Restricting or removing features of Dark Avatar

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hello.
I read the tour to Dark Avatar in the news-section and found a few issues which keep me from ordering it. Since I'm not unfamiliar with modding I'm willing to put in some work to manually remove some shortcomings of DA. I already researched a few things but I still have some questions on which I can't find clear answers:
- Is it possible to undo the changes of DA regarding espionage?
- How accessable is the mining system to modding?
Especially regarding this resource-teleportation-mechanism and defection. I'd like to trade this productivity-gain for a planet-unrelated gain in income and remove the possibility to defect.
Can a mining starbase operate basically like a starbase of other types? Can I grant a mining starbase new or already known features by installing modules of any predetermined type?
- What can I do about the new treaties? Due to the weight put on them regarding the price-tag I sense that they are similarly disruptive to the gameplay as super-abilities and super-events and I will very propably desire to tune them down a lot both in terms of price and gain as in terms of influence on the AI's decision making.

Also I'd like to ask another question:
Does the Ai still use the basically same structure to decide what to research and how to equip it's ships or has this section recieved a complete rewrite?

Thanks for taking your time.

[Edit] I just found something curious. Is it possible that we can't modify the "Buy now"-feature at all? I can't seem to find any reference to it in any file in GalCiv2, except for the screen-files. Did I turn blind?

Vain
modding
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is it possible to undo the changes of DA regarding espionage?


Not specifically, though you can easily mod all improvements to be immune to sabotage, thus rendering spies completely impotent.

How accessable is the mining system to modding?


It appears that the values involved can be changed, but the fact that those values will only affect manufacturing seems to be hardcoded. Depending on how it is handled in the code you may be able to add additional upgrades to the existing path, but other than that options look limited.

- What can I do about the new treaties? Due to the weight put on them regarding the price-tag I sense that they are similarly disruptive to the gameplay as super-abilities and super-events and I will very propably desire to tune them down a lot both in terms of price and gain as in terms of influence on the AI's decision making.


Treaties give the race you give them to a bonus equal to 10% of your economy or research (you don't lose that 10% yourself). However the AI won't give them unless you have *very* good relations, and they can only be given to one race (and only revoked by war or death). Treaties are not really moddable.

Does the Ai still use the basically same structure to decide what to research and how to equip it's ships or has this section recieved a complete rewrite?


Frogboy did a significant amount of work on the AI's research priorities after the public beta ended.

Is it possible that we can't modify the "Buy now"-feature at all?


Aside from the names of the companies, I don't believe you can.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks for the answers.

1. If I made all buildings immune to espionage, would that mean I effectively disabled espionage completely? I'm talking about espionage-reports and stealing of techs.
2. It's sad that we have so few influence on the economy aspect of GalCiv. I'd like to reduce taxes and trade-revenue and remove the buy-now feature completely (because I don't agree with shelling out 3 capital ships in 3 turns!).

Vain
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, if no one can plant spies on anything, they can't gather intelligence or steal techs, since those require spies to get and remain planted for a period of time.

In such a case though the AI might still spend money on espionage, so you might also want to look into giving everyone negative espionage bonuses to prevent them from spending on it.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Quick stab into the blue: Make colony/civ centers the only constructions vulnerable to agents. If necessary, remove the bonuses from these structures and perhaps move them to other (immune) structures.
That system actually makes a lot sense on a first thought.
If that works the only thing left to desire is the influence on the buy-feature and the tax system via modding. Some editable values for agent-costs wouldn't be bad either. Someone please throw a rock at whoever makes the featurelist for patches!

Vain