AFAIK, splinter colonies are a possibility in the game. Meaning, they'll probably be implemented eventually. Both for same race and different race colonies. We discussed it a while back.

Yes, we do intend this to be possible.

The morale system in the game is going to undergo a radical overhaul; it won't work the same as in BOTF, and it will be much more involving and realistic. This will have an impact on how your people behave ingame, including whether they decide to split from your Empire.

As it stands, i've written a list of potential Random Events, and Splinter Colonies are included in this list. But once the new morale system is implemented, we will be able to work out the specifics of how Splinter Colonies work, and I should be able to take them out of the Randoms List then.

I have a small doubt about some dilithium structures.
The following structures:
DILITHIUM EXTRACTION RIG------->BOSLICS
DILITHIUM CRACKING STATION-->CORIDAN
DILITHIUM MINE-------------------------->DREMANS
DILITHIUM CRACKING STATION-->HALKANS
DILITHIUM CRACKING STATION-->ZHAL
DILITHIUM GULAG----------------------->KLINGON EMPIRE

have the following function:

<IsUniversallyAvailable>false</IsUniversallyAvailable>
<ObsoletedItems>
<ObsoletedItem>DILITHIUM_REFINERY</ObsoletedItem>
</ObsoletedItems>

Except this structure:

REMAN DILITHIUM MINE------------->ROMULAN STAR EMPIRE

If some of these structures have the function:<ObsoletedItem>DILITHIUM_REFINERY</ObsoletedItem>, why there is no function <Upgrade> and <Prerequisite>?

You'll need to speak .Iceman about this. He's in charge of this sort of thing now. Please note that your files are completely outdated though; there have been a lot of typo fixes, database changes, game/structural/file changes, and so on over the last 18 months. The latest version of the files that .Iceman has put on Sharepoint have a completely different format too; it looks like gobbledygook to me, so I can't even tell you whether this has been looked at or not.

.Iceman, when you read this, i'm referring specifically to TechObjectDatabase.xml, but the same thing has happened to TechTrees and TextDatabase. I haven't looked at any of the other files so I don't know if those have changed too. What's happened to all the formatting? They just display as a constant stream of text now without any separation or tags. Is this a mistake or has Mike changed the way the information is encoded in the files?

I haven't updated (in SharePoint) those 3 files yet, so those are still the versions you put there.
I'll have to check it.

Nevermind, looks like it is an odd error in Chrome. I tried looking at Sharepoint in some other browsers after I read your post and it looks fine. Sorry about the mistake.

TechObjectDatabase.xml as we know it:


TechObjectDatabase.xml in Chrome:



This is the first time i've ever known Chrome to fail like this.

This just proves my theory that Chrome isn't as good as everyone think it is.

What sort of theory is that?! I've always used Chrome, and this is the first time i've ever seen a bug like this. And actually, i've used Chrome to view these files before without problems, so it's actually the result of a bad update, not the program itself. Matress loves Chrome and there's nothing you can say to change his mind.

...And no, that's not a challenge.

Well, I'm currently studying for tomorrow's philosophy test (Well I have 15 classes, let's just say that our school system is a bit messed up in that aspect.) So I'm up for a good debate, be it over "Si enim fallor sum" or over General Metaphysics, or even over bordering situations in life...

About the ORIONS.
Structure: The Orion Syndicate
+20% Raw Materials, +25% Income on Trade Routes, +150 Intel

The Orion Syndicate is a powerful and extremely influential institution. It is a conglomeration of merchants, smugglers, thieves and intelligence operatives, who operate on just about every commercial front: from trade symposiums to the dark shadows of spaceport bars, both openly and in the disguise of reputable merchants. Their goal is simple: to corner as many markets as possible.

Note: In Orion society, the males were slaves to the females. As a means of deceiving other species, the Orions maintained the facade that the females were the slaves. This was commonly done by selling Orion females on the Orion slave market. (ENT: "Borderland", "Bound"; TOS: "The Cage")

Some minor errors/questions in the minor race database http://www.trekmania.net/temp_files/Min ... ection.htm: The Drai/Hunters don't have a Growth value in their profile - instead it says desert, large which was probably meant to replace the terran, large value of their homeworld type.
And is there a particular reason why the Lokirrim are assigned to the beta quadrant when they are a delta quadrant race according to canon (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Lokirrim)? The same question goes for the Boslic which are apparently an alpha quadrant race (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Boslic) as they appeared during the Enterprise timeline long before the bajoran wormhole was used for travel but are listed as a gamma quadrant race.

Another Beta Quadrant Race that could be included would be the Remans. They surely qualify for the inclusion criteria except for the fact that they can be considered an integral part of the romulan empire and their homeworld is found in the romulan system. But since we have the Vorta as a minor race the Remans could also be represented as a minor race even though they are linked to the Romulans. And the problem of multiple races in one system is already circumvented in the cases of the Selay/Anticans, Ornarans/Brekkians and so on, so that shouldn't be a problem either.

The Vorta were removed as a minor race.

Were they?! They're still in the database, and I've had no instructions to remove them.

@Rake
Dafedz's database has some typos and inconsistencies, but we're discussing them as I find them.
The Drai were added in one of the last updates, and it was somewhat confusing. Their growth isn't really important for the game, as that's their planet preference that dictates growth. Currently they have a Large Terran hw.
I had already fixed the Lokirrim. I'll have to check the Boslics though.
The Remans are not going to be made a minor race, they're represented as the Reman Mine for the Romulan Star Empire.
Thanks for the comments! Keep them coming.

I though the Vorta were now to be incorporated into the Dominion just as the Reman are part of the Romulan Star Empire.

Well ask Mike for confirmation but I'm 99% sure we decided to remove them since programming them as an default part of the Dominion was out of the question and making them separate race was nonsensical because of the Dominion Vorta structures and Canon info on them.

Thanks for the clarification Iceman.
Another option that might be implemented could be a trigger for the resistance movement buildings if it doesn't involve too much coding effort. After all it doesn't make much sense for say the bajorans to have a resistance movement if their first contact was with the federation which they joined peacefully later on.
I would suggest that all minor races (and if you consider the maquis, even subjugated colonies of major races) except maybe fundamental pacifists like the mizarians or halkans can build a resistance cell/movement building if and only if they have been conquered by one of the empires, later gained their freedom due to rebellion or pressure from another major power and then peacefully joined one of the empires.
So if for example the bajorans encounter the federation first and successfully apply for membership, they won't be able to build this structure. But if as in canon they were first discovered and conquered by the cardassians, drove them from bajor and then joined the federation, they would be able to.
I think this would improve the gameplay and immersion considering the focus on random maps and the possibility that races that were conquered in star trek canon won't suffer that fate will others will be conquered.
This would of course mean that the bajoran and teplan resistance cells would be removed from the minor races building list and the alsaurians (and maybe others with only a resistance cell building) have to get another unique building.

It's a bit worse than that. The minor race buildings (including the resistance movements) can only be built if the minor is membered, not if it is conquered. The resistance movements can be built at any time though, and once built, they make conquering the system harder - while not hampering membership. Still doesn't make sense that you build resistance movements if they were not needed in the first place... I'm not a fan of these types of 'buildings'.
.

Maybe scrapping these buildings altogether and replacing them with an event might be the way to go. 'Resistance Cell Attack' or somesuch which will destroy some (military?) infrastructure or disrupt production and occurs in occupied systems with a probability thats linked to the morale of the system so that races that have resigned themselves to occupation and learnt to live with it (morale stable or higher) don't have the same amount of resistance activity than rebellious societies.

Not sure if any system, after an invasion, will experience a drop in morale automatically. There are a few morale modifiers related to invasions, just not sure if all of them are empire-wide.

In this game I played some 20 years ago, whenever a planet was conquered, a % of the civilians would form some sort of resistance movement (level zero troops) and "attack" the colony the next turn; if the attacker had a small force, the planet might fall back to the original owner.

--

You're probably right about the Boslics. Not sure if they were one of the races that were put on another quadrant to try to balance their numbers though. There's a lot more AQ minors than GQ, for example.
BTW, Memory Beta mentions their homeworld as being called Cort. There's currently no name to their homeworld, so I'll probably go with that one. Opinions? It's MB, not MA, but.

Also, I came across with this
http://www.startrek.com/database_article/cardassia-iv
We've got it as a Small Desert planet in the database.

Hmm, no opinion regarding cardassia IV, but cardassia prime is also a class m instead of a desert world according to MA (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Cardassia_Prime). That would fit with my idea to set terran as optimal for cardassians with desert and jungle at a comfortable level (they are canonically known to like hotter and more humid surroundings than humans). Maybe to represent the lack of natural ressources on cardassia prime that led to the military coup and their expansionist agenda the cardassian system should not have raw materials (with perhaps a increased stock of them to allow the production of ships) - if I unterstand the game mechanics correctly, they would still be able to mine them later on from the two asteroid belts in the system once they develop the necessary technology, but it would nicely simulate the need to expand to other systems to gather the raw materials they need to fuel their shipyards on cardassia itself.

On another note - to bring the Delta Quadrant up to the Alpha/Beta Quadrant level with regards to minor species, maybe we should include the Brunali (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Brunali) - Ichebs species. In canon they have been devastated by the Borg, but before that they seemed to be a technologically advanced species. Their particular area of expertise was apparently genetics, since even after most of their population was assimilated they still used agricultural genetics and developed a genetic weapon against the Borg. Maybe a 'Brunali Genetics Research Center' or something like that with a research bonus for biotech research and maybe an increase in food production could function as their unique building.