Modding Range

from Stardock Forums
I want to mod the colony ship to have 0 range.
I face two big problems:
On maps average+, a range of 0 means 1 or more, so colony ships could in fact reach other sectors.
On maso, the ai gets a +1 range bonus.
Does anyone have an idea about how to lift these limitations?

I didn't try putting -1 in the range value, but if it worked (which I doubt), it would offset the map size range bonus. Does anyone know where the map size range bonus lies (hard coded or in a file)?
About maso, I'm concerned that it probably can't be changed, and the resulting score would be anomalous, but I don't really care about that. I'd like to play this setting on maso because I think that below the ai will have too much of a disadvantage since I'll wreck its expansion strategy from the start.

As an alternative, I could give colony ships a speed of 0, but that means I can't use speed bonuses for my other ships, and range techs won't be as important as I would.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I didn't try putting -1 in the range value, but if it worked (which I doubt), it would offset the map size range bonus. Does anyone know where the map size range bonus lies (hard coded or in a file)?
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I believe the map size range bonus is hard coded, I haven't come across it in any of the files. You can put a negative value into Range, however. I haven't seen any adverse affects from doing so.


~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks Hawaii. Indeed, I played with -3 range for colony ships, and the ai is unable to reach out as it did with 0. It does get planets settled outside its sector later, but I don't know if it sends constructors or it just got to enough + range picks to be able to expand. I'll try again.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, after awhile the + range techs pile up and a negative range ship can gain range beyond zero, but it serves the purpose in the early game.

You could always count up how many + range techs there are and then give a range setting that's equal to that (number + 1) * -1 to ensure it'll never get above zero.

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I did that but the problem is the ai doesn't know how to manage 0 range colony ships. If I let them have a + range tech, the first one to get it will start expanding like crazy, and their bonuses mean they'll do that before the player, who has probably used starbases to extend his own reach. Maybe with tight clusters each civ would spend some time before expanding without being crushed by the first to expand. Very hard to balance.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
That's a good point. What are you trying to achieve? A game where one has to build starbases to gain a foothold in a new sector before plunking down a colony? Interesting, but as you point out, maybe the AI can't handle it.

~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I was trying to get a game where you would have to choose a tech path instead of everyone going for the same techs. It's actually an ambitious project, where the range is only a small part.

The idea is:
- Prevent free expansion. You'd need range techs or starbases to be able to extend out. Also, speed would be limited unless you researched lots of techs.
- Allow turtling. If you don't spend your research on range/speed, you can spend it on either production or military techs.
Thus you could have turtle civs which start with a few stars but have a powerful military and economy given their size, and big sprawling empires with light military.
This means I'd have very separate attack ships tech tree (fast, long range), defense ships (0 initial speed and no range) tree, speed tree, range tree, production tree, etc. Each tree would require a few techs before it would start giving of bonuses, thus specialization would be the way to go at the beginning.

To achieve that, I have to prevent the expansion phase to happen, because if everyone meets everyone else early on and only the Drengins have a military and transports, well, the game will be over immediately, because the attackers will take a planet, gain one tech they lack, and continue until they have all techs, a massive military lead and more star systems.

So the first option is to limit the colony ship range. It's the easiest test to do since I just have to mod one figure. Problem is that the ai, even though they build up, never start expanding for lack of starbases.
I could do it by modding the +range techs so the tech that gives an actual 1 range to ai colony ships (based on map size) comes late/costs much, and there would be a very cheap +1 range tech immediately afterwards so the player could also get the 1 range without a racial +1 range on maso.
I wouldn't have all these problems if the ai didn't have the +1 range on maso.
Note that having to build a starbase to get a foothold is really fun. If the ai did it, you would have plenty of targets for starfighters in the early game, as the time taken by constructors to reach their target is quite long, whereas colony ships are much faster and thus harder to hit. Too sad the ai is so bad at it.

Problem is I would have to understand the algorithm deciding which tech an ai pursues. I think it is based on AI Value specified in the text file and something else, but what is that something else and what weight does it have? Do the Drengins prefer military techs? Why so they seem to like sensors more than others? Can I mod the techs so that I can prompt ai's to follow different tech paths?
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
On thinking more about it, what I'd need is a logistics range which prevents a race from reaching faster than X sectors from its home planet.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
This sounds really interesting!

I think it is based on AI Value specified in the text file and something else, but what is that something else and what weight does it have? Do the Drengins prefer military techs? Why so they seem to like sensors more than others? Can I mod the techs so that I can prompt ai's to follow different tech paths?
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Yah, I think it's a mix of the AI value and what internal strategy the AI is using. If the AI is following a 'War' strategy, they go for sensors + military techs. There seems to be a 'Trade' strategy. And a 'Culture Bomb' strategy. Probably more, too. You can infer what path the AI is choosing when selling a tech. Some AIs will pay more because this tech lends itself to the strategy the AI is trying to implement.

At least, that's what I've noticed. And it changes from game to game, too. I don't know if you are going to be able to do anything about that, though. It *is* hardcoded. Unless Stardock gives us a new .AI file to play with.

~SDC~