Yes, I'm aware of that. But for today the only mods that counts are pimp galaxies and this comunity mod. So I hoped You'll think about merging those two even before officiall support

I have updated the mod to 1.0.14 and changed the scope. For possible historical interest, here is the previous OP. It had 120 downloads.

I am aware that I am a little bit ahead of the dev team on this, but I am proud to announce the first released mod for ES. It is small, but I am sure it will grow.



Disclaimer

• USE WITH VERSION 1.0.9 ONLY. As soon as a new version is released I will update the mod.
• This content is not Amplitude's, so this mod is installed at your own risk.
• This writes over files which are installed by the game release. To uninstall you will need to use steam to revalidate your game cache.
• Text changes are for English language only. The mod will work in other languages but the old text will be present.
• For multiplayer, the mod will work as long as everybody has the same mod(s) installed. Otherwise, it will lead to weird out-of-sync and probably crash.
  
  

Contents

• Change colors of players, so that the colors are easier to distinguish. No more "three shades of green".
• Undo buff to bushido bonus for Hissho; reset to +10% FIDS on invasion. The 1.0.3 release buffed it to 20%.
• Replace generic AI ship names like Medium1HisshoTemplate with the actual ship names, such as Falcon.
  
  

Installation

• Download this zip file: comm-mod-005.zip
• Unzip into (your steam directory)\Endless Space. Usually your steam directory is c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common
• You should see a prompt from winzip confirming that it will overwrite two files, sharedassets17.asset and Localization_Locales.xml. If you do not, you have unzipped into the wrong place.
  
  

How it works

The xml files are contained inside sharedassets17.asset, which is a non-encrypted binary file. I wrote a program which updates strings in this file, as long as the old and new strings are exactly the same length. This is a strong limitation on what can be modded today. seiya gets credit for finding the files. I have unpacked and given some description here.

Why are people so insistent that a color needs to be changed. I like the colors, If something were to be done, I'd like to see a purple added, not as a replacement, but I guess that would give us 3 shades of blue.

I find the three shades of green and yellow very hard to tell apart. I am not "insistent" about it.

There have been over a hundred downloads (counting moddb) but practically no comments. I guess that means everybody likes it. Great! If you have any feedback please let me know. In particular, I am considering splitting this mod into two parts: one which has AI changes and cosmetic improvements, but no changes to the human player gameplay; and another which contains changes to human player gameplay. For example, the corporate hero would go into the second mod. The drawback to two mods is, then everybody will complain that there is no way to use two mods together.



Any suggestions on whether one mod or two is better?

Version 1.0.14-02 (serial 02) released. Here is the historical release note for serial 01:

Contents

• General
  
  
  • Change colors of players, so that the colors are easier to distinguish. No more "three shades of green".
  • Undo buff to bushido bonus for Hissho; reset to +10% FIDS on invasion. The 1.0.3 release buffed it to 20%.
  • Nerf craver by increasing FIDS penalty on depleted planets. After 60 turns, the FIDS penalty becomes -50% (was -25%).
    
    
• Corporate hero
  
  
  • These changes attempt to make the corporate hero more useful in the early game, so people who don't get an initial admin hero won't feel bad.
  • Add Deal Closer: requires Negotiator 1, gives -50% buyout bonus on system (early game!)
  • Reduce Savvy Business chain to a single ability, requires Negotiator 2, gives +5% per wit to trade bonuses
  • Change prerequisite of Industrial-Academic Partnership (+20% science). It was buried under Dust Wielder, move it under Negotiator 1. Change effect to flat +25 science on empire.
  • Add I-A Partnership 2, requires IA1, gives +20% science on system
  • Change prerequisite of Value Creator 1 from Negotiator 3 to Negotiator 2.
  • Change prerequisite of Efficient Schooling from Director 1 to Director 2. This is a minor decrease in power for the admin hero.
    
    
• Rebalance custom traits
  
  
  • Nerf Diplomats I,II: Interestingly, the description "increases duration of positive diplomacy effects" does not match the actual effect "+25% trade bonus". Instead of +25% and +50%, it is now +10% and +20%. It affects amoeba affinity as well; I don't think this nerf will kill them.
  • Nerf Merchant I,II: currently provide +1, +2 trade routes per system. I have deleted level 2, and doubled the cost of level 1 from +6 to +12. For 1v1 maps, this seems like a huge nerf, but on 8-player maps it seems reasonable.
  • Delete Sloppy Sawbones I,II: this is a primary example of a point bonus with a negligable effect.
  • Add restriction pair: Endless War prevents Blockade Breakers, and vice-versa.
  • Discussion and more details in this thread: /#/endless-space/forum/27-general/thread/9084-suggestions-needed-rebalance-custom-traits
    
    
• AI building prerequisites
  
  
  • These changes attempt to keep the AI from building so many system improvements. This makes the AI waste less dust on maintenance, so it has more to spend on retrofits, so it can kill you faster.
  • Fix several bugs in AI prerequisites for food improvements
  • For a number of industry and shipbuilding improvements, only build them once the system has over 50 industry. This attempts to focus on "forge" systems.
  • Defense improvements such as bunkers are only built once the system population is more than 5.
  • Information improvements such as cis-oort satellites are never built. (I would prefer something less dramatic, but I rarely build these myself.)
  • Discussion and more details in this thread: /#/endless-space/forum/27-general/thread/9289-suggestions-requested-rules-for-ai-to-not-build-something
    
    
  
  
  

75 downloads through mediafire, plus 95 downloads through moddb.

Version 1.0.14 serial 3 about to be released. Here is the diff of the serial 2 release note; 45 downloads.

Contents

• General
  
  
  • Replace generic AI ship names like MEDIUM1HISSHOTEMPLATE with the race-specific ship name such as FALCON (new)
  • Decrease research income earned as part of trade; was 2x dust, now 0.5x dust (new)
  • AI improvements (credits: this section by Ail) (new)
    
    
    • Improves choice of exploits and expansion to additional planets
    • Raises priority of Magnetic Shields (+40 sci) and Planetary Institute (+6 FIDS) improvements
    • Improves assignment of heroes to fleet or system
    • Details in this post: /#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15776-ai-modding
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

Sounds like a really good balance. I wonder if these changes will get put into the game itself.

Nice, keep up the good work, hope to see more nicely polished modding like this.

davea wrote:
Information improvements such as cis-oort satellites are never built. (I would prefer something less dramatic, but I rarely build these myself.)

I don't think this was a good idea seeing as those buildings are quite important. Without the AI building them, it's too easy to "culturally" invade their systems and take them without declaring war (especially with the Horatio). Furthermore, opposing factions can't colonize systems or even pass through them as long as they're under your area of influence. I've personally removed this restriction from your mod because these improvements help shape one's empire's borders (plus, having extra detection range is crucial once warp travel is researched, since one can see what system the enemy is headed for couple of turns in advance, thus giving one time to prepare and intercept).

Insolentius wrote:
Without the AI building them, it's too easy to "culturally" invade their systems and take them without declaring war (especially with the Horatio).

In ES, what does it mean to culturally invade? As you know, in ES systems never "culture flip". What is the specific benefit you see apart from preventing colonization? I agree that it would be nice if we could help the AI to decide when to build them. There is some maintenance cost; and some small strategic benefit. Which is more important? I have analyzed a number of AI positions and it seems that the AI "wastes money" on these.



Ideally, there should be some "modding hook" so we can have the AI make a better decision. What should it be? I never build these anymore, but if I did, I would put them on frontier worlds (a string connects to an unoccupied/enemy occupied system) and not in my inner planets. This way, the higher level improvements would be built rarely, and only where it might "help". What do you think?

I would build those in the case that the extended frontier would cover a not yet claimed system or an enemy system.

Not sure if there's any way to calculate these values during the game, though.

That is a good suggestion. We would definitely need a new variable from the dev team, since mods are currently limited to equations and not programming algorithms which examine the map.

davea wrote:
In ES, what does it mean to culturally invade? As you know, in ES systems never "culture flip". What is the specific benefit you see apart from preventing colonization?

As I'd said, swallowing an enemy system allows you to invade it without declaring war and prevents him from launching a counter-attack (assuming that you're not at peace with the enemy in question, that is, that you're engaged in a cold war). You can even trap enemy fleets and pick them off without incurring too much of a relationship penalty, dictate the flow of fleets by not signing an "open borders" agreement with certain factions and, overall, shape the galaxy. This works both ways, which is why I recommended that you remove the restriction. But, it's your mod, and it's not that big of a deal for me to remove a couple of lines from the file each time you churn out another revision.

Insolentius wrote:
As I'd said, swallowing an enemy system allows you to invade it without declaring war and prevents him from launching a counter-attack

Preventing counter-attacks *might* work against the AI, but it is easy enough to declare war if you want something back. I don't think that influence makes any difference in the ability to attack. You can't attack a colony without war anyway, and you can attack an outpost with or without covering it in your influence. I know that ail is working on a massive revision of the related xml file, which I will put into the community mod, so it may be more important to know his position on this.

davea wrote:
You can't attack a colony without war anyway...

I distinctly remember a game where I did manage it because up until that point I had believed it wasn't possible as well. The Sowers agreed to a cease-fire with me and gave me one of their systems as part of the deal. Now, the influence of that system (which was now under my "colour") enveloped an adjacent Sower system which wasn't an outpost (since it was theirs from the beginning of the match). But, it was weird. At first, I couldn't immediately move to the system that I had swallowed, but after a couple of turns, I could and I did, without declaring war. That means that either the influence display wasn't correct initially or that the lane influence (lanes also change colours as one's influence grows), in some twisted and obscure way, allowed me to invade that system with impunity.

Is there proof?

Nope. It could easily be tested though.



- start a game on the easiest difficulty

- pick the Horatio (for the bonus influence)

- use dave's mod which precludes the AI from building influence-related improvements

- envelop enemy systems

- invade them whilst engaged in a cold war (it might take some time, perhaps such systems need to spend a certain amount of time bathing in your influence or maybe it needs to envelop the system a bit more so that it's deeper within your area, I dunno, something worked)

I was not quite able to follow your example. Several things make this confusing. A system which you conquer does not generate any region of influence for 10 turns; in effect, it drops back from "colony" to "outpost" for this time. If it is a small system deep in an enemy influence, the changeover may not be very visible. Also, when there are alliances, one player can commit the alliance to a ceasefire or peace without any notification. So, if you can see a specific problem with a savegame, we can investigate some more.

Ok. Here goes.



In my example, I was at war with the Sowers and at some point during our war they offer a cease-fire AND one of their systems (let's call it System A) (System A featured no approval penalty, 100% ownership and its former influence (you always get this when someone "gifts" you a system)). Now, it was with the help of that new influence (from System A) that I was able to envelop another system which was still under the control of the Sowers (let's call it System B) (System B has been under their control since the beginning of the game, so it was a colony, not an outpost). Now, System B was sitting in my area of influence for a while and I couldn't access it. Eventually, though, I could and I managed to invade that system while we were still engaged in a cold war (and neither they nor I were in an alliance).



I hope that made it clearer.