"Very Difficult Choice" Mod by Irakly

[Overlord2]

After long period of testing and playing it in moo community I finally decided to make my mod public. The idea of the VDC mod is based on the Sirons DC mod and in some way it is improvement of it. Yet there are many proprietary features that distict this mod from any other mod, like:
- new 41 points race picks balance;
- individual tech tree (fusion of DC and original tech tree plus some ideas of mine);
- careful balance of all kind of weapons. Many weapon types that weren't used in other mods now come into play.
- improved leaders stats (special thanks to C'G Expa mod, which game me some interesting ideas).

I want to thank the following people who contributed to this mod either directly or indirectly:
Siron - for creating DC mod which inspired me to create my own mod;
TF8 - for taking part in VDC updates, finding offsets on many new things significantly improving VDC balance.
Cabman - for critical analysis;
PK - for creating EVO mod, which also gave me some fresh ideas, and for playing and criticism of my mod;
Cybersaber - for playing and appreciation;
Futurist - for testing and playing;
ALEX|D - for great input into race balance and for playing and appreciation;
Sir_Moz - for appreciation and playing;
ValpraX - for new ideas in VDC and also for appreciation and playing.

Though my mod can undergo further changes, the latest version will always be available for download here. The current version is "VDC 29":
http://rapidshare.com/files/409394261/VDC_mod_29.rar
http://slil.ru/29505950


previous version links:
http://rapidshare.com/files/407884708/VDC_mod_28_fixed.rar
http://slil.ru/29481049

http://rapidshare.com/files/392694025/VDC_mod_27d.rar
http://slil.ru/29228098
http://xnet.fi/opt/moo2/VDC_mod_27d.rar


Future planned update:
- Give Class XX shield natural hard shields properties;
- Reduce time when the great leaders start to offer their services;
- Decrease max number of combat rounds from 50 to 20 rounds;
- Increase number of tractor beams, required to stop Titans and Doomstars;
this will enable to balance the tractor beams (reduce base space consumption from current value);
- Fix bugs.


KNOWN ISSUES [BUGS], which hamper multiplayer games:

1. "Mutation Bug" (this is a moo bug, not vdc): any battle occuring on the next turn after someone techs mutation goes desynch. This happens because opponent doesn't receive information on the mutation changes and calculates battle with previous status quo. The only way how to overcome this issue is to manually edit the save and give the player who mutated his new picks, then load this save. Game editing could be performed by corion tool.
Otherwise skip all battles on turn 1 after mutation and wait till turn 2. The game goes normally after that.

2. "Feudal Bug"(this is a moo bug, not vdc): in MP non-feudal race's ships receive cost as of feudal race (and vice versa). Consequently refit costs huge amount of resources. Players vs feudal are forced to refit ships at shocking costs (e.g. 1 BB - 900 pp), which kills the game.
For feudal you can scrap expensive ships and get more cash than you possibly could by trading goods...

3. "Zero Marines Raid Bug" (moo bug): in MP when you raid with zero marines in combat game stalls, waiting to receive combat data from the opponent forever. This seems like not an issue, since no one in fact raids with zero marines. However in some cases it is an issue, namely, when you try to raid with transporters ->ships equipped with damper field. In VDC the killing factor of damper field is 95%. Therefore you should raid with more than 20 marines at a time in order game don't go stalled. E.g. since the BB has 30 marines on board you can raid damper field ships only if you have troop pods special installed.

4. "Fusion Bomb Bug" (more like a vdc bug): when both fusion bombs and bioterminator techs are known to a player, player's bombers prefer bioterminator over fusion bombs, when bombarding ground installations of the planet in combat. As a result, ground installations and buildings are left intact (the effect is that fight cannot be won), but instead planet population is destroyed. However, if player got only fusion bombs (no bioterminator), bombers work correctly. Also when antimatter bombs are researched in the above case, bombers start to work correctly as well.

5. Mapgen.exe (bugs or misuses of mapgenerator program by tf8) - a) if mapgenerator is by mistake applied for autosave in the game other than turn 0 (zero) it can destroy the save - some planets with extraordinary production or research may appear. Usually the clear sign of "bad" planet is coma in the name of the planet.
b) in version 0.22 (which is supplied with VDC26d installation package) - the '-ssplint' command doesn't work properly. Taking the system which previously had the splinter will crash the game. Avoid this switch before it gets fixed. Fixed

[Qaz]

Great Job.

[Overlord2]

Thanks Qaz.
Meanwhile I have a small update. The last change making unification cheaper (i.e. 7 points) proved to be unjustified, allowing two very strong races: uni tol prod and uni aqua +2 prod rich hw. The practice showed that they are too strong even with strong demo in this mod. I have updated the link for latest 12.f version with several race costs changed.

[Futurist]

I have been the "Demo" tester. One of the versions was after Irakly played me and I called it the anti-demo anti-Future version.

[Overlord2]

[Eldariel]

Hmm, is there a reason you prefer 20-point system to Siron's 40-point model? It seems like 40-point model both, allows for much more customization and makes finding the exact balance easier.

[Overlord2]

[DakaSha]

well. i wanted to give this a chance but as i said in another post i just dont like when the techs are all strewn about

[Overlord2]

[DakaSha]

well dont take it personal. and just because another mod is "worse" doesnt mean anything.

right now i am stuck between your mod and normal DC... DC's tech placement seem to make more sense (yes im pretty anal about it... i like moo alot due to atmosphere and when it is ruined it kinda ruins the whole experience for me)

but since im playing in single player right now i like the way you did the default races... the picks make more sense.

i dont know which is more "balanced" though. i havnt played moo2 in years

edit:
which mod (in general) is used the most for MP games?

also... in the first releases of DC people were complaining about it being extremely unbalanced in regard to tech research speed and production. was that fixed in the last release?

like i said i havnt played in years and cannot remember how vanilla played out enough for comparison

[Overlord2]

Lately in moo community VDC mod has been popular. However regular moo is still played more often (just a matter of habit I suppose).
As a creator of VDC I think it is more balanced than DC. But in order to get the feeling what is the difference in balance, you need to play a lot of mp games of both mods.
About fast tech in early versions of DC - well, I haven't played early versions, so I cannot tell what was changed in further versions.

[c'g~]

[Overlord2]

Here is corrected tech description file for 14.a version:
http://rapidshare.com/files/160706527/HELP.LBX

The installation archive already includes this file since 11/5/08

[Futurist]

In vdc 14a, the race UniTolFood dominates if played properly. It needs to be banned or the cost of either food or tol needs to be increased.

[Overlord2]