Changes for v1.08

Dale

Mohawk Games Developer
Joined
Mar 14, 2002
Messages
7,584
Hi all,

At the least, 1.08 will include the new politics system for colonists. :D

The new system is essentially that every colonist has their own individual rebel sentiment, which is influenced by numerous factors. The sum of the colonists's rebel sentiment will make up the global rebel sentiment.

Here's the first shots of the dev work. :)

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Here's the changelog for the upcoming 1.08. Feel free to discuss and suggest ideas. :)

Code:
* PiMan's New Australia & Australia Civs
* NeverMind's New Russia & Russia Civs
* Younflancy's New China & China Civs
* Other changes
	* Tax Trade Theshold doubled (can trade more before a tax rise)
	* All units now single graphics on map
	* No Pirates till after turn 30 (if AI controlled)
	* Added new tag: bFromWest to indicate Civ begins on the west of the map
* Rebel Sentiment changes
	* Each colonist has their own RS on a percentage scale
	* Each colony's CRS is based on each colonist's RS in the colony
	* Global GRS is based on the RS of all units except those on the docks in Europe
	* Producing bells has an upward effect on all colonist's RS, the more bells the more upwards movement
	* Statemen in colonies raise the RS of units on the colony's plot on the map (eg: soldiers)
	* RS generation takes into account gameSpeed & handicap
	* Colonist's RS is now shown on the scale in the Revolution Advisor screen
	* What affects colonist RS:
		- City bell production (raises)
		- Accepting tax rises (lowers)
		- Not accepting tax rises (raises)
		- Kissing pinky (lowers)
		- Refusing to kiss pinky (raises)
* Fixes (from 1.07)
	* Fixed Europe screen new profession crash
	* Doubled unit freedom times
	* Doubled unit upskilling time
	* Halved school fees
	* Upgraded to official patch 1.01f
	* Ozzy's map header fixed to allow for customising game
	* Fixed Buy Shortfall bug where amount of yield to purchase wasn't reset if you chose not to pay
	* "Examine City" changed to "Nevermind" on education popup to allow cancelling of education
	* Governor won't place automated citizens in education if human player
	* Doubled trade victory threshold
 
I posted a couple ideas threads already, but here's two I think should be seriously considered for the next release -

First, /please/ from here on out include a readme.txt in the .ZIP that includes the changelog and instructions for installing (including replacing earlier versions). While it might seem obvious "just read the message in the thread," for myself (and possibly others) that doesn't work because my laptop I access the Internet through wi-fi when I'm in town near the library is /not/ my gaming rig, and my gaming rig is offline (so I have to manually xfer the mod to my gaming rig using a thumb drive).

Second, I realize from your post that you intend the next version to be an individual rebel sentiment to be the focus and you intend to seriously address the Pirates in a later version, but I've suffered frustrations against the pirates that I think need a serious fix -- namely, they start out with a Pirate Brig they can use to destroy other colonies' starting units before they can even come ashore. This has happened a couple times. The Pirates should start with a non-combat ship like everyone else. They should have to build their first brig/Pirate ship instead of being given one, that way they can't get a cheap gamekilling victory by simply attacking other Europeans' initial colonization units before they can even land ashore.

Also, the 1.07 change that allows Free Colonists to automatically become Experts I think drastically changes the games I'm not sure you intended. Native settlement "experts" are now next to useless -- its generally faster to simply put a Free Colonist into a profession and have them become an expert after a few turns than to send the colonist to a Native settlement, have them train there, and move them back. This puts in to play a uselessness for the Natives, making war against them less costly in terms of sacrificing their usefulness. If that was the intention, well it works well ... now I'm less inclined to maintain good relations with them, since they're just in the way and I can't get anything useful from them I can't now do on my own without them.

If it was not the intention, and you'd like to keep Natives useful, I have a few suggestions to consider that would keep them useful, generally centered around the notion of having some unique training from Native Settlements:

Borrowing from my "crazy ideas" thread, create a new category of food - "Game" -- as an alternative to "fish" and "farmables" (corn/bananas). Deer would be in this new category of Game, and I suggest Bison and maybe Turkey as new Game food resources ... these wild sources of food should be destroyed if you build a farm, there could be a +1 food production if you build a lodge, and the "Expert Hunter" for harvesting them should be uniquely trainable by Native settlements.

Unique promotions - "Canoeing" that gives an freshwater amphibious bonus -- that is, when attacking across a river, maybe even allowing a unit to enter and attack from fresh water lakes without an amphibious penalty and possibly with an amphibious bonus for Canoeing II that can only be gained with Canoeing I learned from a settlement and then getting a promotion, and "Kayaking" that does the same for coastal squares (allows a unit to float along coastlines and make an amphibious attack from the coast). I dunno if amphibious attacks could be seperated between salt and freshwater in this way, my thought in suggesting them to be split in this way is keeping them from being too powerful, certainly they could be combined into general Amphibious promotions to make it simpler. Canoeing should be maybe unique to Apache and Cherokee, Kayaking could be unique to Innuit/Eskimo if you add them as a tribe. Incidentally, the tribes themselves should get these promotions free for their Braves.

Instead of all Free Colonists gaining automatic promotions in their profession, maybe they only get the free promotion as apprentices -- that is, if there is a Master/Expert in the settlement doing the job as well. For instance, if you have an Expert Lumberjack, any Free Colonists also in the settlement working as Lumberjacks could get an eventual free promotion to Expert Lumberjack. This cripples the auto-promotion for small, new settlements that don't have an Expert -- but it gives reason to send an expert out to them instead of just waiting for the eventual free promotion they now get.

I have lots more ideas, hopefully not all of them suck, heh, this reply is long enough as it is I think!
 
Hope my ideas aren't too annoying. :p Enhancement to existing feature - there should be virtually no shortage of Petty Criminals and/or Indentured Servants, so maybe these two should be purchasable as well for less money than the Free Colonist.
 
First, /please/ from here on out include a readme.txt in the .ZIP that includes the changelog and instructions for installing (including replacing earlier versions).

I'd also suffix the readme.txt with the version number as well. This will make it easier to tell that you are playing the most up-to-date version.

Second, I realize from your post that you intend the next version to be an individual rebel sentiment to be the focus and you intend to seriously address the Pirates in a later version, but I've suffered frustrations against the pirates that I think need a serious fix -- namely, they start out with a Pirate Brig they can use to destroy other colonies' starting units before they can even come ashore.

Including a No Pirate Civ option in the Game Options would be useful, especially in playtesting, where being plagued by Pirates can seriously ruin your day.

Another option is that, if the AI is playing the pirates, they shouldn't enter play until a certain number of Trade Points have been scored. After all, there's no point plundering until the trade lanes when they haven't been established.

Fianlly, a crazy idea from Civ4. Give each mine a small chance of striking Silver/Ore vein, just like in the main game. Likewise each farm could find rich soil (for corn, sugar, etc.) and each Lodge could find good hunting grounds (for game)
 
Canoeing should be maybe unique to Apache and Cherokee, Kayaking could be unique to Innuit/Eskimo if you add them as a tribe. Incidentally, the tribes themselves should get these promotions free for their Braves.

IIRC the Stone Age mod has a War Canoe unit that could be used as a tribal canoe unit.
 
i know the single graphic option (like in civ4) is NOT an option in colonization so all the soldier units in AODII appear as a graphic of 4 units, not a single unit. i have no idea what the history is behind having units appear graphically as 4 but apparently that's how the early civ games were. the odd thing is that when i play vanilla colonization, the soldier is graphically 1 unit (i can't remember if i changed something back then or not) but when i play dales the same is displayed as 4. a few weeks back i asked him about that and he said the Single Unit Graphic option was not in the original Colonization so that's why it isn't in AODII. BUT, at the same time he said he'd include it in 1.07 but alas, it's not there or at least i can't find it. he also mentioned i could edit an XML file but when i looked at it it was a "million" lines long and i could not figure out what to change.

i just can't understand why people like to select a soldier and see 4 standing there in a circle when it's actually only one unit.....oh well, maybe he'll get to it in 1.08
 
I forgot. :blush:
 
@Dale
Can you tell us a few factors that affect the colonist rebel sentiment???
 
@Dale
Can you tell us a few factors that affect the colonist rebel sentiment???

You'll see them appear in the changelog as they are implemented. At this point, just getting the whole concept running. :)
 
I've posted the changelog in the first post. The politics changes are working well so far! :)

I really like the idea of RS leakage into units stationed on a colony's plot.
 
Being the troublesome deviant I am, I wonder -- since now individual units have their own RS, might some who have very low RS -- /especially/ any Masters (and maybe triply so if, somehow, there are any Elder Statesmen or Veteran Soldiers with very low individual RS) -- turncoat when independence is declared and serve as units (maybe spies for unarmed units) for the REF? Or is that too complicated?

On an unrelated note ... I'm frustrated that in both vanilla and the mod, there's no map generation that makes random maps that are anywhere near the size and span of the huge NA map, which is what I want. I prefer such a giant map because a) it reduces the random inclusions of terrain I seek or prefer; being larger, there's a better chance of having good spots and a lower chance of having no good spots plus more room and b) less of a need to fight with Euro rivals over space and resources. I don't like Faireweather because it won't let me set a lower sea level on custom, and it always generates thin, spidery landmasses for me. If you could have something like Faireweather that allows a low sea level to be set, or just the stock random map generator that can create maps the scale of huge Western Hemisphere, that'd be really great ... hope I'm not the only one who likes the supergiant maps.
 
So any plan on adding the automatic seek coastal cities and talk to chief for 'automatic explore' set ship ??
 
So any plan on adding the automatic seek coastal cities and talk to chief for 'automatic explore' set ship ??

Probably not at this stage. I'm a . .. .. .. . AI programmer. :)
 
Hope my ideas aren't too annoying. :p Enhancement to existing feature - there should be virtually no shortage of Petty Criminals and/or Indentured Servants, so maybe these two should be purchasable as well for less money than the Free Colonist.

Maybe taking petty criminals off of the kings' hands could improve your relation with the king ? Provided you pay for them of course - at say $50 per head. Regarding RS criminals tend to be arch conservatives.:crazyeye:
 
Hey Dale,

is there an easy way to stop pirates spawning at the start of game ? (unless the player is playing as Pirates of course). Maybe it's a false impression but every new game I start in 1.07 has :mad:pirates exactly where I'd like to put my first colony:blush:
 
Education again: I like how it tells you where the colonist graduated from when they do (can't remember if 'vanilla' does that. Can you make it so that when a colonist learns on-the-job it does the same?
 
Hey Dale,

is there an easy way to stop pirates spawning at the start of game ? (unless the player is playing as Pirates of course). Maybe it's a false impression but every new game I start in 1.07 has :mad:pirates exactly where I'd like to put my first colony:blush:

Open Civ4CivilizationInfos.xml, find the Pirates civ and change bAIPlayable to 0.
 
Being the troublesome deviant I am, I wonder -- since now individual units have their own RS, might some who have very low RS -- /especially/ any Masters (and maybe triply so if, somehow, there are any Elder Statesmen or Veteran Soldiers with very low individual RS) -- turncoat when independence is declared and serve as units (maybe spies for unarmed units) for the REF? Or is that too complicated?

This would be too complicated for the AI. Besides, I don't want to complicate politics anymore than I have to. :)

On an unrelated note ... I'm frustrated that in both vanilla and the mod, there's no map generation that makes random maps that are anywhere near the size and span of the huge NA map, which is what I want. I prefer such a giant map because a) it reduces the random inclusions of terrain I seek or prefer; being larger, there's a better chance of having good spots and a lower chance of having no good spots plus more room and b) less of a need to fight with Euro rivals over space and resources. I don't like Faireweather because it won't let me set a lower sea level on custom, and it always generates thin, spidery landmasses for me. If you could have something like Faireweather that allows a low sea level to be set, or just the stock random map generator that can create maps the scale of huge Western Hemisphere, that'd be really great ... hope I'm not the only one who likes the supergiant maps.

If you open Civ4WorldInfo.xml and play with the figures in there, you should be able to find the size you want. I'd already doubled the width/height of HUGE making 4 times the playing area, but you can go bigger. :)
 
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