BM v1.19i Happiness Patch Beta

CaptainKwok · Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:22 am Post subject: BM v1.19i Happiness Patch Beta

Below is a link to a .zip containing a few updated data files along with a revised events script that adds the new happiness system that I discussed in this post: http://www.spaceempires.net/ftopicp-64013.html#64013

Download Link:
http://files.spaceempires.net/user/9/Population_Happiness_Patch.zip

Extract the contents directly to your BM's data folder.

I figure the wider playing base will be able to provide a lot better feedback then my typical AI test games.

I did not make any changes to the Happiness.txt data file at this time, but I did change the happiness anger levels in Settings.txt. The GovernmentTypes.txt was changed to drop the previous population happiness modifiers and now only contains a description of the effect on happiness that the government type has and if the effect is weak/strong or otherwise moderate.

The script works by looking at the difference between the planet's current happiness compared to the base happiness of the government type. The larger the difference, the greater the strength of the trend back to base level. From early trials, most populations tend to fall under indifferent or happy, but rarely jubilant.

Some caveats include:
The effect is stronger when the population is happier than the base, but weaker when the population is less happy then the base.

The effect on the AI depends on the difficulty level selected, but in most cases is less pronounced than it is for human players.

No additional changes at this time for planet conditions etc., but that is likely in the final version.

---

I've also thrown in a couple of cultural achievement fixes as mentioned by Ender and I reduced the blocked hex radius of most stars. Let me know if you guys find less errors with the survey routine!

CaptainKwok · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 2:10 pm Post subject:

Anyone try this out yet?

Rotok · Space Emperor Joined: Jun 08, 2010

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

Initial couple of hours, OK Smile

.

My Xenophobic Hive started off indifferent & stayed that way despite WP & troop garrisons, facility builds, local colonisation and ship launches.
They would normally have gone happy->jubilant and remained there until a major problem occurred with all that activity.

It will be a while yet before they are strong enough to go purging alien sectors to see what heavy combat & capitve races do (these guys are not quick starters ... Wink

).
Even longer before the reseaarch base is big enough to utilise civics.

The initial plus point is the search changes; a scout ship with L3 sensors seems to do a decent job of system survey with just the '/' command & no manual intervention.

The production/research levels are lower to reflect the base population mood as expected.
Will races with research/build boosts in their traits benefit from this?

CaptainKwok · Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 1:56 am Post subject:

Since most players could easily maintain jubilant populations, there shouldn't be too much of a difference in the relative impact of other production modifiers.

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

Ok.

Further onwards I hit a repeatable game freeze at end of turn processing.
This may well be a background SEV screw up, not related to the patch.

I tried setting the Debug.txt file active, it seems to have left its stuff in :

C:\Users\ArtfulBodger\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Empire Interactive\Malfador Machinations\Space Empires V\Backup

The last lines were

11.03.26 13.40.38 28114005.5161 End_Turn_Generate_Experience(11) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114005.5161 End_Turn_Clear_Last_Move_Loc(11) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114005.5161 End_Turn_Clear_Last_Move_Loc(11) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114015.8240 End_Turn_Bound_Points(1) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114015.8240 End_Turn_Bound_Points(1) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(2) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(2) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(3) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(3) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(4) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(4) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(5) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(5) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(6) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(6) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(7) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(7) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points( 8 ) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points( 8 ) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(9) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(9) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(10) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(10) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(11) - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Bound_Points(11) - End
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Alliance_Actions - Start
11.03.26 13.40.38 28114017.5420 End_Turn_Alliance_Actions - End

So it went for a walk after that point.

Is there anything else I can look into to see what happened?
There are a set of files in the ../Savegame directory relative to that but are in binary.

CaptainKwok · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 1:39 am Post subject:

If it's a hangup in the processing turn phase (as opposed to a player's turn) then if you compare the debug log of the failed turn versus a good turn, you can at least guess where things might have gone wrong.

Edit:
In this case the next end turn function that runs is called "environmental cleanup", but I'm not sure what that entails exactly.

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

Thanks,
of course, according to the log it didn't enter that cleanup phase.

'Environmental Cleanup' suggests trying to reconcile those lost data structures & orphaned resources. A good place to explode if any are broken; however it was a hang, not an outright crash.

It doesn't look like I can progress this one much further, I'll run up another game & see if I get it again.

CaptainKwok · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 3:23 am Post subject:

Here's another version of the revised Happiness script:
http://files.spaceempires.net/user/9/PopulationHapinessPatch2.zip

Extract to your BM data folder. No need to apply patch 1 first, as patch 2 contains all previous changes.

It now makes adjustments for planetary conditions. The maximize size of the happiness change is small (max of -5 for the deadliest conditions, and +2 for optimal). The added benefit is conditions are a bit more relevant, particularly when trying to squeeze out extra production. Again, I've modified these effects for AI difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the weaker the effect for AI empires.

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

Above duly loaded & trying out in new game at moment.
There is one thing, when I save & exit to continue with my real life, I get a ::
Exception EInOutError in module se5.exe at00076EBD. I/O error 103.
Windows error message when SEV closes. This is new with the updated patch & does not happen with the 'vanilla' BM19i.
Something dangling/not destructed properly on exit or game save ?

As far as the game goes, I'm running a quick start single player with Xi'Chung as default.
I'm quite far in & without special measures for happiness (civics, facilities), my subjects are all happy (as opposed to default indifferent). This includes the neighbouring race which was assimilated. There wasn't a noticable change in happiness state during the glorious phase when the conquest took place.

The X'Tal did surrender with 3 systems intact.
It took 3 surrender demands & the loss of the spaceport hub on their 2nd system for them to give up, I took out their homeworld in the initial strike.
I presume a lower happiness on their part would encourage the surrender process as a side effect?

As in the previous game, the overall growth/research of all empires is slowed down as no-one is operating in 'jubilant' overdrive. This means that the scout squadrons sent out contact aliens at a less well developed stage.

It certainly is not going 'bang' 'bang' between jubilant and rioting which is what the guys were asking for.

Indeed I usually have to get the civics & recreation in play for 19i, this hasn't been needed so far. I suspect the loyalty/rebellion changes which came in with this release are toned down as a by-product.

It will be some time before this game reaches the late phase ...

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

Well, I got it to the late phase, sphereworlds have been researched (as someone once said, if you get there, you have won anyway).

In the latter stages, all the cultural elements were researched, so recreation & civics were maxed out, along with the X'Chungs 10% inherent loyalty, there was never a sign of rebellion.

All systems stabilised onto happy.

Despite conquering 3 races and beating off attacks from most of the others on the way, none of my systems ever had a planet's become jubilant. One newly conquered planet did go angry for a single turn during some intense combat, but stabilised without need for intervention.

The first race was conquered early on, no cultural or facility bonuses at the time, you could see the indifferent->happy progression there as the garrisons arrived & cut in. The later combats had the background cultural effects active & went straight to happy once the marines landed .

Of particular interest was the Hive home system.
That had both L5 UPC and Max level Genetic recoding facilities (5%, 10% happiness mods - I assume they add).
The homeworld had 5 bases a 6 frigate fleet in orbit, a default 50 unit troop garrison plus WPs and over 100 fighters too. It's population was exculsivley Hive and most of the time the bases and the homeworld were repeat building marines and fighters to replace the losses at the front. There could be another 200 marines & fighters awaiting transport to the front also parked there. I even deployed climate control & got it to optimal conditions.

In short, just about every background device I know to enhance happiness existed. If anyone were to have gone jubilant it would have been here. No sign, it stayed rock solid happy all the time.

I suspect the rate at which happiness tends back to indifferent may be a little too steep when played on the default 'quick start' settings I used.

Tuning a modification like this over different races and difficulty levels and trying not to disturb the loyalty/riot/rebellion stuff must be a real nightmare.

CaptainKwok · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:28 am Post subject:

It's a flaw in the script as I have it now. You're likely obtaining the 100% happiness through game mechanics, but it's impossible to obtain the minimum 95% happiness for jubilant status because any positive contribution from conditions is lost (the happiness script change function maxes at 100 I would guess) and so only the negative trend modifier gets counted, pushing happiness down to 92% or so.

I'll make a few changes to improve it.

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

No problem, this is the point of beta testing Wink

.

So I hit an end stop?

I'm still mildly concerned that the 'gain' (oops, control eng. terminology)may be too high, does the rate at which the modifiers cut in appear in a data file or is it compiled ? Can it be observed during gameplay via debug?

It is close to the requested behaviour, in that in a 'nothing special' phase, the empire stays in or close to its notional happiness level, but 'intense' events i.e. major victories, defeats, planet gains/losses, system wide rebellions (either way) etc. don't seem to trigger rebel/jubilant status.

The permanent loss of a homeworld/major minerals system should cause major rejoicing/despondancy depending which side you are on, generating 24 cheap frigates on the homeworld space yard not.

I am making comments about the edge effects, the lack of the same vs. the fundemental behaviour is a stong endorsement you are heading in the right direction on this.

AFAIK there is no 'system mood' simulator akin to the ship combat one, so you have to run this sort of thing in real long term games.

Has anyone tried this out in a multiplayer?

CaptainKwok · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 1:00 pm Post subject:

With the new supplementary script system, there should be more flexibility in allowing for larger per turn changes via the happiness.txt modifiers. This file has a couple of provisions already for your suggestions (albeit a bit more generic, but still covers homeworld loss, planet loss etc.). Since these changes are currently capped at +/-20%, you typically don't see a mood change.

Sardon · Space Emperor Joined: Feb 16, 2009

Will this combine well with FQM5? And if not, any quick and easy way to make it so? Smile

Fyron · Galactic Guru Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: CA, USA

Just follow these instructions and you'll be good to go.

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

CaptainKwok · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:38 pm Post subject:

I have made some more tweaks. I'll try and post it tonight in this thread.

CaptainKwok · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 10:56 am Post subject:

Here's a link to an updated version of the file:
http://files.spaceempires.net/user/9/PopulationHappinessPatch3.zip

It includes all the previous changes, so you can just download this file. Extract to your BM data folder.

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

Thanks,
I'll give it a go over the weekend.

Artful_Bodger · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 23, 2009

Applied the patch onto the existing test game, the homeworld went straight to jubilant then drifted back to happy after a while. Is there an overcrowding factor built in somewhere other than happiness.txt ?

I built a sphereworld & verified that it's population behaved much the same as the homeworld. It went up to jubilant for a while & then stabilised at happy.

Later on I experienced the effect of most of the empire deciding to riot en masse just after one of the AI empires surrendered. Normally this would cause real problems controlling; it self corrected after a few turns.

What I did not see were any outright rebellions during that phase. As the subjugated worlds of the Hive Empire now exceed 190 and about 2/3 of those went on a riot, I would have thought a few would have gone the extra mile and tried to break away. As the Xi Chung have an intrinsic loyalty trait and had all the empire cultural bonuses fully researched by then, this may have stopped it happening.

As far as I can see, the patch performs as desired.

CaptainKwok · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 7:01 pm Post subject:

To maintain a jubilant status, the conditions of the world have to be close to optimal and there needs to be a constant source of "extra" happiness besides the usual modifiers.

Outright rebellions as your observation notes are currently quite rare with the recent changes. I haven't made any changes at the bottom end of the scale yet, so populations currently spend little or no time in the susceptible rebellion range. I'll probably up the rebellion frequency a bit, but less than previous versions.

PvtHudson · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 03, 2011

Hasn't the time to combine happiness patch and pollution & research events mod come yet? Those events were quite entertaining, adding a bit more realism without overburdening player.