MabusAltarn MabusAltarn

Altarn's Polished Twilight of the Arnor 1 and 2

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Altarn's Polished Twilight of the Arnor 1 and 2

Fix mod

https://sites.google.com/site/mabusraeen/
from GalCiv2 Forums

APT2

Download here

APT2 is a complete overhaul from APT1. APT2 is NOT a pure fix mod. Pick up APT1 for that.

It features:

  • Massively improved research through techtree structure standardization
    Each race uses a base Dark Avatar inspired techtree featuring its own unique technology. This results in extremely reliable research for each species.
  • Fully working TechTrade and Diplomacy
  • Updated Campaigns compatible with APT2
    Enjoy all campaigns fully compatible with APT2.
  • Updated UI to reduce mouse movement and save time
    Dozens of screen updates were done to make them faster to use.
  • Updated Technology descriptions
    Hundreds of updates.
  • Balanced starting conditions
    Everyone gets the same base structures leaving no one behind. The result is much more balances AI build up early in the game.
  • Revamped Super Annihilator ability
    Spore Ships no longer exist. Super Annihilators get full use of toxic planets and a very cheap and powerful soldering ability.

 

APT1

Everything that was done to make APT can be found here and here but the gist of it is this.

APT is my attempt at fixing the game with as little modding as possible. I fixed the techtree errors and focused on some key technologies that the AI should really have to remain competitive while making sure the AI wouldn't get stuck in a researching. I did this with as little AIValue hacking as possible which means techtrading, with a few exceptions, is unaltered.

The result is AI research that works, isn't not perfect and a little random but it is fun to play against.

Go here to Download

Enjoy,

Altarn.

How to install APT or any other fix mod:

Version log.

For more details see the spreadsheet linked to on the APT webside https://sites.google.com/site/mabusraeen/ in the Files section.

 

2.0.1
* Revamped several 1pp buildings that got upgraded. This is bugged (thanks Gaunator) and presented issues to player and AI in certain situations. More info in the change log.

2.0
To many to list here. See the change document linked to on this page.

1.3
* Fixed temple of Neutrality
* Fixed Smart Drone requirement so it's available for species without Xeno Factory Construction
* Research Academy didn't have an AIvalue

1.2
* Removed Healing Pools from Drath & Altarian techtrees. Gave Temple same stats.
* Drengin use Market Center now instead of black market. They can't upgrade the Black Market
* Changed all GAs that civs start with to superprojects.
* Added improvement properties info to descriptions.
* Upgrading Starbase modules will need their previous version
* Aul Incinerator can not be spied or destroyed same as other PQ changers
* Fixed a few categories and IDs
* Fixed Thalan Gaia Vortex
* Fixed GravityAccelerators
* Switched costs SoilEnhancement/HabitatImprovement
* Switched costs Invention Matrix/Discovery Sphere
* Switched costs Stock Market/Banking Center
* Seekers (Yor, Iconians) can now be traded
* Yor Stalks have same AI value as regular farms
* Gave trade goods HarmonyCrystals, HyperComputers and GalacticExhibition AI of 5, same as other trade goods
* Added custom texts to all levels of espionage
* The Korath use their own version of a Basic Lab. When they research new research tech this structure gets upgraded properly.

1.1
* Everyone researches Xeno Ethics
* Everyone researches Planetary Invasion
* Cathedral of Valor changed to a GA that gives soldering and cannot be spied.
* Super Spy Training Center now gives civ wide research, but no espionage.
* Temple of Espionage now gives 100% espionage, but no research,
* Starbase Modules revamped.
* Made Evil Weapons unattractive to research AI overuses them and they're much to expensive.
* Enlarged the Rally Point window.

1
* Improved AI research
* Reformats text for readability
* Fixed bad language and spelling
* Reused Icons from DA/DL to give nearly every structure a unique icon
* Added small touches lore wise
* Recoloured Korx, Krynn and Iconians

 

modding
280,197 views 84 replies
Reply #51 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Impressive work! :omg: You really outdid yourself! :thumbsup:

Fixing the campaigns is still on my to-do list. I had a look at it recently and noticed, that the fixed scenario-files won't work in the mod-folder. Having to overwrite the originals wasn't something I was keen on doing. Your method is quite an interesting workaround. Not to mention quite obvious, once you think about it. I really miss the forest for the trees sometimes.

 

Two things I noticed:

In the first mission of the DL campaign, the Terrans don't have access to Advanced Starbase Construction. This means, that they can't research Starbase Fortifications and onwards, even though it is available. I haven't checked if that is also the case with the other missions.

1pp upgrading to 1pp. I used this myself before, but noticed a pretty serious bug. The game counts the upgrade as a second building. So, if the improvement gets destroyed, you won't be able to rebuilt it. Same goes for the AI. This bug is easy to overlook in the vanilla game, as there are only two series of 1pps that can be upgraded (Navigation Center and Power Plants). However, if you disable tech-trading and -stealing, and play with the right combination of races (like Arceans vs Drengin), you will notice it.

 

Some clarifications:

Star Federation provides a 40% bonus to economics, not 30% like the description states. So, it is actually much better than Star Democracy.

The way minor races loose access to technologies is actually quite simply. It all depends on if a tech is unique among the major races or not. For example, in a match between the Arceans and the Drengin, Planetary Improvements is only available to the Arceans. So, the minor races will loose access to it. The same goes for all the other techs, that are only available to one of the majors. The type of the tech doesn't matter.

For nostalgic reasons, I had a look through the old Dev Journals last November and found out the reason behind this behaviour. During the early beta of TotA, the minor races had no tech tree of their own. Instead, they had access to all techs in the game. This means, that the minors could build the Shrine of the Mithrilar, and other improvements unique to certain races. The players didn't like that at all, and the Devs finally implemented this tech-limiting behaviour. At the end of the beta, the minors got their own tech tree. The tech-limitation, however, remained. Probably because it got forgotten.

Well, I hope that explains it.

Reply #52 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Impressive work! You really outdid yourself!

Thanks!


Fixing the campaigns is still on my to-do list. I had a look at it recently and noticed, that the fixed scenario-files won't work in the mod-folder. Having to overwrite the originals wasn't something I was keen on doing. Your method is quite an interesting workaround. Not to mention quite obvious, once you think about it. I really miss the forest for the trees sometimes.

Two things I noticed:

In the first mission of the DL campaign, the Terrans don't have access to Advanced Starbase Construction. This means, that they can't research Starbase Fortifications and onwards, even though it is available. I haven't checked if that is also the case with the other missions.

Ah. This means the whole line should be unavailable. In DL, if you wanted to remove a research line all you needed to do was remove one tech and the rest would no longer be drawn in the techtree. they changed that in ToA.


1pp upgrading to 1pp. I used this myself before, but noticed a pretty serious bug. The game counts the upgrade as a second building. So, if the improvement gets destroyed, you won't be able to rebuilt it. Same goes for the AI. This bug is easy to overlook in the vanilla game, as there are only two series of 1pps that can be upgraded (Navigation Center and Power Plants). However, if you disable tech-trading and -stealing, and play with the right combination of races (like Arceans vs Drengin), you will notice it.

Hmmm. Perhaps a simple solution would be to make all upgrading 1pp structures indestructible?

Just to verify this bug only happens when you upgrade a 1pp structure. Not when you simply build a 1pp structure, correct? I did introduce quite a few of them as starting tech and all of them are upgradad. e.g. The Yor now begin with a 1pp economy structure.

That would mean that if you conquer a Yor planet with an Efficiency Center 02 (01 is their new starting tech) than it gets destroyed and then they can't build a new one. Correct?



Star Federation provides a 40% bonus to economics, not 30% like the description states. So, it is actually much better than Star Democracy.

Interesting. I didn't know that. Thanks, I'll see to it that the description gets fixed but it's still to expensive for the AI to time right. AIP11 absolutely loves Culture/Economy tech.



The way minor races loose access to technologies is actually quite simply. It all depends on if a tech is unique among the major races or not. For example, in a match between the Arceans and the Drengin, Planetary Improvements is only available to the Arceans. So, the minor races will loose access to it. The same goes for all the other techs, that are only available to one of the majors. The type of the tech doesn't matter.

I know, I kinda rediscovered this. Its also not completely true. Unless I am really, really mistaken. My Iconian, Drengin, +Minor testgame showed the minors kept their industry tech! Since me (Iconians) and the Drengin do not feature the regular industry tech this should not be happening but it did AND they could research it.

Fun fact. If you remove the minors reference to their techtree they still get all techs from TechTree.XML

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #53 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting MabusAltarn, reply 52
Hmmm. Perhaps a simple solution would be to make all upgrading 1pp structures indestructible?

Probably. However, I didn't like the idea of Altarians using a Death Furnace, after conquering a Drengin-colony, so I chose to use a different approach. I removed all upgrades along with several individual 1pp improvements. The bonuses are now provided by the tech itself. It's not perfect, but the AI has a much easier time with it.

Quoting MabusAltarn, reply 52
Just to verify this bug only happens when you upgrade a 1pp structure. Not when you simply build a 1pp structure, correct?

Correct. Only when you upgrade a 1pp to a 1pp.

Quoting MabusAltarn, reply 52
I know, I kinda rediscovered this. Its also not completely true. Unless I am really, really mistaken. My Iconian, Drengin, +Minor testgame showed the minors kept their industry tech! Since me (Iconians) and the Drengin do not feature the regular industry tech this should not be happening but it did AND they could research it.

Actually that is WAD. Neither the Iconians nor the Drengin have the regular industry techs. Therefore, those techs are not unique to one of the playing majors. Which means, they are not removed from the minors tech tree. On the other hand, if one of the minors had used the Drengin industry techs instead, it would have lost access, because those techs are unique to the Drengin. However, if the Korath were also playing, those techs are no longer unique to one major, so the minor would have retained access.

Quoting MabusAltarn, reply 52
Fun fact. If you remove the minors reference to their techtree they still get all techs from TechTree.XML

That is how it works for all races, as far as I know. If no specific tech tree is given, the game automatically uses the TechTree.xml as tech tree for this race. It's pretty much a default-mode.

Reply #54 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 53
Correct. Only when you upgrade a 1pp to a 1pp.

Okey, I'll think of something.

 

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 53
Actually that is WAD. Neither the Iconians nor the Drengin have the regular industry techs. Therefore, those techs are not unique to one of the playing majors. Which means, they are not removed from the minors tech tree. On the other hand, if one of the minors had used the Drengin industry techs instead, it would have lost access, because those techs are unique to the Drengin. However, if the Korath were also playing, those techs are no longer unique to one major, so the minor would have retained access.

(WAD?) So if no one or more than one has a tech, the minors keep it. But if one has a tech, the minors lose it.

What a curious system. I thought that if no one had a tech (not including the player) the minors lost it, otherwise they keep it.

 

Reply #55 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting MabusAltarn, reply 54
(WAD?) So if no one or more than one has a tech, the minors keep it. But if one has a tech, the minors lose it.

What a curious system. I thought that if no one had a tech (not including the player) the minors lost it, otherwise they keep it.

WAD means Working As Designed. The behaviour works exactly as it's supposed to. Except, that it is no longer needed.

 

 

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Reply #56 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Okey so I've come up with a solution for the 1pp bug. I introduced quite a few of them in APT2.0 but I think I managed to resolve the issues with some elegance.

Yor

Efficiency Center 01 is removed. 8% economic bonus given to Maintenance Center.


Korx

Teleshopping channel is removed. Festival of Capitalism now unlocked by a new starter tech: Love of Money. Xeno Mercantilism gives +5 economics.


Krynn

Splendor of Krynn removed. Given Consulate +10% morale. Reduced 10% morale on Order of Krynn


Drengin, Korath

Devils Force. 10% (-10) Manufacturing bonus and 8mp (+8mp).

Death Furnace. 20% (-10) Manufacturing bonus and 8mp (+8mp). No longer upgraded Devils Forge


Drengin

Enhanced Slavelings. 10% Manufacturing bonus and 8mp.

Artificial Slavelings. 20% Manufacturing bonus and 8mp.


Arcean

Navigation Center. Indestructible

Advanced Navigation Center. Indestructible


Generic

Fusion Power Plant. 10% Manufacturing bonus and +6mp (+6mp)
Antimatter Power Plant. 10% (-10%) Manufacturing bonus and 8mp (+8mp). No longer upgraded Fusion Power Plant
Quantum Power Plant. 10% (-10%) Manufacturing bonus and 10mp (+10mp). No longer upgrades Antimatter Power Plant.

I'm particular fond if the change to the Drengin/Korath (D/K) manufacturing increasers vs the generic manufacturing increasers. The D/K ones give the same MP with different percentages while the generic ones give the same percentage with different mp values. But in both cases if you build all structures you, more or less, end up with the same values.

Reply #57 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Version 2.0.1 is now available and it revamps 1pp structures to prevent the 1pp upgrade bug.

Reply #58 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Altarn

 

I was looking at the change log for APT2 and noticed a minor discrepancy. It's probably just a typo in the change log rather than actually part of the mod, but it's here (Page 22/23):

 

Stuff gets more expensive as it gets more powerful.

 

Changes in Cost:

  • Kanvium 40->32

  • Kanvium III 32->40

  • Adamantium Armor 50->42

  • Ultimate Adamantium 42->50

  • Point Defense 20->25

  • Point Defense II 25->20  <--- Oops PDII costs less than PD I

 

At least I assume this was unintentional?

 

HTH?

 

 

Reply #59 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting QuasiMode0, reply 58
Point Defense II 25->20

 

This is actually a type in the change log. PD 1 to 3 costs are: 20, 22, 25.

Thanks I'll fix it.

Reply #60 from Stardock Forums Top

In your APT2 mod, you've set the all the AIs to use AI 11, but I noticed in that RaceConfig.xml file that the minor races use AI 5. The default RaceConfig.xml file also does this. I only saw you mention AIs 7, 8, 10 and 11 on your webpage, so was wondering what this other AI was and how it affects the minor races developing?

Reply #61 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

AI 5 is the standard AI for minor races. It is specifically tailored for playing with only one planet, and can make relatively good use of starbases. This is pretty much necessary, because AI 5 is prohibited from colonising and invading planets. However, I don't know if there are any other issues with this AI or how its research patterns are, because I haven't really looked into it.

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Reply #62 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I'm playing apt2 the governors screen is bugged. Everything is blank. Hard to play a big map game without governors :(

Reply #63 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

   Some things i noticed(APT 2.0.1):

 When selecting your techs for the custom race, the history-techs have cost between 5 and 20,

while adding nothing. Fusion Reactors costs 0

 

 

 The Korath-Super-Abilitie gives only the Toxic-Colonization techs,

it says something about more powerful warriors

 

 

 

My first 2 games were wierd, not sure if i was just extremly lucky (Creativity-procs)

Ended up with over 30% of all Planets after the colo-phase in both games

 

Will write more after the next game^^

 

 

 

 

Reply #64 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting sifsilver, reply 62
I'm playing apt2 the governors screen is bugged. Everything is blank. Hard to play a big map game without governors

Strange, I'll have to check this. APT 2.0.1 did not feature any changes to the UI and I played through APT2.0 several times. Could you post a screenshot please? As a work around rename the APT20\Screens folder to APT20\ScreensBak. This means you'll  use the normal screen but keep APT2.0.1 optimizations.

Quoting mortili, reply 63
When selecting your techs for the custom race, the history-techs have cost between 5 and 20, while adding nothing. Fusion Reactors costs 0

The history cost 5 because anything below that causes the game to add the tech by default. Fusion Reactors cost of 0 ensures eveyone starts with this tech researched.

 

Quoting mortili, reply 63
The Korath-Super-Abilitie gives only the Toxic-Colonization techs, it says something about more powerful warriors

Check for a tech connected to Planetary Invasion called Total Annihilation. It'll give you +30% soldering and is very cheap.

Reply #65 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting mortili, reply 63
My first 2 games were wierd, not sure if i was just extremly lucky (Creativity-procs)

Ended up with over 30% of all Planets after the colo-phase in both games

Lucky!

Reply #66 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

 

Quoting MabusAltarn, reply 64


Check for a tech connected to Planetary Invasion called Total Annihilation. It'll give you +30% soldering and is very cheap.

 

 Ok, was playing with Yor-Techtree and thougt it was a normal tech for them :)

Quoting sifsilver, reply 62

I'm playing apt2 the governors screen is bugged. Everything is blank. Hard to play a big map game without governors

It worked for me in 2.0 and also works in 2.0.1

 

 

 Started a new game with the Arcean Tech-Tree and Korath Super-Abilitie and took 30% in Soldering.

Should make invasions extremly easy :D

Reply #67 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting mortili, reply 66
Started a new game with the Arcean Tech-Tree and Korath Super-Abilitie and took 30% in Soldering.

Should make invasions extremly easy

Lol. Yeah I think you'll have little trouble. Enjoy.

PS> Have you tried GARF?

Reply #68 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Haven`t tried it jet, well im normally playing as custom so i have only that raceconfig file.

 

Still not finished with my arcean-game, thougt the AI is doing better (had ca 20% of the planets after colo-phase)

was a little concernd about the arceans losing pretty much everything moral related,

but it works for me.

 

 

 2 things i noticed:

-The Terrans didn`t build the innovation complex

-The last yor-factory increases maintaince by 3 while the others only increase by 1

 

edit:

-The Yor build nothing exept research-buildings, Recuiting-Centers and some SPs, not a single factory

Reply #69 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I have a question about installation.  I read the instructions and watched the youtube video, but when I go to the folder, I only have one raceconfig file (Terran Alliance.raceconfig.xml).  The instructions indicate that there should be multiple files to move to a back-up folder.  I've got Ultimate Edition, v2.03.  Please help.

Reply #70 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting scbfromnc1, reply 69
Please help.

The game creates a .raceconfigxml-file for each race you have played. So, if you only played the Terrans before, you will only have a .raceconfigxml for them.

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Reply #71 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 70
The game creates a .raceconfigxml-file for each race you have played. So, if you only played the Terrans before, you will only have a .raceconfigxml for them.

This.

 

Also, you can use my tool GARF, to remove, backup of fixup your raceconfigurations.

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Reply #72 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Whew, I thought I had done something wrong!  Thanks to Guanathor and MabusAltarn for the quick replies!

Reply #73 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting scbfromnc1, reply 72
Whew, I thought I had done something wrong! Thanks to Guanathor and MabusAltarn for the quick replies!

No problem. Enjoy :)

Reply #74 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Is there another place I can download APT 1.3? The current download isn't downloading for me. Thanks in advance

Reply #75 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting MabusAltarn, reply 71
GARF
Quoting MabusAltarn, reply 71

 
Also, you can use my tool GARF, to remove, backup of fixup your raceconfigurations.

I can only find one download page for GARF and my computer isn't letting me use it. Is there another place where this can be downloaded from? It looks like a very useful program. I had the same problem with APT 1.3 until someone on the Steam forums provided an alternative download, which worked fine.

Thanks in advance.