C3X: EXE Mod including Bug Fixes, Stack Bombard, and Much More Release 24

[Predator145]

Bombardment improvement: Is it possible to have the AI target terrain improvements every once in a while with the Artillery, Navy and Air Units. They will only target this if you have Worker on the tile without an escort.

PS : The old PTW style bombardment is amazing to have again, many thanks!!

The heavier focus on hitting terrain improvements is also a pre C3C feature. Ironically, with craters introduced, terrain bombarding has become much stronger.

 

[Alekseyev_]

I have come to the conclusion that I prefer removing craters altogether. They don't add anything worthwhile to the game (bombardement is strong enough as-is) and just clog the map with really ugly spots.

 

[SayHayKid]

I am trying to catch up on everything this awesome patch can do since I just recently was able to figure out how to install it on my MacBook Air. So, I apologize if these have been asked and answered previously.

Let's say I wanted to have different types of "barracks" for different units, could I use the building pre-req option for this? For example, I would create an improvement called "stables" that require horses. Then I can make horseman require "stables"? Or have regular "barracks" require iron and then swordsmen require "barracks?"

Is minimum city separation the number of tiles between each city? So, if I set this to 3 or 4, I could eliminate ICS?

With reduced Anarchy, I could give every Civ two-turn anarchy as if they all have the religious trait?

Buildings generating resources sound very interesting. I could make a steel mill with iron as a requirement to produce a new resource "steel" that could be used for something like modern ships? Or a lumber mill? Add a new resource called timber and have the lumber mill convert the timber to a new resource for use in building medieval sailing ships? I am sure there are a lot of cool things @Civinator will come up for this.

 

[Ozymandias]

The Religious Trait (like all the others) largely amount to what Improvements are Flagged as Religious (or Commercial, or whatever) for Maintenance costs. Of course, some Traits have hard-coded features (Religious is obvious here; Goody-Hut popping for Expansionist; etc.) You could strip all Improvements of the Religious Flags, and, instead, make up your own trait called, say, "Devout" and pop the appropriate Flags into whichever Improvements you wish (or, for that matter, simply rename "Religious")

The only "tricky" Flag is "Military," as the AI (" Artificial Idiot") will only build Improvements with that Flag when at war.

 

[SayHayKid]

The only "tricky" Flag is "Military," as the AI (" Artificial Idiot") will only build Improvements with that Flag when at war.

That is good to know. I didn't know that. Looks like I'll be removing the military flag from some buildings then.

 

[Predator145]

The Religious Trait (like all the others) largely amount to what Improvements are Flagged as Religious (or Commercial, or whatever) for Maintenance costs. Of course, some Traits have hard-coded features (Religious is obvious here; Goody-Hut popping for Expansionist; etc.) You could strip all Improvements of the Religious Flags, and, instead, make up your own trait called, say, "Devout" and pop the appropriate Flags into whichever Improvements you wish (or, for that matter, simply rename "Religious")

The only "tricky" Flag is "Military," as the AI (" Artificial Idiot") will only build Improvements with that Flag when at war.

How do you rename traits?

The AI will only be able to build improvements with the Military flag when mobilized btw. Once an AI is mobilized, it won't be able to hospitalize and industrialize. Unless you decide to buff militaristic by giving them half-priced hospitals and create improvements like "propaganda station" and "forced labor camp" that makes sense with the trait and allows the AI to culturally expand and still somewhat "industrialize" during the state of mobilization.

 

[Predator145]

I am trying to catch up on everything this awesome patch can do since I just recently was able to figure out how to install it on my MacBook Air. So, I apologize if these have been asked and answered previously.

Let's say I wanted to have different types of "barracks" for different units, could I use the building pre-req option for this? For example, I would create an improvement called "stables" that require horses. Then I can make horses require "stables"? Or have regular "barracks" require iron and then swordsmen require "barracks?"

Is minimum city separation the number of tiles between each city? So, if I set this to 3 or 4, I could eliminate ICS?

With reduced Anarchy, I could give every Civ two-turn anarchy as if they all have the religious trait?

Buildings generating resources sound very interesting. I could make a steel mill with iron as a requirement to produce a new resource "steel" that could be used for something like modern ships? Or a lumber mill? Add a new resource called timber and have the lumber mill convert the timber to a new resource for use in building medieval sailing ships? I am sure there are a lot of cool things @Civinator will come up for this.

Units requiring an improvement is also a good way to time a unit to require multiple techs without having to resort to strat res. Don't forget to perfume.

I haven't looked at the min separation yet. But eliminating ICS is great. Specialist farms are overpowered. Esp with the AI not being able to use it. I recon they'd still be good even if there was no ICS and they're nerfed back to PTW level. At least you'd have a reason to go communist later on with 2 turn anarchy being universal. And yes, you can have that.

But that also makes religious by far the weakest trait. Gotta give them something to compensate. I just give rel civs a trait specific untradeable starting tech that allows them to build a free SW giving 1 citizen in all cities and another 1 in the city. That "Bonus (Rel)" SW requires the Palace.

 

[sirati97]

Thanks, I would gladly collaborate on programming C3X. I've offered several times but sadly no one has taken me up on it yet.

Where do we want to communicate? if you have telegram feel to add me there
t.me/sirati97

 

[Ozymandias]

How do you rename traits?\

It's a bit tricky, as it becomes a "universal," not mod-specific change: go into "labels.txt" and scroll/search to any Trait or the word "Flavor," and change the name there.

You can, of course, include the modified labels.txt with the mod package, with all the usual caveats about backing up the original, etc.

 

[ZergMazter]

Hello guys I've come back after a few years of inactivity. I started reading about the so called Flintlock patch and oh my have you guys been busy. This community is special. You just kept trying and now we get to enjoy such a wonderful patch. I remember messing around with the cracked editor to attempt to do some of the things done in this patch. Thank you all for taking our favorite game to new highs. I've been missing out on some very awesome stuff while I played some civ 2 and 5 hehe.

 

[tjs282]

It's a bit tricky, as it becomes a "universal," not mod-specific change: go into "labels.txt" and scroll/search to any Trait or the word "Flavor," and change the name there.

You can, of course, include the modified labels.txt with the mod package, with all the usual caveats about backing up the original, etc.

If a mod has its own folder, e.g. ../Scenarios/MyMod/, is there any reason why a mod-specific labels.txt couldn't be included in a ../MyMod/Text subfolder, along with the mod-specific 'Pedia and script.txt files...?

@Civinator Am I misremembering, or isn't that how CCM v1.x used to work, while it was still 'only' a 'simple' mod, to be installed in ../Scenarios and played via the Civ-Content menu?

 

[Ozymandias]

If a mod has its own folder, e.g. ../Scenarios/MyMod/, is there any reason why a mod-specific labels.txt couldn't be included in a ../MyMod/Text subfolder, along with the mod-specific 'Pedia and script.txt files...?

It's been a while.

 

[Civinator]

If a mod has its own folder, e.g. ../Scenarios/MyMod/, is there any reason why a mod-specific labels.txt couldn't be included in a ../MyMod/Text subfolder, along with the mod-specific 'Pedia and script.txt files...?

@Civinator Am I misremembering, or isn't that how CCM v1.x used to work, while it was still 'only' a 'simple' mod, to be installed in ../Scenarios and played via the Civ-Content menu?

Yes, this is, how it is working. The problem with some mods and scenarios with their own text folders is, that the texts in those folders frequently are not covering the complete mod or scenario. Per example, if a civilopedia file in the separate text folder of a mod or scenario has no description for (let`s say) the unit explorer, but the mod or scenario contains a unit Explorer, the mod or scenario uses the file in the main text folder to fill that gap.

 

[SayHayKid]

But that also makes religious by far the weakest trait. Gotta give them something to compensate. I just give rel civs a trait specific untradeable starting tech that allows them to build a free SW giving 1 citizen in all cities and another 1 in the city. That "Bonus (Rel)" SW requires the Palace.

I wish I had more starting tech spots. I am all out with my current mod. Two starting techs tied to each Civs trait (e.g. The Sail for Seafaring and The Wheel for Commercial), one for untradeable Civ flag tech (to allow Civ specific wonders/improvements), and one untradeable tech for religion. If I had more slots I'd have an untradeable culture group tech and as you mentioned untradeable Civ specific trait tech, That would open up a lot of customization per Civ.

I'll keep it so every Civ is religious for now. Trying to finish up the foundation for a beta version. Then version 2 start experimenting with new ideas I have based on Flintlock's patch.

 

[Flintlock]

Check out these new error messages. Today I refactored the config file parser so it's possible to have separate messages for invalid keys and invalid values. Also all messages now contain a relevant key. That's either the key from the problematic key/value pair or, if a line is totally incomprehensible, it's the last key that was successfully parsed. That should make it much easier to find problems compared to only having a line number.

Hopefully this is the last time you'll need to see these messages.

Is minimum city separation the number of tiles between each city? So, if I set this to 3 or 4, I could eliminate ICS?

Yes, but technically that setting is an adjustment to the minimum number of tiles between cities. The base game's minimum separation is 1, and if you set the adjustment to 2, the actual minimum separation will be 1+2 = 3 tiles between cities. The reason it's an adjustment and not a straight min tiles setting is that I wanted it to obey the convention that all mod settings of "0" or "false" match the base game behavior. I'm not sure that was the right decision since it makes this setting a bit weird, but anyway that's how it works. You can even set it to a negative number to allow cities to be founded next to one another.

 

[Civinator]

I especially like what can be read about the harbor/airport icons.

 

[El_Constructor]

There is a bug in the game where it won't display the correct number of copies of resources available to cities that are not on the capital's trade network. This is because of a limitation, the game only tracks one set of those numbers per player, for their capital network. The city screen displays the player's numbers on all cities regardless of which network each city is on. The presence or absence of resources is still correct. Fixing the display would be relatively difficult since I'd have to inject some code to track something the game doesn't already. An easier workaround would be to hide resource copy counts for cities off the capital network since they don't matter anyway as those resources can't be traded.

About the trade networks collapsing at a certain point: It's possible you're running into a limit on the number of tiles + the number of resource generating buildings. That's the only limit I can think of for resource generation. I've already tried to remove that limit as an issue, but it's possible I missed something. Is your scenario on an extremely large map? Like more than 60k tiles? The specific limit would be 65536.

Good to know. I didn't know about that bug that shows the wrong amount of resources on the city screen.

Regarding the problem of the collapsing trade network: I hadn't thought of a connection with the map size until now. A really good idea because the scenario I mentioned actually takes place on a very large map. I will check that...

Thank you!

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

I must say after playing around with this mod I've noticed a significant improvement in AI attack behavior. I'm stunned at how the AI now uses artillery in conjunction with supporting troops and tanks. They are launching successful attacks into my territory like I've never seen before this mod.

Very nice work!

 

[Flintlock]

Where do we want to communicate? if you have telegram feel to add me there

I've never used Telegram before but I'll look into it. Are you on GitHub?

I especially like what can be read about the harbor/airport icons.

Good, I was hoping someone would notice that . I've been thinking about making that little change for quite a while, and finally got around to it for R16. Other things already done are:

• The charm flag can be used to control PTW-like artillery targeting in addition to the list in the config
• Can ignore the king unit flag when finding the defender for a stack, so king units won't be the last to defend
• Removal of the Elvis Easter egg

Also I did some work optimizing those improvement loops like I described earlier (still haven't gotten around to posting a thread about that, but I will eventually). Another thing I've been thinking about doing for a while and intend to do for R16 is add an option for upgraded barbarian unit types. My idea is that there will be a list in the config file of barbarian unit types unlocked at certain tech levels. Something like: barb_type_1_upgrades = [Chemistry: Longbowman, "Motorized Transportation": Guerrilla] so barbs would spawn longbowmen instead of warriors when players have reached Chemistry and similarly for guerillas. I'm still considering how to determine a tech level for the barbs. My current plan is to make it so that each encampment has its own tech level based on cities in its vicinity, for example an encampment could spawn longbows if there is a city within a certain number of tiles (say 10 - 15) that is owned by a player that has unlocked Chemistry. Another idea I had was to make it so the barbs own any tech already owned by at least two civs. That has the advantage that it's a simple rule and consistent with the rules for barb uprisings, but the downside is a barb encampment could tech up based on research happening on the other side of the planet. Anyone who's interested in this feature, feel free suggest something.

Good to know. I didn't know about that bug that shows the wrong amount of resources on the city screen.
Regarding the problem of the collapsing trade network: I hadn't thought of a connection with the map size until now. A really good idea because the scenario I mentioned actually takes place on a very large map. I will check that...
Thank you!

No problem! I hope to fix the trade network collapses for R16. I've already found what might be the cause. If I'm right, the collapse should only occur when the number of resource generating buildings plus the number of map tiles equals exactly 65536. So when you experience the collapse, building another resource generator should fix it. If you could test that theory, it would be helpful, although I'll fix that issue I found in any case.

The fact that the limit depends on the number of tiles and the number of resource generators is odd, but it's a result of the way resource generation is implemented. Basically, when the game goes to propagate resources through trade networks, it processes every tile on the map checking each of them for a resource. To make building-generated resources possible, the mod alters that by causing the game to process additional tiles beyond those actually on the map, one for each resource generating building. The mod then alters the way the mod accesses those additional tiles so their location matches the city each resource generator is in and the resource type matches the generated resource. It's a clever setup, if I do say so myself, since it means generated resources work like map resources for all purposes, for example I didn't need to do anything additional to make generated resources work with trade between players. The catch is it creates this weird coupling between the number of tiles and the number of resource generating buildings.

 

[tjs282]

Another idea I had was to make it so the barbs own any tech already owned by at least two civs. That has the advantage that it's a simple rule and consistent with the rules for barb uprisings, but the downside is a barb encampment could tech up based on research happening on the other side of the planet. Anyone who's interested in this feature, feel free suggest something.

I like this idea! Could you maybe use similar code as already used for the Great Library, to give the Barbs those techs?

I'm also pretty sure that this is similar to how the "Barb-upgrades" worked in CivDOS.

Spoiler Rambling, 'cos I'm old — OK? :

At the beginning of the game they'd only field A.D.M=1.1.1 "Militia" units, but pretty soon you'd be seeing 2.1.2 Cavalries ("Horseriding" tech), 3.1.1 Legionaries (Iron-Working), 4.1.2 Chariots (Wheel) and 4.2.2 Knights (Chivalry); with coastal towns also at risk from units dropped off by 1.0.3 Triremes (Mapmaking), 1.1.3 Sails (Navigation), and later 2.2.3 Frigates (Magnetism).

By the time you got into the mid-/late game, 2.3.1 Muskets (Gunpowder) or even 3.5.1 Riflemen (Explosives) could come wandering in from any still-uncolonised regions.

(IIRC, the total number of cities was hard-capped — possibly at 128, like the total units, or possibly even at 64 — so on a "60% water" map, or the included Earthmap, there were always some areas which simply couldn't be settled)

Don't remember ever seeing any Barb-controlled 10.5.3 Armors or 6.6.3 MechInfs, but by that point in the game, I would usually have been the tech-leader and about to launch my Spaceship anyway.

The downside isn't really, in my view. Teched-up late-game Barbarians could rather simulate terrorists secessionists freedom fighters funded by a foreign power!

Unconnected to the above, I'm still hopeful for a "stack-sentry" command to be included in C3X — ideally for both the sentry-commands ("wake up for all AI-units", and "wake up only for hostile AI-units") — if that would be possible (and if it hasn't already been included? I think I've only installed up to v.13 so far...)