I have some questions if anyone can help me.

I have installed the mod, but in the video it is said that unless you clear your custom races, the mod will not work correctly. I have done that, but how can i be sure that AI now plays to best of his abilities ? Is there any way i can test that, or what is the best way to check if he does ? If he researches everything maybe, if he makes fleets ? If he takes planetS ?

Second question i have is this, i have created a game on Painful, and i have done end turn for long long time until computer (small map) came and actually conquered me. When he did, his best ship had attack around 30, and zero defense. In general i have notices that they dont build ships with any defense, but that was only one game and i wasnt actually playing. How come ? Do they build ships that have also defense bonus, or they copy your ships design when u make them ? Cause it is really booring to play if they dont make strong fleets so i can counter their ships weapons with my defense and wise versa.

I also notices that computer rarely builds any economy or morale space stations, which prior to mode he did constantly, that is designed in mod to behave like that ?

And how difficult is to play if you go even higher difficulty, does ai make for any challenge ?

Thanks for your input

Samaraiu,

I'll do my best to answer your questions.

To ensure the AIs work to the best of their abilities setting them up yourself is highly recommended. However, if you don't the game will assign abilities to them, usually focusing on morale, economics, etc. If you want to check up on the AI you'll need to enable cheats. Check out the Galciv 2 WIKI for more information on how to enable cheats. Cheats allow you to take over an AI player and check their progress. They also allow you to reveal the entire map. Keep in mind, the CU team did this hundreds if not thousands of times. 

Your second question. Some AIs do not research defenses and no AI will research defenses unless there is a reason to do so. If you click away turns until you're invaded the AI never encounters a player using weapons and sees no reason to research defenses.

Your third question. The mod doesn't modify starbase construction behaviour. It does modify available modules. In fact, it fixes a problem with them giving the AI access to all modules. What the AI does with them is not something we can alter. Also, there are no morale space stations. I think you meant influence.

Your fourth question. How difficult is the game at higher levels. I have yet to beat the game at crippling. Before the mod I had no trouble doing so.

Your fifth question. No you do not need to setup each of your opponents to have a fun time playing.

Absolutely! The reason you must remove the old customization is because these customization's contain data from the unmodded game which interferes with the new version of the game.

As a rule you can state: what makes it easier for me will make it easier for the AI as well, but more so. The first abilities that come to mind are morale, economics and population growth. These three help the AI develop its early economy but keep in mind that at higher difficulty levels this isn't a real issue since the AI gets economic bonuses.

I would rather see this fixed in the exe. Alternatively we could increase the number of colonists on colony ships. That way new colonies will start with a higher population and the AI might be more reluctant to sell off its planets.

E.g. 1 bln colonists instead of 500. 

Weapons Appendix,  for Mabus' Guide:  (X is whatever number you choose to give it)

X Weapon Lines

Whether or not you plan to live by the sword,  you should be aware of some slight differences in the three available weapon lines (Beams, Mass Drivers, and Missiles).

First,  weapon technology does not develop in what you might call a "smooth" fashion.   Most of the time you'll see some incremental improvement,  but on occasion there are rather sizable leaps in power, size,  or cost.  

Second,  there is no one-size-fits-all "best" weapon technology.  Each weapon line will have its share of the spotlight at different stages of research.   It's a balanced unbalanced approach and serves to make the game a little more interesting.

Third,  each weapon line has a few distinct traits throughout all tech eras:

* beam weapons start small and get bigger over time,  culminating in the massive Doom Ray.   They have moderate power for their size and cost about average to research.

* mass driver weapons start mid-sized and get smaller over time.   They have lower power for their size,  but they're also the cheapest weapon line to research.    Armor (the best defense against mass drivers) is also a little tougher to research than other defenses.

* missile weapons start large and miniaturize a little over time.  They have the highest power for their size,  but they're also the most expensive weapon line to research.   Chaff (the best defense against missiles) is also a little easier to research than other defenses.

X.1 Civilization specific weaponry

Some civilizations go off the beaten path and develop their own unique weapons technologies.  These are usually -- but not always -- better than what other civilizations will get for a similar research cost.

X.2 Ethos specific weaponry and defenses

Civilizations which follow an Evil path can research weapons of unspeakable horror... and effectiveness.    Similarly,  civilizations choosing to align themselves with the forces of Good will find unique and powerful defensive technologies available to them.

I think that's about all that needs to be said.   I didn't want to bog it down with too much detail,  but I think I've covered all the bases reasonably well.

Wouldn't "Point Defense" be more fitting? At least I'm under the impression you're reffering to a branch not a single tech....

I also remember some instances were Thalans were exloited by Drath midgame, Thalans were on the loosing side of a galactic war and their planets were constantly invaded. They've given alot of these away (also ships). In general a too great discrepancy in diplomacy just makes the AI becoming exploitative.

@Silas. Looks good. I've changed Chaff to point defense and updated the manual. I'll add some images later. Thank you for writing this down.

@Maiden. Alright so increasing the number of colonist on a colony ship is not a quick fix. Thanks for explaining.

Concerning the trading of low population planets. We're not going to fix this by removing the diplomacy discrepancy that exists between the included civilizations. Clever point assignment combined with targeted research will cause this problem to resurface anyway.

Best solution: block planetary trade for a year. This works for treaties, it will work for planets.

I've send an E-mail to Yarlen about this last saturday. No response yet.

Good news 

Hi Ragic,

at the moment this is just a mod, so you have to install it yourself following the instructions provided.

It will be part of an official patch (sooner or later), but according to what the mod authors say, it is still not clear when this will happen.

thanks for the info

Did you try to download it a second time? Maybe it's just a corrupted download.

In which directory did you put the new exe?

Are you starting the game by a shortcut on the desktop? Try to run directly the exe file in its own directory, just to be sure you are not using a bad shortcut.

I forgot to ask you: which version of the game did you buy? Is it the ultimate edition? And is it the steam version?

Good choice, better to use a dedicated folder for games rather than program files, it can give troubles.