Master of Orion DOS Patcher

[SDragon]

Application: Master of Orion (DOS v1.4m Patcher)

Took me about a week of effort but once I get a will to do something, I'm like a dog with a bone.  This patch application is mainly designed to build on top of kyrub's v1.4m patch, and later, hopefully his v1.4n options will be available.  My own bugfixes are designed to work with both vanilla v1.3 and kyrub's v1.4, though with so many fixes in v1.4, I don't think anyone should be using v1.3 unless they want to see if a fix is causing an issue not seen in the original.

Unfortunately, when I attempted to publish the application as a standalone exe, visual basic decided that it needed to add 138 MB of additional libraries and components, so the zip contains 5 files instead of 1.

Kyrub's bug fixes are for detection only, you cannot enable/disable them, and generally I don't think there is any need to unless we believe they are causing issues.  Some of the game mechanics and improvements can be enabled/disabled as I don't think they fundamentally break the game per se, and the UI/UX options can be enabled/disabled as well.  Autosave preference can be changed from debug mode to game mode or vice versa.

The application is mainly to help with bug fixes or to allow users to play the game in a specific mode (ie. disable galactic council); it's not meant to be a modder.

It's a shame that kyrub has retired, I think we would have been able to work really well together, my IT programming logic and his knowledge of game mechanics and manipulating graphics (which I suck at).   Well, if he ever visits again, maybe it'll revitalize his interest in MOO.

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v011 changelog
- empire tech report technology text fix, all Controlled Colonies show ENVIRON [credit to RefSteel and 1oom_aaron]
- orbiting ship hotkeys changed back to default, ESC to cancel and SPACE BAR to accept; this is because of Kyrub's added 123456, abcdef hotkeys to increase/decrease ship keys (remove overlapping keys like 'c' and 'a')
- spy cost fixed, three options to choose calculations for (details in following post)
- galactic council options available (details in following post)

v012 changelog
- transferring reserves using the '=' key on starmap reworked, new v012 patch uploaded, the other one was bugged and actually maxed out reserves, the dx, ax registers weren't the fix
  in v1.3 and v1.4m, the reserves would be sent, but only the total production display would update, even though the planet received the reserves, clicking on the ? planet info and exiting will update the planet info, but pressing '=' again will send reserves
  in the patch option, both production after maintenance and total production will refresh when clicking '=', but the bug that allows reserves to be sent again is still there
- destination out of range no longer shows overlapping text over the 6th ship when fleet contains 6 different ships, still shows for 5 or less (part of UX Interface Changes)

v013 changelog
- transfer reserves via starmap hotkey fixed, each planet's usage of '=' transfer status now stored in struc_planet.field_66 and can only be used once per turn; space in game_turn_build_def used to reset struc_planet.field_66 back to 0 before the following turn
- patcher, fixed detection of code for spy calc checkboxes

v015 changelog
- removed the previous refit option that forced refitting all factories up to the highest level at once
- implemented refit option as per OSG; incremental IIT costs per factory level with a 50% REFIT cost in between
- patcher, added a check all, clear all button for my options page

[SDragon]

The SDragon v1.4o moniker isn't meant as an official labeling as a progression of m and n, it's just for differentiation.   

I made an option for a couple UI hotkey changes as my own personal preference and they will override kyrub's previous changes.
      - dialogue with 'c'ancel has had the hotkey changed to 'c' to align with first letter hotkeys which most of the game adheres to
      - fleet specs and scrap hotkeys were swapped, maybe it's just me, but I find myself checking 's'pecs more often then scrapping ships 'v'
      - empire security, transfer planetary reserves and planetary treasury increase and decrease changed from '-'/'+' to '<'/'>', I find the keys closer to space allow for faster hotkey usage

Galactic Council can now be disabled or customized depending on the players preference.  I recognize that disabling it does remove an element of diplomacy challenge as an endgame option, however I just see it as a personal preference and to each their own.

Lastly, the spy cost bug has finally been fixed.  The annoying issue with building spies was because it was hard to know how much BC/time was needed to build spies.  This was because the function game_spy_build that built your spies used the calculation of [TECH * 2] + 25 as the spy cost, while the Race display page to show when you were expecting your next spy to be built was using calculation [TECH * 2] * Spies + 25.   

Spy Cost (Use Build Function) will calculate both the build and display using: [TECH * 2] + 25
Spy Cost (Use Design Function) will calculate both the build and display using: [TECH * 2] * Spies + 25
Spy Cost (As Per Manual/OSG) will calculate both using: [TECH * 2 + 25] * 2^Spies

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    Sample Tech Level 15      Spies        0       1        2         3        4        5      6           7        8        9
1. [Tech Level * 2] + 25                  : 55      55      55       55      55       55      55       55      55      55
2. [Tech Level * 2] * Spies + 25       : 25      55      85     115    145      175    205     235     265    295
3. [Tech * 2 + 25] * 2^Spies            : 55    110    220     440    880    1760  3520  7040")

I created a small save game reader that loads 'SAVE.GAM' and shows the data for spies, spyfund, spies caught (yours) and does calculation per each spy option.  Not sure if someone already made a save game reader/editor, but wanted something to double check my spy fixes.   Attaching it in case others were curious.

[haphazard1]

Very cool stuff, SDragon! Thanks for your efforts on these issues.

[SDragon]

v015 now offers the option for REFIT costs per OSG

For a normal terran planet with 100 population at tech level 10, the costs will be:

0    - 200        - 10 BC per factory
200 - 300       - 15 BC per factory (with a 50% refit cost of 200 factories * 5 BC (10 IIT / 2) [except for meklar]
300 - 400       - 20 BC per factory (with a 50% refit cost of 300 factories * 5 BC, ...)
etc...

I remember reading somewhere that conquering planets through invasion would have a 2 BC refit cost per factory before they can be used, but I haven't found anything like that in the game code.  Does that exist?  I'll probably test it out at some point when I have time to do a test game so we'll see.  

Lastly, the code between factory building and refit isn't foolproof.  Let's say you have 180 factories and you max the ind slider and that can build 25 factories.  The game code won't build 20 factories for you and then go into REFIT, it'll start refitting right away and count that extra prod as BC towards the refit.  In a sense, you don't have to pay the 50% to refit them but I guess it balances out since after refit, the factories will cost 50% more anyway to build. But if you ever need to stop refitting for more pressing matters, you won't have built those factories, so I guess it's better to just build factories up until the refit to maximize factory production before reffiting.