Sea colony pods

MattPilot · February 4, 2004, 15:53

is there a way of turning off sea colony pods.

I'm thinking of installing ACAX again, but one of the things that bothered me about hte game was that the enemy plopped all its cities next to my shore

Now i don't mind having sea based cities when they naturally go below the water level (global warming), but i don't want to be able to build sea colony pods.

Any ideas?

MattPilot · February 4, 2004, 22:05

ah comon - someone must know how to turn off the sea colony pod?

can anyone tell me how to edit it? i'm looking in the alphax.txt file but can't find my way around

Frankychan · February 4, 2004, 22:18

You're going to have to give us more than just one day to answer this.....I think that you're probably going to have to alter the text in the game if there is no option on the game screen.....just make sure you make a backup of the original file.

MattPilot · February 4, 2004, 22:31

sorry - i thought you guys already knew how to do this as veterens of the game.

I'll be more patient - sorry

Frankychan · February 4, 2004, 23:52

all good. My bad if I sounded hostile.

The Mad Monk · February 5, 2004, 04:05

Every weapon and special ability have a line showing which chassis they can be fitted too; that's how the game knows that you may not build needlejet formers. The alpha(x).txt file has all the information you need.

The Mad Monk · February 5, 2004, 04:06

Quote:

Originally posted by Frankychan

all good. My bad if I sounded hostile.

That's all right -- Yang is supposed to be hostile.

Jamski · February 5, 2004, 04:41

Googlie knows how to do this... but I think he's playing golf in Florida or somewhere warm for the winter months.

-Jam

Skanky Burns · February 5, 2004, 05:08

This is the relevant line, but I don't see how you can set it so it can't be on ships or such.

Name, Name2, Offense, Mode, Cost, Preq
Colony Module, Colony Pod, 0, 8,10, -1, None, ; Noncombat packages

Hercules · February 5, 2004, 06:21

You seem to want to go to some effort to remove an interesting element of the game.

You don't have to build them, if you don't want to and the enemy ones are easy to conquer in due course.

Skanky Burns · February 5, 2004, 07:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Gallagher
Simplest way is to disable colony module in Weapons section of alpha.txt (replace "None" in final column with "Disable"). That's it. There is already a Colony Pod unit available to all factions (in the Units section), so as long as you don't need a Speeder Colony Pod you're already set.

This prevents the AI from building sea colonies. However, human players can get around the restriction by going to the Unit Workshop, loading the Colony Pod unit, and making adjustments. If you want to play multi-player and go past a simple house rule, you can make the Colony module insanely expensive to build (I don't know how many digits the computer reads from that column, you could experiment with a number like 9999 and see). If you do that, you have to then go back and change what a Colony Pod unit costs. I forget how many rows of minerals it takes off hand, 4 I believe. Change the Cost column in Units to 4.

I don't like sea colonies much either. In my mod Harsh Planet (available from me at fgallag105@aol.com ) I lessened their effect by having the computer make most of the ocean deep water, with very little ocean shelf. This makes most sea bases worthless since you can't terraform the surrounding sea. Then, in starting a new game, I create custom worlds with 30-50% Ocean, so there's a lot more land to colonize. I think the AI handles land bases better than sea bases anyway. For more info on the Harsh Planet mod, see the thread of the same name in this part of the forums.

MattPilot · February 5, 2004, 08:27

I do thank all of you that helped me out! It is very much appreciated!

Darsnan · February 5, 2004, 10:13

If Sea colony pods are disabled then I guess I have a question as to what will happen when either a Progenitor conquers a human sea base (or base adjacent an ocean square), or vice versa, as the remaining population of the city is ejected via colony pods, or sea colony pods? Of course, it might be a "don't care" in this mod'd game, and its considered OK for any expelled colonists that land in a sea square to drown.....

D

MattPilot · February 5, 2004, 12:30

i don't mind having a few sea colony pods. ANd i think its great i can build them and no one else. What bugs me is that the AI just builds them everywhere, including my coastal waters.

ANd i don't feel like going to war just to raze those cities, which btw will make them hate me forever.

The Mad Monk · February 5, 2004, 14:08

If you ring your landmass with seabases, the AI won't be able to do that.

MattPilot · February 5, 2004, 14:40

yes, but then you got all those bases you(I) don't really want to manage.

I like few cities spaced far apart.

The Mad Monk · February 5, 2004, 22:59

Other solutions would be to:

Just park a seabase in front of each piece of territory you want to protect -- fewer seabases to manage

Ring your landmass with trawlers -- if you armor them and give them Deep Radar, they also make a nifty early warning system, all maintenance free!

As above, but use arcs of trawlers instead of a ring -- fewer trawlers.

As above, but not a "solid" arc or ring, have a few military or probe boats waiting for incoming pods.

In any case, see it as an opportunity -- make a hoard of cheap probe boats, and steal 'em blind from the "comfort of your own home".

MattPilot · February 5, 2004, 23:34

whats a trawler? sorry, noob

Skanky Burns · February 5, 2004, 23:57

A crawler that is on the sea.