Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research

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Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/6/2014 3:42:32 PM

Erik Rutins

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
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Last week we shared you two excerpts from the upcoming comprehensive modding guide for Distant Worlds Universe. One of the many advantages of Universe is the greatly enhanced moddability, giving you even more freedom to shape the game to your own ideas. This week we are happy to share you another part of the modding guide, focusing on research.

This guide will help you understand in detail how research works in game and how it can be altered to fit your own preferences or style of play. As research is an important part of the Distant Worlds Experiences, this guide can be a very powerful tool!

Read the guide here.

Click here to learn more about distant worlds.

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Post #: 1

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/6/2014 5:06:32 PM

ASHBERY76

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Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
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If you say make planet based recreation centres and medical centres how would the A.I know how to build them like facilities on the policy files? Are policy files also moddable now?

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RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/6/2014 5:22:11 PM

Tampa_Gamer

Posts: 160
Joined: 12/27/2010
Status: offline

Thank you for posting additional information Erik

One concern/question with respect to what I am reading. It appears that certain modded files will still be retained in the root directory and force the modder to replace the original files (rather than allowing any original base files found in the theme directory with the same name to directly overwrite the original base file). If this is correct, I don�t think this is a good approach for the long term because it will create a hybrid of original/modded files for every mod you use and NOT allow "easy switching between mods" as advertised - specifically it will hinder the user from (1) maintaining a clean set of original files to revert back to or patch, and (2) patching the mod itself with further updates because each time they will need to be careful which mod was installed last. A mod should be totally self-contained within a theme folder to allow maximum flexibility for the modder and user.

< Message edited by Tampa_Gamer -- 5/6/2014 6:57:29 PM >

_____________________________

For those interested, forum thread link to post with a master list of all my DW mods: Link

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Post #: 3

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/6/2014 5:31:10 PM

Osito

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Joined: 5/9/2013
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quote:

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

If you say make planet based recreation centres and medical centres how would the A.I know how to build them like facilities on the policy files? Are policy files also moddable now?

I can't actually see how it's possible to create planet based recreation centres and medical centres. Hoping that I've missed it, rather than it's not possible.

(in reply to ASHBERY76)

Post #: 4

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/6/2014 5:57:32 PM

Spidey

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I take it we can't add a "colonize gas world" tech?

quote:

when Type is 1 (Colonize New Planet Type): 1=Continental,
2=Marshy Swamp, 3=Ocean, 4=Desert, 5=Ice, 6=Volcanic

Or am I just missing the part where it says "7=Barren, 8=Gas, 9=Frozen Gas"?

That's a bit of a weird limitation, though. I mean, humanity has plans on lauching people to freaking Mars for the heck of it, and Mars is a pretty damn barren place, as far as I know. And it would've been fun to have expensive outpost colonies those places, even if it's not exactly sensible to build colonies on rocks with no atmosphere or in orbit around gas giants.

It also looks a bit like all the facility techs are by and large hardcoded. That is, we can technically mess with the facilities but the game only knows the existing types of facilities and the AI probably wouldn't have any idea of what to do with new facilities anyway.

Aside from those couple of things, it looks very nice. Plenty of room to expand the tech tree, as far as I can tell. I'm still a bit nervous about how the AI will respond when I atomize the colonication tech with one tree for each type of planet but I guess we'll find out.

By the way, how exactly does this whole thing fit in with the races that have racial modifiers to certain techs? If I mod the tech tree will I then also have to mod those races? And how is that going to fit in with other popular mods, such as DW Extended?

(in reply to Osito)

Post #: 5

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/6/2014 6:25:38 PM

JCVocke

Posts: 40
Joined: 11/7/2011
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The Facility modding seems extremely limited, essentially allowing for nothing more than producing alternate versions of existing facilities. I was hoping I would be able to implement a sort of "Factory" system where you would have to build planetary facilities that would take in raw materials and produce manufactured resources that would then be used to build other components for actual ships and stations. However it does not appear that any such thing is possible, unless I design them as components for ships/stations, but that isn't what I wanted.

I also am not seeing anything related to controlling how the AI builds/Researches these things. At least with Techs we can assign a category, however I was hoping for more control. Ideally we would have a full ai_will_do block like for event options in a Paradox Interactive Game.

Very disappointing.

< Message edited by JCVocke -- 5/6/2014 7:27:34 PM >

(in reply to Spidey)

Post #: 6

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/6/2014 10:28:18 PM

Osito

Posts: 875
Joined: 5/9/2013
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Spidey

I take it we can't add a "colonize gas world" tech?

quote:

when Type is 1 (Colonize New Planet Type): 1=Continental,
2=Marshy Swamp, 3=Ocean, 4=Desert, 5=Ice, 6=Volcanic

Or am I just missing the part where it says "7=Barren, 8=Gas, 9=Frozen Gas"?

That's a bit of a weird limitation, though. I mean, humanity has plans on lauching people to freaking Mars for the heck of it, and Mars is a pretty damn barren place, as far as I know. And it would've been fun to have expensive outpost colonies those places, even if it's not exactly sensible to build colonies on rocks with no atmosphere or in orbit around gas giants.

It also looks a bit like all the facility techs are by and large hardcoded. That is, we can technically mess with the facilities but the game only knows the existing types of facilities and the AI probably wouldn't have any idea of what to do with new facilities anyway.

Aside from those couple of things, it looks very nice. Plenty of room to expand the tech tree, as far as I can tell. I'm still a bit nervous about how the AI will respond when I atomize the colonication tech with one tree for each type of planet but I guess we'll find out.

By the way, how exactly does this whole thing fit in with the races that have racial modifiers to certain techs? If I mod the tech tree will I then also have to mod those races? And how is that going to fit in with other popular mods, such as DW Extended?

Elliot mentioned in another post that barren planets would not be colonisable, so I guess gas and frozen gas giants are even less likely to be colonisable. It's a shame, but I think part of it is that (as mentioned elsewhere) the game could not run properly in a 'galaxy' with 1400 star systems and with every barren (or giant) planet being colonisable.

Personally, I'm a little disappointed with the modding facilities, as they're certainly not going to let me do exactly what I would have liked to do. On the other hand, I think that quite a lot can be achieved with a little imagination.

At the end of the day it is going to take a DW2 (or something else?) to solve these issues, but in the meantime, I still feel DWU is getting about as close as it gets ...

< Message edited by Osito -- 5/6/2014 11:35:29 PM >

(in reply to Spidey)

Post #: 7

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/6/2014 11:20:01 PM

Darkspire

Posts: 1986
Joined: 6/12/2003
From: My Own Private Hell
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tampa_Gamer

Thank you for posting additional information Erik

One concern/question with respect to what I am reading. It appears that certain modded files will still be retained in the root directory and force the modder to replace the original files (rather than allowing any original base files found in the theme directory with the same name to directly overwrite the original base file). If this is correct, I don�t think this is a good approach for the long term because it will create a hybrid of original/modded files for every mod you use and NOT allow "easy switching between mods" as advertised - specifically it will hinder the user from (1) maintaining a clean set of original files to revert back to or patch, and (2) patching the mod itself with further updates because each time they will need to be careful which mod was installed last. A mod should be totally self-contained within a theme folder to allow maximum flexibility for the modder and user.

There is a completely new theme structure that addresses your concerns.

Darkspire

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Post #: 8

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/7/2014 1:38:04 AM

Tampa_Gamer

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Joined: 12/27/2010
Status: offline

Thanks Darkspire, glad to hear its addressed. Looking forward to reading the rest of the manual on how they fit together into the new switching scheme!

_____________________________

For those interested, forum thread link to post with a master list of all my DW mods: Link

(in reply to Darkspire)

Post #: 9

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/7/2014 7:01:18 AM

joeyeti

Posts: 329
Joined: 2/28/2012
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I do have a feeling that many folks would like to see modding features, that are just not feasible under the current game - e.g. as was mentioned that handling 1400+ colonizable bodies is just insane from the game logic and performance POV etc. I take Universe as the final chapter of DW 1 and getting us all the rest of the features THAT ARE POSSIBLE TO BE GIVEN TO US without breaking the game or making it unstable.

I presume there would be many technical questions and issue reports when fundamental game mechanics would be altered or opened, which is not feasible for such a small team to handle - thus they are going for a more secure (albeit more limited, if you can call it that - I do not) way.

Here's hopin' for DW 2 to be even more open and moddable from the get go, as they can sorta start fresh on it with all previous DW 1 experience behind them.

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Post #: 10

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/7/2014 12:04:28 PM

Icemania

Posts: 1847
Joined: 6/5/2013
From: Australia
Status: offline

Agree with joeyeti.

I really hope the ability to improve the way the AI uses an existing Research tree is considered in the base build for Distant Worlds 2.

Galactic Civilisations will monitor expert human Research build order strategies and implement those improvements in the AI via patches.

(in reply to joeyeti)

Post #: 11

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/7/2014 2:21:10 PM

tjhkkr

Posts: 2428
Joined: 6/3/2010
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Last week we shared you two excerpts from the upcoming comprehensive modding guide for Distant Worlds Universe. One of the many advantages of Universe is the greatly enhanced moddability, giving you even more freedom to shape the game to your own ideas. This week we are happy to share you another part of the modding guide, focusing on research.
This guide will help you understand in detail how research works in game and how it can be altered to fit your own preferences or style of play. As research is an important part of the Distant Worlds Experiences, this guide can be a very powerful tool!

Thank you! This is great!

_____________________________

Remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love -- Olga Romanov.

(in reply to Erik Rutins)

Post #: 12

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/7/2014 7:47:24 PM

Bebop Cola

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I see that plague creation is a big new element of research. Let's say I'm playing a game and I want to crank out a plague. Will there be any way to designate who the plague affects in-game, or will I need to create a series of custom plagues in the mod files and just choose the one I want to research in game?

For example: I decide I want a plague that wipes out the Slukis, but later decide I want a plague that wipes out all the insect races. Can I, in game, choose the target for my plague and re-design later to choose more targets? If I create a plague that targets just the Slukis in the mod files, what prevents a Slukis AI player from researching it in game and exterminating itself?

(in reply to tjhkkr)

Post #: 13

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/8/2014 10:53:13 AM

Osito

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A few questions:

1. I assume there's no limit on the number of projects (given that where there is a limit, like with resources and components, it is stated).
2. How do regional capitals work? Is the maximum number hard-coded at 3, or can you add extra ones just by adding extra techs to give additional capitals?
3. It's not clear (to me, at least) what the effect is of setting the special function code to 3 (i.e. superweapon).
4. Is the 'Project Category' used for identifying the alien race tech focus, disallowed techs and empire tech focus?
5. What is the point of the 'Required Parent' option in the 'Parents Line'? I don't see why we would make a requirement optional - if it's optional why have it at all?
6. How are plagues deployable? There doesn't seem to be a component for deploying a plague.
7. In the section 'Planetary Facilities and Wonders' what is the point of Wonder Type = 0? Is it simply to allow for the possibility of having 'white elephant' wonders that count towards victory points?

Also some observations:
1. It likely to be very fiddly to keep track of the row and column of each tech; it might be useful if the row and column (i.e. the 'tech level') of each tech could be printed in the in-game tech box.
2. It's not clear to me how you would limit techs to a specific race, but maybe that will become clear when we see the guide to race modding.

And finally, a clerical error:
1. At the end of the description under the heading 'Plague Change Line' you have repeated some text which is also included under the heading 'Facility Line'. I would guess this text either needs to be deleted or replaced with new text relating to plague changes.

Osito

< Message edited by Osito -- 5/8/2014 11:56:14 AM >

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Post #: 14

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/8/2014 3:28:02 PM

Spidey

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Regarding point 5, I'm guessing it's so you can have a multi-path research branch that can be arrived at either through this or that instead of having to get both. Meaning maybe you're developing high end railguns because your gravity weapon tech is super-advanced or because you've always been a railgun-obsessed type. Maybe you're getting ahead of the basics of desert colonization because you're already familiar with volcanic stuff or vice versa.

This is just a guess, of course, but if this is how it's intended then it is FREAKING AWESOME!! We'd no longer have to research crap we're not using to get to the really high end tech but can instead organize the tree so that different paths can lead to the same realization.

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Post #: 15

RE: Distant Worlds: Universe - Modding Research - 5/8/2014 3:59:19 PM

Osito

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Spidey

Regarding point 5, I'm guessing it's so you can have a multi-path research branch that can be arrived at either through this or that instead of having to get both. Meaning maybe you're developing high end railguns because your gravity weapon tech is super-advanced or because you've always been a railgun-obsessed type. Maybe you're getting ahead of the basics of desert colonization because you're already familiar with volcanic stuff or vice versa.

This is just a guess, of course, but if this is how it's intended then it is FREAKING AWESOME!! We'd no longer have to research crap we're not using to get to the really high end tech but can instead organize the tree so that different paths can lead to the same realization.

You mean that if there were two paths marked as optional, you would have to follow at least one of them? If so, I agree that would be great.

I wonder what the effect would be if there were just one parent with an optional path.

Thinking about it some more, I suppose another possibility is that you could get the research via a scripted event as an alternative to following the research path. That would be pretty nice as well.

(in reply to Spidey)

Post #: 16