Imperialism 3 - Now with 100% more Lua!

[tootall_2012]

Hmmm - The sprite thing is damned annoying. Nothing in that section has been changed since your last playthrough. Naturally, I have no problems at all here.
The fact that you re-installed ToT might have something to do with the issue? Maybe check the animation SPR files in "original" folder?

I found it odd as well since it worked perfectly fine in my TOTPP 0.15 instance. I re-checked again and both instances appear to have the same settings and files. Very peculiar indeed!

In the meantime, I'm using the UnitShieldColor flag to compensate for the tribe colours and as you say that works fine for me.

@COSMIC2
UnitShieldColor, 31

 

[Civinator]

tootall_2012, may be I have found the source of that problem:

1. In my ToTPP the Imperialism scenario, as posted, is running under Win 10 without any problems, especially no sprite problems. The animated units in the graphics window are grayed out.

2. I closed TOTPP, reopened it and started my Galactic Conquests Mod, one of very few mods with animated Civ 2 ToT units. Here I selected in the graphics window 'animated units'. Than I closed my mod and TOTPP again.

3. Then I started TOTPP and the Imperialism scenario again. And now it happened: I had the original animated sprites when the units were activated - despite the fact, that the graphics window still has grayed out "animated units".

4. I closed the scenario and TOTPP, made a new start with TOTPP of my Galactic Conquests Mod and deactivated the "Animated Units" selection in the graphics window. Than I closed my mod and TOTPP again.

5. I made another start of TOTPP and the Imperialism scenario and now the animated original sprites were gone when a unit was activated.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What helped here was starting a ToT game with animated units and deactivate the selection of animated units in that game.

BtW: I have the impression, that the new version of TOTPP makes the game running much smoother and faster under Win 10.

 

[Civinator]

Hmmm - The sprite thing is damned annoying. Nothing in that section has been changed since your last playthrough.

But there is something, that was changed: A new installation of ToT. This is a one pipe problem.

 

[CurtSibling]

But there is something, that was changed: A new installation of ToT. This is a one pipe problem.

"My dear boy! You are positively scintillating!"

 

[Civinator]

"My dear boy! You are positively scintillating!"

Yes, I have learnt that idiom and the explanation by you some years ago with a 'three pipe problem'.

Edit: ... and I like this scenario.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Curt,

Just a quick question:

After receiving the “Breech Loaders” advance in a trade with the British, I noticed that I can no longer build any type of artillery as the ‘Rifled Gun’ becomes obsolete with that tech and it should technically be replaced by its more advanced ‘Artillery’ unit counterpart.

But looking closer at the canBuildSettings.lua file, I see that the ‘Artillery’ unit requires both the Factory and Steel Mill improvements to produce. But the Steel Mill requires the more advanced “Steel Industry” and “Corporation” technologies, neither of which I or any other powers currently possess. Thus I fear I will be unable to build artillery for some time to come (my current research rate is one advance per 23 turns).

As such, shouldn’t the ‘Rifled Gun’ unit only become obsolete with the ‘Steel Industry’ advance instead?

(NOTE: For the time being I replayed from the previous turn and cancelled this particular tech trade).

 

[CurtSibling]

@tootall_2012
I noticed that too, so I made the Rifled Gun go finally obsolete when the Field Artillery is available, so colonial cities can always build some kind of cannon.

Sorry about that! Current rules attached.

 

[CurtSibling]

Latest updates to the terrain is on the 1st page. Fixed some river bugs, and redone some resources.

 

[tootall_2012]

@tootall_2012
I noticed that too, so I made the Rifled Gun go finally obsolete when the Field Artillery is available, so colonial cities can always build some kind of cannon.

Sorry about that! Current rules attached.

I uploaded the latest rules file, re-started the scenario, made the trade with Britain and now can continue to build Rifled Guns!

Thank you for the quick reply!

 

[CurtSibling]

My pleasure, sir! And thanks for playing through these mini-bugs!

 

[voltar]

Couple of cities in South America placed on jungle, causing some issues as units in 'em suffer dmg, dunno if that's intentional.

 

[CurtSibling]

Couple of cities in South America placed on jungle, causing some issues as units in 'em suffer dmg, dunno if that's intentional.

It's intentional. They are build on fruit lands. But jungles are famous for making people sick. Malaria?
Put a worker or engineer in and irrigate to grassland, that will solve the disease. Then convert to cultivated land for a big food boost.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Curt,

Just another brief update. I’ve reached February 1883 (turn 158).

As France, I've currently overrun Spain (save Gibraltar), Italy, Denmark. Central Europe is divided between me and Russia as I hold the cities from Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, Budapest to Belgrade. I own all of North Africa from Marrakesh to Port Said and are currently working my way down the Nile Valley with Aswan my latest conquest.

I continue to have a firm hold around Senegal and Central Africa and have slowly been expanding in these areas at the expense of the Oriental power. I’ve conquered all of Madagascar and what was formerly known as French Indochina.

As I control the Palace of Versailles, I can easily switch between any type of government but operate primarily as a Democracy which economically allows me to generate a surplus of 260 gold units per turn. The fact that you switched the Mfg Goods prerequisite to Grand Rail Station makes managing these units much easier and nonetheless still allows me to have an active trading relation, primarily with America and thus on average my treasury stands around 10000 to 12000 gold pieces.

Scientifically, my research rate stands at 1 advance per 12 turns and I possess 56 technologies, which I’ve acquired through research, trade and purchases. By contrast the other powers own: America 47, Britain 55, Germany 33, Independents 32, Japan 34, Russia 31.

I’m currently building Factories and Steel Mills in my cities which finally will allow me to start producing some of the more advanced weapons systems.

I have just a couple of minor questions:

• Since the game starts with the map fully uncovered, what is the idea behind the ‘Expedition’ unit?
• Is France’s Volitgeur Guards more or less the equivalent perhaps of Russia’s ‘Elite Regiment’? If so shouldn’t they be a buildable unit as well, though limited to maybe just a couple of French cities? For now, in the game, I only just received my second one, after playing 158 turns.

And one final observation:

The AI builds a lot of naval units, and I mean a lot, like in the hundreds for almost each AI power (and I haven't yet played half the scenario). To the point were even getting out of your own ports is sometimes almost near impossible when you are at peace. Case in point:

I plan on preparing an excel sheet at the end of my play through to track all the active/built/killed units per power to see the final tally. Perhaps this was part of your design but if not I suspect I might want to recommend you increase the cost of naval units to reduce these numbers?

All in all the game continues to run extremely well and I haven’t come across any other logical or lua bugs to date.

I continue to enjoy playing this very much, as France has proven to be a very interesting challenge.

 

[Civinator]

Hello Curt,

I am now in my testgame with Germany in February 1876 and I have to say, that I enjoy your scenario a lot.

During the whole game I was (and I am) only with two civs in constant war, after both civs launched surprise attacks against me: France and Japan (the Orientals of course are another fraction). After conquering Paris with its Versailles wonder, I am in permanent government Autocracy with only 20 % science. I am playing in the recommended "General" difficulty, what - until now - seems to be a little bit too easy in that game, even with many unexplained events happening in that scenario. On the other side, may be that until now I was lucky, that I didn´t run in big event triggered problems: Some small Balcan revolts - this was it. The funniest thing was a message, after I had conquered Turkey, that now Turkish rebells will raise up to regain their land - and nobody came.

Civ 2 is much better suited for such a game than Civ 3, as Civ 2 has caravan units (mfg.goods) that can be brought to cities of other civs for benefit, while a kind of workaround for those missing caravan units in Civ 3 must be brought to predefined victory spots or the capital. The benefit of those operations in Civ 2 is also much better differentiated as it is in Civ 3. Another very positive point is, that the Civ 2 terrain is much better suited for such a scenario as it is the Civ 3 terrain. Landscape without cities, that can be crossed both by land units and by ships, as they exist per example near Constantinople or the "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal" (near Hamburg) are not possible in Civ 3.

And I want to point to a setting in the scenario, where a reflection about changing it, could be appropriate:

The cities Heraklion and Nicosia (islands Crete and Cypres) are belonging to the Oriental civ (Barbarians) and both only produced military units during the complete game. Now the following happened, when my agent contacted Nicosia and one turn later Heraklion:

In both cases I received a complete city with naval defense buildings and tons of defense units, in the case of Heraklion 13 land units for only 278 gold! I hope, those ultra-cheap land units can cover my defense during my complete African and Arabian campaign against the Oriental civ. From the focus of game design, I think, this is much too much.

Wouldn´t it be better to assign both islands (and may be some other islands with the same problem) to the Independent civ (or other civs, that not only build units and cannot be bribed so cheap) ?

Edit: I shouldn´t have posted about luck with event triggered revolts. One turn later I have to deal with a big revolt of the Finns, threatening the northern part of my empire. Now my strongholds that were created long ago as defense against Russia can proof if they were worth it. A little remaining luck seems to be that some Finns are marching towards Russia.

 

[tootall_2012]

Oops, it seems as though I may have reached the unit limit for the scenario...

which according to the TOTPP launcher is set by default at 4096...

I did a very rough count of all the major powers units and that seems correct.

Should I increase the limit to 6000?

 

[CurtSibling]

@tootall_2012
I have my unit limit at 7500, and with no problems. The game is quite stable. I am going to look into Lua and see if there is a way to limit the amount for certain units like, naval warships. 100 per civ is more than enough.

@Civinator
The recommendation for difficultly is a left over from earlier builds. I now think playing on King level is the true experience. I'll take your feedback about Heraklion and Nicosia on board. You make a good point.
Germany also is more at threat by AI civs, rather than the barbs. Put your Boer allies against the zulu uprising in 1878 for a good challenge.

 

[tootall_2012]

@tootall_2012
I have my unit limit at 7500, and with no problems. The game is quite stable. I am going to look into Lua and see if there is a way to limit the amount for certain units like, naval warships. 100 per civ is more than enough.

I had raised my limit, just as a test, to 4500 to see if I was able to continue building and it worked.

Thanks for letting me know it can even go as high as 7500.

 

[Civinator]

Put your Boer allies against the zulu uprising in 1878 for a good challenge.

I had to edit my last post, as one turn later I ran into a big revolt of the Finns... and my Boers are always prepared.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

And one final observation:

The AI builds a lot of naval units, and I mean a lot, like in the hundreds for almost each AI power (and I haven't yet played half the scenario). To the point were even getting out of your own ports is sometimes almost near impossible when you are at peace. Case in point:

It might be worth opening the cheat mode and checking if the AI cities have ground units they could be building instead. Perhaps there are cities that only have the option to build ships. The game's logic makes it so the AI can't build certain units even if the human player could under the same circumstances, but I don't remember the criteria. (I think it has something to do with position in the units list or availability of 'better' unit.)

I plan on preparing an excel sheet at the end of my play through to track all the active/built/killed units per power to see the final tally. Perhaps this was part of your design but if not I suspect I might want to recommend you increase the cost of naval units to reduce these numbers?

What information do you want for this? For OTR, I coded up an event that would gather desired information about the game state when the game was loaded, and produced the output in a csv file (which can be opened in Excel). That would save the trouble of manually copying the desired data. Since this has come up twice, I wonder if it would make sense to include this sort of functionality as part of the template.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Prof. Garfield,

It might be worth opening the cheat mode and checking if the AI cities have ground units they could be building instead. Perhaps there are cities that only have the option to build ships. The game's logic makes it so the AI can't build certain units even if the human player could under the same circumstances, but I don't remember the criteria. (I think it has something to do with position in the units list or availability of 'better' unit.)

Of course this is Curt's scenario and any changes he may want to make or not are entirely up to him to decide.

For my part, I was simply making the observation that the AI was producing a very large number of naval units. That's not entirely untypical for it to do so, particularly on a map that has many large continents and number of ports but I felt it worthwhile to note that these numbers were beginning to be an obstacle to the movement of the human players own naval units.

As I recall, I had a similar experience with Napoleon, where the island nation of Britain was building perhaps an overly large amount of such units and my own personal remedy was simply to increase the productive cost of said units and that had the desired effect.

I did take a quick look through the cheat mode and the AI appears to have the normal selection of units based on the building prerequisites, be they coastal or inland cities.

What information do you want for this? For OTR, I coded up an event that would gather desired information about the game state when the game was loaded, and produced the output in a csv file (which can be opened in Excel). That would save the trouble of manually copying the desired data. Since this has come up twice, I wonder if it would make sense to include this sort of functionality as part of the template.

I've attached, for your review, a sample excel file I created for civ2units when I tested his AWI scenario .

I've found this file to be an invaluable tool when testing my own designs. As most of my scenarios are conceived to be played as one specific nation and often represent specific battles or wars, the file allows me to do two things:

• Compare all the nations unit ratios and determine if any adjustments are required to establish better play balance
• Determine which units the AI is building or not and make any necessary modifications either to the events or rules files to compensate when deemed appropriate.

The file allows me to do this by tracking the units that each power starts with, how many they have still active at the end of the scenario and how many where killed during the scenario.

As Imperialism 3 is a more open game concept, and not trying to reproduce a specific historical battle but more an era, the file probably wouldn't be as useful for point one but could definitely help to see which units the different AI powers were building or not (at least in my current play through all the other powers save France, which I control).