Overview of Mods :
The Economy mod : Economy Mod
This is a mod for those that want to show their excellence on economic grounds rather than the warzone : "The Orions have prohibited all military use of space. Colonizing has been allowed but only by using a standard certified design. Now even more than ever , the Senate becomes the true means of trying to further each and everyones cause. And there remains the covert-ops and intelligence services to make up for the lost abilities in another arena...." What it does : It removes the mandatory inclusion of the bridge , life support and crew quarters. Therefore all AI made designs become invalid , therefore they are build nomore. (techtables.txt: Table ApplicationsClasses , Pick_Limit modifier) You start with 300 colony ships and 10 scouts (startships.txt) (This number is necessary because the AI makes every design obsolete without backing it up with another) When you include the.shp files in the C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Master of Orion 3\GameDataSets\Classic_01\GameData\Common\Ships directory these designs can not be modified. If you leave them out the player could decide to modify the existing design for cheating when needed. Suggested scenario : Try the senate victory by growing into the biggest empire , together with using your spies to compete.
The CheeseMod : Cheese Mod
Here's a mod to spice up the game real good : Its a combination of several mods I've posted earlier plus extra changes Specials.txt : Increases the change and number of specials throughout the galaxy.Allmost every planet now has one or two and several has been unlocked. There's even an AnataranX somewhere Guardian.shp : Gives each empire 2 Guardians with spacelane capabilities SpaceMine.shp: 16 spacemines around each Homeplanet equipped with the new Proximity Burst weapon RadioShowTags.txt : Introduces extra groundcombat textsequences unlocked from the release files UnitValues.txt : Switches the costs for active deployment and reserves so it'll be cheaper to put those ships into action.Incentive for agressive empires racemodifiers.txt: Shifts the groundcombat racetraits so that they will work instead of applying the default GndCmbt=3 settings Groundcombat.txt : moves the mobility figures for armor , mobile and battleoids to the correct column Techtables.txt : Introduces the new Proximity Burst weapon , corrects some InfoWpn >= errors Weaponstable.txt : Added the Proximity Burst weapon Read the other readme's for extra info
The Cheese Mod (DeathMatch): CheeseMod (DM)
The GuardianFleetMod: Guardian Fleet Mod
"With a wiff of mutual assured destructive politics , the New Orions have decided to equal the galactic balance by donating its superclass Guardian ships to each empire. Equipped with stardrives 2 of each are shipped to each homeplanet to do with it as the rivals see fit. Thus begins a new chapter of expansion in the Antaran sector" Changes the Guardian ship design to include Hyperdrive starlane-engines Gives every empire 2 Guardian ships plus the design from the start.
The Fallen Empire Mod: The Fallen Empire Mod
The empire is about to fall. Several cycles ago , a genetically engineered bioweapon was able to circumvent the Antaran defenses that stretched around Orion into the Galaxy. Using a selfengineered cloaking technology it overtook several prey before their collective knowledge led him to the Antaran chief administrator of scientific affairs. It made him transmit the Antaran database over the sub-space band. Knowing no boundaries , the sub-space transmission frequencies had been the worst choice possible. As the Antarans realized their security had been breached for the first time since the monolithic enactment of their knowledge they rushed into the administrators quarters , and killed him and the host without hesitation. But with its death there also ended the Antaran monopoly on which they had thrived and isolated themselves around for eons to create their last empire. Every civilization in the galaxy could now be the possesor of all designs and achievements they had so painstakingly guarded. The economy wich thrives around the export of technology might collapse as every Antaran in possesion of tech stock and options would want to cash in. It was tried to be kept a secret at first , but soon rumors of long gone prophecies encircled the palaces , news from abroad about sudden achievements was only partially to be intercepted until... many were realizing that the isolation of old could not hold against the rise of empires that was about to ensue. And there are factions for peace , and factions for war : The Old Antarans of the Status Quo are done with. ' Give me an open channel to the Harvester empire , now !!' , demanded the besieged Last Orion Emperor as his palace was trembling under the shockwaves that engulfed Antaran society.... This mod makes use of the following filechanges : Techtables.txt : Changes all techlevels to level 0.But since you allways only have a fraction of all available techs you'll have to trade , spy or invade for the rest Racemodifiers.txt : Moves the default racepickmodifiers Accuracy , Reflexes and Toughness to another table (Racemod) where they will work with the default values as intended.No sense in setting them higher though.Setting them lower will free up points. (Gndcmbt and accdisen , dmgdisen) Adjusts the available racepickpoints to balance these defaults (Since for instance Ithkul could free up a lot of points) Groundcombat.txt : Replaced several entries from the Racetable column to the Mobility column (Table Unittypes) as it is absolutely logical that they have been misplaced. (Its without a doubt that Armor , Mobiles and Battleoids are more mobile than Infantry and Marines) This will help the AI to always build the best groundtroops UnitValues.txt : Gives a financial edge towards empires that actively deploy troops and ships and removes bonusses for staying put. Therefore there will exist more active taskforces and deployed groundtroops throughout the endgame. Extra Bonus ! Removing the Techtables.txt file will cause the New Orion empire to collapse due to financial bankruptcy Especially on easy setting within 10 turns. After their collapse they will regroup into a playable race Diplomatic contact will be activated. (Warning : You can play the Antarans in multiplayermode , but you can't watch your groundtroops due to missing .png's .Otherwise all is possible.Saving during multiplayer will convert your game to a single playerfile)
The Space Mine Mod :The Space Mine Mod
This mod introduces a new weapon : The Proximity Burst Its a high yield explosive at very short range (100Gm) but with a very long recharge period (64 sec). The Ai will start equipping it on all its short range missionships because of its power. With the savegame-editor by Bhruic I have designed 16 Spacemines per player around each Homeplanet with every new game. The SpaceMine is a system hull with zero speed equipped with 4 Proximity Bursts and a Ghost device to make it cloaked long enough to let enemy ships approach it unaware. The player can build spacemines throughout the game but cannot edited them as the mandatory Life Suppport etc. items are not included. You are of course free to tweak all of the design parameters for better gameplay balance ! Put the .shp file for the spacemine design in the C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Master of Orion 3\GameDataSets\Classic_01\GameData\Common\Ships\General directory Put the wsTechnology.txt file in the C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Master of Orion 3\GameDataSets\Classic_01\GameData\English\wStrings directory And the rest of the textfiles in the C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Master of Orion 3\GameDataSets\Classic_01\GameData\Common\Spreadsheets directory (if these directories don't exist you should create them first)