thehandofzarquon

[quote]Because, of course, two races that developed on the same world and were subsequently separated for tens of thousands of years should be as similar as two races which were really the same race until the Dread Lords started messing with them last week?[/quote] Maybe not, but the Drath and the Altarians do share a common feature: their ability to manipulate dark energy. Same as the Korath/Drengin share the feature of Slavery. [quote]Because the Drath tech tree doesn't reall

[quote]Yes but the technology trees currently seem to be identical, I understand they should be similar, but not the same. I may be wrong, tell the truth I'd love to be corrected.[/quote] This isn't really a correction, but look at the differences between the Drengin and Korath. They basically have the same tree, with a few additions on the Korath side... That's the difference you should probably expect with Altarian/Drath when all is said and done.

[quote]The building that the Alterians/Drath (Biosphere Modulator?) get that adds about 3 tiles to the planet works perfectly fine, so I was taken back when the Gaia Vortex didn't work[/quote] The Gaia Vortex gives a bonus to the Planet Quality ability (+10% is about 1 tile'ish), which hasn't ever worked for planets you already colonized. However, it also seems to be intended to give 10 tiles to the planet it is built on... but it uses "PlanetQualityBonus" (something that is on

[quote]I think the best solution (short of rewriting trading or providing a dozen pre-game options) is a combination of methods we've all discussed: * All techs that don't make sense in widespread usage (Pain Amplification) are marked untradeable. * All techs that are highly useful to everybody (weather control) get a much lower "willingness to trade" value. * However, if it's on your tree, you can trade it no matter what. (Korath + Drengin, Altarian + Drath, general techs). * If

[quote]I would actually support the Fortification tree starting AFTER Starbase Conquest Strategy (or the appropriate EOL tech for starbase modules[/quote] I support dropping the Fortification techs entirely and move the modules to the Weapon/Defense techs.

[quote]Heck, I think they need a nerf. Since they are minors, I think they should be forced to research a separate tech branch for building constructors (something the majors can't trade or grant them). I'd like to see them unable to gobble up resources until at least mid-game.[/quote] Making all the base modules/hulls require at least HyperDrive could slow them down in this regard. Maybe even move the Constructor module into the new Interstellar Construction tech. At least, that's what

Here are my ideas: 1. When you trade for or steal Techs, you receive YOUR version of the tech, not the race you received it from. 2. Most, if not all, Techs are flagged as Trade-able. However, these techs can only be traded or stolen if both races involved have the tech in their Tech Tree. However, at the same time, Techs can exist in other race's tech trees without that race being able to research it. (Spore Weapons, at least in DA, is an example of this. There is a R

The mining modules gained from those techs could (and should, imho) be moved into the Space Mining techs. It's a logical leap and I find those modules to be more important than the Production-boosting modules. Overall, I generally don't bother with the Production modules unless I have a big cluster of planets (3 or more, preferably with planets which are ideal for Tech or Manufacturing capitals) which could all benefit from them. As for whether it's intentional... well... the tradition

[quote]3. Espionage: All though this has been improved under DA, there is still plenty of scope for improved game play options as in Alpha Centauri. Some of these options would only appear if you have "researched" further up a spy-espionage tree. Thus, when you place your spy on an enemy planet, you would have a choice of options, dependant on your "spy tech level". Options could include: Sabotage - Military / Social / Research / Economic (with an option to destroy, delay, disrupt, assas

I uploaded a mod a while ago, and never knew we were supposed to post here to get it approved. :)

[quote]The ability reduces cost of industrial buildings thus allowing you to build them quicker, or outright buy them for less. I'm not sure by how much the cost is dropped, but its definately not *any* factory being built in one week (unless you have *insane* social production).[/quote] The ability used to let you build factories in one week in the very early DA betas. Of course, it also gave infinite Range then too. :)

Ah! The puns! [i]THE PUNS![/i] :)

[quote]I doubt we'll be able to create new supper abilities, I'd guess that is beyond the scope of any of the editors since a supper ability would need code to support it.[/quote] Well... given the nature of the Racial Tech Trees, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine being able to give a new "Super Ability" in the form of a unique, non-tradeable/stealable tech that gives some bonus that could normally be given via techs. For instance, a race with No Super Ability has a tech calle

[quote]Guys, sharing tech between two countries is quite different than between species. For one, some techs might be dependent on the other species' physiology (Altarian Magic), or perhaps mental pattern (Iconian Precursor-proximity-ishnes), or even cultural system (Krynniac Conversion).[/quote] To be honest, most of these kind of techs already are not able to be traded. Krynniac Conversion and Efficiency Studies 2 are probably oversights than deliberate "techs that can be traded". None o

[quote]Is there any word on custom races, firstly will they still be supported in TA? I’d assumed they would.[/quote] They will be. [quote]Secondly when are they likely to come into the Beta?[/quote] Technically, they already are in the Beta, just not enabled. [quote]Thirdly will you be able to select a tech tree for a custom race e.g. any existing race tree or a unique on you create in the editor?[/quote] Yep, that's the plan. [quote]Will they get extra pick points to make up

[quote] Well it's probably misleading to think of it too literally as negative war profiteering. I think of it as a peaceful race that feels compelled to spend money to send peace envoys and humanitarian aid to civilizations at war. Strategically this would make for an interesting penalty, because it would force a civilization to spend some effort settling wars instead of instigating wars. I'm not saying your other points aren't valid, but personally when the idea was posted it made

[quote]Plus, how would you have a negative War Profiteering ability? It seems like it would be something that you're either good at or you're not.[/quote] I was thinking of it as automatic humanitarian aid.

[quote]1.) You know when you first encounter a race they contact you and say their shpeal. I was wondering if when making a custom race it would be possable to edit what your custom race would say when encountering the player.[/quote] You can, at least in a mod. Check out the FlavorText.xml file and the "DialogTag" lines from RaceConfig.xml or your *.customracexml file for that race.

[quote]All of the abilities are stored in an array of signed long integers in all versions of GalCiv, but we generally call a function GetAbility() and store the value of the ability in a local variable when using it in calculations. In DL and DA, we specifically had code to prevent negative ability values. For Twilight, I had to go through and change a lot of code to support negative ability values. However, I'm still used to ability values being non-negative, so in my UseCreativeAbility fun

[quote]AND since this is the last expansion pack, it's sort of an 'all or nothing' feeling we're getting. If a tech trading 'fix' doesn't happen for the expansion pack, I personally assume that after TA, we'll never see it happen.[/quote] There is a big 2.0 patch planned for all GalCiv 2's after TA is released, I believe. Since Tech Trading is an issue that spans all three of 'em, that would probably be the best place to address it, IMHO.

Yep, I've seen this happen to Colony Ships that I inadvertently sent to asteroid fields during the Colony Rush phase.

I wasn't entirely sure where to post this. Its nothing that would show up in the game normally (only through mods), and isn't a bug, per say, more of an oversight. I've been experimenting with modding in negative ability bonuses in the current beta. One thing that I've noticed is that any amount of negative Creativity (even -1) will cause Creativity to [i]always[/i] trigger. While it would be nice (for modding purposes) for negative Creativity to actually hinder researching (maybe by lo

I've posted a new version of my mod. It should be available for download once approved. See the readme for the changes made. This will probably be the last version of this I put up for a while, barring any errors I might have missed, comments/suggestions are still welcome, though.

[quote]They're bugs. They should have some sort of hive building that boosts pop growth, and should have some sort of farm. They're freaking bugs!! They're ants out there that manage their own fungus farms, why wouldn't the thalians be capable of farming?[/quote] First off, they are [i]Insectoid[/i], not actually insects. They have more in common with spiders than ants, if I remember correctly (at least that's what I gather from their appearance). Second, they are capable of fa

[quote]It was at the time I wrote this.[/quote] It has given +5 Weapons since the [i]first[/i] beta. There is currently a bug, however, in the current beta that results in the bonuses and unlocked improvements/components of Traded Techs not being shown on the tech tree (ie: those nifty little boxes they added in the beta)... however, they [i]should[/i] be applying properly (I know for a fact you can build the modules/improvements from them). Save and load that game and the bonu