Redux:
Oh man... for the first two paragraphes, I wasn't really prepared for!
Thank you for that praise! It's such exaggerated
, that I want to ask, if I could quote this:
Yes, it's definitely educational. Other mods bring historical elements into the game, but the shear scale of what you have done dwarfs any other mods I've seen. I'm about 18 hours into my first game of it, and I'm still discovering new things you've added--it's like as soon as I think, "It would be nice if it did x," I find out "Oh, it does." Just now I was wishing I could drag ships across the Isthmus of Corinth like they actually did, and I was browsing your Civilopedia entries and sure enough, supply wagons can portage ships across land.
You've added a ton of new features to the game that add to its historical feel and enhanced its game play with everything still feeling balanced and polished--nothing feels kludged and I haven't run into any bugs yet. I've been coding and gaming for over 30 years now, and I'm awestruck by both your design and implementation. You have earned my highest praise.
on the first page for advertisement.
If you want to change something with the phrases, just post them, so I can be sure, it's ok for a quote. (of course, if you allow it)
For PAE V there is just missing a personal comment.
Ok, now about your plans to create a Pelo-Scenario:
Yes, as the others have said. JohnDay will make a Pelo Scenario, but not with your conditions. You wrote changes, that sounds as if you should make a PAE modmod. Of course, this is also possible and I support that. But I can't put two different rules into one mod (eg. XP points of Spartian agoge, locked techs for vassals, prohibit city walls for them,...).
The ideas are fine, but they would only concern especially Greek history.
The Delian League. Yes, not only that, the whole theme about city states doesn't work in Civ IV but probably in Civ V. A city that you can't manage, but which can support you or not. That would be a great thing! But in CIV IV, I can't imagine that, maybe with 40 Civ.dll and Minor Civs (can be set in CivilizationInfos.xml).
With the standard 18 CIV limit, you are limited to a small "playing area".
So, those things only would work as a stand alone modmod.
But, if you need things or you have ideas, that fit to all nations and can be easily done (eg. over land transport of ships), then I will of course add such a feature into the next possible PAE patch.
About your questions:
Once a vassal state meets the requirements to leave vassalage, what does the AI take into account in deciding whether to do so? Does the military power of the dominant state affect the decision, or even better, the military power of the dominant state that is in the vicinity of the vassal?
In BTS a vassal leaves his hegemon with land mass (from the state of vassalage) and power (compared to the hegemon).
In PAE there are more factors: if a vassal loses a city, there are more possibilites:
If the vassal's and the enemy's power is bigger then the power of the hegemon, the vassal can switch flag or gets independend again and helps you against his further hegemon.
I haven't looked yet at what can be done in Civ 4 or with your mod via XML and Python as opposed to what requires DLL changes. If something did need a DLL change, is your source code something you share publicly? Or would you consider incorporating source for a scenario into yours, if it was only activated by an XML property the scenario would set?
PAE doesn't use SDK at the moment because of MAC compatibility. But as the main reason, the lack of time.
If you want some rule changes for your scenario, which mainly concerns XML changes, it would be best, you create a modmod. I develope PAE all the time and will add some new python features.
If you have only some changes for python, I agree to add this into the EventManager for your scenario.
Another possibility is to create a certain dll file for your scenario.
I just noticed that you have code onCityAcquiredAndKept. I'm confident that codes there can cause OOS issues. Just saying.
Thx, Horatius. Is this really a non global function?
But I even have OOS troubles without the whole python folder! ;(