In 1.5, plague is much more powerful than in vanilla. Because of how dat files like randgal.dat, ruins.dat, and alienruins.dat work, when set to beginner (all houses set to beginner) we end up getting a lot of plague bombs. Because plague is so powerful, this makes beginner unexpectedly hard. Anecdotal comments from people on the general chat in discord confirms it seems like plague bombs on beginner are too common. People have been playing with plague off to compensate.
In the attached save file (planets selected based on proximity to Kish)
beginner (all houses) galaxy:
9 out of 22 rebel structures on Daishan have plague bombs
5 out of 22 rebel structures on Sutek have plague bombs
6 out of 25 rebel structures on Pandemonium have plague bombs
see attached random_beginner_plaguebombs.sav
average (all houses) galaxy:
0/20 on rebel structures on pandemonium have plague bombs
0/19 on rebel structures on ravenna have plague bombs
1/17 on rebel structures on midian have plague bombs
see attached random_average_plaguebombs.sav
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Ruins have a similar problem, I assume because of similar reasons with the randgal. See attached save files from a custom galaxy in 1.5.1a.
Beginner (all houses) ruins:
6 out of 20 have plague bombs (ruintest_beginner_popped1.sav)
5 out of 20 have plague bombs (ruintest_beginner_popped2.sav)
Average (all houses) ruins
0 out of 20 have plague bombs (ruintest_average_popped1.sav)
0 out of 20 have plague bombs (ruintest_average_popped2.sav)
===============================
Expected behavior:
Beginner should be easier, average should be middle. I think average seems OK. But with how powerful plague is, a 25% chance of any ruin or rebel structure on beginner giving plague seems too much. Alien ruins I think makes sense that they could have a higher chance of giving plague bombs. However, everyone will have their own opinion on what exactly these chances should be. Here's my take.
Beginner
Ruins and Rebel structures - 0% chance of plague bombs
Alien Ruins - 5% chance of plague bombs
Average
Ruins and Rebel structures - 5% chance of plague bombs
Alien Ruins - 25% chance of plague bombs
Ridiculous
Ruins and Rebel structures - 10% chance of plague bombs
Alien Ruins - 50% chance of plague bombs
However, if this sort of thing can't be done easily, then plague bombs just being pretty rare in general seems better than 25% chance in beginner galaxies.
Actual behavior:
25% chance of rebel and ruin structures on beginner give plague bombs. Very low on average. Ridiculous is currently pretty hard even without plague bombs, so I think if they had 0 plague bombs or 25% plague bombs, it's still ridiculous :)
Game version:
save files and test results are from 1.5.1a (but results were informally confirmed on 1.5)
Steps to reproduce:
Random galaxy - beginner: Set all houses to beginner, and create a random galaxy. Set hdiview and explore the planets generated to see that plague bombs have about a 25% chance of occurring.
random galaxy - average Set all houses to average and create a random galaxy. Set hdiview and explore planets generated to see that plague bombs are rare but can still occur.
Ruins: open the save file "ruintest_beginner_unpopped" and set purple as human. Set hdiview and use the spies to attack nearby ruins. Observe about a 25% chance of plague bombs. (also you can just open the _popped1 and _popped2 save files which have the ruins pre-popped for your convienence)
Ruins: open the save file "ruintest_average_unpopped" and set purple as human. Set hdiview and use the spies to attack nearby ruins. Observe about a very low chance of plague bombs. (also you can just open the _popped1 and _popped2 save files which have the ruins pre-popped for your convenience)
Additional information:
I'm thinking this is an easy fix to .dat files, or possibly to the unit.dat. Just a matter of deciding what the actual chances should be. As an easy approach with a blunt hammer, there's 32 stack definitions, maybe hover can be excluded from all stacks except for 1, and that gives a 3.1% chance of any hover unit appearing (and thus a 0.5% chance of plague bombs [6 hover units possible?]), for example, and then can add that line to whatever number of stacks of the 32 to get whatever percentage you want. I'm not super familiar with how these new dat files work, but maybe hover can be added to certain stacks, but given power parameters for only more powerful hovers, therefore excluding the plague bombs, but still allowing hover units?
Description:
In 1.5, plague is much more powerful than in vanilla. Because of how dat files like randgal.dat, ruins.dat, and alienruins.dat work, when set to beginner (all houses set to beginner) we end up getting a lot of plague bombs. Because plague is so powerful, this makes beginner unexpectedly hard. Anecdotal comments from people on the general chat in discord confirms it seems like plague bombs on beginner are too common. People have been playing with plague off to compensate.
In the attached save file (planets selected based on proximity to Kish)
beginner (all houses) galaxy:
average (all houses) galaxy: 0/20 on rebel structures on pandemonium have plague bombs 0/19 on rebel structures on ravenna have plague bombs 1/17 on rebel structures on midian have plague bombs
=============================== Ruins have a similar problem, I assume because of similar reasons with the randgal. See attached save files from a custom galaxy in 1.5.1a. Beginner (all houses) ruins:
Average (all houses) ruins
===============================
Expected behavior: Beginner should be easier, average should be middle. I think average seems OK. But with how powerful plague is, a 25% chance of any ruin or rebel structure on beginner giving plague seems too much. Alien ruins I think makes sense that they could have a higher chance of giving plague bombs. However, everyone will have their own opinion on what exactly these chances should be. Here's my take. Beginner Ruins and Rebel structures - 0% chance of plague bombs Alien Ruins - 5% chance of plague bombs
Average Ruins and Rebel structures - 5% chance of plague bombs Alien Ruins - 25% chance of plague bombs
Ridiculous Ruins and Rebel structures - 10% chance of plague bombs Alien Ruins - 50% chance of plague bombs
However, if this sort of thing can't be done easily, then plague bombs just being pretty rare in general seems better than 25% chance in beginner galaxies.
Actual behavior: 25% chance of rebel and ruin structures on beginner give plague bombs. Very low on average. Ridiculous is currently pretty hard even without plague bombs, so I think if they had 0 plague bombs or 25% plague bombs, it's still ridiculous :)
Game version:
save files and test results are from 1.5.1a (but results were informally confirmed on 1.5)
Steps to reproduce:
Random galaxy - beginner: Set all houses to beginner, and create a random galaxy. Set hdiview and explore the planets generated to see that plague bombs have about a 25% chance of occurring.
random galaxy - average Set all houses to average and create a random galaxy. Set hdiview and explore planets generated to see that plague bombs are rare but can still occur.
Ruins: open the save file "ruintest_beginner_unpopped" and set purple as human. Set hdiview and use the spies to attack nearby ruins. Observe about a 25% chance of plague bombs. (also you can just open the _popped1 and _popped2 save files which have the ruins pre-popped for your convienence)
Ruins: open the save file "ruintest_average_unpopped" and set purple as human. Set hdiview and use the spies to attack nearby ruins. Observe about a very low chance of plague bombs. (also you can just open the _popped1 and _popped2 save files which have the ruins pre-popped for your convenience)
Additional information:
I'm thinking this is an easy fix to .dat files, or possibly to the unit.dat. Just a matter of deciding what the actual chances should be. As an easy approach with a blunt hammer, there's 32 stack definitions, maybe hover can be excluded from all stacks except for 1, and that gives a 3.1% chance of any hover unit appearing (and thus a 0.5% chance of plague bombs [6 hover units possible?]), for example, and then can add that line to whatever number of stacks of the 32 to get whatever percentage you want. I'm not super familiar with how these new dat files work, but maybe hover can be added to certain stacks, but given power parameters for only more powerful hovers, therefore excluding the plague bombs, but still allowing hover units?
plaguebombtests.zip