Expanding Fronts 1.4 Full file

Expanding Fronts version 1.4.0 is now available, featuring a new architecture set for the Confederacy, alongside numerous balance adjustments, performance tweaks, and some added content.

NEW CONTENT AND FEATURES
- Confederacy civ now features a new building art set, except Shipyards (will be patched in later).

BALANCE AND UNIT STATS:
- (All Civs) Mounted Troopers - Reduced damage bonus against all Wall types by 20.
- (All Civs) Light Walls - Increased base armor to 2/6 (from 2/2).
- (All Civs) Mines now have 40 Atk, +10 vs Troopers, and increased splash radius.
- (CF) IG-101 and IG-102 are now classified as mechanical units, and no longer receive healing from Medics.
- (CF) Magnaguard - Elite armor reduced to 8/3; increased Speed to 1.05; Unit is now affected by War Center infantry technologies.
- (FO) Scouts now receive their automatic upgrades when Teching up.
- (FO) Worker carry capacity reduced to +3 from +5.
- (GN) Monitors are now biological and have detection abilities to match other Gungan warships.
- (GN) Potent Plasma tech now gives Gungan units individual bonuses ranging from +1 to +3. Units are also given the corresponding attack class at 0 where needed.
- (RS) Resilience technology has been implemented.
- (RS) Ski Speeder - Reduced bonus damage against Assault Mechs by 2(3); increased unit cost by +10 Carbon.
- (RS) Scouts now receive their automatic upgrades when Teching up.
- (ZC) Defiler - Stealth removed from Elite version.
- (ZC) Defiler now benefits from Grenadier Training and Explosive Yields Increased.
- Numerous unit fixes to editor units.

PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY:
- Wall construction now functions properly on XL maps.
- Made improvements to unit pathfinding on XL maps.
- Fixed view-centering on gather points not accounting for elevation.

AI:
Scripting:
- Increased AI rule limit from 1,000 to 10,000.
Computer AI:
- Fixed AI getting stuck in TL1 due to a refusal to build extra Farms.
- Fixed AI getting stuck in TL1 due to not meeting TL2 tech-up population requirements.
- Fixed an endless attack-now loop caused by certain rules playing together when more than one Computer is in a team.
- Fixed AI being unable to attack on Giant maps in 1v1 if player spawns were not close enough.
- AI will now release any escrowed resources when civilian population drops below 20%. This should reduce the AI's tendency to stall in the middle of matches.
- AI will now utilize Shipyards more effectively on maps with fish.
Computer Expanded AI:
- AI now features a 'Scenario Mode' that can be enabled in the Scenario Editor. By utilizing certain trigger commands, the behavior of the AI can be more reliably controlled in custom maps.
- AI can now support an additional range of population limits.
- Easiest will no longer load goals pertaining to units it does not train.
- Fixed an issue that caused AI to not check for the number of Power Cores owned in TL1, resulting in them constructing excessive amounts.
- Fixed case of using chat to computer instead of player in a diplomacy message.
- AI will now maintain a minimum amount of Farms even if it has plenty of food so its Workers have something to do.
- Attempted to fix AI freezing due to out-of-range enemies.
- Fixed combat-arm AIR getting stuck by adding a rollback mechanic so switch-aircraft-type goal gets reset to FIGHTER if there are no Fighters.
- Fixed other combat-arm AA trooper training rule triggering in cases where said civ was combat-arm AIR, which has its own dedicated rule.
- Easy difficulty will now research first-tier economic upgrades.
- AI now properly considers Mounted Troopers and Bombers in siege-focused strategies.
- AI will be more reliable at building additional Food Processing Centers as needed.
- Fixed Moderate difficulty not having proper goals for Boomer personality Workers.
- Fixed AI tendency to overproduce Fighters due to missing population checks.
- Civs that prefer AA Troopers or Mobiles will now attempt to build Fighters if required resources for the preferred options are low, or if their preferred choice is outnumbered by enemy air.
- Fixed bug that caused combat-arm UNIQUE or combat-arm SUPP to not build Fortresses.
- Fixed instances of AI sometimes failing to train Elite unique units.
- Improved target prioritization when the enemy has Fortresses or Turrets.
- Improved Tech-Up rules for TL2 on Moderate and upwards. AI will now wait until it has a satisfactory number of Workers to advance instead of doing so at the first opportunity.
- AI will now attempt to build more Troop Centers and Airbases if militarily inferior.
- Adjusted prefab building rules so the AI doesn't remain housed for extended times.
- Combat-arms UNIQUE, MECH/HW, AIR, JEDI will always rush advancement to TL2.
- Adjusted TL3 gather rules.
- Corrected issues with buying/selling resources at Spaceports
- Will now train Workers with escrow food in TL2 if below the ideal amount.
- Escrow ore in TL3 for 2nd Command Center.
- Combat-arm/combat-supp UNIQUE will use escrow ore to get first Fortress if they do not otherwise manage to build it.
- Combat-arm/combat-supp UNIQUE will turn on escrow for ore in TL4 if they do not have a Fortress, and use the escrowed metal to build one.
- Fixed AI not building a Troop Center in TL1 when needed.
- Adjusted wall building rules. AI should no longer begin walling immediately in TL2 in order to focus Workers on economy for longer. AI should no longer attempt to continue building walls while under attack.
- Made adjustments to gathering percentage rules.
- Implemented Mounted Trooper rush strategy for combat-arm/pre-unique-arm TROOP.
- Will now train Workers with escrow food until at 5% of maximum pop at TL1.
- Combat-supp MECH/HW will now train Mech Destroyers.
- Added rules for Spaceport to buy resources for Wonder in cases where relevant resources have run out on the map.
- Added safeguard in combat-supp repicking logic so map type is checked, AI should not repick combat-supp SEA on RIVER, ISLAND, or WATER map types.
- Added safeguard rules to TL2/TL3 escrow so resources released if the AI player has spent over 8 minutes(TL2) 5 minutes(TL3) in the Tech Level.
- Removed AI's willingness to waste military units exploring if TL2 or higher when the AI player does not have military parity.
- Attempted to fix AI's call for help behavior so it actually triggers.
- Adjusted combat-arm TROOP mechanic for training Mech Destroyers so it cares for the presence of enemy Strike Mechs rather than being militarily inferior.
- Altered team game resign conditions to less than 8 own workers & 8 allied workers from 0.
- AI is now more reliable when playing Commander of the Base, and will make more aggressive attempts to capture and hold Command Bases.

CAMPAIGNS AND SCENARIOS:
- Battles of the Galaxy 1: Corrected typo in the Recon menu, made small map layout adjustments, added Animal Nursery to the Imperial Research Facility.

RANDOM MAPS:
- NEW Scripts: Alaris Prime, Corvus, Kordoku, Nevarro, Tython, Wasskah

GRAPHICS/AUDIO:
- (GO) Mech Destroyer graphic size has been reduced slightly.
- (RP) NTB-630 has been given a new graphic set.
- (RS) Mech Destroyer graphic size has been reduced slightly.
- (RS) Command Center graphic size has been reduced slightly to fit within its selection box.
- (FO) Changed Jet Trooper projectiles.
- (GO) Corrected Geonosian Warrior shadows from black to transparent.
- (GO) Changed Geonosian Warrior's death animation from a fiery explosion to a brown goo explosion.
- (GN) Corrected the attack animation of the Gungan Piranha Interceptor (editor unit).
- (GN) Removed stray red pixels that appeared on the Gungan Transport Mech.
- (CF) Corrected the projectile firing height of the Providence-class Destroyer (editor unit).
- (CF) Improved Artillery and Cannon sprites.
- Fixed some graphical artifacts with some units.

INTERFACE:
- Corrected instances of inconsistent use of hyphens and apostrophes.
- Removed references to Hvy Attacker and Hvy Interceptor from extended unit descriptions.
- Changed the names of many landed aircraft in the Scenario Editor for better consistency. All landed craft start with "Landed" in the name so they are all listed together.
- (FO) Worker carry capacity bonus now listed on the Tech Tree.
- (GN) Automatic Stealth detection bonus for military ships now listed on the Tech Tree.

SCENARIO EDITOR:
- Change Unit Data/Change Unit Property Object - properties Unknown098, Unknown099, Unknown09A renamed to Resource1StoreMode, Resource2StoreMode, Resource3StoreMode respectively.
- Change Terrain effect - Fixed terrain list.
- Minor changes to what information is shown in Condition/Effect descriptions.
- Changed the civilization of some hero units: Tann's Transport -> CF, Slave I (Jango) -> CF, Slave I (Boba) -> GE, Moldy Crow -> RA, Aurra Sing -> All, Mother Talzin -> All
- Changed the names of many landed aircraft in the editor for more consistency. All landed craft start with "Landed" in the name so they are all listed together.
- Added several new units, objects, and buildings to the editor.
- Multiple new Terrains added.

MISC:
- (FO) Corrected issue that caused the increased Anti-Air missile speed gained from Advanced Torpedoes to be lost after researching Homing Sensors.
- (GO) Corrected issue that caused Geonosian Anti-Air missiles to lose their sounds after researching Homing Sensors.
- (RS) Jedi Masters now have access to Master conversion abilities when accessed using the Editor or in All Techs mode.
- Corrected issue that allowed the power element of Resistance Fortresses to be convertible by enemy Temple units.
- Implemented store mode 8: type 80 - give on completion, stay after destruction, types 10-70 - N/A
- Corrected the internal resource value of Mines that led to earning excessive score for destroying them.
- In windowed mode, the cursor is now locked to the window by default. This can be removed by changing to "UseCursorClip=0" in the wndmode.ini file.

KNOWN ISSUES:
- (CF) Does not have unique Shipyard graphics yet
- (RP) NTB-630 still uses old Icon