Unofficial Precursor Fix

[Elimdur]

Hello,

as I am not really content with the state the precursor events are in right now - Some are totaly bugged, if you are not the first to find the homeworld... - I started to change a few mechanics.

1. Precursor quests can only be started by human players.
2. Vanilla Anomaly spawning mechanic (for filling up missing anomalies) has been disabled.
3. Instead of the Vanilla Anomaly spawning there is now the Project spawning mechanic previously used by MEM.
4. There are no longer anomalies on the Precursor homeworlds. Instead the according events appear through on_actions when surveying.

+ some minor fixes of missing global flags

I am in dire need ob people to test this mod. As there are so many possible situations it is nearly impossible to test it alone.
If you encounter problems, I need to know what is the current state of your precursor quest and what exactly is not working. Best would be to upload your save (if you just use this mod and otherwise play vanilla)

Please note that this mod is still in an experimental state. A new game is advised as effects to ongoing games are unpredictable.

UPDATE: Changed global flags according to point 2 of Risa´s bug report.


Original Post:

In my last game I observed some minor and major flaws in the official precursor fix that - though potentially making it possible to finish it - does it in a very inconvenient way.

I played in a huge galaxy with a medium amount of ai empires.

First thing to mention is that th first time i got an anomaly-spawning event was somewhere around 120 years in, which seems a bit late in the game, for my tase atleast.

The second problem is one that is shared with all the anomalies out there. If you do not instantly research them after finding them it is a pain to find them again. They are not shown when having zoomed out at max distance. And in a medium zoom in they are hard to spot with all the ressource numbers around. Everyone searching for that one single anomaly in a huge galaxy knows what I´m talking about. Also they aren´t listed anywhere. Anomalies deserve to be listed somewhere in my opinion. This should either be in the situation log or in a new list for easy access.

Third problem is potential spawning of multiple instances of the same Project because the anomalies are spawned on a random world and not all of the precursor anomalies + resulting projects are valid for all planet classes. This in itself is not a major problem but it ruins immersion to find the same cruiser wreckage again and again.

You also seem to take over unresearched anomalies from integrated subjects. It´s a bit weird. I cannot confirm it personally, because i only found anomalies of my own precursor chain but some people already wrote about finding different anomalies as well.


All these problems made me want to go back to the unofficial fix we made for MEM - that has been removed now that the official one was released.

For those who do not already know how our´s worked. We checked if and if yes which precursor chain was active for a player and then used multiple mean_time_to_happen events to spawn projects the player not already has on fitting random planets inside the player empire´s space. They had a build in blocker flag to prevent multiple projects from spawn simultaneously and provide a gap between spawns. These Events also had multipliers depending on game years to make them more likely to happen, the later you are in the game.

So, why do I like our solution more than the vanilla one?

You get only projects, you did not have already (which should be intended, since the writing is really good). You can easily track them with your situation log, since we spawn projects instead of anomalies that lead to them.

Why did i write this post in the modding forum?

I am intending to make a seperate mod using our already working fix from MEM + disabling the vanilla fix. Additionally to this I´d like to try to fix some of the problems with chain events not being completed as they should. (This is more of a problem the precursor quests had since release)

I just want to know if there are at all people around interested in such a fix. If not i can just use it myself and do not have to care about uploading it to steam and keeping it updated.

+ If there are people around that have already found specific problems in the precursor event code. Feel free to tell me about your findings.

 

[artemis667]

I would definitely be interested in such a stand-alone fix, especially if you can fix the chain events at the end, they are very broken at the moment.

It may become redundant if PDS give the system another pass in the future (and I hope they will) but for now this is, for me, among the most annoying issues in the game.

 

[AlphaAsh]

In late game I keep being told I've arrested smugglers who have found something worth investigating at " ." I've not bothered to investigate why the events are buggily generating empty strings for systems but it sounds like you're looking at the relevant event, so I'm interested in a fix even if it means I don't have to bother.

 

[Risa]

You can look at my mod for my solution to this problem.
I agree generating special projects in much clearer than generating anomalies. Anomalies are not easily trackable, and there is mechanic limitation / bug that affects anomalies' visibility. And since the limitation / bug exists, we have to allow the same anomaly generate multiple times. Special projects, on the other hand, are simple and clean from such problems.
Though my mod is intended to stick as close to vanilla as possible, so I still use those scripted effects (with minor change) to generate anomalies.

As for proper ending of precursor chain, I think my mod has covered all possible situations.

 

[Elimdur]

Just added the first experimental build of my precursor fix. Please help in my testing efforts

 

[Risa]

I don't agree with your decision of making precursor chain player-only. In single player this means only one precursor homeworld will be generated, instead of five in vanilla. And if your mod is ever used in multiplayer, you still have to deal with first-comer / late-comer problem, which defeat the purpose of player-only.

Don't rely on on_survey trigger. You can get survey data by star chart trading, or by survey of federation members / vassals. Those will prevent you to survey the planet with a science ship, thus disable your chance of triggering on_survey. Use on_planet_surveyed instead.

 

[artemis667]

Well, you haven't broken anything. Started a new game with your fix mod (nothing else other than cosmetic ironman-compatible stuff like music). I got a bit lucky, my starting scientist was an archaelogist, and I found two precursor anomalies in my starting system (Is there a hidden bonus that scientist gets for those, or did you add something?) Either way, I found all the precursor anomalies in the first decade, as soon as I got a scientist to level 5 researched them all, found Irassia first (it was nearby another AI, but I'm pretty sure my science ship beat him to it), and got the mineral bonus.

edit:I don't know the events as well as Risa does, reading his post above, but he makes some good points

 

[Elimdur]

@Risa you make some good points, but please hear me out before making a final judgement.

This is how it works (should work, if it wans´t bugged) in vanilla:
The final event, in case you are the first one in the system is started by an anomaly. If you are not the first one you get another event which already was started by on_survey. So Vanilla already had the exact same problem, nothing i could make worse with my solution.

On making it player only:
The problem with the ai bein able to start and finish the precursor quests as well was the cause of much anger in the past. In the later part of the game, when the galaxy has been surveyed already (in smaller galaxies this happens rather fast) the ai just throws all its science ships at new spawned systems, the moment they appear. Thus the player never gets a chance to get the - absolutely meager - reward for being the first one if the system does not luckily spawn in his own territory and he has a science ship around the corner.

@artemis667 Did you play with many ai empires or a rather low number. In my experience especially if playing with the highest amount of ai empires possible you won´t find enough precursor anomalies to finish the queast in the normal way. Thus a different way of aquiring the needed artefact was neccessary. But it is nice to hear, i did not mess up the code. Also even if you were not the first one to survey their homeplanet, as the two possible on_survey events just trigger for someone with ai = no the ai could not take it from you (for the reason I detailed earlier. In an only human multiplayer game everyone could take away the reward as it was in vanilla.

Having this said I am still open for suggestions but please keep my concerns in mind.

 

[Risa]

@Risa you make some good points, but please hear me out before making a final judgement.

This is how it works (should work, if it wans´t bugged) in vanilla:
The final event, in case you are the first one in the system is started by an anomaly. If you are not the first one you get another event which already was started by on_survey. So Vanilla already had the exact same problem, nothing i could make worse with my solution.

Yes, it is how vanilla intend to work. What I said is that it's not sufficient. In other words, you fix isn't a complete one.

On making it player only:
The problem with the ai bein able to start and finish the precursor quests as well was the cause of much anger in the past. In the later part of the game, when the galaxy has been surveyed already (in smaller galaxies this happens rather fast) the ai just throws all its science ships at new spawned systems, the moment they appear. Thus the player never gets a chance to get the - absolutely meager - reward for being the first one if the system does not luckily spawn in his own territory and he has a science ship around the corner.

Well, if that is your intention, go ahead. I don't agree with this decision, but that doesn't matter. I probably won't use your fix anyway, as I'm quite satisfied with my own fix.

 

[artemis667]

It is possible to beat the AI to it if you are fortunate and focused, and tbh that would be good enough for me. The more annoying thing was the chain not ending if you weren't first.

What does suck is when the system actually spawns in an rival territory specifically because it cannot spawn in your own. I wonder if that can/should be tweaked to force it in neutral?

(edit:actually, if I understand the spawn_system command right, it should be able to spawn in your own territory as well, just a coincidence that I haven't had it happen that many times to notice)

 

[Elimdur]

Yes, it is how vanilla intend to work. What I said is that it's not sufficient. In other words, you fix isn't a complete one.

So how would you work around that messy mechanic? I refuse to trade star charts for exactly these problems.

 

[Risa]

So how would you work around that messy mechanic? I refuse to trade star charts for exactly these problems.

Like I said, use on_planet_surveyed trigger. That trigger works whenever you get survey data of a planet, regardless how you obtain it.
Many vanilla events triggered by on_survey shall also be moved to on_planet_surveyed (and be modified accordingly), for exact the same reason.

You can look at my mod for my detailed solution to this specific problem.

 

[Elimdur]

Ok, thank you.

 

[Risa]

More errors on global flags are just discovered in vanilla precursor event file. By a quick glance, they are in your fix file as well. (They were also in mine, until I discovered them and fixed them.)

 

[Elimdur]

Some sound familiar already, some new. Will look into this. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[Elimdur]

Yep your point 2 totally hid from me when i was looking through the events. Thanks again.