Gotcha. Appreciate the error log. I'll take a look at it when I get the chance :)

Fixed file
https://pastebin.com/HisqJdQ0

In my game I replaced the 00_phys_tech.txt from mod with this zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz_PreFTL_phys_tech.txt

https://pastebin.com/fSWBTDGj


Works fine (no vanilla hyperdrive at game start).
Since vanilla hyperdrive is moved to mod tech anyway, no need to edit starting hyperdrive tech and to overwrite all the other techs.

Needed to add some zzzzzzz to 00_utilities_drives.txt name too so it overwrites drive data from other mods.

Originally posted by Sleeeper:

Works fine (no vanilla hyperdrive at game start).
Since vanilla hyperdrive is moved to mod tech anyway, no need to edit starting hyperdrive tech and to overwrite all the other techs.

Gotcha, that looks promising, and should make the mod much more friendly with others! It does seem to show hyperdrive 2 as being a duplicate technology in the error log now so I'll need to double check that it loads the new tech requirement over the original, and orders everything properly (so you don't get the opportunity to research ftl tech 2 or 3 before 1 even appears).

Originally posted by Sleeeper:

Needed to add some zzzzzzz to 00_utilities_drives.txt name too so it overwrites drive data from other mods.

What would adding zzzzzz to the file name do? Does it tell the game how to treat duplicate entries somehow?

No it's just load order i think, so it overwrites other entries with same name.

In multiplayer every now and then I got new civil ship blueprints without FTL-engine, which annoyingly directly overwrite my designs with FTL-engine. So I have to either build new ships or build starbases to repair them. If I'm remembering correctly, the old mod, you stripped this civil-design part from also had this bug.

Update: After a while I recognized, that I also do get new STL-civil designs, when I meet a new species.

I suspected the last update might have that effect. Unfortunately without it the AI has issues with their ships and their empires aren't functioning/expanding without it. I could put up a multiplayer no-ai version of the mod for folks wanting to use this in a multiplayer without regular AI (marauders, F.E. and Caraveeners should work fine still). Otherwise this would be the lesser of the two "evils".

@Getglad188
Thank you for the fast responding. Well, it would be a great help to have a multiplayer version. But, if the AI isn't working correctly, it would have pretty much the same results, as it will get unplayable. So I would vote to get things fixed in the running release to use it single- and multiplayer together.

I tried it by deleting the auto-designs, but got new ones + missing engines with evey new contact. I tried to keep them and have my designs additionally, then I got my ships overwrtitten with the non-FTL designs every now and then.

What I do not understand is, why the designs get changed without even visiting a starbase? I would accept it, when I order them to re-build at a starbase, but not while flying in dark space.

Couldn't you fix in a line that prevents changing designs while flying in space or to have re-built only at starbases? From my perspective, this should be the usual way to change basic designs of already built ships.

So the designs get changed without visiting a starbase not just because of the auto-design feature (as you know it in the ships designer) but by a seperate system (auto upgrade) that the devs put in specifically for civilian ships. It's how, without designable civilian ships, they still seem to upgrade without having to send them to a starbase every time you get a new ftl drive, or shield level. If you watch in the base game, your science ships will upgrade (for example, their shields) after you research them without a standard re-fit.

The problem we're bumping up against here is that the AI isn't coded to upgrade their civilian ships like you or I would ("manually" sending them to a starbase to upgrade). The AI relies on this "auto upgrade" feature for civilian ships which changes the ships as they fly around, as the base game has civilian ships set to do normally.

To fix it, I'd have to patch the auto-upgrade programming (which is hardcoded, and currently beyond my ability) or patch the AI to tell them to send their civilian ships to a starbase to upgrade (which is also beyond my ability at the moment).

The line is found in ship_sizes (specifically: auto_upgrade = yes/no ), and requires a yes/no input. I've tried adding a check to this to seperate AI and player empires, but it breaks all sorts of things that I can't even tell how they are related to this one line.

As soon as I researched physics_2 both exp and normal hyperdrive techs appeared at the same time in research options, not intended i guess.

no ftl related tech appearing using
ACOT
gigastructural engineering
UI overhaul dynamic
pre ftl players testing

Originally posted by Xyllisa Meem Paradox Station:

no ftl related tech appearing using ...

Seems there was no conflict with those mods (or at least, I see none both in viewing the files and in play-testing myself). I believe the issue lies in the pre-requisites for the drives, specifically science labs 2 (the one about exotic material labs). Without exotic gases tech, either mining or artificial, it had a 0 factor of being an option. The gases techs only appeared if certain conditions were met, which are slightly randomized, even for the same start. That said, a scientist with a materials specialization should have been sufficient to override that.

Either way I've added a slim chance (33%) that the tech is drawn even without exotic materials mining or artificial techs. Ideally, it should be enough that you'll find it eventually.

After I implemented the change, I was able to reach the experimental tech level eventually. Keep in mind as well I intend for it to be 80-100 years before level 1 hyper-drives are researched.

thank you for the help, i only got that tech a couple times in my playthroughs and didn't realise it was a prereq

After the release of Pyxis 3.10.0, this mod no longer allows you to build colonization ships, construction ships and scientific ships at the beginning of the game.