[A.62] {WIP} Beyond Extended Universe (DW:U 1.9.5.9)

[fruitgnome]

I started a new game and I only didn't use this mod, because of the missing Lower Speed & Range mod. Could ad this mod in an extra version of your mod? The hugh research mod takes still some time, so this would be great.

[Blackstork]

I actually like the idea of this mod, but i waited for lurchi mod - as it have it included.
I will check the possibility of including speed & range mod into next .6 release, thanks for pointing this out.
Seems this will be no problem, and it could be included into .6 which is about to be up at start of next weekend (may be even earlier) with all patchontes stated above.

[Azuran]

Do you recommend waiting for .6 to start a new game or is the mod currently stable and the gameplay balanced?

[Blackstork]

The game is stable and things more less balanced now, .6 version will provide more races with rebalance/character systems and more intended features, as well integration AI Mod ver 1.02 instead of AI Mod ver. 1.01 + bit more support for alliance thingy
.6 is due this weekend, so you can play another one before. Obcourse .6 will be closer to intended , final release design, but game is playable and enjoyable now.
If you play, play race with character system released , because thats one of features mean to be designed for each race at final release. List of those races can be found at end of OP post.

[Blackstork]

11 Races Alien Immersion packages from ALien Immersion project been updated to 1.02 - easy replaceable, compatible with Alliance system soundtrack and UI packages:
tm.asp?m=3651979
Now all Beyond races with character system have them covered by full immersion set : UI, Soundtracks, Alliance soundtracks, Alliance UI (A.6)

Next advancement, after release of A.6, will be version 1.03 of Alien Immersion project, which will provide ALL RACES soundtrack packages and alliance packages in one huge (320 music tracks) download, so replacing and installing race's musci will be clear and easy to manage thing.
This will be main step towards merging two projects, where UI part will become integral part of Beyond release, and Soundtrack pack will be final separate huge music asset download . Alien Immersion thread will keep its life till all the project is released/integrated.

[Blackstork]

Small preview of incoming new style on Champions of Todash, tribal Naxillians, with with proper body complexion and proper intence red eyes:

Work on last character system ( from indended character systems for A.6 release) started (Naxillians), all patchlist is almost done, all what will remain after that is more testing and integration of Icemania's Ver. 1.02 and integration of speed&range mod and 2 UIs : Ketarov and Naxillian.

[Blackstork]

The mod need some help in form of extensive Lore writing.
IF anyone have desire to write and be part of it, native English speaker, and can be somewhat dedicated and consistent at their help i will gladly accept him into the team. Quantity of things needed to be written are quite big, and it will be good if we will have some small lore-writers group (yes, group, as it could be more than 2 people including me) going.
What is the target? Each race have own character system group set. Its 2-6 groups per race, 48 Races, and their existence affect gameplay, race balance, race flavor, gameplay and specialization. Leadership graphs are not enough to explain all their meaning. Also lore description will improve players experience, understanding and immersion playing race/using certain group in the game. Each race, at its best (yea, that would be immersive and awesome, but as main dev of main features i cant get to that alone, and i am not Native English speaker, and i just build them in character systems as game / character mechanics features) should have all their groups described with few sentences small lore article, attached to their logo (all of them have unique logo done by me during character system implementation process)
If you want to participate in such project please pm me.

[Hawkeye_BF]

I would do it but i'am a german und not really a native english speaker

[Blackstork]

ORIGINAL: Hawkeye_BF

I would do it but i'am a german und not really a native english speaker

Then it depends on how good your English is (its you who can judge/say about it).
Anyways i will mind you once i create group, and pm my email to you so we can be in touch on gmail/google drive (main work will be done through google drive)
Please send me your email so i can add you.
Result must match mechanics/character system design/intention and contain well-spoken literature english. (which i lack and my grammar sucks)

Lets take simple example: Beyond Quameno design. Technocratic society which nitpick certain, classified according to their primary talents, individuals and promote them in order to advance nation and assign them on different high responsibility and influence roles.
Quenun and Quotan, need their lore descriptions (about their "talent" clasification - i.e. "social" and "logical/mathematic" talents), and their specialization and role in Quameno society, according to what been already implemented and presented in this graph: http://i.imgur.com/Z6GdI6L.png
Etc etc etc for each race.
Also it may be good experience to play the game for Quameno to see practical influence of those 2 groups and their powers in actual gameplay. That could be also reflected in said small lore article.
There will be already 20 races with character systems implemented in v. A.6, so its also quite ambitious, same as all the mod as whole.

[Icemania]

Blackstork, I've already applied changes to hyperdrive speeds in the AI Improvement Mod. However, there is a big difference late game, refer below:

ORIGINAL: Icemania

lurchi, Tanaka is slightly keen for me to apply this to the AI Improvement Mod, so I'm having a closer look!

I really like the changes to early game drives as the jump from speed 2,000 to 12,500 is far too extreme. Cool.

What I'd suggest reconsidering is the late game, where I consider default speeds to be far too slow. It's often a mop-up operation, faster speeds would help speed-up the late game. So I would prefer more than default speed, not less ... at least once you get to Tech Level 5 and above.

Also, once Gerax is available, I'm finding in the AI Improvement Mod that there is little incentive to focus early on Hyperdrive research, as other areas provide more significant benefits. This may change if there was more of a range in Hyperdrive speeds. It always struck me how limited the change was from Tier 1 to Tier 7 ...

[Blackstork]

Oh, nice, that means that speed mod is incorporated partially or something similar done (to what fruitgnome asking for)?

Also, i have some feedback and tip : There is tip that can be given to AI mod/Beyond players to increase difficulty further (if they desire to)
Is to manually select races and select more enemy alliance races/less friendly races.
Beyond have alliance chart, while AI mod does not, if you will make it (some alliance documentation). (I have my CDR file for alliance chart you can have it and reswap races in some vector program if you like - or just some text post with bold letters in the OP mod post) this will allow players to increase complexity further by controlling which races will play the game, and remove "ally" type of races - this increase complexity alot.
I going to give such mention/tip in A.6 notes together with all Alliance thingy.

[Icemania]

Blackstork, yes, slower speeds early game, but faster late game. Check the speeds in the AI Improvement Mod Tech Tree and Components.txt and Research.txt as I'm not sure if you've included them in Beyond.

To increase difficulty further than Extreme add house rules such as the below, start other empires with more advanced empires/technologies, and apply a harsher homeworld for your Empire than the AI.

• No Homeworld Invasions are permitted until the 30 year mark and no use of sneaky fast troop transports
• Diplomacy may not be used to farm cash in any way (i.e. technology trading, selling stations/bases or sanctions/war)
• Intelligence Agents must remain on Counter Intelligence duties
• Recovered ships must be retired
• Debris field ships may not be recovered until they are within my territorial influence
• Ship and Base Design is on Automatic almost always
• Exploration ships must be on Automatic, no micro
• Research is on Automatic (although there is a trick if anyone can pick it)
• Cannot attack the Eruktah Refugees until they reveal themselves as the Shakturi

[Blackstork]

I know about this list of yours ,mate, and its good. I wanted to mention that there is one very important, and really strong thing that impact this game difficulty. If you deny yourself from playing from cover of friendly races (according to new alliance biases) this could change difficulty by very large margin, because you will be surrounded by enemies and no allies.
My post was mention that this point is lacking in this list of yours, and its quite major thing that player can pre-setup, and it influence difficulty alot (making it, if player desire so, game of 1 vs everyone from the start)

PS: i applied it for sure, and its part of Beyond, simply now i remember it (i forgot how it been in vanilla when i answered to fruitgnome and though about endgame speeds). And yes late game speeds are much faster. If we set late game lower than it is now in AI mod, some races will need to use Resuply Ships ( and that will demand huge readjustment of policies and race files i afraid).
On other side Beyond mod have races which have more HS speed / less HS speed from their Character systems (more race differentiation thingy), so yes, for now i think, i will keep it as it is.

@fruitgnome - start game is ok, and end game speeds are better to be as they are in (AI mod) Beyond. Changing it wont neccesarily bring improvement, and may make AI somewhat weaker and will need extenscive modding. So i intend to keep it as it is now - its different from Vanilla, this part of game follows AI mod design.

P.P.S. I will adapt you list, Icemania, into Beyond version once A.6 release it up. You could take the comment about custom race selection and add to your AI mod if you desire - its is very actual for it as well, so if player plays alliance 1 and set-up no alliance 1 to cover or help him and alot of alliance 2 the game will be much much harder and challenging. Random roll can roll more your own alliance, then with bias tables we use game could become easier.

[hezamajeza]

Attempted my first game on Beyond. Looks incredible. Quick query. When I begin a galaxy with Races with new CS, I am given an large number of characters at the start of the game (around 60) as opposed to the 3-5 characters that other screenshots seem to suggest.

Is this an error or do I need to begin the character dismissal process at start of game? I can attach screenshot if required.

[Blackstork]

This is bug. I will appreciate if you give me all details so i can fix it. Oddly enough i didnt found nothing like that during my test runs.
Its tied to original game/modding mechanics bug of randomization process (which does not work as it described in modding guide/bugged) and my attempt to combat it (tricks&stuff i do to to overcome it - so far it worked). Seems there is some leak/problem and this is somehting new both i and game devs need to look upon.
I will attempt to fix it now, if not then in A.6 release (friday)
Also i will need to do proper report to devs (its completely related to the buggy character mechanics from the game)
Please tell what race you trying to play. I'll investigate this.
Please start game as other race with character system and tell if the problem persists.

[hezamajeza]

After investigating a little, I believe it is due to a large number of Characters in the downloaded .txt files of a.53 being set to "1," rather than "?," that sets their random appearance. Could that be the issue?

I began playing as Ergreagd as I really like the idea of their CS but after bug, I looked into all the CS races and found the same issue.

Looking forward to A.6 already

[Blackstork]

ORIGINAL: hezamajeza

After investigating a little, I believe it is due to a large number of Characters in the downloaded .txt files of a.53 being set to "1," rather than "?," that sets their random appearance. Could that be the issue?

I began playing as Ergreagd as I really like the idea of their CS but after bug, I looked into all the CS races and found the same issue.

Looking forward to A.6 already

This is game bug.
1s should not appear in start. Only 0s.
Also ? are not working properly. ITs bugged currently. So game messes it all up.
1s and ? mix is way i combat randomization process bug and it worked properly at my side (had 0 problems with it, 2-3 starting characters per race)
I will run game at home. Btw i tested it after release and i had not problem. Merhaps there is some memory problem so the game going crazy? What game settings you use?
Its not Beyond bug, its DW:U 1.9.5.6 + bug, sadly enough....

Other players seems also had not problems since release of .53 (as your report is the first one).
IF anyone have same problems?
Any help/information appreciated

Anyways i made another post in my petition thread in bugs forum and sent PM to Erik about this issue. I hope those bugs will be adressed by game devs.
I will do maximum effort to see it will be fixed in A.6, if not we will wait till Erik/Elliot respond on the issue/patches it.

[Blackstork]

I investigated on this : ? list is bugged. Its defenitely DW:U bug which needs urgent attention from game devs. (its ? list that appears, not the 1s)

Also i had not such problems and as i know some other players did not because they rported smooth game.

I posted results in bug forum.
tm.asp?m=3684421&mpage=1&key=�

I will try to see what i can do in A.6 prior dev fix (moving back to 1s less randomized system till it buggy ? order will be fixed), and will also re-check it at home.

[Blackstork]

@hezamajeza
Please check this one hotfix for your problem :
http://www.mediafire.com/download/sasye ... 2/a.54.rar
Its temporary fix, please tell if its working for you.

For ones who dont have such problem (with all ? characters (up to 60!) appearing in the start of the game) there is no need/better not to apply the file. I can swear i didnt not saw such problem huge ton of testing runs i made before / after release of .53
Please report any problems, its appreciated

Other players - please tell if such problem exist on your side with .53 release.

[hezamajeza]

Works.

Thanks for the quick resolution.

Gonna get stuck in now