[Religion and Revolution]: Mod Development

[colonialfan]

@colonialfan:

I have just read your improvements to diplomacy texts.

Well, what should I say ...
SIMPLY FANTASTIC !!!
They are really very atmospheric.

Thanks Ray, I'm glad you liked them. I should have the diplomacy text for rest of the new nations finished by the weekend. I then might spend a few days tweaking the responses a bit so that no two nations give the exact same response.

 

[raystuttgart]

I don't like this idea.

Me neither.
(But I really like the idea of having less Mining Specialists. )

 

[Pallando]

Me neither.
(But I really like the idea of having less Mining Specialists. )

Thats ok. Could you give your reasons?
I will just make those changes in a mod. That should be fun and a learning experience.

Several of us feel, that this is unatmospheric and almost like cheating.

He can.
Simply not at Natives.
He could be educated in schools or become specialst by "Learning by Doing".

I know that this is a game, but can you explain your reasons behind it? If I were a Conv. Native from Village X, where they train for Expert Farmers. I would assume that it would be the Natives themselves that teach the colonist how to become an Expert Farmer. So why wouldn't they train one of their previous own how to become one but a free colonist they would do.
Perhaps if they felt that the Conv. Native betrayed them, I would guess that they wouldn't do it.

Cheers.

 

[raystuttgart]

@team:

I have implemented Less Specialists for Mining Professions
(New revision available in SVN.)

We now only have 3 instead of 6 Specialists for Mining:

Expert Stonecutter --> Stone
Expert Miner --> Ore and Salt
Expert Prospector --> Silver, Gold and Gems

Expert Salt Miner, Expert Gold Miner, Expert Gemstone Miner have been removed.

This really feels so much better than before.
(There were so many Unit graphics that looked the same ...)

I tried to fix all texts for German and English.
The French texts (related to these Professions and Specialists) still need to be checked / corrected.

 

[raystuttgart]

Thats ok. Could you give your reasons?
I will just make those changes in a mod. That should be fun and a learning experience.

I am not sure if this is necessarily about reasons.
I personally simply prefer to leave the other Specialists as they are.

All of them have nice different graphics for example.
(Our Mining Specialists did not.)

Also Silver, Gold, Gems and Salt are pretty rare.
(It felt strange to have separate specialists for goods that rare.)

Also these Specialist could be bought in Europe.
The other ones for Tobacco, Cocoa, ... need to be earned much harder through "Learning by Doing" or "Training at Natives".
This is a very interesting aspect to my opinion and I do not want to loose that.

Both ways would be valid and everybody can do whatever he prefers in ModMods.

Modding is a matter of taste.
(And arguing about taste does not make sense.)

Thus, if a team member says he does not like a feature, we accept and won't implement in the mod.
(We are trying to listen to the feedback of partners and community of course but they do not participate in the decisions.)

I know that this is a game, but can you explain your reasons behind it ?

Well, it is simply again a matter of taste.

For me it feels unatmospheric (and like cheating) to get a Converted Native from a village and directly transform him to a specialist.
What is the point of getting Converted Natives then ?

To my opinion it would be much more interesting considering gameplay if you could not do that.
First get him to your town, and let him learn his Specialisation (Schools or "Learning by Doing").

You could argument
"The Natives of his village are angry at him, because he gave up their believes and leaves the village."

 

[raystuttgart]

@team and partners:

There are currently 4 open requests for testing.

1. War of Independence from TAC
2. Assuring that our current maps are working
3. Less Mining Specialists
4. Block Talking to Chief, Missioning, Training, Stirring Up Natives at Attitude Furious

Please help with testing.

Tomorrow I will implement:
(I think we all agree on that.)

Criminals, African Slaves, Native Slaves not being able to found cities.

 

[Schmiddie]

I currently have only Internet via my IPhone therefore I don't write long posts!

I totally agree with ray's arguements!

 

[Pallando]

I am not sure if this is necessarily about reasons.
I personally simply prefer to leave the other Specialists as they are.

All of them have nice different graphics for example.
(Our Mining Specialists did not.)

Also Silver, Gold, Gems and Salt are pretty rare.
(It felt strange to have separate specialists for goods that rare.)

Also these Specialist could be bought in Europe.
The other ones for Tobacco, Cocoa, ... need to be earned much harder through "Learning by Doing" or "Training at Natives".
This is a very interesting aspect to my opinion and I do not want to loose that.

Both ways would be valid and everybody can do whatever he prefers in ModMods.

Those are pretty valid reasons for wanting to have those specialists. That is all that I wanted to hear. I don't see anything wrong in explaining your motives behind a decision. You could learn a lot of things if people would do that.

 

[raystuttgart]

I don't see anything wrong in explaining your motives behind a decision.

There is nothing wrong about explaining motives or reasons.

I am just saying that modding is not always about logical reasons.
There is no "wrong" or "right" in modding.

In this example:
"Many Specialists" vs. "Fewer Specialists"

Both ways are equally valid.
There would be reasons for both approaches.

In the end it comes down to what the modders like or not.
(Everybody has a different style of playing.)

So for us, it is totally enough if a team member says "I don't like that." to stop a feature.
(If he explains his reasons, that is great. If he does not, also ok.)

But of course, it is always allowed to ask "Why do you not like that ?".
(But we will not have discussions about "wrong" or "right".)

 

[Pallando]

So for us, it is totally enough if a team member says "I don't like that." to stop a feature.
(If he explains his reasons, that is great. If he does not, also ok.)

But of course, it is always allowed to ask "Why do you not like that ?".
(But we will not have discussions about "wrong" or "right".)

I appreciate you taking the time to discuss things with a non member of the team. It's just that in my line of work you can't just say yes or no, but you have to explain why. I guess that old habits die hard.

Keep up the good work.

 

[raystuttgart]

It's just that in my line of work you can't just say yes or no, but you have to explain why.

Modding cannot be compared to a job.
The absolutely most important thing is that the team members are having fun.

 

[raystuttgart]

@team:

There was some feedback, that storage capacity is too low.

Should we increase storage capacity for our Warehous Buildings ?
(Warehouse, Warehous Expansion, Custom House)

 

[Schmiddie]

A little bit would be fine.

 

[raystuttgart]

A little bit would be fine.

Which values do you suggest ?

 

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,

I have implemented the following:
(New revision available in SVN.)

Criminals, African Slaves and Native Slaves cannot found cities anymore.
(Converted Natives still can, but that is ok to my opinion.)

Button for "Found City" (and action itself) is not available anymore for these 3 Units.
(Of course the button is still displayed for joining a city.)

There is also a point in Unit Description in Colopedia of these Units that says
"Can Not Found a New Settlement."

Edit:

We also still have these open requests for testing.
Please somebody test.

Edit 2:

Also please tell me again clearly, if you want to have these changes or not:

1. Converted Natives becoming "Experts" over time (just like Normal Colonists).
2. Converted Natives not being trainable at Native Villages.

 

[Schmiddie]

Which values do you suggest ?

I don't know how the Storage Capacity works, but a storage + of 100 each level?

========

Your other questions:

1) why not, I would prefer that natives also can become experts.
2) To my opinion natives should be trainable!

 

[raystuttgart]

I don't know how the Storage Capacity works, but a storage + of 100 each level?

Ok.
But we can wait for a little more feedback.
I will take a look also.

1) why not, I would prefer that natives also can become experts.
2) To my opinion natives should be trainable!

Ok.

Then Converted Natives not trainable at Native Villages is cancelled / history.
(It is XML only anyways. Anybody could change that to his own liking.)

Edit:

Just implemented and uploaded to SVN:
(If there are objections, I will revert of course. It is only 1 XML value changed.)

Converted Natives becoming "Experts" over time by "Learning by Doing" (just like Normal Colonists).

 

[raystuttgart]

@team:

Settings for Storage of Warehouse Buildings have been increased.

Total Storage if you have Warehouse --> +100 more than before
Total Storage if you have Warehouse Expansion --> +300 more than before
Total Storage if you have Custom House --> +500 more than before

So the max total Storage that can be achieved is: 2500 (before it was 2000)
(Custom House + Market in city)

I think that should be enough.
If we make this too easy, it will get boring.

If you create an efficient transportation system to your harbours (and from there to Europe) and
also use smart settings for your Custom Houses, storage should not really be a problem.

Religion and Revolution is designed to have many specialized cities and a smart transportation system.
(Which might require some micro-management.)

Let us see how this works with theses settings.

 

[Tigranes]

Smart settings for Custom Houses? I never knew Custom House can have a setting, it just sells the excess from each yield...

Spoiler :

500 extra space is nice but one cannot have specialized cities ONLY . Mod should have a room for diverse economies too, it should not force you to play in one style only! Unlike many other mods this mod has 50 yields and VERY important domestic market system. I make 448 gold per turn from my capital alone. One Trek is used for raw materials another one for finished goods. It is very sad that Custom House cannot be coded easily to sell goods in every category separately, even when different yields have different storage limits... I really thought it must be easy: if Cotton has 400 storage limit and lumber would have 200 Custom House could sell Cotton when you have 410 Cotton but keep you 199 Lumber untouched.

Just imagine real life Warehouse as implemented in the mod. That Warehouse should have movable walls and fixed overall space One turn you have 200 Sheep and 100 Luxury goods, next turn may you need to fit in it 100sheep and 200 Luxury good. I was just saying that different buildings could increase different good's limit!

Also in my humble opinion Luxury Goods should have higher profit Margin. One invests 1600 gold to make 200 gold over the period of 25 turns with megacapital like mine is (demand is 4). Any business (except if you are Walmart) operates at least at 50% profit margin. Prices can double when they reach Colonies. Remember the Tea party story?

 

[raystuttgart]

Smart settings for Custom Houses? I never knew Custom House can have a setting, it just sells the excess from each yield...

Ah, you have not yet discovered all our new features.
Then I understand that you are having problems with the storage.

Here it is explained how our Custom House Screen works.
(The screen is also mentioned in our Tips and Tricks here.)

Simply have the Custom House sell goods at low thresholds.

Everybody should really read our Overview (see Implemented and in Testing) before playing the mod.

This mod is massively packed with new features, screens and functionalities.
This really is the largest CivCol mod ever created.

Also, we include all features and functionalities of TAC.
(Like the New Trade Route System, which is really fantastic. koma13 did a masterpiece there.)

Edit:
You were right about the profits of Luxury Goods.
They were to low and have been increased in newest revision.