(Download) ST:BotF Galaxies MOD v0.4.0

[Tethys]

I found bugs with the Dominion, Ive disabled future downloads until I resolve it. SORRY GUYS

[Tethys]

Links restored. Cardassian shipyards are now operational

Note, you wont be able to download the new version for another 20 mins from the time of this post.

[Tethys]

Updated

[Martok]

Nice work, Tethys! I may have to try this out again.


Question, though: What known bugs/issues are in your mod (aside from those native to vanilla BOTF)? I realize that there are going to be some, and that's fine -- I just want to know what I might run into and/or have to deal with.

[Tethys]

Its hard to tell, thats why Ive got you guys testing it and reporting them Mostly vanilla bugs, but by the time Im done GALM will feel like a whole new BotF

[Tethys]

Tethys1 vs Tethys: Battle of the Greats! lol

http://i39.tinypic.com/1zqvxpw.jpg

[Tethys]

Here is a model that will be included in the 1024 update, release date is TBD.

2432r9x.png (122.7 KiB) Viewed 6926 times

[ZeroChance]

Hey Tethys,

Not really an issue... but I noticed in the retire screen after 140 turns in the new galm

retirescreen.jpg (151.25 KiB) Viewed 6925 times

Kind of... hilarious. I am assuming this has something to do with the deuterium resource and/or lack of... what was it, pop support for ships?

[Flocke]

cool graph!
effectively prevents to determine how your opponents perform in mp, so might call it a feature hehe

[xDx]

I am not 100% on this but I believe tethys added the economic and military score overflow fix which clarifies the score in the retire and intel screens. Since the AI will buy their ships the spikes I think mean their income replenishing and then basically crashing when they go gung ho on ship production lol. It looks like you zerochance are the Borg maybe with the graph not spiking completely to the bottom to avoid going in the negative in "deuterium" surplus. But anyways overall I like Flocke's wording better so we should call this fix the "haha MP graph means nothing now" This looks like maybe a T1 or T2 game start maybe? I think at higher starts and with more deuterium structures built and colonies the graph would look more natural. I am not sure though as I havent got that into a game of GALM yet since I was hoping to finish the epic game with a certain two individuals

[Tethys]

It could also quite possibly make the AI a bit more random

[ZeroChance]

I think at higher starts and with more deuterium structures built and colonies the graph would look more natural.

Nope.

I have played about 20 turns T5 in sp and retire graph is looking to shape up the same way... I don't have a screen yet but I'll do one maybe tomorrow once I have time to mess around a little.

Everything else: you were right. T2 start, I was borg, etc.

[NfG84]

After having played version 0.3 (large, irreg., imposs., Fed, start tech 2 (i think)) for 260 rounds now, I like give my five cents. Just in case someone might want hear it ;-).
Hm, 260 rounds in so many weeks... I really get old. I'm drifting.

1. I like the new deuterium/metal system. It feels more consistent. I am curious, what Tethys is planning to extend this. :-)
2. In the new version the AI empires seem much stronger and really trouble me, which is rare. All were more adavanced in science at first contact, but I could have done a little more there. At least their research seems to be adequately fast. The sizes of their empires (Borg 65, Kling 45, Dom around 40, Rom around 30; me 65) seems to be better than ususal. Especially the huge Borg empire is nice. When I was allied with the Roms they were sending colony ships through my whole empire to the other side of the galaxy to colonize all systems with metal in range. Maybe, I shouldn't have let them...
3. I like the global tiers (buy once, good for all). But I think a 200% boost from one second to the other is a bit much. It can severely change the balance of power if one empire gets the tier a few rounds earlier. What about several tiers every 2 or 3 levels? Also, having max. industry of maybe 2500 means, that level 15 ships take so long to build, that you can only buy them. I think buying should be not the normal case, but an exception, else you wouldn't need industry at all, just deuterium.
4. That leads me to another thought: I always found the instant construction of a super larger heavy ship...odd. Like buy 20 Scimitar in one round, if you have the money. Having money, or deuterium to run industry replicators doesn't mean, that things don't take time. What about limiting the buy? Not buying all the points left to finish, but lets say 500 deuterium*construction level? Of course, then it would be cool, to replace the buy-button by a buy on/off switch.
5. In the new version only systems with metal can have shipyards. While it brings a certain new tweak to the game, it might be nice to have a cheap possibilty to extend ship range anywhere you want. Outpost III is already quite expensive. And the earlier ones as well for small empires. Had some trouble in between, because I needed quite a lot outposts to reach new colonies.
6. In the newer versions, there are few new ships or ship upgrade for tech <10 and hell a lot for >10. That might be a matter of taste, but I would like a more balanced distribution. At the moment (tech11/12) it takes me 3-4 rounds for one research. That means my ships are obsolete, as soon as they are build. And the differences between the strength can be huge. While in the beginning I have the feeling to wait forever for a new ship, which is only slightly better.
7. Another issue, irratic diplomatic behavior is more an issue of BotF itself I assume. I was allied with the Roms for maybe 100 rounds until they declared war on me out of nowhere. Actually, the Klings, Roms and Doms declared war within 10 or 20 rounds. I always hated that in BotF. Just the Borg still have a peace treaty with me... that's irony. Also I watched the Roms making friends with minors and then declaring war and conquering them. Very clever. They also stole an affiliated minor from me that way, when the Roms were still my allies. Who does that?
8. There is still a problem with the Romulan ship list (since several versions). Having Tech >10, they build Scout IV (correct), but else (almost) only Light Escort and that Klingon looking ship available from Tech 1 (both very wrong).
9. I have read, that the Military strength in Intel screen was fixed. Well, it just jumped from around 30 % to 2% or so...

Well, that's it for the moment. If somebody thinks I critized too much, well that wasn't intented. I like the Galaxies Mod a lot *thumbs up*, but that doesn't mean, that there is nothing to improve. ;-)
Cheers

[Tethys]

Ok, I edited your post and numbered your points, I will respond to them in that order:

1. Thanks, we will see as new hex codes and bugfixes are given by the BotF gods (codemasters)

2. Yes, these are mostly due to code changes from the gods

3. 200% Is not too much if you begin to see the cost of ships, and their maintenance costs. Starbases and capital ships will have some of the highest costs, in the 5 digits (10,000+). And a smaller empire focused more on research than a larger empire on military could make good use of those 3-4 rounds from getting that early tech breakthrough. Since ships are based more on deuterium right now, when Dilithium is turned into a ship resource by the gods, then we can see a ship costing 2000 Dt and 3 Dil (Alloy)

4. See #3.

5. This is not possible with the current game mechanics. I tried to give Dominion the Dominion Shipyard (build any system) at tech 8-9 and it refuses to show up no matter what I do, something to do with major races only allowed 1 default shipyard I think. There might be a workaround if I use an older UE, but then that introduces duplicate building entries.

6. This is an issue with how research is dealt with at higher tech levels, I am not aware of any fix for it at this time, unless to increase it in UE (which might slow down the later techs to a crawl).

7. Ah the mood swings, gotta love em

8. Ship List is a WIP and eventually obsolete ships will be weeded out of the lists, leaving only the newest ships of that class genre available.

9. It is broken, good for MP games

[NfG84]

0. Numbering rocks. Should have thought of it myself. :-)

1. + 2. Thanks to the gods ;-)

3. Well, yes the 200 % itself are not a problem. I just thought a stepwise increase would be more 'realistic'. But it's your choice anyway and actually just a detail :-).

5. Hm, i see. See it postive: It makes it a little more challenging to play. :-)

7. Lol, yeah, looks like it.

8. I know things are in progress, it's just a pity. (WIP means work in progress, right?) If a play Roms the fact that obsolete ships can still be build is no problem, but the AI is a little stupid as we know. Obviously you ordered it nicely for the Feds already and I haven't seen obvious flaws for the others yet. Just the Roms are no match, because their list seems to be still on your ToDo ;-). *lousy hidden reminder* *cough*

9. Yes, but I am always so curious and want to know all these nice numbers and statistics ;-). Hm, but if those numbers are used for AI strategy as well, I would make it even more irratic *exploding brain*. Let me guess, I have to love that as well? ;-)