Primordial Stew, congratulations for making such a fantastic adaptation to Pink’s original CivIII mod. I went to a computer game store the other day and bought Warlords just so I could try this out. It was money well spent!
Below I will list a few possible bugs as well as some suggestions for the next patch. Feel free to take or leave my ideas as you see fit:
Possible Bugs
1. Whenever I build a Ludus, it disappears in any city where I had previously built one. I built five Ludus’s in my current game, but only one remains. If this bug cannot be fixed, maybe you could change the Ludus into a Wonder to be constructed in Rome, and raise its hammer cost and GP point output.
2. The Britanic Goods resource is not working properly. I captured UK and had a road over the resource but I still could not build Hadrian’s Wall. I was not receiving the +1 happy face bonus, either. I modified the terrain XML file to make Britania Goods (called “silver” in the XML) require a Quarry, and then everything worked okay.
3. Similar issue for Exotic Animals. I am not sure if that resource is working correctly, but in any event, it should require a camp.
4. When a city automatically revolts (like say in the Jewish rebellions) the Praesidium Romana units from that city are relocated outside the city. Since they have zero moves, they are stuck there, even after Rome puts down the rebellion and recaptures the city. I do not know if this can be fixed.
5. Parthia requested to become my vassal. Of course, I said “no”.
6. The Pax Romana civic says that it requires 34 turns of anarchy. Is this intentional, like maybe the civic is automatically assigned later in the game and the Player is not supposed to change to it himself?
7. The Roman horse unit that can be built in Spain and Gaul with a Castra Celtica only has one move. Shouldn’t it have two moves? With only one move, it is very similar to the Miles Celtica infantry unit (each has 6 strength).
8. Velites that the Player upgrades to Miles Aux keep their withdrawl and collateral damage bonus promotions. This is no big deal.
9. Consular Legions do not upgrade. They have to be deleted then rebuilt.
10. There is no Jewish holy city. The Jewish Wonder (I forgot the name) is not placed in Jerusalem. For these two reasons, the Player cannot build the Biblia Wonder.
11. Slaves are sometimes consumed when improving a tile. If this is intentional, like say it represents the slaves continuing to work the plot, then it is fine, but I just wanted to point it out in case it was an error.
12. Parthia gave me the city of Susa (which I think is supposed to be unconquerable) as the terms of a peace treaty.
Potential Updates / Balancing
13. Pontus should be stronger. Conquering them was a huge pain in CivIII RFRE, and historically Mithradates gave Rome quite a challenge.
14. The ships in Marc Antony’s fleet should have 5 strength rather than 4. Right now, it is too easy to wipe them out with just a handful of Quinq Summas.
15. The unconquerable German cities have lots of culture so it is difficult for the Player to build Limes along the Rhine. Maybe you could lower the German culture. Or else give Rome a low-cost, national unit that can add say 50 culture points to a city. The Player could then increase the culture in his key border cities using those units.
16. When the Jewish revolt occurs, how about giving them a couple of strong defensive, zero-move units in a Lime on a hill by Jerusalem. This could represent the fortress of Massada. The units would remain there until they are killed, even if the rest of the rebellion is put down.
17. Trajan sacked the Parthian capital and retook the legionary eagles lost by Crassus. The city is unconquerable in CivIV RFRE. However, because the Romans held the city very briefly, this is not really an issue.
18. It takes forever to improve tiles. Perhaps increase slave productivity by +50% from where it is now. Since the Player uses one slave per city to build a Catasta, and because slaves are often consumed when improving tiles, there are not enough slaves left to improve the terrain.
19. Because tech discovery is automatic, there is not much reason (other than cultural bonus or “flavor”
to build a Schola. Therefore, the Schola should give +1 hammer in addition to its current benefits.
20. Same for the Academia. Add +1 hammer to its benefits.
21. The Fabrica building does not give enough of a production bonus. I suggest giving it +1 hammer on top of its current values.
22. Should the Forum Trajanus Wonder require the capture of Sarmizegatusa, since gold plundered from the Dacians paid for the construction?
23. It is impossible to stay on the timeline. In my current game, I am at 150AD and I have not yet conquered Numidia, Dacia, Selecuids, Pontus, Armenia, or western Parthia. I am way, way, way behind…. I suggest adding 24 turns (i.e. two new techs) after Marius and before Dictator. This timeframe encompasses what some consider the most famous and interesting part of Roman history. Possible new tech names could be: Pirates & Pompey, Caesar in Gaul, Conquest of Britain, Defeat of Crassus, or whatever else fits. Of course, you would also have to add two new timer techs, and update the era calendar count so that even with 24 extra turns, zero years get added.
24. Buildings should have much higher conquest survivability, maybe as high as 100%. When cities automatically revolt (i.e. Italian rebellion, Jewish rebellions, Crisis of the Third Century, etc.) and then are recaptured by Rome, everything that the Player has worked so hard to build could be wiped out. Imagine recapturing an important city and then having to rebuild its Fabrica, Temple Romana, Granaria, Thermae, etc.
This is one of my favorite things because in civIII many things were tried, but civIII just couldn't do it justice.
). Any thoughts on the GP rate in general?
