Colonization Overhaul Planned

[Dom Pedro II]

Do you mean maps on different "pages", like an Excel file?

Yep. If you've ever played Civilization II: Test of Time, you'll know what I mean. You could alternate between up to four maps. In the base game, there was the main Earth map and then one Alpha Centauri map. You could build transport sites that would remove a unit from one and drop it onto the corresponding tile on the other map.

Please note... I am not saying that I'm going to do this for Colonization! I was merely saying that it was theoretically possible to throw such a system together.

 

[Dale]

I tried doing that for BtS, but it was just way too hard and system hogging. Plus I just couldn't get the map flipping to work right so I gave up.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

I tried doing that for BtS, but it was just way too hard and system hogging. Plus I just couldn't get the map flipping to work right so I gave up.

I wish we had the Civ2:ToT source code... either way, it's not something I'm too keen on doing.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Here's a screenshot of the Slave pedia:

Notice that the City produces 3 Food and the extra food is none and you've got two citizens, a regular citizen and a Slave that consumes -1 Food:

This is the purchasing popup in the Africa screen:

 

[jaldaen]

Nicely done... I really like the way this is shaping up... however on the pedia entry is there a way to have it mention the 5% chance to escape? It's mentioned in the history, but since its a special ability I think it should be in that box.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Nicely done... I really like the way this is shaping up... however on the pedia entry is there a way to have it mention the 5% chance to escape? It's mentioned in the history, but since its a special ability I think it should be in that box.

It's not there because I haven't coded it in yet

Right now, I focused on actually getting the Africa screen to work and getting the slaves actually into it. So none of the escape mechanics has been added yet.

 

[jaldaen]

It's not there because I haven't coded it in yet

Well that explains that

 

[Keeshi]

I can NOT wait to try this.


There should be a way, durring the WoI, depending on what 'civics' you picked for your constitution or charter or whatever its called, your slaves(or ones your capture) would change accordingly.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

I can NOT wait to try this.


There should be a way, durring the WoI, depending on what 'civics' you picked for your constitution or charter or whatever its called, your slaves(or ones your capture) would change accordingly.

Well, I'm planning that if you accept the emancipation civic, all of your Slaves will be converted into a new unit called Freed Slave.

 

[Ekmek]

the slave looks awesome! but the civilopedia shows only negatives of it, whats the advantage of slavery? bonus cotton and tobacco?

the africa screen would be a great place to test the code where only some trade goods, not all, show up.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

the slave looks awesome! but the civilopedia shows only negatives of it, whats the advantage of slavery? bonus cotton and tobacco?

Well, I hadn't planned on there being any bonuses to yield production. Their strengths are: 1) They can be purchased at a fairly cheap price in Africa without price increases for each new Slave you buy, 2) They can be traded to natives and other players through the diplomacy screen (not implemented yet), 3) They consume -1 Food, which means that you can have 3 Slaves in a colony that could only otherwise support 2 regular Colonists, and 4) They aren't factored into rebel sentiment making it easier for colonies with large slave populations to reach the 50% threshold.

Their disadvantages are: 1) Small chance of escape & revolt, 2) Reduced production on processed goods only, 3) Cannot explore or settle NEW colonies, and 4) Cannot be armed in the Revolution without being freed first.

the africa screen would be a great place to test the code where only some trade goods, not all, show up.

Good point. A lot of 0's there

 

[Keeshi]

Well, I'm planning that if you accept the emancipation civic, all of your Slaves will be converted into a new unit called Freed Slave.

Have you planned on the stats for the 'freed slave' ? like any kind of spec promotion or anything? Or will they be just like free colos?

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Have you planned on the stats for the 'freed slave' ? like any kind of spec promotion or anything? Or will they be just like free colos?

I was thinking they'd be more like converted natives, but I'm open to suggestions on potential special abilities of Freed Slaves.

 

[Stacmon]

You're really exciting people with this idea!

I also can't wait !

By the way, great ideas regarding slaves. The decreased food cost and the other stats that you've decided on make good sense to me.

Although some tinkering around may be required in play testing (for example if some sort of exploit was discovered), I think this is a good place to start.

 

[Zuul]

Looks nice. But if the 5% escape chance is per turn, it will be 40% after ten turns. Too much.

1% per turn will be 10% after 11 turns.

 

[henryMCVII]

Its looking great:

There comes something into my mind... just a question: Would it be possible, to add different european screens AND get them working for these ... AI?

Since you added an Africa screen, there seems to no problem to add 3-4 more Europe Screens. Or - maybe - just one single additional "foreign Europe" screen. Some rough ideas which are connected to this foreign Europe:

• You can only buy goods in foreign Europe, no units.
• During WoI you ar able to trade there (limited trading only?)
• If you send ships to foreign Europe, your own king will become angry (add some penalties or bonusses here)
• Trading with foreign Europe may have some small good or bad effects on relations to foreign players, maybe depending on which goods you bought/selled.
• Trading with foreign Europe will have lesser effects on prices then trading in your own home port.
• there always is a chance to loose goods (or even ships?) when trading with foreign Europe:
  • If you are at peace with all european nations, there is a chance, your own king will impound some goods, just becouse he calls it smuggling. "Your Galeon was stopped by a kings war ship. XXX goods of XXX got impound."
  • if you are at war with one or more Colonies, then the chance will incrace with each power you are in war with. Imagine a message like... "Your Galeon was stopped by an foreign (<--- beeing specific here would be a nice touch as well) war ship. XXX goods of XXX got confiscated."
    

Again - would htis kind of screen be possible? Or is this an useless idea in general?

 

[Ambreville]

Well, there already are AI-controlled corsairs in the game (and pirates?) that effectively do that. On the other hand, it would be nice if a player could pull a "John Paul Jones" on his estranged monarchy, provided the player has managed to gain access to a foreign port in Europe.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Its looking great:

There comes something into my mind... just a question: Would it be possible, to add different european screens AND get them working for these ... AI?

Since you added an Africa screen, there seems to no problem to add 3-4 more Europe Screens. Or - maybe - just one single additional "foreign Europe" screen. Some rough ideas which are connected to this foreign Europe:

• You can only buy goods in foreign Europe, no units.
• During WoI you ar able to trade there (limited trading only?)
• If you send ships to foreign Europe, your own king will become angry (add some penalties or bonusses here)
• Trading with foreign Europe may have some small good or bad effects on relations to foreign players, maybe depending on which goods you bought/selled.
• Trading with foreign Europe will have lesser effects on prices then trading in your own home port.

...

Again - would htis kind of screen be possible? Or is this an useless idea in general?

Well, it's certainly possible. There are some problems with adding new screens however. I mean, you can add as many screens as you want without issue, but adding new "places" where your ships sail to comes with some problems. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, Firaxis seems to have hard-coded quite a bit of the code involving traveling to Europe. So for my Africa screen, I had to sort of improvise. It works, but rather than working with Firaxis's system, it's just working around it.

For each new location, it requires more buttons on the interface. I would prefer it if you could click on the Sail to Europe button on the interface and a popup would appear asking you which location you'd like to sail to, but I'm not sure if this could be possible.

At the moment, I'm not sure if the above list warrants a new screen. If so, I'd rather rename the current Europe screen to "Your Country"... so if you're playing as the Spanish, the screen will be the Spain screen... and then there'd be the general Europe screen to represent everything else.

• If you are at peace with all european nations, there is a chance, your own king will impound some goods, just becouse he calls it smuggling. "Your Galeon was stopped by a kings war ship. XXX goods of XXX got impound."
• if you are at war with one or more Colonies, then the chance will incrace with each power you are in war with. Imagine a message like... "Your Galeon was stopped by an foreign (<--- beeing specific here would be a nice touch as well) war ship. XXX goods of XXX got confiscated."

Well, there already are AI-controlled corsairs in the game (and pirates?) that effectively do that. On the other hand, it would be nice if a player could pull a "John Paul Jones" on his estranged monarchy, provided the player has managed to gain access to a foreign port in Europe.

Well, I have already added in home country navies. So the King's fleet will be seen moving in the vicinity of your cities. These units will protect you against pirates, but they will also stop any of your ships carrying illegal cargo. The two main types of illegal cargo are dependent upon your country's civics, and they include: Slaves and foreign goods.

 

[Ekmek]

speaking of navies, any way to implement blockades? but unlike BtS it would be nice if the blockade prevented transport ships from going into those squares - basically making it like there is a closed border agreement. that way you can try and choke out port cities. i guess to try and break it, if you try and enter that square you immediately fight the ships imposing the blockade.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

speaking of navies, any way to implement blockades? but unlike BtS it would be nice if the blockade prevented transport ships from going into those squares - basically making it like there is a closed border agreement. that way you can try and choke out port cities. i guess to try and break it, if you try and enter that square you immediately fight the ships imposing the blockade.

The game already has blockades. If a transport ship shows up, you sink it That's what a blockade is. Civ4 requires a specific blockade mechanic because there is no physical transportation of goods.