My unofficial patch version 1.2 is ready

[Yitzi]

As soon as it's approved, it will be ready for download.  Of particular interest to some will be the ability to remove copters' bonus speed by reactor, which (by itself or in conjunction with a separate speed decrease) may provide an alternative to banning them for those who feel they're overpowered.

[sisko]

approved! great work so far, Yitzi! 

[BFG]

Thanks for this, Yitzi!  I have three questions for you:
1. Were all of your changes to alphax.txt in the #RULES section?  I scanned through the rest and didn't find anything else.
2. Are the default settings for your new variables identical to the default (but umoddable) settings for vanilla SMAX?
3. Do you foresee any problems combining this patch with your technology tree rebalance ideas?

[Yitzi]

Thanks for this, Yitzi!  I have three questions for you:
1. Were all of your changes to alphax.txt in the #RULES section?  I scanned through the rest and didn't find anything else.

Yes.

2. Are the default settings for your new variables identical to the default (but umoddable) settings for vanilla SMAX?

Yes.

3. Do you foresee any problems combining this patch with your technology tree rebalance ideas?

No; in fact, one of the mods enabled in the patch was intended to work together with some of the tech tree rebalance, the two being two parts of a general air power rebalance.

The only possible concern is that my patch builds on Kyrub's; I don't think any of his AI mods for SMAX are extreme enough to run into problems with rebalancing, but I can't guarantee that.

[Lord Avalon]

2. Are the default settings for your new variables identical to the default (but umoddable) settings for vanilla SMAX?

Yes.

I see "-1" for "Nutrients granted by condenser; -1 is +50%."  The manual says a condenser gives +1 Nutrient.  So wouldn't "1" be vanilla?


And does half a Nutrient mean anything?


For "Extra damage per relevant atrocity/missile," is that ecodamage?


Why is there a flag about creches?  I thought that was fixed.


Haven't had a chance to play this yet, but thanks for your work.

[Yitzi]

I see "-1" for "Nutrients granted by condenser; -1 is +50%."  The manual says a condenser gives +1 Nutrient.  So wouldn't "1" be vanilla?

No, because the manual happens to be wrong there; it actually gives +50%.  Of course, if you want to play with what the manual says, now you can.

And does half a Nutrient mean anything?

No, fractional amounts are discarded.

For "Extra damage per relevant atrocity/missile," is that ecodamage?

Sort of.  More precisely, it's "raw" ecodamage, i.e. it's added to the amount of minerals (rather than being added at the end after adjusting for PLANET and LIFE and techs and so on.)

Why is there a flag about creches?  I thought that was fixed.

One of the bugs about it was fixed, but another was not.

[Lord Avalon]

Why is there a flag about creches?  I thought that was fixed.

One of the bugs about it was fixed, but another was not.

Can you please clarify?  Or link to a thread I guess I missed?

[Yitzi]

Why is there a flag about creches?  I thought that was fixed.

One of the bugs about it was fixed, but another was not.

Can you please clarify?  Or link to a thread I guess I missed?

Ok...a creche is supposed to:
1. Increase morale for units in the base square, plus
2. Negate negative morale modifiers for units in the base square. 
What it did before Kyrub's fix was:
1. Increase morale for units in the base square, plus
2. Negate all morale modifiers for units in the base square, plus
3. Negate negative morale modifiers for units homed to the base, no matter where they are.  (Yes, it can negate the modifier twice, i.e. actually turn a negative into a positive.)
After Kyrub's fix, it changed to:
1. Increase morale for units in the base square, plus
2. Negate negative morale modifiers for units in the base square, plus
3. Negate negative morale modifiers for units homed to the base, no matter where they are.  (Yes, it can negate the modifier twice, i.e. actually turn a negative into a positive.)

[Mart]

Yitzi,

Do you think, that it would be possible to assign also specialist factors (e.g. energy, drones quelled, research points) to basic citizens: worker, talent, drone?
At present, alphax.txt has empty lines, I think I also tried to add such description to these 3, but it did not work.

Such thing, would make possible no-riots mods, like civ4, where cities do not riot, it just costs a city resources that are not collected.

[Yitzi]

Yitzi,

Do you think, that it would be possible to assign also specialist factors (e.g. energy, drones quelled, research points) to basic citizens: worker, talent, drone?
At present, alphax.txt has empty lines, I think I also tried to add such description to these 3, but it did not work.

Such thing, would make possible no-riots mods, like civ4, where cities do not riot, it just costs a city resources that are not collected.

I'm not taking requests yet, but I think that it might be possible to enable such a feature.  However, I'm not sure how you'd get a no-riots (but with workers just not working) mode like Civ4; that would require separate programming (which also might very well be doable.)

[BFG]

Yitzi, I may have found a bug in 1.2, through purely unintentional means.  Could you (or someone else) try the following:

1. Load up the standard 1 Faction vs 1 Faction Scenario (the one with Spartans vs Gaians, where they each start with one base).
2. Edit the Scenario to give the Spartans every single technology through Transcedent Thought 1.
3. Check the Ecodamage score.

When I did that, I was causing over 3200 ecodamage per turn, even though I was only bringing in about 5 minerals total and had no significant base buildings.  Maxing out Planet on Social Engineering lowered it to a mere 1200.
As an additional "fun" side effect, after about 10 turns the units I talk about in the "What the Heck IS This Thing" thread (Theory of Everything board) started appearing, presumably due to a rollover bug or some other issue.  I'd like to know if others can replicate this issue, or if I have something screwed up.

[Yitzi]

Yitzi, I may have found a bug in 1.2, through purely unintentional means.  Could you (or someone else) try the following:

1. Load up the standard 1 Faction vs 1 Faction Scenario (the one with Spartans vs Gaians, where they each start with one base).

You mean the one marked "Explore"?

2. Edit the Scenario to give the Spartans every single technology through Transcedent Thought 1.
3. Check the Ecodamage score.

When I did that, I was causing over 3200 ecodamage per turn, even though I was only bringing in about 5 minerals total and had no significant base buildings.  Maxing out Planet on Social Engineering lowered it to a mere 1200.
As an additional "fun" side effect, after about 10 turns the units I talk about in the "What the Heck IS This Thing" thread (Theory of Everything board) started appearing, presumably due to a rollover bug or some other issue.  I'd like to know if others can replicate this issue, or if I have something screwed up.
[/quote]

I was unable to replicate it, but if you have the savegame, you can give it to me and I'll check it out.  My guess, though, is that you reduced the clean minerals to 0 and removed the increases, and did not increase either divisor to compensate...in such case, it's probably working properly, and you just used settings that make ecodamage a bit too extreme.

(If you can provide a savegame with that "thing" in it and one just before it appears, I may be able to figure out what's going on with it.)

[ete]

I'm guessing he just does not have the alphax.txt values which your mod requires. I had the same issue (3000+ eco damage right away) before I added them.

[BFG]

I'm guessing he just does not have the alphax.txt values which your mod requires. I had the same issue (3000+ eco damage right away) before I added them.

Nope, it's not that...although I did need to manually edit my own alphax.txt to include Yitzi's new variables, so it's possible I did something wrong.  I'll try again with Yitzi's original version; if I'm able to replicate again I'll send the requested savegames.

[Yitzi]

I'm guessing he just does not have the alphax.txt values which your mod requires. I had the same issue (3000+ eco damage right away) before I added them.

Now that I think of it...that's probably what happened.  If you use the values included in the patch, it'll work as normal, and if you use a game from before the patch and don't modify it, I think it'll crash, but if you just don't have those lines there at all and start a new scenario, I think you'll get what was described (since it'll use the minimum values for everything; usually 0, but 1 for the divisors, so it won't crash but will produce too much ecodamage).