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.
Just so I'm sure I understand, it doesn't affect Trade Revenue, but does affect the perception of Tech Trade offerings?
If so, the Description is in for a major re-write. That is a biggie.
RaceConfig <SmallLogo> fixed. I take it that the double bars || have no effect in RaceConfig?
Bug: I've seen it before but wasn't too sure of the circumstances. I have Navigation Centers (NC) and Subspace Drive traded from the Arcaeans. War with Arcaeans, who by now have Adv. Nav Centers (ANC) built.
On the conquered worlds, the ANCs properly disappear. But no NC or ANC appears on my improvement list anywhere, so I can't build them on those worlds. I've seen similar with the Power Plants.
Just to check, I finagled ANC tech through a 3rd party. Improvement no longer disappears from a captured world, but I still can't build them on worlds captured early.
I was able to build NC on Arcaea that apparently never had one.
Is this a known bug?
Sorry for late reply. Somehow the "go to last reply" arrow still brought me to p.78
Yes.
It has nothing to do with Freighter-income.
But will affect everything you barter in the diplomacy-screen, that is, also Peace-deals, Treaty-exchange, Planet-buying etc.
BTW some of the links did also miss a "0"
No clue, but that file doesn't have any of the || anyway. What do you want to achieve?
Yes, the 1pp bug. If a 1pp is overbuild with another 1pp then the game "thinks" that the predecessor is still on that planet, even if the latter building got destroyed. That's why it's not appearing in your list. There are 2 possible bandaids to solve this:
1. Make all technologies which hold 1pp improvements untradeable & unstealable. Or:
2. Make all 1pp indestructible, ofc not all 1pps but only those where there exists an upgrade-chain of them. AFAIK there are currently only 2 such chains: Arceans NaviCenters & Power Plants. I'd go for the second option.
I don't recall it being mentioned, but there's no Orbital Command Center in the Thalan tree. Unacceptable.
Almost done with the second pass over TechTree. I may be able to send it on today.
Not sure how much is left to edit. Is there something that is not in ..\Data\ ? I have no intention of going into Scenarios and Tournaments.
One "fix" for the 1PP bug is, if cheats are enabled, just before you take the world, <ctrl-Z> to that race and Demolish the improvement manually.
What a PITA, though. This calls up a programming design error. The engine shouldn't be trying to track the state of a world with flags in a data structure. Way too much work to maintain, and susceptible to such bugs. Instead, when you need a status, look at the world itself. Is there a 1PP improvement that locks out another? Decide that at the time. Programmatically, it's just walking a short list.
But maybe I've forgotten how compute-restricted the old computers were. If these mechanisms came over from the OS/2 version, keeping static status structures may have been justifiable.
It should be easy to give them the "Space Militarization"-tech, especially because they've got too early access to weapons anyway, namely someone removed the "Space Weapons" & "Space Defense" techs for no apparent reasons....
That should cover all that there is in text.
The game is, unfortunately, full of bugs. Nothing we can do here though
Well, there is a reason. Space Mil. has +10 Mil. Prod attached and Space Def. +10 Defense. If they get weapons early, maybe they shouldn't be as powerful. We could put Space Weapons back, I suppose.
So how to attach OCC to Defense Industries (or some other non-standard tech)? Does one need to clone OCC just for them?
That's not possible, a building can always have only one single target-technology.
That's why it has to be Space Militarization, where it will be easy to clear out any unwanted bonuses. I could actually turn Space Militarization into Defense Industry itself, since it's not tradeable anyway.
But that would carry the negative implication that the Thalans would loose on the +10% MP bonus which they would naturally get via techtrade or stealing around midgame (everybody has that tech is not unrelactunt to trade it...) and also, doesn't solve the problem that the Thalans have too early access to weapons. You don't want to have them building Fighters or Defenders right during the Colony Rush, that early no AI is willing to go to war or actually has the manpower to have a successful invasion anyway, or amr their non-military Cargo Vessels esp. because some of the T1 weapons carry high costs, so the best would be to just bring Spac eMil back and let them have 2 technologies to serve as a small gap between their weapons-acess, just like it was in vanilla.
Check your email. Just sent the whole Data folder...
I haven't actually run a game with this folder, but it should be okay. Let me know what you think.
thanks I'm right on going through it all
What's the change on "Minor flavor change (model # updates) for Photonic Torps II,III." in GC2Types.xml? I can't find a tag-line named "updates"...?
I've changed the description of the "Vengeance Scanner" from <Description>Provides a 33% boost to attack for ships in the same fleet.</Description> to <Description>Provides a 30% boost to attack for ships in the same fleet.</Description> to reflect its real strength
The desc from
<Atlas Name="Righteous Justice"> <DisplayName>Righteous Justice</DisplayName> <Description>Increases our defenses by 25% in friendly territory.</Description> <Cost>55</Cost> <Size>4</Size> <SizeMod>0</SizeMod> <Model>StellarDefender</Model> <Thumbnail>StellarDefender</Thumbnail> <Category>Advanced</Category> <AtlasDefenseStrength>25</AtlasDefenseStrength> <Tech_Requirement>RighteousJustice</Tech_Requirement> </Atlas>
is most certainly incorrect, otherwise the <AtlasDefenseStrength> tag would have to look like this <AtlasDefenseInZOCStrength>. However, the question is whether the desc actually is incorrect or the bonus got wrongly applied?
This one: <Atlas Name="Defense Meditation Module"> <DisplayName>Defense Meditation</DisplayName> <Description>Expensive but powerful module that magnifies the defenses of all ships in a given fleet.</Description> <Cost>75</Cost> <Size>4</Size> <SizeMod>4</SizeMod> <Model>AtlasDefenseCoordinator</Model> <Thumbnail>AtlasDefenseCoordinator</Thumbnail> <Category>Advanced</Category> <AtlasDefenseStrength>20</AtlasDefenseStrength> <AtlasFleetDefenseStrength>20</AtlasFleetDefenseStrength> <Tech_Requirement>DefensiveMeditation</Tech_Requirement> </Atlas>
is also giving me something to think about. The description does state nowhere that the module will actually increase again the defense of the ship it carries by an additional 20%. Although I've no clue if that is even working... or necessary (ie: does fleet-enhancing modules not support the ship they're on by default?)
BTW what is this:
Ignore: <Race Name="Korath Clan"> <RaceID>10</RaceID> <Race Name="Krynn Consulate"> <RaceID>11</RaceID> <Race Name="Custom Race"> <RaceID>12</RaceID> <Race Name="Akilians"> <RaceID>13</RaceID> <Race Name="Carinoids"> <RaceID>14</RaceID> <Race Name="Scottlingas"> <RaceID>15</RaceID> <Race Name="Jessuins"> <RaceID>16</RaceID> <Race Name="Paulos"> <RaceID>18</RaceID> <Race Name="LentzLandians"> <RaceID>17</RaceID> <Race Name="Dark Yor"> <RaceID>19</RaceID> <Race Name="Snathi"> <RaceID>20</RaceID> <Race Name="Dread Lords"> <RaceID>23</RaceID> <Race Name="Pirates!"> <RaceID>26</RaceID>
supposed to tell me?
The model numbers in the flavor texts weren't incremented.
No idea.
In general, I dropped the actual bonus number from TechTree, but didn't bother with Gc2Types. The bonuses themselves are clearly presented alongside the text in the UI.
I noticed that. Seems like an awful big bonus, but I wasn't in the business of critiquing the CU itself, just cleaning up the English.
Note the word 'Ignore". Just delete it. I used it as a scratch pad for updates to Cari's Guide.
Cari had a Twilight guide. I only knew about the dread lords modding guide.
She did ? Where is it?
I think it was in wikipedia https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Modding
Thanks for the link, I thought the Wiki was kaput.
But there isn't much in the Data Modding sextion that I didn't get from Cari's Guide. Even the list of Abilities is old (1.2). When I'm feeling magnanimous, perhaps I'll update it.
Sorry for late reply, have been sick a few days
Here's the link of a new version, incorporating all the changes DMF did do plus most of the stuff which has been debated about on the last 3 pages before this one.
http://www.xup.in/dl,14921514/Community_Update_6-2-0.7z/
Changelog:
StarbaseModules============Deleted "SectorScanners4"
GC2Types========"canon" respelled as "cannon" throughout.Minor flavor change (model # updates) for Photonic Torps II,III.Misspelled flavor text in the HD Spike Drivers.Flavor: model numbers in Pulse Cannon and Neutron drivers.Some actual descriptions for Chaffs, Pt Def, Combo, etc.Righteous Might description.All weapons do now have a specific frame-count added to prevent the animation being displayed twice for one shot.Atlas-mod "Righteous Justice" works now only in own ZOC, just like its descriptions states.Made the "Defense Meditation"-module work just like its description states.Deleted redundant code ("<SizeMod>0</SizeMod>")StarbaseHull sensorrange incr. to 4.PlanetImprovements==================Dread Factories cannot host Agents.Aul Incinerator reduces Pop Growth by 10.All 3 PowerPlants & the the 2 Arcean NavCenters are now indestructible to prevent the 1pp-bug."Hyperion Logistics System" ability increased to 9 and cost to 500."Hyperion Shipyard" is back at its CU bonuses."Hyperion Re-Supply Center" bonus up to 50; 25 is only 4 parsecs."Orbital Terraformer" increases PQ by 5%."Manufacturing Capital" bonus is up to 50% but 10% econ deleted."Distributed Energy Matrix" bonus up to 75%.All farms are back at AI=50.TechTree========Dread Lords not "ultimate evil". Iconian Replicators are stealable.Re-added "Space Weapons" & "Starship Defenses" back into the Thalan tree.Re-grouped all technological branches which have been grouped together originally IF their content is fully displayed in the techtree.Reduced the techcosts of "Sensors Mk.I" to "Sensors Mk.IV" back to their vanilla values."Terror Stars" are available sooner now but back at the vanilla researchcosts, additionally can't be traded or use creativity."Planetary Defense" requires Starship Defenses again.RaceConfig==========Replaced <SmallLogo> ref to non-existent Gfx\Race\Small\ folder with standard logo.Added "Xeno Biology" & "Xeno Medicine" back to the Thalan.
The Campaigns- and Scenarios are still untouched and will have to be backchecked for a future final built.
Some stuff may still require some attention, eg:
- What to do with Events.xml? Alot of these events are buggy and either don't completely work, or only partially work. Any event bringing in a Planetary Defense - bonus doesn't work, and population subtracted as part of a choice doesn't work either, and this actually affects A LOT Type-1 events.
- Sensor-mods may need a detailed look at...
- Are all the techtrees displayed in an acceptable fashion?
- Alot of files do still hold alot of redundant code. Removing that may not change the play of the game itself but will reduce RAM load a bit. It may not be necessary but if someones willing to do so be my guest.
You thinking of GC2Converstaions? (What else?)
Ideally there wouldn't be redundancies; all conversation points would be distinct. But that would take a lot of effort. (As would making some of the conversations a little less freekin' ambiguous.) Before we start hacking, though, I'd like some programmer input on just how much RAM load they represent.
Just out the top of my head, Techtree.xml, Events.xml, UPIssues.xml, PlanetImprovements.xml, StarbaseModules.xml & InvTactics.xml - basically everytime a line specifies a value which is already the default value if no actual value is defined at all.
For example, in Techtree.xml (ONLY the general Techtree.xml, not the individual techtree-files)
<CanBeTraded>1</CanBeTraded> [redundant]
<CanBeStolen>1</CanBeStolen> [redundant]
<Requires>None</Requires> [redundant]
<Group>None</Group> [redundant]
or if one tag logically prevents another tag to have any effect at all, for example:
<CanBeTraded>0</CanBeTraded>
<WillingnessToTrade>0</WillingnessToTrade> [redundant]
Ofc the other files have different such taglines, and some files do have a lot of non-working tags specified as well.
I've removed all those entries for FW but don't feel like doing it all over again (well, let's just say that the possibility is there that whatever we do currently will never see the light of the day, indeed even the former version is already 3/4 of a year "en route" and still not delivered. Anyway, last time it took the same amount of time and was upped (IRRC) before New Year's Eve so let's see if history repeats itself...)
What's your stance on techtradeing - is it too difficult to get technologies? One thing I've noticed is that the CU did increase alot of AIValues by quite some margin all the while even reducing the WillingnessToTrade-value, both tags mutually influence each other. For FW I've made a complete comparison of WillingnessToTrade (which was specified oftentimes, and differently, in the individual races' techtrees instead and lots of their values were far bigger (=favourable for techtrade) than it now is. Basically whenever no value was present in Techtree.xml someone just took =50 by default ignoreing the vanilla values, and in a lot of cases values have been decreased by alot in order to make techs very hard to get (eg. generic influence). I found little to no occurrence when values were adjusted to be more favourable for tradeing...
okidoki, I've found a way to let Notepad++ do all the decluttering of redundant tags so it went swift:
http://www.xup.in/dl,19143423/Community_Update_6-2-1.7z/
Cleared the following files of most redundant code: TechTree.xml; Events.xml; InvTactics.xml; PlanetImprovements.xml; RaceConfig.xml; StarbaseModules.xml; UPIssues.xml.
Uncompressed filesize was shrunk by approx. 110 kb. No other changes have been made, so this doesn't affect gameplay at all. All changes have been individually tested beforeahead.
I know Notepad++ automates commenting of tag blocks, but what did you find?
I really don't know what to say about TechTrading. As you know I found trading very difficult as Drengin. But now as Terran, without an overwhelming advantage in Diplomacy, it is pretty easy, and the AIs are doing a lot of trading among themselves - more than I remember seeing. Even the Diplo-deprived Thalan traded for standard factories so I've had to force him to build his own stuff.
I really should play another test game before making up my mind. And to see my own work at least once...
It will be impossible to find a right balance by adjusting values from extreme experiences like Thalans or Terrans. Try to use a race that starts out ith 0 diplomacy, has full access to the diplo-tree and don't built the Galactic Bazaar or use Super-Diplomat. The latter 2 have a profound effect on techtradeing that even varies in strength in dependance of your base diplomacy-rating.
As Terran I built the Bazaar only recently, traded for DiploTranslators more than 2 years in, and am not playing with Super Abilities. None of this, of course, affects how the AIs trade among themselves.
Any particular race you'd like to see played in the next test?
Doesn't matter - just keep your diplomacy-rating on an equal (on average) level than your trade-partners.
And don't use the Bazaar^^
As for the AIs, there's nothing much we can do to influence their tradeing. I don't even know if they use the same values when tradeing amongst themselves, they do have some ways to bypass the conventional way, for example, they don't need to have Universal Translator and they have no lock-out time. On the other hand, they seem to ask for a thing at a time only...
So, the general attention would be to focus on player-techtradeing...
I don't know if this comes under the heading of tech trading, but early on Terran was pretty weak and kept getting hated on by those you might not expect it from (fellow Neutral Arcaean and paladin Altarian). So I talked the Drengin and Yor into attacking them. It was too easy. Later when I attacked Altarian, Torian and Iconian wanted to help them so I got them to fight each other. Again, way easy (but by that time I had pretty good diplo bonus).
Doubtful that Bazaar would affect those transaction. Maybe D.Translators?
It's highly likely that the Bazaar does as well work on those deals, simply because the Bazaar (or SD) functions as multiplier to your diplomacy-rating.
However, the relative MMR of the different AIs towards each other has the greatest impact on a decision to go to war or not.
In these cases, the MMRs are roughly equivalent. #1 vs. #2, #3 vs. #4. If one were obviously weaker, then the stronger would be easier to convince to attack. Maybe after the colony rush, the AI just figures that war with someone is the next phase.
I judge how easy they are to convince but how much money it takes. IIRC, Drengin went after the (stronger?) Arcaean for 1600 bc. Atarian or Yor (forget which did the attacking) for around 2000.
Anyway, I need to end this game and move on. It's won.
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