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Patch 11e for Planetfall, the Alpha Centauri total conversion mod for Civ4 BtS, has been released. This patch needs to be applied on top of the main v11 file of Planetfall. It doesn't break savegames from patch d.

Just a couple corrections:

1. The Scavenger special ability should now only grant special abilities instead of (incorrectly) any applicable promotions the opponent had.
2. The Space Elevator is only buildable around the equator.

Maniac said:

Patch 11d for Planetfall, the Alpha Centauri total conversion mod for Civ4 BtS, has been released. This patch needs to be applied on top of the main v11 file of Planetfall. It doesn't break savegames from patch d.

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Patch e), you mean? Download works correct though.

Patch 11f for Planetfall, the Alpha Centauri total conversion mod for Civ4 BtS, has been released. This patch needs to be applied on top of the main v11 file of Planetfall. It doesn't break savegames from patch d or e.



Changelog:

1. Supercollider building graphic, by asioasioasio.
2. Button for the Genite unit.
3. Fixed a typo in the XML for the Photon Wall special ability.

Unnnnggh! I've had no emails from the forum telling me of all the posts here!

Anyway, thank you for all your hard work people! this is really looking awesome!!!

Why doesn't this mod include the tech voiceovers from alpha centaurii ?

I have it, so I was able to add them myself, but still. Playing it without them misses out a LOT of the charm and atmosphere of the original game

I can understand possibly not wanting to infringe on firaxis by including that,, but most other mods have had no problems with using licensed music. Corporations will rarely care enough about nonprofit fan-made mods..

There is also the possibility that you don't want to cost firaxis sales, and that having the original game be required, makes more sales for them. However, this simply doesn't work. It's firaxis' own fault for not manufacturing it anymore, or doing some sort of rerelease. Alpha Centaurii is pretty difficult to get ahold of legitimately, and almost impossible to get ahold of in a way that will benefit firaxis. Generally if you can buy it these days, it'll be on ebay or somesuch, and it's not firaxis who'll get your money.

In short, I think you should include the tech voiceovers within this mod. If you don't actually have them, I can upload all the files somewhere

WarKirby said:

Why doesn't this mod include the tech voiceovers from alpha centaurii ?

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The xml was for sure provided for them in earlier version. But I found that discovering a technology AND finishing 2 or more facilities in the same turn took ages to finish the voiceovers, so I'm not unhappy with the facility voice-over being left out.
IIRC, in SMAC you could turn off the voiceover by going somewhere else in the gamescreen. In Planetfall, the voiceovers keeps playing...
Oh, and the SMAC tech voiceovers are for sure working IF you have them copied to the appropriate folder in the mod. Just override the existing 'ding' mp3's with the SMAC ones.

WarKirby said:

I can understand possibly not wanting to infringe on firaxis by including that,, but most other mods have had no problems with using licensed music. Corporations will rarely care enough about nonprofit fan-made mods..

There is also the possibility that you don't want to cost firaxis sales, and that having the original game be required, makes more sales for them. However, this simply doesn't work. It's firaxis' own fault for not manufacturing it anymore, or doing some sort of rerelease. Alpha Centaurii is pretty difficult to get ahold of legitimately, and almost impossible to get ahold of in a way that will benefit firaxis. Generally if you can buy it these days, it'll be on ebay or somesuch, and it's not firaxis who'll get your money.

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EA holds the SMAC rights and they are known for their strict dealing with copyright and license issues (a few years ago they forced the German company Ascaron to withdraw then initial pressing of Anstoss 4, a soccer managment simulation, just because a few of the fantasy players used were to similar to real ones, for which they owned the license...) The last thing I would like to see is Maniac and Planetfall getting into such troubles.

WarKirby said:

If you don't actually have them, I can upload all the files somewhere

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Feel free to do so. I'll even thank you in big letters for uploading them.

Maniac said:

Feel free to do so. I'll even thank you in big letters for uploading them.

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Here you go. The fx and voice folders. I think it includes SMAX sounds too

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?w2xzh1n1iai

I want my big letters in rainbow colors, please.

WarKirby said:

I want my big letters in rainbow colors, please.

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Done!

Patch 11g for Planetfall, the Alpha Centauri total conversion mod for Civ4 BtS, has been released. This patch needs to be applied on top of the main v11 file of Planetfall. It breaks savegames from previous versions or patches.



The highlights of stuff changed in the patch now follow. The main focus of this patch was to give some unique gameplay benefits to all the factions.

1. Secret project and promotion buttons by Lord Tirian.
2. German translation updated by Lord Tirian.
3. Sea Mill improvement graphic by Lord Tirian.
4. Lower relationship bonus from trading tech with Zakharov, by Pfeffersack.
5. Former texture improved, by WarKirby.
6. Great Dunes landmark added. Graphics by Deliverator and Lord Tirian.
7. Hyperian unit graphic by WarKirby.
8. Empath Song promotion available for the Isle of the Deep.
9. Hypnotic Trance promotion available for the Isle of the Deep and Sealurk.
10. Sea Beetles resource renamed to Coral Reef.
11. Resonance Cluster resource renamed to Planet Pearls.
12. Xenobiology now required to work plots with planet-providing resources (Monolith, The Ruins...).
13. Morgan can build seven unique secret projects which give a big boost to a base in some area.
14. Unhappy citizens can cause drone riots. Same mechanics as with food riots.
15. Hive Drones produce one less mineral, but eat no nutrients.
16. The Hive can no longer hurry production with population.
17. The Hive can produce Infantry and Flamethrower units at double speed. However these units have 20% less strength, and have a 50% chance to start with the Light special ability.
18. Hive bases now have a 50% inherent defense bonus.
19. Boreholes, Greenhouses and Mines in Hive territory cannot be pillaged. They're underground.
20. Lal gets double votes in Council.
21. Factions are more willing to trade tech with Zakharov, even at lower relations.
22. Zakharov can ignore the "no tech brokering" restrictions.
23. The Believers gain a 20% combat bonus against factions who don't share their state religion.
24. The Mass Driver, Behemoth, Destroyer and Cruiser units gain 8% bombard ability.
25. Aquaformers are invisible in the owner's unblockaded territory.
26. Added a game option which should prevent Formers from constructing Bunkers.
27. Some tech tree changes, especially to the space themed techs. See F6.

Maniac said:

17. The Hive can produce Infantry and Flamethrower units at double speed. However these units have 20% less strength, and have a 50% chance to start with the Light special ability.

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I don't think this part sounds fun. They either should, or shouldn't, I think. Having that bit of luck in there encourages reloading the game to get things how you want, and also has the potential for massive runs of bad luck where you get units with no abilites for a long time.

Also, I don't see any spartan or gaian changes in there

The faction specific boosts are very exiting, but doesn't mean no-nutrient-comsuming Drones endless grow for Hives bases, if they have the first drone and are still able to grow (any new citizien becomes a drone instantly, which consumes no food...process repeats)...? The riot mechanism may make this unattractive, but will the governor logic and AI understand usefulness and danger lying here...? I guess playing will tell best

Also, are Deidre and Santiago excluded on purpose from the factions which get special goodies or is it rather a reason of thinking of a cool boost for them?

Edit: Partial crosspost...

WarKirby said:

I don't think this part sounds fun. They either should, or shouldn't, I think. Having that bit of luck in there encourages reloading the game to get things how you want, and also has the potential for massive runs of bad luck where you get units with no abilites for a long time.

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I try to avoid designing gameplay mechanics with random chance where the stakes are high (as then I too would feel inclined to reload - eg losing a hero in combat in FfH), but mind it less when the stakes are low. In this particular case I think the stakes are low enough and the odds will equalize quickly enough, that the randomness won't hurt.

Pfeffersack said:

The faction specific boosts are very exiting, but doesn't mean no-nutrient-comsuming Drones endless grow for Hives bases, if they have the first drone and are still able to grow (any new citizien becomes a drone instantly, which consumes no food...process repeats)...? The riot mechanism may make this unattractive, but will the governor logic and AI understand usefulness and danger lying here...? I guess playing will tell best

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Hive growth is still limited by their health.
I'm not sure at all if this mechanic will work out well, but like you say, playtesting will tell.

Also, are Deidre and Santiago excluded on purpose from the factions which get special goodies or is it rather a reason of thinking of a cool boost for them?

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For the Spartans I figured they were already distinct enough. Though I do plan to add another benefit for them later on: when I add drafting, their draftees would be able to pick special abilities, while everyone else's conscripts would start with Light.

For the Gaians it's lack of inspiration. I'd like to remove the happiness from hybrid forests by the way, so they may definitely need other bonus. Or not. While on paper it sounds little, a +2 Planet in all bases, the Planet values and Attitude affects so many things that that bonis alone significantly alters the Gaian gameplay. So I'm not sure. Perhaps simply +2 Planet is already enough?

Anyway, feel free to suggest other boni. If not for the seven original leaders, they could always be used for a second leader for each faction or some secret project.

Maniac said:

For the Gaians it's lack of inspiration. I'd like to remove the happiness from hybrid forests by the way, so they may definitely need other bonus. Or not. While on paper it sounds little, a +2 Planet in all bases, the Planet values and Attitude affects so many things that that bonis alone significantly alters the Gaian gameplay. So I'm not sure. Perhaps simply +2 Planet is already enough?

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I'd disagree that the +2 planet score is enough. It's nice early on to get a little edge against mind worms. But a biology lab gives 2 planet. hybrid forest tile gives 1.5, and you can have up to 20 of those per city. In the long run, +2 becomes extremely insignificant. They definitely need more

Perhaps, as a lategame thing, it'd be nice if they could establish official peace with the planet. Wild mind worms would never attack you or blockade trade in your territory, never pillage your stuff, let you share tiles with them, and work tiles they're standing on. And would in fact, actively seek out and attack your enemies. Maybe some sort of major project could accomplish that.

It might also be nice, in the mid/lategame, to see psi combat become viable defensively. Maybe a gaian only project that permanantly gives all your units 3 psi defense instead of 2, allowing you to use mindworms for base defense.

Being able to build magtubes in hybrid forests would also be nice, or letting their normal troops treat fungus/hybrid forest as roads.

Perhaps a special ability for VoP priests to trigger a fungal bloom at will, ideally in enemy territory. essentially summoning wild mind worms to protect you and fight your enemies

or a special gaian faction promotion, like the spartan one, which gives certain things. Like bonus attack in fungus/forest/hybrid forest, to make it harder for enemies to use against you. As is, building hybrid forests is like filling your territory with thousands of forts, which an invading army can freely occupy. FFH has the same problem with elves and forests, though we fixed it in fall further by making followers of the nature religion essentially ignore forest defenses when attacking enemies in them. I think the same general concept could be applied here.


As to spartans, I haven't really played as them yet so I don;'t know what, if anything, they can do beyond the free Spartan promotion. But some nice potential ideas:

Military discipline. Have them mroe heavily favour martial law, with garrisoned troops reducing unhappiness. Possibly also, give them extra culture/influence from garrisoned troops, and military buildings.

A small defense bonus against psi combat, to reflect their troops better holding the line due to discipline, and not getting paralysed so much.

Much more great general xp. like maybe twice as much. Spartans should have lots of those.

Make theit troops heal faster in enemy/neutral territory, to reflect them being accustomied to wilderness survival in inhospitable places.

WarKirby said:

Military discipline. Have them mroe heavily favour martial law, with garrisoned troops reducing unhappiness.

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That's already the case.

Much more great general xp. like maybe twice as much. Spartans should have lots of those.

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Agreed.

On perhaps a more pedestrian note, many thanks, Maniac, for "Please don't go. The drones look up to you" when one logs off. After a couple of hours of sometimes successful, sometimes frustrating SMAC gameplay, that was always a fillip to my ego!

Live long and prosper.

Patch 11h for Planetfall, the Alpha Centauri total conversion mod for Civ4 BtS, has been released. This patch needs to be applied on top of the main v11 file of Planetfall. It doesn't break savegames started under patch g. It does break savegames from previous versions or patches before 'g'.

The patch fixes a bug.

These sound good:

3 psi defense for Gaian land units

I could give +50% forest, xenofungus and hybrid forest attack to Gaian Infantry and Vanguard units.

The other ideas have some problems. For instance peace with the barbarians would prevent capturing native life.

WarKirby said:

or a special gaian faction promotion, like the spartan one, which gives certain things. Like bonus attack in fungus/forest/hybrid forest, to make it harder for enemies to use against you. As is, building hybrid forests is like filling your territory with thousands of forts, which an invading army can freely occupy.

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Native Life gets +50% fungus/hybrid forest attack, so I don't think the FoL problem exists in Planetfall.

Much more great general xp. like maybe twice as much. Spartans should have lots of those.

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Sounds good. The Spartans already have your other suggestions.

What does patch 11H solve ? I don't seee any release notes for it.

By the way, you really ought to have release notes in the firest post. at least for the last few patches.