[BTS Total Mod] Thomas' War

[Agent327]

Sounds interesting.

I'm going to put all the scenarios back in the main download in the future. They were only taken out before because some code I added messed up all the scenarios, but I since fixed this and they now all work again.

Oh, good. I'll await a future update then.

 

[Falk]

Just wanted to say: great mod! I've been looking for a mod to expand my games, but all the others I tried had way too much new stuff. I like your approach of leaving the core mechanics as they are and still add a lot of new things to play with. In short, keep up the good work!

The only thing I don't like are the new terrain graphics - grassland, wetland and plains look way too similar imho. There's so much green on the screen. Would be cool if these new graphics could be made optional! (If this doesnt work or is too much trouble to do, that's ok too, the mod is great anyway.)

 

[tsentom1]

Just wanted to say: great mod! I've been looking for a mod to expand my games, but all the others I tried had way too much new stuff. I like your approach of leaving the core mechanics as they are and still add a lot of new things to play with. In short, keep up the good work!

The only thing I don't like are the new terrain graphics - grassland, wetland and plains look way too similar imho. There's so much green on the screen. Would be cool if these new graphics could be made optional! (If this doesnt work or is too much trouble to do, that's ok too, the mod is great anyway.)

The terrain graphics have been left unpacked from the rest of the graphics for just this reason (and its also the most optional you can make something like this). Just go into Thomas’ War/Assets/Art/Terrain/Textures and delete the files to revert back to standard graphics.

Alternatively, overwrite them with another set of terrain graphics found on this site (they all use the same standard names).

The one thing, make sure not to delete or overwrite files with the word Swamp or Marsh in the name as, naturally, there is no standard marsh graphic to replace them.

 

[Falk]

Thanks, that worked for me!

One thing I don't understand: what the heck does the Mercantile trait do? How does it work?

 

[tsentom1]

Thanks, that worked for me!

One thing I don't understand: what the heck does the Mercantile trait do? How does it work?

Basically, for every 5 commerce a trade route makes you get 1 additional food and production. It works for all trade routes.

I know the wording is confusing, but it actually only uses xml so the wording is how firaxis phrased it. 20% of a 100 is 5 so every 5.

 

[tsentom1]

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays everyone and thanks for supporting and downloading the mod!

 

[VimesUK]

A merry Christmas to you as well Thomas and the support is only reflective of the tireless work and effort that you put into this great mod.

 

[Falk]

I've played with Mercantile now that I understand what it does and I must say:
Mercantile seems incredibly overpowered. I tried to exploit it as much as possible and was absolutely crushing my enemies on Monarch difficulty. It felt like normal BTS on Settler difficulty. I played as Dido of Carthage - built the Great Lighthouse (GL), then teched to Currency, then set up Cothons in every city, then Education/Unis, and of course switch to Barter Economy asap.
It's amazing what you can do with Mercantile. The GL gives you 3 (1+2) trade routes per city, Currency adds another one which makes 4 for any Mercantile leader with the possibility of using Castles for a 5th one. Carthage even gets one more with their improved harbours.
Build the GL before training a settler or shortly after your first settler. Then you'll hit Writing and get open borders. Every new city will start with 3 trade routes, 4 after your Currency-beeline. You'll have +2/+2 for Mercantile almost right from the start. All your cities will have at least +4/+4 as soon as you reach early mid game (i.e. when reaching Feudalism). Soon you'll outtech, outgrow and outproduce everyone else. The most powerful thing is that you can build new cities everywhere - along the coast - and they will immediately grow fast, produce monuments fast and provide a considerable tech boost. It's a no brainer.

I like the trait, it's a cool idea. But imho, it needs to be nerfed a bit. Mercantile on its own seems about right, but Mercantile + GL is too good, not to speak of Mercantile + GL + Cothon + Philosophical.

On the other hand Diplomatic seems a bit underpowered. I havent actually tried to exploit it as I did with Mercantile, so I might be missing something. Anyway, how about adding a +1 to diplomatic relations bonus to Diplomatic?

Next I'm going to do a pyramid strategy. With the new means of getting more food faster, this seems exploitable, too.

I hope the critique of Mercantile doesn't come across too negative. I was just blown away by how good it performed.

 

[tsentom1]

I hope the critique of Mercantile doesn't come across too negative. I was just blown away by how good it performed.

I don't take anything as a negative, new things, especially things that function different than existing elements, require feedback and balancing. Mercantile was actually more powerful last version and was toned down this version, and I'll probably do so again next version.

It's tricky to balance though. One the one hand there's your strategy, on the other hand that strategy is entirely dependent on getting a wonder. Without that wonder (Carthage, however having Mer may be too powerful) the trait is practically useless till Custom Houses. Then again the Lighthouse and Castles expire mid game, but then again traits that give you an advantage early game are more useful. Etc. Situationally it's too strong, and situationally it's too weak. It's not the only trait that can be exploited with wonders, Fin + Colossus can be overpowered as well, but it does need to be looked at and I'm trying to think of ways to nerf it besides just lowering the percentage again.

 

[Falk]

You're right, without the GL it's a good, but not overpowered trait (with the possible exception of Dido). However, it's rather easy to get that wonder since the AI is not very keen on it. And if it were, Industrious + Mercantile would be the way to go (I actually tried that first, but then figured Dido was way better).

One thing I noticed, Civ seems to round up decimals when calculating the production/food boni from Mercantile and Barter Economy. It would help a lot if you could force it to always round down decimals. (Though it would probably need another nerf.)

 

[tsentom1]

You're right, without the GL it's a good, but not overpowered trait (with the possible exception of Dido). However, it's rather easy to get that wonder since the AI is not very keen on it. And if it were, Industrious + Mercantile would be the way to go (I actually tried that first, but then figured Dido was way better).

One thing I noticed, Civ seems to round up decimals when calculating the production/food boni from Mercantile and Barter Economy. It would help a lot if you could force it to always round down decimals. (Though it would probably need another nerf.)

In the meantime it is easy enough for you to adjust the values to whatever you deem fit. Just go into Thomas War/Assets/XML/Civilizations/Traits and look for TRAIT_MERCANTILE:

		<TradeYieldModifiers>
				<iYield>20</iYield>
				<iYield>20</iYield>
				<iYield>0</iYield>
			</TradeYieldModifiers>

 

[waitfornever]

Anyone know of any scenarios or custom maps made for Thomas War other then JALEEN 1066 AD (I think thats how its spelt)? Something that uses the new terrain, units etc. Anything would be great.

I love this mod, thanks forever for making BTS even better then it already was. A good thing got even better.

 

[Milarqui]

I have to disagree with your choice of Franco as a second Spanish leader, Philip II was more of a leader than Franco, and it was with him that Spain had it biggest expansion (he had also been the King of Portugal because his mother was the daughter of the former Portuguese king). You could add it to the next patch/"expansion".

 

[tsentom1]

Anyone know of any scenarios or custom maps made for Thomas War other then JALEEN 1066 AD (I think thats how its spelt)? Something that uses the new terrain, units etc. Anything would be great.

I love this mod, thanks forever for making BTS even better then it already was. A good thing got even better.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7538107&postcount=487

That has a link to the three scenarios JEELEN and c0d5579 have been gracious enough to make for the mod.

 

[tsentom1]

I have to disagree with your choice of Franco as a second Spanish leader, Philip II was more of a leader than Franco, and it was with him that Spain had it biggest expansion (he had also been the King of Portugal because his mother was the daughter of the former Portuguese king). You could add it to the next patch/"expansion".

Franco was added first to give 'modern' representation to the nation of Spain.

Felipe II is already in the next version to be released sometime after the holidays.

 

[turingmachine]

You're right, without the GL it's a good, but not overpowered trait (with the possible exception of Dido). However, it's rather easy to get that wonder since the AI is not very keen on it. And if it were, Industrious + Mercantile would be the way to go (I actually tried that first, but then figured Dido was way better).

One thing I noticed, Civ seems to round up decimals when calculating the production/food boni from Mercantile and Barter Economy. It would help a lot if you could force it to always round down decimals. (Though it would probably need another nerf.)

I have to disagree. The thing about Mercantile is that it ONLY affects coastal cities. No other trait is limited by this. It's virtually impossible for any non coastal city to get the Mer bonus because they don't have access to Harbors and Custom Houses. This alone is a huge nerf to the trait, and simply the fact that it has good synergy with one wonder is not enough to counter this.

Coastal cities are completely map dependent, limits where you can really expand. Additionally, even if you say well half your cities can be coastal the rest can be inland, you're still only getting your trait bonus to half your cities.

 

[waitfornever]

Thanks, that helps, but do you know of any others? Like a few more modern scenarios? Anything would be great, do you you plan on making anything such as scenarios for Thomas War? The mod is near perfect, it just needs some scenarios/maps that make full use of all the amazingly new but fair and balanced features of Tomas War.

And again, without being a suck-up, your mod rules!

 

[Falk]

Coastal cities are completely map dependent

You're right, but this does not change the fact that Mer is way overpowered with enough coastal cities. This is easy to do on many maps (almost anything except pangea type maps and those with massive continents). But even if it was too powerful only on one single map, one should still change the trait to account for it.

 

[Milarqui]

Just wondering why Franco looks so much like Castro...

 

[Headlock]

Hey you added my random events mod! cool!

Im currently workin gon recurring electiosn if youre ina democratic civic, its driving me mad. Thence no updates since the initial posting :/

Any help appreciated!

Regards,
HDK