[WTP] Quick questions

[raystuttgart]

There are ways to teach pathfinding something like this, but they are all complex. There is no easy fix to this issue.

Exactly and it is also not such big issue in itself .
It is even a bit funny.

"Hey I am moving an undefended Treasure through the Territory of my enemy ..."
"Maybe he will not even notice me sneaking around if I do not act suspicious ..."

Any slowdown to the pathfinding logic will be noticed.

Let us leave it as it is.
I really do not like the idea of slowing down performance because of that ...

 

[Nightinggale]

I really do not like the idea of slowing down performance because of that ...

I have ideas, which might improve performance instead when it comes to pathfinding. I would rather spend my time on those ideas.

 

[ConjurerDragon]

The AI doesn't need open border to enter your territory if you are at war.

That was not my point. I mentioned having no open borders before the war, so that it was clear that those treasures were not already peacefully moving through my lands when I declared the war and instead entered my lands only after the start of the war.

Perhaps the AI should view plots owned by hostiles as slower. The problem is that it won't help for units with just one movement point as it won't change the amount of turns it will take to reach the target plot. There are ways to teach pathfinding something like this, but they are all complex. There is no easy fix to this issue. It doesn't make it any easier that pathfinding is the biggest contributor to the AI CPU time. Any slowdown to the pathfinding logic will be noticed.

How did you avoid that treasure units run over goody huts? If they can evade those, then perhaps they can do the same at least with the main city square+1 of a nation at war with them.

 

[Nightinggale]

That was not my point. I mentioned having no open borders before the war, so that it was clear that those treasures were not already peacefully moving through my lands when I declared the war and instead entered my lands only after the start of the war.

That's precisely what I wrote. The AI planned a path and started moving. However at some point while moving, it noticed the map had changed and it decided to use a shortcut. The fact that the map had changed due to the war makes no difference compared to say a scout finding a shortcut with a road on it in what was unexplored when the first path was planned.

How did you avoid that treasure units run over goody huts? If they can evade those, then perhaps they can do the same at least with the main city square+1 of a nation at war with them.

Checking each plot for nearby colonies is time consuming

 

[c2c_player_1234]

Is any way (mod?), to change minimap to rectangular shape?
Top and bottom tiles (circle minimap) are unclear.

 

[raystuttgart]

Is any way (mod?), to change minimap to rectangular shape?
Top and bottom tiles (circle minimap) are unclear.

Not in the globe (left corner) to my knowledge.
It would only be possible to create a completely new "Mini Map Screen" (like an Advisor Screen).
(But the effort to do so, would be outrageous ...)

 

[onefinneday]

Played Religion and Revolution many years ago, just found out that development on a new mod has restarted. Great news!

I just wonder, is the European colonist AI any good at defending their colonies? War was too easy from what I recall in RaR, but I understand it would be hard to fix the game balance issues.

 

[raystuttgart]

I just wonder, is the European colonist AI any good at defending their colonies?

In WTP AI is definitely better than in RaR.
It is of course still not as strategically versatile as a Human.

But wait for upcoming Release 3.0 ...
We have successfully boosted AI a bit.
(And no, I am not talking about any additional cheats.)

 

[historix69]

In wtp Walter Raleigh (ca 1552-1618) is a late game FF who gives 2 Ships of the Line and +10% Strength for Ships of the Line.

Walter Raleigh ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Raleigh ) is a historical person from the early english colonial times. He died about the same time as Pocahontas (1595-1617). The ships at that time and the ships he used would hardly compare with the 18th century Ships of the Line of the late game.

Both his bonus and the availability in the late game seem ahistorical.

As an early FF he could give 2 smaller ships, e.g 2 caravels to help early colonization.

As a midgame FF he could provide 2 more capable ships, e.g. a carrack (Madre de Deus, captured from Portuguese, maybe filled with gold, silver, gems and spices) and a (war) galleon (Ark Royal) to fight other european powers :
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flores_(1592), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madre_de_Deus
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_ship_Ark_Royal_(1587)


The current bonus of 2 free Ships of the Line and the SoL combat bonus I would add to late game FF de Grasse who historically won the battle in the Chesapeake Bay in 1781 during American Revolutionary War :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_Joseph_Paul_de_Grasse

 

[Raubwuerger]

I have a question about the EuropenTradeEvents. Can you show the missing goods that are still needed to complete the quest?

We have successfully boosted AI a bit.

After playing the developer snapshot several times, I can confirm this.
In most aspects, the AI is stronger than before. FF, settlement establishment, military, ...

 

[raystuttgart]

Can you show the missing goods that are still needed to complete the quest?

Not yet, but I could implement something to allow it.

I just need to find the time to do so ...
(Currently @Nightinggale and myself are drowning in work ...)

After playing the developer snapshot several times, I can confirm this.

 

[Nightinggale]

(Currently @Nightinggale and myself are drowning in work ...)

Yeah. I figured out a way to format a string in a way, which will crash the game. Since the crash is inside the exe file, it took some trial and error as well as brainstorming to figure out the pattern to cause the crash. Since it's unknown if there are more strings, which can cause such a crash, my current task is to write a script, which catches this issue automatically. Not fixing it, just tell us if a string can crash the game. It's kind of complex as it depends on how it's called in the code meaning this can't be fixed by better education of everybody editing the strings. I plan to run this test every time the DLL is compiled and that way we will detect those issues both now and if a new one is introduced in the future.

Yes I can imagine features, which would be more exciting to work on and have a bigger impact on gameplay, but code to fix potentially semi random crashes seems rather urgent (urgent enough to not release before fixing), particularly as it would appear we ended up with such crashes in the development version.

There are a bunch of decent proposals I would like to have in the game, but they are all less important than avoiding crashes meaning for the time being I'm unavailable to do any of them.

 

[raystuttgart]

There are a bunch of decent proposals I would like to have in the game, ...

Please do not be angry that I spend time on working on features in parallel.
I simply can not resist to play / experiment when I have new ideas ...

... but they are all less important than avoiding crashes meaning for the time being I'm unavailable to do any of them.

I fully agree.
But if I just spend time on bugfixing, testing, text corrections, ... I get demotivated.
(I need to play with features and prototypes to keep my motivation.)

----

So sorry that I currently mod mostly "fun stuff", while you fix most of the issues we currently find.
I will try to concentrate more again ...

 

[Nightinggale]

Please do not be angry that I spend time on working on features in parallel.
I simply can not resist to play / experiment when I have new ideas ...

I wrote "I would like to have in the game", not "I would like to create myself". Most of what you do is something where I would like the end result and not having to create it myself is a bonus. I'm happy that there is progress in gameplay features even though I don't have time to create them myself.

 

[Arkona]

Question is as WAD that if you make a group with a treasure and a scout that you cant visit the chief in the nativ villages?

 

[raystuttgart]

Question is as WAD that if you make a group with a treasure and a scout that you cant visit the chief in the nativ villages?

Yes it is WAD, we did not want treasures to talk to Chiefs. We considered it an exploit.
You need to split the group and only have the Scout talk to the Chief.

 

[ConjurerDragon]

In my current game on 2.9 several cherokee braves on foot who were at war with the french followed a french treasure transport from the trading post where it was created for several turns around my territorry towards the french towns - always 1 square behind it and never reaching it...

Both units have a movement of 1 but in my opinion a treasure transport of a handcart with a heavy load ought to be catched by native braves somehow.

Could the native braves be made a bit faster in the Wilderness or the treasure transport a bit slower in forests without a road?

 

[raystuttgart]

... always 1 square behind it and never reaching it ...

Actually that sounds funny.

But do not worry, after my Terrain Overhaul this will change.
Natives will e.g. be faster than a Treasure in e.g. Swamp.
(Because it will have to move around or otherwise lose massive time being stuck.)

 

[schueler]

A little feature that has been on my mind for long which has probably been thought through by the developers for a lot longer:

A pier as a terrain improvement within the city radius: I've often found myself wanting to go a bit more inland but of course then I need a dedicated city to build a port
to unload my carriages.
Basically a place where carriages can unload their stuff on a ship and vice versa.
Teaching the AI to use those and having to create a UI for transferring goods.would probably be too much of a hassle.

City placement trade-offs like that should probably remain part of the game but it's not exactly unimmersive either.

 

[raystuttgart]

@schueler

It is on the "todo-list" already.
It is just that our "todo-list" is so incredibly long that you can not even imagine how long ...

We have discussed / planned to integrate this mod-comp from our team member @devolution in WTP.
Here is the discussion thread.

----

Summary:

We simply do not need any more ideas. There is no lack of ideas.
There is almost nothing a player can still imagine that we have not already discussed in the last 13 years.

We simply need modders to implement them.
Only more modders will get more features implemented - not more ideas ...

----

So yes it is on the list.
But please do not ask when we might find time to eventually implement such "Priority 3 stuff" ...
Maybe tomorrow, maybe never ... it depends on the modders that work on this project or support us.