Final Frontier Plus

[fulano]

Two comments...
First, why not just add missiles to the allowed cargo types on battlestations?

Second, I'm still seeing tons of barbarians when I play this mod...
My first round they seemed normal but I had to restart after not long for some reason. Every game after that I've had to kill 3 to 5 barbarians every turn it seems.

I thought you guys had a thread specifically on the topic but I'm not finding it so I thought I'd just post it somewhere to let you guys know how things are going for me.

Other than that, awesome mod, it's incredible all the features and bug fixes you guys have done!!

 

[God-Emperor]

Missiles could be added to what starbases are supposed to carry - technically, it would be changing the cargo requirements to remove the special unit type and have them just hold air domain units. It would have the side effect of allowing doomsday missiles on starbases, which doesn't make much difference, although it could make them a bit more powerful and in some cases allow delivering them to an enemy star system without having to put them on a regular ship. I don't think changing it makes much difference. For the player the main advantage would be that you ought to them be able to upgrade them when they have missiles on board.

As for barbarians, you should try the reduced pirates game option. It will cut the number generated in half, resulting in under half as many arriving in your star systems for the first era or two and probably exactly half after that. And, of course, not use the raging pirates type option since that doubles their numbers. (You can use both reduced pirates and raging pirates to get the normal number but also the slightly more aggressive/militaristic AI behavior that this triggers for both the pirates and AI civilizations.)

By the way, something that I learned via working on this mod is that there is evidently something that triggers a large percentage of barbarian/pirate units in existence at the time to target you if you build a wonder. So if you are pulling ahead in techs and building most of the wonders, including shrines, the pirates will send more than your fair share towards you. Spending all that production on a wonder instead of anti-pirate ships (and other stuff) is apparently viewed as an invitation by the pirates. Note: I have not seen, or looked for, this in the code - just noticed it in their behavior, particularly when playing with what is now called the pirate hoards challenge option but which was once a bug in a released version. In that style game you can see that when you build a wonder the dozens of pirates you can see lurking around out there suddenly all turn and attack and continue coming at you in vast numbers for many turns. If you think the pirates are bad in the regular version, you should try the pirate hoards challenge option once just to see how easy you really have it.

 

[fulano]

Interesting, I wonder if that's why I saw so many pirates. I didn't think it was hard, as the promotion balance in this game is really easy to exploit. For example give a capital ship the capital ship promotion and it will smash any ship it comes up against.

I was mentioning it because it still seemed more than what was normal, but I'm comparing it to regular Civilization IV. It wasn't enough to be annoying, as it did force me to build good defenses from the start.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I've confused as to how this starscape background works.

I'm not making a space related mod, but in my modmod of Fall from Heaven II was hoping that I could borrow the Final Frontier art for the hell terrain versions of coasts and seas. (The only canonical description of a body of water in hell is a black sea with a waveless surface that reflects stars which are not from creation.)

Simply copying the terrain texture files and the entry in CIV4ArtDefines_Terrain.xml doesn't even come close to working.

 

[God-Emperor]

I can't say that I know exactly how it works in every detail either, but...

The "Space" terrain is actually the tundra type. The tundra terrain type is actually using ART_DEF_TERRAIN_OCEAN, so that is the art def you'd want to look at.

Then there is the CIV4TerrainPlaneInfos.xml file, in the XML\Misc folder.

The problem I think you are going to have is that the space terrain is actually completely transparent, other than the grid lines when they are activated. The texture file FinalFrontier_SPACEGRID.dds is all a single solid color which is a slightly greenish blueish gray color, except it is also 100% transparent as it has an alpha channel value of 0; FinalFrontier_SPACEGRID_GRIDS.dds is the same except for the only partially transparent grid lines, which are that same slightly greenish blueish gray color that is fully transparent for the rest of the pixels.

What you are seeing in Final Frontier (Plus or not) is not the plot terrain graphics. It is the stuff defined to be behind all the plots, which is why the "space" appearance extends past the edges of the map. In regular Civ this is a solid black background. In FF(P) it is a set of 5 planes stacked with the bottom being opaque and the rest having some opaque stuff (stars and dust and whatnot) and the rest transparent. This is apparently what is defined in CIV4TerrainPlaneInfos.xml.

There might be other definitions involved. There is a PLOT_TEXTURE definition in CIV4ArtDefines_Misc.xml, but that is the same in FF as it is in BtS (it points to a texture that appears to have various overlays including the numerical direction buttons to show on the adjacent plots for when that help thing is enabled). In GlobalDefinesAlt.xml there is a RENDER_WATER value that is set to 0, which may turn off the waves (or more stuff) for the entire map for anything defined to be water (which it isn't in FF - space is actually land). Apparently space was originally going to be water, thus the ART_DEF_TERRAIN_OCEAN and this RENDER_WATER setting, but it was switched to all land (possibly because the water unit AI types are more limited than the land types, except for transporting things) - there are a few other settings that indicate this too.

There may be more to it, but that's pretty much all I know about it.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

It seems that I kind of sort of got it working now, but the changes are definitely not worth keeping. It eliminated waves, completely ruined the appearance of other water, placed heavy dark shadows below all the resources on the map, and made the stars equally visible though all the different types of terrain.

I'm thinking I should probably give up on the idea of having starry seas.

Due to issues with coasts blending, I might even decide to distinguish hellish oceans purely though terrain features.

 

[TC01]

It seems that I kind of sort of got it working now, but the changes are definitely not worth keeping. It eliminated waves, completely ruined the appearance of other water, placed heavy dark shadows below all the resources on the map, and made the stars equally visible though all the different types of terrain.

I'm thinking I should probably give up on the idea of having starry seas.

Due to issues with coasts blending, I might even decide to distinguish hellish oceans purely though terrain features.

The issue is probably that the terrain plane info XML is getting loaded for all terrain plots, not just one specific terrain plot. If you place, say, grassland terrain in worldbuilder in Final Frontier (Plus? Can't remember if God-Emperor got rid of this or not) I think you'll notice similar things.

I've no idea how to fix it though. There might be a way to get the background to only change for one type of terrain, but that might still screw up other water plots as you say.

 

[fulano]

I hope this hasn't been asked before, but I'm trying to figure out how the buildings work that modify planets (increase food or industry per unit of population).

I don't see anything in the XML that makes that happen, and I don't know where else such data would be kept. Just a point in the right direction would be very helpful!

 

[God-Emperor]

It is in the XML, but it only appears for buildings that actually use it. It is the PlanetYieldChanges tag. The Nutrition Facility has it like so:

			<PlanetYieldChanges>
				<iYield>1</iYield>
				<iYield>0</iYield>
				<iYield>0</iYield>
			</PlanetYieldChanges>

Which increases the per population yield for the first yield type, which is food (as always).

This is, of course, for FFP. Vanilla FF did it entirely in Python via the g_aiBuildingYieldIncrease global array defined near the end of its CvSolarSystem.py.

 

[fulano]

Oh my goodness, that would be why I couldn't find it! I was looking at the old FF. You guys are awesome for changing that. Thanks!

Are the population increasing buildings the same?

 

[Otto Shells]

I have a problem downloading this.

Awesome to see you guys come out with a patch/modmod for Final Frontier, but I am having the worst time trying to get it to the right spot.

I tried winRAR to extract it into it's newly named "Final Frontier Plus" home in the BTS/mods folder, but for whatever reason it won't go.

I've cruised many of the pages on this thread, and only saw on the first page someone having problems with administrator access. The account that I am using is an administrator account, however, and therefore I am confused as to why it would not go. :/

Suggestions?

 

[God-Emperor]

Are the population increasing buildings the same?

Yes. Aside from the tag used, of course. Changing the population limit for the planet a building is built on is done via iPlanetPopCapIncrease (see the BUILDING_HABITATION_SYSTEM entry for an example).

The tags that FFP added to the building XML include:

bOnePerSystem - can only have one in a star system if set to 1

iCostModIncrease - controls the rate at which the cost increases if you build more than one

PlanetBuildingClassNeededs (and most of the stuff that goes in it) - you have to have some other building(s) already on this specific planet to build this building

TraitPlanetYieldChanges (and most of the stuff that goes in it) - if the player has a listed trait, the building changes the yields of the planet as specified

PlanetYieldChanges - building changes the yields of the planet as specified

iPlanetPopCapIncrease - building changes the population capacity of the planet by this much

SystemArtTag - art type for buildings that appear on the map but not connected to a planet (those are still special cases in the Python code)

bMoon - can only be built on a planet with a moon

bRings - can only be built on a planet with rings

iSingleRingBuildingLocation - works in conjunction with SystemArtTag, it is -1 for anything other than the star fortress or a star fortress UU for which it is 0 (-1 allows it to pick one at random from the available rings other than 0, other numbers force it to use that ring - the star fortress has to use ring 0 since that is actually centered on the star rather than a point orbiting the star)

 

[fulano]

You guys are awesome around here. Way cooler than other modding communities I've followed. Thanks for being so helpful!

@Otto Shells
I'd try deleting and reinstalling the mod from scratch and see if that fixes it. Sometimes things go wrong with installers. I personally like just unzipping files into the mod folder, then I know what is going on.

 

[Otto Shells]

@Otto Shells
I'd try deleting and reinstalling the mod from scratch and see if that fixes it. Sometimes things go wrong with installers. I personally like just unzipping files into the mod folder, then I know what is going on.

Thanks for the response.

I tried unzipping it into the mod folder, WinRAR isn't letting me do it tho. It comes up with an error. :/

 

[God-Emperor]

I tried winRAR to extract it into it's newly named "Final Frontier Plus" home in the BTS/mods folder, but for whatever reason it won't go.

Suggestions?

I have to wonder exactly what you are extracting and trying to move. Inside the .zip file is a .exe file, "Final Frontier Plus 1.8.exe" (the name of the .exe file may be a bit different for the version from SourceForge but that is not zipped, or "Final Frontier Plus 1.81.exe" for the patch, which is only a patch, not a full installation, so you have to install 1.8 first). You don't put that in the mod folder, you run it (put it anywhere you want, like the desktop or the Temp folder, or someplace where you keep downloaded things). It is an installer that will install the mod when you run it. If you are running a Steam version of Civ4 this might not work (due to registry key issues), but otherwise it should.

If you are running Windows Vista or 7 (or, most likely, 8) and installed CIv4 in the default location then the folders are covered by the Windows UAC thing. This doesn't like you to change existing files, but it generally does not interfere with adding new files. When it does block you, just being in the Administrator group is not good enough - it apparently only checks the actual account name, not the groups you belong to so it wants the actual Administrator account. You can evidently avoid UAC issues by taking ownership of the Mods folder and everything in it (or, alternatively, just the Final Frontier Plus folder and everything in it once it is installed, if you want) and applying full control access for yourself to everything in it. That, or creating a shortcut that runs BtS as Administrator, will also avoid issues with the BUG component of FFP (the issue is that it can't modify its settings files, which causes a bunch of messages to scroll up the game's message area when entering the mod and prevents changing the settings). The third (and probably the best) option is to install Civ4 someplace other than the default location, like a "C:\Games" folder that you create yourself, which avoids the UAC entirely.

 

[fulano]

I tried unzipping it into the mod folder, WinRAR isn't letting me do it tho. It comes up with an error. :/

If WinRAR is giving an error then I would bet that the file is somehow corrupted and needs re-downloaded.

 

[Spideredd]

Hi.
Played a couple of games of the mod and I have a few things to say about it.

Fist and most important. Thanks. It's alot of fun and I feel it's more of a challenge than the basic civ. I especially like the way you have made every civ feel and play differently.

Second. I've noticed that it isn't easy to upgrade a space-station. You have to empty the missiles out for the option to appear, and once you have, you can't rebase the missiles back at the space-station. You have discussed the missile rebase at space-station thing above, but I saw mention of upgrading in the few pages that I have read.

Third. I tried out one more civ than there are in the game by accident and ended up with two civs the same colour, name and leader name. This was ok, until I went to war with one and not the other.

Fourth. Wow, that's alot of pirates, even with the option for 1/2 pirates turned on, I was fighting off pirates every turn. I do like that and the 'Pirate Challenge' option (I haven't dared try that one yet).

Fifth. I think that there is either too much weight towards tech when you find space wreckage/aliens, or there are too many. I find that if I build three or four recon ships before I build anything else, I can often be set for the rest of the game.

I am not a Moder, so I don't know if it is possible to change any of this, but I thought that if my observations and opinions could help, I should let you know.
Again, Thank you for all the time you've already put into this, and I look forward to further progress.

 

[icheben]

Are there serious plans to add TC01's cloaking device mod? I desperately want to see it Btw i like TC01's idea to install a cloaking device via promotion an then simply switch it on and off better than deanej's version (no offense deanej - you have an awesome mod!).
With defender withdrawal already merged its the perfect base for my own star trek mod. I plan to have all ships with cloaking devices installed to autocloak when withdrawal is triggered and geatly raise withdrawal chance with cloaking device installed.

 

[Darth Revan]

nice mod man!

 

[TC01]

After much time, prompted by Imp. Knoedel in this thread, I've released all the various fixes from God-Emperor that have been gathering dust in our subversion repo since last summer: also known as version 1.82.

Changelog:

-Bugfix for negative assignable population
-Fix for over whipping when AI is in Slavery civic
-Re-fix for UNITAI_ATTACK_CITY unit value determination
-Adjustment for starving systems (AI planet population assignment adjustments)
-Fix a bug in updatePlotYield where planets with lunar bases outside the current culture range (in a captured star system, of course) would provide negative food
-Potential OOS bugfix
-Base location evaluation optimization
-A bugfix for a widget help problem (which is not an issue in FFP, but is in B5 due to lots of extra content)
-Fix to make the iCultureRange tag actually work
-Building produced yield is written to the save file now (this breaks save compatibility!)

I am also going to upload a compressed copy of the full release of v1.82 (with patches but no installer) to Sourceforge and link it from the first page for those of you with Steam installations or other strange setups where the mod installer isn't working. However, with any luck this will be temporary, as I am going to play around with the installer scripts again and see if I can't make them support multiple registry keys (Gold, Complete, Steam...)- so you can just download the installer and it will all Just Work.

If I do get that working (and I'm fairly sure I can, one way or the other), I'll release what I guess I'll call v1.83, which will not be a patch, it'll be a complete release.

Are there serious plans to add TC01's cloaking device mod? I desperately want to see it Btw i like TC01's idea to install a cloaking device via promotion an then simply switch it on and off better than deanej's version (no offense deanej - you have an awesome mod!).
With defender withdrawal already merged its the perfect base for my own star trek mod. I plan to have all ships with cloaking devices installed to autocloak when withdrawal is triggered and geatly raise withdrawal chance with cloaking device installed.

I had fairly loose plans to incorporate cloaking devices at some point in the mod's future, yes... I don't know whether or not that will actually happen now.

The only reason I haven't gone ahead and just done it was because I didn't know where to put them in the tech tree and what ships they should be on. I was considering building an alien civilization around them, but I suspect that probably won't happen now.