Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion

[Rollo]

The blacked out systems have nothing to do with adding the Imperials as a race. At least I have never seen such a thing.

Much more likely this is due a change you did to the /data files.

As for the new Devnull Mod Gold version? Soon =).

[Dizzy]

Allright, just to clear it up... mb there is a glaring error that I made, but here's the scoop.

I put the devnull folder into the main directory. I changed the pathway txt to devnull171 so the launcher loads devnull171 when started or when using the standard exe. Its gonna load devnull171 regardless.

I dropped the emp's into the devnull empire folder, told that wouldnt work anywya.

I dropped atrocities shipset imperial folder into devnulls picture/races folder.

I dropped the imperial txt names file into devnulls dsgname folder.

When I initially tried atrocities shipset, the emp's ouldnt work. Was told to create a new race using the shipset and then choose the txt names i wanted.

When I started the game, i got a black system screen.

Only when I totally replaced and renamed all the imperial txt files with the devnuklls vikings did i get system info.

After that, I started changing some components around. Not before.

So, what did I do wrong and what is wrong with what I did?

[Fyron]

Did you replace the images too, or just text files?

Try opening and saving all of the Imperial text files in wordpad or so.

[Dizzy]

Just the txt files. And my notepad works for editing the txt files just fine. But I didnt do any editing prior to the game not giving me a system screen...

[Rollo]

Dizzy said:
Allright, just to clear it up... mb there is a glaring error that I made, but here's the scoop.

I put the devnull folder into the main directory. I changed the pathway txt to devnull171 so the launcher loads devnull171 when started or when using the standard exe. Its gonna load devnull171 regardless...(snip)...

So, what did I do wrong and what is wrong with what I did?

Don't see anything wrong with what you did.

Was this the unmodded DevnullMod171, or something you have modded? As said earlier, adding a race won't cause the systems to be blank. Only changes to the mod itself, IIRC.

I would suggest starting over with the fresh version 1.71 and adding the Imperials then. See how that goes.

[Fyron]

Dizzy said:
Just the txt files. And my notepad works for editing the txt files just fine. But I didnt do any editing prior to the game not giving me a system screen...

Ok... did you try what I suggested?

[Dizzy]

Ill try wordpad tomorrow. But i mean, it works now, but the damned things given me no shipnames.

[Rollo]

Well, good news. I have made fine progress. Here are the latest changes:

* removed small emissive armor
* removed abilities from small organic and crytalline armors, since they aren't working for units anyways. Reduced their sizes to 1 to make better fit on units
* reduced cost for small shield generators
* restricted Solar Sails to one per vehicle
* added Balanced System Mod as another selection for different quadrant styles
* removed Master Computer I and II, made Master Computer III a ruins tech (#10)
* increased cost and size for Allegiance Subverter by 100 and reduced range by 2
* added Psychic Weapon Mount that brings back Allegiance Subverter back to its original size and cost, effectively making AS an unmountable weapon, except for its own mount
* reduced minerals cost for Allegiance Subverter but increased rad cost and largely increased its organic cost. reasoning: it needs manpower (psychics) to operate. for the same reason AS can no longer be placed on satellites or drones.
* added boarding defense to Allegiance Subverter and Boarding Parties
* added Death Ray (ancient ruins tech) that kills boarding defense only (can be used against Allegiance Subverter, Boarding Parties, Security Stations, Telepathic Armor, and Monster Immune System)
* added Death Ray as requirement for the Sci-Fi Cannon
* made Monitors (baseships) and Starbases immune to crew conversion
* added Master Computer tech area. MC has to be researched after finding it in a ruin and getting to Computers level 3.
* added Advanced Master Computer that combines a MC with a neural combat net, if both ruins were found and MC tech researched
* revised a lot of the CueCappa/Abbidon construction, research and designs
* revised some of the Sonne research and designs
* added the Quadrant Style Selector.exe that allows a player to switch between different quadrant mods, Classic, FQM, and Balanced mod
* added /data/Classic Systems, /Data/FQM Systems and /data/Balanced Systems folders and appropriate files. These folders act as source for the Quadrant Mod Selector
* updated /Data/FQM Systems with the FQM v1.23 files
* cut away unneeded images for component and planet minis and moved/renumbered some planets to make file smaller (components are still image mod compliant)
* revised (generally increased) fleet sizes for all AI races
* added Ancient Technology tech group and moved/reordered all ruin tech areas
* reduced costs for seekers (for some of them greatly reduced costs)
* increased damage resistance for ionic pulse missile and tweaked damage, range and speed a bit
* tweaked fighter offense and defense bonus
* set to-hit bonus for AFM to 70 for all sizes
* raised to-hit bonus for PDC to 90
* raised to-hit bonus for mini-PDC to 80
* raised Seeker Combat Defense Modifier to 110
* reduced Planet Combat Offense Modifier to 10
* reduced bonus for Accelerated Psychic Sensors to 10/20/30
* added Equal Systems from Balance Mod to Classic Quadrant SystemTypes.txt
* added Asteroid Belt with Planets to Classic Quadrant SystemTypes.txt
* added AI Friendly Quadrant to Classic Quadrant QuadrantTypes.txt (no hazard systems, some equal systems, no storms or 'useless' systems, asteroid belts have one planet of each type, systems have few warp points and quadrant layout is string-like)
__________________________________________________ _________

Apart from cleaning up some stuff, my todo list is done. I am going to test the mod a bit now and see if made any big and easy to catch mistakes.

So ETA has moved from 'soon' to 'very soon' .

[Rollo]

Ta-daaa!
And here it is, no teaser or April fool's joke this time. This is the real thing:

DevnullMod Gold version 1.80

very short summary of changes and new features:
* New AIs: Xiati and Sallega, and updates to all other races.
* New graphics: Asteroids, Taera shipset, monster drone, new buttons and intro screen.
* Quadrant Style Selector: allows easy switching between different quadrant mods
* many more revisions, features and fixes: better weapon balance, new ruins techs, revised mounts and to hit chances, Master Computer is now a ruins tech, single satellite tube, Puke's infamous Sci-Fi Canon Cannon and much much more... please refer to readme for more details.

Have fun ,
Rollo

[henk brouwer]

*pushes download button*