[MOD] The Authentic Colonization (TAC)

[fibo]

Hi all

Just registered to say that this mod is brilliant. I was one of those who were dissapointed with Civ4 Colonization and quickly went back to dos emulator to play original Colon 1.

But this it. Changes and modifications in this mod are great. There are some bugs tho (in one of my cities i was building naval port and it was finished but never show up in this city, in other one where i was also building naval port there were no problems). I wish there were also some trading improvements like other european's colonies wagon trains/ships visiting my cities for trading. And to see some weather impact on our ship's journeys or on crop fields also would be nice. Maybe in another updates if there will be any. But as i said - this is atm by far the best mod for civ4col. Thank you guys.

I have only one question.


In first post in "Concept" Writing Bull says

"In compensation the round limit has been deleted. This way the game is no longer a race against the ticking turn clock but against your opponents."

When I move mouse curssor at the date in top right corner it shows some statistics and data. I see there is a round limit(?). I started with marathon lenght and it shows 900 rounds limit. So what will happen when this 900 rounds exceeds? Nothing? Asking beacuse atm i have played 830 rounds and there is zero chance that i will manage to achieve 50% rebel sentiment before 900 rounds.

And sorry for my english. It's not my native one.

 

[Sanotra]

You're at 830 rounds and you don't have 50% rebel sentiment??? What difficulty level are you playing on, Patriot or Revolutionary???

The reason I am astonished is because I'm sitting at pretty high levels of rebel sentiment all the time when I play TAC. That's one of the enjoyable things about TAC, is you can max out your bells, but still not provoke the king to building a huge army. You have to have guns as well to scare him.

I think that nothing happens when the round turn is over. But I'll let one of those guys comment on that for you. Or you can find out in 70 turns.

 

[Writing Bull]

Hi all

Just registered to say that this mod is brilliant. I was one of those who were dissapointed with Civ4 Colonization and quickly went back to dos emulator to play original Colon 1.

But this it. Changes and modifications in this mod are great.
I have only one question.

Hi fibo. Welcome! And thank you for your laud.

In first post in "Concept" Writing Bull says

"In compensation the round limit has been deleted. This way the game is no longer a race against the ticking turn clock but against your opponents."

When I move mouse curssor at the date in top right corner it shows some statistics and data. I see there is a round limit(?). I started with marathon lenght and it shows 900 rounds limit. So what will happen when this 900 rounds exceeds? Nothing?

If you haven't enabled the option "Score victory after turn limit", nothing will happen. If you have enabled it, the game will be finished, and the nation, who is leading at the ranking, will be the winner.

 

[Ronnar]

I am working on changing the information you get in the mouse over info. I will remove the limit shown there if this option to win the game is not activated.

This change is most likely in the next (and final) TAC update.

 

[G0d_Strong]

Hey I LOVE this mod! It really brings Civ4 Colonization up to what it should have been. However, me and my brothers also want to play multiplayer without the wait hotseat brings. Will the next update fix the issue with LAN? Because that would make it much more enjoyable. The game is fun in single player, but it's even more fun playing with friends and family.

 

[koma13]

Hey I LOVE this mod! It really brings Civ4 Colonization up to what it should have been. However, me and my brothers also want to play multiplayer without the wait hotseat brings. Will the next update fix the issue with LAN? Because that would make it much more enjoyable. The game is fun in single player, but it's even more fun playing with friends and family.

You can already play TAC in Multiplayer. The only bug is caused by the cheat menu (ctrl-shift-z). So if you run into an oos-error during a multiplayer session, it means someone tried to access that menu.

To make TAC showing up in the multiplayer lobby, your TAC installations have to match following criterias:

1) All participants of a multiplayer party should have installed the same version of TAC (e.g TAC 2.02d without any file changes).

2) TAC have to be installed into the program directory of Colonization (e.g. C:\Program Files\Colonization\Mods\TAC 2.02d), not the documents/user folder.

3) The player who host the multiplayer game have to setup his windows firewall to allow the other players to access it. Look up your Windows documentation how to do that.

If you can't get the lobby to work, you can also try access a multiplayer session by using the "direct ip" option.

 

[G0d_Strong]

Ok, thanks for the help koma!
The only issue is for some reason that file doesn't exist in my program files. Should I just copy and paste?

 

[puttincomputers]

This looks neat! Will have to try it sometime!

 

[iggymnrr]

This plays pretty well. Late game seems a bit off like the 75 % tax cap does something funky. I found I didn't build any late game stuff at all. No whale thingies; no great unis, textile mills, arsenals, etc. Tax cap came so fast that nothing was viable. Even a starting price of 20 for whale oil would net less than a raw resource would at game's start. So no whale thingies. Also, were there customs houses? If so they would also not have been built. I only needed blacksmith shops and magazines so 3rd tier things were ignored. (I tried the level below revolutionary.) Still, without these things the game played well.

 

[Writing Bull]

Late game seems a bit off like the 75 % tax cap does something funky. Tax cap came so fast that nothing was viable. (...) I tried the level below revolutionary.

The tax cap depends on the difficult level. If you wouldn't choose such a high level, the tax cap would be lower, and it would be more attractive to build expensive buildings.

Even a starting price of 20 for whale oil would net less than a raw resource would at game's start. So no whale thingies.

Yes, we have changed the balancing of whaling. Our next TAC version will have a better balancing, and it will be more attractive to produce train oil.

 

[iggymnrr]

^^
Perhaps more than balancing, could it be possible to have a statue of me the governor erected sooner?

 

[koma13]

Ok, thanks for the help koma!
The only issue is for some reason that file doesn't exist in my program files. Should I just copy and paste?

Here:

Spoiler :

1. First you have to find your Colonization directory where the colonization.exe is located. The Colonization installer defaults to C:\Program Files but at my Computer I changed it and installed Colonization to C:\Games.

2. Create a directory named Mods inside the Colonization program directory (where your colonization.exe is) and put the TAC mod into it, the same way as you can see in the picture above.

I hope this makes clear where to install the TAC mod.

Perhaps more than balancing, could it be possible to have a statue of me the governor erected sooner?

The purpose of the statue is to provide a production task in a city where no building options are left.

 

[oyh]

I've downloaded the mod (2.02d inoffical) and played it several times during the last few days - coming to the conclusion that
--> this is an outstanding mod! <--

The additional concepts are well thought out. And the numerous minor changes are very fine, too.

Having said that I'd like to point out some areas for which there is still be room for improvement (most of them low hanging fruits). Furthermore, there are some (very few) concept issues that have dragged on the fun/motivation during game play.

ISSUES

(1) Un-indententured indentured servants:
I really liked your concept of forcing indentured servants (and petty criminals) to earn their right as a free colonist. But then this concept has also to be applied to training conducted by Indian tribes. How could an indentured servant be able to become a specialist (having the potential to become a free colonist after clearing) in 1-2 turns in an Indian village if had to earn his freedom for several turns in a colony? Hence, my proposal would be to restrict training conducted by Indians to free colonists.

(2) Cash-dependent tribute to king:
In all my games, I exploited this concept by only leaving about 100 gold of free cash at any time. This corresponds to a 30-40 gold contribution every time the king demands for it. My feeling is that this was not your intention. It would have been much more fun if the king demanded for an arbitrary sum (not linked to one's own cash) and, if the player does not hold enough gold, the only option would be to anger the king. This would really make this part of the game more interesting.

(3) Un-balanced starting units:
The English (firebrand preacher) and French (Jesuit missionary) starting units are very strong if compared to the other nations' units. This is also reflected by their ordinary price tag (2000 vs. 800). I have not perceived what could possibly balance this. An option here would be to provide two (instead of one) specialists to the three other European powers.

(4) Where are the tornados?
The terrain feature tornado has never shown up in my games (but volcanos have). Is this a documented but not yet implemented feature?

(5) Treasure exploit:
In my games, after having acquired a treasure, I used it for exploring the countryside and popping up all goody huts (aka burial grounds aka ancient ruins). I did so because even in case of "you have angered the natives who kill you in revenge" the treasure remains unaffected for some obscure reason. If the reason for causing this bug cannot be found, another option would be to forbid visiting goody huts by treasures altogether.
BTW: I don't argue that treasures should not be allowed to be used for exploring the countryside.

POTENTIAL ROUND-OFFS

(1) Tooltip for turns until "learning by doing" becomes possible:
I have often lost track for how long I had left a free colonist to pursue a specific profession. It would be really helpful if a tooltip (or something similar) told me in how many turns his chances to learn the profession become real and, if the initial 30 turns were through, the per-turn probability of this to happen would also be interesting to display here.

(2) No travel to Europe by severely damaged ships:
In one of my games, there was the funny situation that my privateer had 0.0/5 (representing a leaking hull, destroyed sails and sailing masts...) but could still sail to Europe. I perceive two options how this could be avoided:
(a) Travel to Europe always hampers the ship's health (eg., between 0.0 and 1.0).
(b) Travel to Europe is only possible for some minimum health (eg., 1.0).

(3) Balancing whaling:
Some comments regarding whaling have been written to this thread in the last days. Here is my view on that: Whaling is not very attractive at the beginning (mostly because of the compulsion of having to build the drydock, the whale boat, and the whale oil shop). During mid-game, whaling is also difficult due to privateer scourge. And in the late game, whaling for money is not that compelling as money is not as important any more. So, yes, whaling is not very attrictive (I have never seen that the AI builds these ships btw). Apart from the obvious means of changing that (being increased whale meat/oil prices), an additional option would be to allow whaling boat purchases in Europe (starting price tag about 500 gold if the meat/oil prices are not changed). This is also more realistic: Why wouldn't it be possible to purchase whaling boats in Europe if they are able to travel through the high seas anyway?

(4) More global European prices:
Imagine Spain finds and explores a silver mine 20 turns before I do. My expectation would be that the price of silver in Europe has dropped before I'm able to begin to sell it. If this was the case (currently afaik it is not (also true for vanilla)), a very interesting mechanic would have been added to the game. Apart from the gameplay argument, this is also more realistic as Potosi silver has led to silver inflation throughout Europe (not only in Spain). Or, as another example, imagine two opponents engage in a war and heavily buy weapons in Europe. Then, I'd love to see an increased weapons price also in my European harbor.
So how could this be implemented? An option here would be as follows: If opponents buy/sell anything in Europe this also affects one's own European prices as if one had bought/sold a portion (the half(?)) of that quantity by himself. Probably this would have to be balanced by decreasing price sensitivity.


TO CONCLUDE

So, as I have said in the beginning, I highly appreciate your work on this mod and the mod itself. By compiling my findings in this post, I have been trying to assist you in improving the mod even further.

 

[Ronnar]

I've downloaded the mod (2.02d inoffical) and played it several times during the last few days - coming to the conclusion that
--> this is an outstanding mod! <--

Hi oyh, thank you very much for your detailed feedback. It is great that you did enjoy our mod.
Unfortunately I need to tell you that we are working on the final TAC version and no more new features will be implemented. We are working on fixing some minor bugs and mostly on balancing.

(4) Where are the tornados?
The terrain feature tornado has never shown up in my games (but volcanos have). Is this a documented but not yet implemented feature?

Other TAC team members will most likely be answering to your other comments, I will take this one as a start. As I have programmed most of the events, I am pretty sure that tornados are indeed in game and should be working.

In the folder TAC documentation you can also find documentation about quests and events - unfortunately it is only available in German at the moment.

In the case of the tornado event, specific trigger conditions have to be met and of course also a random factor is included. If other TAC players agree that they have never seen a tornado event, then we could increase the trigger chance.

Spoiler :

Tornado requires a total population of at least 25, a prairie terrain field in your city radius with an improvement farm, plantation or mine. Only then can a tornado be triggered. And the trigger chance is very, very low.

 

[Writing Bull]

Hi oyh,

Elwood, another member of TAC team, has given me these answers to your remarks:

(1) Un-indententured indentured servants:
You got your point here. This was under heavy disscussion in the team and a lot were seeing things the way you do. To summary in a nutshell, why it is the way it is: Criminals and indentured servants are of lesser use, beause of their penalties and there tendency to flee. So a lot argue, that it would make them even more useless and the whole feature simply frustrating, when they can´t be educated by natives. All in all they took longer to learn a profession and you have to send them for some time somewhere. During that, they are not avaible to do other work. They make usefull pioneers, rifleman and also missionaries without any penalties. Also the indentured servant is as good as any other colonist in harvesting ressources.

(2) Cash-dependent tribute to king:
You found a way to please your king and avoid heavy taxes ... well done, but was there never a situation, where it would have been worth the risc to stay with 1000, 2000, 3000 gold just one more turn because of a ship to buy, a statesman to recruit, a building to finish? A lot of player experience this and like it. So have some risk or keep it down, your choice, each solution with it´s own advantages and disadvantages. Arbitrary sums would make things more challenging on one hand, or more frustrating on the other. Imagine founding your second colony and out of thin air your king demands for 2000 and your entire colony is worth half of this at the moment ... So have this kind of "luck" two or three times in the beginning of a game and it will get really hard. You can´t pay, the king is mad from now on, he may raise taxes quicker or demand things more often ...

(3) Un-balanced starting units:
Also here ... a lot of discussions gone by , Yeah, they may be not absolutely equal, but it all depends on your style of gaming and the specific circumstances. Have a silverminer and a silver-ressource, really, really great! A fisherman with some fish-ressource may boost with extra food your entire city, because more people can work and live here right now while a firebrand preacher at the same time would be switching between fishing and beeing a lumberjack to finish the church ... All in all we had so many people that wanted to change nearly every starting unit because it was so overpowered/underpowered, well, we think it is quite a good balance if enough are unhappy with every detail .

 

[oyh]

we are working on the final TAC version and no more new features will be implemented

Understood. Perhaps some of the ideas will make it into the TAC idea pool for post 2.03 work...

Tornado requires a total population of at least 25, a prairie terrain field in your city radius with an improvement farm, plantation or mine.

If total population refers to the population of the nearby city, I cannot say for sure that these conditions were met in any game. Otherwise, they have been met for large parts of the game - and tornados have never been spotted by any player.
btw: Columbus' La Isabela was struck by hurricanes when the Spanish population was far below 25...

 

[Ronnar]

If total population refers to the population of the nearby city, I cannot say for sure that these conditions were met in any game. Otherwise, they have been met for large parts of the game - and tornados have never been spotted by any player.
btw: Columbus' La Isabela was struck by hurricanes when the Spanish population was far below 25...

It refers to the overall population of your colonies, including colonists still waiting for a transfer in Europe.

The 25 minimum population is not to reflect any historic reasons, it has gameplay reasons:

- It would be unfair if this event strucks early in the game, maybe your first plot with an improvement
- We have a whole bunch of events and quests that can/will happen in the early game and wanted to spread the other events to happen in mid/late game

We will look into increasing the chance to trigger this event.

 

[puttincomputers]

I have a question.

Are only TAC maps compatible with TAC or are other Colonization maps compatible?

 

[raystuttgart]

Are only TAC maps compatible with TAC or are other Colonization maps compatible?

Maps made with Vanilla and most other mods are compatible with TAC.
The other way around, too.

Spoiler :

However, there are many ways to create maps that are incompatible with anything else than the mod you created them.
But if you create them right, you can usually exchange them between mods.

Generally there are usually no problems if the maps have "Random Players" and "Random Resources".

There might be problems for example, if players or resources are fixed,
because one mod might have some players or resources which another mod simply doesn't.

 

[Writing Bull]

Are only TAC maps compatible with TAC or are other Colonization maps compatible?

Hi puttincomputers,

I regret, but it is not possible to give you a general answer. You can use official Vanilla maps with TAC, and you can use maps which have been created from modders for Vanilla. You can use maps which are created from modders for their own mods, if these maps don't contain certain new features like new terrain types or vegetation features.

On the other hand TAC maps are not compatible with Vanilla or other mods.