Colonize!

[Skywacker]

error- just a typo. the file was just armed native.ini

 

[GRM7584]

Are you guys sure you've gotten the updated patch? I just checked, and the patch most definitely has Armed Natives.ini in it, and in the correct folder...

 

[woodelf]

There are actually Armed Native and Armed Natives .ini's in the folder.

I think I finally see the light about the culverin. Attack the natives and not each other. Brilliant! I'll fix the ore req in mine before the patch. Time to pound some natives.

I played the Portugese and was actually quite bored. There isn't much for them to do and they can't sustain a large enough army to conquer and still make any headway in research. They do have a nice area to expand, but I'm not sure how long it would take.

Is anyone planning on undertaking a bigger map with maybe just North and Central America? It would be sweet to be able to cluster some cities into the Northeast more realistically. Maybe use these rules and keep it east of the Rockies as well? Just thinking out loud and don't take any of it as criticism. The whole Colonization era is a wonderful project, but maybe just a bit cramped on this map.

 

[woodelf]

And to reply to Research question: Yes, my chart looks like that. The Blue lines show it going from Native Contact to another Native tech and then to Conquests.

 

[woodelf]

Well I'm putting my money where my mouth is and making my first map; of the US east of the Rockies, Central America, and a part of South America. It's quite horrible actually, but it does offer more expansion in the area where the original 13 colonies were.

GRM - Can I use your rules, ect for this ugly duckling?

 

[GRM7584]

Yah, but it will be linked to in post 3, even if you don't ask for it

Good luck with your map making. I made both of those (as well as a nice italy map) by A)finding the area I wanted to map with a google search B)resizing it to the 'appropriate' map size (literally 110 by 135 pixels for that italy one) C)finding where each pixel 'corner of land' or landmark lay (easy with the GIMP) and then plotting it in on CivEdit, filling in the lines and terrain based on knowledge of the areas or a handy atlas I happen to have

 

[woodelf]

I found some nice maps online, but my resizing was a bit off for the East Coast. It looks like America got stretched, but it at least looks like America, I think. The trees, rivers, mountains, ect are giving me a headache, but that's to be expected. I'll be adding resources last and trying to put them where you did, but there will be more since my land area is much bigger.

In game I'm playing the English and the game is performing well, except for the Spanish. Every Euro power has 7-10 cities, but they have the starting 2. Maybe they should start on the mainland? Would this help?

 

[GRM7584]

I'm not really sure what gives with that; consider toying with the 'city list' and starting them in Panama, Tlaxcala, Merida, or even St. Augustine...whatever you have room for on your map. I may move their starting position to Panama in the regular Americas map.

 

[woodelf]

Right now there is a lot, maybe too much room on the East Coast. I might consider putting the Spanish in Florida and put the Portugese in Central America. On the plus side the natives will get some wiggle room around the Great lakes.

Another day of resource placement might get me to the point where I can try it out.

Quick question: How do you add units to starting locations? Thanks

 

[woodelf]

Uh-oh. I have a huge area (from the Missouri river to the Ohio river) where there are no tribes at the moment. How hard is to add civilizations to your MOD base rules? I may have to do some searching in the forums for some to add.

 

[GRM7584]

Well, I have most (if not all) areas covered by my base mod rules, I thought; well, except for south america...why not put the Shawnee there? They were mostly forced into that area from farther east during the 16th century by the Iroquois, so its not a huge stretch. As to adding civs: this will work......until I patch the game. Then, the next time someone tries to import the patched base rules into your scenario, your custom civs will be overwritten.

Edit: for units and cities you have to select a player (easiest way: press space bar) before placing it. Same for barbs. Also keep in mind that the game will crash at start if you haven't gone through scenario properties and 'customized' the players. The tab won't show up unless you have custom players checked on in the scenario menu. Just go through and specify what civ each player should be, and make sure they're checked 'human' and have an appropriate amount (that is, matched to the epic game) of gold as well as the correct government.

 

[woodelf]

Thanks for the tips. I'm a longer way off than I thought!

I figured out the adding units by accident, but had no idea about the other stuff.

After scrolling around my map I see that it is indeed HUGE. I may need to invest in some other lesser Euro colonizers or some smaller Indian tribes. Maybe the Incan will move into the Plains as well.....

 

[GRM7584]

For now and future reference....A brief treatise on reasonable (or more often, historical) starting positions...

English: Chesapeake Bay, Carolinas, Bahamas
French: Mouth of St. Laurence, St. Laurence, Newfoundland, St. Thomas
Netherlands: New York, Suriname (Guiana)
Spanish: Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Panama, Florida (St. Augustine or Tampa), Cuba, North of Columbia
Portugal: Brazil (many places)

Sweden: Delaware
Denmark: Virgin Islands

Aztec: Central Mexico
Purepecha: Southwestern Mexico
Maya: Yucatan, "southern" Central America
Chimu: Northern Peru
Inca: Southern Peru

Mapuche: Argentina, Chile
Tupi-Guarani: Central Brazil, Could be representative of many tribes in SA
Carib: Lesser Antilles, Guiana region, Greater Antilles (as invaders)
Arawak: Greater Antilles
Calusa: Southern Florida

Powhatan: Chesapeake, West Virginia
Lenni Lenape: Delaware, New York
Iroquois: Great Lakes (ideally in northern New York)
Huron: St. Laurence River
Shawnee: Between Missouri River and Appalachians
Creek: Arkansas, North to Ohio, East to Mississippi
Cherokee: Northern Georgia (ideally), almost anywhere in Southeast NA. Later forced en masse to the west, largely into Oklahoma (this also applies to the Shawnee and Creek, and possibly the Calusa.)

Navajo: Arizona
Apache: New Mexico, Arizona, Western Texas, Oklahoma
Lakota (Sioux): Dakotas
Cheyenne (also representing the Arapaho): Nebraska, Colorado, Dakotas, Wyoming
Blackfoot: Montana, Alberta (could be safely placed almost anywhere on plains in Western Canada)
Nez Perce: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, could also be used to represent some tribes in northern california
Haida: Queen Charlotte Islands (ideally), Alaska, coastal Western Canada

 

[woodelf]

Hey GRM - You want to take a look at my map and see if you want to modify it for your game? As it is right now I'm happy enough with it to try it out with your ruleset, but I don't want to modify it too much so it won't work when you patch Colonize!

Do you have any plans to add more natives or would you if North America had more room?

 

[GRM7584]

Probably not, I like my 'native loadout' as it stands (and I can only have 31 civs). I'd say just put your map in a reply here and make a special note that if and when rules are imported, the subset "Civilizations" checkbox must not be checked. Since I don't plan on changing the civs any more (until and unless a new round of Native American LHs comes out, which is likely, but not soon) it won't be a big deal. The only other potential incompatibility is with units being available to certain civs; if I make changes to that, you'd pretty much have to update your map every patch. If I didn't, you'd just have to tell people not to check the "Units" box either when importing rules.

 

[woodelf]

I just found that there are more civs available in your scenario. duh! I upped my civ limit so I could add the Blackfeet, Sweden, and the Creek. Nice work.

Now I have to remove the Incans from the Plains!

Any timetable on your next patch?

 

[GRM7584]

My patches tend to be 'pending feedback', once I get 3 or more common recommendations for gameplay change or errors, I consider patching. Since I don't playtest my own games much, I'm essentially dependent on other people giving me input, but as far as I know, I actually managed to accidentally have tech progression work out reasonably, since I haven't seen any complaints to the contrary. Or so me logic go-eth. Technically speaking, I'm working on both A)a voluminous Italy scenario B)a Colonize! sci-fi mod, and waiting for feedback on both this 'beta' and the middle east 'beta', which has sort of fallen into the backwoods of the scenarios thread.

Edit: I'm sure you figured it out, but all the natives/europeans I listed in the previous post are in the mod with full city lists and (some) full leader lists, although many resort to generic "chiefs" and "shamans".

 

[woodelf]

Do you know how to quickly change the Conquest tech tree error? I'd like the Euro AIs to not make that beeline and there's no need making a patch just for that.

About your Colonize! sci-fi mod...is it like SMACX or completely different?

 

[GRM7584]

I completely forgot about the Conquest thing; I posted the picture to see if you were saying what I thought you were, which was that theres an arrow pointing towards conquest; however, everything that touches the left side of the screen is researchable from the start...Conquest included. The arrow there is pointing away from Conquest, to Native Slavery. I may move the bombard unit somewhere else to further decrease the chance that the AI researches it first.

With the Colonize2 mod, I currently plan on having 6 different .biqs for 6 different planet types, sharing a common graphics folder and completely different rules/improvements/units for each planet (albeit obviously with almost exclusively shared graphics, aside from terrain). It will definitely be a lot like SMAC in that it is intended to have a lot of personality, both in factions and concepts.
For the actual terrain, I can pretty much tweak and recolor existing terrain sets for at least 5 of the types without much effort (Terran, Jungle, Desert, Volcanic, Tundra) but for Ocean I am going to need some public assistance probably, since I want it underwater. When I get there, I'll get there. Right now I'm just working on getting the Terran rules set up, since those will form the essentials of the other rulesets. And...I'm not even gonna try LHs. I will just use the Modern Era from select Firaxis civs (as I will have 24 civs total for it). Thats all I'm saying for now.

 

[woodelf]

So how do you move a tech from the left side? I've looked in every folder and scanned the forums, but it's beyond me right now.

I eagerly await your Space game. If you ever need Beta testing let me know.