I started playing AoE roughly a week ago (DVD BtS, latest SVN AoE), and have encountered a few bugs and general issues since then.
Bugs:
- The game is acting really unstable for me on map load. Sometimes the interface fails to load, so I get the map with clickable units and working hotkeys but no buttons or info bars, and if I try to exit to main menu it crashes to desktop without an error message. Other times it may crash to desktop immediately without an error message. If I keep restarting the game, it eventually starts working. (DLL)
- Lairs with a culture control larger than 1 square don't lose their culture control when they're destroyed, meaning you can't build or settle those squares without either overlapping them with city culture or negating them with culture control of your own first. Judging from the fact that the culture control values of lairs isn't specified in the XML (except for the Centaur lairs), there must be some routine in the DLL or the Python which sets these to some standard value (possibly mimicking that of forts) but which I haven't been able to locate. (DLL, present in RifE too)
- The Myconid (Khazad UU) requires a Grove but Khazad can't build Groves. Either make Myconids require Stone Circle or make Stone Circle BUILDINGCLASS_GROVE instead of having its own BuildingClassType (it's an obvious Grove replacement anyway). (XML)
- When combat affects or won't affect culture feels completely arbitrary. I haven't been able to pin down any pattern to when my units will affect the enemy culture and it feels like a bug. (DLL, present in RifE too)
- The spell Illumiating Light doesn't work due to a spurious <UnitCombats/> tag on PROMOTION_SUN_PERCEPTION. (XML, present in RifE too)
- Mineral resources revealed through Veinhunter level 1 are unrevealed if a Dowsing ritual is built and then expires. (DLL)
Issues and concerns:
- The Crossbowman is not a Max 4 national unit like the other top tier units. Being able to spam the top tier defensive unit feels unbalanced, especially since their initial offensive power is greater than that of the Champion or the Arquebus. (XML, present in RifE too, not present in FFH2)
- The Wintered promotion (spread by Frozen units in combat) is premanent and unremovable. It's understandable, because this is the primary way for them to get Frozen Souls, but I think it's poor taste to have enemy units add a negative modifier to your units with no means of protection or removal as FFH in many regards premiers experienced units which stay with you for a long time over cannon fodder. (XML/Python, probably present in RifE too)
- Combat affecting culture is way too powerful. A single attack on a weak unit can flip up to 80% of the culture in the surrounding fat cross, meaning that, for example, a lone assassin sneaking into your land and killing off the wrong unit can cause years of repeated city rioting in one of your core cities. While it does make sense that repeated killing and pillaging should weaken your opponent's hold of the land, it doesn't make quite as much sense that it immediately should become your dominion without any cultural pressure on your part. (DLL, present in RifE too)
- Blowpipes spawned by the Colossal Ruins lair have the Orcish race rather than the Lizardman race as the Blowpipe UnitInfo doesn't give it Lizardman as a free promotion. (XML, present in RifE too)
- Fort Commanders are affected by the Cloak of Esus promotion (Chosen of Esus/Nox Noctis), meaning enemies which can't see stealth will just walk over your forts if you don't cast Expose Self (which by the way is blocked by Arcane Lacuna). Since Cloak of Esus doesn't hide city defenders, it shouldn't hide Fort Commanders either, in my opinion. (XML, present in RifE too)
- Some core content depends on files from the Bannor Chain of Command module (notably Gaius Octavius). Either move this content to BCoC or incorporate BCoC in base AoE. (XML)
- Most leashed units shouldn't remain leashed if captured or dominated. They're leashed because they want to defend their lairs, not because they're physically unable to move from the spot. (XML/Python)
- It is practically impossible to reach Veinhunter level 3 with Reorx Veinhunter before the end of the game, even if you turn every plot of your land into a hill and build a mine on it. (XML)
- If capturing a Sidar city surrounded by Mist, the Mist doesn't go away and there's no way of making it go away bar Gust of Wind (which I haven't tested if it's still only temporary yet). (XML/Python)
Other thoughts:
- The White Hand Cult religion doesn't make very much sense as a researchable religion since there is no god to answer prayers and perform miracles before Auric (or Taranis) starts ascending. In my opinion, the White Hand Cult should only be founded by The White Hand Ritual. (XML/Python)
- The Earth's Womb spell (Runes of Kilmorph, tier 2 disciple units) can lower mountains, which is incredibly powerful, but only top tier disciple units can lower hills (Earth's Womb). It would feel more consistent if tier 2 disciple units could both raise and flatten hills, but only tier 3 disciple units could raise and flatten mountains. (XML/Python)
- From a roleplaying perspective, non-slaving civs shouldn't be keeping slaves they capture from their opponents enslaved. Having a fraction of the freed slaves join you as either workers (gratitude) or some kind of soldiers (desire revenge) would be a way of keeping it interesting. (XML/Python should probably be enough)
Bugs:
1) this one i haven't been able to replicate yet and you're the first to report it on the non-steam version. As far as i gathered, it has to do with the game not loading python files in subfolders for reason unknown. If you activate the python exception, you should get a bunch of error messages. Ideally, i'd like to see them all.
2 And 4) I plan to completely clean up the additional culture mechanics. combat influencing culture, i'm tempted to simply cut it, as for cultural control, i intend to unify the system with normal culture .
3) good catch. fixed next commit.
5) fixed next commit.
6) it doesn't seem to be happening to me. in what condition was the bonus when it did disappear?
Issues :
1) a large scale unitline rework is planned which will take care of that
2) i'm gonna move the frozen to inactive modules till i get the time to redesign them.
3) see above
4) fixed next commit
5) fixed next commit, forts now act like cities in matters of invisibility
6)yeah i need to move chain of command to core, i'll do it soon
7)should be fixed next commit, leash promotions won't propagate through owner change.
8) i need more balance reports concerning emergent leaders like that. Do you think reorx needs more points per actions, more possible actions giving points or just a lower requirement?
9) fixed next commit
Thoughts :
1) I don't really want to block a religion based on a civ's presence or not. Later, if i do something with the branch religion idea, i might have the researchable religion be a smaller less powerful cult than the proper auric version.
2) good point, i'll probably change it.
3) i'll see what i can do.
