Colonialist Legacies' Republic of the Philippines for VP

[Guynemer]

I think that sounds fair. When the UA is so hidden as this one, it makes sense to make it more powerful so it can be felt by the player.

 

[Viralvoid]

Early atomic era gives me free public works and missile cruisers every 2 to 4 turns average.

 

[SolutionIt]

Tested out the civ for a while. I don't have 3UC or 4UC just to clarify. Balangay is definitely the real strength of this civ atm, but there seems to be one tiny issue with it where it doesn't actually drop the city's population count upon being created? Haven't tried to the kapunero to see if it actually works as intended. None of the 3UC or 4UC components have appeared yet, so that's pretty good.

 

[Heinz_Guderian]

How have the AI philippines been performing for you guys in your games? Have them as neighbors in my current game, and they have only one city after 200 turns. Kind of weird, can they not create regular settlers?

 

[SolutionIt]

How have the AI philippines been performing for you guys in your games? Have them as neighbors in my current game, and they have only one city after 200 turns. Kind of weird, can they not create regular settlers?

I had the same issue, besides the balangay not dropping the city's population like it should. It's the main reason i had to give that civ the axe in my mod list.

Assuming pineapple gets back to this mod since I believe he's currently working on the Inuit, I'd wager a rework of the Balangay and the UA are necessary. Balangay does way too much for the production cost since it's basically a free settler, colonist, and the third tier of the settler unit, plus a ship that gets stronger each era. The UA is also pretty underwhelming, but that was discussed earlier I believe.

 

[pineappledan]

Philippines update

Increased UA to 34% siphon, boosted by 8% for each open borders agreement
Altered Balangay AI
Reduced Balangay CS to 5, increasing by 5 per era
Coral church now gives 2 flat supply

 

[Heinz_Guderian]

Philippines update

Increased UA to 34% siphon, boosted by 8% for each open borders agreement
Altered Balangay AI
Reduced Balangay CS to 5, increasing by 5 per era
Coral church now gives 2 flat supply

does this resolve the issue where the AI doesnt use the balangay? I hadnt noticed u had updated the mod, and now the philippines ended up in one of my games again and stayed on one city the entire game despite building balangays

 

[pineappledan]

does this resolve the issue where the AI doesnt use the balangay? I hadnt noticed u had updated the mod, and now the philippines ended up in one of my games again and stayed on one city the entire game despite building balangays

i didn’t test it. I know the code works because I monitored AI balangays that I spawned inside a lake and they will deploy their settler. The problem is that, when presented with open ocean, the AI will almost never move a unit capable of deep ocean movement adjacent to coast. I might have to take away their deep ocean movement just so I can force the AI to move next to coast

 

[pineappledan]

updated. Followed through on that balangay nerf as a concession to the AI. Balangay now has the same coastal restrictions as a trireme in early ages, so that should help force them onto coastlines more often. This means Balangay will be more likely to deploy their settler.

 

[Heinz_Guderian]

updated. Followed through on that balangay nerf as a concession to the AI. Balangay now has the same coastal restrictions as a trireme in early ages, so that should help force them onto coastlines more often. This means Balangay will be more likely to deploy their settler.

Hopefully that helps the AI, however it is quite a big nerf imo. At least for me the balangay (the ability to cross oceans plus the 2 for 1) was the pull of this civ.

 

[pineappledan]

It’s still a major boost. the balangay is still faster, can defend itself, and can cross deep ocean if it sees coast. an embarked settler can only move in coast before renaissance, So it’s a lot more flexibility than a normal CiV has, but not as powerful as Polynesia’s UA

 

[SolutionIt]

It’s still a major boost. the balangay is still faster, can defend itself, and can cross deep ocean if it sees coast. an embarked settler can only move in coast before renaissance, So it’s a lot more flexibility than a normal CiV has, but not as powerful as Polynesia’s UA

I was on Guderian's boat but you actually drive a pretty good point there. Really just boils down at the end of the day to how the map forms.

 

[Heinz_Guderian]

I was on Guderian's boat but you actually drive a pretty good point there. Really just boils down at the end of the day to how the map forms.

On my Panzer you mean

And it is still a nerf however you put it, just a question about if a nerf was warranted. Otherwise maybe something else should be slightly buffed (unless philippines were considered too strong before)

 

[SolutionIt]

Well nerf or not, they're still refusing to settle any cities with the latest version for me. So what now?

 

[pineappledan]

 

[SolutionIt]

Hey! Is it supposed to be giving me food on a trade route without a coral church built? I reverted back to V4 for the time being and finally decided to give them another go and for whatever reason my cities are getting food for international trade routes to city-states.

It says something about a process being linked within that trade route and pops up as a notification. Gonna go ahead and take a look RQ to see if I can find the culprit. And on another note any luck with the Balangay's AI? If it can't work the way you want it to maybe you can give it something similar to the viking exploration promotion on longships, but only have it apply to settlers and workers? Though I'm not sure if the AI would also have trouble using that or not. It'd also be a waste of that lua probably.

Thanks for you dedication btw.

P.S. Any link that could help me get started on modding civs into Vox Populi? Been messing around with your unit tweaks for my own needs and I wanna go a little further than just that.

 

[Seiryuuuu]

Hi, long time lurker here and always been a fan of your custom civs, I usually play with them even as AI.

I've found that the Philippines custom civ is not as great as your past civs when talking about AI strengths, also for the player, I think he is really hard to use. As an AI, he is worse than Venice, he only founds Manila, I even used IGE to give him settlers, but no luck, he rarely found another city until midgame where almost all land is occupied.

I have a suggestion, this might be stupid but I think you need to revamp some of his kit where the AI can easily use them. I have no problem with the UA except for the uninteresting culture, it is really small that I don't understand its purpose. Coral church is also nice so I have no problem with it, but Philippines AI should always want an open border even though he is angry. Katipunero is also cool and is always useful, so my problem lies with "Balangay" and "Lantaka".

I still think that Balangay is buggy and hard to use especially for the AI, my suggestion here is, make it a UU that can be expended and can't be build. Give Balangay the ability to perform on owned cities or city-states to provide instant yields like culture, gold, trigger a WLTKD or influence, then it will only spawn when you "found a city", or "finish a TR". I think finishing a TR is cool because it fits with his UA.

Lantaka is really hard to use and I doubt that the AI can even use them. How about just making them a unit that when embarked, it will become a "galleas-like" unit, like what you did in Carthage's shofet, or like the airship that can move on the coast without embarking and can still bombard units, but retains the buff on melee naval units (just tune it down).

 

[pineappledan]

I've found that the Philippines custom civ is not as great as your past civs when talking about AI strengths, also for the player, I think he is really hard to use. As an AI, he is worse than Venice, he only founds Manila, I even used IGE to give him settlers, but no luck, he rarely found another city until midgame where almost all land is occupied.

yeah it's very strange. I've done all manner of things to try to get the AI to settle with Balangays and otherwise, but it feels like Philippines AI is determined to self-destruct.

I still think that Balangay is buggy and hard to use especially for the AI, my suggestion here is, make it a UU that can be expended and can't be build. Give Balangay the ability to perform on owned cities or city-states to provide instant yields like culture, gold, trigger a WLTKD or influence, then it will only spawn when you "found a city", or "finish a TR". I think finishing a TR is cool because it fits with his UA.

I like the idea of spawning a Balangay when a TR terminates. That's kinda fun. Maybe @TPangolin can offer some opinions?

One of my original ideas for the Balangay was to make them a unit that you could build and then later expend for food, but could also scout a bit. Essentially, it would give players a way to convert production in one city to food in another city.

So if they were born in the origin city whenever a sea TR ended, what would they do?

• Maybe they could have a modest CS, full ocean movement, and gain XP from discovering new tiles? If a Balangay gains enough XP to reach level 5, they immediately spawn an embarked settler unit with free ocean movement on same tile.
• Balangay can also be expended when in or next to a city for an instant boost of 20/, scaling with era. The AI will always expend balangay as soon as they spawn.

That would help preserve their exploration and settlement of the ancient Melanesian people which the Balangay is meant to reflect. It would also take care of the AI being useless with new game mechanics. It would also make both civs' base components do something extra on adopting promotions, so they would tie the civ together mechanically.

Lantaka is really hard to use and I doubt that the AI can even use them. How about just making them a unit that when embarked, it will become a "galleas-like" unit, like what you did in Carthage's shofet, or like the airship that can move on the coast without embarking and can still bombard units, but retains the buff on melee naval units (just tune it down).

Can't the first option because if the Lantaka was to turn into a ship, then they would have all the pathing restrictions of a ship. In other words, the Lantaka would only be able to disembark back onto land via a city or coastal fort/citadel.
The second option is mainly an aesthetic problem. The unit would walk/roll around on coastal tiles like Jesus of Nazareth. That coast ability is also tied to the hover feature, so they would have free movement through rough terrain and mountains.

 

[Seiryuuuu]

So if they were born in the origin city whenever a sea TR ended, what would they do?

• Maybe they could have a modest CS, full ocean movement, and gain XP from discovering new tiles? If a Balangay gains enough XP to reach level 5, they immediately spawn an embarked settler unit with free ocean movement on same tile.
• Balangay can also be expended when in or next to a city for an instant boost of 20/, scaling with era. The AI will always expend balangay as soon as they spawn.

I agree, most part of my suggestions in lantaka is weird.

If this is possible (after TR spawn), The first bullet sounds cool, however, is it considered economic/civilian? If not, then Philippines will have 3 militaristic unit, which is weird. Can they be useful economically after spawning a settler?, I would prefer the first bullet if you'll add some economic effect on this unit OR simply make it a militaristic UU then change the Lantaka into another UB/UI.

The second bullet is nice though, but the AI might not utilize it, if they can use it on low-pop city, then I'll go for this.

 

[pineappledan]

The second bullet is nice though, but the AI might not utilize it, if they can use it on low-pop city, then I'll go for this

There’s 2 things I could do when a TR ends

• If Philippines is AI, check if the AI has a balangay. If it has 0 active balangay, spawn 1.
  
  • The AI can only have 1 balangay active at a time. If 1 already exists and a sea TR completes, just immediately give the origin city
• If the AI’s balangay reaches lvl 5, spawn the free settler and immediately delete the balangay. Give the AI’s capital , as if the balangay moves back home and expended itself.

If this is possible (after TR spawn), The first bullet sounds cool, however, is it considered economic/civilian? If not, then Philippines will have 3 militaristic unit, which is weird. Can they be useful economically after spawning a settler?, I would prefer the first bullet if you'll add some economic effect on this unit OR simply make it a militaristic UU then change the Lantaka into another UB/UI

i would give the balangay something pathetic like 10cs. Enough to survive a hit from a barbarian galley but that’s it. If these things required a sea TR to complete then you won’t get them until classical. (Maybe we give philippines a free Cargo ship at Trade?)

Mat that CS, it’s strictly a scout, settler spawner, and some , so that straddles the line. I would put it more in the camp of being a civilian unit than the existing balangay, or even the Mongolian Khan.