Imperialism 3 - Now with 100% more Lua!

[CurtSibling]

Thanks, @tootall_2012 !
Good show with the playtest...
I'll prepare a new zip and upload the "danger terrain" and other Lua upgrades later today.
The changes added should all be save-friendly.

Also, I will take your feedback on board for the elite regiments.
I might make them buildable with both the University (representing an elite academy) and Barracks improvements...?

 

[tootall_2012]

Thanks, @tootall_2012 !
Good show with the playtest...
I'll prepare a new zip and upload the "danger terrain" and other Lua upgrades later today.
The changes added should all be save-friendly.

That sounds great. Let me know if there are any special new features I need to look out for.

Also, I will take your feedback on board for the elite regiments.
I might make them buildable with both the University (representing an elite academy) and Barracks improvements...?

I think University/Barracks sounds like a very plausible combination.

I forgot to ask as well. I noticed that the current victory conditions are based on the traditional empire building scenarios. Is that your overall intent or did you plan on changing that to an objective based scenario? Personally, in a scenario like this I would be more prone to the latter than the former because it makes your game objectives more clearly defined but that is your decision to make. I'm just curious to know.

 

[CurtSibling]

Hi there, @tootall_2012 !

Attached is the latest update for the Alt Generals version you are using. This is "Imperialism v4", distinct from the usual v3 mode.

What to expect now is a 10 gold cost for each military attack, and this affects the AI too. Also if you "kill" a Labourer or Engineer,
you now capture them, and the unit will spawn on the same tile as the attacker. The AI, and even barbs can do this. But you can
always try and "rescue" your civilians!

The Elite Regt is now reliant on University and Barracks, and can hopefully be built anywhere with these facilities. Let me know
if it works, or seems too OP. The fact that you could build these tough units anywhere was the main reason I restricted them.

Finally, the dangerous terrain - ! Be careful when you have units on Desert, Jungle and Glacier, as the terrible conditions will
sap the strength of your troops, making them easy prey for enemies. Of course the same can happen to AI, so use it to your
advantage! I felt these changes (kindly guided by Prof Garfield) added some strategy and a bit of depth to the campaign.

On the subject of objectives, the scenario ends in 1900, so it was really my intent to allow the player to see what he could do
by that date. Leaving "victory" to be something you decide. If you own the mightiest and most dominating empire in the world,
unchallenged by all others...That is a good time to close the campaign. There is no real historical goal to aim for.

My WW2 scenario, Overlords relies heavily on objectives, of course. It's a sort of sequel to this scenario,
with "Vendetta" being the last chapter in a trilogy of CIV2 creations using this world map. More on that soon!

Just drop all the files in the zip into your Imperialism III v4 folder...Overwrite everything.
Let me know how you get on, and if any errors pop up.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Curt,

Hi there, @tootall_2012 !
Attached is the latest update for the Alt Generals version you are using. This is "Imperialism v4", distinct from the usual v3 mode.

Thanks! I grabbed the files and placed them in my scenariop folder as directed (though I created a back up of the scenario beforehand just in case).

What to expect now is a 10 gold cost for each military attack, and this affects the AI too.

I can confirm this new feature works but oh, that's an important change!

As you already know funds have been an issue for the Russian Empire since the beginning of the scenario. I'm now on December 1873, which translates to 48 turns played. I've undoudtedly launched on average 5 to 10 attacks per turn since the beginning which would loosely translate to around 3600 gold pieces (my treasury currently stands at 3569 gold).

In this case, I think I'm going to turn on the cheat mode and subtract 3250 from my treasury to return play balance based on this latest feature.

It would certainly have had an important impact when I was running very low on funds. It would certainly help the Germans whose defences are currently crumbling under my relentless offensive, as I will have to be more selective in my attacks moving forward since I'm conducting two large offensives, one in Europe and the other in Asia.

Also if you "kill" a Labourer or Engineer, you now capture them, and the unit will spawn on the same tile as the attacker. The AI, and even barbs can do this. But you can always try and "rescue" your civilians!

I can confirm this works. It seems like a powerful feature as Engineers in particular are quite expensive to build. If you can bypass this cost by simply capturing them it will certanly make things easier.

I guess there certainly is precedence for nations of this time using forced (aka captured) labor.

The Elite Regt is now reliant on University and Barracks, and can hopefully be built anywhere with these facilities. Let me know
if it works, or seems too OP. The fact that you could build these tough units anywhere was the main reason I restricted them.

Yes, I can see your concern now as I went from being able to build a maximum of 9 such units at any given time to potentially at least 20 currently (as I possess 20 universities). Though certainly not all of these cities are productive powerhouses and I would probably still be building regular infantry units, who cost half as much, in many of them.

All the same, you might consider adding the 'Local Industry' as a building requirement and perhaps increase the cost from 80 to 100 or even 120 production points.

Finally, the dangerous terrain - ! Be careful when you have units on Desert, Jungle and Glacier, as the terrible conditions will
sap the strength of your troops, making them easy prey for enemies. Of course the same can happen to AI, so use it to your
advantage! I felt these changes (kindly guided by Prof Garfield) added some strategy and a bit of depth to the campaign.

I can confirm this works, though I don't believe I will be overly affected by this change as there aren't that many desert, glacier or jungle tiles in my particular theaters of operations.

On the subject of objectives, the scenario ends in 1900, so it was really my intent to allow the player to see what he could do
by that date. Leaving "victory" to be something you decide. If you own the mightiest and most dominating empire in the world,
unchallenged by all others...That is a good time to close the campaign. There is no real historical goal to aim for.

Understood. As I mentioned, I was primarily curious to know if the current victory conditions set up were you intent or not.

 

[CurtSibling]

Thanks for the feedback, sir! We will see how it goes in the playthrough...I am interested to see how things pan out for you. If it gets too stretched for cash, I have a tip.

In your Imperialism3 folder, if you go to the "LuaTriggerEvents" folder, and finally the "UniversalTriggerEvents" folder, you will see a file called "onUnitKilled"...

Go into that file notice the line:

local campaignCost = 10

Feel free to change the 10 to 5, or 2 - I won't hold it against you.
The scenario should have a challenge, but drained funds are no fun!

 

[tootall_2012]

Thanks for the info but I think I'm going to keep the cost at 10 as you originally intended. As I indicated, I reduced my treasury from 3569 to 319 gold pieces and now have to be much more selective in my attacks (which in the short run is a good thing for the Germans as I've captured Krakow, Konigsberg, Prague, Danzig, Leipzig, Tromso, Lulea and finally Berlin from them).

For sure, it places a greater financial burden on you but at the same time it feels more realistic. Military campaigns have always been an expensive enterprise and your enhancement adequately reflects that reality.

I also don't want to use the trick of selling improvements to bolster my treasury. Agricola and I always disagreed about this tactic. He felt if the game mechanics allowed it that it was fair game whereas I always felt it was unrealistic. To each his own but it's not a tactic I will be using in my game. If my treasury runs out and the game mechanics starts selling off more of my improvements then that's another matter but it's a situation I always strive to avoid.

I just need to plan better moving forward. I'm also roughly 20 turns away from researching Banking which should help place me on a path to solvency.

 

[CurtSibling]

Excellent news on your conquest! Long life to the Tsar!

Don't forget to trade some techs if the chance arises...You might have something the Neutrals would like.

 

[CurtSibling]

If you use the Ctrl-G grid terrain tile layout, I have made a new icons file with tidier grids and unit cursors, and new battle explosions too.

Please feel free to try it out. Just drag into your Imperialism 3 folder and overwrite...

 

[tootall_2012]

Excellent news on your conquest! Long life to the Tsar!

Don't forget to trade some techs if the chance arises...You might have something the Neutrals would like.

Thanks for the tip. I've only been playing the game for 20 odd years so I completely forgot about trading techs!

I was able to get Banking and Industrialization from the Independents and Americans respectively who each wanted the only tech I had to trade, i.e. Amphibious Warfare.

I've already started building Banks as a consequence.

If you use the Ctrl-G grid terrain tile layout, I have made a new icons file with tidier grids and unit cursors, and new battle explosions too.

Please feel free to try it out. Just drag into your Imperialism 3 folder and overwrite...

I like the new unit cursor and battle explosions but are a little more on the fence for the grid as I might feel it's a little too cluttered (perhaps it just a matter of adjusting to the change)..

Barbarian Tartar Cavalry about to pay for their arrogance of crossing the desert.

Finally, I'm on February 1874 and are continuing my advance in Germany with the further capture of Budapest and Munich. It turns out since I'm in Germany proper that as I continue to capture their cities that they are funding my offensive at the same time (as each captured city is adding roughly 80 gold to my treasury and on average I only need 2-4 attacks to liberate each one). This would not have been the case when I was initially fighting the border wars with them as I would have had to fund my attacks entirely from my own treasury..

 

[CurtSibling]

Nice updates, sir!

Yes, I too noticed the campaign cost is a little extra element of strategy in the game. With the Prof's help, I am going to initiate an extention of the code that allows for things like zepplins and battleships to cost more to attack, which makes sense. I'd also like for airparks to cost money to send items around the world, but we will see.

As for the terrain grid, please feel free to edit them to your own tastes, mix and match into what visually works for you. I can rustle up some variations I have in mind for the grid and post them soon. Also, good to hear that your western campaign is going well, and all those banks will soon make a difference!

 

[tootall_2012]

A quick question.

According to the tech tree 'Mfg Goods' are only available after discovering the 'RailRoads' advance.

But now that I've discovered the 'Banking' advance and have built my first banks I see that I can now build 'Mfg Goods' in cities with banks.

Looking at the canBuildSettings.lua file I see that the the following code sets banks as the prerequisite building for these units:

unitTypeBuild[object.uMfgGoods.id] = {allImprovements={object.iBank}}

As such, shouldn't 'Mfg Goods' be associated to the 'Banking' advance instead?

 

[CurtSibling]

Ah, in Lua, I had initally set the Mfg Goods to be buildable with a grand rail station, but considered that too laborious an improvement to wait for building trade units...
I think I may change it back, as it makes more sense to have a larger city with a big railyard to be sending out trains laden with goods. What do you think?

 

[CurtSibling]

If you want to change the requirements for the Mfg Goods, go to the canBuildSettings.lua file and replace:

unitTypeBuild[object.uMfgGoods.id] = {allImprovements={object.iBank}}

with:

unitTypeBuild[object.uMfgGoods.id] = {allImprovements={object.iGrandRailStation}}

 

[tootall_2012]

After playing 52 turns, I've only built 6 Grand Rail Stations because 1) there quite expensive to build (500 hammers) and 2) because only cities with with a high railroad network around them truly benefit from them. It's only been 3 or 4 turns since I've received the Banking tech and I've already built 11 Banks and are currently building 11 more. At that rate I should be pumping out Mfg Goods in no time, which should give me the opportunity to truly increase my Treasury to the point where my gold reserves concerns will be a thing of the past.

On the other hand, if I only have a few cities that can build Mfg Goods that should reduce this over abundance of trade units. At the same time, I wouldn't necessarily want the same cities to be able to build a plethora of such units and them rehome them to other friendly cities before sending them off to foreign lands. Is it possible to prevent the rehoming of trade units, i.e. therefore each city with a Grand Rail Station could only build a maximum of three such units each?

If you want to change the requirements for the Mfg Goods, go to the canBuildSettings.lua file and replace:

unitTypeBuild[object.uMfgGoods.id] = {allImprovements={object.iBank}}

with:

unitTypeBuild[object.uMfgGoods.id] = {allImprovements={object.iGrandRailStation}}

Yes, I think I'm going to make that change and in the meantime limit myself to building a maximum of three such units per the cities in question (it will be easy to track by the number of trade routes the cities have).

 

[CurtSibling]

Good show, sir!
Let me know how it goes...At the very least, you'll have less trade units to micro-manage all at once.

 

[CurtSibling]

Some new hi res cursors - Good for knowing what unit needs attention! Just copy/paste them over the existing cursors.

 

[CurtSibling]

Spiffy Victorian version...

 

[tootall_2012]

Another quick update. It's September 1874.

I've managed to build 27 Banks to date and after 57 turns have finally turned my financial woes around to where I'm now generating a sufficient surplus that I've been able to reduce my tax rate from 70 to 60%, which has reduced my research rate from one tech every 38 to 28 turns (while still generating 70 plus gold per turn).

I've overrun continental Germany proper save Aalborg and it's five southern cities in Scandinavia. I'm amassing troops on my border with France and should be declaring war on them in the very near future. Britain on the other hand has just launched a sneak attack on me though the bulk of our forces are not in close contact at this time.

My offensive in the Far East is moving more slowly but I have overrun Manchuria and captured Port Arthur and Seoul and should be completing my capture of the Korean Peninsula in a few turns when I seize Busan.

Finally, after some more play through I would recommend that you probably not apply the attrition feature to the Oriental (Barbarian) power as you can see from the image below they are being ravaged all on their own and therefore in many situations cease to be a serious threat to the human player.

 

[CurtSibling]

Nice work, Tootall...! I can see the momentum and hard effort is now paying off...

I'll see if certain barb units can be made exempt from terrain dangers, which would make them pretty nice to bribe as "specialists".

 

[CurtSibling]

Updated the unit art and name for the Finnish barbs. They are now "Finnish Rifles", and have the same capabilities...Just look more like Irregulars with a Russo-flavour.