1.9 Beta Feedback

[Deliverator]

For the Weirding Way promotions, the current slot (water of life) really doesn't fit, its massively too early. I suggest we create a new Weirding Way tech that grants the promotions, and requires Military Elite and Prescience, at a beaker cost of ~2,500.
Or call the tech "Prana-Bindu training."

OK, I'll do this. Prana-Bindu Training is a decent name. I realised we don't really have The Litany Against Fear in the mod. Perhaps this could be a Bene Gesserit UB national wonder or something - it could go at this new tech. Perhaps it could give all units built in the city some promotion or other.

Cool. Will need some testing (might be underpowered), but I like the idea of an ability that encourages Open Borders and also has building boosts as its primary feature.

Well, the % foreign trade route modifier can be adjusted via a new Trait Infos xml tag. I also thought about Mercantile also speeding Landing Stage which would give leaders an advantage in obtaining offworld goods.

I think most of us have played Dune 2 at one point or another. One of the first games I ever bought. Ahh, good times. Shockingly bad UI, non-existent AI, terrible unit balance....
I never played the original Dune adventure game though.

I played both Dune and Dune II. Happy memories of both.

 

[Ahriman]

I realised we don't really have The Litany Against Fear in the mod.

I think the Litany works better just as flavor text than it does for any in-game effect.
Its also not something that is normally taught to soldiers.

Well, the % foreign trade route modifier can be adjusted via a new Trait Infos xml tag.

Oh, exactly, thats what I meant by testing; see if the parameter value needs to be tweaked.

I also thought about Mercantile also speeding Landing Stage which would give leaders an advantage in obtaining offworld goods.

Yeah, that would make sense.

 

[dafiden]

Re Dune 2:
Just checking. I was wondering if the crowd was too young to have played it. You never really know the age of people you "meet" online. I remember mentioning the term "easter egg" while playing World of Warcraft and all I got were blank stares (or rather the online equivalent) due to an age gap. But, I digress; clearly, this mod looks a lot like Dune 2 (nonwithstanding the low-quality VGA graphics) and I'm thinking not by accident since the crowd is familiar with the earlier game.

 

[Ahriman]

clearly, this mod looks a lot like Dune 2

Well, that is in part because they designed Dune2 to look like the Dune movie and miniseries, from which we stole a lot of art

 

[Hanny]

Linky no worky, for 1.9, 1.8 woks like a charm.

 

[Hex]

Linky no worky, for 1.9, 1.8 woks like a charm.

Hi,

tried the link from the first post and it works.

Maybe someone fix it

Anyway enjoy !

Cheers

 

[Winter Warrior]

Linky no worky, for 1.9, 1.8 woks like a charm.

I second that. Tried with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. If someone would upload the modpack to Megaupload, that'd be great.

 

[Ahriman]

Deliverator,
Abomination doesn't seem to be working. It triggers a trait change popup, but the actual traits always seem to stay Aggressive/Religious.

I really urge you to re-emphasize the hard-coded diplomacy modifiers (as Atreides, corrino and harkonnen have a -7 "we have a vendetta against you" modifier, which I assume is hardcoded). This severely reduces replay value if specific factions are hardcoded to hate each other, it makes each game play the same each time, and reduces strategic options - particularly when at least one Atreides leader (Duke Leto) is *supposed* to be a diplomatic player.
It also messes up balance somewhat.

*edit*
Actually, Abomination might be changing the traits, but it isn't changing the traits displayed in the mouseover text, so you don't know what new traits you have.

 

[Ahriman]

Another general thought: is there a global parameter that changes unit upkeep? I wonder if we should increase unit upkeep, since we have large armies (high hammer output) and large gold income (spice, lots of bonuses from civics) relative to vanilla.
Unit upkeep never really seems to hurt in this mod - which in part means that civics like Hereditary rule are very strong because its easy to stack up large numbers of units to satisfy your happiness needs without hurting your economy.

 

[lasombra1984]

I've installed mod & have a lot of text in French... It is very amusing.
How to fix it?

 

[Deliverator]

*edit*
Actually, Abomination might be changing the traits, but it isn't changing the traits displayed in the mouseover text, so you don't know what new traits you have.

It's working here if I mouseover the leaderhead in the Foreign Advisor (F4) screen.

Another general thought: is there a global parameter that changes unit upkeep? I wonder if we should increase unit upkeep, since we have large armies (high hammer output) and large gold income (spice, lots of bonuses from civics) relative to vanilla.

Unit upkeep never really seems to hurt in this mod - which in part means that civics like Hereditary rule are very strong because its easy to stack up large numbers of units to satisfy your happiness needs without hurting your economy.

I'll look into it.

I've installed mod & have a lot of text in French... It is very amusing.
How to fix it?

Obvious question: Do you have your language set to French in the game options? We have added a French translation recently.

 

[Ahriman]

It's working here if I mouseover the leaderhead in the Foreign Advisor (F4) screen.

Ok, it works for me there too. But its *not* working for me if I mouseover the faction flag in the main screen (left of the minimap) which is where I think most people will look for their traits.
So we need it to somehow update this text field.

 

[lasombra1984]

No... Language is set English.
When I set another language - all text become English

I'm amused with traits. For example Irulan, I think that Political (she is Bene Gesserit acolyte after all) becomes her much more than Protective.
As for Tleilaxu. Zennsunism is an insightful philosophy, thus Philosophical + Organized would fit second Tleilaksu better.

As for "long-standing vendetta" between Atreides & Corrino. If I do not mistake - since Butlerian Jyhad Corrino & Atreides was close allies in Landsraad until Shaddam's treachery.

Why there is no vendetta between Alie & Bene Gesserit?

 

[Deliverator]

Ok, it works for me there too. But its *not* working for me if I mouseover the faction flag in the main screen (left of the minimap) which is where I think most people will look for their traits.
So we need it to somehow update this text field.

Probably that mouse-over text is being determined differently. Should be simple enough to fix.

 

[Deliverator]

The final version of 1.9 is now available at ModDB. There are a few changes from 1.9 Beta II. I'll describe the final changes soon and add to the CFC database later today.

 

[Kwis]

I really urge you to re-emphasize the hard-coded diplomacy modifiers (as Atreides, corrino and harkonnen have a -7 "we have a vendetta against you" modifier, which I assume is hardcoded). This severely reduces replay value if specific factions are hardcoded to hate each other, it makes each game play the same each time, and reduces strategic options - particularly when at least one Atreides leader (Duke Leto) is *supposed* to be a diplomatic player.
It also messes up balance somewhat.

Greetings, hardcoding fellows!
I do have some ideas, if I may: vendettas sound very cool, might that be something that occurs during a gameplay? As a result to e.g. discovered assasination of a great person (burseg?), some other nasty spy mission, negotiating trade embargo and other pacts against etc (maybe effect would be cummulative until one time it is just one time too much... - it could result in a war of assassins and bitter reprisals - vastly increased intelligence effort, hurting spy missions, negotiating a confederacy against the player, and simple war - based on standard animosity value caused by "vendetta" modifier and force strength calcualtion... Doesn't that sound reasonable?
I have been waiting for a while, anticipating the final version of 1.9.. this hardcoded animosity does not seem appealing to me. Deliverator, fine man, could it be an option in custom game to turn those "natural vendettas" on and off? Thank you so much!! You are huge!!

 

[Ahriman]

Still playing a version of the Beta rather than the final, but I am able to build the Razzia Raider unit (playing as Atreides). This was supposed to be a Fremen UU.
And Fremen are supposed to be blocked from building Rollers, but they seem able to build them.
[And thopters, etc.]

*edit*
Forest feature was intended to give +1 hammers. In beta 2 at least, it isn't. Its only in grassland sinks, its designed to be a production compensation for the hammer removal from grassland, and to make sure that sink tiles are still superior even once terraformed.

Lets remove the no-nukes UN council vote. Its boring if nukes are banned before they can even be built, and we already have the idea of atomics being outlawed by the Great Convention.

*edit2*
I think we've really fixed aircraft (to the extent possible without big AI improvements). The toned down hornets and the tweaked missile units seem pretty balanced.
Thopters are much improved too, I had a fun Atreides game using lots of hornets to bombard and thopters to do hit and run.