ExtremeMod

[tchristensen]

We are moving away from the Extreme Mapscript as well -- like you, we loved the incredible ability to fine tune maps, but for whatever reason it can cause weird resource spawns and odd placement of players and AI.

We are now just using the standard Continents and Archipelago mapscripts for most of our testing.

Thanks for giving my mod a try -- everytime I think I am done with it, I keep finding more to add or mix-up.

Working on version 2.1 -- have some cool ideas.

 

[tchristensen]

Came across an interesting situation tonight when play-testing. Two guys uncompressed their files into the Mod directory and one kept getting an OSS error (synching issue) and the other kept having no interface.

After some investigation we discovered that both of them didn't umcompress their files correctly. That somewhere in the unzipping process the files got mangled or just didn't uncompress correctly.

I say to those who are having issue to make sure you uncompress/unzip your files correctly.

 

[dreadknought]

Incredibly odd. I have only seen something like that once before, with the Civic Organized Religion. Sometimes because of odd stacking percentage, the Civic would say +1345034056023 Happiness (or something like that). In truth it was just the screen that was messed up and you got +1.

Perhaps that is the same for your Composite Archer -- go to war with your neighbor and wait for him to attack you in the city. Just curious what happens.

In all of the dozens and dozens of games we have played and tested, I have never saw that -- which only means I have never seen it before.

Does anyone else get things like this?

Hi, just recently downloaded this and it looks fantastic and weirdly enough I have the same bug with the composite archer in my capitol, it says he has 1632756% city defense bonus Well I wont be losing my capitol any time soon. Its the free archer you get after tanning I think. Im just trying a small map but with cont. war checked so I will post back if the ai tries an attack on that unit, and let you know how the game goes.

 

[tchristensen]

Oh my!! That's really crazy because I test the dickens out of this thing and I have never seen anything like that.

I am still wondering if it is a real bonus? Well tell me if your capital is ever attacked -- that is one dug in archer (LOL).

 

[Blue Senshi]

Hi, just recently downloaded this and it looks fantastic and weirdly enough I have the same bug with the composite archer in my capitol, it says he has 1632756% city defense bonus Well I wont be losing my capitol any time soon. Its the free archer you get after tanning I think. Im just trying a small map but with cont. war checked so I will post back if the ai tries an attack on that unit, and let you know how the game goes.

I'm getting the same thing with the free archer after researching tanning. I also get a green horizontal line across the screen whenever that archer is in view. I feel like killing him off because it's annoying to see that line all the time. I'm using the regular Pangea map with version 2.0 of the mod on Windows 7. I never had this problem with the previous version.

Update: It turns out that the green line is the archer's health bar. LOL I didn't realize it because it stretched from one end of the screen to the other. It disappears when he leaves the city.

 

[thatoneguy_2008]

I'm getting the same thing, except it it appears to be every composite archer. I've got a barbarian city with one that I thought i was going to attack. I've got a highlander with city raider and it told me I had <.1% chance, and the archer had an effective strength of 5,000. I attacked, luckily I withdrew with .6 strength, but the archer still had all it's strength. I checked the closest cities of another civ and it was giving me the same odds.

 

[thatoneguy_2008]

Go to Assets\XML\Units and open CIV4UnitInfos with notepad. Scroll down to compound archer. City defense is about 3/4+ down that entry. There is no value. "0" gives no city defense. I noticed other archer units had "50", which gives them the normal 50% bonus. Are compoundbows supposed to have 50% defense? Otherwise I'm leaving it zero and not building any! I'm playing with Taharqa of the Kushite, so I don't need no stinking compound archers!

 

[Blue Senshi]

Go to Assets\XML\Units and open CIV4UnitInfos with notepad. Scroll down to compound archer. City defense is about 3/4+ down that entry. There is no value. "0" gives no city defense. I noticed other archer units had "50", which gives them the normal 50% bonus. Are compoundbows supposed to have 50% defense? Otherwise I'm leaving it zero and not building any! I'm playing with Taharqa of the Kushite, so I don't need no stinking compound archers!

You're right. After you open the file in notepad, you can click the edit tab and then click "find" and type in "compositebow". It will take you right to it. Scroll down to where it says "<iCityDefense></iCityDefense>". I think it should read "<iCityDefense>0</iCityDefense>". In any case, adding the zero fixes the problem. Thanks!

P.S. - The ashbow archer has the same problem, fixed the same way.

 

[dreadknought]

You're right. After you open the file in notepad, you can click the edit tab and then click "find" and type in "compositebow". It will take you right to it. Scroll down to where it says "<iCityDefense></iCityDefense>". I think it should read "<iCityDefense>0</iCityDefense>". In any case, adding the zero fixes the problem. Thanks!

P.S. - The ashbow archer has the same problem, fixed the same way.

Great Job guys fixed it also, and learned a little about some values you can change in the notepad.

 

[Actuarian]

I searched for "><" in the unitinfos file and found this anomoly; I'm not sure what this will do if it isn't changed but I went ahead did the following....

for the unit called Gunsteamer
<SeeInvisible></SeeInvisible> changed to <SeeInvisible>NONE</SeeInvisible>

 

[tchristensen]

Awesome!!

Thanks you for spotting and testing the change. It is in fact supposed to be 0, in that the normal archer gets a bonus but the composite archer does not. As does the Ashbow should not receive the bonus either.

I have made the change to the master file and will have it rolled out in the next update.

Thanks for everyone who solved this.

 

[tchristensen]

I'm getting the same thing with the free archer after researching tanning. I also get a green horizontal line across the screen whenever that archer is in view.

The green line is just the unit's hit points, but because it has some off the scale score, it appears to be this disconcerting green bar.

Perhaps the fix discussed above will fix it. I will start more testing this Monday and see if I can produce it with the fix in place -- although I did not see it before.

 

[Blue Senshi]

The green line is just the unit's hit points, but because it has some off the scale score, it appears to be this disconcerting green bar.

Perhaps the fix discussed above will fix it. I will start more testing this Monday and see if I can produce it with the fix in place -- although I did not see it before.

It was the hit points. It would disappear when the unit left the city. The fix corrects it.

 

[Blue Senshi]

On the screen that shows how you compare with your rivals (the chart), there is an option to look at the demographics. What file controls that? The demographics listing for number of soldiers is giving me the same huge number for average, highest, lowest that I was getting for the composite archer's city defense. Apparently the same error is occurring there, but I don't know where to go to correct it.

 

[tchristensen]

I will need to look into that. Perhaps you could post that question in the open C&C forum, since I really don't know.

Here are a few screens of my Asokan empire last night. In this game I had myself and two other human players with also 6 AI. The game was a continuation from last week and to our surprise Casimir was ahead of all of us -- I was fighting the Wang Kon (Chinese) all night making little head way, then at the last moment he became a Vassal of Simon Bolivar who launched a blitzkrieg attack with at least 20 frigates at me. I had to call my friends to my side, after gifting them some tech and they came in with sea mines and gun ships to help control my borders with Wang Kon.

Towards the end of the night my one friend offered to send me 6 Kong units. They never got to my shores but of all the units I have created, that is by far the most fun. It never got tiring seeing that big ape smash things!

 

[tchristensen]

Prepping for Version 2.1 in a couple of weeks.

Some of my initial thoughts on changes is adding a building called a Ethanol Refinery which converts corn into oil. Had a game where only two oil resources appeared and both out of reach -- basically put an end to the last half of the game. With an Ethanol Refinery corn or sugar (i guess) can be converted into an Oil Bonus.

Also adding new requirements to Riflemen, requiring Matchlock; and Rifling for the Paratrooper. Seems to make sense in both instances, since it feels strange to have these units but not have researched any sort of Firearm technology.

I will also be modifying the Commander and the Trireme so that they can capture Barbarian units. Now that I found out how I can do this, the Commander unit needs a nifty ability for it to stay concurrent with recent additions. A boat that captures barbarian ships sounds nifty too -- may allow a later boat to do it, haven't yet decided.

Also going to be adding another resource bonus called Oxen. Much like the horse, this Bonus will allow a string of special "Trade Good" units to be created: Apple Carts, Coffee wagons, Tea Carts, Fruit wagons (Oranges, Bananas, Apples); each requiring a specific Bonus resource. The more unique or rare the Bonus resource, the more powerful the trade goods that can be generated and cashed in. BTW, if you haven't used Trade Goods -- try them, they are excellent units to get new cities pumping!

Also either going to up the Beakers required to finish techs or decrease the starting year -- game after game we play, we are surprised at how fast we can get to modern technology. Thoughts on this?

I have another two pages of notes with odds and ends which will grow, and I will also keep everyone informed of our progress.

Again, I want to thank those that spotted and figured out the problem with the Archers!!

Troy

 

[dreadknought]

Well I have to say this mod is incredible

Im playing a small map archipeglago (total war) and this mod with so much added works well with small maps I think. The amount of added content is staggering.

Ive been thinking that the Sapper guy is too strong and can be built really early, but Ive always wonted city defenses to be extra tough. I went in and changed the castle defense amount to 200% as castles virtually were never captured in real life, normally they just cut the food supplies and waited for the people to starve to death, though I guess with advanced seige forces that changed in time. Likewise I changed wall defense to 100%.

Yeah I think you can research a bit too quickly maybe tweak many of the techs with a 10-20% increase in beakers, I noticed I was getting some techs in just 2-3 turns but some of them did take a reasonable time, seems to vary quite a bit.

Oxen sounds nice, love the added resources.

 

[tchristensen]

Thanks for the insight on the Mod. And even more so, thanks for the compliment.

We are always constantly play-testing and tweaking the rules. I have myself and three other guys who play it each week and then I play it twice a week with another friend.

Sappers in my opinion (and we all have our own) aren't really overpowered since they only have one purpose and are pure fodder at any other time. And boy is it fun to cut those fools down -- the AI aren't very smart in using them (sadly). As for sieges and destruction of walls, I think it was rather fairly common to use engines to destroy walls and breach the interior.

It is great however that you can go in and change the values. I caution changing walls to 200 percent because there are other structures, notably the Parapet, that adds to it, and there are Wonders that add to it as well. In addition, several units get city defensive bonuses -- all of which stack to make taking cities nearly impossible. Sappers when used judiciously can be very handy.

If I may ask, what time scale and Handicap do you play on? I suggest playing on Epic and Noble -- with Aggressive AI and Rampaging Barbarians. That is the only way we test the game and also play it for enjoyment.

Again, thanks for the compliment and also the ideas to make the game better.

Cheers!!

 

[dreadknought]

Thanks for the insight on the Mod. And even more so, thanks for the compliment.

We are always constantly play-testing and tweaking the rules. I have myself and three other guys who play it each week and then I play it twice a week with another friend.

Sappers in my opinion (and we all have our own) aren't really overpowered since they only have one purpose and are pure fodder at any other time. And boy is it fun to cut those fools down -- the AI aren't very smart in using them (sadly). As for sieges and destruction of walls, I think it was rather fairly common to use engines to destroy walls and breach the interior.

It is great however that you can go in and change the values. I caution changing walls to 200 percent because there are other structures, notably the Parapet, that adds to it, and there are Wonders that add to it as well. In addition, several units get city defensive bonuses -- all of which stack to make taking cities nearly impossible. Sappers when used judiciously can be very handy.

If I may ask, what time scale and Handicap do you play on? I suggest playing on Epic and Noble -- with Aggressive AI and Rampaging Barbarians. That is the only way we test the game and also play it for enjoyment.

Again, thanks for the compliment and also the ideas to make the game better.

Cheers!!

Cool, yeah it will take me some time to learn all the units and bonuses and I just now started to learn to change values using the files and notebook. You guys do the play by email? I havnt tried that on civ4. Im playing this on prince/ agg AI/marathon/ normal barbs, and I have noticed the AI getting ahead tech wise, Im also playing total war option against 6 ais so no tech trading ect. The fun part of total war is you get alot of combat exp. early on.

Clearly you have a great love for the game and it shows in this mod, much appreciate the work.

 

[tchristensen]

We play our games on a home network, though we have played a few games via the internet. It works out very well. I cannot imagine playing by email since even small games would take forever -- on my home network we can generally do 300 to 500 turns a night, if I keep the whip to the guys' backs.

I look forward to your comments because as I said above, we only play on Epic, Noble, and Agg AI & Raging Barbs. We have not tuned the game much beyond that and I am curious how those settings fair?

Troy