Getting Started

[Txurce]

I may start a 1.0.6 game tonight without CSD or Tech Overflow (which I haven't seen), and report back after I conquer something.

 

[Perkus]

Yikes. That sure sounded like something I might have left in from testing. But I searched my mod and didn't find any blahs. Or anywhere in either of my 2 mod directories. I don't have 1.0.6 yet to check that. However, there are 5 files with "blah" in vanilla Assets, in various xml files. The only one with 2 BLAHs in caps is in Generic Popups.xml

<Label Anchor="C,T" Offset="0,0" ColorSet="Beige_Black" Font="TwCenMT22" FontStyle="Shadow" String="BLAH BLAH" ID="PopupText" WrapWidth="450" LeadingOffset="-8"/>

I don't know what that's used for, but it's presumably the culprit.

EDIT: I D'L'ed 1.0.6 and search that, too. No Blahs. Presumably one of the mods is triggering some sort of "generic popup" which is not being properly initialized, hence the case of the blahs.

 

[Txurce]

There's been a series of additions to the upcoming patch contents list. These include giving horses a city penalty, melee units ahead of range, and having to spend SPs when you get them. There's a good amount of overlap from these mods, and some additions. Very encouraging, I thought.

 

[Seek]

Ok, thanks Perkus. I took the city with horsemen, and was beginning to think someone snuck a serious nerf in undocumented!

 

[Txurce]

Ok, thanks Perkus. I took the city with horsemen, and was beginning to think someone snuck a serious nerf in undocumented!

Yes - the nuclear option for diehards who won't use combined arms.

Very funny post.

 

[Riot_Starter]

Not sure how many people have tried the dev version, but I'm not getting my free policy during era changes. Anyone else getting this?

 

[Txurce]

I noticed that at the start, then wondered if the mod had been revised. But yes, I also did not get a free SP at the start of a new age.

 

[Seek]

In my game I was getting it, but on the following turn.

 

[Riot_Starter]

In my game I was getting it, but on the following turn.

I've played though a whole game now and I still haven't received a free one.

 

[gruven]

I was playing with 1.0.6 last night. I saw both of the problems mentioned recently.

1) I kept seeing messages between turns that Rome lost its capital. Then instantly there was a message that Rome regained its capital. I sent a scout over to see what was going on. Russia would capture the city fair and square and then it would revert back and a Roman pike would appear next to the city! Saw it happen many turns in a row.

2) Later in that same game I tried to capture an American city that was formerly Askia's capital. I saw the "Blah Blah" popup and couldn't continue. It happened on reloading as well.

3) I didn't get any free policies in the game, but it did say 6 were required for Utopia.

 

[rhammer640]

As far as the city state issues, you guys should try playing with gazebo's city state diplomacy mod. He already got rid of all 'kill other city state' quests as well as replaced the gold gifting with a new diplomatic unit that you train and send to the city state for a 55 influence boost. It works so much better because you end up befriending city states based off of their proximity to your civ. The AI uses them very well. No conflict with Thal's mods or any other that I have found. It is also complete with icon and unit graphics.

I wanted to post this because that mod alone has made me start playing civ 5 again, it adds another whole layer of fun to the game and it is balanced perfectly already and therefore would rather thal not try to tweak the same things and make it so that they aren't compatible. Its currently the only mod i consider a must have..

Here's the link to the forum post http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=392543

 

[SlightlyMad]

The diplomat idea is interesting, but it basically just turns "pay them gold for favor" into "use gold to buy a unit to send to them for favor." It's the exact same transaction except with more annoying micro-management.

 

[rhammer640]

Ok, I'll concede that point and if that was the only difference I agree it would be a pointless mod, but what makes it more realistic is that instead of paying to have gold sent magically halfway across the world to a city state your scout met last turn, you have to move the diplo unit there, which turns out that you end up allying with those relatively close to you first. You also have to be careful because they can be captured like workers, thus making barbarians a threat to the diplomatic city state process. The AI does this as well. It also makes it impossible to just buy a diplo victory because you can only have a certain number of diplo units at one time, so until each gets to its destination you cant 'buy' more. Also unlike in vanilla where the AI ends up just invading most of the City states, the mod changes it so that the AI is less likely to do that. It also makes it more interesting to play the game when pursuing a peaceful victory instead of just hitting 'next turn'.

Anyway, all i have to say is try playing with it cause i had doubts at first as well but like i said a lot of the changes ppl were suggesting a page or so back in this thread are already in that mod and i hate to see two talented modders modding the same things.

 

[Thalassicus]

I've updated the dev version, where I completed code for partisans and city-state conquering. This was very fun to program and I'd love to hear feedback!

• : Capturing a city causes 1 partisan to rally near the defender's capital (like earlier versions of Civ). The partisan created is a 0xp unit of the highest- resourceless type available to the defender.
  Goal: help AIs fight back after their initial defensive army is wiped out.
  .
• : Capturing gives a one time bonus equal to approximately 15 turns of alliance. I'm working on notifications for these events.
  • Maritime: "Food looted from the Maritime City-State of <city> allowed your capital to grow by +1 Citizen.
  • Cultural: "Looted cultural artifacts from the Cultural City-State of <city> increased your empire's Culture by <culture>"
  • Militaristic: "Your <unit> conscripted citizens from the Militaristic City-State of <city> into your army." (duplicates capturing unit)
  Goal: make it more worthwhile to conquer CSs (generally a bad idea in vanilla).

@Seek
That was due to incomplete city capture code in the Balance - Combat doCityCapture function (part of the new additions above). I had an error in a line looking for capital cities.

@Txurce
Adding a vs city penalty to horsemen is an obvious option to nerf them... but there was some reason I avoided doing that. I don't remember the exact reason, but I think it might have been I feel a comprehensive change to several problematic game mechanics is a better solution than nerfing that 1 unit.

@Riot_Starter
The free policy upon era change had a bug I fixed in the latest version.

@rhammer640
The city state diplomacy mod has some very interesting ideas and I tried it out for a while. I just want to use an approach closer to vanilla to solve the issues for this mod.


-----
I'm looking over the new information on the upcoming patch, very nice to see several issues I've been addressing in the gameplay changes section.

* Science building track adjustments (cost, specialist slots, GP Points, etc). (Added 11/18)
* Amount of damage caused during naval combat increased. (Added 11/18)
* Melee horse units combat value lowered, and now receive a penalty when attacking cities. (Added 11/18)
* Lowered bonuses received from Maritime city-states. (Added 11/18)
* Removed maintenance from defensive buildings. (Added 11/18)
* Multiple unit upgrade track adjustments. Most (but not all) units now have a full upgrade path from start to finish. (Added 11/18)
* Open terrain penalty lowered. (Added 11/18)

• City Development
• Combat
• Combat
• Diplomacy
• City Development
• Combat
• Combat

 

[rhammer640]

@rhammer640
The city state diplomacy mod has some very interesting ideas and I tried it out for a while. I just want to use an approach closer to vanilla to solve the issues for this mod.

Fair enough. I also wanted to re-ask a question that was asked earlier but never answered about whether or not the free cultural policy at every era is meant to or could be played with the other cultural adjustment mod that was posted in the discussion thread? I'm not sure if it will result in too many policies even though you increased the requirement for winning by one more.

Also, I wanted to thank you for keeping your mods separated so that ppl can pick and chose which ones to install because there are so many mods out there that I like a piece of but its buried under nine million other changes to every aspect of the game and it would mess with all the other mods, etc. I suppose i could learn how to mod myself....but I'm way to lazy for that, lol.

 

[Thalassicus]

Thanks! I prefer a modular approach as well.

@jacktannery
You can use the culture calibration mod if you want, I think it should be completely compatible with this one and shouldn't cause any real issues.

 

[Txurce]

rhammer640,

I'm curious abut the Diplomacy mod, but view that as major enough to keep out of this playtest until the Balance mods "settle" a little.

Thal,

I didn't ask anything about horsemen nerf - but I will be curious as to how the patch handles this, given their access to more tools.

I'll be starting a game with 1.0.7 plus Harder Free Tech, Emigration, Liberation, and Tech Diffusion today. The partisan idea is a classic oldie, and the CS changes sound fantastic.

Some questions I have due to all the recent downloads and updates:

-I assume CD v10 is current, not v9.

-Compatibility-InGame.xml (v6) downloaded, but the browser says another version of this mod is already enabled. Since I don't see it, is it under a different file name?

-I'm using Emigration v2, as opposed to v1(modded).

-I no longer have the Cultural Calibration mod. Was this incorporated into one of the Balance mods, or did I delete it by mistake?

-Less importantly, have you considered adding the Capital Railroad Boost?

 

[Thalassicus]

CD v9 is the correct version. I'd increased to v10 without realizing v9 had not yet been released.

"Thal's Utilities" replaces "Compatibility-InGame.xml".

Emigration v2 is perfectly fine if you like it. The main difference is killmeplease did #emigrants = between 5/10 and 1/10, randomized. I feel that's a bit high, and prefer a predictable mechanism where #emigrants = 1/10. In addition, he keeps an average of the past 3*gamespeed turns while I keep 10*gamespeed. At 1/10 rate it's a severe penalty to drop into unhappiness, since 15&#8594;14 represents 30-50 turns of lost growth. The higher ratio kicking in sooner can really cripple your empire. One city captured in a conquest could result in a loss of 5 citizens just 1-3 turns later.

You probably deleted Culture Calibration by mistake.

I have a "central station" building on my todo list, just haven't gotten around to it yet. I have to ask permission to use this concept from the mod creator who did it.

 

[Txurce]

Thanks, Thal. I'm all set. I started a game and have a band of nine inverted triangles over a horizontal line below every unit. Any idea what mods may be causing this?

 

[Seek]

I've updated the dev version, where I completed code for partisans and city-state conquering. This was very fun to program and I'd love to hear feedback!

• : Capturing a city causes 1 partisan to rally near the defender's capital (like earlier versions of Civ). The partisan created is a 0xp unit of the highest- resourceless type available to the defender.
  Goal: help AIs fight back after their initial defensive army is wiped out.
  .
• : Capturing gives a one time bonus equal to approximately 15 turns of alliance. I'm working on notifications for these events.
  • Maritime: "Food looted from the Maritime City-State of <city> allowed your capital to grow by +1 Citizen.
  • Cultural: "Looted cultural artifacts from the Cultural City-State of <city> increased your empire's Culture by <culture>"
  • Militaristic: "Your <unit> conscripted citizens from the Militaristic City-State of <city> into your army. (duplicates capturing unit)
  Goal: make it more worthwhile to conquer CSs (generally a bad idea in vanilla).

@Seek
That was due to incomplete city capture code in the Balance - Combat doCityCapture function (part of the new additions above). I had an error in a line looking for capital cities.

Ah, I totally forgot about the Partisans! I've been wracking my brains trying to think of something that was altered to affect city capture, but didn't realize it was you were including in this update. Really like these two additions, maybe I'll turn the "kill city state" quests back on. You mentioned that the modifiers are skewed toward this type of quest, can/did you adjust these?

One other thing: I know it would be more work for you, but could you do something like CCMAT for Balance - Combined? You can keep it modular with the method Jooyo used, but it would be much simpler to just tick one mod instead of ten. (I also have a modbrowser issue that prevents me from having multiple pages of mods; there's a workaround, but if I have too many mods I won't be able to access some of them.)

Said it before, but I'll say it again:
Thanks for all the work you're doing, Thal!