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great news, cant wait till Extendded-compatibility version

ORIGINAL: Blackstork
great news, cant wait till Extendded-compatibility version

And I can't wait for the mega-mod based on Extended!

Hopefully while you guys work on that I have time to make a dent in the Extended version of this.

yeah, my project is so ambitious (the character system is, race component is easy compared to CS) - if i will continue to work on it with techincal support from Ergie and writing support from ParagonExile , (3 man regulars mod team) as it is now, it will take approx week per each race ! to release its character system after the start is established. So, if you will have some free time/space i would be more than happy , once you finish - if you will help / do integration thingies with me , and some people will help at least by posting/input/testing, because the character system adds alot of rebalancing into races and additional separation/difference element to each race, which need to be checked, additionally to art work required.

I do intend to update this Mod as required following release, so please feel free to comment. I also plan to start work on a version for Haree78's terrific Extended Universe Mod.

great descision!

megamod including the technology tree spread would be great! Talk to Lurchi to launch its version of the mod tech before they launch the DW2.

ORIGINAL: danymatrix

megamod including the technology tree spread would be great! Talk to Lurchi to launch its version of the mod tech before they launch the DW2.

I'm nowhere near done, but I'll release Research Reloaded at least a year before DW2. [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

Lurchi friend, I do not think missing so long to launch / announce dw2 .... Erik and company also need capital inflows and not only think they can have it with patches (although they are more than welcome) .... surely there will be news soon DW2

Where can I find the v1.0 changelog?

Awesome work Ice best DW mod ever thank you for your work! If I only had one request to make this mod perfect it would be if you could work on balancing the engines as well! [&o]

Icemania, I love you so much ;_;

Love Love Love
Love is in the AI....

ORIGINAL: Sithuk
Where can I find the v1.0 changelog?

Hey Sithuk:

There are not many changes from the Alpha Release but they are important:

1. Changed Troop Transports so that they can be built at Size 300. It appears changes to how the game shrinks Troop Transports were made in the 1.9.5.6 Beta as this was definitely working earlier. I’ve added Troop Compartments to the larger ship designs to compensate for the smaller Troop Transport design templates. We'll have to keep an eye on what happens with future patches as well and I'll update as needed.

2. Fixed the upgraded Pirate Ship Designs to ensure they include Assault Pods. My bad on that one, too much testing without Pirates, given the AI is poor at dealing with them effectively.

3. Implemented a temporary change so that Size 230 is available at the start of a pre-warp game. This way the mod's upgraded Civilian ships can be built immediately and I’m not forced so put out two versions of the Mod i.e. one with seriously nerfed Civilian Ship designs for Expensive or above Research settings on a pre-warp start. As a result the Mod can now also be played on any Research setting. Note Civilian Ship Shrinkage remains on the Developer Support Wishlist as this would be the better solution.

There have been a number of other additions to the Developer Support Wishlist arising from the good feedback from the community.

Hope this helps, refer to recent posts for more information and discussion as required.

Hi again, Icemania! I encountered some strange behaviour with design automation with quameno. They are focusing on gravitic weapons and missiles, but for some reason no missiles used in any of designs and also no weapons used (besides point defence) on both small space ports and mining stations. I can put desired weapons myself, but AI player may suffer because of that.
By the way, thanks for 1.0, new pirates with assaul pods are constant headache

The Quameno particularly like the Area Gravity weapons. After reviewing following your posts there are some designs with Area Gravity Weapons only, both most have a mix of Graviton Beams and Area Gravity Weapons. While they will use them after that technology is available, it takes a little time to get there, so what I can do in the 1.01 version is put some Graviton Beams on those designs as well.

On Missiles, the Gravitic focused races should not use them at all.

If you are starting "pre-warp", ResearchDesignTechFocus is not used, the Research Build Orders are used (which go deep into the research tree) and they have a Gravitic focus. In those Research Orders you'll see some missile research done much later on to get to Point Defence.

If you are starting "normal", the Research Build Orders are used in-game, but when the map is generated ResearchDesignTechFocus plays a role. Only some of those choices make a difference to starting technologies. I've selected the choices that are most important for each race and which change the technologies available when the game starts (only some do). In this case, Missiles are selected as one of the six ResearchDesignTechFocus fields, the other 5 are more important (e.g Gravitic Weapons) for this race, but I couldn't find anything else that works that adds more value. So the starting Missile Research is only relevant later on to get to Point Defence.

Please let me know if you observe something else in game.

I've made a good start on an Extended Version. Components.txt and Research.txt have been updated to amalgamate my changes with Haree78's changes, the race files have been updated to align with those changes for Vanilla races and I've applied the design templates to all extended races. I'm just testing the first extended race that has been fully updated, the Banoserit, at the moment.

Any specific requests for the Extended Races (within the scope of the AI Improvement Mod)?

IceMania, if its alright can I record footage of your mod in action, and upload it onto youtube. I haven't played your mod yet, but since its complete I feel its a good time to test it. For testing, all I have to do is set automation to full an watch the AI, correct? What difficulty should I start with and other settings should I have set?

Sure go ahead Cmiller. I'm going to continue to update the Mod so if you encounter any issues let me know. If I can fix them I will. If not the issues can go on the expanding Developer Support Wishlist in the OP.

With regards to Settings, yes make sure it's fully automated (including Empire Settings "Newly Built Ships are Automated"). To watch the AI you probably want to choose Normal Difficulty so that your automated empire is not playing with disadvantages. I'd recommend starting with Excellent Homeworlds (since the AI still struggles at times with resource management) and few Pirates (since the AI struggles to handle them effectively). If you really want to get straight into the action you could always start with a more advanced and mature galaxy.

It maybe worth playing a race using weapons that are not so commonly seen in Vanilla as I've ensured there is more variety in-game. The Shandar for Missiles/Fighters/Bombers perhaps. I quite enjoy playing the Sluken due to the speedy engines and since they enjoy bombarding enemy planets. Or have a look at the "Summary" tab in the AI Improvement Mod.xls in the download for the weapons focus used by other races.

Once last comment, the Mod really is intended for the higher difficulties (as mentioned in the about text in-game when you select this Mod as a Theme). You'll notice the changes the most when you play against the AI Empires, as opposed to watching the AI Empires on Normal. So my suggestion would be to play against the AI on Extreme (or the highest difficulty level you normally can play at) and discuss how you go compared to Vanilla.

So when are you all going to start posting your own screenshots?

The only way this Mod becomes worth the effort is screenshots from you of crazy battles or getting destroyed by the AI ...

ORIGINAL: Icemania

So when are you all going to start posting your own screenshots?

The only way this Mod becomes worth the effort is screenshots from you of crazy battles or getting destroyed by the AI ...

I think its safe to say you will see a lot more playing and testing from most people when the extended version is out. Im really looking forward to it! Also waiting on the official patch to be released! [:)]

Any chance of engine re-balancing to be included with your weapons re-balancing?

ORIGINAL: Tanaka
I think its safe to say you will see a lot more playing and testing from most people when the extended version is out. Im really looking forward to it! Also waiting on the official patch to be released! [:)]

Agreed ... and it's coming. However, if people come up with good idea for changes that apply across races after the Extended version is out, I will need to modify 62 races (i.e. 22 Vanilla plus 40 Extended). So the earlier I get good comments the better! And for that reason I really appreciate everyone who has commented to date!

ORIGINAL: Tanaka
Any chance of engine re-balancing to be included with your weapons re-balancing?

How would this improve AI performance? I would suggest this is an item to discuss with lurchi for Research Reloaded.