Ah.  Good to know,  thanks for the clarification.

I'm not sure. I've been toying around with the prestige values but honestly? I think the solution is worse than the problem and in the end, it doesn't solve that much. 

I've been looking for the assembly code that triggers an AI launching a colony ship but it's worse than looking for a needle in a stack of needles.

If I haven't heard anything after the weekend we might as well release the version available for download.

This is so epic I'm getting teary eyed. :') So much work, we are like Santa looking at his bag of toys for all the bratty kids that pass for "nice" these days and waiting for Christmas eve. LOL

be sure to tell what files were changed over the last update because I want to know what to look out for, and simplify my download process. l'm having trouble keeping all the the files in order.

You could make them destructible by adding this tagline to those 3:

<ManualDestruction>1</ManualDestruction>

although this opens up a possible exploit to "farm" them on a single planet (if you get foreign ones...)

I've ran 10 test games to see how much AIP7 benefits from extra influence. 

Results can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OYN1dZVo_M-wcdSy2i-9JqN9hEvf_5CwVmxInYlkJUk/edit?usp=sharing

TL;DR. It hardly matters.

That works but if your empire already has an SA you won't be able to build it again.

Hm.  I tried adding this,  just to test,  and it didn't let me decomission the buildings after I built them.   Made sure to put the XML in the right place and that I was modifying the right file..  of course if what Mabus says is true (ie that super projects are flagged as built and not unflagged even if you decomission them),   then its moot anyway.

<geek rage>Makes no sense to me that if I take over a bunch of alien worlds that have Economic Capitols,   I get to have more than one,  and they all work fine.   But god forbid I want to then build my own.  </geek rage>

Anyway.. thanks for the pointers guys,  I'll let the subject die so you can all get back to the more important stuff.

That's true, but as long as your own one is only queued somewhere you could destroy the foreign one, and it is refunded. Then you queue it also (and only) on that planet where your own is and then there are 2, and you can even finish them.

That way, eg. a SuperProduction world with multiple ManuCaps could be constructed, although you'd have to seriously delay the completion. In DA that was even possible with GA like eg the MCC^^^^

On the influence-stuff:

I've been rather unsuccessfull to find anything helpful on that matter. Initially I thought your observation about still-colonizable planets would do the trick, but then I wasn't able to reproduce it. I've gifted them a PQ1 at their homeworlds without result. All other planets will have very little effect as they would be fastly colonized...

I think the devs wanted AIP7 to be rather territorial, and probably thought that with their bad influence they would auto-loose distant worlds anyway, so why bother. The problem is that with TotA the occurence of habitable worlds got seriously reduced in comparison to a DA all-abundant map. And in smaller maps this zone is somewhat not distant enough.

Basically my main view is that the typical "bad-influence for badguys" thematic is ill-addressed, at least, from a balancing point of view. It hinders their colonization process, the Yors SA is disturbed two-fold: Not colonizing barren worlds, and having less zone of influence hinders the slowing-ships-trait. Korath spored worlds fall down permanently if other influences are present. Their Dark Influence is super strong if build on their core worlds, but doesn't really much if planets have 0.0n pop.

I was theorizing handing them an early + strong influence bonus which could aid them during the colonial rush - and afterwards taking that bonus away through a negative bonus that could be attribute on a basic tech, something they will always research (for example, Planetary Invasion). Choosing not to research this (and not being able to invade) is way more negative than an influence-loss. Although they shouldn't have the ability to circumvent that by techtrade etc, so probably one of their factory techs would be more suitable.

For Korath/(Drengin), an idea currently would be to transform their factory penalty from influence-->loyalty. Their worlds would fall equally but their zone of influence would be normalized.

But seeing your tests now with +200 prestige, well, why even bother....

Additional starbases will push influence. But the only thing that comes in mind is a reduced constructor-mod = more construcotrs = more bases. But that's Arcean style.

Or gift them more PQ so that at least they can make more out of their worlds, but then again that's Altarian/Arcean/Thalan etc thematic... Evil is more about destroying its worlds, as stupid as that may sound... (a concept that cannot work if the base game mechanics stay the same for everyone)

Tried that and it didn't really work. Besides, if a player cleverly techtrades they'll have a species with +300 influence.

That and it would be exploited to hell by players.

The sad fact is that AIP7 is busted in a critical area and it's a real shame too because it DOES build dozens of colony ships when its scouts encounter habitual worlds it simply doesn't launch them until a planet is in it's territory.

take this file

http://www.xup.to/dl,20461993/PlanetImprovements.xml/

tested + works

rename orig file to *.BACK so you can restore the changes

in directory 

GalCiv2Ultimate\Twilight\mods\Community Update\Data\

on the history-techs it would be untradeable

Same changes I made,  same place,  same result.   What do you mean by "works", exactly? 

Whoops.  I must not have started my test game with the changes -- when I started a new game,  it worked fine.   My bad.  /blush

Thanks Maiden,  I'll be sure to add this to any mod I download -- one less niggling frustration with the game.

I actually wouldn't mind them being non-destructible,  if the @!#(* programmer who implemented that would have kept track per *race* instead of per *player*.   That way,  I wouldn't care if the Torian Economic Capital had already been built,  and I capture it,  I can still build the Arcaen Economic Capital.

Frogboy,  if you're reading this,  I apologize for calling you or one of your staff a !@#(*!.   I'm a programmer and I've been called much worse,  and I know its far easier to criticize an implementaion issue than find a decent solution.  

I think we need a list of existing bugs we haven't fixed.

I don't think there are any left. Real bugs, that is.

Well, if any changes to the executable would be possible there would be those:

- Influence Points bug (from 1-999 their value is enormously high, so you can trade them for good money)

- Fill up starting colony module to max value

-1pp

there's surely more. In DA I knew a boatload, but I'd have to recheck if their still present

I've spend the better part of last week trying to figure out why AIP7 refuses to launch it's colony vessels. If it can be done I'm not versed enough in assembly to do it.

The same is true for the other points to mentioned. We'll just have to live with them.

You'd simply have to queue it before you get a foreign one, then you could still build your own one (using the unmoded game.)

Of course that implies that you already have the ability to do so, ie. necessary techs should be researched, but seeing tht you are already invading, then that should be the case.

But I know, it can be frustrating esp. when I did forget it and only notice it a few turns later and cannot go back.

Does anyone know why exactly logistics have been doubled? The log points of medium/large/huge ships under "manage" now show only up as "....", this doesn't make fleet managment more easy (if one wants to fill his fleets optimally to the maximum). The place seems to only allow a single digit......

Noted in GC2Conversations.xml:

When giving a gift to another race,  you'll get a rather jarring message,  "Your generosity is greatly appreciated,  <empire name>".   Huh?  You're talking to my whole empire?   This is gramatically wrong.

Changed [YourEmpireName] to [YourLeaderName] as follows:

    <Topic Name="AI_GENERIC_THANKS">
        <Dialogue>
            <Speaker Name="Generic">10</Speaker>
            <Listener Name="Generic">10</Listener>
            <Phrase Morality="0">
                <Text>We thank you for this generous gift.#Your generosity is greatly appreciated, [YourLeaderName].</Text>
            </Phrase>
            <Phrase Morality="1">
                <Text>We thank you for this generous gift.#Your generosity is greatly appreciated, [YourLeaderName].</Text>
            </Phrase>
            <Phrase Morality="2">
                <Text>We thank you for this generous gift.#Your generosity is greatly appreciated, [YourLeaderName].</Text>
            </Phrase>
        </Dialogue>
    </Topic>

If nobody wants to make this change to the mod,  I suppose I can try to figure out dropbox,  or whatever you guys are currently using to pass around the work in progress.

I might be able to do something about this by removing the Influence line from the trade window. Simply put, trading with influence points will be impossible.

I'll see if I can update the .dxpack file to allow more digits.

I'll fix it. Thanks.

Quoting oneself . Anyway. It's not possible to remove influence from the techtrade window.

Logistics doubling allows the AI to not be crippled by starbase construction costs.

Or players...

btw, check the dropbox folder. I've uploaded my own RallyPoint screen. I removed the map. Gaunathor never liked it but I'd like a second opinion.