Tim the beginner's modding thread

[timsup2nothin]

I've had a relapse in my Alpha Centauri addiction...the fifth or sixth relapse actually. They all run a similar course. I start playing, wonder how the heck I used to win on transcend level, either figure it out or remember it, then try some different factions (but end up playing them basically the same way) and eventually 'recover' and go find a different game to play...knowing that I'll eventually come back unless someone out there makes another truly great game. This time around I'm on a different course, thanks to having wandered in here.

I'm going to learn about modifying, from scratch, and keep track of my progress here. Three reasons:

1) From experience, without taking notes somewhere I'll remain completely lost.

2) Most of the modding discussion seems to be going way over my head, and I don't know enough to ask questions, but if some experienced modders check in and see where I'm really at they might be able to give advice that I'll understand.

3) Some other beginner types might stumble across the record of my errors and gain something from it.

So that's what this thread is about. If you don't like it, don't read it.

[timsup2nothin]

Step one...hmmmm...actually there was a step zero, I saved an original of the alphax.txt file...

Okay, step one, sorting out the existing tech tree. One thing that has always bothered me about SMAC is that there are so many cool techs that are completely irrelevant to me. I know the term 'chop and drop', and I frequently win on air power and speeders before I even get to that, so the advanced techs are usually off in some distant land of the unexplored. And even in the early techs there are weird skips. For example, I pretty much never use gatling lasers, because it seems like resonance lasers always appear earlier, or at least at about the same time. Synthmetal armor is another.

So before changing the tech tree I need to understand it, or at least see it. I started making a 'box and flow' chart, like the one I remember from the long lost documentation. A good exercise. I'm not trying to make 'sense' of how techs relate yet (how does mobility lead to loyalty?), I'm just seeing the tree as a network, and there are obvious things about the network that relate (I think) to the problem at hand.

Some techs are falsely 'high' in their level compared to others, and Air Power is a perfect example. Yes, it has a level four prereq, which makes it a five; but the other prereq is a two, and it has only a single level one prereq itself. So while a level five tech could require two fours, four threes, eight twos, and sixteen ones if there were no overlaps (and that many techs), it is possible to get Air Power as early as the eleventh tech.

So, back at step one, I'm going to calculate the number of techs actually required to reach various techs, so that I can make changes that tend to bring more balance.

Another possible gap in the webbing is the research priority effects. If a faction is focused on one priority, like the University, what about the techs that are 'advancement of knowledge' but have a long track of prerequisites that are not 'advancement of knowledge?

I'm resisting the urge to make a few quick willy-nilly changes and see what happens.

[timsup2nothin]

First lesson; things are not always as they seem. With ten actual prerequisites Air Power is not the fastest available level five technology, and not the hardest to get. It's pretty much typical. Good learning exercise...and the tech tree chart will probably come in handy.

Digging into this project has triggered a sudden realization. The root 'problem' is a misrepresentation of 'air superiority', and I think it might be a hard coded problem that can't be modded out. From a historical perspective on aerial warfare, it's a lot easier to shoot down planes than it is to get planes to actually do damage to ground forces.

First thoughts on that subject...if 'air superiority' was attached to an early tech, there would be ample opportunity to build up air defenses in the form of 'anti-aircraft guns'. I actually considered if it would be possible to include it in all units. I found the 'penalty against ground units' value and could change it to zero, but it leaves the problem of having used up the one available 'special ability' slot, so making it as widespread as it probably should be is not really an option.

Specific concepts of the modded game:
1) increased availability of anti-aircraft guns
2) probe teams of all types available to the ai


I read in some mod docs (SMAniaC?) that the mod included cheap premade units for the AI to use...super-formers and sea probe teams maybe...that 'encouraged' the AI to go in smarter directions. Sorting out how to do that is going to be important.

[Darsnan]

Re: Tim the beginner's modding thread

Originally posted by timsup2nothin

2) Most of the modding discussion seems to be going way over my head, and I don't know enough to ask questions, but if some experienced modders check in and see where I'm really at they might be able to give advice that I'll understand..

Here is a good document regarding learning how to mod the alpha(x).txt file.

Re: units with Interceptor capability: I usually put a <6>/3/2 "SP-88" as well as a needlejet interceptor into my games, available at Doc: AP.

Also put a sub with Marine Detachment in at Superconductor, and a Probe Cruiser at Doc: Init.

There are other units, but most of the fun of modding is experimenting, so have at it, and enjoy!


D

[timsup2nothin]

Thanks Darsnan! By the strangest coincidence I was actually looking aimlessly for that exact guide, which I remembered seeing but had not bookmarked.

With that in hand I decided to make a small modification, just for the experience...which of course was invaluable. My 'anti-aircraft mod' shifted the prereq for air superiority down to high energy chemistry, and added a basic 'AA Gunners' unit with a laser, no armor, and air superiority. Seemingly simple enough, and I documented it thoroughly in the lead matter of the file (good habits start early, bad habits break late). Hopefully when I'm ready to roll out the jets and unilaterally declare adjacent territory a DMZ I will meet serious resistance.

So todays lessons learned:
1) When adding units, add them at the bottom of the list. My instinct was to just double the 'scout patrol' line and make the needed changes. The first play test ended when the first mindworm I found in the fungus turned into an alien artifact.

2) Adjust the rule settings when starting a play test game. My enjoyment enhancing choices (including tech stag and unspecified research) are not ideal for the purpose. The second play test ended when I realized things were progressing right along for my happy faction, but we had six bases and had not yet reached HEC, much less Air Power. The next test went sideways when the Caretakers landed right on top of me. I should probably tailor the faction selections for the purpose of a test also.

[timsup2nothin]

And it's off the deep end we go. I've now got a handful of mods to the alphax file.

The air defense mod is in its second incarnation. Noone built the laser anti-aircraft squads...not even me. I figured out the AI would never build them because they were marked for 'defense', and with no armor they weren't a good defensive unit. They have been replaced with a speeder based missile launcher with air superiority at a low fixed cost, available at Fossil Fuels. I assume that even the dumbest AI would build them if they were being attacked by aircraft, but we will see how it goes.

[timsup2nothin]

The next mod is a not reinvented wheel; a terraforming mod inspired by Marid Audran. The technical intent is to get the AI to seed forests by giving them formers before the formers can do much else. The common sense interpretation is that farming alien soil or mining in alien strata certainly requires technology, but building roads and seeding forests doesn't require much more than a glorified bulldozer. So I eliminated the prereqs from the unit and modules for terraforming, placing the prereqs on the functions instead. Like Marid, I moved mine construction out to EcolEng, where mines do some good. I also removed the mine penalty for nutrient production, so the AI's favorite farm+mine is not completely useless and tweaked the sea improvements. All in all it's a big change and I expect it will take some adjusting, but in three tests the majority of AI factions grew substantial forests, so that part works at the very least.

[timsup2nothin]

Lessons learned:

I changed the former module on the weapons list to a 'none' prerequisite, but didn't change the premade unit. Found out almost immediately that this made for a former unit that had to be prototyped.

Things cannot be deleted out of the menu files. The choice 'farm+mine+road' comes up when the farm ability does even though the mine ability is not yet active. Just deleting the whole line from the menu file screws the whole pooch. The former will just build a farm and a road, but it would be nice to keep the inactive choice off the menu if I can figure out how.

[timsup2nothin]

More irksome issues with the terraforming menu.

I added a sensor bouy for the sea formers, since I now have a seagoing probe unit in the standard units and they seem to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Now there are strange artifacts on the terraforming menu for the sea formers.

It seems like the program operates based on the line number in the menu file as far as determining what is and is not possible. When a new line is added it offsets the lines below it and screws them up. Research....

[Kinjiru]

Hey Tim,

Just a note that i am really enjoying reading your posts. Keep 'em coming!

-Kinjy

[Petek]

Originally posted by timsup2nothin
More irksome issues with the terraforming menu.

I added a sensor bouy for the sea formers, since I now have a seagoing probe unit in the standard units and they seem to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Now there are strange artifacts on the terraforming menu for the sea formers.

It seems like the program operates based on the line number in the menu file as far as determining what is and is not possible. When a new line is added it offsets the lines below it and screws them up. Research....

From your explanation, it seems that you added a new line to Alpha(x).txt to enable sea sensors. If so, you need to delete that line and, instead, modify the existing line as follows:

Example: You want to enable Sensor Buoys (Sea Sensors) in order to increase your naval sighting range (unlike land bases sea bases do not receive a +25% defense bonus from any sensors). Find the entry for the Sensor Array. Replace it with the following modification:

Sensor Array, None, Sensor Buoy, None, 4, Construct $STR0, O, O

(Taken from the Rubin/Darsnan guide to modifying Alpha(x).txt, as cited earlier in this thread.)

[timsup2nothin]

That's how I did it, and it works fine. It's just that it does add a line to the terraforming menu that normally isn't there when you open it on a sea square, and that seems to be causing some strangeness. I'm going to take out the sonar bouy and look again. Maybe the menu was always that way and I just never noticed.

I'm mostly satisfied with the terraforming mod. In most of the test games I played this weekend most AI factions started some sort of forest, and the mining changes definitely make a difference.

[timsup2nothin]

Next, rebalancing the alien weapons and armor techs. It seems like there's usually 3-res armor long before regular plasma steel, which means the window closes on laser weapons long before it did in the original game, and resonance lasers seem to take gatling laser and missile techs completely out of the game a lot of times.

A related issue is that I like having the aliens in the game, but there are problems. I play with all seven factions set to random, but I don't play if I draw an alien faction...it has proven to be much easier. It is also, as near as I can tell, impossible to recover if the aliens happen to land right next to my human faction no matter who they are. Obviously modifying the factions themselves offers one solution, but I think shifting their weaponry will suffice.

The weapons and armor sections seem pretty straightforward. Changing values ad prerequisite techs is just a matter of numbers and finding the right 'shortcode' for the techs. So I changed:


3-Res armor to 2 -Res armor.
2-Res armor availability to Progenitor Psych, and changed the name to Progenitor Tech.
The 'trance' ability prereq to Field Modulation.

Impact weapons from 4 to 3 and Resonant lasers from 6 to 4.
Res Lasers availability to Centauri Empathy.

The first lesson learned from this one is that the datalinks mostly update themselves. The tech requirements and such generate themselves out of the alphatext apparently. The only thing that didn't update is that the entry for '2-res armor' still talks about plasma steel. The text comes from a file called 'helpx'.

[Petek]

Originally posted by timsup2nothin
That's how I did it, and it works fine. It's just that it does add a line to the terraforming menu that normally isn't there when you open it on a sea square, and that seems to be causing some strangeness. I'm going to take out the sonar bouy and look again. Maybe the menu was always that way and I just never noticed.

I've had the sea sensor option in my Alphax.txt for a long time. Terraforming menu appears normal. I just started a game with a vanilla alphax.txt and the terraforming menu is the same, except for the additional sensor option.

[Darsnan]

This might be sort of a "close the barn door after the horse has left" comment, but did you back up all your original files? In my SMACX subdirectory I've got a "Virgin Files" subdirectory that I toss all my originals into before I start editing anything. That way if something goes irrevocably wrong, I've got the original to start over with again (which I have had to do on a number of occasions).


D