Master of orion patch: Unofficial Code Patch — Official Master of Orion Wiki

Master of Orion v1.3 Patch : MicroProse : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

     ********************* TECHNICAL NOTES *********************

— NOTE: You can’t run save games from version 1. You must start

        a new game. You can run save games from version 1.2.

— Make sure that you have at least 570K conventional, and 1040K of 

  expanded memory. Use the DOS command MEM to determine if you have 

  enough conventional and expanded memory.

— If you receive a «reconfigure hardware» error message when trying

  to run Master of Orion, check your sound card settings. You must

  have the correct ADDRESS, IRQ, and DMA settings. Also, make sure

  that you don’t have programs in memory that may conflict with your

  sound card settings.

— The Install program’s sound card detection routines may cause some

  systems to lock up right after sucessfully installing the game. If 

  this happens to you, run the Install program by typing 

  «INSTALL -S» instead of just «INSTALL». This bypasses the 

  auto-detection, and lets you select any sound card on the menu.

— Sound Blaster Pro Cards should have all environment variables 

  (specifically the BLASTER variable) fully specified in the 

  config.sys file to be properly recognized.

— Roland sound cards take several seconds to load custom instrument 

  files at the beginning of the program, when switching to and from 

  the main menu, and at the end of the game.

— Adaptec controller cards must use the hard drive drivers supplied 

  with the controller cards to access the game properly.

— The program automatically saves your game in a special file that 

  allows you to Continue where you left.  However, if you fail the 

  ship identification security check, this file is deleted and the 

  Continue function is disabled.

— If you are using Stacker, Double Space, or some other hard drive 

  compression utility, «Master of Orion» will appear to use more 

  than the amount of space the Install utility checks for. This is 

  because the program files are already compressed, and your 

  compress utility will not be able to get the usual space savings.

     ******************** VERSION 1.3 CHANGES ******************

-NEW KEY CONTROLS     

F1 — Help

F2-  Cycle to next colony

F3-  Cycle to previous colony

F4-  Cycle to next newly created fleet

F5-  Cycle to previous newly created fleet

F6-  Cycle to next fleet

F7-  Cycle to previous fleet

F8-  Cycle to next colony that has enemy ships enroute

F9-  Cycle to previous colony that has enemy ships enroute

F10- Instantly saves game to Continue Game File

The F8 and F9 keys require Advanced Scanner tech.

     

1. Pressing ALT-P will change all emperor personalities at random.

2. Tech Screen: ‘=’ sets all research allocations to the same 

   amount.

3. You can toggle random events off and on by holding the ALT key 

   down and typing ‘EVENTS’.

4. ALT-M will display a 5 parsec by 5 parsec grid on the control 

   screen.

5. The «C» key will tell you how many spies were caught that turn.

6. The «B» key will allow you to scrap missile bases.

7. ALT-C centers the screen on the current planet.

8. ALT-R changes all RELOCation destinations to the selected 

    planet.

— DIPLOMACY CHANGES

1. If you ask another race to break an alliance or declare war, they 

   are more likely to request a technology tribute.

2. High Council Votes: another race voting for you no longer creates 

   an automatic alliance. Instead, voting for a candidate improves 

   your relationship with them, and hurts the relationship with the 

   other candidate. Abstaining slightly harms relationships with 

   both candidates.

3. You can now offer tech tribute if you have no planetary reserve.

4. Allies that have lost contact will not appear until contact is 

   reestablished.

5. Committing genocide penalizes all diplomatic relations.

— INFORMATION DISPLAYS

1. Race Status screen highlights technology you do not have.

2. If you have Improved or Advanced Scanners, red lines on the main 

   galaxy map will show enemy ships approaching the current star 

   system being viewed (F7 and F8 keys).

3. Stargates are shown on the main screen.

4. Colony flags are shown on MAP screen in all three modes.

5. MAP screen frames portion of galaxy in Main view.

6. Instructions displayed for TRANS and RELOC buttons are worded 

   more clearly.

7. Eliminated races no longer appear in STATUS screen.

— COMBAT AI

1. Ships retreat away from enemies, not just left or right.

2. Ships with Warp Dissipators do not continue firing them at 

   immobilized targets.

3. Ships avoid friendly ships with Pulsar weapons.

4. Ships with long range beams now close to range of 1 when 

   attacking planets.

5. Ships do not fire missiles if target ships could back out of 

   range.

6. First salvo of planetary missiles correctly uses scatter pack or 

   single shot type.

7. AUTO combat runs faster.

— GENERAL AI

1. Improvements in estimating size of attack fleets needed for 

   assaults.

2. Colony ships will usually travel with armed escorts.

3. When player’s ships have Warp Dissipators, AI will compensate in 

   new ship designs.

— COSMETIC CHANGES

1. End Game Victory — Emperor’s robes changed.

2. V1.3 and copyright notice on main menu screen.

— FUNCTIONAL CHANGES

1. Enemies can no longer use your stargates.

2. Repulsor beams end movement for ships they are used against.

3. Discovering any Artifact planet gives you a chance to find new 

   tech.

4. When discovering technologies that request a resource allocation 

   change (terraforming, robotic controls, planetary shields, etc. ), 

   the ALL button has been changed to a 75% button.  Also, it only 

   requests changes if the new tech is superior to your existing 

   tech.

5. If you want to DESIGN when you have six ships in play, you do not 

   have to SCRAP until after the design is done.

6. Ships that have been given orders but are still in orbit (on the 

   left side of the planet) can now be selected and have their 

   orders changed. They can also be ordered to stay at the home 

   planet by selecting the planet as destination.

7. Fertile and Gaia planets increase your planets’ base populations

   by 25% and 50% respectively, in addition to the increased growth 

   rates.

8. If you have both standard and scatter pack missiles, you may 

   change which type your planetary bases fire by using the 

   MISSILES button in combat.  In Auto-Combat mode, the computer 

   automatically selects the more effective type.

9. The High Council is formed when 2/3rds of the planets have been 

   colonized, not 1/2 as stated in the manual.

— INTERNAL CHANGES

1. Stargates cost 3000 not 350

2. Crystal & Ameoba kill pirates now.

3. Cost of colony bases fixed. 

4. Displacer Device costs corrected

5. Text for zeon missiles corrected.

6. Less likely to start game in a bad position at harder levels.  

7. Research rolls now guarantee a selection of some key technologies 

   such as missiles.

8. Missile Bases are slightly cheaper, about .6 of a large ship.

 

9. Fleet sizes over 32,000 are no longer shown as negative.

10. A vote of exactly 2/3rds in council wins.

Changes to Weapons Reference Tables:

Power for Lasers is now 25.  

Heavy Lasers 75.  

Maulers 300.  

Auto-Blaster 90.

Power for all Bombs and Biologicals is now 10.

Scatter Pack V has power rating of 50.

Sizes have changed on the following Weapons:

Nuclear Bombs   40

Fusion Bombs    50

Death Spores            100

Anti-Matter             75

Omega V         140

Doom Virus              200

Neutronium Bomb 200

Bio Terminator  300 

Scatter Pack VII        170

Playlist Track #2: 5X and the Unofficial Code Patch Mods for Master of Orion 2016

The next track on our Modify Playlist is the combination of the 5X and the Unofficial Code Patch mod for Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars!

We’ll focus on the 5X “Ultimate Balance Mod” (Steam Workshop Link) first! Creator “Spud Dastardly” has massively overhauled many aspects of the base game to make it bigger, better, and frankly, more fun. In his own words, Andrew “Spud Dastardly”, says this on his Steam Workshop page:

This mod is massive overhaul of the gameplay experience. It’s like a whole new game! It includes a total rebalance of every aspect of gameplay, new technologies, improved AI, and much more. For a more specific overview of what this mod does, see the Readme on Nexus Mods.

There’s a lot more to this mod than we could ever cover in one article, which is a testament to how massive this mod is, but we did manage to wrangle in Andrew for a short interview about the 5X mod and this is what he had to say:

1) First, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Andrew! Please tell us a little more about yourself and your modding history!

I’m a 29-year-old American graduate student who is a few months away from getting my PhD in mathematics. I grew up playing MoO 2, and it has always been my favorite 4X game. Prior to MoO:CtS, I hadn’t modded any games before.

2) Why have you decided to mod Master of Orion? What have you hoped to accomplish?

When I first got to play MoO:CtS in early access, I really enjoyed it, but I could see that there were some glaring flaws in the game, particularly in the way it was balanced. When the modding files became available, I discovered that modding MoO was actually relatively easy and could be done with a simple text editor, so I decided to try to fix the balance issues as I saw them myself.

Over the next month or so, I made 5 different mods addressing different parts of the game like race balance and tactical combat. I then decided that I could do more if I integrated those 5 into one big mod, and that’s how 5X was born. My goal with the mod since then has been to overhaul not just the balance of the game but the gameplay itself with as many new and interesting features as is possible within the modding system in order to provide the best experience MoO:CtS can offer. I had always hoped that with mods we could keep this game alive and well long past the end of developer support of the game.

3) What’s left on your agenda?

At this point, 5X is largely complete, and I don’t have much else to do outside of some minor balance tweaks. I would add more features if I could, but at this point I have reached the limits of what MoO’s modding system is capable of doing. However, WhatIsSol’s Unofficial Code Patch (UCP) does add new modding features with almost every new release, and I intend to take advantage of those as they come along.

4) What is the most satisfying aspect of the project for you? The most frustrating?

The most satisfying thing has been the positive response I’ve gotten to the mod. I never expected it to get so popular, and it’s nice to know that a hobby of mine has had a positive impact on thousands of people. Perhaps the most frustrating thing was when Wargaming suddenly stopped development on the game without any official announcement or explanation, leaving promised modding features unimplemented and numerous bugs that modders have had to fix without developer support. Fortunately, most of the bugs have since been fixed by UCP.

5) Anything else you want our audience to know about this fantastic mod?

If you’re going to use 5X with UCP, and I recommend that you do, be sure to pick up the 5X UCP Compatibility mod as well which makes them work together. There are some add-ons linked on the 5X mod page that you might enjoy as well. Feedback and suggestions are welcome. I hope you enjoy the mod!

Thanks a lot to Andrew for taking the time to answer our questions. I recently took the 5X and Unofficial Community Patch mod for a spin on Twitch, which you can watch below, if you’re so inclined. Needless to say, the changes are eXtraordinary.

Next up is the aforementioned “Unofficial Code Patch Mod” (Steam Workshop Link)! The creator of this mod, “WhatisSol”, has worked tirelessly to take up the mantle when it comes to fixing those remaining bugs that were left when Wargaming and NGD seemingly stopped working on the game.

We also nailed downed John “WhatisSol” so that he could answer a few of our questions regarding this mod and all the work he’s had to put into it.

1) Please tell us a little more about yourself, John, and your modding history!

My interest in computers started as a kid from a desire to tinker with video games back in the 80s. At the time I imaged working in the gaming industry so naturally out of college I took a job working at a Financial Institution.  Wait what?

Anyway, modifying games is just a creative outlet that I find peaceful.  I cannot draw or write, but coding is something I consider myself fairly decent at and regardless I enjoy. 

Over the years I have released a few mods out there that are still circulating.  Probably the most downloaded one would be “Sol’s Six Thousand Implants” for Fallout 4 on PC and Xbox.

Lots of great quality of life additions in the “UCP”

2) Why have you decided to mod Master of Orion? What have you hoped to accomplish?

Since 1993, I have purchased and played every incarnation of Master of Orion.   With “Conquer the Stars”, I liked the production values, but found some technical issues annoying.   The one that got me started modding it was the MIRV missile bug. 

This is the one where the missiles would launch, travel to the enemy ship, and then suddenly disappear.  They would reappear at the launching ship, this time as MIRVed missiles, and travel once again back to the enemy ship.  To make it even more fun, the MIRVed missiles fragments were not target-able by point defense weapons.

I posted videos of this issue and my fix to the Wargaming.net forums.  At one point, Spud Dastardly noticed my videos and asked if I would release the code fix for them and as they say the rest is history.   So, you can thank or blame Spud Dastardly for the Unofficial Code Patch public release.

3) What’s left on your agenda?

Really, I just work on whatever I find interesting at the moment when I have the time.  So my focus tends to shift a lot.  Currently, I’m trying to finish up testing and merging so I can release 6.1, hopefully within the next month or so.

The only feature I know of that will make a future 6.2 will be modding support for asset importing.

4) What is the most satisfying aspect of the project for you? The most frustrating?

The most satisfying would be the act of squashing a software bug or adding a new feature.

The most frustrating would be a lack of tools, both in software and hardware.  For instance, consider the Mac OS. I do not have access to a Mac OS and therefore cannot support or test UCP on it.

5) Anything else you want our audience to know about this fantastic mod/patch?

I do not always comment on people’s reviews and posts but I read them.  It is nice to hear that people are enjoying all the time and effort I have put into this endeavor.  I do after all get enough people in my personal life telling me I’m crazy for still working on this after three years.

Both Spud Dastardly and WhatisSol have worked tirelessly to help Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars reach its true potential and it really shows. There are an incredible amount of improvements, additions, and a fine coat of polish here that simply isn’t in the base game. Anyone who has MoO: CtS should subscribe to these two mods immediately, as they vastly improve the game!

Thanks to both of these fine gentlemen for taking the time to answer our questions and for the impressive amount of work they’ve put into making this game so much better than how Wargaming/NGD left it.

For more on how the mod improves the base game, you can see some of it in my stream below. Stay tuned as I will also highlight the changes and improvements in a future short Let’s Play series!

Until next time, keep eXploring!

Watch Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars with 5X and Unofficial Patch mods! from eXplorminate on www.twitch.tv

Rob Honaker

Rob founded eXplorminate, and quickly brought on Nate, as his passion for 4X needed an outlet. You can find Rob in just about every 4X game beta and 4X game forum, too. He’s equally obsessed with the strategy and tactics genres and constantly combs the internet for new and exciting titles in those genres. He’s proud to be a member of Amplitude Studios’ VIP program and the concept creator of Endless Space 2’s Unfallen.

5X Mod Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars Modify Playlist Unofficial Code Patch Mod

files for Master of Orion (2016)