Hey everyone, this thread contains information and discussions about my Endless Legend Community Patch (ELCP), a fanmade patch to the games core files that fixes numerous issues. Feel free to ask questions or join my discord channel for feedback, suggestions, bug reports and everything else around EL and ELCP.

Latest version: 2.7.8 (64 bit) (Steam only!)

Win64-Installer || Win64-Zip || Mac-Zip

But what is ELCP and why would I want it?

ELCP goes further than normal (steam workshop-)mods by modifying files that are usually referred to as "hardcoded". By doing this I have a deeper access to the games code and can therefore change stuff that is inaccessible otherwise. This allows me to make improvements to the game like fixing bugs, modifying the UI and (my personal favorite) improving the AI.

However due to the "invasive" nature of this patch, you have to download and install it manually like in the good olden days. The patch works with all DLC configurations. If you want to use it in multiplayer, all players need to have the same version of the patch.

Is there a feature list?

Yes! Note: the following list is only a rough and abbreviated outline of all the changes made. If you want an indepth changelog for each version, download [this html] and view it in your browser (it's huge, be warned). As you'll notice there are also major balance changes included in this patch. If you don't like that, you can use the [Vanilla Balance] mod I provide in conjunction with the patch. It will revert all .xml based balance changes back to their original state. However I would be happy, if you give my changes at least a try. The community at large agrees on the changes. The more contentious core system changes can be deactivated ingame.

Mods

• ELCP offers advanced support for the creation of custom maps via the community mapping tools ELCMT
• The following mods are included and act as a base for many changes I made
  • "Improved AI" by ninakoru (link)
  • "Status Panel Fix" by Fluffiest (link)
  • "UI-scale mod" by whateverelse, allows for customized UI scaling, check out the Full Changelog (Version 2.6.0) for details on how to use

General & UI

• Allows the use of steam workshop mods without disabling Achievements
• Maximum number of Empires raised to 15 (keep performance in mind when using more than 8 Empires!)
• Hosts can set up Handicaps for individual players, increasing or decreasing their FIDSI income in cities
• Allows modifying the default move speed of Armies, similar to how the battle speed can be altered (by morgoth)
• Allows defining at which zoom level the detailed 3D World map transitions into the abstract map (by morgoth)
• Selecting a Unit Design in a City's construction menu with the right or middle mouse button opens the Unit Designer
• Selecting the Icon of a known living Empire on the End-Turn-Panel with the right or middle mouse button now opens the diplomatic Negotiation Screen with that Empire
• Capacity list icons are now colored depending on the Capacity Provider (Unit Design, Hero specific or Item), Color coding can be configured in the game's UI options menu
• Resource stock and income values between 1000 and 10000 are now truncated to one decimal place (Implemented by fellow modder Cornebre)
• The Academy screen is sorted more sensible (Heros that need level ups or jobs are sorted to the front)
• Assimilation effects are now displayed in the tooltip of Villages as well
• By default Kapaku starting regions are assured to be volcanic (even if volcanic terrain is set to "none")
• New optional game features targeted at multiplayer play, like a spectator mode or an alternative take on the balancing of resources, anomalies and villages
• Improved world generator for better custom map compatibility

AI

• AI turn times in the late game are reduced significantly
• In general the AI should be more challenging (without additional cheats!) and less apathetic, most notably on difficulties higher than normal
• AI units will now actively try to move away from reinforcement locations (by morgoth)
• The AI is significantly smarter about choosing settling locations
• Heavily improved stockpile usage and how the AI fills its production queues, they should now build more efficiently
• Reworked Resource-Market usage, AIs will buy what they need now (including stockpiles) and will no longer sell everything they cant use immediatly
• Improved AI trading behavior, AIs cant be exploited as easily and will engage in trades on their own
• Improved Urkan Management: AIs are smarter about obtaining, training and using Urkans
• Improved AIs teching and and equipment choices
• Improved diplomatic AI - AIs will be more proactive about diplomacy, the goal is to make block building and long lasting alliances more likely (ongoing)
• Diplomatic and teching behavior is influenced by the Victory condition the AI currently pursues, AIs now do try to actively achieve Victory, and try to prevent others from doing so
• Overhauled war logic, AIs will consider attacking and defending with stronger Armies, Armies can group up now and defend endangered cities
• Improved encounter logic - AIs should be smarter when it comes to reinforcing, retreating and attacking (ongoing)
• Experimental Quest solving logic (currently for some global Quests and the Victory questline)
• Made many special case improvements to the Cultists behavior in order to make them more competitive
• Improved spying and teching logic of the Forgotten to prevent them from falling behind so hard
• Morgawr will now use their "dissent" and "catspaw" abilities deliberatly when they dont like you
• Kapaku now place their golem camps smartly and know how to use their special industry boosters (they didnt before)
• Vaulter and Mykara can use their respective teleport abilities
• Drakken make use of their "Force Status" diplomatic abilities
• Roving Clans may consider buying and using Privateers when they are rich enough
• Reworked Pillar and Spell usage of the Ardent Mages
• An Advanced World Setting "Replace Inland Seas" transforms oceans without Fortress access to Inland Waters (prevents AI spamming ships into small lakes)
• ... and maaaaaaaany bugfixes

(non AI-)Bugfixes

• Luxury Alchemists no longer increases the duration of stockpiles and infiltration actions
• fixed an endless siege bug, also sieges are no longer canceled if a besieging army leaves the besieged city but there are still others present
• Hovering over the "End Turn"-Button no longer reveals scores of other empires, if score display is set to "partial" or "none"
• Players can now only dismantle buildings if they have full ownership over a (recently conquered) city
• Fixed Sacrifice Population (Necrophages) not scaling with game speed
• A number of quest related bug fixes (mainly for "show stoppers" where quests weren't solvable)
• Joining a game via steam invite no longer circumvents security and mod checks, the game now respects the mod loading order when loading the game or joining a lobby
• So many more, it's just too much to list....

Balance[xml]

• Forgotten: "Dust Opportunist" was buffed and the possible range of stolen Dust is displayed in its tooltip
• Mykara: too many buffs to list, also made peaceful play with them less limiting, as Symbiosis traits can now also be aquired peacefully with a special diplomatic city trade action!
• Ardent Mages have had their spells reworked, stun only is no longer feasable!
• Urkans have been made considerably weaker in order to make them less of a "must have" game winner
• Activating a Luxury Booster when that Booster is already active now only resets the time instead of adding it on top
• Broken lords have an easier time doing early quests, 10% cheaper pop buyout, dust bishops are generally improved
• Underused governing skills/trees got a balance pass
• Increased the Influence cost of "Catspaw" for Fomorian Armies by about 50% 
• Diplomatic, Economic and Wonder Victory are harder to achieve, Victory Warning appear earlier
• Oceans yield less strategic and luxury resources in the early game, less FIDSI overall, and many facilities got nerfed
• Increased HP loss when retreating to 60%
• Reduced Damage and HP bonus of Serum of Iteru by 50%
• Mercenary Corps/Freelance Guards now also reduce the Buyout cost of Mercenaries and Heros by 20%
• Increased the market value of Stockpiles (for buying and selling!)
• Decreased construction costs of stockpiles across the board
• Marketban can not be reused for two turns after removal
• Force Truce can not be used for 5 turns if a Drakken has started the war
• Pillaging is faster, but Recovery time is also increased; this should make pillaging more worthwhile
• Introduced multiplicative stacking for Production Cost Reduction and Buyout Cost Reduction (Buildings and Units)
  • This basically means, that stacking these reductions gets less effective the more you do it, 100% reductions are no longer reachable

Balance[core]

• Units can only be sold in owned territory (within borders, owned fortresses or converted villages)

The following settings can be configured in the pre game options:

• Removed the ability to conquer cities and fortresses (whose region are owned by the target) of blackspot victims without declaring war
• Stockpiles are "fused together" when being upgraded
• Added a new ruleset for how Diplomatic Points from treaties accumulate, they are now buffered and get transferred each turn instead of all at once (prevents instant Diplomatic-Victories via treaty spam)
• Introduced a new optional feature: progressive tech trade costs - The Influence cost of tech trading in creases the more often you do it
• Introduced a new rule-set: Weaker Settlements
  • Newly settled Cities have no fortification, and cities from settlers out of razed Cities have no militia aswell 
  • Allows punishing greedy raze strategies in multiplayer
• Introduced a new rule-set for Fortification Armor and when it applies
  • Allows Fortification Armor to be applied when attacking out of a besieged City (see [This Link] for more inofrmation)
  • Also increases the effectivenes of retaliation damage as it now also affects armies attacking a city

Modding

• New Debug commands
  •  "/Autoturn" automatically progresses turns and an AI player takes over (useful for testing AI behaviour)
  • "/Skynet" lets the AI take over, but without automatically progressing turns
  • "/ShowMeTheStockpiles" - player gets the specified amount of each stockpile, 10 by default
  • "/Teleport" teleports the selected army to a world coordinate of the players choice (use God Cursor to get world coordinates)
  • "/CompleteQuest" completes the currently active Quest
• Modders can now access to values of new Game options they defined in xml, custom game options are a thing now!
• Game Options can be restricted to multiplayer only
• The god cursor ("G") now shows the current world position
• With modding tools enabled, selecting a technology in the Research Screen while pressing the "G"-Key instantly unlocks that technology

Installing/Uninstalling ELCP

.exe-Installer:

The easiest install method (for Windows users) is just using .exe Installer. It will try to locate your Endless Legend folder automatically and copy the needed files in it. A ELCP_BACKUP folder in your Endless Legend folder will be created, which will contain the original version of the files that get replaced. You can uninstall the ELCP via Windows uninstall menu or by executing unins000.exe located in your Endless Legend folder. The uninstaller will revert all changes made.

.zip-Archive:

Alternatively you can use the zip file and copy the "Public" and "EndlessLegend_Data" folders located in it into your Endless Legend folder. It also contains a backup folder so you can revert the changes.

.zip-Archive (Mac): 

Mac users have to use the mac specific zip file, the folders on mac are a bit different, but the same principles apply (files get copied into the corresponding folder of the EL directory). No Backup-folder is included (since I dont always have all the original mac files at hand). You completely uninstall ELCP using the "scorched earth" method described below. Detailed Instructions by fellow community member Robin Claassen:

• In your downloads folder, double-click on "ELCP_2.x.x_Mac.zip" to extract it.
• Open the "ELCP_2.x.x_Mac" folder you've just extracted.
• In another Finder window, navigate to: Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Endless Legend/
• If you don't see a "Library" folder in Users/[user]/, you can make it visible by following the instructions here (https://appletoolbox.com/2018/02/how-to-show-your-user-library-in-macos-high-sierra-and-sierra/ ), or navigate there directly by selecting Menu Bar>Go>Go to Folder..., and entering "~/Library/"
• Once in Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Endless Legend/, right click (control-click with a one-button mouse, or two-fingered click on a track pad) on EndlessLegend.app, select "Show Package Contents", and open the folder inside labeled "Contents".
• You may wish to make a backup of "EndlessLegend.app", or of the individual folders you'll be modifying within it.
• One at a time, open each of folders in "Public" folder in ""ELCP_2.x.x_Mac", and place the files within them in corresponding folders in the "Public" folder in "EndlessLegend.app" Note: Do not just option-click-drag the folders over and use the "Merge Folders" function (or select the files and use "copy" and "paste" to transfer them) . In some cases the files that you're overwriting may have more recent "Date Modified" dates than those that you need to overwrite them with.
• Replace the files in EndlessLegend.app/Contents/Resources/Data/Managed/ with the corresponding files in the "ELCP_2.x.x_Mac" folder.
• You're done. You can close the respective Finder windows and boot up Endless Legend. The version number displayed in the lower-left of the main menu should now be that of the version of ELCP you've installed.

How do I know my Install was succesfull?

You can check if the patching has succeded by checking the version display at the bottom left of the main menu. I gave the patch version numbers larger than 2.0.0 in order to make it easily recognizable (for example when browsing for MP-games). Speaking of which: MP-Sessions are only possible with other ELCP users (same version required). Old SP save games are compatible though.

Uninstalling ELCP after a new official patch was released (the scorched earth method):

Every time Amplitude/NGD release an official patch, parts of ELCP get overwritten with newer files. For one this means ELCP will not work until I release a new version of it (typically 1-3 days). If you dont want to wait that long, you have to make sure that all traces of ELCP are deleted. To achieve that: 

1. Delete the contents of your Public Folder located in your EL directory. 
2. Verify your game files via steam. Steam will proceed to download the original versions of all files you just deleted.

Donations

paypal.me/LeaderEnemyBoss

Regarding the 'lakes', one option is to remove ruins from the lakes, too. That would certainly prevent the unresolvable quests. (I'd be in favour of this approach, as it makes narrative and gameplay sense.) Given you're already swapping tile types, it should be fairly straightforward to remove the ruins  (I hope!).

Out of interest, what's the interaction between Steam and tinkering with the files? I imagine 'check file integrity' on Steam will return the game to its non-patched state?

Good work on getting this out! I'll try to give it a test-run this coming weekend.

Edit: also, regarding the Allayi - the issues is that Industry Stockpiles, in particular, are affected by their 'Luxury Alchemists' trait. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/EndlessLegend/comments/5xovmr/psa_allayis_luxury_alchemists_extends_stockpile/

It's not the duration so much as the effect it produces: an industry stockpile ends up providing more industry by far than it cost to create, allowing industry stockpiles to produce more stockpiles and then some bonus industry. It goes a bit crazy.

Yes just removing ruins is certainly possible. I kinda like them being there, since those oceans-converted-to-lakes can grow very big and I'd like to have some valuable "stuff" in them. Honestly I would prefer that over the rare unsolvable quest. However it may also be possible to just make the target selections for quests a bit smarter (take the tile the ruin is on into account).

Steam: there is no interaction except that an official patch would ofcourse overwrite everything and - as you said - verifying the game cache will reset everything to its vanilla state (as will using my uninstallation file).

On a side node:

I used the whole day to try to make sense of the AIs colonization process (which tiles they prefer especially) and my god is this a mess. The game actually has a pretty good worldposition evaluation that spits out reasonable tiles for colonization. But after using this it "evaluates" these tiles again using a ton of paramaters, and converters stretched out over many many different functions, and in the end it results in things like this:

In the first image it basically chose the worst 7-tile location in the whole region (it spawned next to the southern river, so there were many better spots immediatly visible). The second image is just sad. Note how the fog of war indicates that the AI took 2 turns to reach this spot. I am probably just going to throw out the whole evaluation process. It would take days of logging to fully understand it, and the end result is crap anyway. Since there is already a perfectly fine worldposition evaluation I will probably use it and fiddle around a bit with weights until i get the desired results. The AI in general seems to be a bit "overengineered". Many smart ideas, but too many parameters.

Honestly, raw summation of FIDSI (perhaps weighted a bit heavier for industry) would get you 90% of the way there. It's almost never better to take more than one turn to settle, either, but you could demand a minimum level before settling too (probably better for later settles). 

Dragar wrote:

Cheating how? To get an achievement?

I was about to ask the same question. I never use cheat mods and only mods that make the game quality better or AI better. In that vein, I'm cheating myself. This is something needed for ES 2 as well. Why should I invest a gajillion hours into modded games and get no achievements from them when I'm not cheating in any way?

Or why should a simple cosmetic change block achievements? It's kind of silly.

icarus86 wrote:

Changelog:

General

• Achievements are no longer disabled by mods

Not sure that this is a good idea.

Having achievements disabled when mods are in use is a way to prevent cheating.

So here is my reasoning:

Yes achievements can be gained "unfairly" with this (say a mod that makes everything super easy to get). But here is the thing: this is already the case. Simply modifying files in the public folder instead of using mods circumvents the achievment lock. Furthermore: I often heard from people "well I'd like to use mods, but I like my achievments more". So we have to decide, whats more important: A healthy modding community or the "purity of achievements". In this late stage of the life cycle of EL I firmly think, that helping the modding community is way more important, especially since - as I have mentioned - a dedicated "achievement cheater" can do so already anyway. Finally, I think its also kind of a "hook" to get some people interested in my work in the first place (this is admittedly a somewhat egotistical reason).

This is not the first game I am modding. Most of my mods are for "XCom 2", a game from which I think many other games could learn a lot when it comes to modding friendliness (and the resulting longevity). There are no restrictions to achievements and modders are granted access to huge chunks of the games original source code (with developer comments and everything). I think this is a good approach to take.

I dont think I can edit my entry post. Since I dont want to bury links to my new releases in the thread (think of the people that see this in 5 years!) im just gonna open a new thread:

(link removed, since CyRob told me how to edit the main post ;) )

I released a new version of ELCP, see main post!

Small update: Next to other things i fixed the allayi luxury resource bug in my development build. Boy oh boy, what a rabbit hole. Apparently the bug didnt only affekt stockpile boosters, but also other effects that used the same method to calculate its duration (e.g. Infiltration actions like "reduce fortification" and "poison governor"). 

Additionally I always wondered why the effect of "luxury alchemists" only activates after at least two luxury boosters have been activated. It doesnt match with the wording of the tech, so I changed it (it activates after one active booster now). I think the Allayi could use a small buff, so it shouldnt be a huge issue.

Short update: Apparently the AI didnt know it could restore injured heroes. I wrote a simple new method in order to change that. There are still lots of "low hanging fruit" when it comes to the AIs economic game. If I continue fixing all these issues there may come a time when the highest difficulty AI may become way harder than it was in vanilla. I wonder if I have to tone down the bonus resources the AI gets on high difficulties one day.

IceGremlin wrote:

I've personally always preferred the method of giving the player bonus capitol resources on lower difficulties, but that assumes the AI is already very tough when on an even playing field with the player. It goes further I think in making the player feel powerful at lower difficulties and being able to resist an AI snowball, whereas giving the AI the resources on higher difficulties tends to increase the chances of catastrophic snowballing.

You say Fortresses have low utility value when trading, unless it completes the ocean set. Does this also apply if I were to trade the full set in one go?

I personally am no big fan of giving the player bonus resources, because it distorts their playing experience and may create habits/playstyles that no longer work when they play "normally". I'd rather make the AI super weak on low difficulties (which it already is as far as I know, but I honestly have no experience with playing below hard, and I found the hard AI already pretty weak).

To your fortress question: Yes! I programmed a new function for that purpose. It checks whether other fortresses are in the currently open diplomatic contract (thats the internal name of a negotiation) and if they are of the same region. Only if the receiving empire gets all fortresses in a region, the utility boost kicks in. (It als takes fortresses the receiver already possesses into account).