Back After a Hiatus

[timerover51]

It has been a while since I was here, and then I get the shock of Balthasar passing. I should have been back sooner I fear. As it is, I am back playing around with the editors, and finding it so very satisfying and fun.

I keep getting hoisted by my own petard on a regular basis. Probably the most memorable was seeing an army of Knights being taken out by a berserk Triceratops in Test of Time. I have been using the editor to create maps for another project I am working on, and finally decided that rather than just creating the maps, get back and start playing. I got a victory point win in a Play the World game of Test of Time, but is happened so early I did not get to try out some of my other changes. I know need to figure out what save it was, and keep at it. I will have to post some stories later on.

 

[Tommy Vercetti]

Welcome back dude.

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

Welcome back, Timerover. Glad to see you are still enjoying editing and adjusting your game. Knights vs. dinosaurs...now there's something you don't see every day.

 

[timerover51]

Welcome back, Timerover. Glad to see you are still enjoying editing and adjusting your game. Knights vs. dinosaurs...now there's something you don't see every day.

I have a bit of a quirky sense of humor, and besides, the Medieval knights would have loved to tackle some of those beasties. Death or Glory. And they make terrific mantlepiece and banquet hall heads. I am still working on turning the Abyssinians in the Test of Time scenario into a mixed human and dinosaur civilization, ala Dinotopia.

 

[Quintillus]

Welcome back! I'd noticed your absence and that it had been quite a while since you were here. Glad to see you here again!

Petard, that's a word I haven't seen in awhile. Makes me want to go play some Age of Empires II, as I remember the non-figurative version of those were a late-game siege unit there.

 

[Ozymandias]

Amigo! I was only able to return, myself, a few months ago. The first thing I did was check to see who was still around, and was dismayed to note your absence. Now, I am delighted. Welcome back, indeed!

( @Quintillus - A "petard" was an early, shaped charge. Basically a half-sphere made of metal, filled with gunpowder, then nailed to a hoped-for breach. It wasn't a siege unit at all. It also didn't work very well very often. @timerover51's reference is to a now-ancient expression, "Hoist by his own petard," meaning that your own petard had, quite genuinely, blown you away )

 

[timerover51]

Thanks, Oz. I am still working on the Test of Time scenario, and keep finding new things in it, including the graphics pack, which includes Tea and Wood, which would be good added resources. The Wood could be a strategic one. Then I am back to working on some of my own stuff, including experimenting with how to get more leaders and armies into the game.

 

[Ozymandias]

Wood - for masts for ships?

 

[timerover51]

Wood - for masts for ships?

Wood for shipbuilding in general. Wooden ships were built up to around 1900 for various purposes. Not all wood is good for shipbuilding. England had an edge there with the English Oak, while the US had huge supplies of good wood for shipbuilding.

 

[Ozymandias]

I thought "Norwegian Wood" was also especially good ... ?

 

[Civinator]

Wood for shipbuilding in general. Wooden ships were built up to around 1900 for various purposes. Not all wood is good for shipbuilding. England had an edge there with the English Oak, while the US had huge supplies of good wood for shipbuilding.

In my mods CCM2 and the next version of RARR I also use a special "wood-resource" for building better sailing ships (and WW I bombers and fighters and some other 'wooden constructions'). Do you have a link in the internet, where the better woods, especially for sailing ships, are located on an earth map ?

 

[timerover51]

In my mods CCM2 and the next version of RARR I also use a special "wood-resource" for building better sailing ships (and WW I bombers and fighters and some other 'wooden constructions'). Do you have a link in the internet, where the better woods, especially for sailing ships, are located on an earth map ?

I do not have an Internet link for the best shipbuilding woods, and I am not sure that one exists. I have been working off of a book by Robert Albion titled Forests and Sea Power, which can be downloaded at the Internet Archive, and of which I also have a hard copy. Basically, you have very good shipbuilding oak in England, along with Italy, and the southeastern United States in the Live Oak. The oak is generally rated the best, but other woods are involved in shipbuilding as well. The yellow pine of the US southeast is also very good ship timber, along with the spruce of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, the mahogany from Cuba and Honduras, and the Teak of India. I am not sure exactly where the best teak grows in India, but I will check on it. The Scandinavian pines were good, but mainly for planking and of course, for masts. The white pine of New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces was highly prized for masts by the Royal Navy, and given preference for that. Africa and South America seem to be limited in good shipbuilding timber.

The best aircraft building wood was that of the Douglas Spruce from the Pacific Northwest, being both light and strong. Again, the Scandinavian pines were good, as was birch. The Birch mainly came from the US in the eastern states and Canadian provinces. That will give certain countries an edge in building wooden aircraft, but such is life and geography. The fabled "Spruce Goose" of Howard Hughes was actually build of Birch Veneer, not spruce.

There are a couple of books on wooden shipbuilding online that can be downloaded which give a list of the best woods for shipbuilding according to Lloyd's of London, but the English oak and the American Live Oak are the best. The USS Constitution was build and has been maintained with Live Oak from the US Southeast.

 

[Civinator]

timerover51, thank you very much for all the work you have put in your post about shipbuilding (and plane building) woods.

I will use this information in the setting of the special wood resources in the upcoming RARR (and CCM2) worldmap, so for reasons of game balance I must do some other placements of that resource on the map, too. As I know you are very interested in Dutch history, may be you know the locations of wood, that the Dutch were using for their ships, too?

 

[timerover51]

timerover51, thank you very much for all the work you have put in your post about shipbuilding (and plane building) woods.

I will use this information in the setting of the special wood resources in the upcoming RARR (and CCM2) worldmap, so for reasons of game balance I must do some other placements of that resource on the map, too. As I know you are very interested in Dutch history, may be you know the locations of wood, that the Dutch were using for their ships, too?

They were tapping England for some of their oak, but their wood supply came primarily from the Baltic region. There was some shipbuilding quality oak in Poland to go with the pines and furs used for planking and masts. Finland is still a major exporter of wood to Western Europe, along with Sweden.

 

[Civinator]

Great, so here we have some other locations for a shipbuilding wood resource on a worldmap.

 

[timerover51]

The US white oak was also a good shipbuilding wood, and in the 1884 census report on US shipbuilding there were concerns as to the adequacy of some local supplies in the Midwest for shipbuilding on the Great Lakes. That was about when iron shipbuilding began to predominate when it came to steam ships. Iron and steam tended to go together because of the stress the early reciprocating steam engines put on a wooden hull. Then you also had the problem with using unseasoned wood for building, as green timber did not last that long.

During the heyday of the Ottoman Empire, there was a constant struggle with traders who wanted to ship wood to the Ottomans and the governments that did not want to see the Turks strengthened. You had some good timber in northern Spain, and France had adequate supplies of oak for shipbuilding. English Oak set the standard for quality, with US Live Oak just as good.

 

[Civinator]

timerover51, thank you very much for that additional information, containing more locations for the shipbuilding wood resource. May be the cedars of Lebanon are another place for that resource.

 

[timerover51]

timerover51, thank you very much for that additional information, containing more locations for the shipbuilding wood resource. May be the cedars of Lebanon are another place for that resource.

I keep thinking about putting the Cedars of Lebanon into the Test of Time scenario, the problem being that they were exhausted by the Egyptians and the Phoenicians. You might want to check the Wikipedia article on it. Cedar in the southeast US was widely used by the Indians for dugout canoes as it is resistant to water damage. White cedar was the preferred wood for planking whaleboats used in whaling. Because of the wide range of climate in the US, there is an abundance of good shipbuilding wood.

 

[Civinator]

timerover51, one more time thank you very much for your advice about the locations of 'shipwood'. I gave you proper credit for this in the introduction page of RARR 1.7: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/rise-and-rule-revisited-epic-mod.549166/#post-13870811

 

[timerover51]

timerover51, one more time thank you very much for your advice about the locations of 'shipwood'. I gave you proper credit for this in the introduction page of RARR 1.7: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/rise-and-rule-revisited-epic-mod.549166/#post-13870811

Thanks very much for the kind words, Civinator. Old technologies are one of my hobbies. Besides, in World War 2, wooden minesweepers became highly important when the magnetic mine was developed and fielded.

Back again, and hopefully more regularly. Right now, I have a couple of laptops that need work to run Civ again. One is a Windows box with a bad sound card, so I can see but not hear. That is not a good idea when combat is an issue.

I am still using Civ3 to design planets for another game, as it does not require me to be online, and I can play with the editor a lot more.