Purpose of the mod:
This mod addresses widespread errors in the TotA TechTree.xml files. These errors pretty much broke many of the unique TechTrees, causing the AI to pursue a deeply flawed research strategy and outright preventing the research of many techs. Part of the fix included rearranging a number of the TechTrees to fix the seemingly random arrangement of some techs and reduce the number of branches for the AI to get sidetracked on. Along the way, I ended up fixing many UP issues, planetary improvements, starbase modules, and did some general improvement and balancing on individual techs.
This mod is a direct result of MarvinKosh's Space Weapons Fix Mod, which provided the inspiration. A lot of my development commentary and good input from other modders working on their own fixes is in that topic. Thanks MarvinKosh, Quaternus, deweyjohn, TOV, foxthree, qrtxian and all others for input and support.
05-10-13: v3.51 release
Update to fix some errors in v3.5.
04-28-13: v3.5 release
Here it is, the more or less finished product after all this time. It's been about a year since I put this project down, so I'm a bit fuzzy on what exactly I did before coming back to finish it up. I'm pretty sure I've got the major things nailed down, though. Let's see:
TechTree Fix v3.51 with Dumb Old Minors: I did nothing to the minor races here. If you want the same dumb minors you've always known and loved, this is the mod for you.
TechTree Fix v3.51 with Smart Old Minors: Same old minors that still won't colonize, but I added code to make them play to the best of the AI's ability. I gave them respectable descriptions, modest bonuses, and changed out the silly race images to reflect their upgrade. Since they can't colonize, they'll send out a bunch of freighters and actually send constructors to grab up a lot of the resources while the majors are still colonizing. They still get slaughtered when it comes down to it, but I've had fun watching them. It's also interesting to see the majors make a ton of regular starbases since there are fewer resources to grab.
TechTree Fix v3.51 with MoOII Minors: The MoOII minors in this mod will colonize and behave pretty much like weak majors. Much larger than the other mods due to the RaceImage and RaceLogo files. If you try this mod, remember to use the "quick save fix". That is, the minors won't start behaving like majors until you save and reload. So, start your game, quicksave, reload, and enjoy.
TechTree Fix v3.51 with MoOII and Smart Old Minors: Why not? If you want a little variety, I packaged up both versions of the minors in one mod. Your minors could be one, the other, or a mix of both. Still be sure to use the quick-save fix, or your MoOII minors won't play nice. I haven't tested this arrangement, but I can't see why it won't work. (famous last words.)
03-04-12: v3.0 Release
v3.0 continues the work, this time focusing on starbase modules and planetary improvements, particularly Galactic Achievements, Super Projects, and Trade Goods. Also included is a wonderful conversation mod, kindly contributed by qrtxian. His mod fixes the errors in the GC2_Conversations.xml, so now you can enjoy all the unique dialogue as intended.
Highlights
I think that's most of it. Without further ado, here it is:
TechTree Fix v3.0 with Dumb Old Minors: I did nothing to the minor races here. If you want the same dumb minors you've always known and loved, this is the mod for you.
TechTree Fix v3.0 with Smart Old Minors: Same old minors that still won't colonize, but I added code to make them play to the best of the AI's ability. I gave them respectable descriptions, modest bonuses, and changed out the silly race images to reflect their upgrade. Since they can't colonize, they'll send out a bunch of freighters and actually send constructors to grab up a lot of the resources while the majors are still colonizing. They still get slaughtered when it comes down to it, but I've had fun watching them. It's also interesting to see the majors make a ton of regular starbases since there are fewer resources to grab.
TechTree Fix v3.0 with MoOII Minors: The MoOII minors in this mod will colonize and behave pretty much like weak majors. Much larger than the other mods due to the RaceImage and RaceLogo files. If you try this mod, remember to use the "quick save fix". That is, the minors won't start behaving like majors until you save and reload. So, start your game, quicksave, reload, and enjoy.
TechTree Fix v3.0 with MoOII and Smart Old Minors: Why not? If you want a little variety, I packaged up both versions of the minors in one mod. Your minors could be one, the other, or a mix of both. Still be sure to use the quick-save fix, or your MoOII minors won't play nice. I haven't tested this arrangement, but I can't see why it won't work. (famous last words.)
Update 01-07-12: v2 Release
After nearly a year, here it finally is. Details can be found in this post.
v1.1 Notes:
Regarding the political parties, I've been playing around with Universalists a lot lately. Even though they don't have the +20 economy of the federalists, they do get a +5 (and I pretty much always take the +30 economy racial bonus anyway), and they have a boost to population growth, which indirectly helps the economy. Plus the +10 defense (meh) and +25 luck, whatever that does. I was playing around with the idea of changing the Universalists to the Ecologists, a party that emphasizes health and the environment, with bonuses to planet quality and population growth. And I also want the mercantile party to be something else, but I haven't decided what yet. Oh, and I think some of the racial bonuses could be rebalanced pointwise, because some I consider "must haves" (especially economy +30 for just 4 points), while there are others that I barely touch, regardless of what race or kind of game I plan on playing.
Kind of unrelated to the current point of discussion, but related to the mod: could you make the Terran innovation complex add a small boost to creativity instead of a flat +5 research points? It just seems to signify "innovation" more in my mind. Oh, and finally, thanks for evening out the economic/manufacturing/research capitals. An early +100% research building on the right planet could really swing the balance of the game if someone finds a good research planet early.
Interesting points. I'm tinkering with the parties a little while I'm playing and testing, so we'll see what comes of it. I boosted the War Party to +15/15/25 instead of 10/10/15. Mercantile got a bonus trade route to go with the %trade bonus. Pacifists got an espionage bonus (I think), because how else to exert power if not through arms? Populists got something, I think.
Funny you should mention that. While thinking of political parties, something along the line of Evironmentalist came up, with the same kind of focus. Are we capped at the current number of political parties, or could we add one or two more?
You're welcome. And thank you for a good suggestion. The Innovation complex needs a little something. That speed bonus is . . . random, and the 5tp is weak, at best.
As far as I know, there is no limit. The Example mod from the devs has two new parties, so adding more shouldn't be a problem.
Oh, before I forget, I had something else to bring up about the mod. First of all, with the extra speed bonuses in the early techtree, the speed +1 and speed +2 racial bonuses aren't as appealing (and they were really expensive to begin with). And it seems that the Thalans are always the first to build the gravity accelerator trade good. I figure it's because they start with the artificial gravity tech. Is there a place to move it so it isn't such a given for the Thalans? And finally, Is there a way to reduce the range ability across the board? It seems that I never really need to research more than the first life support tech.
Meh, forget what I said about the Thalans and the gravity accelerators. I looked at their tech tree, and while they almost always get those and the ultra spices, they have a trickier tech tree in general, and have a harder time reaching other stuff (like advanced hulls for the xinathium hull plating). Plus, they need to be building something after they use up their galactic achievements... I'm no expert at this game, but I noticed a couple of things that struck me as odd:
-The Terrans don't start with any market or entertainment building? Why don't they have traditional entertainment and market economies?
-The Iconians have very few invasion techniques, and if I'm remembering correctly, are the only race to not get the advanced troop module.
-All three levels of fleet warp bubbles cost the same amount to research. Wouldn't this go progressively higher with each level? The Krynn's fleets of haste module takes more research, but only go to fleet speed +1.
-The Arceans and Thalans both have techs called xeno anthropology, but they do different things.
I'm sure there's other things to nitpick, but I'd have to actually play a whole game as each race, and probably take notes as I go, to think of anything more for now. Oh, I know this isn't such a big deal, but I tweaked the colors for some of the races, particularly the "grey" ones, to help tell them apart. If you're interested, I can post the new colors I'm using. Anyway, keep up the good work!
P.S. Is there a way to set up a game, and just watch the A.I. control all the teams, without having to actually play? Like an observer mode?
**EDIT** Speaking of nitpicking... Even after changing the colonization techs to be 100% effective without needing an advanced version, the descriptions still say "partially utilize" or something like that.
Kind of an out there idea, but is there a way to make a political party have a war profiteering bonus? I love the idea of war profiteering, but I think it only ever shows up with the Drath and Korx...
Now that I'm actually playing a game, I agree about the speed bonuses. I'll have a look-see to find out what can be done about it. Didn't consider the custom speed bonuses. Perhaps reducing the cost slightly would help? I'll have to see what can be done about the Gravity Accelerator.
Funny about the range. I did reduce the bonus given by the techs by a substantial amount. If you want to play around with a global reduction, you could write a range penalty into the raceconfig.xml. I used to do that. Be careful, though; the AI doesn't handle range restrictions very well. I ran with -50 or -100. Memory is pretty hazy, but I think -100 was pretty draconian.
While the Terran TechTree missing those techs is an oversight, a quick check shows me that all the other races that should have them do have them. There's a reason that many TechTrees don't have one or both of those techs. Those are the prereqs for what I have called the Market Economics and Traditional Entertainment lines. Any TechTree without one or both of those lines won't have one or both of those techs.
What I do is start a game, the use ctrl+shift+D to add a minor. Then I take over the minor, quicksave and load, then have my starting race surrender to me. I destroy the starting colony, leave the UP, and it's off to the races. Since you end up as a minor race, you're effectively ignored. Just use ctrl+shift+r to get all the techs, build up your home world, and put a couple super ships in orbit. The AI will leave you alone except for the rare trade request. Oh, and later in the game you'll get a lot of grovelling as the losers come begging for help against the big bully.
Pass the turns and watch the game go. Works brilliantly.
I think that engines take up way too much space for what they do. Sure you can get to a fight faster, but when you get there, you're at a disadvantage vs. the guy who just put guns on his ships. If you've added a bunch of global speed boosts, won't that diminish the usefulness of engines even further?
I only looked at the RaceConfig.xml, because that is what I use to make all races start with their history techs. Totally forgot you use different method (no tech requirement, no cost). So, yeah, false alarm from my part. Sorry.
Wetballs makes a valid point, I rarely include engines on my ships (except maybe a few non-combat ships), because they take up so much space. I played with the idea of reducing their size, but I'm not sure if the AI can utilize engines effectively. If they can't, then that would just tips things further in the player's favor. Oh, and I think part of the reason that the Thalans always get the gravity boosters in my games is because I've been playing with very slow tech rate, which creates a fairly substantial time delay before any other race can research artificial gravity in time to race toward building them. With a quicker tech rate, it's less of an issue, but the Thalans still have an advantage with early projects due to their quick super production building (hyperion matrix?), their huge production bonuses and their relative lack of anything else to build in the early game. They also tend to dominate the early colony rush because they start with speed bonus granting techs, but then have almost nothing to build on their new planets.
P.S. I found something else to nitpick: when the infrastructure technologies are researched, it still pops up the news report with the robot, but it doesn't actually say anything.
So is the Terrans lack of early markets a bug or a feature now?
I love the mod, had a fantastic Drengin game and everything felt so right ... but I generally gravitate towards Terrans if I want to play a "Tech" game. Would the absence of markets have a significant effect until I get the advanced version?
I have only been playing a fortnight, but I have usually been including an early economic building on all my planets. Now I know that the bottom tier improvements are generally considered money sucks and/or useless - but I cant help feeling that my economy will suffer while researching up the tree for the next tier. I play with the games "Very Slow" tech rate, so it can take a while to get advanced markets if I want to keep up on other core techs. (Maybe about 50 turns until I get them?)
This is a very well made mod and I couldnt fathom playing without it, but this issue is just nagging away at me and I'm not really enjoying my Terran game - always have the feeling I'm missing out!
A surplus of speed gives you the advantage to be able to choose the fight, so just evaluate beforeahead if you'll win and if not so, flee. A slow fleet never has this choice so its about win/loose vs win/survive the latter being the better option.
Of course this is not true for each scenario, for example, defender type of ships that are designed to shield a world from invasion don't benefit from that. But in case of invasive forces this is even more true as the only thing you really have to be able to fight are the defenders also, so if you can sneak past their other ships together with fast troop transports even better.
Another point is getting quickly to very important spots such as crystals etc.. well the variety is huge of whta you can do with speed, and sadly the AI will not utilize this very much (basically the AI targets one enemy and locks onto that so if you're weaker but able to evade him it's basically a stalemate as well as you can lure him away from important zones)
I totally agree that speed is useful in that it allows you more flexibility in picking your fights. However, I still say that engines take up way too much space on front line combat vessels. All things being equal, you can use your speed to maneuver all you want, but when it comes time to match your fleet against one that uses all it's space for weapons/defenses, your extra engines will end up being a liability (in my opinion, of course).
Not that speed doesn't have it's uses. Ships loaded with engines and sensors can wreak havoc against soft targets behind enemy lines, for example. It's just that I personally don't waste the space for ships of the line.
What bugs me is that really fast ships don't receive any bonus in combat. I think that the faster a ship is (and the smaller it is), the harder it should be to hit. Perhaps not realistically, given the futuristic technology being used in the game, but cinematically it makes sense ("We count 30 Rebel ships, Lord Vader, but they're so small they're avoiding our turbo lasers"). I wonder if it would be possible (or even a good idea) to add a defense bonus to engines to go with their normal speed boost.
It isn't. Ship modules can only have one type of category: Beam, Missile, Shields, Engine, etc. You can't mix and match them. This also means, that modules can only have one type of bonus, with the exception of the Advanced category. They are used for the atlas fleet modules, and can provide multiple bonuses. Those bonuses, however, still need to be from the Advanced category.
It's a pity really. I wanted to change the Arnorian Battle Armor so that it also provides an HP bonus. It makes sense, because that armor is organic, but it didn't work.
I tend to see that major object to using engines is their cost rather than their space usage. It is true that having one or more engines forces you to sacrifice weapons or defences, putting them at a disadvantage compared to some enemy ships. However if you can replace your losses, they can be more effective and useful than ships with no engines.
The cost of engines rises as you progress through the tech tree, and by default the cost is not really proportionate to the improved speed you get from them. The size on the other hand tends to be quite reasonable by the time you get to Warp/Hyperwarp Engines.
Don't forget the Stellar Folder and the poor acreans, who have only one default engine tech.
The Arceans may have only Hyperdrive, but their Navigation Centers, and the speed-bonuses from those techs, puts them on par with the basic Warpdrive. As long as the enemy isn't using multiple engines per ship, the Arceans should be only three moves behind, when compared to Hyperwarp III.
Arceans have slow but fairly strong - most of the time big - ships, their SA compensates them fully if they get attacked. However, their speed penalty is responsible to stiffle their colonialisation.
Was thinking the same. The Weapon/Def system is kinda boring.
Weapons, MassDrivers most cheap, Lasers take less space, Missiles do most damage. Although alot of random exceptions to the rule, just to spice hings up.
Defence, don't bother unless you're upgrading your ships to enemies weapons then they are overpowered with Luck +50%.
I think the size of hull + components should influence how fast a vessel can alternate its heading, with speed from engines chining here in, too.
Further you'd have, faster (laser), medium (MD) or slow (missile) weapons where slow weapons would loose efficiency against fast vessels. To compensate, faster weapons would loose efficiency against the bigger a ship gets (ie. piercing a small fighter with a laser will most likely damage important parts which might not be true on larger vessels)
Weapon techtrees could be split in order to go on different routes, mitigiating some of their weaknesses at some cost (ie. giving missiles aiming-on-target ability but reducing damage and vice versa) and similarily, defense should also differ in efficiency from shiptype to shiptype.
This mod sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. But I have a question about installation. I read the instructions and watched the youtube video, but when I go to the folder, I only have one raceconfig file (Terran Alliance.raceconfig.xml). The instructions indicate that there should be multiple files to move to a back-up folder. I've got Ultimate Edition, v2.03. Please help.
First of all, this mod sounds great!
In regard to political parties: for inspiration you could have a look at General Pants' Political Parties mod: [ http://library.galciv2.com/index.aspx?m=681 ]
There are 40 various parties in it. I've started a game with this mod and a custom race based on Iain Banks' "The Culture": Terran Tech tree, Super Spy ability, Anarchists (bonus to planet quality); racial bonus abilities focus on culture (obviously), morale, social production and espionage.
As I don't know when a new version is coming up that includes the latest fixes, I added the Terran early market / entertainment centers myself. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Something I noticed: since there are no farms anymore, the food tile bonus probably doesn't have a function now. Can something be done about it? Also, doesn't this mean that using spies to disable enemy farms in order to starve the population won't work anymore as a tactic? Is that intentional or just an unfortunate side effect?
Tolmekian's mod still has a farm improvement. The basic version is called Planetary Infrastructure. It provides a percentage bonus, instead of a regular one. This means, that the food bonus tiles won't work with it. The bonus tiles are hardcoded, which means, that it is impossible for us modders to change how they work. However, you can still use spies to disable the farms.
3.5 is a nice effort - Been playing the Terrans in an immense/scattered/abundant/Painful game with full complement of all majors and MoOII & Smart minors for a few days now - definitely has the OMT magic going on.
Below are some of my opinions, ymmv, - overall love this mod.
I did some heavy editing and combined this mod with the High Def, Kryo, UltimateFX Combat (animations only), and General Pants Political Party Mods and it looks awesome.
The Minors really rock now. No need to say more.
The political party mod adds an nice quirky feeling to things - early voting is very close now due to splits, not such a given that you will win when approval is around 50% because there are such a wide variety of choices. Been barely holding on with 45-47% in 4 elections now as a republic. The splits keep changing too - very much a simulation of a parliament - feels like the ai is trying different coalitions to try and beat me.
The early speed bonus has added a new feel for the early game - I think I like it. The ai's are spreading out much faster and I can't count on researching engine techs quickly enough to out sped them as easily as in the past.
Tech trading is different but still fun - much harder to trade techs reasonably but I can still out research most ai's in the early game and sell techs for $$ to keep the dreaded early overheated economy at bay. Agree it is much harder to buy new techs - but I don't see the ai's trading much among themselves either so far. Thinking of heading down the diplomacy tree - I have the feeling that I am almost at a godlike diplomatic advantage that will allow me to get techs a little easier.
Still in the expansion phase so have not started to build resource and star bases. The lack of 2 levels of extreme colonization techs has me very nervous - not sure how it is going to play out - lots of extreme planets in my sphere - the Iconians already have 2 techs but are out of range - again I like the edgy psychological feel this tweak has given my game so far.
I love having a few weapons techs at the start - the Krynn border me and are expanding faster than expected - I built a few fighters and they stopped building so many colony ships and are now sending those they do build in another direction. I don't think it was in reaction to me building fighters - but it did feel that way. Again, adding to the OMT magic.
Also, is it possible to add the Mo0II and Smart minors to a 'separate' mod so it can be bolted on as needed? I really like this part and it was the major reason I tried this mod first.
Thanks again Tolmekian for keeping the great game fresh and vibrant. In fact thanks to all the modders who have contributed, active and retired. I plan on trying Autumn Twilight, APT and the MK's Weapons Fix next.
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