Random Event Modding - Must Good always give penalties?

from GalCiv2 Forums

So I got fed up with the way the random events always seem to penalize Good choices while rewarding Evil choices and set about to modify the random events to be more balanced.  Ideally, I would have made each choice raise one stat while lowering another, with Neutral hovering between the two, but it does not seem this is possible.  Thus I decided to simply make it so that all three options give a bonus (or, in the case of certain events, a penalty) and it is simply a matter of choosing which bonus one prefers.

However, it seems I have been foiled even at this.  While playing with these modded events, I chose an option that claimed to give a "+-25% Research bonus", which turned out to be a -25% Research penalty.  I checked the file I had modded and I'm pretty sure that there was a positive value listed, not a negative value.  I'm not totally sure, though, and haven't done very extensive testing of this mod yet.

So, does the game force Good choices to be negative?  Has anyone else attempted to do this sort of a mod?

modding
7,178 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

"+-25% Research bonus"
End of quote

Your example has both plus and minus signs. Did you make that same typo in the file?

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I really don't think that the game forces good to be negative, but I will have to get back to you on that.

Look in your file, and see if the events have a regular number or a negative number in the "value" section for good.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Moosetek13, reply 1

"+-25% Research bonus"
Your example has both plus and minus signs. Did you make that same typo in the file?
End of Moosetek13's quote

I believe I wrote "+[GOODVALUE]%", so if [GOODVALUE] was -25 it would read "+-25%".  If the value is positive, it would only put in the number with no plus sign, hence a plus sign must be manually added to the flavor text to indicate an increase rather than a decrease, while a minus sign is automatically added for a negative value.

I also scanned through the file, and there doesn't seem to be any negative Good values except in negative events (where all choices invoke a penalty) and in credit related events (credits are easy come-easy go, so I don't really care about them, either).  I'll continue to play using this modified file in order to test it more, but I really hope it doesn't force Good choices to be negative.  I mean, it just doesn't make sense to do it that way.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I've had an interest in modding these events, too.  Have you sorted this out, or is it still an issue for you?  From what I can gather here, it seems like a simple misplaced (-) throwing things off.  Do you know how to force your event, or are you just playing along and hoping your modded event pops up?  That sounds like no kind of fun.

 

As a related question, is there any way to have a choice affect two or more abilities?  I wanted to include the idea of some kind of sacrifice for good choices, but from a glance it seems we can affect one ability and impose a monetary gain/loss.

 

I've been fixing races and UP issues, but this is next on my list.  I'll let you know what I find.

 

ETA - First, I was wrong. It's one ability and population gain/loss.

Second, you're right.  It seems that no matter what you do with the (-), Good gets a penalty and evil gets a bonus.  Only the neutral value can actually be either a bonus or penalty.

Boo.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I did a little more testing and found that although the abilities always seem to give penalties for the good choice, you can give a population bonus with the GOODPOPCHANGE line.  It's not much, but I was thinking to go and mod all the events that have native populations so that the good and neutral choices could involve integrating the native population rather than enslaving them.  There might be some payoff in bc or morale or whatever, but it would be pretty sweet to get a 250-500M pop boost right away.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Double post.  Yuk. 8O

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Expect for the fact that, at least in my own testing, the pop changes never have an effect-good or bad.  They simply don't work.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

That sucks: As a habitual 'Good Aligned' it always annoyed me that there were no actual benefits to being 'Good' (Don't use the Solar fusion doohickey . . . actually *lose* research points on that planet. How the heck does *that* work, do the  mad scientists on Altair VI go on strike?) anyway, but the one consistent evil that supposedly applies to Evil decisions doesn't even work?

The heck with it, I'm going over to the dark side of the force. Force Lightning throwers get all the babes anyway.

{G} - Jonnan

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Sole, reply 7
Expect for the fact that, at least in my own testing, the pop changes never have an effect-good or bad.  They simply don't work.
End of Sole's quote

 

It wasn't working on my first attempt, but then I got it to work.  I was using event type 1 - the type that randomly happens in between turns and pretty much always to your homeworld.  It was just easier to test that way, since I could use the cheat to force an event.  After I got it working it was fine as either a bonus or penalty for any alignment.

I did read, however, in Carielf's modding guide that the [ALIGNMENTPOPCHANGE] line was the population change for those end-turn events, so they may not even work on the colonization events (type 0).  I guess they considered a population penalty on initial colonization to be too damaging, but never thought we may want to go back and give a bonus.