[C3C] Aeon III Preview

[MeteorPunch]

This is an epic mod with Random Map and World map versions. The Random Map is currently for 4-12 Civs, while the World Map, which is a modified version of Rhye's 180x180 Map, is for 31 Civs. I like World Maps with real Civs, but they tend to get slow at some point and this one is no exception. I'm still making it though, because someone may like it, and the supercomputers of the future may be able to handle this old game. The Random Map version on the other hand, plays pretty fast.

The Civs are categorized into 4 groups:

Major - The best game play experience. More Units and Wonders
Normal - Normal experience.
Minor - Unplayable. These civs are "extras" for the World Map version.
Allied - Unplayable, resource-based Civs which exist only to help with Alliance Wonders. There are additional Native American Allied Civs on the World Map version.

Major
China
France
Germany
Greece
India
Italy
Japan
Russia
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States

Normal
Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Korea
Mexico
Peru
Saudi Arabia
Spain
Sudan
Sweden
Tunisia

Minor
Australia
Canada
Ethiopia
Guatemala
Mongolia
Nigeria
South Africa
Thailand

Allied
Austria
Brazil
Haiti
Hungary
Ireland
Netherlands
New Zealand
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Vietnam

Native American Allied
Apache
Blackfoot
Californian
Cherokee
Cheyenne
Comanche
Delaware
Huron
Iroquois
Mississippian
Osage
Pawnee
Seminole
Sioux
Winnebago

All the Civs are based on modern nations. As the game progresses through time, the inhabitants of that land represent that Civ. For example, here is Iraq's first 3 sub-eras:



There are a few things to note here.

The 4 Tech Eras are divided into 20 different sub-eras with full compliments of units.

Units gradually gain in strength over time, yet within each sub-era exists Civs which can be weak, normal, strong, and "era-powers." For example, many European Civs start off very weak compared to their more advanced Middle-eastern Civs. Ancient Era United Kingdom - weak, Industrial Era - strong, even "era-power" for a time. In the picture above, Sumerians are average strength, while Babylonians and Neo-Assyrians are strong.

It's very rare, but sometimes a Civ can take a dramatic fall in power, causing new units to be weaker than previous

When a Civ is "occupied" by another Civ, they may use that Civ's units, but with downgraded strength. For example, the Ottomans are based out of Turkey, but occupy Iraq and other Middle-eastern nations for a decent time frame.

Civs are not balanced, fairness-wise. This leads to needing a little strategic planning when dealing with certain Civs. You probably don't want to be neighbors with many Mediterranean or Middle-eastern Civs early on, but they may be easier to tackle if you wait a bit. Conversely, taking out a European Civ before the the Middle Ages or worse, Industrial Era, can be necessary. I used culture groups for those examples, but each Civ is different in terms of when and how they are strong.

Most Wonders are Civ-specific. You won't see the Eiffel Tower in China... unless they capture it from France.

If you made a quality reality-based unit, it's likely to be in the game - right now there is just shy of 6000 unit entries in the editor from around 3600 unit folders. Needless to say, there's a lot of cool units with cool abilities, but there's one thing I want to mention here - The Targeting System, known in Conquests as Stealth Attack. Land units are categorized as types, which can be Targeted by other units with an ability tag. Elephant units can "Trample" on melee units. Horse-mounted units can "Flank" footmen. A modern tank can "Lock-On" and Target any land unit. Targeting only works against units with Attack/Defense strength > 0.

This is a very basic rundown of the Target system, minus a few exceptions:



Right now the mod is completely playable, but there is still a lot of testing and tidying up to do. I will add new posts to this thread sporadically.

*everything subject to change*

*Note: Aeon II didn't survive development and is getting skipped*

Spoiler :

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

Awesome. Looking forward to seeing how the minors and allied civs function on the world map.

 

[Nathiri]

So you found time for this...?

 

[MeteorPunch]

Awesome. Looking forward to seeing how the minors and allied civs function on the world map.

This is the Polish unit line. They are auto-produced for free, making the Wonder pretty valuable.

So you found time for this...?

I've spent countless hours on it, but it is something I enjoy, similar to a giant puzzle.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Using a very vague and contrived methodology, I've made a pseudo power-ranking system - just for fun.

1. France
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. United States
5. Italy
6. Russia
7. Japan
8. China
9. Turkey
10. India
11. Egypt
12. Iran
13. Iraq
14. Spain
15. Israel
16. Greece
17. Sweden
18. Tunisia
19. Mexico
20. Korea
21. Saudi Arabia
22. Australia
23. Canada
24. Sudan
25. Peru
26. Nigeria
27. Mongolia
28. Guatemala
29. South Africa
30. Thailand
31. Ethiopia

 

[MeteorPunch]

Been doing some testing for the World Map version and have some problems involving crashes which I can't find a solution to. My only guess is that there is too much going on. Perhaps I'll try again with a smaller map, but for now will have to focus more on the Random Map version, which in my opinion is better anyway, but even still I would like to make the Map work.

Here's a cool picture though from the testing. It's too bad - everything here is working well minus the crashes.

 

[Nanuk]

Nice! I'm doing a very similar approach that you've done with civs and eras on the "Earthlike" version of my mod. You're much further along than I am, though. Good work.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Nice! I'm doing a very similar approach that you've done with civs and eras on the "Earthlike" version of my mod. You're much further along than I am, though. Good work.

Sounds cool, I'd like to see it when you finish.

I think I found the problem that I was complaining about in my previous post. A immobile unit had the "Settle" AI strategy flagged, and was loaded onto a ship, and the game crashed when the unit tried to unload to shore. This unit also did not have Load/Unload flagged, which was correct, as it is immobile. I've noticed certain situations over the years where the AI will do something with a unit, despite what the unit is capable of doing. Another example is rebasing Air units without "Re-base" flagged.

On another note, I'm being distracted from this by Wow Classic for at least a little while.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hey, why aren't you using my new city sets? ^_^

 

[MeteorPunch]

Hey, why aren't you using my new city sets? ^_^

Haven't gotten around to city sets yet. Also, I'm still on a Wow-induced hiatus at the moment.

 

[Takhisis]

Liking it so far.

/subscription post.

 

[Vuldacon]

MeteorPunch... All is Looking Great!

Yes many things the AI does that it is not suppose to do and immobile Units can cause problems. Immobile Units can be Loaded in transports when inside a City. This represents being Loaded rather than Loading itself but when a ship has Units Unload to shore rather than inside a City, it is the Units that are Unloading themselves and Immobile Units cannot Move and therefore cannot Unload and the game Freezes or Crashes.

Another example is flagging a Unit as Wheeled and that works to prevent the Unit from moving to or Attacking Units on terrain that does not allow wheeled Units. However, IF the Unit with the Wheeled Flag has a Unit that is Not Wheeled on the same tile, the Wheeled Unit can Attack a Unit on the Non Wheeled Terrain and if the Wheeled Unit Wins the battle, it moves half way between the Non Wheeled and Wheeled Terrain. IF the enemy player tries to attack the unit between tiles, there is No Affect (cannot be injured or killed). Generally the situation will correct itself the next turn.
I have seen this in EFZI2 where a Monster Zombie, flagged as a Wheeled Unit, Attacked an enemy Unit that was on Non Wheeled Terrain because a Zombie Nurse, Not Wheeled, was on the same tile with the Monster Zombie.

 

[Wolfhart]

Another example is flagging a Unit as Wheeled and that works to prevent the Unit from moving to or Attacking Units on terrain that does not allow wheeled Units. However, IF the Unit with the Wheeled Flag has a Unit that is Not Wheeled on the same tile, the Wheeled Unit can Attack a Unit on the Non Wheeled Terrain and if the Wheeled Unit Wins the battle, it moves half way between the Non Wheeled and Wheeled Terrain. IF the enemy player tries to attack the unit between tiles, there is No Affect (cannot be injured or killed). Generally the situation will correct itself the next turn.
I have seen this in EFZI2 where a Monster Zombie, flagged as a Wheeled Unit, Attacked an enemy Unit that was on Non Wheeled Terrain because a Zombie Nurse, Not Wheeled, was on the same tile with the Monster Zombie.

I believe the same goes for the Amphibious flag: I've seen ground units without this flag making amphibious assaults against cities when loaded on ship together with a unit with the flag.

 

[Civinator]

Been doing some testing for the World Map version and have some problems involving crashes which I can't find a solution to. My only guess is that there is too much going on. Perhaps I'll try again with a smaller map, but for now will have to focus more on the Random Map version, which in my opinion is better anyway, but even still I would like to make the Map work...It's too bad - everything here is working well minus the crashes.

MeteorPunch, you can use Sima Qian’s multiplayer tool for detecting the reason of those crashes. Use a save file taken short before such a crash and set one civ after the other to be played by a human player. I mostly use it by setting the civs into two groups, setting one group to be played by the human player. When starting the game and the crash is still there, the reason for the crash is in a civ of the not-human played group and that group must be treated in the same way. When it is in the group of the human player, it is mostly enough to watch the automatic moves of that civ to locate the reason of the crash.

This procedure is an idea of Oni Ryuu, working very well for me, and in most cases these crashes resulted from the houseboat-bug.

 

[Nanuk]

MeteorPunch, you can use Sima Qian’s multiplayer tool for detecting the reason of those crashes.

I forgot about this! Thanks for mentioning it again. This will make it so much easier to playtest my mod. I love that you can play entire groups of civs. I'm going to try playing every single civ for a few of the tests.