Species: Frankov

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Mr. Tree
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Species: Frankov

#1 Post by Mr. Tree »

My first attempt at a species. Tried to fill in the lack of Photrophic species (absolutely no desert dwellers)

Species: Frankov (named after their creator)
Metabolism: Phototrophic
Homeworld Desert ( was proboably a science lab/colony belonging to a previous species)
Description: Paranoid, Prickly, Xenophobic, Hording, Sentient Cactuses

Reason for leaving the planet: They are constantly afraid of their creators coming back to destroy them and therefore want to hoard as many resources as possible for emergency

History/Origin: A GMO experiment gone horribly wrong. After their creators realized their mistake they tried to destroy them, but at this point they were quite numerous and very strong.
The Frankov's hatred was so strong for their masters that they extermineted all of them that they could find. They still believe their creators are out there and want to come back to destroy them.
They also have hate and envy for cuddly creatures that have a chance of being liked.

Description: Multi-tentacled cactus like sentient plants. Quite prickly and for that reason they don't make great huggers.

Social structure: Socialist in a way. Vary Militaristic and production oriented. Don't show much effection to anybody.

Attributes:
+ Good Industry 150%
- Bad population 75%
+ Strong defensive ground troops 150%
+ Strong ofensive ground troops 150%
- Bad Research 75%

Some kind of a stockpile bonus ( I believe thtat is being reworked and would be great to have a species with a bonus for it)

Preferred focus: Industry

Environment Preferences
Swamp: Hostile
Toxic: Hostile
Inferno: Poor
Radiated: Adequate
Desert: Good
Terran: Adequate
Oceanic: Hostile

Asteroids: Uninhabitable
Gas Giants: Uninhabitable

May seem not too original maybe kinda wierd but if we can have racoons and happybirthday singing robots then whatever.
(they could be made into a planetbound species if you claimed that they wouldn't want to go anywhere in fear of meeting their maker)
If anybody has any interest in this (I know species aren't at the top of the list right now) then feel free to suggest ideas
Also included a quick scetch

my current version: FreeOrion version 0.4.7.1
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All of my contributions should be considered released under creative commons attribution share-alike license, CC-BY-SA 3.0 for use in, by and with the Free Orion project.
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Last edited by Mr. Tree on Sun Dec 03, 2017 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Jaumito
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Re: Species: Frankov

#2 Post by Jaumito »

Mr. Tree wrote:Quite prickly and for that reason they don't make great huggers.
The next species I'll design will be a race of tree-hugging fakirs or sadhus. Your xenophoboc cacti are doomed.

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MatGB
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Re: Species: Frankov

#3 Post by MatGB »

Species are never at the top of the list, but also not at the bottom, they have a very sepcific advantage over virtually all other stuff: if there are no completely new rules, they can go in without AI work, just balancing.

I like this idea, some of the text needs work (the hug line is fun but a bit over the line, explorer robots singing Happy Birthday is a Real Life Thing ;-) )
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Vezzra
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Re: Species: Frankov

#4 Post by Vezzra »

Mr. Tree wrote:Attributes:
+ Good Industry 150%
- Bad population 75%
+ Strong defensive ground troops 150%
+ Strong ofensive ground troops 150%
- Bad Research 75%
Bad pop and bad research is a very severe combination, especially on a map with low or none native species, which renders the advantage of the strong offensive ground troops somewhat useless. That combo essentially makes finding and conquering other species asap to alleviate these weaknesses crucrial.
Environment Preferences
Swamp: Hostile
Toxic: Hostile
Inferno: Poor
Radiated: Adequate
Desert: Good
Terran: Adequate
Oceanic: Hostile
You forgot Tundra and Barren in your list, also you go from Terran: adequate to Oceanic: hostile, missing the "poor" step. So that actually needs to be:

Swamp: Hostile
Toxic: Hostile
Inferno: Hostile
Radiated: Hostile
Barren: Poor
Tundra: Adequate
Desert: Good
Terran: Adequate
Oceanic: Poor

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Oberlus
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Re: Species: Frankov

#5 Post by Oberlus »

Environment Preferences
Swamp: Hostile
Toxic: Hostile
Inferno: Poor
Radiated: Adequate
Desert: Good
Terran: Adequate
Oceanic: Hostile
Barren and Tundra are missing, and those would be the expected poor and adequate planets instead of radiated and inferno.

Currently (and not for my complete satisfaction) the environment preferences of each species are set just as a preferred environment plus normal/broader/narrower tolerance (so that normal species have 1 good, 2 adequate, 2 poor and rest are hostile; broader gives +2 poor environments and narrower eliminates the 2 adequate environments). Then what is adequate, poor or hostile depends on this circle of environments:
Image

PS: Vezzra came first.

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Mr. Tree
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Re: Species: Frankov

#6 Post by Mr. Tree »

Thanks for your comments guys.
Quite prickly and for that reason they don't make great huggers.
Ah, well the quote on hugs was just for fun, isn't necessary to have

As for the bad population( wasn't too keen on it anyways, just a balance thing) we can just leave that out.
I could change it to
+ Good Industry 150%
+ Strong defensive ground troops 150%
+ Strong ofensive ground troops 150%
- Bad Research 75%

however, that might leave them with too many advantages.
(I could nerf the offensive ground troops)
(Also my suggestion of a I. stockpile Bonus? though not too sure if I fully understand it since it hasn't been implemented)

Barren and Tundra- Oops I did leave them out.
- Well the circle does make sense. However I was thinking these were GMO (Therefore designed for specific environments) and meant to withstand high extreme conditions such as desert and areas with high doses of radiation thus the planet preference choices.

So I might change it to:

Swamp: Hostile
Toxic: Hostile
Inferno: Hostile
Radiated: Adequate
Barren: Poor
Tundra: Poor
Desert: Good
Terran: Adequate
Oceanic: Poor

But it's just an idea

Feedback is great thanks so far
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MatGB
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Re: Species: Frankov

#7 Post by MatGB »

Stockpile is usable in the Test releases which if you want to start contributing scripts (please do) it's worth switching to.

Bad pop/Bad research isn't as bad a nerf as it used to be, I did a lot of work to make it playable last year, Egassem ended up too powerful despite having both: having said that good ind, good troops, bad pop bad research is basically the Egassem so they need differentiation.

We prefer to keep species to the standard wheel, but if there's a good reason that can be shifted, it's just a LOT easier to balance and playtest within the established environment if there aren't too many differences to remember.

The idea of the wheel is it is a genuine wheel, the crossover between desert and tundra would mean cold desert worlds (remember the Antarctic is a desert in some areas), and they're not hard and fast 'this is like planet X' descriptions, if a desert is good a tundra should normally be adequate, etc (I still haven't decided what Mars would be, we know it's not Barren making it either desert or tundra, I suspect the latter with areas of the former ;-) )

Caveat: with a stockpile bonus would be good as it would tie in but it would then require some work by the AI team, as they're currently only just getting a barebones stockpile implementation I have zero clue how much work it'd be, something nice and simple would work (maybe simply able to access more per turn? Start with the first efficiency tech? The latter would be dead easy).
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Oberlus
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Re: Species: Frankov

#8 Post by Oberlus »

Mr. Tree wrote:Swamp: Hostile
Toxic: Hostile
Inferno: Hostile
Radiated: Adequate
Barren: Poor
Tundra: Poor
Desert: Good
Terran: Adequate
Oceanic: Poor
This still does not compliant with the current game mechanics. If Desert is chosen as good (and there is no broader/narrower tolerance trait), then Tundra and Terran must be adequate and Barren and Ocean must be poor.
The only way to get both Radiated and Desert as better-than-hostile is by setting the good environment at Tundra or Barren.

Given that they are GM cactuses able to live in really adverse environments, I would set Barren as good and maybe add in broader tolerance trait.

Bad research + bad pop. coupled with good ind. and not having narrower tolerance gives Frankov some better chances of early colonisation than Egassem, while it still keeps most of the latter's early military strength.

But thinking of how some cactuses expand, I would try:
- good pop.
- bad research
- normal industry
- Broader environment tolerance.
- Good defense and offense troops.
- One or two of the stockpiling efficiency techs already researched (the same way that Abadonni has Subterranean Habitation from start).
- Preferred environment: Barren (only hostiles would be Ocean and Swamp, the more wet of all, coherent with being cactuses)
If overpowered, I would add in bad pilots, or good supply if underpowered.

Good pop (+25%) plus normal ind. and bad research roughly equals to normal pop, slightly bad research (93%), and half-good industry (125%). Helped by better stockpiling abilities this could lead to some interesting and new ways to boost early expasion.

To support the explanation of good defense/offense troops I would blend the description with something along these lines:

Frankov, although being water-based organisms, were designed to be able to withstand very harsh conditions in terms of lack of water, and extreme temperatures or hostile chemical environments, with the ability to sintetise their own water within their organism through controlled oxidation (burning) of hidrogen. The intention of the creators was to use Frankov as a spear head on the terraforming of environments hostile to the Frankov's creators, so that later on all the Frankov are destroyed to free into the environment the water they produced and saved withing their bodies. For this, the creators tried to make Frankov able to quickly adapt to the many hostile environments out there by giving them the ability to use many different metabolic pathways. The development of intelligence was an accident (fatal for their creators). Somehow, Frankov evolved to be able to use their water metabolisation ability as a weapon for self-defense, by throwing violent bursts of extremely hot vapour over their aggressors (or just victims), and even use it to quickly move around when their lifes are in danger. This along with their innate tendency to throw themselves into a berserk combat out of fear even if that implies their death due to excessive metabolisation of water, makes them excellent combatants over the terrain. Their prickles are also rather hard and sharp, able to pound into hard stones or armours.
Frankov were never brainiacs, but they managed to understand and adapt the spacefaring technologies they got from their killed creators/enslavers [...]

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Re: Species: Frankov

#9 Post by Jaumito »

Oberlus wrote:If overpowered, I would add in bad pilots, or good supply if underpowered.
...or good pilots? All those arms/tentacles/appendages should be put to good use - and the thorns, I suppose you could hook extra maps on them, Post-it like. No further navigational aid needed!

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Mr. Tree
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Re: Species: Frankov

#10 Post by Mr. Tree »

Caveat: with a stockpile bonus would be good as it would tie in but it would then require some work by the AI team, as they're currently only just getting a barebones stockpile implementation I have zero clue how much work it'd be, something nice and simple would work (maybe simply able to access more per turn? Start with the first efficiency tech? The latter would be dead easy).
A simple tech unlock might work alright (could be altered at a later time when the IS is completely finished)
- Preferred environment: Barren (only hostiles would be Ocean and Swamp, the more wet of all, coherent with being cactuses)
If overpowered, I would add in bad pilots, or good supply if underpowered.
Well, barren does make the most logical sense here. However, it does seem wierd not having desert being good. Also one of the reasons i made this species was to provide a phototrophic species that had a desert preference ( of which there were none even with an adequate suitability)
Good pop (+25%) plus normal ind. and bad research roughly equals to normal pop, slightly bad research (93%), and half-good industry (125%). Helped by better stockpiling abilities this could lead to some interesting and new ways to boost early expasion.
This seems like a good idea



I think we just need a good semi-believable explenation for why their tolerance is so broad.

The water control theory (or whatever you could call it) might be a viable explenation.

I thought it might be something along the lines of:

The creators were not shy to give the plants genes from a number of organisms, wich mainly gave it antifreeze like properties. Extended hybernation abilities and thicker tougher epidermis for UV protection. The final hope was to give them good reflexes and a strong defense mechanism which unfortunately lead to their increased intelligence, a moment the species refer to as “The Awakening”

(It may be that these creatures were intended to be used as a type of bio-weapon, designed to be durable and hard to eradicate, like a weed. There was probably a fail safe being developed but the plants sudden awakening was unexpected. This would explain why the creators were so eager to destoy them. This quick and rash act however may have turned them into something worse then their science meddling ever could have)

(the gene theory/the bio-weapon theory)
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Oberlus
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Re: Species: Frankov

#11 Post by Oberlus »

(It may be that these creatures were intended to be used as a type of bio-weapon, designed to be durable and hard to eradicate, like a weed. There was probably a fail safe being developed but the plants sudden awakening was unexpected. This would explain why the creators were so eager to destoy them. This quick and rash act however may have turned them into something worse then their science meddling ever could have)
That explanation works charms. Now I'm finding It's like Frankov are some hybrid between Aliens (8th passenger like) and The Body Snatchers, without the clonation.

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Mr. Tree
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Re: Species: Frankov

#12 Post by Mr. Tree »

I guess you could say they are like Alien in the creation sense (but without the overcomplicated life cycle), but kind of like frankensteins monster in the sense of a paranoid, angry monster with a vendetta

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Mr. Tree
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Re: Species: Frankov

#13 Post by Mr. Tree »

So, I tried to write it up (after a while). People seemed to respond positively so far. However it doesn't seem to work (just reused existing files)
If you have any suggestions on what i'm doing wrong (I'm not sure that the original guide in the forums is still valid) please comment( also your suggestions in general, so far quite helpful)
- version- FreeOrion_2018-02-12.c8e8372_Test_Win32_Setup

+ nicer png file
:)

Code: Select all

[color=#00BF00]Species
    name = "SP_FANKOV"
    description = "SP_FRANKOV_DESC"
    gameplay_description = "SP_FRANKOV_GAMEPLAY_DESC"
    Playable
    Native
    CanProduceShips
    CanColonize

    tags = [ "AVERAGE_POPULATION" "PHOTOTROPHIC" "GOOD_INDUSTRY" "XENOPHOBIC" 

"GREAT_STOCKPILE" "PEDIA_PHOTOTROPHIC_SPECIES_CLASS" "VERY_BAD_STEALTH" 

"GREAT_ATTACKTROOPS" ]

    foci = [
        [[HAS_INDUSTRY_FOCUS]]
        [[HAS_RESEARCH_FOCUS]]
        [[HAS_GROWTH_FOCUS]]
        [[HAS_ADVANCED_FOCI]]
    ]
   
    preferredfocus = "FOCUS_INDUSTRY"

    effectsgroups = [
        [[GOOD_INDUSTRY]]
        [[AVERAGE_RESEARCH]]
        [[GREAT_STOCKPILE]]

        [[AVERAGE_POPULATION]]
        [[AVERAGE_HAPPINESS]]
        [[AVERAGE_SUPPLY]]

        [[GOOD_DEFENSE_TROOPS]]
	[[GOOD_OFFENSE_TROOPS]]
        [[AVERAGE_WEAPONS]]

	[[VERY_BAD_STEALTH]]

        // not for description
        [[AVERAGE_PLANETARY_SHIELDS]]
        [[AVERAGE_PLANETARY_DEFENSE]]
        [[LARGE_PLANET]]
	[[BROAD_EP]]
        [[STANDARD_SHIP_SHIELDS]]
    ]

    [[DESERT_STANDARD_EP]]

    graphic = "icons/species/frankov.png"

#include "common/*.macros"

#include "/scripting/common/*.macros"
[/color]

Code: Select all

SP_FRANKOV
Frankov

SP_FRANKOV_GAMEPLAY_DESC
'''Paranoid, Xenophobic, Hoarding, Multi-tentacled, Sentient Cactuses/Cacti.
Prefer [[PT_DESERT]] planets.
[[encyclopedia PHOTOTROPHIC_SPECIES_TITLE]], [[encyclopedia XENOPHOBIC_SPECIES_TITLE]]
'''

SP_FRANKOV_DESC
'''Description:
Multi-tentacled cactus like sentient plants. A genetically modified plant bio-weapon gone wrong. They are named after the scientist who developed them. They are asymetrical and no two are exactly the same. Thay can have anything between three and seven tentacles and multiple eyes. They also come in various sizes. Just like cactuses this creature is also covered with spikes, which capable of injecting a victim with toxic substances (at least for organic creatures). However unlike cactuses known to us, these plants have contractable spikes. These plants also have the ability to store water giving it the ability to live without water for long periods of time. It's outer epidermis is thick and tough making it impervious to certain dangerous cosmic rays.

This creature was ment to be a bio-weapon designed to flourish wherever they were sent. For this, the creators tried to make Frankov able to quickly adapt to the many hostile environments out there by giving them the ability to use two different metabolic pathways. Their metabolism is mostly phototrophic and therefore doesn't need food. However it has heterotrophic capabilities it uses when it has a deficiency of sunlight.

Society: Socialist in a way. Vary Militaristic and production oriented. Don't show much effection to anybody. They were created to be very agressive and defensive in order to battle thir environments. However thei presence on a planet is quickly noticeable due to their hostile nature but also because of their drastic industrial activity which is visible from space. They are somewhat extreme hoarders and manufacturers. Obsessed with being prepared and armed for when they meet their makers, driving hem to explore conquer and extract resources.

History:
The creators were not shy to give the plants genes from a number of organisms, which mainly gave it antifreeze like properties, a mixed metabolism, extended hybernation abilities and thicker tougher epidermis for UV protection. The final hope was to give them good reflexes and a strong defense mechanism which unfortunately lead to their increased intelligence, a moment the Frankov refer to as “The Awakening”.

These creatures were intended to be used as a type of bio-weapon, designed to be durable and hard to eradicate, like a weed. There was probably a fail safe being developed but the plants sudden awakening was unexpected. This very much suprised, and at the same time scared, the creators. They were quite eager to destoy them. However all attempts failed to completely eradicate them. So the planet was evacuated and marked as a biohazard zone. However,the attempt to do destroy thir creation may have turned them into something much worse then their science meddling ever could.

'''[color=#00BF00][/color]
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All of my contributions should be considered released under creative commons attribution share-alike license, CC-BY-SA 3.0 for use in, by and with the Free Orion project.
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Dilvish
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Re: Species: Frankov

#14 Post by Dilvish »

Can you provide more detail than just "doesn't seem to work"?
If I provided any code, scripts or other content here, it's released under GPL 2.0 and CC-BY-SA 3.0

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Mr. Tree
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Re: Species: Frankov

#15 Post by Mr. Tree »

Sorry wasn’t specific,
I mean, when i add the code to the appropriate file, and start the game I can’t seem to find the race. I can’t play as the race or find it in the pedia.

I added the pedia code to the eng stringtables, the actuall species focs file to the scripting species file. And the png file to the species icon file.
It could be possible that they spawn in the map naturally however i have no idea if they do.( however I doubt this)
(It might have to do with this being a test build, I don’t know, I’m not a programmer, i just made what I could)

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