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TA Custom Race Mod 1.9a

Official Thread

By MrKorx on May 4, 2008 6:41:36 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums External Link

MrKorx

Join Date 08/2004
+11

Version 1.9a is now available at i-mod (no approval time 4 me ) or in the library

v1.9b will activate the terraincolorschemes for asa at some time later.

Goal is, make v1.9 the last release before GC 2.0 has come out

v1.9a:
-unique planet textures and heightmaps, thx to nasty
-implemented the 3 special ships
-implemented the assimilator ship class (attacktransport)
-fixed shiptemplates for colony/mining ship
-tweak all unique weapon's fx, thx to stefan
-fixed bug, where spaceminers were not able to upgrade asteroidbases
-many tweaks to maintainance and costs generally, its a lot harder now
-1 new eco tech branch & buildings
-2 new techs & PI (ZaYsaX Psi generator & Teleporter)
-added 1 techlevel to each weapon type


v1.8
-various tweaks

v1.7b
-fixes a crash when playing any other race
-fixes invisible shipstyles
-fixes the evil accessible weapon techs on gamestart
 
v1.7
- introduction of the asa ship style

Does anybody know, how to override Improvements requiring a tech which has some hardcoded ability?
For example: UniversalTranslator & Embassy, BasicStarport, StarDemocracy&PoliticalCapital?
If I change eg the starports image and assign a Techrequirement, the the new starport is there, but tho old supposed to be overridden one, as well, but disappears, once you build your customized building
Same for the other mentioned techs...

Edit: in v1.6+ solved


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Reply #1
Zyxpsilon
Join Date 02/2006
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May 5, 2008 3:18:38 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Tool that file to have a look, but i have yet to give it some fair attention since i'm also developping the 'Compendium of Super-Heroes' (an earlier DL version was denied back in November by SD staff, and so i figured now would be a good opportunity to take a second stab at it - while not forgetting X-Worlds stuff either.) with the Total-Conversion schema in mind & strictly TA_compatible only.

One thing to be said though is that if someone wants to give each 12 races a specific but somehow different tech-tree that should replace the defaults - s/he's got mucho work to do editing wise beside huge thinking_planning patterns!

I'll let you know what i find in YOUR thingy - a bit later, most probably.
Until then, keep at it.
And -- with the 95% sweat, 5% skills motto, anyone can reach success.
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Reply #2
MrKorx
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May 5, 2008 7:07:11 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
I've uploaded the mod to the library as well... pending approval
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Reply #3
Zyxpsilon
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May 6, 2008 12:18:46 AM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
How in hell did you type all that new stuff in the Asa_techtree file?
Copy_Paste? Straight in?

Cuz i swear, i tried real hard to compare those with any of the 12 defaults from TotA and all i got is a big mess to patiently scan for!

Which is to say, editing a new custom tech-tree is a work of art in itself.

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Reply #4
MrKorx
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May 6, 2008 4:53:46 AM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Yes it is
It was 25% copy&paste, 25% my new GalCiv2IDE version, 25% creativity and busy work in Visual Studio and lately the last 25% stardock editors ^^ which leads me to think, I'll (re)code a StarbaseModules editor...
But the Techtree was not the only file, as you've might noticed. Especially Weapons&Defense shipcomponents drove me crazy
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Reply #5
Zyxpsilon
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May 8, 2008 11:59:25 AM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Alright, 1.4 is in my TA_Mods Folder.

A few things of importance, i guess.

1) I always wondered if someone would ever dare to use the Custom #12 block straight from the raceconfig.xml and it looks like you're the very first 'intelligent' person to try it out. As long as formatting conventions are clear and valid, i'm sure this approach works just fine.

2) I'm also sure Gauntlet doesn't really mind you taking "his" #1026 images. A formal credit would have been nice though.

3) Although, the Portrait call-line doesn't refer to the above image; maybe you simply forgot to edit it. Consequently, a trade slot image & a proper Logo could be used too.

4) WARPROFITEERING, PERSISTENTTRADE... might as well put in the new HOMEPLANETQUALITY ability also, wouldn't you agree? Unless they'd be a very good reason not to. Those alone have some great concept potential, btw.

5) Components, modules, special stuff - gosh it IS a lotta work.

6) I don't need two CustomPlanets.xml files!

7) Everything else seem to be perfectly accurate & niftly designed.

So, here was some feedback.
Keep up the excellent tasks, you represent a precious example to follow in many technical areas.

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Reply #6
Zyxpsilon
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May 8, 2008 12:01:04 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Oh, and please go ahead and expand this stuff beyond Asa only!
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Reply #7
MrKorx
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May 8, 2008 2:19:03 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Thx for the feedback
I'll eventually upload version 1.5 tonight, but first I got to go celebrating 2 nice things
I' ve put HomePlanetQuality in ^^
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Reply #8
MrKorx
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May 10, 2008 7:13:33 AM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
@Zyxpsilon
have you been able to fully override say the starport?
I suspect this does not work, since the default Starport has no tech requirement. Solution would be, I think, to give the default a tech requirement, which is modding the default techtree.
See my original posting on top.
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Reply #9
MrKorx
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May 10, 2008 7:44:44 AM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Is the PersistenTradeRoutes ability set on a per route base or is it a logical value true 1/false 0?
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Reply #10
Zyxpsilon
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May 10, 2008 3:05:27 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
AFAIC, the starter techs and any consequential assets are automatically taken as is by the code. I never tried to alter those and i suppose it would just be a matter of further replacing the default(s) by creating new techs for them, i agree.

Persistent looks to me like an "event-driven" (maybe even race-specific) sort-of bonus applied once. As for its value, not sure if anything it would make sense that this "advantage" should take distance or proportional profit of trade-routes as a whole rather than the previous way of adding numbers and amounts to the Trading general concept. I'd have to explore this a bit more before getting a definitive answer as i'm sure you also will try figuring this out.

Judging by the word PERSISTENT, it must be something obvious!
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Reply #11
MrKorx
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May 10, 2008 5:45:12 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
yes it is obvious, looking into the korx PI tells me that the persistent trade routes ability is set to 1. Guessing that 1 = true= 100% = to be set not per route.
As for overriding the starport, no success yet, the default one still shows up, even after overriding the techtree.xml and assigning a required tech. I'll keep trying.
Generally, a new tag would be nice, to set say the starport ability, or the event when researching xeno communiction or was it diplo translator, as well as the gov techs.
Meaning not to override, but create a new PI with this ability. Same for orbital fleet manager...
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Reply #12
Zyxpsilon
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May 10, 2008 8:07:48 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Oh, now i get it.

What you want is a SECOND layer of building(s) which;
a)reacts as the default
b)can rely on similar values and/or abilities, even gameplay features
c)could or not override the hard-coded properties of a single type
and
d)insert this new stuff so that it would completely alter (as in replace) the exact conditions with different or almost similar ones.

IIRC, the [!-- comment from the DL (or, was it DA?) version of Planetimprovements.xml file was warning us with somethin' like; *If you wish to replace the Starport (+some others), you'll need to rewrite the code itself!*

Pretty explicite and yet, i suddenly realize that in fact it WOULD be possible if the actual routine structure (compiled or not at runtime, btw) was made available to anyone for key changes which would allow the a_b_c_d processes above.

It sure is probable to gain this knowledge through analysis, but i'd say Good-Luck if you don't have access to a real-time memory scan of wanted areas, a valid identification of the required values straight off the heapstack... and of course, plenty of patience!

In programming, anything can be done. Eventually.
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Reply #13
MrKorx
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May 10, 2008 9:38:39 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Yes, thats what I mean, there are, to me, some similar properties/special flags in PI available, CanHaveAgents etc... why not a tag IsStarPort or IsUniversalTranslator autorestricted to 1, sort of IsUnique=auto(=1)? But this might be the biggest obstacle to overcome by code.
BTW, what is the UpgradeShipTypes SpecialFlag for? Must testing...
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Reply #14
Zyxpsilon
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May 10, 2008 9:59:59 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Isn't the PI-editor equipped with an extra option where we can alter the single_per_planet limit as either 1 or 0 (heck, i haven't even check if that specific value CAN be more!)?
And, if so... i really am puzzled up that developpers wouldn't have tought about giving this a more controllable effect or even, an alternate way - so to speak.
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Reply #15
Zyxpsilon
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May 10, 2008 10:08:25 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
UpgradeShipTypes?
Most probably what is needed by the Gal_Privateer to protect Traders, and some other stuff.
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Reply #16
MrKorx
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May 10, 2008 10:18:36 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
The PlacementLimit can be set >1 as well.
This works out in coming v1.5
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Reply #17
MrKorx
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May 10, 2008 10:21:43 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
UpgradeShipTypes?
Most probably what is needed by the Gal_Privateer to protect Traders, and some other stuff.


Nope, I haven't found any building on PI.xml using this flag
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Reply #18
Zyxpsilon
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May 10, 2008 10:23:10 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Well, i'll be darned -- not even ONE tech is using that option; it sure made sense to me that if any type of ship upgrades in capacities or otherwise there had to be some code logic behind this fact. But absolutely nothing in the current "defaults" uses it!

a) It may be there for further updates.
Or hidden so well, that developpers do not want us to exploit it, yet.
c) It's a toggle already burnt into the compile for previous reasons but was issued an option slot to boggle everybody into speculative questioning.
d) Still a mystery to me... as of now.

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Reply #19
Zyxpsilon
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May 10, 2008 10:27:15 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Arrrrgh, we seem to be agreeing in a loop of coincidental posts... my reasoning is mostly based on "Hidden" facts which may just be code_based only.
Shoots, if that's the case.
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Reply #20
MrKorx
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May 10, 2008 10:27:38 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
I'll try the special flag. *starting another testing game at 4:27*
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Reply #21
Zyxpsilon
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May 10, 2008 10:33:35 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Yep, but Germany time -- here, it's only 22:28!
I'll bet it IS related to orbital defense and how Ships react when fleeted or even, the new modular designs like fortitude assets.
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Reply #22
MrKorx
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May 13, 2008 2:11:56 PM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
Version 1.5 uploaded
either hereor in the (soon to be approved) library.
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Reply #23
SIR NASTY OF TANG
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May 14, 2008 5:55:43 AM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
mmm I need to try again !!!!

Nasty
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Reply #24
SIR NASTY OF TANG
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May 14, 2008 6:12:51 AM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
OK queston !!! what is the cpm.bat for ???
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Reply #25
MrKorx
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May 14, 2008 6:58:09 AM from GalCiv II Forums GalCiv II Forums
The cpm.bat copies some models from ..\GalCi2\... to ..\Mods\..\Gfx\Models.
Basically, it is a rudimentary KHSM, but just the fake hulls, since I also want to include a shipstyle.
I forgot to include this in the readme.txt, however a v1.5b(bugfix) will be available tonight on i-mod.
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