Gedemon's Civilization, development thread

And so update for the City Banner
Code:
- add new UI for City Banners
- add ability to set different percentage bars in string format using FontIcons
- move YnAMP database update for Starting Resources at the end of its SQL file in case YnAMP is not activated

The Health, Housing and Citizen icons are just placeholders ATM, the 4 others display tool tips on mouse over for the stock of the four different types of resource: food, luxuries, strategic, equipment
 
In a previous post some time ago we've talked about the wood resource and the possibility to remove a forest in steps, allowing one plot to provide more than one-time boost for stock of wood, much needed for building a navy.

I've had a look at the .artdef, and I've added 2 new features : Dense Forest and Sparse Forest that you can see in the following screenshot below the Stone resource:
Spoiler :
Clipboard-4.jpg


When removed a "Dense Forest" feature becomes a "Forest" feature, and a removed "Forest" feature becomes a "Sparse Forest". Of course you get more Woods from a Dense Forest than a Sparse Forest (when removing the feature or when working the plot)

They have different stats too (wood resource value, defense value, movement cost, ...), that I may tweak further.

I may add a Forest growth mechanism at some point in the mod, technically not difficult, but not sure if it's needed or even wanted, as it would reduce the importance of the decision of cutting down a forest to get a fleet of Trireme now vs keeping a dense forest in prevision of an armada of Ships-of-the-Line in the Renaissance...
 
Related update:
Code:
- add new features: "Sparse" and "Dense" Forests
- progressive removal of forests using builders: dense -> normal -> sparse -> removed
- tweak Cities artdef files
- bug fix : show correct percentage bar for city population (progress before next size) on city banners
 
New update
Code:
- add Health value in city and dynamic change (but no gameplay effect yet)
- add Health and Housing tooltip in city banners
- change the TechTree UI to be more compact, replacing the research path by an highlight of required techs, to prepare the addition of more techs.
- add Agriculture, Herbalism and Surgery technologies

Try to test the Health values of cities in different positions, see how big you can get a city before you get in negative Health, and let me know how the values may be tweaked... .

Spoiler Health Tooltip :
Clipboard-9.jpg
 
In a previous post some time ago we've talked about the wood resource and the possibility to remove a forest in steps, allowing one plot to provide more than one-time boost for stock of wood, much needed for building a navy.

I've had a look at the .artdef, and I've added 2 new features : Dense Forest and Sparse Forest that you can see in the following screenshot below the Stone resource:


When removed a "Dense Forest" feature becomes a "Forest" feature, and a removed "Forest" feature becomes a "Sparse Forest". Of course you get more Woods from a Dense Forest than a Sparse Forest (when removing the feature or when working the plot)

They have different stats too (wood resource value, defense value, movement cost, ...), that I may tweak further.

Awesome! This is right up my alley. I think we can also use this for a lot of other cool game mechanics. For e.g. Dense Forest can cost Horse and Vehicle units more movement points to move through, compared to Forest. Sparse forest wouldn't affect movement at all, but could still block vision (how many tiles further you can see) and/or unit defense bonuses (a foot unit could use the trees as cover from ranged/mounted).

I may add a Forest growth mechanism at some point in the mod, technically not difficult, but not sure if it's needed or even wanted, as it would reduce the importance of the decision of cutting down a forest to get a fleet of Trireme now vs keeping a dense forest in prevision of an armada of Ships-of-the-Line in the Renaissance...
Yes, please do! Forests have been bugging me ever since I started playing Civ4. It's silly that if you chop down a forest in 3000 BC, no forest will ever reclaim the tile for 5000 years...

I would personally love to have forest growth as it means you can cut in order to build ships now, but then you'd have to wait for the forest to regrow. I'm mostly familiar with Northern European forestry, so I can't speak for Savanna, Mangrooves, Rainforest etc. Anyway, it takes about 70-100 years for Spruces to grow large enough to be suitable for timber (Sweden), but species like Pines, Oak and other important species require at least 100 years. Historically, lumberjacks would have selected the largest and most suitable trees for cutting (the oldest), and they would have left the thinner (younger) trees in order to let them grow.

If you go for age, rather than density per se, then the longer you let the forest grow before cutting, the better quality and more lumber you'd get. You could even have a scale and ratio where the density (age) of the Forest would determine how much Firewood/Pulp vs Timber, you'd get. A player cutting the forests often, would recieve less Timber. Or if you want, you could simply have a mechanic where each Forest feature accumulates more of the "Timber" resource every turn. Though there should be a maximum cap of course, since trees can grow old, but after 100-150 years, the forest wouldn't yield a lot more timber, due to forest fires, diseases etc.

In the early game, forests would regrow quickly, but later in the game you'd have to wait more turns (since number of years per turn would decrease). Clearcutting (removing forest feature completely) without building any improvement on the tile, should allow the forest to regenerate, i.e. spawning a new (sparse?) Forest on the tile.

Ideally, once you acquire the Lumbermill improvement. The Lumbermill improvement would cut the forest automatically, if the city needs timber at the start of turn, meaning that you wouldn't have to use builders to do it manually in the later part of the game.

Then there's other stuff that I'd like to be included, in no particular order:
  • Wood being used for fuel (+production adjacency to Copper/Iron mines)
  • Deforestation, meaning clearing forests and reducing forest density should lead to decreased yields of adjacent farms, due to increased soil erosion. Exception would be flood plains.
  • Deforestation near deserts, could increase desertification.
  • Lack of fuel would increase sickness/mortality (in the winter months, and northern hemispheres).
 
We're on the same page, yes, that was already coded in for Forests:
- Dense Forests cost 1 more movement point than normal forests and provide a bigger defense bonus
- Sparse Forests don't cost more movement points (than normal plain/grass) but do block vision and provide a small defense bonus

I don't know if it's possible to select which units are affected by the cost/defense (to give penalty to mounted units in forests), if there are example in the base game or other mods, let me know which modifiers to use.

It's not short term, but we'll see if a global mechanism for renewing resources could be made, but that means having a way to select when/where doing so. Not working a tile should do the trick for wood, deers, and other renewable land resources, but fish/crabs and other water resources would require a different way.

Forest could have a growth rate slowed by of the number of wood resources exploited from the plot each turn. Saving position of cleared forests is possible, as well as adding new Sparse Forests near old Forests. jungle could be included in such a mechanism too.

We could also have some Environmental policies: collect less resources per turn, but replenish faster.

About fuel for cold environment preventing health issues, yes, that should be a part of population needs, with fur clothes (shared with units, for which I'm preparing the Health-related functions ATM)

Changing yield dynamically and locally based on a new mechanism of the mod (like resource collection and stockpile) is not possible with the current tools.

Terraforming (ie desertification) is not possible with the civ6 graphical engine (unless you force a reload, not something you want on a big map)
 
Update:
Code:
- cosmetic: remove over-sized buildings from Cities (Palace, Granary, Monument)
- bug fix : add trade route to buildings replacing the Market
- bug fix : fix TechTree not displayed after researching the first Tech that has Prerequisites
- bug fix : Skirmisher units shouldn't have ZoC
- add dynamic Health value to units (no gameplay effect yet)

Spoiler Units Health :
Clipboard-3.jpg
 
Last edited:
Small update
Code:
- TechTree : highlight technologies prerequisites on 3 levels (instead of just the direct prerequisite), using different transparency value for each level
 
Small update
Code:
- separate NeedsEffect cache calculation from application, to allow UI initial call without affecting gameplay (show need effects immediately on reload)
- UI : update NeedsEffect tooltip and add it to the Population Icon on the City Banner.
- bug fix : possible Error when setting Health values for a new unit
 
Small update
Code:
- UI : add City and surrounding Terrain production in Stock Tooltip of City Banners
 
Small update
Code:
- bug fix : error during city turns when checking the UpperClass max/min percent
- add functions to allow saving of custom options (true/false), by replacing one of the main game (app or user) option (but which one ?)
- prepare changes to City Banner Tooltips
 
New update, with working Custom Tooltips
Code:
- add custom Tooltip and code to allow switching between different display using left/right mouse buttons
- bug fix : do not change active UI Lens when in special Interface Modes
- UI : move Units flag lower when in Cities

Spoiler Changing "Tab" and view mode :
Clipboard-11.jpg
Clipboard-12.jpg
Clipboard-13.jpg
Clipboard-14.jpg
Clipboard-15.jpg
 
Small update
Code:
- add Melee unit : Heavy Landsknecht to fix Heavy Phalanx not upgrading to normal Landsknecht because of the Weight of armors in the upgrade function
- bug fix : add Automatic Rifles to Cavalry Weapons Class
- bug fix : add Forester icon
- bug fix : check the full upgrade path of Buildings before allowing construction
 
Small update
Code:
- change Forester icon
- remove Market being a prerequisite for Bank, as the Market can be replaced
- fix Heavy Landsknecht name
 
Changing yield dynamically and locally based on a new mechanism of the mod (like resource collection and stockpile) is not possible with the current tools.

Terraforming (ie desertification) is not possible with the civ6 graphical engine (unless you force a reload, not something you want on a big map)
So it looks like with the new addon it could be possible. So might this be a requirement for this mod?
 
Maybe, I'd prefer to avoid this kind of requirement, but I do want Natural Disasters. It will depend how moddable they will be (ie if they can be integrated with the mechanisms of this mod)
 
Update
Code:
- rewrite default filter for production panel to not hide everything that can't be started
- bug fix : Landsknecht can be trained, not just bought
- bug fix : Recruitment Centre should not be available when a city doesn't have enough equipment to create the recruit unit

Now the production panel show too much, I'll tweak the filter it a bit more.
 
So I just updated to the most recent version and noticed that the Modern Civilizations are now a part of the mod. That is cool and fine and all, but I was a little worried that something might be buggy because American, Saudi Arabia, and England don't match up exactly with the rest of the civs on their Icons. England has the colored icon on the left (all the other ones have it on the right) and has a ? for leader on the right. American and Saudi Arabia both just have a repeat of their colored icons twice, while all the other nations just have the left icon as a solid white version. Is that intentional because you don't have the art for it yet? Or is something bugging out with the modern nations?
 
Yes those civs are placeholder, what I wanted is to integrate the code to add new simple Civilizations so I can start testing dynamic modifications (changing colors and name in game)
 
:D Alright well I played it for a bit and I really enjoyed everything so far. Definitely being able to do local taxes in my cities has made the economy significantly easier to handle, as I can alternate back and forth between taxes (while making material) and building what I actually want without running out of material and bankrupting my economy. Traders still have no material cost, another thing I noticed was that all the civs seem to show the uniques for all other civs in the tech tree and such.

I hope that eventually (if it isn't already set up like this already) the existing civs get updated with the appropriate music and city styles that are introduced in R&F and GS down the line. I want my cities to look like Korea if I play Korea (And to hear Korean music) instead of all of Asia looking pretty samey in both sound and city art. But I know you have not been in a rush to get the expansions :p Which is fine, it is just a want for later down the line.
 
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