Alexander's Conquests development thread

[Keroro]

I was thinking about the units I am going to convert for this mod and an idea came to me. There are alot of defensive type animations in RTW that would normally be wasted on CivIII, as it doesn't translate well. Considering that this is a single civ game, I could essentially make the battles more interactive. That is, by giving Macedonian units and attack then defense animation and giving the AI units defense then attack.

What do you think?

P.S. When do I expect to get my copy of the mod for testing...

Oh, Gaias, if you didn't know already, it was recently descovered that the "DEFEND" slot in the .ini file works!

Yeah, though the defend animation doesn't play very often. Personally I'd say that in the interest of the community it would be better to keep the animations in a traditional style. This would allow others to use the work too.

@ PS - perversely it's getting further away all the time, as I realise that I need to make one change or another...

Although a bit off the mark, you could always use one of the several Angkor Wat GWs already made for a Great Stupa - it is, after all, principally a complex of Stupas evincing Vedic and Hindu motifs.

Best,

Oz

The architectural styles are radically different. While the dome of the Great Stupa would pass in the Bactrian region where Alexander encountered Buddhism, all of the Angkors are from about a thousand years later and clearly Southeast Asian.

I've been having trouble tracking down enough building graphics for these temples - I may need to use a few graphics twice. I have got one of the Anghor Wat graphics in ATM, but I'm hoping it will just be a placeholder. If I ever work out how to make a convincing looking building I'll have a go at making these myself.

Latest update - I'm adding the long list of temples that I posted a few pages back, and adding buildings that give massive defensive bonuses to regions that shouldn't be conquered early. Then I have a few more units to add in (Triarii, velites...).

EDIT - OK, most of the temples are in, just the Egyptian ones to add tomorrow.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Here's the promised Jain info:

First of all, this web site has a good basic explanation of the elements of Jain architecture in case any of our artists want to make a Jain temple or Tirtha wonder.

Secondly, a thumbnailed gallery of important Jain images:

Top Row:Jains love to cluster their temples into fortified cities on hill tops. Leftmost is Palitana, their holiest site, with over 800 temples.
Second Row: left and right are two views of the hill where Bahubali, the largest monolithic (carved from a single stone) free-standing statue in the world is located. Portrays Gommateshvara, one of the Jain's important saints and spiritual leaders. He's got vines crawling on him because he's meditated so long, and now does not wish to harm them by moving. The most advanced Jains don't wear clothing, partly because its manufacture harms other creatures, hence the nudity of the statues, and of the worshipers in the one image. Most of the rest of the images are various views of this pilgrimage site, also known as Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, India. A world heritage site; a possible wonder?

Individual Jain temples can be represented in C3C by the same improvement images used for Hindu temples. I believe there are one or two floating around.

 

[Keroro]

Blue - massive thanks for your help on the Indian religions. Quinzy is working on some Hindu / Jain buildings ATM, they will go in the scenario when they are done.

Meanwhile I have added loads of flavour buildings, including wonders giving a fort (+1000% defence) in every city. These go obsolete at strategic times. I am also looking at the governments again, and have a special government type for several different powers. For example, Egypt gets the 'Persian Vassal' government that has catastrophic corruption and is easy for the Alexandrians to bribe cities from. Taxilas has a similar government that gives them a potentially massive army but again, makes them easy for Alex to bribe if he has the money.

My latest question is - will a civ always use its favoured government type, even if it has much better types available? For instance, the 'Persian Vassal' type will be good for nothing, leaving Egypt with a small army, loads of corruption and waste and a rubbish economy. If this is their favorite government type then they should stay in it despite having Monarchy or The Republic available to them, right? Or wrong?

 

[Ozymandias]

My latest question is - will a civ always use its favoured government type, even if it has much better types available? For instance, the 'Persian Vassal' type will be good for nothing, leaving Egypt with a small army, loads of corruption and waste and a rubbish economy. If this is their favorite government type then they should stay in it despite having Monarchy or The Republic available to them, right? Or wrong?

I always seem to be answering this question

"Favorite" and "Shunned" Gov Types refer only to how the Civ in question will react to another Civ with that Gov type. It has nothing to do with which Gov the AI picks for itself.

A tad misleading, but there you have it.

Best,

Oz

 

[Keroro]

I always seem to be answering this question

"Favorite" and "Shunned" Gov Types refer only to how the Civ in question will react to another Civ with that Gov type. It has nothing to do with which Gov the AI picks for itself.

A tad misleading, but there you have it.

Best,

Oz

You're always saying it, and I think that I've heard you saying it before too. I will look for more ideas in your other thread about what influences the government an AI chooses.

 

[Ozymandias]

I will look for more ideas in your other thread about what influences the government an AI chooses.

Given the number of mods and modders around here, that thread came up with alarmingly little, besides (1) Corruption & Waste is the primary driver; (2)next the AI likes Trade benefits and (3) in wartime it evidently factors in first war wearness, then unit support cost.

Best,

Oz

 

[Keroro]

I've re-organised the governments so that the corruption factor stops the civs from changing from their intended paths. I will be testing a new version of the game over the weekend to ensure that this works correctly. I have tested a decent section of the tech tree in game, and the civs are proceeding down their specific tech routes as planned. One thing that I'm glad I changed is the use of a defensive building rather than a powerful unit to make cities unconquerable until the right time - in playtesting I realised that the AI will not upgrade units in a logical way, and the old plans I had were therefore flawed.

What I really need now is to re-jig the spaceship victory graphics, and get some serious testing done. If anyone is interested in beta-testing (including any lurkers out there) then let me know. I think that I'll start a new thread for the testing - look out for it if you're interested anyone.

 

[Virote_Considon]

I'll be interested in testing.

 

[utro43]

i am getting excited about this! it'll be a blast!

 

[Keroro]

@ Utro43 - I hope so. Are you interested in testing, or are you too busy with the testing on Warrior Pharaoh?

@ Virote - I'll put you on the (rather short) list. Are you still playtesting EFZI at the moment?

General update. I did a load of work on the Spaceship victory, and the graphics seem to be behaving themselves now. I have definately proved to myself that my future will not be in graphical desigh though - it takes way to much imagination. I did find a bug with the tech tree timers and the Great Library that I need to test before throwing it open to Beta testers. Hopefully I've fixed it, and can look to finishing off a Beta version by next weekend.

I still need to work out how to represent the barbarian Gods in the scenario. The mediteranean cultures get a load of Temples that help their cities get larger, but I want the barbarians (Celts, Germanics, Numid civs etc.) to keep quite small but with powerful armies. Not sure how to do that yet. Any ideas?

On the other hand I have more or less decided on how the Egyptian temples will work, but can't find any buildings to depict them. I may re-install Pharaoh next week and see if I can rip the temples out of that.

 

[utro43]

On the other hand I have more or less decided on how the Egyptian temples will work, but can't find any buildings to depict them. I may re-install Pharaoh next week and see if I can rip the temples out of that.

stick around...
there's a bundle of buildings about to be released for WP, you'll find some that will work i'm sure.

and i might be able to help beta test, but i am up to my ears in pedia at the moment. lol

 

[Ozymandias]

I still need to work out how to represent the barbarian Gods in the scenario. The mediteranean cultures get a load of Temples that help their cities get larger, but I want the barbarians (Celts, Germanics, Numid civs etc.) to keep quite small but with powerful armies. Not sure how to do that yet. Any ideas?

Easy. (1) Start them with cities (2) Keep ALL starting barbarian Civs away from fresh water and don't let them have any Improvements to allow city size > 1. (3) Allow no Barbarian workers or settlers (4) Only one barbarian Gov type: "Tribal": Communal corruption; "All Units Free"; high military police level (5) Tie ALL Improvements/Wonders to an Era=Zero tech so the Barbarians can build nothing. (6) In each barb capital place a GW placing a free barracks in every city. (7) Adjust unit cost until desired number are produced ... or have each unique GW just churn 'em out.

Sounds plenty barbaric to me

Best,

Oz

 

[Blue Monkey]

If anyone is interested in beta-testing (including any lurkers out there) then let me know. I think that I'll start a new thread for the testing - look out for it if you're interested anyone.

@ Virote - I'll put you on the (rather short) list.

... I did find a bug with the tech tree timers and the Great Library that I need to test before throwing it open to Beta testers. Hopefully I've fixed it, and can look to finishing off a Beta version by next weekend.

I'm basically free of school from the afternoon of the 22nd through Jan 7th. Add me to the list.

 

[Keroro]

stick around...
there's a bundle of buildings about to be released for WP, you'll find some that will work i'm sure.

and i might be able to help beta test, but i am up to my ears in pedia at the moment. lol

I did see Rob's pack of Egyptian buildings, very nice. He only did one of the Temples though - I might have a shot at the others. I need to practice my Graphics skills anyway.

Easy. (1) Start them with cities (2) Keep ALL starting barbarian Civs away from fresh water and don't let them have any Improvements to allow city size > 1. (3) Allow no Barbarian workers or settlers (4) Only one barbarian Gov type: "Tribal": Communal corruption; "All Units Free"; high military police level (5) Tie ALL Improvements/Wonders to an Era=Zero tech so the Barbarians can build nothing. (6) In each barb capital place a GW placing a free barracks in every city. (7) Adjust unit cost until desired number are produced ... or have each unique GW just churn 'em out.

Hmm, I have used some of these techniques - they don't get workers or settlers and they have their own unique government type. I may let a few barb cities grow to a good pop level, but I certainly won't let them build aquaduct equivalents. I'm uneasy about giving unlimited free units, since unit spam can get in the way of an enjoyable game. I might give them 100 free units but ramp up the costs to about 5GP per units beyond that. I think a number of GW's representing the Barbarian Gods that auto-produce units should work fairly well.

I'm basically free of school from the afternoon of the 22nd through Jan 7th. Add me to the list.

Great, thanks. Give me till the end of the week and hopefully I'll have the scenario ready for first distribution.

 

[Virote_Considon]

EFZI playtesting has ground to a halt for a while, as KA and Vuldacon have been trying to get it ballanced perfectly, so I'm pretty much free.

 

[Virote_Considon]

Easy. (1) Start them with cities (2) Keep ALL starting barbarian Civs away from fresh water and don't let them have any Improvements to allow city size > 1. (3) Allow no Barbarian workers or settlers (4) Only one barbarian Gov type: "Tribal": Communal corruption; "All Units Free"; high military police level (5) Tie ALL Improvements/Wonders to an Era=Zero tech so the Barbarians can build nothing. (6) In each barb capital place a GW placing a free barracks in every city. (7) Adjust unit cost until desired number are produced ... or have each unique GW just churn 'em out.

You could let the Barbs build settlers, but make them really expensive, and make sure that their barracks have their bombard defense as 1- enough to not make a difference, but to stop them worknig should the barbs (finally) get a city size 2.

 

[Keroro]

EFZI playtesting has ground to a halt for a while, as KA and Vuldacon have been trying to get it ballanced perfectly, so I'm pretty much free.

Glad to hear it. Not glad that the EFZI playtest has stopped, which is bad, but glad that you have time for other stuff. How is your Greek scenario coming along?

You could let the Barbs build settlers, but make them really expensive, and make sure that their barracks have their bombard defense as 1- enough to not make a difference, but to stop them worknig should the barbs (finally) get a city size 2.

I'm not keen on letting anyone settle except the player. There are some wide open spaces in this scenario, and the stupid AI will plant junk cities out there if they are able to settle. I guess I could give one of the powerful auto-produced barb units the settle flag.

I like your idea with the barracks. Does anyone know how many improvements you can have in a game that disappear when the city grows? I thought there was a limit of one (the Walls in the vanilla game). If not then I could have some fun with the barbs. BTW, if anyone is struggling to understand me, I am using the term Barbarian to refer to a number of "barbaric" civilizations that were around at the time of Alexander and are included in the game. The normal barbarians are also in the game though.

This leads me into my next little question. Has anyone been able to come up with a way of stopping the AI civs from running off towards barb camps even when they're at war and need all their troops at home?

 

[Virote_Considon]

How is your Greek scenario coming along?

I'm working on the Minoan tech tree as we speak

I like your idea with the barracks. Does anyone know how many improvements you can have in a game that disappear when the city grows? I thought there was a limit of one (the Walls in the vanilla game).

Any amount. You do this by setting the "Bombard" defense of the improvement to >0.

This leads me into my next little question. Has anyone been able to come up with a way of stopping the AI civs from running off towards barb camps even when they're at war and need all their troops at home?

Sorry, can't help there.

 

[Ozymandias]

Does anyone know how many improvements you can have in a game that disappear when the city grows? I thought there was a limit of one (the Walls in the vanilla game). If not then I could have some fun with the barbs. BTW, if anyone is struggling to understand me, I am using the term Barbarian to refer to a number of "barbaric" civilizations that were around at the time of Alexander and are included in the game. The normal barbarians are also in the game though.

Sorry. From the online Helpless: "Any Improvements or Wonders that have a defensive value against bombardment (> 0) is considered walled." Which AFAIK means it'd be lost when the city grows > Size 1.

-Oz

 

[Keroro]

Sorry. From the online Helpless: "Any Improvements or Wonders that have a defensive value against bombardment (> 0) is considered walled." Which AFAIK means it'd be lost when the city grows > Size 1.

What about the civil defence though? That doesn't disappear in large cities, and it has bombardment defence >0.