Project origins
There was some discussion on the Steam forums as to how to get an update to GalCiv 2 out there.
Draginol popped in and suggested that an update incorporating the expertise of the fanbase would be the best way forward. A bugfixing update would soon be on the way.
I sent a message to the other tech tree modders, and luckily secured the assistance of Gaunathor, and later MabusAltarn, as well as some dedicated members of the community who posted some valuable feedback. They have been instrumental to the success of the community update, and I'm glad to have played a small part along the way.
Progress report
The community update has been released as part of a rollout of Stardock products on GOG.com and is also available as an opt-in beta on Steam!
Downloads and links
Issues which can't be fixed with XML manipulation.
The file archive folder, hosted by MabusAltarn.
The list of bugs which can't be fixed with XML manipulation.
The spreadsheet of data changes, hosted by MabusAltarn.
Initial discussion on Steam forums
Credits for community member and Stardock staff involvement
Gaunathor - Tech tree changes, descriptions and standardisation. AI value adjustment. Planetary improvement changes and fixes. Keeper of the change logs, spreadsheet and file archive.
MarvinKosh - Typo and description changes (English.str, Techtree.xml). Additional spreadsheet analysis.
DARCA1213 - Tech descriptions.
MabusAltarn - UI changes, tech tree changes, AI value adjustment, keeper of the file archive, spreadsheet and change logs.
Maiden666 - Suggestions for improvement (technology victory bonuses).
OShee - tech descriptions.
SiliasOfBorg - tech descriptions.
Frogboy - executable code changes.
OShee the "Events" list is also good for showing the technological progression because it will give you a chronological list and the time needed to research, and sometimes it's even possible (by the length of research) to deduce if a tech has been techtraded (although it might also be Creativity )
This is a bad bug and will potentially torpedo Mabus' suggestions for high Iconian repair.
Your other points about repair are well-taken, Maiden, but I still think it would be fun and thematic for Iconians to have high repair. That is, if the overrepair bug can be fixed. Which should be rediculously easy to do.
I like that repaired HP is independent of ship HP. To me that makes more sense. A 90% damaged Battleship should take a lot longer to repair than a 90% damaged fighter.
Edit: I have updated our "can't fix with XML" list of issues with this.
Second game, all abundant, very fast research speed. I picked Drath and researched only +diplomacy to not get attacked. Yor had different idea - when they tried to conquer my lone HW with first transport, I knew it was a good time to stop. 93 turns in.
Torian - 24 colonies. They have Republic, still crazy about x-col. Also they picked Interstellar Governments quite early and never got Universities. Other then that, they are pretty good. And I mean Good - they picked it as their Ethics. Also, Medium hulls and Xeno Factory.
Yor - 10 colonies. Also have their "Republic". Research xtreme colonization but never picked any tech from there, not even their Adv. Barren, but there is only 1 Barren world on the whole map, taken by Torian. Other then lack of Ion Drive and Defense techs, they are great.
Arcean - 8 colonies. Xeno Factory, Democracy, Medium hulls, done only Heavy Gravity. No economy, labs or morale techs. 12 techs in between Republic and Democracy. They also finished Medium hulls quite early - before 30th turn.
Drengin - 10 colonies. Republic, Medium hulls, haven't researched economy tree or Xeno Intimidation, otherwise very good mix of labs/factories/morale. Never picked up extreme colonization tech though.
Korx - 12 colonies. No government tech (I just had a look, it is not set as Pure Research). Finished Aquatic and Toxic, otherwise left x-col alone - also, there were gaps in between techs, not counting Adv. versions one after another, which is still good considering those are cheaper techs. Factory and Research Center, but no morale or economy techs.
Altarian - 7 colonies. Factory, Research Center (very late, around 80th turn, but still), economy, got Way of Dread Lords, Republic, picked Good with Ethics. Only Basic Heavy and Toxic so far, with half a dozen techs in between them. Looks a lot better but could concentrate a bit more on finishing Adv. versions. Picked Interstellar Governments quite early (6th tech).
Iconian - Democracy (8 other techs between it and Republic), first level of economy techs (working on second), Medium hulls, finished all x-col techs (wow), stopped at missile theory. Now I start to recognize the pattern - most of the time when AI failed to research any other weapon tech, they started of missile. Edit: I just checked my spreadsheets and previous posts of mine and Silas - it's not missiles, mass drives fail sometime as well. Missiles are just picked a bit more often then other weapons it seems. Forget about it.
Mixed results, I'll run another game. I'm increasing Xeno Entertainment to 35 from 30 as I almost never see it done. Changing Korx governments to Pure Research, increasing Research Center to 25 from 20 and Xeno Economics to 25 from 20. For Iconians, I'm setting Adv Toxic and Aquatic to 60, other basic x-col to 15.
Next game, turn 103
Arcean - Xeno Entertainment (first time I see it in 3-4 games), 2nd economy, xeno factory, research academies, medium hulls, aquatic II, barren II, radioactive II, democracy, only laser II. There is a big gap between Republic and Democracy, which is good. They still grabbed x-col more or less in one go.
Altarian - Xeno Factory, Research Centers, Democracy, almost all x-col but Barren II, stopped at beam theory. This guys don't give it a rest now, do they? 9 techs in between Republic and Democracy, and Republic started around 70th turn, after they finished with x-col, which is great (not x-col, no ).
Iconians - Democracy, finished economy techs, got Research Centers, Medium hulls, all but x-col but Barren world. They picked Adv versions of Toxic and Aquatic too early, so I'm thinking about reverting it back to 55, but I want to test one more game with this setting. 5 tech gap between government techs, but x-col is still quite a grindfest. But, they get basic toxic and aquatic for free, so they don't spend on x-col as much as others.
Torian - again picked Good in ethics, got governments but no Republic, only Aquatic I, Barren II and Heavy Gravity II, so not bad. Again left Universities alone. Got basic economy tech. There were nice gaps in between x-col techs.
Drengin - Data may be corrupted as they went to war with Iconians and stolen all Kinetic Beam techs, as I forgot to switch stealing off.
Yor - Democracy, Barren II (no Extreme Colonization, AIP7 fails to research it most of the time), really good mix of all techs, but no Medium hulls. 11 techs between Interstellar and Republic (mostly weapons), 4 techs after - Democracy. AIP7 seems to handle new values quite well.
Korx - Democracy, Manufacturing Centers, Research Centers (shame not Academies but still better then plain Xeno Research), Xeno Entertainment (YES!), Xeno Economics, Barren World II, got Intestellar Governments as their 10th tech, Republic as 12th, and Democracy as 16th, which is a bit soon, but results from other civs are encouraging. Researched x-col quite late, 2 techs later done Barren world and Adv in one go, then another 5 different techs.
AIP11 AI value 25 from 35 Democracy seems to be working nicely, they don't get it too soon (except Korx), and research it reliably. Value 35 works god for AIP7, I'm going to test AIP8 more tomorrow.
AIs are better at picking Research Centers with AI Value 25 from 20, but not always continue further down. Still better then Xeno labs.
AI Value 35 from 30 works nicely for Xeno Entertainment, both AIs finally picked it up in a long streak of games.
Xeno Economics is also more reliably picked by the AIs, Korx, Torian, Arcean, Drengin, Altarian - everyone got it this time.
As to x-col techs - AIP7 goes for them, if they pick Xtreme Colonization (half the time), and they don't go batshit crazy with it (same with AIP8 it seems). AIP11 with changed values to 20 still are a problem. Iconians with 15 still picked most of x-col in one go. I'll set it to 12 for all AIP11 and see what happens.
Game 3. 97 turn.
I changed Extreme Colonization for Drengin and Yor to Category Biology and AI Value 10.
Drengi - Interstellar Governments, good mix of important techs, although I would rather see another level of labs. Finished Heavy Gravity II.
Arceans - Republic, Barren II, Toxic II, Heavy I, failed to research Research Centers (doing it on 97th turn), but got morale, economy. Also stuck on Industrial Theory. They were researching well till they started, yes you guessed it, x-col. Picked Interstellar Governments late but Republic soon after.
Iconians - Democracy, Academies, Replication II, Large hulls, all x-col except Heavy. They alongside Yor dominate this game. Waited a bit before they researched Republic, then went through x-col mixed a bit with other techs, then done Democracy.
Yor - Republic, working on Democracy. Finished Barren, picked Radioactive I. They grind through weapon techs, manufacturing, they got Research Academies, finished Efficiency. One thing I noticed, in none of the 3 games so far they researched advanced hulls, so they seem to be stuck on small.
Korx - Republic, Aquatic II, Toxic I, quite good mix of other techs. They just work on Planetary Invasion, so they seem slowed down a little. They picked x-col around 50-70 turn, research a little with nice gaps between each colonization tech, also done Republic at the same time, and then stopped with x-col, which is always nice to see.
Altarians - Democracy, Manufacturing Centers, advanced weapons but... no Xeno Research. Also, no Precursor History, they researched Extreme Colonization, but none of the colonization techs. They seem to always be doing some really bad decisions every game. Picked Ethics and Good again.
Torians - second offender. Republic, Barren II, Toxic II, Aquatic II, but again, no Universities (3rd game in a row), no Interstellar Construction, no Industrial Theory. Again picked Ethics, and again Good.
Notes: Biology 10 seems to work fine for AIP7 to get x-col more reliably - they do it after Fertility Acceleration, so not too soon. 25 Democracy prevents AIP11 from diving straight to Democracy soon after finishing Republic, but it might take them longer to get it in some cases. Torian need a fix on Universities as their AI is probably confused with changing their government to Pure Research. 35 works like a charm for Xeno Entertainment, no fails so far (with value 30, no one researches it). Xeno Economics is also more reliable, as well as Research Centers, except for rare cases. Value 12 on first entry of x-col for AIP11 is still random - some still go all the way (Iconians), some don't pick them up (Altarians). Needs further testing.
On the side: On medium map, all abundant (extreme occasional in all 3 games), Yor seem to take a lead and is doing even better then allpowerfull Torians. I think the cause to this lies in Torian failing to research Universities and also 12tp on Research Matrix - it could be reduced to 10tp. It was 12 tp back in vanilla iirc, when labs could top at 16, so it should be toned down accordingly. Drengin are also a bit scarier If AIP7 colonization fix passes through, we might have our hands full trying to balance AIP7 races, as they are underperforming in different settings. Arceans and Iconians, well, they like their hulls Just like Torians and Altarians their Ethics.
http://www.steamunlock.com/share.php?ref=tz3M0xHxc
Game 4, 101 turn.
Changed Torian University AI Value to 25 from 20. Set all basic x-col techs in Iconian tree to value 10.
Yor - Democracy, Invention Cities, Barren II, Radioactive I, Toxic I, they finished their industrial tree, efficiency, stalks only 1 tech, picked interstellar construction late. They done amazing all things considered, and I will try and learn AIs research order to get better myself, as they are really scary.
Iconian - they got stuck at Starbase tree, they already have Starbase Domination. Still done all of x-col techs except Barren II. Medium hulls, Research Academies, Ethics (picked Good), Democracy, econ - very nice, except if they spent that Starbase TP on weapons, they could do much more. They researched Democracy almost right after Republic. I have to say, even as they spent so much TP on x-col, they didn't grind them. There are 3-5 other techs done in between every x-col.
Torian - Democracy, all x-col techs, no Planetary Improvements, so I don't know if changing University to 25 from 20 done any good. There is a healthy gap between each government tech. X-col, well, a little grindfest with 1-2 techs in between every colonization tech.
Korx - Republic, Aquatic I, Toxic II. Healthy mix of various techs. This time I'm proud of them. Waited 6 techs till they research first x-col after getting Extreme Colonization, then another one 4 techs later, then adv. 3 techs later, and then they chilled. Picked Republic not too soon, not too late.
Drengin - Republic, Toxic II, Radioactive I. Overall good research, but for some reason this time they skipped Arena of Agony. Good mix of techs overall. They grabbed Radioactive, Stinger, Toxic, then done 9 other techs before getting Toxic II. Interstellar and Republic done both late, one after another. But they do get it.
Altarian - picked Good again. only Interstellar Governments, Barren II, Radioactive II, Toxic II, Heavy I. Overall good techs but no Research Center, even after setting it to 25 Value. Grinded x-col a bit, with 1-2 techs in between every other x-col.
Arcean - Republic, Heavy I, Toxic II. They spawned next to Torians, so altogether they have only 5 worlds and this sets them back a lot. Healthy mix of techs. 3 x-col techs were researched almost one after another. Could research Republic sooner I guess.
Value 10 for Iconians seems to work well, but again, more testing is required. Colonization and governments work quite good for both AIP7 civs. Altarian and Torian research is still a problem.
That's it for tonight, I'll try to do some more testing tomorrow if I have some spare time. End of spam
well they have +100 more repair than any other race, and, by that, always have more than, at least factor 2.5 or up to factor 3.5.
but the repair ability doesn't seem to work linearily . At 100 repair +11/+12 is the max, at +200 +15/+16 is max, and at +240 +16/+17 is the max. so giving them another +100 will increase their repair by ~45% only. shrug
@OShea
By the looks of it AIP11 went for it's government far to early. I was afraid that might happen. To clarify, I didn't use AIValues to accomplish AIP11 government research, I used a category (Pure Research) but it threw off their research far to much.
I think I'll remove this tweak from the AIP11 techtrees. They won't go for government tech until late in the game but right now it's throwing off their research far to much.
This is a problem we can't fix. The X-col tech is all specifically categorized to tell the AI what it does. Categories : Toxic Terraforming, Aquatic Terraforming, etc tell the AI what this tech will give it. Changing these categories will cause the AI to randomly pick an X-Col tech.
I've experimented with lower AIValues but they cause the AI to ignore these techs all together.
Looks like this is needed. I'll set it up.
@Maiden
Alright maiden thanks for clearing that up.
I'll homonogize the hull techs and give the Arceans a slightly higher HP bonus from the in between techs and leave the Iconians as is. They don't need a nerf.
Xeno Entertainment was set to 35 in TechTree a while ago. Doesn't mean they'll always grab it though.
AIP7 and AIP8 aren't that keen on AIValues unless they're very high. Both these AIs like culture tech when it's categorized as Government (and Ethics) and will research their governments without much assistance. It's AIP11 that needs to be fooled.
I've also made up my mind about the Iconians. Making them repair centric is to risky in the current state of the game and as was pointed out they already get a very high repair rating so I'm leaving it as is.
Version 5.3.1
Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s0j2aq7dji5rf17/Community%20Update%20V5.3.1.zip?dl=0
Change summary:
=TechTree
Robust Hull Construction-HP from 10 to 15
StarRep-AIValue from 30 to 20
StarDep-AIVaue from 35 to 30
-Level 1 X-Col AIValues set to 12. This throttles AIP11's desire to grab this tech a bit.
=Iconian TechTree
Xeno Communications-AIValue from 30 to 35
UniversalTranslator-AIValue from 30 to 35
=Arcean TechTree
Superior Hulls-HP from 10 to 15
Master Hull Building-HP from 15 to 20
Reinforced Hull Design-HP from 10 to 15
Hardened Hull Design-HP from 10 to 15
=Terran TechTree-added Good ethical techs
=Korx TechTree-InterGov, InterRep set to Pure Research
=Misc-Everyone gets Reinforced Hulls and Hardend Hull Design
=Altarians/Torians/Iconians TechTree
Good and Evil & Concepts of Righteousness set to Pure Research otherwise they'll never grab their Good tech.
=PlanetaryImprovements
PrecursorLibrary-Cost from 400 to 100. This structure clogs up the AIs building queue for a year! Now it's in line with other race specific GA's.
SecretPoliceCenter-Swapped cost and bonus with Propaganda Center-updated description to match bonus
Propraganda Center-Swapped cost and bonus with SecretPoliceCenter-updated description to match bonus
Notes:
The Arceans get +25% extra HP. This should really make their ships very tough to deal with. They're done unless they're to powerful now.
My tests show the Iconians grab their economic tech reliably. Also, without the Precursor Library clogging up their homeworld they do much better at the beginning of the game.
AIP11's grab InterGov and InterRep. If they grab StarDem is up to them. Before they never researched government tech now they grab a quick and easy 10% to their economy. Going further than InterRep is hard to time right and going to StarDem will present problems with morale AIP11 has no way to deal with.
Good AIP11's (notice how most good races are on AIP11 now?) now have a higher chance to grab their Good tech. I didn't bother with the Korx (also AIP11) since Evil tech is less powerful.
Have fun with this version and let me know how it plays.
Changes in 3 games:
AIP11 x-col: AI Value set to 9 for first level techs.
Research Center set to 26 fro 20, Academy to 20 from 15.
Game 1:
Torian only done Aquatic II and Heavy II. Korx picked Barren II, Heavy II, Aquatic I, but not all in one go. Arceans picked a lot but with nice gaps between each tech. Iconians skipped Adaptation tech unfortunately. Altarians picked Aquatic I, Heavy II, Toxic I. Yor failed to research Xtreme Colonization, Drengin done Toxic I and Heavy I.
Game 2:
Altarian Heavy II, Research Academies, Manufacturing Centers, Democracy
Iconian all x-col techs, Invention Matrix, Replicators II, Democracy. Still grinded x-col but great techs overall.
Torian - Democracy, Barren II, Heavy II, Toxic I. I set their University to value 26, they grabbed it, but never gone past them. Picked Republic and Democracy late and in one go.
Korx - Toxic I, Academies, Xeno Factory, Republic.
Arcean - they work on Barren I. Democracy, Research Centers, Manufacturing Centers. Good mix of all techs but x-col is late.
Drengin - Heavy II, Toxic I, no government. Good mix of all techs, but no economic exploitation.
Yor - Barren II, Heavy II, Radioactive I, Republic. Good mix of other techs.
Game 3
Arcean - Republic, Research Center, Manufacturing Center, Barren II, Radioactive II, Heavy II, Toxic I. Still went crazy with x-col, low labs.
Torian - failed to get University, never researched any x-col, got Democracy. They spent most TP on weapons
Altarian - failed to get Research Center, work currently on Democracy, got Heavy II
Korx - grinded all x-col except for Toxic, Research Centers, Democracy before RC.
Yor - Invention Cities, Republic, all x-col but Toxic II, Collectives IV + Vortex, Efficiency IV. Even as they grabbed almost all x-col, they were moderate with them, all in all changing Extreme Colonization tech to category Biology with value 10 seems to work fine for both them and Drengi. Only once Yor failed to research it.
Drengin - Aquatic I, Barren II, Radioactive I. No government tech again. Pretty low level of labs and industrial, but overall it's all good.
Iconian - Research Academy, Democracy, Replication II, all x-col but Heavy, good mix of all other techs.
I think I'll remove this tweak from the AIP11 techtrees. They won't go for government tech until late in the game but right now it's throwing off their research far to much. In case of Torian they fail to research even University, even with value 26 on it.
Extreme Colonization tech for AIP7 can be safely set to category Biology, AI Value 10 - AIs failed to research it only on one or two occasions, they don't go all in into x-col techs. Note, I mean Extreme Colonization itself, not basic x-col like Toxic, Barren etc.
I suggest leaving Research Center set to 26 and Academy to 20 in both Yor and Iconian tech trees, Iconian Republic tech set to category Pure Research, and Iconian first levels of x-col tech set to value 10 or 12. They both do phenomenal work with this setting and are strongest civs around for couple of games in a row. Also, Iconian Universal Translator to -10 and Xeno Communications to 30, just to be sure.
Playing with AI value for first x-col techs for other AIP11 gives mixed results. Altarians failed to pick it up set on 10, and Torians failed when set on 9 in 3rd game, Arceans picked first tech very late into the game, and still there is a big chance of someone grinding the tree. Back when it was set on 15, everyone still research it, but grinding was almost same as on value 26. Still, I think reducing it to 15 for AIP11 (except for Iconians) should tame them at least a little bit.
I've experimented with lower AIValues but they cause the AI to ignore these techs all together.Yep, agreed.
Xeno Entertainment needs to be set to 35 - it is relatively cheap tech for it's bonuses (15 morale + better improvement), and without it AIs fail to research it on numerous occasions.
Xeno Economics can be set to 25, as AIs pick it up more often. Without it they sometimes leave this branch for far too long or don't pick it up at all.
Only Arcean and Iconian picks Medium hulls quite reliably - once every 1-3 games. Torian and Drengin picked it once. No one else bothered to research hulls. It may be because it's a Medium map with loads of AIs, so I will start testing it on Large maps with less opponents. Also, I'll try testing how AIP8 reacts to changes in Xeno Entertainment and Economics.
AIP11 skipped Hyper Mainframes half the time - it can be because governments are set as Research.
Almost no one researched any defenses.
Edit:
I like all the changes. Except hulls.
Is this for everyone or just AIP11? Did AIP11 also got reverted back to their previous category?
That's on the AI. Cannot be fixed.
It's a very minor buff in the late game. Half my games I don't even get all the way to this stuff.
Probably. That's the problem with introducing new tech to research (government) you always run the risk the AI will drop something else because of it. That's why StarDem is no longer tweaked to be researched.
No it can't. The Colonization category is one of a kind. If there's no X-col planets on the map the AI will ignore this Category completely. Not so with Biology (which AIP8 also hates). It's the same for the specific X-col categories. Each tell the AI what it does.
The Iconians and Yor already have AIValues to force this tech to be researched and the Yor got even more.
While I really appreciate the effort to come up with new AIValues it's really difficult for me to implement them since they can conflict with what I'm working on myself and the results can be very different. So, please, don't be disappointed if I have trouble implementing them.
Everyone. AIValue 35 is an instant grab for AIP11 so 30 works better. AIValue 20 for StarRep is enough.
Everyone.
I'll be taking a break for this evening and the next two days (25th, 26th).
Happy holidays
Latest test game, patch 5.3.1, Large/Scattered/Painful/10 players.
Played about 100 turns just to check on early research.
The Drath ended up sitting this one out, and wow. What a difference it made! There were no wars -- zero -- until I got bored and paid the Thalan to attack the Krynn. But that was late enough in that pretty much the entire galaxy was in peacetime development the entire game.
Iconians - 14 colonies, 1500 bc income. Solid econ research, Small hulls, Particle Beams III. Lacking PI, but at their current research it was only a 10 turn grab, not bad.
Terrans - 11 colonies, 1300 bc income. Heavy econ research as usual. Had X-Col but hadn't grabbed any specific techs yet. Had Beam Weapon Theory (only), Small hulls, PI, and were researching Shield Defense Theory. Perhaps they had just started in on weapons/defenses.
Altarians - 12 colonies, 850 bc income. Solid econ research, Small hulls, Laser I, PI. Were working on Aquatic X-Col. I've noticed that the Altarians seem to grab Xeno Ethics early, and they did once again this game.
Krynn - 7 colonies, 800 bc income. Absolutely rotten starting position but managed to sneak a couple colonies into Altarian and Iconian space. Still grabbed a ton of econ techs (including Xeno Med) and a good chunk of Krynn path. Small Hulls, but had not even researched Space Militarization. I'm guessing this is reasonable-ish behavior for an AI that started poorly in a peaceful galaxy.
Drengin - 10 colonies, 800 bc income. Bizarre research : grabbed Enhanced Ambassadors, but at turn 100 had not yet researched Xeno Slavery. Did we break something?! Had Tiny hulls, Particle Beams I, Unconventional Warfare, no PI.
Thalan - 13 colonies, 1442 bc income. A+ tech mix. Plasma II (ouch!!), PI, Small hulls, Logistics I, ECM I. Had X-Col but hadn't bothered with any specific techs. Scary, as usual.
Yor - 10 colonies, 1100 bc income. Fantastic tech mix; lots of econ, pop growth, Small hulls, no X-Col whatsoever, Harpoon II, PI, Mil. Starbase Construction. They were already up to Manufacturing III, Mfr Vortex, Collective Academy, Advanced Charging Stalks, Efficiency III.
Korath - 6 colonies, 450 bc income. Started in a corner hemmed in by the Thalan and Yor, what you gonna do? In any case, had the earch econ techs (Slave Pits, Diabolical Research, Mainframes, Cutthroat Trading), Harpoon I, Mil. Starbases. Pretty good all things considered.
Korx - 7 colonies, 1008 bc income (hooray for trade!). Rotten starting position in the SE corner, managed to grab a couple planets in Terran space but that was it. Had Super-Trade Starbases, Mercenaries, all the beginning Xeno econ techs, X-Col. Oddly, had only Space Weapons but had run up to Deflectors I and Missile Defense Theory. Had Small hulls.
Drengin aside, the AI is playing a better econ game in 5.3.1 than in any previous patch.
Ditto, will be at relatives and whatnot.
Enjoy your eggnog, folks!
//personally I hate the stuff, but you know what I mean
While I really appreciate the effort to come up with new AIValues it's really difficult for me to implement them since they can conflict with what I'm working on myself and the results can be very different. So, please, don't be disappointed if I have trouble implementing them.Sometimes I might get overexcited, sorry I'll run a couple of games with 5.3.1 on Medium map, and one on Large, see what happens.
And happy holidays, everyone! :>
Where there any other changes in this update? I'm baffled because Korath just colonized planets in my influence. Drengin as well, as seen on the minimap.
http://i.imgur.com/mQOAjnI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6N0W5bw.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MUKbS6f.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mffKCl2.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dfmcH8v.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ov389Xw.jpg
Very fast, Medium, 100th turn, all abundant except extreme worlds (rare).
Korath:
14 worlds, 1150 income, Republic, Medium hulls, Slave Pits, Imaginative lab, morale 1, economy 1, no Invasion, no Spore, Weapon tier 3 lvl 1, no pop growth tech, no x-col.
Torian:
21 worlds, 1650 income, Republic, Good Ethics but no follow up, Industrial Theory, Universities, morale 2, economy 3, Bombardment, Weapon tier 3 lvl 2, pop growth 2, Barren II, Radioactive II, Toxic I. Waited a bit before getting Barren I, then waited a bit more (7 techs), and done the rest in one go. It was pretty late in the game (70-80 turn) so they finished those techs quickly.
Altarian:
12 worlds, 900 income, Republic, Xeno Factory, Research Center, economy 3, Dark Energy+Divergent Evolution, unlocked x-col but no techs, Bombardment, Weapon tier 2 lvl 2, ECM III, no Hyperion Mainframes.
Iconian:
14 worlds, 1200 income, Democracy, Advanced Hulls (heading for Medium), Replication I, Research Centers, economy 3, Radioactive II, Toxic II, Barren I, Aquatic I, Planetary Invasion, Weapon tier 2 lvl 1. Picked Democracy just after Republic, but waited a bit before getting it. Nice, big spaces between colonization techs.
Drengin:
8 worlds, 700 income, Democracy, Slave Pits, Ultimate Diabolical Research, economy 2, morale 2, no farming, pop growth 1, no x-col, Planetary Invasion, Weapon tier 3 lvl 3.
Korx:
11 worlds, 1000 income (no wars yet), Republic, Industrial Theory+Power Plants, Research Academies, economy 1, morale 1, Barren II, Bombardment, Weapon tier I lvl 2, Missile theory.
Arcean:
10 worlds, 750 income, Republic, Industrial Theory, Research Centers, economy 2, morale 1, pop growth 1, Planetary Conquest, Weapon tier 3 lvl 1, , Chaff 1, Deflectors 1, no x-col
Yor:
11 worlds, 1200 income, Democracy, Collective IV+DEM, Academy + working on Creative Insight, no stalks (?), Efficiency IV, Advanced hulls, Bombardment, Weapon tier 4 lvl 1, no x-col.
I was surprised with Korx and Arcean getting any morale tech at all, then I checked, thank you Mabus for putting it to 35 Everyone grabbed Republic, some got Democracy, so this should work just fine. Not many extreme worlds so AIs done fine and didn't grind. Iconians and Yor research much better now, and pose a bigger threat. Iconians went from utterly useless to average-above average grade. Only Torians got stuck on low lvl lab and factories. Otherwise looks promising
Hey guys, I'm glad to see that you're getting stuck in with some playthroughs.
Happy holidays to you, and hey, maybe I'll clock up some hours over Christmas and New Year.
Second game, this time Occasional Extreme.
14 worlds (4 toxic, 2 barren, 1 radioactive). 1300 income, Democracy, only Interstellar Refining, Academies, economy 3, Medium h, all x-col, Planetary Invasion, Weapon tier 3 lvl 1 - good spaces between government techs, finished it's adv x-col, later done basic x-col every second tech, picked adv. later with 1-3 tech spaces in between. Overall not that bad.
16 worlds, 1250 income, Democracy, Xeno Factory, Research Centers, economy 3, Way of Arnor, Barren II, Toxic II, Radioactive II, Heavy I, Planetary Invasion, Weapon tier 2 lvl 1, Titanium Armor I. Got Republic early, Democracy much, much later, grabbed 3 x-col techs in one go, then they slowed down doing 1 tech every other 5.
13 worlds, 1100 income, Republic, Medium h, Manufacturing Centers+Power Plants, Research Centers, economy 2, morale 1, working on PI, Weapon tier 2 lvl 2, Radioactive II, Heavy I, Toxic I. Done Republic a bit late but still not bad, never dived too deep in x-col, researching 1 tech every other 3-5.
6 worlds, 900 income (400 trade), Republic, Xeno Factory (working on PP), Research Centers, economy 2, morale 1, have Extreme Colonization but no techs in the tree, Weapon tier 1 lvl 3, PI, Armor tier 2 lvl 1
6 worlds, 450 income, Republic, tiny hulls, Slave Canyons, Ultimate Diabolical, economy 2, morale 1, never got x-col. PI, Weapon tier 2 lvl 3. Considering their starting position and world count, the do phenomenal.
8 worlds, 1150 income, Democracy, Collective II+DEM, Collective Research, stalks 2, efficiency 4, Medium hulls (wow), Barren II but no other x-col, Quantum Driver II - tier 5 lvl 2, Bombardment. Seriously, how did they manage to get so advanced tech on 8 worlds? Second highest weapon tech of other civs is tier 3, they got 5?! Well yes, they have a 2x 300% tile and 2 100% tile, but that's still doesn't explain how that happened with just single one Research Center. Is the Very fast speed on Medium map favoring races with cheap 1pp 12tp improvement? Or is it their 1pp combined with very fast speed and bonus tiles on top giving a huge boost in early game technology?
7 worlds: 600 income, Republic, Slave Canyons, Imaginative lab, Wretched cloning, economy 1, morale 1, no x-col, Spore, no PI, Weapon tier 2 lvl 3.
22 worlds, 12 of which are extreme, 1900 income, Republic, Manufacturing Centers, Universities, economy 3, morale 2, all x-col but Toxic, Tidal Disruption, Weapon tier 2 lvl 1. They could do so much better if it wasn't for their lack of Cities of Learning. Once they got Extreme Colonization, they done 4 techs almost in a row. But, because they did them quite late, they had enough research to grind relatively fast through them. They also picked Universities and Republic late.
Game 3, AIP8 and AIP7. Occasional Extreme
Yor: 7 worlds, 750 income, Republic, Collective III+DEM, Collective Academy, stalks 2, Advanced hulls, never did x-col, Planetary Invasion, Weapon tier 2 lvl 3, efficiency 3.
Korath: 5 worlds, 400 income, working on Republic, tiny hulls, Slave Canyons, Imaginative Research, no morale or economy, no x-col, Weapon tier 3 lvl 2, Spore, no PI.
Krynn: 12 worlds, 1400 income, Republic, The Way, Krynniac Disciples, Radioactive II, Manufacturing Center, Research Academy, economy 1, PI, Weapon tier 3 lvl 2
Torian: 28 worlds (19 extreme ), 1450 income, Republic, all x-col techs but Heavy II and Toxic II (yet), Industrial Theory, University, economy 2, PI, Weapon tier 2 lvl 2, Armor tier 1 lvl 2, --- late University, weak factories, x-col done without much craziness at the start, only late they dived deep - http://i.imgur.com/8GlbiM4.jpg and started Toxic II
Thalan: 9 worlds, 800 income, Republic, Gravitronics, Industrial II (working on III), Research III, unlocked xtreme but no techs, economy 1, PI, Weapon tier 2 lvl 1,
Terran: 17 worlds (7 extreme), 1500 income, Democracy, Manufacturing Centers, Research Academies, economy 3, no morale (), Aquatic II, Barren I, PI, Weapon tier 3 lvl 1.
AIP8 is much more reasonable when it comes to colonization techs. AIP7 don't researches it but wouldn't make use of it anyway as most of the extreme worlds are taken/outside of their influence. Only problems are with Torian not researching their University early, not picking up CoL and not reliable Xeno Factory research. Possibly Efficiency Studies need a slight increase in tp cost, and Research Matrix nerf from 12tp to 10tp.
Now time to play a serious game on Large galaxy
Hey guys, I'm glad to see that you're getting stuck in with some playthroughs. Yeah, just adding final touches and polish ^^ Mabus done some great job on making AIs research governments, grab the latest version and give it a spin, it's worth it
Edit: Technologist description still mentions +2 sensor.
I just started a new game with 5.3.0 as the Yor. I started with the Iconians in my race contacts screen, listed as "TEAM". I can contact them and they reply like a teammate as well. I've never seen this before. Is this intentional? I thought teams were limited to scenarios?
What might have caused this?
In the screen where you choose your opponents, there is a small box where you can change your relations with another civ. Just click on Iconians and set it back to unknown
Large, fast research. 103th turn. Only glaring bugs:
Korath failed to get Universal Translator.
Torian failed to get Industrial Theory.
Terran went x-col happy but their overall research is great. They have scary number of colonies - 42 (20 average per civ).
Krynn, Arcean and Korx research all techs quite well.
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