[Religion and Revolution]: Mod Development

[raystuttgart]

@team and partners:

New revision available in SVN.
Please everybody get it.

Improvements to Native Raids

Since a lot of people had complained about Native Raids being to heavy I have done the following changes.

1. If a city successfully defends against a Native Raid, there is a chance, that the Raiders are captured and become Native Slaves.
2. Otherwise, if a city successfully defends against a Native Raid, the effects are generally much weaker, than if the Native Raid Party wins.
3. Chance of the different "raid events" have been rebalanced.

Please give me feedback.
(I need feedback to know, if the balancing is ok.)

 

[Schmiddie]

Sounds very good. I will test it next week.

 

[raystuttgart]

@team and partners:

I have found a problem with our graphics, that currently causes CTDs.
(Probably related to our clean up and only internal revision.)

It is related to Artsyltes of mounted Units of Inuit.
So whenever an Inuit Unit is changing profession to a mounted one, the game crashes.

So when testing, please make sure that for the moment you play without Inuits.

Schmiddie will probably have this issue fixed until Sunday night.
(He cannot do it before since he is busy with real life.)

All other Native Artstyles work perfectly after the clean up.
(I am currently running a big test of all our graphics.)


Edit:

There is also a problem with 2 graphics from the Dutch.
So when testing, please make sure that for the moment you play without Dutch.

 

[raystuttgart]

@team:

Schmiddie has found the problem with the Dutch.
I have uploaded the correction to SVN.

By the way:

Performance is so incredibly good for me now (after our clean up) that I am even testing on mapsize GIGANTIC.

 

[Robert Surcouf]

@team:

I have got some good answers about FPKs.

1. All that FPKs are doing is to decrease initial loading of the mod.
2. On newer file systems it does not really make a real difference at all.
3. They have no positive impact to performance or caching ingame.

Oh! Strangely I never had performance issues (except on huge maps) but I always found the initial loading times quite long.
I've tried this morning:
First launch time : 2min7sec.
Second launch time: 17 sec
Third launch time: 20 sec

What am I doing wrong? And what are the caches? I don't know where to find them?

 

[raystuttgart]

Oh! Strangely I never had performance issues (except on huge maps) but I always found the initial loading times quite long.

Well yes, the initial loading times were quite long.
And they are still much longer, than with filled caches.

However, if you have not cleaned your caches for the "first load", that loading will probably take a bit longer.

But since we have changed a lot of small aspects lately,
the second time loading should be very fast.

I've tried this morning:
First launch time : 2min7sec.
Second launch time: 17 sec
Third launch time: 20 sec

The second time you load, the caches are filled.

What am I doing wrong?

You are not necessarily doing anything wrong.
The numbers may vary a lot.

Most important aspects:

1) Graphic Card
2) Access speed to your hard drive
3) 32Bit System or 64Bit System
4) Other programs running
5) Virus Scanner running
6) Loading the mod directly or not
7) Cleaned caches since last update of the mod or not
8) The place where you put the mod
...

See, I am doing everything I can think of, to optimize for our mod.
(So my numbers are probably not representative.)

And what are the caches? I don't know where to find them?

I will explain in a private message this afternoon.

 

[raystuttgart]

@team:

I have implemented something small.
(I have not uploaded yet, because I wanted to get feedback first.)

Mounted Conquistadores

Well yes, they are Conquistadores.
So they also get a bonus against Melee Fighters (Natives without Weapons or Horses).

But they are still very different compared to their unmounted brothers.

A) They are mounted and thus faster.
B) They get a bonus against other mounted units.
C) They do not get defensive bonusses (terrain or cities) at all.
D) They do not get a bonus against Native Mercenaries (which have guns).

Strategie:

They are a very effective counter unit against Natives or mounted enemies.
They should not be used in difficult terrain.

How to get them:

A) DLL-Diplomacy event "Conquistadores".

2/3 of the cases Conquistadores
1/3 of the cases Mounted Conquistadores

B) One or two through Founding Fathers that were famous Conquistadores.

-> They will be rare.

------------

Feedback ?
(May I upload ?)

 

[Robert Surcouf]

Sure go ahead.

By the way:
I've cleaned all the caches! And now my launch times are:
1min00 sec (first launch)
18 or 19sec (second launch)

 

[raystuttgart]

Sure go ahead.

Thanks.
(I will wait a little more for feedback of the others.)

By the way:
I've cleaned all the caches! And now my launch times are:
1min00 sec (first launch)
18 or 19sec (second launch)

The times vary a bit on my system as well.
But that is pretty much, what I expected.
(And as I said, there are also other factors involved.)

Also I had been counting the seconds in my head and not with a clock.
So there is some "slow counting ray" tolerance in my numbers.

 

[raystuttgart]

@team:

New revision available in SVN.

1. Small new feature: Mounted Conquistadores
(I had to upload it, otherwise I could not continue working.)

2. Small fix for Smuggling

 

[Schmiddie]

@ team:

I have uploaded the final atlas with city management building graphics. Test if you like.

Furthermore I have increased the transparency of the placeholder slot in front of the buildings. Now you can see the buildings clearly better.

 

[raystuttgart]

I have uploaded the final atlas with city management building graphics. Test if you like.

Furthermore I have increased the transparency of the placeholder slot in front of the buildings. Now you can see the buildings clearly better.

Great.
(I will test this evening.)

 

[raystuttgart]

@Schmiddie:

I have taken a look at (all) the new Building Graphics for CityScreen.
They look fantastic !

 

[Robert Surcouf]

@Schmiddie:

I have taken a look at (all) the new Building Graphics for CityScreen.
They look fantastic !

Oh! Yes I forgot to say that too. Incredible they are says master yoda

 

[raystuttgart]

@Schmiddie:

I have been testing:

1. Mounted Inuit
2. Bridges of Road / Plastered Road
3. New Bonus Resource Horses

All working and looking great !

@team:

Inuit can be used again in game.

 

[raystuttgart]

@team:

New revision available in SVN.
I have fixed a small bug (wrong XML setting) about New War of Independence from TAC.
(It was no bug in TAC, but simply something I had overseen.)

 

[Robert Surcouf]

@team:

New revision available in SVN.
I have fixed a small bug (wrong XML setting) about New War of Independence from TAC.
(It was no bug in TAC, but simply something I had overseen.)

Great!
When I'll check the bug regarding storms, I'd like to enable ships to speak with chief. However my solution might be awkward. I intend to enable any unit without profession except treasures to be able to speak with chief.
This means wagon trains, stagecoaches and special units such as native mercenaries.
So
1. Is this OK?
2. Does anyone see a potential bug?

Spoiler :

I intend to fix the bug on Friday

 

[raystuttgart]

Is this OK?
...
Does anyone see a potential bug?

Could we do that change after Release 1.2 ?
I would rather not include something like that so short before the release.
(I think it is better to have more time for internal testing with things like that.)

I intend to fix the bug on Friday

Great.

 

[Robert Surcouf]

Could we do that change after Release 1.2 ?
I would rather not include something like that so short before the release.
(I think it is better to have more time for internal testing with things like that.)

No problem !

 

[raystuttgart]

No problem !

Ok thanks.