Deitifying starting saves with Firetuner and IGE

[phillipwyllie]

I've come up with an idea that using Firetuner and IGE to turn a starting save into a Deity save(or other difficulty) might work. So far I've added the Deity starting techs to the AI quite easily, intending to use IGE to add the AI's additional units. I have a couple of questions:

Can you change the active player's handicap(as described in Firetuners Players panel)?

PreGame.SetHandicap( 0, 7 ); (0 is for player 1, and 7 is for Deity. AI plays on handicap 8, CS on 3, and barbs on 1)​

Can you reset the fog of war that would get removed when you cyle through the AI players in IGE?

DON'T use IGE's unexplore map button as the fog around your starting units will be permenant. Use whoward69's Maps - Rotate Start Position mod and cycle round to your original starting location(or any other that you fancy). Civs may move around the original starting locations.​

Can you add extra units automaticaly using Firetuner, taking acount of illegal placement?

 

[whoward69]

Can you reset the fog of war that would get removed when you cyle through the AI players in IGE?

Yes, see Maps - Rotate Start Positions, but note there are issues with the mini-map until you save/reload

 

[phillipwyllie]

Yes, see Maps - Rotate Start Positions, but note there are issues with the mini-map until you save/reload

Thanks, there is another "issue" and that's the AI get mixed around when you cycle back to your orignal starting location.

 

[LeeS]

William may remember better than I but I don't recall that you can change the active (human) player's pre-game difficulty selection, but just about anything else you are wanting to do via IGE could also be done by a specific lua script that would be automatic after the game starts, would not require even opening IGE to implement, and would allow you to specify which "values" to implement based on the original pre-game difficulty setting a player selected.

By "values" I mean how many extra units, what extra techs, etc.

So if a player selected "King" we know that "King" gives the AI certain extras, and the difference between those and Diety could be added automatically via the lua-script.

Such a script would be a bit difficult to implement directly from Firetuner because you'd have to type it all in and then execute.

It would actually be easier to place the script into a stand-alone mod and just enable the mod before play begins, allowing the lua script to automatically seek out what needs to be done. Though in this later case there would be no "interface" like IGE gives you -- the mod would also need a simple place for you to set which difficulty-level ought to be used for the adjustments to what the AI gets. So if you wanted it to give Immortal instead of Diety benefits if the original starting difficulty was lower than Immortal, you would have to alter a line at the top of the code from something like "HANDICAP_DEITY" to "HANDICAP_IMMORTAL".

 

[whoward69]

I can't remember the details, just that all the Pregame stuff behaves erratically and differently once the setup has been completed. You'd need to test it out. While is looks like you can change the handicap level after setup via Lua, and it should take effect, I'm not convinced the new level will be persisted into the save game state, so you'd need to repeat after every load.

 

[phillipwyllie]

The new handicap does persist in save files. I've just tried modifiying an Emperor save(change handicap via lua->save->reload) that I had played and the does seem to get it's bonuses from your handicap. In saying that I didn't notice any difference in fighting barbs. Another thing I noticed the AI didn't expand like a Deity AI. The is another quesation and that is during pregame does difficulty level affect any values and biases(agressiveness for example)? If so then they would need to be changed and checked.