"Very Difficult Choice" Mod, irc channel: irc.quakenet.org/vdc

[MadViper]

@Catalyst
Too far distances in huge between opponents, because of that this map isn't played in MP.

I strongly disagree!
We always (!) play on huge maps with 36 stars and it is very funny and imho the most enjoyable and balanced setting possible.
We fill up the galaxy with KI players (up to 8 ) and have a new simple attack-rule instead of "no attacks until round xy".
Players may attack KI and player ships/outposts whenever they want, but attacks on player-colonies are allowed only, when at least 1 (or 2 optional) KI races are wiped out completely. This gives players some more time to react to Rush strategies.

I altered the map generator for the 3 mod-Files to produce huge galaxies with 36 stars.

vdcgm2.exe
vdcor.exe
vdcreg.exe

Furthermore there is an altered standard-Race-Setting used. The KI Players should be more dangerous with this setting. The old (=boring) Races can be found in the folder "Racestuf2".

You can download it here:
http://ge.tt/7w1X2XN/v/0

Edit:
I am sorry, that i have not explained well enough how to use the altered Version:
The huge galaxy with 36 stars is created, if you choose a medium galaxy. The other galaxy sizes are still original.

[Overlord2]

All depends on the time. The last game I played on huge map lasted 36 hrs. While large map takes 5-7 hrs in average. How long does your game usually last?

[MadViper]

All depends on the time. The last game I played on huge map lasted 36 hrs. While large map takes 5-7 hrs in average. How long does your game usually last?

The Time varies much. I remember Games which are over after 3 hours, and other that lastet about 15 hours. But most games last about 6-9 hours.
The higher distance between the stars alternates the usabilits of certain tactics and prevents rush strategies, but due to the few starsystems to colonize (remember, that many Systems are guarded from KI Races) the turns resolve quickly. The players usually have about 15-25 Planets when the endgame-War Phase between players begins.

[Overlord2]

Yes, fewer number of stars results in fewer colonies to manage, so time can be reduced significantly. But there will be extra time spent on battles with AI.
This setting with low density should be played with Ai, because AI will play a role of buffer towards expanding into the sector, so if one gets a good start compared to other he won't be able to make use of it, since the AI will hold his expansion. Otherwise it will require restarts almost in every game. As for the larger distances between stars, it can be compensated by transD pick, which becomes much more viable in this setting.
Have you tried the same thing on large (36 stars in large map)?

[Azureflames]

AI is building ships with shields + damper field. Intended?

[Overlord2]

AI is building ships with shields + damper field. Intended?

Well, its a game bug: it doesn't remove shields for AI ships when it adds Damper Field. How often does it build such ships though? Damper field is available only for one type of design. I may remove it if it's too strong, although some weapons completely ignore it, e.g. Spatial Compressors, BHG, Gyro Destabilizer, Assault Shuttles...let me know your opinion.

[Semmelbaecker]

@MadViper and @Overlord2:

I tried both of your files, but I cant get the new map generator to work
I replaced the files in my MoO2 folder with yours, still the number of stars in a huge galaxy is *plenty* and not 36. I started the game with VDCOR.EXE, VDCGM2.EXE and VDCGM2S.EXE but in any case, the number of stars in a huge galaxy doesnt change.

Is there anything else I need to do other than replacing files?

Cheers,
Semmel


PS: Thanks for the mods, Overlord! A friend and I are playing MoO2 again.. after.. I dont know.. 17-18 years since the last time we played it. Its great! I havnt found any game that is as challenging and.. mindtwisting as MoO2 so far. the action of modern games is just too much for me, so I love the MoO2 experience. and your mod is really great, it makes really fun again!

[Overlord2]

Hi Semmel,
Thanks for high appraisal of the mod, took a long while to give it its current shape.
As for the map with less density of stars, use VDCGM2S. The number of stars doesn't change, but the size of the map increases. This way you get lesser density. Small becomes medium with 18 stars, medium - large with 36 stars and large becomes huge with 54 stars.
Viper's map only changes medium galaxy size - medium becomes huge with 36 stars.

PS. Moo2 was issued back in 1996, so it has passed only 16 years since the release

[Semmelbaecker]

Uhh, 16 years.. anyway, long long time ago. I love how it runs much better in dosbox than in the old days

@maps: I had a misunderstanding, my bad! I thought the size of the map stays the same but the number of stars changes. No wonder, I have not seen any change in a huge galaxy.

[Overlord2]

Tomorrow I will issue a new update with antarans starfortress bug fixed as well as complete revision of the antarans build rate and ships specifications.

Edit: new (43rd) version is up. Please check how the strengthened antarans behave and provide me the feedback.

[Semmelbaecker]

Uhh, difficult Antarans?

On the Map-generator side.. Is there a chance to have a 2-fold and 4-fold symmetric galaxy? So something like a spiral galaxy with orion in the middle and identical (but randomly generated) planets in each arm. So that all players have identical ressources and it depends how fast they can flood over the center area.

Cheers,
Semmel

[Overlord2]

Theoretically it's possible, but beyond my capabilities for the moment. I will post when it will become possible.

[Semmelbaecker]

Well, I have no experience with modding, so I cant really tell. I also dont want you to sink time into it that you might want to use otherwise. I just thought it might be quite useful for balanced mp-games. But I only played with a personal friend so far, and I have not much experience with the high level play that goes on here.

On a different note, I discovered that you can pass command options to the map generator. Can you pass the same commands also to your modded versions of VDCXXX.exe files? Or do you have a text file where you read out the commands for your map generation?

I tried to search the interwebs on this, with not much luck. I found the possible commands on http://masteroforion2.blogspot.de/2009/ ... rator.html , but the whole process of generating the map, closing the program, running mapgenerator etc... seems to be quite strange, but i would do this if there is no other choice.

thx in advance, and cheers!
Semmel

[Overlord2]

Here is an exampe of command line used in our games:

VDCGM2.exe /skipintro /nobh /nowh /nonebula /planets=5 /nosplint /noorion /noreport
mapgen.exe -tfixedhw -ttoxic -ttiny -tupoor -ssplint -mmonst -tlowg -sarti -tgaia
CRYOGEN.exe
VDCGM2.exe /skipintro /nobh /nowh /nonebula /planets=5 /nosplint /noorion /noreport

First line launches the game (the switches are available since 1.40 patch) - you can check them here: http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005/01/ ... h-faq.html
item 3.1 and 3.2

The mapgen program can further improve the map. The switches available for mapgen could be found on the page you pointed, but few new switches were not listed:
- trichhw makes 1st planet rich;
- thugehw makes 1st planet huge;
- tgoodhw makes 1st planet rich huge and terran;
- tgaia - makes 5th planet small poor gaia for subt and no capacity races or med poor terran for aqua or tolerant races; new thing is that it's no longer part of flathw or fixedhw switch, i.e. you could leave hw random, but ensure that 5th planet is food planet.

Cryogen improves techtree for uncreative race.

After the game loads host quits from the game menu and automatically the mapgen program as well as cryogen runs. Then game loads again with modified autosave. You just load autosave again.

[angra]

Edit: new (43rd) version is up. Please check how the strengthened antarans behave and provide me the feedback.

Loaded an almost finished game using the new version. I'd just completed all tech tree but without future techs. It was ~200 turn. Attacked Antaran's homeworld with three titans. There were a cruiser, a titan and the star fortress. In previous versions each of my titans could handle Antaran's homeworld alone. Now my entire fleet was destroyed before getting TWF's second turn. Only the Antaran's cruiser was destroyed. It was quite impressive.
Tested with different refits, best result was destruction of both ships and 1/6 of starfortress. I've won battle after building 5 more titans.
Now I'm eager to test new game and feel the pain of early Antaran's attacks.