Branch "Challenge" - Candidate for Release 2.8.1. - for testing [OBSOLETE]

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,

First the good news:

I am going to publish my development branch "Challenge" (based on Release 2.8) this way for public testing purposes.
(Mainly because there were only a few internal testers so far.)

It is absolutely stable and it contains everything we fully finished and tested recently.
(And of course also every that was in Release 2.8.)

It is thus likely to be published officially as (core of) Release 2.8.1. in a few weeks.
(Maybe a few more small fixes and improvement will be added though - but I doubt it will be anything major.)

It is working perfectly fine in all tests so far.
Feedback from the few internal testers was really good.

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The changelog can be found here.

The biggest change is the "New Founding Cities Mechanic" using Profession "Settler". (Wonderful graphics again from Schmiddie.)
But there are of course also other improvements. (by devolution and myself - WTP team members)

We also need to give credits this release to Ramstormp, who contributed the feature "Failed Missionary".
(For official Release 2.8.1 Schmiddie might still contribute improved graphics. Otherwise it is working perfectly fine as well.)

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How to install and play:
(With advised 2-Plot-City-Radius. Otherwise for 1-Plot-City-Radius, also see below.)

• First you need the get branch "Challenge" that can be downloaded here. (Use the "Download as ZIP"- option at the big green "Code" button on the right.)
  
• It is basically the mod you need copy to mod folder of Civ4Col (but does not contain the DLL yet) - but of course you first need to extract the ZIP.
  
• To play it you will also need a current DLL, which can be downloaded from this post here.
  
• The post contains both alternatives 2-Plot-City-Radius-DLL and 1-Plot-City-Radius-DLL. You will need only the version you want to play with.
  
• It is a .7z and you need to extract it first to get to the DLL inside. (e.g. by using 7Zip or newer version of WinRaR)
• Then you will need to copy that DLL into the "/Assets" folder of the mod

To play this version you must start a new game.
It is NOT save game compatible.

Have fun playing.
And if you have feedback or find issues, please post in this thread.

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Then the bad news:

For a longer time this is the last release for WTP that I will personally participate in.

Spoiler :

For the next 2 weeks, I will still be around to help fixing bugs or do other improvements.
I hope there will not be too many issues and we can then finally officially publish 2.8.1 .

Until then I will not implement any further features.
I will focus on delivering the current version in good quality.

After that I will just stay around to answer questions of team, other modders and community.
I will basically be a "normal community member" again.

I simply want to take a break again.
Everything else I explained to the team internally.

WTP always was and still is a team mod and as long as the team exists, the mod will continue.
But I can not and will not speak for the rest of the team and do not know their plans.

Maybe I will change my mind again in a few months.
After all I had left RaR as well for a couple of years and then returned to join WTP.

A lot of thanks to the team for being able to dive back into nostalgica of Civ4Col modding.
To all who continue this project I wish a lot of fun and success.

 

[Tugboatspotter]

Then the bad news:

For a longer time this is the last release for WTP that I will personally participate in.

Thanks for giving so much to this mod and enjoy your well earned break.

 

[CurtnoAnna]

If I create a custom game, how do I put a "new settler" on a ship? I usually delete the starting ship locations and replace new ships for all european colonies

 

[raystuttgart]

If I create a custom game, how do I put a "new settler" on a ship? I usually delete the starting ship locations ...

You can't.

There is no specific Unit for that Profession you could place on the Ship.
(like the Hardy Pioneer for Profession Pioneer)

The WB only allows to place Units.
But you can directly place the Cities of all players.

 

[RayCorps]

Hello,

I tried it out and so far no problems
On gigantic with 39 Factions, Conquistador and normal speed.

The AI builds colonies, no ctd so far.

Thanks for the great work with this mod.

 

[CurtnoAnna]

You can't.
There is no "Unit" for that Profession you could place on the Ship.
The WB only allows to place Units.

But you can directly place the Cities of all players.

Okay, thanks. What is required for settlers. 20 tools and anything else?

 

[RayCorps]

Requirement for settlers are wood, food, horses and tools.
You can get the exact amounts from colopaedia ingame.

I started a new game on normal speed because in the first game I did not change my strategy.

You need to put more focus on the first colony because the cargo is limited. Food and wood production is a must. Horses and Tools can be imported from europe.

 

[raystuttgart]

You need to put more focus on the first colony because the cargo is limited.
Food and wood production is a must. Horses and Tools can be imported from europe.

So, do you like it that way?
Does it make the game more challenging and fun for you?

Thanks for the great work with this mod.

Nice to hear such feedback.

The WTP team really appreciates thanks from time to time.
(Today I can hardly count anymore how many team members and supporters have participated.)

 

[RayCorps]

For me as a beginner it's more challenging this way. I need to plan in prior the time and the place for my next colony.

In the games without settler feature I could spam colonies. The only limiting factor were units and unoccupied place. Now you need also to make sure that tools and horses are available.

As to the fun factor: I tend to have fun both ways. I had no time to get to the end game but I will post my experience.

 

[raystuttgart]

@RayCorps
So it seems to infact work as intended.

You describe pretty well what the "Profession Settler" is supposed to achieve considering game design.
(More planning and decisions and less city spamming.)

As to the fun factor: I tend to have fun both ways.

That is pretty much my question though.
At least it is still fun to you as beginner as well.

But which one is more fun to community:

• The old System that allowed City spamming
• The new System with more need of strategic decisions and planning ahead

For me, it is defnitely the new System using "Profession Settler".
But others may not share my personal taste.

 

[Aerials]

i have played a 500 turn marathon game and found it to be REALLY slow and not a lot of action (could be faction placements for the random map - the 2 civs close to me angered natives and got KTFO and never really recovered)
the slow start makes it a bit boring i think, need about 2300g to equip a colonist on the docks to ready for a settlement which is almost the cost of 2 scouts. the 2nd colony is really hard to make but the 3rd is easy if you use the mats from the wagon train offering.
i found having your calvary replaced with a dragoon as english a bit punishing too, i usually convery calvary to scout and sell the blades in europe for cash and headstart and with dragoon you get less

 

[raystuttgart]

I usually convery calvary to scout and sell the blades in europe for cash and headstart and with dragoon you get less.

Excactly!

It was even worse if you sold "Guns" and Horses" to Natives. Incredbile amount of free cash ...
It was pretty much an "early cheat", making the game too easy.

It was also unfair because other Colonial Nations could not do that either.
All I did was even the odds for the Starting Nations. - We need to think about MP games.

By the way:
The English already have a really good Starting Unit (Preacher) that exactly fits their main advantage "Immigration".

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And as you said, after you founded your first couple of colonies, things get a bit easier anyways.
(Mainly because you can produce all Yields necessary yourself.)

Also the Yields of the "Settler" were indeed balanced to be mostly available from 2nd City Event.
So you have the choice "Found 3rd City" or build "Wagon Train". (The 1st Wagon Train is indeed really valuable as well.)

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Summary:

The whole purpose of this change was to make the early game (founding first colonies) a bit tougher. What you report is exactly that.
But ok, I understand that you do not really like that. Some people simply like to be able to rush their first colonies.

 

[Your_ardent_admirer]

It works great and I enjoy new Settler mechanic. Standard map, about 100 turns already done, no crashes.

 

[raystuttgart]

It works great and I enjoy new Settler mechanic. Standard map, about 100 turns already done, no crashes.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Coprolover]

When I saw that the work was still in progress (which is amazing for the 2008 game), I immediately decided to try it out. Thanks for the great job you have done. I have just started the game (25 moves), but I already have suggestions:

1) There are a total of 47 leaders in the game, but the limit is 41 players. I am autistic and love long games on giant maps, so I always choose the maximum amount of AI. Therefore, I would like to change this limit to 47-50;
2) During the game, I noticed scripts that tie the generation of Indian tribes to their historical location. However, this does not apply to Europeans and I had to manually rearrange the Russians to the north, and the Portuguese and Spaniards to the center (meaning the climate, since the territories in the south are identical to those in the north). It would be nice to make positions fixed to the climate in the future;
3) I was pleased with the new starting units, which have become less balanced. This is both historical and realistic because there is no balance in life. But I think we need to further strengthen the Spaniards and the Portuguese so that AI gains superiority faster. Now I have to enter resources and units for them through the world builder. For portugal, you can add two African Slaves to the free slots in the ship. This will be very historical, because the Portuguese were the first to actively explore Africa. Сan still think about the Spaniards. You can argue about the balance in MP, but no one forces players to take strong factions, because they will have 12 more to choose from. Choosing a faction, they also choose a difficulty level for themselves. It's the same with the single player;
4) Stumbled upon free skirmishers in the ruins. I think this is too strong a bonus, albeit an unlikely one. It is better to hire such units from aboriginal tribes for a certain amount. Also, this feature will only be available if the relationship between the factions is good enough. These units are too good at first. For a squad of rangers, the king requires 1800 gold. An almost identical squad can be obtained for free;
5) The trading system can also make the game too easy. For 100 weapons, the tupi offered me 9100 gold, and this is at the very beginning of the game. The scripts themselves are not bad, but it is necessary to significantly reduce the probability of success so that the player takes a lot of risk when knocking out the best price. So far, I do not use it because of too much benefit.

I have a few more proposals, but they will be much more difficult to implement. Therefore, this is not a matter of the coming days.

Moderator Action: Inappropriate content removed and replaced. Please do not use racist language on this site. leif

 

[ConjurerDragon]

At the start of the game noone used african slaves in the Americas. Everyone used the native population already there (=native indian slaves). Only after that was reduced to not be enough (through diseases from Europe, wars, and the slave labour itself in addition to rising demand) did the colonizers start to import slaves from Africa.
Which means that no colonial nation should start with african slaves at the start of the game.

 

[Coprolover]

Which means that no colonial nation should start with african slaves at the start of the game.

This was just a basic proposal to start from. Instead, you can introduce discounts on the purchase of African slaves for Portugal. For example, instead of the base increase value per 1 purchased African Slave 50 gold enter a value for Portugal 30. Thus, during the game, they will in average have more slaves from Africa.

Moderator Action: Inappropriate language corrected. leif

 

[raystuttgart]

I have a few more proposals, but they will be much more difficult to implement.

Let us please reserve this thread for feedback or bug reports for the Release 2.8.1. candidate release.

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Please do not hijack existing threads for your personal feature requests or suggestions.
Please create new threads.

I know though that new forum members can not know that, so I just tell it again.
But otherwise thread discussions will become a total mess that is really hard to follow.

 

[Nenos]

I played a game on giant custom map, marathon speed and highest difficult until 1645.
In early game the france get into a war with the Inuit and lose all your cities. They have around three units left and build no more cities. ( Maybe you should add the settler to apear in the home port. Or they set as defeated after around 30 rounds without any city )
The other nations develope as I aspect. I note the number of cities and will check their expanson for the next years.
Especially the russians are interest. They are on an Island without any hills or mountains.

 

[raystuttgart]

Maybe you should at the settler to apear in the home port.

That is actually already implemented and verified by testing.
If AI lost all Cities (and has no more Settlers) it will get a free Unit in "Profession Settler" in Europe.

You can even check that yourself by "Cheat Mode". (KeyCode to take over another AI: "Alt" + "Z")
Simply take over an AI that lost all its Cities - in Europe it should have a Unit in "Profession Settler" waiting.

However:
AI might have problems to bring the free Settler it got back to the Colonies.
(e.g. if its Ships have messed up - or it fist transports other Units that can not found colonies)