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available for production when you buy them from the League on the unit building screens. Sometimes unit building is limited by the resources in the Agora, but sometimes it's not.
VIII. BYZANTIUM II AND THE REGENCY
Why is there no starvation on Byzantium II, even with Universal
Warehouse turned off?
This is a bug that should be fixed in 1.2.
Can stacks including Spies, Assassins, and Dopplegangers attack on
Byzantium II before combat is allowed?
Yes, but this is a bug.
IX. MISCELLANEOUS
A. SPOTTING
How does spotting work in space?
Spotting works in space exactly like it does on the ground, except there is no provision for spotting strength dissipating with range.
In other words, if a unit's camouflage rating +/-2 is higher than its opponent's spotting rating, the unit will remain hidden. Note that spotted space units remain spotted until they move, even if the spotter is destroyed or leaves. Note that this also means there is *no* way to spot Stealth Raider Ships until they attack.
B. PLAGUE
How exactly do Plague Bombs, Hospitals, and the Cure for Necrosis work?
If a plague bomb gets used in combat, then it infects everyone within a five-hex radius. These folks get marked as infected, but they do not suffer the plague's effects yet. At the end of the turn units infected with the plague make a saving throw. If they succeed, they do not contract the plague. If they fail, then they have the full-blown plague and will be in trouble next turn.
At the beginning of the next turn, the computer checks each of your units that have the plague. If a unit passes the saving throw, then it takes no damage that turn and does not infect the area around it.
If it fails the saving throw then it takes 5-15 points of damage and infects a five-hex area around it.
If a random number from 0 to 99 is greater than the unit's Saving
Throw, it fails. A unit's Saving Throw is its Health/2 + the following bonuses.
Hospital + Hospital's Health * Loyatly/3000
Cure for Necrosis + 25 and double hospital bonus
Foot of St. Ignatius + 50 for entire planet
St. Amalthea's Lancet + 100 for stack
Units can also contract the plague if their health is less than 25, they are starving, and they fail their saving throw. Cities can also get the plague if their health is less than 25 and they are starving.
Effects are the same as for units. Once a unit has contracted the plague, there is no way to get rid of it. Can you say "Disband"?
C. NOBLES
I've killed five Nobles from House X, but he's still in the game!
It's possible for a House to collect extra Nobles. Rebel Nobles can be captured and Nobles can be found in Ruins.
Are Blademasters still considered nobles for voting purposes on ByzII and for Charismatic Leadership stack bonuses?
Yes.
D. ET CETERA
How do you ID a planet's type?
By the artwork used for the terrain.
Are the Vau ever supposed to do anything?
They are only supposed to respond if you attack them.
How do you spell "scepter"?
On Holy Terra in the year 1997, scepter is spelled s-c-e-p-t-e-r.
Apparently this will change to "sceptor" sometime in the next couple of millennia.
X. HACKING
EFS is easily hacked by using a text editor to modify the .dat files in the dat subdirectory. Almost all of the information below comes from Tom Henderson's informative and thorough posting on the newsgroup, much of which I've quoted verbatim. I can take no credit/responsibility for his diligent work, so please regard the next section as Tom's contribution to the FAQ.
Following are the files and their contents: agility.dat Terrain modifiers to agility (not used) arborium.dat Arborium production by terrain type damage.dat Table used to determine combat damage farm.dat Farm production by terrain type mine.dat Mine production by terrain type prod.dat Resource production for non-harvest cities profile.dat Some kind of AI routine? relics.dat Relics and their effects res.dat Resource descriptions and League prices roadcost.dat Cost of building roads (not used) stock.dat Resources kept in Agoras strbuild.dat Data on each structure type target.dat Determines which attacks affect which units tech.dat The technology tree tercolor.dat Terrain color schemes terrcost.dat Movement costs traits.dat Default traits for each House unit.dat Units stats unitrulz.dat Hmm. Dunno this one. unitspot.dat Terrain modifiers for spotting units well.dat Well production by terrain type
A. UNITS
To modify a units stats just go to the unit.dat file. For the most part the values are self-explanatory. The few that aren't are:
Cargo = cargo carrying capacity, max. four, three may not work
CanBcargo is a flag: 1 = can be carried; 0 = cannot be carried(just one little change and you can load your freighters full of dreadnoughts)
!Combat is a flag for combat capable or not: 0 = can fight; 1 = can't fight (! is the negative symbol in C hence the !combat)
Crd/turn is upkeep in firebirds (I guess somebody on the design team still likes credits!)
Cred is the one time credit cost to build. This is not shown ANYWHERE in the game (NOTE: Holistic says, "Like the agility table this was stuff we were playing with in the design stage. However, this code was removed since it affected the interface.").
Unit is the id# of a prerequisite unit. -1 = no unit. Otherwise use the # at the start of the unit records.
Bldgs- this specifies where a unit can be built: -1 means it can't be built (this is used for special units like Inquisitors); the rest are as follows:
0 Palace
1 Church
2 Monasteries
3 Factory
4 Agora
5 Wetware
6 Electronics
7 Hive (symbiots)
8 Ceramsteel
9 Bioplant
10 Vau city
11 Chemicals
12 Cyclotron
13 Fort
14 Spaceport
15 Ruins
16 Alien ruins
17 Shield
18 mine
19 Well
20 Fusorium
21 ?
22 Hospital
23 Lab
24 Farm
25 Arborium
99 anywhere
ReqdTech uses the tech id# from the tech.dat file; you can specify up to 4 different techs.
Tax and Flock are either toggles or values; they are, respectively, tax income from a unit and the amount of voting flock it provides its
Sect.
Range is "used internally", according to Holistic. Whatever that means.
Rank is the order units in a stack are attacked during combat; it ranges from 0-9: 0 being first and 9 being last.
RoP is uncertain: 1 (true) is used for every unit but Relics,
Sceptors, and Cargo Pods. It may have something to do with being a live unit. Perhaps it represents vulnerability to plague or starvation?
Lastly the .flc file is listed. This is the FLIC animation file from the FLC directory that will appear when you view the unit.
Tom says "I've changed pretty much all the above to a game in progress without any crashes, but it's too soon to say what the effect is on the AI if you radically change his force structure."
You can change the existing units and also use the existing "dummy" slots (Scientists, for instance, aren't of any use in the game). To add a completely new unit you need to add a new line under an existing icon record. Each of the numbered unit records corresponds to a particular icon or piece. If you look at record #83, you'll see militia and tracker; in the game these two units have the same icon.
To add another piece just copy a line from any record and insert it before the "}" of the icon you would like to use. Tom recommends that you either make the new units upgrades or use very different movement rates that will show up on the icon; otherwise, you'll go nuts telling them apart. Change the animation file field to any of the files in the FLC dir. If you have access to something that can read/write FLIC format animation, then you can write your own. The Tech codes are a little more problematic but if you add numbers to tech.dat's records in sequence you'll come up with the 113 id#'s.
Obviously the values for engineers will have a very large impact on the game. Increasing the movement rates of space ships can change things quite a bit as well. Changing Cargo Pods to Crawler movement type will prevent players breaking them off into impromptu "hover scout" units.
B. TECHNOLOGY
The tech.dat is fairly straightforward. It lists the tech's name, tech prerequisites, the cost in Research Points(RPs), where it can be found in the archives, and the text that will be displayed when the tech is viewed. The techs are numbered from 0 to 113. All references to tech requirements are indexed by these numbers. The required tech fields can also contain codes. The 900 codes are used to show categories and they remain on the tech screen after being researched. The "Nothing"
VIII. BYZANTIUM II AND THE REGENCY
Why is there no starvation on Byzantium II, even with Universal
Warehouse turned off?
This is a bug that should be fixed in 1.2.
Can stacks including Spies, Assassins, and Dopplegangers attack on
Byzantium II before combat is allowed?
Yes, but this is a bug.
IX. MISCELLANEOUS
A. SPOTTING
How does spotting work in space?
Spotting works in space exactly like it does on the ground, except there is no provision for spotting strength dissipating with range.
In other words, if a unit's camouflage rating +/-2 is higher than its opponent's spotting rating, the unit will remain hidden. Note that spotted space units remain spotted until they move, even if the spotter is destroyed or leaves. Note that this also means there is *no* way to spot Stealth Raider Ships until they attack.
B. PLAGUE
How exactly do Plague Bombs, Hospitals, and the Cure for Necrosis work?
If a plague bomb gets used in combat, then it infects everyone within a five-hex radius. These folks get marked as infected, but they do not suffer the plague's effects yet. At the end of the turn units infected with the plague make a saving throw. If they succeed, they do not contract the plague. If they fail, then they have the full-blown plague and will be in trouble next turn.
At the beginning of the next turn, the computer checks each of your units that have the plague. If a unit passes the saving throw, then it takes no damage that turn and does not infect the area around it.
If it fails the saving throw then it takes 5-15 points of damage and infects a five-hex area around it.
If a random number from 0 to 99 is greater than the unit's Saving
Throw, it fails. A unit's Saving Throw is its Health/2 + the following bonuses.
Hospital + Hospital's Health * Loyatly/3000
Cure for Necrosis + 25 and double hospital bonus
Foot of St. Ignatius + 50 for entire planet
St. Amalthea's Lancet + 100 for stack
Units can also contract the plague if their health is less than 25, they are starving, and they fail their saving throw. Cities can also get the plague if their health is less than 25 and they are starving.
Effects are the same as for units. Once a unit has contracted the plague, there is no way to get rid of it. Can you say "Disband"?
C. NOBLES
I've killed five Nobles from House X, but he's still in the game!
It's possible for a House to collect extra Nobles. Rebel Nobles can be captured and Nobles can be found in Ruins.
Are Blademasters still considered nobles for voting purposes on ByzII and for Charismatic Leadership stack bonuses?
Yes.
D. ET CETERA
How do you ID a planet's type?
By the artwork used for the terrain.
Are the Vau ever supposed to do anything?
They are only supposed to respond if you attack them.
How do you spell "scepter"?
On Holy Terra in the year 1997, scepter is spelled s-c-e-p-t-e-r.
Apparently this will change to "sceptor" sometime in the next couple of millennia.
X. HACKING
EFS is easily hacked by using a text editor to modify the .dat files in the dat subdirectory. Almost all of the information below comes from Tom Henderson's informative and thorough posting on the newsgroup, much of which I've quoted verbatim. I can take no credit/responsibility for his diligent work, so please regard the next section as Tom's contribution to the FAQ.
Following are the files and their contents: agility.dat Terrain modifiers to agility (not used) arborium.dat Arborium production by terrain type damage.dat Table used to determine combat damage farm.dat Farm production by terrain type mine.dat Mine production by terrain type prod.dat Resource production for non-harvest cities profile.dat Some kind of AI routine? relics.dat Relics and their effects res.dat Resource descriptions and League prices roadcost.dat Cost of building roads (not used) stock.dat Resources kept in Agoras strbuild.dat Data on each structure type target.dat Determines which attacks affect which units tech.dat The technology tree tercolor.dat Terrain color schemes terrcost.dat Movement costs traits.dat Default traits for each House unit.dat Units stats unitrulz.dat Hmm. Dunno this one. unitspot.dat Terrain modifiers for spotting units well.dat Well production by terrain type
A. UNITS
To modify a units stats just go to the unit.dat file. For the most part the values are self-explanatory. The few that aren't are:
Cargo = cargo carrying capacity, max. four, three may not work
CanBcargo is a flag: 1 = can be carried; 0 = cannot be carried(just one little change and you can load your freighters full of dreadnoughts)
!Combat is a flag for combat capable or not: 0 = can fight; 1 = can't fight (! is the negative symbol in C hence the !combat)
Crd/turn is upkeep in firebirds (I guess somebody on the design team still likes credits!)
Cred is the one time credit cost to build. This is not shown ANYWHERE in the game (NOTE: Holistic says, "Like the agility table this was stuff we were playing with in the design stage. However, this code was removed since it affected the interface.").
Unit is the id# of a prerequisite unit. -1 = no unit. Otherwise use the # at the start of the unit records.
Bldgs- this specifies where a unit can be built: -1 means it can't be built (this is used for special units like Inquisitors); the rest are as follows:
0 Palace
1 Church
2 Monasteries
3 Factory
4 Agora
5 Wetware
6 Electronics
7 Hive (symbiots)
8 Ceramsteel
9 Bioplant
10 Vau city
11 Chemicals
12 Cyclotron
13 Fort
14 Spaceport
15 Ruins
16 Alien ruins
17 Shield
18 mine
19 Well
20 Fusorium
21 ?
22 Hospital
23 Lab
24 Farm
25 Arborium
99 anywhere
ReqdTech uses the tech id# from the tech.dat file; you can specify up to 4 different techs.
Tax and Flock are either toggles or values; they are, respectively, tax income from a unit and the amount of voting flock it provides its
Sect.
Range is "used internally", according to Holistic. Whatever that means.
Rank is the order units in a stack are attacked during combat; it ranges from 0-9: 0 being first and 9 being last.
RoP is uncertain: 1 (true) is used for every unit but Relics,
Sceptors, and Cargo Pods. It may have something to do with being a live unit. Perhaps it represents vulnerability to plague or starvation?
Lastly the .flc file is listed. This is the FLIC animation file from the FLC directory that will appear when you view the unit.
Tom says "I've changed pretty much all the above to a game in progress without any crashes, but it's too soon to say what the effect is on the AI if you radically change his force structure."
You can change the existing units and also use the existing "dummy" slots (Scientists, for instance, aren't of any use in the game). To add a completely new unit you need to add a new line under an existing icon record. Each of the numbered unit records corresponds to a particular icon or piece. If you look at record #83, you'll see militia and tracker; in the game these two units have the same icon.
To add another piece just copy a line from any record and insert it before the "}" of the icon you would like to use. Tom recommends that you either make the new units upgrades or use very different movement rates that will show up on the icon; otherwise, you'll go nuts telling them apart. Change the animation file field to any of the files in the FLC dir. If you have access to something that can read/write FLIC format animation, then you can write your own. The Tech codes are a little more problematic but if you add numbers to tech.dat's records in sequence you'll come up with the 113 id#'s.
Obviously the values for engineers will have a very large impact on the game. Increasing the movement rates of space ships can change things quite a bit as well. Changing Cargo Pods to Crawler movement type will prevent players breaking them off into impromptu "hover scout" units.
B. TECHNOLOGY
The tech.dat is fairly straightforward. It lists the tech's name, tech prerequisites, the cost in Research Points(RPs), where it can be found in the archives, and the text that will be displayed when the tech is viewed. The techs are numbered from 0 to 113. All references to tech requirements are indexed by these numbers. The required tech fields can also contain codes. The 900 codes are used to show categories and they remain on the tech screen after being researched. The "Nothing"
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- Emperor of the Fading Suns FAQ by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50