[BTS] Final Frontier Plus

[TC01]

Final Frontier Plus- A Modmod of Final Frontier
v1.81 Released 6/27/12!

Final Frontier Plus is, as the name suggests (and as the readme will tell you if you read it), a modmod of Jon Shafer's Final Frontier mod/scenario included with Beyond the Sword. Unlike most of the existing Final Frontier modmods, it is not a total conversion; instead, it is an expansion of Final Frontier itself. The goals of the project are threefold.

The first goal is to significantly improve the speed and reliability of Final Frontier. Through a handful of merged speed mods, as well as countless bug fixes accumulated over the last few years, we have mostly accomplished this goal. Final Frontier Plus runs at nearly the speed of unmodded Beyond the Sword and has fixed almost all outstanding issues with the original mod-scenario. Future improvements will likely still occur over time, especially as more bugs may be unwittingly introduced.

The second goal is to make Final Frontier Plus a richer and more immersive experience than the Final Frontier scenario. As anyone who has played Final Frontier will likely realize, that mod is rather lacking in terms of content. This is an open-ended goal. Through the work of God-Emperor, many new features have been added to the game and the BUG interface has been overlaid over the Final Frontier interface. More work in this area of things is to come over time.

The third goal is to improve a modder's experience in modding Final Frontier. To do this, we have removed a number of hardcoded limitations from the Python code of Final Frontier, created a number of new XML tags as a result of the removal of such hardcoding, and finally generally cleaned up the original Final Frontier code. This too is an open-ended goal that currently has received more focus than adding new content (as it goes along with improving speed and reliability).

This forum, then, is for anything to do with the mod. Have a feature request? A feature in another space mod that you think should be merged into this mod? Post it here. Are you working on a total conversion of Final Frontier? Are you having issues getting your mod to work with Final Frontier Plus? Post it here. Do you want to discuss the gameplay of Final Frontier (Plus) and how it can be improved? Post it here. This forum is for Final Frontier Plus development and discussion, but it's also a place for general questions about how Final Frontier works and plays.

You are welcome to produce modmods of Final Frontier Plus. I personally see a slight distinction between using FF+ as a platform for your own space mod, and making a modmod with additional content for FF+, which is why I specify this. For both types of mods, my only request is that you provide credit to FF+ developers and contributors.

Included Mods:

Final Frontier Plus, in addition to improvements to the game, game speed, and game AI, also contains some community content designed for both Final Frontier and unmodded Civilization 4. Here is a list of community mods that aren't specifically targeted to Final Frontier that we have merged:

• BUG 4.4 by BUG team (merged by God-Emperor: see below in list)
• Multiple Favorite Civics by TheLopez
• Lead from Behind by UncutDragon
• Multiple Production Mod by denev
• Unit Combat Attack Defense Mod by TheLopez
• CAR Mod by stmartin and the HoTK team
• Faster BTS 3.19 by Sephi
• BTS on SPEED by Sephi (components that weren't already merged)
• Unit Orders Modcomp by Pep (Sentry Until Healed)

Here is a list of Final Frontier content that we have merged, some of it that we wrote and released separately:

• Blue Marble by ColdFever (space graphics)
• Final Frontier Resources Pack by The Navy Seal
• FinalFrontierFlat Mapscript by deanej
• SpiralGalaxy Mapscript by cephalo
• Finaler Frontier by God-Emperor
• Wormholes Modcomp by TC01
• Final Frontier Worldbuilder by TC01
• Inhabited Planets by TC01

Links:
Download Main Mod (1) (v1.8): This download requires you to still have Final Frontier on your computer.
Download Main Mod (2) (v1.8): This download does not require you to still have Final Frontier, but is larger.
Download Latest Patch (v1.81): This patch will work with either of the above downloads.
Sourceforge Mirrors: Download all three above files, except from Sourceforge instead of CFC / WPC.


Download Mod Platform Version (v1.0): This download is only for modders who wish to merge FF+ with their own mods. It will not run on its own. It is also out of date.
Download Mod Platform Plugins: This download contains all currently-available plugins for the Mod Platform Version.
Final Frontier: Problems and Issues (a lot of fixes come from here)
Development Forum: A development forum for the mod!
Sourceforge Repository: Development site, containing source code for download

For more in-depth information about installation and which download to use, see the install directions.

Changelogs:

Patch v1.81 Changelog:
-Added star system density option for SpiralGalaxy map types
-Fixed civics causing unhappiness displaying positive unhappy faces
-Fixed issues with Delta Rapid Construction Ship upgrading and being a UU
-Fixed trait text for AstroTech's unique trait
-Fixed issue with iCultureRange (space station culture) not updating properly
-Updated mod version in various BUG interface displays
-Updated CvPlayerAI.cpp (DLL source file) to latest version
-Rebuilt DLL with updated version of above file
-Removed hardcoded unit combat cost mod values from help text

v1.8 Changelog:
-Added Improved and Advanced tracking system promotions
-Added Predictive Algorithms promotion
-Added Warp Phase Modulator promotion allowing use of enemy routes
-Added Precision Instruments Maker building
-Added Hardened Shields promotion, allowing movement on nebulae
-Added Reduced Pirates game option to decrease pirate spawns
-Added Advanced Shielding technology as prereq for Fusion Weapons
-Adjusted technology costs for later-game techs
-Added tag allowing units to take less feature damage
-Adjusted healing promotions and free Starbase promotions
-Sevopedia no longer lists things with bGraphicalOnly set to 1
-Terrain info XML updated so only space terrain shows in pedia
-AI now uses missiles and squadrons, and missile/squadron transports
-AI now considers planet XML-related tags more
-Python AI handles construction ships and cities better

Spoiler for Pre-1.7 Changelogs:

v1.73 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed a Python exception in onCityRazed (really, this time)
-Added missing Multiple Production code (Multiple Production game option now works)
-Changed text shown by Mining Facility to indicate +2 production for The Forge
-Fixed and Added some BUG merge related text
-Fixed potential crash from inhabited planets
-Include an adjusted settings file for the Domestic Advisor screen
-Changed AI Python and civilization XML a bit to (hopefully) improve the AI behavior
-Fixed the Astral Ascension section of the Victory screen
-Buffed Astrotech a little: +25% to build habitation facility and slight improvement to UU
-Changed Starabses to have free Improved Sensors upgrade to improve behavior when in sentry mode
-Added new Productive Pirate Cities game option
-Changed City Screen to show direct yield bonuses from traits for trade routes
-Fixed Nanotech Hospital and Extended Habitation System to increase in cost as more are built in a system
-Fixed nuke effects (as per Doomesday Missile) on star systems
-Fixed building meltdown effects on planet (no building does this currently in FFP, done for Star Trek)
-Fixed theme file issue

v1.72 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed bug with FFP tab on BUG option screen still not working
-Fixed incorrect text for capital ship, carrier ship, and missile construction feats
-Fixed SpiralGalaxy mapscript creating invisible floodplains
-Fixed a Python exception in onCityRazed
-Fixed a Multiple Favorite Civics-related Python exception that occured in a handful of places
-Fixed a few missing icons in various places
-Fixed bugs that resulted in odd behavior when exiting to main menu and starting another game
-Fixed a bug when the Pirate AI checks if it can build fighters
-Added a cleanup script to the installer to fix other potential bugs

v1.71 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed leader pages in the pedia to work properly with multiple favorite civics
-Fixed a handful of Python merging errors between FFPBUG and FF+ 1.7
-Fixed bug with military doctrines and free unit support
-Fixed bug with traits civilopedia page being empty
-Fixed logging error with BUG Core.xml and the onUpdate function
-Added Final Frontier Plus options tab to the BUG configuration menu
-Re-added advanced station construction AI (and remerged CvAI.py in general)
-Reset cultural levels to the FFPBUG ones
-Set default user settings to optimal for Final Frontier

1.7 Changelog:
-Merged BUG 4.4 by the BUG team (merge done by God-Emperor) 
-Merged Multiple Favorite Civics modcomp by TheLopez
-Merged Defender Withdrawl modcomp by killmeplease
-Merged Lead from Behind modcomp by UncutDragon
-Merged bits of BTS on Speed by Sephi (new speed modcomp)
-Mapscripts now place starting units from FreeUnitClasses in XML
-Implemented a FFMapscriptCore, containing mapscript functions used by all FF mapscripts
-Added a Pirate Hordes gameoption, which uses the buggy 1.65 pirate spawning code
-Added a No Pirate XP Cap gameoption which disables the experience cap for fighting pirates
-Added a Calculate Trade Routes gameoption, disables random routes from BTS on Speed at cost of speed
-Added many more Python Callback defines for the callbacks Sephi disabled
-Implemented somewhat working version of advanced space station construction AI
-Game now remembers production on planets after switching from them

-Fixed possible crash if a unit was passing over a Gravity Field tile too close to edge of the map
-Fixed bug with civicoption to reduce unit costs based on their unitcombat
-Fixed bug with the No Aliens gameoption
-Fixed bug when checking if a save is a worldbuilder save (for FF Worldbuilder)
-Fixed a mostly irrelevant graphics error that is present in unmodded Civ too
-Fixed FF Worldbuilder bugs when adding or removing a resource
-Fixed Worldbuilder bugs with saving planetary buildings
-Fixed bug with Partisans event
-Fixed (theoretically?) bug with running FF+ in a language other than English

1.651 Hotfix:
-Fixed barbarian spawning bug caused by 1.65

1.65 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed bug with commerce yields going out of whack (and potentially production)
-Fixed bug where gold was set to 10 in Python regardless of iStartingGoldMultiplier
-Fixed bug with barbarian spawning (may lead to weird numbers of barbarians!)
-AI now better handles unhappy and unhealthy population
-AI also now better manages food (in relation to population)

1.64 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed GFC error (and crash) if you had uninstalled Final Frontier
-The patch installer will now produce a shortcut with the correct graphic on it

1.63 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed bug with yields from buildings, traits, and trade routes
-Fixed bug in Worldbuilder when adding resources to solar systems
-Changed hardcoded BUILDING_PALACE to use global define
-Added iCostModIncrease tags for all UBs

1.62 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed bug where Extraction Facilities were unbuildable
-Fixed bug where buildings orbited the solar system at the wrong place
-Fixed the Planet Info Screen to display info about the 6th planet correctly

1.61 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed bug where all upgrade costs were 0
-Fixed bug with the Star Fortress graphics
-Fixed bug with the nukes (nuking capitals)
-Pirates can't spawn Delta Battleship until Galactic Era

1.6 Changelog:
-Added building tags for required moon or rings, and for buildings on the same planet
-BuildingClassNeededs tag no longer makes a building have to be on the same planet
-Added unit tag to override upgrade price from this unit (for starbases)
-Added unit tags for delta and omega units (double upgrade cost from normal to omega, for starbases)
-Added trait tags for yield changes and yield changes with trade routes
-Added unit tags or missile units and movement sound
-Added building tag for "single building ring location" (on-map building art stuff)
-Added building tag for planet yield changes with a specified trait
-Added trait tag for free buildings on every planet
-Re-added missing golden age code (again)
-Worldbuilder now adds resources to planets when they are added to a system plot
-Fixed text key error for Omega Battlecruiser
-Fixed bug with buildings not switching properly when a city is taken
-Fixed bug where sensor array spawned missiles like Starbases do
-Fixed bug where Rapid Construction Ship could not build sensor arrays
-Fixed bug where Cruisers didn't provide Military Happiness
-Fixed bug where New Earth cities had 3, instead of 2, population
-AI now checks for Mag-Lev before trying to build Commercial Satellites
-AI now tries to build resource-specific buildings on resource planets
-AI now likes settling systems with resources
-AI should now try to build Extended Habitation Systems and Nanoextraction Upgrades
-Tweaks to flavor values for Lu Tianqu (leader) and Terrestrial networking (tech)

v1.51 Patch Changelog:
-Included v1.5 DLL source files
-Added several XML files that were missing from Mirror 1 DL
-Fixed bug with new Starbase AI code
-Fixed bug with planet info screen not showing Commercial Satellites UBs
-Added many missing text keys for Finaler Frontier stuff

v1.5 Changelog:
-Added Inhabited Planets (systems acting as goody huts)
-Added "No Aliens" gameoption to turn off Inhabited Planets
-Added "No Starbase Missiles" gameoption (stops starbases from spawning Missiles)
-Added Sentry while Healing button
-Added Sensor Array unit (built like starbase) that spreads visibility
-Added trait tags for free population, bonus trade routes, and more starting gold
-Added building tag for on-map graphics
-Added new pedia/strategy text for some Finaler Frontier content
-Added some new buttons for some Finaler Frontier UBs
-The time for starbases to spawn missiles is modified by gamespeed
-AI now likes to build defensive starbases near its solar systems
-Fixed bug with iConquestProb on city capture
-Started civilopedia section for FF+ concepts

v1.42 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed bug where Capital Shipyard had a cost of 0
-Fixed bug with UBs that replaced either Mining or Nutrition Facilities
-Fixed bug with the graphics for the New Earth UB
-Fixed various bugs with ranged strikes
-Fixed bugs with Starbase AI code
-Fixed bug where Capitols weren't being removed from planets properly

v1.41 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed bug with the chance to keep some wonders
-Tweaked some other building conquest probabilities
-Invasion Ship III now does collateral damage
-Q-Missile can now be spawned at Starbases after you research required tech
-Planetary resources are now marked using their icon on Planet Info Screen and City Screen
-Fixed bug with Worldbuilder if planet names contained umlauts (and other nonstandard characters)
-Fixed bug with Worldbuilder loading and saving bonus types

v1.4 Changelog:
-Added unique units and buildings for all civs
-Added new techs/tech changes from Finaler Frontier
-Added new buildings, national wonders, and world wonders
-Added new promotions from Finaler Frontier
-Added Astral Gate Design project as prereq for Astral Gate pieces
-Added God-Emperor's planetary resources
-Added various other tweaks as done in Finaler Frontier
-Added XML tag for building yield changes
-Added XML tag for planet pop cap increase (due to buildings)
-AI now prioritizes yields differently if Ignore Growth is on
-Fixed minor bugs in CvInfos.cpp and CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml
-Fixed bug stopping Control-A function from working
-Added missing source file (CyUnitInterface1.cpp)

v1.32 Patch Changelog:
-Merged in Blue Marble space terrain
-Merged in Blue Marble Final Frontier loading screen
-Merged in Blue Marble Final Frontier pedia/advisors backgrounds
-Fixed bug where AI was running starbase checks 100 times for some units

v1.31 Patch Changelog:
-Fixed bug where captured cities couldn't build buildings

v1.3 Changelog:
-Decreased number of barbarians spawning per turn
-Some barbarian units are now more common to spawn than others
-Changed influence tresholds according to God-Emperor's suggestions
-Fixed bug with feature effects code
-Fixed bug where units could never move more than one tile
-Feature effects now display original Final Frontier messages
-iConquestProb and bNeverCapture tags now work properly in Final Frontier
-Religion pedia pages autodisplay religious units and buildings
-Deleted unused python code (reduces clutter in files)
-Fixed bug with victories occuring before turn 10
-Merged in The Navy Seal's Final Frontier resource pack

v1.2 Changelog:
-Moved "doTerrainExtraCost()" into the DLL
-Moved terrain effects into the DLL
-Added eras corresponding to the three levels of units
-Moved barbarian spawning into the DLL
-Removed a broken link to the "Draft" page in the pedia (it no longer exists)
-Planet mouseover now displays required culture level to work it
-Selected and building planets are now reset on city capture
-Fixed bug with help text for commerce-modifying buildings
-Oil now uses the button/icon from regular Civ
-Water now uses a new button/icon
-Made Wormholes non-modular
-Added "Delayed Wormholes" gameoption

v1.1 Changelog:
-Merged in stmartin's CAR Mod
-Merged in Sephi's Faster BTS 3.19 modcomp
-Made getBestPlanetInSystem take into account the size of planets
-Planet mouseover now displays planet names
-Added Unit Build feats for Final Frontier unitcombats (like Light ships)
-Fixed bug with Unit Build feats and units with no unitcombats
-Made AI take into account the unitcombat cost mods for civics
-Made AI aware of civics which increase yields on planets
-Lowered number of default civs on Standard, Large, and Huge worldsizes

To Install:

There are two ways to install this mod.

Option 1: Download the mod from "Mirror 1" (here on CFC). This requires you to still have Final Frontier installed- in other words, you can't have removed it from the Beyond the Sword\Mods directory. It also requires that copy of Final Frontier to be unaltered in any way from the original. (Well, you can have installed mapscripts like SpiralGalaxy and Final FrontierFlat, but that's about it).

This download contains an executable which copies your Final Frontier directory and then installes the FF+ files over it. Since it only contains the files changed by Final Frontier Plus, it is fairly small (about 6 MB).

Option 2: Alternatively, if you've removed your Final Frontier mod folder from Beyond the Sword\Mods to free up some space (as I can't see why you'd remove it otherwise), or if you've modded it, you should download it from "Mirror 2" on WePlayCiv. This download is larger, but not too large- it's only 32 MB, where some mods are over 100 MB in size.


For either install method, or for installing a patch, all you need to do is run the included executable.

Modders' Notes:

For modders, information is available here, at the modder's guide in the forum. At present this is a work in progress and contains little more than the XML Reference and the WB reference.

Also feel free to use that thread as a place to ask modding questions.

Future Plans:

-Create new XML tags for solar system related data
-Add pedia entries (strategy and background) for Finaler Frontier content (in progress)
-Add more new content like Corporations and Specialists
-Maybe move Planet and System objects totally into the SDK (worked on by Kiwikaz)
-Alien civs? As spawned by Inhabited Planets?

This section probably really needs to be updated.

Credits:

Mod Team:
-TC01
-God-Emperor

Contributors (Code or Art):
-deanej (bugfixes, ideas, help, mapscripts, wormhole graphics)
-Kiwikaz (feature effects code)
-cephalo (SpiralGalaxy mapscript)
-T-hawk (production overflow fix)
-stmartin and HoTK team (CAR mod)
-Sephi (various speed improvements)
-Valkrionn (Inno install script)
-The Navy Seal (Final Frontier resource art)
-ColdFever (blue marble graphics)
-Pep (Unit orders modcomp)
-BUG/BAT/BULL team (BUG 4.4)
-killmeplease (Defender Withdrawl modcomp)
-UncutDragon (Lead from Behind modcomp)
-TheLopez (Multiple Favorite Civics modcomp, Attack/Defense combat bonus mod)
-denev (Multiple Production modcomp

Help and Suggestions:
-davidlallen, Afforess, phungus420 (DLL help)
-The_J (python and graphics help)
-Emperor Fool (python help, SDK help)
-PieceOfMind (feedback)
-PsiCorps (suggestions, bug reports)
-dawe1311, wpulsar (bug reports)
-apenpaap (suggestions)
-JEELEN (suggestions)
-renegadechicken (suggestions)

Special:
-Jon Shafer for creating Final Frontier.
-Firaxis/2K Games for making Civilization 4

[The_J]

So the normal Final Frontier is now obsolete, right ?
-> good idea to do that mod .

[JEELEN]

Definitely!

[TC01]

Thanks!

I'm still annoyed I couldn't get the regular ZIP archive to upload though. It was only around 2.5 MB.

Anyone have any idea why? I kept getting a "The upload failed! Upload error." message in red letters each time I tried.

[God-Emperor]

Nice.

You beat me to releasing your personal FF mod-mod. I may now have to merge mine with yours.

[The_J]

Originally Posted by TC01

Thanks!

I'm still annoyed I couldn't get the regular ZIP archive to upload though. It was only around 2.5 MB.

Anyone have any idea why? I kept getting a "The upload failed! Upload error." message in red letters each time I tried.

Under what conditions did zu .zip it?
Because Winzip has the issue, that a user without administrator rights can't access a zipfile, which was zipped with admin rights.

[TC01]

Originally Posted by God-Emperor

Nice.

You beat me to releasing your personal FF mod-mod. I may now have to merge mine with yours.

How's your mod coming along? (I know I asked this a while ago somewhere else too).

Feel free to use this for yours, but I'd probably end up merging yours with mine too...

Originally Posted by The_J

Under what conditions did zu .zip it?
Because Winzip has the issue, that a user without administrator rights can't access a zipfile, which was zipped with admin rights.

The way I have always zipped my files is by right-clicking, selecting "Send To..." and then "Compressed (zipped) folder". I am admin on my computer though.

But would this cause CFC to throw an upload error when I tried to upload the zip?

[The_J]

Originally Posted by TC01

The way I have always zipped my files is by right-clicking, selecting "Send To..." and then "Compressed (zipped) folder". I am admin on my computer though.

But would this cause CFC to throw an upload error when I tried to upload the zip?

If you have Vista/7 that could maybe be the problem, because then the access from CFC to the file would probably be without admin rights, and then it would fail. Had that problem when i wanted to upload a .zip, which was zipped with admin rights, but the uploading account didn't have the rights.
If it's XP, then that should not be a problem.

[timelord89]

Every time I click the Download, I die a little. I'll just go sit over there and wait patiently now....

ADDENDUM:
Glorious days! I love it when things work.

[globalempire]

wont let me dowload ahhhhhhhhhhhh

help

[The_Coyote]

@ globalempire

could you please edit your post after your initial frustation is gone.

@ TC01

awesome work, but i must second the problem. Trying to download results in a file not found error. Could you please reupload the file?

[TC01]

Sorry about that- I had tried to see whether I could upload a zip compressed with 7Zip, not Winzip. Evidently doing that broke the original download.

It's fixed now.

@The_J: No, I run Windows XP.

[The_Coyote]

thanks a lot

[JEELEN]

Played 100 turns on the Spiral Galaxy Wormholes map and it seems to work fine.

Noticed two things: speed doesn't seem faster (as compared to MOO2Civ, which has more civs) and when building my first Colony Ship I got multiple pop up messages I had to click through (don't know if anyone else has this issue). Otherwise looking good.

[TC01]

My personal experience is that things start out at around the same speed, but do not slow down nearly as much as they used to. Merging CAR should help out though. I should mention that all my playtesting has been on a Huge FinalFrontierFlat map thus far. I've just started a WormholesSpiralGalaxy game on Huge- will play through and see how the lag develops.


I'm getting those popups too. I know why- but I'm not sure why they don't appear in Final Frontier. It's because all those unitcombats don't exist in Final Frontier, and the built feats are checking if a unit's unitcombat = UNITCOMBAT_NAVAL or UNITCOMBAT_ARCHER. But the game is reading those unitcombats as NO_UNITCOMBAT (-1), and so anything with no unitcombat, like a colony ship, is being falsely assumed to be every unitcombat that does not exist in Final Frontier.

What I think I'll do is change the "build feats" to work for the Final Frontier unitcombats. So instead of getting a message when you build your first Archer, you'd get a message upon building your first light ship or first squadron.

[deanej]

What I did for Star Trek was remove those popups altogether.

[TC01]

I could have done that as well, I guess... didn't think of it. Still, I guess the rewritten ones might be helpful for people new to Final Frontier, just like the tutorial.

On a semi-unrelated note- deanej, what other optimizations did you make for Star Trek 3.0 apart from move in python callbacks to the DLL? I seem to remember you moving the barbarian spawning stuff there- anything else?

[deanej]

I believe the cannot train callback is not used in Final Frontier but still enabled. Other than that I don't think there's anything that you don't have in some form, though our implementation on a couple of them differs, which is why I'm putting off merging this into Star Trek until the previously unplanned 4.0.

[TC01]

The only callbacks I have enabled are getCityFoundValue, cannotConstruct, and onUpdate.

Currently, from what I can see, Final Frontier loops around the map 3 times every turn- once to update plot yields, once to check for terrain effects, and once to spawn barbarians. I just figured out how to get rid of the plot yield loop without any SDK work. Hopefully I can get rid of the others as well, but they will require SDK work.

I've also just finished merging in CAR and Faster BTS 3.19, which provide a 15% and 7% speed boost to Beyond the Sword respectively. Hopefully they should help here as well.

[Ajidica]

Cool. I'll definatly be using this as my mod base. Much less fiddling with with python. Out of curiosity, for civics, would there be anyway for you to set it up so civics reduce the cost of ships based on unitclass?