I don't like tech trading. I can never remember what techs give what benefits, and with such an extensive tech tree, I can't be bothered making a list of what's what and what I want in what order, then checking every race on the off chance that they'll have the tech available to trade and are actually willing to trade it. Is it possible (and easy) to remove tech trading completely from the game? Generally I just ignore it, but a sometimes wonder if the AI trade between themselves. I'd rather just remove the ability of any player (human or AI) from tech trading. I know a little programming, but not much XML. I could probably do the changes myself if someone can point me in the right direction, if it's even possible at all.



Since tech trading is unlocked by a tech, I assume I would just remove that "effect" from the tech in question? (As you can see I can't even remember what that tech is called)

Interesting question. I spent a few minutes to investigate. My first reaction is, this is a useful part of gameplay which you should probably learn, rather than getting rid of it. But, if you want to get rid of it, here is the general idea. The xml files are in (steam install dir)\Endless Space\Public. I searched in localization\english\Localization_Locales.xml to find the internal name of the Relativistic Markets technology, which is TechnologyT07. Then I searched in simulation\TechnologyDiplomacy.xml for that to find out what it unlocks, which is DiplomacyBonus2. You could easily remove this one line. But then I looked to see what else this unlocks. The same variable is used to unlock many types of trades, in simulation/Term.xml.



So to remove just tech trading, what I would recommend is to add a new DiplomacyBonus into simulation\EmpireImprovement.xml, say DiplomacyBonus8. This is an eight line addition, just copy/paste one of the other ones. Then in simulation\Term.xml, in the section for TechnologyTerm, change the condition from "DiplomacyBonus1Swarm;DiplomacyBonus2" to your new bonus. Since your new bonus is never unlocked, technology will never be traded.



You "could" just locally change your game files. I recommend making a backup. You will need to remake this change for every update. Alternatively, you could read the tutorial on how to create a mod, or look at one of the existing mods, to see how to create a directory and add the index.xml file. Then you "might" still need to change your mod for each new release, but at least it wouldn't get overwritten all the time.

Thanks for that davea. I'll certainly give it a try before I start my next game.



I do see the benefit in tech trading, and completely agree that I should probably come up with some sort of system so that I can take advantage of it. Currently I just tend to find myself spending ages flicking between the diplomacy screen to see what techs an AI can offer, then to the research screen to see what those techs provide, then back to diplomacy to see if I can actually get the AI to trade it. If they don't, move to the next AI. Just seems like a lot of work.



In saying that, if the pop ups for the techs listed in the diplomacy included descriptions of the items unlocked by the tech, it would pretty much alleviate the problem. My problem is that I don't remember what Brainwave Sensors do, so I have to go to the research screen and look up Rudimentary Telepathics to find out what they provide, then return to the diplo screen to see if I can get it, if I want it. The tech pop up in the diplo list current shows the name of what's unlocked, and the descriptive text of the tech. I'd find it far more useful to see the descriptive text of the items it unlocks.

Interesting that all of these trade-options are activated by the same "DiplomacyBonus".

That doesn't seem to be very helpful. This matter might become interesting for me aswell.

You might also want to have a look at what I did in my diplomacy mod which also effects tech-trading in a way that tech-trades are valued by their exact value in RP and not inflenced by any other factors like Approval. This makes it much easier to trade techs.

Thank Ail. I have looked at your mod previously and I really do like those changes. However for me, getting the AI to actually trade the tech is only part of the problem. I feel that the information available in the tool tips for the techs in the diplomacy list just doesn't show enough information to know what the tech provides, without having to remember a whole bunch of the tech tree. I have considered recording which techs I always use and just trading for those techs, but to me that makes the game rather static, more of a venture into two dozen clicks every couple of turns to see if anyone has it yet.

Ail wrote:
Interesting that all of these trade-options are activated by the same "DiplomacyBonus".

I've take a look at the files davea directed me towards, and I think it could be better handled in a similar fashion to the colonise gas giant ability. Create a fake item called Trade Abilities or something like that, then create a new diplomacy bonus for each of the diplomacy abilities as hidden items. From what I understand from davea's post and logic, that would allow any of the diplomacy items to be enabled or disabled by removing it's corresponding line from the simulation\TechnologyDiplomacy.xml file? Downside to this would be that you'd only get the text description of Trade Abilities listed as the unlockable feature, rather than each of them listed explicitly.



While I have your ear, can I ask about modding the movement rate of ships? I would like to greatly reduce the rate at which movement occurs when travelling without strings. For me, locking out areas with blockades and filtering avenues of assault is great for strategic play. Having the ability to move without strings negates those options, especially as the movement rate for such travel seems to get quite large very quickly. I have looked through the files but I've been unable to find anything that determines the increase in any movement rates. Are those values available to change or are they fixed? Failing that, I am pretty sure I can move the unlock line for the ability to travel without strings a different tech much further down the tech tree without too much confusion, and similarly move the movement rate increases too. I don't want to completely remove that feature from the game though. I just feel it arrives too early and get too fast too quickly for my liking.



In thinking about this though, does the AI use the direct movement without strings explicitly, or only when it's the shortest route? If I was to reduce the movement rate for non string travel, would the AI then always use strings or would it know to take the slower route to avoid a blockade? Perhaps it would be a better option to simply move the ability and rate increases further down the tech tree so the AI doesn't get penalised by a slower movement rate that it doesn't understand?

Both the human player and the AI use the same "pathfinding" which will pick the shortest path between tow points using strings, wormholes or free travel as needed. In general, this works well, and it "should" adapt fine to decreasing the free-travel movement rate. If you look in the various technology xml files using the technique I showed (search for the tech name in the localization file to get the internal name, then search for the internal name and find the modifier) it should be easy to change the movement rate and the bonuses to the movement rate which occur with different techs.

davea wrote:
Both the human player and the AI use the same "pathfinding" which will pick the shortest path between tow points using strings, wormholes or free travel as needed. In general, this works well, and it "should" adapt fine to decreasing the free-travel movement rate.

I can use a left control click to force movement off the string. Can the AI do that? If they can't then reducing the movement rate off string will pretty much result in them always travelling along strings, where I am able bypass a system to get to a system behind. I guess I'll try it out and see how it goes.

davea wrote:
If you look in the various technology xml files using the technique I showed (search for the tech name in the localization file to get the internal name, then search for the internal name and find the modifier) it should be easy to change the movement rate and the bonuses to the movement rate which occur with different techs.

Thanks again. I did look in the files following the methods in your first reply before asking, but it looks like I stopped one file short. I got to the EmpireImprovement.xml file and found the reference to MovementFreeMove{1,2,3} but there was no numerical values to change. The tag also appears in the EmpireDescriptor.xml file, which I foolishly assumed just contained text descriptions of these items. Actually opening the file and taking a look revealed that as the location I was looking for.

Strudo76 wrote:
I can use a left control click to force movement off the string. Can the AI do that?

I am not sure if that is a real question. What are you able to accomplish by doing this? One bug which has been pointed out occasionally is that the pathfinder appears to minimize the number of *turns* of movement, and doesn't care how many movement points are left over after a move. Suppose your ship has 20 movement points, and you want to go to some system where there are a variety of approaches: string, wormhole, free travel. You may choose one path which results in 10 MP left over, so that you can scout with another ship, think, and then decide how to use the other 10 MP. The pathfinder doesn't appear to handle this well, and it will choose any solution which gets you there in one turn. Even, for example, if the last hop is through a wormhole.



Still, I don't think you need to be concerned about "crippling" the AI, there is already a tiny bit of sub-optimality, and you would not be making it noticeably worse.

davea wrote:
I am not sure if that is a real question. What are you able to accomplish by doing this?

A few things



If I colonise a system in another faction's constellation it may be that my system there is cut off from my main systems by their space. If I want to send ships to that system, the shortest route may be through their space. If I'm at war or cold war, this may mean being attacked en-route or stopped by a blockade at one of their systems. Using the direct travel I can force travel along the longer route and bypass those problems to get my ships to the system.



When I have a cold war or peace status with a faction, I am unable to go through their space without open borders. If there is an unexplored planet available, I may be able to use that technique to go directly to that planet and hopefully bypass the area of space where travel is restricted.



If an enemy has several fleets at a particular system, and the path finding takes me through that system, I can use the direct method to travel to a planet behind that one, and thereby skip past those fleets and see what's behind or create a blockade to stop them getting reinforced.



I agree though that the AI is unlikely to be looking for those opportunities, so changes in that area will have little effect.

davea wrote:
So to remove just tech trading, what I would recommend is to add a new DiplomacyBonus into simulation\EmpireImprovement.xml, say DiplomacyBonus8. This is an eight line addition, just copy/paste one of the other ones. Then in simulation\Term.xml, in the section for TechnologyTerm, change the condition from "DiplomacyBonus1Swarm;DiplomacyBonus2" to your new bonus. Since your new bonus is never unlocked, technology will never be traded.

Did the mod as you suggested and it appears to have worked a treat. Thanks for the advice. I did add an entry for my new DiplomacyBonus in the EmpireDescriptor.xml file. Not sure if it was required or not, but all the other DiplomacyBonus objects had an entry there.