Aeterna Civitas III

The test version of ACIII is now ready. I have had to post in a bit of a hurry as Eurovision is on tonight I hope I haven't forgotten anything!

I have sent the playtest volunteers a PM with a link to where the files can be downloaded. I hope you enjoy!

I have a few specific items I would like the play-testers to give me feedback on:

- Is the price of New Legions and Marian Legions about right?

- How do you cope economically?

- How do you progress with the tech tree?

- How does trade work out?

- Are the events too easy / hard?

- How does not having diplomacy work out?

- Are stats and prices for siege engines Ok?

- Do the AI build a variety of units?

- Are there too many / few AI units

Any other bugs, feedback, ideas for improvements will be very welcome!

I have to admit that I haven't had the chance to play-test it as thoroughly as I would like to yet. I checked the events, tree, rules etc worked, but I have not played too far into the game so my calculations are all theoretical! I'm going to start playing properly this evening and I anticipate a few tweaks may be required.

Below is a list of the main variables that are easily changed:

- Gold payoff for Slave capture (currently 25 gold)

- Slave shield cost (disbanding)

- New Legion cost (set to 300)

- Marble trade output

- Random turn settings for AI event generated units

- Random turn setting for Roman General

- Tech paradigm

- Number for Merchants appearing (frequency)

- Number of AI units via events

As I am playing the scenario I'm tweaking the unit stats. The rules file can be swapped in an existing game without causing problems so I'm going to post the amended rules here for the play-testers so that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet!

General +1 Def & +2HP
Asian and African Elephants 8FP reduced to 6FP

Wow, this is a tough start! 277 and I have lost Venusia and the newly conquered Paestum and it doesn't look like I have quite enough reserves to take them back. I think I'm going to make a few minor changes and release a modified scenario file. The balance isn't too far off, but I think its just a bit too tough right now.

On the plus side its not like I have spent ages setting up city production orders, building units etc, so I'm not wasting time. I will post the altered scenario here as soon as I have made the necessary changes.

EDIT:

FAO Play-testers. I have spotted a few errors that need addressing immediately. Nothing game breaking. By all means have a play around and get familiarized, but I would not launch into a full on game until I get the fixed files posted here. Thanks!

Here is the amended Scenario files with the new rules. I haven't had time to test it yet as I have to go to work now, but I think the major issues have been addressed!

Drew, I get a 'bad file size' error when I launch Civ2Unlimited.exe. I have all 3 files (exe, ini, dll) for Civ2Unlimited in my main ToT folder. Any ideas? I use Catfish's civ2.exe as my normal ToT excecutable BTW.

Is it just ACIII not working or all scenarios? Or does this error pop up when you launch Civ2Unlimited? Have you used it succesfully in the past?

@

Have you tried downloading Civ2Unlimited from here? Perhaps I missed something out or it got corrupted somehow!

The scenario should work with the normal ToT to begin with, but I anticipate the 'Too many units' text in the mid to late stages, hence the need for Civ2Unlimited.

Never used it before. ACIII loads fine in 'normal' ToT (ie the combo exe and additional files that Catfish put together). Maybe that's the trouble; perhaps civ2unlimited needs a vanilla exe to work....

EDIT: BTW, really like the readme page - nice touch

Sussed it. I just needed to select 'Test of Time 1.1 - Forced' in the launcher, rather than 'autodetect'. Seems to work fine now!

Right, it's Caesar's bedtime soon, but he'll be ready to conquer the world tomorrow. SPQR!

Glad you got it working Caesar! I was going to have a game this evening but I too think I need to be fresh to take on Pyrrhus and his damned Elephants! Think I will watch Match of the Day instead. Man Utd 5-5 West Brom looks very interesting!

A little tip for ACIII. There are two useless improvements in Rome that can be sold off to help pay for a Legion!

I have been playing this morning and I'm pretty happy with how everything works. I think it is still just a tiny bit too tough, but not by much. I didn't want it to be a walkover and it is anything but. The Greeks are giving me a hard fight, but I nearly have them beaten by 263BC. It is a few years behind schedule historically as I should be onto the first Punic war by now, but with a few minor changes I think I can make this work out and still be challenging! Got to go to work now but I will continue with my test tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how you guys fare.

Something is puzzling me. When a Roman land unit destroys a Macedonian Trireme in a city an old events text is displayed about a new Roman Legion being raised. It is just the text, the rest of the event does not trigger. I have checked the event file and the text is not in there any more. I have delevented the save before saving it as a scenario and delevented the scenario file before starting a game (when the events are embedded). The rest of the changes to event work properly, so I can't work out why this old event lingers on in the games memory. Does anyone know how I can get rid of it?

Here is the latest update with some changes to the rules and events as well as some tweaks in game. I think I have found the balance now where a good player can beat Pyrrhus if he plays it right, but it won't be an easy ride! I'm going to start the scenario again tomorrow and see how I get on in the First Punic war.

should we hang fire a day or two for you to test this out?

Damn, a shame I can't play it.

The following sentences occur in different sections of the ACIII README.

You MUST rename cities or some important events won't work!

This process has no effect on the events so don't be shy renaming cities!

Which one is correct?

I can't be the only player not looking forward to renaming 90+ cities. Perhaps you could indicate which, if any, ones MUST be renamed, possibly in the relevant EVENTS popups.


Also, would it be possible to include either text or MSWord versions of the README, of course without the illustrations.

In the less densely populated )) parts of the world, not everyone has consistently easy access to the Net. For example, we usually have pretty decent wireless Net access. However, last weekend was the May long weekend (used to be Victoria Day wkd) and the population served by our relay tower increased at least tenfold as Torontonians headed like lemming for their lakeshore cottages. The consequence of the arrival of hordes of woofers, tweeters, hooters, surfers, spammers, posters, yakkers, texters etc. was monumental congestion in a limited bandwidth. cry It was only well after midnight, when the increasingly frustrated mob had given up and partied itself into bed, that some semblance of normal access returned for a few hours.


@fairline
I'm not starting actual playtesting until McMonkey has finished making daily updates.

@AGRICOLA
Good point about renaming. I will clarify. You do not have to rename cities if you are not bothered about the historical aspect of the game. There are no events that will not work if you do not rename cities. However, by renaming cities you prevent the possibility of events triggering twice. For example, when you capture some cities counter-attacking units appear. By renaming it to the Roman name you prevent the possibility of the counter-attacking units appearing again if you lose and then retake the city for a second time.

Most of the city renaming is about representing the tribes the Romans fought and then the Roman colonies that were founded. Personally I think it is a very important aspect of the game for anyone interested in the history of Rome. If you are less interested in this and prefer to just get on with the gameplay side feel free to ignore the prompts!

With regards to the read me. You don't need the internet to look at the READ ME as all of the files it reads are in the scenario folder! Also, nearly all of the important information is available in the Civiliopedia's game concepts so you can check either.

@All playtesters
The changes I'm making are more minor tweaks than drastic game changing reshapes. Feel free to carry on with any version you have started with, they all work. Its just that the latest one will have minor issues with stats and cosmetic bugs addressed. I figured that if I posted the most up to date files you would be able to start with the most up to date version of the scenario! The other option is to save up all the changes until all the play-test data is in. Its a bit of a Catch22 as I need the feedback to make changes! One good thing I have found from my early playtests is that each turn is quite quick to play, not too much micromanagement needed.

@Squonk
Hopefully I will be able to release the final version in the not too distant future. I just want to ensure everything works as intended before I release it. I'm hoping it will be worth the wait!