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About this mod
Small mod with various balance changes to the game and more variety options for Empires Mode
- Permissions and credits
Absolutely fell in love with Planetafall. It is quite amazing game, but I had a couple of gripes with it which I wanted to change for the game to have better pacing and have more variety. Made mod for myself, but I'm quite happy with results, and maybe others would like those changes too. I wanted to stay vanilla game as much as I can, because I like how the base game is played and didn't want to make large overhauls, completely changing some aspects of the game, like some other authors did.
Warning:
I strongly do not recommend using this mod during Campaign playthrough. Some tweaks to AI may cause some issues, and I didn't test how it even works there. So if you want to beat Campaign, just do it in vanilla game. My mod is perfectly safe (and was built for) Empires and New Planet modes.
Update 1.1 (updated description too) changes:
- Finally figured out (with help) and tweaked AI behavior regarding captured colonies. Now, AI with Xenophile or Pacifist traits will always Absorb. AI with Ruthless and Militarist traits will always Raze. Everyone else will Migrate. For comparison, in vanilla game, Xenophile would Absorb, Xenophobe would Migrate, and rest was set as default, which effectively is Absorb. In testing, this change felt way more fun to me.
- Slightly increased Energy bonus to AI across all difficulties bar Very Easy, where AI gets no bonuses at all. It felt like AI is starving for Energy, because it doesn't know how to build sectors optimally and economy suffers. The bonus is small, but I think it has the positive effect.
- In Diplomacy, Compliment now costs 20 influence instead of 10. Keeping good relations felt too cheap for me. Plus, it serves as another Influence sink for AI not to waste on low tier Minor Faction units, and spend extra energy bonus to produce better units of their own.
- Slightly increased gaps between new hero acquisition. Now they may wait 3 turns instead of 2, if you can't buy them and should feel less spammy on how often they are offered. Doesn't really have significant impact.
- Further tried to speed up Doomsday Victory for AI. Slightly increased priority of the building and tweaked a few other triggers for it. If it goes out of hand, I will dial it back.
Overall mod changes:
- Heroes default limit increased from 4 to 5 in Empires Mode. In New Planet you can change this setting, in Empires you cannot. Six hero limit (5 + Commander) felt absolutely perfect to me and more fun instead of 5 in total.
- Heroes default level is increased to 25 in Empires Mode. Again, in New Planet you have max level hero slider, but in Empires you don't. 25 level cap isn't easy to reach, but for some of you who love long games on huge maps having some extra cap is welcome, right?
- Slightly increased gaps between new hero acquisition. Now they may wait 3 turns instead of 2, if you can't buy them and should feel less spammy on how often they are offered. Doesn't really have significant impact.
- You can now choose between 2 or 12 players for any World Size freely in Empires Mode. The game states that it has certain limits based on balance, but if you play solo x4 game, you shouldn't be restricted. I find best to have 2 players max on Small World, 3-4 on Medium, 5-6 on Large and maximum 10 on Huge. This way, map doesn't feel too cramped at the start, and you can't cheese AI by taking out player at the beginning and have 2 colony head start. Now you can also try 12 players on Small World in Empires, but I wouldn't recommend, heh. Go nuts if you will, though.
- Reduced number of Teleporters. On every World that has Teleporters, I reduced the amount from Many or Normal to Few. On World that don't have teleporters, there are still none. I have played on several worlds that were swarmed with telepoters and I find it extremely annoying. Having Few on every supported world type feels much better.
- Colonizer changes (the big one). Now you can build Colonizer ONLY if your base has reached 10 population and each Colonizer costs 4 pop instead of 1. Initial price is the same: 50 Energy, 10 Cosmite, but instead of +100 price increase in energy, now it is +150 and same +10 Cosmite and 4 Pop. So second Colonizer will cost 200 Energy, 20 Cosmite and 4 Pop. I made this change because base spam is out of hand in this game and pacing feels like turn based StarCraft. Some might like it, I don't.
In vanilla game, if you don't pump out the first Colonizer ASAP and plant it anywhere one sector away, you will fall hard behind in economy and tech. At mid-game literally the whole map is occupied. With this change, now you can scout the area and find a good spot for your colonizer, instead of spamming it and aggressively expanding. Placement now really matters. 4 pop cost also plays a role in slowing down economy of the base that produced it. AI still does expand rather wide, but slower, just as the player. In several maps, I really liked the pace of the game with this change.
- Various AI changes. I have reduced bonus Influence for Hard, Very Hard and Extreme AI. Hard now gets 1 (base), very Hard also gets 1 (base), and Extreme get 1.2 instead of 1.5 in vanilla game. All other difficulty bonuses left unchanged. I really got tired of fighting swarms of Bees and Sentinels/Golems... Increased tech priority of AI for researching and producing higher tier units. Along with increasing AI priority of upgrading high tier units. Also changed stack ratio. There are still some trash low tier stacks to be found, but overall stacks seem a lot more varied and higher tier than in vanilla game. AI now prefers to have less stacks but with powerful, upgraded units, rather than swarms of low tier trash.
- Slightly increased Energy bonus to AI across all difficulties bar Very Easy, where AI gets no bonuses at all. It felt like AI is starving for Energy, because it doesn't know how to build sectors optimally and economy suffers. The bonus is small, but I think it has the positive effect.
- In Diplomacy, Compliment now costs 20 influence instead of 10. Keeping good relations felt too cheap for me. Plus, it serves as another Influence sink for AI not to waste on low tier Minor Faction units, and spend extra energy bonus to produce better units of their own.
- Changed Doom Victory priority for AI. Now it requires less advanced colony to start building it. Further tried to speed up Doomsday Victory for AI. Slightly increased priority of the building and tweaked a few other triggers for it. In vanilla, it feels pretty oblivious of that tech. If it goes out of hand, I will dial it back.
- Finally figured out (with help) and tweaked AI behavior regarding captured colonies. Now, AI with Xenophile or Pacifist traits will always Absorb. AI with Ruthless and Militarist traits will always Raze. Everyone else will Migrate. For comparison, in vanilla game, Xenophile would Absorb, Xenophobe would Migrate, and rest was set as default, which effectively is Absorb. In testing, this change felt way more fun to me.
- *Disabled all World Events in Empire Mode. It will still show it as On in setting menu, but none will appear. I personally just dislike World Events (stuff like Cosmite Rain, Total Eclipse, Orbital Weapon Cache and etc). I find it breaks pacing for me and adds only annoying clutter. But for people that want to play with World Events and find it fun, I have included version in Optional Files with World Events on. You just choose and download one mod or another.
Requirements:
All DLCs, otherwise you might run into some issues.
Installation:
- Extract contents of the file in *Your Documents\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders Planetfall\Mods. There should be the folder with EmpireModMix.zip file inside.
- Open AoW Planetfall Launcher > go to Playsets > click Add More Mods in upper right corner. It should highlight all the mods you have in Documents\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders Planetfall\Mods folder. Choose EmpireModMix.
- Make sure the slider is On (green) saying Enabled.
- Start the game, all should work.
- To make sure, click New Planet, go to Advanced Settings, and installed mods should be listed there in small text below in the window.
- Do not install mod mid-playthrough, it can screw up something. But you can install it any time when planet is conquered and you want to start a new one, in Empires, for example. No warnings will pop up.
Uninstall:
- Just open up AoW Planetfall Launcher and move slider in Playsets in front of my mod to Disabled. After that, you can delete it from Mods folder.
Conflicts:
Most likely with every big overhaul, or stuff like Adventure Mode. Will conflict with any mod that changes AI, difficulty bonuses, Worlds, Colonizer and the other stuff listed. Should not conflict with mods that just add stuff, or customization. Like Extended Commander Customization. Mods simply adding new units, items and etc.
Tested on latest GOG version. Should work on any latest version.
Warning:
I strongly do not recommend using this mod during Campaign playthrough. Some tweaks to AI may cause some issues, and I didn't test how it even works there. So if you want to beat Campaign, just do it in vanilla game. My mod is perfectly safe (and was built for) Empires and New Planet modes.
Update 1.1 (updated description too) changes:
- Finally figured out (with help) and tweaked AI behavior regarding captured colonies. Now, AI with Xenophile or Pacifist traits will always Absorb. AI with Ruthless and Militarist traits will always Raze. Everyone else will Migrate. For comparison, in vanilla game, Xenophile would Absorb, Xenophobe would Migrate, and rest was set as default, which effectively is Absorb. In testing, this change felt way more fun to me.
- Slightly increased Energy bonus to AI across all difficulties bar Very Easy, where AI gets no bonuses at all. It felt like AI is starving for Energy, because it doesn't know how to build sectors optimally and economy suffers. The bonus is small, but I think it has the positive effect.
- In Diplomacy, Compliment now costs 20 influence instead of 10. Keeping good relations felt too cheap for me. Plus, it serves as another Influence sink for AI not to waste on low tier Minor Faction units, and spend extra energy bonus to produce better units of their own.
- Slightly increased gaps between new hero acquisition. Now they may wait 3 turns instead of 2, if you can't buy them and should feel less spammy on how often they are offered. Doesn't really have significant impact.
- Further tried to speed up Doomsday Victory for AI. Slightly increased priority of the building and tweaked a few other triggers for it. If it goes out of hand, I will dial it back.
Overall mod changes:
- Heroes default limit increased from 4 to 5 in Empires Mode. In New Planet you can change this setting, in Empires you cannot. Six hero limit (5 + Commander) felt absolutely perfect to me and more fun instead of 5 in total.
- Heroes default level is increased to 25 in Empires Mode. Again, in New Planet you have max level hero slider, but in Empires you don't. 25 level cap isn't easy to reach, but for some of you who love long games on huge maps having some extra cap is welcome, right?
- Slightly increased gaps between new hero acquisition. Now they may wait 3 turns instead of 2, if you can't buy them and should feel less spammy on how often they are offered. Doesn't really have significant impact.
- You can now choose between 2 or 12 players for any World Size freely in Empires Mode. The game states that it has certain limits based on balance, but if you play solo x4 game, you shouldn't be restricted. I find best to have 2 players max on Small World, 3-4 on Medium, 5-6 on Large and maximum 10 on Huge. This way, map doesn't feel too cramped at the start, and you can't cheese AI by taking out player at the beginning and have 2 colony head start. Now you can also try 12 players on Small World in Empires, but I wouldn't recommend, heh. Go nuts if you will, though.
- Reduced number of Teleporters. On every World that has Teleporters, I reduced the amount from Many or Normal to Few. On World that don't have teleporters, there are still none. I have played on several worlds that were swarmed with telepoters and I find it extremely annoying. Having Few on every supported world type feels much better.
- Colonizer changes (the big one). Now you can build Colonizer ONLY if your base has reached 10 population and each Colonizer costs 4 pop instead of 1. Initial price is the same: 50 Energy, 10 Cosmite, but instead of +100 price increase in energy, now it is +150 and same +10 Cosmite and 4 Pop. So second Colonizer will cost 200 Energy, 20 Cosmite and 4 Pop. I made this change because base spam is out of hand in this game and pacing feels like turn based StarCraft. Some might like it, I don't.
In vanilla game, if you don't pump out the first Colonizer ASAP and plant it anywhere one sector away, you will fall hard behind in economy and tech. At mid-game literally the whole map is occupied. With this change, now you can scout the area and find a good spot for your colonizer, instead of spamming it and aggressively expanding. Placement now really matters. 4 pop cost also plays a role in slowing down economy of the base that produced it. AI still does expand rather wide, but slower, just as the player. In several maps, I really liked the pace of the game with this change.
- Various AI changes. I have reduced bonus Influence for Hard, Very Hard and Extreme AI. Hard now gets 1 (base), very Hard also gets 1 (base), and Extreme get 1.2 instead of 1.5 in vanilla game. All other difficulty bonuses left unchanged. I really got tired of fighting swarms of Bees and Sentinels/Golems... Increased tech priority of AI for researching and producing higher tier units. Along with increasing AI priority of upgrading high tier units. Also changed stack ratio. There are still some trash low tier stacks to be found, but overall stacks seem a lot more varied and higher tier than in vanilla game. AI now prefers to have less stacks but with powerful, upgraded units, rather than swarms of low tier trash.
- Slightly increased Energy bonus to AI across all difficulties bar Very Easy, where AI gets no bonuses at all. It felt like AI is starving for Energy, because it doesn't know how to build sectors optimally and economy suffers. The bonus is small, but I think it has the positive effect.
- In Diplomacy, Compliment now costs 20 influence instead of 10. Keeping good relations felt too cheap for me. Plus, it serves as another Influence sink for AI not to waste on low tier Minor Faction units, and spend extra energy bonus to produce better units of their own.
- Changed Doom Victory priority for AI. Now it requires less advanced colony to start building it. Further tried to speed up Doomsday Victory for AI. Slightly increased priority of the building and tweaked a few other triggers for it. In vanilla, it feels pretty oblivious of that tech. If it goes out of hand, I will dial it back.
- Finally figured out (with help) and tweaked AI behavior regarding captured colonies. Now, AI with Xenophile or Pacifist traits will always Absorb. AI with Ruthless and Militarist traits will always Raze. Everyone else will Migrate. For comparison, in vanilla game, Xenophile would Absorb, Xenophobe would Migrate, and rest was set as default, which effectively is Absorb. In testing, this change felt way more fun to me.
- *Disabled all World Events in Empire Mode. It will still show it as On in setting menu, but none will appear. I personally just dislike World Events (stuff like Cosmite Rain, Total Eclipse, Orbital Weapon Cache and etc). I find it breaks pacing for me and adds only annoying clutter. But for people that want to play with World Events and find it fun, I have included version in Optional Files with World Events on. You just choose and download one mod or another.
Requirements:
All DLCs, otherwise you might run into some issues.
Installation:
- Extract contents of the file in *Your Documents\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders Planetfall\Mods. There should be the folder with EmpireModMix.zip file inside.
- Open AoW Planetfall Launcher > go to Playsets > click Add More Mods in upper right corner. It should highlight all the mods you have in Documents\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders Planetfall\Mods folder. Choose EmpireModMix.
- Make sure the slider is On (green) saying Enabled.
- Start the game, all should work.
- To make sure, click New Planet, go to Advanced Settings, and installed mods should be listed there in small text below in the window.
- Do not install mod mid-playthrough, it can screw up something. But you can install it any time when planet is conquered and you want to start a new one, in Empires, for example. No warnings will pop up.
Uninstall:
- Just open up AoW Planetfall Launcher and move slider in Playsets in front of my mod to Disabled. After that, you can delete it from Mods folder.
Conflicts:
Most likely with every big overhaul, or stuff like Adventure Mode. Will conflict with any mod that changes AI, difficulty bonuses, Worlds, Colonizer and the other stuff listed. Should not conflict with mods that just add stuff, or customization. Like Extended Commander Customization. Mods simply adding new units, items and etc.
Tested on latest GOG version. Should work on any latest version.