About:

Autumn Twilight v2 is a overhaul mod for Galactic Civilizations 2 - Ultimate Edition. Its purpose is to remove the more extreme changes made to the game due to the integration of the Community Update, to make the gameplay more like how it was in the last official version (v2.04), and to fix as many of the remaining bugs as possible.

Highlights:

- restored a lot of content that got removed/replaced by the Community Update (e.g., technologies, planetary improvements, starbase modules, etc.)

- changed the tech trees to more closely resemble the original ones, and made a few balancing adjustments (primarily to the weapons trees)

- changed a lot of techs so you can trade and/or steal them again

- restored the original gameplay values (i.e., abilities, planetary improvements, and so on) and made some small balancing adjustments

- undid several changes to the UI made by the Community Update (e.g., the removal of the ability to buy planets from the AI)

- and more...

For more details regarding the changes made in the mod, please take a look at the changelog.

For a comparison of the gameplay related differences between Autumn Twilight and v2.04 of GalCiv 2, please take a look at the Comparison spreadsheet.

You can download the mod and all the other files on NexusMods.

Questions, feedback, and general comments are always welcome!

I hope you like Autumn Twilight, and have fun playing it!

Installation:

1. Download and unzip the file, then place the Mods folder into GalCiv 2's Twilight folder.

The exact path depends on where you got the game from and where you installed it.

For example, for the standard path for the GOG-version is:
C:\GOG Games\Galactic Civilizations II\Twilight

1.1 This part is optional. If you don't care about the campaigns, then continue with point 2.

Place the unzipped Campaigns folder into the following folder:
...\Galactic Civilizations II\Twilight\Data\English

1.2 When asked to overwrite the existing Campaigns folder, press 'Yes'. None of the existing files will be overwritten.

2. Start the game and go to the Options menu. On the 'Game' tab, activate the 'Use Mods' option.

3. Now click on the 'Change' button in the lower right corner of the 'Current Mods Directory' box. This will open a new window. There click on 'Default'. This will close the window and cause the game to use the mods directory for the expansion Twilight of the Arnor instead of the base game.

4. Click on 'Change' again. Now select Autumn Twilight and click on 'Done'. The 'Current Mods Directory' should now look like this (depending on your game-version and installation path):
C:\GOG Games\Galactic Civilizations II\Twilight\Mods\Autumn Twilight

5. Restart the game, so the changes take effect.

6. If you have played the game or a previous version of Autumn Twilight before, go to the folder User Name\My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor and delete any files with the ending .raceconfigxml. Otherwise, any changes to the races can't take effect. You will also need to start a new game, because mod-changes cannot affect games currently in progress.

Uninstallation:

1. To uninstall the mod, change the 'Current Mods Directory' to 'Default' in the game. Then delete the Autumn Twilight folder under Galactic Civilizations II\Twilight\Mods and repeat all steps from point 6. of the Installation instructions.

2. To uninstall the updated campaigns, delete all files starting with AT from the Campaigns main and sub-folders under Galactic Civilizations II\Twilight\Data\English\Campaigns

Credits:

MarvinKosh – for inspiring me to expand my original mod to fix the tech trees too, and inviting me to help with the CU (which ultimately lead to this new version of Autumn Twilight)

Tolmekian – for discussing several balance changes in the original version of my mod with me, and providing general tips

Sole Soul – for providing information regarding several game mechanics (especially logistics and taxes)

MabusAltarn – for providing information regarding some issues with the minor races' tech tree and how the espionage flavour text entries work

MisterAedan – for helping with the testing of my original mod, providing feedback, and giving me an idea for some small changes to the Drengin tech tree (part of which are still in the new version)

UnleashedElf – for helping with the testing of my original mod and providing lots of feedback and encouragement

Spinorial - for providing a fixed version of the RaceImage05_neutral.bik (fixes the flickering)

Maiden666 – for discussing several balance changes with me (primarily to the ability bonuses, political parties, and UP proposals)

Thank you Gaunathor :-)

Thank you for your effort, Gaunathor. It is much appreciated.

Thank You!

Thank you very much !
Is there an easy way to check in-game if you're playing with the mod ? Because I had difficulties to configure properly the mod directory, and I just want to be sure everything is well configured and the mod really active :)

The easiest way is probably to check how many customisation points you have available. If it is 10 (or less, depending on the race) then the mod is working.

You mean when you customize your civilization ? (cf screenshot)
It seems it doesn't work properly for me...
When I followed the instructions, when I tried to change the mod folder, I simply can't do anything... And I had to modify this file : "C:\Users\Kaelmn\Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor\Prefs.ini" to see one change, but it seems the mod isn't activated.
Is it normal that I can't change the 'Current Mods Directory' in the options ? Is there something special to do ?

Edit : Everything is ok now ! I uninstalled all and reinstalled all. I directly followed your instructions before doing anything else in game (on my previous try, I changed several settings before following your instructions, maybe it was this the problem), and now it works :D
Thank you for your answer and help :)

I don't know about GOG version, but
activating AT2.1 mod makes the Stardock GC2 Ultimate Edition 2.20.0 version (DL from my consumer page there) to crash at start.
Of course, it is not a Steam game!
The game was launching good before activating the mod. I use Win10.
EDIT: Woops okay there's a Stardock forum here: http://forums.stardock.com/forum/172

Are you sure you've installed the mod correctly? There is no reason why the game should crash.

I've tested the mod with the GOG-version, the Steam-version, and the Stardock-version. It worked fine.

Could you upload the content of the Debug.err? It's located under My Docs\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor (at least for Win XP, Vista, and 7). Maybe it can give me some clue as to what might cause the crash.

I made it short (I don't think I cut important matter).
I verified that I had installed 2.20, not a so 1.53 (however it's what writen ingame in bottom left corner!).
No, there are not the missing files in your mod folders.

Debug Message: Version v1.53 last updated on: Wed Nov 5 13:52:02 2008
Time: 1/4/2016, 21:45:40

Debug Message: No files found matching mask J:\Jeux\GalCiv2\Mods\Autumn Twilight\Movies\*.bik
Debug Message: No files found matching mask J:\Jeux\GalCiv2\Mods\Autumn Twilight\Movies\techs\*.bik
Debug Message: No files found matching mask J:\Jeux\GalCiv2\Mods\Autumn Twilight\Gfx\*.png
Debug Message: No files found matching mask J:\Jeux\GalCiv2\Mods\Autumn Twilight\Gfx\Race\*.png
Debug Message: No files found matching mask J:\Jeux\GalCiv2\Mods\Autumn Twilight\sfx\*.wav
Debug Message: No files found matching mask J:\Jeux\GalCiv2\Mods\Autumn Twilight\Music\*.mp3
Debug Message: No files found matching mask J:\Jeux\GalCiv2\Mods\Autumn Twilight\Event Music\*.mp3

I see what the problem is. You are starting the base-game, instead of Twilight of the Arnor. The mod doesn't work with the base-game. Please use the GC2TwilightOfTheArnor.exe under Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition\Twilight. That should fix the problem.

That's it! You should add this in your mod page (point 2); thank you Gaunathor! (and for your mod)
Bad Stardock installer, which does not create shortcuts. It's not friendly for newbz or long time coming back players.

Hey everyone! I'm currently working on a new version.

It's still going to be a while before I'm finished, but I wanted to give you a little view of what's to come.

So, what's new?

Almost all of the techs removed by the CU are back again. I also undid some of the name and cost changes of several techs. This, combined with some changes to tech requirements and the availability of certain techs, made the tech trees look even more like the original ones. It's still not 100%, but close enough. I'm quite happy with the result.

The planetary improvements are very close to vanilla status now. With the exception of Intensive Farming, all of the removed improvements are back. The majority of the Trade Goods, Super Projects, and Galactic Achievements have their old values and tech requirements again. The regular improvements are very close to it too. Primarily their output. Their cost and maintenance is still a bit different, though I'm not too bothered by that. It's mainly for game-balance reasons.

Ship weapons and defences got a major overhaul again. I'm using Dark Avatar as a base this time, and combined it with the modifications from TotA (weapons unique to certain races, not everyone has access to every weapon/defence, etc.). The values of the components are almost completely unchanged. I only did some minor tweaks here and there. The techcosts saw the biggest change (primarily the missile and mass driver techs).

Engines and sensor also got a small overhaul. They are now a bit closer to the vanilla values (or a bit larger in case of some of the engines).

The changes to the ship components may brake existing ship designs (especially if they use Dynamic Shields II or III, or Chaff II, because those components no longer exist). I'm sorry about that.

There are a lot more changes, but this is meant to be only a short overview. If you'd like a more detailed look at the current state of the planetary improvements and ship components, you can download the spreadsheet I use for AT here.

Don't you think they so have to be included back, just for this brake reason?
Just those missing few, renamed and balanced if needed.