Twilight: Tolmekian's TechTree Fix v3.51 Release 05-10-13
GalCiv2 Forums
Purpose of the mod:
This mod addresses widespread errors in the TotA TechTree.xml files. These errors pretty much broke many of the unique TechTrees, causing the AI to pursue a deeply flawed research strategy and outright preventing the research of many techs. Part of the fix included rearranging a number of the TechTrees to fix the seemingly random arrangement of some techs and reduce the number of branches for the AI to get sidetracked on. Along the way, I ended up fixing many UP issues, planetary improvements, starbase modules, and did some general improvement and balancing on individual techs.
This mod is a direct result of MarvinKosh's Space Weapons Fix Mod, which provided the inspiration. A lot of my development commentary and good input from other modders working on their own fixes is in that topic. Thanks MarvinKosh, Quaternus, deweyjohn, TOV, foxthree, qrtxian and all others for input and support.
05-10-13: v3.51 release
Update to fix some errors in v3.5.
- Because I forgot to mention for the 3.5 release: The Hyperion improvements (shipyard, shrinker, logistics, resupply) are now all Galactic Achievements instead of Super Projects. No more collecting shrinkers :o, it really matters who builds these things.
- I would also like to add a special thanks to Gaunathor for extensive proofreading, playtesting, and feedback. His contributions have played a big part in me continuing the work, fixing/improving even more than I originally intended, and finally putting out a (more or less) finished product after all this time. It's fair to say that without him, this mod wouldn't be nearly what it is. Thanks.
04-28-13: v3.5 release
Here it is, the more or less finished product after all this time. It's been about a year since I put this project down, so I'm a bit fuzzy on what exactly I did before coming back to finish it up. I'm pretty sure I've got the major things nailed down, though. Let's see:
- Fixed those minor but embarrassing typos that made it into v3.0
- Standardized the cost vs maintenance vs output ratios for the various improvement. Now every race can be content with their own improvements and not shop around for the obvious best. You can now upgrade to Industrial Sectors without fretting about the inefficiencies.
- In general, costs went down, sometimes a lot. Maintenance costs were also reduced or eliminated on many improvements. No more taking years upon years to develop a planet only to have the game end immediately thereafter.
- Made starting techs that allow a bottom-tier improvement for many of the improvement lines. The idea being to allow the AI access to each type of improvement and allow balanced planet development - no filling up planets before researching basic improvements.
- eg. Races that use the "normal" economic structures (banks, stock markets, etc) now start with Market Economics, which allows construction of the Market Center.
- If you make a custom tech tree, this allows you to select the base techs for your tree without needing conflicting "history" techs to unlock basic improvements.
- Rounded out the Temple morale improvements, so Altarians and Drath have a progression of decent improvements unlocked by various techs, starting with Spiritual Happiness.
- Did away entirely with farms, charging stalks, etc. Replaced them with a universal, one-per-planet improvement that gives a bonus to pop growth and %food.
- Did away with Advanced Extreme Colonization techs. Now only one tech is required for each type of extreme planets.
- Now every tech tree includes the Government techs and Planetary Defense Techs. No good reason for some races to go without.
- Omega Research Center: Now with more awesome. No longer just a watered down tech capital, the Omega Research Center is a Galactic Achievement worthy of the title.
- Speaking of watered down Tech Capital . . . I watered down the Tech Capital. Kind of. Bonus from 100% to 50%, but it now generates 14tp on its own. Which leads to the next point . . .
- All improvements that give a bonus to manufacturing or research now also generate their own mp or tp proportional to the bonus. This is to counteract the sometimes painful misplacement of these improvements by the AI.
- The evil races (Drengin, Korath, Yor) got a lot of attention during 3.5 development due to general lack of competitiveness.
- Now have access to all 4 types of capitals (economic, technological, political, manufacturing) or an equivalent structure.
- Drengin got a couple new unique techs - Superior Warships and Fleet Domination - which boost stats and unlock Galactic Achievements to speed their conquest of the galaxy.
- Korath have a new Galactic Achievement - the Aul Incinerator. Out with the one-per-planet suckfest and in with something that you'll actually want.
- Don't think the Yor got any new stuff, but some stuff is easier to get and the Manufacturing Vortex and Distributed Energy Matrix got pretty big buffs.
- Sprinkled a couple speed bonuses in the basic techs to speed things up a bit. Basically, the AI never designs ships with engines and ends up late game with ships that move 3 or 4 per turn. Now we're looking at 6 or 7.
- Uuuuuh . . . I think that's the major stuff.
- Enjoy!
TechTree Fix v3.51 with Dumb Old Minors: I did nothing to the minor races here. If you want the same dumb minors you've always known and loved, this is the mod for you.
TechTree Fix v3.51 with Smart Old Minors: Same old minors that still won't colonize, but I added code to make them play to the best of the AI's ability. I gave them respectable descriptions, modest bonuses, and changed out the silly race images to reflect their upgrade. Since they can't colonize, they'll send out a bunch of freighters and actually send constructors to grab up a lot of the resources while the majors are still colonizing. They still get slaughtered when it comes down to it, but I've had fun watching them. It's also interesting to see the majors make a ton of regular starbases since there are fewer resources to grab.
TechTree Fix v3.51 with MoOII Minors: The MoOII minors in this mod will colonize and behave pretty much like weak majors. Much larger than the other mods due to the RaceImage and RaceLogo files. If you try this mod, remember to use the "quick save fix". That is, the minors won't start behaving like majors until you save and reload. So, start your game, quicksave, reload, and enjoy.
TechTree Fix v3.51 with MoOII and Smart Old Minors: Why not? If you want a little variety, I packaged up both versions of the minors in one mod. Your minors could be one, the other, or a mix of both. Still be sure to use the quick-save fix, or your MoOII minors won't play nice. I haven't tested this arrangement, but I can't see why it won't work. (famous last words.)
03-04-12: v3.0 Release
v3.0 continues the work, this time focusing on starbase modules and planetary improvements, particularly Galactic Achievements, Super Projects, and Trade Goods. Also included is a wonderful conversation mod, kindly contributed by qrtxian. His mod fixes the errors in the GC2_Conversations.xml, so now you can enjoy all the unique dialogue as intended.
Highlights
- All fleet modules that were removed in v2.0 are restored. That's the fleet attack/defense and fleet warp bubbles, etc.
- Entire Starbase Fortification branch removed. The attack, defense, and assist modules were spread uniformly among the appropriate weapons and defense techs.
- Enhanced Battle Stations starbase modules and added equivalent Starbase Defenses modules.
- No more easy pickings, expect to see some well armed starbases.
- Addressed a limitation where the AI will only use the first 100 starbase modules in the xml file. Rearranged, removed, and edited starbase modules to ensure the most basic and useful modules are AI accessible.
- Evil weapons and good defenses are now available at every weapon/defense level, instead of only at the end.
- Extensive changes to Galactic Achievements, Super Projects, and Trade Goods. I went after them with the idea that every one should be a "must have". Costs reduced and AI values increased to ensure the AIs actually have a chance to build them, given their inability to plan planetary improvements.
- Edit to add - All the trade goods now have a unique icon rather than a stack of boxes. Except the Xinathium Hull Plating. I figured that would still come in boxes. I chose from among the unused icons that come with the game, so they may not be perfect. They are, in my opinion, better than the boxes.
- Two previously unused Galactic Achievements brought into play: the Life Force Extractor and Historical Preserve. Two new GAs introduced: the Benevolent Research Center and Trade Nexus. All four new GAs are unlocked by ethics techs.
- Introduced new ethics techs to split up the multiple GAs and SPs unlocked by them. Ethics techs now also provide a small bonus, so those who don't get the GAs don't waste their research.
- Further optimizing and balancing. My last playtests were some of the most balanced I've ever seen. Sure, sometimes there are runaway monsters and pitiful also-rans, but overall it's pretty good.
- All races are still set to AIPersonality 11, or Generic. The Altarians, Arceans, and Korx default to their unique AIP when set to 11. You can still use AIP 8 (Thalan, Human, Drath, Krynn) and 7 (Drengin, Korath, and Yor) if you want to mix things up, but there are special considerations. First, AIP 7 is flawed in that it won't colonize outside of its influence sphere. In order to stand a chance, you need to use Abundant Planets, Abundant Habitables, Abundant or Common Stars, and Tight of Loose Clusters. Then, you need to Ctrl-n until you get a galaxy where the AIP 7s have enough stars within their influence. Other than that, AIP 7 and 8 will perform pretty well. Their research is somewhat flawed (no Xeno Ethics, for example) and they're hyper militant, but they seem to compete well.
- Edit to add - While trying to improve the Arceans, I tested their TechTree with regular engines instead of their unique navigation techs. I kept the navigation techs in the standard Arcean TechTree, but also left the Arcean-Eng tree in.
I think that's most of it. Without further ado, here it is:
TechTree Fix v3.0 with Dumb Old Minors: I did nothing to the minor races here. If you want the same dumb minors you've always known and loved, this is the mod for you.
TechTree Fix v3.0 with Smart Old Minors: Same old minors that still won't colonize, but I added code to make them play to the best of the AI's ability. I gave them respectable descriptions, modest bonuses, and changed out the silly race images to reflect their upgrade. Since they can't colonize, they'll send out a bunch of freighters and actually send constructors to grab up a lot of the resources while the majors are still colonizing. They still get slaughtered when it comes down to it, but I've had fun watching them. It's also interesting to see the majors make a ton of regular starbases since there are fewer resources to grab.
TechTree Fix v3.0 with MoOII Minors: The MoOII minors in this mod will colonize and behave pretty much like weak majors. Much larger than the other mods due to the RaceImage and RaceLogo files. If you try this mod, remember to use the "quick save fix". That is, the minors won't start behaving like majors until you save and reload. So, start your game, quicksave, reload, and enjoy.
TechTree Fix v3.0 with MoOII and Smart Old Minors: Why not? If you want a little variety, I packaged up both versions of the minors in one mod. Your minors could be one, the other, or a mix of both. Still be sure to use the quick-save fix, or your MoOII minors won't play nice. I haven't tested this arrangement, but I can't see why it won't work. (famous last words.)
Update 01-07-12: v2 Release
After nearly a year, here it finally is. Details can be found in this post.
v1.1 Notes:
- Extract the zipped folders into: C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\GalCiv2\Twilight\mods This is the pathway for my Impule-downloaded version. In any case, put it into the mods folder in the Twilight folder.
- The TechTree Fix is optimized for AIPersonality 11 (Altarian, Arcean, Korx, and Generic). AIPs 7 and 10 are pretty much broken, and AIP 8 has certain issues that require me to do another round of optimization and testing for any race that I want to set as 8. I set all races to AIP 11 in the mod. You can change the setting, but it will change the way the AI pursues research.
- My detailed change log is included in the folder. I'd include it here for everyone to see, but it's a 15 page Word file. It lists all the changes that I made to the techs, improvements, modules and issues. It also includes every iteration of AIValue for each tech, so you can see just how many times I had to tweak some of them.
- Additonal Highlights:
- Fixes broken UP Issue "Add two trade routes". It proposed 2 trade routes, then called for a vote on 0,1,2,3, or 4. That vote was broken and didn't work. It's now yes/no for 2 trade routes.
- Restores 3 Galactic Achievements by fixing Tech Requirements: The Galactic Stock Exchange, Galactic Monument, and Hyper-Distribution Center are once again available with the proper techs.
- Fixes error in some starbase modules that caused attack bonus to be misstated in the starbase summary.
- Fixes Temple of Neutrality, which was a cut-and-paste of Temple of Righteousness. That means the tourism penalty affected good races. Now it affects neutral civs and not good ones.
- Fixes Planetary Defense improvement so it now actually gives +25% Planetary Defense.
- Fixes a number of errors in descriptions of techs and improvements. Unfortunately, I didn't fix the error in the Temple of Righteousness/Neutrality/Evil descriptions. They don't affect trade income, only tourism.
- Fixes a number of errors in the TechTree xml that prevented the entire TechTree from being displayed in the xml viewer.
- There's a few more in there.
