Developement thread: Alternate unit construction

[Xereq]

I would like to have alternate methods of creating units ingame. I would like improvements that spawn units. I would appreciate any help/feedback that anybody is willling to give.

first off, I would like a demo mod with an improvement called alt-cottage that spawns a worker every ten turns, can be built by workers, and takes a base time of 100.
Can somebody do that please?

once we have a base established the fun begins

 

[NikG]

I would like to have

I would like to have a Porsch, a million bucks, eternal wisdom and eternal life!

 

[Xereq]

I would like to have a Porsch, a million bucks, eternal wisdom and eternal life!

Har...har...har, veeeery funny. Okay there should be a mod/mod component
that alows for alternate methods of unit creation, I've got tons of ideas what I would do with this, In additon to whatever anybody else could use this for, but it all amounts to nothing if nobody codes this. I would be happy to do this but I do not know how to program. I will learn this summer, but thats a ways away. Could somebody please make a demo of this so that the community can play around with it?

What do I have to say...do I have to beg? Is my idea really that bad?

 

[Xereq]

Recruits
forts will produce units called recruits

forts will produce a recruit at a rate of 1/10 turns
recruits can build a keep over a fort after [a tech]
Keeps add + and pruduces a private 1/10 turns
recruits can build a castle over a keep after guilds
Castles add + and produces a corpral 1/10 turns
castles can be upgraded with a military instilation after military tradition
Military Instilations add + and produces a Lt 1/10 turns
Military instilations can be upgraded to armed forces bases after [tech]
armed forces bases add + and produces a general 1/10 turns

military improvement units can:
-build roads
-can chop jungles
-build military improvements
-can upgrade military improvements
-sacrifice to hurry military production
-sacrifice to build military related unique buildings

 

[The Great Apple]

Unfortunetly ideas don't get you very far in modding. There are some people here who do listen to good ideas which are not easily to implement, and take it upon themselves to help out, but there will always be many more ideas then there are modders for ideas.

These ideas seem faily simple. Sounds like a good task for somebody who is just learning modding. If you really want them done, I suggest you do them yourself.

 

[Xereq]

Unfortunetly ideas don't get you very far in modding. There are some people here who do listen to good ideas which are not easily to implement, and take it upon themselves to help out, but there will always be many more ideas then there are modders for ideas.

These ideas seem faily simple. Sounds like a good task for somebody who is just learning modding. If you really want them done, I suggest you do them yourself.

thank you for your response, but I wont even be learning how to program till summer.

I am hoping to add depth to choosing/building improvements, I guess I hoped other people would want this too. For me, winning a game is all about having infrastructure. I thought other people felt similarly and would want to impliment such things in thier mods, since I wont even be learnign programing till this summer I htought perhaps somebody else could add this to thier "to do list" so that it would get done sooner. Oh well.

Enough ranting though, on with the developement

 

[Padmewan]

For me, winning a game is all about having infrastructure. I thought other people felt similarly and would want to impliment such things in thier mods, since I wont even be learnign programing till this summer I htought perhaps somebody else could add this to thier "to do list" so that it would get done sooner. Oh well.

On the first point, Civ4 has a crude but sharp distinction between two infrastructure types: tiles are "raw" yields while buildings are "refined" yields. By putting unit generation into tiles, you are blurring the line between the two and, essentially, messing with a core mechanism of the game -- for what benefit? Other than making the map look prettier, and achieving a modicum of realism, what gameplay advantage does this offer over the existing mechanism?

Others have proposed city buildings that auto-generate units every X turns, which does something similar to what you suggest but keeps the line intact. Would that meet your interest? (btw, there were such buildings in Civ3 but they did not transition to Civ4 -- perhaps there was a game balance reason for this?)

I agree with TGA that few people will just pick up an idea that isn't theirs and do it unless there is a compelling reason to (e.g. it's absolutely brilliant and more importantly, it is something they want to do for their own mods). If you are planning on learning to program, you might as well get a head start and teach yourself now. XML modding isn't even programming, it's just text editing. If you start from there, I think you can get pretty far before you even need to delve into Python...

 

[Xereq]

On the first point, Civ4 has a crude but sharp distinction between two infrastructure types: tiles are "raw" yields while buildings are "refined" yields. By putting unit generation into tiles, you are blurring the line between the two and, essentially, messing with a core mechanism of the game -- for what benefit? Other than making the map look prettier, and achieving a modicum of realism, what gameplay advantage does this offer over the existing mechanism?

I'm glad you asked! this method will alow for additional strategy as I will have every building in a mod produce a kind of unit that can upgrade the improvement/add something to the improvement (ie. 'lumberjacks' produced by lumbermills that can chop forests quickly and can improve a lumbermill with a 'trucking fleet' that adds with combustion). There will be some units that can produce other units in my fantasy mod (ie. smiths produced from workshops that can assemble golems at workshops Peasants who train millitia in towns, [assemblage and recruiting will be produced unit actions that can poduce units.]) This will add an incredable amount of depth and complexity to the game, for those who want a reason not to automate and this will be every micromanager's dream come true.

Others have proposed city buildings that auto-generate units every X turns, which does something similar to what you suggest but keeps the line intact. Would that meet your interest? (btw, there were such buildings in Civ3 but they did not transition to Civ4 -- perhaps there was a game balance reason for this?)

I didn't like those buildings, simply becuase they were wonders, they became quickly obsolete, and just made the civ that built the wonder harder to conquer. In short, they were anoying!

I agree with TGA that few people will just pick up an idea that isn't theirs and do it unless there is a compelling reason to (e.g. it's absolutely brilliant and more importantly, it is something they want to do for their own mods). If you are planning on learning to program, you might as well get a head start and teach yourself now. XML modding isn't even programming, it's just text editing. If you start from there, I think you can get pretty far before you even need to delve into Python...

I just want to know how to do it, how to add something to improvements that would make them produce units every x turns, and be able to define the unit produced. If someone could see a place for this in thier mod, I would appreciate them creating this, if not...well I'll be the first one with a mod that does this I guess.

btw how do you edit XML, what do you have to open it in?

 

[Padmewan]

btw how do you edit XML, what do you have to open it in?

There are plenty of tutorials here on how to do this. Just look for them, please!

As for your mod, good luck with it. I am not a fan of micromanagement.