Civilization Epochs

[Drawmeus]

Looks like you have your work cut out for you! If implemented the way you describe this will completely change strategy.

Work cut out for me indeed. I started digging through the DLL files last night and it'll take me some time to even wrap my head around.

Everyone needs a hobby, right?

 

[AlexTheTall]

Development plan for the next 3 weeks:

Next Wednesday I will aim to deliver a balance and polish update similar to the previous updates I've done, clearing out part of my bug and feedback queue.

Tonight I will be writing a blog post describing a new system I will be building. It will be an expansion on City-State gameplay, aimed at providing a partial fix to problems (1) and (4) (see the blog post: http://strabogaming.com/?p=174 ).

The following two weeks will be spent building this system as a new mod - Expanded City-States (working title, I'll pick something catchier later). I'm building it as a separate mod for development reasons, it will be integrated into Epochs once it's ready. We'll see how far I can get in 2 weeks; if it's far enough along to be a net positive on gameplay, I'll integrate it and release an Epochs update.

After that will be some combination of Expanded City States development and Epochs development, we'll see where things stand.

If the city names chage, does that mean it will be impossible to play on a giant earth map with real starting location?

 

[Drawmeus]

If the city names chage, does that mean it will be impossible to play on a giant earth map with real starting location?

That's a good question!

I'm actually not aiming for any name changes for the underlying code - just text key changes. E.g. Lhasa is still Lhasa, but the City-State's name is Tibet, but in the files it's still CIVILIZATION_LHASA or whatever it is now. This would likely be a text key change ONLY, unless I have to do a little DLL work to make it work (in which case it's unlikely to happen at all - the priority on it is quite low).

It's possible it'd break, but fairly unlikely based on the way text is handled in the game.

 

[AlexTheTall]

Alright, thanks. Well if it's that the case, hopefully one of the person who use your mods will make us a working earth map with starting place... haha!

 

[Pouakai]

That's a good question!

I'm actually not aiming for any name changes for the underlying code - just text key changes. E.g. Lhasa is still Lhasa, but the City-State's name is Tibet, but in the files it's still CIVILIZATION_LHASA or whatever it is now. This would likely be a text key change ONLY, unless I have to do a little DLL work to make it work (in which case it's unlikely to happen at all - the priority on it is quite low).

It's possible it'd break, but fairly unlikely based on the way text is handled in the game.

I'm almost certain it would just be XML, akin to the "Better Polynesian City Names" mod

 

[Gedemon]

If the city names chage, does that mean it will be impossible to play on a giant earth map with real starting location?

from Drawmeus' answer it will not break placement on YnAEMP.

 

[Drawmeus]

One thing worth noting - this will entail a new DLL for Epochs. As I understand it, you only get to use one DLL at a time, so any other mods that rely on a new DLL will not work with Epochs once these changes are instituted.

That presumably doesn't include city placement on YnAEMP (Gedemon can speak to that) but DOES include things like the 34 civs DLL for YnAEMP.

As I mentioned, we're potentially months away from these features being released as part of Epochs. I will say that if there are popular requests for integrating two mods (say, YnAEMP with 34 civs), if the other author is amenable, I am willing to put the time in to create integrated DLLs. It's not the easiest thing to do, but for popular combinations of mods, I'm willing to put in some time to ensure the best experience for everyone.

 

[Drawmeus]

Next update coming tonight or tomorrow. It will be relatively light, as I did some DLL changes (no more religious pressure from civs you haven't even met) that I'm not rolling out in this build - they function, but a new DLL will break compatibility with a wide range of mods, so I don't want to do it until I have something that will really make a difference.

There will be at least one new civilization in the update - I'm thinking Polynesia. Taking suggestions, though!

 

[Bead]

Austria or Ethiopia

 

[Drawmeus]

Austria or Ethiopia

Saving Austria for last because I'm really not sure what I want to do with them - that ability is going to break in half with the longer era lengths and more gold later without some additional tuning points, which could be quite time-intensive.

Ethiopia? I could make that happen.

 

[Bead]

Saving Austria for last because I'm really not sure what I want to do with them - that ability is going to break in half with the longer era lengths and more gold later without some additional tuning points, which could be quite time-intensive.

Ethiopia? I could make that happen.

Not going to lie, it was kind of the reason I mentioned them. Maybe though you could limit the number of usages by era allowing them to accumulate.

 

[Drawmeus]

If I can't find a solution, in the end I'll just enable them as a human and not an AI player and turn up the cost a bit. That would be unfortunate, though.

 

[Drawmeus]

V.8 is here!

Spoiler :

• Barbarian camps now spawn much more often.
• Great Lighthouse reworked - it now requires Shipbuilding, gives +XP to naval units built in that city, and gives ocean embarkation to land military units.
• Great Wall now obsoletes at Metallurgy.
• Fixed a bug with Game Speeds that was causing Standard and Quick speed games to use improper values.
• Rationalism text keys fixed - confirmed working. I had missed a location that I had to update.
• East India Company now gives a Great Person Progress increase rather than specialist slots.
• Constitution now gives Great Merchant points and culture, in addition to its other effects.
• Submarine ranged combat value decreased to 35.
• Nuclear Submarine ranged combat value decreased to 45.
• Radar now requires Refrigeration.
• Grenadiers now obsolete at Infantry Tactics and upgrade to Infantry.
• Brandenburg Gate cost radically increased.
• Destroyer, Privateer, Machine Gun and Gatling Gun no longer cost Strategic Resources.
• Harbors now require Lighthouses.
• Barbarian camps now give much more gold when cleared.
• The AI will now prioritize building Settlers lower than before. They are still highly variable in their approaches to expansion.
• AIs will now be less likely to attack and conquer City-States.
• Elizabeth's aggression values have been brought in line with other Leaders (decreased across the board).
• Revolts from unhappiness will now spawn several more units.
• Polynesia is now playable.
• Ethiopia is now playable.

About half of my development time for this version was spent on DLL changes - disabling Religious Pressure from civs you haven't yet met and adding a GameEvent that fires when a building is created. I have NOT included the DLL in this version, because when I do add that DLL, it will break compatibility with all other mods with custom DLLs, and the changes thus far are very small. There will be a DLL with this mod at some point, but no need to do it sooner than I have to!

Next up is 2 weeks of development on the Minor Civilizations mod, with a progress report a few days after christmas.

 

[AlexTheTall]

Polynesia and Ethiopia! Yes !

 

[Drawmeus]

Polynesia and Ethiopia! Yes !

Kamehameha is almost sickeningly nice, by the way. Just so you know.

I'm still taking requests for the next Civ adds, though it'll be a few weeks.

 

[AlexTheTall]

What are the civs that still needs to be worked out?

 

[Bead]

Sorry if you already know but a few things.

-If you played a previous game with a civ that is not in your mod the game will still default them as your civ. I don't know if that will just give a player a blank civ with no unique abilities in your mod or what.

-It seems that you have a higher default number of other civs in a game per map size. If a player doesn't change the size of the map they are playing on then it will just stay the smaller size for the game.

 

[Drawmeus]

I did not know that, thank you. I knew it saved settings but I hadn't thought of these two issues specifically. I will look into what I can do to resolve them.

AlexTheTall -
Loads. Still have at least the following:
- Austria
- Babylon
- Byzantium
- Carthage
- Egypt
- The Inca
- India
- Korea
- The Maya
- Mongolia
- The Netherlands
- The Ottomans
- Persia
- Spain

Not sure if I've missed any. I'm also open to bringing in modder-created civs provided they're done to a high degree of polish, represent real-world cultures, and they don't mind me mucking around with their unit, UA and building balance.

 

[AlexTheTall]

Personally, I would love The Nethlerlands, Egypt, Carthage...

 

[Drawmeus]

Personally, I would love The Nethlerlands, Egypt, Carthage...

I'll do one or two of them in the next release, in a few weeks.