Well it's certainly seems like a long time since I last gave an update, eh? Time to fix that!
Here's what's up. I haven't spent a lot of time between the holidays and now playing Civ III (I've been writing, reflecting, meditating, contemplating, working, etc), but I've been tweaking some things in LWC in the mean time. So it hasn't been constant work, but plenty has gotten done
While I'm not done and there's still more I want to do before I call it version 1.0 (which will be the next version

), such as I haven't implemented the government change and there's plenty more tweaking to be done, I think it will take too long to do it while in the meantime there is no playable version available.
Thus I am now in the process of wrapping everything up (such as adding pediaicon entrys so the tech tree doesn't look all screwy, putting little text things on the unit icons so you can tell them apart, etc), and I hope it shall be done _very_ soon! In the next few days, even!
This will be called LWC_ERP1, which stands for: Long Winded Changes, Early Release Preview 1. It's an amazingly small download compared to the other versions because of the improved way Gramphos' CopyTool now does unit .ini's (illiminating duplicate unit animation downloads).
As I finish up what I already know I want done (finish balancing the units out, change the government system) I will release "Release Candidates", such as LWC_RC1, LWC_RC2, et al, until a stable reasonably-bugless version is available. Then a full version will be released, incrementing the version number of the LWC mod.
Thus each version update will be far more reliably stable, and fully worth loosing your old saved games to update to the new version
This way people who want a stable version can just download the 'main' version, while people who don't mind running into a bug in exchange for "the newest thing" can help test out the changes to LWC.
I'll save the complete details till I post it, but here's a teaser of new additions:
Civilization Advances:
Saddle: Yes, it's a Saddle. No, not that kind of Saddle...although...
Anyway, it goes along with a changing of the power of the Horseman units in that I want them available later than they are now. You'll see...muahahaha!
No Stirrup advance needed for now.
Hullmaking: Sailing, sailing, over the bounding Coracle!
...doesn't have quite the right ring to it, does it? Anyhow, a post Map Making advance which allows the first real wars on the water.
Squirearchy: SCHULTZ! SCHUUUULTZ!
...oh, sorry, that's not available till way later. But this is available in the early Middle Ages after Chivarly.
Volunteerism: "Wait a second...you mean, you want me to
volunteer to join the Army? Hahaha, hahaha, HAHAHAHA!
...alright."
Advanced Naval Warfare: "Ah, it's just a nice day for a cruise, isn't it honey?
...honey?!"
Buildings:
Coastal Gun Placements: Now take the place of Coastal Fortress.
Coastal Fortress: Modernized version of Coastal Gun Placements (more powerful, doesn't need Saltpeter, more expensive).
Mill: The first "Power Plant", available in the Middle Ages.
Guild Hall: Reduces corruption in the Middle Ages, requires Courthouse be in the city to be built.
FBI Office: Police Station for the Modern Age, requires a Police Station be in the city to be built.
Sewer Sytem: Pollution reducing improvement, available thanks to the wonderful invention that is Sanitation. Can't hurt happiness, either.
City Dump: When oceans and rivers just aren't enough, why not dig a great big hole in the ground and put your toxic waste there? Pollution reducing improvement which isn't a boon for happiness.
National Constitution: Ok, it's not the most logical fit to become available with Scientific Method, but are you really going to complain about having a 2nd Forbidden Palace (more or less)?
Computerized Oversight: Kind of hard to fudge a few mathematical statements in a proposal when you have a supercomputer capable of 250,000,000,000 computations a second evaluating every aspect of it, ya know? The science abusing charalatons won't be happy to be exposed for being the
lying bastards that they are, but it'll put a grin on just about everyone else's face, and you can't complain about a 3rd Forbidden Palace in the modern age (more or less).
AI Governing Prototype: "I'm sorry, I can't do that Dave." Gives ya the heebejeebeez, doesn't it? But a 4th Forbidden Palace available at the end of the game isn't all that bad. Besides, this thing is just a small prototype...but, of what?
Units (Name: type, age available):
Land Units
Barbarian: Basic Barbarian unit (rather than Warrior, stronger).
Raider: Advanced Barbarian unit (rather than Horseman, as strong as changed Horseman).
Pioneer: Expansionist only Settler, early-middle Ancient Age (Map Making).
Mounted Scout: Not-as-good Scout for non-expansionists, early Ancient Age.
Man At Arms: Offensive footsoldier, early Middle Age.
Musket Infantry: Offensive footsoldier, late Middle.
Shock Troops (requires population): Offensive footsoldier, early-middle Industrial.
Machine Gunner: Offensive footsoldier, late Industrial.
Modern Infantry: Defensive footsoldier, early Modern.
Assault Troops: Offensive footsoldier, middle Modern.
Special Ops Team: Offensive footsoldier, late Modern.
Naval Units
Coracle: Transport, available from begining.
Warship: Power/Bombard, middle-late Ancient.
Corporate Privateer: Power/Bombard (no national markings), earlyish Industrial.
Steel Warship: Power/Bombard, middle Industrial.
Modern Transport: Transport, early Modern.
Modern Destroyer: Power/Bombard, early Modern.
Nuclear Battleship: Power/Bombard, middle Modern.
Nuclear Carrier: Air Transport, middle Modern.
Diesel Submarine: Power, middle Modern.
Nuclear Attack Sub: Power, middle Modern.
Air Units
Transport Plane: Transport, end of Industrial.
Modern Bomber: Bombard, middle Modern.
And currently over 100 entrys to the changes file, with each entry being a change for a certain entry in the editor. For instance changing the cost, available time, maintananence, and effect of a Wonder counts as 1 change; changing the amount of resources given by forests and the shields required to get 1 gold through wealth count as 2.
Tweaks during the development are not counted, so all 100 have a current effect in the game.
All things subject to change, no guarantee I didn't make an error here, yadda yadda yadda.
Still need to finish balancing of the late-modern naval units, then I can wrap it all up and post it. Hope to have it done by Wednesday, but regardless it
should be done before the end of the week, barring only something happening in real life that stops me from doing so.
Enjoy the enticipation, and try not to slobber too much :cute: