[MoO] ICEMOD: mod design, race design, strategies

[neilkaz]

-50% tech at start is what really hurts Feudal. -35% allows this gov't to be more playable, IMO.

May just keep what we have now but make it -4 negs and -50 ships for Adv Gov't?

I've reached T130pw in my game. Darloks had 12 spies on me, but stole nothing (3 agents) and went away. They are at war with the Gnols (haven't met) Tri's in center of galaxy seem to be mediocre, but difficult placement can slow AI expansion. Humans are doing great.

I just finished the Robotic Factory tech. I think I should build these on all planets except ultra poor? Opinion please. I have been sometimes not putting them on poor planets as well.

I have Z-armor and a Nuke 27 BB under construction.

I am tied with Bears for lead in pop. I have 74 pop and 15 planets in 6 systems. There's more systems to take, but if I plan further expansion I think I need a BB to defend new systems or the AI's will just take them.

More play in a day or two from here. I may soon need to pick a victim for attack. Likely Darlok. The geography of this galaxy is such that if I can conquer Darlok, I should have the entire right side (unless someone small is found in the corner in which case I kill them as well) and be OK and on my way to a win, even at this level.

 

[Rocco.40]

Re: Feudal. I still think the Adv Gov't -2/3 ships is too much. I'd go with -1/2 and consider making Feudal -4 again to allow it to be combined with the -6 negatives.

I especially like the combo of Feudal & Low-G.
Will make that option available again in next update.
Assume that is the -6 negative you meant as well?

 

[neilkaz]

I especially like the combo of Feudal & Low-G.
Will make that option available again in next update.
Assume that is the -6 negative you meant as well?

Is LG worth -6 in ICEMOD? I think so since compared to 1.31 there tends to be more planets to colonize nearby as systems have more planets and fewer gas giants and asteroids. This means that one has more colonies early and almost all are dragged down by the 25% penalty. LG also means that you typically end up with a few LG planets nearby and many of them tend to be smallish and poor.

I think I'd keep LG -6 and set Feudal back to -4 somehow. I hope you stick with +22 and -10 for race picks.

Oh..how's your game going? My not so well. My plan to jump all over Darloks somewhat before T150pw with a couple of BB and some FF's and transports was delayed about a dozen turns by hyperspace flux! During that delay Darloks upgraded from cardboard to N-armor and also add Class 3 shields. I need way more than a couple of BB with nukes to dent those SB now, and the have two planetary defense buildings as well. Had this been v9 those Darloks wouldn't be this advanced and I don't think they'd be this strong even in v10c.

OK time to reload back a dozen+ turns to my decision point and while making a couple BB's for defense against aggressors who will come if I have no fleet, I will colonize a few more systems and keep growing and teching. I won't be able to keep pace with these super v10f AI's but I should be able to come close. Then we'll see what happens.

 

[Rocco.40]

have been diggin in MOO2 code most of the weekend
still not cracked the Feudal code to my liking though

Yes I am thinking too that Low-G is -6, especially with all opponents growing so fast now.
In my ongoing game, the Psilon were actually the first to go down and I have never even met them! Honestly, I am struggling with my empire but still see chances, will report soon in more detail.

Was just thinking to bring the max negatives to -11 to open up this combo.
So that will be a +22/-11 then.

In addition, I am preparing a move to 20 point system instead of 10.
I have been putting this off for a long time, mainly because of 'recognizability' and the fact that it has always been like this. However VDC is also on this system, and it has a more balanced ability valuation. For example I can give Food +1 and Research +1 "2.5 valuation" = 5 points.
And finally can give Poor Home World the -1.5 it deserves = -3 points.

More precise valuation should provide some better human player race constructions. I will set the picks at 24/-22. That is a lot of points, but it provides a lot of freedom and combinations. And I am not restricted by Multi Player games anyway, where this would be a big deal.

Lastly, but not least: ICE 10g will feature two mods in one: the first will be a slightly tweaked 10f and the other one is the same, with the exception of the races that will have ~10c strength. They can exist in the same folder and even for the save games it does not matter in which exe you boot it.

ICE 10g will be base mod 'ICEMOD.exe', with base races and a challenging Impossible setting.
ICEx 10g 'ICEMODx.exe' will contain all the superraces. The version for when you feel brave

 

[Rocco.40]

that 20pt system would like this (still in beta)



Note (as an example) that with the combo -1/2 food and cybernetic you now 'gain' 1 point, which I think is the way it should be.

Note 2 that Tolerant should be +20 and not +10

 

[Rocco.40]

Ok, 10f game:

Still running with the Uni,P+1,Sub,Pop+50,LAHW type with Low-G and Repulsive.
Am at turn 150 with (still) Mrrshan and Gnolam next to me. I have met nobody else and am completely cornered in by these two superpowers. I know from GNN that the Psilon have fallen but am in the dark as to the 'by whom and where'.

I have made a rather rookie mistake of researching Grav. Gen. before the Zortium armor and it was just after I had Grav. Gen. research completed that the Mrrshan decided to poke around in my defenses. They have been relentlesly bashing me for the last 15 turns with Battleships equipped with Neutron Blasters and Phasors, accompanied by Battle Scanner and Structural Analyzer. Ouch! That hurts. Still standing, but I do not have the initiative here. Luckily the Mrrshan do not have shields yet, so it is my Fighter Garrisons that save the day. The garrison is a quite potent defense once you reach the Zortium armor level, especially when your opponent ha weak or no shields.

The Gnolam are steadily growing but we are not at war atm. Being repulsive is a big disadvantage here coz there is no way to negotiate out of this mess.

T154: Spying succes! Stole the Atmosphere Renewer from the Mrrshan. Lost a spy.
T157: Spying roll!! Stole the Grav. Beam from the Mrrshan... GNN: Meklar and Alkari are at war, Ah so the Meklar are also in the game...
T159: Two attacks in 1 turns from the Mrrshan .. They now have Plasma Cannon .. Darn .. lost 1 panet
T160: next attack on planet with star base. 1 blast from a Mrrshan Plasma BB does a whopping 200 damage. My Star Base now has the Grav. Beam and Mrrshan retreat.
T162: Structural Analyzer stolen!! Big prize... at the loss of 1 spy.
T168: The Alkari just went to war with the Mrrshan and took a system right the middle of Mrrshan territory. It does not help me unfortunately, as the cats have new fuel cells (stolen?) and bring a fleet t omy home system: HW gone!! O dear this game is close to a 'call it a day'
T172: Just lost 3 systems in 2 turns. These Mrrshan! I just realized what a potent combination Feudal & Ship Attack +50 is. With the Mrrshan you never really noticed because their economy was always weak. But now they have the potential to grow. Mrrshan got the +100 computer and their own +50 bonus. They throw a couple of fleets at me (each with 4-5 BB's) which they can produce very fast by now..... and I am toast. FINALLY a game lost.

 

[Rocco.40]

I just finished the Robotic Factory tech. I think I should build these on all planets except ultra poor? Opinion please. I have been sometimes not putting them on poor planets as well.

- for readers: Robotic Factory in ICE has been changed to 6-9-12-15-18 (was 5-8-10-15-20) to give the poor planets an extra production point. For poor planets i would always build them, but is a serious investment as the building process itself is slow. For Ultra-Poor: I usually avoid these rocks till late game, when i can just buy the production plants, unless it is a good farming world, swamp or terran. But there is not always the choice in planets and when I have such a dog, will build the Factory anyway, although it is a pain to get it there.

 

[Rocco.40]

Started a new game where I am no longer repulsive.
Race: Uni, Aqua, Pop+50, P+1, GC-10, LG
What a difference that makes. Am at T149, unfortunately again cornered, this time by Human and Klackon. Have treaties with the Human and Klackon have been very distant, but since I started building BB's and I got Jarred (Diplomat +20) they were quick to offer a Non-Aggresion Pact. My game start was a bit lousy with only poor or U-poor planets around me but i colonized them anyway. There was this fabulous system with 2 Ultra Rich Terrans and a Poor Swamp but with Natives, protected by a Hyrda and I have been able to take it as soon as I reached Zortium. I made sure this time to get Zortium quickly but I do not have Grav. Gen yet. Still things are looking much better than last game .. for now
T192: Sakkra try to take Orion!!!! Luckily no success for them otherwise it was big trouble for me.

 

[Rocco.40]

AND THEN THERE WERE 2 ICEMODs!
-----------------------------------------
ICEMOD.exe & ICEMODx.exe

** Both can live in the same directory on your computer.
** A savegame can be continued in either .exe, it does not matter in which one you load.

IECMOD.exe and ICEMODx.exe have exactly the same stock races, race ability valuation,
tech tree, weapons, etc. etc.
Also the a.i. opponents on Hard diffculty setting are the same.

ICEMOD.exe and ICEMODx.exe differ in two aspects:

1. Impossible a.i. opponents:
> ICEMODx contains the Impossible Superraces from ICE 10f.
(some a.i.'s have been slightly adjusted from 10f; Bulrathi IMP1 & IMP2 lose spy +10)
~ 22 eco value.
> ICEMOD is intended to be the succesor of ICE 10c.
It has trimmed down a.i. opponents compared with ICEx.
~ 20 eco value.

2. Map generation:
> ICEMODx has the same map generator as ICE 10f (and thus the same as VDCREG.exe)
> In ICEMOD.exe the chances for planets in a system have been reduced.
There are still more planets than in MOO2 1.31, but less than in ICEMODx.

ICEMODx provides the most difficult Impossible game play.
ICEMOD is intended as a continuation of ICE 10c in terms of difficulty of IMP game play.


ICE MOVES TO 20 PICK VALUATION
------------------------------
The Abilities in the Custom Race Screen are now valued on a 20pt scale.
> Production +1 was 3 picks and is now 6 picks, etc.
> Allowed for a few abilities to be valued with 1/2.
> Points range was +12/-10 and is now +12/-10.5, that is +24/-21.


ONE MORE THING...
-----------------------
Antaran Home World / defensive ships fire power has been slightly reduced.

 

[neilkaz]

To launch as ICEx I had to change the .config files in DOSBox to ICEMODx.exe as expected.

Good changes overall I think. I could now add GC+10 to my Repulsive LG super race.

I spawned along the center of the left edge and seem to be nicely alone and can really expand I hope.

A dragon guards a very nice system that I want. Could you please make up a page with all the planetary guarding monsters including the Guardian since all are tougher now.

I used to be able to kill dragons with 10 MIRV Nuke FF's but expect to need at least a dozen now. Anyhow, that will give me an early fleet so I don't appear helpless to whatever AI's I soon meet.

EDIT: OK in IceX 10g I am noticing more gas giants and asteroid belts but it just may be coincidence.

 

[Rocco.40]

Dear Readers When starting ICE, ICEMOD and ICEMODx are virtually identical. The only way to see if you are in the right version, is in the bottom right corner of the start screen, it reads either ICE Mod 10g or ICEx 10g.
@ Neilkaz, I checked the map generators of both exe's and the ICEx is still the same as ICE 10f. It could offcourse just be the randomizer at work in your map.

About monsters, good suggestion and will include such a page in the future.
For now, quick overview of monsters: (in brackets the 1.31 values)

System Eel - Hitpoints: 400 (300) - Plasma Flux weapon: 1 (1)
System Amoeba - Hitpoints: 600 (400) - Caustic Slime weapon: 1 (1)
System Crystal - HP: 900 (500) - Crystal Ray: 2 (1)
System Dragon - HP: 900 (500) - Dragon Breath: 2 (1) - Phasor Eye: 8 (8)
System Hydra - HP: 900 (500) - Plasma Breath: 6 (3)

The Eel and Amoeba only got a HP upgrade and no extra weapon because the systems they are guarding are not that great as the ones from the Crystals, Dragons and Hydra's. For that reason, the HP upgrade of these 3 beasties was a bit more and they got double weapons fire.

 

[Rocco.40]

Game stat: played 5 ICEMODx games and won only 2
... This is hard work

 

[leif erikson]

Looks good!

Couldn't get the DOS version of the game to run on my win7 or win8 systems, so I purchased a copy from Good Old Games.

Is the icemod compatible with their version?
If so, how does one install it?
Thanks.

 

[Rocco.40]

Hi,

yes it is compatible with the DOS version of GOG.
copied in the install instructions below.
two things are key 1. make a backup first 2. find and modify the DOSBOX config file (step 5)

How to install
==============
1. You need to have English DOS version 1.31, 1.40.b23 or 1.40.b24 installed.
> Or a previous version of ICE mod.
> This mod has not been tested with other versions of the game.

2. Make a backup of your existing MOO2 folder.

3. Extract all files from 'ICEMOD_v10d.zip'

4. Copy all files into your MOO2 folder, overwriting existing files.

5. You need to run 'ICEMOD.EXE' in DOSBox.
> Open your DOXBox config file.
Normally via "DOSBox 0.74 Options.bat" in Program Files(x86)\DOSBox-0.74
Rename in your DOSBOX config file in [autoexec] the .exe to 'ICEMOD.EXE'.
(it was 'ORION2.EXE' or 'M2v140.EXE')

 

[Rocco.40]

ok- i am starting a new game today in ICEMODx, and a different breed:
Uni, P+1, R+1, SD-25, GC -10, Low-G, Aqua, Charisma
With Uni-Aqua you only need two farmers at the start, with 1 food spare... for pop9.
My Marines won't even hit an Elephant if it was standing right in front of them but let's hope my Charisma will charm me through this game ...

This game I will scrap my Star Base on T1, giving 250BC cash, so I can quickly buy mt first Colony Base. I haven't tried this tactic since a while and hope that my enemies wont be too close. I spawn in the upper middle, close to the word "Game". T32: BIG LOL, offcourse I have the Bulrathi as my neigbours, just when I make my Marines Molluscs T34: Director Torgs offers his services - already a first benefit of Charisma. T37: I already have 2 other good leaders coming in but i cant afford them. Learning for nxt game: be Charisma & +money or demo. T42: I now have 4 planets, 20 pop. Gnolam are south of me, 3 systems, unknown #planets, prob 3. T42: Ahh the Bulrathi are not actually next to me, they have just been scouting via wormhole. They are all the way south on the map, close to "ZOOM". Unfortunately they are of the repulsive type, a very strong Bulrathi variant in ICEMOD and my charms won't be of any help here. T50: I have been putting a couple turns tax & trade goods to be able to afford these leaders coz i just dont wanna miss out on them. T143: Have been clicking through the turns and doing relatively well. Have just taken a Hydra, which was guarding a Low-G URich Large Terran Planet. SWEET! Still on good terms with the a.i., but in my ICE 10 games so far the critical moment is between T170-200, when the first real wars start. If in that timeframe, an a.i. is able to produce BB's of decent tech at a high rate, it means trouble. Noticed that the Tolerant Bulrathi are doing a little bit less well than expected. They do have 8 systems (only 5 for me), but they are the laggards in tech. T156: Getting Kronos (Galactic Lore & Dimensional Portal) at this stage in the game is just lovely!! T161: Things are spicing up now, with the Gnolam breaking treaties coz of my supposed spying. It wasn't me! T201: Things look grim at the moment. I am fighting a big war, with the Humans. Gaining some ground but also losing some ships. I am concerned that my lower 'fleet power' will lead to an other a.i. or two to declare war on my. The thing with these A.I. people is that they can have all the treaties and be friendly and next turn they are dishonored. I have the Darloks in the game, who are prob. spying on about everybody and I keep getting threats that i should stop spying... On the tech side, I am hopelessly behind, leaving only the Repulsive Bulrathi to take the last place. In ICE10g, less races have the Repulsive ability, which is one of the worst traits for an a.i. to have as it then cannot swap techs with its buddies. The effect of this in an 8 player setting is significant. T208: Captured the Human HW and about half their empire. Gnolam are restless and are gathering a substantial fleet at the 1 shared system we have... The Gnolam and Alkari are clearly in the lead in this game. Techwise, Gnolam, Alkari, Meklar and Darlok have a shared lead, followed at a distance by Elerian and Human, followed at a distance by me and the Bulrathi are struggling. The Bulrathi empire is so far away that I wouldn't risk sending my fleet there atm. I did one save/reload (exceptional) as I thought a move of both Alkari and Gnolam to declare war on me and send fleets all in 1 turn without any warning (both are 'peaceful') was a bit unfair. So I went 1 turn back and gave them some money .... T209: Need to do a quick 'consolidation' and refit some ships to stay in the game. T210: Gnolams are building Titans .. sigh .. Titans have, like Doom Stars a 20% extra space for the a.i., which means at this stage in the game, when i do not have tech dominance a potential ver dangerous thing. T216: Gnolam fleet is now growing every turn - my fleet is still 2nd (white) but i cant keep up with that build rate:



T218: Bulrathi empire has fallen, mainly by ongoing slaughtering of the Elerians. T226: Humans have just two planets left and surrender to the Elerian. I just researched Auto Labs which is quite late in the game...
T230: Darn, it is the Darloks who declare war on me .. somewhat unexpected. And they have stealthy ships, so we will see how that goes. T242: Gonna continue this game tomorrow coz this is going to be a long one. Gnolam have a fleet of at least twice the size mine now. Moreover I have no longer the 2nd largest fleet as the Elerians have surpassed me. Pop wise I am at a tie with the Elerians. This game I have made sure to contact each opponent via diplomacy at least once every 10 turns. I also have made it a habit to hand out small amounts of cash or obsolete techs to keep everyone satisfied. It hasn't stopped me from making demands from time to time ,'stop spying' being the most common one. The shared system I had with Gnolam, I just demanded them to give it up, which they did. Also with the Elerians, after the Humans surrendered to them, the distribution of systems was a bit weird, as I was still busy taking the last systems of the Humans. So i gave the Elerians a system that was now well in their space, not before scrapping all the buildings and asked them a system in my space in return. This went all surprisingly well and the diplomacy system actually seems to make a bit more sense when the a.i. is so strong. More tomorrow.

EDIT MAY 1st
On with this game. I just invented Lightning Field which I just traded away with everyone except with Darlok who were only willing to give up Hydro Farms for it. I got i few nice techs - most importantly Titan construction!
T249: I can now detect Darlok stealthy ships, which is good coz we just went to war. Meklar took Orion! T253: Galactic Council. 110 votes. Elerians get 56. i get none. T255: Elerians just broke all treaties. T261: Now giving Elrians 5% tribute .. so not ready for war with two a.i. T263: Now Alkari declared war on me too. T265: Decide to attack Alkari system and 'instantly' T266 both Darlok and Alkari send fleets to my systems. I always disliked this a.i. cheat - they should be only be able to react at T67. But will have to deal with it now. T267: Darloks attack me first. They have a Doom Star with Stellar Converter. I have no ships coz they are at Alkari. Planet Lost. Ok, my fight at Alkari: Pass Artemis net and lose 1 ship. Birds' sole Titan has initiative and kills two of my BB. Destroy the Titan. Star Fortress has Xentronium + Heavy Armor. That is 9000/9000 ladies and gents. Equipped with 12! Hv Death Rays. Complete Fleet destroyed. T269: So many fleets coming at me now. This game is lost.

 

[leif erikson]

Hi,

yes it is compatible with the DOS version of GOG.
copied in the install instructions below.
two things are key 1. make a backup first 2. find and modify the DOSBOX config file (step 5)

How to install
==============
1. You need to have English DOS version 1.31, 1.40.b23 or 1.40.b24 installed.
> Or a previous version of ICE mod.
> This mod has not been tested with other versions of the game.

2. Make a backup of your existing MOO2 folder.

3. Extract all files from 'ICEMOD_v10d.zip'

4. Copy all files into your MOO2 folder, overwriting existing files.

5. You need to run 'ICEMOD.EXE' in DOSBox.
> Open your DOXBox config file.
Normally via "DOSBox 0.74 Options.bat" in Program Files(x86)\DOSBox-0.74
Rename in your DOSBOX config file in [autoexec] the .exe to 'ICEMOD.EXE'.
(it was 'ORION2.EXE' or 'M2v140.EXE')

Can't wait to give this a try.

 

[Muton]

Just killed the Antarans home with Ice v10...
wow! Longest battle I ever had. This fortress simply don't want to go down
Thank you Rocco, this mod is really badass
Have to try the v10g with icemodx...

I love how you balanced the races. Now even the weaker ones can rule the map (the
new Darlocks... nasty).
I specially appreciate how you modified lots of texts and descriptions in the game,
a really dedicated and professional work. Thank you.

What really piss me off in Moo2 is how easy is to destroy a colony. In your mod
you have done a really smart move by giving armor barracks from start and free of
maintenance, and the buffed colony defences are good too but... is too easy to simply bomb down a colony.
Can I throw in some suggestion/request for later ICE versions?
Just some stuff I would love to have, they may be stupid or undoable but I will like to
hear what other players think about, or you can just throw rocks at me if you don't
like
1) It would be possible to tone down bombing so that obliterating even an undefended
colony will require a big fleet and more than one turn?
2) Giving colony and outpost ships zero command points, so they will not count toward your fleet strength in the race graph (useful in early game but not sure if
this will work).
3) What about making stellar converter like bioweapons (everyone hate you if
you use it)? It will be possible to everyone hate you even if you bomb a planet?
4) Removing Advanced Damage Control from the techs, so only cybs can have,
(or you must get the meklar leader).
5) Removing the Star Gate from the techs, way too powerful and game breaking,
making it a xenotech.
6) Removing the omniscent quality of leaders (cheap way to gain picks).
7) Increasing starting armor (3 times?) and making the newer one
not a 2x, 3x, 4x etc but something less, like 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x... Since getting
Xentronium from Antarans is like winning the game.
8) What about outposts? The AI never use them and you can do nasty tricks by
gifting outposts to AI or moving a fleet with outposts to gain free repair and range.
If moved up a notch in the tech tree so you have to choose it, and not have
it automatically along with colony ship... This will break some game habits...
9) Since smaller ship are simply worthless in mid/late game, apart from the
warp dissipator/wide jammer freighter, is possible to make the battle speed
of Doom Stars near zero (or even zero!) and greatly increase the one of frigates
and destroyers (and everything in between), so smaller ships can have a role?
10) Less range for the fuel cells. Instead of [4,6,9,12,unlimited] it would be nice
something like [4,6,8,10,12].
11) Slowing down research and production: Labs give you 5RP +1,
SuperComputer 10 +2, AutoLab 30 +0, Cyb another 15 +1. And they sum up
for a total of 60RP +4 (and you can add the +1 from University).
Same thing for the production facilities, since the AI is not smart
enough to research these stuffs early. In ICEMod Labs and Factories are singleton,
a smart choice, and RoboMiners are up in the tree, but SuperComp is not.
It will be possible to limit the + bonus to 1 or zero?
I usually play as a tech race, and later in the game, when you get the +3
DeepCoreMine, you can build Titans faster than a Klackon, simply unfair for the AI
since 20 human made Titans can destroy a screen full of AI DoomStars...
(well, with ICE you may need a little more than 20 but still apply).

Last thing: there is a leader list for ICE Mod? So to know what tech a leader will carry
and making a wiser choices.

Thank you for your awesome work Rocco!
After this very long post I will go and try the ICEModx...

 

[Rocco.40]

Thanks for praise and extensive feedback,

will try to answer all your points below. If you are moving to ICEx from 10c or below version, I am actually really interested in your feedback on new races, because they really give me a hard time to the point that I might have done a bit too much, but maybe it just starts to show my own limitations as a player.

So here are my 'rocks':

What really piss me off in Moo2 is how easy is to destroy a colony ... is too easy to simply bomb down a colony ... 1) It would be possible to tone down bombing so that obliterating even an undefended colony will require a big fleet and more than one turn?

Probably still true in ICEx if you are the dominant player. A.I. ships carry less but stronger bombs, so from their side not substantial change. I could think about changing the bombing and planetary shields balance, but I first want to get the a.i. race strength right before I would make changes there.

2) Giving colony and outpost ships zero command points, so they will not count toward your fleet strength in the race graph (useful in early game but not sure if this will work).

Why would you want this? Purely for the graph, or other?

3) What about making stellar converter like bioweapons (everyone hate you if you use it)? It will be possible to everyone hate you even if you bomb a planet?

Like this idea, although am not sure if it really matters once you are at Stellar age what the others might think of you.

4) Removing Advanced Damage Control from the techs, so only cybs can have, (or you must get the meklar leader).

I would always prefer Robotic Fact. over ADC. Are you taking ADC over Robotic, or do you play Creative race?

5) Removing the Star Gate from the techs, way too powerful and game breaking, making it a xenotech.

Good point, was also one of my findings in earlier described game. Star Gate is overpowered, especially now it is 1 tech field lower, once you have it a.i. has practically no chance maybe unless they have stealth or you are not paying attention

6) Removing the omniscent quality of leaders (cheap way to gain picks).

Remove entirely or should they appear later in game?
edit: Kronos already comes much later than in vanilla MOO2.

7) Increasing starting armor (3 times?) and making the newer one not a 2x, 3x, 4x etc but something less, like 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x... Since getting Xentronium from Antarans is like winning the game.

Let me know if you still think this is true after playing ICEx.
edit: As it happens that a.i. can capture Orion before human player now.

8) What about outposts? If moved up a notch in the tech tree so you have to choose it, and not haveit automatically along with colony ship... This will break some game habits...

Have been considering exactly this for a while now...

9) Since smaller ship are simply worthless in mid/late game, apart from the
warp dissipator/wide jammer freighter, is possible to make the battle speed
of Doom Stars near zero (or even zero!) and greatly increase the one of frigates
and destroyers (and everything in between), so smaller ships can have a role?

possible, need to think around this, like the idea of slower behemoths.

10) Less range for the fuel cells. Instead of [4,6,9,12,unlimited] it would be nice something like [4,6,8,10,12].

have been thinking about moving from unlimited to something like 15-18.
For example: 4,6,9,12,18
Iridium at 8 will benefit human player more than a.i.
Edit: have also been thinking around extended fuel cells to be +2 range instead of +50%

11) Slowing down research and production: Labs give you 5RP +1,
SuperComputer 10 +2, AutoLab 30 +0, Cyb another 15 +1. And they sum up
for a total of 60RP +4 (and you can add the +1 from University).

In ICE the changes I have made = Autolabs has 25 RP and Galactic Cybernet is 16800 cumul. RP instead of 13700.
Also GC maint cost is 4 instead of 3. I will leave Supercomp as is.

I usually play as a tech race, and later in the game, when you get the +3
DeepCoreMine, you can build Titans faster than a Klackon, simply unfair for the AI
since 20 human made Titans can destroy a screen full of AI DoomStars...
(well, with ICE you may need a little more than 20 but still apply).

Well, a human has to be able to win at some point
edit: a.i. ship designs in ICE are improved over vanilla moo2.
Also a.i. Doom Stars get 20% extra space, I could bump that to 25% but don't think I would wanna go much further.
Am still spending time on finding elegant ways to improve a.i. ship design.

Last thing: there is a leader list for ICE Mod? So to know what tech a leader will carry and making a wiser choices.

Good one - will include list in a future update.

 

[neilkaz]

@ Muton, I am curious to see if you want all those changes after playing vs the super races in ICEx!

Personally, I want about no changes although perhaps Star Gates should be moved back to the tech that gives Stellar Converter so you can have one but not the other and to make Star Gates come later since an additional 15k tech is needed.

Note also for those of us using DOSBox I had to change 3 .config files to specify ICEMODx rather than just ICEMOD to play ICEx.

 

[Rocco.40]

Neilkaz, does below text also apply for gog version the game, is there an 'options.bat' or does it work differently?

> Open your DOXBox config file.
Normally via "DOSBox 0.74 Options.bat" in Program Files(x86)\DOSBox-0.74
Rename in your DOSBOX config file in [autoexec] the .exe to 'ICEMOD.EXE'.
(it was 'ORION2.EXE' or 'M2v140.EXE')