Space Weapons Fix Mod

What it does is re-categorise Space Weapons in the Weapons branch and as a Military category tech, for those races whose tech trees don't do that (Altarians, Terrans, Drath, Korx, Thalan).  The stock tech trees may categorise Space Weapons as PD (point defence) in which case the tech might not be researched at all if missile weapons are not developed by anyone.

You will know if the mod is loaded if Space Militarisation is shown as 'Space Militarisation M' in the affected tech trees.  You'll know if it's working as intended if those races develop weapons.

Version 2

This version accomplishes the following in addition to the original mod:

Obsoletes Armor Plating, Chaff, and Superior Duranthium. Missile Defence Theory leads to Smart Chaff now.

The basic defence components yielded by early research into defences all start with a defence rating of 3.  However, they cost three times as much and are three times bigger than before.  Along the rest of the defence tech tree I have made the components take up more space and cost more but given them a proportionately better defence rating.  This includes any components that require Good alignment to unlock.

At various defence tech milestones however, you will get two components where you previously got one, the second component being a smaller (miniaturised) version of the first.  The list of these new components are:

Tritanium (5 Armour, requires Superior Tri-Strontium)

Duranvium (6 Armour, requires Kanvium III)

Zeronium (8 Armour, requires Zero-Point Armor)

Miniature Deflector (4 Shields, requires Barriers III)

Force Shields (7 Shields, requires Superior Force Fields)

Micro Barriers (9 Shields, requires Ultimate Invulnerability)

Micro ECM (6 Point Defence, requires PD Combo III)

Autodefence Turrets (9 Point Defence, requires Aereon Missile Defense)

What this new mod means is an end to all those AI ship designs (sometimes based around a small hull) which have a point or two of defence that doesn't do any good.  A ship will have a minimum of three points of defence if a defensive component is added.  By the time components that can give benefit to fighters are available, it's more likely for medium and large hulls to have been researched.

I have left the link to the old mod, in case you don't want this addition.

Version 3A

As Version 2, but with subtle changes to the Terran tech tree.  When playing against an AI using this tech trees, you may notice that they rotate their research projects more effectively.

As of version 3A the ultimate weapons are changed so that, as with the defences, they cost more, take up more space, and as compensation they do more damage.  You will still get a pretty mean weapon by doing the research, but you won't be able to fit so many on your ships.

Considering that you would need lots of the previous weapons (i.e. Phasors, Quantum Drivers, Photon Torpedoes) to equal their firepower, they still give more damage for the space you use.

Version 3B

Changes to the Terran, Yor, Altarian and Thalan tech trees. When playing against an AI using those tech trees, you may notice that they rotate their research projects more effectively. In particular I have upped the value of a technology victory for the Yor tech tree, because they don't exactly have a lot of techs to help them do an Alliance or Culture victory.

Terran and Altarian tech trees have been altered a bit.  Instead of the single Planetary Improvements tech branching off from Artifical Gravity, you now have a group of four as follows -

Economic Improvements   - opens up Xeno Economics
Research Improvements   - opens up Xeno Research

Industrial Improvements - opens up Soil Enhacement, Extreme Colonisation, Xeno Farming, and Xeno Industrial Theory.
Starport Upgrades       - opens up Interstellar Warfare, Interstellar Construction, Basic Logistics.

(Xeno Communications is unlocked by Xeno Research)

You may notice that the AI researches to Starport Upgrades.  This is okay because in the original tech tree the Altarian and Terran AI would sometimes swerve around Artifical Gravity and Planetary Improvements, now it's guaranteed to at least unlock all the techs that used to be attached to the old Planetary Improvements tech.


Improvement changes:
Research Labs, Traditional Factories and Market Centers have been chucked.  Instead you will get three new Super Projects.  The idea here was to not waste the opening of a game by building lots of rubbish improvements that will need to get upgraded anyway (wasting more time) and give both the player and AI some special improvements to use right away where they see fit.

Also in 3B are some new weapon sound effects.  Not strictly a fix as such, but it began to bug me in my last game that Quantum Drivers sounded really dorky.  Initially I changed them to use the newer sound that was shipped with Twilight of the Arnor, but it didn't quite jive with the animation so I ran some effects on it and eventually mixed in the crisp firing sound of mass drivers.  You may like it, or you may not.  You can always delete it.

Plasmas, Particle Beams and Lasers should also sound different.

Version 3C

Same as 3B but with fixes for Torian tech tree.  This adds a similar four-part structure for Planetary Improvements to try and stagger the development of economic improvements, research improvements, and everything else.  Schools are replaced by a Super Project, which helps to avoid an early-game choke.

Some Torian techs have been moved around and new ones have been added:

Advanced Space Liberation: Leads to Advanced Manufacturing, Planetary Bombardment, Planetary Defence, Advanced Logistics, More Space Weapons and Even More Space Weapons.

Advanced Manufacturing: Leads to Xeno Factory Construction, Fusion Power Plants.

Planetary Invasion : Leads to Advanced Troop Mod.  All the other invasion techs are part of the Advanced Space Liberation branch now.

Interstellar Construction: Is broken into parts I and II.

Version 4

Introduces Technology Progression research to the Terran tech tree.

These techs are fairly lengthy projects which serve to split the tech tree up a bit. Because the TPs required for these have been borrowed from elsewhere in the tech tree, it doesn't slow you down by much, but it does encourage the AI (Terran AI at least) to develop its early technologies properly before moving on to the advanced stuff.

Version 4A

Adds Technology Progression research to Torian and Altarian tech trees. I've limited the early choice of technologies in the Torian tech tree in an attempt to speed them through the early stuff faster.

Also in this version, defensive and offensive starbase modules require additional techs (from the weapon and defence trees) to unlock. The Warp Disruption Field requires Warp Drive now, and the Yor get a module that reduces ship speed by 1, making it harder to travel through their territory.

The Torians and Altarians have new industrial improvements. I've worked up some recoloured icons for them and the other improvements I've added. Nothing fancy, just so you can tell them apart from other improvements.

Version 4B

Version 4D

Fixes some of the mistakes I made when editing Starbase Modules. Adds new starbase modules and makes the Stellar Fortification modules a bit less powerful (but they're still free, which is nice). Version 4C was just an earlier version of this fix.

Version 4F

Version 4G

Version 4H

Revised Yor/Iconian starting weaponry and research time.

Also, made Mass Drivers or Ion Cannons research a bit cheaper because it seemed totally overpriced in comparison to Yor or Iconian mass drivers research.  That basically affects anyone who is not Yor or Iconian.

Also adjusted cost of Technology Progression II in Terran tech tree to make it cheaper, redistributing TPs back to techs which come after it.

Version 4I

Moved Xeno Communications and Universal Translator to later in the tech tree for the Yor because, basically, they do not need to be negotiating with other races in the early stages of the game.

Also, split up extreme planet terraforming technologies, the first stage can be researched fairly early on, the second comes a bit later with Advanced/Expert Colonisation.  Well, not for all races, because I haven't had nearly enough time to look at all of them, but the basic idea here was to stop the AI from burning lots of turns trying to make a few worlds 100% productive.