Master of Orion 1 unofficial patch

[Andrew]

version 1.40i
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- the Silicoids don't have the planetology techs useless to them in their researchable tech tree

embryonic stage - included if not in "regressions"
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- Silicoids do not have unusable techs in their tech tree: they now always get the Cloning tech

Can anyone reveal what does it mean?
Certainly, useless planetology techs (controlled hostile env group, eco restoration group) were not in tech tree already in v1.3 Moo.
Which exactly techs are affected by the patch 1.40?

[sargon0]

Silicoids have been found to regularly get Advanced ECO Restoration and/or Advanced Soil Enrichement in Moo v1.3 - a bug. Apart from this being useless to them it means they are not guaranteed Cloning which is a very useful tech for the slow growing rocks.

[Andrew]

If Advanced ECO - it is a bug, I agree.
But why Soil/Adv Soil are useless? They belong to terraforming techgroup that increases size of planets. Very usefull.

[sargon0]

If Advanced ECO - it is a bug, I agree.
But why Soil/Adv Soil are useless? They belong to terraforming techgroup that increases size of planets. Very usefull.

Soil/Adv. Soil increasing planet size is useful to all including Silicoids but the the Silicoids cannot use any terraforming including Soil enrichment. They have to hope others use them before they take over the planet. Moo v1.3 does exclude Soil (& early ECO restoration techs) for Silis but adjusts the chance for the Advanced version of these techs if any player has missed the earlier versions, forgetting to exclude the Silis from this increased chance.

Despite the uselessness of Soil/Adv. Soil the Silis will trade heavily for these which is a bit exploitive if done by the human player. The only use of Soil/Adv. Soil to the Silis is to increase their tech level and for trade to other players.

[Andrew]

Soil/Adv. Soil increasing planet size is useful to all including Silicoids but the the Silicoids cannot use any terraforming including Soil enrichment.

Any? They use ordinary "Improved Terraforming +N" techs. You want to say that they cannot use only Soils?
I played Silicoids ages ago, how exactly they can not use soils (it simply does not appear on ECO bar)? And what about the Atmospheric Terraforming, the same issue?

Moo v1.3 does exclude Soil (& early ECO restoration techs) for Silis but adjusts the chance for the Advanced version of these techs if any player has missed the earlier versions...

Interesting. This is done during the tech tree generation? But the getting at least one Eco Rest tech per player is still not guaranteed?

[sargon0]

Any? They use ordinary "Improved Terraforming +N" techs. You want to say that they cannot use only Soils?
I played Silicoids ages ago, how exactly they can not use soils (it simply does not appear on ECO bar)? And what about the Atmospheric Terraforming, the same issue?
Interesting. This is done during the tech tree generation? But the getting at least one Eco Rest tech per player is still not guaranteed?

SOIL - Sorry, of course I meant no Soils. As you guess no option appears on ECO slider for SOIL or ATMOS if playing Silicoids.

Adv. chance - Yes during tech tree generation. It is not guaranteed but I speculate that chance for Advanced is increased to 75% instead of 50% if not having earlier techs of that type. Do not know about Psilons who have 75% chance of each tech anyway.

[Andrew]

No option appears on ECO slider for SOIL or ATMOS if playing Silicoids.

Definitely this is precisely the bug!
The Fertile and Gaia features initially were designed to increase only pop growth rates and all things for Silicoids was ok. Fertile/gaia planets had got increased base size at the very last moment before releasing the game... and developers probably overlooked to change routines for Silicoids.

Thus, the patch should fix it in order to the Silicoids could use SOIL/ATMOS. Then it can roll back the changes done now (except Adv Eco fix). As well as does include in Silicoids' tech tree the Soil/Adv Soil and maybe Atmos (to transit a hostile worlds to fertile/gaias, though it will leave them with only 50% chance to getting Cloning).

Kyrub, the Silicoids also want to live on Gaia!

[Green Knight]

Should not the patch version be reflected on the startup screen?

I just copied over the 3 files and it still reads v1.3

Or maybe it's intentional?

[kyrub]

Should not the patch version be reflected on the startup screen?

You are no the first to ask. Most certainly it should read 1.31 etc. Helas, the version number is stored in a graphic format, so to change it I would need to mess with graphics. And I am as bad in dealing with graphics as good am I in dealing with code. (I avoid it totally.)

((If anybody can provide a good graphical substitution, I'm all in))

Thus, the patch should fix it in order to the Silicoids could use SOIL/ATMOS.

I am afraid, Andrew, that you need more to prove this is a bug. If you can cite Official Standard Guide with the precise info, then I will start thinking about making the change. Until then, it seems more like a personal wish than a bug. By the way, I find Silicoids perfect as they are. Challenging, but quite strong if played properly. Silicoids are one the most original races in the game.

[Green Knight]

You are no the first to ask. Most certainly it should read 1.31 etc. Helas, the version number is stored in a graphic format, so to change it I would need to mess with graphics. And I am as bad in dealing with graphics as good am I in dealing with code. (I avoid it totally.)

((If anybody can provide a good graphical substitution, I'm all in))

Ok, thanks for the reply.

It never occurred to me that the version number was part of the graphics and not a floating bit of text.

Keep up the good work!