This mod is no longer actively supported and may not function on the latest version of the game. It has been replaced with my new mega mod: 5X - The Ultimate Balance Mod, which you can get here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=797954504
http://www.nexusmods.com/masteroforionconquerthestars/mods/6/?
Original Post:
This mod changes the race balance and custom race screen in the game. Version 2.2 is the latest version: https://dl.dropboxus...es Mod v2.2.zip
The goals of this mod are:
- To expose every available custom race pick for maximal customization options and rebalance the cost of the traits. This is what RacialPerks.yaml and RacialTraits.csv are for.
- To make each race worth 10 points according to the new points balance while still keeping the spirit of each race. This is the content of RaceTypes.yaml.
Instructions: Move the yaml files to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Master of Orion\MasterOfOrion_Data\StreamingAssets\GameplayData, and move RacialTraits.csv file to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Master of Orion\MasterOfOrion_Data\StreamingAssets\Localization\Backend (make sure to backup your existing RacialTraits.csv file!). If you had version 1.0 installed, make sure to delete the now obsolete Globals.yaml file.
Changes in version 2.0:
I have rebalanced the traits once again. Several traits such as command points, homeworld size, and ship cost are now cheaper to reflect their value in comparison with the best traits such as +25% production and +25% food. Most traits that have several levels now scale linearly. The food consumption traits weren't working properly, so I had to remove them and bring back the cybernetic trait as the -50% food consumption trait. Cybernetic now costs more than Lithovore because it is a much better trait due to the population growth handicap on Lithovore. I believe this rebalance assigns a much more accurate point value to the available traits. Since several things are now cheaper, it was much easier to rebalance the vanilla races to 10 points instead of the previous 11 point balance. Here is the new custom race screen:
The traits overflow on the right side, which is unavoidable. I have no way to add a scroll bar, so instead I have marked each of those traits with their point value, and they can still be selected by clicking on them.
Changes in v2.1: Removed plains dweller from Mrrshan, gave them rich hw (from MoO2) and ship defense +25% (reflects the ship experience bonus from the warlord trait they had in MoO2. Removed Militarists from Terran, gave them +10% security and +30% command points instead. Changed the credits bonuses to -3, 3, and 6 (note: morale+10%, worth 4, is better than +25% credits due to higher tax rate). Tweaked the morale to give the Mrrshan and Darlok a greater inclination to expand and grow, tweaked the Silicoids to make them spy a little less but research a little more. This is the final update to the race balance mod until the next patch comes out unless you really want more changes.
Changes in v2.2:
- Changed the rate at which lithovore races grow, adjusted point cost and Silicoid race accordingly. You should now be able to keep up population wise with a lithovore race if you focus on rich and ultra rich planets and expand sufficiently quickly.
- Removed desert homeworld from custom race since it's objectively a worse choice than arid every time. Added Gaia homeworld and ultra poor home world options.
- Slightly rearranged the custom race screen for space reasons and rebalanced traits again (see updated custom race screen screenshot).
- I discovered there is a true repulsive trait à la MoO2 where you can't engage in any diplomacy, and it was just disabled, so I enabled it on the custom race screen and renamed the existing repulsive trait to "uncharismatic." It is a little buggy though, so I opted not to give it to the Silicoids. I also removed the negotiations/disposition traits and combined them into the charismatic and uncharismatic traits instead to save space and to balance points.
- Removed missions risk +10% since it was just a free point, and added missions risk -30%. Improved the AI settings again.
- Changed assimilation power modifiers to +/- 50% instead of 25% to make them more valuable
- Combined Extended marine barracks and improved training rate into one trait worth 1 point.
- Increased trade treaties and trade goods bonus effects to +50%.
- In order to accommodate new race trait values, several races had to be adjusted. Mrrshan: Removed beam defense in favor of giving them grassland transformation, though they still start with a Terran homeworld. This works well with my tech tree mod which allows you to transform terrans to ubers. Klackons: removed physics as a starting tech since +25% prod. costs 4 now. They shouldn't have a starting tech anyway since they're supposed to be bad at research. Meklar: Gave them small homeworld. I had to take off 1 point somewhere, and this is just sort of a generic trait to give. Actually because small planets grow population much faster, the Meklar do extremely well for population now. Sakkra: Removed diplomacy penalties and starting techs. Again these guys are supposed to be bad at research... Darlok: Removed diplomacy penalty. Terran: Gave them uncharismatic because -20% ship cost now costs 3, and the terrans are pretty uncharismatic.
New race traits:
- Alkari: +50 Beam Defense (4), Travel Speed Bonus (2), Combat Speed Bonus (1), Large homeworld (1), Artifacts homeworld (1), Starting tech: Engineering (1).
- Bulrathi: Starting tech: Biology (1), Pollution tolerance +25% (2), Large homeworld (1), High Gravity (4), +50% ground combat (2)
- Darlok: Starting tech: government (1), Morale +5% (2), Stealthy ships (2), Missions risk -20% (3), Security +20% (2), Assimilation power +25% (1)
- Human: Starting tech: government (1), Morale +5% (2), Charismatic (2), Trade treaties bonus (2), trade goods bonus (2), Security -20% (-2), Research +25% (3)
- Klackon: Starting tech: physics (1), Production +25% (3), Uber planet: cavernous (2), Homeworld: arid (-2), Research: uncreative (-3), Food +50% (8), Security +10% (1)
- Meklar: Starting tech: physics (1), Production +25% (3), Cybernetic (-50% food consumption, ship auto repair) (10), Population growth -25% (-4) (Note; food production +50% is definitely worth +8, and food consumption -50% is even better than that because of the benefit from food buildings. Adding +2 for ship repair gets you to 10 for cybernetic)
- Mrrshan: +20% command points (2), Beam attack +50% (4), Rich Homeworld (2), +25% beam defense (2)
- Psilon: Starting tech: physics (1), Artifacts world (1), Creative (4), research +50% (6), security -20% (-2)
- Sakkra: Starting techs: engineering (1) biology (1), Uber planet: tropical (2), swamp homeworld (-1), Research -25% (-3), Population growth +50% (8), +25% food (4), diplomacy: worsen disposition (-1) worsen negotiations (-1)
- Silicoids: Lithovore (6), Uber planet: inferno (1), volcanic homeworld (-3), diplomacy: worsen disposition (-1), worsen negotiations (-1), Pollution tolerance -25% (-2), Huge home world (2), population growth +25% (4), Heavy gravity (4) (The Silicoids were the hardest to balance. I decided the most important traits were lithovore, lava breather, repulsive, and everything else was about making them a viable race. Huge HW is necessary to accomodate their starting population on a volcanic, pollution tolerance penalty doesn't affect you on volcanic worlds so it's a smart choice, heavy g allows you to get those large/huge ultra riches for maximal population growth, and +25% population growth is a smart if not completely necessary choice for any lithovore race. They now tend to perform in the middle of the pack instead of the bottom)
- Terran: Command points +30% (3), -20% ship cost (2), Morale +10% (4), Security +10% (1)
All race design was done by balancing four priorities: 10 points total, relatively few changes from vanilla design (except Mrrshan), changes in line with MoO2 design, and making a viable competitive race.
In addition, I also made some changes to the AI tendencies. I ensured each race is at least moderately inclined toward growth and expansionism so they don't get totally left behind in population, and the silicoids in particular I increased almost to maximal expansionism because lithovore depends on it. I also reduced the silicoid's inclination to build up such a massive army, which was set at the maximal level before but ultimately useless for them except for rushing players at the beginning. I made other modest reductions to certain AI traits in order to accomodate the increases in expansionism and growth inclination.
My early testing of version 2.0 is performing better than 1.0 with all races being competitive. No race seems particularly dominant in every category or at the bottom in every category. I hope you like it! I am open to suggestions for further changes.
Version 1.0 notes:
Since I recently got my hands on the yaml files for the game, I decided to do a mod to rebalance all of the custom race traits and balanced races. I also split all of the special traits into their component traits so that you have many more customization options. Details below. You can download the mod here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32174515/Balanced%20Races%20Mod%20v1.0.zip
Instructions: Move the yaml files to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Master of Orion\MasterOfOrion_Data\StreamingAssets\GameplayData, and move RacialTraits.csv file to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Master of Orion\MasterOfOrion_Data\StreamingAssets\Localization\Backend (make sure to backup your existing RacialTraits.csv file!).
Because I have the steam version and a windows system, I don't know how to do this on the GoG version or on Apple systems. I assume for GoG windows at least there is a similar folder structure in the Master of Orion directory.
The goals of this mod are:
- To expose every available custom race pick for maximal customization options and rebalance the cost of the traits. This is what RacialPerks.yaml and RacialTraits.csv are for.
- To make each race cost the same number of points (11) according to the new points balance while still keeping the spirit of each race. This is the content of RaceTypes.yaml.
- To give the player enough points and options to be able to recreate each race in the custom race screen. The Globals.yaml file changes the number of available points in custom race selection to 11.
Why 11 points? Well, it just turned out to be a lot easier to modify each race to be 11 than 10 or 12. Besides, we all want 1 extra point anyway to make a slightly cooler race. If you have a good way to make each race worth 10 points, let me know. It's harder than it looks.
You can edit these files yourself with Notepad ++. To only mod the custom race screen as I have done without changing the vanilla races, just exclude the RaceTypes.yaml from the GameplayData folder.
Changes to the custom race screen: Exposing all available traits resulted in too many traits to fit on the screen. In order to fit them all on the screen, I had to group several categories (such as homeworld modifications) together into the same category in order to save space. The category names are modified accordingly. The screen now looks like this:
You will notice that the traits still overflow on the right side. There is no way to avoid this, and it's beyond my ability to add a scroll bar. Instead, I have marked the number of points each of those traits costs in parentheses next to the trait, and you can still select the trait by clicking the name.
You will notice some new traits not previously available, such as Omniscient, Immediate assimilation, and Unbreakable morale. These were in the yaml files already but just disabled. I haven't yet tested all of the extra traits, though I did start a game with omniscient, and it worked fine (edit: it seems omniscient is a bit bugged after all.) In the original custom race selection, most minus picks were not worth it because they were just too detrimental for the points cost. I have altered most minus picks to make them give more points. I changed a few positive traits as well to reflect, in my opinion, their value in the game, such as making the charismatic traits cheaper.
Changes to the races:
- Alkari: Now starts with Engineering because they needed 1 extra point and are a ship-oriented race.
- Bulrathi: Removed rich homeworld because they had 2 extra points and always expand too fast at the beginning of the game anyway.
- Darlok: No changes. I like the Darlok race design as is actually.
- Human: Added research +25%. They needed 3 more points, and this is consistent with the Democracy trait from MoO2.
- Klackon: Added Huge homeworld and security +10%. They needed 5 more points but were already pretty powerful, so I figured a homeworld mod is good enough for them. Security +10% is consistent with the security bonus from unification they get in MoO2.
- Meklar: -25% population growth, Immediate assimilation. The Meklar are such an interesting race, and I wanted to make them even more so. Tbh, this change is mostly about making them into the Borg collective with that immediate assimlation. I'm hoping that -25% pop growth balances with -50% food consumption well, though I haven't tested yet. I figure as cybernetic creatures they have difficulty reproducing the biological parts in order to increase their population. This change makes the Meklar much more dependent on invading other races to keep up with population.
- Mrrshan: Removed Militarist, Improved negotiations, Warlord. Added Beam attack +50, Rich HW, Cmd points +20%, because we all know this is how the Mrrshan are meant to be.
- Psilon: Removed small HW, changed to research +50%. They had large hw in MoO2, so not sure why they got small here. Research +50% is a pretty obvious choice to get them up to 11.
- Sakkra: Removed repulsive, added +25% food, Large HW, +25% ground combat. The Sakkra were pretty underpowered, but MoO2 didn't give me a lot to go on since there's no analogue to the MoO2 subterranean trait here. I don't see why they need to be repulsive. The food bonus is from MoO2, and the +25% ground combat is to give them the extra point for 11.
- Silicoids: Changed gravity tolerant to pollution immunity. Added -25% assimilation rate and -25% ship defense. In MoO2 they were pollution tolerant not High g. I still had to get them down to 11 though. It seems like it would be naturally difficult for any race to assimilate into a Lithovore race. -25% ship defense, I mean their ships are made of rocks because they eat all the heavy metals, so they can't be that strong. Silicoids were admittedly difficult to get down to 11 in a reasonable way, and I even changed lava breather to be a -2 pick.
- Terran: Removed ship attack, changed command point bonus to +10%, reduced morale bonus to +10%. Why are the "other humans" naturally better at aiming weapons than humans anyway?
I just finished making this mod, so it is almost entirely untested. I probably have quite a bit of rebalance to do. Please let me know what you think and whether there are any bugs or issues. If you don't like how I've changed the races or race traits, feel free to suggest any alternative choices. I hope to keep this mod updated.
Check out my other mods too:
Edited by Spud_Dastardly, 12 November 2016 - 11:12 AM.