Colonize!

[fe3333au]

d'oh! Didn't realize I mispelled Iroquois.

Are you sure there aren't any other cities?

There are other cities ... in fact I'm at war with Aztecs at the moment who has taken one of my fledgling colonies, also judging from the ruins in the area there's been alot of aggression around. My comment was purely an observation regarding the infrastructure in the native capitals which I would have thought would be the most advanced.

As for improvements, I don't know how likely it is that the AI as a native will build them; which is actually just fine. I included a native tech tree, wonders, improvements and the like for the sole purpose of making the natives a viable option for the player, even if not 'as' fun as the Europeans. Once people start trying out native civs and reporting on the difficulty level, that can be changed up a bit.

Oh I see, the AI churning out units as apposed to improvements

Anyway can't hang around I've got a colony to recapture

 

[fe3333au]

Found a strange error ... had a stack of workers which were rebuilding a road ... They all got captured by Cherokee

I recaptured the stack (15 x Cherokee Native Workers) which became the following;
Native Workers (Aztec) x 16
Native Workers (Savage) x 12
Native Workers x 2

As an experiment I let this be recaptured which resulted in 40+ Cherokee Workers.

When I retook this growing stack, it resulted in;
Native Workers (Aztec) x 66
Native Workers (Savage) x 42
Native Workers x 8

I had been at war with the Aztecs but none of these workers were originally Aztec.

Also found out that Native Workers will move/improve any tile, including mountain and marsh.

Confused

 

[Ville]

The doubling of workers is because native worker costs 2 pop. At least that was the reason in some Rhye's version.

 

[davbenbak]

I tried to play the Aztecs on the freedman level and got nowhere. Here are some of my observations:

1) I was suprised that Jaguar Warriors could not move in mountain, jungle or swamp areas. Also only a 1/1/1 ? The ability to enslave is OK but didn't get enough slaves to replace the population points to create the units (see below)

2) My cities never grew beyond a population of 1 because the building of units kept taking my population as there was nothing to build except units. (see below) Perhaps changing bowmen, a defensive unit, to not requiring a population point would help.

3) There were no improvments to build except a stockade even with resources like gold and stone. I would have a least thought as Aztecs I would have been able to build a temple for sacrificing captured workers. This would have been very helpful in increasing culture because my cities borders never expanded due to lack of culture and population.

 

[GRM7584]

Yes, the only buildings available to natives in the first era are the Stockade, Native Ambush (for 'confederated' natives), and Ball Court (for 'advanced' natives), the last requiring rubber. A game as the natives is a survival game where your goal is to claim land with close cities and use lots of units to try and prevent the european onslaught; at least until the second and third era, where you get the option to create at least a couple dozen improvements (wonders included) and a wider range of units. I'll check back and make sure all the 'uniqueish' native units are somewhat balanced; I think for the most part I just set them there for flavor (and so the 'advanced' natives can enslave).
The population requirement is there almost solely to simulate plague, and if I was able to without making the game unplayable it would be even more severe, as something in the way of 90% of America's existing native population was wiped out within the first decades of European contact, and numbers continued to dwindle until much, much later, when it was already 'too late' so to speak, to mount a defense. (and, of note, later native units do not require population)

 

[davbenbak]

I understand your wanting the replicate disease among the natives. Perhaps European contact could start the black plauge. You could make the capital resource or flag some early European improvement to make Europeans immune for the most part. I haven't experimented with the plauge option so I'm not sure what all there is to work with.

I made some of the unit changes I listed above (Jaguar Warrior 2/1/1 and no population cost for bowman) I'll play test some more and let you know how it goes.

 

[GRM7584]

I initially planned on using the plague, but unfortunately it just doesn't work very well. Its impossible to create specific immunity, basically the only things you can customize are between what turns it can occur and how strong it is. I also considered terrain-based disease, giving the European NONE-era tech immunity to terrain-disease, and giving all terrains a high degree of disease, with jungle and marsh having a 'permanent' effect, IE incurable by tech advance. I may still implement that as an alternative, if its really a problem, but it would mostly be for flavor; the net effect would be the same, that the native cities are always stuck with a very low population. I'm also considering eliminating the "docks generate colonists" idea altogether, since the AI just doesn't seem to get it, and its too much of a boon for the human player early on. Perhaps I will just have them act like a granary to represent immigration, and replace the 'storehouse' with something else. In turn, I would be able to put off European "REXing" until the end of the first era, so that the English haven't expanded all the way to the rockies within the first 100 years

 

[davbenbak]

What about giving the natives the fishing tech? Seems realistic to me. Also, what impact would it have on your mod if the native cities started off with a capitol?

 

[GRM7584]

Native cities do start with a capital, as its impossible in civ3 not to have one. Its also unfortunately impossible to have 2 different kinds of capital (ignoring the 'forbidden palace' flag).
It would be very easy to allow the natives access to the fishing tech. I'm surprised I didn't think of it before. Also, I will be switching the native migrants and native workers units; thus, migrants will be available from the start and workers will become available with agriculture. (I may also let agriculture give the natives the ability to build farms)

 

[GRM7584]

I'm in the middle of a complete (interim) refurbishment of graphics, including LHs, units and pedia graphics, and perhaps tech arrows. Anyone who wants to offer to do graphics for this mod, do it in the next coupla weeks! I only wish R8XFT had his native american LHs out, or someone had done a Samuel de Champlain LH.
Also, I will be changing a couple leaders up: the English leader is now William Penn, and the Portuguese leader is now Mem de Sa.
The new Beta upload will be up...whenever I'm done. Probably within the month. If someone wants to volunteer for the following items, feel free.
-Tech Arrows for tree; I will provide screenshots and an updated tech-placement if I get a volunteer; the default Beta download has a .png file with little blue dashes to be used like 'trade routes' for the arrows. .png files can only be opened with the GIMP.
-Leaderheads: William Penn, Samuel De Champlain, Peter Stuyvesant, Mem de Sa, Revilla Gigedo, a wide variety of Natives; see R8XFT's threads in the main forum to see what he's working on.
-Wonder splashes/tech icons: I didn't mess much with these. If someone wanted to compile some applicable ones, or make new ones, and send me a .zip, that could be helpful.
-City lists/leader lists/better native civs. Some native civs are incomplete in a big way. Check civedit for details.

 

[fe3333au]

I'm in the middle of a complete (interim) refurbishment of graphics, including LHs, units and pedia graphics, and perhaps tech arrows. Anyone who wants to offer to do graphics for this mod, do it in the next coupla weeks!

I'll do some reading regarding what I'm capable of doing to help ... however my computer system is struggling so I wouldn't hold your breath

Regarding units - could I suggest that the unit graphic for 'slave' could be used for pioneer instead (as this graphic IMHO fits the period ie hat and coat). The graphic for 'ancient worker' would then be used for your 'native worker' and 'indentured servant'.

Also the problem which I found with the doubling effect of worker capture/recapture ... has anyone else found this ... just wondering as it could be a computer glitch on my part

Keep up good work

 

[GRM7584]

Ville already explained the worker thing, it will be 'fixed'.
Also, I'll have completely new graphics for the workers, so no need to switch any around.

 

[GRM7584]

To restate: If anyone is so inclined, the following leaderheads would be put to excellent use; I need only one era for them, or a good suggestion for an existing LH that can be used in their place:
William Penn - Currently intending to use R8XFT's Owain LH as best-fit.
http://www.tudo.co.uk/quakers_craw/...lliam_penn_1644_1718/william_penn_01_orig.jpg
Peter Stuyvesant - Currently intending to use R8XFT's Scottish LH as best-fit.
http://www.etsu.edu/cas/history/res...apterDocFiles/ChapterImages/Ch3stuyvesant.jpg
Samuel de Champlain - This has already been requested. Currently intending to use R8XFT's Gundahar LH as best-fit.
http://www.canadiana.org/hbc/_images/common/images/c006643.jpg
Mem de Sa - Currently intending to use Tomas Masaryk LH as best-fit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Memdesa.jpg
Revilla Gigedo - Currently intending to use R8XFT's Leopold LH as best-fit.
http://www.interisland.net/abi/images/juan.gif
There are also several native LHs undone.

Also: I am redoing the popheads.pcx completely with adapted FreeCol graphics, that is, little people instead of little heads. I am using a 'standard' native set, but I would like to add one gender-nonspecific accessory for each native culture group. The culture groups are, for the uninitiated:
1. Central American and Andean
2. Brazilian and Caribbean
3. Plains and Pacific
4. Atlantic and Appalachian
Edit: this is done, see below, but any further recommendations are welcome.

 

[GRM7584]

Also, I will be putting in a title screen from one of the following 4 candidates; I like 1 the best. 3 and 4, although you cannot tell from the preview, are somewhat grainy in their full versions. Thoughts?

 

[woodelf]

I like the looks of number 4, but if it's grainy then 1 is a good choice.

 

[fe3333au]

I like the ye olde map look of 2

 

[davbenbak]

I wasn't sure why the canoe required horses and rubber so I removed all the required resources and made it available to natives with fishing (which I also made available to natives in the first era). I went back in the editor and checked properties of the native cities under the cities tab and capitol was not highlighted so maybe it is possible to have a city without a capitol when it is created in the editor. I realize that when a civ in the game creates their first city they automatically gets a palace (capitol). Maybe that's what you were thinking and assumed the natives would have one. Native play is now much more improved.

 

[GRM7584]

No; I meant that if, at any time, a civ has a city which does not have a capital, a capital is auto-placed in the 'most valuable city'. The game literally could not run without a way to calculate a center of empire, since all corruption is based off it. I didn't place capitals for any of the civs, and capitals can't be built by anyone. Just load up a save and look around; you'll see that every civ, native or not, has a 'capital star'. Or you can start up a new game as the natives, and observe that you have a capital star and a capital building. What might throw you is that capitals don't generate culture.
The canoe should not require horses or rubber, that will be fixed. None of the units are 'from scratch', I just went down the line editing existing entries, so there are some vestigial resource entries I may have forgotten to delete.

 

[GRM7584]

If anyone would like to see how they look in-game (I like 'em, anyhow!) here are the popheads I've made. Put the file in the directory (you'll have to create it) C:\...\Conquests\Scenarios\Colonize\Art\Smallheads\

That's all you have to do, and they appear in-game! Huzzah.
Edit: The graphics were adapted without permission from the FreeCol open source project (http://www.freecol.org/)

Edit:Attachment removed; popheads are now part of the complete beta.

 

[GRM7584]

And, for anyone paying attention, a preview of what the tech screen will look like with arrows: