Ethics and multiple Governments mod [UPDATED]

from GalCiv2 Forums
NOTE: See posts 11 and 12 for updates Hi, Ive been working on merging governments and Ethics, as well as adding more govenments and I believe I have it. Heres what Ive done.

1. Added a new tech after Alliances called "Govenment Path" this was formaly the Xeno Ethics tech
2. after Govenment Path is learned, a popup box appears asking which form of govenment you wish to follow is
a. Federation
b. Merchantile
c. Militaristic

You will see nothing after "Government Path" in the tech tree until you make a choice.
After you choose, you will get 3 gov branches to study

1. Federation path:
Same as former gov branch
Star Republic>Star Democracy>Star Federation

2. Mercintile:
Guild Mercant>Global Merchant>Galactic Merchant

3. Militaristic:
Warlord>Dictator>Militaristic

Now there are only 4 types of governments, and they are hardcoded HOWEVER I believe that can/has be fooled.

You must leave the Culture ID= all the same for all the new governments, as well as for Xeno Ethics, as I guess thats how the exe sees them to trigger the events, but you can rename the actual in game name that appears, then you can attach a "Good" "Neutral" or "Evil" tag to the government branches, and change each of the bonuses gained for the new gov.

So if you choose, Militaristic, you will only see the Warlord>Dictator>Militaristic gov branches, what this does, is allow you to use the 4 hard coded governments, and add 3 more to each selection (as you start with the first branch of government) In game this all works for a total of 10 different govenments in three branches. I have a few more screen files to change and theres a few other str files to change, but hopefully this weekend, I'll have a "Multiple govenment s branches" MOD out. I have to test it some more to make sure everything works as its supposed to, and I have to assign new bonuses to all the new governments.

Some other techs will have to be changed, and rearanged as well.

I'll post the progress on this and hope to have it out this weekend for those that are interested in haveing more then one government branch.

ST
modding
18,610 views 20 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
BTW the new govenment names were off the top of my head at the time to make sure everything works, I'll come up with better names for the merchant and military gov branches (no idea what they will be yet though)

Also as good, neutral and evil are eliminated as there now part of the govenments, all the ethical bonuses will be changed to government bonuses.

Some of the ideas Ive been kicking around:

Federation:
Bonuses in dipomacy, moral and research
A new upgradable "Culture" building
A new upgradable "Moral" Building

Merchantile:
Bonuses in Trade and economy
A new upgradale "Economy" building
A new trade "wonder"

Military:
Bonuses in military production, ship hit points and ground troops
A New upgradable "Advanced Orbital Managment" building (can remember the name offhand)
A New upgradable "Barracks" building (can remember the name offhand, but better then the troop building)

Also all the ethical weapon, shield and other techs will be renamed/change to fit the form of govenment there for.

ST
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
rename the starting gov "fronteir"

stratocracy is 'rule by the military'. cosmarchy is 'rule of the entire universe'. maybe consider throwing in 'xeno fascism'.

plutocracy is rule by the wealthy. the prefix "eco" actually comes from the word "home", i'd recommend "agora" meaning 'market'. agorocracy would mean rule by market forces. kleptocracy would be government by theives.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Great ideas, thanks, I'll use your ideas
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
very interesting idea, but it would be even better if you could have both an ethical and governmental choice. though, from what you said i'm not sure if that would be possible or not.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
A few screenshots:

The new tech Government path before choice:
http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image=galciv220060606132112659nd.jpg

The choice:
http://img190.imageshack.us/my.php?image=galciv220060606132232482vc.jpg

The Govenment branch after choice:
http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=galciv220060606132321707nw.jpg

ST

EDIT: Doh, fixed screenshots
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i'd been considering modding to expand the ethics system myself, though i also like the way you've really revamped the whole system. what i was thinking was more have an extra government available based on alignment, but i was more interested in overhauling the ethics system rather than eclipsing it.

as it is, interstellar governments seems annoying to me. what i'd thought of doing is have the only govt option available at first is 'frontier', essentially the idea that interstellar travel is so recent that, regardless of what your politics were like on your home planet, everyone's kind of piecing it together as they go along at that point.

IS govts would introduce 1 or 2 options, empire or republic and higher forms to follow. after hearing about your mod idea, i have more ideas myself.

i understand how you're "trickiing" it into having more than 4 governments... as long as each player only has 4 govt options, there's no problem.

where are you editing the bonuses provided by the governements themselves? i can't seem to find it.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I posted it in another thread... english.str, lines 1593 to 1620... the last 3 lines are the bonus definitions of the governments
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
thanks!
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well one thing that can be done is you can make 3 tech gov tech branches per alignment. But have two techs that give bonuses toward the government there studyng and the last tech actually gain the gov, that way each alignment would open up 3 government tech chains and you would have 3 governments per alignment.

ST

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"I posted it in another thread... english.str, lines 1593 to 1620... the last 3 lines are the bonus definitions of the governments..."

As far as I can see that's just text, not actual value definitions. Perhaps I'm not looking thoroughly enough, but I'm pretty sure that whole file is just string variables with data defined that appears in the game.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok heres how I set them up:

Federation path:
1. Interstellar Republic
Diplomatic and Culture bonuses

2. Star Democracy
More Diplomatic and Culture bonuses

3. Star Federation
Lots More Diplomatic and Culture bonuses

Merchant path:
1. Kleptocracy
Economic and Trade Bonuses

2. Agorocracy
Greater Economic and Trade Bonuses

3. Plutocracy
Greater Economic and Trade Bonuses plus a Social Production bonus

Military path:
1. Xeno Militarism
Military Production, Moral and Hit Points bonuses

2. Stratocracy
Military Production, Moral and Soldiering bonuses

3. Cosmarchy
Military Production, Moral and Miniaturization bonuses


Note, the reason for the moral bonus in the military branch represents something similar to martial law or a police state.

All branches get reaserch and economic bonuses (though the merchant brance gets higher economic bonuses
ST
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
(See post above before reading this one)

New govenmental buildings:

Federation:
Advanced Learning Centers (formally Neutrality Learning Center)
Bonuses: Same as NLC

Merchant:
Advanced Colony (upgrades from your colony building) (new building pic)
Bonuses: Food (18) Industry (20) Economics (10)

Military:
Advanced Starport (upgrades from your starport) (new building pic)
Bonuses: Starship Quality (30)

Renamed trade wonders:
Federation:
Was: Temple Of Righteousness
Now: Federation of Free Trade

Merchant:
Was: Temple of Neutrality
Now: Galactic Trade Center

Military:
Was: Temple Of Evil
Now: Military Trade Academy

Renamed Techs:
Was: Good and Evil
Now: Xeno Civics

Was: Concepts of Malice
Now: Concepts of Militarization

Was: Balanced Vision
Now: Advanced Economics

Was: Concepts of Righteousness
Now: Concepts of Freedom

New Techs:
Supreme Trade
Galactic Trade

New Starport Modules:
Trade + 40
Trade + 50

The trade stuff was added as many people (includeing me) feel trade is not worth the effort, also the former temples (trade wonders) will give a bigger bonus. The new trade Modules were given a high AI priority.

Note: all descriptions of all changes have also been updated to reflect there new role.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I can't quite understand this. I can't see where you are able to change the government bonuses.

I posted it in another thread... english.str, lines 1593 to 1620... the last 3 lines are the bonus definitions of the governments


Surely all this changes is the text that is displayed in-game, not the actual bonus as used in calculations?

I just tested this by changing the bonus line economics to a soldiering bonus. It display it as such in game, but upon switching there is no soldiering bonus to my race.

Isn't all this hard-coded? In which case you can't surely seperate out the governments, as they will always be a "best" governement by the bonuses actually given?
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Surely all this changes is the text that is displayed in-game, not the actual bonus as used in calculations?

I just tested this by changing the bonus line economics to a soldiering bonus. It display it as such in game, but upon switching there is no soldiering bonus to my race.

Isn't all this hard-coded? In which case you can't surely seperate out the governments, as they will always be a "best" governement by the bonuses actually given?




ALL economy and research bonuses for all govs are hard coded, for example: 75% economy and 75% research bonuses are hard coded for star federation... These bonuses still exist for all my government types.

The default "added" bonuses that can be changed are influence and diplomatic, these are the "added/tagged" bonuses to the gov's that can be changed, removed, edited etc..


All 3 "DEFAULT" Governments get a bonus in:
Economy bonus (hardcoded)
Reaserch bonus (hardcoded)
Diplomatic (Not harddoded)
Influence (Not hardcoded)

All of my Govs, still get bonuses in reserch and economy (cause there hard coded), what I did was change the changeable...

Military gov's for example dont get influence and diplomatic bonuses (as there not hard coded), instead they get other bonuses akin to its gov type.

You can still "tag" govs with additional bonuses. You just cant change the hardcoded ones (well you can, but its in the exe)

In short, all gov's still get the economy and reaserch bonuses, there hard coded, the influence and diplo abilities are not.. They can be changed, removed, added to, etc...

I balanced this by keeping the diplo and influence bonuses with the federation branch, but I modified the default bonuses, I also gave them the NLC, as many NLC's can be built, were as the colony and starports can only be upgraded once (per planet) for the other gov's, but they have better bonuses in other fields then the federation.

Hope this explains it better

ST
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
BTW Im thinking of makeing the upgradable colony and starport avalible to all gov's and makeing the following changes...

changeing the building that inceases your soldier ability to +25% to +%75 but makeing it so you can only have 1 per planet..

also...

military branch:
1. Adding a building called "Advanced Orbital Coordinator" (one per planet, upgrade from the normal orbital manager)replaceing the current starport upgrade (as that would be avalible to all)

Merchant branch:
1. Adding the "Galactic Stock Exchange" (one per planet) to replace the colony upgrade (as that would be avalible to all)

ST

EDIT: above changes made.. if anyone is interested in a mod that makes so many core changes, let me know, if you have ideas or suggestions, let me know, if your still mad at me for the cheat code post I made, re-check that thread (I apologized for it, have a heart ) anyway, any ideas here are welcome.

I should have this released today or tommarrow, I will make a new post on release, this is kinda developeing beyond the gov/ethics mod, as I am also debateing changeing the shield branch, as (IMO) it is urealistic as cost should be changed, but if I do this, it will be a seperate addition..

ST
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ShadowTek.Net



sounds interesting....
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Right, I get you, so the bonuses are on the tech for the government, not the governement itself.

Its a shame its all hard-coded, I would like to add alot more spice into what is essentially a rather dry area of the game.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah I agree, but just the research and economy bonuses, and all govs should have them anyway, and its easy to differentiate them with other abilities

ST

PS. Im gonna play a few games to test out everything to make sure theres no bugs in this before releaseing it.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I did something similar, although not as complex.

Basically, I just made 3 techs to come after the good / evil tech... They show up in the tech tree connected to eachother, but because they are all linked to the good / evil tech, they'll only make a link to the actual branch when you select you alignment.

Good - Vision of Utopia, Ideals of Utopia, Utopia
Neutral - Vision of Neutrality, Ideals of Neutralility, Neutrality
Evil, Vision of Tyranny, Ideals of Tyranny, Tyranny.

All have Eco, Inf, def, weap, social, military, research, etc bonuses (all the same - they ARE all the same tech, just copied and renames for each alignment)

I tell a lie, they are linked to the relevent data - concepts of righteouness, balanced vision and concepts of malice
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
DOH!! New 1.2 crashes with this mod (glad I decided to wait for 1.2 final before releaseing it) guess I'll have to rebuild it with the new files

ST