Sword of the Stars II Fan Update!

Started by solops, October 06, 2019, 01:39:42 PM

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solops

I would be shocked if Ashberry or Anguille has not posted this long ago, but if so, I missed it. A fan made a significant update to Sword of the Stars II, one of my favorite games. The relevant thread is here:
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=58002
and the Google link is here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mw-SADVNohmSe34rL15-XIW2ATZf3ie3/view
I have not tried it, but I intend to. There is an enhanced graphics mod floating about as well.
Aaaand here is the link for that:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dxjl5h8EWUDwUJjdXKHfY-hbpN46xYty
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

solops

#1
The "Readme":

  Save Our SOTS2 Patch
      A Fan Made Binary Patch         Version 4.29.2019    

Introduction
------------
   This is (I believe) the first fan made binary patch released for Kerberos Studio's Sword of the Stars 2. I began this journey after first discovering a RNG bug in the game's AI (http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=57985).
   Up to that point I had made some minor efforts to improve the modding community by releasing a 2D asset extraction tool
   (http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=57842) and playing with the 3D asset file format but never successfully decoding it. Realizing that Kerb and/or Paradox would probably not have the resources to resolve my RNG bug, I decided I'd take a swing at it. Three months later, I arrived at what I felt was a patch "good enough" to release. It includes a multitude of modifications, mostly to the AI and how it behaves, that are all intended to preserve the original gameplay as much as possible while fleshing out some of the undeveloped areas.
   As a fan of the Morrigi race, my initial goal was to improve their trade and diplomacy options to give them the same feel as they had in SOTS1. Next came the Loa. That consumed most of my development time as their fleet composition model doesn't really fit with the game's template based AI system (well, it did, but totally lost the faction's fleet flexibility which is their primary benefit). Work was done to redesign how templates work with Loa and ways to limit the cube costs of designs created by the AI for accelerator gate limit compliance (mostly done by limiting tech tree and ship section preferences).
   Some work was also done on Hivers as their fleet movement had some issues. Heavy work was also done at the basic AI level on the budget, colony, and fleet management logic. The techtree and fleet_templates files were preserved as much as possible to match the original release of the game but tweaked slightly when necessary to make sense.
   I'm sure a million bugs will be found, and probably some crashes, so this will likely be an ongoing project. Contact me on Kerberos forums if you find anything and I'll try to fix it if I can!
   - WILLDIEH on http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums

Changelog (details below)
---------
3.1.2019  - Initial Release
3.3.2019  - Fixed IRC/chat bug from initial release. Please disable "Join Global Chat" as Kerb IRC/chat server is down.
3.6.2019  - Rewrite of ship design logic. Minor section_preferences.csv tweaks. AI can now build Biome Colonizers.
3.11.2019 - Rewrite of design and template preference logic. Changes to fleet budget. Tuning of Hiver fleet supply/weights.
         Fixed a Loa fleet fill bug causing crash. Increase reseach chances for Heavy Combat Laser. Set station
         preferences to lean toward monitor/torpedo/missile. Disabled POINT_DEFENSE roles wherever possible.
3.16.2019 - Removed minelayer/extended range section preferences. Updated Strike/Invasion scoring for Zuul/Human.
         Changed defense fleets to use DEFAULT_PATROL template. Added Bore ships to zuul templates.
         First attempt to update AI defensive logic.
3.22.2019 - Fixed missing Declare War diplomacy impact. Altered declare war logic. Updated player strength evaluation logic.
         Second attempt to update AI defensive logic. Added weapon scoring info to debug console. Improved template handling
         of ship roles not yet developed (eg, CARRIER_BIO)-will fall back to COMBAT. Fixed bug in destroyed colony reserve
         fleet not removing AI fleet info. Removed separate AI fleet prototyping build phase-build orders already include prototyping.
         Disabled AI Patrol missions. Changed max strike/invade/survey travel time to 6 for Loa/Human/Zuul. Fixed missing weapon
         icons for Phantom Missile and Fusion Burst Torp. Increased Support priority for populated colonies >1,000,000 to repair
         attacked colonies better.
3.24.2019 - Reduced number of defensive fleets for Expanding and Defending stances in the hopes it will prompt better fleet build choices. Increased
         Hiver gate fleet template priorities/counts. Increased priority for Gate, Strike, and Invasion missions in defensive stance.
3.25.2019 - Improved AI colonization logic.
3.28.2019 - Added Grappler module for Zuul/Tarkas/Hiver and AI design preference for Zuul. Fixed Loa Fleet Composition UI issues.
4.11.2019 - Fixed Pirate Raid Message. Stations now only built in colonized systems. Reduced savings min to 500000 for building stations.
         Reduced planet damage modifier in simulated battles. Defense fleets allowed to perform Strike missions. Changes to fleet templates.
4.29.2019 - Updates submitted by Rossinna-sama added:    
   SoS Update - RS - V1 29/4/2019

   Swapped Shipyard Supervisor requirements with We got Rock, Neil achievement - Design and save a ship design to unlock.
   Swapped Steel Pusher requirements with Dr Sleepless achievement - Actually build a ship to completion to unlock.

   AI chances of making new designs of all non-combat ships increased.
   AI chances of making new designs of supply and colony ships decreased.
   AI will now update and make new Gravboat designs if playing Morrigi.
   AI no longer has defense fleets over every system (barring homeworld) it owns ONLY if it is in the expanding phase. It will build and place defense fleets in all other phases.
   AI has 25% more budget allocated towards building new ships and fleets.
   Combat AI focuses on planetary attack capable craft if they own the system (SoS default.)   
   
      
Modifications
-------------

SOTS2_MANAGED.DLL
   RNG Fix
      Introduced 100 ms sleep between AI player object instantiation and NPC player object instantiation to allow new RNG seed
   AI Budget
      Modified fleet build budget logic. Previously savings of 2,000,000 or so required before building non-defense combat fleets. AI would build any non-combat templates regardless of budget. Now AI respects budget and has no preference except for defense fleets which are built first.
         AI will only build fleets if savings >=500,000 (starting budget). This will very likely keep AI research budget very low for most of early game (on "Normal" difficulty) but should result in much better fleet building performance.
      Gov Security now always set to min required (previously hardcoded to 20%)
      Stimulus limited to lesser of 15% or 60,000 (avg price of freighter) (0% if $<500,000 or if no trade researched)
      Research budget reaction modifiers increased
         Previously AI adjusted budget by 10% a turn to meet calculated recommendation
         Now will adjust budget by 20% a turn. Results in faster budget modification response time.
      Research is now properly assigned in such a way as to preserve Security and Savings
         Previously AI processing would run at end of turn and select cancelling an earlier call to set the budget up nicely. This would in effect ruin the budget as previous settings for Security and savings would be ignored. Now, Research % is set first, then the rest of the budget is allocated between Security (min req'd) and Savings (left overs)   This means if you set the faction research to 90% in the factions.xml, they will keep spend into debt but   the game will stop research once they do and then return to previous research rate at 20% steps once savings are present.
      Changed the UI Trade slider calculation logic
         AI trade sliders should now properly affix to their notches, allowing trade routes to be established
      Fixed Infrastructure/Terraforming allocation logic to allow 100% completion
         Infra/Terraforming values would reach very small numbers and be rounded off before completion.
      Improved trade route allocation logic
         Previously AI was only assigning n-1 trade routes per planet to available freighters, always leaving one route idle. This may have been a design choice as AI originally only tracks freighter allocation by planet not by system so each planet attempts to fill all the available freighters. Assuming an average of 2 planets per system, using N-1 would eliminate this problem in majority of cases.
         Regardless, now more accurate trade allocation as we now track freighter allocation on a SYSTEM wide basis and compare before planet allocation.
      Removed hardcoded AI 150% research bonus. Research bonuses are now based SOLELY on AI Difficulty setting   
   General Faction AI Changes
      System defense fleets are now allowed to perform Strike missions.
      Stations now only built in colonized systems. Reduced savings min to 500000 for building stations.
      Improved AI colonization logic by increasing colonization missions for Loa and colonization fleet template weights for remainder of factions.
      Increased Support priority for populated colonies >1,000,000 to repair attacked colonies better.
      Disabled Patrol missions since AI now has dedicated defense fleets and doesn't do Intercept missions anyway.
      Removed separate AI fleet prototyping build phase. Build orders already include prototyping and a separate phase was leaving the single
         prototype ships hanging around reserve fleets doing nothing.
      Fixed bug in destroyed colony reserve fleet not removing AI fleet info. AI would continue to try and deploy a destroyed fleet from reserves.
      Templates that contain ship roles that don't yet exist (eg, CARRIER_BIO) will no longer crash
         AI will replace the design with one based on COMBAT until it's possible to create an actual match
      Improvements to AI defensive logic
      Changed defense fleets to use DEFAULT_PATROL template.
      Updated Strike/Invasion scoring for Zuul/Human to only allow slowboating if less than or equal to 4 turns
      Modified fleet template build logic. Previously AI would only respect template weights after at least one fleet of each non-combat template type built.
         Now respects weights and min to maintain values of the template in all considerations except defensive fleets which are always built first regardless of other factors except budget min of 500,000.
      AI now properly respects template stance weights. No more hard-coded shananigans forcing all template fleets to be built. If a fleet has low weight it will get built last. The formula is something like (#req'd/#avail * weight)
      Rewrite of ship design process
         AI can now build Biomes - swapped the colonizerSpace values in the section files as the standard colonizer had fewer than the biomes and the AI was looking for the greater number when choosing a section
         Weapon scoring now weighs armor piercing level enough to actually select AP rounds instead of Mass Drivers. Polarized Plasmatics may be over scored though.
         Ships are redesigned almost every turn now. Prototying costs are avoided thanks to additional logic added to "matching design" algorithm
         AI will still end up with several designs matching the various ship roles and weapon roles. These may appear duplicative, but should actually match fleet templates better when weaponroles are defined (eg, STAND_OFF, PLANET_ATTACK, BRAWLER will all have separate designs)
         Removed the POINT_DEFENSE type ship design logic. I think this existed before Kerberos hard coded small mounts to use Point Defense. It's appealing
            in that it might allow one POINT_DEFENSE ship per template fleet to handle PD, but the reality is that all ships now field their own PD so having a POINT_DEFENSE weapon role for an entire ship doesn't make as much sense. Besides, entire fleets of POINT_DEFENSE ships were being
built based on the AI's counter design logic and that's no longer a concern.
      Improved fleet travel logic to use direct travel if faster than node/gate travel
      Updated AI player setup to allow for templates that contain ship designs with weaponroles that use weapons that haven't been created yet
         Algorithm tries again with a null weaponrole
      Added planet size weight to colonization mission selection. Larger planets/lower biohazard preferred.
      Modified civilian (trade) station upgrade requirements to require all Dock modules built before upgrading
         Easiest way to get AI to build additional dock modules for trade. Made sense to do anyway since why have trade if not building docks?
      Improved mission assignment logic to differentiate between CONSTRUCT_STN and UPGRADE_STN mission capabilities of a fleet's assigned template
         Previously either mission type would give the fleet a generic CONSTRUCTION flag which allowed it to do either mission not just the mission in the template.
      Fixed fleet template processor to work with FILL quantities and faction inclusions/exclusions
         Previously FILL would only work properly if no faction= or nfaction= entries as these would be improperly subtracted from the available
         FILL amount.
      Enabled warehouses in trade stations (previously disabled)
      Reduced slightly AI Strike mission scoring for Easter Egg events for all AI factions
      Enabled AI colonization Support mission types. (previously disabled)
      Updated AI station building logic to have 100% systems with Naval and 100% systems with Civ in all stances
         Require Naval before Civ and Civ before Science (if/when player has trade)
      Increased AI station building mission scores based on system total trade ports. + if >5 or ++ if >9
      Fixed AI ship design logic to allow AI to place modules in CR sized slots on DNs and on LVs
         Module slots are mix of CR sized and DN sized (no LV sized) so DN/LVs would never get modules
      AI can now detect completed research Tech Groups (for Psi Module compatibility checks which is based on the PSI tech group completion)
      Added Ship Module selection logic. AI now has module type preferences based on ship properties.
      Added AI psionics use logic for Abaddon, Possess, Inspiration, Block, Repair skills
      Updated Patrol mission to only patrol one's own systems (this might still include empty but NPG'd systems though)
   Zuul AI Changes
      Enabled Demand Slaves for Zuul AI
      Zuul ships will now have at least one Grappler module per ship once technology is developed. Best grappler tech available will be applied.
   Morrigi AI Changes
      Granted Morrigi trade treaty access at ceasefire (like SOTS1). Others wait till NAP like normal. (Wiki says Peace, but not true)
      Morrigi have 1/2 Lessor Glamor bonus in most political actions. This affects chances of success and results.
         Elligible for 1/2 Lessor Glamor PLUS the full Lessor Glamor bonus if Lessor Glamor is researched.
      Morrigi Gravboats are now a new ship class. This allows them to be included separately as ship roles in fleet_templates.
   Hiver AI Changes
      Fixed fleet Gate mission scores to actually check for presence of gate ship
      Fixed AI fleet movement to prevent Hivers from traveling via gate AND departing on space travel in same turn (now same as SOTS1)
      Fixed Hiver Casting at 0 casting distance before Casting is researched.
         This was preventing first turn fleet travel as they'd try to cast and then stop at 0 distance from planet.
      Fixed Hiver farcast success/failure logic to be based on farcast distance vs distance to planet
         Previously based on % of farcast distance modifier only.
      Removed a hard-coded requirement for Hiver to always have at least 2 colonization fleets. Now fleet builds based solely on template weights.
   Loa AI Changes
      Fleet Compositions are now based solely on a fleet's template name:
         AI tracks fleet builds by templates. Eg, template weight per stance and min amount affect which fleets are built.
         For Loa to maintain some kind of sane fleet building logic, this behavior is preserved but to allow any fleet to assume any
         template composition, the fleet's name is used to preserve which template the fleet was originally based on.
         Fleets will assume the composition of whichever template best fist the mission type. Fleets will generally travel in cube form and recombine at destination to template designs before executing mission and before any combat. In this way, any fleet can perform any mission.
      Improved Loa mission time estimates when calculating accelerator gate effect.
         Previous logic assumed a constant fleet speed of 4 regardless of gate presence/proximity. Added a check on the final leg of any accelerator gate path check that does not have a node connecting the last two hops and calculated the slowdown effect on average speed.
      Fixed LOA colony resource allocation bug where, because LOA colonies have no hazard, the slider was always set at 1/2 ship construction
      Improvied Loa fleet build/max capacity checks by AI
      Removed 50% hardcoded price reduction benefit for Loa AI fleet costs
      Added taxation logic for Loa to update tax rate (for pop growth) based on number of planets in pop-growth mode (0 biosphere), min 2.
      Loa fleet mission assignments is now based solely on cube coute and distance to target as fleet composition can be anything.
      Added requirement for existing loa gate in target system for colonization missions
      Add all Loa enabled templates to the starting Loa player list of fleet compositions
         Allows creation of all missions with correct, pre-existing template
      Allow Loa to send NPG Gate missions to easter egg systems (should allow gating to target instead of strike)
      Allow Loa Fleet to transfer cubes from reserve fleet during active mission if mission is at player owned system
      Updated transfer cubes from resrve to allow better consumption of cubes
      Updated Loa fleet strength to be based off cube count not ship type
      Excluded Loa from auto enabling tech options when designing ships
         ****prevents AI from upgrading armor = cheaper cubes****
         Hopefully the techtree research and ship section preference for SHIELDs will prevail
   Debug Console
      Added Ship Design, Asset, and Combat debug profiles
      Set default view to AI debug with standard verbosity
      Added weapon scoring details to Design output (probably too verbose)
      Added turn time display logic
      Removed "Station Support Check, Support Points: 0 Required Points: 4" type spamming debug messages for my sanity
      Fixed "debug_newseventart" command (had bad filename extensions so couldn't find anything)
   Sound
      Removed hardcoded researching and feasibility study background loop audio from research screen (because they drove me nuts)
      Replaced loud klaxony sounding research select/movement sounds with system default select and mouseover sounds (because they drove me nuts)
   UI
      Loa Fleet Composition UI issues fixed. Selecting a fleet composition on mission assignment will now properly re-configure Loa fleets.
      Changed AI Difficulty selection for local player slot to change AI difficulty for ALL players (non-local player slots still allow separate AI difficulty)
      Added event message image for Pirate Base Destroyed
      Updated Hiver Farcast messages with system details
      Added event messages for Hiver gateship deployed so players can know when fleet ready for new orders
      Updated Event Messages to show Loa specific colony support, destruction, alternative colonization, and NPG deployed event/image if playing as Loa
      Enabled the Gardner Arrives event and created matching event image
      Added NPG Gate completion event so players can know when their NPG missions are heading back and can receive new orders
      Added Event focus on next/previous icon click AND on left/right arrow keys
      Added inactive research end turn dialogue prompt player if no research allocated
      Corrected hardcoded news Event Art references for Colony Support Complete images to use existing images
      Added Research % Lost logic to Accident Event Levels I-III
      Fixed Infrastructure damage reported on Accident Event Levels I-III (previously not loaded, always displayed 0 Infrastructure on event)
   
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

solops

Politics
      Improved the "pick a fight" logic for those who are not in War with anyone. Uses current relationship as basis for random declare war.
         Must have at least one enemy colony, gate, or accelerator in traveling range of a friendly system. Logic for random odds is:
         currentRelations / (maxRelations / 2 + 100)  -- Max relations are 2000. So at 1000 relations (neutral) there's about a 9% chance of War.
      Declaring war now properly reduces relations to zero for target.
      Counter Intelligence missions are now available! These were unfinished but I was able to implement some basic mission functionality
         There were some beautiful dialogue boxes that I just couldn't get working as they'd require new savegame db processing to work
         Instead, I have just implemented some hardcoded results:
            Success
               (faction specific chance of rolling this result)
               Triggers a research accident based on target's chances of research boost failure vs $100,000 boost
               Triggers a Government modification (based on govactionmodifiers.xml "CounterIntel" action [X:+3, Y:+0])
            Critical Success
               (5% chance of rolling this result)
               Triggers boost accident based on target's chance of boost failure vs. $10,000,000
               100% reduction to target player's current research project
               Triggers a Government modification (based on govactionmodifiers.xml "CounterIntel" action [X:+3, Y:+0])
            Failure =
               (faction specific chance of rolling this result)
               No effect
            Critical Failure
               (flat 5% chance of rolling this result)
               -500 relations towards spy player
            Chance of boost failure
               If target player savings <= $0 100%
               Otherwise, $Boost/$Savings * 2 * ResearchBoostAccidentMod (default=1, set in faction.xml), Max 100%
                  eg: 10,000/100,000 = .1 * 2 = 20%
         Faction results are based on intel mission modifiers (I think these are set in commonassets.xml or perhaps faction.xml)
      Morrigi receive 1/2 Lesser Glamour bonus for all political success checks (plus full Lessor Glamor once researched) (default of 7% + 15% = 22% potential morrigi bonus total)
      Lobby, Demands/Requests, Treaty requests now use Lesser Glamour bonus when calculating success odds (15% by default, morrigi always have 1/2 Lesser Glamour [floor'ed])
      Treaty acceptance no longer a 50/50 coin toss (ugh). Based on same model as offer treaties logic (based on preferred diplomacy state)
      Lobby UI now shows success chance (based on lobby-ee's relationship with target)
      Counter Intel operations now use Intel operations faction weight mods
      Added reaction history events for destroy pirate base, lobby success/fail, Sherman fleet admiral.
      Fixed bug in diplomacy doubling negative effects
      Increased self Lobby success to +50points (from +25), other Lobby success to +75 (from +50), and reduced Lobby fail to -25 (from -50)
      Fixed game internal player cache bug that prevented initial diplomacy values from loading because they were queried before cached
      Treaty incentives are now applied before treaty success evaluation is performed (previously applied after)
      Updated AI handle treaty logic to use same logic as offer treaty (based on preferred diplomacy state and preferred diplomacy state ranking)
      Added diplomatic effects + Lesser Glamour/Morrigi bonuses to GIVEs
      Added diplomatic effects + Lesser Glamour/Morrigi bonuses to International Trade (relations should go up with international trade)
      Redid diplomacy reactions throughout the program to allow display of political impact in Politics UI
   AI/Techtree
      Added preferred Tech Style for Loa, granting tech family preferences. Similar to Liir in most respects but Bio
      Modified AI next tech selection logic to give more chances to lowest cost tech that matches current research mode.
         Increased the number of cheapest tech that match the current beat used when choosing next tech from 2 to 3, increasing the chances the best tech will be selected.
         This usually results in an increase from 66% to 75% of picking the cheapest tech that matches the research "beat" (expanding, empire, weapon, engine)
         Still a chance the "second" best tech will be chosen, as the list includes the cheapest (x3), plus all at the same price (if any), plus the next most expensive
         A random selection is made from this list.
         This should make tweaking the tech tree more predictable when testing/modifying the costfactors in techtree.techtree
   Fleets
      Added GRAVBOAT ship role - default DISABLING role to give it a bit of flexibility (Will try for weapons marked as DISABLING then by damage)      
   SQLite
      Database PRAGMAs added to SQLite database (may or may not affect performance)
      PRAGMA LOCKING_MODE = EXCLUSIVE;
      PRAGMA AUTOMATIC_INDEX = True;
      PRAGMA OPTIMIZE (at save)
         
LOCALE/EN/Strings
   Various string fixes (originally from Rossinna's Vanilla AI Enhancement (VAE) )
UI
   Modified Empire Management Screen Layout (EmpireSummary.xml)
   Fixed Diplomacy player cards to allow relations history to fit in panel without clipping off the number (skin1.xml)
   Modified Piechart colors (Commonassets.xml)
   Updated Slavers and Indy miniships (Commonassets.xml)
   Copied the Intel Mission news events over the Counter Intel news events (counter intels were just the default static icon)
   Updated the Counter Intel mission Event text to better reflect its functionality
   Copied Intelligence mission news event images to the Counter Intel event images (was just using default static)
   Updated the Intelligence mission news event images for successful missions (was just using default static)
   Added Research % Lost to Research Accident Levels I-III event messages (strings.csv)
   Copied the regular "zuul built a ship" event image to fill in for the missing zuul "freighter was build" event image
   Copied generic single/multi ships built to Loa to fix missing event images (look pretty cool)
   
Modules
   Zuul, Tarkas, and Hiver now have access to a new "Grappler" module. Grappler technology is now limited as a weapon per ship except
      by use of the Grappler module.
Weapons
   Grappler weapons changed to Missile turret type
   Fixed missing weapon icons for Phantom Missile and Fusion Burst Torp.
   Fixed COL & Biomissile sounds
   Changed muzzle and impact sounds for lasers to tone them down a little
   Added Brawler to a few BEMs
   Fixed sounds (VAE)
   Removed <Name>Brawler</Name> attribute from Laser_Red.weapon
      Other lasers had no such attribute so AI was preferring Red lasers to more powerful lasers when designing early BRAWLER ships
   Added <Name>Brawler</Name> attribute to Bem_Neutron.weapon, Bem_Particle.weapon, Bem_Phaser.weapon, Bem_Positron.weapon, Bem_PulsedGraviton.weapon
   Changed <PopDamage>500002</PopDamage> (+2) in Bem_Particle.weapon to allow for scoring tie with ballistics to go to beams for energy races
   
Techbonuses.xml
   Fixed naming error for Replicants config line (CYB_Replicant -> BIO_Replicants)

Techtree.techtree
   
   Disabled Empathy for Loa.
      There's a bug that allows AI access to the PSI family despite the techtree.techtree FactionDefined tag.
      That tag only affects the GUI Research Screen, preventing a player from accessing the tech there, but AI recieves access
      to all family roots and any techs listed as "Permanent" off a root node automatically evaluate to being available to a
      faction. Set the cost modifier to 99
   Disabled Fusion Mines for AI. If they somehow get the first one, I suppose they can research the rest as they're unmodified.
   Disabled Reflective Coating for AI. If they somehow get the first one, I suppose they can research the rest as they're unmodified.
      Also Changed "Expansion" to "Weapon" in Reflective Coating to match other armors (AI was researching on turn 1)
   Subspace Spy Beams is now a free starting tech for all factions. (Tech doesn't work. VAE)
   Sub-Space Jamming is now a free starting tech for all factions. (Tech doesn't work. VAE)
   Added "Expansion" to Expert Systems to increase possibility of research and add to possible initial starting techs list (Prev. only "Empire")
   Added "Expansion" to Materials Applications to increase possibility of research and add to possible initial starting techs list (Prev. only "Empire")
   Added "Expansion" to Orbital Drydocks to increase possibility of research and add to possible initial starting techs list (Prev. only "Empire")
   Added "Empire" to Environmental Tailoring to increase possibility of research and add to possible initial starting techs list (Prev. only "Expansion")
      Reduced Loa cost factor from 20 to 0.5 (why 20? Because they can't go farther up? So? Is there a pop growth problem?)
   Added "Empire" to Rapid-Pulse Lasers to allow the path to Point Defense faster (now matches Phalanx PD in this regard)
   Added "Empire" to Point Defense Phaser to allow the path to Point Defense faster (now matches Phalanx PD in this regard)
   Added "Empire" to Heavy Combat Laser to allow increased access to better sections for most factions
   Added "Weapon" to the following key technologies as once AI goes out of Expanding, very little Empire/Expansion research occurrs (Weapons and Engines mostly)
      FTL Economics (trade), Environmental Tailoring, Materials Applications, Expert Systems, Orbital Drydocks
      Was hesitant to do this, but Zuul get to Conquering very quickly and this limits their empire techs
   Removed "Empire" from Heavy Planet Missiles (currently only "Weapon") to allow other more important techs to take priority
      Reduced incentives to allow other more important weapons (namely X-ray for PD) to be researched first
   Removed "Expansion" from Combat Alogrithms (currently only "Empire" and "Weapon") to allow other more important techs to take priority
   Changed "Expansion" to "Empire" or Advanced Sensors. Currently "Empire" and "Weapon"
   Increased FTL Economics research incentive for all factions but Zuul who still have their original penalty rate
   Increased Loa Convoy Systems and Modular Construction (Qship) reseach incentives (they have no Police to prevent piracy)
   Increased X-Ray Laser research incentive for all factions to increase Point Defense research incentive. Should be the first weapon researched for all?
   Increased Rapid-Pulse Laser research incentive for all factions to increase Point Defense research incentive.
   Increased VRF incentive for Ballistics oriented races (Human, Hiver, Tarka, Zuul)
   Increased Phalanx incentives for all factions to increase Point Defense research incentive. Good/Bad?
   Increased Phaser PD incentives for all factions to increase Point Defense research incentive.
   Increased Interceptor PD incentives for all factions to increase Point Defense research incentive.
   Decreased Combat Algorithm incentive from .2 (.1 for Loa) to .5 to match X-Ray lasers (path to PD)
   Changed Tracking Photonic Torpedo icon image to same as Photonic Torpedo (missing file)
   Swapped all Morrigi and Liir (orig .3 and 1) Emitter tree research cost factors as Liir should be more likely to get Emitter tree than Morrigi
   Removed Zuul FTL Economics (trade) disincentive.
      Why not have zuul trading? Local trade only but AI factions rarely do intra-trade anyway!
   Disabled Armor research for LOA (to keep cube costs down)
   Disabled Torpedo research for LOA (to focus on ARMOR + SHIELD sections)
   Increased LOA incentives for standard shields, Disabled all other types of shields
   Slightly decreased LOA incentives for CCC technology (as they're gate restrained for fleet size anyway)
   Fixed tech description for Xeno-Analysis to match actual in-game benefits
   
Factions
   All Playable Factions
      Fixed engine sounds (sections\*)
      Fixed station sounds (sections\*)
      Initial faction ship designs for all available ships (tech level 0 only, faction.xml)
      materials.xml~ mod (VAE)
      LV description fixes (VAE)
      Added missing ResearchBoostAccidentMod, CrewEfficiencyValue, and PsiPowerModifier faction tags to faction.xml
      Added "SUPPORT" mission type to colonization fleet templates to allow colony support missions
      Added another CONSTRUCTOR fleet template hoping it will cause the AI to create another construction fleet full of Constructors for station upgrades
         Removed the UPGRADE_STN from the initial constructor fleet (only one constructor) so all it can do is make new stations.
         The normal/full constructor fleet can do both. Hoping this will speed up station Upgrades
      Removed SMALL_COMBAT fleet template
      Updated DEFAULT_INVASION template to be more faction specific
         Zuul get SCAVENGERs
         Rest get 2 CARRIER_ASSAULTs plus the standard ARMOR with PLANET_ATTACK weaponRole and FILL
      Updated DEFAULT_ARMOR template to be more faction specific
         Zuul get 1 CARRIER_BOARDING
      Limited initial construction and colonization fleets to 1 and AI should forget the template altogether after EXPLORATION phase
      Updated Psionic ability descriptions in ship builder UI (commonassets.xml)
      Increased Biome Colonizer ship preference for all factions (except Loa) (section_preferences.csv)
      Set point defense section prefences to 0 (section_preferences.csv)
      Set cloaking preferences to 1 (section_preferences.csv)
      Modified defense station preferences towards torpedos and heavy missile (section_preferences.csv)
      Re-balanced section preferences so Assault, Battlebridge are more preferred by certain races
      Removed minelayer/extended range preferences (section_preferences.csv)
   Hiver
      Renamed default DN damage models to hardcoded default file name (sections\*)
      Removed custom config DN damage model configuration (fallback to hardcoded default) (sections\*)
      Now only starts with one survey fleet (Hiver excluded from DEFAULT_SURVEY but has HIVER_SURVEY).
         Limited to 1 minimum required. This frees up valuable admirals for other fleets and hivers
         Don't really need many survey fleets - the need many gate fleets instead!
      Increased weight and supply ship count (3) in DEFAULT_GATE fleet
      Increased supply ship count in DEFAULT_INVASION
   Human
      Renamed default DN damage models to hardcoded default file name (sections\*)
      Removed custom config DN damage model configuration (fallback to hardcoded default) (sections\*)

   Liir_Zuul
      Renamed default DN damage models to hardcoded default file name (sections\*)
      Removed custom config DN damage model configuration (fallback to hardcoded default) (sections\*)
      Fixed blackelder section value for destroyed model (VAE) (sections\*)
   
   Morrigi
      Added morrigi battlerider/drone engine sounds (sections\*)
      Modified starting fleet templates to replace one supply with one gravboat (fleet_templates.xml)
      Added new GRAVBOAT ship role items to all fleet templates
   
   Slavers
      Renamed default CR damage models to hardcoded default file name (sections\*)
      Removed custom config DN damage model configuration (fallback to hardcoded default) (sections\*)
      Fixed engine sounds (sections\*)
   
   Tarkas
      Renamed default DN damage models to hardcoded default file name (sections\*)
      Removed custom config DN damage model configuration (fallback to hardcoded default) (sections\*)
   
   Zuul
      Renamed default DN damage models to hardcoded default file name (sections\*)
      Removed custom config DN damage model configuration (fallback to hardcoded default) (sections\*)
      Removed BOREs from all fleet templates except Survey as game auto inserts them if they're necessary
   
   Loa
      Fixed some turrent designs (VAE) (sections\*)
      Increased LoaDistanceBetweenGates from 5.0 to 8.0 as max speed of 4 for two turns (commonassets.xml)
      Increased section preference for shield and other very limited sections to maximize fleet count (Shld/HH/Strafe and Armor) (section_preferences.csv)
      Added DiplomacyDemandWeight/DiplomacyRequestWeight to faction.xml, set to 0.5/1.0 (was defaulting to 1 for both)
      Added DefaultDiplomacyReactions for other races (starting opinions), mirrors the other factions reaction to them

TO DO (le sigh...):
   Fix left over battleriders
   Force defense fleets to behave better
   Make sure newly researched Industrial bonuses apply to existing invoices (reduction in price/build time)
   Flesh out diplomacyWeights.xml for each faction (boost demandslaves for zuul, trade treaty for morrigi)
   Add betrayal conditions for AI
   Possible bug in combat update diplomatic states
   Double check psi friendly ship selection (avoid drones/stations/etc?)
   Fix "Ships have been recycled in ." message
   Add AI Intercept mission scoring
   Does AI do EVACUATION missions?
   Add Zuul AI special projects research allocation amount logic
   LOA BuildFleetFromCompositionID update logic of battlerider assignment (currently random)
   LOA colonization completion bug? Disolving Assimilator only removes ship, no cube reduction?
      Support + Colonize on same turn?
   Relocation bug/loop?
   Is LOA rebuilding gate lines?
   Fix rebase mission waypoints to check if already there and eliminate travel
      Should fix extra turn required for rebase + completion of mission (major annoyance!)
   Test Supply ship requirements in fleet templates (do all factions need 2? Eg, zuul have fast Nodes)
   Enable Loa 50% research bonus upon successful completion of AI technology?
   Enable AutoGoop/AutoAOE/etc for AI
   Game logic seems to suggest no need to add rending bore in templates (auto constructed if needed?)
      But what if fleet not at a build-capable world?
   AI Science Station module selection logic?
   Give AI 100% chance of civilian built freighter if stimulus spent == xxxx (in lieu of buying freighters)?
   Check if AI creates provinces/add functionality if missing
   Enable Combat Simulation??
      Replace full simulation with fast simulation
      Would probably require a lot of work to improve the simulation logic
   Fix Repair & Salvage ships being classified by AI as ARMOR because they have no Ship Role and default to ARMOR
   Morrigi section preference for BB
   Add GRAVBOAT DesignInfo (shipclass) to allow CPs to be set to < 6 (3? 0?)
   Add "Adaptive Buttresses"/engine struct bonuses to Ballistics counter research?
   Check if VRF is considered with damage checks on ballistics for ship design
   Finish adding Construction and R&S sound effects for all factions.
   Fix drone sounds for all factions
   Starting station too big? Use a level 1 instead?
   Fix COL sounds?
   Fix Drone/Bioweapon BR sounds?
   station specific damage models?
   liir specific CR damage models?
   Check if stations are STANDOFF
   Check if Secuirty Operations works?
   Check subspace spy beams really not working?
   Fix Fusion Mine stats card
   Profile sqlite performance for better indexing?

"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

Yskonyn

"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."

Anguille

Looks impressive. Is it easy to install?

solops

#5
Simple. Unzip and paste into the game's main directory. I installed it and started a game, but I have not gotten anywhere yet.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

Yskonyn

I am going to so try this out today!  :D
"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."

FarAway Sooner

That is a FAN-made patch?  That's about a zillion fixes...

smittyohio

Impressive!   Just out of curiosity, what is a "binary patch"?  Did he modify that actually executable somehow?   Or did he update data files?