darkciv 2

[Jennvare]

Is there any recommended settings for playing this?
I usually play "Epic" speeds so that eras last longer and there are more turns. However, I am also noticing it's taking a real long time to build buildings/train units. (It could be just the terrain I started on ie jungle and swamps).

It seems like there is very few choices for making a "free" society. Everything seems to be geared toward an oppressive setting. For civics, I tend to like vassalage and theocracy for the extra EXP points for my soldiers, but this is always an oppressive regime.

Can you perhaps add more civics that allow for a well trained military and still be considered a free society? I've played many civs with more workable civics and your regimes add a nice dynamic!

More feedback and questions to follow once I lose my first game. It will be a slow death though, I dont kill off easily

 

[Dumanios]

It's quite realistic for Opressive and Free civs to be on friendly terms. Just look at the IRL relations between the USA and Saudi Arabia.

 

[firehawkordy]

Got it working, the mod was in the right location however I had the game on an external HD that I put everything on to with my old PC. While the game loaded and played fine on my new PC this way as far as the registry was concerned CIV4 did not "exist". Did a proper install and evrything works great.

As for this mod, I plan on spending some time on it, so far it's as good as I had hoped.

 

[dusckr87]

Got it working, the mod was in the right location however I had the game on an external HD that I put everything on to with my old PC. While the game loaded and played fine on my new PC this way as far as the registry was concerned CIV4 did not "exist".

I'm honestly surprised you got anything to work at all like that. Although I always install games on an external HDD, I also know that if you switch that drive to another PC that you have to re-install for 99% of programs (ie, non-data) to work.

 

[Jennvare]

Just completed my first game of this....couple of things that I noticed:

AI & Trade Caravans - In this game, Japan was on a couple of islands all to themselves. Not an unenviable spot. However, when I sent privateers down there to scout them out, each city had atleast 20 trade caravans in them. Their capital had 80 of them stockpiled in it. They only had up to Caravels for their sea-going ships and they didnt have too many of them.

I dont know if the trade caravans count against unit upkeep. These guys were fairly far behind on their tech. If it is, you may want to remove the upkeep for the caravan or put a limit on the number that can be stockpiled. You may also want to check the AI "procedures" for building ships to transport them to whomever has open borders with them. I use the caravans alot to build coin for unit upgrades.

For the peasant unrest and the barbarian armies that suddenly appear in your territory; what is the mechanism for their spawning. None of the cities had any unhappiness (red people) and I had a free society going. I will grant you that was oppressive for some time. It's hard not to be for the first half of the game. Are these just strictly random?

Suggestion: For the terrain promotions that add defense to the unit, it would help if it was made strength and not just defense. So instead of +20% forest defense..why not forest strength and so on for the other terrains. I mention this with respect to the peasant revolts up above. Its a pain to take them out when they are standing on hills/forest tiles.

Keep up the good work and I'll keep checking back for more tweaks.
Peace!

 

[evertebrate]

The rebels are random. They appear on non fat-cross tiles without tile improvements. I will probably provide an option to turn these of, although I already weakended them considerably for the next release.

The caravans are a big problem for the AI. Wheen I first introduced them the AI would builds hundreds of them without ever using them. Then I wrote some code for it, but now the AI either builds so many of them that they have tens of thousands of golds easily or they stockpile them and never use them. Basically the caravans use the Great Merchant AI without the AI ever choosing golden age or settle as options. I had to make caravans a national unit with a max of 3 for the next release to solve the problems.

btw guerilla 3 and woodsman 3 already give an attack bonus.

 

[Jennvare]

Another observation with the rebels; When you say they appear on non-fat cross tiles that have no improvements; I had a large set of them appear on with that had just a road on it. Am I to assume then that roads are not considered improvements?

I admit, they still add a bit of difficulty since, for the most part, they destroy alot of improvements especially early on. If a tile improvement (roads excluded) could be built, wouldnt it make sense to have an improvment thats quick to build? It takes a while to get to replaceable parts for lumbermill for forest. You dont want to cut them all down due to how global warming works. Deserts are even harder since you can only build forts on them for most of the game.

Just curious...for custom games, does Raging Barbarians make them spawn more often and in larger numbers? If so, there is one more tweak you should consider; the exp cap on killing barbarian units. At present, the cap on exp for a unit is 10exp for any and all barbarian units. With your features, this should be increased since you will fight many more barbarians earlier and often, especially if raging barbarians is selected. Just something to consider because It's disappointing when my little archers destroy axemen at a 66% chance and gain nothing for it.

 

[Anakon]

Hey there and congratulations on completing the final long awaited version of darciv2

I'm a HUGE darkciv fan (actually, I might be the biggest one, i dunno ) and i've been playing it extensively since the release of the first darkciv mod, currently having so much fun with darkciv2 beta. This is the mod that really turned me into a Civ4 "nerd", and actually inspired me to learn a thing or two about modding, as I previously had no idea about how things work so I started learning from scratch, all thanks to your amazing mod (and the help of the forums).

I've tried to contact you a few times over the past 2 years, but with no success so far. There are so many things I'd love to discuss with you, ideas and concepts, all inspired by your magnificent mod. So drop me a message whenever you have some time, but if too busy - I just wanted to say your work is simply amazing, and I am a diehard fan of darkciv!

I'm currently downloading the 2.1 version of darkciv2, and I can't wait to try it.
Best regards and thank you again for creating this amazing mod!

 

[evertebrate]

I'd like to hear your ideas Anakon, just write me a PM. I accepted the friend request

Jennvare: Raging just makes more rebels. Your observations were helpful, I changed the max XP from barbs to 17 (one more level) and made rebels only spawn near unhappy cities. (more if you are oppressive) I also added a custom game option to turn rebels off entirely.

The next version is nearly done, it will feature city states, an improved AI, some reworked traits, two new buildings and some more balancing done.

 

[Jennvare]

Couple of other things that I noticed:

Religions: When I have cities with multiple religions, I find that I can only make missionaires for the religion that is currently my state religion. Even with monasteries, I cannot build missionaires for my non-state religion. With the Free Religion civic, I could not build any at all.

Lumbermills - when you hit the industrial/modern ages (not sure which), the graphic for the lumbermills disappear off the map. The forest you build them in will appear unimproved. The bonus and such are still in effect so it is simply a graphic thing.

Spies - not really an issue but Im curious why spies are limited to just 5.

More later on as I find issues. Keep up the good work!

 

[Yazata]

I've noticed that certain civs seem to refuse to change leaderheads when they change civics and/or become more or less oppressive-- for example, Japan and Mongolia. Hirohito and Genghis Khan won't leave. What makes this odd is that their names do change depending on civics; at the moment, Hirohito is identified as Tokugawa, and Genghis is called Kublai.

 

[evertebrate]

I've noticed that certain civs seem to refuse to change leaderheads when they change civics and/or become more or less oppressive-- for example, Japan and Mongolia. Hirohito and Genghis Khan won't leave. What makes this odd is that their names do change depending on civics; at the moment, Hirohito is identified as Tokugawa, and Genghis is called Kublai.

were those two colonies? I had some problems with colonies and the leaderhead changes...

Couple of other things that I noticed:

Religions: When I have cities with multiple religions, I find that I can only make missionaires for the religion that is currently my state religion. Even with monasteries, I cannot build missionaires for my non-state religion. With the Free Religion civic, I could not build any at all.

Thats exactly as intended. having +6 or 7 and from free religion just made it the ultimate religion civic in the endgame. Also in some way you are playing the state, so why should you be able to build heathen missionaries?

Lumbermills - when you hit the industrial/modern ages (not sure which), the graphic for the lumbermills disappear off the map. The forest you build them in will appear unimproved. The bonus and such are still in effect so it is simply a graphic thing.

will be fixed for the next release.

Spies - not really an issue but Im curious why spies are limited to just 5.

I wanted pre-modern espionage defense to be more difficult. How ever this is already changed for the next release, because I improved the espionage AI.

 

[Yazata]

were those two colonies? I had some problems with colonies and the leaderhead changes...

Yes, they were colonies. I'll try playing another game when those two are present from the start, though, just to experiment.

 

[Anakon]

Had the same problem in the darkciv2 beta version. Byzantium was somebody's colony, leaderheads were changing according to civics, but the name always stayed Justinian I... (which is not a good name for someone like Pulcheria )

 

[Yazata]

Yep, problem is only with the colonies.

 

[thadian]

I havent played this beauty yet, but i think its about time i do, i remember when the first Darkciv mod came out - it had some problems but it really brought home the element of real world "cold war fear".

unlike some happy go lucky games of civ, in this game "you gotta watch a little closer" i say - and its a good thing. I felt that things unfolded faster in this mod, so i will be trying it out and hope it lives up to its predecessor. A few faults or not, i have high hopes.

 

[thadian]

this is very different and while it has a few small imperfections pointed out by others, this has evolved quite well.

Great work! If this were steam, i would sub + rate + fav.

 

[Terran Empress]

This looks awsome! However can i say, Judaism and Confucianism should not have been removed for a few reasons.

First with Judaism
1. its the foundation of Abrahamic religions, IE Christianity and Islam,
2. it is a very influential religion across the world, it has been attacked many times and has been through many hard times, and has survived.
Judaism should be represented in some way, perhaps some type of AI mini nation (Israel) could found it, and thus it would do some sort bonus's and disadvantages to each city it is in, and thus you could have a realistic game where Judaism could be hated by everyone and everyone attempts to destroy it, or something like that, just a suggestion.

Confucianism
Confucianism was and is one of the most influential religions for china, it actually pretty much shaped China's social order, government, education, pretty much everything for pretty much its entire history, watch this video for more information start at 6:30 to skip to the stuff on Confucianism


Link to video.

and that is why both Confucianism and Judaism should stay in the game in one form or another.

 

[Halfmoon Smile]

I really enjoy the RP of this mod. The regime system especially is great, but the RP possibilities keep me playing.

After some more playing, the main problem with fanatics is the early availability of fundamentalist state via the parthenon as discussed, but playing a little more has also made me wonder if the jump to 18 str at rifling isn't a bit much, especially much given the extremely low cost of upgrading fanatics. I don't know about 12 str crusaders at guilds either--it seems to make Military Traditions a lot less desirable in particular as the cuirs are so easy to match for civs who've ignored the military path. I like the freedom, but I miss the fear when rushing rifling.

Another thing, trade convoys cost less gold to rush than they return without fail-- usually I'm getting double or more in return. In theory it seems ok, but it really makes currency the end-all tech to rush towards (even more than usual)/solves all monetary problems.

Some of the traits are not very good in comparison to others. Germany in particular stands out as strong. It seems to have the best UB in the game in the 2 free engineers assembly plant, coupled with no draft unhappiness and gaining soldiers from fighting barbarians, they are insane; I think the barbarians being toned down will tone down their traits value though, so this is really just an example. Still, I enjoy what it does for playstyle. I think traits like India's 50% unhappy from pop also work well in encouraging specific playstyles; there are only a few weak ones (like Americas) which really could use attention.

Thanks again for all the hard work.

 

[Jennvare]

Any ETA on the next update?