[MOD] Age of Discovery II

[KrisJones]

Dunno, if this has been answered, but I can't seem to make traderoutes work. I tried to make a simple trade route from Isabella to Europe, but the Caravel just sits there and does nothing.

After setting Isabella to export whatever you want exported, did you click on assign trade route for the caravel and then assign specific trade route?

Also, make sure the good is in the town you want it exported from.

 

[Gothic_Empire]

I don't have any problem using the trade routes.

I won an economic victory on Marathon by trading with the natives in 1630.

 

[Skip2MeLou]

Hmmm... I don't know how hard it would be to implement something like this into the game but I feel that after you defeat the king you should be free from his taxes and whatnot. If you decide to keep playing just for fun you still have to deal with the tax rate, your previous good parties, and the kings demands for gold. The king continues to act towards you just as if you were his colony. Would it be possible to remove these restrictions after winning independence?

 

[jenks]

I think a higher gun price is good - but the way it is now (and though I haven't checked exactly) it may be cheaper to buy soldiers and get the guns free. Even a veteran soldier was only about 50% more than the guns that he came with in a quick game that I just played.

My other comments are mostly aesthetic.

1. pirates don't seem to have any greeting text, and the new factions use the "don't call me late for dinner" line, which is odd when many leaders use it.

2. The europe screen scared me at first, but then I've grown to like it. However, I don't like the picture. I opened the file and put a glow on it in a simple editing programme http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=479898 and I'm using this version because I think it seems less intrusive.

3. I've noticed that the europe screen seems to change depending on the season, that's pretty cool - though it didn't seem to always change. Could this be because I used a custom game speed (I added 50% more turns in the normal game without changing anything else except the month increment from 12 to 8, I just wanted to have less time pressure)

4. the AoD title page seems to be a bit lower resolution or maybe suffers from compression, but maybe that is because I play on 1920x1200 res?

5. I'm not such a fan of the cut scenes, mainly because they are full screen and not a little window like the achievements. Is there anyway to turn them off, or do I just live with them for now?

Great mod, I do like it a lot and could never go back to playing vanilla.

[edit]
6. dragoons get a bonus when attacking cannons, do they get a bonus when attacking artillery?

[edit 2]
Re: point 1
I've edited CIV4GameText_DiploTexts.xml to include:
<Tag>AI_DIPLO_FIRST_CONTACT_LEADER_HENRY_1</Tag>
<English>Hello, friend. My name is [OUR_NAME] the Navigator. Why don't we sit down with my cartographers and compare charts?</English>
and
<Tag>AI_DIPLO_FIRST_CONTACT_LEADER_SOUSA_1</Tag>
<English>Hello, friend. My name is [OUR_NAME], great commander of the [OUR_EMPIRE] expedition of the New World. </English>
can anyone who knows what they are doing tell me if this will work (is [OUR_EMPIRE] the correct tag to use?

After reading some of the arguments about the high price of guns above, I could go for base gun price being lowered by two, but the buy/sell difference being raised by another 1. But guns definately need to stay much higher than vanilla.

Yes the pirates diplomacy still needs some work, and I like what you are workingon with the Portuguese introductions. Not sure if it's the right tags without looking into it tho - did you test them afterwards?

IIRC Yes, Dragoons get a bonus against the Artillery combat_class, which includes both cannons and Artillery

 

[leonpoi]

After reading some of the arguments about the high price of guns above, I could go for base gun price being lowered by two, but the buy/sell difference being raised by another 1. But guns definately need to stay much higher than vanilla.

Yes the pirates diplomacy still needs some work, and I like what you are workingon with the Portuguese introductions. Not sure if it's the right tags without looking into it tho - did you test them afterwards?

IIRC Yes, Dragoons get a bonus against the Artillery combat_class, which includes both cannons and Artillery

Haven't had a chance to test the text yet but will later on. Although I made the comment that the gun price is a little high, I still prefer what you have done over vanilla. I think lowered by 2 would be ok, with the buy sell 1 greater like you suggested.
Now off to new year....

 

[Mark_T]

After setting Isabella to export whatever you want exported, did you click on assign trade route for the caravel and then assign specific trade route?

Also, make sure the good is in the town you want it exported from.

Yeah, I assign the traderoute, and the caravel moves to the city, picks up the current amount of good, and then does nothing. It's as if it does not know the destination. Could it be because the destination is Europe, and that does not work yet?

 

[Dale]

Hmmm... I don't know how hard it would be to implement something like this into the game but I feel that after you defeat the king you should be free from his taxes and whatnot. If you decide to keep playing just for fun you still have to deal with the tax rate, your previous good parties, and the kings demands for gold. The king continues to act towards you just as if you were his colony. Would it be possible to remove these restrictions after winning independence?

Actually, if you win by independance all interactions with the King stop. No more tax rises, no more boycotts, etc (or they should).

But if you win by other means (economic, industrial) then you are still part of the Empire and will still face those.

 

[Zuul]

Still if you had 95% tax before independence you will have 95% after. Maybe always sell to others at 50% or something?

 

[The Great Apple]

Trade:

It seems to me that the costs when trading are all wrong. You shouldn't be able to buy resources from Europe that are almost exclusively made in the new world for only a smidgen more than you sell them to Europe for.

I think the guns pricing change is excessive at the moment. I would suggest lowering the price, but adding in European random events - a war in Europe for example would increase the price of guns and horses massively making it so that relying on Europe as a source is not a wise thing to do.

 

[leonpoi]

Trade:

It seems to me that the costs when trading are all wrong. You shouldn't be able to buy resources from Europe that are almost exclusively made in the new world for only a smidgen more than you sell them to Europe for.

I think the guns pricing change is excessive at the moment. I would suggest lowering the price, but adding in European random events - a war in Europe for example would increase the price of guns and horses massively making it so that relying on Europe as a source is not a wise thing to do.

I hadn't thought about that, but I agree with this. Maybe the rational behind this is that once it's at the docks in europe you can buy it off merchants etc and they just want a quick profit. It makes more sense to have a limit to what you can buy in europe - but I also wouldn't want to screw too much with the underlying economics of the game.

 

[Dale]

Actually I'd thought about the cost of muskets already before making the change.

The "Musket" refers to the wheellock and flint handgun seen in Europe from early 1500's to mid 1700's when the rifles finally overtook musket use. Whilst muskets had been seen early (1440's by the Ottoman's, earlier in China) they took an extra 100 years to take off in Europe. They replaced the arquebus and cavilar for military use due to the wheellock and flint increasing user safety by miles and loading times greatly decreased over the earlier handguns. Though till the late 1600's pike was still required to be deployed with musket units to protect them from cavalry (till the invention of the bayonet and breach-loading techniques).

Initially muskets were extremely expensive to make in terms of resources, time and skills (fine motor requirements, standardisation, resources not so readily available, new technology) thus making the time and expense quite high. But as gunpowder refinement occured, and the skills transferred through the guilds the cost of muskets dropped over time. This is represented in AoD2 through the high initial cost, and the gradual drop over time due to supply of guns.

I will drop the price 2 points, but no further. It still needs to be high to reduce the impact of native trading and to influence the player to actually make guns. Vanilla is completely unacceptable because you should NOT make guns as the cost makes it inefficient to produce.

 

[leonpoi]

Haven't had a chance to test the text yet but will later on. Although I made the comment that the gun price is a little high, I still prefer what you have done over vanilla. I think lowered by 2 would be ok, with the buy sell 1 greater like you suggested.
Now off to new year....

The texts that I put in work, so I'm happy enough with that

 

[Dale]

The texts that I put in work, so I'm happy enough with that

Yeah, I've already added them. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=304591

 

[Hoimar]

High Gun price:
- Build your army on your own not just buy things form Europe and equip your army. (High buy price)

Low Gun prices:
- Do not build guns to export to Europe. (Low sell price)
- Decide weather to trade with natives at high profits and be in danger or avoid and be save from your own sold guns. (Low buy price to shift the decision towards danger)


I see your argument for a high buy price. As this was exactly the way I did to fight my first independence war. First buy everything in Europe store on some ships and let's go.
I think 15 should be the top buy price. To be a compromise between natives profits.


However the sell price should be 10 at most to not be higher than the sell price of trade goods.

Another approach would be the one of Colonization 1.

FREE MARKETS

Give all the prices a lot of freedom due to market effects. In the end only the factory was able to justify the selling of a product over the raw materials.
(Making the dutch trait more important)
You would be forced to produce different goods to get a sustained economy. One product only would drop the price rapidly.
However buying a lot of guns from europe will let the price skyrocket thus making it difficult to supply an independence army only from bought guns. Not buying any for a certain amount of time or selling them would let them drop again. Selling them also (So Europe would be some kind of storage)

Include some random trade events. (War has broken out musket price raises/ colder climate higher cloth prices / smoking becomes popular / more russian exports of fur to europe / ....)

Historical events
(Just a collection of ideas. See also http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101/TIMELINE/T-WAR.HTM)

30 years war 1618-1648 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_years_war
England at war with Spain 1625-30 (and France 1627-29).

1640 Portugal revolted and regained its independence from Spain.

1566-1609 revolt in the Spanish Netherlands

7 years war 1756-1763 late for the game but I like longer games with a changed (economic and education system)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_years_war

Franco-Dutch War 1672–1678
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Dutch_War

English Civil War (1642–51)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War

Raise of Merkantilism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism
France: Jean-Baptiste Colbert (August 29, 1619 — September 6, 1683)
England: (1640-1660)
The nation aggressively sought colonies and once under British control, regulations were imposed that allowed the colony to only produce raw materials and to only trade with Britain.
Triangle Trade....

Perhaps add them as message at first (In the scrolling text in the top screen) . Giving colonization some historical background.


Add Missions from the King

 

[The Great Apple]

Why the anger against converted natives? I don't see why a native, having been converted to a religion wouldn't then try to convert other natives. I also don't see why they can't learn skills from native villages.

 

[Gothic_Empire]

An Argument For Converted Natives:

Because a native village specializes in a certain profession does not mean that every single native in that village would be a master. Thus, having a native learn a profession from other natives does not necessarily have to be seen as an exploit.

However, I think a converted native should ALWAYS keep his converted native status, even after achieving professionalism in a village or school. That is, he benefits from any founding fathers increasing his strength, he will never become a soldier, etc.

I also think they should still be able to lose faith: if a colony gets taken with lots of CN units, some or all of them should revert back to the tribe they came from. Since their faith seems to be tied to nationality in-game (Missionaries being renounced), this would make sense.

Anyhoo, that's my 2 cents on the topic.

 

[Mark_T]

Suggestion: Could it be made possible to allow the player to put colonists in a colony even if it has a deficit in food. It's annoying that I have to allocate enough colonists in the colony to food production, then enter the new colonist, then allocate people back to what they were doing before.

Another one: Allow ships in transit to Europe to turn back to Europe after having started the voyage to the New World before they arrive there.

And another one: Allow double-click on colonists in the garrison box and show possible professions.

And another one: Show all possible proffesions in the double-click-on-colonist menu in the colony (for colonists working resources), not just the production professions and the current. If my colonist is working lumber, I want to be able to let him choose ore in another field in the double-click menu. Like when you double-click on a guy who's doing some production.

And another one: Add an option in game setup to not allow pirates in the random selection of players.

PS: I don't know if these has already been considered and found stupid. In that case, I apologize for wasting space.

 

[Jean Lannes]

Great suggestions Mark T!

Another thing, is it possible to have all 6 European players in one regular (quick start) game instead of a maximum of 4 plus pirates? Or am I just doing something wrong in that department?

 

[Dale]

Great suggestions Mark T!

Another thing, is it possible to have all 6 European players in one regular (quick start) game instead of a maximum of 4 plus pirates? Or am I just doing something wrong in that department?

That's been changed for the next version. All Euros + Pirates are available on all maps Standard and higher.

 

[Thinker19930602]

There seems to be a problem with the download link.