Mystery Trader tech

[marhawkman]

Describe what is missing
reading the components.xml file I don't see any of the Mystery Trader techs listed.

I had to look them up on gamefaqs since I can't remember stats from memory. anything marked (MHM note:) is commentary I added to it. I attempted to fix any typos in the FAQ I got this from.

4. Appendix A: All items from the Mystery Trader

All items will be displayed with mineral and resource costs at all tech 26 without bleeding edge. If people have the costs for these items at the levels when they get them (without miniaturization and without the double cost of bleeding edge) you can email them to me (rvvugt@worldaccess.nl) and I will include them in the next version of this FAQ.

4.01) Mega Poly Shell
4.02) Multi Contained Munition
4.03) Hush-a-Boom
4.04) Multi Function Pod
4.05) Enigma Pulsar
4.06) Multi Cargo Pod
4.07) Jump Gate
4.08) Alien Miner
4.09) Genesis Device
4.10) Langston Shell
4.11) Mini Morph
4.12) Anti Matter Torpedo

4.01) Mega Poly Shell (Armor)

Tech required: Ener 14, Const 14, Elect 14, Bio 6.
Cost at all 26: 9 I, 3 B, 3 G and 34 R.
Mass: 20 kt

Armor strength: 400
This part also acts as a 100dp shield, 20% cloak, 20% torpedo jammer and a 80/40 ly scanner.

4.02) Multi Contained Munition (Beam Weapon)

Tech required: Ener 21, Weap 21, Elect 16, Bio 12.
Cost at all 26: 4 I, 24 B, 4 G, 24 R.
Mass: 8 kt

Power: 140
Range: 3
Initiative: 6

This part also acts as a 10% cloak, increases torpedo accuracy by 10% and a 150/75 ly scanner.
This weapon can also bomb planets (2% colonists killed, 5 installations destroyed) and lay 40 standard mines/year.

Note: This is the description of the tech browser. However this item acts as a 10% jammer and so I think the 'increases torpedo accuracy by 10%' line should read 'jams torpedoes by 10%'.
(MHM note: acting as a jammer makes more sense anyways)

4.03) Hush-a-Boom (Bomb)

Tech required: Weap 12, Elect 12, Bio 12.
Cost at all 26: 1 I, 2 B, 0 G, 2 R.
Mass: 5 kt

This bomb will kill approximately 3,0% of a planet's population each year.
The bomb will destroy approximately 2 of a planet's mines, factories, and/or defenses each year.

4.04) Multi Function Pod (Electrical device)

Tech required: Ener 11, Prop 11, Elect 11.
Starting Cost: 5 I, 0 B, 5 G, 15 R.
Cost at all 26: 2 I, 0 B, 2 G, 6 R.
Mass: 2 kt

Cloaks any ship up to 30%, acts as a 10% jammer and maneuvering jet.

4.05) Enigma Pulsar (Engine)

Tech required: Ener 7, Prop 13, Const 5, Elect 9.
Cost at all 26: 6 I, 7 B, 5 G, 19 R.
Mass: 20 kt

Adds 1/4 square of movement and provides 10% cloaking.

Fuel usage vs. warp speed: (estimated)
Warp 1-5 Free
Warp 6: 50%
Warp 7-9 : something between W6 and 10...
Warp 10: 100%

This engine can travel at warp 10 safely. It's battle speed is 10.

4.06) Multi Cargo Pod (mechanical device)

Tech required: Ener 5, Const 11, Elect 5.
Starting Cost: 12 I, 0 B, 3 G, 25 R.
Cost at all 26: 5 I, 0 B, 1 G, 10 R.
Mass: 9 kt

This pod increases the cargo capacity by 250 kt, provides a 10% cloak and 50dp of armor.

4.07) Jump Gate (mechanical device)

Tech required: Ener 16, Prop: 20, Const 20, Elect 16.
Cost at all 26: 0 I, 0 B, 38 G, 30 R.
Mass: 10 kt

This device allows a ship to jump to planetary stargates. The range and weight limits are determined by the destination stargate.

4.08) Alien Miner (mining robot)

Tech required: Ener 5, Const 10, Elect 5, Bio 5.
Starting Cost: 8 I, 0 B, 2 G, 20 R.
Cost at all 26: 3 I, 0 B, 1 G, 7 R.
Mass: 20 kt

This module contains robots capable of mining up to 10 kt of each mineral (depending on concentration) from an uninhabited planet the ship is orbiting. The ship must have orders set to 'remote mining'.
This module also acts as 30% cloak, 30% jammer and half a maneuvering jet.

4.09) Genesis Device (Planetary)

Tech requirements: Ener 20, Weap 10, Prop 10, Const 20, Elect 10, Bio 20.
Starting Cost: 0 I, 0 B, 0 G, 5000 R.
Cost at all tech 26: 0 I, 0 B, 0 G, 5000 R.
(The tech browser will discount for additional levels, but the Genesis device will always cost you 5000 resources)

This process gives a planet a new birth. All traces of civilization are eliminated as the planet revitalizes itself into an entirely new world.

Note: This process will destroy all mines, factories, defenses, the starbase and all population on the planet. However the environmental factors (gravity, temperature and radiation) and the mineral concentrations will be randomized again. The AR race is immune to this process. As they live in orbit of the planet they can survive the process (they can also build the genesis device even though it's a
planetary installation).

Hughes (hughes@vnet.net) writes this about it:

Yes the AR is immune. Very annoying when they get the capability to do
this. If they have a really large mining fleet it can be even more
annoying . Mineral concentration only drops after the turn change(big
bug) so if you have a sufficiently large fleet of miners it is in
entirely possible to mine 100,000 kt of each mineral off a planet each
time a genesis device is used.

4.10) Langston Shell (shield)

Tech requirements: Ener 12, Prop: 9, Elect 9.
Cost at all tech 26: 4 I, 1 B, 3 G, 9 R.
Mass: 10 kt

Shield strength: 125 dp
This shield also provides 65 dp armor, 5% jamming, 10% cloaking, and a 50/25 ly scanner.

4.11) Mini Morph (ship hull)

Tech requirements: Const 8.
Cost at all tech 26: 8 I, 2 B, 2 G, 28 R.
Mass: 70 kt

Fuel Capacity: 400mg
Cargo Capacity: 150 kt
Armor Strength: 250
Initiative: 2

This hull needs 2 engines, has one slot for 3 general purpose items, 2 slots for 2 general purpose items and 3 slots for one general purpose item.

4.12) Anti Matter Torpedo (torpedo)

Tech requirements: Weap 11, Prop 12, Bio 21
Cost at all tech 26: 1 I, 6 B, 1 G, 30 R.
Mass: 8 kt

Power: 60
Range: 6
Initiative: 0
Accuracy: 85

Note: this is a great item to transfer biotech with! Also look at the range of 6 and the mass of 8 kt.
/gamefaqs

Now there are graphics for them. but I think the equipment graphics were actually pulled directly from Stars anyways.

[marhawkman]

I think I can add these to the XML, but I'm not sure if they'll work right. I don't know if the guy who programmed Nova actually made a hook for MT tech unlocks. They might just get added in as free tech everyone gets.

[marhawkman]

Also the Genesis device is a special function call that may not exist.

[marhawkman]

Also, attempting to read the XML annoyed me... a lot. I'm organizing it.

[ekolis]

XML is annoying, yeah. Would JSON be easier to read?

[marhawkman]

When I say "annoying" I mean that the guy has the tech seemingly in a RANDOM order inside the data file. It's why I felt the need to organize it.

I'm not sure what a JSON db would look like. Never worked on one.

[ekolis]

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation, so it basically looks like a variable declaration for a JavaScript object. For instance:

[
	{
		Name: "Loco",
		Species: "cat",
		Birthday: "2017-04-01",
	},
	{
		Name: "Nacho",
		Species: "cat",
		Birthday: "2019-03-31",
	},
	{
		Name: "Taco",
		Species: "cat",
		Birthday: "2019-04-04",
	},
]

[marhawkman]

seems easy enough, now to figure out how to name the variables?

[ekolis]

Well, there is a component editor tool, but I'm not entirely sure how to run it; it seems to live in the same project as the GUI. I guess you have to set the startup object of the project to the component editor instead of the regular GUI?

[ekolis]

Oh, I just noticed you can use a command-line option to run the component editor:

Nova.exe --components

[marhawkman]

Well I figured out how to use it to add Mega Poly shell, BUT... there is no way to set the tech as MT loot.

[marhawkman]

I wonder if he simply hadn't added the Mystery Trader event? I've never seen it happen

[marhawkman]

so if I make a new XML or JSON, where do I upload it?

[ekolis]

What new XML/JSON file is it? Do you want to replace the current Components.xml? Do you know how to use git? (If you don't want to learn, you can just email me the file and I'll add it!)

[marhawkman]

A new version of the Components. I figured there was some place in Git I could put it, but don't know where yet.

Also... I wanna do expanded racial techs. I always found it weird how the special components are junk at end-game.

[ekolis]

Well, we don't currently have a mechanism to load mods; there is a config XML file which specifies which Components.xml to load, but no mechanism that I'm aware of to actually change those values in-game... I'm hesitant to modify the stock Components.xml because a lot of folks might be used to the stock data being the way it is. But once we have a way to load mods, then we can certainly add them!