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[Nicheal]

I once figured out end of 2012, how to mod the old 1995 DOS-game Ascendancy - that was my favorite game when i was a child, and i thought to fulfill my childish dream of being able to play Ascendancy not versus a brain dead AI - my first attempt was the Supremacy and Totally Cracy Mod, a modification by the program Notepad++, but just some unsatisfying minor tweaks.

That i uploaded here, Abandonia. Then another german guy called Franky, wrote a PM to me, here, beginning of 2013, how to mod, and how to solve some other stuff. I answered, bored, that how to mod is easy, ASCEND00.COB and Notepad++, just dont mess around to actually ADD stuff, you just have to tweak stuff, and, that to solve some other stuff is obsolete, cause that game is fucked up.

Well, that guy found out, how to let the AI ships actually shoot with the special weapons! So, in my Ascendelyxe 1.6 Mod, the AI ships actually are wolfs versus your human players sheep ships. I did my very best to mod that game to a highly playable wolf game, like i ever wanted.

Now, four years later, i played some games of that Ascendelyxe 1.6 Mod, the Heavy Delyxe Mod on difficulty "Heavy" (3 out of 4), and the AI put up a fucking heavy fight. The own extinction is there, a bloody option.

Now, i found out, how to change the tec tree completely, so that, for a long long while, your battles will be middle class ship hulls, and after a long while, you ll get major class ship hulls, and after another long while, you ll get the gigantum class ship hulls - and that last tweak of that game, i will probably upload as a whole bunch of everything, so that just everything is included in one single whole pack: ASCEND.EXE, ANTAG.EXE, NOUGAT.LF, COBExtractor, Shape Editor, the original COB, my MOD, a Batch File, everything.

The Logic Factory is fucking DOWN, gone, faded away after another try for IOS, to sell the same poor brain dead game, just with GFX tweaks and touch screen - while the german guy Franky, found out, how to let special weapons shoot, the creators of that game, didnt, obviously. There is nothing to sell, nor develop anymore, nor to wait for anymore, nothing will come up, by The Logic Factory anymore.

And if a guy wants to play a most delicious SciFi game - play Gal Civ!

It is a hell of a joy, using Nougat.LF and Cheat Mode, to look at AI ships, full to the brim with DisArmers, and seriously ready to use them on you. We ll see, perhaps i will upload a final version, a version, to fulfill a childs dream. Ascendelyxe 1.6 was a brilliant MOD so far, but the 2.0 will be the high end of that poor modders development - and it will be a DOS game hell of a fun!

[marko river]

Sounds awesome, I didn't know your still into it but I'm glad you are. I liked Ascendancy, obviously not as much as you. Do finish it and upload it, we will host it gladly.

[Nicheal]

I didnt know either! As i told above, i left that alone for four years. Now, i just wanted a little game by the way and gave my Mod another shot.

I am a german guy, so, if i could modify my favorite game once, 1996, to a near perfection, i should do, cause it is a little effort to tweak around.

The only problem would be, that all inclusive, that game has 80 mb, packed, .rar or .zip, still 30 mb, and i remember that your site has a limit of 10 mb or something, for users, and .rar and .zip package limits. So what! Luckily, there are that many awesome games out there after twenty years, that nobody really needs Ascendancy! It is just a matter of... just tweak it ready and thanks for many lucky hours in my childhood. O, and to finally get something to work, what you ever wanted to get it to work, as a Modder, is highly satisfying, plus, i get that to work, like i ever dreamed of, as a child - even better!

We ll see! I tweak it ready. And then, i ll have a look, if, and where, to upload!

[marko river]

To correct you on size suubject, we have a limit of 300MB zipped. We could use even bigger, but we tend to store bigger ones (full CDs) in ISO Cellar. So 30MB packed is no prolem, there are much bigger games on sitw for years.

And nobody may need Ascendancy, but we are here to preserve. Your improvements will surely be welcome to whoever tries and likes Ascendancy. I, as one, remember I liked gameplay very much but got bored with bad AI after few games. So, if you are willing to tweak the game to near perfection, we are willing to host it.

[Nicheal]

O glad to get your reply, thanks! Then, your site gives wrong informations! In my upload pop up is listed, around 0,8 mb .rar, and 1,1 mb .zip as a maximum file size! I never even tried to top that.

One of the problems with Ascendancy was, that the enemies, had the tec for an advanced special weapon, even had their ships equipped with that, for example smart bombs, but just didnt use it. How boring is THAT? The AI does not understand to protect borders, to collect fleets, and sends one idiot ship by another, and they just stand still, dont use any special weapons, and are killed easily like numb idiots.

That problem is gone forever! In fact, i had enemy ships, entering your system, and trespassing it, under fire, to meet their whole fleet in the next system! It seems, that the AI just had never enough energy, to do smart things. That all is solved. Sometimes it is still an idiot, but very often, it became a real asshole!

But all of that exists since 2013, in my Ascendelyxe 1.6 MOD, all of that exists already since four years! I changed really much, for example, the special weapon of the "Container", i never remembered what the fuck that guy does again. You had much special weapons, the AI used and annoyed, like that catapult, and most, the AI didnt use and annoyed too, and many, i never remembered what the fuck they do again.

Well, i even changed the GFX of the Container and made him my favorite weapon called CI DisRaptor, Colonizer/Invader DisRaptor. If you are not able to kill the enemy ships, and you lose the battle, you can destroy all Colonizers/Invaders at least, so that they are not able to conquer anymore. That ll give you a little time. I improved all the stuff, and my "Most Like" is, that my informations about weapons and all of the stuff, give you every single value, exactly. You can read about any stuff, without testing it, what they do, and any value necessary to know.

So, i really changed things, but i loved that game once, and i still like it, so, a true Ascendancy Fanatic, at least, did the best he could, and yes, i really began to hate The Logic Factory, years ago, that they just do radio silence for decades, then announce somewhat dubious, just to turn radio silence on again, for another fucking decade, then it is IOS only... then their site is down... now radio silence again... that is highly frustrating... my patience with that dudes is just over!

They did true magic, but never got it right in the end. Now, i just tweak the tec tree in a way, i had never expected: You can play along for thousands of years not reaching its end, and you have to earn your tecs and to struggle on, that is... really... heavy. You dont get huge class ship hulls, and, like in Ascendancy Original, you never had problems, are the biggest empire since turn 1, and you have built two huge class ship hulls, and get the gigantum hulls already, and that game is OVER. Now, you suffer hell.

Just imagine, you crawl around with middle class ship hulls, get your ass beaten by your enemies and dance with your extinction, and if your enemy gets a better weapon by Xeno Archeology, you are fucked. For example, these Snovemdomas guys got the Shield Blaster. They have double size hulls, and just shoot you to hell, no matter what you do, you suffer losses and cry.

~~~

Let me tell that game. It was just like Master of Orion II higher difficulty, where, if you dont get over the first enemy soon, that slows down your progress too much and you stand no chance at all. The Chamachies were wardens of my side arm of the galaxy and had me close to extinction for thousand years. Once, the Snovemdomas had the whole centre of that middle size galaxy, they threatened the Chamachies hard, and brought them near to extinction. Once, i was standing right before these Chamachies after a thousand years war of bloody survival, at the end, to kill them down, to end that conquest, they offered peace and later alliance versus the Snovemdomas Empire, and i indeed needed their huge advanced ships to hold the line versus these badass guys.

My progress was good, i used the absence of the Snovemdomas fleets, to slowly conquer their colonies in that part of the galaxy, but, i was too slow, they had too much Surface Shields, and in my MOD, you have to go really down on a planet and shoot him down under fire, and you have to overwhelm a dozen of Surface Shields, so, i really had the Snovemdomas, and became the mightiest empire, but once, i was about to crush their centre, they got huge sizers, and little later, gigantum sizers, Shield Blasters, and... there was no progress, they were too huge, too heavy, too fast, and all their planets had dozens of Surface Shields.

I had them! But i quit the game, these guys are nearly impossible to kill, with their gigantum sizers and Shield Blasters, and i thought about Self Destruction Moduls, to crush their fleets. That was my last game, now i tweak again. I didnt want to struggle and see my fail coming versus my own MOD! I had more planets, they had more systems, 15 gigantum sizers Snovemdomas versus 14 huge sizers Frutmaka, and while their centre produced masses of ships directly to the front line, my reinforcements always came too late, good ships, really good ships, getting by small Snovemdomas fleets, Shield Blaster RIPs, trying to kill one single 80 hull size badass, that was... aaaaaaarg!

In fact, how i ever wanted to play Ascendancy - i defeated the Chamachies after thousand years near extinction, defeated the half of the Snovemdomas Empire, and became the biggest Empire by half conquering an old mighty Empire, tried to crush its centre, it got too good tecs, and all of my powers... tended to my defeat again around year 3000. I had not enough patience to see my end coming over another 1000 years, but to see that all happen, was amazing indeed!

~~~

To see actually the good old Shield Blaster, blast your ships away like nothing, is really both for Ascendancy Fanatics: Really a time to grin, and cry! I just can tell - it hell works!

[Smiling Spectre]

Originally Posted by Nicheal

O glad to get your reply, thanks! Then, your site gives wrong informations! In my upload pop up is listed, around 0,8 mb .rar, and 1,1 mb .zip as a maximum file size! I never even tried to top that.

There is some misunderstanding, I believe.

When marko river says about "site limit", he means limits of the hosting at the full-fledged game pages.

You are talking about attachment limits for the forum. It's the totally different thing.

And to circumvent attachment limits there are usually two ways used: full ISO with 300+ Mb hosted at the 3rd party file storing resources (like megaupload, 4shared, etc.) Check ISO Cellar for the examples. And lesser files stored temporary at the Abandonia FTP (and you need to get credentials from the supermod, of course, to be able to upload there).

[Nicheal]

Thnx for that explanation. A kind of that, i thought to myself already, but... i dont have any accounts on these great hosting sites, i dont trust them at all, and i wont do that at all.

Also, i wont do any ISO, seems a bit weired to create an ISO for a DOS-Game of 80 mb. I would prefer, just a whole .zip or .rar package about 30 mb, all inclusive, all about Ascendancy what i could find, all .exes, all Modding Tools (2), just all of the stuff necessary, just unpack, and use Batch File plus DOS-BOX, end of the story.

As i told, i ll see, if, and where, to upload! I wont do any further efforts.

~~~

It would be about 40 mb .rar. But is Ascendancy Abandonware again? There was a time before the IOS release, it was Abandonware, and still, it is to download in full, on some sites. My upload would include the whole original game, all modding tools, my mod, all .exes, just, all inclusive, and a Batch File for easy going. Just, the whole bunch, like i ever dreamed of, personally, just a perfect Ascendancy Gold Edition called Ascendelyxe.

[marko river]

Oh yes, silly me, this would be hosted as Extras, altough if you are providing whole game....

can you provide extras only without the game, since game can be downloaded from teh site and afterwards your extras can be added? Another option is to host your package in ISO Cellar regardless of not being ISO.

And check how big it is with 7zip. Should be smaller than rar.

[Nicheal]

My uploads 2013 for Ascendelyxe 1.6 Mod were Extras only, possible even here Forum, just as a small bunch necessary, without the whole game. Modding Tools, Mod, all as Extras, thats what i did once.

The problem is, that, the more blah blah you do as a Modder, the less dudes out there get the point and just download and say "what a bullshit that does not work".

If i would have to say, how these Extras would have to be implemented, that would be "too complicated at all". In fact it is super simple, but my experience tells, no one reads nothing at all. It would be easier, just to download a whole pack, to use Batch File, and then play DOS-Box.

I wrote a Batch File, which loads out of the sub-folder, into the main-folder, either the Original Game Files, ASCEND00.COB plus ASCEND01.COB plus ANTAG.EXE plus delete other stuff to prevent necessarily the data override, or the chosen Mod Files, another ASCEND00.COB plus ASCEND01.COB plus ASCEND.EXE plus delete other stuff, so, my Extras should be implemented as two sub-folders and two links, into the main-folder Ascendancy, so that my Batch File could upload the whole Original Stuff, or the whole Mod Stuff while it has to delete some data written by .exe which would override the new data.

That is too much for many dudes out there, just grab the stuff, and just want to play, saying annoyed: WTF, does not work, Nicheal idiot!

So i just wanted to create an all in one package, where the english version gets english .COBs and .EXEs, and where everything is implemented, so that it is an easy going. I was a child when i played Ascendancy 1996, and if a for example young dude is searching desperately for a better Ascendancy, he barely would read and understand my even simple stuff.

If my Batch wont work, he would have to do it manually, but he obviously would not have read the Manual in the first place, and would suffer just a fail.

It is much easier, to do an Ascendancy Gold Edition, a whole pack, about 40 mb .rar / .zip, than to tweak around by copy and paste, in my opinion. There i would KNOW, that everything is compatible and will work easily. You just could use a wrong .exe, and these english .COBs run into errors, for example a german guy would use his german game with german .exe, and, DOS, error, end.

I d just upload that whole pack to ISO Cellar as Ascendancy Gold Edition or Ascendelyxe, where the right english version uses the right .COBs and .EXEs of Antag and Ascend Patch, and where you just have to download, batchload and play by DOS-Box. And it would just work fine for everyone, fine, easy, either Original or Mod, everything, you could ever get.

~~~

And by the way, many old Ascendancy sites are down now. It might be a kind of tricky to find these two working magic Modding Tools somewhere in Internet, since Legolas site is down.

Tricky to find ANTAG.EXE or Ascend Patch, Modding Tools, this Mod, cause all these sites are down. To find somewhere, just the whole stuff, just, simply, working, as a whole bunch, perhaps, my effort is the last effort, standing in whole internet to rescue that stuff as a whole!

If i would not have uploaded the Ascendancy Modding Tools here, four years ago, they would be gone forever! But these Modding Tools plus Notepad++ just work to crack that 1995 DOS game open, and thats a kind of a miracle. Perhaps we should do an ultimate bundle, thats what i think.

That one guy could just grab one .zip, and that would be all he would need at all. And thats what i am working on, currently: Just one ultimate .zip bundle, all inclusive.

[jordos]

Hi,

I've been doing some reverse engineering on the Ascendancy AI (the antagonizer version) in an effort to improve it a little bit. My focus has been on the AI's planet development and while it is by no means perfect, I decided to release what I have so far in a patch.
All it does for now is to assign a much greater priority on the prosperity of a colony, so it will develop faster. For example, in the original, the AI would get a free factory as it's first building. But then it would have to wait 50 days for a new colonist to become available, so it hardly matters. By giving it a free agriplot it can get going much faster.
For those interested, the decision flow on what the AI would build in the original game looks something like this:

1. getFreeTiles() (white tiles count as a tile for each color)
2. if allTechDone -> set free research tiles to 0
3. if popMax - population < 2 AND population - popInUse < 2 -> habitat
4. if IND < 3 and redTileFree -> industry
5. if RES < 3 and blueTileFree and !alltechdone -> research
6. if FER < 2 and greenTileFree -> fertility
7. if IND < 4 and redTileFree -> industry
8. if FER < 3 and greenTileFree -> fertility
9. if RES < 5 and blueTileFree and !alltechdone -> research
10. if FER < 1 -> fertility
11. if FER < 2 and popMax - pop < 1 and pop - popInUse < 1 -> fertility
12. if greenTileFree and
		100 / FER > 15 (?) and
		popMax - pop > 3 and pop - popInUse = 1 -> fertility
13. if allTechDone
	if redTileFree -> industry
	if greenTileFree and FER < 5 -> fertility
	else -> habitat
14. if !allTechDone
	if hasHyperPower -> RES =+ IND / 2
	if hasInternet -> IND += RES / 2
	if RES > IND and blueTileFree -> research
	if redTileFree -> industry
	if greenTileFree -> fertility
	else habitat

(point 14 looks a little off, it's been a while since I did this, I could be wrong)
I've changed it into something like this:

4.	if FER < 3 -> fertility
5.if IND < 3 -> IND
6.if RES < 3 -> RES
7.if IND < 8
8.if RES < 8

And that's it! There's still a myriad of other problems to solve, but you have to start somewhere Incidentally, this also aids the player's AI colony manager.

Just extract the archive to the folder you installed ascendancy in and run ANTAG2.EXE.