Mike.nl's tools source code are now available on GitHub

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on January 24, 2017

Hello everyone! Our friend Mike.nl, from Petrolution Mod Tools, has posted the source code from pratically all his tools on GitHub. It uses the MIT License, so anyone can fork it follow this license... and yea, you'll need the latest Visual Studio to compile the code and some C++ skills to understand it.

 

 

His GlyphX Tools includes:

 

- alo-viewer

- particle-editor

- lua-converter

- string-editor

- mtd-editor

- animation-converter

- chunk-viewer

- map-preview-extractor

 

 

So, it's a jewel! Everything you need to know about the file formats used in the Alamo Engine, from Petroglyph Games, is there.  Have fun!

Happy Holidays: OS BIG Editor support for 8-Bit and Site Updated

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on December 25, 2016

Hello everyone! We wish you a happy holidays, regardless of your religion or if you even have holidays in the next days. And, in order to celebrate the occasion, we've decided to bring some life back to this place. Starting by the fact that many of you might be aware that Petroglyph Games has released 8-Bit Armies, 8-Bit Hordes and 8-Bit Invaders, in this year. In fact, 8-Bit Invaders was released only 9 days ago. You see? We are not that late into bring this news for you. Only miserable nine days. And of course, there is a trailer to explain to you what is it about and give a glimpse on the graphics and some of its features:

 

 

 

And, of course, we are adding support for these games here in Petrolution. Specially, because we do enjoy fun RTS games released by Petroglyph Games.

 

In fact, we've repaired all our content and updated the game icons for some of them, for the site revival.

 

But... some of you may be wondering... after all, isn't Petrolution a site about game modifications? Are these 8-Bit stuff moddable? To be honest, we don't know how much it could be modded. The Steam Discussions Forum for 8-Bit Invaders doesn't have a single topic about modding the game. If you browse its directory, you'll notice that it reminds a lot Empire at War in some sense. Afterall, both use the Alamo engine, except that it has received some upgrades in these years. And EAW is very modding friendly, which means that the current Alamo engine is still friendly with many things. However, so far I only could figure out that they allow you to customize the in game music quite easily there. However, we certainly want much more than tweaking the music of the game, right?

 

So, there is another occasional bonus of this place: we are offering you in first hand the latest version of OS: BIG Editor. This tool was supporting .MEG files for a while, but now it opens the encrypted config.meg files from Grey Goo and 8-Bit Armies, Hordes and Invaders. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out the Key and Initial Vectors from End of Nations beta, otherwise, I would have added support for that too .

 

 

 

Anyway, OS: BIG Editor is not the first tool to support these encrypted config.meg files, since Mike.nl was the one who figured it out and implemented this knowledge at his Mega File Editor.

 

So, that should allow you to modify the XML files that are used to specify the features, powers and weapons from each unit. Does the Alamo engine used in 8-Bit Armies reads external files? Is there any volunteer to figure it out and share this knowledge with us? Post your thoughts here and, if these games are really moddable as they seem to be, we'll create dedicated modding forums here.

 

So, share the word and enjoy the place: Petrolution lives!

AI Breakthrough

Posted by Ghostrider at Phoenix Rising News on June 7, 2016

After weeks and months of testing, and trying to figure out how to get the AI to react as a human does in a galactic environment, the PR team have finally achieved a significant AI breakthrough:

 

The AI now aggressively attacks independent planets, takes worlds, builds fleets, and stomps all over unwary humans if given half a chance. 

 

The AI equasions to do this have been in place do this for years, but for months the AI has lain dormant, effectively asleep. We have tried hundreds of different ideas to get the AI to activate - all to no effect. 

 

And how did we achieve this? 

 

The frustrating answer, familiar to most modders out there is simple. We changed 1 value in the XMLs, instead of increasing the value from 1.0 to 1.25 we should have decreased the value to 0.75. It just took 6 months of testing to realise that is what we needed to do!

 

WOW. Did the AI react or what?

It annihilated one of the testers in Core Worlds in under a quarter of the time taken for a human player to "WIN" Core Worlds if unopposed. 

 

Now that we know the AI is working, I have to go back and undo many of the campaign changes put in place that were an attempt to make the AI respond, but the mod is finally alive and kicking. We need to test and polish a bit more, but this makes us a lot closer to where we want to be. 

 

Ghost

8-Bit Armies

Posted by Digz at Petrolution News on March 11, 2016

Petroglyph have just released a video announcing a new game they are working on and looks close to release from the games Steam page. It's features currently indicate a simple, back to basics retro-style RTS game that will get us playing what we love: a simple, fast paced RTS! Check out the video below they released:

 

 

Here's what Petroglyph are describing this game as on their Steam page:

 

 

A Blast from the Past 
8-Bit Armies is a classic, C&C-style Real-Time Strategy PC game. It's our most fast-paced, friendly, and accessible RTS game to date. Featuring offline single-player missions, co-op mode, skirmish, and PvP multiplayer modes running on dedicated servers. 

Initial release includes: 
 

• 25 offline campaign missions
• 10 co-op missions to play with your friends
• 10 multiplayer/skirmish maps that support up to 8 players online
• AI with multiple difficulty options to play with cooperatively or fight against
• Classic Base-Building mechanics let you construct the ultimate HQ from which to launch attacks against your foes
• Destructible environments on maps ranging from small to very large
• Easy to understand modern military units and structures lets RTS beginners jump right in
• From the same team that brought you RTS classics such as Star Wars: Empire at War, Universe at War, and Grey Goo

8-Bit Armies is for anyone that enjoys RTS games, or felt overwhelmed by more serious games. With hours of solo and co-op gameplay included, there's something here for everyone!

 

Source.

Campaign #1 - CORE WORLDS

Posted by Ghostrider at Phoenix Rising News on December 9, 2015

At the centre of the galaxy, you find the oldest, richest, most heavily populated... and the best defended planets in the galaxy. Single planets in the Core have more financial and military influence than whole sectors in the Outer Rim.

 

 

CORE WORLDS is the first of the campaigns in the Rise of the Empire Era, which is set at the end of the Clone Wars. The formation of the Galactic Empire has been announced, but many worlds are either actively opposed to the New Order or are highly independent planets that will resist the Imperialisation of trade, commerce and law. You get to rewrite history with either the early Galactic Empire, or the scattered elements of the Phoenix Rising Movement.

 

 

All of these campaigns start with a handful of planets and outdated Republic-era and Clone Wars technologies. Many of the neutral worlds will be far stronger at the start than your small fleets, and these campaigns are lengthy. It is vital to plan for long term growth, and in many cases your production capacity will far exceed your initial income, and it is important to grow both militarily and financially.

 

The political influence of leaders also cannot be underestimated, and many politicians give time reduction bonuses on construction (motivation), and best of all, price discounts for the most influential.

 

You should also be aware that the larger starbases need considerable fleet strength, with destroyer and capital-class warship support for the level 4 and 5 starbases, before an invasion can be considered. It is no longer feasible to effectively destroy a starbase with corvettes alone, but your Level 2 starbases are vital to continued financial growth, so don’t ignore them.

 

 

It is worth noting that the income created by light transports is a percentage of the planetary income, so make sure your light transports are in orbit over your wealthiest planets. You receive light transport revenues once units have made 1 trip into hyperspace. XQ5 platforms add 25% to your base planetary income, and are well worth the 3 week production time on your richer worlds. However, there is a limit of 2 per planet, and many of your Core holdings already contain at least one customs station, with a welcome boost to revenues. 

 

Before considering invasion, make sure you scout target worlds by espionage, stealth heroes, and attacks by a lone scout unit to ensure any invasion is feasible, and that you can escape if it gets too difficult. Many worlds have interdictors in their fleets, trapping invaders to certain doom. And don’t forget about small infantry raids with up to 3 infantry units. This can be a quick way to capture lightly defended units, with the advantage that you destroy the orbiting starbase if you manage to capture the planet.

In Core Worlds, you start with 6 influential planets : -

 

PRM Abregado Rae

The smuggler port of Abregado Rae is fiercely independent and highly resistant to being ruled, and is looking to Corellia for guidance in the growing opposition to the Galactic Empire. If the smugglers on Abregado-rae can join forces with the Corellians, they could form a powerful syndicate.

Strategic Considerations: Threat from Byss.
Heroes: Obi-Wan Kenobi

 

 

PRM Alderaan

Alderaan has been a staunch supporter of the republic in the fight against the Separatists, with the Royal Alderaanian Shipyards providing the engines for the Acclamator-class Assault ships. Both influential and with excellent facilities, Alderaan is politically opposed to the New Order and Bail Organa is one of the key figures in promoting the idea of active resistance to the ever-growing power of the Office of Chancellor.

Strategic Considerations: No Immediate threats.
Heroes: Bail Organa
 

PRM Chandrila

Chandrila is a world of free speech led by Senator Mon Mothma, who led the Delegation of 2000 to limit the powers of the Chancellor. Chandrila has a strong defence-fleet and is working with both Bail Organa and Garm Bel Iblis to take increasing military action to oppose the New Order.

Strategic Considerations: Major threat from Corulag.
Heroes: Mon Mothma

 

PRM Corellia

The free world of Corellia is the leading manufacturer of light freighters and corvettes with unrivalled construction facilities. Invoking an ancient law, legendary Senator Garm Bel Iblis has kept Corellia out of the Clone Wars and is strongly opposed to the changes imposed by the New Order.

Strategic Considerations: Major threat from Byss.
Heroes: Garm Bel Iblis

 

PRM Farrfin

This smuggler world has a vibrant underworld and finds the Galactic Empire and its new taxes a considerable threat – especially as this is increasingly backed up by the Imperial Fleet and a growing Imperial Customs Service.

Strategic Considerations: Major threat from Coruscant.
 

 

PRM Fresia

This tiny island population is the home to Incom – producers of one of the most popular basic fighters towards the last days of the Old Republic – the Z95 Headhunter. Incom’s fortunes have dramatically changed for the worse with the creation of the Galactic Empire and the move towards disposable TIEs – and disposable pilots, something that the Fresians object to morally.

Strategic Considerations: Isolated, but Coruscant could be a threat in the future.

 

IMPERIAL Coruscant

 

Coruscant has everything – vast research capabilities, diverse production, immense wealth and a huge pool of talented individuals to nurture and develop. 

 

 

In addition, both Sith lords – Darth Sidious and Darth Vader - are present on Coruscant, giving the Imperial faction a huge advantage. The political and financial influence of Darth Sidious is worth several star-systems, and Darth Vader frightens whole armies, both in space and in ground combat.

Strategic Considerations: Minor Threat from Farrfin.
Heroes: Darth Sidious, Darth Vader

 

 

While the temptation is to focus on military research, some effort should be spend to upgrade the trade fleet and add to Coruscant’s fleet in case the threat from Farrfin increases. Military expansion, both north to Dolomar and south to the Deep Core should be considered.

 

IMPERIAL Byss

Byss is the center of secret holdings in the Deep Core. With a massive 20bn population of immigrants tricked into travelling to a utopian world, Byss could become a major planet of influence.

Strategic Considerations: Major Threat from Abregado-rae and Corellia

Much effort should be made to consolidate holdings in the deep core and expand as if the smuggler fleet on Abregadoe Rae is able to merge with the Corellians, then the Deep Core is in danger.

 

IMPERIAL Corulag

This model Imperial world is isolated from Coruscant by the republic influences at the Naval Academy on Anaxes, and threatened by political activists on Chandrila. It must rapidly expand its fleet and defeat pro-republican sentiments.

Strategic Considerations: Major Threat from Chandrila
Heroes: Gilad Pellaeon

 

IMPERIAL Kuat

The Kuat Drive yards have unrivalled military production capacity – as long as you have the credits to spend. 

 

 

Kuat has strong neighbours, but no immediate threats, and while it may be tempting to immediately start construction of a destroyer fleet, current limited incomes may prove this be an unnecessary strain on finances. It may be wiser in the short term to divert funds to more vulnerable holdings until their security has been established.

Strategic Considerations: No immediate threats. Powerful neighbours.
Heroes: Onara Kuat

 

IMPERIAL Gandeal

Gandeal is a mineral-rich resource world with small freighter yards that supplies the shipyards of Fondor with raw materials. This should be considered as facility for financial rather than military growth.

Strategic Considerations: Weak Military. Powerful neighbours.
Heroes: Barrow Oicunn

 

IMPERIAL Prakith

Prakith is the secret headquarters of the Inquisitorius in the Deep Core. With no immediate threats, this facility should be expanded to a support facility, building fleet and trade units.

Strategic Considerations: Light Military. Powerful neighbours. Medium term strategy Corsucant should make efforts to connect to Prakith.
Heroes: Antinnis Tremayne

 

Overall, this is a campaign for long term strategy. You certainly have far higher incomes than any other campaign in this era, but early opportunities for expansion are limited – and most be considered carefully.  However, you have access to unsurpassed shipyards and with a solid financial base, your regions of influence should expand steadily. 

State of The Mod

Posted by Ghostrider at Phoenix Rising News on October 26, 2015

First of all, I would like to apologiese to all of the fans for the total neglect and lack of news in the last year.

 

You may be mistaken in thinking nothing is happening with the mod. - You would be wrong; progress has actually been quite positive recently, but real life cuts back on modding time for most of the team.

 

Before detailing some of the more exciting developments in the mod, it's probably worth a recap of what has happened to date, as this has profound implications on my particular area of focus - the campaigns.

 

Combat Mechanic

The entire basis os space comabt has been rebuilt to match the land mechanic, with a detailed and comprehensive armor and shielding system. Shileds now absorb laser fire, ranging frmo 20% to 45%, depending on unit class. Armor grades range from 8 points in fighters to 32 points for capital class warships, and all the weapons in the mod now have different damage ratings. HP are considerably increased.

The biggest change in tactical battles, is that laser cannons, and especially light laser cannons, are unable to penetrate heavy armor. This does not mean that your fighters are redundant, far from it. A cloud of snubfighters and transports can strip off the shields of destroyers and capital-grade warships, making them much more vulnerable to turbolaser fire, but you can't kill a star destroyer with snubfighters alone - you have to have turbolaser support. Bombers get proton rockets and proton bombs, and can be pretty nasty.

 

We have also added space population. The idea is that in order to crew and maintain a space-based unit, you need a support base. Your planets provide population and without spare population you can't build anything. This explains why the Acclamator and other crew-heavy designs, such as the Dreadnaught rapidly became obsolote. The Imperial class is much more effiecient in terms of deliverably combat power vs population support required.

 

On a strategic level this adds a new dimension to the campaign scenario. You need credits AND population to build warships. As a result, we have rebuilt the entire economy from scratch, with new pricing and a detailed planetary model that calculates planetary economies based on population, tech level, agricultural base, mineral resources, underworld and manufacturing capability. Agricultural wolrds are particularly important to feed and grow your fleets.

 

Proximity Jumps and Trade Routes

We have removed proximity jumps from the mod, so all space-based travel is based on the trade route. This makes strategic planning much more interesting, and you will find that key planets that lie at the junction of major trade routes are extremely important strategically, as these act as choke points to access different regions of the galaxy.

For example. Brentaal IV, which lies at the junction of the Hydian Way and the Perlemian Trade Route, is now probably the most imporatant piece of real-estate in the galaxy and is defended accordingly!

 

Armed colonies

All coloneis, from levels 1 to 5 are now armed with turbolaser cannons, and are heavily shielded and quite difficult to kill.

You will need cruiser support to take on a level 1 or level 2 colony, and multiple cruisers for a Level 3 Colony.

Level 4 colonies are extremely challenging, and need a large fleet, with at least destroyers, if not capital-class warships to have a chance of destroying the base.

Level 5 colonies are exceptionally challenging.

And if you think these are bad news, the asteroid bases are worse, so it is vital to send out expendable scouting parties to see what you are facing before you attempt an invasion.

 

Heroes

Heroes no longer come with elite warships. They now have command abilities but are just that - indivudal beings that need to be attached to a fleet to make a difference. So Darth Vader IV on his own is just a pilot in an TIE, but with a fleet he commands on the bridge of the largest warship.

 

Back to Basics

If we now wind the clock back to early 2014, we are in the process of updating all of the old campaigns with these points in mind. We have always had a goal of adding new campaigns to each release, but had no idea of the change that was about to take place.

Our concept at the time was to create a new campaign to show the difference in strategic planning due to the lack of proximity jumps and have a campaign based on the 5 Super-Hyperrroutes of Perlemian Trade Route, Hydian Way, Rimma Trade Route, Correlian Run, and the Corellian Trade Spine.

60% of the campaign was completed when the campaign crashed on install and it soon became apparent that nothing was going to fix it. The problem was simple - too many planets and too big a campaign. The EAW engine simply couldn't handle it.

 

So we made the critical decision to break up all the existing campaigns into smaller chunks, each with fewer planets.

 

So - Core Worlds lost the Expansion region and shrunk back to the Core Worlds and the Colonies. This was highly successful and led to a better campaign with faster frame rates and quicker load times and much less lag.

 

The roll-out pulled appart the entire campaign set and rebuilt everything from scratch.

Prelminary testing of all 12 campaigns is now complete and the results are rather exciting.

 

I'll let you have more news, in detail, about each campaign in due course....

 

 

Ghostrider

 

 

 

 

Mega File Editor reads Config.meg from GreyGoo

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on July 30, 2015

Hello everyone!


Mike.nl has released a new version of his Mega File Editor that is able to read the encrypted config.meg file from GreyGoo. That file stores the core rules of the game, such as unit stats, behavior, AI and much more. Humans are able to understand the .XML files and the .CLP files. It is unclear at the moment if the game is really moddable or not and what would be its limitations. Mike.nl has also updated his .MEG File Format document to cover the changes in GreyGoo.



(Click the picture for a high resolution screenshot)


Head to Petrolution Mod Tools Website to download the Mega File Editor and much more. If you have any successful modding experience with GreyGoo, please, report it here and show it to us. It can seriously affect the future of this site.

Grey Goo's 4th patch: the ballance patch

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on March 28, 2015

A couple of days ago, Greybox has released the first ballance patch for Grey Goo. Here's the official notes on it with a long list of changes:

The first balance patch is here!

Here is the finalized list of changes going into the first major balance update released on Tuesday March 24th. These include revisions inspired by the testing done on our Public Test Branch. See the previous balance details here.

Any changes labeled with [PTB] resulted from data collected during the Public Test Branch.

Due to the number of balance adjustments we are implementing with this patch, both 1v1 and 2v2 ranked leaderboards will be reset upon the update's arrival. Your Elo matchmaking rating and win-loss records will be wiped during this reset, allowing you the opportunity to test your skills in a new season.
General

The formed Goo, Repair Subroutine Upgrade, and Sentinel Repair Upgrade regeneration effects now only activate when the units and structures are not actively taking or dealing damage.
Targeting priorities have been re-factored to prioritize units over structures in most cases.



Beta Faction


Air Canister Upgrade

[PTB] Range down from 450 to 350

Stalker

[PTB] Health up from 100 to 110
[PTB] Damage down from 11 to 9
[PTB] Movement speed down from 120 to 115

Stealth Sniper Upgrade

Range down from 500 to 425
Stealth is now always active outside of combat and will reapply 8 seconds after combat ends.

Predator

Health up from 130 to 140

Hailstorm

Damage down from 25 to 20
Range up from 750 to 800
Armor penetration down from 3 to 0
AoE radius down from 150 to 125

Guardian

[PTB] Rate of fire down from 1.75 to 1.5
Range down from 650 to 550
Long-Range Ballistics Upgrade range down from 1200 to 900
Long-Range Ballistics Upgrade damage down from 35 to 25

Cloudburst

[PTB] Damage down from 40 to 24

Stratus

Health down from 100 to 75

Warbird

Rate of fire up from 0.5 to 1
Ammo up from 4 to 5
Cost up from 270 to 315

Nimbus

Ammo up from 2 to 3
Damage down from 75 to 50
Nimbus Napalm Upgrade now lasts 5 seconds down from 5.5
Nimbus Napalm Upgrade AoE radius down from 250 to 200

Avalanche

Shot timings have been shifted to have a smaller cast time and a longer cooldown. Rate of fire remains the same.
Cost down from 675 to 600

Hand of Ruk

Range down from 2000 to 1500

Wall

Armor down from 3 to 0
Build time up from 25 to 30
[PTB] Pillar cost up from 50 to 90
Pillar health down from 1250 to 1000
Straight cost up from 50 to 90

Small Power Hub

Health up from 300 to 400

Medium Power Hub

Build time down from 50 to 45

Large Power Hub

Health down from 900 to 800

Repair Pad

Heals for 15 every 2 sec up from 20 every 5 sec
Build time down from 50 to 30
Cost down from 500 to 300
Health down from 1500 to 1000

Hanger

Rearms aircraft 1 ammo every sec up from 1 ammo every 2 sec
[PTB] Build time up from 30 to 35
[PTB] Cost up from 240 to 245

Extractor

Health down from 1000 to 750
[PTB] Extractor size reduced to match the Human Extractor

Harvester

[PTB] Health up from 80 to 120
[PTB] Movement speed up from 100 to 125

Refinery

[PTB] Creates Harvesters every 20 sec up from 15

"No-Build" Influence Radius

Small Hub radius increased from 400 to 600
Medium Hub radius increased from 400 to 600
Large Hub radius increased from 500 to 600
Headquarter radius increased from 800 to 1000



Goo Faction


Drover

Range down from 250 to 200

Strider

[PTB] Health down from 125 to 115
[PTB] Rate of fire down from 1.25 to 1

Tempest

Damage down from 25 to 18

Small Protean

Health up from 150 to 160

Small and Large Protean

Slow enemies by 50% down from 90%

Crescent

Damage down from 10 to 6
Range down from 1500 to 1000
Projectile speed up from 150 to 200
Projectile Endurance Upgrade AoE radius down from 100 to 75
Projectile Endurance damage down from 5 to 2
Projectile Endurance range down from 1500 to 1000

Destructor

[PTB] Rate of fire down from 1.75 to 1.5
[PTB] Damage down from 42 to 36
[PTB] Health down from 155 to 150
Movement speed down from 120 to 105
Target damage and splash damage have been separated. Splash damage down from 42 to 15 but target damage remains the same.

Purger

Range up from 800 to 1000
Damage down from 400 to 300

Catalyst Vents

Grant 160 health per pickup to the Mother Goo and Proto-Purger up from 85

Mother Goo

Stealth detection range down from 800 to 400
Armor penetration down from 10 to 0
Max health has increased from 1300 to 1600
Health per size has increased from 200 to 320
Catalyst digestion health per second up from 5 to 8
First size max health down from 500 to 320
Initial Mother Goo starting health down from 400 to 240

Proto-Purger

[PTB] Starting health down from 2000 to 200 to maintain build time from Catalyst Vent change.



Human Faction


Trident

[PTB] Health up from 115 to 140
[PTB] Damage down from 8 to 7
Build time up from 20 to 25
Cost up from 100 to 125

Revolver

Damage down from 6 to 5
[PTB] Health down from 100 to 95

Dagger

Armor down from 3 to 0
[PTB] Range up from 350 to 375
[PTB] Damage down from 3 to 2
Health up from 75 to 90

Gladius

[PTB] Range up from 350 to 400
Movement speed down from 95 to 90

Howitzer

[PTB] Cost down from 440 to 385
Damage down from 30 to 23
Range up from 800 to 900
Armor penetration down from 3 to 0
AoE radius down from 150 to 100
Mine (default) no longer has stealth
Mine duration down from 12 to 3 sec
Proximity Mine Radar Upgrade mine duration down from 18 to 9 sec

Longbow

Movement speed down from 130 to 110
Damage down from 42 to 24

Lancer

Damage level one DPS down from 50 to 10
Damage level two DPS down from 60 to 40
Damage levels one and two now last 3 seconds up from 2

Scimitar

Damage down from 125 to 60
Ammo up from 1 to 2
Rate of fire up from 1 to 2
Cost up from 300 to 350

Mine Drop Upgrade

[PTB] Armor penetration down from 3 to 0
[PTB] Mine no longer has stealth
[PTB] Mine duration down from 10 to 6

Monitor

Health up from 75 to 100
[PTB] Movement speed down from 275 to 250
[PTB] Vision up from 1000 to 1200
[PTB] Cost up from 75 to 105
[PTB] Build time up from 25 to 35

Scythe

Movement speed down from 400 to 375
Armor penetration down from 6 to 0
AoE radius down from 75 to 50
Damage up from 13 to 20
Rate of fire up from 0.5 to 1.25

Aircraft Repair Upgrade

Repairs 8% every sec up from 5% every sec

Alpha

Movement speed up from 50 to 75
Explosion interval health threshold down from 500 health to 300 health

Repair Subroutine Upgrade

Repairs 10% every 5 sec up from 5% every 5 sec

Air Pad

[PTB] Cost up from 60 to 80
[PTB] Build time up from 15 to 20
Rearms aircraft 1 ammo every sec up from 1 ammo every 2 sec

Conduit

[PTB] Health up from 250 to 300

Teleporter

Build time up from 75 to 120
Cost up from 750 to 1200
Cooldown up from 150 to 180
Now has a visible 5 second charge up telegraph and an audio queue before activation

Wall

Armor down from 6 to 0
Build time up from 30 to 40
Pillar cost up from 30 to 80
Pillar health down from 1000 to 750
Straight cost up from 30 to 80
Regeneration up from 15/sec to 25/sec

Human Sentinels

Now have a population of 1
Take 10 seconds to teleport up from 5

Artillery Sentinel

Range down from 1750 to 1000
[PTB] Damage up from 15 to 20
[PTB] Health up from 250 to 300
Armor down from 6 to 3

Anti-Heavy Sentinel

Armor down from 6 to 3

Anti-Air Sentinel

Damage down from 8 to 4
Armor down from 6 to 3

Extractor

Health down from 1000 to 750

Harvester

[PTB] Movement speed down from 130 to 125

Refinery

[PTB] Creates Harvesters every 10 sec up from 7.5

"No-Build" Influence Radius

Core radius increased from 800 to 1000

GreyGoo's third patch is online

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on March 13, 2015

Yesterday, the third patch for Grey Goo has been released. It should be a quick hot fix patch with the following changes:

March 12, 2015 Update Notes

AI

Alhazen Human AI will no longer build all air pads and no units

Fixed an issue that could cause the AI to stop attacking

Hotkeys

Fixed an issue were hotkeys were inconsistent when using the Goo interface

Human Teleporter eject hotkey now works properly

Fixed issue where hotkeys were not properly displaying for tech upgrades

Units

Bastion taunt now properly affects Beta units that are mounted on walls

I guess that the issue that could cause AI to stop atttacking was the critical one that needed to be wiped from the history, considering that single player games are played by many people. That's probably the reason that they've made this hot fix in first place. They've been announcing some heavy ballance changes for the upcoming patches and you are able to test it already.

GreyGoo's second patch is online.

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on February 17, 2015

The second patch for GreyGoo has recently seen the light of the day. Here's the official changelog:

February 17, 2015 Update Notes

AI
Default AI is now Lambert instead of Random

Audio
Fixed an issue where the RTS Primer VO audio was incorrect in German

Units
Aircraft will now prioritize empty landing pads first when ordered to land by right clicking on Hangars/Airpads
Further improved the extents shrinking from 50% to 25% to minimize artillery/AoE impact of grouped units

Campaign
Adjusted Easy and Normal difficulty settings. Hard difficulty is unaffected.
Fixed an issue where script-spawned units were not being given the correct health modifiers
Fixed a bug in The Barricade that caused some enemy Guardian units to idle in brush instead of properly mounting wall pillars

Engineering
Added matchmaking improvements to allow players easier access to searching for matches worldwide
Improved logic for detecting players disconnecting to force a win or avoid a loss
Servers will now temporarily pause when connection loss is first detected
Added improvements to performance that prevents certain cases from lagging the client severely
Structures from an eliminated player will now properly clear up passability upon deletion
Fixed a crash local to 32 bit machines
Fixed a crash that would occur while loading a multiplayer match
Fixed a lock that would occur for clients when the host would close the lobby
Fixed an issue where 2v2 Ranked matches were not properly reporting
Fixed crash that would occur when starting skirmish match

Terrain Editor
Fixed crash that would occur when launching a custom map with the spigot marker inside the HQ boundaries
Fixed crash that would occur when loading an untouched custom map

UI
Moved Quick Match window up in the Multiplayer screen while search is ongoing
Added translations for new text
Fixed an issue with compressed Korean text
Added a new Extras section to the menu with a quick launch button for the Terrain Editor
Made various fixes to improve performance in the UI
Fixed an issue where the game would unpause immediately after pausing in single player

I've seen many people complaining at the lack of stability of this game. I hope this patch improves this situation.

GreyGoo's first patch has been released.

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on February 4, 2015

GreyGoo has recently received an official patch. Here's the official changelog:

February 3, 2015 Patch Notes

Art
Fixed issue where some units attacks were appearing through Fog of War

Audio
Fixed bug where the Has been revealed announcement was being triggered whenever a players units were killed
Fixed an issue where the Has been revealed announcement was triggered after a vent plug was destroyed
Fixed issue where sound effects from the impact of Howitzer mines would sometimes not play

AI
Fixed issue where enemy AI Beta units would attempt to use players Repair Pad

Achievements
Glutton for Punishment can no longer be achieved against Idle AI

Engineering
A units extents now shrink when moving through groups of other units to make moving through groups smoother
Disabled units pushing other units to the side to prevent further issues as a result of the change
Fixed a rare issue where refineries could create an island of un-navigable terrain
Fixed crash caused by loading a save game from a previous version
Fixed crash caused by Goo projectiles being shot down
Fixed an issue where a structures deconstruction animation would sometimes not play
Fixed exploit where Human structures would still be teleported after being destroyed
Fixed error that was being given when attempting to save on The Terminal
Fixed cursor disappearing when accepting an invite during a cutscene
Changed agro state generator for Human HQ to prevent a stacking situation that could potentially cause a crash

Design
Fixed the resource display on The Aperture Device to better represent the resource locations
The timed even in The Aperture Device will no longer start if the player moves their Mother Goo away from the node
The Crescent fire objective in The Trench can no longer be triggered before its intended time by restarting the mission
Fixed an exploit with selling Conduits
Fixed an issue where players could hide their Purger in the brush
Added additional target filtering to Tempest Surveillance Virus upgrade to prevent it from targeting ground and air incorrectly
Fixed an issue where Tempest Surveillance Virus Upgrade affected ground units if it hit an air unit that was flying above a ground unit

UI
Fixed several incorrect descriptions in the Encyclopedia
The orange bar in the quick match panel will no longer change size when the player invites another player to a premade team
Fixed issue where timers would sometimes not appear in the German version
Fixed issue where the no power icon was appearing after a buildings construction was completed
Updated the no power icons in Magos Pass to be consistent with the other no power icons in the game

Terrain Editor
Added support for custom user XML and Animations
Fixed several crash issues
Fixed Skydomes not properly appearing in the editor
Fixed issue where props and objects were being visually removed but were still counting in the object count
Fixed issue where Fog of War was not appearing when the user checked the fog box
Improved water shader for user-created maps

It's worth mentioning that the Terrain Editor now support custom user XML and animations. The possibilities of custom user XML files are yet to be seen. How far does the game can be customized with that feature? If anyone decide to play it, we kindly invite you to post your results in a reply to this news post.

Grey Goo has been released.

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on January 27, 2015

Ladies and gentlemen, as the title of this news says, Grey Goo is the latest game released by Petroglyph Games. Of course, Petrolution will be supporting it. You can now post your mapping tutorials, tools and anything related to Grey Goo in our site. And in order to start our support for this new RTS game, we have an exclusive updated Open Source .BIG Editor in our download section. This new version of OS BIG Editor opens .meg files with format 2 and 3 (Grey Goo uses format 3) from newer games from Petroglyph. It still does not open the nasty config.meg file from Grey Goo, neither the one from End of Nations beta. They seem to be protected with some very odd sorcery that has yet to be studied by the community. So, that's it. Get posting and help us to make this game become more modding friendly.

Anatomy of a Starship

Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on June 22, 2014

Probably the best way to introduce the new space combat mechanics is to take a detailed look at our new (WIP) infobox layout. You may recognise many of the elements from the revamped land combat; many of the elements are also new. I'll go through each in the order they appear using the classic example of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer. Please note that all values shown are WIP.

 

 

Tactical Population Cost

 

This is a new number based on the total volume of the hull (or hulls in the case of a starfighter squadron). It is balanced around the idea that an Executor-class Super Star Destroyer consists of 400 population points, the maximum available space population. For carriers, it also includes the volume of all the starfighter squadrons as in the case of the Imperial II. This means that you can field 5 Imperial II-class and their entire complements at one time. These values are currently in the process of testing and tweaking, and the exact values may be different in the released version.

 

Starship Icon

 

All the starship icons have been brought into lineusing uniform lighting and rendering settings to create a better quality icon set.

 

Starship Name

 

As usual, we retain the full names of all ships, including their upgrade version.

 

Starship Class

 

From Starfighter through to Dreadnaught, a starship's class helps shape its maneuverability and sensor range statistics. It also determines which shipyard type is needed to construct it.

 

Special Abilities

 

With the new version, we have many greatly improved autofire scripts for ship special abilities, so we feel comfortable including more than the two accessible from the GUI. In most cases, the tractor beam will be the hidden, autofired ability, and it will usually target whatever the ship has been told to attack. Note here the Imperial II has a Tractor Beam, Emergency Thrusters (power to engines ability) and Blast. Blast is a new ability we have added to many main-line combat ships. It moves the firepower of the main battery (in this case, the octuple turbolasers and turboions) up a notch, so that has increased range and firepower.

 

Manufacturer

 

We have always included manufacturer bonuses on various appropriate planets such as Kuat. Now you can see exactly which ships will benefit, with the inclusion of the Manufacturer in the infobox.

 

Cost

 

This is the base hull cost, not including complement (which is included in the final cost at a 50% discount). Costs have been modified across the board to provide a more challenging economic planning experience.

 

Time

 

This is the base hull construction time, measured in galactic time. For the Imperial II, this is 15 weeks. Note that building over a world with appropriate shipyard bonuses, or by building more of the same class of shipyard, this time can be dramatically reduced.

 

Dimensions

 

Width x length x height, in meters, the basic size of the hull.

 

Volume

 

The total volume of the hull in cubic meters, often using exponential notation. Here for example, the Imperial II is 121 million cubic meters in volume. This statistic informs hitpoint calculations and has a great effect on the likelihood for a ship to be hit by enemy fire.

 

Acceleration

 

With the change to the new space combat mechanics, we have moved towards a more "realistic" approach. While ships still have a capped top speed, it is directly proportional to their acceleration. This is measured in terms of G-force, the acceleration experienced by a being on the surface of a planet with standard gravity, roughly 10 m/s².

 

Maneuvrability

 

This statistic is the turning speed of the starship, measured in degrees per second. It is primarily class-based.

 

Hyperdrive

 

The class of the hyperdrive in the starship (if any), which determines its ability to travel across the galaxy in hyperspace. The smaller the better!

 

Shielding

 

Here is one of the new statistics. Shielding is now measured in Shield Points (SP) and has an absorption percentage shown after it. This is the amount of damage the shield can absorb from a single shot before it takes SP damage. So for example, a turbolaser shot hitting the Imperial II shield with a damage of 96 will do around 58 points of shield damage.

 

Hull

 

Hull has also changed a great deal. It is now measured in Hull Points (HP), like that of land combat. This value is primarily volume-based. Following the HP is the armour value and type. The Imperial II has 32 Vehicle armour. This means that it absorbs 32 damage from any incoming shot before the hull itself is damaged. For example, the same 96 damage turbolaser will do 64 points of hull damage on impact.

 

Range

 

This statistic shows the maximum and minimum ranges of the weapon systems on the ship, followed by its line of sight range. All values are in meters. In this case, the longest range weapons are the octuple turbolasers, while the shortest are the individual turbolaser cannons.

 

Armament

 

We have greatly condensed the weapons display into a shorthand that provides much more information. We have done away with "light", "heavy" and so on, instead simply telling you the weapon type, their number, and their damage output. So, here the Imperial II has 6 octuple turbolasers with 240 damage per bolt, 2 octuple turboions with 240 damage per bolt, 2 triple turbolasers with 144 damage per bolt, and so on. Note that ion weapons do 200% damage to shields, but cannot damage anything except Droid armour. The number of tractor beams is also noted, which adjusts the cooldown of the tractor beam ability.

 

 

I hope this little snippet has provided some insight to the changes we've been making over the past 18 months. If you have any questions, I will endeavour to answer below, however note that I did not implement these changes myself.

News. Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...

Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on June 17, 2014

Hello Phoenix Rising fans.

 

First off, I'd like to apologise for the extremely long time between news posts. If this was the only way you kept up with the mod, I can forgive you for thinking we'd ceased development. Those of you who read more of the forums see the team members making comments from time to time, and we made a call for alpha and beta testers for the latest version over the past year. Still, this doesn't make up for the silence we've sustained up to now.

 

I'd like to change that myself, primarily because I finally have some free time and partly because our team leader and the prime driver of the mod, Phoenix Rising, is without a computer capable of doing modding right now. This isn't particular cause for alarm, because the current build of the mod is very feature-complete. However, there still remain areas that need polish and improvement.

 

So what have we been doing for the past two years? Our initial plan for the next version of the mod was primarily based on integrating the information provided by the release of The Essential Atlas. As software project tend to do, we experienced some rather strong feature creep, and as one thing led to another, we realised we had a version of the mod that is no longer a mere incremental update. In fact, we have:

• General
  • Made numerous changes to improve performance
  • Remade and rebalanced the hero system
  • Rebalanced tech trees
• Galactic Mode
  • Brought our galactic maps in line with The Essential Atlas
  • Added new planets
  • Entirely rebalanced and remade our core sandbox campaigns (still a work-in-progress)
  • Created a new planetary bonus system
  • Created a new hyperspace system
  • Rebalanced freighters, including the addition of light transports
  • Improved the display of research
• Combat
  • Improved land combat
    • Begun the process of adding infantry weapon models
    • New units
    • Improved weather system
  • Added many new maps in land and space
  • Entirely revamped space combat to be in line with land combat:
    • New armour, health and shield system
    • New weapon balancing and types
    • Better display of unit statistics
    • New units
    • Increase in map size to accommodate the changes

Many of these changes, especially those based around planets and maps, have already been mentioned in prior news posts. Check those for more information on those specific topics. As for the rest, I hope I can bring you more news posts in the near future providing examples and details. In the mean time, I'm happy to answer questions you may have here on the forums.

 

evilbob

Grey Goo, the next game from Petroglyph

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on March 13, 2014

 

 

Petroglyph has recently announced their next real time strategy game: Grey Goo, which should be published by a mysterious company called Greybox. It should feature 3 new factions and all the good and solid mechanisms that makes real time strategy games fun, such as base building, resource collection and a focus on macro-management rather than micro-management. The game will be Windows only originally and it should be sold on Steam. It can be played online and offline (skirmish) and it should feature a story driven campaign. According to Petroglyph, the game should be available on late 2014 and it will feature soundtracks from Frank Klepacki. For more information, head to Grey Goo's Official Website.

Petrolution is fully functional again.

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on November 5, 2013

Welcome back, everyone. Petrolution is working correctly again. We've managed to figure out the server mechanics that were affecting the redirection and they were disabled here. So, feel free to browse the site, submit tutorials, files, mods, etc.

 

We have a lot of sections about games that no longer belongs to Petroglyph or are not longer supported, but we'll keep them for now. Also, End Of Nations is no longer a MMO RTS, but it is rather a multiplayer online battle arena and it is in the sole hands of Trion. I don't know if we'll add content for this game on our own. Probably not, unless we see some interest in the responses for this news post.

 

Anyway, enjoy this place and contribute for it to make it even better.

The site is now browsable.

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on November 4, 2013

Hello everyone. You may now browse all sections of Petrolution as you used to do some months ago. I've done a little workaround that redirects you into something that works. Unfortunately, the redirection problem persists and it may prevent you from submitting some data, except to edit items, which is a big thing. I'll still try to figure out how to fix it, but the problem seems to be beyond the scope of Petrolution at the moment. Have fun.

Broken site links

Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on November 3, 2013

Hello everyone. If you've been trying to browse this site recently, you might be noticing that some of the site content looks broken. Our problem lies with a redirection rule of apache that is beyond my scope or it's something I'm not being able to figure out where it comes from. But the content itself is fully functional. Feel free to browse it:

 

-> Tutorials

-> Mods

-> Articles

-> Maps

-> Downloads

 

-> Art Tutorials

-> Coding Tutorials

-> Mapping Tutorials

-> Other Tutorials

 

-> Propaganda Downloads

-> Modding Utilities Downloads

-> Community Modifications Downloads

 

-> Skirmish Maps

-> Galatic Maps (EAW)

 

And for anything else, make sure that the link has index.php?page= and the ? are replaced with & until we figure out why things are breaking. Sorry for any inconvenience and enjoy this place.

Battlestar Galactica at War is back!

Posted by Darthbyron56 at Petrolution News on December 28, 2012

Hey Guys, Byron here. Avid BSG fans will be well aware that between 2010/2011 NBC issued a take down notice of a single BSG mod from Moddb.Since Moddb didn't want to get into trouble they decided to remove all BSG related content from their website.

However, we have started up our Battlestar Mod project again, and hopefully we can continue to develop it without NBC feeling threated by its presence.

So what have we been up to?

Well most of the content used in BSG Colonial Wars needed upgrades. Textures weren't great and most models need re-rigging.

Our Priority at the moment is to re-rig enough units to get you guys a mini-mod by 2013. We are aiming for something small, but quite diverse. We aim to change the graphics of the game so you feel like as if your playing a Total Conversion mod.

As mentioned all models are being Re-rigged, and re coded to be more accurate to the ships shown in the show. We have already re-rigged the Battlestar Galactica, and have put its Flak Shield ability to test against some cylon raiders, and the results are fantastic. The video below from our November update shows you this ability being used.



Due to some set backs re-rigging was placed on hold and minor modding of Factions, Galactic Conquests and Planet placement has taken over at this moment. But I am pleased to announce that we have finally overcome the rigging issues we were experiencing with the rigging process, but I'd like to show you what I've been up to in the meantime.

This video shows the new and updated effects that we are looking to create with our mods Galactic Conquest. As you can see we've taken to offering an accurate representation of a Galaxy by adding in Nebula and Star effects, we've even gone as far as adding Suns to each Galaxy.

The area of space you see in this video is known as Helios Alpha, and is one of the primary Helios for the Tweleve Colonies. It features the following planets:

Icarus,
Picon,
Caprica,
Gemenon,
Tauron,
Zeus,
Peresphone,
Erebos Asteroids.



Let us know what you think, after many attempts at getting the effects to work correctly I cracked it. We are aiming to develop another 3 of these areas for the other Helios' within the Twelve Colonies. You'll also notice some sound updates for the GC.

The mod is well and truly back in production, however as always we must say that Real Life events to come before any modding, so If you haven't heard from us in a while don't assume we are dead, we might just be very busy.

If you want to keep up to date with is visit www.bsgmods.com/forum and register there with us. The forums is quite New and we still don't have many members.

Thanks Guys,
Byron

Planets by numbers

Posted by Ghostrider at Phoenix Rising News on December 21, 2012

The key theme to V1.3 development is conforming to The Essential Atlas, which involves moving all the planets to their correct locations. In addition, a new theme has been added to this which has implications throughout the mod, some obvious, some hidden: Populations.

Planets vary enormously in their planetary populations, from the trillion on Coruscant to the airless uninhabited moon of Folor, and this now becomes the key economic driver for determining planetary income and industrial output. In general, heavily populated Core Worlds outclass anything else in terms of economic and military output (with a few notable exceptions), while some of the Outer Rim planets are so poor, one wonders if they are worth the military effort to take them. More on this later.

The second major change is fleet populations. Every unit now requires galactic population to build it. The more crew in a ship, the greater the Unit Population. Why? An Imperial-class Star Destroyer has 37,000 crew and requires consumables for 2.5 years. That's over 100 million meals stuck somewhere in the hold, and all this food, together with all the other consumables and parts required to cover every possible eventuality of running a Star Destroyer from spare rank cylinders to deflector shield parts has to be supplied from somewhere. Each planet you control will contribute to Galactic Population, and each land or space unit that is built consumes Galactic Population.

From a Campaign design perspective 2 points are immediately obvious. Firstly, while frigates and below have low crew requirements, the Clone Wars-era cruisers such as the Dreadnaught and the Acclamator Assault Ship are ridiculously crew-heavy designs, and it is not surprising that these designs were relegated to crew training and planetary defense roles out during the Imperial Era, especially with the advent of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer. While this certainly has a high Unit Population, a single Imperial is less demanding on Galactic Population than 2 Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers, and with considerably more firepower. Yet another example of the technical breakthroughs achieved with the Imperial-class. It's not just a raw demonstration of firepower – it's also more efficient in crew requirements. Population is shown in yellow for negative numbers, such as unit population costs, and green for positive values, as per most planets.

So what defines Galactic Population?
Clearly food surplus is a key requirement to building a large fleet/army, but in addition a vibrant trade network is required to allow fleet supply to move goods around the galaxy to support front line military units wherever they are.

The current system of 10 population per planet is too uniform and simply was not going to work. But what do we replace it with? Answer – a full demographic model of each planet giving a picture of its food production, economy, trade network and industrial output that can then be used to determine a realistic figure for its weekly income and Galactic Population.

Actually this isn't quite as bad as it sounds as I had already started on a planetary demographic model during V1.2 development, but the model has grown and grown and is pretty complex. I'll attempt to break it down into manageable chunks.

Food Production
The first step in creating a picture of a planet and its economic output is food production, the mainstay of most civilisations. Planets are not just lumps in space, terrain is critical to food production, so we listed a set of primary terrain types, all with different features: Grassland, Oceans, Forests, Temperate, Mountains, Volcanic, Desert, Swamp, Urban, Arctic, Barren, Ruined urban and Primordial and Asteroid. To this we add the civilisation factors: Technology Level, ranging from Neolithic/Primitive through to Super-High Tech. I also wanted a measure of Industrialisation and Pollution, which I call Harmony. Planets with high Harmony scores are pretty, grow lots of food and are good for tourism, while planets with negative scores are increasingly polluted.

Both Tech and Harmony have significant impact on food production and industrial output. Low Tech worlds take big penalties for both economy and food production, while the polluting worlds are penalised on food production but have bigger economies and greater industrial output.

Now we apply the Agricultural Level (which is a separate but related concept to the Advantage of the same name) , which acts as a multiplier to the terrain type. While the normal level of Agriculture is set at 1, some harsher worlds (where the planetary description indicates a subsistence level economy) this may drop to 0.5 or 0.25 depending on the local conditions. High levels of urbanisation will also reduce the Agri-level. Planets with good food reserves increase to Agri-level 2 or 3, while 4 or 5 is reserved for the Agriworlds, where the entire planet is turned into a giant farm. The scale of food production varies enormously, with Tatooine's moisture farmers producing 2.3 units of food, up to the giant of Ukio's world farms producing over 200 food units.

We also decided that planetary diameters will have an impact on food production, so large planets have their food output increased, while small colonised moons with lower surface area produce less food. As a bonus, we've taken the planetary diameters and re-scaled the planets visually in Galactic Mode so you can see size differences now, where known.

And finally, we deduct a measure of food that is eaten by the planetary inhabitants, so that big urban worlds are net food importers, with Coruscant's trillion beings eating over 100 food units worth of population.

Trade
The other side of the credit chip is galactic trade. This is based on several areas of industry. First, we take the trade generated by industrial output, which includes mineral resources, general industrial output (with positive modifiers for factory worlds), art & tourism, crime, and population-based civilian demand, so urban worlds score well here. Furthermore, this is intrinsically linked to the galactic trade network, and each planet gets a special "Commercial" ranking depending on its galactic position and access to major trade routes. The Comms rank ranges from 1 to 8, with position on the Big 5 Hyperrroutes (Hydian Way, Perlemian etc) rating an automatic 4. Remote Outer Rim worlds may only rate 1-2, while the super-hubs are scoring 6 or more. This makes a massive difference to the trade created by a planet, and has a major impact on both planetary economy and Galactic Population.

Most of this data remains hidden (actually in a massive spreadsheet used for mod development), but the result is a very personalised planetary economy. Having gone this far, we decided to complete the task by calculating all the important game considerations using this data.

Land and Space slots are now calculated using all the information gathered so far. To build a base you need solid terrain and a local technological culture to build and maintain the base. Key factors for Base size are terrain type and planetary population. Harsh worlds reduce the base size, high populations increase base size. The number of space slots is a combination of local shipbuilding – ranging from general technical skill of the population to specialist shipyards as noted in the planetary advantages, with additional slots for high trade requirements and large colony size. The number of Turret mounts for Planetary Turbolaser Defenses are now biased towards urbanised centres, and low population worlds tend to have fewer turbolasers than high tech worlds. The number and frequency of build pads is often also linked to urbanisation, so don't expect too many build pads to help your troops if you invade a barren planet! And finally, when you capture a planet, you get to steal/plunder all the goods awaiting shipment, so trade planets, mining worlds and planets with medical exports will have higher capture values.

Planets by numbers
If this is confusing, let's illustrate with a few examples; Firstly we collect all the data we know about a planet: Diameter, Population, Terrain types, Atmosphere type, Description. From this we can determine a range of 18 data points that describe the planetary demographics and from with we calculate the number of Land and Space Slots, the weekly income, Galactic Population, Capture Value, Destroy value and a rough guide to the number of possible towers for all those planets with unique maps.

Overall, with 300 planets in the database that's over 5000 data points to determine that describe all the planets in the mod, and 2500 critical data points used by the mod data files. This has then been tested (hence the call for Alpha testers) and re-balanced. While both the economic and population systems worked, the initial scale estimates were a bit high and a quick scalar applied to all values. Incomes now range considerable from negative income scores for barren moons to thousands of credits for the key industrial and trade centres.

Changes to the Campaigns
So what does this mean for the campaigns? Firstly, fleets end up a bit smaller, and Capital-class warships just got a bit rarer as all the campaigns are re-balanced for the population cap. This also has the added benefit of improving game performance due to the reduction in fleet size. Unless you have a large number of Core Worlds or agri-worlds under your control to boost your population limits, those early Clone Wars-era cruisers will end up being unpopular and will put pressure on your research planets to develop more modern and more efficient designs. Overall, the dynamics of play should become even more interesting with this extra challenge.