Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Topic started by: MercantileInterest on January 25, 2016, 07:34:17 PM

Title: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on January 25, 2016, 07:34:17 PM

The first version of Centauri Dawn is now available. Centauri Dawn features all of Maniac's great combat and AI improvements, while fixing common complaints, such as social engineering. This also balances out the original and Crossfire factions. A number of improvements are outlined below.

Factions:
The Morganite base limit has increased to six. I've returned them to their original -1 support, as -2 was just too crippling.

Spartans can now rush production at 90% cost, as their industry penalties made them the most difficult original faction.

Gaians have been altered to represent environmentalists, as opposed to Planet Cult style fungus fanatics. They now build free tree farms in all their bases but are capped at size three. They also suffer from a harsher police penalty. Hopefully, .exe modding will eventually allow them +1 nutrient from forests, thus eliminating the need for free tree farms.

University research only requires 80% of normal research points. This allows them to max out research in social engineering.

Fungus:
Those of you who played Smaniac may recall that fungus benefits came too early. They've been pushed back up the tech tree so normal terraforming is still worthwhile after the first hundred turns.

Technology:
Maniac consolidated a number of technologies. Centauri Dawn reinstates a few deleted technologies. It makes soil enrichers easier to research, thus allowing farms/collectors to compete with fungus or forests. It also moves planet busters down the tree, so they don't start with level three reactors.

Centauri Dawn allows numerous new strategies for a challenging new take on the game.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 29, 2016, 11:11:18 PM

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=17448.0 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=17448.0)

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: vonbach on January 31, 2016, 12:22:35 AM

I cant get this to download.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2016, 12:37:30 AM

Phooey; that came out with a filesize of zero.  MI, you need to re-upload...

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: vonbach on January 31, 2016, 03:21:29 PM

Hmm heres a question any thoughts on balancing the AC factions? The Drones revolt ability doesn't work on the AI
and the Angels seem very weak.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on February 06, 2016, 09:19:31 PM

Re-uploaded as Binary Dawn. Much better name. Here's hoping it works.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 06, 2016, 10:50:08 PM

Siiigh.  I get a filesize of zero, again...

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 10, 2016, 02:39:25 AM

Until one of our tech d00dz gets on the stick -which may be in a few hours, or at least Saturday- the file is here for your downloading pleasure: http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/BinaryDawn.zip (http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/BinaryDawn.zip)

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: vonbach on February 11, 2016, 02:32:30 AM

I got it to download this time. Looking it over.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: vonbach on February 12, 2016, 12:46:43 AM

There are some interesting factions in it. I'll probably use some of them. What techs did you add?

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on February 14, 2016, 07:41:29 PM

This actually has a couple less techs than standard SMAX, but more than Smaniac. Things have been rearranged considerably. For example, choppers precede needlejets but they have less range. AA tracking comes with the same technology as choppers, so factions can actually defend themselves from bombers.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: vonbach on February 14, 2016, 11:49:07 PM

I'll try it soon.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 23, 2016, 12:45:31 AM

DrazharLn of the Max Power has been of tech assistance, and Binary Dawn has been properly uploaded, and file ownership assigned to Mech.

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=17546.msg87580#new (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=17546.msg87580#new)

-I've linked it 10 places on Facebook, and it seems to have drawn an impressive amount of attention in less than an hour...

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 23, 2016, 01:20:23 AM

From a Facebook group I linked BD in:

Quote from: Honzi Brown

Wait, so Gaians can't have a base bigger than size 3?

MI?  I'll pass along any answer...

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on February 26, 2016, 08:35:36 PM

Not without Hab Complexes. Tree farms make them too powerful otherwise. Not only can they easily reach 2/2/1 per square, they also receive a 50% economy bonus from the facility while paying no maintenance.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 26, 2016, 08:43:51 PM

Quote from: MercantileInterest on February 26, 2016, 08:35:36 PM

Not without Hab Complexes. Tree farms make them too powerful otherwise. Not only can they easily reach 2/2/1 per square, they also receive a 50% economy bonus from the facility while paying no maintenance.

I've passed that along.

What I said the next day was "He hasn't been back by the forum yet, but we'd point out that he said the "Gaians have been altered to represent environmentalists" - and real environmentalists keep their population at sustainable levels, not excell at pop-booming as the Gaians always have."

If you're on Facebook, our page is here: https://www.facebook.com/AlphaCentauri2Forum/ (https://www.facebook.com/AlphaCentauri2Forum/)  Feel free to go right to the source.  I've also asked for feedback in the promoting post in this SMACX group https://www.facebook.com/groups/131175990236847/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/131175990236847/)  and help keeping the post bumped w/o looking like that's what's up would be good...

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 26, 2016, 08:54:19 PM

Quote from: Honzi Brown

Oh okay, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for response!

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 03, 2016, 09:40:11 PM

The link on the AC2 Facebook page, BTW, pulled 150 views last week, which is unprecedented.  So  ;b; ;b; ;b; for that, MI.

Would you like the tread title changed to reflect the Binary name change?  You can actually do that yourself, by editing the OP...

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on March 08, 2016, 08:43:20 PM

Oh? Very flattering. Will keep an eye on the facebook page.

Title: Re: Centauri Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Nexii on March 08, 2016, 11:43:52 PM

Quote from: MercantileInterest on February 26, 2016, 08:35:36 PM

Not without Hab Complexes. Tree farms make them too powerful otherwise. Not only can they easily reach 2/2/1 per square, they also receive a 50% economy bonus from the facility while paying no maintenance.

I thought maintenance had to be paid on free facilities from faction?  Such as University's free Network Nodes

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on March 09, 2016, 08:17:07 PM

Don't know. Suppose that was just an assumption.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 10, 2016, 06:05:00 PM

Quote from: Volcanon;14193315

No early mindworms? Kind of makes Gaians suck, doesn't it? Their big strength was much better exploration and a really good very early game rush.

Also size 3 bases are absolutely terrible. If they made Zak better there's really no reason to ever play Gaian on this.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=14193315&postcount=2 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=14193315&postcount=2)

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Nexii on March 11, 2016, 04:10:05 PM

Early tree farms is really strong though.  I'd say that would balance size 3 cap.  Gaian would still expand fast, early game your bases tend to stay small anyways.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on March 13, 2016, 06:46:59 PM

Can't say it better than Nexii. The Planet Cult still allows the early mindworm rush, so the strategy isn't gone.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 13, 2016, 06:55:11 PM

I've passed both along.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 15, 2016, 12:04:18 AM

v. 1.1 posted: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=17641.msg89406#new (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=17641.msg89406#new)

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 15, 2016, 05:42:47 PM

Quote from: Volcanon;14199418

Planet Cult in the base game is garbage. It looks like it was renamed in the update, so maybe they are good now. But in the base game Cult is something like the worst race in the game.

I don't really agree about the basis for pop 3 bases but then again it's not my place to tell people what to do.

I've also posted about v. 1.1

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 21, 2016, 05:26:24 PM

Quote from: Robert Can't;14207224

Love those changes to Gaians. That seems so much more thematically consistent with the techquotes/novels. Also the changes to Morganites make complete sense.

Looking forward to giving this a go!

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 29, 2016, 03:23:50 PM

Quote from: Recon Rover;14216574

I wanted to try this mod however I am receiving this error:

By the way I downloaded the file and copied and replaced the files directly to my Alien Cross Fire Folder. I hope that was correct.

A bad technology was found in the following file:

ALPHAX.txt

The key that could not be deciphered was

1

It occurred in the following line

1,     ;if non-zero, probe teams can steal technology

This is probably an attempt to modify the file

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=14216574&postcount=9 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=14216574&postcount=9)

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 30, 2016, 03:26:02 AM

...I told him to try v1.2, and got this...

Quote from: Recon Rover;14216849

Ah, thanks! It's working now. Lots of new interesting stuff. I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Edit:

>.< And crash right after building a former and trying to move it out of University Base.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on March 30, 2016, 05:09:20 PM

Weird. Can't imagine how a former could crash the game. Will investigate.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on March 31, 2016, 07:38:25 PM

Just uploaded version 1.3. Successfully tested it with different types of formers. Recon Rover, let me know if you're still experiencing problems and also whether you're using Yitzi's patch.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 31, 2016, 08:37:32 PM

Download approved and passed along with message.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 08, 2016, 09:19:54 PM

Quote from: Recon Rover

Okay, I continue to crash when using Former units. I am using Yitzi's Patch with Binary Dawn (the latest version).

I have a save game to provide. All you need to do is Press R when the former activates and the game will crash.

How do I upload the saved game file to share? 8)

Quote from: Recon Rover

Crash Game Press R.SAV (http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=406510&d=1460142627)

There we go! :)

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=14228587&postcount=15 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=14228587&postcount=15)

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on April 09, 2016, 06:30:38 PM

Using the latest version of Binary Dawn with Yitzi's latest patch, the saved game works perfectly. Pressing R doesn't crash anything.

Just to be clear, you've installed the contents of the factions folder, the contents of the main files folder, the contents of Yitzi's patch and lastly the contents of the Yitzi patch compatibility folder, each time copying over any duplicate files?

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 09, 2016, 07:03:02 PM

Passed along.

BTW, I've linked V1.3 here https://www.facebook.com/groups/131175990236847/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/131175990236847/) and here https://www.facebook.com/AlphaCentauri2Forum/ (https://www.facebook.com/AlphaCentauri2Forum/)  You've hinted you were on Facebook - if you were to share, comment, 'like' or anything of the sort, it would only help get your work into more hands...

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on August 24, 2016, 04:26:28 AM

Glorious new tech tree for the next version. Might make an artsier version later on.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on August 24, 2016, 08:58:13 PM

Possible new social engineering scheme:

Freehold,        None,    +POLICE
Democracy,       AdapEco, ++GROWTH, ++EFFIC, --SUPPORT
Police State,    DocLoy,  ++SUPPORT, ++POLICE, --EFFIC
Fundamentalist,  Brain,   ++PROBE, +MORALE, +TALENT, --RESEARCH
Subsistence,     None,    -PLANET
Free Market,     IndAuto, ++ECONOMY, ---PLANET, ---POLICE
Planned,         Algor,   ++GROWTH, +INDUSTRY, --EFFIC
Green,           CentEmp, ++PLANET, ++EFFIC, --GROWTH
Survival,        None,    none
Power,           Neural,  ++SUPPORT, ++MORALE, +PROBE, -INDUSTRY
Knowledge,       Integ,   ++RESEARCH, +EFFIC, --PROBE
Wealth,          Subat,   +INDUSTRY, +ECONOMY, --MORALE
Conservative,    None,    +TALENT
Cybernetic,      MindMac, ++EFFIC, ++PLANET, ++RESEARCH, ---POLICE
Psionic,         CentMed, ++POLICE, ++MORALE, ++PROBE, --SUPPORT
Oviparous,       Gene,    ++GROWTH, +ECONOMY, +INDUSTRY, --MORALE

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on August 25, 2016, 08:11:52 PM

BUncle, would you take down the old versions of Binary Dawn? Don't like cluttering up the downloads folder.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 25, 2016, 08:19:12 PM

Done.

-It would be a really good idea for you to track down the threads in Chiron News Network for the previous versions, and edit in the link to the latest - just in case those have been linked anywhere...

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 26, 2016, 08:09:34 PM

Delete yesterday's update?

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on August 26, 2016, 08:11:44 PM

Please, it didn't update properly. Zero size file and all that. Will see about editing those links.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 26, 2016, 08:16:00 PM

Okydoke - done.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on January 09, 2020, 07:19:41 PM

Quote from: MercantileInterest on January 25, 2016, 07:34:17 PM

University research only requires 80% of normal research points. This allows them to max out research in social engineering.

It is exactly like that in vanilla. What changed?

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on February 21, 2020, 10:35:25 PM

It's a change I copied blindly from Smaniac. My guess is that there's a max research rating in SE and that this circumvents that.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on September 28, 2020, 04:23:55 PM

I have played Binary Dawn factions and noticed Covenant have -2 POLICE. That feels like a pretty huge penalty not allowing police at start and requiring to build Recreation Commons to be able to grow to size 2. Almost impossible to spawn colonies without RC. That halves initial expansion speed on Transcend. I don't see any other early game bonuses able to overweight this penalty. Did I miss something? Are they supposed to shine in some other area compensating lack of police?

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on September 28, 2020, 05:41:06 PM

Haven't touched the new factions for years. They're not designed seriously but only meant to try out new concepts, like the teleporting sea faction or the faction with free punishment spheres. Covenant are probably the worst in the lot.

If you're just playing the factions, you wouldn't notice that one of the default SE options in the mod has +1 talent, which offsets early drone problems a little.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on September 28, 2020, 05:53:02 PM

They do get free Punishment Sphere at some point but I don't think this'll compensate early game expansion impact. It would be more logical to penalize their efficiency instead so they can spread but incur a lot of b-drones. Then Punishment Spheres would be really a good bonus. Now with slow expansion this Punishment Sphere is more of an additional penalty as there are not much b-drones to quell but 50% research reduction for already tiny faction is devastating.

Are you still actively playing this mod?

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on September 29, 2020, 02:29:10 AM

No.

Now I'm modding Will to Power.

The punishment sphere faction played oddly because they didn't start with them. Instead, they received them in all their bases when they discovered the tech, so you had a really dramatic mid-game shift in playstyle. Like I said, though, I was playing Binary Dawn for years after forgetting about the extra factions. The last time I used them was probably the time we did a four way all sea faction multiplayer game.

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on October 16, 2020, 05:59:28 PM

Beta files for my next mod:

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on October 16, 2020, 06:01:04 PM

Part 2:

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on October 16, 2020, 06:02:25 PM

Part 3:

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on October 16, 2020, 06:03:15 PM

Part 4:

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: MercantileInterest on October 16, 2020, 06:03:42 PM

Part 5:

Title: Re: Binary Dawn Overhaul
Post by: bvanevery on October 22, 2020, 02:49:44 AM

I think making 1 .zip of everything would be easier for downloaders.