Civ "expansion": more eras and evolutive civs!

[Steph]

In the World Size section, I have made the optimal number of cities era specific.

So you could keep it very low in the ancient era, and increase it when you move forward.

 

[Takhisis]

Wow... between this and some timed events, you can rule the world! You'll take those heretics by surprise and convert them back to the One True Game.

 

[Steph]

In your editor, it is possible for civs to have different names and leaders in different eras right? Does that effect relationships or treaties?

Yes, name of the civ, leader, military leaders, can change with each era.
For the moment it has not effect on relationship and treaties. I may add something for that in the future. Example of what you need it for?

Is it possible to have more than 5 culture groups yet? I heard one way around it is by putting different civs in different eras. But how will tech trading work?

This is hard coded. No more than 5 at the same time.
But
- I could allow a civ to change culture group with each era
- You can have different graphics for a civ with each era.
It could allow circumventing the problem.

Is 31 in game civ limit still there? Is it possible to atleast have more at the start screen?

Still limited to 32 civs. But as you can change with each era, if you have 10 eras, you have 320 potential civs, jut make them "'successor' (like Native Americans become Modern American).

If I have one civ say be the polynesians, and then in a later era become the US, will it be possible to move their cities from Oceania to America? if another civ already has cities in the era what will happen?

Not possible yet. The editor changes the rules inside the game. Changing the cities is very different and cannot be done easily. I mean, on what bases could you know HOW the Polynesians cities should be spread in America?

 

[ShiroKobbure]

Well, I would like to have the Polynesians in Polynesia, but when the US appears in the later eras, I wont need Polynesia anymore, so their cities would disappear in Oceania, But new cities would appear in North America.

 

[Steph]

I understand they why, it's the how which is difficult.

I cannot easily had a rule to create new cities in a map, as my system "doesn't know the map". I mean, I can tell "delete every polynesian cities", or possibly change their name, but adding new ones is hard, as you'd need a way to tell where they have to appear.

 

[general-jcl]

Is it possible to replace in a save file, a human player by the AI and vice versa?
My idea is to play a turn in which I build armies available in a scenario, and I fixed alliances or trade agreements between some civilizations before being submitted to AI

 

[Steph]

I did not try that, but I suppose it would be possible to change the human player in a sav.

 

[Kyriakos]

This would be great for alliance-based scenarios, since currently we only have the primitive blocks.

 

[general-jcl]

I think it would be very useful for certain scenarios because the AI does not know how to properly use leaders available at the beginning of the game.
Furthermore, this opens various possibilities for the game:
- for example player can change his civilization every era
- definition of trade agreements at the beginning of the game between some nations, etc...

 

[Steph]

Well, this is a false good solution I think.

Using the possibility to change civilization to set up agreements at beginning can work, but wouldn't it be easier to have a kind of "first turn setup" page in the editor, and if you are playing the first turn, then it would edit the save to put them in place directly?

 

[general-jcl]

Yes my idea is to play a turn to make all necessary adjustments (diplomacy, trade agreements, build armies with the best possible units, etc. ..) and then edit the save and give control to the AI

 

[Steph]

The problem is you can do it with only one civ. How would you do this if there are more than one AI civ?

 

[general-jcl]

First turn all civilizations are human player and all are played by me to make all settings i want.
Next turn i keep only one civilization and give control of the others to the AI

 

[Steph]

I'm not sure it's possible, as my expanded game modify the saved game after turn.

If I change the human player in a civ, I'm not sure you can play it in the same turn.

 

[general-jcl]

I can start a multiplayer game then modify the rules with your expanded editor. Then i will give all civs except one to the AI and reload the game

Not sure it's possible but worth a try i think

 

[Steph]

I've been testing the latest version of my mod with evolutive civ yesterday, and corrected a few bugs.

There is possible bug, but it's not really one, and I'd like to know what you think about it.

Initially, when you start, you have only the first era visible. Meaning you will see techs for era 1 and era 2, and units only for era 1.

When the first civ reaches era 2, I then add the techs for era 3, and the units for era 2.

When a civ reaches era 3, I add the techs for 4, and the units for era 3.

When a civ reaches era 4, I add the techs for era 5... Wait... Doesn't work here! As there is no era 5 yet, the civ is "stucked" to era 4, discovering Future era techs.

However, after some time, when everyone will be era 2, era 1 becomes useless, and will be deleted. Era 2 becomes era 1, era 3 becomes era 2, and era 4 will be added (in fact, it's added from era 5 of the main game).

So, here, I have two possibilities:
- When a civ is searching a future tech (ie it has finished all the available era), I will add a new era, delete the first one, and automatically advance the "oldest civ" to era 2.
- Or, if a civ is going too fast and as already discovered every techs while a civ is still in the first era, it has too wait a little until every civ has finished discovering the first era.

 

[Moosezilla]

The first option is better IMHO because of reality being what it is. It modern parlance it is "most backward" rather than "oldest". It seems AI civs always have a civ or two that do not care to invest in science, thus if you do not have contact with them you would not be able to "drag" them into the next era w/gifts (of techs).

 

[JSnider]

Concur .. I keep running into civs that are still in the Iron age and I'm starting to build tanks (ww1 era). So i'd like to see something that drags them forward automatically .. coupled with the semi-auto unit upgrade would make the game more interesting to me at least.

 

[Moosezilla]

It was brought up in another thread that espionage (Spy) and nuke capabilities (effects) cannot "expire". Can your evolutive civ do this?

 

[timerover51]

I guess that in the case of a very backward AI, I would rather see it simply vanish from the map, and leave room for the rest of the civilizations to expand. That backward a civilization would not really survive contact in the real world.