u/induktio — reddlx

Thinker Mod Version 5.5 can now be found on the homepage. After very significant rewrites in the previous release things continued steadily and even more game features were reimplemented. It is noteworthy that this release directly modifies the main menu screen to provide additional options since this was not done previously. Overall this release is mostly oriented towards stability fixes and config additions.

If you have not played Thinker Mod before, see Details.md for a complete overview of the features. There's also discord here and forum thread for Thinker related discussions.

Modify main menu screen to also display Change Options button for Thinker features.
Add option MovieExtension in Alpha Centauri.ini to choose custom file formats for external video players.
If movies with alternate file extensions are not found, the game always defaults to playing WVE files.
Add option energy_steal_rate to modify how many credits are taken by base captures or probe team actions.
Add option faction_pair to set which random factions must spawn at the same time or neither of them appears. Not supported during network multiplayer.
The game does not have fixed spawn pairing for Caretakers and Usurpers unless set in the config file.
Paths to SAV savefiles can be entered in the command line and the main menu will be skipped and the save is loaded directly.
Minor changes to faction spawn placement such as avoiding starts without sufficient landmasses nearby.
Minor updates to AI social engineering, psych energy allocation and land raising strategy.
AI has reduced expansion speed only at the two lowest difficulty levels when expansion_autoscale is enabled.
Change DontResetBeginnerPrefs=0 to only reset preferences once when the conditions are met.
When ignore_reactor_power is enabled and "Auto-prune obsolete units" is disabled from preferences, the game does not redesign any additional prototypes when new reactor techs are discovered.
Secret project descriptions are updated to reflect their actual effects in the original game. Minor updates to additional faction base names.
Remove original leftover debug code that activated the scenario editor mode when any savegame with specific filenames was loaded.
Fix map generator issue with rare_supply_pods that resulted in an unequal distribution of bonus resources on ocean tiles.
Fix edge case where governor might become stuck building colony pods when the population growth is zero.
Fix issue where AI might sometimes open supply pods creating fungus at their spawn location before settling the first base.
Fix AI sometimes raising land when this would not be possible without breaking diplomatic treaties.
Fix savegame issue that sometimes caused facility completion voice blurbs to play multiple times when they should occur only once.
Fix user interface issue where hurrying base production was not possible during the turn upkeep after hurry action in the previous turn.
Fix possible game crash related to rendering code that sometimes happened during combat inside the fog of war.
Fix inconsistent calculations in the original game during psych energy allocation.
Fix mineral convoys between bases potentially being able to benefit from mineral multiplier facilities in multiple bases.
Fix multiple significant data consistency issues or possible game crashes when loading or writing savegames.

Thinker Mod Version 5.4 is now available from the homepage. After extensive rewrites this should be the largest release so far measured by the amount of game features reimplemented. At the same time some important achievements were reached such as full coverage of all base production routines. While doing so one interesting highlight of the rewrites was uncovering another event XMINDWORMS that was never triggered even if it looked it should occur sometimes while spawning additional native life. In the modded version mindworms may sometimes be agitated by nearby large human settlements depending on native life activity even if those particular bases may not produce eco damage.

If you have not played Thinker Mod before, see Details.md for a complete overview of the features. There's also discord here and forum thread for Thinker related discussions.

Add option game_event_popup to choose whether to keep multiple events as separate popups.
Add option skip_facility to prevent the governor from choosing various facilities for production.
Add option nerve_staple_turns to set how many turns the effect will last. Setting it to zero disables stapling for all factions.
Remove option nerve_staple when it is replaced by nerve_staple_turns.
Game displays delayed notification when attempting to build more bases after the base limit 512 is reached.
REVOLT special ability has alternative usage and it can make captured bases assimilate faster depending on the config value.
When ignore_reactor_power is enabled, all fungal missiles produce an equal amount of five fungus tiles.
GSP sensor range calculation is restored to use the original distance metric.
Modify TERRAYOURS messages to be displayed only when they occur within five tile distance from any friendly base.
Restore event that happens when both human and alien factions are involved in a base capture. To fix diplomacy dialogue occurring twice during the same turn, the colony pods are spawned further away.
Restore game mechanic where fungal pops on water are sometimes increased up to 9 tiles based on difficulty related modifiers.
Governor may choose PSI units slightly more often for production. However option "may produce native combat units" still controls whether to build any units with PSI attack.
Governor will not select Genejack Factory if building it would induce drones and facilities with psych side effects are disabled.
AI is more likely to select SE choices with growth penalties when the combat situation warrants priority adjustments.
AI has reduced expansion speed at the three lowest difficulty levels when expansion_autoscale is enabled. This is in addition to separate limits set by expansion_limit.
Fix AI not using Isle of the Deep transports to attack nearby enemies.
Fix issues where the combat victory monument was sometimes incorrectly triggered.
Fix XMINDWORMS event never occurring due to original game code. This event may now sometimes happen at the three highest difficulty levels if Bell Curve or skip_event=24 is not set.
Fix SURVIVEPROJECT event not properly displaying restored secret project name.
Fix game never displaying ABANDONBASE1 popup with turns remaining when building the colony pod would disband the base with nutrient surplus.
Fix AI governor sometimes not reconsidering production in other bases after their own base was captured.
Fix Brood Pit not providing lifecycle bonus for built native units as mentioned in the manual.
Fix issue where native mind worms sometimes attacking empty bases could destroy free facilities granted in the faction definition when the intention was to preserve them.
Fix edge case where probe team might fail to find techs to steal even if there are some available.