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Proportions mod 1.5 released

Proportions mod Version 1.5 has been released on PBW. There is a link HERE to the PATCH (128 KB) for previous Versions to 1.5.. The original files for 1.3 are on the SE4 Gold CD.

The changes compared to previous Versions are EXTENSIVE, and are listed in the Last part of the readme, which I will copy below. Games run in all previous Versions of the mod can be upgraded to 1.5, although quite a few values may change. No components or units should change type, though. Empires from earlier Versions may no longer cost the same number of points, because many of the point costs changed.

+
+ P r o p o r t i o n s
+
+ for Space Empires IV Gold
+
+ mod Version 1.5
+

by Peter von Kleinsmid

Installation Instructions:
==========================

Un-zip to your SE4 Gold directory, with your extraction program set to use
the included directory path information. It extracts under a new directory
called "Proportions." Use the Mod Launcher program or manually modify the
Path.txt file in the SE4 directory to the path to the mod. In general, you
would replace:

Using Mod Directory := None

with:

Using Mod Directory := Proportions

Then run SE4 normally. Or just use the automatic mod launcher developed
by Matrix, which is included in SE IV Gold.

Mod Description:
================

Proportions makes large changes to the proportions of economy and development
in Space Empires IV. The scale of several aspects of play have been made more
realistic, along with various other changes.

The most important changes are that homeworlds now begin stocked with
"Cultural Center" facilities which represent the developed cultural homelands
of an empire. These would take a very long time to reproduce on an alien
world, and they are much more productive and capable compared to facilities
which can be quickly constructed on colony worlds. As a result, homeworlds
begin the game quite powerful, whereas colonies are less productive and would
likely take longer than an entire game to develop to the same level as a
homeworld. Colony worlds can be developed to fairly impressive levels with
enough time and population. More achievable than full cultural centers are
city facilities of various sizes, for example.

Contributing to this effect are the changes to populations, which now grow at
a more realistic rate (about 1/10th the normal SE4 rate) and which also
require a more realistic amount of effort to transport to planet to planet,
since they now weigh a more realistic 1000 kT, and cargo capacities mean a
large ship is required to move even one of these. A colony with a small
population also builds at a much slower rate than a world with billions on it.

All of this means that developing a colony infrastructure is still very
important but is also more challenging, and will not so quickly alter the
balance of power or research.

Another large set of changes involves ship design. The ship designs have
been developed to include pseudo-Newtonian movement. Speed is proportional
to thrust divided by mass. All ship sizes have a to-hit modifier based on
size and maneuverability, and a ship which loses its engines becomes easier
to hit. Larger hulls are more expensive to build and maintain, and smaller
ships require fewer engines and are harder to hit, so bigger is not always
better in every case. Colony ships are huge. New ship classes include Scout,
Massive Base Ship, and Starliner.

Planetary capacities have also been increased, both for units and for
resources. This means that planetary defenses can be amassed to great
strength, particularly on a homeworld, and empires also can stockpile large
reserves of resources, so they can potentially operate at a deficit for
extended periods.

Proportions includes numerous other adjustments to the game, listed below:

Infantry units have been added. These are available from the begining of the
game. The best ground force is probably a combination of infantry and
vehicles. Ground combat has also been slowed down. It may take many turns to
conquer a well-defended planet on the ground. Militia has been greatly toned
down - planets should be garrisoned if they are to resist a serious invasion.
Because of the cheapness of infantry units, the effect on population
happiness has been removed.

Standard armor works differently than in the un-modded game. It is not all
peeled off before any component damage is done. Instead, it absorbs a lot of
damage and protects components, but components can be destroyed while armor
is still intact. This is more realistic and unpredictable, and makes ship
design more interesting - using only components makes for a more powerful
but also more fragile and expensive ship than one with some space devoted
to armor.

NOTE: The AI is currently not all that good at playing with this mod. Some
of the AI files have been altered to help, but in general this mod is best
played by humans against humans. I would recommend playing against the AI
briefly to learn the mod, and then play in games with only human players,
also because the AI isn't so challenging even in the native game, and in
Proportions, capturing an intact homeworld will be a major advantage for
players who go picking on AI empires.

Research costs adjusted to compensate for new research capacity at game
start.

Fighters are much harder to hit with capital ship weapons.

Mount variants where larger weapons are less accurate. Smaller mounts added.

New racial disadvantages have been added, and point costs for traits and
attributes have been altered.

Neat new quadrant types.

A couple of altered system types, new warp point types, and planets that
appear to have ruins but actually don't give any technology. The "comet"
system type is removed. Unstable stars actually should be.

New component variants including some adjustments to the default values:
* Shield regenerators are much less expensive.
* Non-phased shields have some stonger Versions.
* Point defense comes in a self-defense variety, good for protecting only
that ship from missiles.
* Organic manipulators have better organic generation facilities.
* Torpedoes made less ineffective.
* New life support, bridge and auxiliary control variants.
* Crew quarters include some ability to resist boarding attacks.
* Just adding guards to repel boarders is now much less expensive than
boarding equipment.
* Electronic warfare components have been greatly expanded in detail yet
reduced in strength.
* Longer-ranged scanners.
* Engine supply and to-hit adjustments.
* Master computers are not as good at fighting as good human crews.
* Added cheap Versions of bridge and master computer that save resources
but don't fight well.
* Reduced range and increased supply use for warp point manipulators.

New system names, emperor names, empire names, ruler titles have been
included. Many of the system names are from a list of system names posted
for SE3 on the web, which I condensed and embellished.

Fixed a problem with the Orders Snafu intelligence mission in simultaneous
games. Now this mission does not alert the victim (which in simultaneous
games allowed him to undo it before there was any effect). Note that this
still can be detected sometimes.

Maximum units and ships in space per empire increased to 5000 each by default.

A few new random events.

Notes for better game setups:
=============================
<> Don't set the game to limited resources!
<> If you choose a new warp-point "rich" quadrant type, try turning off the
option to connect all systems with warp points. The "richness" will
probably accomplish this anyway, and the map will tend to be much more
interesting.

Tips for effective play:
========================
<> Consider building several or more population transports to help colony
development progress, ferrying population with auto-repeat orders.
<> Note that there is an "efficient" Version of every engine type. It is
slower but much greater ranged. They can be mixed with other engines
to trade off between speed and fuel efficiency.
<> Note that security stations and supply storage are much cheaper, and
come in small Versions.

Changes Log:
============

Version 1.5:

* Note: Saved games from Proportions Versions before 1.5 can be upgraded
to 1.5 without completely bizarre changes, but many values will change!
* AI improved in various ways, especially in development of planets and
infrastructure. Amon'krie is the most improved.
* Construction ability removed from Cultural Centers.
* Reduced damage capacity of colony modules from 200 to 60.
* Some large ship engine capacities reduced.
* Some small ship engine capacities increased.
* Added an entire set of efficient engine variants. These use much
less fuel, but also produce much less thrust. This creates choices
between faster shorter-ranged ships, and slower longer-ranged ships.
* Increased costs of ship and weapon platform (but not base) larger
weapon mounts.
* Added maintenance reduction to smaller ships.
* Increased maintenance reduction of transports.
* Increased maintenance cost of larger ships and colony ships.
* Added Large Starliner class ships.
* Newer quadrant types moved to top of list for visibility, and changed
default type.
* Adjusted to-hit bonus for larger fighters and smaller ships.
* Corrected Military Science maximum tech level.
* Corrected Scanners maximum tech level.
* Changed home system with no spaceport value.
* Changed created storm maximum obscuration value.
* Raised massive shield generator output to five times previous output.
* Decreased defensive to-hit bonuses from Stealth and Scattering armor.
* Increased Emissive armor ability slightly.
* Decreased combat bonus from War Shrine.
* Decreased combat bonus from Event Predictors.
* Reduced cultural effects on ship combat ability.
* Reduced effect of ship and fleet training facilities further.
* Added military science requirement to psychic training facilities.
* Divided output of replicant centers by ten.
* Reduced supply cost of Gravitational Quantum Resonator II.
* Added tech requirement of Explosive Warheads for drone warheads.
* Added strong phased shield ability to urban and cultural facilities,
to give them much higher damage resistance.
* Changed militia values.
* Changed ground combat damage multiplier to 1000%.
* Adjusted infantry to-hit modifiers.
* Adjusted some racial trait costs.
* Reduced damage to kill one population somewhat.
* Adopted Suicide Junkie's relative scale for maintenance aptitude.
This means the advantage works like a factor of the base 26% rate.
For example, +50 maint aptitude means most ships will have a 13%
maintenance cost, and bases will have a 6.5% maintenance cost, of
their purchase price.
* Adjusted many costs of many aptitude adjustments.
* Added to-hit modifier to DUC's, shrard cannon, and other "slow"
(relative to lightspeed weapons) direct-fire weapons in space.
* Split ground and fighter Versions of small weapons, armor, and shields.
Ground troop Versions are about 40 times as damage resistant. This puts
them in line with the ground combat adjustments, and makes troops harder
to shoot off planets from space. Ground weapon abilities adjusted quite
a bit in various ways.
* Adjusted events mix and levels a bit.
* Defined small arms as "engines" so troop vehicles couldn't use them.
* Changed solar sails to standard movement system.
* Added gravitational technology requirement to gravitic weapons.
* Added new high-tech drive type: Gravitic drives.
* Reduced the TL4 religious talisman but extended tech up to level 10.
* Reduced the TL5 quantum reactor and introduced several progressive levels
before the (large and more expensive) infinite Version.
* Made colony ships, infantry, and heavy base ships compatible with the SE4
Image Neo-Standard (see http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/neostand.htm).
* Improved shard cannon damage to compensate for this mod's standard armor.
* Adjusted stats on some of the really inefficient weapons - e.g.
incinerator beams, graviton hellbore, and wave motion gun.
* Several fighter weapon stats adjusted.

Version 1.4.2:

* Further tweaking to infantry units to make the higher infantry techs more
meaningful after the fix in 1.4. That is, some features in their design
weren't supported by Gold 1.60, so this Version gives them different kinds
of advantages to compensate.

Version 1.4:

* Remedied a problem with infantry units in 1.3 running Gold Version 1.60.
That is, the defensive modifiers for infantry in 1.3 were not being used
correctly by Gold 1.60, causing stalemates. The defensive mods were removed,
because there seemed to be no way to get them to work properly in Gold 1.60.

Version 1.3:

* Version 1.3 is the original release Version that comes with SE4 Gold.

- PvK (PvK@wargamer.com)