v1.8 iGalaxy - Gameplay Improvements

[inferno]

This universe is a world filled with danger, growing civilizations, alien life forms, and weapons of great power left by the ancients.

This is iGalaxy.


Instructions:

1. Download iGalaxy.zip from MediaFire.
2. Unzip it into your BS2 file (should place some files in the img folder)
3. Load iGalaxy.bs2

Note: This mod is NOT designed to be played in full screen! There are way too many triggers, interactions, and elements to enjoy it fully in full screen. It was tested and made for something as big or slightly bigger than the default sandbox size.

The demo of this mod won the October 2007 modding contest.

Features:

Sun
Blackhole
Several "god tools," including:
- Raze (boils away planet's atmosphere)
- Decimate (turns planet to nothing)
- Phazon (slowly corrupts planet)
A detailed planet system, similar to earth's. Just draw some Planet (second element in Galaxy group), then add continent (third element in Galaxy group). Not satisfied with the results on your first try? You also can add:
- Forests
- Deserts
- Mountains
- Volcanoes
- Ice continents
A moon, with craters. Also the planet type for alien life
Asteroid field
A detailed civilization growth system, with houses, villages, boats, life, cities, and, later on, space stations
An alien horde. Start off with a few alien life forms on a moon, and they may blossom into a horrific, life-devouring society of power hungry lunar people!
An alien mother ship, cruisers, fighters, and almighty citadel
Controllable mouse-aim turret, the Zeus Cannon, a relic of the ancients. For instructions on use, see below
A Phazon planet, Phaaze, with which you can launch corruption across the galaxy!
Automatic aiming and firing of aliens and humans ships!
A Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC, or railgun), an invention of humans, that can take down any alien foe. It does its job on its own
A custom interface designed to increased sandbox size and more!
Two buttons beneath the groups on the left that let you toggle whether aliens and humans fight, and opens the console
A race of Ancients (incomplete)
Ungodly plagues that terrorize, envelop, and destroy, including
- The Flood
-- Hive structures and collective, absorbing intelligence
- X-parasties
- Metroids
A mighty race of harbingers (not started)
Space seeding to start with a random solar system

== HOW TO USE TURRETS ==

Step-by-step Guide

1.) Draw 1 pixel of the turret's element.
2.) Press 1 for control of the Zeus Cannon, 2 for control of Phaaze, or 3 for control of the BigMAC. There is also a menu below the groups that can be used.
3.) Aim...
4.) Fire by clicking the left mouse button.
5.) To return to sandbox mode, click the right mouse button.

== Special Thanks ==

First and foremost, JoeMaximum, for his help in debugging and for his explanation of his Mouse Aim and Fire template, among other things.

mudjosh, for making me want to make this even better by releasing his universe mod as I toiled away at this.

BurntFaceMan and Delvar, for their inspiration from BattleVerse and Planetbuilders. And BurntFaceMan again for many of these HEXes, and for giving me the idea for the Zeus Cannon.

== Release History ==

v0 - Release
v0.1 - Automatic firing added for shuttles, fighters, cruisers, and mother ships
v0.11 - Fixed an error that allowed alien lasers to fire through everything
v0.15 - Minor changes to the firing and damage mechanisms
v0.17 - More fixes with the firing systems. Made it so that user-controlled turrets (Zeus Cannon and Phaaze) don't mysteriously disappear.
v0.18 - UGH! More bug fixes with the auto aim and fire. This time to the MACs.
v0.3 - Expanded alien civilization slightly. Various fixes to firing system. Also, custom interface was added!
v0.31 - War stops when FPS is below 10.
v0.4 - Added more to the interface, and started the Ancients and Plague.
v0.45 - Updated plague dramatically. Also, changed the way that the Zeus Cannon's blast and decimation work, actually cutting the mod by about 2000 characters
v0.47 - Another change to an internal system, how Phazon corruption works. Makes it easier on me when I update later on
v0.5 - Some bugs were fixed
v0.6 - Updated it for Alpha 5. Interface update and use of TRIGGER to optimize code
v0.7 - Click Here
v0.8 - Topped off the Flood, and added The Ring to Ancients. Not selectable, but occurs with a rare interaction
v0.9 - Added mouse click firing for the turret, and added turret control menu icon
v1.0 - I changed the mouse wheel shortcuts - regularly increases/descreses brush size, but while holding Ctrl will zoom in on your mouse. Also, replaced scroll selector.
v1.1 - Added console counter, X parasites, and Metroids.
v1.2 - Added barrels for turrets and new SUPER COMPACT firing system.
v1.3 - Removed Prowler, menu adjustments, bug fixes, icons for Ancients, new Decimation icon, and more.
v1.4 - Now compatible with Sieben's wiki system. Also, removed Home icon, as starting iGalaxy screws up any regular gameplay for that session. Added several new things underneath the middle click of the console button. Population counting now adds a log to the console.
v1.5 - Added Raze turret.
v1.6 - Terran growth rebalanced, shuttle production limit, missiles damage the moon, lasers damage Terran planets, flood-controlled ships (spreading infection across the stars)
v1.7 - Added Ion Cannon
v1.75 - General code cleanup, fixed the special drawing tools menu, and changed Ion Cannon charge indicator.
v1.8 - Improved zoom and scroll functions, added background image, fixed window resizing, rebalanced combat, improved general performance, especially with black hole, added support for future additions to BS2
== How to Load this Mod ==

Click the link near the top of this post. It is words iGalaxy, in slightly big text, where it says "This is iGalaxy." Then go into BS2, click Sandbox, then right click the gears icon at the top of the screen. Hit Paste from Clipboard, and it will load

== How to Use the Custom Interface ==

iGalaxy has a very unique interface. The top and right menus have been removed in exchange for something more efficient. To select an element, click on a group. This will expand a submenu that contains the elements of that group.

To switch between the draw and load menus, click the button farthest to the left on the bottom menu.

On the left menu, there are buttons near the bottom.

Turrets - Left click only. Allows control of turrets,

Life Options - Left click for various controls, right click for population counting.

Console - Left click to open console, middle click for submenu that allows you to open console.txt or iGalaxy's source, right click for listing options

The mouse wheel normally increases brush size. Holding Ctrl makes it zoom in and out.


== Current Information ==

Suggestions are appreciated, as is feedback.

I know what is causing the "teleporting shot" glitch. It has to do with what will stop everything from firing whenever there is not an enemy on the screen. Removing this would make things pretty annoying.

== Links and Resources ==

iGalaxy Savegame

iGalaxy's Aim and Fire System

[JoeMaximum]

Wow !!!!

What a job you done Inferno, very pleased to see you put all your BS2 learning into something COOL and FUN !!

Serioulsy, you did an excellent work on this one, it surpass any universe mod i played so far, and the new additon of turret and cannon, cool looking alien and beautiful effects show the power of BS2.

I'll dig into everything deeper, and it would make a nice multiplayer mod

[Psudomorph]

Well, the first thing that strikes me is that there is very little here that is new, the whole mod is basically an element-by-element copy of battleverse with some BS2 stuff thrown in, and one less alien race.

I'm hoping that the mod is a work in progress and you're planning on adding a lot more to it, otherwise you are just reinventing the wheel.

Also, I personally think the aliens looked better in battleverse, especially the citadel.

[inferno]

Multiplayer... I may make a second edition designed specifically for multiplayer, i.e., designed for your server program.

Edit: Psudomorph, this is inspired by BattleVerse. I did, however, code everything but the space station and the aiming system from scratch.

And the aliens are a work in progress. I really just threw in the civilization parts just before release.

[mudjosh]

looks cool! Haven't tried it yet.. will edit after I try...

Wow.. Nice amped up version of BV.. I like the guns.. much better than how it used to be.. Is there any guns for the aliens though? I put the zeus cannon near them and it fired AT them..

I like the use of healblocks.. this is starting to look like WXsand universe mods... now if we could get K. Sand over here and make us an Alien Space-station mod.. that would be Super!

[izbayachonay]

Very very nice!

Only constructive feedback I can give is maybe having the sun's explosion be a little more sped up when you shoot it with the Zeus cannon? Or perhaps, slow at first [to keep the dramatic feeling,] then it picks up speed and sweeps across space?

Anywho, very nice

[reapaninja]

wow. I like how you made it so we can actually SEE the size we are drawing. that, and the cannons.

[Psudomorph]

wow. I like how you made it so we can actually SEE the size we are drawing.

If you want, you can have that option on all the time in BS2 by left-clicking the gears icon, and then the crosshair icon on the menu.

[neilnapier]

When the planet explodes the effect is amazing... much better than Devlars avatar!

Good work, if your mod you entered the contest with is half as good as this then I have lost severly!

[mudjosh]

ouch.. I just now read the credits... Thanks inferno.. greatly. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside..

I just heard people wanting an outer space mod for BS2.. So I tried it.. Next time I won't.. Sorry..

Well.. I guess that is it..