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.
So i keep tech trading on to at least have a chance.
I keep tech trading too, it makes the game more interesting. What I disable is tech brokering, but I guess using a race with a bad diplomacy skill like Yor it is not a game unbalancing choice.
The only instances of those I can find are reference points for the UI. I can't change them without screwing something up.
TechTrees\Yor_TechTree.xml: How about "join together" to interface/link?
Link sounds good.
It works like this: when you start TotA, the game first looks into the Twilight-folder for the data, then the DarkAvatar-folder, and finally the folders of the base-game. Only if can't find something in any of the folders, will the game through an error. This way, you don't need multiple copies of a file, if it remains unchanged.
That change would only affect DA (and only if the fixed file remains in the DA folder), because those graphics are only used by the old invasion interface. TotA uses a completely different UI for invasions.
As I explained above, they work fine from where they are.
I think the home world in "a major Arnor home world" is actually meant as "core world". I.e., Ixith is a very important planet, but not the actual homeworld of the Arnor.
I know that feeling.
Anyway, here are the updated files and the new changelog.
I'm finished with updating the Starting/Restricted Techs of the DL and DA campaigns (still need to do TotA). I also undid the changes I've made to the DL mission Pathfinder, because I got the feeling that they made the mission too hard (i.e., the Altarians are back as team-members, the Yor no longer start with two planets).
While working on the campaigns, I noticed that, unlike Planetary Defenses, the Arcean tech Planetary Fortification still requires Planetary Invasion. This feels a bit inconsistent, and I'm wondering if we should change that.
Spinorial, Gaunathor. I could not help but notice some very large posts with tons of small fixes, typo corrections even mission adjustments.
What exactly are the two of you doing? The CU went live.
Is this for a new mod? Or will there be another update in the near future?
Polishing the CU. Mainly typos and grammar correction. However, there are also a few bugfixes for the FlavorText.xml.
Yes. The current CU implementation still has one issue left: the CU-version of the file AsteroidFieldMiningBaseModules.xml is located in the MetaverseData folder of the base-game instead of TotA. Last Tuesday, I contacted Yarlen about this. He replied that they won't be doing any further changes before the holidays. When I suggested to do it next year, along with anything else we might find in the meantime, he agreed.
in the game there is an option "force AI to use max CPU", in the Community Update changelog there is a line "All AI opponents will now use the maximum amount of CPU possible". does the game option do anything now or is it obsolete?
It still works as advertized.
All we did was set every race's default CPU to a 100% but changing the game's difficultty changes CPU use.
I would check this option.
That actually explains a great many things. Thanks! And sorry for the bother. I did warn I'm new at this...
It makes some sense, developing a theory of invasions before developing one on how to counter them. Unless there's a serious balance consideration, I'd say it's fine.
Anyway, this should definitely be the last batch of fixes... I've simply run out of ideas on patterns to search for.
English.str: (I suspect a lot of this is dead weight, but I'm not sure what matters and what doesn't. Either way, sorry...) Automaticially to Automatically, "the rallypoint" to "the rally point", worshipped to worshiped, Archeologists to archeologists, Telananth to Telenanth, "Sanderons are a happy" to "Sanderians are a happy", assasins to assassins, dependant to dependent, decomission to decommission, Cancelling to Canceling, enterpreneurial to entrepreneurial, compatriotic to compatriot, abount to amount, starship's to starships', Thalans to Thalan, Allignment to Alignment, terminted to terminated, occoured to occurred, governemnt to government, agreeded to agreed, plee to plea, Strarbases to Starbases, Agressors to Aggressor's, Suceeded to Succeeded, sucessfully to successfully, recpricated to reciprocated, culturaly to culturally, parcec to parsec, Stabase to Starbase, commitee to committee, invesigated to investigated, techologies to technologies, allegience to allegiance, "Dreadlords AND" to "Dread Lords AND", "when it's ancestors" to "when its ancestors", "It's active value" to "Its active value", "of it's type" to "of its type"
FlavorText.xml: "it's citizens" to "its citizens", "it's borders" to "its borders", "it's max potential" to "its max potential", "it's charms" to "its charms", "it's might" to "its might"GC2_Conversations.xml: "carbon based" to carbon-based, "organic based" to organic-based, "build up it's" to "build up its", "in sector coordinates" to "at sector coordinates", "in coordinates" to "at coordinates", "hard believe" to "hard to believe", "it's is" to "it is", "with it's" to "with its", "it's toll" to "its toll"GC2Types.xml: "beam based" to beam-based, "Psionic based" to Psionic-based, "Anti-matter based" to Anti-matter, "Quantum based" to quantum-based, "shield based" to shield-based, "mass-driver based" to mass-driver (some just don't need "based")PlanetImprovements.xml: "precursor based" to Precursor-basedPreGameFlavorText.xml: "it's place" to "its place"StarbaseModules.xml: "projectile based" to projectile-basedTechTree.xml: "fusion based" to fusion-based, "organic based" to organic-based, "research based" to research-based, "energy based" to energy-based, "space based" to space-based, "missile based" to missile-based, "Stinger based" to Stinger-based, "projectile based" to projectile-based, "shield based" to shield-based, "Titanium based" to Titanium-based, "circle of life" to circle-of-life, "mind boggling" to mind-boggling, "Zarth eat Zarth" to Zarth-eat-Zarth, "Zarth eaters" to Zarth-eaters, "Cut Throat Trading" to "Cut-Throat Trading"
Campaigns\DarkAvatar\Dark Apocalypse.gc2scenario: Thalans to Thalan, "Lords ultimate goal" to "Lords' ultimate goal"Campaigns\DarkAvatar\Return of the Dread Lords.GC2Map: observer to ObserverCampaigns\DreadLords\Mission1a_Text.xml: "it's toll" to "its toll"Scenarios\Battle of the gods.gc2scenario: psyonic / pysonic to psionic
TechTrees\Drengin_TechTree.xml: "pain based" to pain-based, "form off bliss" to "form of bliss", Lot's to LotsTechTrees\Korath_TechTree.xml: "pain based" to pain-based, "form off bliss" to "form of bliss", Lot's to LotsTechTrees\Thalan_TechTree.xml: "mass based" to mass-based, "missile based" to missile-basedTechTrees\Yor_TechTree.xml: "carbon based" to carbon-based
That should be that. If you've any more suggestions for likely errors, pitch away. Otherwise, there's testing to do
That's great news.
Say, would you be able to look through the variable dump on the previous page (https://forums.galciv2.com/457944/get;3608768) and see if any of them strike you as possible errors. We've marked a couple already, but there's a lot of others that seem to do similar/identical things. Some extra experienced eyes would help...
I'll have a look.
FlavorText Variables:
[leaderhisher] Found in EXE. Found once in FlavorText. Works in planetdescriptions. Found only once.
[leadergenderherhis] Not found in EXE. Found only once in FlavorText. Seems to be a typo
[leadergenderhisher] Found in EXE. Found three times in FlavorText. Only appears in World on the Street. Does not work in planet descriptions.
[leaderheshe] Not found in Exe. Used once in FlavorText. Seems to be a typo.
[leadergenderheshe] Found in EXE. Used in word on the street.
[empireshortname] Not found in EXE. Typp
[shortempirename] Found in EXE. Used a lot in FlavorText. Used in Word on the Street.
Conclusion
[leaderhisher] Works in planet descriptions. Do NOT replace with [leadergenderhisher]!
[leadergenderherhis] replace with [leadergenderhisher]
[leaderheshe] replace with [leadergenderheshe]
[empireshortname] replace with [shortempirename]
GC2_Conversations.XML
Is [planet] supposed to be [planetname]? No. [planetname] doesn't even occur once in this file.
Is [playername] or [yourplayername] right? Or should they be [yourleadername]? Are all of these valid? All of them seem valid but whether or not all of them work in every topic is another question. Testing this will be difficult. I'd would be VERY careful altering these.
Conclusion about [VARIABLES]
Please be very, very careful with altering these. Don't replace one for another unless you're 100% sure it works in the situation it is used. This means that if [YourName] appears in topic <Topic Name="MISC_FIRST_CONTACT"> it doesn't automatically work in <Topic Name="AI_GROVEL_RELATIONS_LOW">.
Testing this is hard and annoying. You'll have to use heavily modified files to trigger a very specific topic.
We're in the news:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/galactic-civilizations-2/
http://www.bluesnews.com/s/167699/galactic-civilizations-ii-patched
Not much at first glance but both of these sites see a lot of traffic. We definately got noticed.
Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. I suppose I'll check to see if the rest of the variables are recognised by the exe, but the real problem will be confirming that the ones already in the files work as intended. Is there a command console or cheats/debug mode that allow custom event triggering? Gaunathor mentioned empty war declarations in Conversations, but I'm not sure which ones he means, and beyond that, I'm not aware of other reported event malfunctions. Besides making sure events work as intended, I've no desire to mess around with the variables.
Tech that's not in techtree isn't recoginized by the scenario editor and therefore not removed. They're not in the way and don't cause issues unless a technology is introduced baring their name.
Careful removing them, the format for scenario's is.... pretty terrible.
@Gaunathor, Spinorial
Updated the files and used my version system to check for differences.
It's an adverb-adjective compound before a noun (they're all the same reference to a "once-great civilization", I believe). The rules can get murky around these, but I'm pretty sure the correction is in order and adds a bit of clarity to the text, too.
They are. Thanks for the information.
Don't worry about it. We all have to start somewhere.
That's how it was originally. Mabus and the others decided to split Planetary Defense off from Planetary Invasion, and move both techs further down the tree. Planetary Fortification, however, still requires Planetary Invasion.
Is "based" really necessary for this? Wouldn't just "organic" be enough? Or am I completely misunderstanding this?
Thanks, I'll change it back.
It certainly does.
Did I just read my name in the news? I'm not sure, how to feel about this.
There is one to trigger Mega Events (CTRL+Y) and one that triggers planet-based random events (CTRL+SHIFT+E), but there isn't one that triggers the other random events or AI conversations.
That's the thing. I don't know which conversation it is or what's wrong with it. Here is an example of what's happening: I'm playing as the Korx, and suddenly I get a message from the Arceans. The message is empty, but Lord Vega looks pissed. On the side, I get a notification that the Arceans declared war on me. That's all the information I got. I don't know why they declared war, or what cause this message to be empty when all the others work fine. I've checked all of the war declarations in the GC2Conversations.xml multiple times, and I can't find anything wrong with them.
Strangely enough, the files no longer contained entries for the old, obsolete techs after I went through them with the editor to adjust the starting/restricted techs. Well, except for the Dread Lords, because you can't adjust their techs with the editor.
Anyway, here are the updated files and the changelog. I'm done with the campaigns now. Well, at least for the CU. Still need to re-do them for Autumn Twilight.
Yeah you really don't want to redesign this. I still wake up at night screaming in frustration about dumb-ass AIs researching every frigging tech in the PI line before grabbing a weapon.
Or vice versa.
People will move on pretty quickly these days.
I don't think its a bug in GC2Conversations, rather, it's a bug in the game's executable itself. If I recall correctly you've been hunting for this bug since the Roman era. Maybe its time to let it go.
Okey... now that is very weird because I vividly recall going through every mission/scenario and doing exactly that.
Oh well. So long as it works, right?
I did a quick scan through the changed files using my version system. Looks good.
I only want to move Planetary Fortifications after Starship Defenses, just like Planetary Defenses. It just feels weird that Planetary Defenses is located there for everyone, except the Arceans.
Yeah, maybe. It's just that this bug doesn't make any sense. Why would it only affect certain race-combinations, but not others?
Ahh, right. Yeah that shouldn't be a problem, it even looks good. Go for it.
I've downloaded the update, but the game still says 2.04. Stardock page says it's downloaded. Can't find it in my downloads file. Is something wrong.
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