For MP/Rising Tide: How can I make aliens grimmer?

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

Way back in the day I edited the "GlobalDefines.xml" file to make aliens start out hostile and increased their spawn rate -- when my buddy did the same, it allowed us to basically play with the same 'mod' re mass alien infestation early on.

We just tried doing the same thing and it didn't work, not a shred -- happy friendly stupid aliens the whole way.

Does that file even get used in Rising Tide? Can anyone recommend a way to, if not use mods in MP, do some quick edits on some files on all participating computers so that we can experience mass alien chaos?

 

[Ryika]

You have to edit the file in the DLC-Folder (Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\assets\DLC\Expansion1\Gameplay\XML), not the one in the base folder.

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

Thanks. Any tips on what to change other than making them always-hostile? Re changing spawn rate (what does the baseline 6 min and 16 max mean?) or anything else?

Also -- choosing Frenzied Aliens as an option won't overwrite my changes, will they? Not precisely sure what FA does, mechanically ...

 

[Ryika]

I don't think they do anything. Spawn chances are directly hardcoded in the lua file, only the ratio of Plots per Alien is actually called from the GlobalDefines (ALIEN_SEED_MAX_MAP_DENSITY). So you'd have to edit the code in aliens.lua (once again the one in the DLC-Folder, not the one in the base game).

This part to be exact:

    if (currentRatio > idealRatio) then      
      
        -- Spawn chance base is 10%, 20% if the ratio is greater than 2      
        local spawnChance : number = 10;

        local ratioRatio : number = ZeroSafeRatio(currentRatio, idealRatio);
        if (ratioRatio > 2) then
            spawnChance = 20;
        end

("If there's less aliens on the map than we want to have then there's a 10% chance to spawn a new one (probably per Nest), if we have less than half the aliens we want then it's 20%")

You can also change the ratios at which alien types are spawned in the tables at the top of the same file.

Hostile Aliens basically makes them attack more aggressively as far as I can tell. Haven't played around with it too much though.

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

Thanks, Ryika, this worked. Not sure how to increase the density of nests but I tweaked it so they start hostile, remain that way, and their initial spawn rate is doubled, so that should do something ... Not sure how I can tell in the .lua how Frenzied Aliens changes things, any ideas?

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

Wow, this forum is dead ... RIP Beyond Earth :-/.

 

[Joch]

Hi,

could I know what changes you made? I would like to have the Aliens be more unpredictable/hostile and range out farther.

As it is, if you never attack any Alien, they will remain passive the entire game.