(previous continued)

3. A possibly answer to the support/scout issue i thought of when i saw the DLC ABEM mod was bringing back sensors, an "independent Prince" (or some other special title) system, that would provide a sensor buff at the cost of no support and maybe being more fragile, cause of the fragile sensor gear. I dont have the DLC (yet), but it was just a thought.

I'm sure you've probably thought of these before, and these are just the first ideas i came across that could fit with your race. Mine's a bit different, being a hybrid Matriarchy/Meritocracy/Caste System does that (mouthful ain't it?). So Ideas that work for mine might not make sense for yours. Still, sharing because you let me copy off of you and i have no idea how to script or do the more complex mod building things (for now...). Just thought you might find one of my ideas useful for you. If you do find use for my ideas, just a mention like for Adam Skillings above would do.

a couple ideas ive had thus far:
1. (rather obvious) the lifestyle trait and a separate trait both triggering the same dummy status which is used to determine if the queen/princess provides bonuses or penalties. Created for team play with other lifestyles. Allows player to colonize a planet construct princess hive (palace in my case), and gift it to a teammate whos falling behind. (what i did during play tests at least). could also allow teammates to reclaim worlds you lose without being penalized.

2. "nodes" or "productivity hives". buildings that provide pressure in research, production, etc. Adds a bit of uniqueness to the race and shows how (in the hives case) they are usually small individuals coordinated by one point or leader.

(continued...)

Alternatively, you could mess with abilities that turn on or off the fleet support dynamically, or adjust costs or something, but that's all more work. Another possibility might be giving them a race-specific construction (like building a moon base or whatever) that when completed spawns a basic scout - not one you can design, just a set design using the base command system so it has the autoscout ability.

Finally, if you do come up with any really interesting components, buildings etc, and you wouldn't mind sharing them with me (even if it's not publicly) I'd love to see them. At some point this race type will probably be integrated into ABEM (the new one coming out eventually/soonish) and any additional inspiration or ideas that you feel like sharing would be much appreciated, and credited if you're interested, but likewise if you'd rather just keep them to yourself then I understand.

First, did you know you can upload to the workshop but specify friends-only or entirely private?

Secondly, thanks, and go ahead - feel free to mirror my work. I'd appreciate (but don't strictly require) a comment somewhere that it was based on mine, but that's up to you.

Some people have indeed mentioned that the support cap is sometimes something they don't want. I had a couple of ideas of how to achieve that sort of thing for scoutships etc - my most basic idea was a copy of the subsystem that cost exactly the same, had exactly the same stats, but had no fleet command (and also had a tag telling the AI not to use it - then, designing a starter scout ship for them and making them use that). I think it'd work fine for players, unsure if the AI could be persuaded to use a set scout design but it might work.

This mod has suited my uses quite well. In fact, i find only one issue: the fact that flagships have to have the fleet prince system, which provides support, which is automatically filled and replinished. normally good. except when your trying to make a scout ship. because fleets cant auto-scout.

I've been working on a mod of my own that adds a lifestyle very similar to Hive (so similar that im using this mod as a reference for balancing and how to set up hooks), along with some more buildings, components, and traits for team play. Thought it was appropriate to mention, I'm building with yours as a base, even though i have no intention of uploading to the workshop (multiplayer happens by manually giving mod file to other players. I still live in the LAN party age :P). I hope that doesnt bother you. If you'd rather me not mirror your work I'll take an alternate route.

Haha! Is this compatible with Wake of the Heralds? If I ever made it into modding, a Hiver-like bug race was at the top of my list (I enjoy entomology!), so I'm curious to see how this works out!

Yes, but I've only got four copies of SotS 1. I'm not as dedicated as some :)

Darloth, ever played Sword of the Stars? The Hiver race would interest you very much, I think :D This is on top of my list to try out when I start looking for mods to try out eventually!

It doesn't? Bah... Thought I'd done all of the starter ships. Oh well. Something else to add to the to-do list. Thanks for mentioning it!

I've also noticed that the race doesn't seem to have a dreadnaught ship, so when you start the game and your race has dreadnaught as their starting fleet, you don't have a fleet.

Thank you for swift reply, really enjoying this race!

Nope, just something I didn't think of and nobody mentioned.

You could however build an escort design that fills up the miner's fleet points and is mostly engine so it can keep up. It could even have some weapons and help defend!

If I get time I will add an extra command core version which has no fleet command (but has no benefit - it'll just be lacking, so effectively worse) and some text suggesting you can use it for miners or other things where fleet command is detrimental.

This may be me just being new and bad at the game, but i cant seem to make miners not have a fleet following them around. Because of the hive princes applying fleet command to each ship, they have an amount which slows them down from their normal speed. Even when i have auto fill disabled, they fly next to the capital and automatically refill. Not sure if there is anyway to fix this, or if it is just me being bad and not knowing something.

Destructible hives are in, along with a few other bits and pieces!

That... is an excellent idea. More than that, I think it might even be within my ability to do it! I can -certainly- make hives increase all pop growth in the same system, almost without any new code, and I think with a bit more effort I can then give a smaller bonus to systems one further away. Thanks!

an idea that i have for this would be to add in something so that the migration effect increases the closer those other planets are to a hive planet so the closer you get to a hive planet the less likely you will need another hive planet

There will be an update soon with destructible hives when people conquer hive planets.

Pretty neat, with unique control systems, and production on all worlds (but also a higher investment) I like this life style, and enjoyed three games with it. (I loved using Gates and being basically an insectoid slow advance over the galaxy at war with any neighbor lol)

This is what the mono SHOULD play like. I'll give this a shot.

Thanks. Please let me know what you think.

Looks cool, I'll give it a go.

I haven't yet written the validation to make sure the core is in the centre, but since I'm using a unique constraint on the number, it only runs once for the entire ship. This means that since a) they have to be contiguous, and b) there has to be 7 hexes exactly over the entire ship, you can't have more than one - or so I believe. Once I've written a better validator it won't be an issue anyway.

I also might give the command center some supplies - not that many, perhaps as many per hex as a fission generator. Basically, I want the expected hive fleet to have lots more supports than usual for the same maintenence cost, and for the flagship to mostly just be a damage sponge. Nothing stops you making other types, but it should be less efficient.

I like to keep mod packages small when I can, because people often want different bits and pieces and it's usually more compatible this way :)

No, I haven't removed the control computer. It's not an amazingly good piece of equipment for the more typical lifestyles... but it IS a really nice tech for a Hive race - you get redundant control on your ships, AND more command. See? It works really well. (As an aside, this also applies to Verdant, and they usually have even less command)

If you really think 14 is too restrictive, I could add another subsidiary module that you can apply to the command centre to get additional command for a big chunk of cost, but it is meant to be a limitation - one fleet-prince can only pay attention to so many things, after all! As a Hive, you're meant to be depending primarily on your support ships.

Just a heads up: First of all, 14 Command seems a bit restrictive. Admittedly, this is something I don't particularly like about the Verdant, either, so...

You're not removing access to the Control Computer tech.

As far as I can tell from a quick examination of your code, the Command Center doesn't necessarily have to have its core in the center - it just has to have seven hexes, all of which are connected to each other. I am not ENTIRELY certain if it'll prevent the placement of additional Command Centers, either; it might work, or it might not. I'd have to check the checkContiguous function and the Sinew subsystems to be certain.

Heh, you seem to be to gameplay what I was to shipsets. Lots of stuff that isn't(?) mutually exclusive but comes in separate packages. :P