Éa, The Ageless and the Divine (phase 2, alpha)
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Pazyryk
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Major combat change coming in v10:
You can now capture a city with a ranged attack if the unit is adjacent to the city and knocks it down to 0 hp. The main effect on gameplay is to allow conquering "archer-only" armies (remember that these are all range 1).
It should help the AI in several ways. I often see them (in base Civ) in a situation where they can't take a 0 hp city because all adjacent plots are occupied by ranged units. Another specific mod case are elephant-mounted units: the AI will (I believe) always choose ranged attack over melee, which prevented them for capturing cities.
I don't think human players will be conquering with siege only (unlike archers, they are weak against melee attack).
You can now capture a city with a ranged attack if the unit is adjacent to the city and knocks it down to 0 hp. The main effect on gameplay is to allow conquering "archer-only" armies (remember that these are all range 1).
It should help the AI in several ways. I often see them (in base Civ) in a situation where they can't take a 0 hp city because all adjacent plots are occupied by ranged units. Another specific mod case are elephant-mounted units: the AI will (I believe) always choose ranged attack over melee, which prevented them for capturing cities.
I don't think human players will be conquering with siege only (unlike archers, they are weak against melee attack).
Yes, there are some strings beginning with TEXT_KEY. I've seen them in the buildings, units, tech tree and those popups that come when the tech is researched. Also, I played this one game for quite long where I easily completed 5 tech trees... This shouldn't be easily accomplished, correct? I think there might be something broken in my installation...
onedreamer
Dragon
unfortunately, if you are playing on Windows XP the issue is likely to be DirectX9. Most mods will not work with DX9 as modders don't test them on XP systems, this mod is in between in that it will work with DX9 but have some odd UI behavior (the UI tooltips, like the one over mana etc don't work properly, culture progress counts like 10 figures after the decimal point, etc). There is only one mod I tried that works without glitches with DX9, I'm guessing the modder is still on Windows XP.
onedreamer
Dragon
approved.
Instead I still think the policy acquisition is too fast. I understand you want civs to complete a branch to shape them better, in this case though I would make policy progression fairly steady until a civ has chosen 5 total (or is it 6 for closing a branch?), weather in the same branch or not it's their problem, then slow it by a fair amount, but progressively, not abruptly.
Nope, Win7.
Pazyryk
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Not fixed yet. I tried to get this adjusted for the hotfix, but messed something up very badly so I didn't include it. It will be adjusted to be slower (in mid- to late game) in v10 as I discussed several posts up.
Sorry, I'm just having trouble interpreting your comment about "many" texts missing or wrong. Many as in a few? Take a look at post #3 if you want a good description of where the mod is right now. Stuff like tech quotes is just polish and not something to worry about in an alpha. From your post I thought you were seeing many TXT_KEY_s for unit, tech, policy names, which should not be the case. Help texts have been added where they are needed to understand new mod mechanics, like policies. Some aren't ready to be written yet because I'm moving (have moved) many things from help into the automatically generated bullet points on mouseover (e.g., additional techs and policies required for units, etc.).
Edit: OK, that might have sounded a little defensive. Time to stop, take a deep breath... maybe take a walk before posting.
If you played very far into the game (without seeing errors), then your installation is probably fine. There are missing texts, yes. The policy progression is too fast. That's been pointed out and discussed here quite a bit (I don't expect everyone to read pages of posts). It will be adjusted in next version.
Just to chime in on the policy acquisition rate (this is all based on Emperor level games):
In every game where I got either A) an early Artist or B) the Ab or Ikkos civ with 3 or more Elephants/Horses in my capital, I've had a really fast policy acquisition rate.
In every game where I went for the research branch of the Tradition policy tree early and got an early library, I had decent policy acquisition rate. All my games as Pantheist civs without an Artist or Ab/Ikkos have also had decent culture.
In every game where I had none of the above and went straight Agrarian, I was able to rely on some culture-yielding improvements such as incense, marble, etc. to get a few policies. By the time I got an opener and 3 or 4 extra policies, I had so many citizens that my culture rate, which was improved only by a couple monuments, libraries, and/or resources, went to around 0.01/turn.
The only time I've ever had a really breakneck culture pace was with Pantheistic Ab with three Elephants (which is basically 0.12/turn right off the bat). With the new adjustments on plot yields, I might suggest dialing the Elephant/Horse culture bonus for the Ab and Ikkos down from 3/resource to 2/resource. I haven't played enough culture-focused games to make any comments besides that.
In every game where I got either A) an early Artist or B) the Ab or Ikkos civ with 3 or more Elephants/Horses in my capital, I've had a really fast policy acquisition rate.
In every game where I went for the research branch of the Tradition policy tree early and got an early library, I had decent policy acquisition rate. All my games as Pantheist civs without an Artist or Ab/Ikkos have also had decent culture.
In every game where I had none of the above and went straight Agrarian, I was able to rely on some culture-yielding improvements such as incense, marble, etc. to get a few policies. By the time I got an opener and 3 or 4 extra policies, I had so many citizens that my culture rate, which was improved only by a couple monuments, libraries, and/or resources, went to around 0.01/turn.
The only time I've ever had a really breakneck culture pace was with Pantheistic Ab with three Elephants (which is basically 0.12/turn right off the bat). With the new adjustments on plot yields, I might suggest dialing the Elephant/Horse culture bonus for the Ab and Ikkos down from 3/resource to 2/resource. I haven't played enough culture-focused games to make any comments besides that.
Pazyryk
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Yeah, that definitely needs more feedback in UI. What's happening is that many wonders and some other actions have either a production or gold cost. For example, Stanhencg has cost 250p. Each turn that you are building Stanhencg production is being deducted from the city but only up to 2/3 of total city production. Since it takes 25 turns to build, 10p is needed per turn. If the city can only provide 5p (50% of what is needed), then there is a 50% chance that no progress will be made that turn. So, if this situation continues, it will still be built but will take about 2x longer. Actions with a gold cost (e.g., establishing a trade route) work the same way except the gold is deducted from your total treasury (will start to shortfall only when you reach 0g).
What I can do is add feedback in the build mouseover. So when you start Stanhencg, you will see a warning based on current city production: "[red warning text]City production is too low to build Stanhencg in 25 turns; based on current production rate, there is a 50% chance for shortfall (no progress) each turn."
@400cats, the policy slowdown in v10 will hit the high-culture civs but have little effect on the low culture civs (in fact, they will get a tiny boost). So Ag civs aren't going to suffer. I described it a few posts up but probably was lost in all of my other posts:
Old math:
CL approaches 10 x total culture generated / total pop
New math
CL approaches 10 x (total culture generated / total pop)^0.7
If you are making <1c/pop, then the change is very small but actually positive. At 1c/pop you will approach 10 policies total, so 1 branch completed and a few policies into the next. At 0.5c/pop you approach 6 policies, just short of a whole branch. With 5c/pop (hopefully that's at the very high end) you approach 30 policies or about 4 branches completed. (In v9, the latter example would have got you approaching 50 policies which is clearly broken). I hate to add hard limits but I think I will add a hard stop to policy progression after 4 branches completed. If it's common to hit this, then I will bump the 0.7 exponent down to 0.6.
Pazyryk
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Hotfix d for v9 . Will (I think*) break saves! "Extract Here" inside your MODS folder.
OK, I decided there was no reason to wait for v10 for this. This one introduces some pretty strong adjustments to social policy progression. It will actually speed progression very early, but slow it (a lot) in mid to late game. Low-culture civs get a tiny boost. High-culture civs are reduced in both the total number of policies they will get and the rate at which they will get them.
I only tested it for very early progress (first couple policies). So you will have to let me know how it works after that...
(Note: Cultural Level progress indication in the Top Panel is a little screwy for the first 2 turns. It's because many mod mechanics don't start until turn 2. Everything settles down after that.)
Edit: Forgot to mention, this hotfix will break saves!
*Edit2: On second thought, I don't know whether it will break saves or not. In the best case, you will have Culture Level that does not match your current policy progression when you re-load.
OK, I decided there was no reason to wait for v10 for this. This one introduces some pretty strong adjustments to social policy progression. It will actually speed progression very early, but slow it (a lot) in mid to late game. Low-culture civs get a tiny boost. High-culture civs are reduced in both the total number of policies they will get and the rate at which they will get them.
I only tested it for very early progress (first couple policies). So you will have to let me know how it works after that...
(Note: Cultural Level progress indication in the Top Panel is a little screwy for the first 2 turns. It's because many mod mechanics don't start until turn 2. Everything settles down after that.)
Edit: Forgot to mention, this hotfix will break saves!
*Edit2: On second thought, I don't know whether it will break saves or not. In the best case, you will have Culture Level that does not match your current policy progression when you re-load.
Lua.log for a game I played as Eleutherios that crashed out during a Barbarian turn without warning on turn 45 (gonna see if I can salvage a quicksave, because I had an awesome setup!) EDIT: Got the game running from a turn 40 autosave. Everything was fine until around turn 100ish, when the same sort of crash happened again during a Barbarian turn. Here's a log: 2nd Lua.log
Thanks for sharing the policy slowdown mechanics again. I wasn't really worried about anything with my post above or trying to address any specific balancing issues, I just wanted to explain a couple different scenarios I had played in case they would help with balancing.
Thanks for sharing the policy slowdown mechanics again. I wasn't really worried about anything with my post above or trying to address any specific balancing issues, I just wanted to explain a couple different scenarios I had played in case they would help with balancing.
Pazyryk
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@400cats,
In both games, the very last thing that Lua was doing before the crash was loading an image to display. I don't think it is a problem with these specific images. In the first game, you managed to view 2 dds images and then the 3rd appears to have crashed your game. In the second game, you didn't crash until the 13th image. That 13th image was the same as the 12th, and you played successfully through the same image that crashed your first game.
It is more likely that we are hitting some graphic limit on your computer. There is a lot going on here, so I'll have to think about it. I can tell that you are playing on a small screen. The mod works hard to accommodate that by squeezing (for example) 668x900 images down to 460 x 630. Civ5 does this, but I have no idea how or how much of a burden this places on the computer. Perhaps it throws the full size image at your graphics card and then asks it to to the size shrinkage.
Or it may not be graphics specifically but just your machine balking at the amount of memory. The game's soundtrack (mp3s) take up more memory (I think) than the core game music files (which are more compressed oggs). And the mod's Lua footprint is big. It may be that asking for the dds image is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
In both games, the very last thing that Lua was doing before the crash was loading an image to display. I don't think it is a problem with these specific images. In the first game, you managed to view 2 dds images and then the 3rd appears to have crashed your game. In the second game, you didn't crash until the 13th image. That 13th image was the same as the 12th, and you played successfully through the same image that crashed your first game.
It is more likely that we are hitting some graphic limit on your computer. There is a lot going on here, so I'll have to think about it. I can tell that you are playing on a small screen. The mod works hard to accommodate that by squeezing (for example) 668x900 images down to 460 x 630. Civ5 does this, but I have no idea how or how much of a burden this places on the computer. Perhaps it throws the full size image at your graphics card and then asks it to to the size shrinkage.
Or it may not be graphics specifically but just your machine balking at the amount of memory. The game's soundtrack (mp3s) take up more memory (I think) than the core game music files (which are more compressed oggs). And the mod's Lua footprint is big. It may be that asking for the dds image is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
About siege weapons :
- I could use catapult and trebuchet without setting them up first (not sure about the other siege units); possibly working as intended, but the manual says otherwise
- The non-standard upgrades [catapult > fire catapult] and [trebuchet > fire trebuchets] are not in game (however catapult > trebuchet is in)
- Ballista needs timber to be built. What about giving access to the timberyard (or to another source of timber) with archery, in the same way as mathematics and sailing ?
- I could use catapult and trebuchet without setting them up first (not sure about the other siege units); possibly working as intended, but the manual says otherwise
- The non-standard upgrades [catapult > fire catapult] and [trebuchet > fire trebuchets] are not in game (however catapult > trebuchet is in)
- Ballista needs timber to be built. What about giving access to the timberyard (or to another source of timber) with archery, in the same way as mathematics and sailing ?
Pazyryk
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@Vinnz, Thanks for the siege comments. I'll get all those fixed for v10 (timberyard with archery makes sense).
@Lplate, I'll get that into v10 if I have time. What I really need to do is spend a week focusing on civs: A few naming conditions were broken recently. A few effects were never working. There is no feedback in the game on what the bonuses are. Not sure if this all will be done for v10 or wait for v11.
@Lplate, I'll get that into v10 if I have time. What I really need to do is spend a week focusing on civs: A few naming conditions were broken recently. A few effects were never working. There is no feedback in the game on what the bonuses are. Not sure if this all will be done for v10 or wait for v11.
onedreamer
Dragon
I'm waiting for v10 for further testing. I say take your time to implement all changes due to the feedback you received up to now. Don't forget the gatherer's hut 
