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

[Semmelbaecker]

Beams are not viable before moleculatronic computer? Seems very far into the future. I often take cybertronic, missing out on structual analyser of course. This limits the usefulness of beams in the very lategame, but most of the time, its over before anyway. At the level of refinement you have, you can fit many graviton beams into one ship.

[Overlord2]

Without structural analyzer or alternatively high energy focus damage of the beams won't be sufficient to destroy well defended high armored ships, in other words opponent will be doing higher damage with missiles or torpedoes. Besides cybertronic got much worse chances to hit from distance. Generally, cybertronic is good for close combat, when you can overwhelm the opponent.

[donm61873]

One issue... can the VDC readme.txt be renamed "VDC_readme.txt", to avoid accidentally overwriting the original readme.txt, and could the readme be updated to provide all the possible dos options?

I can never remember all the /skipintro /hugestart /goodstart /planets=4 /nosplint /nowh /nobh /noorion options...

[Overlord2]

OK, will update the text file with next release.

[Overlord2]

Uploaded VDC 45b: beams balance optimized.

[Krowser]

Hey hey, I just restarted playing MoO2 and I found your mod. I'm very glad that people are still playing this game.

However I'm a bit confused, I'd like to start playing with this mod but some things are discouraging me.

The 41 pick system allows me to create a very powerful race with barely any disadvantages. (Uni, Sub, 1prod, Large world and -10 espionage)

I can't find terraforming anywhere. In the patch notes it says it was moved to Environmental Engineering but I can't find that tech in any of the trees.

Also, why is the weather controller placed with the last Bio technologies?

Thanks,

[Overlord2]

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback. Here are answers to your questions:

The 41 pick system allows me to create a very powerful race with barely any disadvantages. (Uni, Sub, 1prod, Large world and -10 espionage)

The cost of the picks was doubled compared to original, becuase with previous picks you couldn't assign fractional numbers. As for the strongest races, in original you could constuct some very strong races too based on unification government, which are available in VDC now. But in original game other governments were not playable, i.e. you couldn't construct competitive race with them, what was changed in this mod.
Btw, the race you mentioned isn't the strong one, there are much better races. If you are interested you can check a set of strong races at the last sheet of the supplied xls. file.

I can't find terraforming anywhere. In the patch notes it says it was moved to Environmental Engineering but I can't find that tech in any of the trees.

Terraforming is no longer a singleton, its placed in biology branch at 1150 rps.

Also, why is the weather controller placed with the last Bio technologies?

Because I believe these technologies are of the same value. Weather control gives instant efficiency increase of population, while antidote gives extra population growth over time. In most cases they are of the same effect. Antidote can be better if you can settle very large number of planets and extra pop growth will be huge in this case. This mostly suites unification race. However uni techs slower than other races, so this advantage doesn't ruin balance, but helps uni to be competitive. Also much depends on the map generator and particular map: with many good planets antidote can be more powerful.

[Krowser]

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback. Here are answers to your questions:

The 41 pick system allows me to create a very powerful race with barely any disadvantages. (Uni, Sub, 1prod, Large world and -10 espionage)

The cost of the picks was doubled compared to original, becuase with previous picks you couldn't assign fractional numbers. As for the strongest races, in original you could constuct some very strong races too based on unification government, which are available in VDC now. But in original game other governments were not playable, i.e. you couldn't construct competitive race with them, what was changed in this mod.
Btw, the race you mentioned isn't the strong one, there are much better races. If you are interested you can check a set of strong races at the last sheet of the supplied xls. file.

I can't find terraforming anywhere. In the patch notes it says it was moved to Environmental Engineering but I can't find that tech in any of the trees.

Terraforming is no longer a singleton, its placed in biology branch at 1150 rps.

Also, why is the weather controller placed with the last Bio technologies?

Because I believe these technologies are of the same value. Weather control gives instant efficiency increase of population, while antidote gives extra population growth over time. In most cases they are of the same effect. Antidote can be better if you can settle very large number of planets and extra pop growth will be huge in this case. This mostly suites unification race. However uni techs slower than other races, so this advantage doesn't ruin balance, but helps uni to be competitive. Also much depends on the map generator and particular map: with many good planets antidote can be more powerful.

Ok, that makes sense. I think it's really the new tech placement that threw me off.

I have another question.

Is there a way to play the game in windowed mode? With the regular MoO2 from GoG, the game is full screen on one monitor and my second monitor is still displaying Windows, while with VDC the second monitor turns black when I play. Do you know how to fix this?

[Overlord2]

Is there a way to play the game in windowed mode? With the regular MoO2 from GoG, the game is full screen on one monitor and my second monitor is still displaying Windows, while with VDC the second monitor turns black when I play. Do you know how to fix this?

In dosbox config set the windowresolution to the one you want, for example: windowresolution=1024x768

[angra]

VDC_mod_45b.rar has VDCREG.exe from version 44.
I hoped that someone else will report this issue cause I'm a bit disappointed with my experience of conversation with author and prefer to avoid this in future. But looks like nobody cares about last changes or nobody uses this particular exe or maybe others don't want to talk with author too

[Overlord2]

VDC_mod_45b.rar has VDCREG.exe from version 44.

double checked the package - it includes correct version of VDCREG.

As for conversation here is my opinion - conversation is an attempt to get information from interlocutor or inversely trying to deliver your information to him. If you see you can't get any positive information for yourself or can't deliver the information to interlocutor due to different reasons then conversation is pointless.

[angra]

NOW it includes correct version.

[Darza]

Angra, just to clarify it, i had a version dl'ed a week ago (~ one week after initial upload was), it doesnt had that problem (i mean it say what its 45b in titlescren, ofc i didnt tested the content itself). So, if actual error was present, it was fixed at least week ago, not "NOW".

[angra]

After more thorough investigation I have to admit that I was wrong. Problem wasn't with EXE itself but with change of letter case in his name. It was VDCREG.EXE before and is VDCREG.exe now. So in result two versions of VDCREG coexisted and the old one was executed by dosbox.

[Overlord2]

Some operation systems are case distinctive, so it could be a problem indeed. I will make notice on the front page about it.



Btw, I noticed that 43 pop bug slipped in 45b for unknown reasons. I will fix it in the following update.