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1

Bug Reports & Support / Requesting help with some Linux version issues

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:51:12 PM »

I went through the settings.json of the main game and tweaked things more to my liking (For the record, I've been doing this for years in Windows versions already, so by now I know how to avoid blowing things up).  I switched to Linux (Ubuntu) a while back and, while Starsector still runs, I've noticed a number of issues.

1) Game drops into slow motion when entering or exiting star systems, or to put it more specifically whenever that fogging fade in/fade out effect kicks in.  Now I know that yammering about "I've got 8 cores, wtf" is pointless because we all know that 99.9% of programs out there still all run on only a single core.  But hey, it's a Java game, one should still be enough, especially with a rockin' video card, right? Changing the uiFadeSpeedMult has no effect.

2) Massive slowdown when fighter swarms come into play.  I mention this because, after getting the whole 8-core/turbo video computer but before switching to Linux I could throw 200+ fighters into play at once with zero slowdown.  Now it's like I'm back to running my old 2-core from the year 2000 again.  I don't get it?  How is that getting a better system results in the game running slower when under load?

3) Most eyebrow raising of all is the settings.json thing I mentioned at the start.  It seems like half the stuff in it works and the other half the game just completely ignores.  For example I can change the values of sensors per ship, and the number of ships that contribute.  I can change the speed of ships per thrust point no problem.  I can change the limits on the number of hull mods per ship no problem.

However the lines that control how much memory the game can use?  Completely ignored.  I've got 16gigs of RAM yet I can load the game stuck vanilla with no mods and within 2 minutes I'm getting a Low RAM Warning.  I went and cranked that limit up to 8gb in the config - which worked in Windows - but now it does nothing.  Controlling AA sampling?  No longer does anything.  Change the fleet point limit per battle?  No effect in game.  Camera pan and zoom limits?  No longer functional.  Change fleet size limits?  Nope.

And it seems completely random.  Sometimes the game is clearly reading the settings.json and doing what it is told, and sometimes the game apparently doesn't care what the file says and just does its own thing - and badly.  I have no idea as to why the game seems to only be reading half the file.

Now my best guess is that a lot of these lines were just copy/pasted from the Windows version and their functionality either isn't supported under Linux or need to be executed in some other way & just hoping it reads from the settings.json file isn't it.  Maybe Ubuntu has its own memory thing for Java that overwrites what the game says.  Maybe something in the graphics language doesn't translate the fade effect properly.  Maybe the game was actually running on more than one core before (a miracle, I know) but now it isn't anymore.

Anyway, I'm just confused and if anyone has any insight then please share.  Thanks!

2

General Discussion / Idea for a faction mod: Fury Road theme.

« on: February 27, 2020, 01:40:39 AM »

So here's my idea for any modders willing to take it on.  I assume that, as carbon based life forms, everyone here has seen "Fury Road" at least twice.  In the film there were three main factions of bad guys who were all working together.  With their methods as a basis I realized that they could easily translate into a sci-fi, or more specifically Star Sector factions.  I'll go into more detail thus...

1) Three factions, one planet each, all based in the same solar system.

2) The first one, based off the Citadel, specializes in producing food, marines and crew.  Their ships tend to be based on 360 coverage with their weapons and high speed, but are otherwise fairly normal.  Heavy emphasis on missiles (because dynamite spears) and all their captains have their AI fixed to "reckless" behavior - as dying in glorious battle is the goal in life of all their crews.  Because of this they are also the absolute least likely to retreat, ever.

3) The second faction, based off Gas Town, specializes in producing fuel, hulls, tankers and salvage ships.  Ship emphasis tends to gravitate towards capital ships and frigates - their middle size range is somewhat lacking because of this.  All, however, will have layouts putting emphasis on close-range brawling (because pole-cats).  In contrast, however, they have the strongest survival sense, with their captain AI set to "cautious."  This will lead towards them dancing around their targets until they see a weakness, then lunging in for a quick strike and then exiting again (again, because pole-cats).

4) The third faction,  based off the Bullet Farm, specialized in producing supplies and weapons.  Lots and lots of weapons, mostly ballistic and with very high ROF (if not accuracy).  Slow, medium size and very heavy armor is the order of the day, with their captains set on "aggressive" to show that they're not afraid to tough it our or even armor tank when needed.  Despite the ballistic emphasis, weapons should be the longest ranged of the trio, enabling them to engage opponents from any distance.  Distinct lack of missiles, however, as their idea of a "finisher" is simply "more dakka."

All three would start off more or less allied with each other, with strong diplomatic ratings and even an outright triple-alliance if using Nexerelin.  Though no one planet is truly capable of surviving independently, via trade the tree all manage to support each other and make their small group actually effective.  I must note here that this would make a wonderful change of pace than the over-saturation of "uber factions" out there who all have single planets with more industrial power than the Galactic Empire.  Instead, here, we see industrial power as it was meant to be in Star Sector - through allied trade of specialist planets who are providing to each other.

Finally, if one wanted to throw in some pirates based off the Buzzards and Rock Riders, well, that can also be done...

5) Buzzard designs would, naturally, be spike covered and do extra damage on collisions.  Weak or no shields but good armor, and very aggressive in battle with booster hullmods to increase their ramming ability.  Tend towards the small side, however, with only one strong capital ship that doubles as salvage and transport.

6) Rock Riders would translate into the smallest, fastest pirates you've ever seen.  Their frigates would be cheap, numerous, flimsy but so fast they make phase ships look slow in comparison.  In fact their ships would essentially be little more than glorified heavy fighter craft, but coded as frigates so they could operate on their own.  Reckless pilots with front and side mounted short range, rapid fire ballistics (all point defense types), no rear guns because they can probably outrun missiles and incoming fire coming from behind.  We're talking speed in the 200+ range, but also probably less than 1000HP total for any ship, including the armor.

3

Bug Reports & Support (modded) / Nexerlin agent bug

« on: February 20, 2020, 10:01:45 AM »

Queuing a travel mission while an agent is still recovering from injuries can cause a CTD.  Once recovered, agent teleports to location (instead of traveling, takes zero time) and game CTDs.

Pretty sure this is where it goes wrong:

Code

java.lang.NullPointerException
	at exerelin.campaign.intel.agents.CovertActionIntel.addLastMessagePara(CovertActionIntel.java:655)
	at exerelin.campaign.intel.agents.AgentIntel.createSmallDescription(AgentIntel.java:377)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.comms.v2.EventsPanel.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.comms.v2.EventsPanel.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.comms.v2.EventsPanel.Object.class(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.comms.v2.EventsPanel.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.o00OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.v.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.comms.return.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.o00OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.v.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.String.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.o00OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.v.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.N.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.newui.O0oO.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.o00OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.v.advanceImpl(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.o00OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignState.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.BaseGameState.traverse(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$1.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

4

General Discussion / Amusing Ship Names?

« on: February 06, 2020, 01:58:34 PM »

Just noticed that a ship that I captured is called "Nivek Ogre" - I had no idea that the dev was a Skinny Puppy fan.

Also found a cute play on words with another ship name, "Sailor of the Endless Cs" (as in, c = speed of light).

Anyone else found any gems for interesting ship names?

5

Bug Reports & Support (modded) / Nexerelin bug - rare, but annoying.

« on: February 01, 2020, 01:24:56 AM »

So I captured a market because I got tired of being raided from that planet, so yay.  I figured I'd wait for everything to recover and see if it was worth keeping.  During this time I stuck a trio of Gamma level AI cores into various factory jobs on the planet.  Then my Trade Guild neighbors demanded tribute from the planet and I said "screw this, they can have it."  I shut down everything (nice profit, btw), talked to the administrator and handed the whole thing over to them.   

Just one problem - I forgot to take my AI cores out of storage before I did.  "Doh," I said, slapping my forehead, then went back to get them because seeing someone else's colony on my roster was annoying and I don't like paying storage fees.  But when I got there I couldn't remove them!  I can access the storage screen and see the AI cores sitting there, but when I mouse over to get them it just says "Illegal to put into storage here."   

Yeah, yeah, I get that, but I'm trying to take them out of storage, not put them in... grrr.  But nope, they're red-out and I can't touch them.  Am I going to have to just nuke this whole planet to get them back and off my colony roster?  Because I'm about ready to.   

6

Bug Reports & Support (modded) / All my games die the same way.

« on: January 30, 2020, 03:16:58 PM »

Everything will run fine for about 4-5 years in game time, then suddenly it will start stuttering - pausing for 1 second out of 5.  Any attempt to save and reload causes this to happen:



I've lost over eight rather long campaigns to this so far.  I'm about ready to just give up playing altogether.

 

7

Bug Reports & Support (modded) / A couple of Nexerelin issues (no CTD, just things to fix)

« on: January 21, 2020, 03:37:14 PM »

1) Luddic Path bases and cells continue to spawn even after their entire faction has been destroyed.

2) If you capture a world that is planning on sending a fleet to attack one of your planets, the fleet will still spawn - only now it will claim to be one of your fleets.  This would be fine except that they will still carry out their original mission to bombard/raid/strike your planet, and since they're now technically friendly none of your defenses will even try to resist them.  There is literally no way for the player to stop such a fleet once it spawns (the best you can hope for is that pirates will take them out first, which is very unlikely).

3) With regular empires, one can whittle down their defenses before attacking their defense stations.  By that I mean you can hijack satellites to lure their fleets away, then ambush the fleets, and then finally take on the station once they've all been cleared out.  This is possible because it takes time for them to spawn more defense fleets.  This is not true of spawned pirate bases and Luddic Path cells (Admantium raiders as well if that Archean Order is being used).  In these cases, the second one fleet is destroyed another instantly spawns from the station.  This can go on forever, by the the way.  This ends up turning attacks on these "minor" bases into a Herculean task that makes star fortresses look easy in comparison.

8

Bug Reports & Support (modded) / I can't build ships

« on: January 12, 2020, 05:17:51 AM »

At first I thought this was just that I was trying to build $300,000 of ships with only $125,000 of production.  Each month I'd pay out the money and, I figured, after about four months they'd all be finished, right?  Wrong.  Six months later not a single one had been finished.

In frustration I cancelled the order and instead tried to build a single $40,000 frigate.  Again, $125,000 monthly production limit.  At the end of the month I was indeed charged $40,000 for the frigate but it was still shown in the build queue and, upon returning, no frigate had been built.

Oddly enough, I can build weapons and fighters aplenty just fine.  They get build in accordance to the queue and get tossed into my inventory no problem.

Here is my mod list, in case one of them is the culprit:

Archaen Order 1.3.4d
Boggled's Terraforming 3.0
Combat Analytics and Detailed Combat Results 4.5
Common Radar 2.5
Disassemble Reassemble v 1.6.9
ED Shipyard 1.9.9a
Grand Sector 0.2.1a
Interesting Portrait Packs 1.2
LazyLib 2.4e
MagicLib 0.24
Neutrino Corporation 1.85-RC4.1
Nexerelin 0.9.5h
Starship Legends 1.3.14
Tahlan Shipworks 0.3.13
ZZ GraphicsLib 1.4.1

Now I'm not sure, but my current guess is that Achaen Order might be causing the issue because it is the only one that I've added to that list in several months and this problem began only recently.  However, I also remember that it did not start at the exact same time that I added it.  This tells me that something might have happened in an update along the way to cause this issue.

Any clues or suggestions?

9

Modding / Long range fighters & bombers - Can it be done?

« on: November 30, 2019, 12:53:58 PM »

Hello!  I have a question or two.  I've noticed that fighters, bombers, both manned and unmanned, seem to all have a range limit of 4000 or less.  While this gives them the ability to strike outside the range of conventional weaponry, it is still a rather limited number when compared to the overall combat map.

My question is thus: Is it possible for fighters/bombers/drones to have a range limit beyond 4000 units?  Or that a hardcoded cap within the game engine itself that nothing can exceed?

I'm wondering because I'm considering trying my hand at this whole modding thing myself and the first thing that I wanted to attempt was creating long ranged fighters that could range across an entire combat map.  Naturally these would have very high OP costs to balance that out, thus forcing carriers that used them to be (as in real life) units that hide the corner due to being excessively vulnerable themselves.

10

Suggestions / Changing ship supplies production around (and stuff).

« on: November 16, 2019, 07:18:26 PM »

IDEA #1

Let's consider what probably constitutes colonist Domestic Goods, which are produced by Light Industry: Clothes, toilet paper, toothpaste, shoes, light bulbs... pretty much everything you need around the house that you don't put in your mouth.

Now let's consider what probably constitutes ship crew Supplies, which are produced by Heavy Industry: Clothes, toilet paper, toothpaste, duct tape, spare fuses... pretty much everything you need around the ship including things that you eat.

It looks kind of familiar, yes?  Except for food, ship supplies are probably at least 50% of the same sort of things domestic supplies would have inside their crates as well.  Meanwhile, you've got the Fuel Production facility which makes fuel and... that's it.

Which lead me to wonder: Would it not make more sense to put all this stuff under one roof, or more specifically, one facility?  So here is my idea/suggestion, and if not for main game then at least to consider as a mod:

1) Remove Supplies from Heavy Industry.
2) Remove Fuel Production facility entirely.
3) Allow a small amount Supplies to be created by Light Industry and add organics to their base cost (figure MREs can be made from nutrient paste rather than real food).
4) Where Fuel Production was add a new facility, Space Industry.  This facility produces both fuel and supplies in modest amounts, using the same resources as before (i.e. volatiles, organics, etc).
5) Allow a toggle to allow players to shift priority for the facility for the coming month.  50/50 or 75/25 in favor of one or the other.

This would help a lot on the logistics side, as it would allow even a starter colony provide some kind of support to the player's fleet.  It would also streamline the process of satisfying the needs of things like space stations and starports as well.  You would no longer be forced into spamming Heavy Industry on every colony that wants to have a space station and ultimately end up with far more Custom Production points than you could ever hope to use as a side effect.  Now you could just keep you Heavy Industry to a more practical level while the Space Supply facility would be enough to keep the colony able to support its own fleet/spaceport/space station on its own.

IDEA #2

Allow the use of surplus Nanoforges in Light Industry as well.  Results & reasons should be obvious.  I can't imagine why such an advanced technology would be so limited in its utility.  If it can fabricate spaceships then it should be able to make shoes & toothbrushes as well.

IDEA #3

Allow use of surplus Nanoforges in the base colony slot (1st slot) to build housing and whatnot, thus creating a free bonus to population growth.  Concrete is even easier than toothbrushes.

IDEA #4

Add toggle to Heavy Industry to shift production priorities (see above) - leave balanced, or put an emphasis on ship hulls or military hardware.

IDEA #5

Add a Hybrid Composites facility.  What does this do?  It combines both the effect of a Mining Facility and a Refinery, but is only half as effective as either.  For those with more cash than free space, this would be a handy crutch until your colony grows enough to properly support having both of the more dedicated types of facilities, or for colonies that had poor mineral wealth to begin with and thus aren't really worth investing too much into.

IDEA #6

Allow multiples of the same type of facility.  Dedicated farming worlds that do nothing else.  Dedicated mining worlds that do nothing else.  And so on.  Even just expanding the limit to two of each type would be enough, honestly.

11

Suggestions / More realistic placement of high & low gravity worlds.

« on: June 24, 2019, 10:14:55 PM »

As far as I can tell, under the current system the malus of high and/or low gravity seems to be assigned to worlds at random.  This does not strike me as realistic.

Without going into a bunch of physics that I'm sure everyone here is already familiar with anyway, the gravity factor of a world should be based on its size and density.  Size is obvious - gas giants, for example, should have a high probability of the high gravity penalty.  Glorified moons should be more likely to get low gravity.

Also, the mineral wealth of a planet should also factor in.  For example, despite being almost the same size, Mars has less than half the gravity that the Earth does.  This is because Earth's core is made of iron - a dense metal.  Mars... not so much.  Therefore I suggest that worlds with high mineral wealth be more likely to have high gravity and those with poor mineral wealth more likely to have low gravity. 

Thus I propose that combining these two factors (planet size & mineral wealth) into a new math formula to determine the probability of a planet having high or low gravity penalties would be more realistic.

12

Suggestions / 10 colony mechanic overhaul ideas.

« on: November 21, 2018, 11:15:55 PM »

1: Allow multiple instances of certain building types on single planets.  This would go a long way towards specialization and putting an emphasis on trade between colonies, in particular food production, mining and industry.  That way you're one terran/water world can have multiple farms that export food to your metallic planet colonies that can't grow any at all, but are rich in mineral wealth.

2: Specialized industry types.  These should be in addition to, not a replacement of, existing general purpose industry blocks.  For example, a type that only produces supplies, but lots of them.  Or a drug manufacturing center.  Right now we have the fuel production center but that's the only real specialist industry so far.

3: Manual AI fleet creation option.  Right now colonies, while expensive to set up, generate obscene amount of money once they get going.  Right now ship build orders exist in two different worlds: manual orders for your own personal use, and a priorities box system for creating AI fleets.  I propose an option (selected at new game start only) to merge these two into a single system wherein the player manually orders all ship construction and no AI fleets get automatically built at all.  Instead, in this mode, any ships in player storage can be assembled into AI fleets that will then patrol in an area dictated by their military base size.  This would make an excellent money sink, obviously, and give players much more control over what they send into the field.  It also gives a good place to get rid of surplus ships besides just selling them outright.  When the situation is dire enough, just press captured enemy ships into service into your own fleets.

Also manual control over at least the creation of merchants would be nice as well, and give players more reason to actually invest in those ship types.  See also "Distant Worlds" when playing as a pirate faction.

4: More military base types.  This would require new planet siege mechanics, but I feel it would be worth it.  In addition to the general purpose types we have now, have bases that specialize in producing (training) crew, marines, orbital defense or pure fleet coordination.  Also, instead of the planetary shield generator being a flat defense bonus, have it instead be a system that stalls an enemy fleet in orbit for a certain amount of time so that you or your AI fleets have more time to intercept them.  Orbital defense should just straight up inflict damage on attacking ships, depending on their level. 

5: Overhaul AI Cores & Bonus Devices.  An AI core should be more than just something that gives +1 to anything you stick it into.  They are, after all, learning machines and as such they should be treated more as little NPCs rather than mere items.  By this I mean that an AI grades should act as skill caps and that they should level up over time just like organics.  When placed in a planetary role they will slowly but surely learn to specialize in helping whatever facility that they are in.  This would be easiest to explain with examples...

Example A: Player finds a Gamma level core, with a max level of 5.  They decide to plug into a planet's farming slot.  Since it starts off as level 1, it gives +1 to farming.  As time goes on it gets better at this, eventually working it's way up to +5 worth of bonuses.  Things such as production and cost reduction are now skills that are selected when an AI levels up, same as with NPC assistants.  Doing this, the player decides to allocate +3 to food output and +2 to overhead reduction (-20% to expenses).

Example B: A Beta level core, with a max level of 10, is assigned to a captain a ship in the player's fleet.  They function exactly like an organic NPC captain, but can only go up to level 10.  The skills that they can learn on level up will be from the same list, too.

Example C: A rare Alpha level core is found with a max level of 20 and the player decides to use it as a colony administrator.  Again, this pulls from the same planet governor skill lists as regular NPCs, as well as all the possible specialized buildings as well.  The player then puts +2 into heavy industry output, +8 into station cost reduction (-80%), +5 into stability and the last +5 into planet defense bonuses.  Of course it will probably take a good 20 years for it to learn all this stuff, so that kind of power comes at a significant cost in time.

When a player removes a core it retains the skills it has learned, to prevent people from exploiting a single AI core to be used across several different types of job.  The advantage of AI administrators and officers is that they won't count towards your hiring limit and require no pay.

Meanwhile, only the fuel facility and the heavy industry site have specialized gear.  Let's see more types for all the building types to add variety (and avoiding stockpiles of redundant units once your colony limit is reached).

6: Research Labs.  Good gawd, hunting for blueprints is tedious.  For those who'd rather just throw time and money at the problem, this would make a great alternative.  Pick a blueprint that your don't already have, chuck cash into a slider bar and wait.  Easy.

7: Repair Facilities.  Why do we have to fly around in space with a full crew in order to repair damaged ships?  Why not just drop them off in drydock and let your peons do the work for you?  Can rapidly heal regular damage (a lot easier to fix a car when it isn't, y'know, being driven at the time) and could also slowly remove major "orange bar" damage as well.  Also allows more efficient scrapping of ships, getting much more material out of them than when trying to do the same thing in space.

8: Embassy.  Stealing an idea straight from Tropico, this building would have a pull down option for which other faction you wish to target.  Every month your relationship with that group goes up by 1 point.

9: Hydroponics.  For those who really want to be able to farm anywhere, have this option for all those planets with no viable farmland.  Works like a regular farm but costs twice as much in upkeep.  Simple.

10: Comstar Stuff.  Not enough "stable positions" in your system?  This specialized building type combines the nav bouy, sensor boost and communications sat perks into one safe place on the ground where no bad guys can get to it.  Of course it's costing you a valuable planet slot to do it, but hey, nothing is free.