Col Bug Fixes / Feature Enhancements Patch

[Common Sensei]

I'd throw in how new colonists born from food surpluses are always Tories regardless of rebel sentiment.

 

[Lord Shadow]

If you make Pioneer from him he'll have zero unit strenght.

Ah, yes. That's another thing that needs to be fixed. I don't remember if I already said it here or if it was in some other thread.

Given all colonists have a strength of 2 by default, it doesn't make any sense that pioneers, who have hammers and axes, are completely helpless. How could a flimsy preacher with a bible be considerably deadlier than a strong pioneer with an axe? Missionaries are defenseless, and that's fine (or not, looking at their preacher brothers), but pioneers shouldn't be. I guess Right to Bear Arms doesn't affect them either, as they apparently don't fall into the Colonist category (they'd have 2 strength if they did).

 

[Jabie]

Let me know which Founding Fathers I've refused in the Founding Fathers screen by some manner.

I'd like to choose what kind of "tea" party to hold.

 

[subanark]

It would be nice if you made peace with Europe when you defeat the REF rather than peace happening when you win the game. E.g. if you turn off independence victory and beat the REF you remain at war with your king.

I was mainly thinking about a different victory where the game does not end until when you have declared independence, but will also require you have x% of the land (adding this victory condition is really easy). Scoring is also a possibility, but its not as easy to implement since in order to win highest score victory you have to have the highest score even if another higher scoring player didn't declare independence. Doesn't a victory against the REF feel empty if you lose 90% of your populous?

 

[Lord Shadow]

Code-wise, let the Indians automatically cash in the treasures when they return home at a 0 percent tax rate. While this doesn't do much NOW, it does get 'rid' of the treasure, and could allow an income option for 'play as native empire' mod.

(Okay, these ads are annoying the heck out of me now... stupid UGO)

I mentioned the natives can't 'cash in' treasures due to their cultural principles. What do I mean with this? Treasures are generally golden artifacts and other relics that are very valuable to the Europeans, but sacred to the natives.

Given they're not simply gold coins, they would refuse to use them as currency, and most likely stash them for safekeeping ('destroying' the treasure unit). I don't think it'd be a valid income source for a hypothetical 'play the natives' mod, given the indians wouldn't loot and desecrate the relics of their ancestors to make themselves richer.

The treasure unit has a guy pulling a cart filled to the brim with gold bars, but I don't think the artifacts and valuables would've been smelted before reaching Europe (or at least a colonial settlement). It's not like the scout robbed Fort Knox.

 

[subanark]

I mentioned the natives can't 'cash in' treasures due to their cultural principles. What do I mean with this? Treasures are generally golden artifacts and other relics that are very valuable to the Europeans, but sacred to the natives.

Given they're not simply gold coins, they would refuse to use them as currency, and most likely stash them for safekeeping ('destroying' the treasure unit). I don't think it'd be a valid income source for a hypothetical 'play the natives' mod, given the indians wouldn't loot and desecrate the relics of their ancestors to make themselves richer.

The treasure unit has a guy pulling a cart filled to the brim with gold bars, but I don't think the artifacts and valuables would've been smelted before reaching Europe (or at least a colonial settlement). It's not like the scout robbed Fort Knox.

I don't know about that, what is one tribes sacred treasure is simply another ones treasure. If France invaded England and stole the crown jewels they would either keep them as a trophy or sell them off.

 

[xxhe]

I have two idea:
1. The storehouse should be modified to hold more goods, especially guns and horses.(especially important to the AI!! because they do not know how to reserve guns, so everyone can defeat them in the middle or later game)

2. Those colonist born in the new world should at least have 50% rebel sentiment.

 

[Lord Shadow]

If France invaded England and stole the crown jewels they would either keep them as a trophy or sell them off.

I doubt they'd sell the jewels. They'd be much more valuable as a symbolic trophy. The same would probably happen between opposing tribes, from my point of view. Sometimes something that represents "haha, we proved superior to you" is much more valuable than the actual material value of the jewels, gold and silver.

It's also possible to hold such symbolic items for ransom, and England would pay exorbitant amounts to get them back, much more than the material value you'd get from selling them, say, in the black market. Not to mention England would rightfully hate you forever if you did.

During the British invasions of Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807, local troops managed to capture the banner of at least one of the British battalions. After they were repelled, they frequently made various kinds of offers in exchange for the return of their lost flag, including paving all the roads of the then smaller Buenos Aires. They were repeatedly refused, and said battalion remains bannerless to this day.

All for a piece of cloth? The material value of the banner was insignificant, but there was strong symbolism behind it. If this was the reaction to the loss of a comparatively simple battalion emblem, just think of what they could've done to recover the royal jewels.

2. Those colonist born in the new world should at least have 50% rebel sentiment.

Hmm. If colonists can be either tory or rebel (nothing inbetween), I think each one born in a colonial settlement should have an X% chance of being rebel, where X is the percentage of sentiment in the city.

 

[thelibra]

That's because unit strenght is not tied to unit itself, but profession.

When Veteran Solider has Solider proffession it gets +3 unit strenght. If you make Pioneer from him he'll have zero unit strenght.

Interesting difference. I can accept that, but then the colopedia needs to be corrected to reflect this. Either remove the strength value from unit types descriptions, or list that the "Veteran Soldier" Unit type gains +3 str from the Soldier Profession.

 

[thelibra]

Founding Fathers "choice" needs to be a lot clearer. "The Big Picture" does me almost no good. I'd like it if the dialogue were changed to something like:

"Choose which Founding Father you would like to join your cause:
A.
B.
C..."

The choices would obviously be limited by the relative points that were required and whether or not that leader had already joined another country's cause.

But the current interface of "John Smith is offering to join your cause, Yes/No?" is really annoying. I want to know what all my choices are before I make a decision, and trying to decipher who else is up based on "the Big Picture" is tedious and next to useless.

 

[Vadus]

ok, bring back all col1 features!!!
... like:

1. battle features:
1.1: if a dragoon loses, it becomes a soldier. if a soldier loses, it becomes a colonist
1.2: if a brave wins against a soldier/dragoon, there is a change, the brave becomes armed / mounted
1.3: Ships have a higher chance to evade from a fight. In col1 is was nearly 50%
1.4: Ships can be damaged from battles without having a drydock somewhere near by and this happens more often then they get destroyed

2. don't increase the education time!
3. don't increase the costs of hiring new collonists in europe
4. Place the Indians at their original spots / regions at he Western Hemisphere Maps . Maybe its just a problem with my german version, but I have Incas in North America, and Apaches and Cherokee in South America!! The caribbean islands are not inhabited

5. ... has anyone found the Fountain Of Youth yet ?

.. my 2 cents..

 

[Lord Shadow]

I personally didn't mind the original game's combat system, but many players disliked it. It didn't make much sense, to be honest.

But anyway, this patch is to fix bugs and enhance existing features, so new stuff is most likely something for another mod.

EDIT: By the way, are there any plans to change how rebel sentiment accumulation works outside settlements? As it stands, units outside can't be 'converted' to rebels unless you move them inside towns and make them work there. Perhaps the units out in the field should gain sentiment at a reduced rate (say, 50%) instead of none at all, representing the fact they're less exposed to rebel propaganda.

 

[dalgo]

Starting positions seem strange. In my first game the English settled Jamestown 3 tiles from my capital - on a huge map. Can't they be spread out a bit more?

This game is only a week old and many people have criticised it without fully understanding it (including me). Thanks for the work you are doing Snoopy and Dale.

 

[MilkmanDan]

Has anyone else found the religion immigration to be a bit light (even with the English)?

I built a church and put in a couple firebrand preachers but after 50 turns had maybe 10 colonists from that. That's with building more churches, upgrading to cathedral and some religious FFs during that time frame.

I know it's not col1 but the balance makes playing an immigration tactic worthless compared to a trade and buy specialists tactic... doubly so when you consider the construction time for the church and less desirable immigrants (servants and criminals).

 

[Lord Shadow]

Has anyone else found the religion immigration to be a bit light (even with the English)?

I built a church and put in a couple firebrand preachers but after 50 turns had maybe 10 colonists from that. That's with building more churches, upgrading to cathedral and some religious FFs during that time frame.

I know it's not col1 but the balance makes playing an immigration tactic worthless compared to a trade and buy specialists tactic... doubly so when you consider the construction time for the church and less desirable immigrants (servants and criminals).

Those strategies aren't mutually exclusive.

You can trade and buy specialists while keeping your churches staffed and drawing free immigrants to you.

 

[Lord Shadow]

Oh, also, there's something that's been bothering me for a while.

I read that REF units can attack your settlements directly from their MoWs (and allegedly without suffering any penalties). This definitely shouldn't be possible, as amphibious assaults weren't even on the drawing board back then. I can't imagine an attack led by lots of slow, extremely vulnerable rowboats, crammed with soldiers, against a coastal fortress being anything but a complete and utter disaster.

 

[subanark]

Oh, also, there's something that's been bothering me for a while.

I read that REF units can attack your settlements directly from their MoWs (and allegedly without suffering any penalties). This definitely shouldn't be possible, as amphibious assaults weren't even on the drawing board back then. I can't imagine an attack led by lots of slow, extremely vulnerable rowboats, crammed with soldiers, against a coastal fortress being anything but a complete and utter disaster.

The problem with preventing it outright is they can't attack a settlement on a 1x1 tile island (or any other small island where you could fill the boarders with troops). If there was a situation where an entire island had a fort built around it, I'm sure the commanders could come up with something interesting.

 

[Dale]

Just want to thank everyone for their input.

Snoopy and I are going as fast as we can.

 

[deadliver]

Who cares about rum, trade goods are specifically stated in oldcol to be items that are valuable to the indians (and far cheaper/easier to manufacture and ship from europe than make in the colonies) initially...after a few trades they soon had more than enough glass beads, axe heads, cheap wooden pipes, rugs etc. Truth be told I was hoping these items could be manufactured in the colonies f=or sale to indians as a sort of one time cash boost.

 

[MilkmanDan]

Those strategies aren't mutually exclusive.

You can trade and buy specialists while keeping your churches staffed and drawing free immigrants to you.

I know they're not mutually exclusive, but the value of a preacher in a church or cathedral is much lower than the value of a colonist producing more goods in terms of number and value of colonists provided. By trade, you get a fixed return (mostly) AND you get to select the type of colonist. Thus, from an efficiency standpoint, religious immigration becomes an anchor rather than a benefit.