How to mod Colony Maint Costs

from GalCiv3 Forums

Does anyone know where you can modify the default maintenance costs for colonies?

I am wanting to experiment with increase the base costs for colonies in an effort to make cash a bit more important.

 

Thanks in advance!

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Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

you could try adding a maintenance cost to the colony capital building, i guess that would have a similar effect

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

        <GlobalInterColonyMods>
            <EffectType>Maintenance</EffectType>
            <Target>
                <TargetType>Colony</TargetType>
                <TargetQualifier>NotPatriotic</TargetQualifier>
            </Target>
            <BonusType>Flat</BonusType>
            <Value>0.02</Value>
        </GlobalInterColonyMods>

The above will increase the maintenance costs of everything built upon every colony you own by (number of inhabited planets in your empire)*2%. If you were to use <BonusType>Flat</BonusType>, each colony's maintenance would be increased by 0.02 credits per inhabited planet in your empire. You could change the magnitude of the effect by modifying <Value>0.02</Value> to something else.

Alternatively, you could take this

        <GlobalColonyMods>
            <EffectType>Growth</EffectType>
            <Target>
                <TargetType>Colony</TargetType>
            </Target>
            <BonusType>Flat</BonusType>
            <Value>0.1</Value>
        </GlobalColonyMods>

and change the effect type to Maintenance and change the bonus type and value if you so desired; this leaves the per-colony maintenance cost independent of the number of inhabited worlds in your empire and is effectively the same as adding a maintenance cost to the Colony Capital. I've never tried using an effect type of maintenance for GlobalColonyMods, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work.

(This, incidentally, is how the game sets the base population growth, which is where the above came from, base planetary defense, base resistance, and the sponsor decay.)

There is a possibility that you'll need to include these in GalCiv3GlobalDefs.XML; I haven't tried using GlobalColonyMods or GlobalInterColonyMods outside of that file, but I don't know of a reason why it wouldn't work since you're not overwriting anything already defined in the file.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

When I did it, I added 

 

Code
  3. &lt;Stats&gt;
  4. &lt;EffectType&gt;Maintenance&lt;/EffectType&gt;
  5. &lt;Target&gt;
  6. &lt;TargetType&gt;Colony&lt;/TargetType&gt;
  7. &lt;/Target&gt;
  8. &lt;BonusType&gt;Flat&lt;/BonusType&gt;
  9. &lt;Value&gt;3&lt;/Value&gt;
  10. &lt;/Stats&gt;

 

Into improvementdefs.xml under the colony capital building (this makes the base cost of each colony 3 credits). I also removed all the other maintenance costs from there.

 

Then I changed the intercolony goodsandservices modifier in galciv3globaldefs.xml to:

 

Code
  3. &lt;GlobalInterColonyMods&gt;
  4. &lt;EffectType&gt;ColonyGrossIncome&lt;/EffectType&gt;
  5. &lt;Target&gt;
  6. &lt;TargetType&gt;Colony&lt;/TargetType&gt;
  7. &lt;/Target&gt;
  8. &lt;BonusType&gt;Flat&lt;/BonusType&gt;
  9. &lt;Value&gt;-.05&lt;/Value&gt;
  10. &lt;/GlobalInterColonyMods&gt;
.

 

This makes every new colony add 0.05 credits per turn to the cost of all colonies. That made money become more important as the empire got bigger (but got rid of LEP, though since I'm modding to balance insane maps with 1500+ habitables I wanted to get rid of LEP anyway),

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thanks for all of the responses!

I ran a test game earlier this week (for ~50turns) with 4 CR maint cost on colony capitals. I found it to be surprisingly fun that, for the first time, I actually had to pay attention to my income. It forced me to completely re-think how I colonized, how quickly I colonized, and what I built on new colonies. So far, it has made for a much greater and more in-depth challenge... which is fun! :)

I'll keep experimenting!

 

PS: I also modded in a similar fashion the maint costs per starbase.