Island Conquests 3.1 just released!

[striq]

Well after alot of work and many suggestions later.... Here it is Island Conquests Version 3.10. I am happy to say that this is a complete and working version, all files and text should be up to date. Included are 3 different world sized biq files (yes there is a multiplayer).

<<<<EDIT>>> Make sure to download the attached zip, it has the new bic files that fix a minor bug. Also make sure to download the brewery pcx file and place it in the IC\art\civilopedia\icons\buildings folder. If you don't do this the game will crash once you reach the modern era.

For no waiting to download, check out this scenario at Evolution Games http://www.evo-games.net/Home/viewtopic.php?t=661

Or, download it here from 3D Downloads.


-Post 10 has the barbarian fixer for conquests.
-Post 26 has a the alternate map add on, released 5-30-05

Just extract the zip into your conquests/scenarios folder and go to the civ content area to load up the game. In the zip are some handy readme files that give a few tips and list the changes to date. I have playtested this scenario and haven't found any problems. It should be challenging on Monarch (at least it is for me). Have fun and tell me what you think and please post any comments or problems in this thread.

I probably should explain the scenario a bit...
Well, for starters, all of the maps are hand built archipelagos. The only way to win is by conquest. When you capture a city it retains its culture. Pick your civ from 14 different civs, all altered or added on from civ conq. The pirates and scallawags are 2 civs the human players cannot choose. Techs should come faster as you build your empire through expansion and inevitable war. Resources are abundant and needed for many units and city improvments. There are 9 lux. and they are also useful for buildings and units. The barbarians can be found almost every where, some of them can be powerful early on. The techs loosly follow civ conquests techs with a few major changes, additions, and omitions. Each Civ has at least 1 unique tech that allows a building or wonder. Many civs have multiple UUs but only one gives a golden age. 2 new government forms, fundamentalism and Thalassocracy (check them out in the *working* civlopedia). Many new units. Many existing units altered.

 

[Landmonitor]

Great! I'll download it tonight and let you know what I think!

 

[striq]

kewhl man. I look forward to your comments.

 

[Landmonitor]

I'm playing through the biggest map on Monarch with the Japanese. I usually play normal Civ or Rise and Rule on Emperor, but go back to Monarch for unfamiliar scenarios that have lots of changes from the original. Right now, I'm at around 2500 BC, I've met Byzantines, Rome, England, Sparta, and Persia, and I can see the Pirates, Zulus, and Dutch on the map but haven't met them yet.

What I really like:

The resources are plentiful! Although I noticed that they are a lot more plentiful in my neck of the woods than, say, near England or Persia.

With so many resources, you really made me think about where to put cities which is always good.

The Barbarians are really well done, and although most individual units are still easy to kill (unlike R&R), their tactical raiders and master swordsmen are still a problem when you run into them.

The new resources add a lot of flavour, and the different units needing different luxuries are a good idea (wine, silk, and others needed for various units is a good idea). Pitch, lumber, and quarries should be in all scenarios I think.

The map is really well designed, although I'm feeling more and more like I lucked out picking Japan. I'd never played them before, which is why picked them, but so far, I like my starting location the best out of all the land I've seen. This is what an archipelago should be!

Also, I really like what you've done to the tech tree, and I'm waiting with my civ-specific tech to jump to one of the ancient tree end-techs or possibly even an early middle ages. The government specific wonders are a nice touch too. That tournament tempts me towards a monarchy! I also appreciate that this a nicely done scenario that still manages to contain the feel of an epic game. I'm not a fan of scenarios that, although very well put together, focus on one era (which is necessary in most real-life scenarios). Its fun to play a WWII game, but Panzer General IIISE did that a lot better than CIV3 can, (although specific games for ears other than WWII and Rome don't really exist, and the scenarios that cover one era very comprehensively, like Rood, Going Viking, Reconquista, etc. are top notch, they are just not for me, neither are any of the conquests). To me the best part of CIV is watching your empire develop into a modern one.

What I don't like:

Nothing, really! If I notice anything as I play, I'll let you know!

All in all, a really good scenario, thanks for your effort! I probably won't have much time to play games at all in the next few days, (RL has many demands!) but I'll let you know what happens with this as I go.

 

[striq]

Thanks for all the feedback! I think you lucked out with your starting spot, not with Japan. The starting locations are fixed but the civ that starts on them are random, for more replayability.
About scenario: It is not meant to be real, or reflect any time in history. It was designed to be a fun island hopping game that would not be like any of the scenarios or mods out there. Concequently it can be a little quirky or weird but I tried to make it challenging and enjoyable.

 

[JohnnyBuck9]

I always loved playing Island Maps. This mod feels good with all that production, culture keeping, etc.
Started one as well on Monarch just to check it out. Got Zulu and am doing well in the southern hemisphere. Took out the Pirates and now heading east to do battle with Carthage.
I appreciate your efforts striq, keep up the exceleent work!

Cheers j

 

[striq]

I always loved playing Island Maps.
Cheers j

What map size are you playing on?

 

[GoUtes53]

I was playing your scenario as the Spartans. All seemed very nice indeed, and I had researched and changed to Oligarchy, built Spartan Society, and had a road built to iron and had iron in my resource box, but no where could I build the Victory at Thermopylae Wonder. Am I missing something, because according to the Civliopedia that is all that should need to be done to be able to build it?

UPDATE====After I closed the scneario down and restarted all is fine and it will let me build the Victory at Thermopylae wonder.

 

[striq]

I was playing your scenario as the Spartans. All seemed very nice indeed, and I had researched and changed to Oligarchy, built Spartan Society, and had a road built to iron and had iron in my resource box, but no where could I build the Victory at Thermopylae Wonder. Am I missing something, because according to the Civliopedia that is all that should need to be done to be able to build it?

UPDATE====After I closed the scneario down and restarted all is fine and it will let me build the Victory at Thermopylae wonder.

hmm, so there is no problem? I'm glad it is working correctly. One more thing, because the victory at thermopylae causes cities to grow above city size 12 you cannot build it in a city that already has a hospital.

 

[striq]

I would just like to add that barbarians are broken in conquests v1.22 and need to be fixed. I didn't know about this before and it does make a big difference. Without the fix, the barbs just kind of stand around until your unit is right next to them. With the fix barbs should patrol around a bit making them more dynamic (and correct). This link downloads the fix and shouldn't affect saved games. http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civassist/BarbFixer.zip

 

[GoUtes53]

Sticq,

How do you get the Chain Gang to work? I can't seem to figur out how to get them to rush build a project. The Civilopedia says it is the only way for the Spartans to rush a project under Oligraphy.

 

[striq]

GoUtes53:

BTW, it is Striq.... j/k

Right, that is a little confusing. You will have to disband them in a city, I think they are worth 75 or 100 sheilds of production... I originaly had them with the hurry improvment flag but it didn't work correctly in the game, this was the second option.

 

[GoUtes53]

Striq,

Tried disbanding the Chain Gang in a city and it did absolutely nothign except kill off the unit. No monetary gain, nothing towards rushing the item I was building. Just killed the Chain Gang.

UPDATE----Several turns later this started working, although I am not sure exactly why.

 

[striq]

GoUtes53

this is strange indeed... seems like something with your civ might be wacked out. I would try to reinstall conquests if I were you.

 

[striq]

Also, I really like what you've done to the tech tree, and I'm waiting with my civ-specific tech to jump to one of the ancient tree end-techs or possibly even an early middle ages.

Japan is one of the civs where 'saving' your civ specific tech untill later can save alot of research time. Beginning with the middle ages techs get more expensive and it can take a while to research, (even after the massive resource and commerce bonuses are applied) so getting a free tech then can save you 10 turns or more, as opposed to researching it early and getting a free tech you chould have researched in 5 turns any way. Japan has the Geisha House and it gives happiness and culture and requires silk to build. This is the kind of building that your civ could live without early on and this makes pushing off the research even further.
Below are some more tech related tips, it is only a little spoiler, more like strategy.

Spoiler :

The Byzantines are also a good civ for the tatic stated above. When playing with the dutch, zulu, mongols, and vikings: it is a good idea to research your civ specific tech early (if you have the resources to build the building) on and maximize the benifits of their unique buildings.

 

[Merum]

Hi...

I've downloaded this scenario, and am enjoying it quite a bit. However, I have a problem now. I'm playing Japanese, on Regent. I'm at 230BC, and the game won't progress to 220BC. It just stops in the interturn. The game doesn't crash to the desktop, or do anything else, it just sits there, with an hourglass. My CPU usage spikes up to 95-99% and the whole thing just sits there forever. I tried waiting to see if it's a really long interturn, since there are a bunch of wars happening, but I've let 30 minutes go by and it still just sits there.

I've been trying to post a save, but each time I hit the attachment button, the new version of firefox crashes on me. PM me with a contact and I'll email it if anybody thinks the save might be helpful in finding the problem.

Thanks!

 

[Landmonitor]

Oh man, that sucks, hope that doesn't happen to me. Good luck fixing it! I'm defending a thesis on Wednesday, so I dont' think I'll be playing too much Civ before that! (After, on the other hand....)

I'm in a race for the lighthouse and don't want to play this scenario again until I can give it the 3h+ it deserves, so I'm sure I'll have more comments about it after that (I really like talking about this game, but for some reason, my friends change the subject whenever I bring it up... wonder why?..)

 

[striq]

Merum:

I feel for you man... This is a new one to me. I have played the game well past 220BC with a number of the civs and nothing like this (turn times aren't too bad either, with the standard map full of cities about 5 min on 1.2 athalon) has happened to me. I will PM you my email and you cand send me a save, I'll check it out on my PC if you'd like; however, I doubt it is the scenario. Untill I check it out I can't say for sure.

Landmonitor:

I'm glad you are enjoying the game, I was getting frustrated because no one was really posting anything much, good or bad. Oh and I posted a link to this scenario on another bbs and in the thread poll the only vote for the scenario so far is "horrible". What!? I wouldn't say its horrible... well, I look forward to hearing your comments as the game progresses. Good luck on the Lighthouse, that would be good for Japan.

 

[Merum]

One thing I noticed, and perhaps this really doesn't have anything to do with it at all, is that the Military academy is supposed to finish for me this turn... I dunno if that could possibly make a difference or not, but... never know.

btw, Striq, email sent... You're welcome to post your comments back here, for all to benefit. Thanks for the support!

 

[striq]

Merum:

The only advice I can give you is to load a previous save and go from there, hopefully this will solve the problem. I did encounter a strange error right after I restarted my computer (after your save game hung the program). It told me my antivirus was *somehow* internally corrupt... and I should uninstall and reinstall it. This leads me to believe that the save game file has been corrupted somehow. BTW, if the problem was the millitary academy you would see a civilization, "missing entry/file", error and it would crash to the desktop. Also I have built the millitary academy twice with no incident.