ANNOUNCING: Implement All Racial Penalties (Negative Bonuses)

Truly Rehash of the Mods

from GalCiv2 Forums
This mod implements negative racial bonuses for all racial abilities, including miniaturization, logistics, home planet quality, interest rates, and all of the exotic worlds colonization abilities. Every ability has been given one or more penalty options, which award bonus points for a reduction in the ability score.

Using this mod, you can make your Ultimate Jellyfish Race, who can't colonize Barren worlds, but can automatically colonize water worlds, and who need extra space in their ships for their watery "atmosphere." Enjoy!

NOTE: None of the original bonus options have been changed. Because you are limited to six options for each ability, not all bonus options have a "mirror" penalty.

This is a mod of the "Implement all Racial Abilities" mod by me, which was itself a mod of "MrKorx's Miniaturization & Logistics Mod" by MrKorx (with the latter author's permission).


WEIRDNESS:
The negative bonuses do work, but they produce some wacky results, at least as of DA 1.6b4:

- When choosing bonus options, the penalties are still listed with a "+" sign in front of them, e.g. "+-20%." This has no effect on the game.

- In case it isn't obvious, a -1 Colonize Exotic Worlds penalty will prevent the race from fully exploiting that type of world (they'll need the second-level tech to even colonize it. A -2 will keep them from ever getting to colonize it.

- I don't know if the AI can figure out the above, so giving these penalties to AI players is probably cruel, and could have unforseen consequences. I have no idea what those might be... I cannot forsee them.

- The Colonize Exotic Worlds ability penalties DO work as advertised, but in the Civ Manager, you will see them listed as bonuses (e.g., having the full -2 levels penalty is shown as "+100%), and exotic worlds of the relevant type will show the green "colonizable" icon. Do not be fooled, you still can't colonize them!

- I have no idea how the Colonize Exotic Worlds ability penalties will interact with superabilities that allow you to colonize particular types of worlds.

- You are limited to a minimum speed of 1, so the speed penalties will not drop speeds to zero... they will, however, make it take longer to get to speed 2.

- All penalty values were directly mirrored from the bonus values, even though some of the penalties are obviously MUCH more severe than the corresponding bonuses (e.g., Colonize Exotic Worlds). It doesn't really make too much difference, though, because you only have so many ways to spend your bonus points.


WWW Link to Mod

Link to Thread on the Original Mod
modding
11,035 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
A word of warning... If you start a game as a custom race, using a logistics penalty, the next time you play that race, the base logistics for that race will be lower. Apparently, the routine that saves your race preferences copies over the logistics value irrespective of the penalty.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This sounds cool! To bad that the AI might not know what to do with a different playing stye....Stardock should of done this sort of thing, but they didn't.
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Tried a game with this. It's amazing how powerful you can be if you totally forfeit your ability to colonize any special worlds. Very interesting.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Tried a game with this. It's amazing how powerful you can be if you totally forfeit your ability to colonize any special worlds. Very interesting.


Any problems to report?

FYI: I'm working on a Super Tech mod, so you'd be able to ditch those abilities, then actually get them back later with Super Terraforming. It'd be about as much research as you need for a tech victory, though...
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The AI seemed to behave as it normally does.
I'll have to look back at a save when I get back home later, there might have actually been one error. I play a super diplomat race so by mid game when the colonization rush is over I start buying planets off of the AI. With negative 2 to my special world colonizations, all of them, I bought what I believe was a radioactive world. It was already have colonized by the AI and I was able to continue building on it.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The AI seemed to behave as it normally does.
I'll have to look back at a save when I get back home later, there might have actually been one error. [...] I bought what I believe was a radioactive world. It was already have colonized by the AI and I was able to continue building on it.


Please do check that. Not that there is much I can do about it, but it would be helpful to let people know about it.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Version 1.1 was just posted:

V1.1: Based on player feedback, I have lowered the value of the Colonize Exotic Worlds abilities considerably. I originally set them high because I felt that they would be especially problematic for the AI. Of course, I don't recommend giving the AI these penalties anyway, so that doesn't really make much sense, does it?


Many thanks to OilAggie and Lukas Dettlinger for feedback!


Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok I extracted this mod into my mod directory and I cant activate it in the in-game options screen. So how do I use it then?

Dan.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Dan,

Sorry, it isn't a stand-alone mod... you need to extract it into the folder of another mod. A little confusing, I know, but most people who use mods seem to have a catch-all mod folder anyway. Try extracting it to the default folder (or manually move the files), then activate the mods folder through the options screen (I think you'll have to restart). Let me know if this still isn't working for you.

Thanks,

GP
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sorry folks, another update... Mongo64 caught a type in the .xml.I don't know if it affected play or not, but I fixed it anyway. It would probably be in your best interest to re-download the file (version 1.2) once it is approved.

Again, sorry about that!
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
GP

Yeah I figured that out on my own after I made that post lol! Problem is, I tried extracting your files into the default folder, and the data folder (of the default folder) after making backups of the default folder etc... but it still dont work for me.

Dan.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
but it still dont work for me.


It still isn't working for you?
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is actually a cool mod, I was hesitant at first, the only thing is, I was able to colonize a barren world, I used my additional points for barren world full colonization, but a while after I colonized it, it had 0% production on it. I fixed it though, by giving it to a minor race and useing a toxic ship on it, but i just figured I'd tell you.
The very instant you show your weakness, your downfall will begin!



Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
was able to colonize a barren world, I used my additional points for barren world full colonization, but a while after I colonized it, it had 0% production on it. I fixed it though, by giving it to a minor race and useing a toxic ship on it, but i just figured I'd tell you.


Let me get this straight: you used your customization points to buy barren world colonization, and then you couldn't build much on it? Ok, let's eliminate the obvious first: what did you try? What was the population of the world when you did this? Did you try buying a factory?



Yeah I figured that out on my own after I made that post lol! Problem is, I tried extracting your files into the default folder, and the data folder (of the default folder) after making backups of the default folder etc... but it still dont work for me.


Have you activated the mods folder? Sorry if that is a stupid question, but I want to cover all bases first.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Let me get this straight: you used your customization points to buy barren world colonization, and then you couldn't build much on it? Ok, let's eliminate the obvious first: what did you try? What was the population of the world when you did this? Did you try buying a factory?


I could still buy stuff, but that was the only way I could build anything. It was a low class planet, 1-3, so I only bought research things, no factories. I didn't do much else other than trade it and turn it toxic. Now that I think of it though, I was experiencing a economic fall, so it might have been the economy fall that made it not work, I was paying attention to tech and clicking end turn a bunch, but I turned it toxic pretty quick so I can't really check. I just thought it was the mod because it was my first game after I downloaded the mod, so I'm not 100% sure. I tried another game recently and didn't have the same problem. Sorry for the scare. On a side note, awesome mod, with perfecting I think Stardock would pay you for it.  
The very instant you show your weakness, your downfall will begin!




Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sorry for the scare. On a side note, awesome mod, with perfecting I think Stardock would pay you for it.


No problem. Glad you like the mod. I'd love to get paid for it, but I think technically StarDock already owns it (if they lawyered up correctly). Also, there would be an issue of who really deserves credit, since it's not a new idea. Besides, I imagine that StarDock would probably rather pay for programing and graphics; they seem to concentrate on building up the hard-coded infrastructure of the game, letting modders develop additional content for free. It's a pretty inspired plan, really.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just a clarification: this mod is for DARK AVATAR only!!!!!!!!