16-08-2004 06:32									#241
	Inflate your Upload Space

Thanks.

	16-08-2004 08:14									#242
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quote: Originally posted by Kaboth #endgame, There is a great faction editor tutor at http://smac.2be.cc/index.html follow the links that you should check out it explains everything. I copied this straight from the guide: ROBUST, [social], Halves the intensity of minus effects in the named social area ("ROBUST, EFFIC" halves minus efficiency effects in social model) IMMUNITY, [social], Immunity from minus effects in the named social area. ("IMMUNITY, ENERGY" prevents minus energy effects in social model) IMPUNITY, [social], Impunity from minus effects from a particular social setting. "IMPUNITY, Police State" prevents all negitive effects from "Police State" setting.

Actually, that's straight from the alpha.txt and alphax.txt files

Also relevant is

PENALTY = Opposite of impunity: doubles the negative effects
of a particular setting.

	16-08-2004 18:21									#243
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Well I went ahead and made an icon for Aldebaran....

I simply resized a selection from one of the pics in the AC folder.

The pic is of a (Progenitor) escape pod.

To change the icon for your Aldebaran/Alpha Centauri shortcut, simply click properties (of the shortcut), change icon, and find the file. Admittedly, I don't know how to change the icon for an executable, but it's doable.

Attachment: newicon.zip
This has been downloaded 3 time(s).

	17-08-2004 21:33									#244
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Admittedly, I wasn't truly satisfied with the original icon attempt that I made... I got rid of the blurry background and put a more contrasting blackish color there instead, similar to the way the regular SMAC icon looks. The ship is much more defined now.

Attachment: aldebaran icon2.zip
This has been downloaded 3 time(s).

	18-08-2004 04:38									#245
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Hey, I'm back from vacation, and better for it. I'll be attempting to integrate Nword's text-cleanups and many other changes into 2.1.0 tomorrow. If it plays well, I'll then group it with ModMan and make the major release the next day. Great work team. Maybe we're near finished?

	18-08-2004 05:46									#246
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We hope not. There's always things that can be improved after a mass release.

Might I suggest once you release 2.1.0:
Make the moddir 'Aldeb' or similar version independent name.
Make the .SM files also version independent.

To make the inevitable patches easy to make.

	18-08-2004 09:50									#247
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Good thinking. Now if we can just get Lord Nword off the treadmill for a few hours, I can finish before he updates something (Now I know how it feels beta testers )

	18-08-2004 14:06									#248
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I completed 10 turns in First Succesion game. The mod is awesome. If AI plays this way coz of changes then it is really a good change. AI builds a lot of SP, that is great. I noticed some errors in F1 - datalinks descriptions. E.g sea trunkline has defense pod description, or other sea facility like that.
Another thing - I have gamma corection set on 1.26 yet the brown color for the Outlaw faction is a bit too dark, as I can describe it. I would prefer not to increase gamma. I do not see orders on troops very well.

	18-08-2004 17:47									#249
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The thing with the Defense Pods description error has been fixed.

As for the colors and gamma stuff, you can change the colors in the faction picture file with the bases and stuff... It's one of those small boxes at the bottom of the pic... It's described better on the networknode.org

The only thing I haven't bothered to fix atm is the fact that Lord Shi Tan refers to itself as both male and female

	18-08-2004 20:29									#250
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Hehe. That's an error for sure.

After I upload 2.1.0, we'll need to eventually write a full comparison of Aldebaran to Sma(c)x. Since the only core rules that have changed from the Aldebaran-1 project are the worldbuilder and which techs are cap-relievers, this should be fairly easy.

Secondly, It would be nice to make a picture-guide showing sea-production, pretty random maps, special units, early hovercraft, the advantages of attacking from elevation, and improved artillery, and anything else that makes the project especially great (a screenshot of ModMan would be good too).

Third, a graphical tech-tree would be nice, and has already been requested by one beta tester. I've looked into automating the creation of a graphical tech tree, with some progress, but nothing solid yet.

I'm off to catch up on PBEMs and then work on integrating all the changes into 2.1.0.

-S

	18-08-2004 22:14									#251
	Inflate your Upload Space

My current game is the Nauticon, with the Aquatic factored in... so that'll work for showing healthy production... Though the map looks rather interesting, because I built a huge sea wall to defend against enemy ships and probe teams...

Also, is there any way to make it so that the datalinks info of the techs show the "extra minerals from mining platforms" and "allows to build soil enricher"?

Because the problem I'm getting is that I'm not realizing those things until I get the technology themselves. Sorta hard to explain *shrug*

	18-08-2004 22:59									#252
	Increase the size of your Attachments

quote: Originally posted by Lord Nword Also, is there any way to make it so that the datalinks info of the techs show the "extra minerals from mining platforms" and "allows to build soil enricher"? Because the problem I'm getting is that I'm not realizing those things until I get the technology themselves. Sorta hard to explain *shrug*

I forgot about that! I'd noticed this too, even in Smax. We could easily add it to the blurbs that appear below or to the tech-shorts that appear in the tech-square itself. Unfortunately there is no way to add that info to the list of improvements in the standard way. That's a hard-coded process. I suggest we add it to the tech-shorts so at least it'll appear in the tech window itself...now, what were those techs again........

Edit: Adding the odd things (mining platform, restriction lifting, etc.) is simple. Adding all the terraforming would be pretty large. What do you think?

	18-08-2004 23:31									#253
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Lord Nword, what did you change in the alpha.txt? I'm trying to merge it with my own updates....

Also, did you happen to track the changes that you made to various files? I did my own editing and it's nice to work with only 2 files rather than 3 in the copy/paste department. No big deal though if you didn't. I'm currently going over the faction files integration. Will get to the more lengthy files later this afternoon. I wish I had a 'compare files' command in my word processor

Last edited by smacksim on 19-08-2004 at 00:13

	19-08-2004 01:19									#254
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We don't really need to add the teraforming stuff, because you can find how to get it from the datalinks. The bonuses you can't...

I don't believe I modified the alphax.txt file, just the alpha.txt file...

In the alpha.txt file you had a different name for the Core Fungal Facility, something like Mystery Food Facility.

It had been renamed to CFF in the alphax.txt file, but not the alpha.txt file.

I'll log my changes next time ... I depend on my brain usually

Was there something not working correctly?

Edit: The alphax.txt file that I use IS different but not much...
I added and adjusted to the map sizes, (8 choices plus custom).
I also added a reference in mine about what the ability tags are for the premade #units.

However, I have never posted an alphax.txt file here, so I have contaminated yours

	19-08-2004 02:10									#255
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I've updated the blurbsx.txt to include all restriction and terraforming info. Note: this appears in the datalinks, not in the normal F2 screen for techs.

Integrated Nwords Faction and textfile improvements into my own improvements. Have done some playtesting.

----------------------------------------------------
Moving on to improving the load-up screen and faction group buttons. My current scheme for the faction groups:

Old: Was the original Smac 7. Now are the original Aldebaran 7

New: Were the Smax 7, now are the Smac 7

Custom: Was blank, now is:

COLONIST, COLONIST
COLONISTAI, COLONISTAI
GALACTICAI, GALACTICAI
PLANETLOVERAI, PLANETLOVERAI
SYNDICATAI, SYNDICATAI
CYBORG, CYBORG
PIRATES, PIRATES
DRONE, DRONE
ANGELS, ANGELS
FUNGBOY, FUNGBOY

which eliminates the Smax Aliens, adds the Colonists as an alternate to the Nauticon, and allows 4 different SAI, AND the best 5 Smax factions. Let me know what you think of this arrangement.

----------------------------------------
Lord Nword,

Comments on the base-names: The expanded lists are great, but the names are chosen at random, so the alphabetizing doesn't seem to help keep them in order (I was hoping). Also, because the names seem to be randomly chosen I was getting primarily names from the extended/larger list in playtesting. If these are both true, perhaps we can eventually edit the base-name list to include more personalble names. One idea would be to take good names that we come up with in our Succession Games (Chaunk Cove comes to mind ). Additionally, the Universality are a faction of Ascetic meditators, and are vehemently anti-laboratory. So that name list suffix set will need a change in character.

Overall looks good.

I should have spoken up earlier r/e keeping a list of changes. The reason this would be nice is that I had already improved several of these files beyond the uploaded versions. Since neither of us keep a list of changes I've had to compare line-by-line in a few cases. I suppose I should be the one keeping a list of changes, since that will always work. So, nevermind!

----------------------------------------
Geo, any luck finishing the new bases?

-Smack

Plans for today: Finish the Startup screen + buttons, test with ModMan, compile 2.1.0-Complete, upload 2.1.0, and upload 2.1.0 text-only.

Plans for tommorrow: Test/debug

	19-08-2004 03:36									#256
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Aldebaran 2.1.0 Files Only

This is completely untested, but figured I'd put it up as I work on the last bits and re-upload if I missed anything.

-S

	19-08-2004 05:00									#257
	Tired of ads?

Ok, got my old files back from my former computer. I can continue on the 'Planetlover' perimeter defenses.

	19-08-2004 05:03									#258
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

The only error I've had so far have been with my not checking the expansion required checkbox in modman... and i'm not sure that was really the problem itself.

What happened is that I started with Lindly... and i ended up with an extra unit; a Xeta Ping... the one that uses a graphic that sorta looks like a floating city to me... A mind worm attacked it and the game crashed *shrug*... I've had problems before where the game always crashes if a certain unit attacks a certain unit or is attacked on a certain turn. Weird stuff

Other than that, I have modman working now, if a bit slow in its initiation...

As for base names, I was already aware that new bases have a randomly chosen name. For the non PK and Morganite factions, it
still is useful for making the lists searchable by letters (instead of all Ms or Us...).

As for the Universality, use ctrl+h (use any program other than Notepad; like Wordpad ) to replace the Info-Labs with Dome, and Dats-Sealabs with Floats.
Or something like that; those are the two suffix words that came to my mind when reading the "normal" base names.

	19-08-2004 05:48									#259
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Too late!

Just kidding. But I did just finish compiling and testing a full install version of 2.1.0. Here it comes.....wait first:

For the beta team, a text-files-only version (you know what to do with this): Aldeb210-text-only

And by-the-by, you won't need to know how to use the nitty gritty details of ModMan to run from the full intall. It's Download --> Unzip --> Run --> Choose Game Directory ---> read all the fun readme.txt ---> and it launches straight from the setup program!

(Smack does a little dance)

Thanks #endgame. Thanks to all the team. We reach a milestone today with the first truly idiot-proof download of Aldebaran-2. Here goes...

Aldebaran 2 Full Install with Modman

	19-08-2004 07:43									#260
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A couple half-baked opening pics:

Still working on replacing the faction-pictures. Look for that tomorrow.

Attachment: openings.zip
This has been downloaded 8 time(s).

	19-08-2004 07:47									#261
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ModMan is as efficient as it will ever be, since it only moves the files that are replaced.
Sorry I can't make it faster.

	19-08-2004 08:06									#262
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Where did that come from? Oh, I see. I read that as Nword saying he was slow

Give the full download a try and .....

'Break it!'

	19-08-2004 08:57									#263
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The opening pics look great, credit given where due and everything. What program do you use for the lettering? I'm not sure I have anything that goodlooking...

It might not be Modman itself that's slow, but this computer; considering that the stuff on the hard drive has been moved from hd to hd multiple times over the last 10+ years...(my entire computer life)
Windoze Explorer itself is loaded problems like two minute slowdown if i rightclick the folders area... and crap like that

	19-08-2004 09:45									#264
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That's meant to be

quote: Break it!

	19-08-2004 09:48									#265
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Perfection has escaped our grasp yet again.

First bug. The Colonist AI Datalinks info is showing that of the regular Colonists... oopsie.

Second bug. Is so minor you can ignore me here. I missed the proper formatting of a single name in the blurbsx.txt file **gasp**

Suggestion. List the Nauticon as Aquatic in their Datalinks info... Had me worried for a moment when I didn't see it there.

Time for me to get some sleep...

	19-08-2004 10:31									#266
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Go Lord N!

	19-08-2004 11:49									#267
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Originally posted by Lord Nword The opening pics look great, credit given where due and everything. What program do you use for the lettering? I'm not sure I have anything that goodlooking... It might not be Modman itself that's slow, but this computer; considering that the stuff on the hard drive has been moved from hd to hd multiple times over the last 10+ years...(my entire computer life) Windoze Explorer itself is loaded problems like two minute slowdown if i rightclick the folders area... and crap like that

Believe it or not, it's a slightly tweaked regular photoshop filter on the letters.

Consider re-installing Wind-blows and deepfreezing it with a program like Ghost. I re-image my drive once a month. Takes 10 minutes and == speed.

Modman hangs for 1.3 seconds on my Pentium 1.8, which is within the user-zone of 'Um, it's broken, I'd better reboot quick', because, though we give our users the benefit of the doubt with a 1.5 second tolerance, they have a 2.5 second delay before they can spot and hammer the cntrl-alt-del keys. Maybe we can put a pretty DOS animation in there to distract them even longer....

	20-08-2004 00:15									#268
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For me Modman is clearly working well

The only problem is that the first line that appears is

"Cannot make directory entry - ."

It then waits about 9 seconds before it starts scrolling the file exchange info.

As for bugs with Aldebaran, my newest one is just the fact that the alphax.txt and prolly the alpha.txt files say Aldebaran 2.0.8 in the info at the top... *shrug*

I'm going to actually play Aldebaran 2.1 now... I really didn't play any AC yesterday (those AI factions are beating me down like a wimp)

Edit: haha, the pirates info is amusing...
Enhancements may be built on ocean and trench squares with the discovery of something
I shoudl be able to figure out what with my new game... *shrug*

Last edited by Lord Nword on 20-08-2004 at 00:24

	20-08-2004 01:06									#269
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Lord Nword For me Modman is clearly working well The only problem is that the first line that appears is "Cannot make directory entry - ." It then waits about 9 seconds before it starts scrolling the file exchange info.

What processor are you using? It takes 1.5 seconds for me.

Perhaps we could error-handle that message and turn it into 'ModMan is formatting your Hard Drive. One moment please....'

quote: Originally posted by Lord Nword As for bugs with Aldebaran, my newest one is just the fact that the alphax.txt and prolly the alpha.txt files say Aldebaran 2.0.8 in the info at the top... *shrug* I'm going to actually play Aldebaran 2.1 now... I really didn't play any AC yesterday (those AI factions are beating me down like a wimp) Edit: haha, the pirates info is amusing... Enhancements may be built on ocean and trench squares with the discovery of something I shoudl be able to figure out what with my new game... *shrug*

Yeah, come to think of it, there are a lot of little details like that that need improving. Let me know what you think of the new SE table and the following factions: Outlaws, Planetlovers, Universality. They've all been changed significantly.

-S

	20-08-2004 01:44									#270
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I still haven't played yet

I really broke it this time, when I start a game, i get to the faction choosing part and all i'm getting is a window with the Pirates and their info. Time to reinstall Aldebaran; must have not liked what i did to the alphax.txt file...

As for processor, i'll have to check that, it's relatively new *shrug*...

Edit: Thank god that worked... It really had me worried when the datalinks weren't working in either Aldebaran or a separate (non-modman) install of Aldebaran 2.0.9...

Processor is (I think) an AMD Athlon XP 2000+. Modman never hangs it just does some of it's work without saying anything... Nothing truly unusual about that in my opinion

Last edited by Lord Nword on 20-08-2004 at 01:56