82 replies to this topic

[MOO2MOD]

 

The ICE Mod for Master of Orion II is a new mod for the old game that aims to create a more challenging single player game.

 

New features in ICE:

* All traits have been revalued for the Custom race design, using a 45pt scale instead of the old 20pt scale. 

* Much stronger a.i. races for Hard and Impossible difficulties.

* Improved map generation and planets have higher pop. capacities.

* Improved planetary defenses.

* Phase Shifter technology (re)introduced: a Sub-Space Teleporter variant.

* Stealth Detection functionality.

* Stealth Field has become a Class I Cloak; Cloaking Device is Class II Cloak.

* The Phasing Cloak only lasts for 2 turns instead of 10 and then functions as a Class III Cloak.

 

 

The Guardian and the Antarans have been strengthened.

Tech tree has been rebalanced. 

Many, many texts have been reviewed and corrected, improved or beautified throughout the game.

 

Recommended game settings:

Tactical Combat on

Antarans on

End of Turn Wait on

Ship Initiative on 

 

http://moo2mod.com/

Edited by MOO2MOD, 14 March 2016 - 06:36 PM.

[mikeva1]

It is a great mod. One of the 3 best I have played.

[Felix_the_Fox]

So... does this mod work on emulated 95 systems?

[MOO2MOD]

The Mod is based on the DOS version of the game.

There also is a WIN95 exe for the classic MOO2 but that exe has been discarded by modding community due to some issues, the main one being bad multiplayer (too much lag).

In short it means you need to use DOSBox to run the mod, so if you can get DOSBox to work on your emulated 95 system, then it should work.

 

 

Edited by MOO2MOD, 18 August 2015 - 03:08 PM.

[Moo4]

This mod works on my gog version of MOO2 (dosbox based).

 

I also recommend editing the ini file to help standardize starting systems and control things like #monsters.  Good stuff.

 

/WG, take note about how much the community wants to mod!

[MOO2MOD]

For all your MOO2 devotees, here a quick vid of how ice already is different at game start;

(Just a little promo for ICE 10n - no sound)

 

Edited by MOO2MOD, 31 August 2015 - 08:57 PM.

[Summon3r]

so anyone playing this mod right now? just installed bout to giver a trial run here..... how much does it change the "normal" difficulty level AI?

[Summon3r]

MOO2MOD, on 29 August 2015 - 06:25 PM, said:

For all your MOO2 devotees, here a quick vid of how ice already is different at game start;

(Just a little promo for ICE 10n)

 

 

is there supposed to be sound in this vid?

[Moo4]

I've been playing the ICE mod. Difficulty can get pretty hard for sure but still seems quite random.  You can get things a bit more consistent by editing the ini file that gives home systems similar starts.

 

The best changes are reduced effectiveness of battle pods (they were too strong...) and re-arranging of some tech trees positions to nerf creative a bit and remove some of the obvious choices.  

[Moo4]

@MOO2MOD, can you explain the map files in your more recent update?

[MOO2MOD]

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 is there supposed to be sound in this vid? 

 Yeah there is no sound, which is a bit lame, perhaps I will do one with some comments in the future.

 

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 The best changes are reduced effectiveness of battle pods

Yeah, so BP now gives +25% instead of +50, and the removed space has been given to the base ships. 

The space of base ships has been increased by +20%, so total space remains unchanged.

It does make Megafluxers more powerful tech though as its 25% bonus is now calculated on larger base hulls.

 

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 @MOO2MOD, can you explain the map files in your more recent update? 

ICE is a mod that progresses whenever I unlock new stuff in the code.

I publish new findings here: http://www.spheriumnorth.com/orion-forum/nfphpbb/viewforum.php?f=11

 

A lot of work has been done in the past already by other fans, modding tools, disassembler analysis, bug fixes, etc. etc.

And all of that without access to the source code.

But a lot is unknown still unfortunately, and deciphering is a truly sloooowww process involving a lot of grunt work and a lot of trial & error.

 

Anyway, about the maps:

So in older versions of ice, the galaxies already had more planets than classic moo.

But recently I found two tables that govern the planet types in the game.

For the new ice iteration, I carefully modded it to generate galaxies (Avg. age setting) to have slightly more desert, tundra and ocean worlds and a little bit less toxic terran and gaia.

[for a brief moment I was tempted to remove toxic alltogether from the game ]

Order of magnitude is that each type of desert, tundra ocean get 2/400 more chance to appear, terran and gaia each 1/400 less and toxic 4/400 less.

Small but noticeable changes and perhaps favours Aquatic races the most.

 

Note that the # planets in your home world can be set at start of the game with the command line parameter /planets=#

Valid values for # are 2-5. If you type a number outside of range it will default to 2.

 

Multiplayers use a tool called 'CRYOGEN' to update their maps and make them more fair.

I have never used the tool though because for single player games i like the randomness in galaxy gen.

Also I understand that for MP the GoodMaps3 by Siron is heaviliy used so I have included that in a seperate download for ice mod as well.

 

Edited by MOO2MOD, 31 August 2015 - 01:02 PM.

[Summon3r]

cool stuff....... ok so a couple of questions i played for a bit last night to check it out:

 

- where are battle pods now? im at deep core mining/dump and no battle pods? (only survival pods were in that section im using a creative race and none of the IA have battlepods either?

- can you not design/refit ships anymore? the buttons are greyed out (or is this cause i turned off tactical combat?)

- i see one race still comes out massively dominant over the other AI races is this changeable in order to have a more balanced see saw type battle through out the game?

Edited by Summon3r, 31 August 2015 - 03:15 PM.

[MOO2MOD]

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- where are battle pods now? im at deep core mining/dump and no battle pods?

- can you not design/refit ships anymore? the buttons are greyed out (or is this cause i turned off tactical combat?)

- i see one race still comes out massively dominant over the other AI races is this changeable in order to have a more balanced see saw type battle through out the game?

 

Cool that you are playing this modded golden oldie...

- If you are playing a strategic game, then you cannot refit ships (all ships are automatically updated with the new techs.)

- In strategic mode, a number of technologies do not play a role; i.e. battle pods, troop pods, assault shuttles, repair unit, etc. etc.

- the tactical tech tree can be found here (pdf): http://moo2mod.com/TechTree.pdf

 

- About the races; do you mean you see a specific race come out on top each time, or you mean just a -random- race comes out on top?

Perhaps to partially answer the question;

* if you play on average: I have created 'new stock' races that I think still closely resemble the classic races but with some improvements or changes that enhance character.

Generally this approach leads to unbalanced races.

* If you play on hard: i have brought in extra abilities per race to balance things out better than in classic (Bulrathi, Darlok and Elerian improved; Klackon and Sakkra slightly weakened)

* Impossible: Have taken quite a bit of care to balance things out and most race variants have a fighting chance (plus all of them are a lot stronger than in classic)

* Impossible-x: The most balanced difficulty setting, but still with some strength varieties between all race variants. (I also like the random effect of getting a different race variant each game)

Edited by MOO2MOD, 31 August 2015 - 03:28 PM.

[Summon3r]

awesome ty for the quick response!!

 

i had turned off tactical combat just to quickly run through a game to see how the changes were and just on normal difficulty.

 

i will be launching into another game ASAP now that i know the tech tree changes and you cant design your own ships in strategic mode

 

in regards to races i played 2 games last night, both times the Sakkra seemed to jump out WAY ahead of the others (huge map, 6 races, normal diff) in terms of colonizing and tech, before i knew what even happened they had 15+ systems

 

will try hard mode next to hopefully enjoy a more balanced AI 

 

great to see people still working on this game!!

[MOO2MOD]

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 both times the Sakkra seemed to jump out WAY ahead of the others (huge map, 6 races, normal diff) in terms of colonizing and tech

Sakkra can indeed be the runaway race quite often in Average diff.

Klackon are strong too, with their +50% pop trait but they lack the Subterranean quality which makes the Sakkra so strong.

Note also that the research penalty for Feudalism is -30% compared to classic at -50%, so Sakkra are less hurt in research.

The Gnolam can be good too in Avg games, because they too live underground (I mean dwarfs build gigantic caves right.) and have +50% pop.

They are held back by being Low-G though...

[Summon3r]

hey guys is there anyway to delete STELLAR CONVERTERS from the game.... they are honestly the stupidest thing in the entire game.... like can i go into a file and just delete them out of the game all together?

[MOO2MOD]

ok, haven't heard that one before.

why do you think they are stupid?

 

sure they can be removed from the game.

/alt. you can also chose to not research them...

but depending on your level of frustration I might be willing to search for a HEX hack to do it.

[Summon3r]

MOO2MOD, on 15 September 2015 - 11:22 PM, said:

ok, haven't heard that one before.

why do you think they are stupid?

 

sure they can be removed from the game.

/alt. you can also chose to not research them...

but depending on your level of frustration I might be willing to search for a HEX hack to do it.

 

welp lets just put it this way, im to the point where i dont just try and finish the game as fast as possible for the most points, i always create a creative custom race and try and keep as many races in the game as possible for as long as possible...... but there is ALWAYS a race that comes out way the hell ahead of the rest then suddenly have 50 doomstars with stellarconverters on them and it drives me EFFING bananas, my ships are 100x better then the AI builds but i mean 50+ doomstars with those bloody weapons is beyond frustrating.......

 

its always bothered me to no end, i was just thinking that i could go into a folder or something with all the games advances and delete the converter LOL

[Lone_War]

Killing AI fleets is all about Initiative and fully upgraded Phasors =)

 

Just make sure you go before your opponents do, and then use your Armor Piercing, Shield Piercing Phasors to blow away their targets fleets...

[JamieK81]

I would use this mod, if it worked for the windows 95 version of the game, but sadly it doesn't.

 

ITs the funny thing, in windows 10, MoO2 windows 95 version works flawlessly.