Alternative FTL Tech
Adds rare technologies that give "alternative" versions of the standard FTL drives. This mod is intended for games that are restricted to one type of FTL (say, Warp Drive Only), but it will work in games without that limit (although it’s not quite as interesting there imo).
Why would you want to use this mod in a one-FTL game? Well, you might not, and fair enough! It’s just an option: to let empires rarely discover the otherwise unavailable FTL drives as sidegrade techs. For example, in a Hyperdrive Only game, getting the alternate Warp Drive gives you a slow flanking option. But only if you get the tech and spend the time researching it and make a separate fleet that uses the alternate drive.
All the drives are more expensive and power-hungry than their basic variants (35 minerals, 12.5 power). There is only one kind of each and typically they have (some of) the benefits of the level-2 version.
Alt Warp Drive: +50% range over normal L1 Warp Drive (67.5 units, equivalent to normal L2 Warp Drive).
Alt Hyperdrive: -25% windup time over normal L1 Hyperdrive (11.25 days, equivalent to normal L2 Hyperdrive).
The alternate Warp Drive requires the Cold Fusion tech and alternate Hyperdrive requires Hyperlane Mapping. It should be impossible to get an alt FTL tech if your empire has the normal version (i.e., Warp Drive empires will never get the alternate Warp Drive tech). It will be harder with get without a researcher with an appropriate trait or the L2 version of your empire’s FTL tech. It will be easier if you have the L3 version of your empire’s FTL and/or any other alt FTL tech.
Why no wormhole tech alternative? Because wormhole FTL is really weird. Trying to modify or duplicate it in any way is, I’ve found, a fool’s errand. Notice that you never get an updated Wormhole Drive in the base game. That’s because the tech operates on the station’s properties. And apparently the station’s prerequisite is hard-coded to the base game’s Wormhole tech. Unless I find a way around this, it will be unavailable as an alternative. Sorry! (I would be very grateful if anyone who knows about this can help.)
Warning: Have not really tested this much. Please let me know how it works. Not really sure how the AI will handle this because I don’t know how well its weighting system will let it intelligently use sidegrade options.
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
