Caravans!

[Hastur]

For those of us who miss the Caravan unit from previous Civ's, you may want to take a look at this chunk of XML from CIV4UnitInfos.xml:

<iBaseHurry>0</iBaseHurry>
<iHurryMultiplier>0</iHurryMultiplier>
<iBaseTrade>0</iBaseTrade>
<iTradeMultiplier>0</iTradeMultiplier>

The "Trade" values are used by the Great Merchant to determine how much gold is generated by performing a trade mission. The "Hurry" values are used by the Great Engineer to determine how much it adds to the target city's production.

While we can't currently create active trade routes like we did with the Caravan previously, we can enable a unit to provide an instant production assist like the Caravan could. And we can make a "mini-Great Merchant" by giving the Civ4 Caravan unit a base trade value that would make it just slightly more valuable than having a city devote its production to gold (which makes sense since that Caravan is subject to destruction).

One thing to note is that for the AI to use these functions, you'll need to set the unit AI to a form that the AI can handle like so:

<UnitAIs>
	<UnitAI>
		<UnitAIType>UNITAI_ENGINEER</UnitAIType>
		<bUnitAI>1</bUnitAI>
	</UnitAI>
</UnitAIs>

This will tell the AI to use it like a Great Engineer. Similarly, you can set the UnitAIType value to "UNITAI_MERCHANT" to have it treat the unit like a Great Merchant. Because of this, it might be recommended to create two units, one with each tag.

I'm currently playtesting Civ4 Caravan and Supply Train units but wanted to share the information I have rather than sit on it til I've finished creating and testing the new units.

 

[Bezurn]

Cool great stuff, be sure to inform us of how well it works out and if the AI uses them well.

 

[Hastur]

Well, I've just about got a Trade Caravan unit to the point that I'm happy with it. I'm going to add a counterpart unit called a Supply Train that will do the rush build function of the Great Engineer (albeit scaled way down) and playtest the two units together. Once both units are working well, I'll upload them here.

 

[Arkazius]

Sounds fantastic!! I really miss those caravans.
Is it possible to have a caravan that moves food from one city to another?

 

[Hastur]

Unfortunately, it's beyond my ability. I *think* it's possible via the python scripting but I haven't been able to do it. I've created a mod (link is in my signature) that does many of the other functions of the old Caravan unit such as commerce, rush production, and so on. There's also an Entertainer unit that adds a very small amount (15 points) of culture to a target city.

As I get farther into modding, I'll probably take another stab at food transport but I wouldn't hold my breath for it.