Reactivate Your Superspecialists

It would be good if you could click on the superspecialist and bring him out again. It would be a great way of saving your great people up. (i'm sure they disappear and 'die' if you just leave them to sleep somewhere)

So if you found a new religion or conquer a holy city you could activate your priest superspecialist from 2000 BC or whenever and have him build the special building.

Kieran said:

It would be good if you could click on the superspecialist and bring him out again. It would be a great way of saving your great people up. (i'm sure they disappear and 'die' if you just leave them to sleep somewhere)

So if you found a new religion or conquer a holy city you could activate your priest superspecialist from 2000 BC or whenever and have him build the special building.

Click to expand...

Problem:
People will use the GP as specialists and then at the end of the game, they will blast the borders with culture bombs, build important wonders like crazies and make tons of cash (just to get the score they need to win)

I kind of like it when I'm forced to decide between instant gain and a good specialist that will last for the game.

Great idea.

I already modded some things into to my game that folks have put out to enhance things. One other thing I added was the ability to build mini specialist. These guys can be built for a price but act like a "mini" GP to add hammers to the build que in the case of the (Contractor), a small culture boost via the Culture Advisor or a nominal trade transaction via the traveling merchant.

The greatest part of it was that the AI actually builds them and makes good use of them when appropriate

RED DIAMOND said:

Great idea.

I already modded some things into to my game that folks have put out to enhance things. One other thing I added was the ability to build mini specialist. These guys can be built for a price but act like a "mini" GP to add hammers to the build que in the case of the (Contractor), a small culture boost via the Culture Advisor or a nominal trade transaction via the traveling merchant.

The greatest part of it was that the AI actually builds them and makes good use of them when appropriate

Click to expand...

Can you post a link to that mod?

trundle said:

Can you post a link to that mod?

Click to expand...

There is no official mod so to speak, these are just mod changes I've made to the XML files. If ya like I could post what needs to be done to make them yourself? Let me know.

RED DIAMOND said:

There is no official mod so to speak, these are just mod changes I've made to the XML files. If ya like I could post what needs to be done to make them yourself? Let me know.

Click to expand...

If you could please

Kieran said:

If you could please

Click to expand...

In the CIV4UnitInfo.xml (open with notepad) find the missionary unit you want to use as the template in this case <Class>UNITCLASS_BUDDHIST_MISSIONARY</Class>

go down until you see this series of entries
<iBaseHurry>0</iBaseHurry>
<iHurryMultiplier>0</iHurryMultiplier>
<iBaseTrade>0</iBaseTrade>
<iTradeMultiplier>0</iTradeMultiplier>
<iGreatWorkCulture>0</iGreatWorkCulture>

My base hurry for the contrator is 200. This means that 200 hammers are added to the que when used. The base trade is set to 50 with the trade multipler at 2. This results in enough trade to make the merchant useful but not a cheat.Great work culture is set to 200. This results in a "small" culture boost(mainly used for newly established cities to bump start them after a conquest in enemy territory etc.

You'll also need to consider the cost of each unit and change the <iCost>>40<iCost/> to something that fits the value of the service.

You can make the unit be a jack of all trades as well by adding values for all of those functions. My original changes incorporated all of these mini functions into the one missionary unit. I am working of individuals now to add more strategy to the use.

Kieran said:

It would be good if you could click on the superspecialist and bring him out again. It would be a great way of saving your great people up. (i'm sure they disappear and 'die' if you just leave them to sleep somewhere).

Click to expand...

I often leave Great People asleep in my capital for many, many turns. They don't "die", any more than any other unit does. Why would you think so?

DaviddesJ said:

I often leave Great People asleep in my capital for many, many turns. They don't "die", any more than any other unit does. Why would you think so?

Click to expand...

Okay, Test :
I am sleeping Moses in my capital 1470 BC, marathon speed. Lets see if he is still there when I reach the Industrial age.
[maybe he will be i don't know]

DaviddesJ said:

Why would you think so?

Click to expand...

Because I can't seem to find them anywhere after a very long time

Kieran said:

Okay, Test :
I am sleeping Moses in my capital 1470 BC, marathon speed. Lets see if he is still there when I reach the Industrial age.
[maybe he will be i don't know]

Click to expand...

Maybe you activated a golden age with another GP?
Because on a certain game I saved an artist for a very long time.

yeah maybe

Great people don't vanish, and believe me I'd have noticed if they did. I've kept them hanging around for over 100 turns in some cases and had no problems. There's nothing anywhere to suggest they would disappear.

Being able to reactivate super specialists would rather throw the game balance. It's supposed to be a choice between an immediate lump sum effect and a small effect over time, whereas this would in effect give you both. The point raised by random11 of using them all at once in the late game would prove rather a game breaker.

Mr. Cynical, why would you keep your GP around for 100 turns? I thought it was a better strategy to use them almost immediatly. I'll wait a handfull of turns so that I've researched a new tech before using a scientist or started a new wonder for an engenier. Am I missing something?

GeorgeOP said:

Mr. Cynical, why would you keep your GP around for 100 turns? I thought it was a better strategy to use them almost immediatly. I'll wait a handfull of turns so that I've researched a new tech before using a scientist or started a new wonder for an engenier. Am I missing something?

Click to expand...

If you're going for a cultural victory, getting culture sooner is no better than getting it later, so people will often stockpile Great Artists to add the culture they need when they are ready to win.

It can also make sense to save Great Engineers for a long time until you can use them to build a particular wonder.

Any type of Great Person might be saved for a long time to accelerate the research of a particular technology. Sometimes it's better to "just keep up" in technology, including some trading, and then use your GPs for a tech boost at the right instant. If you go for the boost earlier then you may end up ahead in technology and are at an effective disadvantage because the opponents are all trading with each other to catch up, and you don't have anyone to trade with.

The cost of saving them is pretty minimal and so I think it's often a good idea to wait for the right moment.