Anno Domini: Rise of Cities edition (latest version dated November 9th 2016) 27

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Thanks for the feedback and I agree with you - so much so that version 12 actually corresponds with your feedback! The fyrdsman is 35 strength, half of the 70 defense you mentioned. The warrior-axeman line would be the "not quite so strong, but doesn't require resources" units.

I'm also going to have more of the buildings chains where building 1 requires a resource and comes out with a product which building 2, 3 and 4 need, possibly one of those producing a product which building 5 needs combined with something else. I've an idea to hijack the redundant flavours and attach them to these buildings to make the AI think it's a good idea to build them. I'm also thinking of making normal stone a resource, used for walls, castles and all defensive buildings.

Nice to see the nod to Civ III. You may be aware that I modded Civ III for a number of years, including....Anno Domini!

So....what do people think of the Greek shields. Do they add a little atmosphere? I also need to know if the various elements are working - especially antiquity sites and the scientific victory.

 

[Natan35]

Question: do you plan on adding a wessex civ?(anglo-saxons)
Speaking of danelaw...
also,from some reason, all of thr units trained in my capital got the shock promotion. Any idea why?
(Sorry to bother you)
the greek shields are great!

 

[Ixor_Drakar]

Just tried out the new version. Looks great so far. But I just got the death of a great writer event with no options to choose so I had to quit the game. Also I dont see a load scenario button for the Europe map, and it only shows I picked it when I go into advanced setup.

 

[Unedjis]

Building chains sound nice. But while you're at it (and rebalancing the resources), is there an easy way for you to make pigs a bonus resource and make pig-dependent buildings not use a strategic resource but use a local source of the resource instead? Feels a bit weird to trade pigs so you can build butchers rather than build butchers locally. The other resource-related weirdness (in my opinion) are the furs. For that, I'd rather go the path that the fur trader increases gold output of fur tiles and require that resource locally (like vintner and other luxury-related buildings).

Speaking of luxuries, one more addendum that I would take into consideration were it my mod: balance the bonus buildings out so that every naturally occuring resource (i.e. those that need to be improved by workers to get the benefits) has one corresponding building that improves the gold (or whatever) output of the resource. If it has two, the two combined should not be much stronger than the one for the other resources. As an example, currently there are buildings that make Gold and Silver stronger, and Wine and Cotton. But there are none for Incense (for example), making the improvable luxuries somewhat stronger than the others (although Gold and Silver become visible REALLY late in the game, as Wine does). If adding new buildings is not a problem, I could compile a list of suggestions and rebalances when I get the time (not today but probably some time this week).

And lastly, what I forgot to say about my Civ3-practice of balancing units, I usually want Unique Units significantly stronger than their standard contemporaries. In terms of the current line of balancing, this would mean that I'd make them about as strong as the next evolution (through brute strength or promotions) and make that next evolution optional. Meaning, they still upgrade to the next-higher tier but they only become obsolete one era later so that you can still decide whether you want to build the old UU (possibly with more promotions that are kept) or the new generic unit, and are forced to upgrade only when the generic unit is significantly stronger.

(Regarding Civ3, I never used mods with that one because the editor was much more accessible to someone who didn't know squat about coding. So I made my own maps and scenarios (with no updated graphics; the tech tree always looked terrible with all the mismatched arrows) and never happened upon AD. So in some way it's a good thing that the Civ5 editor is so much more complicated (and allows so much more) because that way, I finally did
enter the wonderful world of Civ5 modding. )

Edit: Also, I appreciate the attention to detail with the shields. In my first complete playthrough, I was jealous of Kroesus' cool-looking golden-shielded Auxilias where mine only had drab, colorless shields. So more diversity is always cool. And I'll of course let you know about antiquity sites as soon as I get them. (Which will probably take a while on a Marathon game, and that is one aspect that I cannot easily force-advance through IGE because IGE can't change some of the new BNW features. The only thing I can think of is do a 2-player game, play a few turns (so there are a few battles and other events that spawn the sites) and then advance both civs to the appropriate era through IGE so the scripts that place the Antiquity Sites can run.)

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Question: do you plan on adding a wessex civ?(anglo-saxons)
Speaking of danelaw...
also,from some reason, all of thr units trained in my capital got the shock promotion. Any idea why?
(Sorry to bother you)
the greek shields are great!

I'm not planning on adding a Wessex civ; as I mentioned above, Britain is already well-covered - they're just from a couple of hundred years earlier, but covered the same ground.

To answer the shock promotion question, I'd need more information, as there's no building in the mod that would do this. Zorsines' trait gives shock 1 to all mounted units, could it be you're playing as Sarmatia?

Just tried out the new version. Looks great so far. But I just got the death of a great writer event with no options to choose so I had to quit the game. Also I dont see a load scenario button for the Europe map, and it only shows I picked it when I go into advanced setup.

Sorry about the "death of a great writer" event and can't understand why there wouldn't be an option (probably you were low on both culture and gold at the time?) I'll take a look at it. I took the maps out of the mod, as there were issues loading them, but you most likely still have it in your maps folder.

Building chains sound nice. But while you're at it (and rebalancing the resources), is there an easy way for you to make pigs a bonus resource and make pig-dependent buildings not use a strategic resource but use a local source of the resource instead? Feels a bit weird to trade pigs so you can build butchers rather than build butchers locally. The other resource-related weirdness (in my opinion) are the furs. For that, I'd rather go the path that the fur trader increases gold output of fur tiles and require that resource locally (like vintner and other luxury-related buildings).

That's exactly one of the reasons for me adopting the "take everything out and put it all back in" again approach. Anno Domini was created initially as a basic mod, that then had things added...and added...and so forth. This will give me the opportunity to put the items back in one system at a time - so for example, I'll be able to see where best to put the trade buildings, then the science buildings etc. The duplicated buildings will stick out like a sore thumb when I do it and I can add the balance you suggested. What I'm calling a "deep clean" will include me taking out all the civs as well (i.e. setting their leader to LEADER_ROBRILEY, who doesn't exist in the game, so the civ won't be in it, but all their data will be preserved). That way, I'll be able to do a sense check that each civ is reasonably synergised.

To answer another of your questions, pigs were in my plans to become a bonus resource.

 

[Unedjis]

@Ixor: Yes, being low on both culture and gold at the time would make both options disappear because you're only shown options that you can fulfill. Maybe for these a "do nothing, get no reward" would be a necessary thing to include.

@Rob: So basically you're building the mod back up from scratch except you already have all the components and you just have to rearrange them. Makes sense. From my Civ3 days I know that this is necessary from time to time if the mod has grown too much without paying too much attention to where it's going. I think I rebuilt my scenario at least three times over the years (except I couldn't use my old data, only be more organized in my approach to re-add things. Take your time. (And maybe make Stonehenge and the Pyramids available a little earlier if anyhow possible, since they're both really old, and older than all Greek wonders. But that's only if you find a suitable slot. The associated techs do make sense.)

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

It might not take as long as it sounds, as like you mentioned, all the items are there - I'm switching them off and will switch them all back on, one by one. Eric Morecambe once said (of his piano playing) "I'm playing all the right notes—but not necessarily in the right order." This strikes me as being the case with Anno Domini right now.

I could move Stonehenge and the Pyramids earlier; actually this was one of the aims of the "deep clean". I had also thought that the temple of Artemis was way too early and in the mod at that point due to its association with Archery in the Epic Game of Civ 5.

 

[Natan35]

im playing as iberia. i have a chariot maker in the capital, maybe thats related.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

im playing as iberia. i have a chariot maker in the capital, maybe thats related.

The chariot maker provides "mobility" to all units - are you sure it's not this promotion rather than shock?

 

[Unedjis]

The chariot maker provides "mobility" to all units - are you sure it's not this promotion rather than shock?

Oooh now that reminds me of something. Way back when in v8, I had a chariot maker in a city as well, and instead of +movement it gave the units the Shock promotion. Could be I reported it but maybe not. (Now I never have them because I usually don't build chariots.) Might be worth checking out if it has the right promotion assigned to it.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Oooh now that reminds me of something. Way back when in v8, I had a chariot maker in a city as well, and instead of +movement it gave the units the Shock promotion. Could be I reported it but maybe not. (Now I never have them because I usually don't build chariots.) Might be worth checking out if it has the right promotion assigned to it.

It does have. I changed it in version 12.

 

[Natan35]

Reminded me: in v.11, some wonders required specific policy trees, but it was only mentioned in the policy screen. Could you please update the wonder civiliopedia entries so they would contain this information as well?

 

[jpmelguizo]

I still can't load the maps with v12 (no load map settings button issue mentionend around page 18/19).

Did anyone find a way to solve this? The user Mentat said something about using Brunksky Map Pack, but I'm still figuring out how to make it "semi-TSP".

In my games using the vanilla maps I didn't encounter any major bug though.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Reminded me: in v.11, some wonders required specific policy trees, but it was only mentioned in the policy screen. Could you please update the wonder civiliopedia entries so they would contain this information as well?

Good idea! I'll make sure I do that for the next version. I don't recall adding anything to version 12 of this nature.

I still can't load the maps with v12 (no load map settings button issue mentionend around page 18/19).

Did anyone find a way to solve this? The user Mentat said something about using Brunksky Map Pack, but I'm still figuring out how to make it "semi-TSP".

In my games using the vanilla maps I didn't encounter any major bug though.

I'd deleted the maps from the mod download but presume they were in your maps folder already. FA couldn't reload the mod into Worldbuilder as the mod was too big! I can't even seem to access worldbuilder so for now, it's an impasse.

I'd be careful using any of the map packs that were made for the G&K version of Anno Domini (which Brunksky's map was), as Anno Domini has completely changed now having some different resources, so some might not show at all (though this hasn't been a confirmed issue).

 

[jpmelguizo]

I realized there was a BNW version of this mod when v9 was out, and I still have v9 to v12 in my hd, but none of them include the maps. Maybe they were in earlier versions.

It's great fun to play this mod with random maps anyway, but if anyone could upload the maps (specially the British Isles one), that would be great.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I realized there was a BNW version of this mod when v9 was out, and I still have v9 to v12 in my hd, but none of them include the maps. Maybe they were in earlier versions.

It's great fun to play this mod with random maps anyway, but if anyone could upload the maps (specially the British Isles one), that would be great.

They don't work - that's the problem - so it's pointless uploading them at present.

 

[FramedArchitect]

They don't work - that's the problem - so it's pointless uploading them at present.

They still work for me! Too bad editing them seems to be out. :/

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

They still work for me! Too bad editing them seems to be out. :/

I should have phrased that better!! I meant that people were finding issues using them in conjunction with the mod due to changes I'd made to the mod (or so it seems). Like you mentioned, it's a shame we can't edit them; again that's due to the size of the mod.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

RESOLVED!!

The maps issue was all down to how I'd first of put them in Anno Domini, then taken them out, but still left the sql and xml files. It's straightforward to resolve, and I am now placing a map patch in .rar file format. All you need to do is add the maps folder into your Anno Domini folder and replace your MODINFO file with the one provided in the patch.

Patch is in post #1 of the thread.

 

[Unedjis]

Great! Maybe I'll play on one of the AD-specific maps after all once v13 is out. (I think I'll skip v12 despite it being a larger update because I have a game running on v11 in which I keep editing stuff I want to change. Then I can see in v13 how many of these things are already implemented rather than doing it in both v12 and v13.)

Good news: I think I've figured out the elusive trade route issue. In the XML file for Buildings, the Fish Market does not have "NeverCapture" checked as "true", so whenever you capture a city that has one, your trade routes go up by 1. And apparently you don't lose those trade routes once you lose the building (e.g. by razing the city it's in).

This sets the total number of trade routes you can get without wonders to 4, I think. 2 through techs, 2 through Fish Markets. If you decide to put in the "NeverCapture" line, I think it would be a good idea to add maybe 2 more through techs in later eras for 2 more trade routes, or add 1-2 to national wonders (Shrine to Hermes comes to mind [EDIT: Ha, apparently you had that in at some point because the pedia entry says it gives +1 Trade Route).

Edit: I also found that the Fishmonger seems to increase the number of trade routes as well. Since that building is not limited, I take it it's not supposed to be like that? (For my game I'll take it out.) This might actually be the true cause of the increase in trade routes. But maybe both. I'll see how it plays out if I make these two changes (NeverCapture for Fish Market and no trade route bonus for Fishmonger).

Edit 2: It would be awesome if you could maybe add a Policy page on your website so it's possible to look at the effects of the different branches without starting the game. Especially the Health branch might be of interest to new users.