Hello!
The idea to make research longer to discover I actually implemented in my new version. I made the Ascendelyxe 1.6 in 2013 after a guy called "Franky" found out how the Special Weapons actually shoot. After that I tried to enhance that into a 2.0 - but Ascendancy is not THAT good to play it often, and you need mood to actually play/testplay kind of a lot. My last effort was May 2020 - before all became a bit nasty for me. Now, a week ago, a guy commented my CivFanatics thread and it might be that I got my Ascendelyxe 2.0 done.
Antag2.exe for Ascendancy Vanilla
COBExtractor Most Potent Modding Tool
Old Ascendelyxe 1.6 Mod
CivFanatics Ascendancy Mod Thread
To the Jambalaya Mod, and please forgive my Germanhood (being direct and rude):
1) The Antag.exe is done by an Ascendancy alien, lol. The guy "jordos" to exceed its boundaries might be a great guy - but the guy CREATING the Antag.exe in the first place was definitely no fanatic player of Ascendancy, or, totally alien to that game, lol - otherwise he would have known that to totally hardcode halt ANY wars between AI factions and just boost THE ONLY POSSIBLE war, perhaps: versus the human player, has a consequence: Since the AI is too stupid to colonize most planets and systems, it stays a kind of weak, and since it doesnt extinguish other races via AI WAR, it doesnt develop an empire, simple is that. That WEAKENS the AI! NOT strongens.
Perhaps the Antagonizer is capable of repairing ships, yes, I saw that sometimes. But the best possible way to make AI strong is the bad old war. The AI conquers vast territory and gets its ships destroyed on a regular basis, so that it builds up an empire with modern ships, simple is that. No war - no empire.
2) It wouldnt have been necessary for me to change my beloved race pics.
3) The Special Weapons still are useless and wont be used by AI.
4) The Tec Tree seems a mess, and perhaps worse than in vanilla.
5) What the AI builds up on planets is a mess, too.
The values of my Ascendelyxe 2.0 are:
1) I use the Ascend.exe from 1996, no Antag.exe or even Antag2.exe. Yes. It is still stupid and wont colonize a proper territory, and wont exchange older buildings for newer ones, yes. BUT. I tweaked it to TOTAL WAR. Peace and even Alliances are still possible, but perhaps not with Frutmaka and other badasses, perhaps with some nicer guys, but Ascendancy is full of badasses.
If you get a slow weak start you just get wiped out. It is common stuff that you hear "EXTINCT" some times before year 1000, and perhaps one strong opponent gets 30 ships in year 1500.
2) My Tec Tree also includes maximum costs in time now. That is a great thing to exceed the timeline. But my Tec Tree is a smooth runnin beauty.
3) My Planetary Buildings are balanced. Since Planetary Buildings are COSTLY, and support "Self Managed Planets" with near no micro management, and since my Orbital Structures support SOME industry and A BIT research -like the Jambalaya Mod does too-, you can see how AI creates good planets, actually, nasty good planets. If you delay in a good way and let grow in a natural way by balanced building values - and I can see the results, that will be fine.
4) My Tec Tree is smooth runnin. My planet squares are balanced. My Planetary Buildings are balanced. My weapons and ship stuff is expensive and balanced and ALL WEAPONS DO THEIR MAGIC. No excuses.
Testgame story, super interesting:
I had a testgame with Frutmaka, I got the Chamachies extinct fast, I usually suppress planets until my Invaders arrive. It was a Middle Map Five Opponents game. After that Marmosians and Minions got extinct fast by the Nimbuloids. The ONLY THING saving my game was some cheese (not so nice advantages a human player can use in games): My scout found out, in a sudden shock, that the Nimbuloids had gathered 14 Middle Class ships in a system a bit away (still rather early game and outnumbering us) - my plan had been to wipe out the Minions by myself in their home system, then colonize that area beyond, then face the last race, but the Nimbuloids were faster. (As always!) So, a slight retreat, we let colonize that territory by Nimbuloids, let enter their whole fleet into the Minion home system and they wiped the Minions out - at the end of a red star lane. So - we sent a SMALL SLOW bull ship, lol, and the whole Nimbuloid fleet came to an infinite halt.
That system was a typical cycle of some systems with two red star lanes, capable of circumventing some systems, plus that home world and that Nimbuloid fleet via the other red lane and some systems, so, first, we thought about conquering these fresh colonized systems for us, building up a STRONG FLEET, and then facing that Nimbuloids, until one of my brain cell generals had the intriguing argument, that even IF we would build up a strong fleet to face and perhaps kill them off, then travel the territory along, then enter that red lane some systems away were they gathered in the first place, then enter their deep territory - they would have another fleet ready, the moment we would arrive! Better: To halt them infinite by bull ships, lol, the year the SLOW tiny thing enters their system, yet ANOTHER has to enter the red bubble, and so on and so on - while we build up relaxed, and conquer their defenseless territories, while these fools STAY trapped, without any problems. That was perhaps my only option to actually win.
Next idea of my best brain cell general was to send them a bull ship bomb, since they liked to use Tractor Beam to pull my bull ships to their loving warmth, we equipped any new bull ship with a Self Destructotron, kahahaha, nice idea. That device has a 6 damage and small range, so, more for fun than to actually destroy them, but after all we had defeated them anyway by advanced cheese. If that Nimbuloid fleet would have taken the LEFT system instead of the RIGHT, we would have fought a desperate defensive until perhaps game end!
Yes, we would have used OTHER red lanes and our good defensive planets to wear them down, but after all, they would have conquered just a vast territory and perhaps just beaten us in a hopeless fight. Our home was perhaps 10 systems, then a long red lane, then that 2 red lane system cycle and the middle territory of about 20 systems, then the Nimbuloid deep territory after their long red lane with another 20 systems, and IF we would have lost the middle 20, you could imagine game over.
If a guy like @jordos could change the Ascend.exe to colonize most planets and systems wave after wave, and to rebuild planets better like in Antag2.exe, nice! But even without that, my 2.0 is a by far superior game compared to the vanilla.
ASCENDELYXE 2.0 is finally done. If a guy wants to play Ascendancy the best possible way, download it.
Link in my Signature, down below:
