Finally I had time for another go.
More bugs to fix:
- Handling Machine crash the game, because it has the reference to sound files in .ini file, but they are not in the folder;
- ArchDaemon crash the game, because .ini file does not have a space in its name, which unit folder has;
- Giant Crawler fidget.flc misses "d" letter in its name, this, of course, crashes the game once again, because .ini has reference to "fidget";
- Stock Exchange is a smalll wonder but doesn't have a WON_SPLASH entry in PediaIcons.
That's it so far, I guess.
Now regarding gameplay. This time I chose to go as Cthuvians to have some underworld experience. Unfortunately, the game was plain boring so far (300 turns in). Underworld factions has too much empty space around them, so there's no competition for land. My settler spam ended by the end of era 2 and only because I hit city limit. There was literally nothing to do but construct more settlers. Even dephts exploration is available only in the middle of era 2. About that time I managed to build a solid core of my empire around the large lake of the starting location. Anything beyond that was crumbled by nigh infinite corruption. My govt choice was Libertarianism (since no wars were expected) but it didn't help much with corruption either. Tried to switch to communism to see if it could be better. Well, it didn't by much and I lost most of my income (trade bonus rocks). I was far behind in tech (I am not a good player), but both underworld and extraterrastial factions were tech backwards compared to Earth. The reason is high tech trade rate between earth civs, I suppose.
I am at a good position - I have score lead by a 1k pts. I have only 4 techs to reasearch (just buying them from other civs) and Earth guys doesn't seem to hurry and take space race victory. I didn't start my space race, because I don't have Relics. I just started my first war with Titans to get them, but the game keep crashing for me. After Canada and US sign peace treaty, I just left with message "please wait" and nothing happening. I waited for like 15 minutes, but still no responce. Checked other factions with multiplayer turn and found nothing suspicious. Russia is destroyed by Nordic Union the same turn, but I doubt it is connected to my crash. Besides that turns are really fast now.
Concerning Earth Factions, Allianz seems too weak now. They were destroyed first even before I reached Earth. Americas are dominated by US and Canada. and US is strongest nation on Earth score-wise. Europe was first taken by Russia and Barbary, but then Nordic Union overrun them all. I found many Russian cities are just 1 pop and most of them are destroyed. Russia and China took over most of Asia, but then Nords came for them there too. Africa is dominated by Egypt now and Australia is divided by remnants of India and Society. Japan is slowly falling to Canada. No interaction between extraterrastial/underworld factions and Earth at all. I think, Siam got single moon colony and that's it.
I think, non-earth civs gameplay should be revised. I know, it is not an easy task and probably shoulldn't be a priority, but something to consider in the future. My summary on this matter:
1) Happiness is a disaster. There's no luxury for Titans or Cthuvians. I only managed to by Furs and Ivory from Mahar later in the game;
2) No serious civ interaction until about turn 200;
3) There's not much reasons to interact with Earth civs even after you can. No reason to attack them or settle near them - conquered territories will be eaten by corruption anyway.
In general, I feel that the map, while very beatiful, is not very good gameplay-wise. It is just too big and, outside of earth, there's not much to do. Because of this, I think, non-earth civs has to be rebalanced to create completely different experience, maybe, even with their own tech tree. For example, they can get more/cheaper/auto-produced settlers, so you don't need half of the game time to settle territories around you. It coulld be fun to have cthulhu priests with hidden nationality which could invade Earth early on and wreak havoc among the mortals and terroriese their seas with squid-privateers. For Martians they can have kind of invasion on Earth at certain point (I think, the Rood and the Dragon scenario had simillar mechanics with Vikigns).
As I mentioned before, it would be fun if human players had actual reason to settle at other worlds. For example, they can have unique resources which you need to have to finish time machine. And, I think, in general corruption should be lowered in the scenario, so these colonies could actually funtion. More ways to mitigate it would be very cool.
For now I will concentrate on Earth civs. Polishing them first should be way easier. And they are way more fun to play.
Siege Artillery bombard stats changed to 8.1.1 from 12.2.2.
Maybe 10.1.1 would be more apropriate, sinde Laser Infantry is D10. Ideally, there should be two types of artillery for first and last 2 eras. Maybe adding something like Railgun in era 4 will be suitable?
Clear Damage reduced to 12 turns.
Worked fine. At late game it is still a problem but not nearly as annoying.
Turn times are way better now to. But still some kind of oversea connection has to be implemented. Through small wonders maybe?
In general, I enjoy the mod and its aesthetics very much and hope to see it completed one day.
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