Need Input on TA Yor Mod

Not really a mod... more like tweaks.

So after going a bit through the forums, I've read a some complaints about the Yor changes in TA. I decided to try out the Yor on TA and found that most of the complaints to be quite true. After some thought, I've decided to tweak the Yor differently. I know TA is still in beta, but... I'm done with school until next semester... and it's the weekend. So why not?

I've gone through a few threads on how people would like to see the Yor become. I've copied some of the ideas and the poster who thought of them as well (I like to give credit to who deserves it). I would like any kind of input one may have concerning this, from techs to ship design for all I care.

Like some have already stated I would like to see the Yor become "less human." I don't think this will be a time consuming project, but if anyone wants to lend a helping hand, I won't say no.

Here's some ideas from fellow posters:

YOR IDEAS

-(talon012754)-
+ The Yor should have no need in the beginning for any kind of life support for their spacecraft. There robots for god sake.They should have excellent beginning ranges on their ships. And as a result of no life support their ships should cost less. Less redundancy systems needed.Freighters as well should cost less.And starbases to.

+They should have faster repair skills.

-Creativity should be off limits as they think like machines.
-Research should be weak. as a result.

+To compensate for weak research since the robot bodies can stand higher levels of radiation powerful energies could be applied to invent teleporters to help steal techs and spying. Obviously very slow in the beginning but increasing.Biological tissue would not stand for this.
(Of course survey ships go through black holes but it is a matter of repeated exposure to radiation.)

+Ships might be able to teleport small distances as well.
Super Ability should be a mechanical version of the hive. No individuality.

-(thehandofzarquon)-
1. Increase the Morale the charging stalks provide. Greatly, imho. Something like 15/30/45 or so. Someone, somewhere on these boards, mentioned giving the Yor "Compliance Algorithms" techs, or something like that, that provided passive morale boosts by "removing or reducing rouge units". I really like that idea.

2. This kinda struck me when I thought of the Yor having strength in numbers vibe going: Every Unique Yor building (including the Charging Stalks...) would provide +1 "food"/max pop. Charging Stalks in this case are basically "just" morale improvements. The more I think about this idea, the more and more I like it. If it doesn't get in TA, I'm certainly highly considering making a mod that does this.

3. Remove the Maintenance on the Collective improvements. I think that would go a long way in improving the Yor's poor economy, especially in the beginning.

4. Have the Yor's Planetary Invasion Tech be unique to them and give a unique Troop Module that's smaller, cheaper, and holds 750 rather than 500 troops. This unique Tech can't be traded or stolen. (The Yor currently do not get the Advanced Troop Module)

5. Make the Mini Soldiers Invasion Tactic either Yor-unique or available earlier for the Yor. Either the Yor's Planetary Invasion tech equivalent or the first Terror Drone tech could provide it.

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Ah, yes, the Yor. I actually did go ahead and test out some of my ideas, and I eventually made up this little (ha!) list of changes I had planned on making a mod out of once TA was released:

Overall Idea: Make the Yor much, much more alien by making them more "collective" and "cybernetic"-like.

Most of the Yor's tech tree can't be traded.

No Life Support Techs.

Cybernetic History gives +15 Range

Stellar Streams gives +15 Range as well as +10 speed.
Cost of Stellar Streams halved.

New "Improved Stellar Streams" tech. Gives +10 speed and +25 Range

Spark of Life techs give increasingly better Range bonuses.

Charging Stalk techs give less effective, more expensive Support Modules.

Yor Collectives give +1 max pop each and give both Production and Research, but greater amounts for production:

Collective
Production: 5
Research: 3
Maintaince: 2

Improved Collective
Production: 7
Research: 4
Maintaince: 4

Enhanced Collective
Production: 9
Research: 5
Maintaince: 6

Superior Collective
Production: 11
Research: 6
Maintaince: 8

Ultimate Collective
Production: 13
Research: 7
Maintaince: 10

Collectives are slightly more expensive to build and research.

Yor no longer have the Research Building techs.

New Tech "Collective Research" and gives +5 Research.

Computational Matrix Requires this new Collective Research Tech

Synthetic Ingenuity now requires Computational Matrix

Creative Insight now requires Synthetic Ingenuity

Tech Victory line is attached to the end of the Synthetic Ingenuity line.

Research Matrix provides +20% research

Research Matrix requires Collective Research.

Charging Stalks no longer give +max pop.

Basic Charging Stalks give +5 Morale and +8% pop growth

Charging Stalks give +10 Morale and +12% pop growth

Advanced Charging Stalks give +15 Morale and +16% pop growth

Charging Stalk techs are slightly more expensive to research.

Efficiency Centers give +25 Economy and +20 Morale and are an upgrade from the Maintainence Grid.

Each Efficiency tech gives +10 Economy (for a total of +50 with all of them)

Efficiency Techs give +2 morale each.

The later Efficiency techs are slightly more expensive to research, but the earlier ones are cheaper.

New "Compliance Algorithms" techs. Three of them, each gives +5 Morale and +10 Loyalty.

New "Specialized Soldiers" tech gives +15 Soldiering, +25 Courage, and a new Troop module that holds 1250 troops each (Cost slightly more? Less? Larger/Smaller?).

First Terror Drones tech gives +15, second +20, the last still gives +25.

New "Terror Drone Assault" tech. Gives the Mini Soldiers invasion tactic. Off first Terror Drone tech.

Yor no longer have the Planetary Bombardment tech.

It is much easier for the Yor to research the Radioactive, Heavy Gravity, and Toxic Colonization techs, but harder to research Aquatic Colonization.

Manufactoring Vortex and the other tech are moved somewhere other than off the Collective Techs (Off Xeno Engineering, maybe?).

Some notes on the concepts of these changes:
Many of the current Yor techs refer to the fact that the Yor lose their sentience the farther away they go from "The Source". I really like this feel in the Yor. I extended this to mean that they can naturally go farther than most biological entities can, but they have a much, MUCH harder time extending this range than organics can.

Collectives are changed to be places of living, research, and production. The maintenance costs are fairly high on them, but it is less overall than the three "organic" buildings each replaces (thus the efficiency of the race as a whole is greater). They are also more effective at Production than Research, which the Synthetic Ingenuity line suggests.

The overall effect of the Collectives means that the Yor have a LARGE population, although it can take some time to build up due to lower pop growth/morale. Every planet is likely to be able to produce Ships at a somewhat moderate rate. On the flipside, it does remove some strategy in colony design, and many planets end up looking the same. Of course, this does work to make the Yor more unique, too, and fits in with the whole "collective" deal (like the borg) of the race.

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A lot of great ideas there. Sounds like you've got almost everything figured out too. My concern would be about what you already stated as the worlds get kind of repetitive. Regardless that this is how they are envisioned, players may not like this.

I think they have some special ability (perhaps a racial ability) that increases their repair ability.

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A lot of great ideas there. Sounds like you've got almost everything figured out too.

Thanks, I tried to put a good bit of thought and effort into it. I have a lot changes in mind for the other races, but I'm the happiest currently with the changes to the Yor and the image they project on them.

My concern would be about what you already stated as the worlds get kind of repetitive. Regardless that this is how they are envisioned, players may not like this.

Yeah, I know... I was thinking about putting some more planetary improvements/super projects in their techs, but I couldn't really think of much that would fit nicely. Really though, I only ever have "Economy Worlds", "Production Worlds", "Research Worlds", and "Production Worlds that host a lot of trade goods/galactic achievements" as my colony designs anyway...

Splitting the Collectives into Manufacturing and Research Collectives might reduce the repetitiveness of world design. That would bring the colony design choices practically back to what the default Yor currently are, anyway. Could warrant reducing the maintenance of collectives down a bit too. Maybe 1/3/5/7/9 for each type respectively.

I think they have some special ability (perhaps a racial ability) that increases their repair ability.

Could do. Something like "Sentient Ships" that gives minor bonuses to Weapons, Defense, and/or, HP then "Self-Diagnostics" that gives a repair boost.

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2. This kinda struck me when I thought of the Yor having strength in numbers vibe going: Every Unique Yor building (including the Charging Stalks...) would provide +1 "food"/max pop. Charging Stalks in this case are basically "just" morale improvements. The more I think about this idea, the more and more I like it. If it doesn't get in TA, I'm certainly highly considering making a mod that does this.

I think this is a bad idea. I like to be able to control my population, and not have run out of control. You get severe morale penalties for getting your population too close to 25 bil, the strongest being 25+ bil.

If stardock gave us a way to restrict our max population on our planets, despite being able to support even more, I would not have a problem.

3. Remove the Maintenance on the Collective improvements. I think that would go a long way in improving the Yor's poor economy, especially in the beginning.

Agreed. I'm currently looking at the "Ultimate Collective", and I see that it has 2 points more maintaince, and only 1 more point of production when compared to an "Industrial Sector".

5. Make the Mini Soldiers Invasion Tactic either Yor-unique or available earlier for the Yor. Either the Yor's Planetary Invasion tech equivalent or the first Terror Drone tech could provide it.

They have it oddly enough. In fact, a lot of invasion tactics seem to be available earlier than what you would expect back in DA.

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I partially agree, and in my own little testing, I made only the collectives give the +max pop. The charging stalks are changed to give +pop growth bonuses in addition to their minor morale bonuses (which, given the description of the Basic Stalk... seems to be the original intent)

Of course, it can take a helluva long time for the Yor to actually reach 20+ bil pop, at least in my experience. In any case, you can always use extra spaces for trade goods, galactic achievements, etc, etc. I do intend to try to add a bunch more planetary improvements/super projects/etc for the Yor to try to help players keep Max Pop under control...

Agreed. I'm currently looking at the "Ultimate Collective", and I see that it has 2 points more maintaince, and only 1 more point of production when compared to an "Industrial Sector".

Since the Collectives under my proposed changes are now effectively a number of buildings in one, I kinda think it is neccessary to at least have some maintenance cost associated with them.

If they remain as they currently are, then yeah, the costs should be reduced or eliminated.

They have it oddly enough. In fact, a lot of invasion tactics seem to be available earlier than what you would expect back in DA.

There is some kind of bug in regards to invasion tactics and their prerequisite techs not actually being in a race's tech tree. I made a thread about it here...

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