avatar" species (aka the species your save appears to use in the Galaxy Game Entry).

some consequence traits can improve the damage multiplier of the player's weapons. Berserker Rage doesn't restore the original multiplier but rather, it just sets it to 1.

An issue with Spore's space stage is how easy it is to max out your weaponry once you get a good spice economy going.
It eliminates the need for any missions, which in turn makes the game more boring due to having nothing to do.

A research system, where tools need to be researched before purchase, could make this more interesting.
While research points will be given passively, large empires will not give many more than smaller empires due to the number of points per minute being equivalent to the logarithm of the number of systems the player has, multiplied by a constant.

These points will be used to unlock stronger tools, including the special archetype weapons (#1), and will also be obtained through missions and by scanning objects.
This will encourage players to do both of these things, making the stage less boring in theory due to having more things to do.

Right now, the only difference between archetypes are the special tools you get.
While this is fine, I feel that it would be neat for each archetype to have their own unique tools.

I already made a system for this in the past, for an unfortunately scrapped mod, and I want to add it back to Solar Spore too.

Right now, NPC empires are too weak in comparison to the player in the late-game.
Although their weaponry can be strong in the early game, they just cannot stand up to the versitility of the player's many different tools.
After all, strength means nothing in the face of an invincibility shield.

So, I propose that NPC spaceships be given buffs, chosen at random for each ship.
For example:

Some ships may have close-range lasers that are weaker than normal, but can break the player's shield.
Other ships can have long-range cannons to warp closer to the player, so that they cannot just run away.

I will add more, of course, but these are just some examples.
In general, these buffs will also get stronger with the empire's tier; ending in the Grox Empire, which will have massively buffed tools that will require new, late-game weaponry to stand up to. (see #8 and #1)

The galaxy in Spore is too large to make exploration enjoyable, considering that there is never any sort of goal other than finding the ideal spice and expanding your empire.

I propose making new mission types where the goal is to find several "points of interest".
Each of these points could have their terrain overwritten to produce genuinely interesting planets, and should also have a goal attached to them - possibly bringing an artefact back?

After the Galactic Core has been reached, there isn't much left to do in the space stage; sure, you can face off against the Grox, but there is no more main questline available after reaching the Core.

It would be neat if Solar Spore added more goals that are unlocked after getting the Staff of Life.
These likely will include several adventure-based missions, alongside other unique quests (e.g #6), that are completed in a specific order.

The idea here is for the questline to be building up something, such as a weapon for taking over planets - possibly something like the TX-5000 Super Weapon from the Maxis adventure with the same name?

Either way, a large post-SoL questline would give the player a goal to work towards.

The Starkiller tool cannot destroy colonies, so it's currently restricted to uncolonized systems.
This needs to be fixed.

The mod's codebase is very messy, due to my inexperience at programming when first writing the mod.
To fix this, each Visual Studio project in the mod should be restructured; ideally, they should also be made to be under one solution, rather than several.
The SMFX projects should also be restructured. All new parts and tools should be added to a "foundation" package, so that data is not potentially lost if a player disables components.

• Restructure "CustomTools" VS project
• Add code to VS projects to detect if the correct components are enabled
• Investigate and restructure "RareSpices" VS project
• Add all custom tools to a "foundation" project
• Add all custom parts to the same "foundation" project