[MEGA MODCOMP] Conqueror's Delight

[xienwolf]

DP,

I had looked over your code to see how you handled multiple invisi types on units (as part of gaining them by promotion) and I just wanted to say that I am not seeing how your units can ever LOSE invisibility once gained by a promotion. It might be that you don't intend for there to be any way to lose those promotions though, so not an issue for you, or that I was reading the code wrong


Anyway, still lots of nice ideas in here. I especially liked the way you handled City Art Styles. Hadn't thought to have them be mutable before, but it is a really nice touch.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

I just wanted to give you thanx for this mod DPII. Thanx to this mod I have been able to resume work on my complete rework of the diplomacy between AIs and Humans. I had abandoned it as lost in the exe until I got to look at your new Slavery code. Props man, keep up the good work.

Wow.. that's almost touching

Yeah, 3.17 gave us some cool new stuff to play with regards to diplomacy (little known secret).

I've actually added much more diplomatic options, but they haven't been incorporated into Conqueror's Delight. They include Contact with a 3rd party, Embassies, trading Corporations, trading votes in the UN...

The one serious problem is that you can't include anything that has a quantified value. For example, I'd like to be able to trade yields so you could trade Food to other players, but the ability to get that little popup like with Gold isn't possible (still hardcoded). So unless I only allowed increments like 1, 5 and 10 Food units, it won't work (and I'm not keen on that option).

DP,

I had looked over your code to see how you handled multiple invisi types on units (as part of gaining them by promotion) and I just wanted to say that I am not seeing how your units can ever LOSE invisibility once gained by a promotion. It might be that you don't intend for there to be any way to lose those promotions though, so not an issue for you, or that I was reading the code wrong

No, you're not. I hadn't really planned for the promotion being removed, but considering that I'm working with Zebra to have swappable promotions, maybe I should fix that I'm thinking of just changing it to a boolean array. I would've done that originally, but I decided to just build off the existing code which already had an array for seeing invisible types. I may scrap it altogether.

Anyway, still lots of nice ideas in here. I especially liked the way you handled City Art Styles. Hadn't thought to have them be mutable before, but it is a really nice touch.

Well, seemed like a pretty reasonable course for what I needed to do.

 

[xienwolf]

Boolean arrays are bad juju. I'd slap you for thinking about them


I think the best way to handle it is precisely how you have it handled now, just add a line to remove an Invis type from the vector when the promotion is lost. Having multiple entries of the same invis type won't matter, because if a unit can see that invis type, they'll get a pass on all cases of it. So multiple Instances is a non-issue really. That ensures that if you have 2 promotions providing the same Invis type you don't completely lose that Invis type by losing ONE of those promotions.

Course, I also think you ought to have the invis and see invis set up to input as a vector just like UnitInfo See Invis does now. Code is already in place to do it, so why not?

 

[Jeckel]

Hmm, interested to see your other changes to the diplomacy. I am planning to add the trading of contacts with other Civs, but other then that I am dealing mainly with war, alliances, and pacts. At the moment I have Military Alliance done, it is basicly like a Defense Pact, but they go to war with you and you go to war with them when ever and however it happens, the MA only being broke when one party brakes it or one of their Teams changes. Most of the ones I am planning are like that, so I don't think I will get into the problem with the popup, but I will think about a work around and see if I can come up with anything.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Boolean arrays are bad juju. I'd slap you for thinking about them


I think the best way to handle it is precisely how you have it handled now, just add a line to remove an Invis type from the vector when the promotion is lost. Having multiple entries of the same invis type won't matter, because if a unit can see that invis type, they'll get a pass on all cases of it. So multiple Instances is a non-issue really. That ensures that if you have 2 promotions providing the same Invis type you don't completely lose that Invis type by losing ONE of those promotions.

Yeah, I mispoke... not a boolean array, but rather an integer array that counts the number of see invisibles and invisibles. So if the unit has the invisible type from the start, the count will be 1, and if you get a promotion that gives it, the count will be 2. Then you canhave a boolean that returns true or false based on if the count is greater than 0.

Course, I also think you ought to have the invis and see invis set up to input as a vector just like UnitInfo See Invis does now. Code is already in place to do it, so why not?

Well, that's what I did. The problem comes in when trying to remove an invisible/see invisible. And actually having multiple entries does cause a problem. I remember running into issues, but I don't remember exactly what it was.

EDIT: Actually, one of the things I need to work on is when units have multiple invisible types. Right now, if a unit has an invisible type that makes it invisible in trees and another that makes it invisible on hills, the unit will appear to another unit that has the ability to see the forest invisible type even if the other unit is standing on a hill.

 

[ripple01]

Hi DPII,

I had posted this a couple of pages back but I think it got lost in the shuffle:

Just a thought, but after seeing Ekmek's newly released Attila LH, could it be modded that when the Barbarians Ransom your cities, an optional LH comes up? Might be kind of a neat touch, to make the Barbarians feel a little more important or something, of course I don't know how difficult it is, or if its even possible...

Cheers,
ripple01

 

[Vrenir]

With the equipment system, I would like to know if every equipment piece is interchangeable or if you can make some mutually exclusive. The example that I'm thinking of is armor: can a unit be given both bronze and iron plate if it has two equipment slots open? Is there some way that you could make equipment go into categories: armor, weaponry, etc?

I also second the query about giving the barbarians leaderheads.

Finally, can the barbarian tribes have unique units and buildings? I'm guessing not, but it seemed worth asking.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Hi DPII,

I had posted this a couple of pages back but I think it got lost in the shuffle:

Just a thought, but after seeing Ekmek's newly released Attila LH, could it be modded that when the Barbarians Ransom your cities, an optional LH comes up? Might be kind of a neat touch, to make the Barbarians feel a little more important or something, of course I don't know how difficult it is, or if its even possible...

Cheers,
ripple01

I also second the query about giving the barbarians leaderheads.

Finally, can the barbarian tribes have unique units and buildings? I'm guessing not, but it seemed worth asking.

The next version will have UUs for barbarian tribes. I didn't see much of a point for UBs though... I'm open to hearing your case for it though

As far as leaderheads go, I am fairly certain it's not possible to do this. What could potentially be possible is a static image of the barb leader or tribe emblem that would appear in any relevant popups.

With the equipment system, I would like to know if every equipment piece is interchangeable or if you can make some mutually exclusive. The example that I'm thinking of is armor: can a unit be given both bronze and iron plate if it has two equipment slots open? Is there some way that you could make equipment go into categories: armor, weaponry, etc?

They're already separated into categories. The "equipment" is just promotions that have been flagged as equipment. So each Promotion has a new <PromotionClassType> tag in the XML. Each unit has a max number of slots for each promotion class. So, for example, a Battleship might have more armament slots than a Destroyer or something...

So to use the bronze/iron plate example, if the "Armor" promotion class slot of that particular unit has only one space (as one would expect), you can only have one piece of equipment for that unit in that slot at a time. And the promotion classes are not hard-coded, so you can go into the XML and add as many promotion classes as you like. And if you have promotion classes that might only pertain to certain kinds of units (like a ship doesn't need a "Helmet" promotion class obviously), just leave the unit's promotion limit for that promotion class at 0.

I'm not actually developing the promotion screen myself. I've teamed up with Zebra 9 for this one. I haven't actually seen the screenshots of it yet, but I know he's made a lot of progress and we discussed the design quite a bit before beginning.

 

[Vrenir]

Sorry for further questions, but I have a few....

Is it true that promotions can change the visual appearance of a unit? In other words, if you have a man equipped with a rifle instead of a crossbow, can you have the same unit show up with a different item in his hand, or does there need to be a completely separate art file for every permutation? (Man with chain armor, man with chain armor and crossbow, man with chain armor and rifle, man with rifle, man with crossbow, etc.)

For puppet states, since I was unable to play the mod without a CTD long enough to access this feature, I was wondering if it selects the puppet state civ and leader in the same way that a colony does (using the possible split-offs list for your own civ in the XML)? Or does it create a duplicate of the civ that you have been attacking with a different ruler in charge?

Ideally, I think that you could differentiate these by having the colony spawn from your civ, but having puppet states spawn from the civ that you are attacking.

Again, that could be the way it is already and I simply don't know that.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Sorry for further questions, but I have a few....

Is it true that promotions can change the visual appearance of a unit? In other words, if you have a man equipped with a rifle instead of a crossbow, can you have the same unit show up with a different item in his hand, or does there need to be a completely separate art file for every permutation? (Man with chain armor, man with chain armor and crossbow, man with chain armor and rifle, man with rifle, man with crossbow, etc.)

It is true that promotions can change the visual appearance of a unit. From what I'm told (because I have no experience with this myself), the model has to be designed with changes in the model built in. You can't design a separate model and incorporate it into the model. If you look at the Afterworld scenario, it utilizes this promotion change. I believe it uses different KFM files to make the equipment appear or disappear on the model.

Unfortunately, the unit maker has to make their model with this feature in mind, and so far no unit maker seems to have done that. It's a shame too because I think this is arguably the greatest untapped (and unknown) game resource provided in BtS.

For puppet states, since I was unable to play the mod without a CTD long enough to access this feature, I was wondering if it selects the puppet state civ and leader in the same way that a colony does (using the possible split-offs list for your own civ in the XML)? Or does it create a duplicate of the civ that you have been attacking with a different ruler in charge?

Ideally, I think that you could differentiate these by having the colony spawn from your civ, but having puppet states spawn from the civ that you are attacking.

Again, that could be the way it is already and I simply don't know that.

It uses a mechanic similar to the colony mechanic. And yes, it does base the best civ choice off of the city that has lost the city and not the capturing civilization. The parent civ is also set to be the city that has lost the city.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Its been a long time since your last release. Any word on when a new version is coming? I'd hate to take the time trying to merge it with FfH (which is probably still well beyond my programming skill anyway) just before a new version is released. Any change I could convince you to include JImprovementLimit and JCultureControl in the next version too? And maybe to make some things (puppet states, unit trading through diplomacy, the 2 modcomps I just recommended) into Game Options?

 

[mice]

Dom Pedro, first congrats on the brilliant concepts.

Unfortunately I can't get past turn one. I'm not using tectonics map as another poster said this causes a CTD. No custom assets changes, no nothing just a clean 3.17, but CTDs always. Any help would be appreciated.

Are other players playing with the 3.17 version dl from the first post ?

 

[Zebra 9]

Ok the screen is almost complete (I need to talk with DPII in private fo the rest, sorry guys). If you want I can upload some screenies in the morning if DPII says its alright.


P.S. Several features are going into THH, equipent is first on that list.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Ok the screen is almost complete (I need to talk with DPII in private fo the rest, sorry guys). If you want I can upload some screenies in the morning if DPII says its alright.

Knock yourself out

 

[Zebra 9]

Oh yea, spent the whole day working on it. Can't wait to show it off.

 

[Jeckel]

Oooo, I love new screens.

 

[jakessmith]

Awesome information.
Nice to have it .

 

[Zebra 9]

Well this is my first screen, so I'm not so sure how good it is.

So DP should upload the screenies here or should I send them to you?

 

[Zebra 9]

Ok DP said I could post my 3 screenies. The screen is not done and we are working on getting the XML values working so it can do more but this is what I've got.

Spoiler Picture 1 :

Spoiler Picture 2 :

Spoiler Picture 3 :

P.S. In the first picture you will notice that in the third column there is a blank box then in the second and third pictures it has promotion info. This box displays the promo info when you mouse over a promo.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

There's something deeply satisfying about seeing your vision brought to fruition. So it's even more satisfying when you see that vision exceeded by the reality

I said it before, but I'll say it publically now: You have gone above and beyond my expectations, Zebra!