[RELEASED] community bug fix / balance mod

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 20, 2012, 4:56:38 PM

Thanks for explaining, but I don't see how your influence generated by planet A would be treated any differently than your influence generated by any other planet. If you can create the situation and get a save game, it will be interesting to look into. I guess with a three player MP game, you could setup the situation by having one human just gift a planet; the AI is "unlikely" to do this.

Insolentius

Newcomer

Insolentius

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 20, 2012, 5:06:59 PM

Oh, I'm not saying that the influence gained from a gifted system has "special properties" of any sort, I was just relaying how things happened (and how I got an enemy system in my area of influence instantly). That's why I suggested the test, so one wouldn't have to wait for such an occurrence and instead gobble up systems on one's own. I think I'll try that, smallest map, easiest difficulty setting + the Horatio should do the trick.

Insolentius

Newcomer

Insolentius

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 20, 2012, 6:33:14 PM

Vindication! lol

http://i.imgur.com/eR18K.jpg (click to enlarge)

davea

Newcomer

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 20, 2012, 6:42:01 PM

Please give us more than one word of description for what you found. Also, can you zip/attach the save game?

Insolentius

Newcomer

Insolentius

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 20, 2012, 7:22:05 PM

Well, the screenshot says it all. His system is under my influence area, we're at cold war, it's turn 84, he's been sitting on it for more than 50 turns and I'm invading his ass.

HORATIO - Turn 82.rar

davea

Newcomer

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 20, 2012, 8:00:27 PM

If it is an outpost, you can invade it during cold war anywhere except in *his* region of influence. Also, I know that pre-existing invasions are not stopped when they become impossible due to influence. For example, in the early game, rush an invasion fleet to a neighbor's outpost planet and keep the invasion going. When the outpost turns into a colony and generates influence, this "should" prevent you from invading. However I don't believe your existing invasion is canceled. If you had this case, you could probably drop the invasion, leave the system, and (a) not be allowed to re-enter at all, but if you entered somehow (b) you could not start a new invasion.

So, if you started your invasion while the conquered colony was still effectively downgraded to outpost, the same thing may have happened: the game should have prevented you from continuing the invasion when the system started generating influence. Is that what happened here?

Insolentius

Newcomer

Insolentius

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 20, 2012, 8:25:22 PM

It wasn't an outpost, it was a colony. It was generating its own influence until my own snuffed it out (the green influence was receding with each passing turn because I built/rushed all the influence improvements and he didn't build any). While it was still generating influence, I couldn't approach it, once I engulfed it, I could.

Nothing was conquered. Nothing was downgraded. He established an outpost there at around turn ~25. After twenty turns or so, it became a colony and it "oozed" green. It kept doing so until my neighbouring systems became colonies themselves and started suffocating that system (its influence was constantly dwindling under pressure) with the Horatio's +4 to influence + improvements. After that, I started the invasion and took the screenshot, that was it. No foul play.

davea

Newcomer

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 1:17:20 AM

I loaded your save game. Perhaps I am confused. At system farver, you have a fleet sitting there, but it is not invading. The invasion button is greyed out, "a defense fleet is orbiting the system". I picked away at the three defense fleets there and started an invasion. After four turns I had conquered it, and its ownership was 0%. What exactly is the behavior which you think should not be happening in this save?

davea

Newcomer

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 2:44:13 AM

Bug alert! For an unknown reason, the sower AI (only) refuses to build new ship schematics with this mod. Apparently this is because the game executable is hard-coded to look for the sower template names, but not any of the other race names. Attached is a replacement file ShipDesignTemplates.xml. Please find the original file in (steam dir)\Endless Space\Modding\community-mod\AI and overwrite it. If anybody has an idea of how this could happen, please let me know. More details in this post, with the discussion leading up to it:

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15776-ai-modding
ShipDesignTemplate.zip

sti

Newcomer

sti

Newcomer

300g2g pts

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 3:23:27 AM

I'm struggling to get your mod to work.

I have it in the \Endless Space\Modding\ folder and I'm pretty sure it is in the correct place because the folder above it has my saves and custom race. But when I load the game I can't see anything other than the current patch. Any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong?

davea

Newcomer

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 4:25:19 AM

So you have folder Endless Space\Saves, and also file Endless Space\Modding\community-mod\index.xml. Is that correct? Is the file index.xml or any of the other files under that, read-only? (For an unknown reason this causes mods to fail loading.) Also, in file (steam dir)\Endless Space\EndlessSpace_data\output_log.txt, is there any string "Modding" which may give an error message?

sti

Newcomer

sti

Newcomer

300g2g pts

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 4:44:19 AM

I have index.xml in that folder.

The folders AI & Simulation & localization are read only, the index.xml file itself isn't. Assuming I need to make those files not read only I'm not sure how to as clicking the check box then apply doesn't seem to work.

Thanks for your help

davea

Newcomer

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 4:52:22 AM

I guess this is now a question about Windows Explorer. Click the modding directory, right click, properties, find the read-only checkbox, make sure it is cleared, click accept. You get another dialog "Confirm attribute changes", make sure you select that you want this applied to folders, sub-folders and files, click accept, click accept. To check, select a file deep inside such as Modding\community-mod\Simulation\EmpireDescriptor.xml, right click, properties, and ensure that the read-only checkbox is cleared.

Insolentius

Newcomer

Insolentius

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 10:42:46 AM

davea wrote:
I loaded your save game. Perhaps I am confused. At system farver, you have a fleet sitting there, but it is not invading. The invasion button is greyed out, "a defense fleet is orbiting the system". I picked away at the three defense fleets there and started an invasion. After four turns I had conquered it, and its ownership was 0%. What exactly is the behavior which you think should not be happening in this save?

I'm sorry, but I don't follow you. What exactly did you find confusing? That was an auto-save a couple of turns before I took the screenshot and it's impossible to start an invasion whilst there are defenses stationed in the system. There is nothing in that game that I think should not be happening. Its ownership is 0% because you had just conquered it (this happens regardless of whether you invade a system during a cold war or a regular war).

Earlier, I stated that it's possible to invade an enemy colony during cold war, without an outright declaration of war, if it's deep within your area of influence (outposts can be invaded at any time unless they're protected by friendly influence). Somebody asked for proof and I delivered. It's quite easy to test. This was all done to prove that influence improvements have a significant bearing on the game and that you shouldn't have precluded the AI from building them. Larger influence area allows for all kinds of shenanigans, which is why the Horatio are my favourites.

Insolentius

Newcomer

Insolentius

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 10:43:52 AM

davea wrote:
Bug alert! For an unknown reason, the sower AI (only) refuses to build new ship schematics with this mod. Apparently this is because the game executable is hard-coded to look for the sower template names, but not any of the other race names.

This affects the UE as well, fyi. Perhaps even all factions that use terran desginations.

Zazen

Old

Zazen

Old

17 300g2g pts

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 2:20:44 PM

I am unable to get the corrected ship template file from your link davea. I get some kind of forum permission error.

davea

Newcomer

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 2:31:07 PM

@ insolentius: I guess you learn something new every day. I thought that colonies were inviolable, regardless of influence status. But your game clearly shows otherwise. In my screenshot of your game, there are several colonies visible (I checked by loading as green that they are colonies.) The game will allow me to move to Kochab, but not triime or the others at the right. It seems that influence of a colony can "die out" just as you mention. I wonder what the actual equation is. Unfortunately I know from numerous bug reports that the influence drawn on the map does not match what the game actually computes. There are many screenshots in the tech support forum which show a ship unable to attack a system at the edge of its own region of influence, even though the system is displayed completely within their own region of influence. If we cannot trust the graphics, it will be very complicated.

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198027863335/screenshot/594727249655434897

While I am learning things, why do you feel that Horatio has the best regions of influence? The equation involves pop + (FIDS/5), and your systems have pop 20, and fids > 500, so the fids is by far the dominant term.

Since I don't understand why some races work and some don't with the changed template names, I will give up on this, and just go back to the stupid template names like Medium1HisshoTemplates. Sigh.

@ zazen, many people have trouble downloading files which are attached on the forum. If you have two browsers installed (IE vs firefox) use the other one. If that doesn't work, try logging out of the forum and logging back in again. If that doesn't work, try clearing your browser cookies. But anyway, in a little while I will put up an even better file and store it on mediafire.

Insolentius

Newcomer

Insolentius

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 2:43:21 PM

davea wrote:
why do you feel that Horatio has the best regions of influence? The equation involves pop + (FIDS/5), and your systems have pop 20, and fids > 500, so the fids is by far the dominant term.

Because they're the only who get an additional +4 range of influence (Stellar Guardians) on top of everything. I prefer them becuase they give me the option to more easily lock down the systems which I don't plan to colonize right away and, of course, because I can easily gobble up opposing systems without diverting my production towards an all out war.

davea

Newcomer

davea

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 21, 2012, 3:11:09 PM

Insolentius wrote:
Because they're the only who get an additional +4 range of influence (Stellar Guardians).

Huh. I always assumed that was amoeba who got that. I wonder why Horatio is considered a "guardian" of anything.

thashepherd

Newcomer

thashepherd

Newcomer