[Disclaimer: Stardock does not endorse or support this mod. This thread has merely been stickied so users can more easily direct comments or questions to the authors of this popular modification.]
About:
Autumn Twilight v2 is a overhaul mod for Galactic Civilizations 2 - Ultimate Edition. Its purpose is to remove the more extreme changes made to the game due to the integration of the Community Update, to make the gameplay more like how it was in the last official version (v2.04), and to fix as many of the remaining bugs as possible.
Highlights:
restored a lot of content that got removed/replaced by the Community Update (e.g., technologies, planetary improvements, starbase modules, etc.)
changed the tech trees to more closely resemble the original ones, and made a few balancing adjustments (primarily to the weapons trees)
changed a lot of techs so you can trade and/or steal them again
restored the original gameplay values (i.e., abilities, planetary improvements, and so on) and made some small balancing adjustments
undid several changes to the UI made by the Community Update (e.g., the removal of the ability to buy planets from the AI)
and more...
For more details regarding the changes made in the mod, please take a look at the changelog.
For a comparison of the gameplay related differences between Autumn Twilight and v2.04 of GalCiv 2, please take a look at the Comparison spreadsheet.
You can download the mod on NexusMods.
Questions, feedback, and general comments are always welcome!
I hope you like Autumn Twilight, and have fun playing it!
Installation:
1. Download and unzip the file, then place the Mods folder into GalCiv 2's Twilight folder.
The exact path depends on where you got the game from and where you installed it.
For example, the standard-path for the Steam-version is:C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Galactic Civilizations II – Ultimate Edition\Twilight
While for the GOG-version it's:C:\GOG Games\Galactic Civilizations II\Twilight
1.1 This part is optional. If you don't care about the campaigns, then continue with point 2.
Place the unzipped Campaigns folder into the following folder:...\Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition\Twilight\Data\English
1.2 When asked to overwrite the existing Campaigns folder, press 'Yes'. None of the existing files will be overwritten.
2. Start the game and go to the Options menu. On the 'Game' tab, activate the 'Use Mods' option.
3. Now click on the 'Change' button in the lower right corner of the 'Current Mods Directory' box. This will open a new window. There click on 'Default'. This will close the window and cause the game to use the mods directory for the expansion Twilight of the Arnor instead of the base game.
4. Click on 'Change' again. Now select Autumn Twilight and click on 'Done'. The 'Current Mods Directory' should now look like this (depending on your game-version and installation path): C:\GOG Games\Galactic Civilizations II\Twilight\Mods\Autumn Twilight
5. Restart the game, so the changes take effect.
6. If you have played the game or a previous version of Autumn Twilight before, go to the folder User Name\My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor and delete any files with the ending .raceconfigxml. Otherwise, any changes to the races can't take effect. You will also need to start a new game, because mod-changes cannot affect games currently in progress.
Uninstallation:
1. To uninstall the mod, change the 'Current Mods Directory' to 'Default' in the game. Then delete the Autumn Twilight folder under Galactic Civilizations II\Twilight\Mods and repeat all steps from point 6. of the Installation instructions.
2. To uninstall the updated campaigns, delete all files starting with AT from the Campaigns main and sub-folders under Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition\Twilight\Data\English\Campaigns
Credits:
MarvinKosh – for inspiring me to expand my original mod to fix the tech trees too, and inviting me to help with the CU (which ultimately lead to this new version of Autumn Twilight)
Tolmekian – for discussing several balance changes in the original version of my mod with me, and providing general tips
Sole Soul – for providing information regarding several game mechanics (especially logistics and taxes)
MabusAltarn – for providing information regarding some issues with the minor races' tech tree and how the espionage flavour text entries work
MisterAedan – for helping with the testing of my original mod, providing feedback, and giving me an idea for some small changes to the Drengin tech tree (part of which are still in the new version)
UnleashedElf – for helping with the testing of my original mod and providing lots of feedback and encouragement
Spinorial - for providing a fixed version of the RaceImage05_neutral.bik (fixes the flickering)
Maiden666 – for discussing several balance changes with me (primarily to the ability bonuses, political parties, and UP proposals)
Do you mind providing the sheet in a form that Excel 2003 can open, please?
Hang on. I found an online conversion app. Now to see if it works... Yah, that worked.
In the sheet, when you flag 'Old/New Values', is that in relation to toA or to the CU?
The spreadsheet is using TotA v2.04 as a base. The changelog is using the CU.
Okay, this is strange. The 2.20 option page still points to the Mods folder of the old Steam installation. I reset the option to Default and it now points to the Mods/Default folder of the 2.20 installation. Which, of course, does not have the AT folder in it. But I can't figure out how to change the mods folder specification.
This suggests that the mods folder spec is saved somewhere besides the installation. I see nothing in the MyGames folder. Is it in the registry?
You mean, you clicked on the Default button? Yeah, that is one of the stupidities of the game. A fresh installation uses Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition\Mods\Default as standard path. However, if you click on Default, this changes to Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition\Twilight\Mods\Default, even though that folder doesn't even exist.
As far as I know, the only place where the mod path is saved is the prefs.ini in the MyGames folder. It's under ModsDir. Changing that line to ModsDir=..\\Mods\Autumn Twilight should do the trick.
Ah. There it is. Thanks.
Still doesn't work. The Browse Directories dialog doesn't show any of the folders in the Mods directory, which is not the way I remember it working. Am I supposed to change prefs.ini to ..\Mods\Autumn Twilight manually? (BTW, does it handle embedded spaces gracefully?)
Yes to both. It's not possible to change the path to where the mods are located from within the game. So manually doing it within the file is the only option.
I hope that is recorded with SD as a BUG...
Thanks.
This is even weirder. As soon as I changed prefs.ini to the AT folder, I can suddenly see all the mods in the Mods folder. This thing is whacked!
I'm starting a new game as Terran. Only two opponents in an Immense galaxy (Drath, Altarian), so it should be quick.
Hey everyone! I've uploaded a new version.
Part of the starbase overhaul didn't make it in the last update. I must have forgotten to replace the file with the new version. In any case, that's fixed now.
Sorry for any inconvenience that might have caused.
What did you change in the starbases from the version I'm playing? (I don't have any military SBs.)
Boy! These things can be really strong with the investment of enough constructors!
BTW, I made an earlier comment about the 'nerfed' Mass Driver branch. Now I kinda like how that weapons branches are differentiated.
The defense and military-assist modules unlocked by the Starbase Militarization and Starbase Fortification techs got a complete overhaul. There is now one module per weapon/defense category, just like in the original game, instead of one module that increases all three weapons/defense categories at once. The total bonuses are also still the same as in the original game, which means that some of the modules are a bit stronger, because there are fewer of them now (excluding Battle Stations, there are now 18 defense modules vs. originally 27, and 15 military-assist modules vs. originally 26).
This change was supposed to be in v2.1, but I apparently forgot to add the correct file. Well, that's what happens when you have a working-folder, an upload-folder, and two backup-folders, but forget to double-check.
Not in this thread. Unless I missed it.
Glad to hear that.
Well I missed it too. I looked and looked and couldn't find it.
I was gonna ask about differentiating the SB modules, but you beat me to it.
I gotta say, this "quicky" game as Terran vs. Drath and Altarian has turned out to be a lot of fun. I forgot that you have Terran as Neutral and Drath as Good so misjudged the natural alliances. Spent a most of my resources developing resource bases and non-weapon techs and got behind in shipbuilding. Drath went right up the missile branch and developed some kick-ass ships, then declared war, immediately joined by his Goody Two-Shoes buddy. War on two fronts.
Terran leader Pikov Andropov had been anticipating trouble with Altaria. Most of the fleet was on that border so that front was stabilized without much loss. The Drath front, though, was another matter. Tight Clusters. Drath and nearby Terran home clusters are nearly racially homogeneous, but the largest cluster extends "up" and is mixed Drath and Terran. There, the good (er.. neutral) guys took quite a beating, losing several starbases, most planetary defenses, and (for the first time in many games) planets.
Defenses are much cheaper than weapons. To counter the Drath advantage, Andropov put crash priority on the already fairly well-developed Point Defense branch and pushed Mass Drivers. Stole Photonic Torpedo II tech from a poorly developed frontier world. And luckily with an Economic Boom in progress there was money to buy strong ships at strategic locations. Small fleets of strong, fast ships were used to blunt Drath attacks. One battleship managed to break through into the rear sector and, using the Terran Flagship as a spotter, just played hob with the fleets of troop transports approaching from the home cluster.
As of this writing (Dec 2030), Altarian forces have been driven back in the central cluster and key production worlds there have fallen. Several Drath worlds have fallen, though none of great importance save a manufacturing capitol foolishly located far forward. Most roving fleets have been neutralized at considerable cost. The Terran home cluster has switched over to Troop Transport production. But most Drath worlds are guarded by very strong fleets, Drath troops are nearly as deadly as Terran marines, and the economic boom has ended, leaving fleet development relatively static.
There is a diplomatic possibility: our ambassador believes that the Drath not only can be talked into an armistice, but also can be lead to declare war on Atlaria, breaking their joint economic treaty. Starved of revenue, the Altarian forces would be doomed (though realistically they are now). Drath fleets might expose themselves by venturing through Terran space to close with their new enemies. Yet a strong faction opposes that ambiguity of purpose that this might induce. Talks are ongoing.
- Harold Hedd, for GNN
Anomalies etc. noted:
* as previously mentioned, Altarian AI builds Research Coords without Labs to augment
* Drath builds very strong ships, but mostly leaves them in orbit
* Atlarian spent much time researching Military SBs, yet never built one
* in general, there were very few SB-kamikaze attacks until later in the war. Good to see. But now the Alt's strong rear cluster is wasting its reinforcements on a Terran SB between the two clusters. Oh well.
* the engine still has trouble keeping the build classes straight. I suddenly wasted a lot of build points on Snipers. and later about half my worlds were suddenly building too-expensive Corvettes, both classes auto-designed where (I believe) all the preempted builds were custom classes.
* I'm neutral, but received the Arnorian Battle Fleet a couple months ago. Is this kosher?
Sounds oddly familiar.
Seems like you have quite an exciting game going there. My own isn't quite as eventful. Probably because I had already won by the end of the colony rush. Not literally, but close enough. I had 186 planets by the end of the rush, whereas the second and third biggest empires had only about a third of that (Terrans with 67 planets, and Torians with 65). Everybody else had somewhere between 20 and 40 colonies. That was the best colony rush I had in a long time. Really shows what the Yor are capable of. Though I'm not sure, if I could replicate this success.
The funniest thing was the first war declaration of the game: the Jessuins declared war on me. Seriously, a minor race with only one planet declares war on a juggernaut with 180+ planets. Even more baffling was that they were not even paid to do so. They did so on their own accord. For a while, I was not sure how to react. So I let the Jessuins believe they had a chance. Then the Terrans and Thalan got paid to declare war on me. Most likely by the Drath, who still hate my mechanical guts for encroaching on their territory. That spelled the end of the peasant uprising. I wiped out the Jessuins, so I could focus on more important matters. The Terrans managed to conquer one of my planets, but I eventually managed to take it back. So far, that was the only one I lost in the entire game. Shortly after, the Thalan sued for peace. I was tempted to keep the war going (I was winning, after all), but eventually decided against it. Good thing, because the next week the Iconians and Torians declared war on me to "stop my war machine". Yeah, sure, blame the victim.
It's now September 1st 2231, my empire is 247 planets strong, and I've been in a constant state of war for over three years. For the most part, I was just toying with the other races, because they couldn't really harm me. Last week, the Iconians surrendered their remaining planets to me. Probably because my invasion fleet was ready to take New Iconia. I've begun my real offensive against the Torians three weeks ago. All in all, the future of the Torians doesn't look good. They are not only at war with me, but also the Terrans (they've killed the Terran leader), the Drengin (revenge for their enslavement), and the Arceans and Korx, who are their other direct neighbours besides me. After I'm done with the Torian, I will finally end hostilities with the Terrans. Permanently. I don't take kindly to anyone taking one of my planets, regardless for how long. Once that is dealt with, the Drath and Korx should be gone too. They're already losing planets left and right due to my strong influence. Well, we shall see how long they will last. Or the other races for that matter.
Nothing I can do about that without access to the source code. Well, even with the source code, I'm not sure what I could do. I'm not a programmer.
Yes, that's okay. This event doesn't care about your alignment.
Geez, what density are you playing? This one I've got Immense, Tight Clusters, Common Stars, Occasional planets, Common Habitable, lots of Anomalies and Asteroids, Rare weird planets, Slow tech.
Are you playing Yor as Evil?
Metal or flesh, it is good to be King.
Immense map, Loose Clusters, Abundant all, Occasional Extreme Worlds, Normal tech speed.
Yes.
Finished July 2231. 148K points, which I gather is pretty good for a three race game.
I still can't believe that a minor attacked you. It would be interesting to know what the odds of that are. I've never seen it.
Yeah, that is very good. Congrats!
I haven't been able to play since Sunday. When I left off, my plans for the Torians had been slowed down a bit, because the Korx surrendered to them. This brought the planet-count of the Torians back into the mid 60s. In other words, they just regained the same amount of planets they had previously lost to me. I've then managed to take another 20 worlds from them (including Toria), so they're now roughly back to the point where they were before the Korx surrendered.
I've also made some progress against the Terrans, because their constant harassment was bothering me. All of their holdings within my territory are now mine (7 planets, if I recall correctly). The next-closest Terran planets are a small outpost within Thalan territory to the north, and Earth to the north-east. I'm currently preparing to send my troops to those locations.
All of my progress was significantly helped by taking out the Akilians, Carinoids, and LentzLandians. That gave me access to one Econ resource, one Morale resource, one Influence resource, one Research resource, and three Military resources. The Econ, Influence, and two Military resources are already being fully exploited. Due to my significantly increased influence, the Drath have lost most of their planets within the last couple turns (only 9 remain), and even some worlds of the Altarians and Thalan are starting to revolt. I still haven't been able to explore the whole map, so there might be another Influence resource (I have two now). If there is, I will get it ASAP. Even if it means going to war with the Drengin. It's not like they could do anything to stop me. My ships are now almost indestructible. Once I upgrade them, they definitely will be indestructible (I already have the Aereon Missile Defense, and am currently researching Disruptors III).
I've seen minors attacking major races several times over the last years. It's possible that it's due to me giving them access to more advanced algorithms. The minors sometimes end up having an army before any of the majors do, and then consider themselves powerful enough to take them on. That was certainly the case here. Sure, I had the bigger empire, but no army (though I did have the necessary techs for it, and could easily build one).
This behaviour was even more prevalent when I made the minors able to colonise. One time, the Snathi got so strong that they declared war on several races around them. I was one of them. At that point, I was still in the colony rush, and completely unprepared for war. So the Snathi made short work of me. Yes, I lost to a minor race. No, I'm not kidding.
So, are those races no longer minor, or we were used to consider them even less than minor?
The major AI must be aware of the minor revolt too...
No, they are still minor (i.e., they have restrictions which the major races don't have). The only difference compared to the regular game is, that the minor races now have access to more advanced AI algorithms, so that they can make better use of the few resources they have. Well, and some small changes to their racial abilities, and what ship design and music they use (to better differentiate them all).
I did give the minor races the ability to colonise planets in the pre-2.0 versions of AT, but that is no longer the case. It was too big of a deviation from the original design of GalCiv 2, and therefore clashed with with my new intentions for the mod.
Hey everyone, I've uploaded a new version!Well, the list of changes is too big to mention all of them in this post. So I'll only note the most important ones.Bugfixes-fixed certain techs not showing that they unlock invasion tacticsBalancing-made some adjustments to the Gas Warfare, Mechanized Warriors, and Terror Drones invasion tactics-changed the cost for some abilities to make specialisation easier again (i.e. how it was in the vanilla game)-changed the bonuses and cost for the Population Growth ability to the values from the base game-changed the values for the Trade bonuses to 2x the vanilla ones across the board (the only exception is the Korx Super Trade Base SB module, which stayed at 100%)-removed the Espionage penalty from all of the political parties-made some slight adjustments to the Pacifists, Universalists, and Mercantile political parties-re-added Xeno Biology and Xeno Medicine as starting techs to the Thalan-gave the Iconians a Social Production bonus to offset their lost Espionage bonus-changed the values of the Korath Hit Points and Soldiering abilities back to the vanilla ones-changed the values of the Krynn Diplomacy and Research ablities back to the vanilla ones-slightly increased the attack rating of the Nano Ripper MD weapon-re-adjusted the cost of all tier 2 and above defenses-made some small adjustments to the defense ratings of the Good and Neutral defenses-increased the cost of the sensor modules-increased the cost and reduced the range bonus of the life support modules-changed the attack bonus of the Vengeance Scanner back to the vanilla one-fixed an inconsistency of the Righteous Justice module (the description said that it only works in friendly territory, but it actually worked everywhere)-made some changes to the cost, maintenance, and the bonuses of several planetary improvements (e.g. the high tier factories and collectives, most labs for all races, several morale improvements, Doomsday Generator, Shrine of the Mithrilar, Dark Energy Lab, Innovation Complex, etc.)-changed the Temple of Krynn to upgrade to the Order of Krynn, the Slaveling Training Center to upgrade to the Artificial Slave Pods, and the Wretched Harvester to upgrade to the Aul Incinerator, and made some changes to the cost, maintenance, and bonuses of those improvements-made all upgrading one-per-planet improvements indestructible (there is a bug that prevents you from re-building a upgraded one-per-planet improvement that got destroyed)-made the Torian Harvester indestructible again-changed the tech requirement for the Market Center back to A History of Extremes, and for Aphrodisiac back to Habitat Improvement-removed the Dread Factory and Minor-Race-specific improvements and their accompanying techs-significantly reduced the cost for military-assist SB modules-changed the module requirement for the tier 1 attack-assist SB modules, and the Korx and Thalan trade modules-removed the cost for speed-assist, repair-assist, slow enemies, and sensor modules-changed the tech requirements for the Terror Star modules back to the vanilla ones-re-added the missing Terror Star techs-changed the cost for the Iconian economy techs, and the techs Death Furnaces, Enhanced Slavelings, and Artficial Slavelings back to the vanilla one-changed several tech requirements to bring the tech tree layout closer to the vanilla one-re-enabled the ability to trade and/or steal all race-specific techs that you could trade and/or steal in the vanilla game-re-added race-specific adjustments to the willingness to trade certain techs-re-added the AddTradeRoutes United Planets proposal (it got removed in the CU, because it was wrongly believed to be not working)-removed the WarfareTax UP proposals (while the tax showed up under Expenses, it didn't actually get deducted from your income)-removed all time-limited duplicate UP proposals-increased the effect of all remaining UP proposals (as far as it was technically possible)General-fixed a lot more typos and grammatical issues (though there are bound to be more left)-made some adjustments to the weapon animations and sfx-changed the icon and query graphics for the factories, Entertainment Network, Multimedia Center, Hyper Computers, and Hyperion Re-Supply Center improvements back to the vanilla ones-added "new" icons and query graphics for the Festival of Capitalism, Recuperation Center, and Maintenance Grid improvements-added non-functional bonuses to the (Advanced) Navigation Center, Propaganda Center, Hyperion Shipyard, and Innovation Complex improvements to give visual feedback for the actual bonuses, because the game doesn't have icons or any other indicators for themWell, I hope you like the new version. Have fun!
It is a pity that these changes were not integrated entirely into the core game itself.
I'd say that with this, GC2 is probably as good as it will get.
Merry Christmas!
Edit:
One thought.
The early Thalan upgrades (ex: Hyperion Matrix) should be one per player not a Galactic Achievement. If you have 2 players each using the Thalan tech tree, then the player that doesn't get the Galactic Wonders, they are in serious trouble.
Thank you, for the kind words. It really means a lot to me.
Merry Christmas to you, too!
That's already the case. All of the race-speficic wonders are Super Projects now. The only exception is the Propaganda Machine, because the bonus only works, if the building is a Galactic Achievement.
Hang on ... double checking. Yeah that's correct. It looks like it was part of the Community version.
I think there isn't much else that I see.
Right now, it seems like Gal Civ 2, perhaps because it's mature, seem like a better game than Gal CIv 3. Maybe that will change down the line once it matures. The AI is actually quite a bit more intelligent in GC2 right now.
I only wish we had access to adjacency bonuses in Gal Civ 2. Oh well.
Will have to wait. Just reinstalled GC2 and I cannot update to CE on Impulse - latest is 2.04. Worse it looks like Gamestop has shutdown the Impulse server ... ugh. Updating Impulse does nothing and neither does entering in my old DVD key into Stardock's system.
I've sent an email off to Stardock to rectify.
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