[BtS] Star Trek Mod

[deanej]

Yeah, I think I'll do that. Them having a starting value pre-dates their uniqueness by a very, very long time.

 

[Galaxyclass]

Love the patch!

Just finished my second game as Borg in 4.00 (captain/standard and admiral/large). Some feedback:

My first game I dominated early on. The AI's seem to take forever to get to photon torpedoes and their warp 5 and 7 ships are worthless against borg cube IIs. It was over pretty quick.

The second game I decided that rather than an early all-out rush I would build out some solid infrastructure and combine that with some raiding for basic techs, in hopes of a more interesting game. The result was brutal. Once the AI's get past photon tech their research speed increases exponentially, and pretty soon I was resorting to cracking systems defended by light III-IV's with mega-fleets of about 60 cube II and IIIs. It was a long hard slog, and ended with my cube V-VI's finally overwhelming enemies who had scaled the entire tech tree long ago.

So that said, here's some thoughts on balancing them:

-They're just too strong initially (or perhaps everyone else is too weak on defense). I think I'd raise cube costs and give warp 5 and 7 ships a +50% to system defense. I'd also give homeworlds some starting culture or a planetary defense grid if possible. Maybe have the palace give a bonus to system defense.

-They need to gain techs much faster, or the other races need to gain techs slower (maybe raise the tech costs after photons)

-The Hostile universe challenge that puts multiple independent systems on the map would be very good for the Borg but causes my game to crash.


Other random thoughts:

-Oddly enough in the long game I nearly won a diplomatic victory. Diplomacy as a whole seems like a very un-borglike activity.

-I modded palaces to give a +2 to max population on the planet they are built in, I think it helps iron-out starting system differences a bit.

-AI's still don't build starbases. Hurts them with resources and defenses.

-AI's always build the geologic power plants and the endgame is filled with systems that have melted down, bit of a pet peeve of mine.

-Barbarians are a fun mechanic in the early game, but annoying in the mid and late games. Probably best to limit them to the 2 strength 1 move alien vessels outside of events. (and I think a rare and serious Alien invasion event could be a lot of fun) I'd also make the border defense network a national wonder.

Anyway, hope some of that was useful, keep up the great work.



*Update* Just tried the Galaxy scenario and the one with Independent worlds is broken somehow, you loose your buildings on a save/load, and when I edited earth to put them back I found nothing I did with worldbuilder affects systems. The version without Independents doesn't have this issue.

 

[TiberiousKirk]

Almost finished playing as the Romulans. Stalemateing the Federation at the moment. All in all, a good job I'm really enjoying the game.

 

[Cmcastl]

The only suggestion I would make to improve the atmosphere of the game, the music and the leader pictures already do so much, Deanej, would be to iconise some of the technologies with ST pics, also to label Transporter as "Transporter Technologies" and so on, something a bit more abstract and suggestive.

I realise you are having to work with the somewhat crude improvements options menu of Civ but with the sophistication of much else of your game, it would be nice to make technology improvement more Star Trek atmospheric, too. This suggestion is made for what it is worth; this 4.0 improvement is awesome...

but not quite so awesome as the 5 version, which I eagerly await!

Live long and prosper.

 

[Alexbond45]

It wont install

I like star trek too, any help?

EDIT: Cannot download 4.00 now

EDIT2:Nvm downloaded alt links

 

[deanej]

Just tried the Galaxy scenario and the one with Independent worlds is broken somehow, you loose your buildings on a save/load, and when I edited earth to put them back I found nothing I did with worldbuilder affects systems. The version without Independents doesn't have this issue.

I haven't noticed any issue. Can you provide a save where this occurs? You might want to check your planet selection - the game might be changing it when loading the game, making it look like buildings disappeared.

The Galaxy uses the old version of worldbuilder (as does every scenario aside from The Maquis and the Mirror Universe ones; did not want to re-do the maps), and as such buildings added in worldbuilder won't be added to planets (it also won't store what planet is selected, among other things).

No crash for me with the Hostile Universe gameoption when tested on the epic game (was that on a scenario?); just a python exception which will be fixed (no crash after fixing it either).

After looking at the changes I've decided on the following, in addition to already mentioned fixes:
-Add AI weight in XML to increase chances of AI researching Warp 7 and Photon Torpedoes (should help against barbs as well as Borg)
-25% decrease in tech cost prior to (and including) Photon Torpedoes
-Palace: +2 max pop on planet, +50% system defense
-Increased cost for Geologic "Praxis" Power Plant

 

[Alexbond45]

Does this Permenantly Mod BtS?

 

[deanej]

I doesn't alter the base game, but it does need to install in BtS's install folder as some art and sounds need to be unpacked there. No files are overwritten, just added.

 

[Alexbond45]

I doesn't alter the base game, but it does need to install in BtS's install folder as some art and sounds need to be unpacked there. No files are overwritten, just added.

are there more complicated modding instructions, usually, its just Extract all the files into the mod folder, as i do for every game i have ever modded.

None of the links in the Readme work

EDIT: Ive installed it, now im going to check to make sure i have the 3.19 update because its crashing

 

[deanej]

Just leave the path as-is. The scenarios use custom civs, units, etc. that require them to be in separate mods. They still use the common art/sounds though. Civ4, unfortunately, doesn't have "parent mod" functionality, so they require full mods to run (in contrast, this would have been very simple in civ5, at least once that game gets its act together around modding).

The URL in the readme works for me.

 

[Galaxyclass]

I haven't noticed any issue. Can you provide a save where this occurs?

Never mind my earlier crashes with Hostile Universe and The Galaxy, I just tried to reproduce them and couldn't. I'm scratching my head but it seems to be fine now.

 

[deanej]

Might have just been memory. Unfortunatly the memory allocation failure error requires python exceptions on to see, so if you got it, it's understandable you thought there was a CTD there caused by the mod (and it was, but only indirectly due to the huge map).

 

[Alexbond45]

I cannot Download 4.00, 3.00 Is the one im running on

 

[deanej]

Have you tried both alt links? At least one of them should work.

I'll be recompiling the full install later (once I think we're clear of needed patches) and uploading that to FileSend.net (which is working again), so watch the page if you still have trouble.

If you can run 3.0 fine you have BtS 3.19.

 

[Alexbond45]

Have you tried both alt links? At least one of them should work.

I'll be recompiling the full install later (once I think we're clear of needed patches) and uploading that to FileSend.net (which is working again), so watch the page if you still have trouble.

If you can run 3.0 fine you have BtS 3.19.

KK, I did the first alt, not the Atomic Gamer one it didnt hit my Harddrive

EDIT: Ah cheese nips, i just realised the problem was that i had accidentally put it in my Colonization Mod Folder >.<

 

[Alexbond45]

Just started 4.00, It seems each civ has its own unit models right?

Heh, looks really good already, playing as Federation, because i always play the good guys first, prolly gonna try klingons next

 

[Brentinator]

Ok, I love this mod, but I'd like to change a few things. I want the initial space probe it to have a strength of 0, and a movement of 1, and the warp 5 ship to have a movement of 2. This makes more sense. IMO, a probe shouldn't move twice as fast as the warp 5 ship before warp 5 is even discovered.

What files and paramenters to I need to change? When I change these XML files, I usually mess them up when I try to do it on my own.

 

[Galaxyclass]

@Brentinator

I've been playing around with the xml a bit. This is using notepad in Civ4/Beyond the Sword/Mods/Star Trek/Assets/XML

In Units, open Civ4Unitinfos and find <Class>UNITCLASS_PROBE</Class>

Under that, find the line <iMoves>2</iMoves> and change the 2 to a 1. This same line under <Class>UNITCLASS_WARP5</Class> can be changed from a 1 to a 2.

I don't recommend reducing probes to 0 strength, might cause problems. Right now they can only defend, and automatically loose if attacked anywhere other than a system or an asteroid field.

 

[Alexbond45]

@Brentinator

I've been playing around with the xml a bit. This is using notepad in Civ4/Beyond the Sword/Mods/Star Trek/Assets/XML

In Units, open Civ4Unitinfos and find <Class>UNITCLASS_PROBE</Class>

Under that, find the line <iMoves>2</iMoves> and change the 2 to a 1. This same line under <Class>UNITCLASS_WARP5</Class> can be changed from a 1 to a 2.

I don't recommend reducing probes to 0 strength, might cause problems. Right now they can only defend, and automatically loose if attacked anywhere other than a system or an asteroid field.

Actually, my Probe at like Lt. or Lt. Cmdr level, something like that, defeated a Warp 5 Cruiser....

 

[jfby]

To mod the building bonuses do I modify XML or something else?