+1

I actually have had a very good look and I couldn't find any obvious way of allowing Explorers to recieve XP.

As a workaround I'm planning to probably create a new unit mod which looks like the explorer but behaves more like a normal combat unit. This should be possible, if I'm not wrong.

Found it. I commented out a certain line in one of the XMLs and you can get XP and level up normally. Then, you need to create some new promotions (or like i did, copy the old ones) for the explorer.

What do you prefer, a packaged mod or a tutorial on how to do it yourself?

Problem is, commenting out this line may have some other adverse effects. Testing a game now ... but it might cause really subtle AI flaws or something, stuff that'll be hard to test.

UPDATE:

Ah.. one really big issue with this is it stops you from using explorer modules or seeing that you have any.. *sigh* back to the drawing board. If I can find what reads this XML and change that then I might have a better solution but I don't know if modders can easily access that stuff. I'll have a look, anyway.

Yeah, I figured there'd be a downside. Looking at the code myselfd based on what I've read and what you've said, I don't think there'll be a way to have both worlds. It's either combat or exploration...

Correction: seems to work fine, I had an issue preventing me from seeing my # modules because of another unrelated change I made.

testing again lol

If you can get this to work, could you post a tutorial on how to do it? This has been bugging me, too.

On a side note, as far as I can tell there are no affinity specific versions of explorers. They, along with workers, colonists, and trade units, never upgrade or change through the course of the game. (other than a few things giving them an extra expedition or three). Which is unfortunate.

For affinity upgrades I downloaded these mods

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=348714860&tscn=1422276477

OR

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=338534541&searchtext=explorer

They're easy to edit and customise to your liking.

To allow the explorer to level up (and this took me ages to figure out btw) you just have to open the ... i think it was called something like globalvars xml

and comment out a line that was something like

explorer_unit = unit_explorer

I think that should be enough for you to go on, if like me, you were looking for a specific line in the unit documents which added the XP gaining trait, that doesn't exist. Instead this line seems to specifically deny XP from the explorer. I couldn't find any other negative effects but I suspect it might affect how the AI employs explorers. In any case they seem to build them and send them out just fine.

I'm not playing this any more that's about all I can help with.

OK. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Explorers are kind of precarious to use in combat anyway, they need all the bonuses they can get. :)

For me, something about the explorer model with his Fallout New Vegas looks and the rover made me totally fall in love with the idea of exploring a procedurally generated alien world like that. With AI factions dynamically handling the big stuff it's practically my ideal Science Fiction roleplaying game.

So for my personal mod I made explorers start weak but evolve to the point where they have a satisfying amount of tactical options. Then, I deleted all my cities and teamed up with an AI Faction that handled all the boring building b.s.

Way more fun.

That actually sounds like fun, if one could ensure that the AI faction didn't backstab you. I suppose by making sure that one of them is assigned to your team? Sounds like a good topic for another thread, though. Did you put all this in a mod, or is it one existing out there?

Just in my customised edits. I didn't publish it because there are a couple of issues.

1 - you can't restock exploration modules in friendly cities.
2 - The Team AI often signs unfavorable peace treaties the moment you go on the offensive.