XL Mods

New Star Densities for Maps with 71 Stars

Thanks to very nice 1.50 it is now quite easy to create mods via configuration files. In the pretty user-friendly launcher these mods can be selected in a drop down menu. Furthermore, there is now a distinction between core mods which can now be combined with any desired map mod. Kudos to Rocco and Alexey for adding this flexibility!!!

Noticing this new flexibility I had the impression that this feature could be used to reduce the monotony of the multiplayer games where almost solely the large galaxy size is used. The respective map size parameters in the configuration files do still only properly support the known default values for the small, medium, large and huge galaxy sizes but thanks to the new 1.50 patch we can now add postprocessor scripts to the configuration files which allow us to rescale the default maps in a second step. This means the displayed galaxy map is the huge default size but the placement of the stars is recalculated based on a smaller galaxy size. In such a way we can generate galaxy sizes between large and huge, which could be an approach to solve the old trade-off in classic maps:

In online multiplayer games, the large galaxy size is by far the most popular choice. Only when there are more than 4 players, the huge galaxy is discussed beforehand (adding more stars, increasing the distance to the neighbors). Regarding 1v1, I can barely remember the huge galaxy ladder games – but we observed that many huge maps made deuterium mandatory for an appropriate expansion early on - and this slows down a slow game even more. The low star density in huge maps reduces the number of stars in 6parsec-homeworld range and this leads to more unbalanced maps (compared to large). Furthermore, the very low star density in huge maps does sometimes even create maps where only one system with a monster world is in 6 parsec range. The idea of this mod is to generate better start densities to avoid these problems. Let us illustrate the classic galaxy sizes and its densities:

In this table the density is illustrated in the X*Y/Stars column. Please note that height/width value of 30 represents 1 parsec. Therefore, a 6 parsec circle is roughly 100.000 but if a home world is placed in the corner the respective corner arc only covers about 25.000.

The XL mod now does use in all 5 galaxy sizes the maximum number of 71 stars – and the star placement is based on the map generation of the huge galaxy, but in the second step a LUA script does use the following height/width values to compress the huge galaxy:

For example, the XL medium galaxy size has now about the same density as the classic large galaxy.

Just download this zip file and extract the files into the ... \150\mods\maps folder. Afterwards, the launcher should display for all 1.50 OOTB maps the respective XL option:

In summary, you have now 7 flavors for the 1.5 OOTB maps with 71 stars, ordered by density:

So, for example you could start with an XL Medium which has 71 stars and a density of a classic large map. Please note, since LUA scripting does not include an option to update the in_nebula flag of the stars, I recommend to play nonebula for now. Otherwise, the map display might mislead you in battles, if you expect (de)activated shields over some star system – please note, that also the classic cluster has the same bug since 1.4. And finally, many thanks to Admiral Loknar who recreates and rereleases the old mods as 1.5 config files. He recreated the DR mod, and I included DR and DR XL in the above mentioned zip file!

Happy Easter!
Have fun!

Editor for AI-Races

At first, I have to thank Siron for allowing me to post on his blog. Here we go: thanks, Siron!

I just finished the work on a RaceEditor for the computer races which are defined in the racestuf.lbx.

For it is completely done in Java, you'll need the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.5 to use it. Not sure if it runs with JRE 1.4.

Just download the jarfile and put it into your orion2 directory. It works quite self-explaining. However, there is a help-button which explains a little more on how to use the editor.

A usable feature could be to define the mostly played races like UniTol, UniAqua etc. and play them not by creating a custom race but just by selecting one of the predefined races.

My intention to create this editor was to push the AI a little, but it doesn't work. My Psilon has now +2 Research, LowG, Large HW, Artifacts HW, Lithovore and Democracy. But even this race doesnt research very fast … but it is amazing how fast you can go by playing such a race. And I have not talked about the modded Klackon ;-)

Just have a try. Comments and Suggestions are welcome, send them to

Map Mod: Decent Rocks

I.) Introduction
This map mod creates the maps used in the DC mod for regular MOO2. This mod is called DecentRocks since the tiny and small rocks (i.e. Barren, Radiated, Toxic etc.) have now a decent size. See III. for details. Since StepNRazor had asked for it (see comments), I added an ORIONDR3 mod in IV.

II.) Installation
1. Find the Install.exe on your Moo2 CD and double click it to start the DOS installer. (i.e. INSTALL.EXE. If u dont have install.exe on your Moo2 CD use the win-installation and copy this rkernel.com file in your moo2 directory and proceed.)
b) Apply the v1.31 patch
c) Apply the v1.40 patch
Unzip the DecentRocks.zip into your moo folder. NO BACKUP IS NECESSARY! The new file (different file name) can coexist with the 1.40 patch.

Test the Oriondr.exe ---> Singleplayer should work already.

2. Multiplayer via DosBox:
Instead of orion2~1 (last line of step 8 in this guide, btw that is the exe name of the1.4 version) you can simply paste the exe name of the mod:
oriondr

III. Map Balance
The Orange Mod is quite popular among Aqua-Players. But obviously, those players who prefer Sub, Tol, Lith or Cyber dislike the increase of foodplanets. Therefore just the moderate change under a):
a) Brown Stars are defacto Red Stars now. This mod doesn't change any climate probability of any further star color!
b) I have removed all unguarded UltraRich planets. (They are rich or abundant now.)
c) UltraRich planets have now a basic prod of 7 per worker instead of the previous 8.
d) Tiny and small planets are now slightly larger. Basic Gaia size for tiny and small are 5 and 10 in regular moo. In this mod they are 8 and 12.
e) I have slightly increased the climate modifiers besides Terran and Gaia.
The effects of the modifications d) and e) are summarized in the following table.

MaxPop Values (click it to enlarge):

See this post for details how the max pop values are calculated.

IV.) Decent Rocks Planet Mods
Each system has exactly 1 or 2 or 3 planets in the following 3 mods. Asteroids and Gas Giants are removed.
OrionDR3.zip (contains OrionDR1, OrionDR2 and OrionDR3 mod)

DifficultChoiceMod b6

I.) Mod Idea
a) I'm a little bit bored that more than 95% choose Unification. Uni is simply too strong in 1.31. Therefore this mod wants to help the dict and demo races (see also the DemoDictMod-DD; sidebar) by better MapBalance (III.), availabe Morale Techs (IV. b) and new Racepick costs (40 positive picks possible!) (VI.).
b) The DD-Mod solved the above mentioned problem and morale races are a viable option there. But one problem persists. 95% of the decisions in the techtree are no-brainers. This mod tries to change this.......ANY techfield should be a DIFFICULT CHOICE. The absolutely must-haves (automated factories, research labs and robominers) are therefore singletons. See also the TechTable (IV.) and the TechChanges (V.) for further details.

What's new in this betaversion?

There were still a few hangovers from old approaches to solve the morale and bombs problems of Moo2. Special thanks to Cabman who played this mod a lot and pointed out a few problems. I cleaned up a bit:

a) Missiles have their old 1.31 values now. Since I upgraded the planetary shields in DCb5 there is no longer a reason to reduce the missile damage generally.
b) Anti-matter Torpedoes have also an increased damage of 13 now.
c) I liked Cybersaber's mod idea but Structural Analyzers were too attractive in the early tech field compared to EMG. A further reason why missiles where unpopular in DCb5. Nevertheless, I think it is possible now to tech SA in its old 1.31 techfield since there is an additional substitute for the cybercomp (mole and improved mole).
d) No longer early Powered Armor. Psionics moved up in b5 and so did Powered Armor now.
e) PPs of Robotic Factory are reduced to 100.
f) There is a new approach with respect to race pick costs. There are still up to 10 negative picks possible. But if you use them all there are up to 40 positive race picks you can spend now (instead of 20 picks in 1.31).

II.) Installation
1. Find the Install.exe on your Moo2 CD and double click it to start the DOS installer. (INSTALL.EXE....NOT setup.exe or the autoinstall. If u dont have install.exe on your Moo2 CD use the win-installation and copy this rkernel.com file in your moo2 directory and proceed.)
b) Apply the v1.31 patch
c) Apply the v1.40 patch
Unzip the DCModb6.zip into your moo folder. NO BACKUP IS NECESSARY! The new files (different file names) can coexist with the 1.40 patch.

Test the Oriondc.exe ---> Singleplayer should work already.

2. Multiplayer via DosBox:
Instead of orion2~1 (last line of step 8 in this guide, btw that is the exe name of the1.4 version) you can simply paste the exe name of the mod:
oriondc

III. Map Balance
The Orange Mod is quite popular recently and it is even used in the ladder. I have implemented some of its ideas in DC, mainly to help techbased races which cannot afford to build outposts at start:
a) Brown Stars are defacto Red Stars now.
b) I have removed all unguarded UltraRich planets. (They are rich or abundant now.)
c) UltraRich planets have now a basic prod of 7 per worker instead of the previous 8.
d) Tiny and small planets are now slightly larger. Basic Gaia size for tiny and small are 5 and 10 in regular moo. In this mod they are 8 and 12.
e) I have slightly increased the climate modifiers besides Terran and Gaia.
The effects of the modifications d) and e) are summarized in the following table.

DC (& DD) MaxPop Values (click it to enlarge):

See this post for details how the max pop values are calculated.

IV. The TechTable
There are many changes in the TechTable. I recommend a close look at the following jpg (click it to enlarge) for an overview. [Techs in italics are changed in a further way (fe size, damage, maintenance etc.). See point V. The TechChanges for details.]



A small summary of the ideas:

a) The basic econ techs of 1.31 are almost unchanged.
- rlabs, autofacts and supercomps are still in the 1.31 techfields.
- cloners/soil are now 250 RP, but there is a new biology field for 150 RP. (150+250 are the old 400 RPs.)

The important exception are robo miners. They are far better than robotic factories. (Especially for a tolerant race with monster planets.) Robo Miners were too cheap in 1.31 and this was the main reason that the CONSTRUCTION path was uninteresting after the 650 RP-Field.

b) Morale Techs are pretty cheap compared to 1.31. In fact most MP games (1.4 patch) are without any morale techs. This mod makes them available and they are the key to beat some Uni races. I want to see some long run competition between 20-30% morale and the 50% uni food and prod bonus.

c) The absolutely must haves rlabs, autofacts and robominers are singletons. Therefore new war techs are available for non-crea races. --> 2 new early techfields in biology 150 and physics 80 were generated.

d) The main idea of the new TechTable is to ADD further options. Each of the unused techs in 1.31 should have "some" chance to be useful in this mod. (That's obviously difficult to balance and for some crappy techs almost impossible.) Even when adding new options is the priority in this mod.......a few of the old powerful combinations have to be destroyed. So the following popular 1.31 techs are now in the same techfield:

- Subspace comm and Tractor beams: Tractors (and raiding) are the strongest weapon in the long run since there is no countermeasure. But keep in mind that the empty ship exploit (see bottom) is also reduced.

V.) The TechChanges
Furthermore I have modified several technologies to make them useful. Look at the following table:

1.31 Values in brackets, click it to enlarge:

The most important changes are in bold. Some of them were just added in b5:
a) Fighters, Assault Shuttles, Bombers and Heavy Fighters have 100% more structure.
b) Missile bases, Fighter garrison and ground batteries have 100% more structure.
c) Planetary Shields block 50% more damage.

The both last mentioned changes improve planet defense quite a lot. Be aware that fighter garrisons and missile bases are now available for non-creatives and that the very popular substitute (i.e. the warp-interdictor) is no longer an easy choice. The interdictor gives you the option to defend your colonies easily by a mobile fleet. Therefore it should be harmful to use this mighty tech. It is the intention of this mod that some immobile planet defense might be useful. Be also aware that the Planetary Shields are drastically improved. The boring hit and run strategy using missiles or torpedos is no longer sufficient. This was necessary to make bombs, bombers and heavy fighters useful. You shouldn't underestimate these unpopular techs in this mod.

VI. Racestuf
a) Racepicks
There is a fundamental change with respect to race pick costs. There are still up to 10 negative picks possible. But if you use them all there are up to 40 positive race picks you can spend (instead of 20 picks in 1.31). Therefore race picks were doubled when they are de facto unchanged. This change was made because of better balance between positive and negative picks and better classification of positive picks:

DC Racepick screen (click it to enlarge):


DC Racepick overview/comparison - positive picks are divided by 2 (click it to enlarge):
Several unpopular racepicks (denoted by an *) are cheaper now:


b) AI-Races:
Because of the new Racepicks costs I had to change many AI-Races. I improved them slightly:


VII. Miscellaneous
a) Leaders
Cyr (fighterpilot) is almost completely useless in regular moo so I improved him slightly. He adds 5 to beamdefense now.

b) Empty Ship Exploit removed
Empty Ships have a bonus of +10 combat speed in regular Moo2 (details). Empty frigates or destroyers (with augmented engines and battlepods) are therefore extremely fast. These so called runners have also a high beam defense and this means that you are generally unable to shoot them down from distance. This results often in unnessesarily long battles and furthermore it can be exploited to stop an AI with bad tactical combat skills.
Therefore I have reduced this bonus to +4 combat speed. Additionally, the battle pods just add 25 percent more space, i.e. that the effects of the so called battle pods bug (ships are faster by adding bpods) are also reduced.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome. See also the DC thread in the community forum.

DifficultChoiceMod b5

latest version can be found here:

http://masteroforion2.blogspot.com/2006/07/difficultchoicemod-b6.html

DemoDictMod b8

I.) Mod Idea
I'm a little bit bored that more than 95% take Uni. Uni is simply too strong in 1.31. Therefore this mod wants to help the dict and demo races by better MapBalance (III.), availabe Morale Techs (IV.) and new Racepick costs (V.).

II.) Installation
1. Find the Install.exe on your Moo2 CD and double click it to start the DOS installer. (INSTALL.EXE....NOT setup.exe or the autoinstall. If u dont have install.exe on your Moo2 CD use the win-installation and copy this rkernel.com file in your moo2 directory and proceed.)
b) Apply the v1.31 patch
c) Apply the v1.40 patch
Unzip the DDmodb8.zip into your moo folder. NO BACKUP IS NECESSARY! The new files (different file names) can coexist with the 1.40 patch.

Test the Oriondd.exe ---> Singleplayer should work already.

2. Multiplayer via DosBox:
Instead of orion2~1 (last line of step 8 in this guide, btw that is the exe name of the1.4 version) you can simply paste the exe name of the mod:
oriondd

III. Map Balance
The Orange Mod is quite popular recently and it is even used in the ladder. I have implemented some of its ideas in DDb8, mainly to help techbased races which cannot afford to build outposts at start:
a) Brown Stars are defacto Red Stars now.
b) I have removed all unguarded UltraRich planets. (They are rich or abundant now.)
c) UltraRich planets have now a basic prod of 7 per worker instead of the previous 8.
d) Tiny and small planets are now slightly larger. Basic Gaia size for tiny and small are 5 and 10 in regular moo. In this mod they are 8 and 12.
e) I have slightly increased the climate modifiers besides Terran and Gaia.
The effects of the mods d) and e) are summarized in the following table.

DDb8 MaxPop Values (click it to enlarge):

See this post for details how the max pop values are calculated.

IV. Techs
Just 3 small changes with respect to Morale Techs, 1.31 values in brackets:
Holo Sim 400 (900)
Virtual Reality Network 900 (4500)
Psionics 650 Sociology (2750 Biology)

Additionally, Neural Scanners and Telepathic Training were swapped. (Otherwise it is too painful to tech holo sims.)

V. Racepicks
The AI Races and Racepick costs are identical to the DC Mod.

DDb8 AI Races (click it to enlarge):


DDb8 Racepicks (click it to enlarge):

Updated Map Mods

The Map Mods are now compatible with 1.40b23:

Orange_b23.zip
GoodMaps.zip

Map Mods

LordBrazen posted recently interesting data about the map generator in his modification forum.
You can use this data easily to create your own map mods. In fact, a lot of things are possible, especially more MapBalance and even totally different GamePlay. In this zip file is my first approach (see also the GoodMap mods further down this page and the Decent Rocks Mods.):

Download Orange Mod (b23)

Orange Mod
Some characteristics about orange systems:
a) At least 2 orbits of an orange star system are filled.
The exact probabilities are:
30% 2 or 5 orbits filled
20% 3 or 4 orbits filled
Be aware that these statistics include asteroids and gas giants.
b) An orange system does never contain an ultra rich planet.
c) Orange systems contain more often ocean, swamp, arid, terran and gaia planets than other stars.

The orange mod is quite simple. Any unguarded system is now de facto orange. That means that the previous star color is still displayed but the probabilities are identical to orange stars. Since many players complain about empties, singletons or rocky planets in their neighborhood this mod should help a lot. Additionally, an early Ultra rich was often decisive in regular moo. (Especially tolerant races are unstoppable in this case.) Be aware that only monster systems contain UltraRich planets now.

I don't know if these steps are enough. ALEXD pointed out that it is still possible that one side finds a lot of systems with asteroids near his homeworld while the other player has a dream start with a 5 planet system. I just thought this is quite a simple solution for more map balance. We will see....I appreciate feedback.

When you use this mod in a huge galaxy, you should verify that less than 250 planetary objects were generated. Otherwise it might be bugged.

BTW. Budee already created a nice icon for his orange mod launch button: orange.ico
Nice idea. Thanks.

Download GoodMaps (b23)

GoodMap Mods
Personally, I prefer orange systems in regular moo but of course even better system stats are possible. The systems in these GoodMap Mods have even better climate. I decreased the probabilities of toxic, radiated, barren, desert and tundra even further. Additionally, I excluded asteroids and gas giants.

GoodMap5
This mod generates systems with 5 planets. Be aware that there is a maximum of 249 planets in Moo2. Therefore this mod works only for small and medium maps. Don't use it for large or huge galaxies.
GoodMap4
All systems have 4 planets in this mod. This mod works in small, medium and large galaxies.
GoodMap3
3 planets for all systems. This works even in a huge galaxy.
GoodMap2
No, not what you might expect. In this mod there is just a 50% chance for a 2 planet system. The other 50% are 3 planet systems.

Installation
a) Find the Install.exe on your Moo2 CD and double click it to start the DOS installer.
b) Apply the v1.31 patch
c) Apply the v1.40 patch
Unzip the Orange_b23.zip & GoodMaps.zip into your moo folder. NO BACKUP IS NECESSARY! The new files (different file names) can coexist with the 1.40 patch.

Example: orange mod
Test the Orange.exe ---> Singleplayer should work already.

d) Multiplayer via DosBox:
Instead of orion2~1 (last line of step 8 in this guide, btw that is the exe name of the1.4 version) you can simply paste the exe names of the mods, fore example:
orange
or
goodmap2
etc.

Master of Orion II Mods - An Overview

Update: New DifficultChoiceModb6, Decent Rocks

This is a list of all Moo2 mods I am aware of. Please add a comment when you know further mods. I will try to update this list.

Firstly, before I start with the pure mods I recommend to update the last official 1.31 patch with the:
Master of Orion II v1.40 patch
by LordBrazen
To clarify: His masterpiece deserves to be called patch because not only does it fix the most important bugs of 1.31 it also allows for the multiplayer DOS game to be playable with XP. Additionally, all mods offered by LordBrazen are optional. So you can use 1.40 as a pure patch when you dislike mods.
Download the latest version: http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005/01/download.html
Details http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005/01/moo2v140-patch-faq.html
Comment This patch can coexist with the 1.31 patch (a new exe is generated). Besides his bug fixes it includes very popular mods of the map generator (optional) for better MP-maps (less restarts). Additionally, there are four further mods implemented (of course also optional): pick switch (10-14 positive picks), droid switch (free droids for all), the very popular noreport switch (you can't see the spies and techs of your opponents) and the new galaxy age post warp (you start with all techs up to 250RPs). Post Warp Games are quite fast. I recommend to try them in huge galaxies. (see the above mentioned faq for switch details). Since 1.40b22, the patch contains the interesing noscan, nohousing and nonebula switches. Besides the new cluster galaxy (large gal with 72 stars) there are further bug fixes.
Update: 1.40b23 fixed several redraw bugs (less crashes, for example the tractor beams bug is fixed now) and the blackhole generator works now with enabled shipinitiative.
Further optional mods are planned for the next releases. Visit also his Community Forum for further information. Register there, present and discuss your suggestions.

The next three mods are also listed on the right side bar and they can coexist with the 1.4 patch (no backup necessary):
Demo Dict Mod
Download DDModb8.zip
Details
Comment We have just updated this mod where we try to help the demo and dict races with earlier morale techs (Unification is far too strong in our MP-games). ALEXD and I came to the conclusion that a small mod with just few changes would be fine. This mod contains better map balance, earlier morale techs (holo sim 400, vnet in supercomps field, psionics 650 sociology), telepathic training and neural scanners were swapped and the racepicks are identical to the next mod:

Difficult Choice Mod
Download DCmodb6.zip
Details
Comment Additionally to the DD Mod many changes in the techtree - In any techfield you should have a difficult choice - therefore, the absolutely must haves like auto factories or research labs are singletons and a lot of underpowered techs are improved. See also the DC thread in LBs forum.

Decent Rocks
Download
Details
Comment This mod is called DecentRocks since the tiny and small rocks (i.e. Barren, Radiated, Toxic etc.) have now a decent size.

Orange Mod and GoodMap Mods
Download Orange_b23.zip and GoodMaps.zip
Details
Comment This is 1.40b23 with modded maps.

INver Mod
by INver
Download RACESTUF.LBX
Comment Subt and Warlord for free. Small fine mod of the racestuf.lbx for MP games.

1.32 Mod
by 4381 et al.
Download 132MOD.zip
Details http://www.masteroforion2.com/patch132.htm
Comment Autofacts and Research Labs for free. Techtree, Racepick costs and Leader changes. Tiny frigates.

Mictian Mod v0.53
by Mictian
Download http://laaja.org/moo2/MictianMod.zip
Details http://laaja.org/moo2/
Comment win version mod - Just backup the orion95.exe and techname.lbx
Some techs are in new techfields - large RP increases for endgame techfields

Defensive "AntiBlitz" Mod
by Jukka Mikkonen
Download AntiBlitzMod.zip
Details http://users.tkk.fi/~jmikkone/
win version mod - Just backup the orion95.exe, help.lbx and techname.lbx
Major changes: Missile Base has 800 (instead of 300) space units - An upgrade to ship hit points, and even larger for star bases - Strong ground installation with 10x the hit points - Severely upgraded space monsters & Guardian of Orion, damagewise - Antarans should prove to be a threat once again - A few automatic techs, such as Auto-Factory, Fighter Bays, Fighter Garrison, Reinforced Hull and Heavy Armor.

Extreme Shield Mod
by Die Noob Die
Download http://de.geocities.com/londoxy
Comment Extremely strong shields and torpedoes

You need the OCL v0.21 to implement the files of the following mods into your exe:
Moomod
by mooncalf
Download http://ourworld.cs.com/moonkine/moo2/moomod_06.zip
Comment by mooncalf: It's mostly an attempt to more balance the weapons, buildings, ship systems and armor (to my understanding, anyway.) For example, significantly improved weapons include: torpedoes of all types, pulson and zeon missiles, maulers, and particle beams. Gauss cannon, phasors and disruptors have been toned down a bit. There are lots of other little tweaks that are documented in the included readme file.

Smiloid Mod
by Arc.Smiloid
Download ftp://ftp.sff.net/pub/people/zoetrope/MOO2/Utilities/Techs/OCL/Mods/smiloid.zip
Details
Comment Many changes in the combat system

How to build your own mod?
When you are familiar with hex editors I recommend once again to visit LordBrazen's Community Forum. Especially the section: Game Modifications: Information, How-to's, and discussion about mod'ing Master of Orion II. You will find lots of info there.
An almost complete archive of Moo2 editors can be found at: ftp://ftp.sff.net/pub/people/zoetrope/MOO2.
Another selection of well documented tools: http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005/01/download.html. There are several Leader editors. (BTW, LordBrazen has a nice list of the Ship Officers and Colony Leaders.) Pickhack is nice when you want to edit the racepick costs. And last but not least there is LordBrazen's second masterpiece an update of the OCL editor: http://www.spheriumnorth.com/blog-images/OCLplusv0.3.zip
He works on further extensions. Stay tuned!

Keep me informed when you have a new mod.

DifficultChoiceMod b4

latest version can be found here:

http://masteroforion2.blogspot.com/2006/07/difficultchoicemod-b6.html

DemoDictMod b7

latest version can be found here:

http://masteroforion2.blogspot.com/2006/05/demodictmod-b8.html