Modding colony, base, ship travel range

from GalCiv2 Forums
Stardock has made an incredible, moddable, and addictive game. However, at the moment, I don't think it is possible to modify the range that ships can travel early on in the game. The reason I'd like to do this is so I can slow the early land grab at the beginning so the largest galaxies the game allows aren't completely colonized within a few years of game time.
modding
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually, that's possible, albeit in a sub-optimal way.
In the GalCiv2/Data/English directory, there are two XML files you need to modify: GC2Ships and GC2Types.
In the GC2Types file, define an additional LifeSupport component by copy/pasting the Basic Support section, renaming it to something else (I used ReducedSupport) and by modifying the range modifier to a negative value (I used -10). In GC2Ships, you'll find the default entry for the colony ship and you'll notice it comes with three Basic Support Modules per default. Swap these with your newly created ReducedSupport modules ... et voila.

However, I have still to playtest this as I figured this out just now, because I'm immensely annoyed by the AI urge to colonize which beats the Civ3 settler flood any day.
I'd presume the AI uses the default CS design, so it SHOULD be affected by this. However, you'd have to retain yourself from designing another CS which outperforms the AI by simply swapping the reduced support modules with basic support modules again.
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rezaf
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
After some more fiddling around I think the better option is to add a negative range modifier to the Colony Module.
That way you, the player, cannot circumnavigate the penalty and every new design the AI could possibly make including the Colony Module would also get the malus.
However, the ugly part in this approach is that basic designs with no support systems will get negative ranges.
If you can live with that, I think it's the easiest and most efficient way...
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rezaf
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
rezaf, what exactly is the consequence on ships with no support systems? I'm having a bit of difficulty envisioning negative range!
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, you'll have a ship that can barely move.
The game engine seems to default those designs to a minimum of 0.2 range, which means you'll basically be unable to leave the home system, maybe not even reach it's opposite end.
In the details window there seems to be a good old overflow (shifty programming, anyone?), i.e. you'll be presented with about 2384573904857|<-screen ends here range. However, for gameplay purposes, this has no effect at all, you'll have a 0.2 ranged ship, like I said.

Still, it's pretty hard to come up with a number that's balanced. Lucky players will ocassionally be able to "bridge" their way all over the map, using newfound colonies as resupply stations for their colony ships. Unlucky players may be unable to reach even a single habitable world with their starting colony ship. I'm momentarily playtesting with a -18 modifier, and I'll also look into other ways to counter the colony-ship-flood...
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rezaf