[MOD] Dawn of a New Era

[M07]

I could provide a proper English translation of the change-log if you wanna.

Of course, i agree! You can help me for the changelog and for the translation mistakes in the game too.

First, thank you for your message, I am always happy to see somebody is interested in the developpement of this mod.

-Difficulty levels: Indeed, there are many problems in this mod, whose some of them come of the original game. So there are work to improve this game part.

-Forts: I didn't test this mod, so I can't really answer you now.

-Colonization: The following version will arrange all problems you said me.

-Naval stock: In the new europe screens, we can only have directly a ship that if we buy an used ship, otherwise we must wait some turns to get our ships.

*Carracks: increased tool costs to 40 or 45. Increased production points to 150. Increased cost in Europe

Why not!

*All merchant ships should be able to attack, with 3/4 strength modifier, at some point when the king gives you "ammunition and cannons for your fleet". Disadvantage can be added to the defender if the unit have not this ability.

I agree but this is not in the following version that i will do it, but i already thought to this idea.

*Parallel to the construction of galleons 3 new generic military or trade ships should be added to the 2nd period.
-Sloops: 40% against galleons. 7 strength. 5 movement. Military unit.
-Brigantines: 20% against merchantman & sloops. 6 strength. 7 movement. 1 cargo space. Trade/military unit.
-Hookers: 30% against brigantines & sloops. 10% against merchantman . 5 strength. 6 movement. 2 cargo space. Trade/military unit.

If you find the art files of this units, I will add it in the game . But not in the following version.

if you want a complete revamp of Col 4 in all the aspects following your project.

Of course, there are many work and I don't have many of time to work on this mod. So we must be patient. Your ideas are obviously welcome!

 

[Isabelxxx]

Ok, don't fear my long lists. Take your time.

As soon as I can I'm going to create a new thread to put order in all the ideas & suggestions as well as create some categories to differentiate them easily.
I will try to explain deeply every idea I wrote at top and suggest you some [modcomp] you could try to implement in some way -like the Forts mod-.


The same for the change-log, the readme (pdf) and any translation in the game.

About the art; I have found plenty of art here. All the units I mentioned -and others I didn't- can be found in many civ 4 mods, as well as vanilla civ 4. I will provide you the sources.
Any other point apart from 3D models for the units I'm capable to do it by myself.

 

[M07]

hi everyone,
I just want to tell you I am on holiday and therefore operational to do modding

 

[Isabelxxx]

Good to know it. Impatient to play a new version.

 

[Isabelxxx]

Have you already seen/considered this: different unit art styles for the civilizations?

It would be a great addition to increase the diversity of generic units.

Not sure If I included the required art for land units in the Suggestion list/post, anyway I had already recompiled & classified a lot of graphical resources which could be used to fully implement the unit art styles in DoaNe. I will be adding them here.

 

[M07]

Have you already seen/considered this: different unit art styles for the civilizations?

There are three differents units in each eras, so it is hard to have a different unit art styles for the civilizations.
Now, I would rather work on commercial aspects of this game.
As you can see in the screenshot, it is a new system of barter with the natives. We will not be able to give gold to indians, but only our goods that they will want have.
I will better explain you this new system when I will finish it.

 

[Jennvare]

The mod seems good so far.

One thing that is aggrivating is that I do not have a button for any of my units to send them to a destination. A "Go To" command.

The Goto Command helps with sending ship back to cities without having to move them one space at a time. I also cannot get any combat odds when I want to send troops/ships into battle.

Is this a bug with missing buttons? It only seems to be the GoTo button missing.

 

[M07]

Is this a bug with missing buttons? It only seems to be the GoTo button missing.

It is not a bug, I voluntary chose to delete some buttons because i didn't want to overcharge the screen. I didn't think that someone would need to use this button.
Indeed, when one of your unit is selected, you can directly click on your colony with the right button of your mouse and your unit will go to your colony .

You must have the "right-click Menu" disabled!(look the screenshot)
May be you knew it, but we never know .

 

[Isabelxxx]

Now, I would rather work on commercial aspects of this game.
As you can see in the screenshot, it is a new system of barter with the natives. We will not be able to give gold to indians, but only our goods that they will want have.
I will better explain you this new system when I will finish it.

Ok, totally agree. It looks really good.

There are three differents units in each eras, so it is hard to have a different unit art styles for the civilizations.

Considering you are working in the commercial aspects, I think I will try to make some of the military suggestions by myself. Then if you like it, you could add it.
The creation of units and assignation of their stats and graphics is not hard to do with xml files, the only point to consider and not easy is the balance in their stats but that is something already discussed.

 

[M07]

Considering you are working in the commercial aspects, I think I will try to make some of the military suggestions by myself. Then if you like it, you could add it.

Indeed i am working on the commercial aspects, in the following version I will work on military part.
Dazio and I had some ideas about that. For instance, military units won't can be killed in one attack except few cases.

 

[Jennvare]

Sup guys,

After playing a few games with your mod, I've noticed a few things;

The King and Taxes: I currently in a game that is probably just a few turns shy of the second era. Throughout the first era, my beloved King has constantly been trying to extort money from me for military protection, demanding money so I can kiss his ring, and also jacking up my tax rate. My tax rate is at 13%. The King's army has also gone up substantially since I need liberty bells for the founding fathers; but I do not have any Independence points ( I know this is a feature). It has also been hard to build up my two little colonies and get any industry going to earn any coin to keep the king happy, get the units I need, or buy supplies.

For the first era, I would suggest that you take out the Kings spending for increasing his soldiers. Liberty bells dont give independence yet, so why should the king worry about rebellious sentiment?

If the King is so worried about "my enemies", maybe he should volunteer more troops or gold to help protect his "loyal" citizens.

The tax rate should be capped for the first era, maybe 10%??

The European AI's: I really noticing that the other European colonies seems build up much faster than I do and field a stronger army. They also seem to get privateers exceptionally quickly which disrupts my shipping lanes until the King gives me that first escort ship. I use specialists as much as possible and, even in my current game, I had gotten tons of treasure and coin, yet, I still feel like I'm falling behind and at a severe disadvantage. If the other powers declared war on me, I would not be able to defend myself and I'm making soldiers as fast as I can. This has been consistent in several games and I am truly at a loss for how I am so far behind.

The Indians: This truly staggers me in terms of power. All I can say is that if the Indians were this "strong" during the colonial period, the Indians would have driven the Europeans back into the sea very easily. Playing on the "South American" map, the Indians have tons of units. Thats not bad in itself. But the problem comes in that their combat strength is equal in strength to my own veteran soldiers (with swords) and they have substantial bonuses in all terrains except plains/grassland. They even have a settlement attack bonus which means I can't even sit in my cities and hope to defend myself. It's even worse when the other colonies sell horses to them.

This is also especially crucial since every time I capture a European colony (and I mean every time), the Indians declare war on me saying that I am stealing their land. The everything mentioned above comes into play.

You have got to tone down the indian's strength atleast for the first era so that there is a fighting chance for us to defend ourselves. I dont mind a tough game. I've had several in the base game. But with each game I've played, I always knew that if anyone, indians included, declared war on me, my little colonies would be slaughtered and my "beloved" king would send no aid to protect his investments.

I am not sure what things can be done to make things more competitive. Perhaps less crosses during the first era for more immigrants? Quicker education from schoolhouses and such to make specialists faster? Maybe not have each colony build so devoid of buildings to start off? Perhaps the King would be more willing to send troops for free if he notices his colonies are sorely lacking in troops strength in comparison to his competitors?

Just some feed back to give to you in hopes that some imbalances can be corrected. This mod has great potential and I hope you keep building on it. I'm looking forward to your next releases and will keep watch.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Jennvare]

Indian Combat, Healing, & the Second Era

I was finally making to the second era and had five colonies spec'd enough to start making all the manufactured goods. I even has swords being made to make more soldiers.

I also used the "influence" adjuster so that the only squares I took where the ones immediately around my colonies. None of my colonies or squares in use overlapped with any of the indian villages. Things seemed to be going well.

However, my rating with the neighbors quickly went from -1 to -6 in a span of 40 turns. Then, their mounted braves started showing up which meant someone sold them horses. (It wasnt me).

So naturally, they declared war ib me. Two other indian tribes which I had pacts with came to my aid, or tried to at any rate.

Two of my colonies were fairly new and still building so their light garrisons were quickly overwhelmed. That was bad enough.

However, two of my developed colonies had sizeable garrisons of 12+ troops (swordsmen yes since I still could afford alot of guns) plus had the stockade for +70% defense. With each of these colonies, even though I repelled alot of attacks. However, even with medic promotions, my troops healed slowly if at all, and more stacks of indians came!

Counterattacking was impossible since the indians had not only numerical advantage, but they also had all the bonuses on their terrains. SO i had to endure more attacks on my colonies. Three turns later, I was down to my last colony. I killed more of them, and they still kept coming, They were even destroying the villages of my allies!!!

At this point in the game, only swords are readily available. Muskets still cost way too much to get everyone equipped. My indistry was starting to get very profitable in terms of indian trade. Trade with Europe was emasculated by a 35% tax rate!! And, even when my last colony was under siege, the King stated that he didn't see why he had to send any protection to me.

Suggestions?

I am not sure what I could suggest. It take a long time to get your industry going and, the faster the King's taxes go up, the longer it takes. There is no way to appease the Indians even when you buy their land outright, they still say you're stealing it!! Muskets are too expensive to purchase even in he second era (I dont think the price even came down). And it rather universal since my European competitors who were also attacked by Indians also lost all their colonies.

I feel you still need to tone down the Indian strengths or allow muskets to become more prevalent going into the second era. You also need more way to stay friends with the Indians, especially your immediate neighbors. There should also be rewards for being "Loyal" to your King. I don't think high taxes and military extortion is a great way to reward loyalty.

Hope you're still working on this. This mod still had alot of potential.

 

[M07]

Hi Jennvare,
Don't worry! Most of the things you mentioned will be corrected in the following version.
The taxes system will be changed, the immigration system is soon finished.(I will show you some screenshots of this Europe part).
Moreover, we will be able to be a real business partner with the Indians.
If we are good, we can have +8 in the relationship with Indians. Thereby, we will be able to have an alliance with the nearby Indians.

 

[Gomer_Pyle]

Would it be possible to add Maya Indians?

Also a bug? Italy should be New Italy ???

 

[Dazio]

Would it be possible to add Maya Indians?

Also a bug? Italy should be New Italy ???

Hi Gomer Pyle !

Everything is possible, even if the Mayan disappeared before the arrival of Spanish.

We shall add several natives nations in the next version.

Yes Italy should be New Italy !

 

[Vorpal+5]

Would it be difficult (or just plain silly) to add an option so that some legendary monsters units are spawned. A sea serpent, a great Indian Nature spirit and so on?

Or at least an option where there are bears and such in the New World? I see there is a start of barbarian nation definition, but I'm at loss on how to proceed from this point.

 

[M07]

Would it be difficult (or just plain silly) to add an option so that some legendary monsters units are spawned. A sea serpent, a great Indian Nature spirit and so on?

I think that this idea deviates from our aims(Dazio and I).

Or at least an option where there are bears and such in the New World? I see there is a start of barbarian nation definition, but I'm at loss on how to proceed from this point.

I think barbarian nation is a residue of Civ 4 and that there are not really utilities to use them. Moreover, the adding of pirates will embellish the game.

 

[Gomer_Pyle]

Any eta of the next version guys? Really eager to see what you have come up with.

 

[Vorpal+5]

I can do with Pirates

No problem, you are (with Dazio), the Masters...

So, any ETA? Players want to know, hehe!

 

[M07]

So, any ETA?

What is the meaning of eta ?
If I rightly understood, you want to know when I will propose the following version.
There is much work and I don't have much time .
I will be able to have more free time in late may because I am a student .
Hovever, I will gradually give you some screenshots of what I will do.