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.
Version 5.6.5.
Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3saggog5m2wfvpn/Community%20Update%20V5.6.5.zip?dl=0
During testing the Drath, Korx and Korath (in that order) stood out as "weak". Weak is a relative term here. Mostly they neglected their essential research the most.
Preview posts should be ignored. This is the definite change list.
============= V5.6.5 =============
=Techs
-AIValue Creep 2nd pass. Focus on: Yor, Drengin, Korath, Iconians. Tested for several other civs.
I removed all but 5 overriding AIValue from the race techtrees. This means the techtrees are much more interchangable for customrace creation! AIValues over 30 messes up AIP11 since it marks a tech as "must have". This causes the AI to jump from one "must have" to the next and you end up marking everything as "must have" as a result. This happened to a degree in the CU. Now they're all but gone.
-Advanced HullsUnlocked from Basic Logistics.
-Life SupportUnlocked from Advanced Hulls.
This forces some measure of logistics to be researched before progressing to larger hulls and prevents investment in Life Support before basic logistics is researched. All to often I saw the AI grab 2 or 3 levels of life support while ignoring Logistics. Now, that can't happen. A simple case of option elimination.
-Space MiningIncreased the changes this is researched by the AI. It was mostly ignored.
-Farming (Yor Included)The first farming tech is categorized as biology causing the AI to grab it quickly. The second tech is marked as Farming. This means the AI has to decide it wants bigger farms. To often the AI gras 2 levels of farms before its planets reached 8 bln. In case of the Yor this could be a bit of the a problem since they get morale from this tech but they seem to be doing just fine.
-Expert Engineering (Iconians)
Now comes after Advanced Hulls. This means all advanced hull tech is unlocked by Advanced Hulls without exception. It's a similar construction as Xeno Research and makes it much simpler to move the hull techs around.
-AlliancesMoved to Diplomatic Relations to increase the chance of AI alliances.
-EnhancedAdaptationMoved to Planetary Improvements
-XenoGeologyMoved to Planetary Improvements
-X-Col Move Nr TwoX-Col Tech is unlocked by Soil Enhancement. Sometimes the AI goes for it, sometimes it doesn't. When it does go for it there's a good chance it's basic development cycle is (partially) completed and it's ready to terraform/colonize. At this stage research is much higher and the reduced cost of the X-Col tech no longer drags the AI into an endless cycle of X-Col research. All AIs now grab X-Col on occasion. It's a little random, but that's fine.
=Iconians-Moved Soil Enhancement to Enhanced Adaptation-Moved Xeno Biology to Enhanced Adaptation-Moved Space Mining to Enhanced Adaptation
=All races-Changed Space Mining back to Logistics. It makes no difference in research and simply looks a bit better. Colour ftw!
=Krynn/ArceanWith X-Col much easier to research I removed their "easy access" X-Col techs. They don't need them.
=RaceConfig-ToriansRemoved Luck and courage. replaced with 30% loyalty. The Torians are a menace they don't need crits and a bonus when they're outmatched.
-DrenginAdded speed bonus akin to vanilla
-AltariansAdded speed bonus akin to vanila.
=Invasion-New Invasion tactic solely for the Drengin and Korath was introduced. It's their form of Information Warfare.-Yor get Terror Drones. Cost 250. 20% max/min bonus to attack. 25% imp. damange. No randomness, Yor style.-Thalan get Mechanized warriors. Cost 250. 50/90% bonus to attack. 100% imp. damange. This attack is slightly more powerful than Shock Troops but much more expensive and desctructive. Simply put, I don't want Thalan players capturing intact structures. They're super hivers, they can rebuild planets like it's no one's business. The Thalan have "expensive technologies" hence the high cost.
Enjoy and as always, thanks for testing and any feedback you may provide.
The Mod Description apparently hasn't been updated. Cosmetic.
There's always something... I'll fix it. Thanks
If I can provide one grain of sand's worth of help to someone who has done a Mount Everest of work on a great project...I am happy to do so.
Sounds promising. They've also got me set up with Remote Desktop if there's some tweak I need to make to the c++ code to help with this. Obviously not an ideal solution but sufficient if there's just some few lines of code involved.
Brad
Hey Brad welcome back.
We've made a document listing all the non-XML related issues. You can find a link in the origan post.
Have you had any luck fixing AIP7's colonization, AIP10's planetary management? If so, is there any chance the CU team could playtest the EXE file?
Regards,
M.
Iconian, Krynn, Torian:
Cheap techs don't usually follow after an expensive tech, so it is odd that you research Enhanced Adaptation/Interstellar Expansion for 10 or so turns, just to research Xeno Biology in 1-2. Pop Growth is very important and should not be delayed by an expensive tech like EA/IE. I would be best to reduce cost of these techs back to vanilla. So:
Enhanced Adaptation/Interstellar Expansion cost from 600 to 150, back to vanilla value. Bonus from 10% to 5% for Torian, 8% for Krynn, and 8% for Iconian. Planet Quality works regardless of how much of it there is, so with 5%, Torian can increase >20 PQ world by +1, and Krynn/Iconian can increase PQ >13 worlds by +1. While not as strong, it is still working and stacks with colonization events. Changing it will not only make it just like in vanilla, it is also a really small nerf to greatly performing Torian, Iconian and Krynn. And disproportion of tech costs will be less noticeable.
I think Space Mining should be unlocked by same tech as other races, especially since all 3 races do not lack this tech (currently logistics). Making your planets more hospitable has not a lot in common with mining in space ^^.
Krynn description: Now that everyone has new/improved/longer descriptions, theirs is just... well... vague? I never play them so no propositions from me.
Arcean:
Their tech tree looks ok and can stay, with exception of Space Mining - while it is still kind of Geology field, their tech says nothing about geology in space, only on the worlds they inhabit.
Altarian:
Now that they get +1 speed, their research should be reduced back to 25 (vanilla) from 35. They were underperfoming because of the lack of labs and overbuying things, like Maiden wrote, not because they are weak. They even get easy +25 Social Production, so lack of bonuses is definitely not where their problem lies.
Drengin:
Now that they get speed bonus akin to vanilla, Military Producion could be reduced to 0/5/10 (0 in vanilla). This would make them even more different then Korath.
Korath, Drengin:
Because their labs have lower output per tier (just like in vanilla), they are not able to get so much research of one planet as other races. In essence, they need more planets to achieve same research if we include same tier of labs. They are unable to match research of others, and even if AIP7 wasn't broken, this still would be the case, only on a smaller scale. They are militaristic and spend loads of money on military (production and maintenance), and because of their ethics they are constantly at war. They need to get higher level of labs earlier, as both Drengin and Korath are a "rush" civs. The research cost of their labs should be lowered even more to vanilla values. While I think in vanilla they may have been too cheap, I believe in CU they are still a bit too expensive, even after recent reduction. Vanilla/CU/New proposal
Diabolical Research 100/200/100
Imaginative Research 400/700/500
Ultimate Diabolical Research 1200/1800/1600
Pain Amplification 800/1500/1200
2500/4200/3400
So altogether around 30-35% more expensive then vanilla. This will enable them to get better in research, at least until others get Discovery Sphere.
Korath description: "plunged the the Drengin..."
Thalan:
While Mechanized Warriors has good % attack bonus (40-50%, taken from xml), its cost is horrifyingly high, especially when you consider destruction of improvements. I suggest lowering the cost to 400 bc from 800 bc, so it is cheaper then Space Marines, but is weaker then Shock Troops and leave you with no captured structures at the same time. Unless it is just a typo, and you planned to give them stats of 800bc +50-90% attack with 80-100% improvement damage, in that case it is balanced - they get better invasion capabilities then 30% for high cost.
Thalan description: Last sentence is long, could use a comma somewhere.
Yor:
Terror Drones cost of 250 bc for 20% attackers advantage is also not appropriate. Again, in vanilla Mini-Soldiers cost 500 for 40-70%, and now this tech renamed Space Marines still cost 500, but for 70-100%. This is 30% increase, so Yor need to get at least 30% invasion tech to compensate, not 20%. Cost should also be lowered at least to 200. They do get No Mercy Invasion Center, so in later stages cost is not relevant, but a GA should be something that gives you a boost, not something that moves bad/overpriced stuff into usable section On the side note I would like to see this improvement back at Concept of Evil or even a tech branching of CoE, but only for Korath/Drengin/Yor/Korx - same as Good races and their PQ/Creavity tech.
Yor description: "Cold an calculating and bereft of emotion..." - too many "and", could also use less adjectives. Cold, calculating and merciless already encompasses lack of emotion.
Torian:
Loyalty doesn't do much for them. High pop growth (Breeder), high pop cap (Harvester on every planet) and cheap +influence structure (Temple of Memories) renders their worlds almost immune to rebellion. What they could use, is 5-10% more pop growth to help them more if they don't keep approval at 100%, and maybe 10 Defenses (they should have some experience by now).
I guess we could do this... it'll make the techtree more sameish though.
The current TP values were an attempt to get the AI to research Planetary Improvements first. Now that that is no longer an issue I'll revert the TP costs.
Seems appropriate.
We'll see how this plays out.
Fixed.
Let me stress that again all other civs get free +30/30 attackers advantage on Space Marines. Hence to keep the balance right, both Yor and Thalan need to get an equivalent of invasion with 30% to attackers advantage for 0 bc.
The Thalan are bad soldiers, it's just about their only weakness. They can afford the horrific cost on their invasion tactic. It's imbalanced by design.
I tried to think up a description for the Krynn before release but I didn't have any inspiration. I'll think of something.
Version 5.6.7
Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ezo8m8e5iqwd3or/Community%20Update%20V5.6.7.zip?dl=0
Minor update that corrects a few small problems with research which surfaced in 5.6.5.
(V5.6.6 was an internal test version)
Removed tweaks from Terrans, Thalans, Krynn, Drath. These tweaks were meant to force military progression. They're not needed.
Updated description for Krynn, Korx.
Reduced Altarian research bonus from 35 to 25
Reduced Drengin Military Production bonus from 20 to 10
Recuded Cost of Xeno Geology, Enhanced Adaptation, Korath/Drengin research
Minor tweak to get more AIs to grab PI early.
Test results show reliable research most of the time in core techs with only minor amounts of failure when reviewed over all civs.
It's looking good
Excellent point, we're not trying to homogenize all the races and make sure everyone gets equal everything.
---
Results from a 100 turn test game with 5.6.5. Large, Painful, Scattered, 10 civs, ~120 planets. Took a snapshot at 50 turns. Another game with the Drath, by turn 100 every civ was at war.
Torian: excellent starting position. Had 15 colonies by week 50, making around 600 bc with their slider at 80%. Excellent early research mix. By 100 they were a galactic powerhouse with 19 colonies, having smartly invested in X-Col to grab a class 26 and a few "normal" extreme planets, with 1477 bc income, Stinger III, and Planetary Bombardment.
Iconian: awful starting position. Managed 5 planets by week 50 with an anemic but functioning economy (214 bc income with slider at 66%). Had an OK research mix but had not yet grabbed Planetary Improvement. By week 100 they were up to 6 planets, 510 bc income with 84% slider, Harpoon II, Planetary Invasion, and decent econ tech given their poor start.
Altarian: ok starting position. Had 11 planets by week 50, 310bc income with 76% slider. Good early research mix, except for (maybe?) grabbing Planetary Invasion too soon. By week 100 they were up to 611 bc income and had made the drive to Dark Energy Research and... Logistics 3? Odd but ok, you've got gigantic early fleets...
Terran: ok starting position. Had 13 planets by week 50, 362 bc income with 71% slider. Excellent early research mix, though they too grabbed Planetary Invasion (it occurs to me that the AI may try grabbing it before tech inflation kicks in too badly, which would be smart). By week 100 they had 14 colonies, 800 bc income, and.. still no Xeno Entertainment. Only black mark so far.
Thalan: awful starting position, which they compounded by shooting themselves in the face. As has been noted already, they overbuild Mfr Matrix I (the really high maint one). By week 50 they had 5 colonies and 282bc, all of which was going to colony maintainance. Spending slider was at 5% and stayed there for MANY turns. If it hadn't been for a nearby Econ resource, they might have gone into a complete death spiral; as it was by week 100 they had only managed to increase their income by 60bc, which allowed them to crank their spending up to.. 30%. They had no navy (save one fighter they bought from the Drath) and were about to become a snack for the Terrans and Altarians.
Korath: excellent starting position. By week 50 they had 10 colonies and 410 bc income (slider at 96%). Their early research was very aggressive but light on the econ. After week 50 they dumped a bunch into research techs and built out nicely. By week 100 they had 640 bc income, Particle Beams III, and an excellent mix of econ techs.
Krynn: could have fallen victim to the mid-map squash but instead had grabbed 14 colonies and 570 bc/turn by week 50. They were the only civ to have a non-zero spy slider midway through, though it was still very low (only 5% of their income). Excellent early game research mix, including Stinger II and Planetary Invasion. By turn 100 they had doubled their income and grabbed Harpoon I and Planetary Bombardment (plus most of their racial spy techs, ofc).
Drath: excellent starting position, took full advantage of it and had 17 planets by turn 50, with 328bc income and slider of 38% (understandable given the sheer # of colonies; not a bad thing IMHO). Good early research mix, grabbed War Profiteering early but not much econ. By 100 they were up to 1330 bc, half from war profit, and had grabbed Harpoon I and Planetary Invasion but were still curiously light on the econ tech, still missing Xeno Industry and Hatchling Mound. Second black mark -- Mabus, do you need to work the same magic with Hatching Mound that you did with Xeno Entertainment?
Yor: ok starting position. Had 10 colonies by week 50, 365 bc income with 85% spending. Early techs were Seeker II, Starbases, Hyper Mainframes, Efficiency II and Mfr I. By week 100 they were up to 11 colonies, 770 bc income, Photonic I (!!), Planet Invasion, Mfr II, and had Barren and Toxic X-Col. Oddly enough, they hadn't picked up Xeno Communication yet.
Notes:
* X-Col seems to be in a great spot. I did not see any X-Col research this game that didn't have the potential to pay back with nearby extreme planets.
* I'm not sure what, if anything, we should do about the Thalan. If they stall, they stall hard and are destined for galatic weakling status. If they get Mfr Matrix II in time, they can get very scary very fast. Oddly enough, I kind of like them this way.
* I didn't say anything about hull sizes because they're no longer an issue
I think this is actually acceptable. If they bomb out, they become a snack for the hungrier civs (Someone has to go first). If they succeed, they quickly become difficult to handle. Not knowing which way they will go makes the game a bit more interesting.
@Silas.
There were runt and there were grunts. Seems acceptable . PI is tricky. Best the AI grab it early.
Agreed.
Good morning everyone. Here's a minor update.
Version 5.6.8
Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/19vb6vn2zcefefq/Community%20Update%20V5.6.8.zip?dl=0
Internal testing showed the Drath didn't grab their morale and the Thalan actually didn't do so well either. This update fixes that.
============= V5.6.9 =============
Look at the stars... see if you can spot something familiar.
I changed the unique GA's to SP because you can exploit the GA mechanic to screw the AI out of very powerful upgrades by purposely building custom races using the same techtree.
Unique GA/SP's are not the same as generic GAs, civs depend on them.
I realize that in a game with a lot of custom races this can lead to several of these super projects ending up with a single civ. But who is to say that civ is the player? It could be an AI for all we know. When considering the pro's vs cons I feel the pro's outway the cons.
Fixed Drath Morale Research
Basic Logistics AIValue 25 to 30. Resulted in improvement.
Fixed Thalan Manufacturing research.
Fixed Thalan Research research.
Fixed Thalan progression past Basic Gravitonics. This tech was skipped 2/3 in previous version.
Removed tweak from Yor TechTree that prevented them from grabbing Fertility Acceleration.
No Mercy Invasion Center from TerrorDrones1 to Concept of Malice. Also a GA. Doesn't work as a unique SP, it has to be a GA and is one of the advantages of going evil.
After testing 5.6.8 I can only conclude this might be the most balanced version to date with solid research from each AI even when under pressure.
I can also conclude that AIP7 and AIP8 are both heavily influenced by AIValue just not in the obvious way AIP11 is influenced. I'm also astonished how well AIP8 grabs X-Col tech now that Extreme Colonization is gone as a road block. It really seems each civilization will go for these techs without wrecking their overall reearch.
I ended up removed even more tweaks which, again, proved to be useless or even detrimental to the AI's planning.
Enjoy
5.6.7 cosmetic issues:
On race selection screen when picking a political party, the Technologist's description mentions +2 sensors but the bullet item says +1. Recommend removing "+2" from the description to keep it generic.
"Advanced Population Acceleration" never fits in the container box on the techtree. Recommend changing to just "Population Acceleration".
The save dialog on the ship editor still has weirdly aligned buttons at the bottom.
Tiny cosmetic issue: The last 2 political parties show only 4 bonuses although they have 5. Is there a way to make that box 1 line bigger?
Fixed in next release. I'm removed all numbers from the political party description.
Shortend.
I'll have another look or I'll remove the larger dialogue.
I don't know, I'll have to take a look.
Fixed in next release.
Could you post a screenshot and point out what you mean?
Minor update: V5.6.9
Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f36nfpna7hzmvp9/Community%20Update%20V5.6.9.zip?dl=0
Shortend Yor Xeno Biology description
Removed numbers from political parties descriptions.
Tab: Political party selection. Now displays 5 bonuses.
Updated Campaign scenarios
Updated ToA scenarios
Enjoy.
What do you mean by "clear each race"? Idk, I dont think I needed to anyway due to the 5.6.8 CU installing and starting up easy pesy. Right now I'm starting a game with terrans on challenging, 9 civs, immense galaxy, slowest research. Will come here if anything goes out of whack
BTW, would it hurt my game if I upgrade to the very recently released 5.6.9? I've already dug 5 hours into it.
The game stores race abilities and starting technologies in separate files located in My Games\GC2TwilightArnor\. These files end with .RACECONFIGXML. The problem is the game will load RACECONFIGXML files and use the data in there to setup a race. So if, for example, we give the Terrans a +20% research bonus and you are using an old RACECONFIGXML file you will not see that change unless you remove the RACECONFIGXML file.
When the CU is updated there's always a possibility of racial abilities and starting technologies changing. As such, it's a good idea to remove RACECONFIGXML files.
It won't hurt you game at all. The game stores all the techtrees in its save game files. The difference between 5.6.9 and 5.6.8 is very minor and no changes to gameplay mechanics were made.
You can upgrade safely and the next game will run with 5.6.9.
I hope you enjoy the CU and would be grateful if you could report back on your experience.
Wrapping up...
This will be the last week where I implement changes and suggestion. Sunday will be the last day of CU development. No product is flawless but the CU's been tested over and over and over again and again and again. If there's mistakes left they are bloody difficult to find.
AI performance is good if not great. At crippling I have to pull out all the stops just to keep up. I shudder to think what masochistic is like, let alone suicide.
Agreed, in principle. I've run out of nits to pick.
Any new binary will require another few rounds of testing, of course, but I think the mod is in terrific shape.
My current game (v5.6.9, Painful) is a terrific, enjoyable, scary slugfest. Around turn 160 and the Drath have industrialized enough to turn their huge war profit (pretty much everyone has been at war since turn 90, the Drath SA is just crazy!) into swarms of huge fleets. They cannot be bought off, and they are relentless. I have given up trying to defend frontline starbases, which is not a good sign, but my colonies are holding. For now.
I don't even want to think about how difficult anything above Painful will be.
Thanks again to Guanathor and Mabus for taking point on this, and to everyone else for all the suggestions, playtesting, flavor text, and general feedback. I think we can all be proud of the result.
HI all.
Going through the google doc. Please make sure you guys put in credits for yourselves so that we can make sure the people doing the hard work here get the accolades they deserve.
I've made the change to the Drengin personality for their colonizing. I'm currently working on the Iconian AI personality for their planet management.
I'm pretty sure I can fix up all these things shortly. I expect to followup this post latger today with an EXE URL.
Ok here it is:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8051911/GC2TwilightOfTheArnor-011515.zip
Changes: (not tested)
I will be doing more on it. Want to verify that this works first. I haven't touched this code in 8 years.
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