Expansion Mod 0.91 [WIP] [DEAD FOR NOW]

[EditorRUS]

Have you ever thought that Transcendence's universe feels somewhat... empty? Even with Dynamic Systems there seems to be lack of one thing: faction's war for territory.
This mod is supposed to fix that problem. The point is to make factions expand, which means they are going to build new stations over time and create huge conglomerates.

This is all done as follows:
1. We check what sovereigns there are in that system
2. We check if the amount of stations is less than hard cap
3. We check if the amount of station each sovereign has is less than soft cap and if so, we add it to eligible sovereigns
4. We roll the dice for each sovereign and pick random construction plan that meets certain condition (the condition is custom and can be anything, the only thing that matters is what it returns)
5. After 2 to 200 seconds the whole ship chain gates in. The ship chain is also custom and currently consists of one main builder ship and multiple custom escorting ships.
6. They choose a certain place according to custom criteria. If they can't find a suitable place, they gate out and cease expansion.
7. They move to the position.
8. Once they are there, the main ship starts building new station. During that time you might see multiple decorative unbuilt stations appear and disappear.
9. Once the final station is built, the main ship and the escort gate away.
10. Be aware, that only existing sovereigns can expand. If you purge some sovereign from the system entirely, it will be considered too dangerous and they won't appear again.

Since the mod is unfinished, I am not going to put it on Xelerus yet. You can toy around with settings a bit.

Post here your suggestions as to what ships could be used by what sovereigns for building what stations. Also I would like to balance things out.

This mod should be compatible with any other mod and should be pretty stable. Nothing was overridden and there are a few new global lambdas.
Other mods might add their own expansion chains for their new sovereigns.

I plan on creating each vanilla sovereign expansion chains in "packs".
Packs:
Commonwealth Pack
Corporate Hierarchy Pack

Current version: 0.91

ATTENTION: THIS MOD REQUIRES DYNAMIC SYSTEMS FOR CORRECT WORK

A relatively advanced system

[EditorRUS]

Expansion Mod is updated!

The mod is now in playtesting stage.
Some code was rewritten and new functionality was added. This allows me to create a little less rigid expansion chains.
Expansion chains for Commonwealth are defined. You should be able to see a lot of commonwealth stations around, heh. Currently working on Corporate Hierarchy.

[EditorRUS]

Update:
Quick hotfix. Apparently the game never created overseers beyond Eridiani.

[TheLoneWolf]

Lol looks like we're trying to do similar @#$!!
What I'm trying to do is:
(pseudocode)

check system for factions
if hostility is neutral
increase reinforcement call for both factions
send raids from both against each other to destroy stations
create one of your own after each is destroyed

else if hostility is one sided
increase reinforcement call
send raids from hostiles to destroy station
create one for each destroyed

else check the attribute of factions
if faction attribute is destructive chaos
increase reinforcements
attack stations of factions nearby
build one for each destroyed

else if order is constructive chaos
and heritage is &baCorporate
hire bounty hunters to target other buisnesses


but idk how to work TLISP

[TheLoneWolf]

If spawn station
check the system level
spawn stations accordingly to the --curv-- attribute

this way we won't get an adventurer outfitter or pirate fortress in eradani

[EditorRUS]

Yeah, I've been told about you.

My way is much more flexible, in my opinion.
Before writing my code, I am actually writing how different sovereigns expand. For example, Commonwealth will be all over the place and form HUGE conglomerates, since it's a prevalent faction that serves for people. And yes, that, in fact, means, that after the danger is gone, Commonwealth will expand into late game systems. Though I have to balance it anyway.

Here's how Corporate Hierarchy is going to expand (Corporate Hierarchy Expansion Program)

And Commonwealth:

The rules for the latter are much simpler, as you can see.

Speaking of that, I've been given permission from RPC to reuse DySys code. The kicker is that I am going to make this mod an addon to DySys. It's completely meaningless without it, but the main inspiration that this mod gave me is simple, "If they can repair destroyed stations, why can't they create new ones?" and here I am.

[TheLoneWolf]

Yeah, I've been told about you.

Really? Did they mention how eccentric I am?

My way is much more flexible, in my opinion.
Before writing my code, I am actually writing how different sovereigns expand. For example, Commonwealth will be all over the place and form HUGE conglomerates, since it's a prevalent faction that serves for people. And yes, that, in fact, means, that after the danger is gone, Commonwealth will expand into late game systems. Though I have to balance it anyway.

Here's how Corporate Hierarchy is going to expand (Corporate Hierarchy Expansion Program)

And Commonwealth:

The rules for the latter are much simpler, as you can see.

Speaking of that, I've been given permission from RPC to reuse DySys code. The kicker is that I am going to make this mod an addon to DySys. It's completely meaningless without it, but the main inspiration that this mod gave me is simple, "If they can repair destroyed stations, why can't they create new ones?" and here I am.

All hail RPC. That's quite some brainstorm you got there. Fine ideas. But how are you going to balance the population : buyer ratio? Obviously everyone isn't going to get that Katana or TOTL Monopole deflector screen. And many more will buy food.

[EditorRUS]

Fine ideas. But how are you going to balance the population : buyer ratio?

It doesn't matter. It's not the people who live there, it's the companies that bring supplies for the people. They are the ones Corporate Hierarchy is working with. And the logic is simple: more stations = more people = more freighters = more business = more profit.
Corporate Hierarchy works closely with Commonwealth, which might mean they are, in fact, their biggest buyer. It's implied that Commonwealth is the one distributing bought consumables and Corporate Hierarchy is the one manufacturing them.

[TheLoneWolf]

But but there are many different types of Corporate stations.

Like if there exist neutral colonies and stations, the chances of spawning an ice farm go up.

Or if there is enemy presence in a system with the presence of neutral colonies/stations, the chances of spawning armour/weapon dealership goes up.

From what I know, Commonwealth has already expanded till St. K's. CW was based on St. K's even 200yrs before SOTP.
And its strange to see that not every system has a colony of CW.
Thanks for fixing that.

[EditorRUS]

And its strange to see that not every system has a colony of CW.

It won't happen that easily:
>1. We check what sovereigns there are in that system
Only present ACTIVE sovereigns are expanding in a system.

Most systems do have certain CW stations, but starting from mid-game those are mostly military settlements.

Like if there exist neutral colonies and stations, the chances of spawning an ice farm go up.
Or if there is enemy presence in a system with the presence of neutral colonies/stations, the chances of spawning armour/weapon dealership goes up.

It doesn't work that way for CH. They will expand somewhere where there is a lot of potential buyers and demand for their production. And by demand you don't mean ONLY enemies in THIS system. Shortly speaking buyers would go to huge conglomerates to buy a lot of things and have a lot of choice rather than to single stations. And more interesting people would buy in bulk, which is also good for them.
By demand I mean production of appropriate level, which is why I follow levelFrequency curve. It's a good way of making sure no too-low-level stations are in high level systems and vice versa.

[EditorRUS]

Expansion Mod is updated!

Changelog:
Corporate Hierarchy Expansion Program is implemented.
5 new global lambdas added. (read lambda reference.txt for reference)
Now there can be multiple exclusion criteria.
Dynamic Systems is required for correct work now.
Now you can add or remove systems where expansion doesn't happen.
Some code refactored.
Includes drafts of how Commonwealth and Corporate Hierarchy expands. Be aware that those are somewhat incorrect as I was changing the code while playtesting.


Next I am going to create Charon Pirates expansion pack. That should take much less time as they don't have many stations and ships.

[cheezit]

This is a fantastic concept! Really looking forward to future developments

[EditorRUS]

That takes much more time than anticipated.

[EditorRUS]

I am almost done with Marauders. This pack will include expansion data for three factions - Centauri Warlords, Charon Pirates and Marauders. Unless I screw up something badly, I should be able to finish by tomorrow or maybe the day after tomorrow

[EditorRUS]

Well then. I did manage to finish the marauders pack, but the problem is that this mod is now lagging badly. I'll have to spend some time optimizing it. Until then, here's an unoptimized version. Until I fix the lagginess, I won't proceed. Until then, you can go and preview the changes.