Looking for feedback on a mod idea (Enhancing Logistics) ...

[NCommander]

Hey all,

I've been playing Civ5 for awhile, and finally got around to downloading the mod tools, and design ideas for a mod and was hoping for some feedback. In general, I do love Civ5, but there are some things that grate me, and parts of me who just want to see how the game might play if some the mechanics are different. I'm fairly sure given the Lua capabilities most of this can be implemented (disembarking rules, I'm not *so* sure on)

While I want this mod to do a fair bit of tweaking, I need to keep it rather basic for a first release, thus one of the larger things I want to revamp is how embarking works. Any thoughts from expert modders would be most welcome

- Most units do not gain embarkation abilities.
- Units can be loaded as cargo once Optics is researched if the unit and the ship are in the same city. Optics grants "Can Carry Cargo" promotion to naval units. Land Units gain the ability to be loaded as cargo.
- Disembarking requires a friendly city. (Exception: Settlers/Workers can disembark directly onto adjacent land)
- Marines retain current embark-anywhere behavior but are limited to shallow water (this might not be possible with the way the embark promotion works). Possibly mod one of the civs UA/UUs to also have this ability
- New Unit: Transport Ship - can carry three units vs. just one.

 

[Putmalk]

I can't give you any advice but I can say have fun and good luck with this one. You'll have to be really good at LUA to get that to work correctly.

 

[NCommander]

I can't give you any advice but I can say have fun and good luck with this one. You'll have to be really good at LUA to get that to work correctly.

So I started digging into how cargo and such works. Unfortunately, modbuddy doesn't work under Linux, so I'm installing CivV+SDK into a VM now and started to look at the Lua files more in-depth.

Cargo appears to be relatively straightforward, there are a few Lua handlers for it, but the basics are in XML. Units that can be loaded as cargo are denoted as SpecialCargo in the XML, and that combined with a cargo promotion allows a unit to carry them. (i.e., Carriers have CARGO_III and SpecialUnit FIGHTER). Upshot of this is if you define SpecialCargo for your basic land units, they should be able to load. I'll do some testing with this a bit later.

That being said, my biggest fear: the AI pretty much all hardcoded in the DLL, and I don't think I can get it to work properly if the embarkation methods are changed heavily (unless there's a way to hint things to the AI via Lua but I'm not seeing much of anything).

(while I know the DLL source is coming "real soon now", its annoying how much of this is relatively undocumented).

I also guess the market for mods where AIs don't work is relatively low :-/.

 

[3335d]

This is an excellent idea! However, when one is bringing troops across an ocean, the embark and disembark restriction could pose a problem. It requires a foothold on a given continent, which may come in the form of a less-than-optimally-placed city unless you want your settler taken by Barbarians. You may permanently lose access to important resources in this case.

 

[NCommander]

This is an excellent idea! However, when one is bringing troops across an ocean, the embark and disembark restriction could pose a problem. It requires a foothold on a given continent, which may come in the form of a less-than-optimally-placed city unless you want your settler taken by Barbarians. You may permanently lose access to important resources in this case.

The general idea is this is the start of a more general logistics mod, having transport aircraft and actual trains (which have unlimited movement but have to move along railroads). If it wasn't for the issues with implementing custom tile improvements, I'd also add a Seaport tile improvement which allows loading/unloading outside of a city (and can be built outside cities like Forts can now).

Unfortunately this weekend become a waste so not sure when I'll get more time to work on this.

 

[3335d]

You can create additional improvements. I don't have the link, but there is a thread in which the author (a remarkably talented modder, nevertheless) found a way to create new improvements and even had a picture of improvements with the Great Library and Hanging Gardens graphics. Sure, go ahead and create a Dock improvement. However, for the sake of game balance it would have to be buildable in one turn and outside of friendly territory.