Dad's Army civilization - Walmington-on-Sea (WIP)

1. The invisible building I'm using to up the defense of Walmington-on-Sea cities is not working at present. Below is the code I'm using for it. UPDATE: I made a Lua script to automatically add the building when Walmington-on-Sea founds or captures a city. I'm not sure if it's recommended to do it that way but it works. I also thought that by doing it this way, I could use it to add additional defense in later eras.
   
   The building class (ignore the missing GameData tags - they are definitely there in the actual file):
   
   Code:

   <BuildingClasses>
           <Row>
               <Type>BUILDINGCLASS_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</Type>
               <DefaultBuilding>BUILDING_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</DefaultBuilding>
               <Description>TXT_KEY_BUILDING_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</Description>
           </Row>
       </BuildingClasses>
       <Civilization_BuildingClassOverrides>
           <Row>
               <CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_BARBARIAN</CivilizationType>
               <BuildingClassType>BUILDINGCLASS_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</BuildingClassType>
               <BuildingType/>
           </Row>
           <Row>
               <CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_MINOR</CivilizationType>
               <BuildingClassType>BUILDINGCLASS_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</BuildingClassType>
               <BuildingType/>
           </Row>
       </Civilization_BuildingClassOverrides>

   
   The actual building:
   
   Code:

     <!-- This invisible building increases the defense of all Walmington-on-Sea cities. Based upon Tomatekh's dummy building for his Garamantes civilization. -->
       <Buildings>
           <Row>
               <Type>BUILDING_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</Type>
               <BuildingClass>BUILDINGCLASS_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</BuildingClass>
               <!-- Invisible Buildings -->
               <Cost>-1</Cost>
               <FaithCost>-1</FaithCost>
               <PrereqTech>NULL</PrereqTech>
               <GreatWorkCount>-1</GreatWorkCount>
               <!-- Invisible Buildings -->
               <Description>TXT_KEY_BUILDING_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</Description>
               <Civilopedia>TXT_KEY_BUILDING_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING_STRATEGY</Civilopedia>
               <Strategy>TXT_KEY_BUILDING_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING_STRATEGY</Strategy>
               <ArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_BUILDING_WALLS</ArtDefineTag>
               <Defense>500</Defense>
               <ExtraCityHitPoints>20</ExtraCityHitPoints>
               <MinAreaSize>-1</MinAreaSize>
               <HurryCostModifier>25</HurryCostModifier>
               <PortraitIndex>59</PortraitIndex>
               <IconAtlas>ABILITY_ATLAS</IconAtlas>
               <NeverCapture>true</NeverCapture>
               <NukeImmune>true</NukeImmune>
           </Row>
       </Buildings>

   
   This is in the trait for the civilization:
   
   Code:

   <FreeBuilding>BUILDING_WALMINGTON_DEF_EDIT_BUILDING</FreeBuilding>

2. I decided to make the trait for Home Guard Infantry as being able to ignore terrain costs in friendly territory. I managed to get a Lua script working for it, so that's not the issue. The issue I have is that I'm not sure there's events in GameEvents that cover all the instances a plot can change owner DURING a turn. I could potentially check if the bonus can be applied when a city is founded or captured, but there doesn't seem to be an event that corresponds to a plot changing hands due to plot buying, border expansion through culture, or some other means like Citadel construction. For this reason I've kept it at just when the unit moves and at the start of each turn (checking all the units of the player and applying the bonus to any Home Guard Infantry who is eligible). I've documented this in my in-game text for the unit and promotion, but would this be acceptable? Alternatively is there a way to cover all instances of a tile changing owners?
3. One of the big things I wanted to include was a comprehensive diplomacy text for Captain Mainwaring, inspired by some of the other civilizations I downloaded - I made templates for my own use from the diplomacy data from Huitzil's Touhou mods (he'll be credited, so don't worry about that), in fact. However, from my testing with Mainwaring as a computer opponent so far, he doesn't seem to actually use many of his new lines - instead I get the generic ones. Of course, I'm not sure whether this is a problem with my XML or the game simply not using many of the lines. UPDATE: It turns out I mistakenly duplicated some entries in the XML file that defined the actual text, meaning that all of the other responses were ignored. I've fixed that error and I'm getting his text properly now.

Rob (R8XFT) said:

Have them be able to do the worker's functions as well as the unit they're the UU of - fixing pillaged tiles being a priority. They could have no maintenance costs, helping the war effort.

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whoward69 said:

Without a DLL mod, the AI won't use combat units as workers - AI Legions never build roads or forts, etc

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Rob (R8XFT) said:

Now that's something I didn't realise! What about if workers had the ability to be combat units - I take it the AI would use them only as workers?

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Rob (R8XFT) said:

I for one appreciate you doing a Dad's army civilization. I'm sorry there hasn't been any other responses, though it may be to do with it being based on a British 70s TV series and a lot of members might not be that aware of it. I remember when it was first on though!

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Rob (R8XFT) said:

Sorry that I can't help with the things you've mentioned, though it occurred to me that if we're in keeping with the show, Corporal Pike et al were no faster in their home territory than they were outside of it; could I suggest an alternative? Have them be able to do the worker's functions as well as the unit they're the UU of - fixing pillaged tiles being a priority. They could have no maintenance costs, helping the war effort.

Click to expand...

Rob (R8XFT) said:

It would be good to see Walmington-on-Sea designed as a one-city-challenge, perhaps with tourism bonuses (as opposed to playing the OCC with Venice as a mercantile civ).

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• I could probably keep the defense bonus for units and cities, so that while Walmington-on-Sea only has the one city, it will be hard to conquer.
• The special ability of the Home Guard Infantry UU will probably have to change, too, since ignoring terrain costs in friendly territory isn't useful if Walmington-on-Sea doesn't have much in the first place (and then other civilizations who can take advantage of it might get it from a militaristic City-State). Your idea for having the Home Guard Infantry be able to repair pillaged improvments, or do other worker jobs (I was thinking farms, specially - like Digging for Victory?) makes sense and ties into the "good on defense" bit. Of course I'll have to add a note specifying that the AI will only use those abilities if whoward69's DLL is used.
• Swallow's Bank could help with making some kind of Great Person who can make a Great Work, instead of (or in addition to) its culture bonus, and maybe have some spaces for Great Works as well. Perhaps I could also take a leaf out of Vice Virtuoso's book and allow Walimington-on-Sea extra National Wonders that have Great Work slots as well (like the newly released Vocaloid civilization).

• Temple -> St. Aldhems Church
• Harbor -> Jolly Roger Pier
• Stable -> Jones' High Class Butcher (I got it to replace the Stable since I thought it made sense that a butcher would require a source of animals to be constructed. I can easily change it to a food producing building such as the Granary if that works better gameplay-wise)
• Workshop -> Frazer's Workshop
• Zoo -> Stone's Amusement Arcade
• Opera House -> Embassy Cinema (The cinemas that the characters attend to aren't named in the show, but several cinemas are given names in Bill Pertwee's book so I chose one of them to use)
• Museum -> Peabody Museum
• Stadium -> Cricket Ground (From the episode "The Test")

• St. Aldhems Church - Grand Temple instead of Temple
• Jolly Roger Pier - East India Company instead of Harbor (I might use a different place from Walmington-on-Sea altogether, so it makes sense if it's built in a non-coastal city)
• Jones' High Class Butcher - Heroic Epic instead of Stable (It sort of makes sense since Jones was a highly-decorated war veteran. Also will have an extra writing slot instead of the two art/artifact slots, since the Heroic Epic already has one writing slot)
• Frazer's Workshop - Ironworks instead of Workshop
• Stone's Amusement Arcade - National Intelligence Agency instead of Zoo (Really doesn't fit - I might find a different place and use that to replace any of the leftover National Wonders instead)
• Embassy Cinema - National Vistor Centre instead of Opera House (also will have the two art/artifact slots instead of the extra music slot)
• Peabody Museum - Hermitage instead of Museum
• Cricket Ground - Circus Maximus instead of Stadium

INSERT INTO ArtDefine_StrategicView(StrategicViewType, TileType, Asset)
  VALUES ('ART_DEF_UNIT_U_WALMINGTON_INFANTRY', 'Unit', 'SV_Walmington_Infantry.dds');