Alpha testers needed for Steph's mod 2

[Steph]

I have a wild suggestion.

You know that I have "evolutive" civilization, like for America starting with Native, then Colonists, then USA...

I don't like to stick with the same leaderhead always, so I think it would be fun if I could start with the Iroquois Leaderhead for first era, Lincoln for thirdera, Roosevelt for fourth...

However, there is the problem of the name, it would say "I'm Lincoln", with the head of the Iroquois...

So, two possible solutions:
1- Use a generic name, like "John Smith" for the US, "Jean Dupont" for France... But I don't like it
2- Use an impersonate name, like simply "America". The leader is the country.

 

[Stormrage]

2 sounds better. He should just say I`m the leader of the Americans or something..

 

[Phlegmak]

I have a wild suggestion.

You know that I have "evolutive" civilization, like for America starting with Native, then Colonists, then USA...

I don't like to stick with the same leaderhead always, so I think it would be fun if I could start with the Iroquois Leaderhead for first era, Lincoln for thirdera, Roosevelt for fourth...

However, there is the problem of the name, it would say "I'm Lincoln", with the head of the Iroquois...

So, two possible solutions:
1- Use a generic name, like "John Smith" for the US, "Jean Dupont" for France... But I don't like it
2- Use an impersonate name, like simply "America". The leader is the country.

I don't like this suggestion at all. The leaderheads are used to identify nations easily on the diplomatic advisor screen and on the espionage screen. Constantly changing the leaderheads will just confuse the player.

If you must do this, I suggest the leader names change to "The Leader of America".

 

[Mirc]

^ Then you'll get "The Leader of America of the Americans".

 

[Stormrage]

Oh come on, people who play civ will be easily able to tell that the Sitting Bull and Abe are the same dude

 

[Phlegmak]

Hey, Steph, and other people, if you appreciate my playtesting here, please provide some discussion over here.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=222904

 

[Phlegmak]

(I'm writing these responses based on my memory of last night's game.)

Yes. Do you suggest to change it.

No, I don't really care about the two hardest settings, actually.

Hey, that's why it's the hardest settings of the game! Initialy, I used a barbarian instead of a slave as second unit. But as it was an offensive unit, you could run with it to your nearest neighbour, and attack him with it...
What if I add a new generic defensive only unit as second initial unit, none buildable, so you can just defend your first city to avoir super early defeat.

I suggest that the two starting units remain the same. However, you can add some cheap unit (let's say 15 shields) which is the same as a warrior. This will encourage the player to actually get the Tribal Warfare technology for the cheaper warriors. Can't you just let the different countries just build warriors to begin with?

The workers should normaly irrigate in the second era, with agricultural revolution. Where does it say they can irrigate with irrigation? (Irrigation is in fact used to get some resources, like rice, IIRC).

The civilopedia says irrigation grants the worker ability irrigation.

a) I honestly don't know how to put arrows with so many techs

Understood.

b) That's partly wanted. So you need to discover the game. I've always dislike the "The king: hey, let's discover Iron Working , so we can build swordsman and crush the ennemy. What should we discover first?.... The wisemen: What is a sword?"

My own opinion is that the technologies at the leftmost part of the screen should connote "the fewest previous advancements are necessary for these", whereas the rightmost part of the screen should connote "the most previous advancements are necessary for these". So that means that Iron Working (or is it Iron Age?) should be in the middle of the science advisor screen, instead of the right side. Mining should be much more rightward than where it is.

Yes they are. We can't put newline in the scenario description??

I guess not.

I will check that. But the spearman requires no resources, and Bronze Working... What was your city population? Don't forget you need one population to build most of the military unitS.

City population shouldn't matter. Units that require 4 pop points show up in the build list for cities with 1 pop.

Americans are weaker than other civilizations in the early game. But your units are often faster and cheaper, and don't require resources. Build enough of them, try to organize a defense in depth near your border.
Try to appease your angry neighbours in the early game.
And you will get your revenge if you survive till the last two eras.

Overall, I like the fast units. I love the worker that can move 2 tiles. The bowman from the Bow technology is nearly useless though, since he has the same attack and defense as a warrior, but just 1 extra speed. I forgot if he has a defensive bombardment.

 

[Steph]

I suggest that the two starting units remain the same. However, you can add some cheap unit (let's say 15 shields) which is the same as a warrior. This will encourage the player to actually get the Tribal Warfare technology for the cheaper warriors. Can't you just let the different countries just build warriors to begin with?

You mean, like getting rid of tribal warfare?

The civilopedia says irrigation grants the worker ability irrigation.

I'll correct that

My own opinion is that the technologies at the leftmost part of the screen should connote "the fewest previous advancements are necessary for these", whereas the rightmost part of the screen should connote "the most previous advancements are necessary for these". So that means that Iron Working (or is it Iron Age?) should be in the middle of the science advisor screen, instead of the right side. Mining should be much more rightward than where it is.

Normally, each "line" correspond to a "field" (navy, agriculture, etc)
and the first one are on the left, the last one on the right, as much as I can have it fit.

Overall, I like the fast units. I love the worker that can move 2 tiles. The bowman from the Bow technology is nearly useless though, since he has the same attack and defense as a warrior, but just 1 extra speed. I forgot if he has a defensive bombardment.

Archers have defennsive bombardment, and is faster. So he can withdraw from combat. And he is also faster in forest.

 

[Phlegmak]

You mean, like getting rid of tribal warfare?

Yes.

Archers have defennsive bombardment, and is faster. So he can withdraw from combat. And he is also faster in forest.

Withdrawing from combat, I forgot about that. That makes him much better than I thought.

 

[Steph]

28. In the diplomacy window, North Africa is called "North Africa". However, I just got a popup window that said "Carthaginians want to talk to you." In that stupid little advisor that's open during diplomacy, it keeps saying Carthaginians.

How should I call the people from North Africa? North African just sound... strange, as I already have Africans.
Berbers would be to restrictive. Could I call it Maghreb instead?

 

[Virote_Considon]

Maghreb sounds good enough.

On the Leaderhead issue, I'd say just give each leader one leader's name.

 

[Phlegmak]

How should I call the people from North Africa? North African just sound... strange, as I already have Africans.
Berbers would be to restrictive. Could I call it Maghreb instead?

I have no problem with "North Africans". You named a lot of nations by their region, and not their historic nations, so it seems ok to me. I would be happy with any of these:

North Africans
Carthaginians
Algerians
Maghrebi

or whatever you choose. What my earlier note was telling you was that they're simultaneously called "North Africans" and "Carthaginians" which looks like a mistake.

 

[Steph]

Maghreb sounds good enough.

On the Leaderhead issue, I'd say just give each leader one leader's name.

How can you do that with a different leader for each era?

 

[Phlegmak]

Some more. I'm going to stop until the crashing bugs are addressed.

31. This is odd. One of my 4 population American settlers can't board a US_02N + Canoe unit. That's unexpected.

32. I see some 4.2.4 barbarian ships. My little canoe is doomed. The animations of the ships fighting was strange. The ships didn't turn to shoot each other with broadside shots, but rather they faced each other head on. Then the shots from both ships were fired in a broadside manner.

33. Got this juicy error:
FILE NOT FOUND:
art\units\Eagle Warrior\Eagle Warrior.INI

 

[Virote_Considon]

How can you do that with a different leader for each era?

Same name, different leader?

 

[T.A JONES]

Some more. I'm going to stop until the crashing bugs are addressed.

31. This is odd. One of my 4 population American settlers can't board a US_02N + Canoe unit. That's unexpected.

32. I see some 4.2.4 barbarian ships. My little canoe is doomed. The animations of the ships fighting was strange. The ships didn't turn to shoot each other with broadside shots, but rather they faced each other head on. Then the shots from both ships were fired in a broadside manner.

33. Got this juicy error:
FILE NOT FOUND:
art\units\Eagle Warrior\Eagle Warrior.INI

See. These are the kinda people you wanna have on your test team. Not afraid to tell you anything, matter how insigniffy some it might seem.
Result? polished to perfection on any standard of play....Hey did you work on the Balancer Reloaded by any chance

 

[Steph]

Some more. I'm going to stop until the crashing bugs are addressed.

31. This is odd. One of my 4 population American settlers can't board a US_02N + Canoe unit. That's unexpected.

32. I see some 4.2.4 barbarian ships. My little canoe is doomed. The animations of the ships fighting was strange. The ships didn't turn to shoot each other with broadside shots, but rather they faced each other head on. Then the shots from both ships were fired in a broadside manner.

33. Got this juicy error:
FILE NOT FOUND:
art\units\Eagle Warrior\Eagle Warrior.INI

I've gone through the whole civilopedia so you should not get missing pcx anymore. However, there may be errors like the 33 left. Sorry about that, but until I add the flavour to every civ, there may be others....

31. That's normal. Early Settlers are wheeled non-foot units, and early ships cannot load them. You need to wait until you get bigger ships / new kind of settlers. That's done on purpose to avoid, in an earth like map, Europe from settling in America in the first era. Basically, you need to go to 3rd era and discover colonialism to really start settling on other continents.

32. I may have forgotten to use the correct flag, will check for the turning part.

I've tried to have strong barbarians unit. Do you think they are balanced? To strong? To weak?

I'll probably release a small update with minor correction today or tomorrow

 

[Phlegmak]

I've tried to have strong barbarians unit. Do you think they are balanced? To strong? To weak?

I was wondering about it. It creates a feeling of the rest of the world is very hard to get to until the civilizations create stronger boats. It sort of makes sea travel and early exporation a dangerous venture, rather than regular exploration. For now, just leave these superpowered barbarians in place.

 

[Steph]

With more expensive settlers, units that require population, strong barbarians, wheeled settlers that can't load into ship...

I expect that you should not be able to expand easily outside of your continent before the second half of the game

 

[Phlegmak]

With more expensive settlers, units that require population, strong barbarians, wheeled settlers that can't load into ship...

I expect that you should not be able to expand easily outside of your continent before the second half of the game

I have indeed run into that exact problem. The northern half of my country is jungle, forest, and mountain. My settlers simply cannot walk out there. It's impassable. For a while, I was wondering why the Mexicans didn't settle into my territory. That's the reason. So my only means of expansion at this point is through conquest. I intend to open a can of whoopass on the Mexicans eventually. They're at war with the Andes at the moment, and the Andes look doomed. They are somehow holding their own ground though. If the Mexicans wanted, they could probably conquer the entire continent, including me.