Beta 13

[3Miro]

I like the idea, though it will need much beta testing on its own, but I'd vote for it. Don't forget to add some initial money or mercs.

And what's this about expansion for more mercs? Does the number (and not only type) of available mercs depend on how many provinces I have? (Don't remember reading about this...)

There are about 100 mercs currently in the game. Each merc has a list of potential provinces and in an appropriate time period, a merc has a chance to appear in one province on the list. If they are not hired, mercs will also randomly leave and reappear in another province. The more provinces you control, the more likely you will be to have a merc appear in one of your provinces. You can never hire a merc unless you have a city in at least one of the potential provinces.

We can add one or two Berserker units per Scandinavian province so they will be available only in that province. Thus if you build one city in Denmark, you can hire up to 2 or 3 Berserkers. If you want more, you will need to settle a city in say Norrland and then you can get 1-2 more Berserkers.

 

[amrod]

If you can make images, you can look at consts.py files and ProvinceManager.py to see the lists of provinces so you can make proper documentation of those. I can tell you how to read those files.

Making the images is really about taking screenshots of the map isn't it? And finding out which tiles are in which province. I'll look into the python files... after all I'm supposed to be an electrical engineer so will try to understand - and ask if I won't succeed

I changed some of the upgrade mechanics for Merc purposes and it is possible that I broke something else. Do you have a savegame from were you couldn't upgrade the units?

I think I do, going to find it. (Though I have a faint suspicion I've seen this happen before, maybe even before trying mods, but my memory is not that good.)

 

[amrod]

ugh, it was in Beta 12, can't load the savegame any more.
Will try to recreate in beta13.

 

[amrod]

And will the new AI not move a stack of catapults separate from the stack of spearmen and the stack of cavalry? It was quite fun, they came at me (arabs) at jerusalem with tons of catapults, but then moved them off to a separate stack and of course got killed by my ghazi
Otherwise they are clever in staying in forest-hill areas. But, now they didn't bombard the city with the catapults, rather used them to attack...

 

[3Miro]

And will the new AI not move a stack of catapults separate from the stack of spearmen and the stack of cavalry? It was quite fun, they came at me (arabs) at jerusalem with tons of catapults, but then moved them off to a separate stack and of course got killed by my ghazi
Otherwise they are clever in staying in forest-hill areas. But, now they didn't bombard the city with the catapults, rather used them to attack...

I am not sure I have seen this before. The AI usually tries to stick units together, I am surprised they split the cats alone. Are you sure that they just didn't lose most of their units attacking a city, if the Knights and Swordsman get killed while attacking a city, the catapults will try to retreat to safety.

PS: saves from older versions do't work on the newer ones. Often times, saves will stop working even for small mid-step adjustments.

 

[rrosen]

[Edit: not actually an issue, problem was on my part.]

 

[Tigranes]

A note about Civs without preset religion, for example Sweden. I understand that Sweden starts without Religion to be free to chose whatever suites her best depending on the religions available in the cities that will flip to her. But .. when the civ starts with State Religion Civic it cannot be technically Pagan (no Religion). It is really big hit on stability to convert to Christianity in 1522! What if we set all the civs, except Pagans at the moment of birth, to start with predefined Religion... If Dutch can be Protestant why not Swedish? A Missioner would be useful to for capital.

Also Maria II (born 1819) is a little too young for the mod that ends in 1800

 

[3Miro]

A note about Civs without preset religion, for example Sweden. I understand that Sweden starts without Religion to be free to chose whatever suites her best depending on the religions available in the cities that will flip to her. But .. when the civ starts with State Religion Civic it cannot be technically Pagan (no Religion). It is really big hit on stability to convert to Christianity in 1522! What if we set all the civs, except Pagans at the moment of birth, to start with predefined Religion... If Dutch can be Protestant why not Swedish? A Missioner would be useful to for capital.

Also Maria II (born 1819) is a little too young for the mod that ends in 1800

The AI changes religion on the first possible situation, Sweden wouldn't stay Pagan for more than 1 - 2 turns, and the stability hit from one anarchy early on is hardly big. We used to have Sweden starting Protestant, but this means that if you want to found Protestantism, you absolutely have to discover the Printing Press before they spawn. The result was that Sweden would discover Protestantism in 90% of the games. The Dutch spawn later and it is very rare for Protestantism to be that delayed.

 

[merijn_v1]

Is it possible for outsider layman like me to help ? (I'm afraid that would need you (the devs) giving me so much info that it's as much as you yourself doing it - but tell me anyway if I can help). or maybe I should go over the pedia (if I can force myself out of lazyness) and the xml files, last time noticed a few strange things (like General name missing etc).

You can always help. If you want, you can search for the missing GP names. You can also try to search for the last pedia texts.

 

[Tigranes]

The result was that Sweden would discover Protestantism in 90% of the games. The Dutch spawn later and it is very rare for Protestantism to be that delayed.

Funny, I keep hitting that 10% again, because 2-3 civs where protestant when I spawned -- it feels that by 1522 Reformation must kick in anyway, but I get your point.

Another question -- what is the deal with independent Rhodes on the core of Byzantium -- it has never been independent and this hurts stability. Sorry for not grouping all my questions in one post (I could forget them )...

 

[3Miro]

Funny, I keep hitting that 10% again, because 2-3 civs where protestant when I spawned -- it feels that by 1522 Reformation must kick in anyway, but I get your point.

Balance may have shifted with the new dynamic research cost, but non-Protestant Sweden does leave a door open for ahistoric scenarios.

Another question -- what is the deal with independent Rhodes on the core of Byzantium -- it has never been independent and this hurts stability. Sorry for not grouping all my questions in one post (I could forget them )...

Rhodes changed hands many times, it wasn't exclusively Byzantine and it certainly doesn't hit stability. It is like Sicily, independent and basically up for grabs by whomever happens to live nearby, be it Muslim, Viking, Greek, Crusader ....

 

[Tigranes]

In 395, the long Byzantine Empire-period began for Rhodes, when the eastern half of the Roman empire became gradually more Greek.

Beginning after 600 AD, its influence in maritime issues was manifested in the collection of maritime law known as "Rhodian Sea Law" (Nomos Rhodion Nautikos), accepted throughout the Mediterranean and in use up to Byzantine times (and influencing the development of admiralty law up to the present).

Rhodes was occupied by the Muslim forces of Muawiyah I in 672. In circa 1090, it was occupied by the Muslim forces of the Seljuk Turks, not long after the Battle of Manzikert. Rhodes was recaptured by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus during the First Crusade. In 1309, the Byzantine era came to an end when the island was occupied by forces of the Knights Hospitaller.

Before Arabs came Rhodes was more firmly in control of Byzantium than, say, Jerusalem (captured by Persia in 614 AD -- the Relic of True Cross was captured, but our barbarians never attack Jerusalem ). Sicily was conquered during the Justinian conquests, so it's independence in 500 AD is realistic, but Rhodes' isn't .

If anything -- Rhodes could flip to Arabs after they spawn -- but before it was unquestionably Byzantine.

 

[amrod]

Trying to make some screenshots of the map. Anyone knows how to disable the clouds in globe view? I managed to disable the clouds themselves, but their shadows linger on. Tried GlobalDefines.xml, civ4detailmanager.xml and civ4artdefines_misc.xml and still there's the shadow

Also, looked into the rfc python codes... looong. I'm saluting all you guys who work on that, I'm not sure I'd be able to overview it.

upd: not to mention, I just discovered the nice feature of civ of drawing lines on globe view and special views.
but it seems these are not working in rfce :-(

 

[Cetrix]

Nice, a new version ! I'll try it right now, with the Norse and then the Franks Keep going guys, this mod is so great (as SoI is).

[edit later] Ok I won with the Norses in medium difficulty, it was a bit too easy compared to RFCE++ with Norwegians. But I like the UVH !

 

[Tigranes]

Just want to clarify the last UHV for Sweden: do we need 15 cities in any of the provinces mentioned or at least one in each? If former is the case one can just settle empty (after Monglos) Poland with 15 or so settlers -- no need to travel all the way to Moscow...

 

[3Miro]

Just want to clarify the last UHV for Sweden: do we need 15 cities in any of the provinces mentioned or at least one in each? If former is the case one can just settle empty (after Monglos) Poland with 15 or so settlers -- no need to travel all the way to Moscow...

I think it is "any province". You can get all the cities in one province if you want, although it will probably be not so optimal.

If you have to have all the provinces, we would just ask to "conquer" them.

 

[yogiebere]

I like this patch a lot. I think Crusades are done quite well now - the crusaders come, conquer Jerusalem and maybe Sour or Al Aqebah and then leave, with the Arabs quickly reconquering them (and more Crusades to follow). I noticed the Genoans and Venezians bought them a lot, but that's ok.

One problem though, Genoa still doesn't take Palermo (which isn't the best spot on the island, but whatever), they really should!! It's a great island and just stays independent the rest of the game. If there's a way to make it a big priority, that would be great (also make Spain, Venezia, and Cordoba try somewhat to take it)

I still have to try the others

 

[Barratt_87]

Are dynamic names fixed yet? I stopped playing for a while because I got sick of seeing a frankish or british empire the whole game..

 

[amrod]

Made a map of the mod from screenshots. Could be better (top of screen darknesses and some distortions still there, though tried to minimize it), but usable. For something.
Original is 4500x3300 png, this one smaller and jpg to fit here.
Will try to draw in provinces. Can someone tell me how to enable the line drawing feature of globe view in RFCE? Or why it wasn't working for me?

 

[3Miro]

Made a map of the mod from screenshots. Could be better (top of screen darknesses and some distortions still there, though tried to minimize it), but usable. For something.
Original is 4500x3300 png, this one smaller and jpg to fit here.
Will try to draw in provinces. Can someone tell me how to enable the line drawing feature of globe view in RFCE? Or why it wasn't working for me?

This is awesome!

Keep a copy of the big map, we will need to have several maps to do all the details. I wouldn't start with the provinces yet, those are being changed every now and then and the in-game has a nice Ctr+Hover feature to list them.

I would first go for details on the spawn areas (core area and normal area) for the various civs. Can you do that?

PS: I don't know about line drawing in globe-view.