Would anyone be able and willing to take on a mod-enabling project (EXE editing)

[Kilkakon]

I suggest either shipping a copy of a modified alphax.txt or having the values default to normal, for compatibility's sake.

Personally, I would love to see more units.pcx slots, by having them extend to the other columns (that would really get my morale going for modding! ). That and stopping the AI pester every single time a unit is moved into range for peace, once a turn is enough.

[Yitzi]

I suggest either shipping a copy of a modified alphax.txt or having the values default to normal, for compatibility's sake.

Unfortunately, having the values default to normal would be a lot harder than simply including a modified alphax.txt (with the normal values) and updating all necessary saved games, so I will simply be doing the latter.

Personally, I would love to see more units.pcx slots, by having them extend to the other columns (that would really get my morale going for modding! ).

I'm not sure what that means.

That and stopping the AI pester every single time a unit is moved into range for peace, once a turn is enough.

AI is more Kyrub's department, but it might be doable...I doubt it'll be easy, though.

[kyrub]

I've actually started working on it, but if you want to coordinate just send me a message.

Oh, you are on it, Yitzi. Very well! No need of my interference then, the perfect scenario.

The following are the only ones that were mentioned that I can find that I think might not be feasible:
-The AI modification if cross-species cooperative victory is disabled; you're the expert on AI, though.  (That said, I think it might be better just to house-rule that bit anyway.)

No idea how/where.

-Diagonals for minimum base distance.

This I think I can help with.

-Monolith building

Neither.

-More social engineering options

Sadly, this is quite complex, as it requires AI changes and changes in interface.

-More than seven factions

NEVER.


Personnally, I would wage including a variable from the hidden formula that manages sudden worm appearance. This is quite important for any modding of Green policy, worm farming etc. The game is extremely biased against anybody who owns a lot of worms already... Poor conception.

[Yitzi]

Oh, you are on it, Yitzi. Very well! No need of my interference then, the perfect scenario.

Of course, two people coordinating might do it faster than one...up to you, though.

-Diagonals for minimum base distance.

This I think I can help with.

If you can, it would be nice, but I suspect it might just use a general "distance calculator" subroutine rather than a specific search, in which case it might not be feasible to change just that bit.

Sadly, this is quite complex, as it requires AI changes and changes in interface.

The changes in interface and changes in data info are why I don't think it can be done.

NEVER.

Well, at least not unless we can get GOG to add various patches and upgrades to the source code and get it that way.  But the assumption of the number of factions is simply too pervasive to have a realistic chance of modifying otherwise.

Personnally, I would wage including a variable from the hidden formula that manages sudden worm appearance. This is quite important for any modding of Green policy, worm farming etc. The game is extremely biased against anybody who owns a lot of worms already... Poor conception.

I understood that having a lot of worms decreases the chance of worm capture, but not of worm appearance.  If so, it's a very sensible rule, as it prevents native strategies from going totally out of control.

Also, I feel that modding of Green policy is best done via changing the ecodamage rules (so that PLANET rating is important for builders), and I'd want to make worm farming completely unprofitable if looking only at Planetpearls (i.e. it needs worm capture to make it profitable.)[/quote]

[Lord Avalon]

Isn't there a unit limit bug that needs to be fixed before you can even think of increasing number of players?

[Yitzi]

Isn't there a unit limit bug that needs to be fixed before you can even think of increasing number of players?

I'm pretty sure that the problem with attempts to lift the unit limit is the same as one of the problems with increasing the number of players: There's no room for the data.

[Kilkakon]

Personally, I would love to see more units.pcx slots, by having them extend to the other columns (that would really get my morale going for modding! ).

I'm not sure what that means.

By default, the game has nine slots for unit graphics, in units.pcx, one per row. Native units have graphics for each level of veterancy, by going along the columns. What I would like is to have values above 8, which allow use of the other columns rather than just the first. Sure this would give some overlap with higher level natives, but this way more flexiblity is given to modders so they can have more custom units.

[Yitzi]

By default, the game has nine slots for unit graphics, in units.pcx, one per row. Native units have graphics for each level of veterancy, by going along the columns. What I would like is to have values above 8, which allow use of the other columns rather than just the first. Sure this would give some overlap with higher level natives, but this way more flexiblity is given to modders so they can have more custom units.

That would require looking at how it handles the graphics, which could be a bit tricky; it might be possible, though.

[Kilkakon]

If you can do that and it will work on my laptop then you will be bombarded by hugs from random people you never knew existed. :O Either that or some other, highly positive yet obsure thing.

[Mart]

While we're on the topic, I might as well give the list of what I'm planning to add in the first batch, together with the default values (it also is followed by (inactive) and a sequence of numbers and letters; that's for my own personal use when modding and I just haven't bothered to remove it):
8        ; Bonus borehole ecodamage (inactive) (0094A180)
6        ; Bonus mirror ecodamage (inactive) (0094A184)
...

So is it possible to make these active and make them required in alphax.txt?
This would enhance modding, e.g. I already see a lot of application in fine-tuning ecodamage.

[Yitzi]

So is it possible to make these active and make them required in alphax.txt?

It's done in my patch 1.1, available for download right now.  Patch 1.1 has all the ecodamage variables activated.

This would enhance modding, e.g. I already see a lot of application in fine-tuning ecodamage.

Indeed.  That's the idea.

By the way: Here's an idea for a scenario someone might want to make: The Usurpers have just destroyed everyone else with Planet Busters, but now Planet itself is attacking them, and somehow blocking attempts to contact the home world.  To make matters worse, it doesn't seem interested in concessions, and the more it attacks them, the angrier it gets.  Their only hope is to go through with the plan and attain Transcendence.

(Special rules/setup:  Set starting clean minerals to 0, 0 clean minerals per facility, and -1 clean minerals per fungal pop (-5 for hard mode).  Set the tech for centauri preserves, temples of Planet, and subspace generators to "disable", and remove the PLANET bonus from Green and Cybernetic.  Disable conquest and economic victory via the in-game rules. Make a typical midgame game (with the Usurpers having recently gotten Orbital Spaceflight) and have the Usurpers let off a whole bunch of Planet Busters to destroy everyone else.  The player's goal is then to win via Transcendence before either he is overrun by Mind Worms, or time runs out.)

[Buster's Uncle]

How'sabout I sticky this thread for wish-list requests and discussion of same?  Ought to be handy to have a place for that and keep it consolidated...

[Yitzi]

How'sabout I sticky this thread for wish-list requests and discussion of same?  Ought to be handy to have a place for that and keep it consolidated...

Ok, though unless I think it's a really good idea it'll probably wait until version 3 or 4 of my patch (or until Scient gets to it.)

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay; if anyone has a better idea or needs anything, let me know.

You know folks, one way to contribute to the project(s) is as a collator - dig around and find threads in other folders about bugs/patches/exe modding and point them out to me to move here.  Go through the really long and/or complex discussions and post a summary at the end - stuff like that.

[Buster's Uncle]

This is way off the track, but would someone, anyone, please please PLEASE find a way to crack the (antique and proprietary) .cvr format most of the units are saved in so they can be modified?