Mod Question

from GalCiv2 Forums

I'm very very new at modding.

Basically, I hate the way they made Galactic Civ 2........

I hate the race balance, I hate those stupid "free luck find" pirate ships that can easily win the entire game, that you can get by chance, or your enemies (whom don't know how to use them).

I hate that event that allows one civ to become a super growing civ.  Offbalances the entire game.

I hate starbases that don't feel like starbases and I hate how the enemy AI will waste extreme ammonts of ships to try to kill a starbase they simply can not.

 

I want to mod all these things.

My question is simple.  How can I save a MOD game where the changes can actually take effect??

I know how to play a mod game, I'm just having trouble making the files stick.  It seems like even though I make a lot of changes, usually to races, and ship stat modifications, they don't change in game! (after mod placement).

I'll play and the races just appear a bit screwed up visually and the ship stats seem not to have changed at all.  Yet, I will go back into the moded files and they are infact changed.

I'm puzzled if I'm doing something wrong.

modding
6,865 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You may not have your mod files in the right place in the folder structure.

For example, you should throw a customised PlanetImprovements.xml, StarbaseModules.xml or TechTree.xml in ModFolder\Data, while any racial tech trees should go in ModFolder\Data\TechTrees, and GC2Types.xml should go in ModFolder\Data\ShipComponents.

 

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

It should be noted that a lot of what you're complaining about - like the random events - cannot actually be modded.

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting qrtxian, reply 2
It should be noted that a lot of what you're complaining about - like the random events - cannot actually be modded.
End of qrtxian's quote

But can be turned off-under Mega Events-and the Precursor Rangers, which aren't a Mega, only appear now after, what, 5 years?  Way too long to have any effect under most circumstances, really.

Granted, you can't really do anything about the starbase problem-but eventually the AI will have ships that can take out even the most heavily fortified SB (and so will you), so it's really only an early-game problem, and while TA's solution of requiring military SB module technologies before fortification module technologies (if memory serves) isn't ideal, it does plug that particular hole fairly well.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Sole, reply 3
Way too long to have any effect under most circumstances, really.
End of Sole's quote

I disagree - in the vast majority of my games (on TA, anyway, which is the only one to feature the actual Arnorian Ranger design - the Rangers of DA and DL weren't that tough), 5 years in is much too soon for anyone to come near to matching the Ranger's technology. It still has a big impact.

You're correct, however, that the "race becomes super-powerful" event is a mega event - there's also a normal event version, but it has far less impact and is barely noticeable.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

thanks all.  So, the SUPER RACE event,  is that a mega event?  Maybe I can turn that off. 

I don't maind the smaller event, the minor super race event.  True, that one is not so noticable.

 

I hate those damn Rangers fully.  THey ruin the game.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Yes, you can disable the "super race".

No, you cannot disable the Arnorian Rangers. However, one possibility that occurs to me is modding the GC2Ships file, which stores all the game's premade ships, including the Ranger. Having never tried it, I don't know if it would work, but you could possibly mod the Ranger's file in order to make it as weak as you wanted - if this worked, the event will still occur, but the ship would no longer be a game-breaker.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

It's probably that simple.  Just have to enable the cheat mode and try random events until you get one, to test that theory.