Need help Modding moo2 ice-x

[XxJDxX]

Hey guys
Basically what am trying to do is double the cost of command points for ships and triple the penalty over command point allowance. Also half the bonus from leaders.
I love this game but 70% of my playthroughs end up just getting auto battled because of the shear volume of ships. I love the early skirmish battles and smaller fleets so I just want to try prolong my own fun.
Also is there anyway to be able to use the brown ships with different colours ??? All the years of playing the game the same colour because I like the ships is annoying

I need some help because am completely new to this Any help would be much appreciated

Cheers

[XxJDxX]

Ok so i have been digging around in the ICE folder in my main M002 folder. in the ICE-X CFG files i can customize alot of options.
under the section 'Command points' i can edit the following

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
# ---------[ COMMAND POINTS ]---------------------------------------------------- #
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #

command_points starting = 5;
command_points star_base = 1;
command_points battlestation = 2;
command_points star_fortress = 3;
command_points tachyon_communications = 1;
command_points sub_space_communications = 2;
command_points hyperspace_communications = 3;
command_points warlord_planet = 2;

this is the only option i can find to change the command points. no mention of ships ???

On the galaxy map in game if you right click on the command points it give the info above with the addition to ship info. so i am guessing i am looking for something along these lines

command_points frigate -1
command_points destroyer -2
command_points cruiser -3
command_points battleship -4
command_points titan -5
command_points doom_star -6

but i cant seem to locate them.

As for the -10bc penalty for over using command points... i wanted to change that to -20 or -30 bc but i cant find that too.
on another note i could also change the dictatorship upgrade to 25% extra cp instead of 50%

for what i am trying to achive in the above post is basically to half all ships on the map i dont think i can achive this by only being able to edit starting points, star base and communications techs.

please can anyone give me a nudge in the right direction????

many thanks

[Kornstalx]

AFAIK there are currently no variables anywhere in the cfgs that control CP cost for ships, nor the penalty paid for going over. There is however entries that control CP allowance per SB, BS, SF, Warlord, Initial, etc. I don't think you can do much with that for what you want, however.

I have the same problems/opinion you do, but I sort of tackled it a different way. To help with the massive fleets I sort of tweaked the map generation to create sparse universes. Something like a Huge galaxy but with only 55 stars, or a Large Gal with only 37. This causes maps that are a bit less dense which prevents massive economies so quick, and hurts the fleet upkeep by proxy. It can also corner off races with a bad start so I tweaked the Fuel Cells to compensate a little. Another option is to not reduce the # of stars, but simply increase the % chance of stars being black holes, instead. Or both.

It creates a snakey, strategic feel on the map and also stifles rapid expansion and megafleets until a good bit later.

[XxJDxX]

Thanks for the reply bud.
I know what you are saying but have no idea how to put it to practice I opted to change the command points instead i have played a few games with these settings
Starting points +3
Star base +1
Battle station +1
Star fortress +2
All the comms at +1
Warlord +1

Seems to keep the fleet size down early game until encomomies can handle the negative command points . Dictatorship races and warlord races seem to gobble up the galaxies due to the extra command points they get. The gnolam do very well too because the +1 bc. I got leaders with extra command points so they seem to be op. Sadly it's not having the effect I wanted so I have changed it back too normal and play it as intended I just have to get used to a battleship free for all but just for lols I may play a few games with zero command points and see how that pans out

[Rocco]

we have put the 10bc cost and ship command points on our (long) list of things to do.

note however that the 10 bc per ship is fixed for human players only.
AI's pay maintenance cost according to difficulty setting:
Tutor 12BC
Easy 11 BC
Avg 10 BC
Hard 9 BC
Impossible 8 BC
So you can see, on impossible its cheaper for AI's to maintain large fleets.

In the code, this calculated with a formula: 12-difficulty level (0-4).
exposing offset '12' is easy, a formula rewrite requires more work.

Similarly, the command points per ship is not a table but a formula [for all players]: 1 + size class (0-5).

I think the 10bc penalty is good as it is; modding command points for ships can be interesting tho.

but imo you're better off making different mods to achieve your goals, for example more challenging galaxies, like kornstalx suggested with less stars, or, and I even have a map config for that, with less planets per system (used to be part of old ice mod: map 'ice cold'). i can make it available for download if you like.

[Kornstalx]

(used to be part of old ice mod: map 'ice cold'). i can make it available for download if you like.

I'd actually love to have a copy of this.

[Rocco]

here it is!

http://moo2mod.com/MAP_COLD.CFG

* very low planet density, many systems with 1 planet only
* planet quality lightly improved
* low chance for wormholes

[Alex]

I opted to change the command points

Since version 1.50.5 command points consumption can be configured via ship_command_points_usage.
There is no direct way to double -10 per point penalty, but you can achieve the same by doubling both command points consumption and all command points bonuses.