[BTS Total Mod] Thomas' War

[tsentom1]

Hello again, I just wanted to point out a strange little thing I have noticed going on and ask a couple questions.

First the strange thing.
In my games I keep randomly getting a unit, almost always in my capital city but sometimes in other cities. At first it was an odd spy suddenly built in a city that was building a wonder. I noticed another couple of spies in other games and got suspicious. Today I got proof. I got a Hellenic missionary in a city that was producing wealth. To make this worse I already had 3 missionaries built so now I have 4.
It is so nice to have proof I am not insane. I can provide a save game if you like that shows the 4 missionaries.


Now the rest are just is it possible to do this sort of questions.

1. Can we reduce the amount of volcanoes a game generates. I swear I have some games where there are 8 or more in a single screen. (incidentally I love the erupting animation.)

2. Can you add options to the options menu and if so can you add things like. Automated workers don't build forts, and automated workers don't build forest preserves. Or divide the forest jungle options into two buttons one for jungle and one for forest so you can have automated workers chop jungles but not forests.

3. Would it be possible to make castles go obsolete at steel instead of economics. Even in marathon games castles are never around long enough to be useful and it makes civs who's unique building replaces a castle somewhat less attractive to play. Steel is where you get cannon and I seem to recall that one time in school I paid attention and they said cannons had something to do with the downfall of castles and city walls. If only I had paid attention in English class.

4. I would love to see an option in domination victory that allows you to pick the percent of land area you need to win. I would love to see 55%, 65%, 75% or 85%
The number the game usually picks now just feels to small. Heck even if I had to edit it in an INI file I would be happy so long as I could set it.

I am clueless about what you can and can't do in this mythical thing you call python so if any of that was just stupid I apologize in advance.

As to your mysterious happenings, they were probably the result of the Golden Dawn Wonder (aka the Copernicus' Observatory modcomp I released on the forums). Which can give you free missionaries, or spies, or gold, or food, or production, etc. etc. depending on the current in-game astronomical sign. Next patch adds small messages on the top of the screen to better facilitate the wonder and which bonuses you are receiving.

1. Already has been reduced with the next patch version.

2 & 4. Both are sort of hard-coded into the SDK so it would either require extensive modding to the SDK or really really sloppy python code to create a similar effect using similar things that are possible with python. As for the land area required for a domination victory, this isn't a set thing but rather it changes and updates throughout the game based on the current global population (I'd have to go back through the BTS code to be 100% sure on this, but it does increase during the game). It might be possible to have it always be a set thing, which I can look into. Truth is, I'm not really sure how to edit the worker auto-build AI (or if it is even possible), but it is a good idea. I'm going to ask around on the forums to see if anyone else has done it.

3. Changing the Castle obsolete tech is something I considered early on with the mod, but ultimately decided against doing for two reasons; one, castles actually give quite a few bonuses (trade route, defense, culture, +25% espionage, and in Thomas' War a possible specialist), and two, you can for the most part avoid researching economics for a while until, really, you're looking to train infantry. As for the UB castles, they tend to be more powerful than a general UB to make up for their limited life span. Currently there are three in the game. The Spanish citadel would actually be worse if it was changed to steel, as currently you can delay economics and still get steel and train cannons with +5 experience. As for the other two, well one gives two free specialists which is really strong for that part of the game and really shouldn't last long, and the bonus of the other one is that it doesn't obsolete (along with added culture) which would be less significant if it obsoleted later. However, this is all a mater of personal choice and is easy enough to mod in your own version. In Thomas' War/Assets/XML/Buildings there is a file called CIV4BuildingInfos. Just open it up and search for BUILDINGCLASS_CASTLE. Scroll down and change <ObsoleteTech>TECH_ECONOMICS</ObsoleteTech> to <ObsoleteTech>TECH_STEEL</ObsoleteTech> and then do the same for the other three entries that begin with BUILDINGCLASS_CASTLE (aka the three unique castles).

Anyway, the worker AI and Victory conditions are good ideas. I'll look into exactly what is possible to edit with them. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[tsentom1]

i don't have any problems running other mods - however, now I have a problem running rhyes and fall of civilisation - it says I have a error in 'String 1 of python'

All of the menus for the whole game (any mod or even just the main game) are now transparent and not in boxes at all

Pls Help

I have asked a few other modders on the board who are more knowledgeable fixing missing interface than I am to help with your's (and zedo_m) problem and am waiting to hear back from them.

However, there is no way for Thomas' War to interfere with other mods as the files are isolated and installation consists of just moving the Thomas' War folder into your mods directory. If other mods are messing up you must have changed some of your core files independent of Thomas' War. If this is the case, and you are unsure of what you changed, it might be best just to re-install civ.

 

[Maniac]

In reality it is possible to give blank GPP points (that just raise the bar but don't count towards a %) and they work fine for the most part however there are one or two situations that can lead to a crash with blank points, and even though they're rare I would rather not have anything with the potential to crash in the game.

What are those one or two situations?
In Planetfall Homo Superior religion gives +2 blank GPP in a base, so this might be useful to know.

 

[tsentom1]

What are those one or two situations?
In Planetfall Homo Superior religion gives +2 blank GPP in a base, so this might be useful to know.

The situations are mostly dealing with events and code inside Thomas' War in which I go back and check a city's GPP percentages and rate.

 

[tsentom1]

So the balance patch is for all intents and purposes done. There were a few things I wished to include but the modcomps either never materialized or are way past their expected date so I figure it's just best to forgo them now (since they can always be added later).

However, I would like the balance / bug patch to be as, well, bug free as possible. With this in mind, if anyone would like to test the new patch (and actually has time to play a full-ish game within the next week) please PM me. Remember this isn't a new content patch, but rather the final version of 3.5. You'll mainly be testing for bugs, missing art / text entries, crashes misfires, etc.

If all goes to plan then, I'll officially post it probably by next weekend. Also, when the patch is released I'll updatre all the downloads and then will be hosted at AtomicGamer (as people have problems with filefront). Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

Also, I should note the patch will not be save game compatible, as I had to do some creative coding to fix some of the bugs. I hate releasing a bug / balance patch that breaks saves, so I apologize in advance.

 

[zedo_m]

do you think thet new relase of the mod will fiks problems with mising interface

 

[tsentom1]

do you think thet new relase of the mod will fiks problems with mising interface

It's possible, but the patch address balance issues more than anything else. I've asked some other forum members (who are better coders than me) to look into the missing interface problem and am waiting to hear back from them, so hopefully we should have a solution soon.

 

[tsentom1]

JEELEN and c0d5579...

Since I'm re-including the scenarios you two so graciously made with the next patch (now that the bug with the mod has been worked out) do you mind if I go into the files and add the new victory type and update similar things or would you rather I include them as they are currently available on the forums?

 

[Omnixius]

3. Changing the Castle obsolete tech is something I considered early on with the mod, but ultimately decided against doing for two reasons; one, castles actually give quite a few bonuses (trade route, defense, culture, +25% espionage, and in Thomas' War a possible specialist), and two, you can for the most part avoid researching economics for a while until, really, you're looking to train infantry. As for the UB castles, they tend to be more powerful than a general UB to make up for their limited life span. Currently there are three in the game. The Spanish citadel would actually be worse if it was changed to steel, as currently you can delay economics and still get steel and train cannons with +5 experience.

Ahh your wisdom here is exceptional. Oddly enough I was playing Spain when this began to upset me. I loved the citadel but hated how quickly it was obsolete by economics. It never occurred to me that my standard research pattern "should" be modified to compensate. I also never saw the obvious benefit this has to cannon.

Thanks again for the mod and the answers.

 

[Agent327]

JEELEN and c0d5579...

Since I'm re-including the scenarios you two so graciously made with the next patch (now that the bug with the mod has been worked out) do you mind if I go into the files and add the new victory type and update similar things or would you rather I include them as they are currently available on the forums?

I'd prefer it if a scenario were up-to-date with the latest features, so that'd be cool.

 

[The_J]

@Zedo: Can you load my mod (see signature)?

I ask, because some people are complaining about the same error, which you have, in my mod, and it would be good to know, it it's the same.

 

[zedo_m]

ok i em downloding thet mod we shell see


P.S.

Tried, its working fine no p&#353;roblem with interface no pithon exception

 

[tsentom1]

Well, only one person volunteered to Beta test , but it went well. However, not the extensive testing I had hoped to catch any bugs so please bring up any you find so I can correct them as soon as possible.

Patch 3.5a

This patch mostly addresses balance issues raised in the thread as well as bugs pointed out to me. It does not add any significant new content, but it is recommended that everyone upgrade as it fixes some crashes found in the previous version. Hopefully, this constitutes the final release of 3.5 taking it out of it's beta phase. However, bugs are always easy to miss and I will address new bugs as they are pointed out to me.

This requires Thomas' War 3.5, which can be found HERE. It will not work with any previous version.

The patch will break saves from 3.5. I apologize for this, as I hate to release a bug / balance patch that breaks saves, but it ended up being unavoidable.

To install, extract into your Thomas' War folder (Beyond the Sword/Mods/Thomas' War). Alternatively, open up the zip file. Copy the two folders found inside (Assets and Public Maps). Open up the Thomas' War folder, you should see Assets, Public Maps, etc. Hit paste, and yes to overwrite (note: do not delete, but overwrite).

v3.5a Changes:

Spoiler :

This patch mostly addressed balance issues raised in the thread as well as bugs pointed out to me. Hopefully, this constitutes the final release of 3.5 taking it out of it's beta phase. However, bugs are always easy to miss and I will address new bugs as they are pointed out to me.

Scenarios:
Scenarios now once again work with the mod, in response I have re-collected all the user made scenarios for Thomas' War on the forums and included them in the download.
Updated the 'Next War' scenario to work with Thomas War
Included a few blank Earth maps as per request.

UUs and UBs:
I re-examined every civ;'s UU and UB and re-balanced them accordingly. As a result, some civs have had their UU or UB changed. I feel the current settings are more balanced and unique than the previous arrangement.
Akkads' UB bonus is now +2 hammers
Timurids' UB bonus is now +33% trade route yield.
Chams' UB bonus is now +50% Research, +25% Culture during Golden Ages
Assyrias' UB now gives raw Great General GPP
Costs of many of the UU's have been changed
Brazil's UU now replaces the Musketman and has a chance of capturing defeated units
Hurrian's UU now increases raw flanking damage
Prussia's UU now increases raw collateral damage
A few others, I don't remember at the moment.

Wonders:
A few of the Wonders have been given addition python based abilites to make them more unique.
Ishtar Gate now also puts you in contact with all civs on the map (espionage bonus down to 2 (from 3) for each religious building.
KGB now places rival civs in anarchy (a reverse Taj Mahal of sorts). No longer grants the free promotion, espionage bonus down to 15% (from 20%) in all cities.
Cure for Cancer now acts similar to the Longevity wonder from Civ 3, i.e. cities now grow by 2 population. No longer gives the happiness bonus.
Art of War made cheaper, gives Artist points instead of General points

Traits:
A few of the traits have been re-balanced.
Agricultural now gives a 10% food stored bonus on city growth instead of the strict numbers it was giving before (this was done to correct a bug) Additionally, gives double production speed for the Haramut-Yusef national wonder (the game doesn't show double speed for wonders).
Scientific Trait now gives a free scientist at Classical era, free golden age at Renaissance era, free tech at Modern era. Also, double speed of Oxford University national wonder.
Mercantile now only gives +10% for food and hammers with trade, additionally, Barter Economy now only gives +5%. Great Lighthouse made more desirable to the AI.
Expansive Worker production bonus lowered to 25%, no longer applies to the Work Boat, still applies to Clonejacks.

Victory Conditions:
Added Commercial Victory (the gold amount needs feedback and probably future balancing.
Religious Victory threshold lowered to 80% from 85%.

Misc:
Future, 'Next War' units have been re-balanced, particularly the Clones. Added more interaction between the future unit classes, as well as actually made the Biological Warfare Unit and Promotion usefull.
Added many, many in-game notifications for previous promotions/wonders/events. So now they will inform you if you stole gold, or healed after battle, which bonus the Golden Dawn gave that turn, if a crusader was born, etc. etc. etc.

Those are just the 'highlights' off the top of my head. There's also a ton more balance and bug changes.

 

[tsentom1]

For everyone missing the interface: I am still looking into the problem. However, since a few of you, the python exceptions say the problem not in a file used in Thomas' War it is going slowly (as many of you are experiencing it for different reasons). A few people on the forums have gotten back to me with help and I'm checking out their advice in-game at the moment.

 

[keldath]

hi tsentom,

whats up,

first, id like to say, that, your work is awesome, as you know im a fan of your stuff.

i have a few things id like to ask,
will you update the python wonders that you fixed here? like ishtar?

also,

are your pyhon wonder codes are multiplayer compatible?

the commercial victory,
can you post it as a seperate modcomp?
or atleast point me to the files its integrated in thomas war, and ill extract it bymyself.

thanks for all your great work!!! its one of the best here!

 

[tsentom1]

hi tsentom,

whats up,

first, id like to say, that, your work is awesome, as you know im a fan of your stuff.

i have a few things id like to ask,
will you update the python wonders that you fixed here? like ishtar?

also,

are your pyhon wonder codes are multiplayer compatible?

the commercial victory,
can you post it as a seperate modcomp?
or atleast point me to the files its integrated in thomas war, and ill extract it bymyself.

thanks for all your great work!!! its one of the best here!

Yes, actually, all the code I've released so far is multi-player compatible. (Including, for the most part Thomas' War).

Isthar and the KGB are the same version in my mod as they are in the modcomp released here. Sometimes in Thomas' War I have the bonus attached to a different wonder (Golden Dawn has the Copernicus bonus in my mod, for example), but for the most part everything can be found up to date in the modcomps. I think maybe ITER is the only python wonder found in Thomas' War that I haven't released yet.

I'll separate the commercial victory. It's kind of basic and could be developed more (just the bare-bones of it removed from the Crossroads of the World mod) so it would probably benefit from the forum anyway. If you can't wait, all the python for it is labeled ## Mercantile Victory ##. I think it only uses the CvEventManager and CvVictoryScreen files.

 

[tsentom1]

I take it, since no one posted anything like "OMG the new patch crashes!!!!" etc, etc, that the new version is working well for everyone? (Missing interface excluded as that's a different problem that plagues a lot of mods due to the shoddy file system of some of the Civ files).

 

[JorrelFraajic]

Tested it out, works pretty nicely... very well done. Really like the fact that the interface gives you more of an idea of what you just did, especially later in the game, when you're doing so much you can't even remember where you started your turn

One quick question: Do you remember exactly (well, maybe not exactly, but at least generally) an idea of what you did to the CIV4TechInfos.xml? I'm working on a personal mod using your mod as a foundation and have extensively changed a good deal of that xml.

Again, great work!

 

[tsentom1]

Tested it out, works pretty nicely... very well done. Really like the fact that the interface gives you more of an idea of what you just did, especially later in the game, when you're doing so much you can't even remember where you started your turn

One quick question: Do you remember exactly (well, maybe not exactly, but at least generally) an idea of what you did to the CIV4TechInfos.xml? I'm working on a personal mod using your mod as a foundation and have extensively changed a good deal of that xml.

Again, great work!

The easiest way to see exactly the changes would be to open up the Thomas' War TechInfo file in Winmerge and compare it to the Next War TechInfo file, or if you're looking for just this version compare the file in winmerge to the previous versions file.

If you mean changes in Thomas' War itself there are a few:

Spoiler :

I added a few techs:

TECH_CART, TECH_CULT, TECH_HUMANS, TECH_ALIEN, TECH_TERRA, TECH_WARP (i.e. Cartography, Mystery Cult, Eschatology, Xenobiology, Terraforming, Astrometrics)

As well as a few un-researchable techs to store things:

TECH_ALIEN2, TECH_ALIEN3, TECH_ALIEN4 (No real reason why these are called alien, just easy way for me to remember which were the 'fake' techs).

I changed the X,Y grid of a few techs to fit the new techs.

I expanded the FLAVOR_ESPIONAGE to more techs (it isn't properly integrated in standard BTS), as well as added a new FLAVOR_GOVERNMENT

Free Great Doctor at Medicine, Free Great Statesman at Democracy, Free Great Citizen at Mass Media).

Then I adjusted some of the tech costs (not many) to reflect changes I made in the mod.

The actual research paths themselves should be almost identical, with the exception of having to add in the new techs.

I think for the new version itself, I only added FLAVOR_ESPIONAGE and FLAVOR_GOVERNMENT to a few more techs. I didn't really 'change' anything.

 

[JorrelFraajic]

The easiest way to see exactly the changes would be to open up the Thomas' War TechInfo file in Winmerge and compare it to the Next War TechInfo file.

I actually made quite a few changes.

I added a few techs:

TECH_CART, TECH_CULT, TECH_HUMANS, TECH_ALIEN, TECH_TERRA, TECH_WARP (i.e. Cartography, Mystery Cult, Eschatology, Xenobiology, Terraforming, Astrometrics)

As well as a few un-researchable techs to store things:

TECH_ALIEN2, TECH_ALIEN3, TECH_ALIEN4 (No real reason why these are called alien, just easy way for me to remember which were the 'fake' techs).

I changed the X,Y grid of a few techs to fit the new techs.

I expanded the FLAVOR_ESPIONAGE to more techs (it isn't properly integrated in standard BTS), as well as added a new FLAVOR_GOVERNMENT

Free Great Doctor at Medicine, Free Great Statesman at Democracy, Free Great Citizen at Mass Media).

Then I adjusted some of the tech costs (not many) to reflect changes I made in the mod.

The actual research paths themselves should be almost identical, with the exception of having to add in the new techs.

Mmmk, got that... Should've been a bit more specific in my original post. I was actually referring to the 3.5a patch when compared to 3.5. I'd merged everything already with 3.5, but then saw that the patch had included a CIV4TechInfos.xml and said "oh boy".

On that note, the game doesn't throw any errors when I open up all of my new merged XML stuff with my old CIV4TechInfos.xml, so whatever you did isn't causing game-crashing conflicts for my stuff.