AntaresMod

Antares Mod is a mod based on Master of Orion II. I (Ed Kolis) have started on it several times in past years, both for SE4 and for SE5, but always lost my work in a hard drive crash. Perhaps this time I'll finish it, since I have online version control now!

##Economy

The resources in Antares Mod are a bit different from those in SE4. Minerals are still minerals, and organics are still organics, but radioactives now represent money. Minerals cost of components and hulls tends to be equal to their tonnage, but financial cost can vary widely. When a component is miniaturized due to advanced research, its size and minerals cost will decrease somewhat, but its financial cost will decrease dramatically.

Additionally, larger ship hulls cost dramatically more money than smaller ones, but pay proportionally less maintenance. For instance, a frigate, the smallest hull, is 25kT, costs 25 minerals and $25, and pays 50% maintenance (12 minerals and $12) per turn. But a doom star, the largest hull, is 1200kT, costs 1200 minerals and $7200, and pays 25% maintenance (300 minerals and $1800) per turn. Thus a fleet of small ships will cost significantly more minerals to maintain over time, but will be cheaper to build in terms of finances in an emergency, than a single large ship.

If those maintenance rates seem frighteningly high, don't worry - base hulls reduce maintenance costs in a system by 10% (for the smallest base) to 20% (for the largest), so unless you're on the attack, you'll be paying only 5%-40% for ship maintenance, instead of 25%-50%.

##Tech Tree

The Antares Mod tech tree is modeled after the MOO2 tech tree, with 8 theoretical areas branching off into single-level applied areas. Since we don't (yet) support mutually exclusive techs, you can still research all of the techs at any given theoretical level, but it will take some time that you could have spent researching the next theoretical level.

When unlocking a ship component, you will get the first level immediately. Unlike in SE4, though, advancement in the component's level come not from additional levels of the applied tech, but instead from additional levels of the prerequisite theoretical tech.