Conquests features comprehensive survey

[durfal]

The chat with Atari/Breakaway/Firaxis it took place at 23:00 GMT (central europe time) = 17:00 EST(eastern American Time) until 01.00.
A lot of info was given there. The chat log will be on tomorrow I believe.

 

[Pyrkaige]

Here's a round-up of all the info that looked new from the chat; quite a lot of fun stuff!


CIVILIZATIONS

Agricultural civ trait

• 1 bonus food in city square
• Extra food in irrigated desert tiles
• If an Agricultural city tile is next to water, the despotism penalty doesn't apply to the food of the city tile itself
• Cheaper aqueducts, recycling plants and solar plants

Seafaring civ trait

• Ships have movement increased by 1
• Decreased chance of sinking
• Cities built along the coast receive a commerce bonus in the center city square
• Have a much higher chance than normal of starting near the coast
• Cheaper docks and harbors

Industrious civ's workers speed has been slowed down slightly

* Byzantine
UU Dromon traits: 2.1.3, cost of 30, have lethal sea bombardment

* Portuguese
Leader : Prince Henry
UU : Carrack (received instead of Caravels, available with Astronomy)
Traits : 2.2.3, cost of 40, doesn't sink at sea

* Austria
Not a full civ in the game, as there was only space to add 7. A leaderhead and UU were made, and the civ can be modded in; they are "featured in some of the Conquests."


SCENARIOS

* MIDDLE AGES
English, Celts, Danes
Functions : Victory Points win, gained in various ways depending on the civ: English gain 10000 points by returning the Holy Grail to Jerusalem; Christian nations gain points by capturing Jerusalem; points available for conquering other nations, or points for being nice

* AGE OF SAIL
Has a missionary-unit

The Conquests can be played in multiplayer mode.


UNITS

Non-scenario units available to all civs:
Mobile SAM: anti-aircraft unit
TOW Infantry: Modern Era defensive unit, requires no resources
Modern Paratrooper
AEGIS Cruiser now has anti-aircraft ability

Other units:
Ancient Cavalry (only available when created by Statue of Zeus wonder): 3.2.2, worth 40 shields if disbanded
Crusaders (only available when created by Knights Templar wonder): 5.3.1, worth 70 shields if disbanded

Scientific Leaders

• May arise whenever a civilization is the first to research a new technology
• Are more likely to show up in Scientific civs
• Can be used up in rushing wonders, the same as military Great Leaders
• Can be used up by increasing scientific research by 25% for 20 turns in every city in the civ(!)

NEW GOVERNMENTS

Feudalism will not have communal corruption


NEW BUILDINGS & WONDERS

New wonders in the random game:
Temple of Artemis: Temple in every city on continent
Statue of Zeus: Builds Ancient Cavalry (3.2.2) every 5 turns
Knights Templar: builds Crusaders (5.3.1) every 5 turns
Mausoleum of Mausollos: 3 unhappy Citizens content in its city

There are no new city improvements in the random game, many in the Conquests.

The Secret Police Headquarters is a new Small Wonder which reduces corruption like another palace, and is only available under Communism.


NEW TERRAINS & RESOURCES

Volcanoes

• There is usually a two-turn warning before an eruption happens, although it can be immediate.
• Eruptions damage the surrounding terrain, (up to at least 2 squares away) although that damage can be removed.
• If an eruption hits a city, it is destroyed!
• The frequency of eruptions can be controlled in the game editor.

Bombardment can cause crater damage; as with volcanoes, it can be cleared, and does not permanently remove resources from the tile.


CITY MANAGEMENT

Military Police are available with Nationalism, Civil Engineers with Replaceable Parts


GAME EDITOR

• Locked Alliances
• Locked War
• Whether embassies are in place
• a "lost list" of other changes

TOURISM
After 1000 years some Wonders start to produce an extra 2 commerce in their city, which increases with time. This is only for Wonders that could be a Tourist attraction...for instance the Pyramids qualifies, but no tourists ever "visit" the Theory of Evolution.


RULE CHANGES/MISC INFO

• AI improvement: an improved priority scheme for picking bombardment targets; it does a better job of escorting key naval transports like carriers and transports; "many" other AI improvements
• Armies: can now pillage without loss of movement point; get an extra movement point; have much better healing abilities; have blitz and radar; aren't upgradable
• Air units can now be lethal, which makes the new anti-aircraft units very useful
• Many exploit/bug fixes, including Ring City Placement
• 11 new soundtracks
• A new movie for winning all the Conquests

LIKELY RULE CHANGES
There is not a new combat system; it was pulled.

 

[nalves]

That's fantastic ....

thanks Pyrkaige

 

[LouLong]

Thanks a lot Pyrkaige.

I checked the script of the chat and started working on it when I saw your post. Took the liberty to use it generously to upgrade the first post.

 

[Shabbaman]

Pyrkaige, you missed the dutch UU, swiss mercenary. Good work.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Originally posted by durfal
Stated during the chat.
There will be an "extra" civ on the CD.
Austria : Including a Leaderhead and UU unit animation. They are not playable ingame right out of the box. But you can mod them in probably.
So they we're the originally planned 8th civ I presume.

An extra civ! Now which civ to get rid of?(Bye bye Gandhi )

 

[nalves]

Your are right SuperBeaverInc.

And I say by by Spain

 

[Gen]

* Portuguese, UU : Carrack (received instead of Caravels, available with Astronomy)
Traits : 2.2.3, cost of 40, doesn't sink at sea

Caravel doesn't sink at sea...
... unless they meant ocean or sea became more dangerous.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I assume "sink at sea" is a different phrase then "sink in sea tiles". "At sea" probably means all ocean (when you head "out to sea", you head into open ocean).

 

[Gen]

Probably you're right... Combine this with seafaring trait and Portugal will be the king of middle-ages exploration

 

[nalves]

Originally posted by Gen
Probably you're right... Combine this with seafaring trait and Portugal will be the king of middle-ages exploration

In my games they will be the king of all eras

 

[aeldrik]

just a pity they have all this "hard" limits to kill the fun out of the greatest games, Number of CIVs limited, number of Cities limited, map size limited.... ok, I can understand you have to draw the line somewhere, but what's the point of limiting the civs to 31? worse even, why let player make maps sizes 362x362 (ca. 130 000 squares, take 60% oceans, leaves about 45 000 squares, which should be enough for about 2000 cities and a lot of civs...)
with only 512 cities, while the computer could place 4000 on it.... just a pity limiting the best part of game, the freedom to create your CIV world....

to say it short, save the 32nd CIV !!!!

 

[Tweedledum]

So it seems that it isn't going to be possible to add custom civs without removing existing ones... This stinks the place out, and - not incidentally - gives the lie to Atari's advertising guff about "all the features of PTW" (one of those features being the ability to add new civs in this way).

 

[Packer-Backer]

YOU ARE RIGHT! We have the right to add new civs without losing anyone! But I think the Dutch ain't gonna last long on my computer while Austria is in my reach.

But could someone please re-write the unedited chat log in more readably text. I didn't read a lot of posts on this thread so somebody might have already done it or asked for it.

 

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by Tweedledum
So it seems that it isn't going to be possible to add custom civs without removing existing ones... This stinks the place out, and - not incidentally - gives the lie to Atari's advertising guff about "all the features of PTW" (one of those features being the ability to add new civs in this way).

You can add civs up to the limit of 31, just like PTW.

 

[FlakJacket]

Originally posted by Packer-Backer
YOU ARE RIGHT! We have the right to add new civs without losing anyone!

Um, no. You don't AFAIK.

 

[KingTux]

just a pity they have all this "hard" limits to kill the fun out of the greatest games, Number of CIVs limited, number of Cities limited, map size limited.... ok, I can understand you have to draw the line somewhere, but what's the point of limiting the civs to 31? worse even, why let player make maps sizes 362x362 (ca. 130 000 squares, take 60% oceans, leaves about 45 000 squares, which should be enough for about 2000 cities and a lot of civs...)
with only 512 cities, while the computer could place 4000 on it.... just a pity limiting the best part of game, the freedom to create your CIV world....

There are two reasons for this:

1. Code simplification takes time (not to mention lots of patience. It takes forever with something as LONG as this. I barely have enough to go through some 5000-15000 lines of programming. Civilization has over 1 MILLION (conservative estimate). Although some was done, the extra memory space was devoted to the conquests and additions. The question here is which would you prefer, higher limits, or more stuff?)

2. System Requirements (If they did what you're suggesting, then you're talking about more resource usage than normal, and I'm not just talking about 1 mod. This would affect ALL mods played. The computer needs a limit so that performance isn't sacrificed and so speed isn't so ridiculous that it takes a couple of days (a little on the drastic side, but it's possible if you extend it enough) to complete a turn. Also, they've got to be able to create the game so that MOST users can play the game (although I'm sure that we're all using high-end systems ). If it demands too much, your computer might crash. Don't worry though. They probably will extend the limit with the next patch, after some fixes and simplifications are made)

There's my two cents from a programmer's point of view.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I agree that they should not have the number of civs hardcoded. I like most of the civs they have chosen so far for their games.(except for Iroquois and India. I don't really see them as great civilizations like the Romans or Japanese.) I personally want to use all the civs, including Austria, but now I have to remove one of the current civs, which I really don't want to do, even if I don't like one of the selections that doesn't mean I want to get rid of it. Also, if I want to use one of sween32 great leaderheads that I spent 3 hours downloading each, I have to replace even more civs.

EDIT: If Jeff_ATARI reads this, could you give us any more info on Austria? (Leaderhead, UU, etc.)

 

[durfal]

Playing with 31 civs in a game is enough for me. But it would be nice if we could add more civs to the selection screen. That way you don't have to replace one. Just add some more to that screen. And then you can choose 31 (the hard coded maximum) to use in a certain game and for your next you choose some other ones. That way people wouldn't be forced to mod the game to put another civs in and others out all the time. Changing all the units a civ can use, every time in the editor is a lot of work especially when you use a lot of flavour units like I do.

 

[Packer-Backer]

I am joking FlakJacket. Although I do think the limit should be raised to at least 34.