Twilight of the Arnor Beta 4

from GalCiv2 Forums

The Thalans and the Altarians are finally in the beta.  They're going to need tweaking, but we figured that we'd give them to you anyway.  And before you ask, yes, most of the buildings that the Thalan start out with ARE supposed to be galactic achievements.  Read the tech descriptions.  :) 

+ NEW: Thalans are now enabled

+ NEW: Altarians are now enabled

+ NEW:  Planet Improvements:

+ Shrine of Tandis
+ Social Matrix
+ Church of Valor
+ Gaia Vortex
+ Brain Washing Center
+ Technology Matrix L1 through L3
+ Manufacturing Matrix L1 through L3
+ Zero-G Amusement
+ Hyperion Matrix
+ Temporal Entertainment Matrix
+ Economic Direction Unit

+ NEW:  Re-designed Invasion screen is now in the game

+ NEW: Several new starbase modules added

+ NEW: Ships that don't have weapons now have a maint. Cost associated with them.

+ NEW: Ship maint cost increased to correspond with higher level of money in game

+ NEW:  Base speed of ships increased by +1.

+ NEW: Cost of technologies re-designed to be based on # of habitable planets in the galaxy as opposed to the size of the galaxy. This will have the general effect of making techs cost considerably more but this can be adjusted in the user settings.  The availability of "immense sized" galaxies had caused techs to be ridiculously cheap. This will need to be play tested and tweaked.

+ NEW: Implemented fleet version of IsTerrorStar to return TRUE if any ship in fleet is a terror star

+ NEW: Terror Stars can now be added to fleets via fleet rally points

+ NEW:  If a terror star is added to a fleet, it NULLIFIES the effect of fleet speed enhancing modules such as warp bubbles.

+ FIXED: Crash when hitting CTRL+N

+ FIXED: Bug where Super Dominator ships don't have a model created for them

+ FIXED: Tech tree was listing Space Weapons as a mass driver category tech.

+ FIXED: The Dread Lords and Dark Avatar campaigns will now work when playing with the Twilight of the Arnor exe
   + Mods are currently disabled for Campaign games
   + When loading the Dread Lords or Dark Avatar campaigns, the data definitions are taken from the older data files to avoid problems caused by inconsistencies in the tech trees ship components, etc.
  
+ FIXED: In a scenario, when a tech has a restricted parent tech, the tech is now marked as restricted

+ FIXED: Campaign and Metaverse games now save the custom race xml files in their subfolders of My Documents\My Games\GC2Twilight to avoid invalid race configs because they were created with different data
 
+ FIXED: Bug where race configs with negative abilities were marked as invalid

+ FIXED: Bug where trade routes got reset to their home planets after loading from a save game

+ FIXED: Crash related to terror stars in fleets with constructors

+ FIXED: Bug where incorrect number of moves was calculated when a single warp bubble ship was added to a fleet via a fleet rally point

+ FIXED: Bug where if United Planets was forcing a government type, AI civs could still change their government type

+ FIXED: Typo in event message "Trippled" à "tripled"

+ FIXED: Bug where if you disband a fleet, ships would have more moves than if you removed the ships individually

+ FIXED: when in "place agent" mode, clicking on an un-colonized planet to place the agent on would wrongly show the same popup as clicking on a planet owned by a minor race.  This was caused when we went back and let you spy on the Dreadlords, but none of the other minor races.  I put in an extra check so that when planet owner is CIV_INVALID_PLAYER_ID it falls though like we originally intended.

+ TWEAK: Arceans now have a -10% speed penalty

+ TWEAK: Thalans have a -30% population growth penalty Far fewer starting

+ TWEAK: Bonuses in general for civs as their native advantages are now expressed more in their technology trees and enable greater customization by players.

+ TWEAK: Interest Rate ability renamed as Purchase Now Discount.

+ TWEAK: Tech Tree xml files are read in from /Data/(Language)/TechTrees folder instead of all folders in /Data/(Language)

+ TWEAK: Added dialog to let user know if they are trying to attack a defenseless planet that they need a transport to invade

+ TWEAK: There is no longer any need for DefaultTechTree.xml.   The file has been removed.

  + The "Default" tech tree is now generated by the game to include all possible techs

  + This eliminates the need for us to constantly update this file whenever we add or remove techs

+ TWEAK: The hint file now supports tech-tree-specific hints

 

79,017 views 45 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The Thalans and the Altarians are finally in the beta. They're going to need tweaking, but we figured that we'd give them to you anyway.


+ NEW: Several new starbase modules added


I'll test them now.

Now you go have fun with your bf Cari.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
SWEET! Just downloaded and will play all weekend.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
THANK YOU GOD AND STARDOCK WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Geez, you guys weren't kidding when you said that the Thalands would be able to skip several the early weapons techs. Researching 1 tech gives you 7 different branches (3 weapons, 3 defenses, and planetary invasion).

Back to my game now.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks for all your hard work! Keep it up! Ahhh... still love my Thalans!
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

And concerning the Invasion Window, it still have some tweaks to be made (invaders scrollbar dosent animate, map image dosent scale properly, no movies will play when playing an old game, only a few movies implemented, ect). Eyecandy-wise, however, we think this should be a significant improvement over the old screen.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
+ FIXED: Bug where if you disband a fleet, ships would have more moves than if you removed the ships individually


Okay, so I have a fleet with two escorts and a terror star, the two escorts with 12 mp, and it's the start of the turn. I remove the terror star from the fleet manually, the remaining fleet should have 12 mp? Or will all the ships have 1 mp if I disband the fleet?

That may seem like a silly question, but the way the bugfix is described implies that the problem is that some ships have more moves.

Also, was the ability of races like the Vegans and Pirates to appear with endgame techs fixed? Specifically, their ability to start with Beyond Mortality and cut the tech victory option out of the game?
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
CariElf,

I've preordered and dl'd the previous beta. Went to Stardock and Beta 4 is not showing up!? Is there something I've missed? Please check this for me and let me know when possible. I'ld like to try it as well like others already have. Thanks for all your, and the team's hard work!
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I love the new invasion window. Much better than the old one. Also I noticed a bug with the stars. When you click on one instead of displaying the number of planets it displays what seems to be the text you would see if you clicked on one of the new Ascension victory resources.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Try refreshing XML and switching servers in SDC's internet settings.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The new invasion screen looks fabulous! Much better than what was present before. I like it how you have a neat tiny flag on the improvements your troops land at, and the enemies flags on the buildings their defending from! :)

And i see you have started to add racial penalties to already added races, when will the Terrans & company receive theirs? :D
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ahhh I got a good question... well the Thalans first structure is the Hyperion Matrix right now if you build it on the homeworld you can get your population up to 24 billion. Now I was an idiot and forgot to put points into moral... (didnt realize that there was had 2 population bonus techs...) Now you said "+ TWEAK: Thalans have a -30% population growth penalty Far fewer starting" now what do you mean by the "fewer starting". Well cause right now I am having a fun time by having a very unhappy homeworld... Well I Kinda solved the problem every few turns a ship called lol "get the hell off!" has 3 colony pods and i destroyer it to lighten the population... lol the shit I get myself into ahhh.... Now I hope it means lowering the max population on the homeworld cause that would be nice... probably not but if you think about it they just arrived on this new homeworld... so it shouldn't have a high max pop value like other homeworlds which have developed over a long period of time... Ya I FEEL VERY NOOBISH RIGHT NOW! Cause I have played and beaten suicidal... but I want to see how this game ends up... Now I ain't evil am leader of a neutral race so I dont want hear complains about GET THE HELL OFF lol... Someone from Stardock please explain "Fewer starting." Thanks...
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm having the same issue as tlwhite01, and refreshing the XML and switching servers hasn't done anything. Alright, I'm going back to playing the previous beta while I wait.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Theres a still a problem with the Super Dominator's. I had game where the Drengin were conquered by the Torians, so naturally the Drengin ships go into pirate hands. They showed up before being handed over to pirates, after that they do not show up on the map, but still show up in battles. This rather annoying especially when their preying on freighters, and you have to find them by moving your mouse all over the screen.

Also, it would seem the minors have access to all racial techs.
Debug Message: Scottlingas (15): Researching: A history of Mercantilism
Debug Message: Scottlingas (15): Researching: Precursor Studies
Debug Message: Scottlingas (15): Researching: Interstellar War Colleges
Debug Message: Scottlingas (15): Researching: War Rooms

All within the same game.

Also all of sudden i'm getting lots of lines with:
Debug Message: Tried to enter unprintable character: 8
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I kind of wish that Minors would just get a "minor race tech tree" that doesn't give them access to any unique/race-specific techs and does not include any of:

Deeper Knowledge, Galactic Understanding, Near Omniscience, Beyond Mortality, Technology Victory
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You forgot to mention that the Stellar Forge appears to be fixed and that the Terrans and Drengin now get speed bonuses (and the Drengin a diplomacy penalty).
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok, why don't the Korath get a penalty as well as the Drengin, if not a steeper one?

I think if Korath get a penalty- it could be in military and social production due to lack of slaves...

Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Ok, why don't the Korath get a penalty as well as the Drengin, if not a steeper one?

I think if Korath get a penalty- it could be in military and social production due to lack of slaves...




Probably because the Korath didn't get a speed bonus. And military and social production penalties wouldn't be in keeping with the races strengths. The Korath still use slaves anyway, they just don't want new ones (they can clone all the slaves they need) and are happy to just exterminate alien species.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just a quick question: Is this version compatible with saves from beta 3D? Thanks!
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
+ NEW: Cost of technologies re-designed to be based on # of habitable planets in the galaxy as opposed to the size of the galaxy. This will have the general effect of making techs cost considerably more but this can be adjusted in the user settings. The availability of "immense sized" galaxies had caused techs to be ridiculously cheap. This will need to be play tested and tweaked.


Does this combine with the already present tech speed variable? If so, no two games tech speed will seem alike (playing on all random settings).

Very interesting.

~ Wyndstar
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks Kryo!

I did that and it showed up. Dl'd fine, works fine so far. As far as BrynnX I can't say what might be the problem on his end. Hope he can get it worked out. Thanks again for the help from the staff!
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice beta again.

But one question remains...when will those 5 editors be released?
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well it seems Im the only one Im VERY dissapointed with the 2nd delay.
I cant say all these new updates are great but the most important thing for me is the map editor. This was the main reason I bought the expansion. I really want to create my own galaxies and not premade. At least include it in the next beta along with the custom race. And one addition please make the galaxy colour in strategy mode customizable or at least change it to something more appropriate than brown like dark grey.

Since you are going to release end of March (and for me that means I will have to wait till end of April since I will travel abroad away from my computer..)I wanna tell some things... Make the game even better than expected!
Because even now with all new extras, I have seen in betas the game is getting better and better but it remains the same game colonize, build, research, fight etc. I was finnishing all the games always but not the last 4 cause I was boring.. the same game again.
There were the Mega Events but they seem to be inactive in beta since I have seen none.
Try to make the game more impressive like u got a new invasion screen thats in the right direction. What about the video that plays when u build a mining starbase for first time? Its ugly and looks to be from GC1.

What about anomalies? They could become more interesting some of them they could be more unique and trigger a video pop up about a tremendous discovery positive or even negative! Why all of them should be positive? Space is a dangerous place..
And what if few of them could trigger a mega event? Like the activation of an ancient device that distorts space and time in all the galaxy and creates dangerous bubbles in galaxy map? All races should work together to find a way to destroy the device.
Something that I loved in MOO2 it was when I was terraforming the planet it was changing shapes and colours from barren to green paradise. Its so old game today but planet screen was far more better than GC2 with boxes and icons.
Something more realistic perhaps? A real city instead icons?
Maybe my ideas come too late but its because I expected more innovation rather polishing.
I dont blame anyone in Stardock the opposite since you are my fav game company but a little more impressive content appart tech trees and coding would have greater effect in game and us.. gamers.
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just a quick question: Is this version compatible with saves from beta 3D? Thanks!


It probably would be, but it is probably best just to start a new game (or finish that game first)
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Compatible or not it does not affect your saved game.
Changes affect only new games as I know from previous updates.