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Lightspeed
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Sep 30, 2019 @ 11:07pm
Mar 22, 2020 @ 6:46pm
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sajaxom
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Lightspeed

Description
Lightspeed is a game pacing mod, designed to slow down the early game rush in a reasonable yet fun way. Things in space are very far apart, and that distance, even with faster than light technologies, creates a significant barrier for expansion. I've been searching a long time for a mod that extends the early game and slows down expansion without making the game boring, and I think I finally have an answer to that.

I've tinkered around with changing FTL speeds, but the game doesn't operate well with it. AIs don't upgrade components very often, some groups spawn with low level drives, etc. It just seems to create unnecessary chaos, and it leaves the player with a persistent advantage. But I really enjoyed playing with the delayed expansion components that I added to lengthen the early game, so I've decided to upload them as a separate mod, available at: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1879425185.

Features:
1) Early game expansion is extremely expensive, both for the player and the AI. The earliest outposts will cost 900 influence, with early techs that allow you to reduce that cost to 250 and later 100. Locking expansion behind some early research targets (which the AI will prioritize) helps keep the galaxy free for exploration, and moves the border explosion to the end of the early game. There is no longer an additional cost for placing outposts further away, so everyone should be more inclined to grab the best systems.

2) The automated exploration feature has been added as a start tech for quality of life.

3) Gateway Activation now activates ALL normal gateways in the galaxy, establishing a galactic network. Additionally, Gateway Activation is now a tier 2 technology that is very likely to fire for anyone with a gateway under their control. This helps to counteract the slower movement speeds, and will bring most of the galaxy into contact before the mid-game.

Compatibility:
Overwrites -
- components\00_utilities_drives.txt
- megastructures\05_gateways.txt
- technology\00_megastructures.txt
22 Comments
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sajaxom  [author] Jul 26, 2020 @ 11:41am 
@Petko_, you can modify the cost in common\defines\lightspeed_00_defines.txt, the EXPANSION_COST_DISTANCE. However, it's removed because any value over 1000 wraps around to 0, which means that when starting at 900 the next step or two will be < 100. You can get by this by lowering the expansion modifier and keeping the cost distance low, but with any modifier that sets base cost over a few hundred you're going to eventually run into this issue.
Petko_ Jul 24, 2020 @ 1:37am 
"There is no longer an additional cost for placing outposts further away, so everyone should be more inclined to grab the best systems"
Can i somewhat revert this feature? I kinda like that increased cost.
sajaxom  [author] Jun 29, 2020 @ 9:42pm 
@democles_pl: Also, if you just want the AI to grab it ASAP when they roll the tech, you can modify the ai_weight portion. It's already set at 100, which should make it the default pick every time for the AI, but you could set it to 200 or 300 and see if that impacts it at all. Basically, as it is now, the AI should effectively drop everything to research it when it pops. I've had a few games where the AI researched it before I did (unlucky rolls I guess), and it was quite interesting trying to compete.
sajaxom  [author] Jun 29, 2020 @ 9:34pm 
@democles_pl: Making sure the AI researches the tech is relatively easy to modify in lightspeed_eng_tech.txt. For tech_interstellar_1 and tech_interstellar_2, see the weight_modifier section on each. There is the any_neighbor_country modifier that boosts them each by 10x chance, and set of years passed modifiers that boosts it by x4, x6, x8, and x10 at different intervals. If you'd like the rush to start earlier, you can change the years_passed values to lower the timeframe. If you'd like the rush to be more simultaneous, simply change each of the factors that are greater than 1 to something big, like x20, x30, etc. Feel free to play around with them and let me know if you find a balance you like.
democles_pl Jun 29, 2020 @ 8:58pm 
PT2

And the 900/250 influence expenditure for outposts before the techs I was mentioning as a bad thing. AIs *shouldn't* spend it and should horde the influence as an optimal move. I was near 1000 when I got the final expansion tech, got some reduced influence expansion abilities/civic/ethics and just plopped a big claim very quickly.
But they don't do that which gives human players an edge again.

I don't know if it's possible to script as I don't do mod but maybe limiting AIs from doing more than 1 outpost at 250 influence might help them along.

and/or setting an event fairly early which automatically gives them the tech as a permanent option to research with a high incentive to research it?
democles_pl Jun 29, 2020 @ 8:58pm 
PT1

yoooo thanks for the reply

I can see how you could dislike the increased cost of expansion not increasing for further out.
A logical reason for that might be the sudden increase in distance for lines of supply and crossing through unclaimed territory would make that harder?

I also see it as a game balance because I sent out 7 or so science ships at full speed in every direction, no surveying and bottle necked like 1/4 of the huge galaxy for myself XD

sajaxom  [author] Jun 19, 2020 @ 12:41pm 
@Malevolence: Yeah, I agree, too. The AI not upgrading never set well with me, so I only use my Delayed Expansion version when I play. This version just happens to be way more popular than that one, so I've kept it available.
sajaxom  [author] Jun 19, 2020 @ 12:36pm 
The biggest disadvantage for the AI that I found was that they don't often upgrade their ships, which left them with super slow ships into the late game. I resolved that in my other version of this, https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1879425185 , which doesn't modify drives.
Malevolence Jun 19, 2020 @ 12:33pm 
I love the mod but I agree with democles- AI never seems to have much of a shot, and I've found very very rarely upgrades its hyperdrives. So even though I believe you that many AIs have the tech, it is not unusual to see late game ai with slower than light drives, etc.
sajaxom  [author] Jun 19, 2020 @ 12:32pm 
@democles_pl: The flat expansion cost is for two reasons:
1) Values over 1000 rollover to 0, so going two jumps away would end up being < 100 influence to build, while neighboring was 900. I couldn't find an easy technical solution to it.
2) I disagree completely with the scaling expansion cost by distance. Putting a new base 20 light years away is not significantly different than putting one 30 light years away, it just takes longer to get there. I couldn't see any reason why space should not have border gore, so I decided to let it be and make it a flat cost. The results from that seem to make for much more interesting empires and conflicts. The AI can and will skip over nearby systems to grab better systems a couple hops away, so it should be much more difficult to reliably box them in now. And it makes excavation hoarding an interesting option for the science minded player.