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

[Overlord2]

VDC 57d uploaded with mutation bug fixed. Stealth Field was added new feature: now it works same way as cloaking device, but with lesser bonus. Additionally it was renamed to Cloaking Field. Needs newer than build 247 version of OCL_Improved to be edited.

edit: re-uploaded VDC 57e, increasing colony ship back to 650

[Rocco]

Awesome new feature this Cloaking Field!

Coz missile evasion of cloaks is not registered in ship stats, I ran some tests, which all ran fine and noticed that ECCM missiles do the same damage as regular missiles against cloaks (ECCM halfs the evasion of jammers). Also, missile evasion from cloaks is not reduced by scanners technologies. I think it is great that the game makes this distinction.

In response to this older comment:

Odd possible little bug happening here, don't know if anyone can reproduce. Silicoids in single player aren't expanding 99.9% of the time. Don't know when or how it stared, just noticed when I was messing with "Omniscient". This is at the very start of the game. They'll send out the 2 scouts and colony ship, and immediately pull them back; and do nothing for the rest of the game.

I've seen them pull back from a GAIA first expansion, just to sit on their homeworld. Only times they seem to consistently expand is if a first expansion happens to be an Artifact, or Gold Deposit Planet.

This is on Stock VDC56, haven't used OCL or anything on it. Using Elerian for their Omniscient and just quick clicking through the first couple of turns to see what the Silicoids do. Not Game Breaking by any means, just odd.

I have been struggling with same issue in my mod. Apparently Silicoids development can get stuck when they are set a growth percentage which is not -50%. When i tried percentages like -45%, -30% and -10%, the same Silioid problem occured.
Must be something in the Silioid code that expects -50% growth??

[Overlord2]

Awesome new feature this Cloaking Field!

Hehe, thanks.

Coz missile evasion of cloaks is not registered in ship stats

It works like displacement device, it doesn't add to missile evasion bonus.

In response to this older comment:

Odd possible little bug happening here, don't know if anyone can reproduce. Silicoids in single player aren't expanding 99.9% of the time. ...

I have been struggling with same issue in my mod. Apparently Silicoids development can get stuck when they are set a growth percentage which is not -50%. When i tried percentages like -45%, -30% and -10%, the same Silioid problem occured.
Must be something in the Silioid code that expects -50% growth??

I was thinking silicoids are programmed to have tolerant pick. Maybe that is the reason why their development is screwed.

[Rocco]

Did few more tests with these Sili's and their development problem, and it is growth related. Sili's cannot handle very well growth percentage that is not -50-, 0 or +50. Other values will cause them to stall (not 100% of the cases but frequently). I saved a few VDC games with the problem, changed Sili growth value of +60 or +80 (sometimes in IMP game, Sili's get +80) to 0 or +50 with Corion and problem was gone.

[Overlord2]

Well, it means AI algorythm, which accounts for strategic decisions should be updated for new pop growth bonuses. Any chance to find that?

[Rocco]

Not with my current knowledge and method (HEX edit).
But thanks to the code_offsets doc I have some ideas where it could be and still have time avail.
What program does your team use to disassemble code? Maybe I can learn that too..

[Overlord2]

I've written before in the forum thread, it's Ida Pro Disassembler and additional program to it - Hex Ray Decompiler.

[Rocco]

- ok thanks

noticed in vdc when trying to pick -12 racial penalties it says max is -10 although vdc max is -11
just a minor thing, but if you feel like changing, that warning text is in Kentext.lbx, file # 444

[Overlord2]

Thanks, it was helpful, I couldn't locate it myself. How did you find it was exactly line #444 in that file?

[Rocco]

Did a keyword search in all the text files using the humble notepad. Once localized, made actual changes with the moo2 workshop from Grig.

[Rocco]

(edited- this was a question for an offset, but found it already)

Reg. your comment in VDC 57b changelog;

- Mutation number of picks corrected in all locations of the exe code (not sure if it was ever affecting the game, but still);

Yes this was affecting the score calculation, as in my mod, where mutation picks is 4 instead of 5, i suddenly got score*1.1 although all 4 picks where used.

Apparently seperate offsets for 'mutation choice screen' and 'mutation score calculation'.

I have changed offset DE638 from 5 to 4 which solved issue.

tx

[Rocco]

Hey Overlord2,

weekend almost here so time for some more modding..
Noticed that VDCREG is a bit more generous with planets on mapgeneration than DOS/140.
Was looking for this code and think it must be in block 1F3CD4 / 1FBD14 but is very hard to decipher what is what coz it is just only numbers in there (00 - 05)
Do you have some info on this?

[Overlord2]

Check the map generation section of OCL_Imp.

[Rocco]

Thanks and that was indeed my starting point, but ocl just shows the same "-1" for both VDCREG, VDCOR and M2V140, while all three have differences in map generation. These differences can be seen with HEX in the source at stated location, but I don't know how to interpret.

[Overlord2]

-1 means current data won't be changed. Basically the items in the mapgen section of the editor are self explanatory, but if you need additional details check the following topics on page 5 of this forum:
Planet Gravity table, Planet Mineral Class vs the Star Stellar Class Table, Star Class vs Number of Satellites table & Orbit vs Satellite Types Table.