Twilight of the Arnor Beta 3C Change Log

Published on December 14, 2007 By CariElf In GalCiv Journals

I think that you guys will find the new additions to be really cool. I don't usually play as the Korx but I did today to test them, and the new abilities are very fun.

+ NEW: Added War Profiteering ability, which allows you to profit from other civilizations' wars.

+ NEW: Added persistent trade route ability, which prevents your trade routes from cancelling after your mini-freighter has been destroyed too many times.

+ NEW: Changed creativity to randomly finish the tech you are researching

+ NEW: Updated AITEST command line parameter to work with QUICKSTART parameter so that you can start a game in test mode and have it immediately start running

+ NEW: Mining starbases now have a particle system that indicates how much of the resource is being mined. (more, bigger, and faster means more bonus)

+ NEW: Victory message if you use a terror star to kill two or more enemy civilizations in a single attack to win the game

+ NEW: Interest Rate ability now decreases base cost of purchasing units immediately

+ NEW: Ship module, Righteous fleet defense: Expensive but relatively small sized module to boost to your fleet defenses.

+ NEW: Ship module, Defense Meditation Module: Expensive but powerful defense module for ships.

+ NEW: Ship module, Offensive Meditation Module: Very expensive but extremely powerful fleet attack module that also provides a 20% boost to ships attacking in their zone of control.

+ NEW: Drath Enabled
+ Drath Imp: Dark Energy Weapons Lab
+ Drath Imp: Biosphere Modulator (improves planet quality by +3). This may eventually require a good civilization tech.
+ Drath Imp: Doomsday Generator (galactic achievement that provides a 50% HP bonus to ships built on that planet)
+ Drath Imp: Drathian temple
+ Drath Imp: Shrine of the Mithrilar
+ Drath now have a lower than normal population growth ability
+ Drath now have a unique technology tree
+ Drath defense techs are better than other civs.

+ NEW: Korx Enabled
+ Korx Imp: Freighter Command ( trade routes can’t be destroyed)
+ Korx Imp: Mercenary Academy (make 5% of the income of civs at war)
+ Korx now have a negative loyalty penalty on game start up.
+ Korx now have a unique technology tree
+ Korx get super trade starbase module
+ Korx get two new galactic resource modules (they can get more out of resources than anyone else)
+ Korx get new tech tree path called the Starbase Victory strategy.
+ Korx get a set of cheap, easy to get starbase defense techs (annihilator & shredder)
+ Korx get Imperium starbase module which provides a 50% cultural influence bonus.
+ Korx get the Hyperfield starbase module which speeds ships in their zone by +2
+ Korx get the Defense Jammer starbase module that gives their ships a +2 attack bonus in all categories in the starbase zone of control.

+ FIXED: Made it so that when you destroy a race's last planet with a terror star, it pops up the cutscene for a civ being eliminated.

+ FIXED: Made CanIAttackThisShip check to see if the ship is underneath a planet, which fixes a stuck turn/lockup bug.

+ FIXED: Bug in save games that would break save games every time new abilities were added

+ FIXED: Bug in TechTreeEntry when checking for restricted techs

+ FIXED: Added checks so that old save games shouldn't be broken

+ FIXED: Bug in AI code to trade techs that was passing in the wrong value for the tech IDs, which caused AIs to get techs no one had

+ FIXED: Added code to GetSerialNumber to look for TA serial if all others fail

+ FIXED: Added functions CanIAttackPlanet, CanIAttackStar, and CanIAttackMiningBase. Checks to see if you're allied, UP laws, etc - hit detection code uses these to prevent lockups

+ FIXED: Crash when trying to upgrade a ship

+ FIXED: Bug where an armed colony ship got stuck trying to colonize an inhabited planet

+ FIXED: Bug where some civs could use advanced invasion tactics immediately after researching Planetary Invasion.
+ If the invasion tactic’s required tech is not in the civ’s tech tree, the tactic is now unavailable to the civ. (It used to waive the requirement)

+ FIXED: Bug where fleets would sometimes use more than one move when attacking

+ FIXED: Numbers on Missile Bloom, Beam Multiplier Field, and Omega Cannon starbase modules. These used to go from level I to III (no level II) Now there is level I – IV.

+ FIXED: Typo in Beam Weapon Theory description

+ FIXED: Potential crash in Custom Ship Style window

+ FIXED: Bug in TransferAllTech function which could cause the civ to transfer incorrect technologies

+ FIXED: Processes in scene view windows and the fleet combat screen are killed when they are deleted (fixes memory leaks)

+ FIXED: Bug where minor race planets used a procedurally generated texture instead of pre-designed high-res texture

+ FIXED: "String not found" in tooltip for planetary defense bonus on Tech Details screen and Planet Improvement Summary screen

+ FIXED: Bug in Place Agent window will now display icons for "super project", "galactic achievement", and "trade goods"

+ FIXED: If you click on an icon for peace treaty or surrender you can only talk to the race if you met them

+ FIXED: Bug where if an AI traded for a tech from another AI that was in its own tech tree, it could not use that tech

+ FIXED: Bug where if a survey ship landed on an anomaly, it got stuck there. Now it takes the anomaly, which means that you could pop around the galaxy a few times if you keep landing wormholes.

+ FIXED: Bug where destination was not cancelled if your ship on auto-explore tried to move on to a class 0 planet.

+ TWEAK: adjusted the Iconian tech "Precursor Legacy" so that it cannot be traded nor stolen.

+ TWEAK: Tech Details window now displays research cost for the tech

+ TWEAK: Tech Details window now displays a civ logo if the tech is unique to that civ

+ TWEAK: Tech Details window now displays a message if the tech cannot be traded

+ TWEAK: Updated S1 style thumbnails using the new textured models

+ TWEAK: In the Terror Star attack animation, mining base bonus lines (for bases which will be destroyed) are hidden when the shockwave appears from a Terror Star attack

+ TWEAK: Willingness to trade is initialized to 50 (this is the same default used in the editor)

Comments (Page 2)

Drengin

on Dec 14, 2007

+ NEW: Mining starbases now have a particle system that indicates how much of the resource is being mined. (more, bigger, and faster means more bonus)

Anyone have any ideas what this is supposed to do please

Zenicetus

on Dec 14, 2007

Very nice, very nice. Firing up a Drath game tonight. I'm curious what the low population growth will do to the colonizing phase.

One minor quibble: this description...

+ Drath Imp: Doomsday Generator (galactic achievement that provides a 50% HP bonus to ships built on that planet)

Is it just me, or is that an odd description for a hull improvement? The word "doomsday" means something apocalyptic, and it just sounds a little out of scale there.

xNaquada

on Dec 15, 2007

Is it just me, or is that an odd description for a hull improvement? The word "doomsday" means something apocalyptic, and it just sounds a little out of scale there.

I thought the exact same thing, then i came to post that... and well here you are speaking my exact words...definitely needs a new name.

doogles

on Dec 15, 2007

I always dug the Korx as a concept. Sounds like they should be far more interesting in practice now, as well. Very excellent.

GJDriessen

on Dec 15, 2007

Keep it coming

shiva7663

on Dec 15, 2007

+ TWEAK: adjusted the Iconian tech "Precursor Legacy" so that it cannot be traded nor stolen.

I'm going to have to respectfully (for now, at least) disagree with this design concept. Base cultural techs are some of the favorite things I like to assimilate from other civs. If you think it's unbalanced, then do something like increase the tech's value to make it more expensive to buy from AI civs, and worth less when the player tries to trade it away. Don't take away our right to assimilate the uniqueness of other cultures.

Zenicetus

on Dec 15, 2007

I disagree about being able to trade baseline racial techs. Precursor Legacy unlocks the Precursor Library, a core Iconian upgrade that's part of their unique (and somewhat weird and challenging) approach to research.

What's the point of having all these new racial techs if they can all be sold/traded/stolen so everything is homogenized? I like the way we now have to think up different strategies depending on what race we're playing. If all unique racial techs can be sold/traded/stolen, then we could just select the very best attributes of all the races, cafeteria-style. The human player can probably exploit that much better than the AI.

If the races are locked-in with certain techs that can't be sold/traded/stolen, then they'll remain differentiated even if tech trading is turned on. I think that's a positive feature. One of the common complaints on this board is too-frequent tech trading, but a lot of us (well, me anyway) don't want to play with tech trading turned completely off. This is a nice middle ground (IMO).

shiva7663

on Dec 15, 2007

Well, for one thing, it's going to unfairly penalize custom designed player races. "The human player can probably exploit that much better than the AI" is not a valid argument to restrict tech trading (or anything else in the game, for that matter), it's an argument to improve the AI until the objection is mooted.

Zenicetus

on Dec 15, 2007

Well, for one thing, it's going to unfairly penalize custom designed player races

Okay, I see your point about penalizing custom designed player races. That's assuming the current non-trade-able techs aren't allowed to be used for custom race tech trees, and we haven't seen what Stardock is planning for custom race creation yet.

I guess I see that as the price we pay for having unique techs for each race, which does make the game more interesting. Do we really want to be able to cherry-pick the absolute best combo of all techs from all races for custom races? Wouldn't that be overpowering, since the stock races have offsetting balances built into their tech trees and baseline stats? We'd also lose the "flavor" of these unique techs. I like the way the weird tech research fits the Iconians, the way the slave pits fit the Drengin, the way the war bonus income fits the Korx.

I'd like to be able to design a custom race that's competitive in the game, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it by stealing unique characteristics of the existing races in some kind of tech tree mashup that doesn't make any logical sense. The new TA tech trees are strongly based on racial history and inherent qualities. I don't know how Stardock is planning to get around that for custom race creation.

MacsenLP

on Dec 15, 2007

might of missed it but has the huge trade bug been fixed ie freighters return to home planet on reload and turn press.

Just tested this and sadly the bug hasn't been fixed. Bit suprised it hasn't been, it makes the Korx pretty much pointless playing it's unlikely anyone can get through a game without needing to reload due to real life commitments or just the game crashing.

Although theres a lot of nice few things id like to test I think i'll skip playing this beta hopefully the next one or midweek patch will fix this bug.

ozo

on Dec 15, 2007

I this downloadable right now? Can't see it in SDC

debe2233

on Dec 15, 2007

Hrm, Drath have access to Healing pools, is that a bug?

Also they have the temple which increases morale by 15% and the healing pools which increase by 18% both maintenance free, which makes the temples totally pointless other than temples coming slightly earlier but a 3% increase?... Drath really need some updated morale structures unless morale is supposed to be one of their weaknesses?

Just a suggestion but as the Drath are supposed to be huge and have low population hows about giving the Drath their own farm technology, which is actually worse than the normal farms, low food increase and high maintenance to show that feeding 20ft tall creatures is harder than feeding humans.

Autistic Angel

on Dec 15, 2007

The new TA tech trees are strongly based on racial history and inherent qualities. I don't know how Stardock is planning to get around that for custom race creation.

I've been wondering that as well. I've been assuming that it would be similar to choosing a ship style, where custom races simply select which of the established ship styles (or tech trees) they want to use.

The trouble is, while ship style is purely a matter of aesthetic preference, the custom tech trees have a *big* affect on the actual gameplay. When creating a new custom race, I think it would be a good idea to add some sort of brief descriptor to each option so players have some idea of what they're getting themselves into -- something like "Krynn Techs - High Influence" or "Korx Techs - Heavy Trading."

WIllythemailboy

on Dec 15, 2007

TA has a tech-editting tool to help modders and custom-race building. You can assemble whatever tech tree you want for a custom race. IIRC the only limitation is that such races will not be metaverse-compatable, simply to limit the level of cheese. Metaverse customs will have to use a premade tech tree.

Zenicetus

on Dec 15, 2007

Ugh, well I guess I'll keep playing Drath until that's fixed. I only have time to play in small doses, not hours-long gaming. Lots of save/reloads.

Hrm, Drath have access to Healing pools, is that a bug?

I wondered about that too. That's an odd tech line. The preceding tech is "Divergent Evolution" and it unlocks a Biosphere Modulator which gives... an industry bonus? That's not very intuitive. How do we get an industry bonus from a biological research line? And then it's followed by healing pools, which is listed as a unique (but apparently tradeable) racial tech in the Torian's tree. Why would the Drath start the game with that "unique" Torian tech? Weird. And then the morale line just dead-ends there, instead of continuing like the Torians. Maybe it's assumed the Drath's slow population growth will mean less trouble with crowded planets. Or maybe there's a more Drath-unique morale line that they haven't slotted in yet, and these are just placeholders.

Another buglet (or maybe just unfinished text): the Divergent Evolution's description says "TODO: this is a new tech for Twilight".

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