Colonies IV BetaTesters' Thread

[yaroslav]

I think that in a true MP game of this scen will be very difficult to conquer any city, because Artillery Forts and Castles are difficult to destroy without siege weapons... And siege weapons can be easily destroyed with another siege weapons stored in the city that your foe wants to siege...

I think that the current units balance is good enough to work with it, I don't see the bonuses things clear (It will be too different from standard Civ2 for normal player's taste, in my humble opinion)

 

[Patient English]

Chris, the point about status quo in MP is well made. Bear in mind I want this game to be about colonial expansion and exploration as well as, or even more than, European expansion, though.

However, I would LOVE to see the AI overwhelm an even half-way competent player! The point about terrain values should actually HELP most sieges, if balanced properly. It's Forts on River/Hills I want to make less formidable.

However, I also want it to be difficult to take European cities. If you can slice up the AI with cheap-to-build cannon, where's the fun? This is a philosophical thing, and we might have to agree to differ here.

However, the more I think on this, and the more MP I play, the more I reckon a MP-specialised rules.txt would be helpful. Even so, playing a 300-turn game, people are going to have to be patient. And a siege train wasn't buildable in a few months. Most took many years, even decades to accumulate.

 

[Patient English]

Yaroslav, good point. MP games I think will permit stackable terrain (classic Civ "fortresses" that Farmers/Slaves/Colonists can construct). It would make SP too easy, but in MP you build siege lines, pack them with Pikemen, and expect to lose a few to the fort's guns. Then blast it next turn with your cannon.

 

[yaroslav]

Does that means that you are going to give out two versions of the scen (one for MP and one for SP)?

 

[Darius]

NM

 

[Aravorn]

Obsolete

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

John, I would suggest that you make Fortifacations UNBUILDABLE in MP, only allow them in SP.

Also, give several of them to EACH city in the old world, this will change the focus to attacking colonial empires.

Right now, the scenario is in a half colonial, half 30 years war mode, neither is completely satisfactory.
You can remove the combat from Europe by simply placing undestroyable units in certain cities, and this would not be unrealistic.
Not EVERY city, but many never fell in this period, in fact few changed hands in this period, yet OVERSEAS, this was quite common.

There is another problem, powers without Hunters can have units blocked by...BEAVERS!
I took an inland indian city in the Americas as the Dutch, but it soon became surrounded by beaver (at least 8 of the little devils), and not a Britishm French, nor Swedish hunter to be seen!
Is there no way to end these guys?
Maybe they should disband over time, like the African natives?

 

[Darius]

Originally posted by conmcb25


Darius, Im not sure what you mean by this? The scenario doesn't have "stackable" hexes.

My bad, leave it to me to not even look at it while I type... post edited.

So what is it that makes the Independents behave in Bonoparte but not with stackables here?

 

[Aravorn]

Originally posted by Darius
So what is it that makes the Independents behave in Bonoparte but not with stackables here?

Darius I dont have a clue. John just said the Independants weren't doing what he wanted them to do with stacks. And one thing I beleive I remember was they didn't move around enough. As a mater of fact this WHOLE map had stacks and John backed them out a while before he released for playtest.

John would have to give the definative answer for this.

 

[Patient English]

No way Chris! STACKABLES buildable in MP (to allow sieging a city that has cannon in it) - albeit risking settler units - but NOT in SP. Otherwise it would make it too easy. I have no real problem sieging cities in SP now. You lose a few stacks, but it's manageable.

The beaver-blocking problem is valid, I can see. It has never happened to me, but I can see as how it could. I don't want to give the Dutch Hunters, though. Maybe a range-one air superiority unit that has to stay in the city, but could pick off Beaver trotting by the walls. I could use the Plague slot for that....

I am not going to release 0.4 tonight. While I have been playtesting the last couple of days, the Africans have stopped appearing again. I am switching stuff around to get them back. I think it's an events problem (they are not appearing, or not a lot) rather than an AI-disbandment.

I have also created so many events (within the 16k events space) that I can make Civ crash! I have had to remove a few to get it working again, and this may have messed up the Africans. Anyway, not worth releasing 0.4 yet, although otherwise it is playing fantastically - IMHO

 

[Patient English]

Darius, the "Independents" in Bonaparte II do, in fact, go into fortification as soon as they get outside the city walls. Only those I place far from cities at the start are there during the game - and they don't move. Not a real problem in Boney, but Native barbarians are crucial to Colonies.

 

[Prometeus]

So, when this scen ill be ready?

More infos for you, PE...

1) French use of grenadiers was awfully strange. Instead of creating separate regiments, they were mixed in company levels within the common infantry ranks till Seven Years' war.

2) If you need, i recovered some files from and old time death webiste about indian nations...

3) French never changed the traditional four lines.
PS Henrik, Sweden used the four lines formation, too? Interesting. Too bad i can't read swedish, i found a lot of interesting websites...

If you'll need more infos, I'll be around for a while.

 

[Aravorn]

John's been pretty quite this week. I think he is still in DETOX mode from his brothers birthday party last weekend.

 

[Darius]

Originally posted by Patient English
Darius, the "Independents" in Bonaparte II do, in fact, go into fortification as soon as they get outside the city walls. Only those I place far from cities at the start are there during the game - and they don't move. Not a real problem in Boney, but Native barbarians are crucial to Colonies.

You know, the barbarians' tendency to hole up in forts must be programmed somewhere, and hence someone adept at hex editing should be able to shut it off. Don't you think?

 

[Aravorn]

Originally posted by Darius


You know, the barbarians' tendency to hole up in forts must be programmed somewhere, and hence someone adept at hex editing should be able to shut it off. Don't you think?

VERY INTERESTING!

Who is our best Hex Editor thats interested in this Project? Henrik? Yaroslav?

 

[Darius]

What on earth made you think Henrik is a hex-editor? (maybe he is, but I've never read such so I'm just wondering)

 

[Henrik]

I know enough to know that without changing the code of the program you cannot change the AIs routines

 

[Patient English]

Henrik, I think you're right. AI re-codes are a bit out of scope for a scenario, and would multiply development time by a factor of about 10! Even if we could find an ace programmer to do it.

4.0.4 is testing well with the new events file. However, I made a change last night that allows more prize-taking, so the tested scen won't be with you guys until the end of the weekend. I don't want to ship something to you that's full of bugs. When you've done your feedback, this version should take us into graphics and sounds tweaks, I hope, with all major playbalance and tech issues behind us. It is SIGNIFICANTLY different from 4.0.3

 

[Aravorn]

Originally posted by Patient English
When you've done your feedback, this version should take us into graphics and sounds tweaks, I hope, with all major playbalance and tech issues behind us. It is SIGNIFICANTLY different from 4.0.3

John we can hardly wait! Yea!

 

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Patient English 4.0.4 is testing well with the new events file. However, I made a change last night that allows more prize-taking, so the tested scen won't be with you guys until the end of the weekend.

The weekend has ended...