Invasion Tactics Tech Requirements Bug TA3b

By thehandofzarquon on December 9, 2007 12:34:54 PM from

thehandofza...

Join Date 09/2006

Alright, after several people noted (in this thread) getting the Mini-Soldiers invasion tactic when their tech tree doesn't have the prerequisite tech (and they haven't traded for it)... I decided to do a bit of testing.

I started up a new game as the Yor and checked the tech descriptions of each Invasion tech to see if they gave Mini-Soldiers... none did. Curious, I went ahead and rushed down the Military line to Planetary Invasion and then proceeded to invade the nearest Minor Race, the Carinoids... and when I did, I had every Invasion Tactic in the game available to me, except Mass Drivers, the only Invasion Tactic in the Yor tree besides the standard three from Planetary Invasion, and correct in that I shouldn't have access to it.

My guess is that their is an error in the Invasion Tech Requirements when your race doesn't actually have the prerequisite tech in their tech tree.

Here are some screen shots:

Invading the Carinoids:

Tech Tree (after the invasion):

Just a slight bump since no one seemed to notice this...

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I provided what I believe is the reasoning behind this in the thread referred to above but will try again. For TA, the tech tree was radically overhauled. Tech applications, such as the mini-soldiers invasion tactic, that were previously associated with one researched tech (like shock troops) may no longer be associated with that tech in the new tech tree. With Mini-Soldiers, this is the case. It is no longer strictly married to the Shock troops tech and for some races has been reassigned to become available from the research of other techs. This is not a bug-it is working as designed. There are other examples of this in the new tech trees. If anyone with higher authority and knowledge than me would like to confirm or deny my belief, please do so.

Now, that being said, you are describing a specific situation with which I am not familiar because I have not played the Yor and do not know what is made available by their tech tree, let alone what is made available by individual techs. If the mini soldier's tech is not, as you state, listed as an application in any one of the Yor technology fields, then you might have found a bug or a misprint.

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Code: xml
<InvTactic InternalName="MiniSoldiers">
		<DisplayName>Mini-Soldiers</DisplayName>
		<Description>Through the miracle of advanced artificial intelligence, we are now able to send smart robots onto the battlefield. These fighters pack quite a punch, but can still be taken out with relative ease and are fairly expensive to produce. They are also slightly reckless when it comes to close quarters fighting, so some improvement loss is to be expected.</Description>
		<Tech_Requirement>Shock Troops</Tech_Requirement>
		<Image>Tactics_Bots</Image>
		<Cost>500</Cost>
		<LuckFactor>60</LuckFactor>
		<PreRequirement>0</PreRequirement>
		<PreReqValue>0</PreReqValue>
		<BonusType>1</BonusType>
		<BonusValueMin>40</BonusValueMin>
		<BonusValueMax>70</BonusValueMax>
		<PlanetQualityPenaltyMin>0</PlanetQualityPenaltyMin>
		<PlanetQualityPenaltyMax>0</PlanetQualityPenaltyMax>
		<InfluencePenaltyMin>0</InfluencePenaltyMin>
		<InfluencePenaltyMax>0</InfluencePenaltyMax>
		<ImprovementPenaltyMin>5</ImprovementPenaltyMin>
		<ImprovementPenaltyMax>10</ImprovementPenaltyMax>
	</InvTactic>

Straight from the InvTactics.xml file in the GalCiv2\Twilight\Data\English folder. Only one tech requirement listed: Shock Troops. There is only one tech requirement listed for all the Invasion Tactics, and they are the same techs they have been since DL (other than Traditional/Information Warfare, which technically required Planetary Invasion before hand anyway).

Unless they have some hard-coded requirement going on (which, I admit, is possible, but that is something they would have noted in the Change Logs... I would hope anyway), then the only way to get Mini Soldiers is to get the tech with the internal name "Shock Troops", which is not present in the Yor tech tree.

Regardless of any hard-coding that might be going on, I highly doubt it was intentional for me to have access to ALL Invasion Tactics except Mass Drivers with JUST the Planetary Invasion tech researched as the Yor. Especially when Core Detonation, Mini-Soliders, or Tidal Disruption aren't listed as being unlocked by ANY tech in the Yor tech tree.

Note, however, that I did not have Mass Drivers as an invasion choice. That Invasion Tactic is listed as being unlocked by a tech in the Yor's tech tree, Planetary Bombardment, and I did not have this tech. Hence, my conclusion that if an Invasion Tactic is it your tech tree, then you'll properly gain access to it when you research the proper tech. Otherwise, you'll have access to it from the beginning (though, technically, only when you research Planetary Invasion).

I will say that I sincerely hope there isn't any hard-coding going on here with the Invasion Tactics. In games that are highly and easily mod-able like GalCiv2, it just irks me to see things that modders can't change... I can understand WHY these abilities are hardcoded this way, but that still doesn't stop it from bothering me on some level.

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You may be on to something here. I looked closely at what is listed in the invasion techs in the Terran tech tree and none of them appear to list mini-soldier's either, but Terrans do have access to that application because I've used it-a lot. My guess is that this is simply a misprint, i.e., that mini soldier's should be indicated as being unlocked by one of the techs in the Terran tech tree and it was just overlooked. I'm speculating of course.

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The problem is that if the pre-req is not found in the civ's tech tree, it is interpreted as NO tech requirement. This is not intended. I've changed it so that if the civ does not have the tech, they do not have access to that invasion tactic.

Cari made sure in the current beta (3b) that all races should have at least Planetary Invasion, so they can invade, but currently not every race is going to be able to use every invasion tactic.

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That's what I thought was happening.

Cari made sure in the current beta (3b) that all races should have at least Planetary Invasion, so they can invade

Just out of curiosity, what would happen if you gave a race a tech that gave a non-standard Troop Module, but not Planetary Invasion? Is there something about that tech in the game code that enables Planetary Invasions?

but currently not every race is going to be able to use every invasion tactic.

Good way to make the races differ. Is their any chance that the Yor and Iconians will get Mini-Soldiers as an Invasion Tactic?

If anyone should have Mini-Soliders, I think it would be the Robotics masters, and their former creations

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Just out of curiosity, what would happen if you gave a race a tech that gave a non-standard Troop Module, but not Planetary Invasion?

You could load troops onto the ship, and you could invade, but I don't think there will be any invasion tactics in the list. You'd have to cancel the invasion.

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