Vincentz Infinite Projects [VIP MOD]

Vincentz

I just lost my HD. It will be next week late before I can continue testing the mod. :(

JosEPh
 
Just ordered a Western Digital 640 GB Black Caviar Sata HD from New Egg should get it late Monday or Tuesday.

On the wife's comp right now.

I might be able to continue on it since I posted my last savegame here. I used this computer for RoM for sometime.


Edit: Just saw you posted a new version! :goodjob:
Did my savegame help?

JosEPh :)
 
0.68 iirc. Unless I loaded up the 0.67 save by mistake. :p

JosEPh
 
0.68 says so right in the name. :p

JosEPh
 
You seem to avoid civic techs. A lot of them are good steps on the way up, and what is the reason to only include a couple of civs? Besided that it look nice, though .68 seems sooo far away ;)

I did another makeover of the resource placement, and found a couple of oddities doing so, plus added a new group : Fruit, which are placed together with Livestock and Grain. I also changed the proximity for General group, which is not the General ingame, but all the luxuries. All other resource groups have a proximity of 4-5 while most luxuries had 0, creating a lot of clusters. Setting it to 1 will balance better as there are so many new resources added, and now they should be more diversly planted (some on one continent/island, some on another and some on a 3rd or 4th) making trading more interesting. I only tried a couple of mapgenerations, but was quite happy with the result.
I also did a bunch of other stuff, but still in the ancient/classical/medieval eras, though I have started to look for suited units for Renaissance.
 
Yikes!

I did a couple of autoruns and it seems I forgot about balancing inflation to the new gamespeeds (VIP normal is longer than epic vanilla and in BtS Normal speed 300 turns would be around 1850 AD) which resulted in inflation being the #1 expense by 1250 AD. Except for that everything seems to be doing OK :)
(well, I might adjust the spawning of elephants in the camp, as everyone seem to have them.)



On second sight : Seems like the pyramids are being built rather late. The same with hanging gardens that require aqueducts that comes late.
 
Hopefully my HD will arrive this evening. Maybe by the time I get it installed and load up the OS you'll have a new version posted? ;)

JosEPh :)
 
Uploaded 0.7

I dont think I can make the AI much better than this without letting it cheat (...more than it already did in BtS) or with SDK changes. It seem very powerfull, expansive and organized and I was pwned in the games I ran at Emperor. The changes I made are too numerous to list, though many are not very noticable they are still important IMHO. (espionage f.ex)
 
New HD is in, but putting/installing all the "stuff" I had is taking a bit of time.

I do have ViP 0.7 installed, just have not had enough time for play. Hopefully I'll get some in this weekend.

JosEPh :)
 
I am very intrigued by this mod, it looks great. I have been playing AND for a few months now, but previously play LoR exclusively. So, I am trying to branch out a bit and try some other mods. My question before downloading: does installing the terrain graphics pack slow down performance considerably or is it negligible combined with the main download?
 
It does slow it down a bit. Originally I put it because it had the Marsh/Swamp terrain included, but the grassland and marsh looked very similar in color so I removed everything except marsh/swamp. Everything for running the mod is in the 1st download (but I\m adding units at the moment, so I might use the Download Database spot for unitgraphics instead of terrain, and then it will be needed.

But... the mod is still in development and is only finished to around gunpowder (Ill try update it around once a week, but lately it has been around improving AI/balancing), and it does not contain neither Revolutions nor BUG UI which alot of people like. It does however add a lot of new stuff and changed values that makes it interesting. Im especially fond happy about the concept changes in movement, as it now becomes a factor to play with (instead of the IMO boring : 1 for men, 2 for horses and 3 for vehicles).
 
Oh okay. I may hold off until the tech tree is complete. I could do some testing of it to help you out, if needed. However, I like alot of the new concepts you have included. Do you plan on including Revolutions as an optional component in the future? Unlike others, I am not attached to every mod having it, but it does make for an interesting game.
 
the only problems I have about RevDCM and BUG is that I kind of want my mod to be small in terms of memory and download size, so there is more room for my projects ;) No, seriously, I have a 5 year old computer with 1.5GB ram and 128MB graphics, so if I want to play a game to completion in Transhuman era, I have to focus on the amount of components I add.
RevDCM is a great modcomponent and I do miss a lot of stuff, but it also have a "waiting for civ" bug that can be quite gamebreaking. If I stick to XML it will provide optimal stability of both single and multiplayer plus it can be crossplatform.

BTW. The techtree is done. I just need to fill it with units, buildings and other good stuff. And you are very welcome to test the mod. I can always use an extra pair of eyes. I consider it almost finished up untill the discovery of gunpowder and the age of sail. But on normal speed that is around 400-500 turns.
I'll upload 0.71 later today or early tomorrow with some unit changes.
 
Okay comp amd VIP 0.7 up and runing!

Doing better at Gold management now. I really have to pay attention to which Tile improvement will benefit that particular city the most. Can't use the old RoM/AND formulas anymore (which is a good thing).

Only thing I chafe about is the Unit upgrade costs. Archer to Longbow especially seems rather steep price to pay. When it takes more than 200 gold to update a unit I get "stingy" and Only update to keep the neighbors from becoming too aggressive. The current 0.7 game is at 1407 AD on Epic speed.

One thing I'm Sooo Happy about that you've added back to Temples, after you have built a required number of them, is the Hammers! Makes building Temples and Monasteries have more Worth and the pursuit of a Religion a strategic part of the game again.

JosEPh.
 
Uploaded 0.71

Changed the upgrade cost (and a million other things), but this version was most about units (and units and units). See in the screenshot section. Most units were already in BtS' PAK files, but the Africans, Heavy swordsmen, Javilineers and Horsemen and a couple others wasnt, so the upload passed the 10 MB limit and had to be split in two. Now Main AND Graphics downloads are required.
 
Quick comment, the worker time to build improvements seems to be getting longer. 40 turns for a single worker to build a mine or quarry? It takes 3 to 4 workers together to build anything under 8 turns. This is by design I know, but you can't get anything really done in the ancient and classical eras unless you have more workers than fighting units and the Civic and Wonder upgrades that speed up worker time.

0.71 game at 390AD and just entered Classical Era. Of the Empires met I rank 2nd on Noble level, Epic speed.

JosEPh :)
 
slavery or caste is the only way forward regarding the improvements, as the 1st civic (tribalism) symbolizes unorganized labour or even nomading. the other reason for taking long times, is because i changed it so the forests and jungles can be cut down with Stone Tools.
So on epic it takes 33 turns to cut down forest and build mines with tribal labour.
With slavery and no forest it takes 8 turns. Thats IMHO not too much considering that VIP epic has more turns than Vanilla marathon. But try Normal speed instead. Its about twice as long as vanilla.
BTW what is the reason why you avoid civic giving techs?

Regarding year vs turns. Did a lot of changes (trade routes, buildings, resources, gameinfos) and havent balanced that part yet. I put in a lot of normal/ethnic units and wanted to upload the changes in case of a computer malfunction at home. Call me a pessimist, but better safe than sorry ;)

Regarding the new units, does it feel more sluggish/slower or is it the same?
 
EDIT:Here's my Current savegame for VIP 0.71. I had erroneously uploaded my Version 0.7 game. Du-Oh! Version 0.71 game is at 1308 AD.

As for why I avoid certain Civics: the ones I avoid generally cost me too much in Gold production or imho are not worth the loss of time to "upgrade" to them when I feel they will not give me enough of a benefit to use. I Never use slavery as I feel it ******s city growth too much to be a viable option. Republic I used to use until the 1 :gold: per Military Unit penalty was tacked on. When you are running a 40% Research rate because of a lack of :gold: that one is too hard to swallow. So I have to wait till I get Mercantile or better Commerce Civic to balance out the cost in gold for the military upkeep.

In the current version whats up with all the :Yuck: faces on all the military buildings? I really don't understand the one for Stables as the manure produced fertilized the farm fields. Also why is Harbor now giving a :yuck: instead of a :health: ? Too much :yuck: in the early eras imho. I hope they get balanced out in later Eras.

JosEPh :)
 
Top Bottom