The Colonists
Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 1:03 pm
So, after so many hickups it seems the devs are pulling their shit together.
I could actually start v1.3.4.3 and play it.
In their defense, I did not try every build, it may have been working sooner.
Advice: trains are broken, don't use them. I have not yet encountered a map that was large enough to need trains, so you won't really be needing them.
So, I took a look under the hood and... well.. okay.
Thing is, some things are done well, some are quite unoptimal (like recalculating some values every time it's needed instead of just using a cache).
Constant timestamping takes a lot of resources, too. I understand it's better than having bazillions of timers, but there are ways to avoid this.
Probably the reason why it was buggy and why there are still slowdown on larger networks.
That's the bad news.
The good news is that the game is freaking awesome and terribly addictive, much like Settlers.
If you liked Settlers, this is a must-have, go get it, it's worth every penny if you like this genre.
I am hoping there will be more content - challenges, campaigns and so on.
But, that's not why we are here.
I built a table with an AOB script which gives you:
- Min. Road Length Patch; overwrites the internal minimum road length value with a value of your choice, whenever you start building a road. Not sure why the devs chose 4 as minimum, 3 works much better. Now you have a choice. AI does not seem to use this value, meaning it won't ever be able to build as efficient of a network as you could (the shorter the path, the less the bots walk). Technically, this goes into the saved game, so no need to patch again until the next map but there's no harm having it on constantly, either.
- Resource Deposit Patcher; overwrites the amount of resources in the natural resource piles that you mine using surface mines with a value of your choice, whenever you hold CTRL or ALT the moment you hover the mouse over the pile (when the hint pops). Great for clearing out resources in the way (set each pile to 1 quick and they'll be gone very soon), great for ensuring you have unlimited amount of resources to mine from these piles (setting each pile to 999 is pretty much just that). But it's really awesome for draining the AI's resources - take away their stone piles and they'll be stuck. Note: the graphics of the pile is updated only on mining or when reloading a save.
- Building Process Time Mod; allows you to scale the time required to process some resource. Interestingly, often times buildings don't use this. Lumberjack does.
- Bot Boost Bonus; allows you to add a fixed % of bonus to bots at certain events such as processing, pickup, dropping off resources, etc. (I did not hack them all). Works much like the monuments add their own bonuses. This bonus is additive to the bonus granted by the monument, even if the monument bonus is zero. The value you see is multiplied by 100; 1 means +100%, 2 means +200% and so on.
- Fuel Load Mod; allows you to scale the amount of fuel (battery charge) that is topped up when the bot recharges. A value of 5 means your bots will be able to work 5 times longer without refueling. Ultimately, it means you'll need far less (1/5th) batteries to produce the same amount of resources.
- Flora Growth Time Mod; allows you to scale the time required for flora growth (from sapling to full growth). Applies only to newly planted saplings that are planted by the player's bots.
With the default settings, I could make glass in a year in economy mode and build the large monument in 1y4m or so. There is no diamond achievement though
The script uses fixed offsets, so the chances are good it's going to break in the next update.
Enjoy!
Update #1
Added Flora Growth Time Mod.
I could actually start v1.3.4.3 and play it.
In their defense, I did not try every build, it may have been working sooner.
Advice: trains are broken, don't use them. I have not yet encountered a map that was large enough to need trains, so you won't really be needing them.
So, I took a look under the hood and... well.. okay.
Thing is, some things are done well, some are quite unoptimal (like recalculating some values every time it's needed instead of just using a cache).
Constant timestamping takes a lot of resources, too. I understand it's better than having bazillions of timers, but there are ways to avoid this.
Probably the reason why it was buggy and why there are still slowdown on larger networks.
That's the bad news.
The good news is that the game is freaking awesome and terribly addictive, much like Settlers.
If you liked Settlers, this is a must-have, go get it, it's worth every penny if you like this genre.
I am hoping there will be more content - challenges, campaigns and so on.
But, that's not why we are here.
I built a table with an AOB script which gives you:
- Min. Road Length Patch; overwrites the internal minimum road length value with a value of your choice, whenever you start building a road. Not sure why the devs chose 4 as minimum, 3 works much better. Now you have a choice. AI does not seem to use this value, meaning it won't ever be able to build as efficient of a network as you could (the shorter the path, the less the bots walk). Technically, this goes into the saved game, so no need to patch again until the next map but there's no harm having it on constantly, either.
- Resource Deposit Patcher; overwrites the amount of resources in the natural resource piles that you mine using surface mines with a value of your choice, whenever you hold CTRL or ALT the moment you hover the mouse over the pile (when the hint pops). Great for clearing out resources in the way (set each pile to 1 quick and they'll be gone very soon), great for ensuring you have unlimited amount of resources to mine from these piles (setting each pile to 999 is pretty much just that). But it's really awesome for draining the AI's resources - take away their stone piles and they'll be stuck. Note: the graphics of the pile is updated only on mining or when reloading a save.
- Building Process Time Mod; allows you to scale the time required to process some resource. Interestingly, often times buildings don't use this. Lumberjack does.
- Bot Boost Bonus; allows you to add a fixed % of bonus to bots at certain events such as processing, pickup, dropping off resources, etc. (I did not hack them all). Works much like the monuments add their own bonuses. This bonus is additive to the bonus granted by the monument, even if the monument bonus is zero. The value you see is multiplied by 100; 1 means +100%, 2 means +200% and so on.
- Fuel Load Mod; allows you to scale the amount of fuel (battery charge) that is topped up when the bot recharges. A value of 5 means your bots will be able to work 5 times longer without refueling. Ultimately, it means you'll need far less (1/5th) batteries to produce the same amount of resources.
- Flora Growth Time Mod; allows you to scale the time required for flora growth (from sapling to full growth). Applies only to newly planted saplings that are planted by the player's bots.
With the default settings, I could make glass in a year in economy mode and build the large monument in 1y4m or so. There is no diamond achievement though
The script uses fixed offsets, so the chances are good it's going to break in the next update.
Enjoy!
Update #1
Added Flora Growth Time Mod.
