In looking over the planetary improvements XML file my initial thought would be that yes it is possible to mod that file and have all buildings be available to build throughout the entire game. There is a tag in that file that tells the game the building is meant to upgrade an older type. My guess is that if you removed that tag from all the buildings the game would react by letting you keep all the buildings in the build list. To upgrade you'd probably then have to demolish the old one first. But since there isn't a penalty for that (except farms that your population instantly reduces) I don't see that it would harm anything. Also I don't think the governor AI for auto upgrades would work.

I would give it a try for ya but I play metaverse games exclusively. No modding allowed

Ok so even one less step assuming the change to the XML file does work.

I'm not a dev here, but this might mess up the AI a little bit.

It depends whether the AI re-evaluates squares with buildings on it for better buildings, or just upgrades buildings once it has chosen a role for the square.

-Neb

Taking Fingers_9's idea one step further, what would be nice is a redesign of how the planetary building worked. Would need to be reworked at the official-level, or require some REAL overhaul mod, but here's my idea...

Once a tile has a class of building (factory, farm, etc), clicking the tile should bring up only the "Demolish" option, and the researched selection of upgrades and downgrades for that class of building. (IE: When I click on my Academy, it should show Demolish, Xeno Lab, Research Center, and an upgrade to Invention Matrix etc.) Upgrades would work as normal, but downgrades would be either free, or a small charge for reconstruction. To work this in, all blank tiles would need to be started as the basic type, THEN upgraded to whatever you have. Achievements, Trade Goods, and specialty items like starports would build as normal.

Now this idea would also work VERY well if the game could have one other tweak... Auto-Upgrade's on-off function should be universal, not local. Changing it for every planet while playing a huge universe is VERY tiring.

My $0.02 on this...

Yep but anything other then what Fingers did (which I'm glad worked out for ya) would require the devs to alter the code. Since his original request was for a mod I think the solution is fine. Personally I've never had the need to build the old buildings but I certainly understand the reasons why you might want the option if nothing else.

The way the AI works, it will try to optimize, so you probably don't have to worry about adding new older buildings into the game. If it is useful, they will build it. However, if you're worried, set the AIValue tag for those buildings to zero, and it should be a lot less likely to build them.

About the only AI problem *I* can think of is that by doing this, you are giving yourself an easier time if the AI isn't able to adapt to this particular strategy of planetary rebuilding. What I mean by that is, I can forsee you going around tidal waving all their planets since it's so much easier for you to rebuild, while the AI won't do this because they still think it's worthwhile to keep the planet intact. This would create an inherent weakness that you can exploit in ground combat. But if you don't take advantage of it, then it should be fine.

Personally, I opted for the "Cost vs Functionality" mod. That is, adjust the cost of the buildings to the amount that the produce. A basic factory that makes 8 PP (production point) might cost 80, while an industrial sector that makes 22 PP would cost 220. Although this method suffer from the possible ground invasion cheese that I mentioned above, it doesn't have the side effect of adding a bunch of buildings on to the list, which makes scrolling very annoying. They really need to add filterable tags to that window.

Thanks. I guess what I’ll do is play a few games with the changes I’ve made so far, observe what the AI does with them, and if I get weird results or if it seems too exploitive, perhaps try tinkering with ai values or using your approach of ‘cost v. functionality’.

Perhaps in the end I’ll just have to live with the way it works normally!

As for the problem of the list getting to cluttered, I’ve been able to semi-solve it by putting a “~” at the beginning of each new (old) building’s name. Now instead of them being scattered in with the most recent improvements, they all appear together at the bottom of the list. It’s only necessary to scroll way down there when they are needed.

~Fingers~

fsk+:
Goto the mod section of the website. You'll see a button that says Add. This will allow you to upload the file and put it into the appropriate category.

OK, I uploaded two versions, v1.0 and v1.1 of my rebalanced planetary improvements.

I'm still in the "playtesting" stage of my mod.

I found that the trade goods don't work! I can't add new trade goods! (But they're in my file.) I wanted to make it so that each trade good provided 40 mp (equal to an Industrial Sector) on the planet that built it.

I'm putting my "PlanetaryImprovements.xml" in my "mods" folder. I'm *NOT* overwriting the file that comes with the game. Unfortunately, this is buggy in V1.1.

The AI seems to be a fool when it comes to using the new buildings. For some reason, it's still building the original versions even though mine are strictly better. Also, this change appears to screw up its ability to manage its economy.

You're right that I needed to bump up the economic bonuses of market buildings, to infuse more cash into the game to balance out greater spending. I may bump them up even more compared with what I submitted. I'm also thinking of increasing morale bonuses for morale buildings.

I also realized that I'm probably going to have to re-balance the tech tree as well. With more RP available in the game, I really should also be adjusting the costs of all the techs. Besides, it seems wrong to me that "technological victory" costs less than researching to the highest level of "lasers".

It's just a shame that the mod support doesn't work properly (yet). I assume this will be fixed in 1.2, because that was mentioned somewhere else.

I decided to upload two versions of the file - the version I used in my latest game and the newer one, with more tuning and tweaking.

I’ll be interested to see it. Btw, what is the deal with the ai when it comes to upgrading its standard improvements once better ones that are meant to replace them have been unlocked? Do those upgrades occur automatically, or does it have to ‘choose’ whether to do each one?

Also, is there special syntax to specify two upgrade targets per improvement? Or is that not possible?

I hadn't noticed the indestructable starports.

~Fingers~